“When the status quo is corrupt, or broken, inaction becomes its own kind of injustice.” -Noah Gervias, A Thorough Look at Dragon Age (Revised)-

  _____

  Two days later, after the internal quarantine was lifted and the hundred plus people in medical were allowed to stop getting on each other’s nerves, and start getting on the nerves of everyone else living in the Lair, one of their outside agents delivered James some grass.

  Which was why James and Zhu sat in a room tucked in the back corner of one of the less used deeper basements, as far as possible from other random oil that might mess with their improvised healer’s sense.

  Both of them had their eyes focused on spellbooks from the… Garden… dungeon… James tried not to let the thought that Momo needed to get to work on naming that place distract him. For one thing, Momo had been working shockingly hard at a lot of stuff. Designing safe red totems, actually documenting and teaching people how the red totems worked to mild success, doing the constant needed job of helping ID dungeontech, and not to mention still going on delves. Or disaster response, like had happened in Springfield. All that and she hadn’t even gotten a chance to check the place out except for in James or Color-Of-Dawn’s recorded memories. But also, James didn’t want to get distracted because he was something like fifty minutes into the fifty seven total minutes needed to make Copper Craft a double-upgraded spell, and if he lost his progress now he was going to scream.

  And he couldn’t scream, because he had to be sitting still for this anyway. A state of being that he and Zhu were both unhappy with. They’d asked if they could get the old Xbox that had manifested in one of these basements out of storage, and play co-op Halo while they waited, but were told by Vex that she couldn’t risk them moving that much. James wasn’t actually sure he needed to move that much to play Halo, and so he wasn’t sure if Vex was still doing the thing that she’d spent the last two days doing of constantly being inconvenient to ‘test’ the Order.

  He liked her girlfriends better. Astra was just like a quieter version of Sarah, with less respect for personal boundaries, and Mags kind of just said the hostile and distrustful parts out loud, which James preferred. Vex split the difference, clearly feeling like she owed them and definitely interested in the Order, but unwilling to trust them, explain anything, or stop prodding at them to look for weak points.

  It didn’t really matter. James could sit still for a couple hours. He had spell slots to restock after expending basically everything on the fight except throwing in the literal towel. And since navigators were also capable of using the Garden coins, that meant Zhu had spell slots to stock as well, and having a goal made it easier for him to not be in constant motion. James had kind of gotten used to and then forgotten just how much Zhu moved around on his body when manifested.

  So they sat motionless, reading, as a thin needle of oil was pulled out of the verdantly aromatic pressed pile of grass clippings, and inserted into one of Zhu’s feather’s near James’ neck.

  James had to remind himself that it was, in fact, oil, and not an actual metal needle that could hurt him. But then he’d started thinking about how if Vex could make needles out of oil she could probably kill people with them too since that’s what half the magic they found ever ended up being good at. Also Zhu had made a noise like an engine revving in neutral when she’d stabbed him so that was probably pretty painful anyway.

  ”Don’t flinch.” Was the only advice - or maybe command - that Vex had given as she’d gotten to work.

  Neither of the two knew what, exactly, she was doing. Only that she was able to feel something off about Zhu’s manifestation, and said she could help. Neither James nor Zhu thought she was a medical professional, not that it would matter since there was currently no medical profession regarding navigators, period. But she was the best chance James knew about to help his friend.

  As the weeks had stretched on from the first encounter with the Underburbs, James had been hopeful about finding something to help Zhu with whatever had infected him. A purple orb, maybe. Or a spell from the Route or Climb. Something would turn up.

  But nothing had. And Zhu had gotten worse. It didn’t seem like he was close to death, but his time awake each day had dropped, and dropped, and dropped. Exertions burned him out faster. Even his subconscious self had a harder and harder time slipping into James’ dreams.

  They’d found an orb that had given him a separate mind within a mind in James’ head, and that had made him a lot more durable, but also knocked him out for a week as he adapted. James had put that into a blank Climb book, burning an incredibly rare resource to try to make something that could cure his friend, and it had made a spell that made an overpriced model map instead. Dungeontech, found or imbued on purpose, couldn’t fix it. Orbs couldn’t fix it. Sewer lessons couldn’t fix it.

  Watching someone he loved slowly slide down into the pit of chronic illness was an experience James could have done without, honestly.

  The annoying thing was, the fix for humans was easy. It was insulin. But navigator bodies didn’t take insulin; though they’d certainly tried it. Even with the medical attention blue orbs, navigators didn’t have a thing like that for the magic to fabricate. The fact that the otherwise easily managed Underburbs disease was a possibly permanent blight on an infomorph had also made it a massive risk for any of them to deploy to Springfield, and Deb was still running newly devised tests to screen for anything like it.

  So when Vex said she could maybe help…

  James sat still. And he made Zhu sit still too. And they let the woman work.

  Sitting still and being quiet was definitely good for Vex, because it meant she’d cut them off from asking her questions. Questions she wasn’t going to have good answers for. Questions like ‘are you sure about this?’ or the dreaded ‘so what exactly are you doing?’

  She had exactly one plan, and it was less a plan, and more just a starting point for fiddling around inside another living creature’s body. Or maybe Zhu wouldn’t appreciate being called a creature. Whatever. She didn’t know, or care right now, because she’d already started from her idea.

  The needle form was specific to a stupidly narrow type of oil that she wasn’t even sure was real oil anyway, but they’d gotten her what she needed to work with. It let her keep her domain’s sense turned up to the highest ‘resolution’ that she could manage as she pierced Zhu. And this time, with no distractions around, and no worrying about if Astra was currently on fire or dead or something, and also her having a line into Zhu’s insides, it was really easy to see the problem.

  The Underburbs affliction wasn’t oil like the rest of his body. But it interacted with it like a virus, tainting what it touched, making small clumps with some kind of stringy crap connecting themselves together. There wasn’t a lot of it either; Zhu didn’t actually have a lot of the oil-blood stuff, but the affliction was inside that, and so there was a displacement shadow that she could sort of instinctively add up the volume of.

  Diagnosis complete, Vex had two problems. First off, she didn’t want to touch that shit. Second, and slightly more important, she couldn’t really touch that shit. It wasn’t oil, her plan to just yank it out wasn’t going to work.

  Which meant that touching it was the only option.

  ”You better fucking appreciate this.” She muttered under her breath as she closed her eyes, shut the world away, and let herself see entirely through her domain. Then Vex modified her needle, turning it from something useful for sewing to something useful for doctoring; hollowing out the inside and ‘pulling’ itself inside out to apply suction.

  The first attempt worked exactly as she intended, ripping away the infection from whatever it was attached to, and sucking it into her needle as she drew back the base of her construct. The second, third, and fourth attempts showed off just how much fine control was needed for this, and began to drive her increasingly insane.

  Vex really wanted to just say fuck it and tell them she couldn’t do anything. But that would be an outright lie. She could do this, it was just hard as hell and her domain ‘fingers’ hurt already.

  And she owed them, she reminded herself.

  Almost an hour passed as she found clumps of infection in the navigator, formed new needles to stab into him, swore a lot until she got what she thought was all of the foreign substance, swore some more when she realized there was more, and then went right back to forming another needle.

  James had finished his double upgraded Copper Craft spell slotting thirty minutes ago and was just nervously sitting and starting at the floor, Zhu having a similar experience with his own awkwardly propped up spellbook, when Vex actually spoke out loud. “Hey.” Her voice was hoarse and dry, and the two prepared for terrible news. “Can you do that thing where you go away?” She asked.

  ”Me?” James inquired like an idiot.

  ”No you idiot, the magical eyeball bird that can vanish sometimes.” Vex snapped. “When you vanish, you leave, right?”

  Zhu tried so hard not to make some kind of motion as he spoke. ”Yes. I can demanifest. But… I’ll be asleep for a long time after this. Are you sure?”

  ”I can’t pull it out.” Vex admitted. “But I think I got all of it. And I don’t think it’ll go with you if I’m holding it. So… so go for it? Might hurt!”

  ”Everything does anyway.” Zhu gave a sharp sigh as he said something that made James feel like his friend had really been lying about how bad this had gotten. “Alright. If this doesn’t work… well, thanks for trying.” He almost stirred against James, but couldn’t or else he’d dislodge the needles; his habit of looking to the human for physical comfort having become so easy that he didn’t even realize until he couldn’t do it just how much he often relied on it. “Oh wake me up if you go delving though, so I-“

  ”Hey.” James said quietly, eyes focused forward. “We can banter later, okay?”

  Zhu stopped stalling. ”Okay.” He said, voice strained.

  Then he let go of physicality, feathers and eyes and long avian claws that were way too sharp for something that was held together by concentrated thought all streaming away from James’ skin outward. Orange light with its dusty texture becoming dust in truth as Zhu faded back into the realm of just dream and idea.

  All that was left was fifteen slim hollow needles hovering in the air with some kind of thick dark substance in them, which Vex rapidly yanked back and flung halfway across the room. Leaving the inner radius of her domain quickly, the oil constructs fell apart, and whatever had been in Zhu’s blood splattered across the concrete of the abandoned basement storage room.

  Both Vex and James looked at where the substance had landed, both of them politely ignoring whatever barbarian yawp Vex had let out as she’d panickedly thrown her magical tools away at high speed.

  James checked his skulljack connection and was relieved to find there was in fact still wi-fi down here. “Hey,” he said, echoing the words out loud for Vex’s benefit, “can we get a hazmat team to basement six, room… uh… something.” He motioned for the witch to get out of the room and into the hallway. “Just in case. Also bring a flamethrower, or whichever one of the kids is hoarding the fireball spell.”

  By the time an absolutely furious Deb reached their location, covered in layered authority protection, James was leaning against the wall by the door with his eyes closed and a smile on his face. The tears running unopposed down his cheeks a result of months of tension and worry and anxiety finally being gone.

  Because while Zhu was mostly asleep, his friend had pushed one final thought to him before completely falling into slumber.

  [Survivor - Deep : +5 Skill Points]

  _____

  The Lair’s restaurant - James had given up on calling it a dining area, it was a fucking restaurant now; they even had a their own bakery - was packed. Green orb bonuses that added more space, more skylights, easier navigation, and better cell reception did not account for the fact that when you told two hundred people they couldn’t leave the Lair for another several days for quarantine purposes, they would want to both eat something, and do anything other than sitting around in their apartments or assigned rooms.

  It being just after noon meant there were a lot of people here, and despite both mundane and magical attempts to improve the acoustics, it was pretty loud to have fifty concurrent conversations going on at the same time. Whatever part of the Order they worked in, whatever their lives were like, even if they were just guests for a little while, there was a lively atmosphere to the room.

  James didn’t linger in the entry hall, because he was guaranteed to get in someone’s way. In fact, he was already in someone’s way, as he blocked a camraconda trying to get past who clearly knew more about where they were going than James did.

  He wasn’t looking for an open table; that wasn’t really an option. The place was full, and even as a paladin, James didn’t get special treatment. Actually, not getting that kind of special treatment was one thing he’d insisted on. The whole point of what he wanted for the world was to create a system that motivated everyone to increase the average experience, not just keep piling more wealth into the top. So instead, he was looking for the table his loves were already sitting at, which was harder than it normally was.

  Normally he’d just get Zhu to point him in the right direction. But that clearly wasn’t a thing right now, so James relied on his sharpened vision, trying to see over the crowd and looking for a very specific mix of skin, hair, and chitin colors.

  Weaving between benches and chairs occupied by what felt like a dozen different species even if that number couldn’t possibly be correct, James deftly dodged a hyperfocused ratroach carrying a wide tray of loaded plates, and slid down the bench he was aiming for. Gliding across the seat as he hauled his sore legs over the camraconda ramp, he bumped into Alanna, and interrupted her mid word to cup her cheek, tip her head his way, and give her a long and deep kiss.

  Alanna’s attempt to keep talking through the passionate show of affection lasted about five words before she stopped and just leaned into her boyfriend. Though after the long and lingering kiss finished and their lips parted, she did immediately turn back to Arrush and Keeka to keep talking like nothing had happened. “-which is why it’s a bad foundation for civic development.” She finished, slightly flushed and out of breath. “Any questions?”

  ”Yeah.” The two Anesh both raised their hands. “How come we never get kisses like that?”

  ”You do though!” Sarah gleefully pointed out from the other side of Alanna. “And I know cause I saw you when I came in!”

  ”…I meant from James but okay that’s fair.”

  James laughed easily as he shifted into a comfortable sitting position and then promptly slouched into a much less comfortable position without realizing it. “The next time you’re the one in range when I arrive!” He assured Anesh. “Or whenever I feel like ambushing you. I’m very capricious, as you know.”

  ”I don’t know what that word means…” Arrush said from his seat on the opposite bench next to Keeka, the two entwining their tails behind them, “…but I think I can tell that you’re wrong?”

  ”That’s really impressive because that’s correct.” Anesh told the taller of the ratroaches with a confident nod. “Also James is in a good mood, which either bodes well, or it means he’s finally been taken by quarantine madness.”

  James huffed, taking the day’s menu from Alanna as she handed the thick textured cardstock over to him. “Anesh I love you, but we both know you knew me when we were normal people, and you know I could be stuck inside for a week and not notice.”

  ”You?” Anesh challenged. “You, who takes walks at two in the morning, for no reason? Yeah, I’m sure you’re having a great time trapped in here.”

  ”I can take walks at two AM here, they just aren’t outside.” James reminded him. “But seriously, there’s enough Lair that I haven’t explored all of it yet, so if I get restless I can just go down to the sub sub sub basement and poke around looking for unconnected boiler rooms or something.”

  Anesh grimaced while Alanna and Sarah just gave nervous laughs. “Did we…” he looked around the table, including at himself, “did we build a dungeon? Is that what’s happening here? James couldn’t stand not being in a dungeon at all times, so we transformed the Lair?”

  ”Oh, that’s not the reason we transformed the Lair.” Sarah happily told him. Anesh turned to look at his friend with relief, waiting for her to elaborate. But Sarah’s grin turned sheepish as she shrunk down against Alanna’s side. “I mean, we did do that though…”

  ”Oh, no we did not.” James laughed from where he had sprawled across the wide tabletop so he could take one of Arrush’s paws in his own outstretched hands. “Both jokingly, because that would be too convenient, and also seriously, because… a lot of reasons.”

  “Good reasons?” Keeka asked, a multitude of eyes shifting with teasing suspicion under the restaurant’s warm lighting as he tried to remember that sometimes, James said things that were fun, but also wrong.

  James turned his head up from where it was close to the table’s surface to see everyone seated with him staring at him expectantly, and laughed nervously. “I mean, yes, actually.” He said, pulling away from Arrush’s grip and sitting up. “Mostly it’s just that we don’t know how dungeons form. But we can say that the Lair isn’t autonomous in any way, which means it’s not a dungeon, so at the very least, we can say that this specific density of magic isn’t enough to make a dungeon. In fact, given what we do know about dungeon ecology, it seems likely that there isn’t a threshold at all. That it’s something else entirely. So we can put as many green orbs as we want into this place, and get away with it.”

  ”Well, except, right?” Alanna asked.

  ”Except what?” James quirked an eyebrow up at her.

  She grinned at the fact that her boyfriend had actually followed through on taking care of himself by restoring that particular body part. “Except that you’re not getting away with it, you’re stuck exploring dark basement rooms that are concerning enough they probably have their own random encounter tables.”

  ”It’s mostly spiders!” James confirmed cheerfully, which got a peal of giggles from Sarah.

  Across the table, Arrush’s antenna shook as he gave his own silent huff of laughter. “You are happy.” He pointed out quietly, almost so quietly that it got swallowed up by the noise of the packed room and the conversations swirling around at tables near them. “More… more happy. Extra happy.”

  ”I am, yeah.” James nodded, finding it so comically easy to relax when the biggest personal anxiety he’d been fighting off for months was just gone. “Zhu’s fine.” He could barely think of the words to express it, and found himself wearing a dopey smile as he said just that much. “He’s fine. Everything… worked out, I guess.” He shrugged. “There’s probably some kind of poetic irony in the Underburbs causing this fucked up problem, and then its own stupid circus of an invasion bringing us into contact with the same people who could fix that hyperspecific problem…” he trailed off and sighed. “Whatever. Thanks Vex, no thanks Underburbs. Maybe we should have put out a classified ad for wizards and saved the headache.”

  ”…Can we do that?” Alanna asked suddenly. “Like, can we? Is there a rule that says we can’t reverse Dresden Files this, and put a job posting that has two years of dungeon delving experience as a requirement?”

  ”You’re gonna get the wrong people with that wording.” Sarah told her with casual assuredness before flushing bright red and ducking her head like she only just realized what she’d said.

  Across the table, two of Keeka’s hands waved in the air as he tried and failed to figure out what Sarah was talking about. “It’s a kink thing.” James explained to him in the shortest possible correct sentence he could come up with.

  ”Oh!” Keeka lowered his paws, and then slowly started to raise them again. “Is it a kink thing I can learn more about?” He asked, looking between Arrush and Anesh eagerly.

  ”Uh, I could… I mean… that is…” Anesh floundered, before turning to James, Keeka’s curious gaze and Arrush’s interested one following.

  James refrained from rolling his eyes at their antics, realizing at the last moment that Keeka was just being his genuine, sincere, and openly horny self. “I’ll see if I can find some introductory youtube videos that aren’t bad.” He offered. “But hey, in the meantime… how’s everyone been? We haven’t had a lot of time together, huh?”

  Between the quarantine, the debriefings, and even just small things like trying to keep daily life around the Lair feeling normal, or replacing used spells, James hadn’t had a lot of moments with his lovers. Or even with his friends. Everyone was busy, even Keeka, who had apparently somehow been volunteered into working in the kitchen while half their staff was trapped in the medical wing, and had decided to keep up with the job afterward; though not as much, maybe.

  Now, they had their own lunch table, and, while the room was crowded and loud, it was crowded with a community that felt wonderful, and loud in a way that… actually no, James didn’t have an excuse for how loud it was. Apparently no matter what species was talking, everyone did the thing where they got louder to be heard until the noise crested and then stilled all at once so the process could repeat.

  ”Tired!” Sarah stated without elaboration.

  ”I’ve been pretty good.” Alanna said. “Not… not great I guess. My sisters seem annoyed that I’m around more, but hey, at least Banana is happy I’m here! But yeah, I’m restless, I want to get back to doing Response stuff. But since I can’t, I’ve been working on the presentation package for talking to the local city government next… whenever.” Alanna was fully on the team for going public, and ever since the Underburbs had broken enough stuff that the Order had been able to give operational advice to federal agencies, there was another push to try to connect their organization with local government bodies. City or county level, mostly just to get recognition for their nonhuman residents, and start to establish a new form of normal life for everyone. “It’s.. it’s weird I guess,” Alanna added, “people I knew died. But it doesn’t feel like it’s hit yet.”

  ”It will.” Keeka said with a quiet chitter as the voices around them lulled briefly. He was looking down at the table, breathing a little heavier than normal. “It creeps up. I don’t like it. And it is wrong, not seeing Raoul anymore. But we get used to it.”

  Everyone went quiet as they realized in different ways that Keeka and Arrush had probably been through this a lot more than any of them. They’d all lost too many friends, James decided.

  ”I’ve been trying to keep busy.” Anesh said. “Just keeping up work with Research. There’s no shortage of things to try out. Especially now that there’s a few thousand UB skill points floating around.”

  ”Oobi?” Arrush started to ask. “No, wait. Abbreviations. Yes. Oobi.” He nodded, more energetically than he used to, no longer afraid about melting the table or snapping his banded chitin. “I don’t know what to do with all of them.”

  Alanna barked a bitter laugh. “Options are limited.” She said bluntly. “There’s… a dead language, which is actually good as a perfect internal code, there’s a very specific carpentry skill-“

  ”That sounds nice!” Arrush actually did like learning how to make things.

  ”-or there’s… boats? James help me out, what am I forgetting.”

  ”Card tricks?” James shrugged, unable to remember either. “But also, there’s a new… let’s call it a problem, with that.”

  ”Oh good.” Anesh and Sarah said at the same time in almost identical tones.

  James snorted at the display, but didn’t disagree with their disdain for the dungeon. “It’s possible, though we haven’t tested it yet, that… maybe, possibly, if someone who had Underburbs points dies, then the skill crystal they drop is… functional.” He said slowly.

  There was a moment of quiet before Alanna leaned forward and jabbed a finger into the tabletop. “Functional like functional?”

  ”Yeah. Based on what we’ve learned, it seems like the crystals could be broken to get the points out, or you could just… use them like normal.” He sighed before adopting a conspiratorial tone, the others having to lean in to hear him. “That also might apply to the loot drops from our people.”

  Arrush leaned back first, claws flexing open on the table as he considered that. “Oh.” He said. “But that… is… actually that is very confusing. I don’t know how that makes me feel.”

  ”Makes me feel like shit!” Alanna announced. “That sucks!”

  ”Right,” James said with a nod, “but what if you died, and dropped one. Would you want anyone to use it?”

  ”Well duh.” Alanna said. “It’s… oh I get it. Okay, we’re back in the perverse incentives territory, aren’t we? Hey, how come that keeps happening to us? Why can’t we just get normal magic that doesn’t fucking make us feel like the bad guys for using it at all?”

  ”Capitalism?” Anesh asked.

  ”Everyone blames capitalism.” Keeka nodded in agreement. “We should keep doing it. It seems correct, but I’ve only been here for a little while so I could be wrong.”

  Alanna cut a hand through the air, disagreeing loudly. ”Magic isn’t capitalism!” She protested. “Except for… I guess the authorities kinda are! And maybe some of the orbs! And a lot of delving in general has a lot to do with the interaction between property ownership and use! And… fuck, James is magic capitalism?”

  ”No, it’s an illusion.” James said, this time rolling his eyes. “We’re used to living in a world that’s kind of crappy because everyone with money uses that money to create systems that get them more money. And that sucks, sure, but it also means that’s all we’ve ever lived under.” He fiddled with the menu, spinning the cardstock in a circle on the table before stopping it with a finger and flicking it back the other way. “We’re dealing with the less murdery version of what you two had to.” He motioned to Arrush and Keeka. “Like we’re conditioned to respond badly to things. Whether it’s with pessimism or violence, it doesn’t really matter. We’re all healing from a life of trauma in some way.”

  Slowly, Sarah scooted back off the bench, swung her legs around, and rolled herself to her feet using Alanna as a stable point. While the others watched, she padded around behind James and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Sometimes I think you’re a lot sadder than you tell everyone.” She said, just to him.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  ”Oh, for sure. But I’m also doing a lot better than I used to be!” James replied out loud. “So hey, not that I don’t love all of you,” he looked around, noting the way Keeka’s antenna jolted upward when he said that with a smile, “but are we not here to lunch? Did you guys already order or something?”

  They hadn’t. It was just busy in here. James had worked restaurant jobs before, he knew what a rush looked like. But with the Order in its own little lockdown, he hadn’t considered that there would be a kind of constant pressure on the kitchens. With all their guests, it meant that there was more work, that couldn’t easily be fixed by just adding more people.

  It could maybe be fixed by adding more green orbs. Or maybe some other location based magic. He and his friends spent a little while trying to ignore how hungry they were getting by trying to guess what the next non-Office dungeon was most likely to give them building upgrades. Sarah’s suggestion that the Pylons were an option if they managed to get a living building in and out was the kind of thing that set off the buried GM instincts in Anesh, and the conversation quickly turned into the rest of the table watching them duel with hypotheticals.

  When someone did show up to take their order, James was amused to recognize them. “Hey Jesse!” He said to the person who had originally asked about a job while they were serving almost this exact same group at a much less busy barbeque place. “Sorry I gave you a job that it looks like is your exact same job but slightly different.”

  ”My old job didn’t have magic, it’s all good man.” Jesse reassured him, their braided beard swaying as they shook their head. “You’re missing someone today though, yeah?” They motioned at the table.

  James was still looking at the group and trying to figure out who, when Alanna answered for him. “TQ’s down in Townton. Which means he gets to stay in Townton, until… you know.”

  ”Until the wizard plague is contained?” Jesse’s question had a second implied question in it. The thing a lot of people were wondering, which was, are we in trouble here?

  ”Honestly the wizard plague - all of them - are mostly dealt with. We’re just being safe, because…” James shrugged. “I mean fuck, you lived through covid. Everyone did. No one wants to do that again but also with skill points and…” he stopped. He’d been about to make a joke about spontaneous human detonation, and realized, almost certainly correctly, that maybe there wasn’t going to be a good time to joke about the actual dungeon infection that had killed at least three people in a gruesome and terrifying way. That there were real world ailments that he also wouldn’t joke about for about the same reason. “…the point is that we’ve got it handled. Thanks, largely, to everyone being cool about being trapped here.”

  ”I live here.” Jesse pointed out. “Also I’m cool hanging out for a while. There’s a new ratroach group that I get to explain football to.”

  ”Which football?” Anesh asked, clearly suspicious.

  Jesse set his line of sight on the hanging camraconda artwork on the far wall. “The correct one.” They said, dodging every part of that question before rapidly changing the topic. “So! I’d love to chat, but… this.” They motioned to the nearby tables of various people, the eclectic collection of colors and forms all sharing the trait that they were waiting for lunch. “So what can I get started for everyone?”

  Their lunch requests were less varied than normal, owing to the fact that the Lair was currently operating on inventory and not getting new food shipments for another few days, so the menu was a little limited. But everyone still got something they wanted, and Jesse vanished through the crowd after getting the same information from two other tables on the way.

  The group’s conversation lulled after that, everyone feeling the lingering exhaustion from the last few days. They didn’t stop talking, just stopped getting too deep into anything. Talking about movies or local interpersonal drama or other easy topics. When their food arrived, James mostly noticed that Arrush got a veggie burger, the ratroach enjoying his new ability to not be an obligate omnivore anymore.

  They ate, while James quietly listened in to the conversations both between the others and also around them. Sarah talking about how draining being the focal point for the avatar program was, a nearby Response group lamenting that they weren’t active right now, a pair of Underburbs-rescued young children annoying their parents pointing out every camraconda they could see, a few others of their guests complaining about the food, Nik tutoring a ratroach and camraconda pair that looked like they were studying for their GEDs while the group ate, just… life. Life in the Order, albeit a little disrupted. Rendered chaotic by the extra people in the building, civilians confused and still reeling from losing homes or being hit by Underburbs infections. Made stressful by the sealed building and the damage a lot of them had taken from fighting that same dungeon.

  But still alive. Still here. Not just survivors this time, but something more. Not quite heroes, though what they’d done was heroic, but something more professional. Starting with a few good principles, they’d begun to build a system of doing things that let them be there when the world was crashing down. And that was worth a lot more than a single hero with a magic sword, James felt.

  “So… anyone doing anything now?” Alanna asked them as they finished up their food and vacated the table, funneling through the other diners while trying to not step on any of the various kinds of tails. “I’m gonna go say hi to Banana, actually take advantage of being forced to have some downtime.”

  ”Ooh! I wanna come!” Sarah’s hand waved in the air eagerly. “I’m going kinda sorta crazy doing nothing, especially being stuck away from Clutter and with everyone too tired to do more avatar practice! Also that’s an excuse to say hi to Ann, cause I need to talk to her about the interview we were supposed to do, and then didn’t do!”

  ”…why didn’t you…” James started to ask.

  Sarah gave a theatrical sigh. “Underburbs.” She bemoaned, James mouthing along as he nodded. Obviously, the Underburbs. Harbinger of ruined plans.

  ”I’m back to iterative Climb spell testing.” Anesh both said. Each iteration of him looked like he was kinda sleepy, but happy to be messing around with cosmic forces. “Keeka, you wanna hang out?”

  The opal chitined ratroach perked up, turning his head back to agree, and in doing so nearly running into one of the volunteer kitchen staff serving food. Arrush caught him just in time, steering his boyfriend around with a kind of deft trust the two of them had built up over years of painful need for it. “Y-yes!” He squeaked out once he wasn’t in danger of crashing through anyone.

  ”James? How bout you?” Anesh asked as they made their way past the little lectern at the front of the room where a couple people were happily waiting to steal the table that had just been vacated. “Arrush?”

  As the wall of noise from other conversations faded behind them, and the still busy but much calmer lobby of the Lair opened up around the little group, Arrush nervously looked around at the people near him. “I… I was going to ask to talk to James…”

  ”Oh! Yeah, I’m cool with that. Someone tell Banana I said hi!” James nodded, trying to suppress the hostile anxiety that told him that anytime someone ‘wanted to talk to him’ that it was going to be a nightmare. “I was actually thinking of going to the baths, because of all that stuff that absolutely wasn’t delving through our basements. You wanna join me?”

  As Arrush’s slow nod became something a little more energetic, Anesh bumped into James’ with his shoulder as he passed by his boyfriend. “You two really are sweet together, you know?”

  ”Isn’t it great?” James said, a little embarrassed and still not really used to this kind of open emotional vulnerability being a normal part of life. “Oh! That reminds me! Before you go!”

  Anesh had about two seconds to be curious before James caught him in a similar kiss to Alanna earlier. Both partners studiously ignoring Sarah and Alanna’s amused clapping, even as James let go of his boyfriend and then whirled around to grab the other Anesh for a repeat performance.

  Later, both Anesh would sync up their memories, and find that James had apparently made an effort to make their kisses unique experiences. Why their boyfriend had done that, they would never really know. But it was amusing all the same, and left every Anesh with a warm feeling of affection once the thought spread through all of them.

  _____

  James tried not to stare at Arrush as the pair marked their bath pool as in use and started getting undressed. Despite his recent declaration of confidence, he was still at his core the same bashfully shy person he’d always been, especially when it was just him and someone else. And also especially when it was something that he didn’t have a lot of experience with.

  Seeing Arrush naked was something James quite liked, but it wasn’t something the two of them had been practicing or anything. Hell, beyond enjoying kissing and cuddling, they hadn’t really gone any farther with the physical side of their relationship. James worried that he was making the wrong point in trying to give Arrush space to be comfortable with his own body first, and he was halfway into thinking that he didn’t know what to do about that when he realized the simple answer was to just ask and solve the problem the way he kept telling other people to solve problems.

  Failing to not ogle his boyfriend, James watched as Arrush’s tails trailed through the water behind him as he sank into the pool first, before turning to see James staring at him. “You… you’re watching me.” He accused before bunching his limbs up so his muzzle sank into the water up to his eyes.

  ”Yes, you’re very watchable.” James replied as he walked down one of the sloped ramps into the pool, letting himself float in the deeper part of the warm water. Kicking his feet against the barely resisting liquid so he could propel himself in a lazy drift around Arrush while his boyfriend dragged himself along the side of the pool to find his favorite kind of depression in the concrete to sit in.

  It was nice that the baths at least weren’t as over-capacity as other parts of the Lair were. The regulars were still using them, of course, but there was plenty of space here under the copper pipes and crystal lights for them. And the guests were both discouraged from wandering around the Lair for safety reasons, and also just not that interested in the style of social bathing that had taken surprisingly little time to catch on within the Order.

  Some people just didn’t like being naked and wet with their friends, James supposed. Which was… not weird. It was the standard, really. It was just jarring to see how weird people got about the idea.

  Either way though, it meant there was one of the smaller pools open, and he and Arrush had some pleasant privacy.

  Enjoying the feeling of warm water on his skin, James let himself float underneath the column of pouring water in the center of the pool for a moment, the pressure wrapping around him like a comforting blanket before he swam to where Arrush had decided to sit. Curling his own legs up on the smooth stone bench next to the waterlogged ratroach, James smirked while he noticed Arrush watching him closely as he wiped wet hair off his forehead. “Now who’s staring?” He asked.

  ”It’s me.” Arrush admitted. “You are… special to me. I like looking at you.” The claw on one of his smaller arms made nervous loops in the water. “I know what you want to say. That… that I am important to you too, that I can understand why you look at me like that. And I know you mean it, because…” he motioned his main arms at James as if to say that of course James meant it. “I don’t feel it though. I don’t know if I feel right.”

  James hesitated to reach out to Arrush, though the warmth of the water fought off the chill of anxiety he felt at the words. “What, about us?” He asked. And then instantly realized how that sounded, and tried to rectify it. “Sorry, that came out kinda sharp. What’s bothering you?”

  ”No!” The mammalian half of Arrush’s eyes widened in alarm. “No, I like… I like us!” He said rapidly.

  ”Oh! Good, cause I was secretly panicking.” James twisted so he could lean against the ratroach’s side. He’d been considering just flopping back to lay across Arrush’s lap but that seemed like it was three problems wrapped in one. Too intimate, for one thing. Too likely to result in him drowning, for another. And definitely too close to breaking one of the bath rules. “So what aren’t you feeling right about?”

  Arrush idly let the arm jutting from the lower part of one side of his torso curl around James’ and ran his claws around his boyfriend’s skin, barely noticing how James reacted by leaning into the affection with a content smile. In contrast to the simple movement, his words were a lot more grim. “I don’t like the new people.” The words, even with Arrush’s reshaped voice and almost musical tenor, were so blunt that James nearly fell off his seat.

  ”…Any of them in particular?” James asked, trying not to laugh.

  ”No. Yes. Maybe.” Arrush sighed as he tried to think about what he even wanted to say. What he was trying to admit. “I don’t… I don’t think I care.” He stammered out. “Not like you, or Alanna, or… or anyone.” He wished he hadn’t sat down so he could sink fully in and submerge himself entirely in the warm water. “I don’t even know what I’m trying to tell you. I think I’m wrong, and… and even if you don’t hate this stupid body, I… I don’t want to… I think… I mean…” Arrush twitched almost violently, his claws digging into James’ side as he started to have a panic attack.

  James kept himself from flinching, but he did clasp a hand around Arrush’s claws, intertwining his fingers with those of his boyfriend as he set his other hand on the back of Arrush’s neck and the ridges of offset chitin there. “Hey. It’s okay.” He said with deliberate calm. “Deep breath. Everything’s okay.” He breathed himself, exaggerating the motion to guide Arrush though his own inhalation. “There ya go.” James murmured reassuringly to the big ratroach.

  ”Ssssorry.” Arrush’s voice clicked slightly as he sniffed back glowing tears.

  ”S’okay.” James’ voice didn’t slur, but he did have to make a conscious effort to not mimic the drawn out s. “So you’re worried that I’m gonna hate you because you don’t like the people we brought back?” He asked. “Or, like, just in general, you worry that you’re messed up because you don’t feel that close to them?”

  Arrush nodded, triangular muzzle dipping downward as a few glowing iridescent tears splashed into the pool and spread out gleaming trails of liquid. “Everyone else… is just…”

  ”Same.” James said, hugging Arrush tightly from the side.

  ”…what?”

  ”Same.” James reiterated confidently. “I mean, I feel the same way. When we were eating lunch I had to deliberately tune out two different idiots saying bigoted shit about either ratroaches or Hispanics. Yesterday someone tried to choke-slam Deb because he thought she’d break quarantine for him. And there’s a family here that’re some bullshit fucking psychopath religious sect that won’t let their kid take a purple for his broken leg.” James sucked air through clenched teeth. “It’s not everyone, obviously. Like there was also that kid who was just super fucking excited about camracondas, or so many families grateful to us for saving people they cared about, or whatever. Or, like… whatever Vex and her possibly villainous polycule is.” He shrugged. “But a good chunk of these people suck, and I hate them.”

  Arrush stared at him blankly. The fear that he’d been nursing since the Underburbs night, the anxiety of opening up and risking being rejected, the deeper nightmare that he was broken somehow as all children of the Sewer would be, all of it was just… put on hold for a second. “What?” He asked blankly, not sure he’d heard James properly.

  Pushing off the seat so he could spread his body out behind him and float facing Arrush, James rolled onto his back and smiled up at his boyfriend. “Yeah. What, did you think you had to love everyone or something? Arrush a lot of people suck. We’ve talked about this before.”

  ”I know, but… but I thought…” he didn’t know what he’d thought. “But then why… any of this? Why help them? There was a moment when I thought I knew, when they needed me and I was there and it all made sense. But now I don’t know. Is this how you feel? Are your thoughts this stupid too?”

  James nodded begrudgingly. “Pretty much, yeah. It’s really easy to be a hero when you don’t have to worry about who you’re saving I guess. And, like, let’s be fair here. I do think even people who suck deserve a chance at a good life.”

  ”I… I know.” Arrush said with a rueful smile. “That’s why… I’m here.” He sniffed, feeling like he was done crying but his eyes were still leaking. “It makes you better.”

  ”Yeah? Just me?” James asked pointedly, eyebrows raised as he looked up at Arrush’s inhuman face.

  Arrush thought about what was being asked, and then quietly leaned forward and reached out to dunk James under the water. The small act of defiance not changing the fact that he understood. That he was… the same. That he’d been changed into someone like James. When the human, laughing and sputtering, surfaced a few feet away, Arrush had just let his body fall backward into the smoothed curve in the stone technically meant for a camraconda, glowing blue tears rolling down the chitin of his face in silent streams. “Thank you.” He told James.

  ”Anytime.” James said as he wheezed out air with enough force to turn the droplets into projectiles, clearing his lungs of anything that he might have accidentally breathed in while he was being mock drowned. “I mean it. Literally anytime. You’re gonna have other panic attacks in your life; I know I sure as shit will. But when that happens, I’ll be here for you, okay? Even if it’s the same thing as before, even if you feel silly.” James bobbed in the pool, arms waving under the surface as he kept himself afloat. “I love you. You dumbass.”

  ”…When you say it like that…” Arrush couldn’t keep himself from chittering out a laugh. “Thank you.” He added in a small voice.

  James flicked a finger through the water, sending a spray of drops toward Arrush. “Hey, thanks for trusting me. This is a team effort.” He added as he held his arms open and let Arrush float out to him so he could wrap the ratroach in a loose hug.

  Arrush just closed his eyes and used half his arms to paddle at the water while he held onto James. Enjoying the moment, even if he could hear other people moving around them in the nearby neighboring pools. They were nicely sealed away by the decorated privacy screens around their part of the baths, but this was a place people went to relax and socialize just as much as it was a place to actually bathe, and so they weren’t truly alone.

  But that was fine. Because these people were people he cared about. Someone in the Order was someone who had, in a way, proven themselves to Arrush. And while he still felt a hint of the lingering fear that the voices and laughs around them were a threat, he also felt… comforted. Warm, not just from the bath itself, but from the knowledge that there was someone nearby that was safe.

  It was nice. Just nice. No more qualifiers or conditions, no more old wounds or painful memories. Arrush was here, now, and for some incomprehensible reason, he had been accepted as he was.

  ”I love you too.” He muttered into James’ hair.

  James actually blushed, but didn’t let Arrush see. ”Aaw.” He said. “So hey, before I actually clean off with soap and stuff, cause, like, I was rooting around in the dustiest crawlspaces I could find, got any other anxieties I can shoot down?”

  There was one that Arrush was thinking about, and while he was definitely a little embarrassed by it, he was already busy being emotionally open today, so he figured he should just go ahead with it. “W-why are we not… you know… having sex?” He asked sheepishly.

  ”Cause I’m kinda dumb.” James admitted, deciding that coy humor was the way to go here. “I was thinking I’d give you space to get used to being yourself, and I didn’t want to pressure you. And now it’s been, like, two months, and I feel like I fucked up waiting too long. I was actually thinking about this earlier and-“

  Arrush jumped in. ”We… we could!” He said, perhaps too eagerly.

  ”…Yeah, okay.” James went back to blushing. “I mean, yeah, I’d like that.”

  ”We could… nnnnnow?” Arrush added curiously, his claws trailing down James’ back in a much different way than he had been previously.

  James laughed lightly and pushed away, gently but firmly. “Nooooo we can not!” He said with a reassuring smile. “Buddy,” he adopted his favorite nickname that Alanna used for him and Anesh all the time, enjoying the mirrored feel of the word, “I would love to. But I actually do feel kinda grimy, and also, that is absolutely against the bath rules.”

  ”S-stupid rules.” Arrush stammered. But he was smiling back too.

  ”I agree. But, at some point, we won’t be in the…” James trailed off as his phone started beeping from the basket his stuff was in by the side of the pool. “…the…” the noise continued, audible over even the constant sound of rushing water all around, and he sighed deeply. “I’m gonna murder whoever gave JP access to the thing that lets him override mute settings. And then JP.” He said.

  “It could be someone else?” Arrush offered unhelpfully.

  James grumbled as he pulled himself up out of the water, and tried to grab his phone without dripping all over his clothes. “It’s not.” He bemoaned. “Which means I’ve got something to do, I guess.”

  ”It’s okay!” Arrush told him as he bent his legs and let himself start sinking again into the deeper water. “I’m not… leaving. We have time.” He said it like he was only just realizing that fact.

  But it was true, and James felt it too. “Alright, alright. But if this is something that could have waited, I’m gonna set one of the pools in here for fuckin’ arctic and throw JP in it.” James was pretty sure he could make good on that threat. A lot of the pools were connected by pipes now, so that the purification brooches could hit multiple of the smaller ones at the same time, but Bill had done some kind of weird trick with either the thermodynamic tunnel spell or some kind of weird mundane construction material probably stolen from a lab that let them mostly maintain their own temperatures. So James was pretty sure it was possible.

  The message on his phone was from JP. And it asked for James to come join him in the briefing warehouse as soon as he could, but since it wasn’t marked as ‘or else someone will die or something’, James chose to take his time, and actually scrub himself off properly. And also help Arrush do the same, the two of them maybe wasting a little time messing around with making globe bubbles out of the soap, James showing his partner something from his own childhood that Arrush picked up with a grinning sense of glee.

  But eventually, stalling to annoy JP just felt like he was stalling for no reason. So James kissed his boyfriend, dried off, and headed out to figure out what he was needed for.

  _____

  “Thank you everyone for attending this situation update.” JP said, standing at the front of a cluster of about fifteen chairs filled with Order knights. “This is just a quick thing to keep you all apprised of the changing situation in Springfield before the quarantine ends and a lot of you may be redeployed there.”

  James raised his pruned hand, speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Hi JP. You pinged my phone while I was in the middle of something intimately personal, and I just want you to know, I’ve already planned my revenge.”

  ”…Right, so, that’s not really part of the update, really.” JP said with a calm drawl. “Do you want to deal with that now, or…?” He didn’t seem that concerned, standing up in front of the group like he was dressed for a board room meeting.

  ”No no, this’ll be later.” James said. “Go ahead.”

  ”Yeah, good luck with that.” JP aimed a playful finger gun at his friend before getting back to the point. “Anyone else want to plan revenge against me?” He decided to check before continuing, and just stared down Ben when the friend put his hand up until the limb got lowered back down. “Great. You know, the fact that we are somehow the most professional group dealing with this is a nightmare.”

  James snapped into actual paladin mode in an instant. “Sorry, wasn’t the National Guard there? And FEMA? FEMA and whatever ancillary medical staff they had, I mean? Local emergency response? State agencies of some kind?” He questioned. “It’s been three days, what’s gone wrong?”

  ”The Guard are currently hampered by the lack of close logistical support.” JP said with clear distaste. “Because they don’t have a base in the city.”

  ”Wait, really? There’s one on the maps.” Smoke-And-Ember spoke up, the camraconda mentally flicking through the provided documentation for this meeting. “Is it not there?”

  ”It is not.” JP confirmed bitterly. “And yes, I know it has google reviews. I don’t know when they stopped being real, but the base used to be there, and is gone now.”

  ”That’s fuckin’ horrifying.” Ann spoke up, Banana’s human foster parent folding her thick arms as she tilted back in the provided folding chair. “What happened to all the guns and stuff?”

  JP nodded her direction. “Excellent question.” He complimented the knight. “Moving on. FEMA has actually been showing good resilience against memeplex issues, and you’ll all be getting a vote prompt later about whether we should provide them with support for that. They’re taking the biggest burden off of Recovery, so we’re focusing on reuniting separated social groups, and helping anyone who lost a home to the Big Chomp.”

  ”Do not call it that.” James commanded.

  ”The Grand Munch.” JP corrected, irreverent about the destruction of multiple miles of suburb and the deaths of thousands. “So everyone is aware, we’re seeing information loss about the event. People who definitely lost family or friends to the event are aware they’ve lost something, but the details are getting fuzzy. Efforts are focused on getting them on their feet somewhere, there’s definitely slots open in the rotation if anyone wants to help with that.”

  James raised two fingers in a ‘quick question’ motion. “Are we forgetting anyone?”

  ”No.” Ben jumped in. “Or at least, if we are, it’s a stronger effect than our own infomorph defenses, so it doesn’t matter.” He glanced at JP and got a nod, then turned back to the group. “Planner is still recovering from their injuries. If anyone is a deeper host to Planner, check in with Research later. They want to try a shared dream thing to strengthen him.”

  JP picked back up as a few of the knights made their own notes about the conversation. ”The big reason for this is to inform you all of two things.” He flicked a hand, and then frowned as he remembered that Planner actually wasn’t going to be playing hologram for him. “The first is that we’ve identified two of the known surviving enemy delvers.”

  ”There was more than one? Fuck.” James had hoped the people he’d fought were the last of them. But no such luck apparently.

  JP gave him a sympathetic look. He’d been hoping the same thing. ”Raya, and Assam, both with no other known names. Descriptions match a pair of deserters from the Kazakhstan ground forces. Their records are… well they aren’t intact exactly.”

  ”Why do you have the… no nevermind.” A human James didn’t recognize shook his head as he cut off his own question.

  ”We’re on the lookout for them.” JP concluded. “I know you all went through debrief, but if anyone has more to share about either of them from contact during the fight, let Ben know after.” He motioned to his assistant, who waved without looking up from his laptop. “Anyway. Second thing. Investigating the area is going to be a giant pain in the dick, because the city is selling land there.”

  James felt like there was no way he heard that correctly. Looking around at the others, he saw a lot of similar confused stares and sideways glances. “Sorry, you wanna… explain a bit?” He asked.

  ”The city of Springfield is selling open land to developers.” JP said, using the tone of someone giving an informative seminar and not telling them about the world’s biggest mistake. “There’s several square miles of cleared land, and it’s within the greater metropolitan area, so they’re auctioning off plots of it for development because it’s well placed and probably highly profitable on a longer timeline.”

  The camraconda sitting next to Smoke-And-Ember made a stuttering hiss. “Oh.” Their digital voice pronounced the word with perfect clarity. “You are making a joke.”

  ”Nope. Sorry.” JP said, shaking his head. “So our tentative plan for all of you to investigate the dungeon boundary, scout out entry points, and prepare a counterattack, might be hampered slightly.”

  James raised his hand again. “Hi, yes, sorry. Um… what the fuck?” He asked. “I mean I get it, antimemes, but fucking come on, right?! People can just walk out there and see where there’s severed power lines and sewer mains!”

  ”They could, yeah.” JP agreed. “And they aren’t.”

  ”That’s fucking stupid!”

  ”Yeah, I know.” He shrugged easily, the small infomorph he was wearing as a fashion accessory rippling along his shoulders and neck. “We’re looking into whether bureaucracy has a kind of amplifying effect on memeplexes. Research thinks it’s a really cool field to study, and I think it’s a giant problem.”

  James leaned back in his chair, staring up at the boxy ventilation pipes and exposed wiring overhead. Letting out a long groan, he eventually asked, “What are we even supposed to do about that?”

  ”Find a way to break memeplexes?” Ben offered. “Please. It’s getting really annoying.” The irony of him saying that wasn’t lost on the group.

  ”So no Underburbs retaliation?” Ann asked, cutting to the point, rubbing at a long scar on her chest.

  ”I mean, I’m saying it’s going to be harder, not impossible.” JP said. “But given the evidence that James picked up during his first time through that shithole, and some more thorough rogue checks now that we know what to look for… I’m thinking the Underburbs is a lot more mobile than we thought it was.”

  Processing that terrifying thought, James sighed. “What, like, it takes bites out of cities, then moves on?”

  ”It would explain why we originally saw the GPS beacon coming from two places, before it left Japan. And I can match the time it vanished to roughly the start of the development of a few new housing structures.” JP grimaced. “Not sure when or where it hit Kazakhstan, but I’d be willing to bet that’s how our delver friends got involved. Right now, we’re waiting on Ishah’s group to find updated ground penetrating scans of the place, just to check, but my gut says it’s not there anymore.”

  ”…so you brought us here to tell us that we don’t have anything pressing to do when the quarantine lifts.” The human knight James was still trying to put a name to asked.

  ”Yeah.” JP nodded. “Well, no. There’s a lot to do. But that’s kinda Nate’s department, not mine. I’m going back to Alaska, because our FBI contact wanted to meet me in Anchorage for some reason.” He saw James starting to ask a question and cut him off. “Okay fine, he wanted to meet you, but you’re also going to be busy. Let me work, James.”

  James had no intention of letting JP get away with that so easily. But his interference wasn’t going to come in the way JP probably expected. The thing was, JP kept operating on his own initiative and solving specific real problems. The fact that he was heavily integrated into the organizational side of a part of the Order didn’t change the fact that he kept acting like a paladin. And James wondered if he could get away with that as a form of revenge. Pinning his friend down with an actual admission that he cared, and would continue to care.

  Probably not. JP was wily that way. But James might still try it.

  The annoying part was, JP was probably right. A lot of them were going to be busy. They’d basically turned off the Order’s operational momentum for a week, and that meant there were a ton of things to do piling up. There was medicine to distribute, delves to resume to harvest important resources and tools, investigation and research to be done, and a hundred little projects that required people to be able to leave the Lair.

  So while James would never be upset that they’d taken on the Underburbs and kicked its teeth in, he was ready for this little vacation to end so they could get back to doing other stuff. Especially delving. He was going to take so many of his friends and partners on delves after this.

  Partly because it was fun. Partly because it was useful. But also…

  They’d encountered an actual enemy. Not someone like Status Quo, that were horrible but manageable. No, these were delvers, like them. And the Order was going to need to be as strong as James could make it if they were going to be able to manage fights like that in the future without relying on their Cam-shaped ace in the hole.

  Personal and magical strength wasn’t the only thing either. As much as he loved the Lair, this event clearly showed that they needed to be thinking bigger when it came to their property. An actual base to fall back to for the knights would have meant they could have spared half the Order from quarantine, avoiding risk to the all the people who hadn’t been in the field. And a prepared place for rescued civilians would have been a great idea before they needed it.

  But they could learn from this. They could do better next time.

  Because, as James half-listened to the rest of JP’s briefing about FEMA activity and statistical changes in property values, he was mostly thinking that it was only a matter of time.

  There would be a next time. He’d known that last time, and he’d sworn he’d do better. And he had.

  But he could do better still. The Order could do more. All they needed was the right resources, the right people, the right magic. All James had to do was find them. And this time, he wasn’t just determined.

  He was excited to get started.

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