“My bright spot this week is there’s a new Oreo on the market. Coca-cola Oreos. They’re trash. But I appreciate the idea of trying to turn a soda into a cookie; I respect the game.” -Dan Frizen, Knowledge Fight-
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Paul Robertson opened the conversation with James by forcing a polite handshake out of himself, offering his name, and saying “No relation.”
Who he was supposed to be related to, James didn’t actually know, and the mundane arcana of Google didn’t work through five hundred feet of concrete and rebar. Or in a dungeon. Probably had more to do with dungeon, actually, these days.
His conversation partner had met him by the gap in the dungeon. Both parties had backed off, James sending the others up the ramp while the collection of armed Mormons had backed up toward the door to the skybridge. He still had a lot of guns… not pointed at him, exactly, but generally prepared to be fired in his direction. And held by young men who all looked really twitchy for people who were supposedly escorting dull-eyed civilians through a dungeon with some regularity. Not that he was actually nervous; he’d set his shield bracers one by one, and he was confident if a fight started. He just didn’t really want one to. James had been in too many fights, and he was going to be in more, but he’d still prefer to avoid them where possible.
James was looking down at the hole in the dungeon when the more mature human approached him. He honestly would have been fine just examining the dungeon breach. Because he could tell, somehow; it wasn’t just a part of this dungeon being weird, it wasn’t an effect or a creature or an infomorph. That sweeping window into greenery and wrought iron fountains was a hole between two entirely different dungeons, and it was something that he’d love to be spending time on.
Instead he’d be spending time on Roberson. Robertson was early forties, receding hairline in a short business cut, a bony narrow face that was used to hiding how tired he was. He was clearly trying to draw on a kind of natural authority as he approached, being both older and in charge of some kind of conspiracy, but he faltered when he saw Zhu. Hence the forced handshake.
”How did you get in here and what do you want?” The man continued, pulling his hand back like he was afraid Zhu was going to dig talons into his arm and try to eat him.
“Nice to meet you too.” James said, moving instantly into open antagonism and not bothering to hide it. “It’s not often that I run into other delvers in a place like this. Never, actually, unless you count… well, that’s a long story.” He put on a fake smile, trying to not react to Zhu’s feathers vibrating with repressed laughter. “This place is fascinating.” He said with sudden quiet honesty, looking away again to watch as distant cars below them slipped back into this reality as the trees and grass on the other side was covered up again.
The man was unimpressed, and James’ words provoked a quick anger in him as he didn’t get what he wanted. Though he covered it up well enough, James saw through it just as easily. “You’re trespassing on private property.” Robertson decided to just lie in an effort to expedite whatever James was going for.
”No I’m not.” James smiled, still facing out over the hole in the rough white concrete wall. He waited for another pass of the dungeon breach below before turning to face the other man properly. “And you know it. You don’t own this place, unless you always walk around places you own armed.”
”It’s useful for trespassers.” Robertson frowned at him. “You don’t seem especially worried about that, though.”
”I don’t, no.” James said with a sigh that he regretted as he inhaled more of the fume filled air than he meant to. “For two reasons. The important one is, I don’t think you’re the kind of guy who shoots people.” He raised his eyebrows at the other man, who met his eyes with an inexperienced scowl before eventually giving a sharp jerk of a nod. “The good news is, I’m not here to shoot anyone either.” James said with a smile, looking around them before moving away from the gap to lean on a nearby pillar.
He’d been on his feet for an hour of walking, and he wanted to sit down, but there wasn’t anywhere to do that except for a bunch of cars that would either make the conversation awkward, or weren’t really cars on the inside.
His conversation partner folded his hands in front of himself as he adjusted his stance and eyes James with annoyance. “Well you didn’t show up here by accident. And you still haven’t told me who you are. What are you here to do?”
”Diplomacy.” James said plainly, giving a small wave that showed off Zhu’s feathered extra arm and eyes. “Hello. My name is James Lyle, this is Zhu Bajie, I am a paladin of the Order of Endless Rooms, and we are here to start a conversation. And, hopefully, peaceful relations between our two groups.”
“Groups.” Paul adjusted the cuffs of his button up shirt, the garment stained in a few places from both sweat and what was probably oil. “You think you know a lot about us.”
James was getting kind of tired of the indirect comments that felt like this guy was just working to buy time for something. “Yes.” He said with a firm voice. “I know that you’re one of at least two conspiracies revolving around this place. I know you’re bringing people in to keep them safe from some nebulous future apocalypse. I also happen to know that, of the two shadowy cabals operating inside your church’s hierarchy, I vastly prefer this one to the one that’s pushing kids to brainwash themselves. Which is why I’m here, to arrange for some diplomacy.”
”How-“
”We’ve been investigating stuff in the area and somehow stumbled upon you.” Zhu cut in. “On account of all the disappeared people.”
”-did you get in here?” Paul finished his statement, nervously shifting back from James and Zhu when the navigator spoke. “It talks, too?”
Uncertain of how to be more direct, James tried anyway. “One of the victims of the aforementioned other shadowy cabal showed us. After that, we walked. It’s not hard. We’ve done this before.” He ignored the shitty comment about Zhu.
Mostly because he knew Zhu wasn’t going to ignore it. “Oh yeah, it talks.” The navigator rumbled. “Better than you, so far, too. Is your vocabulary limited to dumb questions and threats?”
“I-!“ Robertson started to sputter.
”Please.” James said, resting a hand on Zhu’s feathers that were fanned out across his armor. “Chill. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot, what with all of you pointing guns at us. I’m trying to explain that we are interested in a strategic alliance.”
That got an even more suspicious glare. “You followed us in here, waited until we were in a vulnerable position, almost ambushed us, and expect me to believe you?”
”Since I didn’t know those second two things until right now, yes.” James nodded, smiling and snapping his fingers to punctuate the next sentence. “Good to know you’re in a vulnerable ambushed position though I guess. But, like, if you want we can just set up a meeting at a Starbucks or something? I was sort of assuming you were in charge but I’m starting to wonder now. Are you?”
Paul bristled again, mouth twisting as he struggled to not show how annoyed he was getting with James’ attitude that was both casual and open about things that were supposed to be secrets. “I have been assigned this role by the trust of the Quorum, and I am ‘in charge’, yeah. And I’m telling you to get out. We aren’t some splinter group you can exploit, we don’t make alliances like this is a bad video game. We’re doing important work, and you’re in the way. If I was supposed to talk to you, the prophet would have told me, and he didn’t, so I’m not.”
”Great. Give me his number then.” James crossed his arms and returned the glare, really regretting leaning on the structural support. As soon as he’d done so, his Endurance had decided he was relaxed enough to not need his help, and despite all the exercise and improvements that James had gone through over the last few years, his legs still hurt like hell after all the hiking and running that had been going on the last couple days. “I’m fine talking to someone higher up.”
”No.”
”No?”
”No. The opposite of yes.” The line almost got a snort of laughter from James, but he held it in as Robertson continued. “In charge or not, there’s no way I’m letting you interfere with our great work. I’m also not going to let you twist my words around to get answers out of me.”
That part just wasn’t true, but James didn’t say that bit. He was getting the impression his negotiation partner might be bad at the negotiation part of being a leader. Not that he had any place to judge. “I think you misunderstand.” He said, letting the sass drop from his voice. “I have no real interest in stopping you. We just want to make sure you’re doing this ethically, so we don’t have to fight.” James’ sagged his shoulders, the motion concealed a little by the frame of the armor he was wearing. “If anything, we’re actually here to help.”
The exhaustion in his voice got a pause from the man who had been prepared to just be angry at him and start yelling when things didn’t work the way he wanted. Robertson actually did something James had almost given up on seeing; stopping, and thinking, before he spoke again. When he did talk next, it was with a more even tone, matching James’ own less antagonistic attempt. “How nice of you.” He stifled a sigh. “We don’t need any help from you. Especially…” a short glance got thrown toward the ramp where Momo was antagonizing her camraconda friend and a pair of ratroaches were quietly observing the chaos. “Not your help. You’re right. I’m not the kind of guy who shoots people. But you can’t be here. Get your… friends… and get out. Go get yourselves into trouble somewhere else.”
James nodded, and made no move to leave.
He had a few objectives with this attempt to contact these people. But the big one was the most basic and most important; they needed to trade phone numbers so that they could talk. That was it. Just the ability to have repeated peaceful interactions was critical. Once that happened, it wasn’t James’ job. Not exactly. He wasn’t actually the person who would be talking to them, long term, at least not most of the time. The Order didn’t have professional diplomats, exactly, but they would vote on how they wanted their interactions to go, broadly speaking, and then the people who were closest to professionals in Recovery would maintain a long term relationship. And maybe that would grow to something more in time; sharing information and resources, and even help.
And there were secondary goals, like not letting on anything about the pillar in the area that was apparently in favor of this project, or trying to figure out just how aware of the fact that a chunk of their membership were inhuman shapeshifters without letting on to that very fact just in case. But James really wasn’t kidding when he offered to have a chat at a coffee shop. That was kind of all he really needed right now.
After that, there was a whole dungeon around them. Two dungeons. And that called to him a lot more than arguing with people who were hiding on purpose.
Of course, there was one bonus goal. If he could make them into allies, then maybe, just maybe, they could dismantle the other side of the magical underworld of the Mormon church. James absolutely would do it himself; he wasn’t going to stop being angry at the overt abuse happening. But if the change happened internally, it would go smoother, and it would cost the Order nothing.
And also he could do more dungeon delving. ”You’re really into this place. Is there something I should know about your obsession with parking garages?” Zhu whispered to him.
”They’re a fascinating part of civic infrastructure.” James whispered back. Then he raised his voice to conversational again. “Tell you what,” he offered politely, “we’ll hang out here for a bit. You can take a minute to talk it over with the rest of your group. I promise we won’t try to invade your special spiral shaped magic parking garage. And then, even if you don’t want anything to do with us, we can at least give you a way to contact our group if you change your mind later. Okay?”
Diplomatic contact, James was finding, was largely about omission. This man didn’t need to know about any secondary conflict, didn’t need to know James had promised a pillar not to mess with them, didn’t need to know that James actually just wanted an opportunity to identify and talk with one of the shapeshifters in the other group. So he said none of that. But he also, importantly, didn’t lie. He really did want this to work out.
And to his satisfaction, Robertson nodded slowly. “Alright. And then you’ll leave.”
”And then we’ll leave.” James… supposed he wasn’t actually lying. But they would also be coming back.
There was a fundamental problem with a group like this with no oversight, which was that they basically had no checks on their ethics. So if James left, he’d then sneak back in, possibly by hang gliding over to the other parking structure in a move that future historians would describe as ‘assuredly lethal’, and take a look around.
People were entitled to their secrets and privacy. Right up until the point when they started possibly keeping a bunch of civilians prisoner in a dungeon. And James absolutely had no desire to be a hypocrite in this regard; if someone suspected the same from the Order, he’d give them a fucking guided tour to put their mind at ease. There was such a thing as operational security, but there was a lot or room to be honest without compromising that.
Robertson walked back past the line of business casual guards who weren’t pointing guns but were still looming around the skybridge, and James headed back to his own group. Though not before taking a look at the guards themselves, and trying to figure out just on instinct which of them weren’t human. It was a challenge, mostly because they all had the same shirts and haircuts, and he wasn’t willing yet to write off all of them being clones or something.
”That looked demoralizing.” Ink-And-Key greeted James as he walked up to them, the camraconda breaking off from his conversation with Rho about a book they’d been reading.
”It was, thanks.” James sighed and coughed from it as Anesh shifted nervously next to him. “They… well, that guy specifically, isn’t interesting.”
Momo leaned back on the hood of a rusted spotted old derelict of a car. “Nefariously? Or are they just stupid?”
That was the million dollar question. “No idea.” James said with a shake of his head, hands fidgeting with one of the clips on his armor.
”I think they’re stupid.” Zhu volunteered.
”Zhu thinks they’re stupid, yes. I mean, I agree, but that doesn’t even rule out them being nefarious. We need more…”. He looked around at the others, tilting his head as he scrutinized Anesh and Arrush both nervously fidgeting. “…Where’s Keeka?”
Arrush scraped the tip of his gifted sword across the floor with a noise that made James’ teeth itch. ”H-he is… sneaking.”
With a more composed but equally unhappy huff, Anesh clarified. “He took a couple of the earrings, vanished, and snuck across the skybridge.” Anesh looked deeply displeased by it. “I assume because he thinks he’s the best at sneaking.”
”He is.” Arrush added quietly, eyes locked on the skybridge door, ignoring the guards. “But.”
”But.” Anesh echoed.
”I’m making that a problem for future us.” James said. “Because I trust Keeka to not be seen. I mean, come on, how many of you have looked up at how many fucking hideable pipes are overhead?” Five heads and one set of navigator eyes titled upward to where two different person-width iron pipes ran side by side with a small gap between themselves and the concrete ceiling. “Yeah. So while Keeka investigates, and Robertson fucks around figuring out how long he should wait before telling us to leave again, I want to do one more thing. Momo!”
”Boss!” Momo snapped to attention, before instantly regretting it as pain shot through her hip and she ground her teeth hard enough to crack one of them. A problem that she decided to pass on to a hypothetical future purple orb. “What’s… what’s up?”
”Which of the guards are human?”
The way James said it was so simple and casual. And Momo felt a burst of pride that he trusted her to just have that answer on hand. She did have the answer, too; the affiliation glasses kinda sucked for this since they didn’t really tell you much aside from who someone worked for, and all these people worked for the church. But Momo had ways, and by ways, she meant a variety of weird red orb totems, and also a couple other Office magic items. Her favorite for this particular situation was the totem that let her check birthdays (Arrush’s was coming up soon and she didn’t know if anyone knew or if she should say anything) and the stress ball thing that gave her an echo of heartbeats when she squeezed it. Between those two, she had a clear answer already.
Which was why it was a little annoying when Anesh spoke up. “The two on the left.” He said, not looking at the line of human-looking guards stretched across the aisle in a way that would have made walking past without being seen impossible. They weren’t in good guard positions, and they clearly weren’t prepared for a fight, but it probably would have seemed intimidating to a bunch of inexperienced kids.
”How do you know that?!” Momo demanded. “I wanted to be the one who knew that…” She pouted.
Anesh cleared his throat. “Ah, apologies. Zhu, can you eat James’ memory of that so Momo…” he stopped trying to make a joke as James reminded him with a look that they were on a timer, and Momo just dropped her shoulders and groaned in aggravation. “Right. Well. They’re the only two looking at Arrush and Ink. Looking looking, that is to say. They’re curious, and they aren’t afraid like the others are.”
”I had to use three bits of dungeontech…” Momo griped.
”I have a random skill rank from several years ago.” Anesh smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Pattern recognition was something he never really learned how to turn off, but to be fair, after living with it for a little bit, he’d more or less stopped trying.
”And I have a conversation to have.” James said, trying to pave over their mild bickering. “Ink-And-Key, Rho, can you two do me a favor? Go check out the view from the hole in the wall, would you?”
The camraconda and inhabitor looked past James to where the concrete had been shattered. “I am curious about the phenomena happening below, yes.” Ink-And-Key said with his seemingly deliberately nervous voice. “And I will do it. I can take better recordings. But why?”
James flicked his eyes in the direction of the other sentinels. “So they focus on you two, and not me talking to their friends.” He said before turning to Anesh and Arrush. “You two wait here, because I need them to not notice when Keeka comes back, and ratroaches stand out.”
“A leh-little.” Arrush nodded, dripping a few flecks of corrosive saliva onto the ground. “What do we do while we wait?”
James smiled and patted both of them on the shoulders of their armor, leaving his partners to figure out how to navigate that awkward situation themselves. “That’s a little mean.” Zhu laughed quietly to him.
”I’m kinda in a hurry.” James reminded the navigator. “How’re you doing?” He asked as he walked past the last couple cars on the ramp, resisting the impulse to lay his gloved hands on them to steady himself as he walked down the paved pseudo-road that was slightly too steep.
Zhu shifted on the exterior of James’ delver armor. “I’m pretty good actually. Ready to stop being sick, but what else is new. Turns out, chronic health problems suck. Who knew?”
”Fewer people than you might think.” James replied with a grimace as he rounded the dividing wall that led to a ticket machine, which seemed to be attached to nothing at all. But it wasn’t trying to kill him right now, so it wasn’t getting investigated today. “We’ll find a solution. There has to be one, you know?”
”You keep saying that. And I almost believe you! Now stop whispering to yourself and talk to your new best friends.” Zhu’s wide feathered tail slapped against the back of James’ leg, the navigator making sure his favorite organic vehicle was paying attention.
Which meant James was smiling slightly as he approached the two guards on this far side of their line. They turned to watch him, but the others were clearly paying attention to the nonhumans that were watching the weird rift. Not that they didn’t notice James, but more like they had other priorities, and one of the two here signaled that it was okay since James wasn’t actually charging their line or anything.
Instead, he just walked up to one of them, keeping his voice low and the pleasant smile on his face as he opened the conversation. “This is not a threat.” He said simply. “But do they know?”
”Beg your pardon?” “Excuse me?” The two of them answered him at the same time, words covering the others up. The reaction to what he’d actually said took a couple seconds, just like with most humans, but when it came, it was quick. Both of them stepping toward him, voices dropping. “What are you talking about?” One of them said in a tone that was probably trying to be intimidating and failed utterly.
Mostly because James could hear their voice shaking. “Do they know that you aren’t human? I don’t want to out you.”
”How do you- no, not important. What do you want.” The closest man cut himself off, letting a cold anger take over his stare. It didn’t fully work, he was clearly still panicking and his partner was doing an even worse job of covering that up.
But James really wasn’t here to take advantage of that. “Some quick answers, which I think you can provide.”
”We can’t really say no, can we?” The other one demanded bitterly.
”You absolutely can.” Zhu cut in with his engine voice. “He’s asking because he means it.” The guards narrowed their eyes at Zhu, clearly not believing that the navigator was even separate from James in a meaningful way. “If it makes you feel better, I could threaten you?”
James covered his friend’s eyes with his off hand. ”Zhu, stop.” He shook his head. “Look, I won’t force the issue. I just want to know what’s going on, and I figured you might want to help me out. Unless you’re kidnapping people or something evil, I actually mean you no harm.”
There was a glint of grey smoke from the first one’s left eye, a bit of motion so fast James wasn’t sure he hadn’t imagined it. Then he turned to his friend, eyebrows raising. “He means that.” He said.
”You mean that?” The other one asked James.
”Holy shit I want that spell.” Zhu said what James was thinking.
James made a mental note that Zhu needed to go through JP’s crash course on how to navigate social conflict like this. “I do mean it.” He said with a nod. “I also mean it when I say I need to know what’s going on here. What’s really going on.”
”What… what do you know so far?” The first one ventured, shifting closer to James and keeping his voice down. The echo of the parking structure dungeon meant that Ink-And-Key and Rho arguing about singular known effects or something was loudly overshadowing the soft conversation James was having, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. “What do you think we are?”
”I don’t know what you are. Or, I mean, I think you’re people, and that’s basically as far as I care.” James shrugged, dismissing a concern like it was that simple. Of course, it was that simple to him, and he was prepared to get in a lot of fights over it. “As for the other part… okay, I think you’re bringing people in here, and building some kind of refuge. I think you’re separate from the child brainwashing thing, but clearly you’re using magic from the same source. I sorta know why, but I don’t know the details. And, importantly, I don’t know where your people fit in.” James barraged the guard with a wall of honesty, before pausing for breath. “Oh, and I have no idea why there’s a second dungeon. Or if it is a second dungeon.”
”Dungeon… yes. Yes, it is.” The man nodded, glancing at the others before turning his back to his companions and facing James. He took a deep breath, heedless of the fumes in the air, before going still and beginning to change. Skin rippling like a stilling pond, before his features sunk away, his complexion changing from nebulously white to an oily midnight black like liquid rubber. All that was left of the smooth face was a pair of divots that could be eyes, and a gap for a mouth. “This is what we are.” He - it? They? James would ask later - said. As he spoke, he searched James’ face for any sign of hostility or revulsion.
And found nothing. James just nodded. “So, the other dungeon is… what, parasitic? Invading somehow?”
The shapeshifter looked away as it reverted to its human form. And it was clear, when he spoke again, that he was holding back a powerful swell of emotion at James’ reaction. “We don’t know. It has always been that way. It’s useful, and our cousins across the veil aren’t evil. Usually.” He sighed again, daring to offer James a small smile. “All this time hiding, and… you know… you do know, don’t you?”
”I suspect.” James knew how hard it could be to bury a part of yourself, to hide something from people you wanted to respect you or listen to you or even just not hate you. His version felt pitiful compared to the magnitude of hiding your species, but he got it. “So. The whole starting a city in a dungeon thing?”
”It’s not a city.” The shapeshifter shook his head, almost whispering. “But it is a stockpile of people. Using one of the machines.”
James nodded, trying to prompt the right questions. “You… well, your people, maybe not you specifically… you led them here, didn’t you? This is way too deep in to find by chance, especially with how many little twists and turns there were. You’d have to be doing dedicated mapping delves for years to get this far if you were moving evenly through the dungeon.”
”We did. And told them it was a miracle.”
Zhu laughed lightly. ”Kinda rude.” He offered.
The shapeshifter examined the navigator with new eyes. “Maybe.” He said, with a sly toothy grin. “But if we told them anything else, they’d try to kill us or weaponize us, like they do with our garden cousins. And besides, who’s to say it’s not a miracle?”
”Me!” Zhu stated confidently.
”Despite my position as a filthy nonbeliever, I really don’t think that’s your specialty.” James told his friend, retaking the wheel of the conversation. “So what is happening to these people? Are they even alive?”
”Of course!” The second one barked loudly, drawing a few looks from the other human sentries, before his friend made him lower his voice. “We… we were telling the truth. Mostly. I never said it was a miracle, either! They figured that out on their own!” He said it with a kind of inclination to his words that made James think that mayhaps this specific shapeshifter did think it was a miracle.
His friend winced. “I… I did say the word ‘miracle’, repeatedly.” He admitted, leaning closer to James and whispering in a voice even his companion wouldn’t hear. “I don’t belive in any of this. Not really.” He said, pulling away. “But we didn’t hurt anyone. Not here. Not us. But once they came in, we had to make a choice, and we chose the way that means we can’t control what happens with the magic.” He looked like someone who was committed to the democratic process, but had absolutely voted for something else.
”I… really understand that.” James rubbed the back of his neck, where his skulljack sat. “So, what does happen once someone gets brought in here? What’s the process?”
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”The cul- the church reaches out to them,” the shifter eyed his partner who had backed off and was now also watching the other Order knights doing their observations, “if they agree, and so far almost everyone has because they’re picking people who they know will agree, then they get brought here. We’ve started using more and more magic or miracles, however you want to say it, to make it happen smoother. But then it’s exactly what we told them.”
”Some kind of safe storage?”
”Exactly. One of the machines could slow living things down. And because of the quirk from the cousin home, we were able to replicate it. A lot.” He jerked a thumb toward the skybridge door. “That whole territory is claimed by us now. Supplies for a handful of guardians to survive for a very long time, and thousands of the sleeping. Waiting for when it’s time to leave again.” He smiled at James. “But until then, the machine feeds our home.”
”…the dungeon. Oh. Oh.” James slapped a hand into his forehead, awkwardly forgetting Zhu and slamming a bushel of feathers into his face too, much to the navigator’s protest. “I… didn’t get it.” He said quietly. “You’re working for the dungeon.”
”For our home.” The shifter said with a tiny nod. “It sustains us, but that means we need to give back. And this way… everyone gets what they want. And our home must like it at least a little, because the directing dreams stop when we’re working on the project.” He seemed incredibly proud of that.
”Symbiosis.” James muttered with a nod. “Okay.” He heard the distant sound of a heavy metal door latch, and looked up to check the skybridge door. Still closed, so he had a moment at least. “I’ll make this quick and leave you to your thing. Here’s our contact number.” He handed over a slim business card. “We think it’s okay that this is happening, but we want to open diplomatic channels. If you and your people could push for that, from the inside, it would help us help you. I’ll tell you now, I’m gonna advocate for honesty and open cooperation, but not if it hurts you or your home. I’d also love to exchange information and maybe magic. At first glance, you seem cool and emotionally stable, so we can work together. Also… if your people ever need a fallback… the Order of Endless Rooms is there for you.” He met the shifter’s human eyes as he handed over the card. “I dunno if you have leadership or something, but please pass that on.”
”I… I will.” The other man nodded. “What now?”
”Now I pretend you rebuked me properly, go back and lurk with my friends, and then leave when your human-side boss comes back and tells me he’s not interested in diplomacy. And then… I dunno! Guess we’ll see how it all shakes out!”
That part was a little bit a lie. James had an idea of what would happen. There would be a long process of trying to convince the other side to open communications with the Order. There would be negotiations about their use of magic. There would be ethical checks. At some point, thing would happen. The Order would demand openly that the church stop using mental magic on or with anyone underage. There might be a fight about it. The identity of the nonhuman members of this project might come out. Things could get bad.
He could see a bunch of paths forward. He could see a world where everyone saw reason and agreed that child abuse was bad. He could see a world where a bunch of monsters doubled down and tried to cover their tracks. He could see a world where there was a long drawn out in between time where things didn’t really get worse but also didn’t get better.
James didn’t like most of the options. And he had a solution; his normal solution to this sort of thing. Remove the enemy’s ability to commit violence. In this case, through the removal of their spellbook that allowed for the brainwashing to happen in the first place. Oh, that wouldn’t come close to stopping the abuse that was going on, but at the very least, it would stall out one particular problem before it could continue to fester and expand.
If he was smart about it, then he could even do it without actually fighting anyone. Just a quick teleport in and out, and then, he could use the fireplace in his apartment for the first time in a while, and poof. Problem… well, not solved, but alleviated.
The thing was, the Order had never faced off against a group this large before. Thousands of people in stasis was a lot, but they weren’t really part of the equation. But the number of people involved in things was unknown, and potentially very high. Hundreds, maybe actually thousands. And all of them were equipped with magic. Some of them would be victims of the mind-altering process, some of them would be very young victims, and neither of those things would stop them from trying to fight the Order if it came to it.
James hated this, a lot. It sapped all the joy from exploring a new dungeon, from finding a new source of magic and weirdness. It felt… too real. Too much like how humans just were sometimes. Horrible to each other, horrible to their kids, horrible to the world around them. And no matter how strong or powerful he got, he couldn’t just wave his hand, solve the problem, and make people stop fucking each other over and get along.
”You’ve been fuming a lot lately.” Zhu commented as James returned to the others, his distraction heading back their way too as Ink-And-Key and Rho finished taking video of the sliding hole in the dungeon but continued discussing what it possibly meant. “You know, we could make some kind of imbued item that lets us suck spell slots out of people and just use that on all the elders that’re doing the demon summoning? Would that make you feel better?”
”…probably.” James admitted. “I doubt that would work though. Blue items don’t… uh… Momo, what’s the term for what blue items don’t?”
”I just say metamagic cause Anesh used it once near me while he was talking to Cheha about Dungeons and Dragons and my brain is poisoned.” Momo shrugged.
Anesh took the distraction from his worrying like a lifeline. “You cannot blame me for that. Also what’s the news?”
”Shapeshifters. Kind of a rubber or maybe liquid tar form? They look cool. Neat eyes. Not sure how romanceable they are yet. Oh, though… I think at least one of the two I talked to might be an actual faithful. Like, he’s converted, and is a true believer, even if he is still hiding his identity while he works on this whole thing. They’re feeding the dungeon in what they believe is a safe, mutually non-lethal way.” He paused, and then gave Anesh a rueful smile. “Also I can’t lie, I was thinking the D&D thing too, for mostly the same reason, so Momo’s free to blame you.” James grinned at his boyfriend.
”Treacherous wanker.” Anesh muttered, trying not to smile as he twisted to look up at the ceiling over James’ head.
”Sure. Anyway, good suggestion Zhu, I’ll consider it if it’s workable. I’m also open to ‘just shoot them’, or, more likely, ‘enforced reformation’.” James felt a wave of exhaustion that had nothing to do with any kind of magic, good or bad. Just a normal human faltering in the face of a normal human evil. He tried to smile. “Who knows. It worked for the Horizonists, and the Alchemists. It could… it could work for anyone. It really could. That’s the point.”
”Restorative justice.” Anesh nodded sagely, clapping a hand on James’ armored shoulder and squeezing through the armor. “It’ll work out. We’ll find a solution.”
”We’d better. Lincon can’t even leave the city until we do. Or at least figure out how to dispel something.” James clicked his tongue. “Hopefully, someone will listen, and we can set to gathering information about how to solve this from the root. Because… I dunno about you guys, but I just don’t want another fight. I really don’t.”
Momo either ignored or missed how tired James sounded, and raised her hand quickly. “I’ll take the fight!” She volunteered. “I can do it! Put me in, coach!”
”Momo…” Anesh pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Momo.” James said bluntly. “Stop it. Self defense is one thing, but we can’t go around using violence to solve every problem.”
”Oh, so it’s self defense if we’re the ones being attacked, but if someone else is getting abused, it’s just regular old murder?” Momo challenged him, unwilling to back down on this, even here in the middle of an unknown dungeon. “Come on. They’re already doin’ a violence. Let’s just break their legs and take their shit. We can sort out how to get them to stop being abusive monsters after.”
It bothered James quite a lot that he didn’t really want to disagree with her. Maybe it was cause he heard something similar from Alanna. “I just… want to try something else first.” He said.
”You already do what Momo is saying, though.” Keeka said, emerging out of nothing at Anesh’s elbow and getting a quickly muffled terrified yelp from the human. “You just don’t think of it that way, because you do it to the Sewer. You’ve always started fights for other people, as long as the other people looked like us.”
”I… don’t have a response to that, I guess.” James admitted. “Alright. Everyone’s here, we can argue this out later. Keeka, please don’t do that again, but also good job, and anything we should know?”
The lithe black ratroach perked up, antenna bobbing on his head at the praise. “Lots of people. I didn’t go far, they have… um… their own walls made of bags of something set up.”
”Sandbags? They built a bunker or something?” James tapped his lips.
Anesh hummed lightly. “It makes sense. They’ve set up to defend that tower. What else, Keeka?”
”People. People in cars. Oh! All the cars are the same, as far as I could see. And they’re like the wrong ones out here. They put blankets in them and laid people down and they’re just staying there. Lots of them. Oh! They have special ones for dogs! They have lots of dogs too!”
That checked out with what the shapeshifter had told James. Which meant at least one piece of verifiable information had come out of this. But every piece was making the bigger picture come together a little bit more coherently.
For one thing, it was generally a point in favor of these people that they’d not only brought families, but the family pets as well. James and Zhu had noted it early on that some of the empty homes had dog stuff, but no dog, and now they had at least a little confirmation where they’d gone. And that was weirdly comforting. Because no one who was a complete asshole would devote resources both mundane and magic to making sure their companion animals survived the end times.
So they had this group, stockpiling humans - among other creatures - in their little guarded dungeon ark. And this group had three factions; church, dungeon life, and dungeon life who had earnestly joined the church. Then there was the ‘make younger people into the perfect believers and maybe weapons’ group. As far as their investigation knew, that group didn’t have any ongoing schisms inside it, except that some of them were also part of the ark group. Which might mean there was a fourth ark faction, just for that overlap.
Then there was a pillar that didn’t care, another pillar that had sent one of his daughters to poke around, all the kids who were victims that had gotten out of control and imprisoned, all the kids who were victims and still trapped in the ongoing action, and also at least one guy planning a gold heist.
James did not care about the guy planning the gold heist. James was prepared to help with the gold heist at this point.
He’d have to plan the bullion acquisition later, though, as the door opened again, and Robertson walked back out, looking around with uncertainty, talking to a couple of people with him as he landed his eyes on James and started walking over. There were a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle cues James picked up on as the man approached them, but the clear picture was someone who was having an abrupt meeting with doubts that he hadn’t known he’d been harboring.
”Paul.” James greeted him as he approached the group, motioning for his friends to hang back. “Here to tell us to leave?”
”Maybe.” The man said. “Maybe. Let me ask you something.” He took a long breath, ignoring the fumes hanging in the air. “One of my advisors suggested that I shoot you in the back and throw you over the edge. Why do you think that is?”
James’ smile turned brittle, but didn’t vanish. He had a bad habit of smiling or laughing when he was threatened with death. “At a guess? He’s one of the people involved in the child mind control side of things.”
Robertson nodded, scraping fingers through his receding hairline. “If you’d just walked in and told me, I wouldn’t believe you.” He said, speaking mostly to himself it seemed.
”Well yeah-“ Momo started to say, before Ink-And-Key wisely stopped her with a panicked glance.
The man continued without really paying the comment any mind. “And I didn’t believe you. But that’s real, isn’t it?” He gave a tired laugh. “You want an alliance. Like we’re feudal lords and not all US citizens. And you think I’ll say yes eventually.”
”I think…” James idly set a hand on Arrush’s arm as the ratroach shifted uncomfortably next to him. “I think we’d like to think all friction between groups, whether they’re like us, or normal, is a matter of a lack of shared values. But it isn’t that simple. Resources, trust, convenience, it all adds up to make getting along harder. I think that you seem like a guy who wants to do the right thing, and that you think you know what the right thing is. And I want to sell you on the idea that stopping your counterparts is the right thing.”
”Not everyone here even knows.” Robertson said, turning his head to look at the group of armed guards who were all carefully watching the renewed negotiation. “It’s not their fault. And even for people who are at fault, not all of them are evil men.”
”Let me be clear on something.” James said, holding up a flat hand. “We don’t need anyone to be killed, or even punished. The only thing that matters, is that the harm stops.”
”If we agree to talk to you, you won’t take our word on it, will you?” Robertson asked, before answering his own question. “Well. Shoot, I wouldn’t. Russel wouldn’t cooperate. I don’t even know how you’d start. Even just the police…” He trailed off.
James refrained from shrugging, instead projecting what he hoped was an attitude of competence. “We have a division called Recovery. They’re experts in a lot of fields, and they’d be doing an audit. Making sure there’s no teenagers kept in cages anywhere, confiscating any tools being actively used, setting up reporting, that kind of thing.”
”Confiscating.”
”Technically, the goods will be held in trust.” James said evenly. “The spellbook that enforces belief, for example. At the time when the original owner shows that they can and should be trusted with it again, it would be returned. But that’s a detail to work out with Recovery; I know the broad outline, but not the specifics.”
Paul tried to meet James’ eyes, and found he couldn’t keep his gaze on the younger man. Instead, his vision slipped to the side, but all he found was a series of inhuman figures watching him. Or watching James. Neither contained, nor hostile, it seemed. Quickly unsettled, he ended up staring at the concrete beneath his sneakers for a good twenty seconds before raising his head. “What do we get out of this? Really. Sell it to me. Make it good. I have the authority to agree to a lot, but I’ll need to give the quorum something.”
Anesh cleared his throat. “Mr. Robertson… ah, hello, Anesh Patel.” He offered a handshake, and got a rapid one in return. “The good news is, we do have something to offer you. Help.”
”Yeah!” Momo said, having been let free and now hugging Ink-And-Key from behind so she could speak without interruption. “You think we have a Recovery branch for show?”
”Mh.” Anesh nodded, keeping Robertson’s attention. “What my partner is dancing around is that we are already prepared to support you. Support. Help. Expertise. More magic, more chances. We’re already planning to try to keep whatever apocalypse is inbound from actually occuring, but we won’t lie and say we even know what the shape of it is yet. So having a fallback plan for life on Earth is a simple good idea. We want to save lives, and if nothing terrible happens and this isn’t needed, no one dies, correct? It’s just an oddly placed bollard in a lot of lives. But against the oncoming risk, it makes sense to have a backup. So we’d like to do what it takes to make sure this succeeds, and that means committing our time and resources to help you. Recovery will have a more detailed breakdown when you talk to them, as James has told you, we’re simply the invitation and not the ones with all the numbers. But what do you get? Well… you get our help. And our help works. All it takes to get us to really commit is to compromise on a few values.”
”Values like our faith.” Paul frowned. “I can tell. Hear it in the way you talk. You’re trying very hard to not say some particular things.”
”No.” James cut in firmly. “That’s… not my favorite thing in the world, I’ll admit. And yeah, I’ve had to negotiate my language a bit. But that’s not the problem. The things we’ll ask you to compromise on will be diversifying your collection of people. Both within humanity, and outside of it.” He jerked his head toward Arrush. “As you can see, you might have been misinformed about the real nature of life in places like this.”
”Or the lie was convenient to you.” Arrush added, which got a flinch from Robertson.
He still stood his ground. “The fact remains, you want us to act like you.”
”Obviously. And you want us to act like you. So we’ll compromise, and try to work toward a better future anyway. Like, the ideal rate of traumatized children is zero, for example. The ideal amount of racism is zero. I would hope you agree with that.” He raised his eyebrows.
Maybe James shouldn’t have phrased it that way, because Paul dug his heels in with his response. “By your definition of those terms.”
“If you try to tell me you have an alternate definition for child abuse that excuses something that has been psychologically proven to traumatize children, I’m throwing you off the side of the building.” Momo answered eagerly before James replied. Not that he really disagreed with her
But the look in Momo’s eyes as she stared down the leader of this conspiracy caught him off guard. There was something there that said that she wasn’t kidding about her willingness to hurt him if he stepped over that line, and while it was threatening, it was also strangely comforting to meet someone who wore their convictions openly. So Paul’s answer backed off a bit. “I’m trying to make sure that you aren’t just going to move the goalposts as soon as you get what you say you want.”
And now they were back in territory James could be diplomatic within. “Oh. I mean, we can work with that.” He shrugged casually. “Clear definitions and proper communication is the key to basically everything. I’m not… like, to be clear, I’m not trying to trick you here. I’m not using sneaky definitions to try to screw you. I’m just gonna tell you what we want and go from there. Like, I’ll tell you right now that we want you to accept nonhuman life as valuable. It’s not hard.”
“Like the demons that came with you.”
“See, don’t say that. That’s shitty of you. Also even if the things from the other dungeon are actually demons, none of the five species that came in here are that.” James held back from sighing, not wanting to cough again. And the small moment gave him a bit of perspective; this guy, at least, was just saying ‘demon’ because it was his default. It wasn’t like he was some kind of discount gentleman thief that was actively needling them. So maybe James shouldn’t take it quite so personally. “Look. You and I both know something is rotten in your church. We don’t need to burn the whole thing down, but we need the core problem to stop. After that… we’ll have a platform to keep working together. Or to go our separate ways, having left the world slightly less shitty in our wake. How’s that sound?” He extended a hand to shake.
Robertson looked down at the offered hand, and back at James. Back around at the people in a loose group in front of him and then behind him at the people watching. Lowering his voice, he leaned marginally closer to James in a way he hoped wouldn’t be suspicious. “I’ll call your number later.” He muttered, before leaning back and speaking up. “No.” The simple word got a defeated look from Anesh and Momo, though the others just looked more or less like they’d expected it, really. “I’ve heard you out, I’ve talked to my people, and we’re not interested in what you think you have to offer. Now. Please leave, like you agreed to.”
James met his eyes, for just a moment, and saw a worry there. Or maybe a fear. But he nodded anyway, and stepped back. “Well. Can’t say you didn’t at least give us a shot. Good luck with your ark.” He turned, and started walking away, making sure his shield bracers were set to the guns behind him in case one of the people who’d suggested shooting him in the back tried it themselves. “Come on. Let’s go.” He called to the others, the group falling in around him.
”What the hell?” Zhu asked as they started the long trek up the steep ramp. “That’s it?”
”That’s it.” James said. “He doesn’t trust the people in here with him. So we’ll have the real negotiation later. Preferably with Texture-Of-Barkdust or someone more competent than my stupid ass leading it.” He added with a chuckle.
”That went well.” Rho stated, claws clicking on the concrete as the group left. “Should we explore more before leaving? We do not know what this dungeon produces yet.”
James really, really wanted to. But he also wanted to be responsible. And he could already tell that Anesh was flagging, Ink-And-Key had been nervous the whole time, and Momo was practically limping from the pain that the hike had caused her. “We’ll come back later.” He said, tipping his chin up to look at the hundred feet of forty five degree slope he still had to climb. On just this ramp. “I’m in the best shape of my life and I’m already tired just looking at this.” He complained out loud.
The hike out was good for at least a few things. They confirmed, over the longer trek back that took more time both because they were starting to get tired and also because a lot more of it went up, that the dungeon hadn’t shifted around. Maybe it would over a longer period of time like the Climb seemed to, or maybe it would be static like the Stacks were. Either way, it hadn’t changed while they were in it, which meant no need to painfully teleport out and a safe way to plot for exit strategies.
They also got more evidence that combat didn’t translate to magic here. It was because of a traffic cone ambush that had come when three of the toothy rubber bastards had dropped off the ceiling where they were hanging like stalactites. The ambush hadn’t been a very good one, because it turned out even when they were stained with oil marks, bright orange traffic cones didn’t blend in well among the ridged concrete and boxy ventilation pipes.
But after they’d been dispatched, nothing had changed. “Anyone else feel like they’re about to level up?” Momo asked.
”No? Do you? Oh no, are you sick? Did you hit your head? We need help, Momo has become delirious.” Ink-And-Key instantly began fussing over the girl as Momo tried to walk back her joke.
But James had tried to focus inward anyway, just to make sure he didn’t feel like he was about to cross an invisible experience line. Nothing. Just simmering anger and a desire to get home and take a shower. It was, of course, possible that the dungeon gave out rewards at thresholds; the Underburbs hadn’t rewarded him for every kill after all. Only the impressive ones, or the ones that stacked up.
It was entirely possible that whatever this dungeon had to offer in terms of magic was both plentiful and easy to acquire, and that they were just missing a lot of it because they were covering the same ground that thousands of other people had already walked. So James was really excited to come back to this place in the future when things settled down.
He talked with Rho and Arrush about it for a bit, the two being the ones most interested in the experience of dungeons and also the two who were least out of breath as they walked. Well, James and Rho talked. Arrush would run out of breath if he spoke, so he listened and nodded eagerly.
They wanted to rappel down the outside of one of the buildings and visit the… rooftop? Ground? Whatever was below them. The flat open expanse. Rho had seen some things moving down there and the inhabitor sounded almost excited about the prospect of getting into fights with them. James was more interested in the Garden phenomena, and less about the idea of mortal combat, but Rho was perfectly capable of not being a murderous machine, and if he happened to enjoy fighting when it did come down to it, that wasn’t a mark against him.
They all had ideas on what the magic source might be. They were all probably wrong, but bantering about it as a group when they took breaks on the walk back was at least a way to pass the time in an environment where it felt like all the threats had been taken care of long before they got there.
On one of those breaks, Momo and Ink-And-Key spent some time fiddling with one of the oddly reconfigured cars, while James and Anesh searched one of the perfectly normal cars, and both groups ended up learning something. For one thing, the cars here weren’t. They just straight up weren’t cars. James had tried to hotwire the not-quite-a-Jetta model he’d picked, just to see what would happen, and it didn’t take. Popping the hood, his orb granted skills had gone wild with irritation; this car didn’t have a working engine. It had something that was dressed up to look engine-adjacent, but this wasn’t… a car. This would never run. He honestly doubted that the repair gas from the Horizon would even work on it. He’d sworn at it while Anesh had found a roadside emergency kit in the back, and had made sure the flares weren’t going to detonate on him before deciding to take it back to check out for dungeontech.
Momo, meanwhile, had gotten her obviously-not-a-car to start almost easily, and then she and Ink-And-Key had fucked around trying different permutations of the dials on the dashboard and stuff from Momo’s pockets placed in slots before finding a version that caused a loud whirring whine, followed by a chime and what would have been the glove box popping open to present one of the things Momo had given the machinery. Except the mostly empty tube of lip balm that had come out wasn’t made of plastic anymore, but instead glass.
Or at least, it looked like glass. Felt like glass. Broke like glass when Momo had hit it with a small hammer she apparently carried on her armor’s utility belt. It just also happened to maintain the flexibility of plastic right up until it had shattered. Also the contents weren’t affected, so Momo’s hammer ended up kinda slimy.
”Well that’s fucking cool!” Momo had commented, instantly beginning the process of emptying every pocket and pouch she had, and seeing if it was repeatable. Ten minutes later, she had two glass candy wrappers, one with the candy still inside, a coil of glass paracord, a glass red orb totem that didn’t transform the orb and had stopped working when the material had shifted, a glass red orb itself which had transformed and gave Rho an emotional rank in joy when he offered to test it, a glass pair of nail clippers, three glass sharpies that still wrote just fine, and a glass wallet that she’d stolen from one of the other cars.
James stopped her before she started dumping leveler items into it.
”This is weird and neat, and it’s cool to know at least one thing these things do. But we shouldn’t wait here all day. The shield team is waiting for us.”
”Yeah, yeah, I just like fucking with magic. And switches! More things should have switches and I’m tired of touchscreens. This is legit so fucking satisfying, you should try it!” Momo had waved to the dashboard, and then laughed at the look James and Zhu both gave her in perfect unison, before dragging herself out of the warped machinery disguised as a car.
The rest of the trip back was smooth sailing. And before long, they were standing again by the elevator doors that would take them up, and out, back to Earth and the mundane world where their only worry was… well, a violent magical church schism in motion. James kinda wanted to stay in the dungeon.
The elevator took a few minutes to arrive, which the whole team made note of with caution. This was not a fast escape if they needed a fallback point. While it slowly crawled down toward them, James looked out again over the edge of the parking structure. Leaning on speckled white concrete, staring across to where black and green vines crawled up the side of a distant version of this same construct, watching clouds of smoke and vapor drift through the air overhead. He thought he saw something swoop past in one of those murky patches, but it might have been his imagination.
Then their ride arrived, and James, Arrush, and Anesh had quickly moved the others and prepared an ambush in case there was something hostile in the elevator. But it was just an empty car, and they’d all piled in with the standard delver caution. Hit the normal button for where they’d come from. And ascended.
”Well this went… way better than I expected.” James said with sigh, enjoying the cleaner air.
”Yeah, this was practically a miracle by our standards.” Anesh shouldered into his human boyfriend. “You even got through it without starting a scrap!”
Zhu’s glow rippled with a few dark lines. ”Despite Momo’s best efforts.” He shot out.
”Hey, I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true!” Momo protested.
”You also didn’t say anything particularly helpful.” James said, keeping his tone neutral. In reality, Momo was a good contrary voice to have around. Someone who was more aggressive than him, to keep pushing him toward not settling into a status quo himself. But also, she was sometimes a headache, and definitely not tactful enough for a first diplomatic meeting. “Anyway. Let’s send our friends home, go check in on Lincon, clean up, and I’ll make us all dinner. By which I mean I’ll order us pizza or something. Cause my feet hurt.” James stretched. “And if-“
The elevator doors opened, and as soon as the first crack of light showed, everyone in the elevator had an alien thought punch across their minds.
(Milestone - Initiation Crossing : +1 AP)
James sucked in a surprised breath, a smile starting to form on his face. Maybe the dungeon wasn’t quite so stingy with-
(Breathing : +1 Level)
(1 AP spent, 0 AP remains)
”Oh fuck off.” “So rude.” “Mean!” “Bloody ripoff!” “I am not surprised but I am sad now.” “God dammit.” And a single annoyed bark all spilled out of the elevator before the delvers themselves did, coming as a mild surprise to the armored Order forces stationed there as guards.
Only one person didn’t complain. Instead, Arrush lingered just a moment behind the rest of them, looking down at several of his paws that weren’t holding weapons, slowly clenching and unfolding claws as he took a deep breath.
It hurt slightly less. Not because anything had physically changed, just that he was reflexively breathing in a way that wasn’t quite so consistently painful.
”I don’t mind this one.” He whispered to himself as he followed the others.
James heard him anyway, and turned to look back at his partner as his face morphed from annoyance to a beaming smile. He hadn’t thought of it, but for a lot of people, Arrush included, breathing would be a superpower of sorts. So maybe this dungeon wasn’t too much of a cheater after all.
”Wait, Zhu, what did you get?” Anesh asked as Keeka descended on his original boyfriend to poke and prod and make sure he was alright.
Zhu imitated a ruffling sigh. “Glowing.” He said.
James nodded. That checked out. But they’d talk about it, and the bizarre mechanism of this particular dungeon, a little later. For now, he wanted to check on their security perimeter, and get out of here. “Hey Evans! Anything happen while we were gone?”
”Yes, sssssssir.” The kid pulled a face as he realized halfway through that he was about to say something that would annoy James, before committing to the honorific. James just laughed, too busy being in a good mood now to take it personally, not that he’d really be angry anyway. “A group of three delvers came through. Young, maybe fifteen at most. We tried to warn them off, but they were insistent, and I made the call to let them through. Didn’t want to fight kids.”
”Understandable. We…didn’t see anyone on the way back, though. That’s weird. But they might have gone a different direction.”
”They did. They went up.” Evans said, pausing as James tilted his head sideways in a question. “The elevator. When you got in, it went down. When they got in? It went up.”
”…Huh.” James checked his timer, following an idle hunch. “How long have you been here?” He asked Evans.
”Almost two hours.” The Order guard answered quickly. “Time dilation?” The new combat forces were certainly new, and might not quite feel like part of the Order yet; might be too much like soldiers for James to be fully comfortable with them. But they sure weren’t stupid.
James nodded. “Looks like about fifty percent, it was closer to four hours for us. I wonder… if it rotates between dungeons…” He looked back at the broken down and taped off elevator. Out of order, read the protective sign. “My brain isn’t quite doing the math on if that’s enough to be incredibly useful, or if that’s less than the Office already is.”
”The Office is a huge leap up from that, but only within the specific window of when the entrance is open, much like the Stacks.” Anesh said, unbuckling his armor as he came to James’ math rescue. “If this is consistent, we could get quite a lot more value out of it consistently. As long as someone is willing to work riding a cargo elevator up and down all day.”
”People do worse jobs.” Evans pointed out. “Are we done here?”
”We’re done here.” James nodded. “Our group is heading back to the safehouse. Will you be staying in Utah?”
”Yes sir.” The comment slipped out reflexively, and again James let it slide. “We have our own place to stay. We’ll be at your disposal for as long as you’re here, until the problem with the kids is solved.” He said it like he was giving a simple report, but James could hear the hot emotion under the words. And it was comforting, to know that he wasn’t the only one who was pissed at the injustice happening here.
It was also comforting to know that the other people who were pissed had the big guns.
James offered an agreeing nod, and then went and rounded up his party for a group teleport. He ignored Zhu and Momo bantering about dungeon magic, barely heard Ink-And-Key starting to form a theory with Anesh about the dungeon’s method of ‘cheating’, and instead just took simple comfort from Arrush and Keeka flanking him and leaning into him with their paws making contact with his for the teleport.
He was smiling as they vanished. Happy with the people around him, happy to have actually made progress today, happy to have seen a new dungeon. There was so much wrong, and so many things to fight and fix and work on, but he wasn’t sitting still. He was alive, and in motion, and after he recovered with some pizza and a shower he’d be ready to throw himself back into it.
At least, that’s what he was thinking when he reappeared in the rented house. The intruder standing in the living room, already in the process of shooting James, might have had other ideas.