Indella and I woke up at dawn the next morning, thanks to Rael all but kicking us awake. Normally, I would have clocked him for that, but we did not have the time. I had Indella hop on my back and explained everything to Rael and Mordred telepathically as we left the room. Needless to say, we were tense as we waited for the Guildmaster to show up with my new bracer.

It took another hour, but a few of the guild staff showed up in the foyer where we were all waiting impatiently, carrying a rather massive piece of equipment. It was clearly meant for me, as the others could literally stand inside it in full gear and still have space to move.

Without a word, I reached my right paw out, and they attached the damn thing to it. It hurt.... a lot, as it faded from view, leaving only a dull ache behind. Accepting the pain without complaint, I watched as they tinkered with something I couldn’t see on my left leg. The bracer came into view as I was no longer wearing it.

Indella made a number of making me thank them for my new bracer before we hurried out of the door where we found several wagons waiting for us. Good, if the party had to flee on foot I doubted they would ever make it. Tossing their gear as well as the backpack that Indella had brought along into the wagons, we were making a good way into the early morning streets of the city.

We made good time through the mostly empty streets; It was still so early that most of the shops had not had time to open yet, and so traffic was minimal. Though halfway to the gates there was a huge thunderclap, even though the sky was clear. That was probably not a good sign. Even so, we made it to the gates without incident; We had just passed them when we heard the sound of galloping hooves and yelling from behind; We did not need to look back to know what’s going on; the ban had been lifted, and the Guildmaster had sent his loyal men after us.

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As I watched them go from my window, I returned to my desk; I was exhausted. It had taken quite a bit of work to create a sealing bracer without a tether, in fact; we had almost given up when one of the researchers, an old half-crazed man that I had long suspected might be a Penumbra worshiper, suddenly had an epiphany. Could we just not have the Bracer be the tether rather than a location?

It was a brilliant idea, and far easier than putting a restriction on a larger area. Unrestricted movement, but it would still force the core to remain in its bestial form. It would likely be quite painful to use, but that didn’t matter. Once Lady Inlas broke her silence, she would no doubt take residence in the Core’s form. And thus the Core would be freed of any temporary mortal pain. Along with everything else that it would not need to serve as Inlas’ Avatar.

I saw them leave with all due haste. Such eagerness to see Inlas’ will fulfilled pleased me to no end. I sat there, musing about all the gems and who knows what else might be stored in the giant treasury. Suddenly, there was a thunderclap from the sky and I felt her presence slamming into my mind like a bolt of lightning. . Her wrath hurt. It felt as though my body burned from her rage. What had I done to earn such ire?

. No, there, there had to be a mistake Gloria was. . The pieces fell into place instantly. Indella’s disappearance, Rael’s sudden change to the lineup of chanters. The fast friendship between “Gloria” and Rael’s party despite her supposed crippling at the hands of a Songstealer.

I had been blind, oh so blind. But no more, I needed to catch those traitors and regain control of the Core. I rushed out of the office, I would need to work fast to assemble a pursuit party and I worked as fast as I could. Lady Inlas’ raging presence hammered inside my mind every step of the way, berating me for my foolishness and greed. I had to recapture the core before it could flee to the dungeon, or Inlas might cast me from her grace.

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The moment we heard the galloping, we knew the jig was up. Time to give up all pretence and get away from the city as fast as possible. Mordred seemed to share my thoughts as he was casting something on the horses, and just a few moments later their speed increased greatly. “Great work!” I yelled as I hung onto my seat for dear life, Erem sitting in the wagon behind me, said something but I didn’t catch it. But it seemed to be a form of agreement.

The core was beside the wagons. Despite the speed, her sheer size let her keep up with us without doing slightly more than a vigorous trot. She seemed to be focused on something else though, probably discussing something with Indella.

Suddenly, a huge shape exploded out from the gate behind us. An absolutely huge wolf like monster with chains wrapped all around it. Shit, a Barghest. That could only mean one thing, a summoner was among the pursuers. This escape just turned a lot harder.

The Core trotted up alongside our carriage and Indella, clearly reluctant, hopped off even as the core looked at her and smiled gently. “I know you wanna stay on but if that thing catches up I am the only one who can actually take that thing on. I can fly, after all, and considering we are trying to get away and not massacre half the guild. It would be best to try to avoid bloodshed, besides who knows how many of those pursuing us are doing so of their own free will?”

Indella looked at her for a moment, indignation written all over her freckled face. But then she deflated in front of the Cores argument, and she tucked in between Sango and Erem. The old man ruffled her hair as she did, earning him an annoyed glance, even as he and Sango both chuckled.

The wagons were going as fast as we dared at this point, given the thick layer of morning mist that was still obscuring the ground itself. One misstep into a marmot den or the like would end badly for the horses, not to mention the occupants of the wagon they were pulling. That, however, was not fast enough to shake our pursuers, and the monstrous Barghest was gaining on us. We could even see the summoner riding it, a determined expression on his face. The core slowly fell back, drawing closer to the beast and the summoner. As she ran turned and looked at it, an expression of concentration on her face, a familiar look.

The Barghest lashed out against the horses next to it, causing the summoner to yelp in surprise. Though it only took the summoner a single command to regain control of the beast. The binding of the summoning was obviously stronger than the core’s tentative hold of its mind. Even so, that had caused confusion and fear among the ranks of our pursuers, and they fell back to a safer distance, giving us precious time.

That did not stop the ones capable of attacking from range to attempt to do so. But at this speed most projectiles simply lacked the punching power to do actual damage, if they even reached us. Mordred gave me a push with his elbow to get my attention. “Rael, take the reins, I have an idea, Indella help me with this, I need some wind blowing towards out pursuers”

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My plan was desperate, though it shouldn’t cause too much damage, given the mist obscuring the ground. Though this was potentially disastrous if I miscalculated. Indella finished her spell, and the wind turned towards our pursuers. I started a spell of my own. The timing had to be perfect, lest I wanted the Barghest to escape.

I finished and a wall of fire burst forth, smothered somewhat by the misty ground. The wind blew the flames towards the pursuers, but undeterred they just charged forth. They relied on their magical protections and healing to get them through the fire. That was weird. The fire should have caused the horses to panic, yet they behaved like they hadn’t even seen them. What was going on?

Indella looked at me with the same confused expression, though it was Erem who gave a guess first. “Divine providence, Inlas is likely bolstering them and keeping their horses from panicking.” but Indella shook her head. *It’s more simplistic than that, a simple Control Animal spell. They are currently without a will of their own. Probably had to do that to prevent the horses from panicking near that fiend.* Right, the girl was a Druid, she could probably sense the enchantment on the horses.

*I have another idea, I could try, though I need some assistance. Could you cast some water-based magic at them, preferable Tidal Wave?* Seeing no reason not to, the firewall had done nothing, after all, I started casting. Indella started to cast her own spell. My Tidal Wave went off first, sending a large wave of water in the direction of our pursuers. It came to no surprise to me that the wave never made it as they dispelled it in short order. But then I doubted Indella had planned for it to ever hit them. Which became apparent when the Barghest suddenly lurched, almost sending its rider from its back. What had she done? Indella looked at me. *I turned the wet ground into a bog.* They would have to go around or fight through and both would cost time, giving us an even greater distance between us.

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The Core and her mortal friends were doing quite well. The fear the Core had instilled in followers by wrestling control of the summoned Barghest had allowed them enough distance to tar pit them with a conjured bog. This would not do, the Core was to be captured and made compliant with my will; It was important to- No, this was not the time to focus on the future; I needed to keep my mind on the present and secure the Core.

This was infuriating. Had this been only a few days ago, I could have easily just reached out and stopped the escape myself. But father was watching now, I had to tread lightly. The loss of all the dungeons to my sister might have already cost more than I dared to imagine, but there was nothing I could do with that. As long as I could get the Core, all would be fine, all would work out in the end.

I could, however, give my blessing to those who were faithful. For those that were, the bog did not slow them at all. The Barghest was just too powerful to be slowed and was still chasing after them. The reminder of the party started to fall behind as they had to go around or get stuck.

Even with my aid, they would only barely be able to keep up at this rate. I needed a way to slow them down, without... of course! I gathered the clouds that had been hanging low on the horizon and pushed them forward on a strong wind. Lightning and thunder started to play in them as I pushed them forwards, agitating them, Tyrros, my carefree slacker of a brother, wouldn’t mind. He liked it when his storms got to rage, regardless of who or what caused it.

It took a while, but now the core and her companions had no choice but to slow down. Because the ground had turned slick and muddy under the torrent I had unleashed upon them. This allowed my faithful and their steeds to slowly catch up. It was taking too long, however, even with the chase slowing down they would still likely reach the cores’ domain. In which case my sister would be able to intervene directly.

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Damnable rain, it was slowing us down. Not only that, but Mordred and the other casters were right now involved in a magic battle with the mages that had caught up to us. On top of this Mordred had to also keep casting haste on our mounts every few minutes just to keep the speed up due to the damnable mud. There had to be something I could do to help. Wait, there was!

I slowed down slightly falling behind the wagons then fell in behind them, using myself as a shield. As I predicted after the first few spells had narrowly missed me the casting slowed to a crawl. It made sense, I was the prize here after all, they couldn’t risk hurting me. Wait, that was it! “Mordred, you know the way through the maze, right?” Mordred was silent for a bit, looking at me with a tired, but inquisitive look. “I can cast a spell to guide me even if I should forget certain parts, why?” he answered. I grinned, “Look after Indella. Now… let’s see what’s more important to them. Shall we?” I could feel Indella’s frustration. She knew what I was planning, but she also knew she could not come along. If I got caught, and she was with me we were both doomed, but if she got away. Then they still couldn’t do anything to me because of the bond. We both knew this was what had to be done.

I broke off from the horses once more, heading diagonally away from the group towards the northwest. The Barghest immediately broke off to go after me and so did several of the riders. The others slowed down again, clearly torn between following the horses or following me. Before they clearly reluctantly broke off pursuit of the party. Good, that would give them time. Besides, even if by some blasted piece of bad luck they caught me, which was unlikely, they still could not break the bond without Indella.

That being said, this was a risky move on my end but the only viable one to let the others get away at this point. Or I would just be leading the entire pursuit force, including the Barghest through the maze and into my dungeon anyway because of their proximity. I also noted that the storm seemed to go all across the plain. That meant I would have one major advantage later on. One that didn’t seem to have occurred to my pursuers, for now at least.

On I ran, silently being glad that in difference from normal felines, Sphinxes actually had a pretty damn decent stamina. Must be because of the wings. It would be hard to fly if you had no stamina at all. Even more so when you are too big to take advantage of all but the strongest of thermal updrafts to keep aloft.

The chase had been going for a good while when the message came. . Good, they had made it. Time to lose the peanut gallery behind me, I spread my wings and took to the sky.

No sooner had I gone airborne before I became really glad my flight skill was not only locked to regular flight. But also something I could use my psionic abilities to achieve because no sooner had I gotten off the ground before the wind turned absolutely horrendous. If I had been flying normally, I would have smashed into the ground face first. As it was I got slightly wobbly. However, I kept climbing, more importantly I was picking up speed, fast.

I turned back towards my dungeon. No point in hiding where I was going, it was the obvious place to go and the only place I could get that accursed bracer off of me. That was when the first spell shot past me. They were now trying to shoot me down, but I was almost out of range of all but the weakest and thus longest lasting magics. The few that actually hit tickled slightly.

I arrived at the dungeon about half an hour later and found the party in the process of venturing through the maze. They had stopped the wagons and cut the horses free. That made sense, I had no way to keep them in my dungeon and letting them just stand there would be cruel, better to let them move freely.

I landed in front of Mordred and almost got a magic missile in my face for my efforts. Apparently the storm had masked the sound of my approach, as well as drowned out Indella’s telepathic message when she tried to tell them. Though I would applaud Miriam for realizing and pulling her aim off at the last second, she seemed to be blushing.

I chuckled and just shook my head, then led the party through the rest of the labyrinth myself. But not before I had Rael and Erem hoist an almost unconscious Mordred onto my back. It was uncomfortable, but the man was almost dead on his feet, having cast spells for literally hours almost non-stop. He deserved a breather.

Indella climbed back on to my back as well as she cited. *You owe me this much for running off on your own.* Fair enough. We entered the dungeon proper and finally got out of the horrid weather. Inside we were met by practically the entire Red Scale Tribe, with only Lienru and a few others missing, Duplica and even a handful of Duergar Warriors. Though once they saw me leading the ones who entered they relaxed visibly.

I smiled at them and sat down so Rael could help Mordred off of me, Indella hopped off as well. “Ssatassha could you have Lienru prepare food for me and my guests? They have risked much to help me. And they could need a good meal right now and someplace to rest.” Ssatassha looked over at the party, somewhat curiously. She clearly recognized them from their last visit, before she nodded. “Yes, Great One, will do, great meal for all of you will be right up, Lienru will be elated about the news no doubt!” She and the rest of the tribe members present ran off into their little tunnels with small celebratory squeals.

Rael looked over at me. “Huh, didn’t know you spoke Kobold.” I chuckled. “I speak all languages Rael, even Rat, thanks to my Telepathy and Babel. Though non-sentient creatures are too simplistic to bother listening to. Though to me, you all sound like you speak the same language. So, I fear I would make a poor language teacher or translator.” That seemed to give Rael something to think about.

The Duergar were giving the Dwarf trio some dark looks and were getting the same in return, but seemed to be content with that. Guess the two hated one another as much in this world as in the game. Right now the only thing stopping them from trying to kill one another was the fact that this was my dungeon. If they attacked, both the party and I would just manhandle the two groups to the ground.

Using Magical Labyrinth, I simply parted the maze and opened a path for us to the next floor. No point in dallying around in another maze. The party seemed crestfallen but relieved at that as I led them down the corridor, while Duplica ran ahead and disarmed the few traps that were on the path. The Duergar unit fell in behind the party as we trudged down to the 2nd floor. There we were met by more Kobolds. These were holding lit Mushroom torches, which they eagerly handed to the party. Meanwhile, I was busy doing a quick addition to the dungeon, a path leading up the wall to the tunnel that led to the Kobold village. I had originally intended to bunker the party at the Duergar. But seeing how poorly the three dwarves and the Duergar reacted to one another. I decided it was best to keep the two groups separate.

As we wandered through the hallways Mordred suddenly lifted his head and looked at me. “This… isn’t the way to the hive room.” He looked at me, I calmly responded to his unasked question. “It is not, while I normally eat in the room behind the hive it is far too cramped to accommodate all of us and a feast. So, we are headed for the Kobold Village.” As I finished speaking, I could start to smell the delectable scent of Shroomcow steak and by the looks of things, so could the party as they suddenly perked up. they eagerly took in the scents, especially Pavol seemed eager for this. “What’s that smell? He asked as he looked up at me. “That would be our feast being prepared, believe it or not Pavol, that slop they fed me at the guild is not my standard fare of food. I prefer more civilized dining, granted I do not have any utensils that fit my paws, yet. But at least cooked food and something civilized to drink, like tea is a must. I don’t mind raw meat, mind, but why bother with that when Lienru and her apprentices are such wonderful and eager Chefs?”

The Party gave me some strange looks, I tilted my head in response. “What?” Rael was the first to respond. “We just… didn’t expect this, I suppose.” I gave a snort. “Of course you didn’t. Everyone in this world seems to have a rather shallow view of what dungeons are, what cores are and what dungeon inhabitants are. We are all people, Rael, every single creature in my dungeon, with exception to the Strider Drones, have their own personalities, wants, hopes, dreams, likes and dislikes. They have friends, rivals, favorite foods, and even hobbies, every single one, even the Typhoid Rats.” I paused and looked at the party and Indella, who all seemed quite thoughtful at my words as I continued. “Don’t take my word for it. Converse with the ones who can speak the trade language, like Duplica, Ssatassha or the Duergar, I also think Lienru know some of it.” I took a deep breath and continued to guide them in silence, letting them ponder my words.

As we neared the newly created path we ran into Rorik, Mint and Surin as well. They were all sitting there, looking just fine, if a little lost. Mint rose as we approached and ran over, clearly not bothered by the darkness at all. “There you are. The Duergar led us here and told us to wait, then just ditched us without an explanation. Then this path just grew out of the wall on its own. Also, what is that terrific smell, it’s driving me nuts with hunger!” figures. The Duergar were a rather practically minded lot that didn’t waste words unless they had to.

Taking the lead up the ramp, I looked down at the rest of them. “Mind your manners in the Kobold Village, you are guests and I expect you to act like it. Oh, and for your own sake, don’t accept the mushroom wine, it’s strong enough to KO a dragon in just a few cups and can lead to some embarrassing situations. If it cannot knock you out or the alcohol poisoning doesn’t get you first. Speaking from personal experience”

I continued to lead them up and with just a thought disabled the illusory wall at the top. Indella caught up with me halfway up the ramp *How much of it did you drink?* She was grinning widely until I responded. “4 kegs about 20 liters each.” She stopped grinning and look at me like some kind of freak. *How did you survive that if it’s so strong?* I shrugged. “I am immune to poison, which is the only reason I am alive right now.” Indella just shook her head slowly. She could feel that I wasn’t lying, so she had no choice but to believe me. It didn’t make it anymore believable though, come to think of it I hadn’t told them what I used the cores for.

Once we arrived in the village, the preparations were already under way. Though once we showed up there some chaos as a small shape collided with my left leg so fast I thought it was an arrow for a moment. But no, it was Lienru, who was openly crying upon seeing my return. Poor thing must have been worried, I gave her some reassuring pats, before I turned to the escort of Duergar following us. “Thank you for your escort. I would offer to let you join us for the festivities, but I have a feeling Shroomcow does not appeal to your tastes.” The Duergar all nodded in agreement on that.

“As such I hereby give you all leave to party as you see fit tonight. Though I do request that you send a Duergar Blacksmith up to take a look at the Bracer on my leg, I want him to remove it without destroying it. And tomorrow see if he or she can study it and improve upon its design, so I can use it without having to rely on others to take it off.” The Duergar nodded. Smiles were actually showing on their bearded faces as they rushed off after a quick salute. Looked like the third floor would also be a place of festivities tonight.