With all due respect, Your Majesty,” Duke Lehrem Sarthi said, not sounding respectful at all. “We can’t possibly suffer this other dungeon to stay within our territory. Not after all the damage dungeons have done to us.”

Iniri took a deep breath, keeping a firm grip on her temper. Normally Lehrem was not this idiotic, but it was hard to blame the man. She wasn’t sure how many human kills Blue had to his credit, but it wasn’t many, and unfortunately Lehrem’s son was one of them. While she believed Blue when he said they were out for his core, there was no actual proof that he hadn’t just murdered an adventuring group for fun. Considering how every other dungeon worked, it was actually hard to believe that wasn’t what happened.

She wasn’t sure how much of the nobility was intact after the invasion. Since it had focused on the cities, a good number of the more economically or politically minded nobles had ended up dead. The ones who were still in their estates had been cut off, or had cut themselves off, and even now Iniri hadn’t managed to get messages to them. Now that Blue no longer had [Warding] up she could start using her divination to see if she could get in touch, but Lehrem was the one that was here now.

“We also cannot afford to remove him,” Iniri replied, feeling that she was stating the obvious. “We don’t have either the military or diplomatic capital to pressure him in any way, even if I felt it was a good idea to do so. Which I don’t. Even as we speak Blue is repairing Meil. At a cost we can actually afford. I appreciate your opinion, Duke Sarthi, but we simply do not have the money or laborers necessary to even feed ourselves without his assistance. Not yet.”

“But -” Lehrem said, red-faced, and she held up her hand.

“You wish to seek justice for your son,” she said, and he flinched as she dragged the real issue into the light. “If it were a Great Dungeon, you wouldn’t even think of such a thing. Blue may still be beyond our ability to hold accountable, regardless. It may be best to consider him the ruler of a sovereign nation, and approach him yourself. Or rather, Shayma as his ambassador.”

Lehrem blinked, taken aback. Iniri smiled thinly. Even among those who had stayed within Blue’s walls, most of them didn’t really understand that Blue was his own person. Or that he was a person. Those from Meil and its surrounds held the same opinion, assuming they knew about Blue at all. Some of them still didn’t really think the mage-kings and their dungeons existed, and it was just one of the neighboring kingdoms that had invaded.

The Duke wasn’t that under-informed but it was clear he still thought of Blue as Iniri’s property. Or at least under Iniri’s management. She supposed she might not be giving him enough credit, and that he was petitioning for her to deal with things as a ruler. Unfortunately for him, she wasn’t in a position to do that.

True, Blue could have handled it more delicately. There were surely ways for him to return the adventurers to Refuge without killing them. Given his teleports he probably could have simply removed all the other tunnels anyway, which would definitely keep anyone from wandering around. Yet, those that crossed Powers were not let off easily. Despite what she’d said to Lehrem, Blue was not a ruler, and he was not bound by any laws made by man. He was barely bound by the laws of nature.

It would be nice if he were a little more conscious of how precarious her position was, though. Her subjects might rightly question the legitimacy of a ruler that had been utterly blindsided by an invasion force, and not managed much of any resistance against it until now. Her nobles were more accustomed to the regent who had presided over things between her parents’ death at sea and her breaking into the third tier and properly manifesting her Lineage Skill. The fact that even if she had known they were coming, there wouldn’t have been much she could do against the mage-kings was no real excuse.

Now that Tarnil had taken Meil back things might be turning around, but that didn’t mean people would be any happier. Maybe the opposite, now that there was finally someone to vent spleen at. Not to mention there were surely those who had benefited under Vok Nal’s rule and would be loathe to give up whatever spoils had been allotted to them. Sorting out those who had turned their coat would be its own ordeal, since whatever records had been in the tower were long gone.

“Blue is not a mindless thing,” she told Lehrem, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. She didn’t want to simply tell him that she wasn’t in a position to demand anything from him, even if she were inclined to. “If you engage him, politely, you may get somewhere.” What she didn’t mention was that Blue was probably listening to them right now and had already formed opinions on what to do. “When Shayma returns I will tell her you wish to discuss things.”

The Duke seemed like he couldn’t decide whether he was infuriated or terrified, and with a few growled pleasantries he excused himself. Iniri sighed, relishing the brief span of time when nobody needed her attention. She really wished Cheya was still screening her supplicants, but her [Spymaster] needed a break. Not that Cheya was actually taking a break. If Iniri knew her, she was out trying to find out who had collaborated with Tor Kot and who was merely a victim of circumstance.

A faint vibration under her feet pulled her out of her mope, and she glanced out the window to see one of the nearby piles of rubble moving. If she remembered right, it had been some poor baron’s ancestral home, and The Hurricane had more or less flattened it. Blue was un-flattening it, and given that he had been able to do that sort of thing without even the briefest of tremors before, Iniri expected he was making some very foundational changes in Meil.

She trusted Blue marginally more, now. Part of it was simply being forthright about what his help would cost, and not trying to coax her into unspecified favors. Part of it was Shayma and her genuine like of the dungeon. Most of it, she had to admit, was how he’d treated her during her Purification. That topic still made her body tingle if she thought too hard about it, but he’d been so unexpectedly considerate that it was difficult to believe he wished her any ill.

“Send in the next petitioner,” she told the guard, and settled back into the overlarge chair. It wasn’t exactly a throne, but it was comfortable and helped with the stress of trying to do everything with effectively no resources. She owed Monat a lot for sending the third- and fourth-tiers to her, especially since Wildwood Retreat was compensating them in her place, but she couldn’t just order them to deal with the menial labor that needed to be done to keep Meil functioning.

Which left just the scarred and mourning citizenry. One of the more unpleasant things she’d found during the slow cleanup and reorganization was that there were almost no young women left in the city, only female children and elderly. It would take generations for Meil to recover. Even those who had snuck out of the city under one pretense or another had probably been caught up in the raids by the monsters Vok Nal produced. Most of the abductions were recent, leaving behind a horrifically small group of scarred survivors after Blue’s purge of the Red Core facilities, most of them completely broken. They were being cared for in another manor-house, though Iniri had doubts any of them would ever recover.

Fortunately the next person actually had plans to help, for once. As a high level [Caravaneer], he had the Skills and resources necessary to start linking the farms and villages back together. He only needed official backing, which she gave without hesitation. Though not without marking his name down for Cheya to keep an eye on.

“Your Majesty.” It was one of the second-tiers who were patrolling the city outskirts, more to keep an eye out for any refugees than to fend off any potential attacks. If the woman’s expression weren't enough cause for alarm, the very fact that she’d come all the way in to consult Iniri meant something drastic had happened. “There’s a…” She paused, her face wrinkling in confusion. “A monster that wants to speak with you.”

“...what.” She just stared at the woman.

“I know! But it approached under a messenger’s flag and hasn’t tried attacking or anything. It’s really creepy.”

Iniri dipped into her mana pool to cast a Divination sweep. It didn’t take much to find the monster in question, lounging against the outer wall while a half-dozen second- and third-tiers watched it. It was a shadowy humanoid, almost completely featureless and yet still managing to convey its amusement at the situation.

She didn’t like that. Monsters weren’t supposed to be amused. They were supposed to single mindedly carry out their orders or, if they were simple beasts, attack anything that came within reach. They could be clever, even more clever than Classers, and yes, some of them played with their prey. But they didn’t lounge around and appreciate the inherent humor in life.

At least, that was what she had thought. Admittedly, the Great Dungeons had generally more bestial monsters than the mage-kings used. She hadn’t run into any that showed any signs of civilization or speech, just raw animal cunning. The mage-king’s troops, on the other hand, could speak, but none of the forces she’d ever seen had acted this...normal.

“See if either Liril or The Hurricane are willing to escort me,” she said to her guard. “If not, find some third-tiers.” She wasn’t going to let that thing inside the walls, messenger or not, but she did want to talk to it. Though she couldn’t be certain, it seemed to be the same monster that Blue had described bringing the first message scroll, the one that had called Vok Nal an idiot.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Iniri regarded the adventurer who had brought the news. “I’m going to speak to it from the top of the wall. Tell those who are guarding the monster to prepare for that.”

“Aye, ma’am. Er, Your Majesty.” The woman blushed and bowed deeply, and Iniri waved her off. That lack of formality was pretty common to the sorts that stayed out in the wilds all the time and never really bothered with politics. Once she had run into someone in a Great Dungeon who didn’t even know what country he was in.

Joce and Keel strolled in after a few moments, and Joce shook his head at her inquiring look. “Liril says he’s done and The Hurricane refuses to talk to anyone but Shayma. Well, Blue, I guess.”

Iniri grimaced. They’d both gotten a chunk of Depletion during the fight, so she couldn’t blame either one of them. The Hurricane’s could at least be addressed, in theory, if Blue wanted to. So far, it seemed that he didn’t want to. “All right, to the wall then.”

Stepping out of the manor, she was almost surprised by how much Blue had already fixed. Only almost, though, since she’d seen him at work before. That said, all the empty shells of buildings being raised back into place didn’t guarantee the interiors were fixed. They couldn’t be, really, since he’d never seen what they were like to begin with, and a number of the completely demolished buildings looked different than they used to. At least the massive cracks in the streets were gone.

Royalty usually traveled by carriage or mount, magical or mundane, but there were none of those to be had in Meil. Instead one of her [Gale Knights] supported a hastily constructed pseudo-palanquin, aided by her mages, while the rest of her entourage rode along. Iniri pitied any noble that was made queasy by flying, and thanked the gods above she wasn’t one of them, as even the short trip from manor to wall involved more swooping and tilting than she preferred.

They touched down smoothly on the rampart near where the monster stood, and even though she wasn’t intending to move from her palanquin, Iniri molded [Shield of Tarnil] over herself. She had no idea what this monster was capable of, and wasn’t intending to find out by becoming a target. Harold slipped out of the palanquin, calling orders before shouting down at the messenger. “Speak your piece, monster! Our queen is listening.”

For her part, Iniri fashioned some basic wind Affinity constructs with [Royal Mana], so she could hear and speak without having to shout herself. She didn’t expect that she’d have much to say, but she’d be a fool not to listen. Nobody she knew of actually had diplomatic dealings with the mage-kings, so anything she could learn would be valuable.

“You’re the one who took the Meil core?” The monster’s voice sounded like bubbles rising through thick tar, a bass growl with sharp pops cutting the syllables part.

Without even thinking about it, Iniri felt a sudden, burning need to keep Blue’s nature a secret. It was strange to have such an emotional decision arrive when she didn’t feel she liked Blue that much, but she’d always trusted her instincts. Besides, this was still her country, not Blue’s, whether the mage-kings recognized it or not.

“I am not, but I can speak for the one who has.”

“That’s fine with me.” The shadow didn’t sound particularly worried by the Classers surrounding it. “First, Tor Kot is going to want to check to make sure the core isn’t damaged. It isn’t, is it?”

“I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t see anything that looked like damage.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. Before it sank through the floor, the now-blue dungeon core seemed to be a single chunk of intact crystal. Not that she had any idea what to look for. “Nobody attacked it, though.” She was pretty sure Shayma’s contribution wasn’t exactly an attack, and Blue’s takeover was beyond her ken.

“Good. Tor Kot’s in enough trouble letting someone take one of his spare Cores without adding damaged Cores into it. You do know how much trouble he’s in, right?”

“I don’t. The master of the Cores doesn’t share much of his personal business with me.”

“Does this master have a name?”

“I don’t know his name, but I call him Blue.” The one thing she couldn’t do was give away what Blue actually was. The rest of his secrets she didn’t actually know, so she couldn’t betray them. It was easy enough to imagine herself as some subordinate noble under Blue, though, and act accordingly.

“Typical. Probably knows how much trouble he’s going to be in once Vok Lim figures him out. How is Vok Nal, anyway? Recovering from the transfer process?”

“...so far as I have heard, he has not recovered.” She would be surprised if mage-kings recovered from death. Vok Nal’s death was something else she didn’t want to reveal, and fortunately none of the Classers blurted it out, but she had no way of making sure it stayed that way. If someone like Duke Lehrem was willing to oppose a Power for the death of his son, what would a mage-king do?

“First time losing a Core, I suppose that’s not surprising.” The shadow monster waved a hand dismissively. “Serves him right. Losing a whole army and then his Core? What an idiot. Lim always coddled him. Anyway, not official but Tor Kot really wants Blue’s monster information. He can’t just be using humans and I haven’t seen a monster yet, even under stealth, so it must be something pretty exotic.”

“What is Tor Kot offering, not officially, for such information?”

“Forgiveness for stealing one of his experimental cores, for one. Keeping Vok Lim from locking your master in a siphon chamber for the next decade, for two,” the monster said dryly. Iniri’s eyes widened. Of course Blue was a refugee from the mage-kings. It was obvious in retrospect; where else would a dungeon core have come from? It didn’t explain anything else about him, because if Tor Kot and his ilk had even the slightest intimation he was independent they wouldn’t be assuming someone was controlling him.

“He is not the queen’s master, monster,” Harold said coldly, which made Iniri wince but there was no help for it. Even if they’d agreed on a story before they came, which in hindsight they should have, it’d be awful difficult for Harold to reign in his tongue.

“My mistake.” He didn’t sound at all apologetic.

“Do you have an actual message or just gossip? I am quite busy.” She didn’t actually want to cut the conversation short, but sooner or later someone would say something stupid and give away something they shouldn’t. Adventurers weren’t known for their diplomatic prowess.

“Aside from ensuring the Meil core is intact and undamaged, the summons by Tor Kot still stands. The time limit, however, has changed to one month from now.”

“I’ll pass that on,” Iniri said, though she winced. Not much time, but at least it implied they’d have a month without being bothered by anyone which was nice to know. Even that much breathing room was a gift. “Anything else?”

“Just really curious what monsters he uses. I would have thought I’d spot any stealth types, but so far I haven’t seen a single one. With the city so intact, neither did Vok Nal.”

“You’ll understand that I can’t make any comment about that.”

“I suppose not. I suppose you won’t let me in, either.”

“No,” she said, flat as she could make it. She was quite tempted to order her Classers to kill it, but that would be a bad idea. Even if they could, which she doubted given its obvious shadow Affinity and utter lack of concern, it’d probably get them into all kinds of trouble. It clearly was not the usual sort of monster.

“Well, then I will be seeing you – and your master – later.” He repeated the phrase that had made Harold fume with a little more emphasis this time, and then the Classers made various noises.

“He’s gone,” Harold reported, poking his head back inside the palanquin. “Some sort of shadow teleport.”

“That...doesn’t surprise me.” Iniri sighed. “Keep an eye out for him, but for now, let’s just go back to the manor.” She should be more worried about it infiltrating the city, but she was pretty sure Blue would object, and he was far more equipped to deal with a shadow-teleporting monster than she was.

She’d have to talk to him about the conversation though. Especially if he hadn’t been paying attention, though she was confident that he couldn’t miss something that drastic. Maybe she’d see about going back to the core room before bed. She could really use a soak in that hot spring.