The trip to the capitol building where the council was supposed to receive him took a short amount of time. Once the party arrived at their location Jasper burned with fear and anger again causing another small breakdown which resulted in him getting restrained again until the party could calm him down. The reason for the breakdown was because aside from just a few changes it was almost a complete match for the magistrate’s office he had visited the night he’d been cast out and abandoned on the surface of a planet that wanted to kill him.
“What is wrong with this guy? What set him off this time?” Figis asked while Jasper continued screaming in rage. They pushed him back into the hoverbus before his fit could draw more attention than it already had from the passersby. Aside from the first time he had attacked them, they hadn’t done anything violent against him except for restraining him. This time though in order to calm him down Luke walked straight up to him and smacked him straight across the face shocking Jasper out of his fit. He immediately quieted down, shocked at having been struck even though he knew that Luke had held back greatly. With one toss of his spear, Luke had destroyed his Jacko-Tank-Urn so Jasper knew that if he had wanted to the spear user could have easily beheaded him with that strike.
“Explain,” Sabina said crouching down, drawing Jasper’s attention away from the person who had just popped him a good one. He stayed silent so Sabina continued. “Tell us why you freaked out like that, or I’ll be forced to go talk to the council myself and let them know that you are not willing to work with us and you’ll be tossed into the boss gate before ever getting the chance to plead your case.” If Jasper still had his pumpkin tank, then he wouldn’t have minded going through the boss gate, after all, that was his original goal to begin with. Without the tank, he didn’t think he’d have much chance to kill a boss-level monster and he was thinking more clearly now that he was more focused on the stinging sensation on his face.
Jasper, in his fear, decided it would be better to tell them about what happened to him than to be fed to a monster, so he did. As he told his story the faces of the four companions darkened in anger. At least that was before he started babbling about his basket-weaving process and how he built his cabin. Before he could finish explaining how he had built his cabin Sabina raised her hand to stop him and motioned for him to skip ahead, which led him to talk about how he’d found the dungeon and what he’d been doing there.
“So, you a low-leveled crafter decided to enter into a dungeon on your own so that you wouldn’t have to rebuild your cabin?” Osur asked. Jasper nodded and the next thing he knew Figis had started laughing a deep resounding laugh. It was full of such mirth that the rest of the group joined him in his laughter which confused Jasper to no end.
“Here I was thinking that you were some kind of spy sent from the other cities to gain intel on us when really you’re just the unluckiest and maybe craziest son of a gun I’ve ever met.” Said Figis still chuckling.
“Is that why you’ve been such a jerk to me this entire time? The cities don’t even know that you’re still alive! Like I said they told me that yours and one other city were destroyed because of people with classes like mine!” This made the laughter disappear from the group instead being replaced by serious faces.
“You’ll learn the truth here soon man,” Luke said. “We’re going to take you back out so you can meet with the council, but you have to promise you won’t freak out again, ok?” Jasper nodded his agreement and when they took him out again, he closed his eyes and allowed the others to lead him inside the double doors and down the hallway. When they reached the circular room that was apparently standard in each of these buildings, they sat him down and kept Luke and Figis with him to keep him from freaking out again while Sabina and Osur went to go speak to the clerks.
A few minutes later Jasper was told to stand back up and he was led through another set of doors leading into another room. This one was well-lit with crystal lamps, several pew-like benches lined each side of the room and a pulpit made of wood stood at the front of the room behind a blue shield. Jasper could see the same types of runes that he’d seen in the hunter’s apartment building, but these already had power flowing through them. The pulpit had seats for five people and a rather large burly man stood to the side of the pulpit wearing a uniform similar to that of the guards that had tackled Jasper to the ground. Luckily the uniform was different enough that it didn’t set Jasper off again because seconds after they’d entered the room a door behind the pulpit opened allowing three women and two men wearing different colored robes into the room.
They took their seats, looking almost regal in the way they held themselves, and looked down at the party and Jasper.
“Please rise for the honorable council of undercity.” The man in uniform intoned. Five people, including Jasper, stood, which he assumed was just some strange way of showing respect to the council.
“Jasper Cartwright step forward.” The woman at the center of the council wearing black robes spoke. Nervously he got to his feet and looked back at the group who nodded forward supportively to him. He took his first few steps and before he knew it, he was standing before the blue screen and shuffling from foot to foot anxiously. “Jasper Cartwright you were found in the connecting tunnel leading toward the grow house section of the dungeon. At the time you had in your possession one giant pumpkin of runic craftsmanship, several pumpkin seeds, a stone knife of runic craftsmanship, a wooden pot of runic craftsmanship currently destroyed, a large half-shell pumpkin seed of runic craftsmanship, a stone arrowhead of runic craftsmanship, a waterskin of runic craftsmanship, and a leather loincloth currently missing. At this time do you affirm or deny the ownership of these items?”
The woman had paused while reading about the loincloth taking in his state of dress. Jasper nodded but was told that it was required of him to speak his answers out loud.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Councilwoman.” She corrected, giving Jasper a reassuring smile before continuing to read off of something that Jasper couldn’t see. “At the time you were found you attacked the two parties that found you with weapons no less than the pumpkin of runic craftsmanship, the stone knife of runic craftsmanship, and the large half-shell pumpkin seed of runic craftsmanship before being subdued by a Miss Sabina Trimble and the rest of the Thorn Skin team at this time do you affirm or deny this version of events?” Jasper gulped nervously, only now realizing that this was less of a meeting and more of a trial.
“I affirm that Councilwoman.” The woman nodded and then had a whispered discussion with her counterparts on the council. Once they finished their conversation the middle councilwoman who had been speaking turned back to him.
“You were then transported back to the city by both teams Thorn Skin and Lightning Cats making a single stop at team Thorn Skin’s apartment where you were allowed to bathe and change clothes. At this time do you affirm or deny?” Jasper affirmed. “Now that we have been caught up with the events leading up to this hearing, we can begin the questioning portion of this trial. Are you ready Mister Cartwright?” She asked him and he agreed. “Good. Mister Cartwright, could you go ahead and take a seat while we call the witnesses?” Once again Jasper agreed and then went back to his seat, gaining a reassuring smile from Sabina.
“The council calls upon Osur Lundin. Please approach.” Osur stood and walked to where they’d been directed.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the council. What can I do for you?”
“At the time in question that you first met Mister Cartwright did he attack you?”
“Not me personally I think the first person he went after was Luke. At the time he’d just had his pumpkin thing destroyed and it was clear that he wasn’t in a mental-“The councilwoman held her hand up to stop Osur from talking.
“Just a yes or no question will do for now. We’ll receive details when we’ve moved on to that part of the questioning. For now, the witness is expected to tell the truth as succinctly as possible. Does the witness understand their responsibility?” Osur agreed and the questioning continued.
“Did Mister Cartwright give you any reason to believe that he was going to stop his assault on the two teams he came into contact with.”
“No Councilwoman.”
“Did Mister Cartwright give any reason at the time as to why he was attacking?”
“No, but he looked scared and- “
“Did Mister Cartwright attack with the expectation of deadly force?” The councilwoman interrupted again causing Osur to growl their frustration under their breath which had the effect of getting the uniformed guard to move forward slightly and adjust the sword at his waist. Osur took a deep breath to calm themselves down and apologized for their outburst. The councilwoman continued again.
“After Mister Cartwright was subdued did you or did you not use the skill on file Gaze of Piercing Knowledge to read his status?”
“Yes, Councilwoman.”
“And at that time, you reported that his name was Jasper Cartwright, his class was Runic Crafter, and all of his stats and skills?”
“No Councilwoman.” The woman raised her eyebrows in surprise before letting them settle into a sharp glare.
“Are you admitting to the court that you have purposefully withheld information from this council?” The entire team tensed at those words, clearly upset with the fact that this had turned into putting one of their teammates on trial instead of focusing on Jasper’s case.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“No Councilwoman. My skill Gaze of Piercing knowledge is still within the lower levels as it’s one of my newer class skills. I reported his name, class, some of the stats I was able to see, and a single skill I was able to gleam. I was not able to read his level, or two of his skills which I put in my report on sight. I did report his Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity, but I was unable to read his other stats. I can tell you that there were three other stats that were not displayed for me which you can find in my report that I also filled out on sight.” For the first time since the questioning had begun Osur had been allowed to give details on her report without being interrupted, and Jasper had an odd feeling about why that might be.
“Very well Osur. Next time you fill out a report make sure that you include details of the skill that you used to obtain the information in your report lest you be accused of withholding information from this court is that understood?” The councilwoman said after scratching down some notes onto a pad that she’d been using to track the details of the case. Osur was directed back to their seat and the next person who was called up was Figis who looked sweaty. Jasper assumed that he didn’t enjoy being put in the spotlight.
“Mister Figus Armstrong you are part of the team that brought Mister Cartwright into custody is that correct?”
“Uh, y-yes ma’am. Councilwoman! Sorry.” He said quickly correcting himself from his blunder.
“Is there a reason why you are so nervous, Mister Armstrong?” Figus explained that he had a touch of stage fright which again was noted down by the councilwoman. “Just relax Mister Armstrong you are not performing anything just stating the facts of the case.” Figus took a deep breath doing his best to relax. He was asked the same questions that Osur had been asked in the beginning before they moved on to questioning Luke and then Sabina. After they’d written down the yes or no questions each of them was brought back up for more detailed information including questions about Jasper’s character and actions that he’d taken since he was back in the city. Finally, Jasper was called back up to testify for himself.
“Now Mister Cartwright the team that has taken custody of you has attested that you have not acted violently the entire time that you’ve been in custody. Except for a small episode outside of the capital building is that correct?” Jasper agreed with what was said. “During that time did you explain why you had such a reaction to seeing the capital building? If so, can you explain that to us?” Jasper didn’t want to tell his story for a second time today, but he sucked it up knowing that his future depended on his answer. When he finally finished his explanation each of the councilmembers held a thunderous expression. This was odd to Jasper because the same thing had happened to the team when he’d told them about his experiences.
One of the councilmen wearing yellow robes looked over to the middle councilwoman and nodded his head at her. The entire council’s expressions softened back into the imperious look that they’d had before his explanation.
“At any time have you been directed by the leadership of another council to find and report back on the workings of the cities that were ‘destroyed?’ She emphasized the word destroyed, confirming that there was tension between the city that Jasper had come from and the one that he was in now. He answered in the negative before they confirmed something with the yellow-robed councilman again. “If we were to give you your freedom instead of sentencing you to go through the boss gate, would you work for the betterment of the undercity and subject yourself to reeducation?”
“What would reeducation involve?” Jasper asked, earning himself a small scowl from each member of the council who had expected him to immediately agree. He didn’t want to subject himself to something that he didn’t know about though for all he knew reeducation could be code for torture and he was not into pain.
“You clearly have a lack of understanding about your own history and ours. If you are to be considered a fully-fledged citizen of this city, then you are expected to learn basic knowledge including history and culture. Reeducation will include lessons on both of those topics with tutors provided by this council. Now I ask again if given your freedom will you submit to the requirements of this council?” Jasper again worried about what it would mean to work for the betterment of the city but in the end, it was either that or most likely death. If he didn’t like it, he could always use this place to help him level up and learn more about crafting then once he was strong enough, he could leave through the boss gate on his own.
Once he’d agreed to their terms, he was directed that he would stay in the custody of team Thorn Skin until such a time that the council had reached their decision. Then the team was directed that Jasper would be always guarded by no less than two members of the team just in case Jasper presented a dangerous threat. After that, they were directed back outside and told to stay within the bounds of the city. Within the council room, the members of the undercity council sat discussing the hearing that they’d just sat on.
“Are you sure that he was telling the truth about everything Sunder?” The head councilwoman asked the yellow-robed councilman.
“Yes, I’m sure, my skill Insight of Truth pinged truthful on every statement that he made as well as those of the team members that held him.” He responded. A woman in a dark green robe sucked her teeth and gave a look of disbelief.
“I don’t see why we shouldn’t just kill him ourselves right now. The last time we had a Runic Crafter in this city we wound up having to stage a coup to keep from surrendering our authority. Why should this boy be any different?” She asked.
“Because we are losing power already. Without a proper Runic Crafter, we are losing more and more of the technology that Felix left behind. Security systems are down, we’ve already had to close five tunnels because of a flooding risk when the platforms started to fail, and we have an entire fleet of hovercraft that can no longer be used. Not to mention all of the comfort items that Felix left behind after we got rid of him. The citizens are starting to notice and they’re not happy. If we want to maintain our power, we can use this Mister Cartwright to power these devices and make it seem to the people that we have come up with a plan to maintain their lifestyle!” A blue-robed man argued.
“That’s all fine and dandy, but what happens if he starts creating weapons that he could use against us? We can come up with other plans and use our own crafters and enchanters to help with the citizen's lifestyle, and if that fails there’s always 1054 to- “The main councilwoman jumped to her feet and slapped the green-robed woman across the face.
“Shut up you fool! Do not mention that when we are not in a secure environment. You do not know who might be listening.” The green-robed woman looked down clearly cowed.
“I apologize Mena I wasn’t thinking. This new Runic Crafter has me nervous is all. I truly believe that it would be best if we put him to death and bound that team to silence. It’s the safest option for us unless we want to be placed in the same situation, we were in centuries ago when we took care of Felix.” The main councilwoman Mena sat back and thought contemplatively.
“What do you think Naevus?” She asked the final councilwoman a petite red-haired woman in a grey robe. The woman didn’t speak at first continuing to think about her words before she spoke. The other sat in silence while waiting for Naevus to speak.
“What if we treat him as if he is an important person to us?” she finally said.
“What do you mean? How would that help us?” Mena questioned the small woman.
“Yes, if we treat him with respect and kindness then we can charm him into believing that what we say should be followed. When he does something good give him a treat. We can train him to be our Runic Crafter and not his own. This is not a man who had already been alive for a thousand years with experience in politics and with brilliant insights into crafting. This is an 18-year-old boy who has been betrayed by his people. He’s alone without friends or family and if we can make him feel like he’s one of us then we can use him for our means. We can keep him under surveillance for now. As a low-level crafter, it’s unlikely that he’s unlocked any perception-based abilities and even if he does it’s more than likely that he’ll get one that only pertains to crafting. If we control who he has contact with, giving him teachers and crafters that are under our control then it will be a long time before he has the thought to betray us. If he ever does.” It was a long explanation for a woman who usually didn’t speak more than a sentence at a time, but it made sense.
“That’s a lot of resources to place on a single person don’t you think Naevus?” Sunder asked which gained nods of agreement from the rest of the council.
“How did we escape the tyranny of the other wandering cities? How did we become a wandering city to begin with? Look around at the technology that we still have that the other cities no longer have access to since they banished or killed their Runic Crafters? We made mistakes years ago in our handling of Felix, but this is our chance to have a new Runic Crafter only under our control this time. I think that would be worth the resources we would have to use to keep him satisfied enough to stay obedient. Don’t you?” Another round of quiet thinking went around the council before Mena spoke up again.
“I agree with Naevus on this. We’ll take it to a vote then we can knock out the details. If you agree with Naevus' idea, say aye if you disagree, say nay.” The vote was four to one with the only holdout being the green-robed councilwoman who had spoken up against him to begin with.
“The aye’s have it. We’ll move forward with the plan of turning the Runic Crafter Jasper Cartwright into one of our operatives.” Mena banged a gavel and the council got up to discuss the details in a more private setting.
Back in town, back at the team’s apartment, Jasper sat on one of the couches in the living room surrounded by the members of team Thorn Skin as he’d just learned they were called. They were discussing the meeting with the council and keeping an eye on Jasper.
“So, what do you think is going to be their decision?” Luke asked the group.
“I’m not sure but I think that Jasper has a good chance of becoming a citizen,” Sabina responded, getting questioning looks from the others in the room including Jasper. She didn’t answer the looks at first, letting a mischievous grin spread across her face.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake can you please tell us?” Figis burst out unable to hold his curiosity back anymore.
“Fine, you’re no fun,” Sabina said while giving a playful pout. “You guys don’t remember our history? The founders of the cities were all Runic Crafters who’d gotten together with hundreds of different craftsmen to build the wandering cities, to begin with. When we moved away from the idea that constantly moving around was a good idea it was our city’s personal founder who came up with the idea of how we could move into a dungeon world. He created so many different runic devices which we still use today. At least some of them. Unfortunately, a couple hundred years ago he disappeared leaving us with a huge hole in our development.”
“So, you think that Jasper will be allowed to stay because of his class?” Osur asked Sabina receiving a nod in response.
“Yes. With some training and leveling, who knows what kind of marvels Jasper could make for the city one day? We could wind up taking back the surface and moving out of the dungeon world for good.”
“Oh, not this again Sabby you know that the surface is too far gone. Besides we’ve lived here for hundreds of years at this point and we’re doing fine, it wouldn’t make any sense to live on the surface anymore. Look at Jasper he’s only been out there for like three months and he already turned into a crazy Wildman!” Figis exclaimed, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.
“Excuse me for dreaming about living under a real sun again! We travel out onto the surface when we need supplies but it’s not good enough for me to be stuck in this cave for most of the year and I don’t know how you guys are satisfied with it!” The discussion devolved into an argument between the four of them about whether they should move out of the dungeon or keep the course. Jasper sat quietly listening to the conversation and trying to soak in all of the information that they were spewing until Sabina looked directly at him.
“What do you think? Do you want to finally help us move out of this dank cave or do you think we don’t deserve to live in the sun?” She asked him, which only led to another argument about how she was badgering Jasper to answer the way that she wanted. Eventually, Jasper raised his hand timidly getting the attention of everyone in the room.
“I don’t know about any of that, but you guys know I’m only a low-level crafter, right? The most impressive thing that I’ve ever made was my Jacko-Tank-Urn which you guys destroyed and Effen which you guys still haven’t given back, and I didn’t even fully make her! And why are you guys trying to decide my future before we even know if the council is going to decide to let me have one?” Jasper was panting by the time he was done with his tirade and at some point, he’d stood up and raised his voice. This time no one moved to tackle him to the ground or restrain him, instead just staring at him with barely concealed amusement.
“Jacko-Tank-Urn?” Sabina asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Her?” Kyle asked. Jasper quickly sat back down embarrassed by his outburst and the fact that he’d let slip his habit of giving his equipment a gender. “Listen man- “Kyle continued. “We don’t know if the council is going to give you a future or not, but don’t worry we won’t throw you into the boss gate without your equipment. We’re not monsters.”
“Yeah, Jasper don’t worry about it we can’t help you inside if that happens, but you won’t go down without a fight, right? You just have to finish the fight before the automatic boss destroyer clears the entire room.” Osur said making Jaspers's face twist in confusion. Osur sighed and then continued with an explanation immediately. “That’s how we manage to stay in the dungeon without it exploding. Our founder figured out how to open a dungeon and transport the city inside it, but in order to stay in the dungeon without it exploding he had to figure out how to keep clearing the boss before the dungeon reached a critical point. It takes about a month for the boss to respawn inside the boss room and another month for the dungeon to reach a critical breaking point.” Sabina took up the explanation from there.
“Two weeks before the dungeon is going to explode some kind of runic device goes off inside the room completely nuking anything that’s inside. A few groups of adventurers have even died in there when they decided to take the risk of getting the XP bonus of a stronger boss monster. They didn’t defeat it in time to also escape from the room before the runic device torches everything inside.” She looked down sadly at the mention of the dead adventurers. Jasper took in all of the information that he could and wondered to himself what kind of device could one-shot a boss monster as well as any living being inside. He snapped himself out of his thoughts to express more of his concerns when Sabina’s earring lit up.
She touched her finger to her earring while holding up another finger signaling for everyone to be quiet for a moment. She stayed quiet for a moment as if she was listening to something but then dropped them and looked at Jasper.
“The council has made their decision. You’re going to be allowed to stay within the city, but they’re hammering out all of the details surrounding their decision. We’re expected to have you back at the capital building first thing at 0900. For now… More food?” She asked lightheartedly causing Jasper's lips to spread into a wild grin.