Apollyon The Deathless stood within the Wandering Dungeon, his million eyes glued to and tracking the waves and eddies of the Essence as it pulsed through the foundations of the world. To the untrained eye, it would have seemed as if he were watching a light show, impressive and utterly incomprehansible, with billions upon billions of lines and points flowing into and out of one another in an ever-changing dance of color and illumination.

To him, who had spent several lifetimes studying the essence, who had never once partaken in any of the wars or challenges or dalliances of his fellows, who had committed himself to this course the instant the war had ended, who was Apollyon now and forever, it was if he were reading a child’s mapbook. The world unfolded before him in patterns and events, no secrets kept back, no half-truths presented. It was all there, live and in color.

And my, weren’t there plot twists aplenty in these last few days.

The lich and the Failstate teaming up had not been unforeseen, though the possibility had been quite low in his list of outcomes. Perhaps something during the fight with Diana had sparked the creature’s interest. It could present a challenge to his plans down the line. But… Not much of one. And in fact, the more he examined it, the more another set of options arose in his mind. Yes, he was going to have to pursue those. Perhaps this might work in his favor. Perhaps it might even accelerate his timetable.

His children had been pulled from their watch on Tolliver and sent to other trouble spots in the land. With the Last once more alive, the world was responding to her presence. Old spawn points long dormant were re-activating, ancient monsters long-forgotten were being seen once more. And old caches of knowledge and power were once more on the board, and he had use for those.

Besides, Diana was still with the boy. She would be able to report on him should needs be. But beyond that… Tolliver was a True Being now. Appolyon had no more cause to meddle in his affairs than a flame had the right to meddle with the ocean.

Perhaps it was time to recall her.

And then of course, there were the developments within Tolliver’s dungeon. The activation of the third sister, for instance, was of great interest to Apollyon. Not because of the knowledge she contained, of course—the Five already had access to what knowledge the Last might possess and much more, surely—but because now all the parts of the Last were awake and operating. That meant the Five would begin moving against her in earnest now, as was their wont. And Apollyon would have to keep up the facade, now that they knew he was active.

But the lich presented a possible solution to all that rigamarole…

A point on the essence map flared and vanished before a thousand of Apollyon’s eyes, and the rest swiveled to stare at the anomaly. Tolliver had vanished from the perception of the essence, and therefore from the perception of the System itself.

How… interesting.

It was not the first time Tolliver had disappeared from the Essence. Every time the boy went into an anomaly, he vanished. But this was different. There was intent here, the Essence demonstrated. And it was not only Tolliver who had vanished, but a half-dozen of his subjects as well.

Ah, Apollyon knew then what had transpired. He should have seen it coming, in truth. The boy must have gained access to an Admin Room. The Last would have had access codes and locations for them in her memory banks—though in her full form she would have known better than to try and access any of the existing ones. They provided secrecy, true enough, but not very much security—

Except Tolliver was a True Being, wasn’t he? And therefore it might be possible for him to bypass many of the security features and make an admin room a truly impregnable fortress, if he were to gain an understanding of it.

That was… troubling. And if left unchecked could have far reaching consequences that he might not be able to see coming. Which was completely unacceptable. He could not allow a mere stripling, even a True Being, to derail plans tens of millenia in the making simply because he got lucky with a class choice or two.

He could not take direct action, of course. To move directly against a True Being went against everything he stood for and had been working towards for thousands of years.

But he did have an option in place, didn’t he? And one that had been placed there almost by chance herself.

Diana, he reached out to his child through the special link they shared in secret. I have a task for you.

* * *

Sometimes, thought Annie Tolliver as she mounted the stairs towards the 6th level, it’s bloody hard being a mother.

Here she was, missing out on what was likely to be a grand adventure, off past the realms of space and time, to places where only her son and his strange new powers had ever been–Alright fine, her son and his bastard bonehead of a copied lich–and she was going to have to miss it. Jack, bless his level head, was giving her a running commentary of the happenings over his DMs, but it just wasn’t the same. So here she was, climbing the stairs at the behest of he who had become like a son to her, Nathaniel Sand-In-His-Shoes. The little bastard.

Of course, bitch about it though she may–and wasn’t it just every mother’s right to bitch about her children in the privacy of her own mind?--she wouldn’t have changed a second of it.

… Okay, maybe Sam’s seventeenth birthday party. The orcish mud wrestling may have gotten just a touch out of hand.

The fourth level passed by without incidence, except for her knees suggesting to her that they really needed to get the gnomes working on a steam elevator in this place. She was just passing the fifth floor landing, nothing more than a rock slab and a doorway to a tunnel that led nowhere yet, since they hadn’t started putting any rooms on this floor yet, when something stopped her. A mother can always hone in on the sound of a child weeping, even when that child is grown and an adult now. And she remembered this voice very well.

Marie, the woman who had been Marie once, was sitting at the end of the short rock tunnel, knees drawn up to her chest, head bowed, and tears streaming down her face.

Oh hells and damnation. Now what?

“Marie? Dear?” Annie moved deeper into the tunnel. “Are you alright?”

“Don’t call me that,” the other woman’s snarl sounded like some feral animal with its nadgers caught in a steel trap, full of pain and anger and fear. “That’s not my name anymore. I’m unworthy of it.”

“Horse shit,” Annie said amiably, coming to stand beside the woman she had once considered akin to a daughter. “My Sam will take some time getting over it all, but get over it he will, mark you me. And then he’ll be back to calling you Marie just like it ought to be.”

“He won’t ever trust me,” Marie said, sniffling. “And he shouldn’t. I’m Apollyon’s, now and forever. Nothing will change that.”

“Sure and I might,” Annie said, raising an eyebrow. “If I can get within mace’s reach of him, I’ll change all kinds of things.”

That got a little laugh from the girl, and while the silver was tarnished, it still rang through. “I believe you would, too.”

“In a heartbeat. Listen child, no sense in hanging around cold dark tunnels all by yourself with nothing but thoughts for company. Come with me and help me sort out a dragon, will you? And then you and I will go and get some—“ some what. What did other mothers say at times like this. Hot tea and biscuits? Blech.— “Some strong scotch and something to punch, and we can talk.”

This time the silver in the snorting laugh wasn’t nearly as tarnished. “That sounds good. Thank you aunt Annie.”

“Any time.” She offered Marie a hand up, and the girl took it and allowed herself to be hauled to her feet—and lords and ladies didn’t she just feel light as a feather? “Have you been eating enough, girl?”

“I graze,” Marie said, looking sheepish. “I don’t eat much usually, especially when I’m out on assignment for Daddy Apollyon. Most of our nourishment comes from the power he gives us.”

“Right,” Annie rolled her eyes, opened her Inventory—she was one of the few adventurers in the world to have access to the extra-dimensional spaces thanks to her levels—and pulled out a foil-wrapped sandwich. “Here,” she handed it to Marie. “It’s tuna fish. Eat.”

“I—“

“Eat,” she repeated in her Mom Voice. The harmonics reverberated through the woman she’d known most of her life, sunk into her spine, and within moments Marie was wolfing down the sandwich like it was the first meal she’d seen in years.

“Much better,” Annie nodded in satisfaction. “Now come on, we need to see a man about a dragon.”