Purification upgraded. Improved mana refinement and experience gain applied.

Breeding options:

Rejuvenate: Restore some health, stamina, mana: 10 biomass, 2000 mana.

Revitalize: Restore the body to prime condition: 15 biomass, 2000 mana.

Affinity Modification: Shifts target’s primary mana Affinity: 22,100 mana, 55 Source of desired Affinity.

Affinity Addition: Adds Affinity to target’s mana: 22,100 mana, 55 Source of desired Affinity.

Genesis: Induce ordinary pregnancy of mother’s race. Dungeon may select some traits of children. 1 biomass, 25,000 mana.

Dungeon seed: Creates seed to expand the Dungeon to unconnected area. 3 month gestation. 1 Biomass, 7000 mana.

Dungeon avatar: Significantly increases the effect of Guidance. 20 biomass, 7000 mana.

Companion Rapport: Significantly increase Companion desires toward the Dungeon: 20 biomass, 7000 mana.

Well, considering that this was the first time I’d gotten to see breeding options for a Purified person, I wasn’t surprised to see there were new entries in the list. The nature of those entries was a little staggering though. Sure, the creation of monsters implied that dungeons could do crazy things with genetics and mana, but for some reason the idea that I could be responsible for a normal child threw me. [Dungeon Avatar] and [Companion Rapport] were a little odd too. I’d have to talk with Shayma and Iniri about them.

For now I went ahead with the Affinity Addition, watching my mana barely decrement at all and the fifty-five needed sources vanish from the flowers scattered throughout my dynamos. This time the soul process was significantly different, more like Shayma’s Class evolution than a Purification. The mana that flowed into Iniri’s soul structure was ever-so-subtly touched with Kinetic Affinity, wrapping around and infusing her being.

[Soul Perception] advances to 9.

It didn’t take the full hour that Purification needed, with only a few minutes passing before the process finished and the breeding station melted away to lower Iniri back into the warm waters.

Iniri Tarnil Companion level advances to 5.

50,000 experience gained for advancing a Companion to rank 5.

“Okay Shayma, that did work and Iniri’s a rank five companion. We can see what she gets from Transcription! I think I’ll also want to discuss some of the options I had though, they’re uhhh. I dunno. Maybe a little concerning.”

“Concerning how?” Shayma traipsed over to the door of the cottage, opening it and starting over toward where Iniri was luxuriating in the hot water. Luxuriating and murmuring quietly.

“Ooh, gods above that was good. Mmm.” Iniri’s words came out as languid mumbles from where she lay, semiconscious at best. “Almost worth all this awfulness just for that, and for this, I could lie here forever…” She giggled, quiet but throaty. “I’m going to be feeling that all day tomorrow and I’m going to love it.”

“I think I broke Iniri. You might want to be gentle when you wake her up.” Unfortunately I gave the warning a bit too late.

“Blue says it worked and he can do the transcription at any time!” She told Iniri cheerfully, making her start in surprise, thrashing and falling under the water. Apparently she’d actually started drifting off, though given our activities and the fact that my counter had ticked into Day 131 a while ago I wasn’t surprised she was tired.

Iniri sputtered and started to push herself up, but instead of just pushing herself to her feet she hurled herself into a somersault and splashed down at the opposite end of the pool with an undignified squawk. Shayma teleported over, dropping into the water as she helped Iniri up.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, supporting the other woman as Iniri shook water from her face.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, just not used to Kinetic Affinity.” Iniri disengaged herself from Shayma, looking embarrassed. “Let me get some clothes on and I’ll join you.”

“Oh, of course,” Shayma said, splashing her way out of the pool. “I’ll see you inside,” she called over her shoulder as she headed back into the cottage.

“Poor Iniri. You keep showing up when she’s naked.”

“Oh, come on. If she’s having fun with you she ought to expect it!” Shayma grinned. “Seriously though, it makes me wonder what her adventuring career was like. Mom and dad told me that a lot of groups just don’t have any privacy from each other. Not when you’re out in the wilderness or down in a dungeon for weeks on end.”

“Well, she’s pretty young for third-tier and she is a Queen. I doubt she’s been adventuring nearly as long as your parents and she probably had a whole support train when she did.”

“Well that doesn’t sound like any fun.”

“...she says, taking shameless advantage of being able to access my inventory in addition to having her own spatial pocket.”

“It’s not cheating if it’s something I can do!”

Iniri got herself dried and dressed, re-entering the cottage with a composed face. It had taken her a few tries, actually, as she tried to get used to her new strength or at least her new Affinity. In fact she’d gone through a quick series of exercises – stretches, lunges, and jumps – to acquaint herself with the changes.

“It’s going to take a while for me to get used to this,” Iniri admitted. “I feel almost like I’m on the edge of a new tier all of a sudden.”

“Well the purification upgrade does say it improves mana refinement, which I think is related to tiering up. Also experience gain, though I don’t know how that affects things.” Her level hadn’t changed so it wasn’t like it was retroactive, but it was pretty clear that levels were a coarse measure of power at best. “I also got some new and potentially concerning breeding options.” That was about as conservative as I could word it. Given Iniri’s new attitude I didn’t want to scare her off.

“Concerning how?” Iniri asked with a frown.

“Concerning like, they’re potentially future-altering options. Liiiiike [Genesis] lets me have normal kids with Companions.”

Iniri’s eyes went wide. Shayma choked.

“Oh really now?” Shayma’s surprised look slowly stretched into a smile. “You know that if Sienne ever finds that out, she will never ever stop pestering you.”

“You either, from the sound of it.”

“Yes, but I can actually run away.” Shayma grinned.

“Okay you have a point there.” I could very well imagine being pestered by both the Ells, though I had no doubt they’d find out eventually.

“You realize I— ” Iniri cleared her throat and started over, shifting subtly in her chair as certain parts of her were clearly in favor of the idea. That startled me past an outburst and right into silence, staring inasmuch as I could with [Genius Loci]. Which was just as well because she clearly didn’t want Shayma to notice, even if I did. Iniri had only just warmed to me, so the idea that she was considering something like that was baffling, but sometimes, and especially at her age, the body wanted what it wanted. I’d just keep quiet and let her maintain her dignity.

“You do realize that you’re going to have all kinds of people who want a Power to father their child. Purification is one thing, but an actual lineage is something else.”

“That’s what the audience chamber is for, to shoo those people away,” Shayma said.

“Besides, this is something we should probably keep secret anyway. No need for anyone but Companions to know about it.” I wasn’t about to make anyone who couldn’t be trusted a Companion, that was certain. “There’s that and there’s two other new things, [Dungeon Avatar] and [Companion Rapport] that are both supposed to improve dungeon-companion communication.”

“Oh that’s great!” Shayma’s tail swished emphatically. “I bet Iniri could use those!”

“I’m not sure…” Iniri frowned. “[Dungeon Avatar] as a breeding option sounds like Blue would take me over.”

“Yeah that’s exactly my worry,” I told Shayma, and watched Iniri’s expression of surprised as I agreed with her. “It takes biomass to ‘improve communication’ which sounds a little creepy to me. Like it’s making changes or something. Forcing people into it.” Or putting mind-control parasites into people, but that was a possibility that was too creepy for me to even suggest to Shayma. Not to mention that would probably keep Iniri from ever fully trusting me.

“That doesn’t seem right…” Shayma frowned. “I thought all your Blue Core and Purifier stuff was well…” She waved vaguely, trying to articulate what she was thinking before just settling on one word. “...good.”

“It’s mostly not coercive, but I guess a not-Power dungeon would need some way to make their wishes known. This does that without monsters even if it weirds me out some. Plus it doesn’t sound like it completely overwrites someone. I could do more tests with [Guidance] but honestly I don’t much need it so I’d rather not.”

“True, without me…”

“I’d be a lot worse off!”

“I’d rather just talk with Shayma,” Iniri said. “No offense to Blue.”

“None taken. I’d rather talk to Shayma too!”

That got a giggle from Shayma, and a smile from Iniri.

“That’s it for now, I guess, just wanted to run those by you two. Is Iniri ready for inscription?”

“I think so. What should I expect from transcription?”

“Well, new Skills.” Shayma replied immediately. “Maybe upgraded Skills. I’m not sure it will work the same for you as for me.”

“I can’t tell which of my abilities will match you until I try it,” I added, since Shayma’s initial explanation wasn’t the best. Usually she was better about it, but she definitely wasn’t trying to be official at the moment. “I’ve never done this with anyone other than Shayma and the Bargain obfuscates how powerful it really is. I’m pretty sure it’ll give you something useful though.

“I suppose I’ll have to find out when you do. The same as before? Just put my hands against the core?”

“Yes, just like before.”

Iniri approached the Companion core crystal and pressed her palms against it, skin still slightly damp from the hot spring.

Transcribing Dungeon Skills and Abilities:

Transcribing [Trap: LAE]...skill becomes [Blue’s Armament of Light]. Rank set to 1.

[Blue’s Armament of Light]: This unique application of light mana crafted by the Power known as Blue creates a powerful beam of destructive light.

Transcribing [Superior Purification Breeding Station]...skill becomes [Lineage: Light’s Chosen].

[Lineage: Light’s Chosen]: Children are born [Purified]. Mothers have improved health during pregnancy and childrearing. Infants are born with improved physical qualities.

Transcribing [Fabrication]...skill becomes [Wrought of Light]. Rank set to 1.

[Wrought of Light]: Your light constructs may become permanent with a great expenditure of mana.

Transcribing [Field: Growth]...skill becomes [Verdant Light]. Rank set to 1.

[Verdant Light]: Light shed by any of your mana or constructs improves the health and flourishing of nearby life. Those who work under the light may gain energy from it.

Transcribing [Field: Teleport]...skill becomes [Swiftray]. Rank set to 1.

[Swiftray]: You move as swiftly as a ray of light. This skill lets you move instantly from point to point along any active light construct..

Transcribing [Field: Phantasmal Realm]...skill becomes [Phantasmal Beacon]. Rank set to 1.

[Phantasmal Beacon]: You are a conduit for the realm of the phantasmal. Your light shines over all you survey, and few who see you may remain unmoved.

Transcribing [Customization]...skill becomes [Lumenshape]. Rank set to 1

[Lumenshape]: You can control the details of light constructs with an incredible degree of finesse. Reduces costs of all light constructs.

Transcribing [Warding]...skill becomes [Lightward]. Rank set to 1.

[Lightward]: All light constructs additionally and passively protect against hostile divinations.

Transcribing [Genius Loci]...skill becomes [Queen’s Insight].

[Queen’s Insight]: Provides passive, low level awareness of events within your kingdom.

Transcribing [Metallurgy]...skill becomes [Forged of Light]. Rank set to 1.

[Forged of Light]: Your kinetic Affinity allows you to create ingots of solid light that bear all properties of your light, for use in crafting.

Transcribing [Extension]...skill upgrades [Queen’s Insight]. Light constructs may now be deployed wherever [Queen’s Insight] covers, given enough knowledge to specify a location.

New Lineage created: Light’s Chosen. [Lineage Seed: Light’s Chosen] acquired.

New Power aspect created: The Phantasmal Realm. Aspect added to Power authority.

“Holy shit.”

“That good, then?” Shayma grinned, then stopped as Iniri wavered, nearly falling over before Shayma caught her. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s...so much…” Iniri managed to say, eyes unfocused.

“One of the skills she got lets her sense uhhhh all of Tarnil basically. Probably suffering sensory overload.” I produced a bed for Shayma to help Iniri into, and she lay back, putting her arm over her eyes. “Might take her a little bit to recover.” I hadn’t really thought about it, but the more powerful I got and the more things I had that might be Transcribed, the more profound the experience was going to get. At some point it might be too much for people to handle if I couldn’t chop up the process.

I didn’t even know what to make of the two things I’d personally gained. Power aspect? Did that mean that I had some sort of Phantasmal Realm theme going on now? I wasn’t sure how that worked. If I had any theme it was the mana dynamos. My Status hadn’t updated with the aspect thing though, so I was still missing the Power area.

I was going to have words with whoever put together my overlay.

“All of Tarnil?” Shayma asked, but quietly, as if Iniri were suffering from a hangover.

“Yes. Actually she got a number of upgrades related to the kingdom.” Just looking at the new additions I could see that it had really leaned into the whole [Protector Queen] thing. It was clear that the Skill transcriptions weren’t arbitrary or random, nor were they the same Skills each time. Shayma had never gotten anything from the Growth field, for example, and the difference between [Awareness] and [Queen’s Insight] was immense.

“I think I’ve got a handle on it,” Iniri said after a few minutes, taking a deep breath. “That wasn’t…” Another breath, pulling in air. “I thought it was just going to be Skills!”

“Grab that Status sigil, I think she’s going to want to see the new stuff she’s got.”

“Uh oh, I recognize that tone.” Shayma grinned, producing the Sigil with a flourish. “That was a new Skill. Sounds like you’re in for a surprise.”

“Just so long as this one doesn’t give me another headache,” Iniri said dryly, taking the Sigil from Shayma. The stone lit up, displaying Iniri’s new Status, and both of the women boggled at the additional skills.

“Gods take my horns,” Iniri said, after a good ten seconds of simply staring.

“Oh, wow. Wait, why didn’t I get any of that?” Shayma said, with an exaggerated pout. “Especially that new Lineage!”

“I think…” Iniri began, still considering her Status, “because you’re not a queen.”

“Why would that matter?” Shayma asked, turning serious. “You already had one, but it’s not like they’re restricted to ruling Class types, is it?”

“It’s more that dynasty is very important to me, as a queen,” Iniri replied. “Look at all these new Skills. They all make me a better one. A better [Protector Queen]. They help me do what I want — to protect and preserve Tarnil. I imagine the Skills you get help you do what you want. Or maybe what Blue wants.”

“I’m sure that the Bargain and the whole you’re-kinda-part-of-me thing muddies it a bit.”

“Oh, that does make sense. Interesting that I got all sorts of crafting Skills but you only got [Forged of Light].”

Iniri chuckled.

“Given how much I resented runecrafting that doesn’t surprise me. I’m certainly not going to complain about any of this. I think I’m actually near fourth tier power with these new Skills, especially [Queen’s Insight]! And two Lineage skills…” She shook her head. “Should we survive the current crisis, I believe I can rebuild Tarnil into something that will endure for centuries to come.”

“I’m glad you’re as impressed as I am!”

“I’m still taking it in,” Iniri admitted, after Shayma passed along my compliments with a smile. “Even at rank one, these are amazing Skills and Abilities. Right now I can tell where the army is, where there’s fertile cropland and where it’s gone to seed…” She trailed off, eyes darting this way and fingers twitching as she tracked things only she could perceive. “All kinds of things. It will be a while before I figure out how to really use this. Not to mention I have a Power’s weapon in my arsenal, apparently. I can’t wait to see how that works.”

“Actually I have a surprise for both of you. I got an interesting little ability of my own that ought to help with figuring out your new skills.”

“His surprises are the best,” Shayma added to the end of my message.

“I admit they’ve been pretty good so far,” Iniri replied, intrigued. “What ability is that?”

In answer, I used my [Dungeon-Companion Linking] to hook both of them up to my mana pool. I actually had a close eye on them, just in case it was too much, since I definitely didn’t want to overload either of them, but the wording made it sound more like they could draw on it at will rather than getting a bunch of mana shoved into them.

It turned out to be fine. Iniri and Shayma both got perfectly matching expressions of surprise, and I watched my mana pool blip a few fractions as they pulled a thousand mana or so to top themselves off. There was significant loss it turned out, something like a ten percent efficiency transfer, but that gave them both access to an absolutely staggering mana pool.

The skill said it was a temporary link, and I could definitely turn it off if I wanted, but there didn’t seem to be anything that forced me to do so. Which meant that, barring any serious need for me to have my whole mana pool at my beck and call, I could leave them supercharged basically permanently. Honestly, they were a lot more effective at direct action anyway, so it was probably the best use of my resources.

“Gods salt my ears,” Iniri said, which made me wonder exactly how many curses the theoretically sheltered queen actually knew. “Is this…” She paused, eyes wide and sparkling. “What even am I feeling here? Did you just give me infinite mana?” It came out as a nearly girlish squeal, hands clasped together.

“Oh wow, and I thought I had a big mana pool before.” Shayma proceeded to glamor the entire interior of the cottage with a living image of Meil, exercising [Liminality] to spend her mana at a profligate rate. Torches and magelight flickered, shadows shifted as people walked the streets. If I didn’t know better I would have been fooled myself.

“It’s not actually infinite, I’m supplying you. So, you have access to a lot more than before, but don’t be too spendthrift!”

“Sorry,” said Shayma, clearly not sorry at all as she dismissed the illusion. “Blue says he’s feeding us from his mana supply. So he’d prefer we don’t waste mana even if we can draw on such a huge pool.”

“Honestly with my mana production I’m not sure how long it would take you to drain me if you tried. It doesn’t hurt that I have a mana pool up around one hundred fifty thousand. For now I don’t mind if you overdraw to get some practice with your Skills; I’ll cut you off if you’re pulling too much.”

“One hundred fifty thousand?” Iniri demanded after Shayma relayed that, then stopped and took a long breath. “No, that’s practically normal after everything else. This is just too much. Extra skills. Infinite mana. Kinetic affinity making me twitch like a sere-leaf addict. I need a break from the absolute absurdity for a minute. I think I’ll have to go for a run or something.”

“Before you go, in exchange for the infinite mana pool I’m going to want an ongoing supply of those light ingots you can make now.” Ultimately they’d probably make their way back to her, since I was certain I could turn them into something pretty amazing, but I wanted to have enough to play with.

“Oh, of course!” Iniri’s face flashed from surprise to fear to relief in just a few seconds, which gave me a good guess at her thoughts. She really didn’t want to be patronized, and simply handing out gifts like the link would be far too close to actually declaring her mine. Or at least binding her with the acceptance of those gifts. “I’ll make some right now.”

She invoked her new Skill, lines of light drawing hollow boxes in a manner very reminiscent to the way the Fortress assembled itself before they filled in, dropping glowing silver ingots onto a nearby table. The color surprised me for a moment, before I realized I’d never actually seen any of Iniri’s light skills. Just the [Shield of Tarnil] and the Fortress. Besides, it matched the silver and navy blue of the Tarnil house heraldry so it made sense.

Each one took five hundred of her mana, which meant that under normal circumstances she couldn’t quite make two of them. I hadn’t really checked how quickly her mana refilled but from what I saw the general rule was that a completely empty pool took about a day to refill. Hooked up to my mana pool, though, she sucked down five-thousand-mana chunks which were barely anything to me. Oh, I’d run out eventually, but to make the initial ten ingots would have taken days for Iniri to make on her own. For me, fifty thousand mana would be back in less than an hour. It also seemed to jump Iniri a skill level on the spot, which was amusing.

The overlay just labeled them [Ingots of Light] without any further details, which was more or less what I expected, but I could see the dense concentration of light mana. There was a goodly chunk of kinetic mana in there as well, melded in the same way that the kinetic Affinity blended into Iniri’s soul. I was pretty sure the ingots represented the natural balance of Iniri’s Affinities now, condensed into physical form.

“Wow, this is heavy light!” Shayma grinned as she hefted one of the ingots, tossing it from hand to hand. Iniri took one too, running her fingers over the surface.

“This feels odd,” she confessed. “It’s still my mana, I can feel it, but it’s also independent. I can reshape it...” The ingot flexed and flowed, effortlessly bending into the shape of a songbird, perched on her finger. “I guess this is what my permanent constructs will be like.” She frowned. “I wonder if I’d even be able to make anything useful permanent without Blue’s extra mana.”

“It kind of sounds like fourth-tier stuff to begin with,” Shayma said. “Maybe with some extra levels you’ll grow into it. Besides, everything’s at rank one anyway.”

“Not for long, if I keep at it.” Iniri said. She turned the bird back into an ingot and placed it on the table. I pulled all the bars into my inventory, seeing it take up its own line in my resources entry, save for the one Shayma was toying with. She had a forge too, so I figured she’d want to see what she could do with one. “I know it’s somewhere around three in the morning but I think I need to stretch my legs. Is there— ”

“Oh, I’ll join you,” Shayma said. “I’ve got some new Skills to work out myself! We can take the path through Blue’s new Climate areas.”

“I might have the area where I’m going to put Meil ready by the time you get there, too.” Or not. Considering Shayma’s movement Skills and Iniri’s levels, they probably could run a lot faster than I was thinking. Of course they’d probably stay on the path rather than cutting across, since it wasn’t like either the volcano or the glacier areas were particularly inviting.

The chamber I was making for Meil, on the other hand, might well be. I was still hollowing out the space for it, since the city walls encompassed something like sixty square kilometers and I needed to reinforce the dome with stronger materials than just plain stone to ensure proper safety before I expanded it. Once that was done though, I was just going to make the whole area a Grassland climate even though Meil would be taking up almost all of it.

Or I could stop being an idiot and just use my brand new [Structural Mana Reinforcement] Skill.

“So, before you go I have yet another thing to try. I can in theory let you control some dungeon features, so I figure I can start out by letting you trigger the teleports yourself instead of having to wait for me. Oh, and Shayma, I’m going to try and give you control over a LAE so you can fire it yourself.”

“This is getting better and better!” Shayma’s tail swished with excitement. “Blue says he can give us the ability to use the teleports ourselves, so we don’t have to pester him each time.”

“I don’t want to turn that down,” Iniri said cautiously, “but can he do that later for me? My head’s already stuffed full as it is.”

“Sure, no problem.” Iniri seemed to be having a lot more issues dealing with her new stuff than Shayma was, though I would have thought she’d be used to it being a third-tier. Of course, Shayma was a lot more easygoing, and then there was the transformation the Bargain had given her. Not that it mattered overmuch, it just was interesting that the two had such different reactions.

It took me a minute to figure out how to give Shayma control of the bits I wanted, and of course it involved [Mana Logic], sucking up a couple fractions of the [Mana Lattice]. I wasn’t clear on exactly where the lattice went, but if it took that much stuff Iniri probably had made a good call.

Shayma figured out how to operate it faster than I had puzzled out how to give the ability to her, much to my mortification, and triggered the teleportation pad back to the audience chamber. The guards were still there, though they’d taken to sleeping on the benches I’d provided for petitioners. The one that was still awake snapped to attention the moment Iniri and Shayma arrived, and Iniri went over to have some quiet words with him.

I left them to their run. I had some things to chew over, like Iniri getting my laser thing as a Skill. Maybe I should have realized it earlier but it was no wonder Ansae was cautioning me about spreading knowledge. Apparently anything was fair game when it came to Skills. Oh, Iniri could probably have made the laser manually, given that light was her primary Affinity, but I was sure having it systematized meant she could do a lot more with it. I had a pretty good knowledge of regular lasers but magic lasers? I’d definitely have to beg ignorance.

I also had two new Fields I hadn’t fiddled with, and that meant combinations. Of course the first one I put into my little experiment rooms was the [Phantasmal Realm] one. [Light] sounded interesting-ish but how could it compare to a whole new realm? One that was part of my whole Power thing, at that. Surely it would be amazing.

Unlike all my other Fields, it wasn’t just attached to my room boundaries or mana. It also anchored to a doorway, which made sense as soon as I pushed it into being. The entire room vanished into the streamered and brightly colored world of the Phantasmal Realm. It even continued beyond the visible boundaries of the room, fading away quickly but definitely there, all except for the doorway anchor. From the interior of the room, it was a clear rectangular portal into normal space, the outline a wildly bright braiding that seemed to have physical form.

Where the mana flows from my nearby dynamo crossed into view, just slightly beyond the room’s boundary, it cut into the faded outlines of the physical rock, winding like a river and in total defiance of gravity. I knew mana didn’t cut away physical matter like that, not in the real world, but in the phantasmal space it was the matter that was barely there, and everything else that was brilliant.

My miniature test rooms usually had some grass, a tree, and a chrysthenium surrounded by rock and dirt. Most Fields really couldn’t demonstrate what they could do without some sort of target. In this case, the tree and the grass were more or less as insubstantial as the ground, though multicolored light flickered along them like brief flashes of prismatic lightning. The flower, though, had solid core, and roots stretching down.

Not just down, either. There was some strange sideways depth to them, nothing that I could follow with more than a vague intuition, but I could guess what it was pretty easily. There was something to the phantasmal realm that was a dimension other than height, width, or breadth, some fourth-dimensional shift I didn’t yet have the tools to understand. So far I’d been able to adjust to a number of sensory inputs but an additional dimension might take a while.

My own dungeon-biology was barely there, a pale shadow even in comparison to the vague outlines of stone and soil. Shayma could jump into the Phantasmal Realm without being reduced to either a pale shadow or an incandescent flame, so clearly there was a way me to do so as well. I couldn’t very well cross my own borders; I was already where I was.

The only thing I could think was that I’d have to grow into the realm, that kinda-sorta-almost direction I could barely grasp. I did have a lead line, though, in the form of the chrysthenium-mana, and I hoped that would be good enough. Lacking any better ideas, I invested in a new boring tendril, not that I didn’t have enough of them chewing away at the mountainside, and tried directing it along the mana flow I saw from the flower in the phantasmal realm.

That was a very bad idea.

At first nothing happened, but after a goodly chunk of mental wrestling I got just the slightest shift in the phantasmalward direction. I seemed to get some sort of feedback from [Genius Loci] for a moment, then pain fountained out of the connection. My mana dropped by thousands every instant, the phantasmal realm field flooding with a sudden deluge as I simply bled out through the hole I’d poked in myself.

Needless to say I panicked a bit, shredding the field and yanking back the boring tendril, but it still didn’t stop, my mana dropping down below fifty, then thirty, then ten thousand. I could feel my dynamos stuttering under the strain, even if I hadn’t bottomed out yet, when I finally had the bright idea to plug the hole with gold. It was a mana insulator, after all.

The pain eased as I shoved my gold stocks into the gap, toning down to a mere ache as the mana loss shrunk to something my dynamo generation could handle. A quick glance showed that neither Iniri nor Shayma seemed to have noticed, and Ansae didn’t look overly concerned, so apparently I’d managed to solve it before anyone caught me being a complete idiot. From my perspective the gold was just a rough sphere surrounding a blob of Phantasmal light. Filling it up entirely, in fact, and I was glad that seemed to work.

[Blue’s Sagacity] apparently didn’t stop me from doing stupid things. Now that I was thinking about it, obviously I needed to know more about what I was doing before I fiddled with the Phantasmal Realm. It was a Power-grade thing, an aspect, and according to Ansae the Power stuff was descriptive, not prescriptive. It wasn’t going to give me the tools to handle it. I had to figure those out myself, which meant I needed to know more about what the hell I was dealing with.

Once Shayma was available, I needed to talk to Ansae.

I was under no illusions that she’d do any investigation for free, but seeing her covetous interest in my supermaterials I knew I had an easy way to pay her. Plus now that I could do supermaterials I wanted to see if she had a few other materials in her vaults. Specifically mercury and magnets, though maybe some of the simpler shape-memory alloys would make for interesting subjects. Considering that it was Ansae I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a whole periodic table, but a lot of metals were a pain to find or refine and probably didn’t have much use. Unless for some reason osmiridium and tantalum had amazing magic properties.

Swearing off messing with the Phantasmal Realm field for now, I flipped over to the [Light] Field. That ought to be safe enough to deal with. Specifically, overcharging it and mixing it with my other single-type Fields.

[Field: Panopticon] discovered. Removes all sense- and mind-affecting effects. Stealth is impossible.

[Field: Purgatory] discovered. Combines [Light] and [Murk]. Suppresses senses.

[Field: Verdant Light] discovered. Combines [Light] and [Growth]. Improves the physical health and flourishing of all living things within the light.

[Field: Light of Hope] discovered. Combines [Light] and [Regeneration]. Improves mental state over time. Long term exposure can result in permanent effects.

Those all sounded really cool, but actually paying attention to my overlay reminded me I had experience to spend for once. It had been long enough that I had nearly forgotten that was a thing I needed to do. I didn’t feel any of the categories were something I urgently needed to invest in, but I figured I’d finish up the storage crystals and spatial Fields—

“Blue,” said Ansae. “I need to talk to you.”

Oh. Well, she was probably watching what I was doing, as usual, and saw something she wanted to know more about. Shayma was busy at the moment so Ansae would have to wait, but I figured I’d let her know so she could plan ahead.

“Hey Shayma, Ansae wants to talk whenever you’re done with your jog.”

“Sure!” Shayma replied cheerfully, even as Ansae raised a claw.

“That won’t be necessary,” she said. “I can hear you.”

Wait.

What?

“Since when!?”

“Since when what?” Shayma came to a halt, waving for Iniri to continue on. It wasn’t like she could get lost.

“Ansae says she can hear me!”

Ansae snorted, smoke curling from her nostrils.

“Yes, I do. I’ve been eavesdropping on you for going on two weeks now, so it’s easy enough for me to understand you. I saw that stuff you were experimenting with earlier, and I want some of that for my audience hall.”

“What? Nonono. We’re going to talk about this eavesdropping shit first. I trusted you!” Sure, Ansae was a bit of a loose cannon or maybe a loose nuclear warhead, but she’d always been pretty reasonable where I was concerned. Overbearing, absolutely, but considering who she was that made sense. This was beyond overbearing.

“Really?” Ansae tilted her head, light glinting off her horns. I wondered what would happen if I tried to collapse the spatial weave on her lair. So far all my spatial stuff seemed to be ‘safed,’ so I couldn’t open portals on people and cut them in half, or just teleport part of a person, or rip them apart when I expanded the space they were in. Collapsing it was probably safe somehow too, though I didn’t want to go that far just yet.

“Yes! Apparently that was a bad idea! Either you tell me why the hell you were snooping or I’m going to kick you out.”

“Good, good!” Ansae laughed, waving her claw. “My only worry was whether or not you’d actually stand up to me if I provoked you.”

“You’re not making much of a case for yourself.” I was a young Power, and Ansae had a lot more knowledge and experience than I did. I got that, but I wasn’t a child and didn’t appreciate these sorts of games.

“Blue, you have something I need,” the dragon said, sobering. “I mean that. I have no choice but to treat with you. And I’ve learned that you also have something I want with as much desperation as that need. In that way you hold absolute power over me. Shayma is delightful but I could not simply trust her interpretation of you to be accurate. I needed to know how you were first-hand, and an opportunity to hear what you thought of me behind me back was one I couldn’t pass up.”

“That doesn’t excuse— ”

“That’s why I’m telling you everything now,” Ansae continued as if I hadn’t interrupted. “Listening to you without your knowledge was a breach of trust, yes, but being bluntly honest now will, I hope, lead to a healthier trust in the future. Now I know you’re not the type for false fronts or subterfuge, so I’ll deal with you bluntly and expect the same.”

“Blue? What’s going on?” Shayma asked, and I took a time out to lasso her with a teleport and jump her into Ansae’s lair. It wasn’t fair to have a conversation she could only hear half of.

The irony of that thought was not lost on me. Ansae grinned at Shayma the moment she arrived, teeth glinting.

“Ah, good, you’re here too. You were right, you know. Blue is absolutely a terrible flirt.”

Shayma just stared at her, baffled.

“While I appreciate the compliment – I think – the point is you’ve been listening to us without saying anything for a couple weeks now and holding out on me for a way to be able to talk to people!”

“What?” Shayma blinked at Ansae. “Why would you do that? I thought we were friends!” Ansae threw back her head and laughed, a musical landslide.

“Only you would scold me for that reason. I already explained to Blue, but you deserve to hear it too. As much as I like you personally, you’re completely in thrall to a Power. For my own sake I couldn’t completely believe everything you said. After all, you could completely believe you were helping me when Blue was instructing you betray me.”

“I would never!” Shayma protested.

“And now I know that. Not suspect, not believe, not hope. Know. But I didn’t before.”

Now that I’d had a chance to chew on it, I knew what Ansae was saying. With how powerful Ansae was, if the circumstances were reversed I’d probably do the same thing. That didn’t mean it sat well with me, or that I’d just let it pass.

“Okay, I understand that much, but it’s still not something you can just do and expect me to be happy about. If nothing else I need to know you aren’t going to pull this kind of thing again.”

“You can’t possibly mean we aren’t going to keep secrets from each other,” Ansae said. “You need to keep certain secrets from me, as I from you. Not to mention poor judgement is something I’m still capable of after all these years.”

“Yeah okay granted, but I can’t have you sitting here snooping on things if I can’t trust you to protect my interests.”

“You can’t, where they compete with mine. You can, where they are aligned. My gamble is that you will accept that honesty as more valuable than empty assurances.”

Shayma was scowling and I wasn’t happy myself, but. But. Ansae wasn’t dumb and she didn’t have to admit she’d been snooping. I probably wouldn’t have even suspected it, so her reason for revealing it was either some form of honor, since it wasn’t like I was keeping anything important from her, or it was some complex form of honesty challenge. Or, thinking about it further, it was simply that she wanted very precisely what she asked for. A relationship built on trust meant that she had to reveal anything that might compromise the foundations.

“Ansae.”

“Yes?” She wasn’t teasing. The expression on her muzzle was one of stillness and solemnity, and her eyes were ancient and ageless. She was taking this seriously, which more or less disarmed my sharpest point of anger. It was probably base manipulation, because she was old enough to be able to read the room, pun intended, but it still worked.

“You’re still in the doghouse for this, understand. You can forget that audience chamber stuff until I’m finished with everything else. But you’re right, I prefer that you tell me over leaving me blissfully ignorant.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of a fight,” Shayma grumbled, still looking put out. I didn’t blame her. She was a lot closer to Ansae than I was, and I well believed she was the type who felt this sort of hurt deeper. As mature as she was in many ways, she was naive in others, which was rich coming from me I knew, but I didn’t want to explain it when Ansae could overhear and the hurt was still fresh.

Actually, that made me think of something.

“So wait, how can I say anything without you overhearing? How are you doing this anyway?”

“When you focus your attention, there’s just the tiniest bit of resonance from your core.” She tapped the piece of glowing blue crystal she wore. “I’ve steeped this in my mana enough that I can detect it and interpret it, but it’s a lot stronger when you’re focused here rather than elsewhere. I suspect that you could focus your articulated thoughts better, but you haven’t needed to until now.”

“Does that mean you can build me something that lets me talk?” It sounded like Ansae was phreaking my communications with Shayma, which was as good a way as any to hack a system that refused to let me use my own body to convey anything useful.

“I don’t believe so.” Ansae shook her head. “I’m using my own mana to resonate and my own mind to interpret. I’m not enough of a crafter to turn that into something that isn’t me, assuming I had the mana to spend on experimenting with it.”

For some reason I wasn’t surprised. Of course it wouldn’t be easy, even for an ancient dragon, if it was explicitly banned by my very nature. Still, she’d provided at least a hint that it was possible, and I was a crafter. Maybe it would be possible in time.

“Okay, lack of control noted. But while I work on that I’m going to ask you to take off the core chunk. I’ll send Shayma around after I’ve done some practice.”

“That is fair.” Ansae slid the necklace off, placing it in one of the display stands by her lair. There was no guarantee that she couldn’t still hear me, but it wouldn’t make sense to take the risk of telling one truth and then immediately start another deception. That she was immediately willing to do it without argument was another mark in her favor.

Shayma was still unhappy and asked to be sent back to Iniri, which I did. There were a million things to do but I wanted to at least finish up the experience expenditure. I wanted to keep a good chunk for Shayma but I could finally cap out some things at least.