The past week had beeionally rough for everyone even as the dungeo a mostly normal front when dealing with the publi top of that, they had received a visit from Moriko's parents and Traxalim. Bellona was still amused by Traxalim's irritation when he received an expnation of what had happened. She'd tried to put a humorous spin on it by telling him that he had un-aged gracefully, but that didn't help. "Yes," he'd said wearily, "I am unfortunately aware. I preferred it when my subordinates and traihought of me in a mrandfatherly fashion."

  That hadn't occurred to her, but she could see it. Traxalim was now a handsome sort of middle-aged and he had the right bination of grace, fidence, and kindlio make him very attractive to some younger women, and even more attractive to women closer to his apparent age.

  While she'd been expining the situation to the priest, Mordecai had been talking with Jhaeros and Kaoru. Moriko's status as a Faerie Queen expined where Kaoru's new ability to smell magical properties of pnts and alchemical ingredients had e from, and why Jhaeros's homunculus familiar had gained fey traits and now looked more like a browhan an alchemical struct. Jhaeros didn't mind his familiar having a bit more personality, but it had been rather discerting of a ge to wake up to.

  Thankfully these sudden awakenings appeared to only propagate linearly; none of Moriko's siblings had shown signs of fey traits, much to Gan's disappoi.

  Unfortunately for Mordecai, they'd also asked how their daughter was doing. Bellona had beeertained listening to him very carefully phrase how Moriko and Kazue had gotten into an iing adveh a new friend of theirs going by the name of Ruby.

  They'd both given him hard looks when they realized how carefully he'd said that. In the end, he'd stonewalled them with, "There are secrets involved that are not mihere is more I could say, but I think it best for Moriko to tell you herself after she gets back. Ohey return, none of us is pnning on leaving anytime before spring, so there is plenty of time."

  Once he'd locked down with that, he didn't budge. Standing firm against the reasonable s of one's in-ws was not an easy task, but he knew how to hold his ground. It made Bellona wonder how much practice he'd had with being that type of stubborhe turies of his life. They'd eventually left off their questioning, though her looked pleased about it.

  Bellona also had been busy unig with the capital. Sure, Mordecai wahose troops from Trionea here for training, but officially transp that many soldiers on orders was difficult to do across Kuic borders, and whatever arras Mordecai and the Baron made, both were still limited by politics between Trionea and Kuic.

  During that flurry of unications, the dungeon had also received word firming that Dimitri Igorek had mao escape. All else being equal, the wards that had beeed should have been enough to prevent his teleportation out, except the pound where the mage lived was not his true safehold. Not when he had an ensved dungeon nearby.

  Examination of Dimitri's rooms revealed that he'd used an expensive one-shot talisman to help power his escape. bined with his e to the ensved dungeon, putting up a ward strong enough to stop a wizard of his strength was nearly impossible. On the upside, Mordecai was fairly fident that Dimitri couldn't use a simir trick for a sed escape from the dungeon once ered there. There was no evidence of him having another fallback location, and without a prepared location to teleport to the same power-up trick wouldn't work.

  No, the real trick was going to be making the wizard stay dead ohey got that far. Bellona hadn't had to deal with that sort of fight yet herself, but she'd had her training. A prepared wizard was hard to properly kill, there were several tricks that could be used as automated tingeo prevent an actual death.

  At least they shouldn't have to deal with the dungeon having a full break. Mordecai had sent instrus to fire a messenger arrow into the dungeon with a note reading [We have no i in harming the dungeon, we know you have enough stores that this should not do more than invenience you.]

  After that, he'd told them how far back to set barricades and rules of e to ensure no o dragged back to the dungeon alive, and other wizards were setting up wards to prevent natural mana flow. This would starve a dungeon in normal circumstances, but Deidre had been able to firm that she had a painfully rge pool of mana she wasn't allowed to use properly. Acc to Mordecai, 'painful' was not suffit as a description. Under normal circumstahere was a maximum amount a dungeon could hold before they o use it, but an ensved dungeon could be forced to hold more than their normal capacity.

  There was a clear reason for the duo be forced to hold that much mana; spending it on growth would make the dungeon stronger, which would strain the bindings that kept the core ensved. But that mana pool was dangerous ohe bindings were broken; it would be difficult for a retly freed duo spend or trol. But dealing with that part was not going to be her job, and Bellona was gd for it.

  For now, her job was to keep training dungeon inhabitants is of war and to deal with the occasional visiting troublemaker. She retty good at both and was quite pleased with how the kobolds were iing with the rabbit s.

  A couple of days after Kazue, Moriko, and Ruby were verified to be safe, Kazue's core caught Bellona's attentiht before lunchtime. "You should take the rest of the day off," she said, sounding pleased.

  Bellona frowned slightly at the sudden annou and asked, "Why do you say that?"

  "You'll see!" Kazue's mental voice had a sing-song too it as she avoided answering the question, but Bellona didn't have to wait long before the answer came walking into the arena a few moments ter, wearing a pack. Bellona had been w where Xarlug had disappeared to, and Xarlug's slightly nervous smile had her suspicious about what .

  Still, she wasn't going to take the lead here, he had a pn and Bellona was going to see how this pyed out. So she simply asked, "Something on your mind?"

  Xarlug shifted his weight and cleared his throat before asking, "Well, I thought it might be o share a lunch together somepce private, and I know a nice spot for a pii, care to take a bit of a walk with me?"

  The reddish tint to his skin made it hard to pick out a blush, but Bellona retty certain it was there. She smiled and replied, "Yeah, I think that sounds nice. Let me ge quickly first." This didn't seem like the sort of situation where armor would be a romantic addition. Bellona also took a moment to sluie water over her skin before hastily drying off and pulling on a shirt and trousers. Too much sweat wasn't sexy, especially o had time to dry.

  The walk led them into the warrens aually down a suspiciously new and unused-looking tuhat dead-e a cozy little cavern smelling of warmth ah. The uneven floor was covered with a soft and lush mossy yer and the walls were decorated with a mixture of fungal and crystal blooms that gave off a soft glow ahe space just dim enough to help set the mood with the high-ehe entrance rge and ft enough to fit a piiket fortably. From there, the flently tumbled downward with a quietly burbling stream feeding into the clear, nearly still pond at the far end. The pond with a colle of colorful stones and a small group of fireflies dang over its surface, hid beside it a small alcove with towels and ges of clothes. It was as romantic as some of those books the delvers, especially the kitsune shrine maidens, had retly taken ting out of the library; and she felt certain that Kazue had desig.

  "It's a pretty pce you've stumbled on to here," Bellona teased as Xarlug set down his pack.

  He shrugged and grinned, "Alright, you have me there. I asked for it, and Kazue obliged." Xarlug brought a rge b out of the pad id it out before he started bringing out food and drink.

  Bellona sidered the offered fare a moment as she noticed a pattern for about half of the prepared food. "That's a nice sele," she ented with a ral tone, "why did you pick these?"

  "Ah, your cousin helped there," he admitted, "so I decided to make it half your favorite foods and half mine, and enough to share. You know, a way to get to know each other's tastes better."

  Not a bad idea and Bellona could deal with Kansif ter. "That sounds fun," she replied, her voice warming as she smiled. She'd have been less pleased if he'd simply tried to include her favorite foods, or if certaiions had been his choice. Oysters and caviar were not particurly high on her list, and in text it made the honey cakes suspect too. The mead she could find no fault with even if it was also supposedly an aphrodisiac; the dungeon made a nice fizzy brew.

  They took the time to eat slowly while they talked, which was a bit hard for Bellona at first. Her lunally started a good hour earlier and exercise always left her hungry. Once her hunger was sated enough, she made a game out of the 'special' food that Kansif had suggested and insisted that she and Xarlug feed those to each other. He didn't seem to be aware of what they were supposed to be, and it was more fun than just eating them would have been. They ate messily and pyfully enough that they required a little bit of -up after eating them that way, but that art of the fun, as was sneaking in the occasional kiss to 'help' off a spot of honey.

  After their piich, Xarlug started fidgeting nervously and then finally said, "So, I think it's about time I told you a little more about me, and the man whose name I bear." It was a sudden shift ione of their afternoon, but that also told her that this was important.

  Bellona nodded and replied, "Alright, I'm listening," as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. It was obvious that this was going to be difficult for him, but there was little she could do to help other thaient.

  "Well, first, the inal Xarlug was a warlord, and in his time had baogether a lot of the tribes in the southern pins. Everything I know about him points to him being not remotely a nice person. But he had charisma, and there was a small group of devoted followers that outlived him. They sort of worshiped him and spread stories saying that he was going to be resurrected and bee even mightier than before. Whies around to me."

  He looked down and toyed with a fork as he gathered his thoughts again. "I am a e. I said before that I had his memories, but that was irely true. I have the memories that were structed for me out of the stories others knew; I was meant to bee his rept and a figurehead for a new wave of quest. But it is worse than that."

  She reached over and took one of his hands in hers, and simply held it. Xarlug fshed her a brief, pained smile and then tinued, "The woman who created me had her own obsession. Her notes suggest that she was lying to them and telling them she reparing a resurre ritual when she was making a e instead. Her real pn had been to make me a puppet, and to that end, she had also deliberately created a fw in me, a sort of hole in my brain. If that hole is not properly 'plugged', I just simply be taken over by anyone who knows how to do it. And the only way to plug the hole is for me to be under someone's sway."

  Bellona had a bad feeling about where this was going, but she held his hand firmly when she felt him start to pull back. She wasn't going to let go, not when he was telling her something like this.

  Xarlug swallowed hard before he could speak again. "She inteo make me her toy as well and use her magic to support my quest. And wheime was ripe she'd have had us get 'married', and she'd have born my children with the i of founding a legad maybe an empire. Any woman with even moderate enting skills could take advantage of the fw she'd inteo use for herself, and her books suggest that she was very skilled. I would have been her creature. We don't know what exactly happeo interfere with this pn, I was found in a buried boratory whose entments had held over the turies. Above this pce was a set of ruins that had beee of a battle. Presumably, she died there."

  He took a deep breath a out a shuddering sigh. "Princess Orchid and Paltira are the ones who fouhough I certainly did not know she rincess at the time. I was still held ihe chamber where I had been grown and impnted with memories, unaware of anything at all. Orchid was careful, she read the books, she studied the rituals, and she did what she could to minimize the fw. But it was already built inside of me, grown with me. So when she woke me up, Orchid helped me learn who and what I actually was, despite my initial skepticism."

  He looked embarrassed when he said, "I was a mixture of vulnerable and dangerous that could bee a disaster, and I could hear those structed memories cm for quest. So when she made an offer to bind me in a way simir to how her sort was bound to her, I accepted. I had no p this world anyway, and I could not trust myself. It seemed better to be lightly bound to someone making an offer rather than risk simply being taken and being someone's property. It's... irely fortable of a bond because we don't behave or feel the way the bond was meant for."

  Xarlug held her gaze while he spoke quietly, "I always feel her mind aions, however distantly, and I have to push that to a very distant er for everyone's sake. Which brings us to the hardest part. I don't dare to be unbound, but none of us wao remain ected to Orchid. Which means being bound to someone else, if I find someoo trust, and they are willing."

  That was a lot to ask, but he utting his trust in her. Bellona closed her eyes as she thought, and whearted to pull his hand away again she drew it up to her lips instead before settling his hand in her p. She wasn't going to let him run away, but she o think and be sure before she did or said anything.

  There were some things not being said here. For one, she retty certain that a bo for lovers involved sleeping together ohough she retty certain it was only the oime from the way he behaved. It would also make it very awkward if he could feel Orchid's emotions every time she and Paltira... yeah, best not to think about that part too much.

  Going from where they were to being bohat way would be a big jump. Bellona waress their retionship and if it worked out she was sidering something more long-term or perma, but this would be accelerating that process a lot.

  She eventually came to a decision that would do for now and opened her eyes to smile at Xarlug. "I'm open to the idea, but I think we o work on a few things first. I am used to taking the lead and pulling others after me and I have to know that you won't just fold to my will. It's clear that Paltira stand up to Orchid a some of their rules, so it's not one sided." Bello go of his hand and sat up a little more. "The question is, you take charge?"

  "What?" Xarlug asked, clearly fused.

  "I said, you take charge?" Her smile slid into a challenging smirk as she tinued, "and you make me feel not in trol at all?"

  His eyes widened as he got it. "Oh. Wait, you know that she'll knht?"

  "Yes," Bellona replied, "but I do hope that's not enough to stop you." She tried to not blush as she said that, feeling more than a little sdalous. Bellona was not inexperienced, but she normally kept such matters private. She also teo take trol a what she wahis step was going to be important for both of them, one way or another.

  Then he kissed her and didn't ask any more questions with words. Even their small tusks made kissing a little more difficult, but a bit hness was fine by her.

  Bellona still had to guide him a little, but he was a quick study. That afternoon in the private little space was going to be a good start, though not enough by itself. She was fortable with being in charge more often than not in their retionship, but he had to be fident enough to not let her push him arouher.

  Much ter that evening, Bellona caught Kansif giving her a knowing smirk, and Bellona rolled her eyes at her cousin's theatrics. She also made sure to find a private moment to pull Kansif aside and said, "Make sure Xarlug stand up to me if we ever have a strong disagreement."

  Kansif nodded as she dropped the smirk and replied, "He told you then? Good. He's been building up to it for a while." She shrugged at Bellona's expression. "Orchid tells me everything; I don't judge, only offer support, options, and questions. Answers are hers to find. It's not an official duty, but I feel it is my duty."

  That made seo Bellona, given what she'd learned of the princess's skill set. Orchid needed an outside perspective, as Paltira was too close and biased to provide that point of view. "Just don't take on too much, alright?" Bellona said as she id her hand on Kansif's shoulder, "We 't have you carrying everyone's burdens."

  "Says the woman who just gave me another burden," Kansif retorted with a grin. "e o's go get a drink to celebrate a new beginning, and tomorrow I'll figure out what I do to help push Xarlug in the right dire."

  Zagaroth