"Exes should never, never go out with or marry other people but should remain celibate to the end of their days in order to provide you with a mental fallback position." ~ Helen Fielding

  Having updated my traps and caught up with as many of the readily accomplished quests as I thought practical for the time being, it was time to get to work on my third floor.

  I’d already opened up a fair amount of space, though I hadn’t really done much with it yet. I spent a good part of the evening just constructing the main plaza – between the eidetic memory and the innate spatial sense of a dungeon, it wouldn't really be that difficult to construct a nearly perfect, scaled-up replica of that space – except that I didn’t want to commit to that huge a space. I was willing to dedicate quite a bit of volume to the third floor, but making it actually mimic the whole city (or even the main plaza) at something like 12:1 scale was going to be massively impractical. In the end, I had to make some tough decisions.

  I did want to include versions of some of the key buildings I’d explored – the cathedral, the library, and the museum were all on my short list. That did mean I was going to have to mostly ignore the shops, the houses, and other such normal structures – or at least give them short shrift. That grated on my archaeologist’s soul, since a lot of what modern archaeologists are trying to do is to recover the actual history and lifeways of the normal people of past societies. The desire to go all Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones and focus on “treasure” and elite architecture was a real temptation, and one given free rein in the early days of the discipline, but it was bad science (or at least bad sociology and anthropology).

  Still, I recognized that I wasn’t really acting as an archaeologist here, even if I did still want to educate visitors about those who’d come before them. Rather, in order to get them to come at all, I needed to give them something exciting enough to hold their interest. And informative as the remains of a normal gnomish home might be, it wasn’t going to hold a candle to the cathedral or, really, any of the larger public structures. Giving it some thought, I decided that I’d still try to include at least a general representation of the whole city – while contracting it significantly. The cathedral and administrative buildings would need to be compressed to something less impressive, unfortunately, and the shops on the square would likewise be cut down. I’d still include a couple of gnomish houses, but the rest of the city would be largely ignored – moving the library up to the main plaza and leaving most of the rest of the city as a mere shallow facade. I’d likely keep a single mushroom field and a residence or two, but that’s it. I’d probably want to do a hangar too, though it might have to be sacrificed in favor of, say, just a shipwright’s office, since I didn’t actually want to open any more actual entrances to my dungeon at this point.

  I began developing open space to complete that vision and by midnight, I’d roughed out a general floorplan for the entire floor, though the buildings were nothing but loose silhouettes of themselves at this point with just enough work on the facade to distinguish them from each other. As before, the cathedral and administrative buildings stood across the plaza from each other, though I’d shrunk (proportionately) both buildings by at least half by cutting an entire wing and part of the other from the admin building and shrinking the central dome and the main worship space of the cathedral. Frankly, I hadn’t been sure that the scaled-up version of the dome would have been able to support its own weight, though I might be underestimating the gnomish architects’ prowess.

  Between the stairs from the second floor and the plaza, I added a pair of crossing passages, though I made the first end abruptly no more than 8 meters from the main passage on either side, with the addition of rubble used to give the perception that the tunnels had collapsed (at some point in time, but not recently). The second set of cross tunnels led to the space I intended to be a mushroom farm on one end and some residential spaces on the other. I might add more at some point, but the main focus was clearly on the plaza.

  On the far side of the plaza, I’d left a long pathway down to an open space I planned to use for some version of hangar. Not entirely by accident, I’d left this space almost above the actual hangar – realistically it was 5 meters down and nearly 20 meters to the south, but it was still fairly close. I’d also tentatively set my stairs to the next level in the hangar space

  I called my construction to a halt in the early morning hours, as I was beginning to feel the mana drain from all this work. At the same time, I could tell that the ongoing work had actually improved my mana flows and my storage capacity – though even so, I was spending it faster than I was bringing it in. Still, I’d made good progress, though there was a lot of finishing work to do on the construction, and of course I’d need to populate it with creatures beyond my wizard’s cat and fill it with appropriate cultural items. That was going to be tricky, since most of the buildings had been pretty completely stripped. I suspected that I was going to need to mix it up a bit and make this floor seem more ruined than the previous ones – perhaps making it seem as though the abandoned space had been taken over by invading monsters over the millennia. But I could think about that more later. For the time being, I returned my attention to my core room, figuring I’d read up on magic – and particularly the newly recommended works.

  ****************************************************

  Rangvar ran a heavily calloused hand over his graying, yet still mostly red hair, slicking stray strands back into place as he gathered himself on the Keradjis’ doorstep. The gray drizzle was a common occurrence in the rainy season in Talendra, when rain swept in from the east most afternoons and early evenings.

  He didn’t mind the rain, particularly, though he did miss the summer thunderstorms of his own mountainous homeland. Those had drama and lent atmosphere to even the most prosaic of tasks. The steady, dispiriting drizzle lacked that, or at least the atmosphere it provided was an annoying, dreary one that resulted in constant humidity, frizzing hair, and a pervasive lingering aroma of caking mud and mildew.

  There were enchantments available to keep the rain off, or even simple umbrellas, but he generally preferred to experience the world without such measures whenever practical. He sighed, shook the collected raindrops from his leather duster, and knocked on the door.

  He could hear the sudden flurry of movement and some indecipherable conversation before the door was abruptly thrown open by his old colleague Ahmed. The man stood not much taller than Rangvar, though more slender in build (aside from the potbelly he’d been slowly accruing to Rangvar’s amusement).

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  He watched with a guarded amusement as Ahmed drew himself up to his full height and attempted to project a formal gravitas without notable success. “Welcome, welcome Rangvar! Do come in out of the rain and make yourself at home.”

  He smiled politely in response, and stepped into the cozily appointed parlor, removing his damp overcoat and placing it on the adjacent rack. Raina called out her own greetings from the kitchen where she appeared to be putting the finishing touches on a platter of simple appetizers. “H’lo Rangvar! It’s been too long. Come join us at the table – dinner won’t be ready for another hour or so, so we can nibble on some snacks and give you the good news!”

  “Sounds like a solid plan. I’ll admit, I’m curious what’s got Ahmed here all caught up in being mysterious?”

  There was a distinctly unladylike snort of laughter coming from the kitchen, as Raina emerged – one hand toting a platter and the other wiping on her floured apron. “Ha! You’ll have to tell me what he wrote. He wouldn’t let me look! I mean, it IS kind of a secret, but it’s hardly a life and death kind of thing...” She slid the platter onto the table, then turned and gave her husband of many years a not particularly hard punch in the shoulder. “Pull up a seat, both of you, and we’ll let you in on the whole situation.”

  The two distinguished professors sat as they’d been bidden – one now visibly amused and the other looking a bit embarrassed.

  “A situation, is it?” said Rangvar with an inquisitive cock of his head. “Do tell. It’s been a bit since I’ve had any good gossip. Well, at least about the Academy...” He had a quick flashback to his discussions with the kitsune – they had lots of gossip, much of it rather racy – a given with their supervisory role at the hot springs.

  Raina cocked an eyebrow at that but visibly decided not to inquire. Having known Rangvar for years, she was aware that the stories he could tell were endlessly amusing, but highly likely to derail any serious discussion. “Yes, a situation, but not really any gossip for you, I’m afraid. Ahmed did tell you we asked you over actually for your professional expertise, at least?”

  “Of course I did! I may not have told him what kind of expertise, though – or really any details at all. Proper security and all.” Ahmed flushed a bit, while defending his discretion.

  Raina sighed. “Proper security? You literally just had to put a dinner invitation in his mailbox and tell him we wanted to talk to him about sky islands. Who exactly do you think was going to read that and suddenly horn in on your research?”

  Ahmed stiffened. “I’m sure I don’t know. But why take chances?”

  His wife chuckled but dropped it. “Well, doesn’t matter now. He’s here so let’s tell him what we know so far.”

  Ahmed nodded, pleased that she’d elected not to tease him further. He turned to their guest and began to speak between nibbles at a still warm roll.

  “Well, for us at least, it all began about a week ago. I’d been checking my archive notifications when I spotted a new title that had been flagged for me concerning something called ‘Earth Science’. The thing I noticed first was that it wasn’t actually a new title, but was one that had been retrieved by an expedition to recover works not represented in the archives.”

  Rangvar sat up straight at that. “Not a new book, but an old one recovered from some hidden collection?”

  Raina smiled at his predictable reaction. “Actually, even more interesting than that. It’s a work transcribed by an Otherworlder scholar newly transmigrated to Relnis, if you can believe that.”

  Rangvar looked askance at that. “An Otherworlder scholar? You’re just tugging my beard now, aren’t you? And he has an interest in soil? Give it another yank, why don’t you?”

  Ahmed smirked, taking his own turn. “Oh, it’s even more unbelievable than that, I’m afraid. No, his interest isn’t really in soil. Earth is apparently the name of his world, and the book covers their theories on everything from the formation of the world, its interior structure, and the complex systems explaining how it has changed over eons. Without any magic whatsoever.”

  Rangvar glanced over at Raina for confirmation. “You ARE messing with me. No magic? Is the challenge just to see what’s the most ridiculous thing you can get me to believe? It’s an interesting thought experiment, at least.”

  Ahmed nodded. “Oh, yes. And frankly, it all hangs together rather tidily – even if much of it flies in the face of what we understand about our own world. It’ll be a matter of years to research how much, if any of it, applies to the functioning of our own world. I suspect some of it DOES, though I don’t know how much.”

  Raina took a bite of some hard cheese on a delicate cracker and called Rangvar’s attention back. “That book led us to some of the other works he’s been transcribing – and they are, truly, remarkable. Depending on how much of it translates to our world, it’s likely to shake up quite a few fields.” With a low groan, she admitted, “Including mine. I’m currently in the process of learning a whole new system of mathematics, if you can believe that.”

  Rangvar took a deep breath and redirected. “I’m not saying I believe you, but if I postulate that you are telling me the truth, then why do you need to speak with me about sky islands?”

  Suddenly, he made a mental connection. “Wait. The archivist, Janelle... She came to me a while back to ask about the location of some new books. Your scholar -- he’s on the Tel Dorinth sky island, isn’t he? Is he okay? By all reports, there’s a dragon living there – and they aren’t known to be big on sharing their living spaces.”

  Raina smiled. “There’s the quick mind we respect so. Making connections so quickly... You’re absolutely correct. He IS on the Tel Dorinth sky island. I’d say that here’s where it gets weird, but it’s already there. The scholar has been transmigrated as a sentient, divinely placed dungeon; he’s come to an accommodation with the dragon, so he should be in no immediate danger. We don’t know much about his divine mission – frankly, I get the sense he’s still figuring that out to some extent – but he did ask that we put him in contact with scholars who are, and I’m paraphrasing here, interested in sky islands and in obscure branches of magic. The ones he mentioned are crystallographic magic and fungalmancy – a truly unusual combination, and one I’m assuming has some relevance to his mission.”

  Rangvar nodded in comprehension, still a bit stunned, but having made the connection to Janelle’s questions, no longer doubting their sincerity. “I see, so that would be where I come in. I’ll have to do some research first to get my notes in order, but I will be absolutely fascinated to hear what he has to say. Who are you reaching out to about the magic part?”

  Ahmed and Raina shared a quick embarrassed look. Ahmed cleared his throat and admitted the truth. “Ah, well, I’m sure you can guess, old friend. We were discussing our options in the plaza and we’d come to the obvious conclusion not long before she came through. We flagged her down for a quick chat...”

  Rangvar groaned and rubbed his face with his calloused hand. “You didn’t. No, of course you did. It makes perfect sense, after all. Not only did you tell my ex, you told her first...” He straightened up in his seat and took a deep breath through his nose. “Well, we’re adults. We don’t speak much, these days, but Euphisia and I can be mature about this.”

  Raina smiled at him, a bit sadly. “I believe so. Ahmed, why don’t you go break out that bottle of dwarven whiskey. Dinner will be ready in 15 minutes or so, and I think we have time for a stiff drink before it hits the table.”