‘Don’t worry. I have a plan. Throw a rock at it. It’s for science.’ Oh, that’s a fun series of expressions! Completely incredulous, then is he joking, do dungeons joke, should I do it either way, a bit of fear when she glances at Ms. Kittysaur. Dang. That ruins the fun of it. Captive audience and power differences something something ethics. Alas. ‘I wasn’t joking. I do have a plan and throwing a rock is a small part of that plan. Please.’

She looks at me cautiously and tries to explain, “You can’t kill a ghast by throwing rocks at them. You have to scatter them so their will joins the heavens.” Interesting.

‘Is will a technical term? Is it part of the soul? The chunky bit?’ The ghast is made of the usual structures, like water with bits of carved ice inside it, but there’s something that stands out. Animals have a small one that I barely noticed- it didn’t look any different from the other structures. But Crow Jr. didn’t have one at all. The woman- ‘Oh yeah what’s your name? I apologize for not asking before. I’m Zeke.’

“Um. My name is Bryn Butcherbird. It’s a pleasure to meet you Zeke?.. The will IS part of the soul- it is the driving force. I, uh, don't know if it's chunky.” She doesn’t sound like it’s a pleasure. Oof. Well, whatever. I have a wonderful personality and also stockholm syndrome on my side. Damn that sounds evil. It's true, but what am I gonna do? Let her go and tell the emperor hey there is a sentient dungeon capable of speaking to humans which can make things on command? Yea. That ends poorly.

I am a prisoner of circumstance and she is a prisoner of me. Alas, alas. Hmm.

'Mr. Crow has a big invisible book from Akasha. Can that be used to make binding contracts? Enforced by the gods or system or whatever?' She shakes her head. Damn.

"Akasha only witnesses. When you die you may choose to join the Akashic Scholars and gain access to the Akashic library, but only a chosen of Akasha can access it on earth, and only in very limited amounts. Bitmun, god of law, became god of slavery and was torn apart in the last divine upheaval. His domain is empty now." That is a lot to process. Implications. I have so many questions.

'Probably for the best. Slaver gods are no good.'

"Indeed. Ah, about the ghast." Oh, right. That thing. It's an evil looking blob of mist trying to form tentacles which are then torn apart by the essence winds. Just spinning in place, trapped. Wonder if souls get dizzy. Anyways, where I have my rock and Crow Jr. has an empty space, Bryn and the ghast have dense little things. Bryn has a pretty little orb, the ghast has a lumpy thing that looks like a bunch of orbs fusing together.

'Okay, first of all, throw a rock please. I have weak flimsy tentacles and can't do it myself. Second, do ghasts eat will?' She gingerly picks up a handful of pebbles and throws them at the ghast. It does nothing. Experiment successful! I begin making a small rock, but this time warpstone.

"They do. Ghasts are conglomerates of souls driven to madness by conflicting desires and memories. The only thing they have in common is the most base impulses- foremost hunger. Devouring other souls entirely only increases their torment, but just devouring the will increases their ability to control essence and mana. Also, uh, what is that pebble you are making?"

'Warpstone.' Rock finished! I hand it to her. She almost drops it.

"WARPSTONE?" If I had ears they'd be ringing. Girl got lungs on her. "How- why- I-" she stutters out.

'I just made it. Throw it at the ghast.' I want to say no big deal, but I think it may in fact be a big deal and I should not tease her. Holding back is hard, but I have the will of a rock. Heh.

"You can-" She trails off and seems to deflate. "Okay. I will throw the fucking chunk of warpstone at a gods be damned ghast." Ah. Did I break her? Oops.

Bryn throws the rock at the ghast. The warpstone tears a hole in the ghast, but it quickly reforms. Excellent. Hypothesis confirmed: Warpstone interacts with souls. Hmm. I could have just asked her that.

I form a pole out of wood and then make a spidersilk net at the end, including small flecks of warpstone within the silk. The resulting thread is black and hangs heavily. Now to catch the will.

'Okay, take this net and wave it through the middle of the ghast a few times.' She gives me a look and then does so. The mist shreds, but she misses the will a few times. Then when she clips it it seems to sense danger and starts dodging. I make a small glass jar infused with warpstone as I give her further instructions. 'Up a little- too far- yeah. Now sweep! Almost. It went down a few inches, try again- oh, an inch is like half a finger. There, good, sweep! Got it! Dump it in the jar!'

I make a top for the jar as she gingerly drops the will in. Actually I have to push it in with my feeder tentacle as it doesn't seem to respect gravity. With the will scooped out like the yolk of an egg the mist disperses and now the ghast is just a revolving ball of ectoplasm.

"Uhm- what did I just do?" She glances between the place the ghast used to be and the jar.

'Oh, the will part seemed more solid than the rest of it, so I thought that maybe you could just scoop it out while the rest of the ectoplasm just leaked out- and it worked!' I'm so proud of me.

"Ah. We just scooped the will out of a ghast and put it in a jar. I see." Ah, broke her. She's dead inside. She'll get better.

'The will doesn't have anything to do with personality, does it?' I shake the jar till the will is nice and round instead of lumpy while I make a third thing- another pole with a sort of round thing like a bubble wand and a plastic bag at the end, all infused with warpstone.

"Not to my knowledge, what are you?.." I hand- well, tentacles- her the pole.

'I can use it to help a dude maybe. Anyways, catch the souls in the bag.' Actually I don't think we need the pole this time, it seems harmless now the will is gone, but better safe than sorry. She does so and then I seal the bag. 'Okay, take the bag outside and pop it. Ms. Kittysaur will escort you. The souls should then go to the heavens and the gods will sort the mess out.' Bryn gapes at me, then starts to cry. Damnit.

"You're?.." She can't ask the question, too choked up, but I can guess.

'Yep. Employee signing bonus. Your friends' souls are safe.' She looks a bit confused, but also grateful and cries some more. Awkward. I tell Ms. Kittysaur to rub her face on Bryn which startles her, but then she gives a choked laugh and begins to pet the drake.

'Then go to Mr. Crow- uh, Kaz Itzal- and tell him I may be able to heal his grandson's missing will. Tell him to bring the dude to the table and then leave- I can't work in his aura. That's what I'm using the will for, by the way. Uh, that's okay, right?' She gives a small nod and smiles faintly, still crying. I make her a handkerchief.

'Okay, blow your nose and go. If the Sahii get aggressive, Ms. Kittysaur will help you out.' Or chomp on Bryn if she tries running away, but I'm not gonna say that bit. 'Take your time and go with Kaz Itzal to the stone table when you're done.' Bryn leaves, clutching the bag like it's a baby, sniffling into the handkerchief. Aww.

I block up one of the tunnels to disable the vortex and finish editing my lizard. Now it's a little drake just like a mini Ms. Kittysaur! No big fangs and I kept the geckoish pawpads the lizard originally had, but otherwise all the little improvements drakes have compared to normal critters. My very first demon! Then I grab a second lizard, a male one, so I can steal a testicle.

Don't worry, I anesthetized him and then grew it back when I was done. He barely even noticed. Just a bit woozy.

I grafted the testicle to the womb so lil Lizzy will be permapregnant. Now she'll function sorta like an angler fish but with less body horror and existential dread. She'll be a one lizard population explosion but then they'll breed the normal way so they won't overwhelm the environment. Maybe. I mean, I'm introducing large amounts of water into a very arid place, changes are gonna happen.

A cribbed design but as they say- geniuses steal. Now I gotta go make sure there are no other vortexes forming and decide if I should give Crow Jr. one humans worth of will or the whole jar.