The mandril was imprisoned in an earthen vault, a deep pit barred by a three-inch thick barrier of stone. Through the small slots in the roof only a few fingers of starlight could fall into the dark below, and even that was fading as the sky curdled into the middle-dark between true night and dawn, leaving it alone in the dark. A single bell hung from the grate above, its sole companionship.

The beast had ceased its howling.

“I am sorry for this. For your mate. I know that’s hollow, but the truth is, we’re on the wrong side of a war. There’s still a chance I could help. If you could tell me why, or how the enemy changed you? What they offered? Or were you unwilling?” The chime rang, tolling out my voice. Unlike the last three times the ape didn’t crush it in a rage. “There might be something I could do.”

But it didn’t answer either, not in any way I knew. The cell was as comfortable as I could make it. Deep lush moss covered the floor and flowering vines would provide fruit. A basin filled with water from a shard of crystal. It sat curled, long arms over its knees.

I couldn’t read the beast’s mind, not even the surface emotions. An oily barrier surrounded its consciousness and inner soul, keeping me out, every mental prod and demand met by a resistance that seemed to drag at my will like tar. Worse, I felt the energy respond to my presence. Each time I tried to push through I felt that insidious force come alive with hunger and try to wriggle its own into my own mind to feed.

The same energies pervaded its flesh, saturated the flow of Mana within the body. When under force, it became thick, oily, an energy that seized and clutched, but while dormant it simply felt like nothing at all. A hollow absence.

There was no winning this by force.

I was ready to turn my attention away when it spoke. “I have… enemy..” Its voice was croaking, clearly struggling to make human words.

“Yes? You have an enemy? Not me, I hope.”

It shook its head. “Mate-killer, you. But… he returns to me…” Her lips drew back, baring a mouth of razors. “My daughter. She is gone. Eaten.”

That brought me pause. The mandrils should have been able to return to life, reincarnate, so long as their soul was intact. And there were relatively few creatures I knew who could truly devour a soul. “Was it one of your own?”

“Ye-es…” “The leader… Queen of us…” The anger made her unwind herself from her curled position, starting to knuckle-walk around the edges of the pit, a hand tracing the stone walls- her claws made a stoney screech as they dragged against the rock. “My daughter, she… challenged...”

Ah. A struggle for dominance. And the winner tore out the loser’s soul.

It wasn’t as if I had no remaining choices. I could easily find other specimens, maybe easier to persuade. Or even take more invasive measures. Right now, the Abyssal energies rejected my own and pushed me back. That could change. My symbiote vines could meld with her flesh, even unwillingly, and provide a foothold for my own Mana to begin contesting.

It was possible the Abyssal power would simply infect the vines, it was possibly my own magic would be able to slowly consume it. Equally likely, the energies would simply refuse to mix, and very likely, it would kill the mandril regardless of the outcome.

I felt a little queasy just thinking of murdering a helpless creature for my experiments. If I wasn’t equally unhappy with the idea of working as an assassin, I’d have dismissed it without letting the ugly thought build in my mind.

“Kill her… and we can trade…” There was a desperate note in the words. One I could hear even through the beast’s clumsy grasp over the language. “My story, for vengeance.”

“We’ll see.”

I left it there, and lifted my attention from the little cell with a sense of unease. I didn’t like talking to a beast who’s mate I had killed. I didn’t like having prisoners within my lands, or negotiating to slaughter for my own profit.

The night was cool and dark, the oasis’ waters forming a slow mist that coiled over the surface like a ghost. The wind brushed the grass so drops of dew fell like a thousand chimes. There was no brightness or laughter from the stoneskin caravan, all of them asleep, and Shine-Catch was out to hunt, tracking a flightless wasp through the dust. I didn’t bother her. My thoughts were my own.

I remembered I used to think of myself as a talker. Lately, I’d found that instinct somewhat curdled. I never seemed to talk about anything but the war and death I wanted to avert.

My attention dove below, to the hidden cavern where I’d seeded insects in a pit of death. Even after a single day I expected the population to have been culled. The crawling scorpions should have dispatched with a good half of them by now, leaving strong, fit specimens to work from.

I’d…

Somewhat underestimated them.

One of the scorpions was as good as dead. It was bound in a huge cave of luminous silk that had grown up to fill a quarter of the cavern, capturing much of the edible fungi behind fortified walls. Numerous little silkworms were spinning thread upon thread, each line imbued with a faint glow of green-blue that shimmered in the dark.

Glowspinster Worm

[ Unranked ]

Kingdom Animalia

Age - 1 Day

Physique - Null

Arcana - Unranked

Psyche - Null

Diet - Fungi

Biome - Deep Caverns

Cycle - Null

Living seven-day lifecycles during which they will never sleep, the glowspinster fabricates a beautiful silk from raw Mana, imbued with the strength of steel and a gentle light. The species has lost its ability to develop into moths, but works in harmony to weave massive structures of silk in which they reproduce via fatal parthenogenis, one full-grown larvae dying so numerous smaller ones can be born within and chew their way out. Born of the Oasis Dungeon.

Notable Traits - Mana synthesis (silk).

Others had simply adapted against the scorpion’s senses, becoming still, silent, indistinguishable from stone formations as the beast prowled by. One species of mantis had evolved long thin fans of dark material extending from the backs of its claws, forming a kind of ‘shield’ it could hide behind to disguise itself.

In short the entire cavern had advanced far beyond what I’d expected from the amount of Mana I’d fed into the sealed pit. Some of this could be put down to the simple size of their bodies, the Mana in the air able to more easily change them, but-

It was also that I’d underestimated how differently Mana would behave when the air was sealed and still. With no horizon to expand into, instead of being spread out and causing a general flowering of life, it sank into individual bodies, fueled particular and specific adaptations.

One of the scorpions had benefited the most. Vivid blue patterns covered its claws, which had adapted a downwards tilt and become lop-sided, one side of the pincer heavily developed above the other. It would knock against the ground constantly with hammering blows, and sense out the shape of things by the sound in a kind of evolved echolocation. Cowering bugs would find themselves quickly discovered, and its huge claws were now adept at delivering powerful strikes rather than grappling, more than matching the speed of its poison tail. Overall it was heavier and better armored, and I soon saw why this was so neccesary.

Earthshaker Scorpion

[ Unranked ]

Kingdom Animalia

Age - 1 Day

Physique - Unranked

Arcana - Null

Psyche - Unranked

Diet - Insects

Biome - Deep Caverns

Cycle - Nocturnal

This hulking scorpion has developed to be a fighter above all, with thick armor painted in warstreaks of blue. Ferocious and unyielding, it stalks prey by striking its overgrown claws against the earth and listening to the echoes, sounding out the shapes of hidden bodies in the dark. This same strength allows it deliver stunning blows, pummeling enemies into submission and devouring them when they succumb to exhaustion or poison. Born of the Oasis Dungeon.

Notable Traits - Air pressure sensitivity.

The last scorpion was basically dead. Two of its right legs and the claw of the same side gone, eyes and mouth torn to shreds. It had the strength to continue fighting, but the fight would be a slow spiral towards death, each hunt costing it more than the food was worth.

The beast that maimed it was sadly already deceased, brought down in the battle. A butterfly that had evolved to spit out its own over-developed digestive system in a caustic net, melting the prey and then dragging their dissolved body up as the guts reeled back in.

Horrifying. But effective.

This whole experiment could be summed up this way, and I realized I need more of these sealed environments, more breeding pits where the strong survived. It was an aspect of life cores without my unusual nature would never need to discover - their environment would provide these closed, deadly conditions of struggle.

Today, I’d learned something unexpected. I could be happy with that.

The earth above quaked as I drew the sealed pit up, forming a massive pillar of red rock in the center of the waters. Two more rose to stand alongside it.

Each contained seven inner caverns stacked atop one another, each layer smaller than the last. I seeded the highest chambers with an abundance of Mana and a small amount of watercryst, enough that both water and magic would trick down to the lower berths but grow more dilute each time.

I trusted crude instinct to carry the beasts upward, fighting for survival, until a single specimen inhabited the highest reach, descending to hunt and vye for dominance. It was a brutal system, but it was one that worked for the spirits of the beasts within, one that they understood.

It was the cruel world of the desert in microcosm.