Poking their heads into the only unexplored hall revealed a long tunnel, then a freestanding cage or gazebo, much like where the earth-shaping artifact of Catacomb had been tested and empowered over many years. This one bore recent-looking cracks and soot that also marred a golem that rose to meet them.

It slipped out of the room with surprising speed. Arlen and the rest backpedaled, trying to seal it off. Arlen flung up one set of spikes after another. Finally he timed his wall-making to go off right where he was running, so that he barely had time to dodge. The barrier became complete enough that the golem couldn't crash through it in a single move as with the last few. Arlen spun and thickened the stonework. The creature thrashed but couldn't crack multiple feet of rock.

It spoke in a different, echoing voice from the spirits themselves: "Alert. Intruders in the Emergency Summoning Chamber."

"Summoning?" said Alfons.

Arlen had a last glimpse of the burned-out hardware before he walled it off for now. "That would help explain a few things."

The group retreated to near the crater entrance. There, the spirits could speak to them. They began with enraged hissing and special effects.

Voz looked into the steam and water of the spirits' home, seen from beside him instead of below. "Oh spirits, we want to know at last. Who are you, really?"

Arlen added, "There's no need to fight us anymore. You can go on existing and having power in the isles. You just won't be in total control."

The spirits spoke in discord. "This is your fault, Arlen! It was never working properly, and then you set it off and unbalanced our energy across the isles!"

"Set what off?" said Voz.

"The Emergency Summoning Chamber. A device for the Builders to summon help. Yet another experiment. It should have brought an ally. Instead we had only a treacherous outsider."

"A summoning..." muttered Voz. "Was it Arlen that you brought from far away?"

Alfons startled. "Arlen, you're not from the islands at all? Your accent and your look are strange."

Voz laughed bitterly. "It may have been my fault, then. All of it. I had spoken to the spirits, uttering old prayers, asking for someone to resolve our feuds. It happened at about the time you appeared, Arlen."

Arlen went quiet. This island shaman might have activated some barely-remembered command to activate a barely-working device, to fetch someone from beyond the world of the Builders. Someone who could understand Builder technology and the islanders well enough to have some chance to help them.

He breathed hard, looking at his webbed hands, thinking about the battles he'd fought and the world he'd lost. "I... should take it as a compliment. I'm not the best person for the job."

Alfons said, "I have questions."

Arlen didn't even try to explain to the Mariv priest, not yet. He addressed the spirits instead. "It seems I've been chosen by your creators. I wish to see the device in more detail. May I approach it without having to attack your machines?"

"That facility is off limits!"

"Off limits. Forbidden. You tend to say these things often. You were built to defend the isles, weren't you? For a long time you did a good job. But the enemies of the Builders are long gone."

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"There are new intruders!"

"Descendants or cousins of your makers."

Voz broke in. "In the absence of the Builders, who do you answer to? Are you blindly following your last orders? Or shouldn't you be following the present-day inhabitants, or the one called Sachin who is still one of your people?"

The spirits warred with each other by voice. Between them they declared, "Sachin does not command us. Managers of parallel projects do not have authority over us."

"Then who does?"

Alfons said, "Why not a living descendant of the Builders?"

"Genetic correlation does not grant authority." Arlen was the only one to understand.

Arlen said, "How about the person who was summoned by your help-getting advice? The Builders obviously intended to trust whoever your portal called."

"No. In the event of contact being lost with Command, authority devolves to the highest ranking official who has worked with all six primary Builder projects."

Arlen saw his chance. He thumped his chest and said, "Project Flask was the chemical plant. Project Ring was apparently what we called the Roaring Storm, the great circle of wind and waves. Project Catacomb was the shifting geomancy maze that created the stone-shaping artifact. Then there was the summoning device. I don't know the names of the rest, but there were two more: the undeath pillar on Newshore, and you spirits. I have worked with all six."

The spirits said, "But you are not an official!"

Alfons said, "But Arlen was recognized as being allowed to activate the Catacomb project, and he was granted repeated access to the chemical plant."

"Sachin recognized me as a colleague and let me work with him. So yes, I have more authority over all Builder projects than anyone else here. I also have unique insight into your design that I doubt anyone in this world can match." Arlen conjured a showy water spell in one hand. "You seem to have some flexibility in interpreting your rules. I meet the requirements you stated. And the alternative is that I have to stop you from being a threat to the islands. What will it be?"

The spirits said, "You will not deactivate us?"

"I will not."

After a long pause the voices said, "Ar-il-en is hereby granted administrator access. Welcome, Director."

"Deactivate the storm."

There was a distant peal of thunder. "Done."

"How do I alter the behavior of the golems of Catacomb?"

"As director, you can order them to avoid desired parts of the island. Further details are available to one with your access from within the facility."

"What about disassembling the undeath pillar?"

"We do not have detailed information on it. It can likely be disassembled."

Alfons said, "We might learn more from the documents we found."

The spirits urged, "It should be de-powered and its energy used for our own power system."

Arlen said, "That might be a good idea. I want you to work with Alfons here to figure out how to do that. The outsiders from Mariv are to be watched for trouble."

"Yes, Director."

"It seems we're starting to talk about peace. These will be your decisions, Voz. Spirits, grant administrator access to Voz. We can appoint deputies later, yes?"

"Granted. Yes."

Arlen turned to the others and smiled. "Well then, we have a lot of work to do, but it's happy work now."

#

Outside once again, the soggy ground squished underfoot and dark clouds slowly fractured. People had begun to peek out from their houses and look up toward the hill slope, where the two chiefs and the foreign priest had emerged from seemingly being devoured.

Arlen waved as the trio made their way downhill. "We've made peace with the spirits. You will have a new pact with them, to cleanse the land of its old evils and work in harmony with the outsiders."

Voz spoke to the growing crowd. "We are blessed with powerful magic, but there's much more to do. Let us repair our farms, restore everyone's health, and prepare to learn more about the outside world."

In a private meeting, Arlen told Voz and the lesser chiefs, "We will need to be strong to defend our homes. That means changing how they live, starting with being well armed and trained and with having warships of their own."

One chief said, "I think we should reactivate the storm."

"That might still be an option. Let's make sure we learn how, in case we need it. But so long as the Marivs behave, why not benefit however we can?"

Voz said, "Are you thinking about traveling with them?"

The islanders officially now owned one of the two ships, as part of the gift-giving diplomacy. The crew and officers had suggested coming along to Mariv lands to see and be seen. And not coincidentally to help them build, using Arlen's powers.

Arlen nodded. "I should go and see their kingdom, but not today. There's plenty to do here first. Handling the Mire's factory, teaching more of the smithing art, trying to spread magic, handling the undeath pillar. Finishing the cleanup work here on Gull Crater. Stabilizing the Catacomb and looking deeper into it. Oh, and literacy! I've hardly brought that up! What would you have me work on first, Voz?"

The high chief of the isles laughed, and began making plans for a new era.

The End