(Zhenya Pov)

“Hey, Freddie. Throw me a whetstone.”

“What happened to yours?”

“I got it right here. But yours is on a whole ‘nother level.”

“Well, I guess this puppy shines through even to the uninitiated.... But flattery will get you nowhere. Sides, aren’t the ice crystals in yours enough?”

"Sure for retaining sharpness but considering we’re diving into the unknown here, I would prefer the extra sharpness. Who needs retention if your enemies’ dead anyways.”

“You two done yet?” Nickolas and Sushila stood on our way out, the former only being slightly ticked off at our antics.

“Sorry.” Freddie threw me a bone. Well, her whetstone to finish things out.

Venturing forth from our cozy cove, we were determined to make the best of a relatively bad situation. This was an unknown floor belonging to the oldest mana dungeon. Not just that, a wholly new type of floor. Roof? Never before seen in the history of dungeoneering.

The amount of GP people would shell out for even the most common item from here would be, I’m not exasperating, enough for us to live comfortably for a while. Or enough for us complete our base and live modestly for like a month.

With empty maps waiting to be filled, we plowed through the powdered clouds, leaving our mark on lands untouched. Almost like snow... Accompanied by the cold winds whipped up from being so high up, it's just a bit reminiscent of home.

This place has the snowy alpines part down pat. All that’s missing are the beasts and bandits and... Eyyy they got snow poofs!

Barely visible through the crumbly white sea was an equally white ball of fluff. Perfectly camouflaged. Taking out our weapons, the snow poof somehow saw us. I thought they were blind? Scattering into the wind.

So decidedly not a snow poof. I turn to see Fredrica furiously jotting some notes down in her notebook. The faux snow poof was actually a colony of dandelion seeds, a hivemind mimic of sorts? Whatever it was, following the wayward seeds as they drifted on the wind, any sense of nostalgia I had of home were dashed, replaced by awe.

Amidst this frothy sea of clouds, awash in swaying pink petals and leaping branches, was an array of floating islands! Not large by any means, more like divots of em. Dotted all over the place. Going all the way up.

“Are these pieces of land from when tree initially sprouted?” Freddie mused, but Nickolas could only reply with a half nod. Some were ruins of buildings and streets he was familiar with, but others left him entirely befuddled.

It made no sense. Each ‘island’ was its own suspended realm. Seasons frozen in time, localized suns and moons, floating bodies of water. Chaotic and mishmashed, but somehow with the whole place being like this, it sorta feels natural.

Climbing up a wide-arching branch, we continued from island to branch to island. Each one stranger than the next. But it was really the monster line-up that really took the cake.

Or rather, how they acted. Incomplete, without purpose. I can’t really say more than that. They simply felt wrong for one reason or another.

Across windy plains of invisible enemies to the sparkling free-floating seas that were so foreign to me, we eventually reached the centermost island.

At its heart stood a distorted tree with numerous thin rivers streaming from its base. Surrounded by othe-... other... These were people, gnarled corpses twisted into trees, their dying emotions forever captured.

“So is this everything you hoped to find~” A humming voice reverberated from behind the main pillarous tree. A woman whose deep brown hair was laden with thorns. A large sunflower(?) adorned her head acting as a suncap.

Her skin fair, and eyes honeyed yellow, dressed in a practical-looking sundress. Despite having beauty most royals would kill for, I can’t deny how natural she would look in a set of overalls. Gardening to her heart’s content with a hardy smile plastered on her face.

But right now, that face was twisted into a stern grimace.

“What are you-” Fredrica quickly turns to Sushila. It was a sorry sight. She was weeping uncontrollably, bereft of all strength. Curled up into a ball, softly begging for forgiveness.

“So this must be the... and that tree must have been... I- I see. So this is where it all went down.”

The revelation wasn’t lost on any of us.

This was ground zero, where Sushila angered the dungeon.

“Yes, this was where that puppet of a broken soul angered my dearest.” The woman confirmed, her voice thick with so much anger we felt its weight crushing us.

“So, what now? All this? You showing up here? Just what game are you playing at?” The knight-in-waiting asked, doing her best to withstand an avatar’s anguish.

“Nothing. To be completely honest.” The plant woman said with a dismissive shrug. “I’m simply here to reminisce on old failures, much like her.” The sullen fall of her tone was haunting.

“Rose, why?” This time it was Nick, lost and confused. “A puppet? D-Did she actually do the deed? Just what exactly was...” There is so much that we don’t understand.

Though one thing I did understand and hated, Nirve was at least somewhat correct in his assumptions. But still, I’m not gonna give up on Su!

As I helped the fallen girl up to her feet, Rose recounted that night in detail.

Sadly it was nearly identical to Su’s recollection. Except with an added caveat when it came to that mysterious client. Trotting over to the tree corpse with several weapons stabbed into its back. The victim’s final pose was one of them crawling, a hand raised to the sky, which now functioned as a pitiful trunk. ‘This wretch,’ as Rose callously called it was none other than the client, or what was left of him.

This caught Su’s attention causing her to turn and come face to face with the corpse. A long stiff stare, no one had any idea how she would react. That is until she cradled her head in pain.

(Inside Su’s head)

That face, it was him. The bastard that issued their expedition, their death sentence. If it wasn’t for him, they would still be alive.

Sushila’s insides roiled in anger but not so much as directed towards that man, but more so herself. The events always played out in her head. Why did she attack the core that night? Her body moved before her-. She suddenly felt heavy, like a wave had swallowed her.

Why! Why did she attack the core? Why has she never thought of the reason behind her actions? Guilt clouded her judgment, but it was something else. Something deeper, that chained her. Something suffocating, drowning...

(Back outside)

“Su! Su, look at me!” The girl’s eyes are glazed over, and she feels colder than usual. “Remember home, the islands. Remember Reis and your friends!” Her eyes focuses for a moment. It’s working!

As Nick and I worked on bringing Su back. Fredrica had an agenda of her own.

“So let me get this straight.” She stared Rose in the eyes. No lies would escape her. “Su and her team escorted this gentleman to the dungeon’s core.” A nod, confirming that Fredrica was correct so far, prompted her to continue.

“And there you confronted them. As you seemingly talked them down, on this man’s call Su- the girl lashed out.” Once again, another nod. “Than I’m afraid we have a much bigger problem on our hands.”

This certainly caught the avatar off guard. I guess she was working under the assumption she knew everything.

“This man is from the Dutchy. The armor he is wearing was only donned by the old guard. It’s an esoteric piece whose meaning is lost on anyone except those in the know. Basically, only a few people would be able to link this back to the source, and I’m guessing those that could, would deny it.”

Fredrica wasted no time inspecting the man’s corpse in detail. Not that I was going to judge her, the armor was more or less fused to him.

This brought a litany of revelations to all. The implications that the Dutchy has had a hand in the Coalition’s affairs and that they were responsible for the carnage-

“Now, before anyone jumps to conclusions, let me finish. Do any of you know the legend of the Drowned Men?” Both Nick and I were clueless, but Rose at least understood the direction Fredrica was going.

Seeing no one chipping in, she continued. “It’s an old children's tale told in the Archipelagos.” Shooting her a raised eyebrow, Freddie quickly follows up that it was in one of the tomes her father brought back from his various outings. She read it one day, and ever since then she trained just in case, ‘JUST in case’ she ever met one. You don’t have to say it twice, you know.

Oh, Children, Children Gather round/ When the Witch gazes down/ the night alights/

Oh, Children, Children Gather round/ Stay home, clink the locks/ for moon touched ones rise tonight/

Oh, Children, Children Gather round/ do not play at night/ for the Drowned Men will whisk you away/ to the moon and disappear beneath the waves./ Oh, Children, Children Gather round.

“I always thought it was some old wives tale parents would tell their kids so they wouldn’t stay out after dark. But seeing Su and all this. I think she’s one of these Drowned Men.

Her skin is pale as the moon, and from smaller anecdotes I’ve read, they were beyond compare in underwater combat. Remind you of anyone? And Zhenya, when you felt her pulse wasn’t it weak, almost unnoticeable?”

“I- I can’t deny the resemblance.” She definitely isn’t your average islander if Nirve is any benchmark.

Glancing over to Rose, who’s been patiently listening to us connect the dots. She chipped in flatly, confirming that Su was one of these Drowned.

“It’s good to have confirmation... Also answers a few questions I had.” Fredrica powered through as she always did. “This man probably got a hold of Su’s weakness and used it to his advantage.”

Then it finally clicked for a couple of people in the room. Even Rose, who more or less had a good overview of the situation. And to our surprise, this revelation also got a certain familiar face to come careening out from his hidey-hole.