A Talk Chp 51

In my chamber of machinations, I was slithering nervously in circles. Thanks to Agony declaring my reaction to my core abnormal, I had a lot to think about.

Unfortunately, that was the only new information I had. I was running in mental circles as well as physical. It took me about half an hour to realize it and bring my new anxiety under control.

Once it was, I had something else to think about. Steve had yet to write back, and Agony hadn’t said anything about how long it had taken him to reply. I hadn’t known either one long, but I felt like something was off.

Agony had given me the impression that he’d apologize for the delay. Steve seemed like he would have responded immediately. Even if it was just to say he didn’t have time to read it and would get back to me later.

“42?” Henry called out to me. I heard him but didn’t process that he’d spoken. Not properly, anyway. Instead, I was focused on trying to call Steve, then Agony. Both calls started only to give me a failed to connect notice.

I looked at the floating box of text and felt a river of cold acid run down from my neck to my tail. I didn’t know where the issue originated and looked down at the mystery count down in the corner of my vision.

Someone had tried to replace me before. Now it looked like they were trying to cut my communications. At least with those who were part of chaos in an administrative capacity. I had to wonder if the countdown was ticking away the dwindling time I had left.

Shit.

“42?” Henry asked gently. I came out of my mental fog and found that Henry was hugging me. I wasn’t sure how long it had been going on, but it was definitely for more than a few moments. I looked at him with embarrassment, wondering how long I’d been trapped inside my own head.

“You should be at work,” I said as my brain vomited up an unrelated fact. Going by the system clock, he should have left an hour ago. That also meant that I’d been slithering in circles for two. It felt like it had been a matter of minutes during my little freak-out.

“I t-took the day off,” Henry said simply. I wanted to say something then stopped myself. I wasn’t okay, and it helped to have him with me. On top of that, he’d chosen to stay himself. Telling him, he should go would have been idiotic.

“Thanks… Something happened, and I’m going to call a meeting,” I explained finally. Henry relaxed a little, and I tried to move away from him. That was when I realized there was a bit of a misunderstanding on my part.

Henry had hugged me, but that wasn’t the reason we were so close. I had my tail wrapped around him from waist to ankle. Looking down, I felt an electric wave ripple through my pseudo flesh.

I unwound myself and scooted away, feeling deeply embarrassed. Henry raised a hand and started to speak, only to stop. Illusions of life didn’t supply a lot, but they did include blushing, and he turned a very noticeable shade of pink.

“I don’t mind when you do th-that,” Henry said finally, not looking me in the orbs.

“I… I’m going to arrange that meeting now,” I said, voice tense. Henry nodded in reply. Silence descended.

The meeting was the first one I’d called in a while and the largest yet. To keep up the fiction with our new settlers, we met at night. I transported those who lived outside to the bone brigade breakroom.

“I’ll see you there,” I said when the time came. Instead of walking out with Henry, I teleported like a coward. We’d been sitting in silence for so long I’d lost my nerve.

I’d been expanding it and adding furniture and decorations over time. Now it was four times larger than my original design and ornate.

Instead of a single floor, it was two stories with a balcony and a grand staircase. I’d also moved the parody of Washington crossing the Delaware painting top of the stairs.

It gave a majestic impression. At least until you actually started looking at the figures in detail. Looking at the decor, I’d expected that at some point, there would be complaints. That the wry and sometimes crude humor I’d put into decorating the common area would offend.

Like most things, when it hadn’t, I’d been bothered. I’d wondered if it was a sign the skeletons couldn’t express themselves. Now that I knew them a little better, I realized I’d been operating under a bias. The one that people from medieval-ish periods were all prudish. I sighed and laughed at myself.

Shakespear was loaded with dirty jokes. Some of the earliest preserved Roman writings were obscene graffiti on walls. The era didn’t change people’s enjoyment of crass humor.

I couldn’t know why they did or didn’t mind something unless I asked. It was a problem I’d noticed and ignored for a while now. I laughed again, knowing no matter how I’d been before, I’d been on the road to being a shut-in until recently. Looking around the full room, I sighed. It was time to start talking.

Explaining all the recent happenings took time. How I’d been human as far as I could tell, how I suspected the system affected my mind, there was a lot. Then I had to get into the weird bits, starting with the 24 incident.

Despite the short notice and dense subject matter, everyone was gracious about listening except for the hounds. They came and curled up next to me and went to sleep. I looked at them with affectionate annoyance.

Their ability to read the room was nonexistent. The solemn atmosphere was utterly lost on them. Unlike the rest of us, they weren’t given to worrying unless something was happening at the moment. I envied them for that.

When I finished my recap, the skeletons talked amongst themselves for a while. I waited on pins and needles for questions. Some of them had known more to start with, like Dawn and Henry.

Despite that, I hadn’t laid everything out in one go for anyone before. They all had a lot to process.

Talking about it also reminded me of some things I’d been trying not to think of. Like what had happened to 24? It was weird, but I thought about her from time to time and was a little worried.

I didn’t think Steve would delete her for no reason. Unfortunately, that was all I felt confident about. What he might do outside of that, I had no idea.

I wasn’t even sure of what she was. She could have been a humor nerfed copy of myself, but there was no guarantee. She might have been the system equivalent of a virus or malware.

That didn’t stop me from thinking about her as a person, though. I accepted that if something seemed sapient, then it should be treated as such.

I was lost in my own thoughts when I heard a rustle of fabric. Looking up, I found Aaron waving his hand, frantic to get my attention.

“Yes, Aaron?” I asked, and the room fell silent. More than a couple of skeletons rolled their illusory eyes, though. It looked like Aaron still hadn’t made many friends.

“Can you draw the runes out?” Aaron asked impatiently. He’d had his nose down in a book for a while. I’d assumed he wasn’t listening for most of the talk. It seemed I was wrong.

He might have been taking notes. I felt like I’d been mean with my presumption, but not that much. Aaron got on people’s nerves for being arrogant and rude, but he didn’t bully others.

It was one of the reasons I hadn’t summoned him to my chamber of machinations for a talk. I wasn’t going to mediate every single personality conflict. That wouldn’t do me or anyone else any favors.

“Yeah Aaron, I’ll do that when I get a minute,” I agreed unenthusiastically. I’d tried looking the runes up, but the system had failed to identify them. That meant they weren’t something from the world but native to the system. Even so, if he wanted to study them, I wasn’t going to refuse without reason.

“Jaccob?” I said to acknowledge one of Henry’s helpers in the tailor shop. He was a halfling and one of the recent skill-focused additions to the skeletons.

“Mistress, why are you telling us this?” He asked, his expression disturbed. This was his first group meeting outside of the new summons orientation I’d held when I bought him and the others. His only question at that time had been if he could have his own shop.

“I...” I started then had to stop. His response was one of the reasons I’d kept some things to myself before. I didn’t want to worry anyone. Not when I had so little information and even less ability to do anything about it.

“Knowing what’s happening might be confusing or scary, but I’m your Dungeon Master. Our lives are intertwined, and not telling you robs you of having a say in matters. Or at least being aware and able to express your thoughts and feelings,” I said. Coming up with something uplifting, under current circumstances, was beyond my abilities. I thought about adding they could feel free to be pissed off at me.

I refrained because I doubted they needed encouragement on that point. Dawn didn’t, at the very least, going by the way she was glaring.

“It’s okay if you can’t think of a question right now or don’t want to ask it in public. Text me and head it with “Core” as the subject. I’ll do my best to reply soon,” I said as the idea occurred to me. The skeletons nodded and kept talking amongst themselves for a while. Eventually, the ones from the town asked to be returned to their homes, so I started on that.

By the time I was finished, the bone brigade breakroom was empty. Those who remained in the dungeon had returned to their crypts. Dawn and Icarus were the only two left in the room. Icarus hung back while Dawn came forward with a determined expression.

I braced myself for what she might say or do. Once she was close, she lunged, pulling me into a bone creaking hug. Stunned, I remained still for a couple of beats before hugging her back.

“You’ll be okay,” Dawn said. I felt like a failure for being comforted by someone I was supposed to be looking out for. The amount of comfort it gave me overrode that feeling.

“T-thanks,” I muttered back.