Bryn trudged up the hill with her head hanging. She wasn't sad, just tired. Every hour was a new thing around here. She wanted to just hole up and read her book for a while— her divine book written for her personally by Akasha.

Still. Reading books was relaxing. It didn't involve making demands from demigods or drawings of extremely well hung crabs. She glanced at the crab hauling the cart. He wanted it to… She knew fish bred like that, but really?

Then again, Hoff had told her about farm life and she'd never wanted anything to do with horses or milk again. Or farmers, for that matter. She'd adapted to learning how to gut and clean game but she still preferred to find her food in a market stall.

When she had reached the village Zetli had welcomed her at the edge of the village and given her an appraising glance that sent tingles up her spine. She'd seen looks like that before but never directed at her. Except from a few men with blatant twisted fetishes, but that had been more insulting than complimentary. "You look good." Was all he'd said.

"I'm not supposed to talk about Ezekial's secrets." She blurted out in response which made him snort.

"You're a demon now? The eyes aren't exactly subtle. Where are your fingernails?" The cat was clearly out of the bag so she flexed her claws at him menacingly. He laughed, making her flush, then glanced at Ms. Kittysaur silently trailing behind her. "You two match. Going to get the ears and tail next?"

Zetli led Bryn through the village while she tried to think of a comeback. It was hard. It was worse when she saw a few kids running around with foxlike ears which made her start to wonder what SHE would look like with them. Fuck Zetli. He needed to stop being tall, too.

He showed her to a large tent. "Unmarried women's tent. Gals, Bryn had a growth spurt and…" He gestured at her and Bryn flushed. She glanced down— she was showing belly and ankle. Just an inch or two of each but… "I'll bring these ghasts to Kaz Itzal. Not sure if he's up for another ritual yet, but we can't just leave them laying around."

Bryn opened her mouth and then closed it with a squeal as a teen girl poked her bellybutton. Zetli closed the tent flaps, trapping Bryn inside. The girls swarmed her. Six of them, four Sahii, one with a shell, and one seemingly pure. Bryn instinctively fled and poked her head outside only to be caught up by Zetli staring at her in amusement.

"What else?" He quirked an eyebrow at her. Bryn flushed.

"Uh. I need a crab. A male crab."

"Pardon?

"Eggs."

"Ah, I see. One laid in our own stream as well. This is a request from Ezekial?" Bryn nodded as she felt hands pull her back from the tent flap. She surrendered to her fate, made a few friends, and learned twelve ways to tie a toga. They settled down to use Ms. Kittysaur as a living pillow as they chatted, an indignity the drake stoically ignored- except for a hint of purr when her ears or chin got scratched.

The girls were kind and happy and Bryn soon relaxed— she hadn't felt like this even back at the family compound. Sure, she'd had cousins her age but had had to deal with the pressures that came from her odd position in the family— her father a magister but not a Butcherbird and with no mother to link them. In fact, some of her aunts blamed both her father and her for her mother's death. Technically true, but it had been her mother's choice to chance birthing her without potions or surgery available.

They thought the pairing had not improved the blood of the family either. Bryn hadn't disagreed because of her bones, but the nose she inherited from her father had saved her life a dozen times when delving. Being able to smell out drakes was invaluable in her opinion. She didn't know how other scouts got by without it.

The girls asked Bryn if she'd been affected by the dungeon too causing Bryn to blurt out, "It's a secret." She'd been overthinking things though— the pure girl had then told Bryn to look at her new tits. Seemed they, unlike Zetli, merely assumed her growth was a result of being exposed to essence for the first time like the rest of them.

Feeling a bit more on solid ground Bryn began to lecture them about the changes that delvers first experienced— they weren't delvers but with a steady supply of free essence water it was close enough. The gals began to call her scholar Bryn. It was good-natured though.

The only awkward moment came when Bryn blurted out "Why are you being so nice to me?"

She cringed but Tloki— the Sahii girl with the red hair— just shrugged and said "Not the first deserter that's joined the tribe. We pick up strays too— not eat them like you may have heard." Bryn blinked as they giggled at her, too shocked to even be embarrassed. They didn't know what she meant.

She was no longer the weird, twisted, half-crippled delver who dove because it was the only thing that kept her body from failing. She was a demon instead, but there was nothing that marked her as any different from a six, the changed who inherited no flaws.

Plus, Hanna— the girl with the shell— was the most changed of all and didn't seem to be rejected. She'd been one of the 'strays', a street kid who ate whatever she could scavenge on the streets before she was captured in a Sahii raid. She was scared to death at first, she'd heard the legion propaganda too, but now she felt it was when her life truly began.

Bryn made noises at the proper moments in the story. Like Bryn Hanna had clearly not rolled sixes. She wondered if Ezekial could heal her too. What would she change? Bryn had kept her hair and scale patches as signs of her heritage, but the shell was a bit more… Obvious? Did it limit her? Bryn didn't know how to ask.

They felt divinity spill over the village and went to watch the ritual, Bryn in a hide wrap that somehow felt both stylish and primitive. She'd switched her boots for sandals- they still fit, thankfully, but would have be to be claw-proofed. Digging her claws into drake-hide delving boots felt sacrilegious and cutting the toes off was right out.

The ritual was shorter this time. The presence of Akasha was dimmer and that of Vijnana stronger- perhaps Akasha was less interested in a repeat but their skills were required? Bryn mentally shrugged. The gods were alien, arising from men but unlike them.

Scholars had spent entire lives preparing theses on the nature of the gods only to receive a curt 'incorrect' when they were presented at the temple. Eventually the high priest of Akasha announced that the god has no interest in human research into the divine. It wasn't anathema, but nobody would be chosen for it.

In any case, the human souls were extracted from the balls of ghast far more smoothly than they were before. When each human soul exited the ghast and floated into the sky a bolt of what seemed to be lightning struck the remaining animal souls, making them visibly plumper. Then the bag would reseal around the ghast and another silver bolt of lightning would strike the bag, transforming it. The bag, now silvery and bearing the Eye of Vijnana, would then bob over the cart and drop in all by itself

Zetli had replaced the cart Ezekial had modified with a new one. Bryn gave him the stink eye. “That’s not the same cart.”

“You don’t own the cart.” He smoothly replied.

“Ezekial put new wheels on the other cart.” She squinted at him.

“If he wants to use that cart specifically he can ask for it. Did he ask for it?” Zetli gave her a soft smile.

“No.” Bryn scowled back. “You merchant.”

“One of the many jobs of the chief.” Zetli gave her a shallow bow.

“How’d you get the job anyway? Didn’t they have anyone better?” Bryn was aware this was getting personal but this dude rubbed her the wrong way.

“My brothers ran off to become delvers and I was the only person left with my dad’s training when he died.” Zetli shrugged.

“Oh… I’m sorry.” Bryn winced. Mouth, meet foot.

“It was ten years ago.” Zetli shrugged again.

There was a moment of awkward silence and Bryn decided to just grab the cart and go home. Back to the dungeon. Which was her home because she lived in a fucking dungeon now and nothing in it tried to kill her and she had a pet drake following her around. Bryn suddenly felt tired.

It wasn’t bad, but it sure was something.

Then the gals gathered over to give her hugs and make her promise to stop by again soon and things weren’t so bad. She decided to ask Ezekial if he’d heal the others too.

Her mood slipped back down as she trudged up the hill. The scent of mana was growing. Quickly. Maybe it'd be nothing. Maybe the bizarre demigod she had pledged her loyalty to went a few hours without doing something strange. She took a deep breath and stepped into the dungeon.

She sneezed. “Gods! There’s more mana here than temple street on solstice! What the fuck!” That was not what she had intended so say but-

Ezekial popped around a corner and the vessels popped out the cart, startling Bryn. They zoomed forward and then blasted Ezekial with several silver lightning bolts. Ezekial stilled. Or at least swayed in the air and made music and didn't do anything else for a few moments. Then he reached out to try and grab the vessels- they avoided his threads. After a moment he made a net and tried to catch out and it spat out a burst of flame that burned the net to ashes.

Ezekial seemed to give up, threads falling limply to the floor, and the vessels began to orbit around him calmly.

Bryn sneezed again. "Um, there's too much mana in here for me? I'm going to wait outside until you're done with, uh, whatever."

Bryn fled the cave, stifling both sneezes and laughter.