Mary watched broadly similar scenes in the Drow temples around the world. Somehow it worked and she was not confused by the various viewpoints. She felt an amused approval coming from both Ocidon and the Spider Queen.

Twenty-eight queens were confirmed and many more priests and priestesses.

Then the Spider Queen turned her attention to Mary.

« Now you little fish. Hold your chosen in your mind and feel their essence. Yes like that, now use it as a lure and cast it out to find the most compatible in my halls to find your clergy and champions. »

Mary snorted through her blowhole and spread her – web – no that didn’t feel quite right – her net, yes that worked. Unfortunately that still left five halls without a priestess and the Spider Queen insisted. So Mary thought, she grinned and followed he link and used Victoria’s delightfully devious slippery essence to create a new lure. That left only one minor hall lacking an incumbent.

‘Tomcat wouldn’t last long among this lot, he’s too honest. That leaves Drina or Pete. Let me try mischief central first.’

Mary cast her net once more, then she giggled, this would give her several headaches but she couldn’t resist so...

* * *

Countess Firestealer stood proudly in front of her people, she had witnessed the fall of her people when she was a girl and now in her last century or two of life she had witnessed the fall of the usurper. She smiled as she remembered her brother’s death under her hand. She vowed that she would restore Chardelve Deep to its former glory even if it took another thousand years. She smiled at her great granddaughter who had taken up the ring of their goddess.

Her eyes narrowed as she noted her grandson enter the temple in the wake of his youngest great great granddaughter. The little imp was headstrong, a disgrace, but this time she could see that she was being compelled, no, they were both being compelled.

Blackbeard’s Bane snorted and seemed to grin even more than usual.

« Little one, little jokester, I claim you as my priestess here in Chardelve Deep. Shadowstalker will you become one of my champions an’ guide my priestess, an’ guard her whip until she’s old enough to claim it. »

Shadowstalker looked at his most mischievous descendant, a girl he had expected to loose as a consequence of one of her pranks and closed his eyes in momentary pain. He drew a deep breath but could see no way to say no. He bowed, “Yes my goddess.”

Shadowstalker felt a weight at his waist. His hands flew to the new weapon belt.

« Enjoy your new rapier, name it and it will wake an’ serve you well as will the main-gauche that accompanies it. The whip is not yours, you hold in trust and my priestess has the honour of namin’ it. »

« conditions met – you are offered the class Paladin – accept yes / no »

Shadowstalker’s eyes opened wide in shock. He stared at the statue of the – dolphin? – frolicking behind the Spider Queen. “Y—yes!”

« additional class gained: Paladin of Mary Silvestre, Mother, Little Fish, Mother of Monsters, Blackbeard’s Bane: aura of protection and water breathing gained »

Countess Firestealer examined her grandson carefully, “Paladin Shadow? How can one of us manage that?”

Shadowstalker sought within himself and from the System and slowly a smile grew on his face. “Mother,” he blinked perplexed and heard a resigned sigh in the back of his mind, « all my people seem to call me Mother, so you might as well do so too. »

Shadowstalker licked his lips and continued. “Mother,” he nodded at the statue of the happy dolphin, “only requires that her Paladins protect her people, her loyal people. Much more difficult will be guiding our reckless little mischief maker.”

* * *

The Spider Queen examined their work and was satisfied.

« Little Fish, you are a surprisingly good fit for my children, your priestesses are an unpleasant lot, but they are all surprisingly loyal given how ruthless and lacking in empathy most of them are. »

« But they know how to dissemble and pretend. And the little one is amusin’. »

« I will probably need to borrow the four devious ambitious ones. »

« Fair enough. You are the senior goddess here. But they are mine! »

« ... here ... »

« Yes, here. »

= = O = =

The Alessandrina’s Glory edged her way into the commercial harbour at Garonmouth flying the flags of Ocidon and the Consort made her way to Ocidon’s pier. Tomcat eyed two ships in the busy harbour that were attempting to copy his beauty’s sail plan.

“Their hull’s not right to make best use of our rig, they’d do better with a mixed sail plan.” Tomcat stated to his first mate.

Clarrina watched, surprised that Thomas was directing his ship to an almost empty pier in this busy port. The old gentleman who she now knew was called Fellorfox was once again standing near her. He seemed fascinated by the flags they were flying.

“What’s so interesting about the flags, aren’t they just the company flag and the god’s banner?” she asked.

“The consort’s flag is flying with the God’s flag. Ocidon’s flag isn’t flying over that of his consort. And we’re heading straight to Ocidon’s pier.”

Clarrina noted a small group of well armed guards surrounding a widely grinning little woman. As soon as they had docked and the gangplank was deployed they boarded.

The smiling woman made her way to her Thomas. Clarrina eyed her suspiciously, then she blinked, the woman was truly tiny but... surely she didn’t have... she did, she had at least four breasts. So not human. Not that meant much with Thomas of the roving eye.

“Hola Tomcat! Mother’s blessings to you and your new lady. It was glorious! Blackbeard foiled and Mother has a paladin now.” The little lady gave a little hop of joy followed by a peal of joyous laughter.

“Hola Victoria, are you the ruler of this burg yet? And yes it was. A paladin? Really? Victoria this is my wife Clarrina. Clarrina this is Victoria one of M... the Consort’s three Bishops.”

“Bishop? What is a bishop?” asked Clarrina.

“We’re the second tier under High Priestess Alessandrina. Vicky represents the landfolk.”

Victoria snorted with laughter. “And Pete represents the seafolk while Tommy here looks after sailors and merchants. I suspect we’ll have a fourth soon.” And she gave another little bounce of joy.

‘Six, she has six breasts, what is she? Beyond being someone I don’t want to make an enemy of.’

Tomcat snorted. “If I restrain myself from calling you Vicky will you please not call me Tommy?”

Victoria grinned wider and nodded vigorously then stuck out a hand, “Now gimme, I’ve got a pair of priestesses of Bordianna to show around.”

Tomcat produced a small parcel and dropped it in Victoria’s outstretched hand. “No ring? How come?”

Victoria slipped the parcel to one of her guards, “You know that seed, well it allowed me to absorb the... the ability and give it to my girls too. Bye Tomcat, be sure to visit Zoreena, I hear she’s not happy when she wakes...”

Clarrina lips thinned slightly as she noted Thomas’ tail droop slightly at Victoria’s parting shot. ‘I think I’m going to have a word with my – um, fellow wives, I guess. Obviously we can’t let Thomas out alone in future.’

* * *

Fellorfox hurried to the Adventurer’s Guild with his hired porter following in his wake with his bags. Once he arrived he claimed one of the guest rooms the Guild kept for senior members and had his porter drop his bags in it before paying him and giving him the expected tip.

He them dropped in on Sarannas and after the two exchanged greetings he asked if guild master Sofos Ironfist was free.

“Yes but he’ll be grumpy. He likes to keep a couple of hours free for the odd job. Is it really important?”

“I just learned the Gods War Prophecy is underway. I just arrived on one of the Consort’s ships. The crew all witnessed or maybe participated when the Consort removed the drow from Blackbeard and returned them to the Spider Queen. Then the two fought and chased Blackbeard off.”

“Very well, follow me please.” Sarannas stood and made her way down the corridor followed by Fellorfox. Beneath the floorboards a large rat grinned and followed in their wake.

= = O = =

Madison grinned, “Mother gave us two ways to do this, answer Tyler’s questions and you record a memory jewel for Mother. Then or rather before that you ask us what help you need for us to pass along to Mother.

“The second option requires trust as it’s riskier for you. You would use a special enchanted crystal and talk directly mind to mind with Mother. Things would be faster that way and personally I think you would benefit more. But then I know and trust Mother and you don’t.”

Duskbright and Rachel merged their thoughts.

‘Can we trust them – we couldn’t stop them if they wanted to force it – so we can maybe trust them – why do they think?’

« Why are you so sure – Mother, who is Mother anyway? »

Tyler grinned and shook his head at Madison. “Mother is Blue Lagoon, Mary Silvestre.”

After a quick check Duskbright and Rachel came close to panicking. ‘Can we – should we – why does – Trisha sea sprite – who – the manna stone – oh, lets risk it – you sure – maybe, yes, yes I am – if you are sure, she is far, far more powerful than us – let... let's do this.’

* * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

Taron the Ravager was leaning on the splintered remnants of his spear watching Jiira fussing over Zandrox’s wounds. Fingers was carefully examining the brassbound chest that had been hidden in a small alcove behind the tapestry decorated by nightmarish looking fish.

The nightmarish octopus headed fifth level boss of the Mock Turtle dungeon had taken all they had to give. There was no choice they would have to retreat yet again. And he knew from bitter experience that this dungeon was always learning and the specials were always changed and stronger when they respawned.

Actually he wasn’t sure they were respawned or recreated.

“It’s open Taron, it contains eight small bottles. They have labels...” Fingers said and her voice trailed off as she checked the label.

Taron looked up, “so what does the label say Fingers?”

“Ten years of youth – Drink me Zandrox.” Fingers looked quickly at the bottles, “There are two here for each of us.”

“I think this falls to you Jiira, can you check them out?” asked Taron.

“Maybe, but not while we’re in this hellhole.”

Much later when they were relaxing in the parlour of their hired home after a visit to the truly decadent baths run by the extended Enhydralutris family.

“So what can you tell us Jiira?” asked Fingers examining one of the two bottles that contained her name.

“They are poison for everyone but the person named on the bottle. The liquid seems to have a very unusual enchantment but is not of itself magical.”

“Oh hell! The curiosity is killing me.” Fingers twisted off the cap and downed the liquid. “Not bad tasting. Not tasty but not foul like most potions.”

Jiira almost shot from her chair and in two steps was standing next to Fingers. She touched her lightly and used her diagnostic spell. “Something is happening, I think it will take several hours to see the result.”

Taron slumped back in his chair and signed to one of their servants for another beer. “Well we’ll know tomorrow.”

* * *

The following afternoon the Veterans reported to the virtually deserted local branch of the adventurer’s guild and reported on their latest delve and the unique targeted reward that the dungeon gave for defeating Tentacles. They offered a visibly younger Fingers as proof.

* * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

Mary released her avatar and moved her attention to the deepest part of her domain, there she recreated the second level of her Mock Turtle dungeon so that she would be ready to tie it into her Florida extension. She grinned amused, but something was still lacking. A well equipped party or unit with explosives and automatic rifles would be able to clear out the wildlife. Not easily maybe but too easily for her comfort. So Mary added machinegun armed remote turrets and monofilament wire traps.

After checking her reserves she duplicated the third level. Then she boosted the challenge in the same way she had for the previous level. Then she chuckled and added a retractable turret with a 20mm rotary cannon in the end room.

After contemplating her concealed trump card she went back and made all the turrets retractable and capable of being concealed. She was really glad she had toured of Pearl – officially and courtesy of the leopard twins.

She frowned and merged with herself, Tentacles had gone down to the Veterans and had to be replaced. But he really wasn’t properly optimised. Having to rely on dungeon manna to keep him going weakened Tentacles. Mary and Mary studied their level boss and started experimenting. There were a few inconsistencies, what if... blood and tissue bubbled and flew... then a pair of demon style wings merged with their/her project...

Earth Mary reluctantly pried herself from the fascinating project leaving just one stream of consciousness engaged. ‘Beep I just don’t have time for this now. Those wings should help. Yeah, but later... Huh....’

She could feel a – resonance. Something interesting was just out of her reach. Mary’s core flickered and shone as she reached and... She felt around the resonance, it felt right but...

« Jerica I need help, what do you think. Can you feel the resonance? »

Jerica giggled. « Oh cool Mary, the guns make it better than the version you have on Parthia. Mabe that one needs the hidden guns too. »

* * *

Kent waded ashore and shook himself semi dry before a surprised audience of beachgoers.

“Hey man, what’s a cat doing in the ocean,” asked a surprised tourist.

Kent just looked at the irritating oaf, he saw no reason to explain anything, he was a cat after all and thus perfect. But Mother did ask him to be polite so, “The water’s great and we lake van cats like swimming,” he replied. Then Kent triggered the cleansing enchantment on his ring. He relaxed as it removed the salt that coated him. Then he strode his way up the beach. Once in the parking lot he got his clothes from his storage device and dressed.

He jumped on a bus and settled down to read a book while he waited to get to his destination.

Later he bought a new chevy and got a sympathetic look from the salesman when he realised that he was selling a car to a Kent Clarkson. Then Kent visited the fed-ex office to post the small package to an address in Florida.

That evening Kent was back in the dungeon and the chevy was parked in the main cavern.