Edge Cases

For all that everything seemed to be fine for the time being, there were a lot of things that needed the adventurers' immediate attention.

The first were the system notifications. Several of them were just strings of errors, but a number of them were distinctly ominous.

[B-63 ####### #####R] integrity has failed. Unable to sustain local dungeon. Examining dungeon contents...

Dungeon contents cannot be erased. Remaining R-fragments have been redistributed to all three major ######s. All system users will be notified of this change.

Local parameters that were previously reliant on [B-63 R###### ######] have been attached to the closest available ######.

[X-51 ####### #####R] has no attached processing node. It will not be able to permanently sustain B-63. Estimated degradation: 5 months, 12 days.

Additionally, several local sapients were found to have no synced backup on nearby ####### ######s. These sapients will be reverted to the nearest backup if [X-51 ####### #####R] completely degrades.

The last warning made Misa flinch — she didn't need to know what the missing words were to understand what that meant, though there were certainly implications that she'd have to discuss with the others when they had a moment to sit down and talk.

But the implication that her village was on limited time, even after what they'd gone through to save them... that left a cold chill in her heart. She glanced back at the rest of the villagers, seeing a number of them staring in concern at what was presumably the same warning.

Strangely, Orkas and Charise were the ones that didn't seem concerned at all. They glanced at the notification, then seemed to scoff.

"Don't worry about us," Charise said before Misa could find the words she wanted to say. She gave her daughter a smile. "A timer isn't a death sentence, and you don't need to solve every problem we run into. You've given us a chance, and I promise you we're going to use it."

"You defied the odds once," Orkas added, his voice a low rumble. Then he glanced back at the much more worried-looking villagers, and raised his voice so they could all hear him — or perhaps he simply used a skill. "And now we will defy the odds. Misa has already shown us what we can do. It's time we figure out how the system really works, and break the hold it has on us."

The cheer that started up was small at first. But it grew, and what caught Misa's attention was that it wasn't her father that they were looking at when they cheered.

They were looking at her.

There was a fire in their hearts that had been sparked by Orkas' words, but the fuel that kept it burning was what she'd shown them they could do.

She wasn't sure it had completely settled in to her heart that her family was alive again. They'd been gone for so long, and she'd only just begun to accept that she wouldn't see them again — and yet here they were, and there were still so many questions about how all of this could be possible...

"We should go check out what's going on over in the research camp," Misa finally said, though her words were still hesitant. There was nothing she wanted to do more than to spend more time with her family now that the immediate crisis was over — and there were a few more notifications hovering at the edge of her vision that she hadn't focused on yet. Rewards for the bonus room, most likely. The shouting was getting intense, though, and while it wasn't necessarily their job to head off trouble, she still felt she owed them that much.

"Before we do that," Vex hesitated, glancing at the spark Misa was holding. "I don't think I've read any records of dungeon dives that talk about this. Elyra would love to do some research on it, but..."

He glanced up in the direction of the research camp, then frowned. "It's up to you," he finally said. "Elyra has a lot of resources they can pour into researching that thing, but their priority isn't saving lives. I would hide it. We can always give it to them later."

Misa glanced at Vex for a moment, then at her parents. Slowly, she nodded, and pocketed the spark. The shouting in the camp was getting louder, and there were ripples coming from it, that felt like the activation of strong skills —

"The delvers," Misa cursed. They weren't with them, and if they weren't with them then they'd landed back in the middle of the research camp; the researchers themselves knew about what had happened, but the guards —

— and there was the fact that the head researcher — Kestel? — had stopped talking to them, and the damn telepathy had cut off —

They'd assumed it was a matter of being transported to the bonus room, but they were no longer so sure that was the cause, as more of the research camp came into view.

The research team was split into two groups. One group surrounded what looked to be Kestel, though it was difficult to be sure; there was a figure lying prone on the ground, and a small group of researchers that had arrayed themselves protectively around him. They each looked nervous, and the glow of skills lit up their hands.

The second group of researchers, meanwhile, were standing safely behind the guards and exhibiting no small amount of hostility. They were practically glaring in Kestel's direction.

"Shit, this doesn't look good," Sev muttered. He raised his voice slightly, interjecting just as one of the guards looked to be about to start shouting again. "What's going on here?"

The guard that had been about to speak froze, hand twitching to his blade before recognizing who it was that had spoken. "You four," he said, narrowing his eyes slightly at them.

"...Yes?" Sev paused after the guard didn't continue, staring at him. "Congratulations on counting?"

The guard's hand tightened on the hilt of his sword, clearly not appreciating the joke. "Step away. The situation is complicated enough as it is."

"It wouldn't be complicated if you just let us fuckin' explain," the captain — Harold — snapped.

"Don't listen to him," one of the researchers standing behind the guards said. "We need to take them in for questioning."

And then they started talking over one another, raising their voices at one another until they were once again shouting. The adventurers exchanged glances with one another — none of this was going anywhere. Vex cast a quick spell, flickering a rune over the tip of his dagger, and Misa spoke into it.

"Shut the fuck up," she said.

For all that she spoke at a normal volume, the sound echoed loud enough to make all three groups in front of them flinch and fall silent. Misa glared at them hard. "This isn't going anywhere," she said. "One at a damn time."

"And what gives you the right—" one of the researchers began indignantly, but stopped when Misa turned her glare on him.

"Guards first," she said. "What happened here?"

The guard that had initially told them to step back scowled, but answered the question anyway, having clearly realized that their own approach wasn't going anywhere. "There was an altercation amongst the researchers," the guard said. "This group here said Kestel betrayed Elyra."

"He didn't betray shit!" a human woman shouted. She was one of the researchers standing next to Kestel protectively. "He just wanted to figure out what happened before reporting everything back to Elyra!"

"One at a time," Misa repeated, though her voice softened a little when she looked over at the woman — she looked frightened, but determined. The weapon she was holding was barely a weapon at all, just a dinky little knife she clearly kept more as a keepsake than for fighting. "Why would that be a betrayal?"

"Because we need to report anything that happens to them." It was the same researcher that was standing behind the guards that spoke — a lizardkin sporting a dangerous-looking crossbow, though he wasn't holding it correctly. He jerked his head towards the delvers, and Misa was fairly certain that if Harold had still been able to scowl, he would have. "House Varil will have our heads if we don't."

"Okay. I don't know what any of that means." Misa paused for a second, then looked at Harold. "It doesn't explain what happened to Kestel."

"He was trying to stop us from reporting it, so we had to stop him," the lizardkin sniffed. Misa narrowed her eyes dangerously, then turned to Harold.

"I take it you know why this is such a big deal?" she asked.

The skeletal figure of the delver team's captain didn't respond for a moment. He stared at the guards long enough to make the researchers there shift awkwardly, self-consciously. Ixiss was the one that responded, stepping up beside his captain to give the answer.

"House Varil is in charge of producing many of the soldiers and elite combat teams in Elyra," he answered shortly. "They produce fighters that are obedient. They just don't tell anyone how they do it."

"I'm not liking the sound of that," Sev muttered.

"Not many people do, so they just don't ask questions. Out of sight, out of mind," Iliss said, stepping up next to her brother. "It's usually too late for most of us once we figure out what's going on. It's not mind control or anything fancy like that, it's just... emotional suppression. We're not allowed to feel."

Iliss shook her head, shuddering slightly at an invisible memory. "Whatever you did back there broke the enchantment slightly. It's degrading now." She nodded at Misa. "S'why we're grateful to you, even if we're stuck like... this."

"That and the saving our lives part," Ixiss added.

"We kinda helped save you guys back, though, so I figure we're even on that front," Iliss said. Misa managed a small grin at that.

"If ya report us to House Varil," Harold said — the captain was finally speaking up, stepping forward with a heavy weight to his voice. Even without eyes, his gaze was very firmly on the researchers that seemed determined to report him and his team, and the guards took a subconscious step back. "They'll come back for us. And I don't know about y'all, but I ain't going back to them."

"That's exactly why we need to report this," the researcher that had been arguing for this hissed back. "If you don't get punished, we will. The Houses come down hard on anything they think is a risk, and this undermines their authority. Even if we didn't say anything they'd know, because they track every one of their soldiers. They'll be able to tell when you don't come back, and they'll know that we helped you."

"Not if you just say we're dead," the captain said, staring firmly at the researcher. "Varil doesn't need to know a damn thing. Tell 'em we all died in action. For all intents and purposes, we did. We ain't gonna be soldiers of Elyra anymore."

There was still tension in the air — but even the guards seemed a bit uncertain now. The activities of noble houses seemed a bit above their pay grade, but the explanation they were being given was certainly damning.

"Kestel was trying to protect you?" Sev asked, glancing at Harold. The captain shrugged.

"Honestly, knowing him, it's a mixture of wantin' to protect us and wantin' to do research on us," he answered bluntly. "He ain't a bad man, but he's very focused on the learnin'. Can't say I get it, but he tries to do right by us, and I'm a mite pissed that he got hurt in all this."

The researchers were whispering amongst themselves, and even the guards looked uncertain. The one lizardkin man was still arguing very much in favor of telling Elyra — and considering all it would take was a simple discreet message through the system...

"They're not going to be able to keep this secret forever," Vex said quietly. "But I think if we can get the Guild to take them in, they'll be okay. At the very least, House Varil will have a lot more trouble attacking adventurers."

"I think we can swing that," Sev said, glancing at the guards and researchers. The ones standing around Kestel were still looking around suspiciously, but they at least seemed a little calmer now. All of them were clearly in need of healing, though. "But also, I'm not going to wait for them to figure out what they want to do. I know where I stand here. I'm going to go make sure Kestel's okay, and then we're taking everyone back to the Guild so we can figure out what happened to the dungeon."