Fuyuko’s thoughts were scattered as she tried to recover from the shock of seeing her god so casually chatting with the people around her, and that name he’d said, he’d been talking about caretaker Yvonne. She could just barely hold on to the name and a vague memory of the face, but it was more than what she’d been able to remember before.
Mordecai’s question made her focus on him, which helped, but her emotions were a confused mess, “Um, I’m not sure. I wasn’t expectin’ ta see Li here. Or, ever, I guess, this side of life.”
He looked amused at that, “The gods step in more often than people realize, especially that one. They have limits to what they can safely do, and sometimes they push those rules, but Li’s limitations are very different. And he’s been wreaking havoc with the dungeon since his shard arrived.”
“Er, ya don’t seem ta be too bothered by that.” Really, this whole place seemed rather strange to her.
Kazue’s illusion snorted, “It’s a mixed blessing to be sure. I had no intention of having faeries all over the place. But I got one of them to play the part of a swamp witch. That’s where Li’s taking your friend. That noise is something special.”
She had so many questions, but where to begin? Well, “So, ya really are the friend Gil was talkin’ about, but ya used ta be a girl?”
The man shrugged nonchalantly, “Technically, a dungeon’s core has neither gender nor sex. That said, I’ve had more male avatars than female ones, and I tend to think of myself as a man.” Mordecai suddenly smiled wickedly, “Oh, I have an idea. Would you like to see the form Gil was talking about? As much as I like the man, there’s just something about him that makes me want to tweak his nose.”
Was he going to show her another illusion or something? That seemed fine, “Um, sure, I guess.”
Mordecai proved her assumptions partially wrong. He started his transformation by stretching and running his fingers up through his dark purple hair, which fell back down as long, almost lilac-colored hair. A rippling change followed the motion, smoothing Mordecai’s face and reshaping his body until a tall, gorgeous elven woman was looking at Fuyuko with a smile. “What do you think?” She practically purred out, “It’ll annoy him to know you got to see what he won’t.” The sculpted female body was a nigh impossible blend of soft curves and toned muscles, shown off by a small top that left her well-defined abs visible and a knee-length skirt slit up both sides to show off long, smoothly muscled legs. “This avatar was a dancer for much of her existence. I didn’t focus on a wandering life for that part of my existence, I wanted to see the life of a more normal citizen for a change. Mind, she still trained to use her skills in combat as well, but she very rarely had any use for them.”
Fuyuko fought back a surge of seething envy, she wanted to have a body like that! “You’re stunning,” she replied, “An’ I can see why he talked up your looks so much. But, um, you keep switchin’ how ya talk about yourself there. Why’s that?”
Before Mordecai could reply, Kazue recovered from her own shock, pointing at Mordecai accusingly, “That, that is so unfair! And Moriko agrees with me! I sent her a very clear image!”
Mordecai looked over at the kitsune’s illusion, licking her lips with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “Well then, when she and your avatar get back, maybe the two of you can explain in detail what you find so unfair love. Of course, that will require you to examine this form in detail…” Fuyuko wrinkled her nose at the flirtation, she didn’t really want to see or hear it.
The elven woman turned away from Kazue’s stunned expression to answer Fuyuko’s question. “While my wives are occupied discussing that idea,” Mordecai shook her head and changed back to his previous form, “It’s complicated. The form I just took was what my avatar looked like, but I don’t feel like the person I was while that avatar was incarnated. Oh, I can assume some of the same mannerisms, but if I do so, it’s closer to playing a well-studied part in a play. For her, they were part of her personality,” He spread his hands wide, “While my personality here is essentially the same as the baseline personality of my core, which in turn has accumulated at least a little bit of influence from each avatar that has been reintegrated when I retired them. That was a deliberate decision when I designed this form, it did not seem to be the time to risk experimenting with my avatar’s personality, especially as I did not know at the time if I would have a core again.”
The girl blinked at that, “Erm? You didn’t have a core? How does that work?”
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He waved her question off, “It’s a bit long to get into right now, but the events leading up to that situation were also what led to my marriage to Moriko and then Kazue. Moriko was my host for a while, for lack of a better phrase, and I didn’t know about Kazue or her situation at the time. I basically ‘moved in’ to her core, which we now share.”
“Wait,” Kazue said, “I just realized this means I basically took a homeless man into my home. Where, I might add, he promptly took advantage of my kind generosity. Oh, woe, whatever is a maiden to do when accosted so?”
It took a second for Fuyuko to realize that Kazue was teasing Mordecai, she’d needed that last, over-dramatic sentence to make the connection. They were kind of weird, and she didn’t know what to think about it. Oh, she’d seen adults flirt before, but it had been, mm, more subtle? More careful? At the least, not so carefree. Of course, everyone down here seemed a little more relaxed, so she wasn't sure how out of the normal they might be. Moriko’s parents were kind of flirty too. Oh, right, she should probably say something about that.
Fuyuko coughed nervously, “Um, somethin’ I figure I should mention, don’t want ta seem like I’m hidin’ anythin’,” The pair stopped their flirting to look at her, “I kind of skimmed over this bit earlier, but I really wasn’t sure what was up with ya, and Trax mentioned that the alchemists were Moriko’s family, and since the inns were full, Gil got us rooms there. They were nice, but we didn’t tell them why we asked them specifically. They thought it was more normal dungeon delvin' on our minds.”
Mordecai nodded, “I understand, and that makes sense. Mmm, she seems fine with it, though we should find a way to tell her family.”
Kazue’s illusion eyed Fuyuko speculatively, “Though she is wondering how well you got along with her little brother.”
She made a face at that, why did the adults keep thinking about such things? “She sounds like her ma. But I ain’t interested.” It was really weird to be talking to someone she’d never met through a pair of people she’d just met.
“So, what do you want to do from here?” Mordecai asked.
“I’m not sure. I mean, it seems like someone wants me ta work for you guys, and ya seem decent enough, but I dunno where ta go from here.”
“Mm,” Mordecai tapped his chin thoughtfully, “Well, the obvious step would usually be to make you a contractor, assuming you are interested and prove yourself, but given your age, that might not be a great idea. Contractors stop aging while in a dungeon, and will even have their health restored if they are old, so long as they stay in the territory. But it also means that your body and brain wouldn’t continue to mature.”
He shook his head, “Let’s leave that thought for another day. Right now, you are our guest. Why don’t I show you around a little, let you meet a few other guests, and maybe some of our cuter inhabitants.” He smiled slightly, “And we have a shrine I think you’ll want to visit. I showed Kazue the trick to hiding them.”
“Yeah, alright, that sounds good I guess,” Fuyuko said as she stuffed a few last mouthfuls of food in before rising. She almost always felt like she could eat more, but she’d eaten enough to at least not be truly hungry for now. And she did want to see Li’s shrine.
Kazue waved from her illusion, “I’ll talk through Mordecai if I need to say anything, these illusion platforms aren’t mobile.” Then her image flickered out and the floor restored itself to its previous condition. This place was weird. Possibly fun, but definitely weird.
The tour of the tradepost was interesting. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but the two fighting rings for testing newcomers were not on her list, nor the dungeon’s own store selling everything from dolls and engraved mugs to camping supplies, tools, weapons, and armor. “Most of what is sold here is crafted by our inhabitants, from either materials brought in for trade by visitors or manually extracted from the dungeon. Generally, the rewards for challenging the dungeon are mana constructs that are made real by being claimed by outsiders.”
“Wait, now that I think about it, does that mean yer rich?”
Mordecai shrugged, “It depends on what you mean by rich. We own an autonomous territory where we live in as much comfort as we desire, so in that sense, yes, we are rich. If you mean by immediately liquidatable physical and fully real goods, we are probably about at the level of a reasonably successful merchant. I am pretty certain Kazue’s father is richer in that sense still. Most of the coinage we collect is earmarked for expenses for contractors and travel expenses for our avatars. So a rich noble wouldn’t consider us rich in the same way they are. But we have our own sort of power, which is often the most important thing about being rich, so which would you rather be? Independently powerful, or traditionally rich but dependant upon the society that made you rich?” He smiled at her, “I like what we have, and Kazue and Moriko seem pretty satisfied with it too.”
That gave her something to think about as they continued the tour. There were several small taverns and inns at this point, and a field that was open for outside merchants to open shop as well. The dungeon seemed just as happy to have people operating independently out here, but given the exchange earlier between the bat-rabbit thing and Gil, this seemed to be part of their territory as well, so she guessed it was good for them in some way.
After showing her around, Mordecai brought her inside the dungeon proper, where Gil and Li had long disappeared to. The giant entry hall was impressive, and the number of shrines was surprising. Every pantheon she’d ever heard of seemed to have its own hall, and several she knew nothing of.
And down the hall for the Empyreal Pillars, she found Li’s shrine, tucked in a twist of shadows between the shrines of Mericume and Ozuran. Mordecai left her alone to give her time to offer her prayers and thoughts, for which she was grateful. There was a lot to think about.