I sighed and looked around the table. Renfry gave me a single stiff nod, and Irwin shrugged. Kasidy just gave me a smile and squeezed my hand. I looked around for Blink, but she was already hiding close by.

I looked up at Lilac. “Tell me, Princess of Cloudia, how would you become part of this circle?”

She knelt on the floor and bowed her head. “Great Master. I have read of those of your kind before. I ask that you tie me to yourself by letting me become a Mistress of one of your dungeons. I wouldn’t be able to betray you or your interests, and I am willing to do this.”

I squinted my eyes at her. “Why?”

Still, with her head on the ground, she said. “I know the type of man you are and the man my father wants me to marry. I am a second daughter, so only useful for politics, which means I will either be married off to an ambitious and deceitful second son, or if things go poorly, I may be a prize to end a conflict. I can serve my family better and longer as a dungeon mistress. I can also spare myself the politics that I would need to weigh through.”

I was inclined to agree with her request, but I wanted to know first what Kasidy thought. “Kas, what are your thoughts?”

Kasidy gave me a huge smile. “I don’t know her at all, but she seems to understand who you are. Iris told me that being a mistress means she can’t betray you, so having a royal, even a second daughter, tied to you would be helpful.”

I pointed to the last chair at the table. “Have a seat Lilac.”

As she got off the floor and sat down, I reached out to her with the dungeon and offered the dungeon mistress class to her. I watched as she read through the description and smiled. Then like what happened with Iris when she accepted the class, the dungeon dimmed. The whole place and a light hit her.

I watched as Lilac’s eyes changed from brown to a flash of red and then purple. They settled on a piercing purple-gray. The rest of her appearance adjusted as well. She didn’t stop looking like herself but changed to looking healthier, which was odd since it was rare in this world for people not to. The system of healing removed many problems that Earth faced. Yet now, she looked more flawless than everyone tended to look once the debuffs were gone.

Lilac smiled as she looked at me. “My lord, thank you for this dungeon. I will do everything I can to help grow it.”

I squeezed Kasidy’s hand, and then Kas asked. “So Arn, what did you want to talk about?”

I smiled and gave a slight sigh. Then I spent the next hour filling my three friends and Lilac in on everything. I glossed over Lannah almost completely, trying to skip over everything. I did a lot of explaining about how I didn’t have a clue what was going on in the world.

Right as I thought we had wrapped up, Blink phased back into view right next to me. It was the slowest that I ever saw her appear. Most of the time, it was “bam,” and she was there with a knife in the back of someone. This time however, it was almost like she wasn’t sure she wanted to show up.

Once she was fully back, she kind of looked down at the ground and dug her foot at the floor, then she said. “Daddy, what about the mean lady?”

I rolled my eyes a bit and started to get up when Renfry asked. “Mean lady?”

I dropped back down in the chair and shook my head. “She isn’t mean and helped us out a good bit.”

Blink huffed and crossed her arms. “She caused all the problems.”

Shaking my head, I said. “No, she didn’t cause the problems. The goblins did when they kidnapped her so they could eat her.”

Renfry raised one eyebrow. “Oh, so why didn’t you tell us about her?”

I sighed and mumbled for a bit. I didn’t want to tell any of them this because I didn’t want to ruin things with Kasidy. I shot Blink the “you’re in trouble” look and then looked around the table.

Blink gave me her slow long blink, and I knew that I had lost. “Okay, so when at the waterfall, we rescued a woman from the goblin food pin. Her name is Lannah Dreamweaver, and to fight off the goblins, we entered into a Familial Contract.”

Kasidy turned and was about to say something when Lilac beat her to it. “A Familial Contract with a Dreamweaver? Who is the subservient?”

Kasidy nodded. “Is that your family, then?”

I shook my head. “She took my family name, but we don’t know what that is.”

Then I looked at Kasidy and said. “I love you; I had to take the bond with her to survive the battle. I don’t know her, but she is why I have been traveling this way. I know there is something there with her; from the best I can understand, this bond thing is like marriage. I should have told you sooner.”

Lilac giggled. “Not like marriage, great master. She could still marry you as she isn’t really your family, but she is also now a member of it. It would be best to think of her as a daughter. Can you share with us your contract?”

I opened my mind to everyone there and shared the contract with them—at least my part.

Familial Contract: (Lannah Dreamweaver) (West of current location)

Lannah Darkweaver offers access to her full mana pool and all duties of a Familial Contract per custom for the following:

Your Family name once found or earned to be hers and those of her children

Protection granted as able from all who wish her harm per custom

1 blank core from The Necklace of Cores per month of the contract

4% of all earned experience until you reach level 10

.5% of all experience earned after you reach level 10

Lilac was the first to finish reviewing it and said. “Great master, she is as a daughter to you with how this is set up. I would argue with what I have seen you do with that necklace and what you told us about it, a very sly daughter. The experience that she is taking isn’t that great for the first ten of your levels isn’t much. It is a drop in the bucket of what you will earn. However, the half a percent was poor negotiations on your end plan and simple. While it won’t stifle your growth, it might pull her along nicely. I haven’t known any Dreamweaver to be a combat class. So you might end up leveling her much higher than the rest of her family. I would say that you came out on the lower end of the deal. That said, if you can level her, then a half-elf’s mana pool could come in handy.”

Kasidy nodded at Lilac. “What Lannah might not have understood when she made the contract with you was that the head of a family owns everything in the family. All those cores you need to give her, you can command her what to do with. It is kind of a compulsion with her, but it is agreed to with her. With what you have said, I don’t think you were wrong with the contract, but I don’t think you came out good with it either.”

I nodded briefly when I caught Renfry giving me a sly smile. As I made eye contact, he raised an eyebrow and then chuckled. I shook my head. I had thought the pretty girl had tricked me into being her husband. It was every guy’s dream, but it seemed more like I was now a father of some sort.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “So I’m not married but stuck in a not-great deal, right?”

Lilac shook her head. “It’s not a bad deal, no matter what anyone else might think. It ties you to the Dreamweavers, one of the kingdom's most prominent merchants. While you could have done better in the end, the experience for the connections could work out.”

I nodded slowly, then pointed around us with one hand. “What are the chances that her family was part of all of this?”

The princes smiled. “Not likely. While they are merchants, they are tied to the adventurer guild and not the merchants guild. They deal directly with the dungeon. So it’s unlikely anything is going on there.

I looked around the table slowly. “So before I head over to see the Sisters, does anyone have any questions for me?”

Kasidy coughed a little and gave a slight smile. “Arn dear… You know how you said that part of your compensation was getting questions answered by a guy named Sam.”

I nodded. “Yes…”

Kasidy gave me a smile that asked for her not to get in trouble. “Well, I kind of met him. You don’t have to do the spell to call his attention.”

I sat there in silence for a few moments before asking. “How long have you known I haven’t had to use the spell.”

She gave me another sheepish smile. “Well, I thought it was a weird set of dreams and didn’t know he was real.”

I nodded. “How long?”

Kasidy reached over and squeezed my hand. “Since the night the bandits attacked us before Last Port.”

I thought through everything that had happened. Sure, there were several nights I could have talked with Sam if I had known, but many times I skipped sleeping in the real world and would go into a dungeon. I wished I had known before because I might could have asked some questions that would have kept us from this.

I smiled at Kasidy and squeezed her hand back. “It’s fine; now let’s go see the Sisters. We need to get you fixed up.”

Kasidy gave me a forced smile as she had just remembered what was going on. “Blink, do you want to go to the waterfall with us or stay here?”

Blink looked around for a moment. “Cans I go hunts orcs at the castle with Renfrys?”

I nodded. “Sure, go have fun.”

With that, Blink vanished. I knew she had to run to the portal room to return to the Castle. In contrast, Kasidy and I would just transport to the dungeon in the cliff and then head out to see the Sisters.

* * *