“Alright,” Sam said, leaning forward with his fists on the mess-hall table. “We don’t have a lot of time so let’s make this fast.”

Around him sat the main core of his friends and family. Pearl floated above the table, Araxes busying himself in the kitchen, Ma and Pop on his right, Char and Sheshek on his right, Cora and Sally across the table from him. Bugruk was in the infirmary, asleep. His condition was not worsening, exactly, but he tired out more easily than… Before.

Sam had it about halfway down his checklist to figure out a way to bring his friend back to his feet. Literally.

Rashun was there as well, having earned his spot after the Red Room thing.

“First.” He blew out a long breath. “I’m not going to tell you about what happened before the Red Room. Not yet, anyways.”

A chorus of surprised noises greeted that statement, but he shook his head in response. “No, no I’ve been thinking about this and… Look, remember the tutorial golem? That voice that came from it the first time?”

Those who had been there or seen it, everyone save the kobolds and Sally, nodded with varying degrees of consideration. The golem had been the first enemy Sam had ever fought as a guardian, and had been taken down only through teamwork between himself, the newly-rescued Pearl, and the still irrascible Araxes.

And when they had beaten it, a voice had spoken to them from the dead golem. And it had been the first clue they’d received about the nature of the war they’d suddenly found themselves embroiled in.

“Did you get another message from dead guys, Sam?” Pearl asked, cocking her head.

“No, but I remember what that voice said about the System.”

“The system is everywhere now,” Araxes intoned from the kitchen. “It intimated that the system itself was listening for discrepancies or tell-tales, and that speaking of certain things—notably the name of your silvery tart—“

“You’ve changed your descriptors,” Cora noted.

“Indeed. One can hardly continue referring to you as an orb, can one?”

“Maybe if you refer to her as two orbs—Ow!”

Cora shook her hand, presumably to remove the sting from having just thumped her sister on the dome with a closed fist. “Please continue, Samuel.”

“Right. Araxes’s got the right of it, though. The old guy in that message said that the system listens to us, and hinted that if it hears something it doesn’t like, there might be serious consequences. And… What I saw before the Red Room, I think it falls into that category.”

“Does it now?” Pop leaned forward. “You’re sure it’s not paranoia?”

“Or the ramblings of some paranoid old codger long-dead?” Ma added, quirking an eyebrow.

Sam thought back to the husk of a man, burning with mana runes, confined in a circle stronger than anything he’d have ever believed possible. Of madness and power living side by side in that voice and those eyes.

“No,” he said slowly. “I think he was right. There are things the System wants to hide from us, from reality in general. And I think if we talk about them openly, it’ll have to respond.”

“Like a keyword search,” Rashun said, tapping his claws together thoughtfully. “It can’t listen to everything all the time—at least, I hope it can’t—but if it listens for just certain keywords, it could home in on them when it hears them.”

“Exactly.” Sam nodded to his young friend. “And… Trust me when I say this, I’m pretty sure that what I saw in there is something I don’t want the System or the people behind it knowing I know about, or anyone else knowing about it either.”

“But, you told us about it,” Cora said, frowning. “In the White Room.”

“But the White Room isn’t connected to the System like the rest of the world is,” Sally said suddenly, perking up. “It’s outside of most of the normal system rules. No health bars, no stat monitoring… If it’s listening for stuff, it’s not listening in there. It couldn’t be. We’d need a secure place to talk to Guardians in the war, and if the enemy could listen in on our communications when the Guardians died, we’d never have gotten anything done!”

“That’s what I was hoping,” Sam said, feeling relief. He hadn’t had time to consider his words in the White Room, and had honestly been a bit worried once he’d had time to think it over.

“So you’ve learned something of great import,” Char said slowly, like she was turning it over in her mind, “but cannot speak of it to us.”

“Not yet,” Sam agreed. “Not until we know for sure we’ve got a secure place to go where we can talk about this kind of thing freely. Which brings up my next question.” He turned his eyes to Cora and Sally. “I want to set up a way to get to the White Room without needing to die to do it.”

Both Cora and her sister blinked at that.

“Is it possible?” He asked after giving them a second to digest the concept.

“I… Am not sure,” Cora said, frowning. “I have no memories of the White Room ever being used as anything except a resting point while waiting for respawn—“

“Me neither,” Sally butted in, “But I think you might be on to something. You killed Rakun—Sorry kid,” she added, voice turning chagrined as she nodded at Rahun. “Slip of the tongue.”

“It’s okay,” Rashun said in a controlled voice. “Keep going.”

“Right. So, we know that you killed the revenant there. And were able to summon help there. So obviously it’s a place where some of the dungeon mechanics work. You might be able to whomp up something that would allow you to go back and forth, like a portal or something.”

“But I want it accessible to more than just me,” Sam said, dropping his second bombshell. “I want it to be available for anyone I choose, and I want them to have free access to it. It’s a perfect panic room for our families, and it could be a superb mustering and planning point. It’s a significant untapped resource, and I want to exploit it for everything it’s worth.”

“Can I go?” Rashun piped up excitedly. “Can I? I’ve wanted to see it ever since you talked about it. Please big bro, let me go?”

“We must first ascertain if it is possible or not,” Char said, giving the boy a fond if quelling look.”

“Hey butter-boy,” Sally piped up. “Those new Guardian Powers you just got for hopping into bed with me should might give you the options you’re looking for. Give ‘em a try, maybe?”

Sam blinked.

“New guardian powers,” he repeated slowly, feeling his cheeks heat up.

Everyone at the table turned to look at him.

“You didn’t check your new powers yet, did you,” Ma said. It was not a question.

“Have you leveled up, son?” Pop asked, raising the eyebrow over his patched eye.

“Um,” Sam cleared his throat. “I’ve been kinda busy…”

“Samuel James Tolliver,” Ma’s voice went full Ma on him. “You get your butt upstairs to your room and level up your skills properly.”

In just the past week Sam had fought through legions of undead, had befriended ancient entities, gotten embroiled in a war against reality itself, and gained levels faster than the most powerful adventurers on the planet.

And absolutely none of that helped in the face of the Wrath of Ma.

“Yes Ma,” he said meekly. He glanced around the table and smiled sheepishly. “Um. Meeting adjourned?”

He stood and left the mess hall to the quiet laughter of his friends and the sound of Sally making whip-crack noises.