"I can't believe we survived that!" I whooped as we came over the last ridge back toward the bridge. "That was fantastic!" I glanced over at Anna-Marie. "So what's the allocation deal for these drops? I got ten, so five you five us, do we get paid or anything for the ones we turn in? Because we paid for the materials and everything, so it would only be fair for us to be compensated for the drops."

The princess giggled. "Eager, aren't you? Yes, you'll be paid for the drops, we'll need to head into the central cylinder to get your coins." She seemed to be in the same kind of giddy mood as the rest of us. The extreme danger followed by the escape had been energizing, and I wasn't the only one grinning like a loon. It was odd, we'd been in trouble like this before off on our own, but being here inside the dungeon with no supervision to bail us out made it more...visceral.

I felt like I was getting emotional whiplash, going from the joy of battle, to guilt, to the glee of escape. Everything just seemed...more. More vibrant, more exciting, more important. Taking a moment, I felt myself almost buzzing with energy, and glanced at the others. "Hey, do any of you feel...weird? Like in a good way?"

It hadn't hit me right away, but this seemed different than my usual emotions. Callie nodded. "Yeah, I can feel it through the bond. It isn't affecting any of the rest of us I don't think though." She smirked at me. "It stopped your pouting so I consider it a net gain."

I muttered a nonsensical comment about catching HER in a net, but she graciously ignored it as I turned a questioning gaze on Anna-Marie. The Naiad princess looked lost for a second, then her eyes widened. "Oh! It was the lunar event. You passed through the cloud. Must have been dense enough to absorb into your skin. It can take time to hit you. I've heard rumors there are some vintages of wine infused with that effect, they're supposed to be lovely."

That sounded pretty delicious, but I didn't think it would be affordable at all. Probably more expensive than the insane drink Abel had tried to con me into buying for us back in Doomtown. Still, I didn't mind the effect. Nat rode up next to me, leaning in to mutter. "You might want to be careful wandering around semi intoxicated like that. Easy to make mistakes or deals you shouldn't."

When we reached the bridge, a pair of men in thick black suits of armor stopped us, crossing their spears in front of us to block the way. "Halt." They said, somehow not snickering at the cliche. "State your business."

Anna-Marie glared. "My business is none of yours. Unless bridge guards are suddenly of a standing with members of the royal family? Or do you suspect that the fact one of my brothers paid you to harass me will protect you from my father's vengeance should he hear of your disrespect to crown and country?"

They visibly flinched, stepping back quickly and lowering both their spears and heads. Hopping down, Anna-Marie handed the reins of her goat to the closest guard and gestured us to do the same. "I'll consider you stabling these for us you recompense for being so presumptuous. Should they not make it to their destination, I may forget to be magnanimous. I suspect this bridge would be as well served with your heads on those spears as warnings as by incompetents such as yourselves."

Apologizing profusely, they grabbed the reins and took the goats, running off toward a well hidden shack in the distance. She shook her head. "Idiots. Involving themselves in politics out of greed. My brothers don't care if a few guards get beheaded. Sadly for them I won't be passively bullied anymore."

I raised a brow. "You'd really have them beheaded for getting in your way?"

She shook her head. "No. Not unless it was a repeated offense. But they don't need to know that. My father WOULD kill them for it though, if he found out. Respect for the royal family is a paramount value in Ladrigan. To disrespect a royal is to disrespect the blood, which is disrespecting the king himself. Not that it stops us from harassing each OTHER, but it means games like this need to be subtle."

Celine nodded in comprehension, making an understanding sound from her place on the other side of Benny. "Ah. Being at the bottom of the barrel made you easy picking for things like that before. Now that you have, or are at least going to have, access to the drops, you're in a position to actually enact punishment going forward, and need to start acting the part."

Our guide nodded as she led us further down the bridge. "Indeed. It is important to know one's place. Premature retaliation would have signaled my readiness to enter the political arena, which I was very much not. With this kind of head start though, I'll be more than capable of holding my own, as well as passing some of the drops to important loved ones who support me like my mother."

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I was about to ask if a point of Impact made that much of a difference, but considering a single point made you an Ascendant I was willing to believe it. Plus if things went well this would just be the start. Before we went out looking for trouble though, I was going to get us paid, and look into possible protection we could buy, beg, or hire.

When we reached the doors back into the bulwark, we received no further trouble, and the trip back down took MUCH longer, as we had to carefully navigate the traps from the enemy side, making stops to give passwords, take back passages, or request admittance.

Finally, we got through the bulwark and back into the ringed part of the castle, which made things much easier. To my surprise, once we hit the rings, Anna-Marie brought us a different route, using a series of secret passages to bring us through without having to scale up and down. I couldn't help but ask. "Why didn't we take this route last time? Wouldn't that have been faster?"

She just chuckled. "Yes, but these passages only take you to the cylinder. They can be sealed in an emergency, and automatically shut down completely when the bulwark collapses, but since you can't use them to LEAVE the cylinder, they can't be used to reach the bulwark."

I wondered why they would set it up like that, but figured it was probably some inane political reason I wouldn't care about, so I refocused on our entry into 'the cylinder'. Stepping through the final passage, we entered a short hallway with guarded doors. I could see a ton of defenses here, just in case, but it was still nicer than most of what I'd seen. Anna-Marie waved off the guards, and they opened the doors for us, allowing us to enter...a whole new world.

The cylinder ran through the entire mountain, and as such was absolutely huge. Based on the dimensions I was betting it was spatially enlarged, because I could see miles and miles of space inside the thing that didn't match up with it being the smallest area in the mountain.

I had to try hard not to stare. I'd seen plenty of things as an Ascendant, and they all had their own special kind of impressiveness, but the huge underground city was a new kind of amazing. Above us floated a glowing blue orb, close enough to white not to tint the light, and large enough to cast the whole cavern in what seemed like natural moonlight.

Silver trees festooned the entire area, and I could see skyways crisscrossing the distance in seemingly impossibly ways, somehow holding up islands of stone in the air without supports, though all small enough not to really impede the view given they were spread out and at different heights. There was dark grass beneath our feet as we walked in, and I saw foliage and shrubbery along the neat path leading toward the ground level city.

"This." She said proudly. "Is the cylinder. Most of the important people in the kingdom live here. We even have weather systems set up to water the plants and filter the dirt. The cylinder's interior is fifty miles across, though I know it can be hard to judge scale from so far away. It's a bit of a hike to reach the city, which is much bigger than it looks. Shouldn't be too much trouble for an F-ranker though."

That was fair. At top speed I could run seventy five hundred miles per hour at this point. Well, on a normal planet. This one was huge and had much heavier gravity so it was probably less. Still, even at a brisk walk it wouldn't be hard to get there relatively quickly.

I held up a hand, stopping everyone. "Wait." I said firmly. "I'm interested in heading in there, but I don't want to go at a disadvantage. We have an arrangement for half the drops, and I'd like to distribute them now. Will we get much effect from the first one?"

She nodded. "You will. First drop will give you a point. You'll need three drops for a second, and it pretty much doubles from there." I was appalled at exactly how many drops of Moonglow Dew the king must have used. He'd gotten himself about eight points. Knowing how rare the stuff was outside awakenings...it was terrifying. I guessed he WAS thousands of years old, and had been involved in the last awakening too.

"Alright." I said firmly. "Then we distribute it now. I want us at our strongest when we go in. Which means our strongest get first dibs. Callie, me, Abel, Nat, and Valk." I gave Mel a shrug. "If I had a sixth it would go to you, but I think this maximizes our capabilities. With Nat and I both getting one it'll make our abilities more useful, and Callie's recon abilities will be key out here where we don't know anyone."

Mel chuckled softly. "I get it. Just like I'm sure Agria and Clockwork do. It's not a bad lineup. But I want first dibs on the next round."

"Deal." I said with a grin. Pulling the others off the path we headed into the silver trees, finding a clearing before I reached into the ring and removed the drops. I left the flowers in, bringing the Dew out on its own, but to my relief, that was fine. It just floated above my palm like some kind of mercurial star.

The dew itself was...confusing. Silver mercurial liquid, shifting constantly and reflecting scenes of infinite possibilities from within. I passed the first over to Nat, then Callie, then Abel, then Valk. I'd gone out of my way to make sure to give them some of the first drops, because I wanted the team more cohesive, and because coming here had been mainly their idea. I could tell they were happy to receive them, especially Nat who looked like she was having her first christmas.

When we all had ours, I took a deep breath, and the mask slid away from the bottom of my face like it would when I ate. I popped the thing into my mouth like some kind of liquid pill and swallowed hard as the explosion of indescribable sensation washed over my tongue and plummeted into my throat like a waterfall of living lightning. As the power exploded behind my eyes it occurred to me it might have been a better plan to go back to our rooms for this. Oh well, live and learn.