Lena

Lena gave up on arting. She turned her focus to the monstrous sapients.

The two living harpies perched in their cells. They had legs the length of a comparable sized human, but instead of the plantigrade foot of a human, they possessed the digitigrade talon-feet of falcons. Their perching resembled a human's flat-footed squatting, their thighs and shins vertically aligned with more of their weight balancing in their knees and hips. It seemed both more stable and more muscularly involved than squatting on the balls of the feet, heels lifted off the ground, thighs and shins horizontally aligned, and the weight balanced over ankles.

The harpies' wings grew out of their shoulders and had two major bendy points along their length. The first joint bent forward, like an elbow, and the second back like a knee. Three fingers, each about 10 cm long, grew from the point of the second major joint. When relaxed as the harpies currently were, their fingers folded over the side of the joint. One of the more odd things, at least to Lena, was that despite one of the fingers being opposable (they formed more of a triangular grip), all the fingers folded down in the same direction.

At present, the harpies were perched on the floor facing the front of their cells. Their wings were folded in against their sides, their heads slumped into their shoulders. Their tunics covered human-like breasts, and even with the pointed beak in place of a mouth and nose, their faces were quite human. Despite that, Lena couldn't figure out what they were feeling. Their beaks did not give them leeway to smile or frown, and they lacked obvious ears. They had stopped shivering, at least.

The big assed wolves had, for the most part, decided to curl up next to the front of their cells. They appeared to be sleeping. These wolves were more the size of the iconic planes lions of Africa and had more muscular legs than a similarly proportioned wolf would have had. Their furs were mostly dark gray with browns and some reds patterned in.

The noct, on the other hand, was pacing in his cell, leaping up occasionally and extending his wings until they touched opposite walls. He muttered to himself, a string of curses against the "Shasha bastards" and confined spaces.

He had beautiful wings patterned in shades of brown with white and black accents. Most of the lighter colors were on the inside (underside?) of his wings with the darker colors on the outside. She guessed they served the same kind of camouflaging purpose as a normal bird. His ears swiveled constantly, moving more independently of his head than the elves ears appeared to.

Lena made her toon appear in the aisle, capturing the attention of the cell occupants. "Which of you are capable of speech?" she asked, looking around.

The noct closed his mouth and tried to look innocent, while the harpies and wolves cocked their heads or simply looked on with curiosity.

Lena sat her toon on the floor and glanced toward the noct. "I guess you get to be the spokesman for your group. And please don't try to pretend you don't speak when I already heard you cursing the Shasha, whom I guess are those berry-popping Sun elves."

The noct froze, then relaxed a touch. "I have the speaking words, yes."

"What is your name?" Lena asked.

The noct tensed up again. "The masters do not give names."

Lena snorted. She wanted to promise that there wouldn't be any masters soon enough, but the conversation happening between Jason, Rob and the corporals, as well as the information Aaron and Candy were picking up from the Tapestry system had already proved that things were more complicated than they first seemed. "You have a name, regardless of who gave it to you. You said as much earlier. What would you like me to call you?"

The noct scrutinized Lena's toon. "Ouliel. You may call me Ouliel."

Lena nodded. "Ouliel, how sapient are your companions here in these cells?"

Ouliel studied Lena for several moments before he said, "Do you use [Inspect] you will see for yourself that the harpies are monsters and the hemats and I, we are monstrous sapients."

"If they are monsters, why are the harpies clothed?" Lena asked.

Ouliel's answer was given at a cautious pace. "The Shasha are offended by a naked harpy, so they use the long tunics to cover what they find offensive and to mark who the harpy belongs to."

"Why do you think they killed the other harpy?" Lena asked.

Fury twisted Ouliel's features and flooded his cheeks with red while white outlined his clenched jaw and pursed lips. After a moment, his expression relaxed, though the anger did not fade. "Hessa. Her name was Hessa. The Shasha killed her because they are bastards. Mother Diadra turns her back on them for the breaking of the World Tree and they no longer hear the Songs. Guardians they were before Shasha. Tyrants they are, now they are Shasha."

Lena's curiosity was pricked. However, she did know how to stay on topic, even if she usually wandered. "But why, in this time, in this place, did they kill Hessa?"

Ouliel closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. A fine tremor shaking his shoulders with emotions, he said, "Shasha do not 'waste' healing spells. Hessa, Bessa and Nessa cost them 34 silver wings combined. A healing potion costs 20 silver wings. Only Bessa is close to being worth that cost, and that because she is soon to mature. Hessa -. Hessa was child-cursed; she would never have matured. Killing her was their kind of mercy."

Lena felt herself pause. She allowed herself a moment of pure mental silence while she absorbed the implications. Then she asked, "What makes the difference between a mature harpy and the state Bessa and Nessa are currently in?"

"Mature harpies can sing decent imitations of the Songs. It is as close as the Shasha will ever get to hearing the Songs. Not all harpies mature. Most don't. Their minds stay simple and the songs they sing confuse the harmonies of the Songs."

Lena relaxed. That was a much less despicable distinction than she had assumed.

"Okay," she said. "To the Shasha, then, Hessa wasn't a thinking being and so they treated her like a beast. Is that so?"

"Yes. She wasn't, though. She had kindness in her. She shared food and was as happy to preen others as to be preened."

"You love her quite a bit, don't you?" Lena asked, her voice gentle.

"She's dead now. What does it matter?" Ouliel asked, turning his face away from Lena's toon.

"Love does not die so easily," Lena said.

The hemat wolves lifted their muzzles skyward and howled an agreement.

*~*~*

Jason

After breakfast the next day, Lena, her portal making ability expanded with the help of the Zone Cores, provided intra-level portals between the Lotrot Entrance Hall and the two cell blocks.

"Are you sure you want to be in the room?" Lena asked again.

Jason nodded. "We have to be. We have to use our own senses to come to our decisions or it'll be too easy to twist blame around later on. I've seen it too many times."

Rob and Aaron backed him up, and Candy said, "I don't have to understand their point to know it's important to them."

"Fine," Lena said. Her avatar led the way to the underwater cell block. She made a wooden table with a polished surface and four chairs. She let her toon float in a seated lotus position to the right of the table as it faced the cells. Jason took the seat next to her with Rob taking the center seat, Candy between him and Aaron. They each set the note pads Lena had made for them in front of them. Candy fiddled with her pen.

"Are you ready?" Lena asked. When they all gave their affirmatives, the front of the cells changed from an opaque gray to a clear glass. Holes lined the bottom of the cell fronts.

The three Sun elves faced the cell fronts. The magic caster, looking pale and haggard, sat on the floor. The two melee fighters stood. The one that had been a belligerent ass the day before looked haughty while the one who had surrendered seemed composed.

"Why did you come to this dungeon?" Rob asked.

The melee fighters remained silent. The magic caster said, "We need to capture auxiliary cores stones to stabilize the dungeons in East Karth. What are you doing in this dungeon?"

Jason saw Aaron place a hand on top of Candy's arm. They had agreed to let Rob handle the questioning phase, and that included responding to their prisoners' questions. He gave a silent thanks that Aaron was on Candy corralling duty.

"Who are you?" Rob asked.

"Who are you?" the mage asked.

Rob made a note, then looked back up and gave the magic caster a bored look. "Name?"

The caster took a deep breath, then started coughing.

The composed melee fighter said, "He is Sha'lanadi. I am Sha'dakai, and our leader is Sha'vord. To whom are we speaking?"

The Studio crew all wrote down the names. Rob glanced toward Sha'dakai. "We are citizen employees of the Studio of Capricious Dreams. You invaded our home and brought slaves with you, one of whom you then killed. You have broken our laws."

Sha'vord tried to interrupt, shouting, "This is absurd!", but Rob just kept talking over him.

"At this time, you are being given the opportunity to speak on your behalves to convince us that you had sound reasons for your actions, which we may or may not deem to be mitigating factors in your sentencing." Rob continued to use his bored government worker monotone.

Jason knew this was one of Rob's more common tactics in dealing with people he did not like. He still felt it was the wrong tone to take, but Rob had a gift for getting people to say more than they thought they were sharing. That's why he was taking the lead.

Sha'vord banged on the cell front. "I demand you release us and our chattel immediately!"

Rob wrote down another note and, without looking up, said, "Your demands have been noted. Now, please justify your actions."

Sha'vord threw himself at the wall, pounding at it with his fists, knees, and elbows. He might have used his feet if he thought to step back enough to kick at it, but he quickly began leaving blood spots on the clear wall.

"If you would, please?" Rob asked, looking to Lena's avatar.

She nodded and the holes closed up, cutting off Sha'vord's ranting.

Sha'dakai glanced over at the now silent show of his companion's rage and noticeably swallowed.

Sha'lanadi got his breathing back under control, also watching the raging Sun elf bloodying the wall. "He may not act the part, but Sha'vord is a well respected noble of the Sun Court. Your actions invite doom upon your heads."

"Uh-huh," Rob said. "That's nice. Now, please justify your actions since entering the Studio of Capricious Dreams."

Sha'dakai cleared his throat and took control of the Sun elves' side of the dialogue. "We were unaware that this dungeon had inhabitants. We came here because the dungeons of East Karth are … going rabid. Someone has stolen their core stones, and all of our diviners tell us that the dungeons will deteriorate and do irreplaceable harm to the continent if we are unable to locate replacement cores. The Sun Court has taken the extreme stance that those who are able to restore the dungeons to their normal function will be awarded undisputed control of the dungeon they restore. Our diviners have pointed to this dungeon being capable of creating auxiliary core stones. It is our hope that by acquiring one of these auxiliaries, we can introduce it to one of the failing dungeons and restore it.

"To that end, we secured quick travel and brought our bound companions with us. The harpies may be brought to their maturity as sirens though experience within a dungeon, and as they did not burden our transport, we brought them in the hopes of encouraging their maturation. They are monsters, though as sirens they gain a limited sapience. The hemats, though sapient, imprint on a companion during their infancy and rely upon the mana bond to maintain their peaceful nature. The noct that came with us belongs to Sha'lanadi's uncle and is bonded with the hemat Wisp. None of our companions are Aware, and thus cannot be slaves."

"You speak as though a harpy is distinct from a siren. Please clarify the rationale for that distinction," Candy asked, not looking up from the page in front of her. Her question came out dispassionate and analytical.

Sha'dakai looked to Sha'lanadi, who said, "Their subspecies as listed with [Inspect] changes upon maturation from feral to siren."

Candy set her pen down and looked up. "You are a mage, correct?"

"I am," Sha'lanadi said.

"You crushed the harpy Hessa's head, killing her. Why?" Candy asked.

"Better a quick death than a lingering one. Nocts have racial healing abilities. If our scout was unable to stabilize her, we could not transport her without killing her." The mage managed to look more haggard as he said this.

Sha'vord finally stopped throwing himself at the clear cell front. He leaned forward with his hands braced against the wall.

"Why did you not permit the harpies to flee?" Rob asked.

The mage said, "The choice was not mine to make."

Sha'dakai glanced between the mage and the angry elf noble. He looked down, lifting one foot and making a distracted visual inspection of it as he rotated his ankle through all sorts of positions.

The noble's lips moved.

Lena said, "Any objections to opening Sha'vord's speaking holes?"

Jason leaned back and exchanged looks with the others. Rob, keeping that going-through-the-motions monotone, said, "We have no objections."

"All of this is over a 5 silver harpy?" Sha'vord asked, incredulous with anger. "What are you, some foul breed of Inheritors? Siren harpies are useful pets that can learn a few tricks, but that's it!"

Jason saw the stiff way Rob wrote on his notepad, and the words, "fucking fuck off of a fucked up fucker". The bored tone got more bored. "Are you personally bound to any of the hemat wolves?"

"Do I look like a furry nursemaid? No!"

Sha'dakai stiffened. "Zair and Jzun are my companions. I can sense they are calm and well fed at this time, though I would appreciate confirming this in person."

Lena's avatar went still as a statue.

Rob said, "Request noted. Now, Sha'vord was it? Why did you prevent the harpy from fleeing?"

The noble gritted his teeth. "None of you know a Wasteful thing about harpies, do you?" Without waiting for an answer, he continued. "Harpies are able to cast confusion spells with their singing. The more afraid or angry they are, the stronger the confusion effect, and the more aggressive those lost to harpy song become in their confusion. Sha'dakai is my vassal, and it is my duty to protect him and his furry toys as much as it is his duty to serve me."

Lena's avatar regained a sense of life. Over the G.C. she said, «Have we heard enough to make up our minds?»

Aaron and Candy nodded, then Jason said, «There's still the issue of enslavement.»

Candy said, «I think we need to step back for a moment, pool what we've picked up. We can come back to ask more questions later.»

Rob sighed, collected his papers, and said aloud, "Thank you for your cooperation with our investigation. If we have further questions, we will return."

He stood, pushed the chair under the table, and headed for the portal out. Candy and Aaron, followed by Jason, followed him. Lena's avatar turned to the prisoners. He heard her ask something about their diet, but he was through the portal before he caught more than that.

*~*~*

Lena

Lena split her attention between securing the prisoners, ensuring they had food, and checking on the corporals.

The Sun elves seemed to have the same kind of nutritional needs as a human so she conjured some apples for them to tide them over until one of the people with hands could come up with a more filling meal.

The corporals were back to playing with the sand table. They had come up with some standard formations, so to be less conspicuous about her eavesdropping, Lena popped in and put together the construct plans for the floor's structure core and the miniatures that would represent it in the sand box.

That seen to, she caught herself up on the discussion her friends were having about the Sun elves. It hadn't taken long for Jason to lay out what the corporals had told Rob and him. Candy was still going through what she and Aaron had pulled from the Tapestry.

When they were done, Lena said, "I spoke with Ouliel, the noct, last night. He confirmed that the harpies are, at present, sub-sapient. The hemats are sapient, and they imprint, something like Anne McCaffrey's dragons.

"The hemats were able to answer yes and no questions. From what I gathered, they think of the person they're bonded with as their friend, not their master, and view the relationship as more of a family affair. They were emphatically opposed to severing those bonds. None of them like the caster or Sha'vord McStabbypants.

"Ouliel interpreted for the harpies, and he really hates the Sun elves. I don't know how much we can trust him. According to him, the harpies hate the Sun elves as much as he does. They are under a magical leash. Ouliel's leash has been passed on to the caster, and the harpies are leashed to McStabbypants.

"I think -. I know I made a mistake in calling the harpy Hessa's death murder. I still think it was a callous disregard for life. At the same time, this isn't California, or the U.S., or any kind of civil society that we're used to. I don't mean to say let's treat this like a game, but I think we do have to pull on our experience as role players to put things into perspective."

Rob responded first. "McStabbypants is a first class asshole."

Aaron asked, "Is that a reason to kill him?"

Rob grimaced and said, "No, but I think we should make the confiscation of his weapons and gear part of his punishment for torturing Ouliel."

"Does anyone object to letting the hemats bonded with Sha'dakai stay in his cell with him?" Lena asked.

The answer came back as a unanimous "nope", so as the discussion over just what to do with the prisoners got going, Lena made a temporary portal between the hemats' cells and Sha'dakai's.

The relief that struck the Sun elf was evident in every line of his body and the joyful expression on his face. The two hemats swarmed him, wiggling like ecstatic puppies and nearly burying him in affection as they reassured themselves of his safety and well being.

Lena shared the visual with her friends, her crew, and suppressed the need for physical touch that the sight stirred in her.

It took their crew about an hour to decide how to punish the prisoners, and another half hour to retrieve the prisoners' gear and divvy it up into what they would get back now and what they would get back after they left the Studio.

Rob, Jason and Aaron carried in the boxes of items to be restored to the prisoners inside the Studio, while Candy carried her fancy pipe on a sling holster. It looked like an intimidating gun-like contraption, but Lena wasn't sure what it was supposed to actually do, aside from look intimidating.

Lena had left the cell fronts clear and the speaking holes as they were. Sha'vord was a sour sugar-sucker, but he had calmed down a little more when he saw Sha'dakai's reunion with his hemat companions. As they entered, Sha'vord's expression went back to full grump. He and the other two Sun elves came to stand before their cell fronts. The hemats flanked Sha'dakai.

The guys deposited the boxes on the table and Candy took up a guard position near the portal.

Jason took the lead in speaking this time. "We have deliberated, and come to agreement over your disposition. Sha'vord, you are correct that we were lacking in information regarding harpies. The information we have received from the Tapestry and other sources corroborates your claim that they are nonsapient beings, and therefore the charges of murder are dismissed as groundless."

Sha'vord looked unamused and impatient.

Jason continued. "The hemat wolves have corroborated your claims regarding the nature of their bonds, and thus we recognize that they are not slaves. The harpies, being sub-sapient, are recognized as property in the same manner as any beast, and we find their treatment within our Studio to be sufficient justification for their removal from your care. The noct Ouliel is sapient, though we have been advised that as a monstrous sapient, he is mentally unfit to assume responsibility for his actions. As with the harpies, we find the treatment you have subjected him to while in the Studio to be sufficient grounds to remove him from your custodianship."

Sha'vord's expression filled with rage again, but he managed to hold himself in check. "You're telling us that you're stealing our chattel?"

Jason's Southern drawl peeked out as he said, "Slavery is not permitted within the Studio of Capricious Dreams. We do not recognize claims of ownership over sapient beings, monstrous or Aware. We do accept the custodianship of sapients who are, for various reasons, incapable of being held responsible for their actions. This custodianship is based on the authority and responsibilities of a parent for their child. You deliberately endangered his life on more than one occasion, and subjected him to mental and physical abuse. No, we do not permit you to continue such vile acts within our home. Your actions, especially yours, Sha'vord, have demonstrated that you lack the emotional and moral maturity to be entrusted with responsibility for another life. Your options are to accept our decision or to remain in that cell."

Jason sucked in a deep breath, calming himself, while Sha'vord visibly restrained himself from throwing another tantrum. Turning his attention away from the Sun elf noble, Jason focused on the caster. "You indicated that you are here for a particular purpose. As soon as you accept our decision and cooperate with us on transferring custodianship of Ouliel, we will be happy to open negotiations."

Jason pulled out an inert Zone Core from his pocket and held it up. "Is this sufficient proof that we are capable of producing the core stones you are looking for?"

The caster said, "Yes! That's a core stone! Who do you want me to pass Ouliel's lease to?"

"Me," Lena said.

The caster made a fist and slowly opened it. In the confines of his hand, the light distorted and twisted around itself. Lena reached for the distorted space with her dungeon senses.

*** *** ***

You have acquired the ownership contract for the noct Ouliel.

This contract does not have the contractee's agreement and may be dispelled if the contractee exerts Will that exceeds your current Will Pool.

You may voluntarily fail to exercise your Will, as may the contractee.

*** *** ***