“All the power in the world means nothing to your mother.”

  -Emperor Yaidfe

  ==Tarrae==

  Caden and Exsan had just finished announcing Exsan’s own area of the dungeon. Though each area would offer tokens that could only be used in the other one.

  “Changes will need to be made, so my dungeon will be closed, for at least the next day,” Caden said.

  Both the dungeons spoke together again.

  “Careful delving and goodbye.”

  Then the two statues faded away again.

  Well, I guess this dungeon is extra special.

  The merchant part of me was impressed, traffic through both dungeons should go up.

  Half of me just wanted to go kill monsters now, to get lost in battle. To enter a state where there was no room for any other thoughts.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder, turning to see Zidaun.

  There were still tear tracks outlined on his face, but he was grinning; he was practically glowing.

  I suppose I might react the same, should Otga show up.

  “I glad…” Zidaun stopped, before starting again. “I’m just glad. I’ll get all the other executions canceled as well. I have to go but, you have some people waiting to talk to you.”

  Zidaun pointed, and I could see the other members of my team, before he started moving away.

  Anaath looked conflicted, and much like Zidaun, there seemed to be remaining traces of religious ecstasy.

  Guess it’s hard to stay mad when one of your gods comes to personally forgive someone.

  Soara was just grinning like a fool, his smile practically extending beyond his face. It was a match for my own.

  And Norana…

  “You look like a mess,” I said with a smile.

  She laughed, snorting on tears and mucus, “You bastard.”

  Her cheeks were stained and her eyes were red and puffy.

  She was beautiful, and her laughter rang through me like bells, shivering across my skin and bones..

  I didn’t love her, it was too soon for that, but there was a connection there, something that might become more.

  “You’re beautiful,” I said gently. “May I kiss you?”

  There was a small smile and a slight nod in response.

  I leaned in and kissed her, my hand cupping her face.

  Apparently we had both forgotten about the giant group of adventurers.

  That mistake didn’t last long.

  Cheers, hoots, laughter, and taunts met the kiss.

  Norana and I pulled away from each other, each of us grinning sheepishly. We didn’t pull apart completely, instead reaching out to hold hands.

  “Okay, you two, come with me,” Soara said with a smile. “There isn’t much in the way of alcohol here, but I’ll buy you a couple of too expensive drinks. Follow me.”

  We followed after, though many of the other adventurers were ahead of us already, but we didn’t mind the wait.

  I was just happy to be alive.

  And, as we found out a few minutes later, the dungeon had provided a gift. Dozens of barrels of alcohol had been seen appearing out of thin air.

  Caden and Exsan are going to end up with new worshipers if they keep that up…

  Soon enough, everyone was celebrating.

  ==Caden==

  I had a mountain of things to do, but I needed to deal with Zidaun first.

  ‘Come into the dungeon and talk with me.’

  One of my shards quickly busied itself carving out a room for us to talk in, while others crafted furniture and padding.

  I reformed my avatar there as I waited, donning my more comfortable facsimiles of a t-shirt and jeans.

  ‘I don’t know how you stand to be in that form so often. It was quite confining.’

  Random comments on my personal lifestyle, he really is family.

  ‘It is what I am used to. And my mind is still as much human as dungeon. Plus, some of the senses are more intense in this form.

  ‘Yes… I found it cloying. Everything so present, too immediate. No wonder they make so many mistakes…’

  ‘I’m rather fond of eating, myself. I don’t think you have had the chance to do that.’

  ‘It would serve little purpose, brother. I have no need of the nutrients that drive a human.’

  ‘You have my knowledge from Earth, did it look like people only ate because they had too? Trust me, obesity wouldn’t be an issue if that were the case.’

  ‘Hmm… not sure if I want to bother.’

  I didn’t bother to try and argue. Best to broach that issue when I had a pile of different food items ready and waiting for him to try.

  At least he seems to have inherited my own asexual nature. Last thing I want to deal with is a horny dungeon.

  Admittedly, that part of being a dungeon was a blessing. Even the faint traces of sexual desire that had driven me to infrequent masturbation were entirely absent. Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it at all, until one of my shards caught Tarrae and Norana kissing.

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  Zidaun was heading my way, but I had shards looking over all the changes in the Grotto.

  It looked like some actual merchants had shown up at some point, as I could read the signs advertising various goods and services.

  I looked at the large group of rowdy adventurers, and then at the less than substantial quantity of alcohol that was present.

  Somehow, I think they are going to run out. Probably for the best if I keep them distracted and happy.

  I did some quick volumetric calculations, figuring out how much it would cost to buy everything that remained.

  Either I have been overpaying the adventurers or they make far more than the average individual. And even so, I suspect that alcohol here is far more expensive than it usually is.

  Heaps of empty barrels behind the couple of makeshift taverns were enough to attest that the adventurers had been rapidly making their way through the available stock.

  The various barrels of alcohol dissolved as I focused on them. I even removed the empty barrels, since I could pull the alcohol out of the wood. Flavored variations of ethanol ran across my senses, tasting far stranger as a dungeon.

  Someone was smart.

  I had patterns for all the types of alcohol, already. They had obviously been offered as a sacrifice.

  I had been generous in my calculations of what to pay the proprietors, adding on even more to account for the barrels I had removed.

  There had been a brief bit of panic as all their stock disappeared, but it was quickly replaced by avarice as coins appeared in front of them.

  Shortly after, tables, chairs, and stands with barrels of alcohol appeared in the path of the oncoming adventurers. Accompanying the barrels were some neat signs reading: All Drinks Free Tonight -Caden.

  Wonder if people get poison resistance as a skill here?

  If so, I was likely to contribute to either acquiring or developing that skill. For tonight only, the drinks were on me.

  I also had a shard standing by to make sure that nobody died of alcohol poisoning.

  Okay, Exsan might have a point.

  I probably was a little too protective.

  My mind thought back to the waiting corpses before shuddering away again.

  Still… lets not make any more of those tonight.

  ==Zidaun==

  Caden summoned me, and I rushed to obey.

  As I stepped through the doors, I was suddenly somewhere else.

  I appeared in a small room of stone, though that was largely hidden by the plush carpet underneath and wooden wainscoting covering the walls.

  Light poured in through windows, though I scarcely glanced at them.

  Across from me was Caden, his form diminished into human scale, sitting down in an overstuffed chair that looked out toward the window.

  I immediately went to prostrate myself before him…

  “Stop,” he said. “That will never be necessary.”

  I stood back up.

  “Of course, Caden. It will always be as you wish.”

  Caden’s face flickered, and he let out the faintest sigh.

  “Sit, join me.”

  Almost unnoticed, a matching chair was to my right. I had dimly thought it might be for Exsan.

  Still, I immediately went to obey, though I asked a question as I did so.

  “I thought the chair might be for Exsan. He won’t be joining us?”

  ‘I am here,’ said Exsan, his voice clearly amused. ‘I have less fondness for a physical manifestation than Caden.’

  I struggled with what to say, how to act.

  Exsan seems different than before.

  Of course, we couldn’t properly communicate before, either.

  Caden seemed to prefer things informal, so I defaulted to that.

  Our chairs were next to each other, and tilted toward one another, but they also faced the window, making it equally easy to look at Caden or the view.

  Caden turned from me to glance outside, and I followed his gaze.

  The window offered me a view that was familiar, though I had never seen it from this perspective.

  The Meadow spread out before us. Immediately in front of us was the island where the giant millipede lived, the mist roiling around the base like breaking waves. Beyond that lay the grasslands and the single line of the aqueduct cutting across the middle. Scudding clouds created a patchwork of light and shadow, racing across the land.

  “Exsan thinks I am foolish for not feeling like a god,” Caden said quietly.

  I sat for a moment stunned, looking out at all the proof I could ever need of Caden’s divinity.

  I gestured toward it.

  “How…?” I asked, the question trailing off. I wasn’t sure what I even wanted to ask, or if I should.

  ‘Yes, it’s funny, isn’t it?’

  Caden just shook his head with a smile.

  “I think it is like being a child… no, that comparison may not work as well for you…”

  I blinked. None of us had told Caden or Exsan about how Adar were born. And I had never even considered needing to tell him. It sounded like they might know already.

  “You know how we are born, how we live?” I asked.

  Caden smiled at me for a moment, before looking out the window again.

  “I believe so. From plant, to monster, to person. It was all part of the pattern that I absorbed when you performed your ritual, knowledge that I absorbed from the sacrifice.” Caden turned to look at me fully again. “What I don’t know is what living that is like. When you emerged, as a person, did you look at everyone else and assume that you would eventually understand everything? Would become sure and not doubt?”

  I thought back to the moment of my emergence.

  It was a turbulent time.

  I… had followed others of my kind as they came to collect me. I hadn’t spoken the language yet, but I knew instinctively that these were my people. That my duty was to protect them. I had always had a purpose.

  As for the rest though… yes. I remembered the imprinters, who poured knowledge into my mind in carefully measured streams, sharing the language of my people, and providing context of the world.

  And yes, I remembered the feeling of uncertainty. Knowing my purpose, but not how I would fulfill it. And looking at the world, each aspect a wonder, but also a piece I didn’t understand yet. And I could look at others who knew far more than me. They had seemed so sure, so solid.

  “Yes, I remember,” I said. “I knew so little, and everyone else knew so much.”

  Caden nodded.

  “Perhaps my metaphor will work then,” he said. “At first, you assume that everyone knows what they are doing, but when you grow up you realize that they just know more. They are still making everything up as they go along. Just doing their best. Does that make sense?”

  I thought of some of the decisions I had made recently, how helpless and trapped I felt.

  “Yes, yes it does.”

  “My situation is like that,” he replied. “I am the child who has become an adult. Capable of so much more, but still aware of how much I don’t know.”

  Caden stopped for a moment.

  “I know a great many things.” He pointed out the window. “I know how to make that, and how all the pieces fit together, but people…”

  He trailed off.

  “Well, people are always the hardest thing to understand and control. And the powers of a god hasn’t changed that.”

  I nodded.

  ‘You worry too much about them.’

  Caden shook his head with a little laugh.

  “Maybe. but that,” he said, “ultimately, is why we are talking. I need to know a great many things, but first…”

  Caden looked at me, his eyes suddenly hard.

  “Tell me how we ended up with that mess with Tarrae.”