Serenity nodded. He wasn’t surprised; he certainly hadn’t thought of dungeons as more than places to fight and get treasure for a very long time. He’d known how to manage dungeons to maximize different types of rewards for the delvers, but he didn’t think he’d realized that dungeons could truly be sapient until after he came back in time.

Until after he became a dungeon, then met one.

Binding dungeons simply because they were there was wrong yet understandable. Worse, Serenity knew that some would have to be bound or killed; his memory always flashed back to that volcano dungeon when he thought about that. It couldn’t be permitted to spill magma in the middle of a dense city, yet it refused to stay within acceptable bounds even though it was happy to talk. Serenity still regretting killing it.

“We need a better way. When we get back to Earth, I want to figure out what that better way is. I want you and Aki to help - no, to lead that effort. Can you do that?” Serenity originally intended to handle it himself, but realistically it was better off in someone else’s hands and Raz was the perfect person for it. He had a Dungeon-related Path, cared about dungeons, and most importantly had the time to take care of it. He’d need help from others to turn whatever plan he and Aki came up with into reality, but that could be handled when they got back to Earth.

Raz seemed startled but pleased. Serenity couldn’t quite tell which part of his body language showed “pleased”, but he thought it was something about the ear position, or maybe the tail. “I’d be happy to. If we can come up with a better way, maybe more dungeons will be like Aki.”

Serenity nodded. That was a good goal.

It was only as Raz turned to leave that Serenity remembered his other question. “Raz, you’re from near Stallet, aren’t you?”

Raz stiffened and turned back to face Serenity. “Yes, why?”

“Do you know someone named Esme Tillon?” It seemed unlikely but possible; no one could know everyone in a city, but that didn’t mean you didn’t know some people.

Raz shook his head but seemed uncertain. “Did you say Tillon? I might know her grandmother. At least, everyone calls her Grandma Tillon. She hasn’t been responding to messages but maybe if I mention Esme?”

Serenity copied down a rough impression of the two sides of the octagonal “key”. He didn’t think it held a magical virus, but until he knew how it was supposed to get people into places he had to assume that there was a chance it did. He left the token itself in Honoria’s care when he went into the Broken Mirror; somehow, it just seemed appropriate to ask her to handle it.

As usual, the Mirror spoke as soon as Serenity entered. “What are you looking for today?”

Serenity set the sketch down on one of the working tables. “I actually want your advice. Do you recognize these symbols?”

There was a short delay before the Mirror replied. “Of course; those are the symbols of Order’s Council and of one of the members of the Council.”

That was entirely too close to Serenity’s guess. He hadn’t guessed Order’s Council; instead, he’d wondered if it was an ancient symbol of Order’s Guild. He was fairly confident that Order’s Council was (or at least had been, back then the Repository was on Earth) in command of Order’s Guild. In that case, there was a very likely reason the “key” might work. “If someone who wasn’t otherwise connected to Order’s Guild showed up but had an octagonal token with those symbols on the sides, would that be enough to let them in safely?”

“I would have to test the authenticity of the token. That sounds like a Councilor’s authorization token, so if it is real, anyone carrying it would be permitted to enter.” The Mirror didn’t see anything wrong with that statement.

Serenity frowned. “Surely a Councilor from that long ago wouldn’t still be on the Council?”

The Mirror chuckled. “I am confident that many are. That particular symbol belongs to Phorus, one of the Beast-Gods. He’s probably a few Incarnates down the line since then, but there’s no reason he wouldn’t still be around.”

That was odd; Phorus didn’t sound like “Destroyer”. He didn’t have to wonder about “Claws of Doom,” that was obvious from the drawing, but Destroyer? “Did he have a connection to destruction or doom? That seems to be the legend of that symbol now.”

“No,” the Mirror drew out the word like it was buying time to think. “Phorus’s primary attribute outside his species was the ability to incite terror and panic. Perhaps that’s the reason?”

Grandma Tillon,

I really hope you’re getting my messages. I’m fine, but I’m worried about you.

I told you I was in Takinat. Well, we left for a while but now we’re back. While we were gone, we handled an encampment in a tunnel system that was being used as a base for flyers like the ones that destroyed the Sunrise Clan. I don’t think it was the same group, but from the papers we found afterwards, they’re all connected, competing to find something. The papers weren’t clear what.

The real risk was something Serenity called “Hollow Ones”, people with their hearts ripped out and then turned into some kind of super-undead, except using Life magic. It was ritual magic, but also could spread; the commander of the base, the Viper, had it set up to kill his subordinates to cover his escape.

Nasty man. I’m glad we were able to stop him.

The best part of that trip was that after we - well, Serenity really - dealt with the Viper, it turned into a dungeon and we got to go through it to find the papers! It was a clever dungeon, too; the main monster was waves of weakened Hollow Ones; Blaze was really good at killing those. I don’t think I’ve mentioned Blaze before, he’s our healer.

The different rooms we dealt with as we handled the base became big set-piece battles. They didn’t replicate the actual battles that happened; instead, they were better! We fought animated golem-flyers first, then summoned shadow-men.

Those battles were both straightforward, but the big battle was against the Viper. It was epic! A huge room with a bunch of rock shelves and teleporters, invisible monsters, and a boss that can spawn more … it was great. There were even traps, though I hate to admit I didn’t notice them until the Viper-boss used one of them against Serenity. I guess I’m not as good at trap-spotting as I thought I was.

I’ll tell you all about it the next time I see you!

Also, do you know anyone named Esme Tillon? From the name I guessed maybe she’s one of your grandchildren? She contacted Serenity and I want to make sure she’s who she says she is.

Raz

Esme Tillon, known as “Grandma Tillon” to the horde of children that swarmed her in the Market, couldn’t believe what she’d read. This wasn’t the first letter she’d gotten from Raz; it wasn’t even the fifth or the tenth. He just wouldn’t give up on her.

She couldn’t respond without risking having him come after her. At least, that had been her reason for not responding until now; now, it seemed like she wasn’t going to be able to keep him safe without abandoning the idea of getting help from another Hand. A Hand that seemed to have accomplished exactly what she was trying to do in less time than one of the expeditions she’d managed.

She really hoped Raz hadn’t been stupid enough to take the steps that would end up with him becoming a Knife or dead. He’d been lost and desperate when she sent him away, which was exactly the time when people would do dumb things to gain power quickly. She’d tried to teach him better than that, but you never knew. Raz hadn’t said anything about it, but he didn’t know she was a Hand and Knives were taught not to talk about it. She really hoped that the fact that he was working with a Hand was coincidence.

Wait. She hadn’t connected the name Serenity earlier, but hadn’t Raz mentioned it in quite a few of his messages? Was Raz the reason another Hand was on Asihanya?

Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

The fact that, based on Raz’s message, Serenity was fighting the invaders was both good and concerning at the same time. It was exceedingly unlikely that any Hand would travel to another planet at the request of a seventeen-year-old Tier Two just because his family was killed; there had to be more going on here. Was it possible that he was following the invaders for some reason, or did he have a connection to Asihanya that Esme didn’t know about?

She was still trying to figure out how to reply when her Quest Notification Skill told her there was a new potential Quest for people near her. They weren’t common; she only got a new Quest once every week or two at the most.

A distraction sounded good, so she opened it to look at it.

[New Quest: Tokens of Terror]

[Requirement to offer quest: Membership in Order’s Guild or Order’s Council]

[Requirement to accept quest: Affiliation with Order’s Guild or Order’s Council]

[Ancient tokens of a member of Order’s Council have been discovered on Asihanya. Although the one who once held the tokens is long dead, the tokens can still unlock things better left locked. Recover the tokens and return them to the safekeeping of Order’s Guild]

[The only token found so far was in the hands of a group searching for lost secrets on Asihanya. It is likely that other tokens are in the hands of the remaining groups]

[Status:

Attackers: 4/8

Tokens: 1/6

Two attacking groups were driven off rather than destroyed. Their tokens are likely no longer on Asihanya]

[Completion Condition: Tokens must be securely recovered and may be delivered to a Hand or Guildmaster of Order’s Guild or any member of Order’s Council]

[Reward: Variable depending on the number of tokens recovered. Minimum award: Light Path Assistance for next Tier increase]

Well, that definitely answered that. It wasn’t a coincidence that another Hand was on Asihanya; he had to be here chasing the stolen Council Tokens. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that they were in the hands of attackers; they were probably searching for something, though if so it was the dumbest search pattern Esme had ever seen.

It also probably wasn’t a coincidence that Raz was with the Hand. He’d probably looked for people who knew something about Asihanya and found Raz. It was a little odd that he’d chosen a teenager when there had to be more well-traveled people out there; many had fled. Perhaps Raz was the only one who was willing to return to Asihanya while it was still under attack? That seemed unlikely but better than any other ideas Esme had.

It didn’t explain why Raz hadn’t mentioned being a guide for Serenity, but perhaps he didn’t realize that was why he was here; Raz was open and straightforward. Someone could easily take advantage of him, and some Hands would. The fact that Raz might well be there as a guide also made it significantly less likely that Raz was a Knife, so at least there was that to be thankful for.

Yes. She’d send a reply to Raz. Now what should she say?

Lillene

Yeah, half of Raz’s letter was gushing about the great new dungeon. He was trying to keep that part short since it wasn’t the reason for the message …