When I first created the temple complex, I designed it with all the features you'd expect in a city, albeit a small one. I thought, why not? I wanted the place to look real and feel lived-in. So I added all the little details that I thought a proper fantasy city should have. From above ground, one might never guess the extent of its intricate design. I wanted it to seem big yet humble. The design of the temple reflected this, at least on the surface.
It was only after you went past the initial layers into the spaces underneath that you could see the full scope of my planning. Down here, beneath the surface, is where things got interesting. Being a lover of Greek mythology and the history of the ancient world, I couldn't pass up the chance to add a labyrinth. After all, I did have a minotaur for a brother, and all minotaurs need a labyrinth to guard, right?
As a loving older sister, I took the responsibility of crafting the labyrinth with all the seriousness it deserved. It wasn't just any labyrinth—it was MY labyrinth, and I never do anything half-assed. But now that same line of thinking came back to bite me in the ass.
I pursed my lips, staring at the spiral of stairs descending into the depths of the earth. Thankfully, I wouldn't have to go through the entire labyrinth as I had enough foresight to build a special entrance for myself, which led to the cavern where the core was. It wasn’t exactly a ‘direct’ route, but it did allow me to circumvent a huge portion of the maze. It would still take some time to navigate to the core, but it was faster than walking the full labyrinth.
This wasn't how I wanted to spend my day, but it needed to be done.
"Let's just get this over with," I sighed, silently praying to any god who might be listening to cut me some slack and let me reach the core without encountering anymore kobolds. "Come on, Zaius, let's go. You're the scout, so I want you in the front." I nudged the monkey, who was crouched by the stairs, glaring down at the darkness. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get to it!"
His big blue eyes flicked up at me, the little brows above them furrowed into a glare, his face set in a sulky pout.
"Don't give me that look," I planted my hands on my hips. "You want to play at being a rogue? Well, this is part of it. You don't get to just run around pick-pocketing and stabbing people. A rogue's job is to go into the dark, dangerous, scary places that normal people don't want to go to scope things out."
Zaius stuck his nose in the air with a dramatic sniffle then his body vanished, his eyes the last thing to disappear.
“Definitely got that from Noctus,” I muttered with a laugh. How many times had I seen Noctus do that exact same head toss and huffy sniffle before merging into the shadows to make his exit after Darius sent him to do ‘pleb’ work?
"Off you go, Leo," I said, looking down at him as he waited beside me, his ears flicked forward. "It's your turn, tanks before squishies."
Leo blinked up at me, then lowered his head, rumbling in response. He padded down the stairs, his body tense as he descended into the darkness. I followed close behind, my boots making soft thuds against the stone steps.
"Attack on sight, Leo. Nothing alive down here is friendly," I said in a low voice as we crept slowly down the stairs.
The Leosaur rumbled a growl in response, staying slightly ahead of me. The stone staircase spiraled narrowly, descending into the darkness below. If I could summon Pyr, I would have used my fire wisp to light the way. Since I couldn't, I had to conjure a fireball to hover overhead. It provided just enough light for me to see, which was both a blessing and a curse. The glow was soft and gentle on the eyes, yet it cast eerie shadows that made me flinch at every flicker.
Near the top of the stairs, there were a couple of rooms for storage and various other uses. From there on, it was one long spiraling staircase that descended all the way down to the first basement level. The stairs were wide enough to comfortably fit a group of people or one particularly large Minotaur.
When we reached the bottom of the staircase, I paused, leaning against the wall just beyond the last step. The first basement level was empty, just a large hall with a smooth stone floor and walls with high ceilings. The only light in the hall was my glowing fireball.
There were four doors leading out of this room. One led into a hallway connecting to the main complex, one into another large storage room, while the other two were used as lab spaces. However, I wasn't going through any of the doors. I was going through the wall, behind which was a passage leading to a vault. This vault was a diversion. What I really wanted to access was the back wall of the vault, where the first of many hidden passages and rooms lay.
Considering the current state of my city, I hadn't thought there was a chance we might encounter some creature down here. I didn't think any kobolds or other creatures would have gotten into this particular part of the temple, as half the tunnels down here didn't even have arrays for airflow, which was intentional on my part, as it was one trap that most people wouldn't expect or notice until they started feeling short of breath.
In the main parts of the labyrinth, there were ventilation shafts connected to what I called the Respirators. These were large arrays that produced clean, filtered air by extracting any airborne toxins before recycling it. There were smaller versions of these in the tunnels here, but they were all kept inactive.
Which is why, when I went through the hidden tunnel behind the vault wall, I had to pause to activate the arrays embedded in the wall to clear the air. Without them, the passageways were like a tomb, with no fresh air to be found. Unless you knew the array was hidden behind that stone, it would remain sealed as well, with no way of knowing how to open it. Not only that, but it required air and water cores to act as the catalyst, meaning that even if someone found the array, they would also need to have the right elements to activate them.
After letting the array clear the air, I removed the cores, as we would need them for the next arrays. I didn't want to get into the habit of leaving the array running at all times, as that would defeat the purpose. I wanted these areas to be as inaccessible as possible.
The tunnel slanted downward for some distance until we came to an open stone stairway that went on for miles, with no end in sight. Zaius appeared at the top of the stairs, staring down with a mutinous expression on his face.
I laughed, "Don't look so put out, I'm not that mean. Those stairs go nowhere, Zai. It's only another diversion. We're only going a short way down. Thirty-six steps to be exact, then we're going into another tunnel and from there, we ride the elevator down."
He made a face but complied, descending the stairs with his usual acrobatic skill. Leo lumbered down the stairs at a more leisurely pace, and I was glad I'd made each step extra wide to accommodate a creature with much bigger feet than mine. Just in case I wanted to bring a certain bull-man down here.
After twenty steps, Zaius stopped and looked back at me. "That's only twenty," I called down to him. "There are eighteen more to go, not counting this one."
Raising my left hand, I gave him the 'keep moving' signal, which was part of our guild's scout code. He gave me a sour glare in response before turning to continue down the stairs. I'd started teaching him a few of the more basic signals because he had proven himself to be very intelligent. I would place his intelligence level near that of a human toddler. He could perform many tasks that required advanced intelligence and learned new things quickly. For example, after I began teaching him, he started using the 'stop' gesture whenever I'd ask him to do something he didn't want to do and would make the 'give' gesture to indicate he would work for treats. It was cute. Or at least it was until Pia noticed him signing and taught the monkey all the signs I'd been avoiding, like the sign for 'piss off,' which just involved a very rude hand gesture that made him chitter happily whenever he could get away with doing it in my presence.
Once we reached the thirty-sixth step, I stopped walking, and Leo, noticing I had stopped, halted as well. "Zaius, come back," I called, holding up a hand. "We're not going any farther down that way."
A pair of bright blue eyes blinked into existence, followed by the rest of the monkey, as he appeared next to me. I crouched down, showing him the small, almost imperceptible dip in the front face of the step we were standing on. "See here? This is how you know which step it is. The thirty-sixth is where the next passage starts."
Zaius reached out, placing his small hand on the spot, then stared up at me. "Oook!"
"No," I laughed, standing up, "that's not how you open it." He'd been watching me touch all the walls and transmute them, so it wasn't surprising he would try it. I waited until he'd climbed up on Leo, who stood quietly through it all, used to the monkey's antics by now, before I touched the right wall and sent a pulse of mana into the transmutation array.
The wall opened up with a rumbling groan, the stones sliding apart to reveal the dark passage beyond. I entered the tunnel with Leo walking next to me. It wasn't very long, only around fifty feet, before we came to another passageway branching to the left. I made my way down the short corridor until we entered a square room with a black stone pedestal in the center of the floor. Carved into the floor was a circular transmutation array made of pure white marble, inlaid into the stone, its circumference filled with runes.
The ornate bottle sitting on top of the pedestal was made of dark glass, the metal lid fashioned into the shape of a large skull. It was yet another fake, just a way for me to disguise the real purpose of this room. I'd admittedly gotten a little carried away with the secret passages and trick rooms, but I also knew that if Noctus ever visited, he'd be snooping for secrets, so it was necessary. That damn vampire was always finding his way into my hidden lab, and this time, I made sure I had properly secured everything.
Removing the bottle and setting it on the floor, I uncovered the stone underneath, which had a transmutation array carved into it as well, with the required catalyst cores inserted at the appropriate locations. When I activated the array, it rippled into motion, sending mana rushing into the array carved into the floor.
"Leo, come here," I commanded, watching as Leo cautiously approached the array. "Come on, it's okay."
After a few moments, Leo's foot came to rest on the transmutation array, then the rest of him. When nothing happened, he moved back to my side, nuzzling his scaly face into me, purring. I smiled, patting his flank. "Sit, Leo."
Leo did as I asked, but his tail was thrashing nervously. "It's okay, you big scaredy cat," I chuckled, scratching him behind the ear. "Alright, we're ready to go." With another pulse of mana, the floor below us began to descend, taking us down into the depths of the earth. Leo didn't like this, hunkering down with a nervous rumble, his tail thrashing and almost hitting the sides of the shaft we were in. He wasn't the only one.
I crouched down to check on Zaius, who was clinging to Leo's shoulder. The little monkey's fur was on end, making him look twice his normal size, as he stared at the sides of the stone shaft we were moving through, his teeth bared in a nervous snarl. "Easy, Zaius," I soothed, rubbing his back. "It's fine."
I didn't really like traveling like this either, but it was the quickest way down to the central core, far below the main complex of the temple. Before I built my little elevator, I'd been using a pulley system with chains and a hand crank. With some help from Aeon, I created an elevator system that used parts of the array I'd created during my wisp experiments. I had managed to create wisps that could fly and move on their own, so from there, it wasn't much of a leap to create moving platforms that could hover off the floor, move through the air, or rotate. This elevator used the same kind of core with different options programmed into the array.
We were currently working on plans for similar platforms to act as a transport system to move around the temple complex faster, but so far, it was a work in progress. The platforms required a lot of mana, and they were only able to perform basic functions such as flying in certain directions, moving on their own, or hovering. To change functions, we needed to completely rewrite the arrays, which is why it wasn't very useful yet. It was still in the experimental stage, so the only thing we had finished was the platform design itself, with this particular platform being our proof of concept. We did have smaller platforms, which were smaller test models, and even some that I'd put into the labyrinth as stepping stones across a fire pit, a tribute to one of the traps in the very first dungeon I'd entered in Kaledon.
In hindsight, I could see why Aither turned my island into a dungeon. I'd essentially created one on my own, although it wasn't necessarily intentional. It started as a joke and then sort of evolved from there as I'd used the labyrinth as part of the island's foundational array. Yes, I'd included various traps in the labyrinth, but those were meant only to protect the various components of the array and deter intruders on the off chance I was ever able to bring people into my world. I knew it was a possibility, as Rainy told me that at higher levels, she could take people to her grove, and at the time, I'd thought I was creating something similar.
I still wasn't entirely sure how I'd managed to create Khēmeia, considering I was supposed to be in a simulation devoid of any stimulus. There were so many questions left unanswered. So many questions that I still struggled with.
The platform we were on came to a stop at the bottom of the shaft, and placing my hand on the stone wall, I opened the sealed doorway. From there, it was a short trip down another series of spiraling stairs and down two hallways, before I opened another section of wall which led into an expansive cavern.
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In the center of the cavern was an immense stalactite-stalagmite formation connected by a web of various mineral deposits. A large underground lake lay in the center of the cavern, and in the middle of the lake was a small rocky island. Above this island should have been the central core. But it wasn't there. The mana core, the heart of Khēmeia—the massive floating orb that powered the entire island—was gone.
"What in the world..." I breathed. What had happened here?
Leaving Leo and Zaius on the shore, I walked out across the water, using a small amount of elemental manipulation to stand on the surface. The small rocky island where the core had floated was now empty, except for a transmutation array embedded into the smooth stone.
"These aren't my arrays," I muttered. A quick glance confirmed it wasn't a component of Khēmeia's array, either. Neither the large transmutation array nor the island's central array used such strange runework.
"This is interesting and all, but it doesn't answer where the core is," I sighed, placing my hands on my hips.
"I moved it, obviously," a voice replied.
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. I recognized that voice, unfortunately—Aither. When I opened my eyes, there was a man standing on the other side of the projection. I blinked, then blinked again. He was... not what I expected.
He was shorter than I imagined he would be. Much shorter. The hat did add a few inches, though. It was an elaborate trilby hat with a feather plume, not what you'd expect a god to wear. He had an air of casual confidence, but his features were surprisingly unassuming. His hair was a tousled mess of dark curls that spilled over his forehead, giving him a youthful appearance. His eyes, however, were the most striking—a bright, electric blue. His clothes were a curious blend of elegance and whimsy: a tailored black waistcoat, complemented by a crisp white shirt peeking from under his jacket. The cane he leaned on, polished wood with intricate carvings, seemed more like a prop than a necessity, its silver handle shaped like a serpent coiled around a glimmering orb.
"Is the cane really necessary?"
"It is," he replied. "It adds an element of drama, don't you think?"
"Drama?" I echoed. "That's not the word I'd use."
"Then what would you call it?"
"Ridiculous."
"That's what Cellie said," he mumbled, looking a little miffed.
"You should listen to your wife," I retorted, crossing my arms. "Now, do you mind telling me what you did with my mana core?"
He gave me a look I'd given my brother a thousand times. It was a 'you said something dumb' look, a look that spoke volumes.
"Do you know how dangerous it is to leave your core floating around without protection? You might as well have rolled out the welcome mat with a big red arrow pointing to it. Seriously, kid, what were you thinking?"
"That it was in the center of the array, where it belongs?" I replied, raising an eyebrow. "At the time, I didn't know this was going to become a dungeon."
"You built a labyrinth," he snorted. "With traps. What did you expect it to become? A library?"
"No, I expected it to remain a normal labyrinth, not a dungeon."
"Well, it didn't."
"I noticed. Now, why is the core not in the center anymore?"
He shrugged, then tapped his cane on the ground. "Because you can't have the dungeon core floating around in the boss room, kid. That's just asking for trouble."
"Boss room," I repeated, narrowing my eyes. "This room isn't even connected to the labyrinth."
"No worries, kid, it'll be a while before you're ready to have any real challengers," he assured me, his lips twitching. "You've got plenty of time to sort out the boss room. Personally, I'd seal off the lower areas for now and keep things nice and simple to start with, but I don't think you're the simple type, are you?"
I wasn't sure whether I should be offended, so I scowled at him for good measure.
"But Dungeon 101 can wait," Aither continued, ignoring my scowl, "because we've got other stuff to deal with first."
I gave a small nod. "Yes, we do."
"Alright, so," he began, tapping his cane against the floor, "FYI, this here is a teleportation array that leads out of the dungeon. You know, so people can leave if they manage to defeat the boss. It's a one-way ticket, so no worries about people being able to go directly to the boss room. I figured you weren't at the level of being able to create short-range arrays yet, so I'm giving you this one so you can, you know, study it and stuff. It's only good for short range, nothing like the one connecting Khēmeia to the outside world, but hey, baby steps."
My gaze dropped to the floor, soaking in the details. There was a lot to it. It would take a few hours to deconstruct, but I’d do that later, once the mad god left.
"Thank you," I said slowly, forcing my gaze away from the array to meet his eyes. "I will put it to good use."
"Right," he smiled, looking pleased. "Well, anyway, that's not the reason I'm here."
I sighed. Of course, it wasn't.
"It looked like you'd gotten over your little sulk, so I thought it'd be a good time to pop in."
"I wasn't sulking," I protested, glaring at him.
"So, here's the thing," he said, ignoring my protest, "I had a little chat with Goldy Fox, who sends his regards and well wishes by the way."
I snorted, "Did he now?"
"Yeah," he laughed, "but anyway, the important bit is we were discussing how to handle your little aspects, and he has a suggestion for you."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, so here's the thing. We've already covered that you need to import your aspects back into the main instance, but Trissy reckons you'll kick up a fuss over it and get attached to the aspects. So, we've got a little workaround for you."
"Meaning?" It would have been better if Trismegistus had come himself. At least then I might have had a proper conversation.
“Meaning that instead of merging back with your separated aspects, you’ll create copies of Aeon and Nova and merge with those copies, keeping the originals intact. This way, you can reintegrate your psyche without losing the original forms of your aspects. For you, it’ll be just like the original plan, but there’s a twist for them. If we simply recreated them using copies of their data, they wouldn’t notice any difference between their original selves and the copies. To them, it would be a seamless transition, as if it’s part of their continuous timeline. They’d have all the same memories and experiences, so it would feel completely natural."
"And what’s the catch? What if they were given new forms instead of being copied and remade?"
"That’s the tricky part. We can’t do that. If we attempt to change their forms, we risk damaging them. Altering their essence could seriously harm their psyches as their form is integrated into their sense of self. While there are methods to work around that, they would require significant time, resources, and effort. In short, it’s just not worth the risk."
"I see, so the problem is their forms are fixed," I nodded, understanding. "It's a limitation imposed by their creation."
"That's the short of it, yeah," he grinned. "However, you're in luck because your patron is one smart fox. He's created a way around the limitations. You created them to be wisps; thus, that is what they are. Or rather, what they will be. You didn't quite make them right, but Goldy Fox is gonna give you a helping hand," Aither held out his free hand, offering me three orbs. "Now, seeing as you only have two tails, we were going to force you to give up your current wisps in order to replace them with your aspects, but Trissy said you'd pitch a fit about that and you still haven't forgiven him for messing with your fire wisp. Which I totally agree with and am tempted to overrule, but I digress."
I stared at the orbs in his palm, then frowned. "Why only three, then? Shouldn't there be four?"
"Ah-ah," he scolded, wagging a finger, "don't be greedy. Trissy has agreed that as a reward for creating this domain, you'll be allowed enough mana to have your third tail and wisp core, but-" he paused, lifting a hand to forestall my response, "we'll also need to fix your own form in order to do that. At the moment, you're little more than a sloppily patched-up rag doll. We need to fix you up and sort out your avatar, turn you into a real fox-girl. You can't be running around like that; it's embarrassing."
I pursed my lips, trying to figure out what the catch was. There had to be one; there always was. "What's the catch?"
"The catch, kid," he chuckled, "is that you have to give up your second wisp, as we're only giving you one extra core. You can keep your fire wisp, but the mana wisp core must be sacrificed in favor of Aeon."
"And these cores... They'll make Nova and Aeon more real? They'll allow them to go with me to Kaledon?"
"We'll be merging these into their current cores, which will give them a foundational base. Once their cores are merged, the wisps will become their new forms without any major risk to their concept of self."
"And what will those forms be? They won't just be wisps, will they? I don’t think Nova and Aeon would be happy with being floating orbs of light." Then again, weren’t all kitsune wisps a little more evolved then that? Yuki’s wisps all had a somewhat humanoid, pixyish appearance. While mine were animalistic in their appearance.
"That's part of your catch, kid," Aither replied. "Goldy Fox was the one who created their forms, and no, I can't tell you what they are. I informed him about them, and he created the forms he felt were best suited for the personalities and fit into Kaledon's world lore."
"How does it work, then?" I asked.
"Let's use a metaphor," Aither replied. "You, Kadia, are like a computer. When you look at a computer's directory, you notice that things are sorted into folders. Certain files must go into specific folders for programs to work correctly. If a program is mislabeled or stored in the wrong place, it won't function. What happens here is that there's a structure your mind must follow to work properly, but if even one tiny piece is misplaced, the whole system breaks down. You get corrupt data, maybe even missing data. If that happens, it can lead to some seriously messed-up stuff. Are you with me so far?"
I frowned, trying to follow the analogy. "So, these are the files, then. If they get deleted or misplaced, that can cause problems. Is that what you're saying?"
"Yes," he nodded, "and your Aeon and Nova are folders exported out of the main folder. You've stored them in another location but created a shortcut folder to that location, so you can access them, sort of. However, every time you access these files, your brain has to take a detour to reach them. It's a roundabout route, a long, complicated detour, but it still gets the job done. That's why you haven't really felt the separation aside from a few minor hiccups which I helped smooth out when I noticed it."
I nodded slowly. It made sense.
"The issue is, you don't have a copy of their files, which means if they get corrupted, damaged, or deleted, you'll lose them, losing parts of yourself. You need to bring them back into yourself, even if it's just the copied data to replace them. Original or copy, it'll all be the same in the end because you'll be integrating it back into your own matrix. You'll also still have the connection to the originals, so you'll be able to update your copies and keep a backup in case of any corruption. But having a backup doesn't mean anything if you don't have a complete version backed up, understand?"
I took a moment to think about what he was saying, then nodded. He’d explained it poorly, but I was able to grasp the basics of what he was attempting to convey. "I believe so, but I still want to talk with Nova and Aeon."
"We'll get to that," Aither assured me. "But to make sure all this goes smoothly, we need to fix your own form and integrate your missing bits. That's the most important thing. Once that's done, you'll have all the time in the world to decide if you want to take Trissy up on his offer or remake Nova and Aeon from scratch. It's better to have a complete version of yourself sooner rather than later, so you'll have to forgive me for this, kid."
"What—" The end of Aither's cane slammed into my stomach, sending a searing jolt through me, followed by an explosion of power as the mana within me began to expand rapidly, forcing me to my knees. My vision filled with a blinding white light, then blackness.
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"You could have warned her," a female voice said.
"What, you think she would have just stood there doing nothing while I broke and remade her?" Aither scoffed. "Come on, Hemera, she's your girl. You know her better than anyone else. She wouldn't have accepted my help to put herself back together and likely would have messed herself up trying to do it herself."
"Perhaps, but that does not mean I like to see her in pain."
"She's a big girl, she can handle it. You wanted your girl put back to rights, and I've put her back. Don't give me that look, woman. You asked me for help, not the other way around. This was your idea, so don't you dare complain."
"Will she have any issues? Is she stable?"
"Your girl is fine. I used the backups and some data from her little aspects. It's like an upgrade, but a forced one. This isn't going to help me build trust, though, I can tell you that. Now she's gonna be all 'you messed with my brain' on me."
"If she is anything like I raised her to be, she will understand why you did it, even if she doesn't like it."
"Hemmy, you haven't had any contact with the girl in years. She's changed, ya know."
"I am well aware of that," the woman sighed, "however, she is still my daughter. She may not be mine in body anymore, but she will always be my Dia."
"Yeah, whatever, I'm not hanging around to get yelled at when she wakes up. You coming or what?"
"I would like a moment with her first."
"You know, you don't have to sneak around like this, I’m sure the kid would be happy to know you’re still alive… even if only in mind.”
"It is easier this way. She does not need to know, not right now. I will not add to her burdens with my own.”
"You’ll have to tell her eventually, Hem. You can’t hide forever, the longer you do, the more resentful she’ll be when you decide to make your grand reveal.”
"I will tell her when the time is right."
"Seriously, Hemmy? When is the time ever right for something like this?"
"Don't call me that."
"Or what?"
"Must you always act like a child?"
"It's part of my charm."
"That is debatable."
"Aww, come on, don't be like that. I helped you out, didn't I? I made your little girl whole again. That's gotta count for something, right?"
"For now."
"Ouch, Hemmy, ouch." Aither laughed, "I'll leave you to it. Don't leave stuff behind this time, alright? The poor kid spent weeks trying to decipher what that flower meant. I wonder how embarrassed she'd be if she learned it was nothing more than a pretty night light? Hahaha! I’d pay to see her face when she finds out her mommy thinks she is still scared of the dark!”
"You will not tell her anything about me, Aither. We had an agreement."
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I know what I promised. I won't 'tell' her anything."
"See that it stays that way."
"Geez, you're no fun," the god grumbled, then vanished, his laughter echoing through the darkness.
I felt a hand brush across my forehead, brushing a few strands of hair away. "There you are, my little fox," the female voice whispered, "I am sorry it had to be this way. I promise, it was for the best. I watched the entire process, he did not do anything untoward. He has done as I asked him to, nothing more." There was a pause, then, "We will see each other again, soon. I am proud of you, my Dia. Never forget that. I will always love you, no matter what."
I did not hear the rest, as darkness claimed me once more, but I had heard enough. I knew her. I knew the voice. I knew the name she called me. I knew who she was, even if I didn't know her anymore.
Mother.