I’ve got my notes as prepared as they can get. I still don’t know how magic works, which can be a big wrench in my plans. I have a couple gues- I mean theories on some of it, but I’ll need to talk to my two Residents to get any actual information. I probably should have tried to talk with Old Staiven about this, but if any of my ideas actually work, it could be way more dangerous than a dungeon with a mana battery.

Dungeons don’t get up and walk around, after all.

When Aranya wakes up, she can feel the anticipation in the air, and even looks over at my core. Teemo just tells her to have breakfast, and that I want to talk to everyone after. Well, to her and Yvonne, at least. I would include the other scions, but I’m paranoid enough about this to want to keep it in the secret base, at least for now.

After a period of time somewhere between a blink and an eternity, it’s time to have a chat.

“Thedeim wants to know about magic,” says Teemo simply, and my Residents look confused at that. My kobold speaks up first.

“Neither of us are mages. I don’t know how much we can teach him?” Yvonne nods, before Teemo speaks up again.

“He says he doesn’t know anything about magic. Anything. He says he needs baby’s first magic talk,” relays my Voice, giving my core a weird look at my choice of phrasing. No sense sugar-coating how little I know. I need the basics of basics here.

Yvonne slowly speaks up. “Well… everyone has magic. At least a little,” she starts, looking to Teemo to see if she’s managed to insult me. She hasn’t. She’s confirmed one of my theories, even. Teemo smiles and nods for her to continue.

“Everyone has an affinity that is part of who they are. And their class can give them an extra affinity. Some dedicated casting classes even have a minor affinity for all magics.”

I mentally smile at that, and relay my reply through Teemo.

“So most dedicated casters, like Rhonda and Aelara, focus on their innate affinity, and use the class broadness to give them more utility with protections, healings, and such?”

The Residents nod, and Aranya speaks up. “Most classes that use weapons will give kinetic affinity, which they use to help land and avoid blows.” Yvonne nods and continues.

“Ragnar actually has life affinity as his innate, and kinetic from his class. If a foe doesn’t take him out in one strike, it’ll have difficulty taking him out at all. I’ve seen him handle some ridiculous hits.”

“What are the affinities?”

The two look unsure at that, but Aranya forges on ahead first. “Well, there’s the more classic staples: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Dark, Light, Lightning, Thunder…” she trails off, looking to Yvonne to see if she’s missed any. The birb picks up the thread.

“And a lot of others that represent the physical natural world.” She smiles as a memory comes to mind. “Lava and Magma are separate affinities, and Ragnar will gladly go on and on about the differences if you let him.” Lost in the happy memory, Aranya continues once more.

“Then there’s the more… weird ones? Life, Death, Kinetic, Spatial, Time… I know I’m forgetting a lot more,” she finishes awkwardly, and I take a moment to consider the information.

There’s the classical elements, and friends. All physical things. I wonder if it’s a Nature affinity, or if it tends to be broken down into Animal and Plant affinity, or even finer? Or does that count as Life? I have Teemo relay the questions, and the Residents don’t really know. That’s fine. The other ones are more like forces to contrast the masses of the first set, or maybe verbs compared to nouns.

It’s a good place to start from, at least. Before I set about giving them information in return, I have a few more physical things to give them. Teemo pulls two strange swords out of a shortcut.

My residents are confused at first, but Aranya recognizes the shapes first. “The tunnel horror!” Yvonne looks confused, and I have Teemo clarify.

“The Boss has been calling it a scythemaw, because of these things. You didn’t think he’d just thrown them out or something, did you?” he asks with a smile, and motions for them to pick up the swords.

They are curved and sweep back nicely, with sharp spikes on the back of the blade. The handles are made of wood and have enough length to use one or both hands to swing. The pommels have a decent knob to them, to help with the balance, and to be able to whack someone with, if you don’t want to cut them. I think Aranya will need both hands for hers, but Yvonne should be able to treat hers like a bastard-scimitar.

“But tunnel horrors don’t have metal pincers?” says my kobold, gingerly holding the weapon like she’s afraid she’ll somehow break it.

“Queen has a metal infusion formula. I dunno how it works, but she was able to transmute them both to steel. But not before making a few modifications. Those spikes on the back have little holes in them, and Queen had her smallest workers burrow channels through them. There’s a cavity in the handle, and the pommel can unscrew to get access to it. You can fill it with venom. Boss has some of the paralysis venom from the widows in there right now, and has a little jar in the lair for them to milk into.”

The two look at the swords in wonder as Teemo continues. “Thing even expanded the cavity with spatial magic, so they can hold a ton of the stuff. You should be able to just imagine the venom, and it’ll start coating the spikes. Thing also reinforced them, made them sharper, and better balanced, too!”

“An Artifact…” says Yvonne with reverence, and Aranya can only slowly nod.

“Thedeim was going to give them as normal gifts to you two as something cool to have. But after that trio today…” Aranya looks confused, and Yvonne sighs, the fun of a new toy slightly soured by the memory of the day.

“A group of delvers showed up and picked a fight with Poe. Then they tried to pick a fight with me. Poe… didn’t appreciate it,” says my birblady with a grin at the end. “Thedeim has them in a cell right now, and has an interesting punishment for them, too.”

Teemo nods as Aranya looks concerned. “The Boss wants you two to be able to defend yourselves, and those swords are part of it. He doesn’t know if you two are very good with swords, but he would ask you try to train with them, at least a little.”

Aranya quickly nods. “Of course! I’ll never be a master of a sword, but I can at least get good enough to hit someone. If one hit with the spikes can paralyze, I don’t have to actually be all that good with it for it to actually work.”

Yvonne nods as well. “I’m better with a bow, but I had been meaning to get better with a sword or something else in melee. Arrows are terrible for stabbing with.”

Teemo smiles at that, my relief showing in his relief. “Good. The Boss just wants to keep you two safe. Which comes to the next thing he wants to share.” He gives Aranya a sideways glance. “You asked if he knew the secrets of creation. He says he does… in a way.”

The red kobold gasps and focuses entirely on my little Voice, and he tries to pop her enthusiasm. “He says he doesn’t know the whys. That falls under philosophy and such, and he says you need to mostly find your own answers there. What he might know is some of the hows.”

The Residents look confused at that, so he tries to explain. “The Boss knows a lot of weird things, but he’s not sure if they translate. But if they do, he says he should be able to expand a lot of affinity things. He says Fire and Ice are the same thing, and Kinetic is closely related, too. Space and Time are closely related, and a lot of other things that honestly go right over my head. He’s going to start explaining them to Fluffles, since he has Kinetic affinity, and he says even my spatial affinity could let me do fire and ice stuff.”

He looks to my Residents. “So, what are your affinities? He’s pretty sure he can help you expand on them, once he knows.”

Yvonne speaks up first. “Mine is Fate.”

Aranya starts at that, causing Yvonne to give her a confused look. “What? My True Strike lets me feel the best moment to release an arrow for maximum effect.”

Aranya speaks up. “Mine is Fate, too. When I first found Thedeim, I was desperately following the feel of my affinity.” That earns a look from my ranger, but my high priestess continues before she can comment. “And as Thedeim’s High Priestess, I know what his primary Domain is. It’s also Fate.”

The three all exchange glances, and I wish I had eyes to join in. None of us are exactly masters of magical knowledge, but it doesn’t take a genius to understand three Fate affinity people probably don’t just accidentally get drawn together.