Layne stood beside the Baron as they watched Bastian and Perez take their leave. He did not want to be here, but as the Baron’s son he had a responsibility to present a united front with the family. This included a duty to the image of the Baron. It also included the obligation of wedding Tamrin.
He wasn’t good at this, this whole lordly thing. Island politics alternately annoyed and confused him. His ideas always seemed to differ from his father and Tamrin’s, who were much more in-step with each other.
Also, he couldn’t help thinking that Tamrin deserved a steadfast lord who can stand strong and be of one mind with her. Not someone like him who got annoyed at feeling like he was being pushed around.
Layne shook his head, silently berating himself for thinking these thoughts again. If he got pushed around, he probably deserved it. No good lord would sit around in complacency like he did. That’s the benefit of Tamrin. She inspired him to do more, reach more, and be more. How can he fault her for pushing him occasionally if this was the result?
Still, Layne longed to take his leave to High Plantation for the night. There would be music, girls, and games. The rooms would be lit in warm shades of lamplight, filled with laughter and excitement. Maybe tonight he’ll even get a room in the city and stay over. There’s no rule that states he must come home to his own bed. He’ll get back mid-morning tomorrow. No-one would miss him. They’ll just assume he’s sleeping in as usual and he'll be present for his usual mid-morning breakfast.
Then he silently chastised himself again. He has Tamrin. Why would he want to go anywhere else to find some company? It’s just that it’s nice to talk to someone else every now and again, he guessed. He wished his friend Asher was on the isle, but he left on an adventuring journey some months ago. Layne wanted to go too, but the Baron deemed it too risky for the heir to the family estate. Layne sighed.
“Why the sigh?” the Baron questioned, giving him a piercing look. That was one of his father’s chief talents, always appearing like he could see right through you. “Do you not agree with my decision to make use of those men?”
Layne hesitated. He’d already had a confrontation with Tamrin this morning, did he really want a second one with his father? But it did irk him that his father dismissed his input, on top of everything else today.
So, he voiced his feelings, “I really don’t think that was wise, with all due respect father. From what I’ve seen, those men are not to be trusted. They were menacing that girl on the beach, and then they abandoned their companion when a dungeon chamber collapsed beneath him. It was up to me and Tamrin to rescue their comrade. If we didn’t, he certainly would’ve died there on the beach under the sand.”
The Baron nodded. “I agree, and I also find them suspect.” Noticing the surprised look on Layne’s face, he continued with some amusement, “What, do you take me for a fool after all these years?”
“No, of course not father,” Layne interjected. “But then, I don’t understand why you are making use of them at all.”
“Two reasons. First off, there have been several … unusual … occurrences in my study recently.” Seeing Layne preparing to question him, his father raised his hand. “Let me finish. Since it’s happening inside the household, I need an outsider’s help. Bastian is a bit of a mystery, but from what I’ve seen of Perez with Identify, he does seem like an excellent fit for this particular task. Second. They’ve been loitering about our village. Why I do not know, but having them closer to us may provide some opportunities to discover their intent.”
“It also gives them the opportunity to learn more about our household,” Layne cautioned.
“But nothing they couldn’t have learned by buying a few drinks for some of our household servants – especially the newer ones. We lose nothing.”
Layne chewed the information over and nodded slowly. Then he said, “This is the second time you have mentioned something odd happening here. Would you mind telling me what you have noticed? I might be able to help.”
“I suppose I should,” his father replied. “Seer Greenview’s dowsing pendulum has been lost. He purports that he left it in my study, but I have not seen it there since yesterday morning when he used it to locate the new dungeon. I didn’t think much of it at first, as he is quite absentminded and, seer or not, has a reputation for losing things. But then this morning I discovered the sanctum door unlocked. I’m the only one with a key, and I definitely did not leave it open.”
“Is anything missing from it?”
“No. That is also strange. Nothing missing, nothing out of place. It may not be much, but I have learned in my life not to ignore these little signs. A storm may start with only a few drops, but if you don’t heed them you risk ruin.”
This was the most his father had shared with him in a very long time. In fact, Layne didn’t remember his father ever sharing his troubles with him like this. Actually, he was so used to the Baron taking care of the barony’s business, that it almost never occurred to him to ask about it. Was this the problem? Did he get excluded from his father’s dealings, not because his father excludes him, but because he doesn’t take more of an interest? Maybe his father was being truthful this morning, in his own gruff way. Maybe he wasn’t included in the decision about the dungeon core last night for no more reason than the fact that he wasn’t around to be included.
Nodding in response to his father, Layne filed the thought away as something to think about later. Then he said, “Well, I might be able to assist with at least some part of what is happening here.”
Motioning the Baron to follow, he walked through the patio doors into the study and over to the couch. Feeling around the cushions where he had been sitting earlier, he quickly located the object that was prodding him in the butt and lifted it out for his father to see. Indeed, it was the pendulum.
“How?” his father questioned with a raised eyebrow.
“I felt it this morning when I was sitting here, but then forgot about it since I had to get ready for the dungeon run.”
“Well, well, well,” the Baron said. “Now we’ve found it, but it still doesn’t make sense. The seer didn’t sit there at any point during his visit, and afterwards he rushed back to the temple for a ceremony.”
“So, you still think someone is rooting around our household?”
“Small drops, remember, small drops.”
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Further away, in the village Lily was busy applying fresh hot compresses to the dire rat bite on her father’s leg. He grimaced at the burn but held his leg still with firm resolve. They were both quiet. Lily still processing the events of the day and Dane being quite weak, although his fever had resolved.
“You and Agnetha had a busy morning,” Dane finally spoke. “Did you learn much?”
“Indeed, I did,” Lily replied. Which was true, just not in the way her father thought. She had learned much but had also discovered more questions. Some she didn’t even want to ask Agnetha. She had already embarrassed herself by throwing up; she didn’t want to compound her embarrassment by asking foolish questions. Still, she had to find answers somehow.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Father, what do you know about dungeon cores?” Lily fished.
“Dungeon cores? Now why would you want to know about that?”
Lily thought carefully about how to frame her question, without arousing suspicion in her father.
“Well, this morning Agnetha and I passed by the old dungeon’s entrance as we were gathering herbs, and some people were talking about core thieves. I know it’s a bad thing to do, but do you know why anyone would want to steal a dungeon core?”
“Quite honestly, I that’s a subject I’m very ignorant about. I have heard that dungeon cores are a component in high level spells, meaning they can be quite valuable to some magic-type classes, and therefore worth a lot of money. More than that, I really couldn’t say.”
“Oh, I see,” Lily replied even though she didn’t. Surely Layne and Tamrin didn’t need the money, and as far as she knew there was no-one in either of their families who would be able to perform magic on that level. So, her father’s answer wasn’t that helpful. What other reasons could there be?
Watching her face, Dane added, “You could, of course, also ask Agnetha about it.”
“Agnetha? Why would Agnetha know?” Lily tried to hide her surprise, not sure if she fooled the hunter in her father.
“You know that Agnetha didn’t grow up in this village, right? She only arrived later when she was a young woman.”
Lily nodded.
“The fact that she is a skilled herbalist was always obvious. In fact, our village is lucky to have her. But we never knew where she came from, or why. I’ve heard some whisperings when I was younger… Anyway, it’s been a long time and not many people remember her arrival anymore. Let’s just say, she might be able to answer you a lot better than I can.”
Did Agnetha know there were rumours about her? And what exactly were these rumours? Lily couldn’t help wondering.
As if summoned there was a knock at the door and Agnetha peered in.
“Afternoon Dane. How are you doing?” she called. Dane smiled and the two of them briefly chatted before Agnetha got to the point.
“Do you mind if I borrow Lily for the evening? I’ll make sure to send her back with some good soup for you.”
“Of course not,” Dane replied. “She is your apprentice after all.”
“Thank you, Dane,” she replied, waving for Lily to follow her.
“Let’s go Lily, it’s time for my rounds and you’ll be assisting me from now on.”
<>
Back at the dungeon Claire and Rick surveyed their work. It was hard to think again, but not as bad as when Claire had completed the first iteration of this corridor. She didn’t particularly feel like looking at her main stats. She knew she was low on all the important metrics – she didn’t need visual proof for confirmation. And her core was itching once more.
You think we’re going to pull this one off? Claire formulated slowly.
“Hopefully,” Rick replied. “We’ve done a very convincing job, even if I say so myself.”
Claire was tired, oh so tired. But at the same time, she was also too stressed to go into hibernation again.
Shall we just keep going? We might as well get ready for what comes after.
“Actually, us elementals do need to slumber every now and again.”
Oh no! Claire spoke slowly. Have I been keeping you up for too long?
“No, no, not too long, but since not much is likely to happen for the rest of the night, do you mind if I use this time to recharge a little bit?”
You go ahead.
<>
With Rick dimmed and curled up in a little hollow, Claire’s mind drifted. It was very hard to focus on anything in particular, although ideas kept floating through her mind. She still had the dream of having a whole kaleidoscope of glasswing butterflies. To create the visual spectacle Claire saw in her mind’s eye, they would have to be out in the sun, outside her dungeon. Meaning their utility would lie in gathering life-force for her and not necessarily in being either defensive or offensive constructs. So, this was one dream that would have to wait a little longer still. Claire consoled herself with a long-term plan of creating one or two a day. It would take a lot longer than constructing the whole kaleidoscope at once, but she would still get to her goal eventually.
Another dream was of having a beautiful core chamber, just for her. She kept thinking of the pool of water that had collected in her original core cavern. Could that be the seed for a stunning underground tidal pool type habitat? She was sure she could get her constructs to bring her appropriate organic material for lovely underwater plants and little creatures. Then she could add more glowstones and tropical vegetation to the top, making her core chamber a gorgeous tropical habitat.
Additionally, her original core chamber was so removed from her dungeon entrance, she could use the distance for traps and defences, increasing her security tenfold. But, once again, this was another dream for later when she wasn’t quite so resource strapped.
Thinking about resources, she needed a plan to gain more. Biomass and raw material, although she currently didn’t possess much, weren’t a problem. She could always deconstruct more matter to increase these materials. The larger problem remained life-force, since she needed enough reserves to stay at the peak of her functional capacity, with enough left over to be able to deconstruct, construct and create.
Additionally, she wanted to level up her core, meaning she had to reach all three of the core-levelling prerequisites. The life-force performance provision would improve as she improved her systems for life-force collection, which is something she needed to improve anyway. The dungeon investment requirement has already been fulfilled, even with the scanty corridor-build of her first dungeon iteration. The skill-share value requirement was the one that had her worried. Not because skill-share points were difficult to gain, at least not at this stage, but because she couldn’t acquire these points by herself. She needed adventurers.
Adventurers were problematic. At this point she had experienced three groups of adventurers, of which two were bent on stealing her core and one who was a newbie. Claire didn’t count Agnetha as part of Lily’s group, as she hadn’t actively participated in Lily’s first dungeon run.
So, Claire had to avoid attracting more core-thief groups and entice more of the other ones who wanted to test and improve their capabilities. How could she get the right kind of attention? The core thieves obviously weren’t telling other adventurers about her since they wanted her core to themselves. Lily now, did Lily know other adventurers like her? Could she perhaps help Claire? Claire made a note to ask Rick about communicating with adventurers when he woke up.
Mentally, she sighed. When she was a teacher, working on the public profile of their school was a chore everyone got subjected to more frequently than you would expect. Athletic events, open days, exhibitions, performances, fundraising. Not Claire’s favourite part of the job, although some of these events could be a lot of fun. What was less fun was the planning, organising, and running of whatever event was taking place.
Looks like she was going to need to brush up on these skills to get the right kind of adventurers to her dungeon.
How annoying.
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Character sheet summary at the end of Chapter 15
Claire
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 56%
Processing speed: 36%
Functional capacity: 28%
Progress to next level
-470/250 LF Performance provision
918/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
738/≥125 LF
180/≥125 ME
33/250 Skill Share Value
Core defence enabled
Cutting thorn barrier
5 LF to initiate
Continuous drain of 10 LF per day
Resources available
Biomass: 130
Mental energy: 20
Raw material: 251
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Lily Hunter
Rogue Level 1
Progress to Milestone 1
1/250 EXP
First-tier skills
Basic herbalism 2/20
Deception 2/20
Identify 1/20
Lock picking 5/20
Observation 6/20
Petty theft 1/20
Pick-pocketing 4/20
Quick thinking 2/20
Sneaking 8/20
Sleight of hand 2/20
Second-tier skills
Spying 0/50
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Lily’s tab (Yes, Agnetha is counting.)
x1 donkey
x1 glowstone
10% of Lily’s profit
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