* * * FRAGATTA’S WATER MOON – MARY * * *

Mary set aside her book and looked out of the dome at the rocky ocean bottom. The woody treelike growths were coming along nicely; the massive roots were using mana to force their way deep into the moon’s depths. She glanced at her book and grinned, ‘Bet Jack Vance would’a liked someone usin’ his ideas from Blue Planet. Glad things are easier to hurry along in my dungeons. Lookin’ forward to the tree isles.’

She narrowed her eyes as she sensed a familiar very minor divine aura approaching. She watched as Sin Tchai emerged from the gods’ realm and made his way to where she waited. Mary noted that Sin Tchai seemed nervous.

« Back again? What is it this time messenger, and who is your message from? »

Sin Tchai dropped to the ground and kowtowed.

« Oh get up, do. »

Sin Tchai rose nervously, “I come bearing messages from Villius of the Eyes.”

Mary snorted in amusement. « Is he getting tired of losing eyes yet? »

Sin Tchai just stared. Then, somewhat hesitantly, he produced a sealed letter and small silk wrapped box.

Mary sighed and accepted the two items. She placed the box on a small side table and opened the letter. Noting that Sin Tchai remained in place, she asked: « Expectin’ a reply? »

Sin Tchai jerked a nod and managed a hoarse, “Yes.”

Mary scanned the letter, surprised that it consisted of a single sheet of finest parchment.

« You can tell ’im that I’m willin’ to see him. All he has to do is turn up, an’ I promise to restrain my snakes. Now scram! »

She laughed when Sin Tchai vanished immediately. Then she turned and picked up the silk wrapped box. She tossed it up and down in her hand before putting it down again. Then she reached out for her other self, asking for a merge.

Once the two Marys merged, they contemplated the letter. They called Trisha and Jerica in. The four of them examined the possibilities.

«« So we have – one, to allow Villius an escape, let him spy in on our throne room in the Gods Realm on Ambuila – Thoughts? »»

«« Agreed, Ambuila is the least important of our worlds at present. Irritatin’ but acceptable. »»

«« Two, This gift – do we accept? It will distract us – at least to a degree. And no idea on what is on the other end. Bottom of the biggest body of water – I/we don’t like that description, not at all. »»

«« Agree – we should at least check it out – potential gains are interestin’. »»

«« An’ three, got to sharpen our game when it comes to takin’ out irritatin’ high gods. Hey calm down Trish, you too Jerica – you both knew this was comin’. An’ we are not ready yet. But first, the southern Ice menace, him we can take. Then we will see ’bout the black bearded one. »»

«« Agreed, check out this new place first. Very carefully in case it is a trap then... »»

After their conference they ended their merge. Each Mary then spent some time calming her respective companion, before returning to their plotting.

* * *

After her quick diversion to Earth Mary carefully unwrapped her gift. She inspected the sandstone statuette contained in the box. It depicted a strange creature, it was mostly flat, and its body was basically rectangular with rounded corners and bulging edges. A cluster of thin tentacles sprouted from each corner of the being. At the top a cluster of eyestalks gave all round vision and sat over a large toothless mouth. Mary understood that the bony bulge in the middle of the creature’s body housed its brain.

The creature was standing on a base that showed a map of the world. It looked very uninviting, it contained about a dozen large lakes clustered around the poles, none of them were larger than the Caspian Sea, and most were barely as large as Lake Superior.

Then all the symbols that denoted cities, industry and clusters of population were far from any source of water.

Carvings of the beings going about their daily lives surrounded the map. They seemed to walk on all ‘fours’ humping themselves a bit like caterpillars. And they seemed to spend a fair amount of time spread out absorbing the sunlight. Mary gained the impression that they ingested silicon and used sunlight for energy.

The only thing that tempted her was the chance to examine a silicon based life form. Also there were no depictions of these beings worshiping anything. And they had propeller-powered aircraft, though not many of them. Their ground vehicles were armoured, well-streamlined and used tracks. She suspected there would be some vicious sand storms on this world.

Cautiously, Mary slipped into her core. She moved the statuette to the edge of her domain, and then she infused some mana into the link that was built into it. A portal snapped open, destroying the statuette, and the link. Mary probed through the portal and – very reluctantly claimed the location around it.

Her new dungeon was devoid of life. It didn’t surprise her, as the salinity of the shallow sea was at least as great as that of the Dead Sea on Earth. What did grab her attention was the “moon”. It was a large blue green orb with swirling white clouds.

« Humph! Well Jerica, we have lots of work to do. Got to repurpose several of our planktons and other clear up options. On the other hand there are a lot of iterestin’ an’ valuable salts an’ metals in this soup that passes for water. »

« Yes we do Mary, but first please get to work on that potion template, we have to protect ourselves against that coronavirus mess. And don’t forget to tell the dungeons on Earth about it. And you have to tell Frog and Oscar to tune their portals to exclude it. »

« *sigh* Yes dear! »

* * * EARTH – DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

Blue Lagoon: In regards to the current global pandemic, don’t forget that you all can produce potions as treasure. Cure Major Disease exists. It is expensive when it comes to mana. The template is on the exchange. The cost is the minimum Bluey will allow.

Blackrock: What the hell? Why aren’t you supplying this potion?

Bet Your Life: Treasure? But for treasure there has to be a challenge, doesn’t there?

Blue Lagoon (cmp): Yes, but you are well set up for that Bet.

Blackrock: That is lame, there has to be a way round that. You should be providing the potion Blue Lagoon. You must have the mana.

Blue Lagoon (cmp): We are not a charity spider boy. And the challenge can be symbolic, but that way you won’t recoup your investment.

Arena of Blood: Jerica, how do we keep this thing out of Tarifax?

Blue Lagoon (cmp): You can tune your portals to reject people who are ill Frog. Then people with the virus will not be able to use the portals. Oscar, please do the same. Dungeons that spread plague are not popular on any of the worlds we know.

* * * EARTH – BRAZIL / BELÉM DO PARÁ * * *

After landing at the international airport of Belém, Serena Amoyensis headed to reclaim her bag, and then she headed to passport control. She smiled politely, careful to keep her mouth closed so as not to intimidate the small humans with her fangs.

Her metropolitan Portuguese already made her stand out, the fact that she was a Tiger beastfolk made her impossible to miss. Even so, her team of four Jaguar beastfolk, or onça-pintada beastfolk as the locals would have it also caused a stir, even if their Brazilian Portuguese blended in nicely. The two Were-Jaguars slipped into the country without a ripple.

Their baggage was meticulously examined, that was something they all had expected and counted on. As Serena had also counted on, their advanced storage devices were not detected. The locals were using the best magic detectors money could buy, but as they were provided by MagiTech... Serena grinned as she and her team entered the country with an extensive arsenal, equipment and gold. And potions – never forget the potions.

She flicked her jet-black hair over her shoulder, picked up her suitcase and headed out to catch a taxi. Next they would have to contact Daniel Azevedo and see to his safe establishment. She was becoming used to these missions, even if for this one she had a lot more firepower than usual.