The party I had brought unpacked their supplies - or at least put them down - inside. The sun was setting outside, but it was also becoming cloudy. Delan and Karl were outside Diamûn setting up the tent. I had asked them why they didn’t set it up inside - they preferred the sound of nature over setting it up inside, even if it was going to rain.

Merry was also outside, but she was on cooking duty. The remaining members of the group - Therya and Lillian - were inside. We had moved into the side room that Mother had made which was furnished with a table, some chairs, and couches on the side. I think Mother was trying to make some kind of waiting room, though it felt more like a lounge than a waiting room from what I saw in Berta.

“So… how did this place get lost, anyway?” Therya asked.

Mother was sitting on one of the couches, while I laid on it with my head on her lap. I was just happy to be back home with Mother and wasn’t particularly thinking of joining in the conversation.

“How much detail do you want?” Mother said.

“How about the short version? I don’t have all day, and I’m not about to drag you or your daughter through it,” Therya answered.

Mother nodded.

“Well… you’ve heard of the Trellian Kingdom, I assume? Well, the former Trellian Kingdom, I suppose. Before it and the Valdor Federation expanded to the south, it was the Ceratial Kingdom which was in these lands,” she began.

Therya and Lillian listened as Mother explained the history behind why Diamûn’s location was forgotten - or to be more accurate, buried.

“The king of the Ceratial Kingdom at the time was a pitiful, selfish man who disliked any attention away from him. Naturally, the existence of Diamûn in his lands was valuable, but something he couldn’t control. Least of which, I wasn’t about to take orders from him,”

Therya nodded.

“So, eventually, it came to the point where he decided to hide Diamûn. I wasn’t able to do much to stop him, but it was as you could guess also his loss,”

“Wait, how do you hide one of the world’s five dungeons?” Therya asked.

“Simple. Be an authoritarian megalomaniac, ban anyone from entering this forest, and burn all the records of its location in your lands.” Mother explained.

I was a little upset by proxy when I heard the details from Mother originally.

“That’s it?” Lillian asked.

“Well, it’s a simplified version, but that’s basically what happened,”

Therya thought about it for a moment.

“It makes sense… of course the Valdor Federation would have an easy time taking over the Trellian Kingdom.” she said.

“Yes. The Trellian Kingdom is just a fragmented descendant of the Ceratial Kingdom, with many of its worst attributes imported. …and because the Ceratial Kingdom didn’t exactly make friends with its neighbors, and actively detested my existence…”

Mother paused to gather her words.

“Well, you probably saw what forces they had. They’d all be low level because of one man’s selfishness,” Mother explained.

I personally felt that they had it coming for treating Mother poorly.

“It’d also explain why all the bandits we saw were Level 1,” added Lillian.

“Of course, if you deliberately try to remove Diamûn, then everyone gets stuck like that,” Therya said.

“Well, unfortunately it seems like the past made your life difficult. The nearest dungeon to here must have been Asha-belôr, yes?” Mother asked.

Therya nodded.

“Yes. It’s a distance away, near the south end of Valdor, but it’s the closest. Having Diamûn available again should greatly help the region, not to mention make training future Guild members easier,” she explained.

Lillian looked at me, laying on Mother’s lap.

“If I may ask… Maya, erm…” Lillian said.

“Hm? Yes?” Mother asked.

“Your daughter, Kaya, she talked to me in private about how she met you. Only a little, though.”

“She did?”

She looked down at me on her lap. I looked up at Mother.

“I’m glad you’re opening up to people, Kaya. Even if only a little… I appreciate how fond you are of me, but I do think you can stand on your own, too. You’re my daughter, but I want to see you do things that you can be proud of, too.” she said.

“But I did the seventh floor!” I protested.

“Yes, Kaya. But I don’t just mean things like that. It’s also talking with people.”

Mother smiled at me.

“This will always be your home… but it doesn’t mean you can’t make connections outside it,”

Mother turned her attention back to Lillian.

“I’m sure she told you enough for you to start putting the rest together, Lillian. I hope that she can lean on you in the future,” Mother said.

Hey, Mother, what do you mean by that?! I thought. Lillian simply nodded in response.

“I will try my best, Maya.”

Later, the rest of the group had finished making dinner. They had brought it inside, as the skies outside continued to get darker with rain clouds. (The setting sun definitely helped, though.) They were all having a grand time.

Meanwhile, Mother and I sat just outside their area. We were simply letting them have their time.

“They’re quite a group, Kaya,” Mother said.

“Yes. I feel like there’s still things I can learn about them.” I said.

“I see Karl has that title you mentioned. It does feel a little out of place, doesn’t it?”

“Why? Are you going to change it?”

“Maybe.”

“Okay.”

Mother paused as she thought about her next statement.

“They’re overqualified for the first two floors. Except for Therya, she’d probably have a challenge with the second,” she said.

“Therya is supposed to be the manager for the Guild moving forward at Diamûn. She’s not going into the dungeon, she’s keeping track of who enters it.” I added.

“So, what you’re saying is, me and her are going to get to know each other quite well.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“You don’t need to be so formal with me, Kaya. I may be your mother, but you don’t need to put that much deference to me.”

“But you’re my mother. You’re the one who gave me a home, and the happy life I have with you,” I said.

“Yes, but you can be a little more comfortable in it, you know? Neither of us is going anywhere,”

“I know… but I don’t think I can really stop, Mother. It’s just how I show you how much I care,”

“What am I going to do with you, Kaya?” Mother asked.

“Give me hugs?”

Mother grabbed me from the side and squeezed me tight.

“You’re right, I am. It’s quiet when you aren’t around,” she said.

“Well, it’s going to be pretty noisy soon,” I added.

“I guess in some ways it will be. But it’ll be a good kind of noisy,”

“Yep.”

 

In the evening, the rest of the group moved back outside to their tents. The rain held off until after they all made it into the tents - a nice turn of events for them. Meanwhile, I stayed inside with Mother. Neither of us needed to sleep, but I didn’t feel like standing in the rain either. I walked up to Mother.

“Um… I want to try something.”