Bellona’s training was proceeding well, and her soul was slowly taking on stronger elemental attributes. Learning to be in harmony with the elements so that they would not readily harm her had been the first step. The next step was to incorporate them into her very self.
The earth beneath her feet was always steady, her footing sure, and she could feel the tremors of any step near her. It even responded to her needs by fortifying her shield or shattering the ground near her.
The air embraced her, allowing her to leap further and higher and cushioning her should she fall; it even cycled in her lungs if she held her breath, allowing her to not breathe for up to an hour.
Not that she’d need to do so underwater. One of the caves held a small underground lake that was surprisingly ice-cold given the nearby hot springs, and there she had learned to glide through the water like she was born to it, inured against the chill. Discovering that she could breathe underwater as well had been a recent accident, for she’d initially been practicing while holding her breath, only to find that she’d been underwater far longer than she had meant to be, and was in fact breathing the water without realizing it! That had created a brief moment of panic, but her undine-blooded trainer just looked amused at her expense.
Fire responded readily, called easily to her hand as either a ball to be thrown or as a spike of magma to be wielded as a weapon. She preferred her axe, but options were nice, and when she clashed with a weapon-wielding foe she could potentially disarm them by heating their weapon and making them drop it, which was a fun trick. It didn’t work as well against people who weren’t harmed by fire though.
The most amazing part of it to her was that it didn’t feel like she was learning how to do these things so much as discovering she’d had the potential to do them all along. Bellona was pretty certain that it wasn’t true, and that it was being Marked that was making this possible at all, but it still felt like she was simply awakening something that had been asleep in her soul all along.
Overall, she loved it. Every bit of fatigue, every complaint from her muscles, every mark and scar left on her skin, it was exhilarating, for every single one of these was a sign of her progress. Admittedly, a bit more sleep would be nice, but at least they fed her well. And such interesting food as well.
Once she’d started to incorporate the elements into her soul, the variety of food had increased. Earth-aligned acids and alkalines could be used more strongly than they could for most, and there were ingredients that could literally set a person’s blood on fire if it didn’t already have a bit of fire in it, and so many others. Snow mead was fun too, it came with a trace of elemental energy that would try to freeze you from the inside.
The food was technically part of her training too, ensuring that her body and soul were inundated with elemental energy at all times, but it was a fun and delicious part of training!
Now it was time to begin the next phase. While the location of the caldera guaranteed a certain amount of elemental flux, this location was unusual because of a particular cavern system that spilled elemental energy out, and at the center of the system was an elemental nexus.
Bellona’s training goal was simply to reach the cavern where the nexus sat, without external aid. This goal was complicated by the fact that there was not even a mapped-out route, the constant chaos made the tunnels shift and change almost like a living thing. In addition to which, elemental creatures frequently spawned in there, ravenous for energy and unwitting of existences beyond their own needs. They weren’t evil, simply mindless and violent and quite possibly existing in agony.
There was going to be a diverse team shadowing her for safety, as even the most experienced of them never go into the caves in a group of less than five. Most of the time it’s not needed, but you never know when it will be needed. But if the team had to step in, this run was a failure and she’d be required to wait and practice at least another week before trying again.
But she also had a personal goal. While her feelings about being assigned to this dungeon were mixed, she’d liked what she’d seen of Moriko at least, and Bellona had her own pride. She wanted something to show off her skill and power. She intended to collect elementally infused crystals from the central cavern, hopefully in a wide variety. And there should be a lot of crystals.
The prevalence of crystals had helped form a theory that the massive amount of energy present was causing a dungeon core to keep attempting to spontaneously form, but the constant chaos was breaking them in various ways, whether physically shattering them or aligning them too strongly with a single elemental to function the way they were supposed to, or otherwise preventing them from forming properly.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
This meant that the central cave was littered with random crystals, and there were random outcroppings throughout the system. But Bellona wanted only the best, so she was going to only collect the powerfully charged ones in the center.
----------------------------------------
While Bellona was completing her preparations to explore the cavern system, Kazue’s avatar was suffering from giggle fits as Moriko gave her the day’s news from the dungeon. “He did that to Princess Orchid‽ Oh, what an awful man. I just wish I could have seen her face when Mordecai volunteered her to entertain Li.” She was curled up on their bed in the room they were renting at the inn, unable to even stand as she laughed. “I adore her, but she’s also always perfectly composed, it would have been great to see her reaction. Oh, what did Paltira do? He’s always by her side, but that didn’t sound like he was invited.”
Moriko grinned. “You’re right. Instead, Mordecai set them a drinking challenge, with a prize for each person who could finish a bottle while still conscious. Gave a bottle to Kansif too. Remember her? She’s the one I met along with Bellona in Ekuilance. She was also Orchid’s bodyguard before she joined the clan.”
Kazue frowned briefly. “Just a bottle? What – oh!” Her eyes widened. “He gave them that. Yeah, I could see that being worth a prize. He’s got bunkin healers with them just in case, right?”
Moriko snorted. “We aren’t all lightweights like you Love. But your other self made sure to keep a close eye on them just in case. Amazingly enough, they all managed to finish their bottles, but apparently this was enough to heat up Xarlug’s fiend-tainted blood enough to create literal steam seeping out of his skin. Paltira and Kansif are just unfair though. Her Mark training was with shifters, but he was trained by an actual dragon!”
“Oh, that’s awesome! What is he going to give them as prizes?”
Moriko shrugged. “He’s thinking about it. Mordecai wasn’t certain how much they will remember in the morning, so he decided to wait until they were sober anyway. Oh, and it seems they are kind of making a mess of the combat route. They got stuck on the fourth floor though, none of them can keep their directions straight so they are wandering in circles.”
“Oh, I am glad they didn’t try my path. Though maybe the faeries would have fun trying to help three drunk people.” Kazue rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling. “So, in a couple of days, the captain and his friends are going to be at the dungeon. Should we be worried?”
“No, I don’t think so. Even before Orchid’s group arrived, I think they’d have been fine. The allies he and your mother managed to summon with our help are no joke. And the dungeon’s inhabitants are all stronger now than before the attack as well.”
“Mmm, I guess.” Kazue sighed. “I think I am nervous about our own trip. And somehow the idea of actually seeing the clan’s village again is kind of scary. A lot of people have visited me, but there’s a lot of other people there too, you know?”
Moriko sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. “Of course it’s scary,” she said softly, “You lived there, but you also died there.”
Kazue shuddered and closed her eyes. “I don’t really like remembering that part. I usually think of it more like I was transformed.” She knew better, but it just made it easier most of the time. “I guess I probably need to deal with that properly or something,” she took a deep breath, “Don’t let me back out on this. I think I need to visit the moon pool at night … and then my grave. Where my original body is buried.” The thought made her sick to her stomach and she squeezed Moriko’s hand tightly.
Moriko’s kisses upon her eyes and lips were soothing and tender. “Don’t worry Kazue, I will support you through this. Oh, and Mordecai says that he’d like to help but that if you need to do it, then you shouldn’t wait until he can be there too.” She chuckled softly, “Your core sounds like she enjoys the idea about as much as you do.”
“Well, we’re the same person after all,” Kazue mumbled, opening her eyes, “even if I’m split in two right now. Mmm, I felt that reaction though. She probably felt mine too.” It had been faint, just a sense of disturbance and distress that faded after a moment, but Kazue could see how that faint sense would be enough to let an avatar know when to run back home if they could.
“You know,” Moriko mused, “it’s too bad that you and Mordecai can’t make an internal and an invested avatar at the same time. Having two of each of you to play with at the same time could be fun.”
Kazue narrowed her eyes and smirked. “You jest, but Mordecai has said it’s possible, it just will take a while. So you’d better master eternal youth to be able to enjoy it properly.” And Kazue’s own ‘joke’ there was in earnest. She’d felt her own death and felt the weight of the life span discrepancy between her mother and father.
“And more than that,” Kazue licked her lips nervously, preparing to state plainly something she’d only teased or joked about before, “A big family has always been part of my dreams. I don’t intend to retire this avatar until I have had at least one child with Mordecai. I am hoping you will want the same, and after that… I think I’m a touch more willing to really play with certain shape-shifting potential, and see if I can do it well enough to get you pregnant too.” There, she’d said it. And that wasn’t the end of what some of her dreams had grown to include, but shape-changing wasn’t something Moriko could indulge in the same way.
The half-elf’s mouth dropped open slightly in surprise, then slowly closed as she looked thoughtful. “I’ve never seriously considered having my own kids. We’ve talked about it as a vague idea, but to be asked like this, I, well,” She took a breath, “Yes. When we are stable and safe enough that you are ready to have our husband’s child, I am willing to become a mother as well,” She smiled tenderly at Kazue, “And after that, I am willing to help you experiment. Though maybe not until the first couple of kids are older. As for two avatars of each of you, well, that sounds like a potential indulgence even I haven’t experienced yet.” Moriko’s eyes were dark and hungry as her lips claimed Kazue’s, and the two of them did not leave the bed for quite a while after that.