Zagaroth

  After Fuyuko was doh her prayers, she went out to the mairy hall to find Mordecai talking with an armored oran who was a little taller than him, and a little shorter than the luponi, “Er, hi,” She said, raising her hand in a small greeting.

  Mordeodded aured toward the oran, “Fuyuko, I’d like you to meet my tractor Bellona. Bellona, our long-term guest, Fuyuko.”

  Bellona gave a small bow, which Fuyuko did her best to hastily duplicate. She wasn’t used to the formalities of Kuic yet, bowing and stuff was normally for nobles and stuff in Trionea. “A pleasure to meet you, Fuyuko. I uand the gods have a hand in your presence here?”

  “Um, maybe? I’m not sure, and I feel weird sayin’ it.” She shifted unfortably and gnced down to avoid the woman’s gaze.

  “Hmm, don’t worry about it so much,” Bellona said with a smile, “I’m a champion of Amirume, Mordecai is a priest of Ozuran, Moriko has newly bee a priestess of Sakiya, and Kazue used to be a shrine maiden of Mericume. We are more used to iing with the touch of the divihan most, and hopefully rovide some guidance if you . Although,” she hesitated, then shrugged, “Yod is a bit, ah, different.”

  That surprised a brief giggle out of Fuyuko, “I ’t deny that. I’ve been told a lot of stories,” wait, she had? She felt certain she knew plenty of them, but it seemed to be part of her fuzzed memories, “But meetin’ him earlier was somethin’ else.”

  The older woman nodded, “I uand, I had no idea who I was dealing with during my early iions. Well, while Mordecai shows you around, I’m going to be the face of the dungeon if needed. I should see you again at dinner, if all goes well.” They exged bows again, and the ort to ensure order was kept.

  Fuyuko turo Mordecai, who gestured for her to follow, “I’m going to take you down Kazue’s route, while our friends are making their way down my bat path,” He shook his head with an amused look, “We’re not nearly deep enough to provide a challeo even Gil, let alone Li when he’s pying with Gil.”

  “Um, about that,” She started hesitantly, “You call Li your friend, but I’m not sure what to think about someone calling a god a friend.”

  Mordecai chuckled, “I uand, but he and I became friends long before I realized that he wasn’t just Li, he was Li Zarb. And holding him in the normal sort of reverence would make him unfortable at best. I like him as a person and I treat him with respect, and I only take advantage of his nature in ways that keep him happy aertained, and never cause harm. He wouldn’t like that very much. And he pretty much does the same with me, even if he is going more by instinct. Given that you arrived with Gil, I expect both of them to be leaving soon, and I think the primary reason he’s been at one location for so long is that he has been waiting for you to arrive, which lets me know that he approves of you.”

  Li, approves of her? The thought made her flush with embarrassment, and she cleared her throat awkwardly, “Why do ya say that?”

  Mordecai had demonstrated how the sele pedestal worked while they talked, and she was taking in the garden maze while he replied, “Li showed up here when I needed his luck to help me not kill some hostile intruders when subduing them, and I appreciate that, but he’s been here far too long for his nature, and I am paring to my inal self, where I had a much rger duo eain him in. He had to be waiting for something, and you arrive with Gil, ahat is going to prompt his departure. He didn’t o wait fil, a shard could have found him anywhere, so he was waiting for you. Now, would you like to be shown the sights, or would you like to work your way through the puzzles and cim prizes? However, some potential prizes will require that you be able them. Some of the pnts are useful herbs.”

  Hmm, “I think I’d like ta try it.” It also gave her an excuse to be quiet for a while before replying during their versation. She felt at a bit of a disadvantage and wao be sure of her questions. “So, if I’m supposed to be here, what am I supposed ta do?” Keeping herself occupied with figuring out the puzzles and matg flowers to the impressions also made her less nervous as Mordecai sidered his answer.

  “There are many possibilities. We have some troubles with a set of people in Trionea, so maybe there is an iion of you being a guide or a e of some sort. Perhaps there is an insight or tidbit of knowledge that could be useful at a critical moment. It could be something as simple as being a reminder of who could be ively impacted if I am not more trolled in fag this threat again. Or perhaps it is not we who are to be, maybe any be we gain is taial to your learning and growing here, in order to affeething far in your future. And it could be some bination of any of those, or something I’ve not thought of. They won’t tell us, not really. You are a devoted follower, but not a priestess or champion, so their touch will be very light on you. But even for Bellona or myself, they will only offer so much guidance. We’ve takeeps to actively dedicate ourselves tods, so they will tell us a bit more, but the more, mm, personal it is for us, the less they will say or do.”

  While he’d been talking, she’d gotten the first puzzle figured out, and they’d moved on to the sed room. There had only been a few pnts she’d reized, and they werely rare, but she’d also found a few boxes of inse hidden in various pces, which caused Mordecai to chuckle, “You’ve got the nose of your lupied ary it seems. Well, it bances for the pnts you missed. Now, as I was saying, if there is, say, a developing monster problem, a champion might be given a vision that gives them enough information to get started. That is part of what the devotee agreed to. But something more personal, the things where their emotions run the deepest or the events have the most impa their private lives, the gods hold back more there. It’s a sideration of free will, even the free will of those whom they oppose. It is what makes life messy. Free will makes us people, but it is also what gives us the opportunity to be bad people.”

  Fuyuko chewed on that thought as she worked on the puzzle. Mordecai seemed tent to just let her work on it in silence, with an air of unbothered patiehat was something he and Gil had in on. Hmm, “So, if I stay, what exactly would I be doin’ anyway?”

  He shrugged as he watched her search for another matg flower in the hedge maze, “I’m not sure yet, but I did have ohought about you being a tractor: we could have you spend a good amount of time each day outside our territory while you train or practice, and when Moriko and Kazue’s avatar e back here on their loop, maybe you travel with them as well. Get some more worldly experiender your belt while letting your body mature. That could fulfill one of the on duties of a tractor, apanying an ied avatar out in the world, though in this case, you would not be doubling as a normal bodyguard to the same extent. But a group of three is usually strohan a group of two, and we train you on some plementary skills. You are using Li’s own favored fighting style already,” he gestured at the pair of daggers on her belt.

  “Before that, I think the most direct be you likely provide is being another face of the dungeon. But we would still need you to fulfill the requirements of being a tractor: acquire something new and valuable for the dungeon on your own, spar with me to show your potential and spirit, and be approved by all existing tractors in addition to Kazue and me. Which is only Moriko and Bellona at this point. It would be unfair to skip the requirements we already set out for others.”

  She didn’t want to be given special treatment, but she also felt she’d gohrough so much to reach here that it didn’t quite seem fair to her either. She’d even… now there was an idea, “Would peryton horns ‘n’ hide t? Cause I think Gil still has them.”

  “Maybe. Let’s see, ohering part, the kill was certainly solo, but you would have died alone. Oher hand, a fourteen-year-old killing such a monster on her own is certainly quite a feat. However, you’ve demonstrated bravery and resourcefulness, which is the point of the test. I’ve brought it up with the others, and we’re discussing it."

  This whole mind unication thing was weird, and she ignored him long enough to plete the matg puzzle for this room. These two rooms had beeertaining, but ly hard. The only challenge had been memorizing the flowers and then finding them. She wondered what the challenge was going to be to make matg flowers more difficult, like how the hedge had been harder to navigate and examihan the garden maze.

  As the door opened, Fuyuko was greeted by a cacophony of high-pitched voices chattering away as fast as Li did, and in a disharmonic chorus of multiple versations going on all at the same time as they all talked over each other to make their point or tell their story first. She slowly stepped forward, eyes wide as she took in the bright faeries flitting about the room. They were pretty little things, but the inane chatter did not leave a good impression of their intelligence.

  Then the giggle of pixies noticed her, and it was impossible to tell whie eaking, “Oh we got another one hey she’s being escorted by the boss man is she the princess no way she’s tall like the orc I bet they are sisters nah they ’t be sisters this one isn’t green enough and has fox ears those aren’t fox ears they are wolf ears like the tenti-wolves that Bellona brought in oh yeah they kind of like that I think they are cute and her horns are so small and shiny I want to touch them.”

  Fuyuko had been so caught up in trying to parse what they were saying that she hadn’t noticed that they were all flying toward her, full of curiosity about the iing new person. This was a dangerous mistake, as she suddenly found herself swarmed by the tiny creatures who had no sense of personal space or boundaries. There were tiny hands toug and tugging on her ears, and more of them poking at or petting her horns. She had sudden images of finding pixies tangled in her hair, despite how short-cropped it was.

  The teen cmped down on the urge to fil at them, she was afraid she’d hurt the tiny, if annoying, creatures and forced herself to stand still as they examined her. She couldn’t even open her eyes or mouth for fear of one of them poking her eye or crawling into her mouth. And still, they would not stop talking, enting stantly about every ‘discovery’ they made and random tahat bounced out of their heads.

  Standing still long enough proved to be enough to let their curiosity die down, and when she no longer felt swarmed, Fuyuko opened her eyes to find herself festooned with ribbons and garnds of various flowers. The fourteen-year-old street rat gred at Mordecai, daring him to let that ugh escape his tightly pressed lips.

  Zagaroth