Jason

"Hey, Jason! I leveled!" Lena's bright voice welcomed him back.

The portal was still located in a boxed-in room, though the dimensions had changed, and there were some roughed-in stone benches with pillow-top padding. It felt a lot more like an office waiting room, only bigger. And less rectangular. In fact, the walls were curved like the inside of an oblong cylinder. The longest part ran from the portal to a matching, though currently filled-in, archway, and was probably close to 7 m long. The next widest part looked closer to 4.5, maybe 5 m wide. The walls and ceiling had a glass smooth surface and were a bright, creamy yellow.

"You've been redecorating," Jason said, heading toward the closed archway. He set the sack filled with his foraging on one of the benches along the way.

Lena giggled. "Yep! And Rob is doing really well! He helped me set up a couple levels of contracts and put together a jobs roster! He's grumbling because Aaron took the first reasonable contract we worked out so he could play with the dire cat. Aaron's named her Buttercup, and we've been confusing Candy with Princess Bride references! And -! Hi, Kargerran! Vi, Nilis, Perth, Krar, Stylard, and Cord, right?"

Lena's avatar popped into existence beside Jason. She was more naturally colored, but her hair remained purple, swept up into the chignon that she preferred. She appeared to be wearing an ankle length dress modeled on a Roman toga. She waved at the arassi, but her smile lost some of its luster as Baline's troops came in. "Hey, Kargerran? Mind introducing your friends, please?"

"Lena Weston, Master of the Studio of Capricious Dreams, Corporal Baline's troops are experienced dungeon delvers. Our commander has requested that he and his squad provide their expert evaluation of your dungeon while she meets with the Lotrot City Council to decide what the city's policy will be toward your party. We have brought some supplies for the benefit of your … corporeal party members." By the time Kargerran finished that sort-of introduction, the last of Baline's troops had entered the room, making it feel pretty cramped.

Lena looked to Jason. "Humperdinck?"

"Vizzini is a possibility, but so is Fezzik or Montoya," Jason said.

"Okay." Turning her attention back to the new guys, she said, "One moment, please," then she said, "[Offer Contract]: [Liaison]."

The details of the contract ensuring a kind of immortality flooded Jason's mind. The closest to a downside Jason could see was that he would be contractually bound to represent Lena's interests.

*** *** ***

Do you wish to accept this contract?

*** *** ***

«Yes,» he agreed.

Lena smiled. "Let's not put any of those regeneration clauses to the test." The smile wilted as she looked back at Baline. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with so many armed strangers among my friends. Even without weapons, there are too many of you. At the same time, I would like to have peaceful relations with the people of Lotrot. How many of your troops would you want, at a minimum, to face a dire cat?"

Baline's scales flared. "Is that a threat?"

Kargerran stiffened, glaring at Baline. "Ma'am," Kargerran said, "two Harriers, one Infantry and one Ranger can expect to survive an encounter with a wild dire cat the size of the one that you have claimed."

Lena gave that a moment of consideration. "I will permit you, Sergeant, and you, Corporal, to bring one Infantry, one Medic, and two Rangers a piece. The rest of your troops may relax here during your tour. No spears and no staves."

Jason asked, "Why those, specifically?"

She gave him a tight smile. "Have you been hit by a club before? Trust me, it's a lot more painful than getting sliced up."

"How the hell do you know that?" Jason asked, fury sparking in him at the thought of someone hurting Lena.

She rolled her eyes. "There are two-by-fours and razor knives around construction sites. I learned to pay attention after the third trip to the hospital. Oh, do not allow annoying relatives around you when handling a nail gun. We had to cut the beam around Papa's hand when Mamaw distracted him as he was lining up the next nail."

Jason felt a sympathetic shudder run down his spine. "Okay."

Looking back to the military men, Lena asked, "Does that work for you guys?"

Baline's scowl had lightened with confusion as he watched the by-play between Lena and Jason. He exchanged a glance with Kargerran, who nodded.

Kargerran said, "That sounds generous, ma'am."

Lena smiled, her expression softening. "I'll just open the door while you make your selections."

Vi spoke up. "Would it be reasonable to ask for some kind of window so we can keep an eye on each other?"

Lena tapped a finger to her lips. Her gaze grew distracted. "Not right at the moment, but I can work on that during the tour. Allocating MPR to researching patterns after I've unlocked them for use seems to somewhat improve the quality of the materials, but my crystals are still pretty cloudy. Oh, and it turns out that the crystals improve mana regeneration, so it's harder to get rid of the extras. I haven't yet unlocked glass as a research topic, but I think I might be able to do something with [Applied Color Theory] to make the stone transparent."

One of Baline's arassi Rangers asked, "Would you object to us experimenting with spell casting in here?"

"Yes," Lena said.

The sole cat kin glared at the arassas that had asked.

"Mithor, Samiah, Tilly, and Kippo, you are with me," Baline said, cutting off any further questions from his squad.

Kargerran said, "Perth, Krar, keep the corporal's squad company, please."

"Yes, sergeant!" the two said.

The stone filling the archway ran down the far side like liquid mercury. As it reached the halfway point, Jason could see that fluid stone flowing across the water toward the nearest platform, the one upon which Rob had been recovering.

Baline's troops, to a one, puffed up, scales lifting on the arassi while fur bristled among the beast kin.

Nilis held out his hand to Tilly. "I believe you owe me on this one."

The fox kin absently handed over a clinking pouch to the smug Ranger.

*~*~*

Kargerran

Kargerran sympathized with the delvers' reaction. Seeing Lena Weston's casual manipulation of solid patterns was a "freakishly" disturbing experience on its own. Having been through a few morphing dungeons himself, he could understand how Lena Weston's display could go from disturbing to dread-inducing. He scratched at his tail, glad he was only missing the last claws-width where crystal, flowing as smoothly as the stone becoming their walkway, had snipped it off several years ago.

Jason Kline spoke, breaking the spooked silence of the Lotrot squads. "That is both wicked cool and kind of … wrong. What's holding up the bridge you're making?"

Lena Weston humphed. "Get your physics out of my DnD! Sorry, that snap wasn't about you. Candy's been driving me crazy ever since I gave her her own part of the dungeon to manage. Honestly, my best answer is mana. It'll be as stable as the floor you're already standing on."

Kargerran's belly tightened. "Does that mean there are no posts or pillars underneath us? Just water?"

Lena Weston shared a reassuring smile with him. "Candy harangued me until I made a solid 'shell' around this level. There's stone between the water and what I'm calling the firmament. I've braced all the walkways and platforms on that bottom layer."

If anything, her reference to the Clouds of Chaos that surround all dungeons only raised Kargerran's scales. Catching sight of Baline's own flaring scales, Kargerran steeled his resolve and stepped forward. "Would you, gracefully, share the information of your dungeon status?"

Jason Kline spoke. "That would probably be better discussed after Corporal Baline's tour." He started across the still forming walkway, and Lena Weston's projection floated over the water next to him.

Kargerran's duty left him no choice but to follow. He derived a small amount of satisfaction from the hesitation Baline displayed in following him, content with the pettiness he otherwise shunned both in himself and in his command.

The stone under his talons was, as Lena Weston had stated, stable, despite having acted as liquid as the water over which it provided passage.

"I just got a research technique for 'circulate'. Hopefully, I can use it on the water to help freshen it. So far, Aaron's claimed the dirt pile and Buttercup. Guardian Communication has opened up [Animal Empathy] for all of us, except Aaron. He got [Animal Handling]. And I have another type of portal available. The entrances can only be strung together in some pretty confusing ways. Rob's badgered Aaron and Candy to help him with figuring out how that works. Oh! I'm running scatter brained! Level portals. I was able to put up a level portal in the orange tree archway, and it was as much of a blank slate as this place was. I had to put in a floor and air, then I was able to make that Aaron's territory, and then when I put up a little more environment, I made that Rob's territory. I had to push the dirt into their level, and Buttercup already decided she likes Aaron best of us - she adores the way he scratches her and he's always been so good with creatures —."

Jason Kline interrupted Lena Weston. "Breathe. What was the point you started with?"

On one claw, Kargerran was having trouble following Lena Weston's speech. On the other, he had a feeling that her rambling held some invaluable nuggets of information. He maintained a polite, listening silence and, with a small shake of his head, cut off the question Nilis had opened his mouth to ask.

Lena Weston's projection turned to face the squads. "The Studio's floor plan is still being figured out. Dimensions, environmental composition, they're in flux. So, what you see today is more like looking at an artist's gesture drawings as the scene they want to paint takes shape in their imagination. I like the water feature, but there's no guarantee it'll be here when you visit again."

Kargerran said, "How long have you been the, I believe you said the Grand Tapestry called you the arbiter of this dungeon?"

"I have no real time sense on the best of days. I don't have any idea how long I spent arting with the environment before establishing the first portal and finding Jason. Jason, what's your time count?"

"Since you found me?" Jason Kline paused to think before saying. "I got a good hunger built up by the time we left for Lotrot. With there and back, I'm guessing I've been up for fourteen, fifteen hours."

Baline asked, "How did you take control of this dungeon?"

Kargerran was still reeling from the revelation that Lena Weston had *established* this dungeon. He had to stop and check that his ear holes weren't obstructed when she said, "Random perk from this Champion of Order design thing. Something about when the system absorbed me, it expanded the system's territory. I wasn't thinking very clearly. I think I had already been linked to the Zone, and I just knew I had to art. It was better and worse than when I had to step away and leave Kargerran to Jason's hospitality. Better because I wasn't fighting the creative compulsion, worse because the zone was 200-odd MPP over its max. The portal was more of the tail end of the creative imperative."

Baline asked, "This dungeon has a mana pool?"

"Don't they all?" Lena Weston asked in reply.

Jason Kline moved toward the carved stone archway that looked like two fanciful trees embracing. "We can discuss that more after the tour."

Kargerran stifled his impatience. Saddling them with an active delver squad seemed to have made Jason Kline wary of them. He really hoped that was an unnecessary caution on the human's part.

*~*~*

Vi

Vi drank in the changes to the Studio of Capricious Dreams while his sergeant played nanny to the sword-brained corporal. The Entrance Hall had been exotic, and yet elegantly welcoming. The cavern took that elegance to a level that awed Vi. The simplicity of the reduced room drew his attention to the details Lena Weston had added during their absence.

The water had taken on an iridescent quality, and he couldn't see a bottom to the pool. The landmass was gone. Three spears of crystal, each as wide as an elf, jutted from the pool about where the mid-line of the landmass had been.

The platform holding the portal to their campsite in the Mana Wastes seemed both farther away and smaller. At the same time, he noticed the sides of the platforms and walkways joining them had been decorated with carved reliefs of fish and foreign plants. Mana crystal shards blended seamlessly among the carvings, giving an extra depth to the fish scales and some of the edges of the carved plants.

What had started as random crystal fragments adding a soft glow to the walkways had become artful designs that invited him to walk onward, to see what greater pattern could be discovered with each step. When they arrived on the platform that had contained the distraught, dark toned Traveler, Vi saw darker and lighter striations in the stone accenting the crystal designs. He hadn't had a chance to really examine the sculpted archway, and, while he could appreciate how the revelations about how the dungeon zone could be managed, he was more interested in seeing what made a level portal different from an entrance portal. Oh, and getting up close with the sculpture so he could figure out just what an orange tree was supposed to be, that was a bonus. He hoped its name wasn't just a reference to the color of its bark.

Jason Kline led the way to the portal, stepping through with barely any hint of hesitation. Lena Weston's projection gestured for them to follow.

The sergeant's tail stiffened, a sign of deliberate control. He followed the newly appointed dungeon liaison. Corporal Baline's tail quivered, very slightly, but Vi caught the betrayal of his fear, as did Tilly and Kippo. If Mithor and the bear kin saw, they did not react.

Vi hadn't ever served as a delver, not like the sergeant had, but that didn't mean he hadn't poked around dungeons before. They were a private fascination for him, and if he had less of a preference for sunshine and tracking, Vi would have applied for a position with the delvers. The idea that a dungeon had a mana pool was not new to him. In his research, he had come across some speculative writings from a few less known members of the Arcane Asylum. The theory of environmental mana pools had only been one of several interesting ideas in those texts. Now, this having portals to areas within the dungeon, that was new.

Vi stepped up to examine the archway while the rest of their party gathered their nerve to discover what lay on the other side.

Lena Weston's projection smiled, a wide, closed lipped smile. "What draws your curiosity the most?" she asked him.

"Hard to rank," Vi said. "The tree is odd, fantastical, really, but the infusion of mana crystals to highlight different parts, I don't think that anyone outside of the Asylum could hope to replicate that. Does it serve a practical purpose?"

"The environmental crystals increase mana regen. I'm hoping that I can add my environmental options to my exportables. So far, the only stuff I make that persists outside of my Studio are the cotton bolls. Everything else crumbles into this super fine dust almost as soon as it goes through the portal. I hate to hurry you along, but the corporal dude is having some puff up problems. I think having his team with him may help him stay calm. Ish."

Vi nodded. "Good call." He snagged Tilly's arm and dragged the reluctant fox kin with him.

Another projection of Lena Weston met them on the other side of the level portal. This one was eerily still, as if it were as much a statue as the orange trees, only made from light instead of stone.

Jason Kline was speaking. "… as any of us, Corporal. Lena doesn't like seeing anyone in distress."

"I don't care what—." Corporal Baline cut himself off when he spotted them. "Ranger Tilly! What held you up?"

Vi cleared his throat. "My apologies, corporal. I was examining the structure of the portal. I must have been blocking safe access to the portal. Lena Weston had to prompt me to get out of the way."

The projection transformed from an inanimate piece of art to lively avatar in the blink of an eye. Vi and Tilly jumped, startled. He didn't see anyone else's reaction.

"Vi, why are you using my full name?" Lena Weston asked.

"Is that not a polite form of address?" Vi asked.

The projection shrugged. "It's not impolite, at least as far as my culture goes. It's just striking my ears as a weird formal, and I thought I had conveyed my invitation to be casual with me, to just use my given name."

"Ah, I did not comprehend this invitation. How would you prefer to be addressed?" Privately, Vi was glad that he was the one receiving this clarification. The lower-born of his squad mates might have gotten tangled up in the possible permutations of insults and scuffed honor such a situation posed.

"Lena is my given name. Weston is my family name. I'm more comfortable being called Lena, but if you're more comfortable with formal, 'Ms. Weston' sounds more natural to me."

"You honor me, Lena," Vi said. "Arassi rarely have more than one name, and beast kin follow the gnomish tradition of providing only a use-name to those outside of their extended families."

The rest of their group had edged through the level portal while Lena and Vi's conversation took place. Vi let their movement attract his gaze, but the setting soon took over his attention. This "level" could have been an open air dirt field. He couldn't figure out where the walls began, let alone where they met the ceiling, both of which had the gradient of blues natural to the true sky. Clouds, real, actual clouds, floated near the ceiling, hiding and diffusing a central light source. The dirt was mounded in gentle waves.

Three humans stood off a distance from them. The one as pale as a newborn arassas was Aaron Felding. Next to him was a much recovered dark toned male whom Vi had only heard called Rob. Candice Sterling stood a little bit separate from the male humans, her arms folded over her chest. The sight of the humans reminded Vi that there was a dire cat as yet unaccounted for.

While he scanned the terrain for the cat, Vi wondered if the number of syllables in a Traveler's name held the same significance for them as it did for the inhabitants of Lotrot.