The death of the giant marked the end of the assault and victory for Timberhollow, not that many of their forces were in a fit state to celebrate. Balrem collapsed soon after, Ivy suspected he’d been running on grit and adrenaline for some time. His companions swiftly rendered aid but were casting increasingly wary glances towards the slowly regenerating lich, unsure of whether they could safely extract everyone. Thankfully, an elf arrived.

  Ivy wondered how they had entered the second floor before it reset until she realised the gold armoured [guardian] was level 41. She’d just had plenty of evidence of just what level of power that was capable of. Ivy let out a pent-up breath as it became apparent she’d arrived to defend the dungeon, and finding it suitably defended, began evacuating those who did the rescuing. Her spectrum affinity afforded her a minor healing skill, and she and Gabrielle set to stabilising everyone for the journey out. Perhaps it was the sudden release of tension, but Ivy couldn’t help but find the reactions to the elf's arrival oddly comic, everyone as astounded to see an elf in the dungeon as she had been when she first mistook Trafin for one. Apparently, they really didn’t get out much.

  Farad was among those evacuated, though with much more care. He was only alive because of the supposedly unknown god’s effect, so there was some coordination to ensure he was only removed once powerful healers had arrived to tend to him. Even then, it sounded touch and go, with a full recovery being a pipe dream. Thankfully, over the next week as Ivy and Evelyn waited for her [oracle] skill to recharge – a detail Div had apparently conveniently forgotten to mention would be necessary - with things slowly beginning to return to some facsimile of normality, they managed to overhear that while he wouldn’t be returning to normal duty, Farad lived. There was even some talk of him overseeing training recruits instead of Sarge. Speaking of whom, it sounded like both Sarge and Jenny had enough on their own plates, the former filling the now vacant captain position and the latter filling in the master sergeant role in turn. Ivy wondered did that make Jenny Sarge now?

  As agonisingly long as it felt, eventually the cooldown on her [oracle] skill did expire, and she stood beside Evelyn in the core room as the tight-lipped boyish figure who dubbed himself representative of the gods appeared.

  “Let me be the first to congratulate you on your survival. Truly a good showing. Now, I believe you have some questions for me? Then I’ll return dear Ivy’s emotions. Better to do it in that order if you happen to care about the answers.”

  “You’re the unknown god.” Ivy hadn’t intended to be quite that blunt, but after all this time with the theory it felt good to finally confront him with it.

  He grinned, “That’s not a question.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  Evelyn glanced at her, apparently confirming she was satisfied before asking, “What was or is your stake in all this? Why did you care if we lived or died?”

  Nodding, clearly having expected some version of the question he replied, “To understand that you first need some concept of just what a mess of things The Three made. You already know much of their reputation is wrong: they don’t care, they left. What you may not appreciate is, we weren’t much better off when they were here. They weren’t some unknowably wise beings; they were children put in charge of a world like some petty noble brat who inherits the title to a city far too soon. Oh, they were powerful to be sure, more powerful than any of the minor gods, but they had no concept of how to use that power, of how to create or manage a world. So, they acted like children. They tried things, and they cheated, and when it all didn’t work they threw a tantrum and left. Leaving us to pick up the pieces.”

  “When you say they cheated…”

  “They tried to copy things from other worlds rather than create their own, messing them up in the process of course. Take the original races they each ‘created’. Ivy, you immediately noticed the dwarves didn’t make their own armour. The theory that it was because of Aurumcrest flooding the market has the issue in reverse. Aurumcrest succeeded because the dwarves while good at fighting, are awful at making things, be it armour, weapons, or even booze. They kept all their warlike elements from other worlds, and their love of metal, gold in particular, but lost most of what makes them creative and productive. Moreover, though I hate to admit it, they are probably the most viable of the original three races. The Lover…” His usual jovial manner was gone as he visibly struggled to keep his tone even, “The Lover cared about forming interpersonal connections and happened upon a race in other worlds that enticed those who listened to their song. Of course that wouldn’t be good enough for her race,” bitterness evident in every word, “Her sirens needed a more powerful voice. Accidentally, or perhaps intentionally, making it so every word we uttered to the other races warped their minds, binding them to us, making them never want to leave until we died. Of course, this was quickly noticed, but rather than isolation the warlike dwarves opted for extermination of my people. A feat they would never have achieved without the elves. I bear authority over the dwarfbane mark with pride but that my meagre retribution on the elves is what they call the elfcurse I will never understand. I didn’t curse them, their creator did, I simply forced them to keep it secret.”

  Ivy didn’t dare breathe; Div’s anger was palpable.

  Evelyn however was not so cowed, “What then, is the nature of the cursed existence The Seeker foisted upon them?”

  Lady Phiro raised the candle, arthritis adding a dull pain to even that meagre action, and turned to her reliable [guardian], “Well then old friend, it seems like everything is prepared. Thank you again for saving Trafin and his companions, I know how much it must have cost.”

  “Far less than you so willingly sacrificed for our people, even before tonight. I wish there were another way.”

  “It must be done. We need to send a clear message, and I am the logical choice. Besides, I’d rather go out in one great feat than have what little remains of me chipped away.” A wistful smile crossed her face.

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  “What is it?”

  “It’s rather silly. I was just thinking tonight, for once, I could have experienced the convenience of a lightstone.”

  Before her companion could respond to her flight of fancy, she stepped onto the teleportation circle, activating it with practised ease. It was odd to be the one teleporting, and more so to forego the use of a mana stone. She felt the transfer in her joints as she appeared in front of a much larger group of elves lit only by their torches. They scrambled as she appeared, loading themselves and their wagons onto the teleportation circle. Masked guardians kept watch at the edge of the circle and a few corpses of local guards littered the square around. She knew it soon wouldn’t matter anyway.

  Seeing an elf who appeared to be in charge stepping towards her she asked, “Is this everyone?”

  “Yes, and we have all the mana stones not currently employed in the wards.”

  “You’re sure the dwarves and giant originated from here?”

  “We are.”

  Things would never have gotten this far if they weren’t, but she had to confirm.

  “Safe journey then, Timberhollow will be glad to have you all.”

  “Seeker guide you.”

  With that final encouragement Lady Phiro prepared a spell she had cast so many times before, but on a much grander scale. As she looked inward, she found her mana, the vast lake that looked so tiny in the crater that was once an ocean. She was about to use every drop. She selected the destination as the Timberhollow circle and directed the spell to include all the elves included within its twin before her, as well as their copious baggage. Peripherally she was aware of a distant shout, but it didn’t matter as she confirmed enough mana remained. Every city’s wards connected back to their teleportation circle so that they could be properly maintained by the elven enclave nearby. Detecting when and where there was a break in the wards with this arrangement was much more convenient than having to manually check each mana stone that comprised them. Unbeknownst to most, this had a secondary use she was employing now, as with the remainder of her mana she added every mana stone in the city’s wards as a target of the spell. Feeling the dancing mana almost crumbling under its own weight, she activated her final spell, teleporting away all the elves, their belongings and mana stones in the city which dared to attack the dungeon, to Timberhollow. Then the years caught up with her all at once, and the great Lady Phiro crumbled to dust.

  “The elves are capable of great feats of magic, but only because their mana is tied to their lifespan. It never restores and they age with every minor cast.”

  Evelyn gasped beside her, “That’s why they want mana stones, isn’t it? It gives them a way to offset mana costs.”

  “Precisely.”

  “But don’t elves have huge lifespans anyway?” Ivy asked. “Not to be harsh, but doesn’t that just basically bring them down to normal?”

  The look on Evelyn and Div’s faces immediately told her she was missing something.

  “Remember Ivy, every professional is only considered such because they use the necessary skills, all of which cost mana each time they are used. Elves only have their charmed position in society because they maintain the barriers and teleportation circles, both of which would be immensely mana intensive; to say nothing of the challenges of stopping children emptying their mana pools when they first receive them...”

  “In practical terms, you are somewhat correct on average, Ivy. However, that’s only because some elves expend themselves rapidly to maintain their race’s inflated importance, while their leaders lead more cautious lives, their continued existence only possible because of the deaths of their kin.”

  “Okay that’s definitely interesting, and I can see how it’s messed up, but what does The Three’s negligence have to do with your interest in us?”

  “Straight to the point as always, Ivy. The Three finally abandoned the world completely at the time of the Great Breaks, when the greed of leaders caused cities to war and compromise the dungeons near their rivals. The point I was trying to make is that those childish fools hadn’t been managing the world well even before they left and introduced the calamities known as dragons when they left in a fit of pique. Many minor gods remain, but apart from Pamyel, Exousia and I, they are pitifully weak, unable to properly fill their roles. We have minor gods of life and death but they are only barely managing the cycle because of constant help from Exousia with their domain of order, which is why they haven’t made an appearance like Pamyel and myself. Between the three of us we’ve barely been holding this broken world together since The Three left, but we are constrained by our domains and frankly our efforts aren’t sustainable.”

  “You’re using us as a power source! The altars are a way to generate faith for the gods through our dungeon, aren’t they?”

  Div smiled at Ivy’s accusation, “Correct, but there’s a greater goal. We want to increase Evelyn’s power.”

  “You want me to reach level 100 and ascend. To bolster life and death with a god of undeath.”

  Ivy couldn’t help but ask, “Is adding undeath to the cycle really a good solution?”

  Div shook his head, “Better some dead become undead than the cycle breaks altogether, no young being born, the spirits of the dead slipping free of this world, and that’s just the beginning. It would be bad. Truly, terribly awful to an extent that’s beyond even my ability to predict. There’s a lot wrong with the world, but that problem takes priority.” Suddenly he grinned, “But you underestimate yourself Evelyn. The Three screwed just about everything up, including the system, and a detail that most have forgotten is before the system we weren’t called minor gods, we were called domain gods. Those who had accumulated enough power to become immortal and had begun channelling into both a concept and a place of power truly their own.”

  Evelyn was pale and stuttering, so Ivy found the words, barely believing them herself, “Dungeons. The minor gods are the controllers of dungeons. Which means Evelyn is already...”

  “The god of undeath. We’re still not quite sure what glitch in the system from your attempt to create a phylactery caused your ascension, and one of the few safeguards The Three thought to install ensured the notes were destroyed, but there is no doubt about the results. Ever wonder why you always used undead creatures, even when you got powerful life skills? You chose your domain. Or it chose you, it doesn’t really matter but either way the further you lean into it the stronger you become but also the more it influences you.”

  “So now what? Just keep letting Evelyn get stronger until she’s able to help? Also isn’t one of your domains secrets?”

  “Well, half the fun of secrets is sharing them with a select few, though I’ll admit it doesn’t come naturally to me. As for Evelyn, she’ll get stronger over time, and now that this assault was repelled, has time to properly complete her raid floor, ensuring her safety from nearby threats. But Ivy, surely you didn’t think we had no plans for you as well? The Great Breaks meant a great many dungeons were destroyed, and some who reached level 100 chose to wait to form their dungeon. In short, we have many potential [dungeon keepers] in dire need of a talented [guide]. What do you think? Interested?”

  Ivy soon after had her emotions and memories returned to her which led to many days of trying to untangle her feelings, supported ably by her dear friend Evelyn. Yet through it all one emotion burned brightly, sometimes at the forefront, other times a silver lining in the backdrop, which Evelyn described as quintessentially Ivy. Excitement.

  Adventurers Guild Craftsman. You can also keep track of what I'm up to by following me as an author on RR or on my (including as a free member). I posted an a few days ago that may be of interest.