I’m glad time is a bit wibbly wobbly here. It gives me a chance to try to process what all just happened, how I feel about it, and what I’m going to do about it. It doesn’t take me long to send a little message to Order and the Shield, and after some mental deliberation, I send a bit of intent to the Raven and Laermali, too. The latter are probably busy, but there’s no harm in inviting them, right? With that done, I can have a floating sit-down to figure things out.
For starters: I’m angry. Not the fiery rage that burns out rapidly kind of angry, either. No, this is the making plans to ruin someone’s whole career kind of cold, calculating anger. The Betrayer struck at the people, not just me. Dungeon against dungeon, fine, I don’t like it, but that’s just how it goes. But trying to attack them? That’s a mistake the Betrayer isn’t going to get to regret for long.
I mentally pop the plans for revenge in the freezer where they belong, because there are a lot of things I’ll need to figure out before they’ll be anything besides malicious daydreams. And I have happier things to think about right now, too.
Like how well my scions stepped up for this. It’s still pretty terrifying to be the bait, and while the attacks were happening, I’m sure I made Teemo reconsider ever becoming my Voice as I couldn’t even distract myself with biting my fingernails. But Grim handled keeping the delvers safe, Rocky worked with Miller to protect the army and my followers, and Fluffles was able to bundle up the Harbinger after Torlon was able to distract it. They still lost the old wolfkin at the door… I never did get his name. I should ask the Shield if he has any plans for burial, or if I should give him a place of honor in the mausoleum in the cemetery.
And then there was Sue and Tiny handling the Unseen, and Unseen is right for that thing. I didn’t even realize it was there until Sue tripped the evacuation shortcut for my core. It was weird watching Tiny wrap up something so small, but I’m glad he did. I’m also glad the Betrayer seems to have underestimated what we could do with his wayward scions.
I don’t know how much mana the Betrayer has, but with how old it is, I get the feeling the Unseen would have won an all out brawl just by virtue of having so many haymakers to throw. But it clearly was expecting me to just squish the Unseen and send it back, and to be fair, that’s how these things usually go.
But I get the feeling that Order was able to properly unmake the last Harbinger, so even if it was still connected to a dungeon, it wouldn’t have respawned. So what will it do once it feels three Harbingers and its Conduit simply cease existing?
That’s the real question I need to answer before pulling my anger back out of the freezer. If it were me, if I launched an attack on a distant dungeon and it failed, say the attack on the Maw… I’d expect a counter attack. It might think I can’t reach it down in the mantle, but I bet its scions vanishing will make it reconsider its invulnerability.
Which… is unfortunate. I’d much rather the ancient evil underestimate me. And if I somehow make it panic, that’d probably be even worse. If it thinks I can come after it, it’ll probably hunker down, maybe call in everything it has. If it panics, it might send everything after me. Hopefully I didn’t make that good a showing at stopping the attack.
I need info, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get it. I don’t think my rockslides will do very well in the mantle. My dragons will be fine, but I don’t think they’ll go unnoticed. It’s been staring at magma forever, it’ll probably notice when weird dragons start showing up, and probably put two and two together.
I might need to send them anyway, though. There’s no way I’m catching it by surprise, and attacking its stronghold blindly would be a terrible idea. Even just having a general shape of its territory would make it easier to figure out how to actually get my denizens in there… and possibly the delvers and my enclaves, too.
I want to forbid them, but I already know they’ll figure out something on their own if I don’t deliberately include them. None of the ones that joined in the raid would want to miss fighting an ancient murderous dungeon. And my own followers would see it as their duty to put something like that down, even if I try to keep them away.
I’m going to need to give Thing more resources for the composite armor. And I’ll probably need to ask Nova to practice her sculpting. We’re going to need something to ride through the mantle to get to the Betrayer. Teemo will be able to help some, but it’ll be more on Nova than him for this, I think.
My preliminary plans are interrupted as Order approaches, and I smile at the tesseract as he closes in. “Good to see you! Not the best circumstances to invite you over, but I figure you’d want to see this quickly.”
“Indeed. Three Harbingers this time… and a different scion from the Betrayer?”
I nod and pluck the wad off the non-existent wall like a spitball, and separate the Unseen from the other three. “I’m pretty sure this is what ate the First Sanctuary, though the Betrayer might have more than one.”
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Order hums as he accepts the scion, turning it over as he gets more familiar with it. As he does, both the Shield and the Raven draw near, and I welcome them in much the same way.
“I’m sorry about your doorman, Shield,” I apologize, and the Raven nods.
“I was delivering him when we both got your message, in fact.”
“Do not worry, my friend. He is proud to have done his duty, and already he is crystalizing and protecting his memories to learn from, before he either moves on, or rejoins the cycle.” Despite the Shield not having a face, I can feel a sense of bittersweet pride from it about its disciple.
“Do you have a burial plan for this sort of thing?” I ask, and the Shield bobs in a nod.
“He will be interred with honor at the Armory, not far from the Bearer in Stasis.”
I give a small smile at that. “I’m still sorry he had to go, but I’m glad to see he’ll be honored.”
“Indeed. But in that same vein, I am very interested in delivering justice to the one that laid him low.”
“That would be… this one, I think.” I peer at the knot of Harbingers and grab the one that feels slightly stronger, assuming it’s from having killed the poor old wolfkin.
The Shield accepts it and examines the Harbinger before bobbing in a nod. “This is the one. I will learn from it and unmake it in my own demesne later.”
“You can have one if you want, too, Raven.”
He reaches over and plucks a webbed Harbinger to eye. “Interesting. It doesn’t have a place it belongs.” He pecks at it, pulling a small piece off to sample, ignoring its howls of pain and anger. “I don’t often get a snack.”
“Will you be able to help us finally deal with the Betrayer? I don’t suppose you could just kill it yourself?”
The Raven shakes his head. “Even if I knew where it was, I doubt it. If the Harbinger has no place, I suspect the Betrayer would be the same. With no destination, I cannot take it.” He smiles at the Harbinger in his claw. “A gift is one thing, but I can’t go claim it on my own.”
I try not to sigh in disappointment. It’d be nice if things were easy, but if removing the Betrayer was that simple, they wouldn’t have just sealed it away last time. Before I can say anything else, I feel a new presence nearing. “Laermali, I presume?”
The form resolves into an odd elven woman, looking like a slowly-shifting mixture of every variety of elf I’ve seen, and quite a few I haven’t yet. She smiles and nods, resting one hand on her pregnant belly, holding the other forward in greeting. “And you must be the ever mysterious Thedeim.”
I chuckle and nod, taking her hand to shake. Part of me says I should do the gentlemanly kiss on the hand thing, but I want to keep things professional. “Mysterious is a nice way to say confusing.”
She laughs and nods. “Like your message. I didn’t expect to receive an invitation from you to visit, but it looks like you’ve gotten something interesting. Are you announcing your pantheon?”
I can feel Order and the Shield grinning behind me as I shake my head. “No. I was just attacked by the Betrayer, and I figured I’d need a few friends if I want to do something a bit more permanent than just sealing it away.”
She gives me a confused look for a moment before nodding. “Ah yes, you’re a dungeon, aren’t you? I keep hearing about new affinities and impossible new spells. It’s easy to forget you still have a physical presence among the mortals. What did you need my help with?”
I shrug and hand her the last Harbinger, which she takes with a look of disgust and intrigue. “I captured three Harbingers and the Unseen, another scion that belongs to it. I figure, with all of your help, we can figure out something to track the Betrayer so I can go subsume it.”
“Can you reach it?” Laermali asks, eying the Harbinger in her hand. “I’m told it was sealed and thrown into the molten abyss.”
“I have magma dragons, including a scion. With her and my other scions, I’m sure we can figure out something. But we need to know where to go, first.”
“Are you ready to strike right now?” she presses, looking surprised.
I shake my head. “Not even close, but I also get the feeling it’s not going to be easy to make some kind of tracker.”
“Indeed it won’t,” says Order. “The seal was intended to hide the Betrayer away so none could find it to free it. Even with four scions, tracing it back will not be simple.”
The Raven sighs and holds out his claw toward me, offering back the pecked Harbinger. “Removing the Betrayer is more important than my snack. I wasn’t always this busy, and I suspect it may have something to do with that.”
I frown while the others look like someone just admitted what they’ve all been trying to ignore.
Order sighs. “I’ve been going back over the System recently, and things are not quite working as they should.”
“Far more people have needed Protection in recent centuries than the past,” adds the Shield.
Laermali sighs and nods. “And my scholars haven’t been inspired in generations. How many can you accommodate for your attack, Thedeim?”
I consider the logistics, the abilities of my scions, and I can’t help but smile. “As many as will physically fit in the Betrayer’s territory. Between my scions and my followers, I’m sure we can move as many people as can be mobilized. I just don’t know how wide the beach of Normandy will be for us.”
The others look confused at that, but I continue. “You guys focus on the tracking, and I’ll focus on transportation. Once we know where to look, my dragons can hopefully look around and get back without all dying. Then we’ll know where to land, and how many people can come and have a hand in stopping the Betrayer, once and for all.”
