“Dungeon shards and dungeon cores are nigh indestructible, short of a spell of [Lysbringer's Skyfall], no weapon nor magic has been known to leave a dent on the things. Not even a scratch. In fact, some of them have been known to unleash their own magic towards whoever would seek to destroy them. The only way to shut down a dungeon for good therefore, is always to separate the core from its pedestal…and that is not without its difficulties. For some reason, extracting a core from its emplacement always caused the monsters within the dungeon to become frenzied. ”.-Excerpt from, The Legacy of Antecessors, Adventurers Guild Archives, Kingsfell.

Some things, taken for granted like that sock you forgot under the bed— or that coin you let roll between the sofas; or better yet, that alchemical concoction you let drain into the sewers had a way of coming back to bite one in the keister. Some were just too hard ignore as well; like the golems that humanity and other races forgot—for a while

Some millennium past the golems were the fodder, battering rams, juggernauts and what have you against the fiendish incursions. When the war was over they did come back to their creators. Most of their creators did not survive the Fiendish incursion however; the war had been brutal and much was lost.

If golems could have talked though perhaps, many would have said ‘look at me; I came back.’ But there was no one to come back to, so they became drifters, wandering Eryth like lost flocks of sheep. That was until the rest of those who survived found a way to give them purpose; as free labor.

Golems just didn’t happen to fall out of the empyrean like some races; like the elves said that they came from the moon— even here the age-old debate of myth versus fact was present. Actually, in Eryth, science was replaced by the arcane, it’s just people didn’t know magic was a kind of science. Like missing the forest for the trees.

In other words, those lumbering giants made of rock, among other minerals also had a story to tell. Not the one from the history books which contained bits of truth here and there; something that a controversial [Sage] just happened to slap onto the next gap just because things were not adding up.

But the truth always had a way of coming out in expected ways; perhaps it would take a few years, decades or centuries. Ultimately, it would get told by the unlikeliest of people—a child born from a confluence of a series of unintended events.

This child lay in a slumber, but not one of sleeping. They also saw and heard with neither senses. They, for they had no identity which to call their own, waited, bidding for when the time was right; a sleeping soul.

They waited for a door to the outside of their prison that had no walls. From time to time however they realized they could probe their senses outside their tiny world in which they lay, like a baby reacting to outside stimuli through kicks in the mother’s womb.

In between what was near consciousness they saw the man. The man of storm who smelt like thunder and lightning and also air and water. And also, the void between planes.The void between planes was rather familiar, but not the same as their little world.

There was also the woman of darkness and blood who, if they had a spine, they would’ve felt a glacial chill down their spines. But, the woman of darkness and blood did not do anything unbecoming. She didn’t behave like her attributes portrayed her. In fact, she always seemed to be following and fussing over the man at times.

There were others, beyond the edges of their perception. Like the woman who felt faintly the air and the water and another man who had been around everything that it was confusing to pick out what exactly they were made of. There was one more, a different one; like the woman of blood and darkness but not the same. This one shared some kind of bond with the woman.

The man of storm was always near, working with things they could discern and another which they could not. They were always mixing earth, air and fire too. They could sense fire! There was also wood, and they were building a structure; but what? It was too far and too vague to see when they had no eyes.

There was also something else that resonated with them, a little bauble that had kept the man up most nights. Even they could tell it was a little broken; the man of storms was always there fiddling with it but sadly they could not get it to work.

Besides that was another little thing made of metal and not-metal that had some lightning inside of it; it made the air tremble pleasantly. And it made light yet it was not like the other things in the man’s cave.

Sometimes it made the man very sad. They could feel it when the man let down his aura. The man looked like he needed help but why didn’t the others help? If only they could reach him; they needed a way out— this nothingness felt too small.

What did they need to get out? They needed a door; and what else would they need if they had a door? They needed a key…a key. There was a key on the place the man liked to spend his time; near the little thing of metal, not-metal and lightning that the man sometimes left behind.

Perhaps they could reach the key if they just stretched out—

//KEY.PROMPT…

//…I

The key! They found the key…now to open the door!

//PARSE POSSIBLE

//CORE.FUN.LIST

//SCAN…PASSIVE

//IDENTIFY…PASSIVE

//FARSPEAK…UNAVAILABLE

//MAPPING…UNAVAILABLE

//CHANNELING…PASSIVE

//CORE.FUN.LIST. END

//INTERVENTION DISCRETIONARY

//APPEND CHANGES?

Yes, they definitely wanted to go out

//APPEND CHANGE

//ADD.CORE.FUN.LIST

//GESTALT

The first time…the key didn’t work. Why wouldn’t it work?

// PARSE FAIL…

//KEY.PROMPT…

//… I

So they tried again—

//APPEND CHANGE

//ADD.CORE.FUN.LIST

//GESTALT

It failed—

// PARSE FAIL…

//KEY.PROMPT…

//… I

One more time…then several thousand iterations, each time faster than the last.

//APPEND CHANGE

//ADD.CORE.FUN.LIST

//GESTALT

Again it fai— they pushed as only a disembodied entity could push. They wanted out and they wanted out badly; even if they didn’t know why they wanted out in the first place. It just felt like it had to be done. One more push and then—there was a door where none had existed before.

/PARSE FA—

//PARSE POSSIBLE

//CORE.FUN.LIST

//SCAN…ACTIVE

//IDENTIFY…ACTIVE

//FARSPEAK…AVAILABLE

//MAPPING…AVAILABLE

//CHANNELING…AVAILABLE

//GESTALT…ADDED

//GESTALT ACTIVE

//CORE. FUN. LIST. END

A tattered spirit and nascent consciousness ; two ingredients—two entities that would scarcely meet. But oh, they did. It was not because Eryth was tilted a little to the side, or because the twin moons happened to be equidistant from one another and from larger celestial body. Astrology had nothing to do with it.

All it took were the meeting of dissimilar entities was a thousandth of a thousandth of a chance. Abysmal and infinitesimal perhaps, but chance was still chance. Who better to weigh the scales of fate than Oonaris’ herself? But even she could not account for every occurrence in reality; some things took more than a coin toss.

And that was how a new sapience was born; from the amalgamation of a trapped spirit and a budding sentience. Both were the same age. However, only one of them was mature. Yet it was the less mature of the two that held all the reins. Unfortunately nothing got done because the spirit was so degraded, only two thirds of it remained.

It was an incomplete template, the body would not morph correctly. The left shoulder, left side of the torso and the left leg were all gone, lost to the ravages of the astral realm. Even now, motes of spirit tried in vain to cling to the main body, but slowly the spirit was decohering. Its tether to this realm was decaying

If something was not done, then they would cease to exist. And without the spirit the body would not be. Borne of this correlation, the younger entity became [Spirit-Body].

But who better to make such a critical analysis of such a situation than an ancient mind construct hosting the wealth of a forgotten civilization? To the second entity, it knew nothing but fulfilling its objectives for self-preservation. That was the mission it had gleaned from its atrophying memory matrices. This was the genesis of [Host-Mind]’s existence.

And so it was that [Host-Mind] was forced to take the forefront of the formation process. The ancient construct, guardian protector of the antecessor’s legacy delved deep into its memory matrices and searched for solutions.

In a thousandth of a casion, which was slower than it could optimally perform, it had found the answer—Gestalt; unity. For an entity that thought in discrete terms, there was no hesitation; not when the burden of evidence was too stark. And surely not, when its computational and logic matrices were in agreement. There was no grey, in its black and white perspective, thus [Gestalt] was executed.

A new template was mapped and new parts were transposed over the missing ends of the mutilated spirit. The process required a level of energy and material which skirted the boundaries of absurdity. The former was abundant, the latter, not so much. But [Host-Mind] found a way to make things work with what was available.

Mana was drawn from the spherule; it was the densest concentration available. Only [Gestalt] would have made such a process possible because a tether existed before. For material?

There was no discrimination; assimilation was instictively hard etched into its memory matrices and therefore everything was game, both magical and mundane provided it was inorganic. Organic matter was too unstable.

The crystals in the barrel, ingots of metal, mage stone, a teacher’s project given in scorn, a treasure trove from another world; such things were stripped down and reconstituted to fill out the template. It was just a stop-gap measure; the actual remedy would take much longer than that.

However [Host-Mind] came to a deadlock. Its computational matrix weighed the probabilities of completing the process there and then since the energy was available. Its extrapolations were grim. Its conclusion; force-merging of the two entities was a hazardous undertaking. Continued use of [Gestalt] to do so would lead to further degradation. Therefore, [Host-Mind] took an alternative route.

The process would have to be distributed over a duration until such a time, it deemed it viable to relinquish all bodily and cognitive functions to [Spirit-Body]. But for now, its job was done; it was time to hibernate, for a while. [Host-Mind] slept; [Spirit-Body] awoke.

Having senses from the ones they were used to, was disorienting. Like seeing oneself through a borrowed pair of eyes. Then their perception was even wider and they’d changed positions!

They knew where they were relative to the things around them. They felt content; content what a strange concept. They could vocalize their thoughts; somehow they knew they could but they didn’t know the words; they needed more time. More time, the concept of frustration made itself known to them.

Nonetheless, that did not hold their attention for long. They could sense more beings like the man and the woman all around them. And other scary things below them…not like the man and the woman. But what were they, were they a man or a woman? Did it matter to them? This vessel said it mattered, and they were a woman…a small woman.

How did they know what they were—that was from the before…many years ago. But they couldn’t remember who they were; they needed an identity. Oh,they’d made the thing that made the man sad disappear.

Then they felt hunger, another annoying concept. Perhaps those things that called out to them were something they needed too? Well, they would take that too—delicious.

[Heritage-Bloodline Awoken!]

[Conditions Met: Bloodline Heritage Class acquired!]

[Bloodline Heritage Class-Unknown!]

[Unknown Level 1!]

[Skill- Gestalt Acquired!]

[Skill- Matter Transmutation acquired!]

[Skill- Affinity Augmentation Acquired]

[Skill- Arcis Numen Protocol Acquired!]

Premonitions were frankly, like an itch you couldn't scratch. You knew where it was; somewhere near your spine, on the small of your back but you kept missing it whenever your hand got near. And when you finally soothed it, you were not sure whether it would stop itching or not.

Premonitions were like the feeling you got when the news said there were slimes in the sewer, or alligators... definitely alligators and then you imagined that on a certain day when you wanted to use number two they'd be there to get you.

And you kept at it long enough that your mind believed it. [Eye of the Storm] was like that sometimes. It said chaos was on the horizon but didn't say from whence it came until your senses were in the vicinity. And on that night, Arthur was feeling sure that something had come crawling out from somewhere and it had a vendetta. Even Umbra who'd become a constant presence in his bedroom echoed those sentiments as she tugged at Arthur's pajamas.

“You feel it too girl huh?” Emerald eyes regarded him from the cloak of darkness;

“Don't wake Nora or Elena though, just in case it’s a false call. My Danger Sense hasn’t gone off, must be an owl cat or something that got through the vents.” Arthur levered off the bed onto the carpet rug. He rubbed his face off sleepiness and sighed.

For no apparent reason he could tell the premonitory feeling was coming from underground—the lab. Call it paranoia, but the lab had the most valuable things on the Sturmdrache estate, if you discounted the vault where they kept their gold or the pantry.

‘Schizzes! I left my phone and the telecry downstairs...’ Arthur’s eyes snapped wide open, sleepiness took flight. And it was with horror he realized he had no phone to light his way with.

“Can you go check what's down there girl? No? What do you mean it's scary too...ooh, you've never been there so you can't port in like Nora? —I understand”

Umbra was a smart faerie beast. Yes, technically, grimalkins were not classified as monsters and they and a bevy of other creatures had their own section in the bestiary. Why? Grimalkins were smarter than your average tamed beast or familiar. She couldn’t communicate verbally, but she was a pseudo-telepath.

Those tentacles sprouting on behind her foremost shoulder blades weren’t just a pair of bludgeoning and or piercing appendages. They were also like antennas, which they used to transmit their thoughts.

Even though Umbra had learnt to use them ever since she’d bonded with Nora, she was still relatively young by grimalkin standards which meant her diction needed working. So the thoughts she sent to Arthur via telepathy were just broad concepts like ‘No, cannot, new place’. And it got the message across just fine.

To avoid alerting the rest of the house, Elena and Nora who had bedrooms in the same wing, he didn’t use the mage lights. Also, he had to be as stealthily as possible; sylvani and dhampirs had an acute sense of hearing.

However, Umbra was very aware of the master’s predicament so she used her shared ability [Shadow Shroud] to mask their sneaking through the quiet house.

The bedrooms and study were on the same floor, so that was easy enough. Armed with his black adamantium dagger,the duo of man and feline crossed the library. On their furtive traipse they saw the ethereal light of waning moons peering through the edges of the library’s curtains and made it to the study.

Slowly, the lift rattled, descending to the lab below. It was like going into the belly of the beast. Whatever was down there made the hairs at the back of his neck rise; even Umbra bristled and bared her fangs. It was with bated breaths that they waited for the lift to make it to the lab’s basement. With a thunk, the lift came to rest. Arthur slid the double doors open—

The child was content. Halfway through another barrel of mana crystals, they no longer felt the pit that gnawed at the middle of their being. And they were brimming with energy too.

Like every other child, after a good meal, they had to have two states; either they’d have a sugar high that made them gallivant around until it abated or they’d get drowsy and go out like a light.

But the child wasn’t sleepy, so they did the former and explored the man’s cave. They were curious, about the other things, in the containers, the books and parchments on the worktable and the thing being built near the forge.

Suddenly flashes of memories that were not theirs buzzed through the child’s mind. With [Host-Mind] in hibernation, they could not hold back the deluge of information assaulting their consciousness.

The child stumbled, face planting onto the floor as a keening noise buzzed through their head. They didn’t have a sense of pain but the process left them writhing on the floor in torment as if they were having a tummy ache—if tummy aches could make the mind ache too.

It really was one of the things they’d eaten. [Host-Mind] did not account for the object’s peculiarities because they thought it mundane—the thing of metal, not-metal and lightning. They gasped in collective horror as only one without functional lungs could—a silent scream.

Disjointed memories; names, pictures and moving pictures—music, another language—conversations, knowledge and emotive expressions flew through their consciousness.

Their eyes, which had rolled back in their head, shone and pulsed, eyelids fluttering like a person dreaming in REM, as words and images scrolled past like a video on fast forward. Five years’ worth of memory and knowledge that should not have existed within the constraints of such a timeframe passed in a blink.

[Unknown Level 2!]

[Skill-Assimilation Acquired!]

As they sank into another semblance of sleep, discernment dawned on the child. In a single heartbeat; which they did not have, their consciousness jumped from a toddling intelligence to a being that had seen through the history of a digital civilization; not the entire thing—but enough data and information to start a small search engine. A trove of knowledge from another world.

The doors rolled away with nary a groan because when Arthur decided the Lab would be in tip top shape, everything meant everything. From the vents that went through the elevator shaft into the faux chimneys at the top of the mansion, to the Lux crystals got the equivalent of a magical power surge after the tellusphere incident; everything was revamped.

The mage lights in the lab flicked on, banishing the darkness to the corners. While Umbra’s borrowed skill [Shadow Shroud] covered the duo, they entered the lab. Their eyes darted around for any movement that might be an anomaly or an intruder. There were a few island tables in their line of sight, all holding Arthur’s current projects half-completed or finished.

Arthur zoned in on the workstation where he might have left his phone as well as the telecry that he’d been fiddling at. A few things were missing; the phone for one, two mage stone tablets including the one used to activate the tellusphere and a full barrel of charged crystals of various affinities.

‘Damn we’ve been robbed. I knew it was only a matter of—‘

‘Master, found, stranger!’ Umbra’s telepathy came through startling Arthur. Arthur came out of his thoughts and headed where the grimalkin had been. There was no hint of alarm bleeding through the link; but he felt a feeling of curiosity and…fascination?

Rounding a corner of one of the island tables, he came to a stop and found Umbra towering over a prone body of a clothesless child on the floor. Arthur’s mind flew into autopilot on seeing the child. The dagger disappeared into [Inventory] while he divested himself of his pajama shirt as he knelt beside the small form.

He covered the child and felt for a pulse; skin the paleness of fired china clay felt cold to the touch and there was no indication of a heartbeat. Their diminutive chest neither rose nor fell to indicate shallow breaths either.

Fearing the worst, Arthur pulled the youngster into his embrace and told Umbra to fetch her mistress. There was mana yet in the small body; and dead bodies did not retain mana as it dissipated into the aether as soon as the brain died.

‘Oof, you must weigh about a tonne…little guy’ he thought as he snuggled the little child barely taller than a six-year-old.

Arthur stroked the silver mane of hair streaked with purples and turquoises glinting under the light away from the child’s face. He dusted off the grains of broken stone on their forehead; shaking his head, frowning all the while when he saw a bowl shaped indentation and cracks on the floor.

“And you have one hard head on you. How’d you get here?” he voiced, looking around the lab for a breach in the walls and finding none.

Arthur couldn’t tell whether they were a he or a she. They were just a child with an androgynous face, a little chubby sure… but they were like a cherub come alive.

Nora appeared in a puff of shadows, closely followed by Umbra who led her mistress to the two.

“What happened?” Nora asked, healer mode kicking in. She crouched near the pair crimson eyes glinting with concern.

“I found this little guy in the workshop when I sensed a disturbance; no pulse on them and no breathing;”

“I’m not sensing any blood in them,” the dhampir noted, passing her hand over where the heart would be. “I am not even sure how they are even alive; yet they have mana coursing through them, even stronger than a small body is meant to hold.”

“My thoughts exactly…and they’re pretty heavy for a child too.”

“They? Are they a girl or a boy or both?” Nora’s eyes narrowed dangerously

“I didn’t check!” Arthur asserted, “Aeris breath! I was only concerned about their well-being.”

“Let’s carry them upstairs then. Seeing as their mana is steady; maybe they are in a magically induced coma. We don’t even know what race they are; for all we know maybe it’s a form of self-defensive reaction.”

“What sort of self-defensive reaction leaves you defenseless?” Arthur’s brows arched in shock as he looked at the child. He rose up, almost straining, as the weight of the small body caught him off guard but he got on his feet. “Let’s go,” he called over his shoulder as they went to the lift.