Dungeon world 4 a dungeo.., p.39
Dungeon World 4: A Dungeon Core Experience, page 39
Dualborn…
A faint, whispery voice echoed through his head, so soft and brief that he thought he imagined it. He cocked his head to the side in confusion, but when there was no repetition of the voice, he dismissed it as just a figment of his exhaustion.
Dualborn…
There it was again, though it was stronger that time. Fred wasn’t sure exactly what the voice was, or what in the world a “Dualborn” was, but it certainly didn’t sound like any sort of Mana Communication he had heard before.
Dualborn…we must speak…
Now Fred was convinced he was hallucinating, because he could’ve sworn with that last message he could almost pinpoint where it was coming from. He looked off to the east, where the Air territory was, but he couldn’t see anything for as far as he could see. Far off in the distance, he could see the faint outlines of some of the Air defenders on the border, which was still progressing at a faster pace than anything else – but that didn’t seem to be what he was looking for.
Hurry, Dualborn…I don’t have much time…
That helped to pinpoint it even further, but when he looked where he thought it was coming from – where he estimated the Light and Air territories intersected – it was at least a half mile from the border. It wasn’t until he looked through what he could of his Territorial Sight that he saw a tiny ovoid space where neither of the territories intersected; because he wasn’t in his own territory, he couldn’t see any more than a general absence of a territory, but he knew that it was exactly what he was looking for.
“Elder, I have to go to the east for a moment,” he blurted out to the running Council member ahead of him. It was almost involuntary how the words came out of his mouth, but as soon as they passed his lips he knew he had to go. Even if the others didn’t join him, he knew that he couldn’t pass up whatever was calling to him, even if it turned out to be a trap; his intuition said that it wasn’t for some reason, and he was inclined to trust those instincts.
His words stopped the whole group, who looked at him in confusion – and an exasperated look from the Elder. “We can’t stop now when we’re almost there – we need to get home to finish up with some healing on all the captives that I hadn’t been able to get to yet.” She wasn’t lying; although everyone was up and mobile, Fred could tell by looking at the Interface on a couple that they were still injured – just not enough to prevent them from moving.
“I understand, Elder – I’m not asking you to stop; I can go alone, because it’s something that I have to do.”
“What is it that is so important that you want to gallivant behind enemy lines?” she asked, still annoyed but now curious.
Fred didn’t really have a good reason, only the feeling that he had to go – and he told her that.
“Fine, we’re wasting time; Roady, Agelstein, and Ravenne – go with him and make sure he gets back to the city in one piece.”
Roady hesitated. “It’s my duty to make sure that you—”
“That’s an order, Winston,” she said sternly, using his real name for the first time. “I have my husband back, and there isn’t anything that’s going to keep me from bringing him home safe.”
Stiffening at the use of his given name, Roady wisely didn’t argue any more – because Fred could see the determination in her eyes. He also saw the Knight-Commander pass the large heavy stone he was carrying off to one of the captives, and Fred told the unlucky man to deliver it to the dungeon underneath the city. Apparently, he hadn’t been briefed on its existence before the disastrous attack on the Light border, but the Elder assured Fred that it would be delivered.
Without another word, the larger group left at a run for the border, aiming for a big gap between Defenders that was obvious even from their position. Fred turned to Roady, Agelstein, and Ravenne – the three the Elder had assigned as his bodyguards, apparently – and said, “This way.”
They turned east, the last direction the others probably wanted to go, but Fred could still feel the…presence…calling for him in the distance. He still hadn’t the slightest clue of what it was, but now he was committed to finding out the answer to that; it was in part curiosity over what could be “communicating” with him, though if he admitted it to himself, the real reason was because he felt a kinship of sorts with the voice in his head. How that kinship worked, again he had no idea, but it was there, nevertheless.
It only took about 10 minutes of running, fortunately, because Fred knew the longer they were inside the new Light Core’s territory, the greater the risk that they would be surrounded by Defenders. He could theoretically generate a few more little Mana implosions, but the risk of them “imploding” too close to Fred was still a possible danger – let alone being too close to one of the Humans with him; he still wasn’t sure what it would do to them.
Every time I discover something new, it seems to come with dozens of questions and unknowns.
The voice had stopped a while ago, but he could still feel it pulling him in a certain direction. Checking what he could of his Territorial Sight again, he still saw the void in between the Light and the Air territories, but it was getting smaller; fortunately, they were almost there as well. Looking ahead with his own eyes, he saw a natural dip in the land ahead, where the void was perfectly located; whatever it was that was calling him seemed to be coming from a relatively small crevice in the natural landscape.
Without hesitation, Fred ran over to the lip of the void with the others behind him, only to look down on a small natural depression in the ground about 20 feet deep. And in the center of the depression was an extremely large yellow-glowing Dungeon Core.
* * *
The Supreme of Air watched the Human/Dungeon Core anomaly approach her negative territorial space she had created; she had needed to work fast – as soon as she had felt the Light Core’s own territory collapse, in fact – to set it up in a part of the Convergence valley that wouldn’t necessarily be spotted from a distance. While the negative territorial space was only temporary and didn’t usually have much purpose, it also prevented any Core from looking inside of it with their Territorial Sight.
She was glad she had been watching everything so closely around the Convergence, otherwise she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do this. Her chance to see the Dualborn in person was something she couldn’t pass up, and calling it—he, apparently—with a slightly altered form of Mana Communication was relatively easy. Normally, the skill required the sender to know where they were sending their Communication, but being in the realm of Air had taught her a few tricks over the years; because she didn’t know where the Dualborn was exactly, she had sent out a series of Communicative waves that didn’t reach terribly far, but would allow anything within that range to sense it.
She was lucky that none of the other nearby Dungeon Cores were anywhere near, including her own faction’s; what she was doing wasn’t authorized by the council, and if they found out she had spoken to it—him, I have to remember that—there could be some serious repercussions. Despite the risks, this was something she needed to do.
And her justifications for doing it were only strengthened when she tangentially heard what had just occurred to the Light Core that was controlling the border push – and had unwisely taken some Humans captive to drain them of Mana. The Dualborn had reportedly led some sort of rescue mission – she wasn’t sure how he had done that while still maintaining his territory around the Convergence – to free the captives; instead of destroying the Light Core – which the Supreme of Air thought would’ve been relatively justified, given what she had done (which was a big no-no, even during the current circumstances) – the Dualborn had let her live…after draining her of all her Mana, removing her territory, and collapsing her dungeon, of course.
As a Dungeon Core, even having a dungeon collapse on top of you wouldn’t necessarily destroy your Core; the Light Core could be easily dug out and returned to the world, free to set up someplace else. Where she would end up after the disaster she caused was still to be seen – as well as when it would happen – but Air wouldn’t have wanted to be her…except for one little detail, which she was having a hard time believing.
Apparently – and she wasn’t quite sure it was true, given the secondhand knowledge she received from a few sources – the Dualborn did something to the Mana he had drained from the Light Core and changed it, before shoving it back into her. With that change in the mana, the Light Core had her Rating bumped up tremendously – from a B-2nd-Rating to an A-6th-Rating. Of course, despite having a greater Rating and larger Core, the unfortunate Light Core was still stuck buried underneath tons of dirt and stone, with no territory, no dungeon, and only the barest amount of Mana keeping her alive – but she was alive.
It was frankly unbelievable…and yet the Supreme of Air believed it. Whether or not it was illogical didn’t faze her; she had felt something different about this Dualborn ever since she had heard about his exploits, and the fact that he hadn’t destroyed a Dungeon Core when he had the chance – and the debatable justification – to do so was another point in his favor.
And now it was time to meet this Dualborn, the “Cursedborn” that had caused more fervor in the Supreme Council than had been seen in literally thousands of years. Strangely enough, she was more nervous with anticipation than she thought she would be, and there wasn’t even a hint of fear in her thoughts. I can only imagine the others would be cracking their Cores in fright at his approach.
Because when she created her avatar to occupy the negative territorial space she had created, she had needed to infuse even more of her Mana inside of it, as well as a greater portion of her consciousness. If the Dualborn turned out to be a homicidal maniac after all, if he tried to absorb and destroy her avatar, it would severely drain her Mana and could have unknown consequences on her mind, though she had taken safeguards to ensure it wouldn’t affect her main Core thousands of miles away. What she created in her avatar was more of a…child of sorts, though even that didn’t quite match what was put into it.
“Welcome, Dualborn. I am the Supreme of Air,” she sent to him via Mana Communication, as she was perfectly aware that he could hear her already. The Dualborn hesitated for a moment before slowly walking down, a strange look on his face; she had studied Humans for almost countless years, and it appeared as though he was struggling to keep anger off his face.
“What are you doing here? Is this a trap?” the Dualborn said as he walked closer, and his hands were clenching and unclenching as if he wanted to strangle something. His face transformed into something she could only describe as unbridled rage. “I should kill you for what you did to my parents!”
Ah, so that’s it. “I understand your hatred for us on the Supreme Council but hear me out before you do that. This is not my actual Core, anyway; it’s more of a copy that I created here so that I can communicate with you, so if you destroy it that won’t hurt me significantly. I’m not going to lie and say it wouldn’t hurt me a bit, but it would be far from destroying me in revenge.”
That stopped him from walking any closer, though he still looked like he wanted to rip her avatar apart with his bare hands.
“Fine, I get it – I can’t hurt you. Why are you here, then? To taunt me?”
The Dualborn obviously had some buried hatred towards her and the others on the Council, which she honestly couldn’t blame him for – they had killed his parents, after all. Still, she needed to take this delicately – though quickly, before her negative space shrunk to the point where she would have to remove her avatar – so that he didn’t just try to destroy her out of revenge.
“I’m not here to taunt you, though I am sorry about your parents. I know you won’t believe me, but we did that for the greater good—”
“I know all that – because you were worried they would set up some sort of rival Supreme Council; the first Nature Core I found told me so, before I accidentally destroyed him. They had no plans to set up a rival Council, they just wanted to be left alone.”
The Supreme of Air was confused for a second, because she realized that the Council had probably done an even better job at spreading that information around to the Dungeon Core community than she realized. Since the Council couldn’t tell everyone the real reason behind the assassination, that was the story that was put forth; she hadn’t realized that it had filtered down to even juvenile Cores in an entirely different faction.
“That’s not…not anywhere near the real reason we sent our Defenders after your parents; while the threat of having a rival Supreme Council is potentially real, I know for a fact that many of us on the Council would gladly give up our positions if there were another Core that really wanted it that bad.”
Which was true; if there were any other Cores that wanted the responsibility of leading her entire faction, she would be happy to give it up. The sad fact of the matter was, though, that the longer Dungeon Cores were around and increased their Rating, the more authority and responsibilities they accumulated; after a while, most – if not all – realized that those types of “administrative” duties weren’t all that fun when it came down to having that kind of power.
In fact, if Air thought that there was another more suited to the position, she would gladly transfer her authority over to them; sadly, of those who might be a good fit, none of them wanted to be on the Council. And she would know…because she had asked them, and they turned her down. Of course, there were a few on the Council that would never give up their position voluntarily – like the Supreme of Dark – but most of them, she had a feeling, were tired of the responsibility.
Her response to his angry accusation earlier seemed to chip away at some of the anger on his face, fortunately.
“What are you talking about? If not because of that, then…what? I don’t understand – and you still haven’t told me why you’re here.”
“As horrible as it might be to hear, the reason your parents were killed was because of…you. Well, not you specifically, but the possibility that you would be created between their union – and the threat that you would pose towards the entire Dungeon Core race.”
The Dualborn’s face lost all of its color, and he looked like he was suffering under some sort of attack. She assumed that the information she gave him was new to him, and hearing that he was the cause of their death – even if not specifically him – was hard to hear. Before he could question her about the details of his parents’ situation, she established a Communication Link between them, which she rarely ever did with another Core – because it made her extremely vulnerable.
It was necessary, however; by establishing the Link, she could send the Dualborn not only words, but memories and remembered feelings. And that was what she did – she sent her memories of a time thousands and thousands of years in the past, when Humans hunted Dungeon Cores as a regular activity; she sent the feelings of always having to find some place to hide, of building dungeons that would keep the Humans from reaching their Cores; and then she sent all the information – including how they were inadvertently created – that she had regarding the greatest threat to her kind: the Dualborns, or as they were later known – Cursedborn.
The problem with the Link was that her mind was completely open to whomever it was established with; the Dualborn could access memories of anything in her mind, including the complete composition of her dungeon, where she was located in the world, the size of her territory, and even any defenses she had set up to defend that territory. It was dangerous sharing that information with another Core, even one from her own faction, just in case it was ever – accidentally or otherwise – given to a rival faction. As a Supreme Council member, her territory was essentially off-limits, but old habits die hard…and very old habits die hardest of all.
The reverse was also true, however; she could also access the memories of the Dualborn, which she proceeded to do. Accessing the memories of another was completely undetectable, which was why it was so dangerous to establish a Link, because you didn’t know what memories had been seen. Normally, any Cores older than the youngest juveniles had enough skill in Mana Communication to repel a Link if they felt another Core trying to establish one, but obviously the Dualborn wasn’t quite to that point yet.
She was encouraged by what she saw, though her perusal was brief; she saw his upbringing and the love of his parents, which made her feel horrible at what the Council was forced to do to them – they seemed genuinely in love and wanted to be left alone; she saw his initial journey into the world, meeting Humans, becoming stronger, and invading dungeons; she witnessed through his eyes how he had accidentally destroyed a Core and gained access to the latent Dungeon Core powers within him; she saw the defense of a town called Gatecross, doing whatever he could to save the people there; then came another accidental destruction of an Earth Core, though she saw it was because it destroyed itself – which was never mentioned by the Supreme of Earth; the flight to the east and the passage through the Horror-laden Plains of Grass; she also saw that the Dark Core that was destroyed was because of the Core’s fault, and that…Fredwynklemossering…had done what he could to prevent that destruction; and finally she saw him in the city in the middle of the Convergence – before their link was severed abruptly.
“WHAT WAS THAT! What are you doing to me?!”
I guess he has some skill after all. While the Supreme of Air hadn’t been able to see what had happened after he reached the city – including what his dungeon looked like – she did see how he had created what he was calling “Shards”; there were three of them, and one of them was a Dire Wolf of all things, but it was entirely possible that even more had been made after he arrived in the city. Their existence was a complete surprise…but it was also enlightening at the same time.
