The five of us sat down for dinner. The food they had cooked tasted pretty good - I’m not sure if it was exactly “fine dining” but for game hunted and prepared in the wild, but it tasted good to me. While the food was good, what wasn’t good was my feelings about the rest of what was going on.

The rest of the party was talking with each other. They all knew each other, but I didn’t know much about them. Yes, I could see their stats but that doesn’t tell me a ton about them as people. I didn’t know their histories - and I wasn’t sure how to ask. Instead I just sat there enjoying the food.

“Hey, Kaya, join us! We aren’t that scary,” Merry called.

I jumped in my seat a little, not expecting Merry to suddenly call out to me. I looked around as the rest of the group was looking at me.

“I’m… not sure what to say, though,” I lamented.

“Who cares? I wanna know more about your mom,” she said.

“Eh?”

Merry leaned forward as she looked at me.

“You’re the daughter of Diamûn’s Keeper, right? What’s she like?” she beamed.

“Uwha- calm down,”

“Slow down a bit, Merry. Don’t scare the girl,” Delan said.

“Oh,”

Merry leaned back to sit at her seat. I took a breath after her energetic outburst.

“Uhm… she’s kind; I’d have to say. She decided to take me in, after all.” I started.

The rest of the group sat and listened as I spoke.

“She taught me all sorts of things about how dungeons work, and how to design them. It was fun,”

“What do you mean ‘she taught you about that’?” Karl asked.

I looked over at Karl who was sitting most immediately on my left.

“I think I had mentioned it earlier, but we spent the entire winter redesigning Diamûn. We figured it would be a good bonding exercise - not to mention the prospect of an unexplored dungeon seemed like something adventurers would be interested in,”

“You’re not wrong there,” Delan said.

“How is rebuilding one of the dungeons of the world a ‘bonding exercise’...” Karl muttered.

Ignoring Karl, I continued my explanation.

“I can’t tell much in the way of the specifics of what each floor contains if you’re going to ask; however I can say the new version is ten floors,” I said.

“Ten? Interesting,” Karl mused.

“That’s not a lot, is it?” Delan said.

“Some of the other Keepers prefer many floors. We stuck to ten.” I added.

“That’s cool, Kaya… wait, what’s your mothers’ name?” Merry asked.

“Mother’s name is Maya,”

The group looked at each other for a moment, then turned their attention back to me.

“Sorry, Diamûn’s location was lost for a long time - no one really was sure if Diamûn’s keeper was actually named Maya. It’s nice to hear confirmation, I guess.” Delan said.

“You must really like Maya,” Merry said.

“She’s the only one I’ll accept as my mother,”

“Hahaha, it seems like Maya’s got a keeper in the figurative sense as well,” Delan chuckled.

“What?”

“Nothing, Kaya. I’m sure Maya appreciates how you feel about her,” he added.

“Well, Kaitlyn does give her grief about her motherly tendencies,” I said.

“Urk,” sounded Karl.

I looked at Karl who seemed to be distressed at the mention of Kaitlyn’s name. The rest of the group chuckled.

“Did I miss something?” I asked.

“No, Karl has some embarrassing past with Kaitlyn, if you mean the Keeper of Asha-belôr,” Merry explained.

“Is that something to do with the title he has? ‘Asha-belôr’s Determined Swordsman’?”

“NoooooOOOOO!!” Karl yelled.

Karl put his face directly into his hands. I wasn’t sure what I had stepped in, but it didn’t seem like anything good.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend,”

Karl took a breath.

“You’re fine, Kaya. I’m sorry, when I was young, I went into Asha-belôr to try to train with a sword. I said some silly things, and the story became that I was going to be this great swordsman when I grew up,” he said.

He took a breath after explaining the backstory up to that point when his tone of voice changed.

“But Kaitlyn, that annoying cat - she caught wind of it and gave me this stupid title about it, and I’ve never been able to live it down!”

Oh, that’s what happened.

“Kaitlyn gives Maya grief, too, if it makes you feel any better. She tries to give me grief, even though Mother will throw her out if she tries too much,” I added.

“That doesn't, but thanks,” Karl said.

“...wait, what do you mean ‘throw her out’?” Lillian said.

“What? Occasionally when she has time, Kaitlyn stops by,” I said.

I looked around at the rest of the group as they looked at me strangely.

“Did I say something funny?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, we’ve never heard of Keepers visiting places outside their dungeon. I mean, outside of you, but you’re obviously a special case,” Delan explained.

“Oh. She doesn’t come often - she only comes when her dungeon is empty. Even then, she can only visit our management space,” I said.

“Management space?” Karl asked.

“Uhhm…” I trailed off.

In the middle of the conversation, Lillan started to giggle all of a sudden. I looked over at her, as did the rest of the group.

“What?” Merry asked.

“I think it’s interesting, that’s all. Just how different the world is to Kaya,” she said.

“...what do you mean?” Delan asked.

“Think about it. Think about the names she’s saying and the things she’s talking about. Dungeon redesigns are major events, right? But here is Kaya, talking about them as bonding exercises. What we treat training sparring matches - that’s what dungeon redesigns are to her,” Lillan explained.

“You do sparring matches? That sounds cool,” I said.

“Exactly, see?” Lillian added.

The rest of the group sat silently as they thought about what Lillian said. Since no one said anything (or answered my question), Lillian continued.

“When you think about it, it makes sense, doesn’t it? Her mother is Maya, Keeper of Diamûn. Karl, you said Kaitlyn was annoying? That may be true, but you also know she’s an important figure in the world. She is a Keeper after all, and you make sure you respect that.”

She looked at Karl as she went on. After Lillian said her previous bit, she turned her attention back to me.

“But think about it. Kaya’s mother - however it may have come to pass - is Maya, another Keeper. To Kaya, Kaitlyn isn’t an important figure to the world - she’s an aunt,”

The rest of the group looked at me. I felt like I should have been saying something in that moment, so I simply added:

“I mean… yeah,”

Lillian stretched her arms as she continued to sit.

“I just… I realized she was different, but I think this conversation really has shown how much different there is,” Lillian said.

Everyone kind of just took in her point for a moment. I wasn’t sure what to add to it - and it seemed no one else did, too. At least, until Merry said:

“But there’s also a lot in common, too,”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You were here, just a few minutes ago, nervous about saying the wrong thing. Everyone deals with that. That’s a normal person's issue, too.” she said.

I looked at her.

“Everyone…?”

“Yeah… even me. I just dive into things headfirst, and hope for the best. Sometimes it doesn’t work out the way I hope,” she continued.

She looked at her party members.

“But I have people to help me when that happens, and it sounds like you have your mother, Kaya.”