About an hour and a half later, Tess and her party had finished showing the adults the City. There had only really been one snag, when they wanted to show them Slime Tower but hadn’t yet properly done any paperwork for them. But in the end, those guarding the dungeon weren’t actually allowed to stop them; they just had to give warnings about how the residential areas had cameras and how whatever happened within the dungeon was still punishable by law, despite it technically being even more of a neutral area than the City already was.
Admittedly, Tess had completely forgotten that the guild posted guards in front of the dungeons in the City. Most of the dungeons she had been to recently were outside of the City, and were inhabited only by a skeleton crew of people who ran the Reshi Suites. Still, Tess couldn’t help but wonder what the guild’s guards were doing if they weren’t even allowed to prevent entry into the dungeon. Fortunately, she had a pretty easy way to get the answer to her question.
| Tess: So, uh, what’s the deal with the guards? They can’t stop anyone from going into a dungeon, right? Then like…what’s the point? Dungeons: Security, mostly. Since dungeons create a subspace where only a person’s party members can enter, people have historically used them for various nefarious purposes, and while we don’t allow people to bar entry to dungeons for most discriminatory reasons, we are totally on board with catching criminals. Death: And not like, jaywalking criminals or ‘I broke some law that’s only in place in this country” criminals, but people who have committed crimes that people universally consider bad. You know, murder, grand theft for purposes of greed, rape, that sort of a thing. Scum, in a word. Dungeons: The people who staff the Reshi Suites fulfil a similar role, to tell you the truth; though they aren’t as active about it due to not being in even remotely law-enforcement related positions, they still have an agreement with the guild and most local law enforcement agencies to hand over information on known or suspected criminals who enter the dungeon. |
Tess dismissed the window, and looked back up at the guild. “Just through here and we’ll be done.” She said. “We’ll teach you how to use the door and drive you home.”
They walked into the guild and made their way into the halls. Even though she had been assured that guild staff didn’t stop anyone going into the halls unless they went into the truly restricted areas, Tess still felt a little nervous. She was so used to all the staff recognizing her on sight that she half-expected someone would come and stop them just to see what they were doing back there.
But no one did, and they made it back to the room Gramps had set aside for people from Mael without any incident. Once safely within the room, Tess and her party dropped their identity concealers, and Ellie motioned for the four other humans to come over to where the door back to Mael would be.
“Now I need to teach you how to make the door.” She said. “It’s not hard, even on Mael, but it’s slightly easier here, so I figure this is a good place to teach you. You need to put some of your Mana through the door, and it’ll recognize you and pop right up. In order to do that, sort of…reach around inside of yourself and look for the Mana. It doesn’t matter how you conceptualize the looking, just that you’re focusing on looking. Eventually, you’ll find the Mana, and then you just will it into the door and it’ll appear.
“Your first couple of times may take a minute or two, but after that it’ll become second nature, because…well, people are actually built to use Mana, people from Mael just have to unlock it first. Now…who wants to go first?”
Ellie was met with a few seconds of silence, and then Marie stepped up. “I’ll give it a go.” She said. “It’s right here, right?”
“Yup.” Ellie said. “Just go ahead, put your hand on the wall, then give it a try.”
Marie nodded, placing a hand on the wall and narrowing her eyes slightly. To Tess’s surprise, the door drew its way into existence after only a couple of seconds, leaving Marie looking very pleased with herself. “Well, that wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.” She said. “The Mana was pretty obvious once I went looking for it.”
Tess wouldn’t have agreed when she was first starting out, but she supposed Marie’s prior training probably made her significantly more aware of how her body and mind felt than Tess had been, so she wasn’t going to comment.
“Impressive.” Ellie said. “The rest of you, don’t feel bad if you don’t get it as fast. She naturally has more Mana than you and is probably better suited to recognize it anyway. Tess and I took at least ten or twenty times that long on our first times using the door.”
“And even then, we were on the fast side, apparently.” Tess said. “It would seem Marie is something of an outlier.”
Marie shrugged. “I was trained to be very aware of my body and foreign sensations. Picking up on the Mana now that I know it’s there is far easier than detecting the influence of a monster.”
Ellie reached over and placed a hand on the door to dismiss it, then turned back to the others. “Who’s next?”
“I’ll do it.” Pastor Faust said slowly. “It won’t…hurt, right?”
Ellie laughed. “Not in the slightest. Mana is meant to leave the body constantly, the worst you’ll feel is somewhat tired, and that’s only if you’ve used all of your Mana. You don’t need more than a point or so to get the door to appear.”
Pastor Faust nodded, walking up to the door and placing a hesitant hand on the spot where it would appear. Her face screwed up in concentration, and a long minute or so went by, silence interrupted only by the occasional word of encouragement from Tess or Ellie.
And, finally, the door began to appear, Pastor Faust’s face lighting up in delight as it did. “I see.” She said. “That’s a little different, but I should get the hang of it in a few tries.”
Ellie gave her a smile. “You did great.” She said. “Which of you two wants to go next?” She asked, nodding at Jacob’s parents.
“I suppose I can try.” Robert said. He stepped forward, and a process not dissimilar to Pastor Faust’s began, though it took a fair bit longer. And, after about a minute and a half, the door appeared. Lucia was almost identical in terms of time taken, and soon everyone was through the door and back on Mael.
“The door will go away on its own if you leave it for a minute or so, but if you want to dismiss it earlier, just put some Mana through it again.” Ellie instructed. “And…that’s all you really need to know for now. If you have questions, text Tess or I and we’ll get to you when we can. We’re only going to have patchy service for the next month or so, but after that we should pretty consistently be able to get back to you. Until then, though, Jacob’s probably the next most knowledgeable person on these things, so just ask him.”
Marie nodded. “If I want to register for this guild, is there anything I need to be aware of?”
Ellie frowned. “Grandpa had to pull some strings for Jacob, so…probably, but we’ll get it taken care of. Just wait to register until we contact you and you’ll be fine.”
Marie asked a few more questions as they headed back towards the truck they had arrived in, but Tess was cut off from the conversation as they got in and she took her place in the bed. She could have just used her enhanced hearing to hear what was going on, but…if it was important, she’d get a message from the gods, so there was no need to eavesdrop at the moment.
As she pulled out her phone, though, she came across an unexpected message from a number she didn’t recognize, addressed to both her and Ellie.
Thomas, Ellie, this is Aleksander, it read, I know we haven’t talked in a couple of years and this is a new number and it’s late there but I’m lowkey freaking out and mom and dad say you guys know about everything and I just need to talk with people in the same situation
Tess frowned. Aleksander’s family was an “old family friend” of Gramps’s, which, now that she was thinking about it, likely meant they were from the wider world. It was the most logical explanation, but she didn’t want to make assumptions and give anything away. But, just as she was going to ask the gods, it seemed they had taken notice of the situation.
| Death: Wait they were telling him today? Life: Checking my calendar, it seems that is indeed his birthday. I was not expecting him to text these two, however. Tess: So, his family are ambassadors or whatever we’re calling them, right? Life: Correct. Tess: How many more are there, exactly? I don’t think I ever got a hard number Life: Discounting your family and his, three others. Tess: And are they all in the dark too? Life: Yes. You two were the first to know, and Aleksander was second. Tess: Okay, we need to set up a meeting between all five families, then. There’s some rule that the kids can’t know until they’re eighteen, right? Surely, we can bend that if the others are going to be eighteen soon. Death: I guess six months isn’t that big a difference, and if we’re ramping things up over here anyway then who cares Life: I suppose you have a valid point. Very well, I’ll have Fate get in touch with Evan and have him set something up. Tess: Thanks |
Tess turned back to her phone and began to type out a message of her own.
Yeah, we know. She replied. Where are you now? Can you get to the City?
Uh, the city? Which one? Aleksander asked.
THE City. It’s just called “City”. The one with the guild headquarters.
Oh, um, apparently, we have a door in our house that takes us to another house in the city or something? I’m there now.
Can you get us the address? We’ll be there in probably forty minutes.
Aren’t you on the other side of the continent? How are you getting here so fast?
Same way you do. We’ll explain more when we get there. We’re going to look different and will probably have another person with us, though, so just prepare yourselves and let your parents know we’re coming over. If they ask questions, tell them our grandpa sent us back home on an errand, they’ll understand.
Um, thanks for coming over on such short notice.
No prob. We’ll help talk you through things.
Aleksander sent the address, and Tess threw it into her phone’s GPS before updating her party’s group chat.
| Tess: I let him know we’re coming. Still…what are the odds that we got called back for two things in one night? Dungeons: Better than you think. Fate has a tendency to dabble in these things, even if it’s just passively. Fortune: Even if it’s usually just to make things more convenient. He doesn’t like to do anything too noticeable, give people at least some agency in things. But…changing the timing of an event that was going to happen anyway, or causing a chance meeting? He doesn’t really care. Maven: That would certainly a few things. |
The rest of the car ride went without incident, and Tess was soon climbing out of the bed of the truck as the rest piled out of the front. Everyone began to go their separate ways, but to Tess’s surprise, instead of staying in the truck to head back to the church, Marie got out with everyone else while Pastor Faust moved over to the driver’s seat.
Tess didn’t comment until her party was safely in Ellie’s car and on the way back home. “Why’s Marie staying?” She asked.
“She wanted to talk with Jacob now.” Ellie explained. “But what’s this about Aleksander?”
“Oh, right.” Tess said. “His family are ambassadors too, and they just let him know about everything. He’s freaking out and wants to talk to us, so I said we’d head over. Maven, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but if you do, I mentioned you might be there as well.”
“I am not doing anything else at the moment, so I see no reason not to come.” Maven said. “Unless you believe it would be easier if I was not present.”
“It’ll be fine.” Tess said. “He’s more likely to freak out about me than he is about you.”
“Very well then.” Maven replied.
“Where is he? I assume we’re meeting him in the Outlands, right?” Ellie asked.
“Yeah, there’s a door in his house that leads to the City. Not the guild building like ours does, but a house. He gave me the address and I told him we’d be there in forty minutes or so.”
“May I ask who this Aleksander is?” Maven asked as she got herself buckled up. “I have gathered that he is another one of the ambassadors to Mael, but perhaps I might recognize his last name?”
“Um…” Tess frowned, trying to think back and see if she remembered his last name. Like Aleksander had said, their families had lived on opposite ends of the continent, and they had only met up on a few occasions. He was kind of like one of those cousins you only met at family reunions, someone who she knew the name and face of, but didn’t really know well.
“I think it’s Aesal?” Ellie ventured. “I remember because I always thought it was a funny name when I was young.”
“Then I am afraid I do not recognize the name. I am sure his family has some sort of standing somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you what it is.”
| Death: I could tell you, but I’m worried it might be a little…insincere? That’s not the right word, but I feel like it’ll be a bit more comforting to him if he’s the one telling you about everything, instead of you already knowing. Fortune: There are some advantages to knowing, it makes them seem like they’re confident and in control, I think. Death: But that also makes them seem like they’re “in on it”? He wants to talk to people who are in the same boat as him, and they’re obviously not in the same boat as him anymore, but he doesn’t know that. Ellie: You guys talk about that and let me know what you decide later, I gotta get driving. |
Ellie got the car moving, once again taking it somewhat slow in town before slamming on the gas outside of it. As they drove, there was more discussion in the group chat before it was eventually decided to leave Tess and her party in the dark on what Aleksander’s family pedigree was; it wasn’t information that would change how they approached the situation, and having a more genuine reaction was deemed important in the situation.
They soon got back to Tess’s house, then made their way through the door in the house and back onto the streets of the City. Tess pulled up her GPS again, and set the destination before guiding the group on their way. It was, admittedly, slightly nerve-wracking for her; while she had learned to deal with people who were angry, she was still somewhat out of her depth when it came to being comforting, especially when she wasn’t sure exactly what the problem was. Still, being nervous about it wasn’t going to get her anywhere, so she did her best to put it out of her mind, and instead began to think about how exactly she was going to explain her transformation to Aleksander.
Fighterman481 This is something I've been meaning to get to for a long time, and now was as good a time as any to do it. For this, I have to thank Fate, because he is a rather convenient person to have around when I want to shorten the timescale.
I wanted to get into the conversation in this chapter, too, but I am apparently chronically over-talkative and ended up reaching the word limit before that, so...here we are.
That being said, next time we will get into that, so look forward to it!
And, as always, thanks for reading!
About an hour and a half later, Tess and her party had finished showing the adults the City. There had only really been one snag, when they wanted to show them Slime Tower but hadn’t yet properly done any paperwork for them. But in the end, those guarding the dungeon weren’t actually allowed to stop them; they just had to give warnings about how the residential areas had cameras and how whatever happened within the dungeon was still punishable by law, despite it technically being even more of a neutral area than the City already was.
Admittedly, Tess had completely forgotten that the guild posted guards in front of the dungeons in the City. Most of the dungeons she had been to recently were outside of the City, and were inhabited only by a skeleton crew of people who ran the Reshi Suites. Still, Tess couldn’t help but wonder what the guild’s guards were doing if they weren’t even allowed to prevent entry into the dungeon. Fortunately, she had a pretty easy way to get the answer to her question.
| Tess: So, uh, what’s the deal with the guards? They can’t stop anyone from going into a dungeon, right? Then like…what’s the point? Dungeons: Security, mostly. Since dungeons create a subspace where only a person’s party members can enter, people have historically used them for various nefarious purposes, and while we don’t allow people to bar entry to dungeons for most discriminatory reasons, we are totally on board with catching criminals. Death: And not like, jaywalking criminals or ‘I broke some law that’s only in place in this country” criminals, but people who have committed crimes that people universally consider bad. You know, murder, grand theft for purposes of greed, rape, that sort of a thing. Scum, in a word. Dungeons: The people who staff the Reshi Suites fulfil a similar role, to tell you the truth; though they aren’t as active about it due to not being in even remotely law-enforcement related positions, they still have an agreement with the guild and most local law enforcement agencies to hand over information on known or suspected criminals who enter the dungeon. |
Tess dismissed the window, and looked back up at the guild. “Just through here and we’ll be done.” She said. “We’ll teach you how to use the door and drive you home.”
They walked into the guild and made their way into the halls. Even though she had been assured that guild staff didn’t stop anyone going into the halls unless they went into the truly restricted areas, Tess still felt a little nervous. She was so used to all the staff recognizing her on sight that she half-expected someone would come and stop them just to see what they were doing back there.
But no one did, and they made it back to the room Gramps had set aside for people from Mael without any incident. Once safely within the room, Tess and her party dropped their identity concealers, and Ellie motioned for the four other humans to come over to where the door back to Mael would be.
“Now I need to teach you how to make the door.” She said. “It’s not hard, even on Mael, but it’s slightly easier here, so I figure this is a good place to teach you. You need to put some of your Mana through the door, and it’ll recognize you and pop right up. In order to do that, sort of…reach around inside of yourself and look for the Mana. It doesn’t matter how you conceptualize the looking, just that you’re focusing on looking. Eventually, you’ll find the Mana, and then you just will it into the door and it’ll appear.
“Your first couple of times may take a minute or two, but after that it’ll become second nature, because…well, people are actually built to use Mana, people from Mael just have to unlock it first. Now…who wants to go first?”
Ellie was met with a few seconds of silence, and then Marie stepped up. “I’ll give it a go.” She said. “It’s right here, right?”
“Yup.” Ellie said. “Just go ahead, put your hand on the wall, then give it a try.”
Marie nodded, placing a hand on the wall and narrowing her eyes slightly. To Tess’s surprise, the door drew its way into existence after only a couple of seconds, leaving Marie looking very pleased with herself. “Well, that wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.” She said. “The Mana was pretty obvious once I went looking for it.”
Tess wouldn’t have agreed when she was first starting out, but she supposed Marie’s prior training probably made her significantly more aware of how her body and mind felt than Tess had been, so she wasn’t going to comment.
“Impressive.” Ellie said. “The rest of you, don’t feel bad if you don’t get it as fast. She naturally has more Mana than you and is probably better suited to recognize it anyway. Tess and I took at least ten or twenty times that long on our first times using the door.”
“And even then, we were on the fast side, apparently.” Tess said. “It would seem Marie is something of an outlier.”
Marie shrugged. “I was trained to be very aware of my body and foreign sensations. Picking up on the Mana now that I know it’s there is far easier than detecting the influence of a monster.”
Ellie reached over and placed a hand on the door to dismiss it, then turned back to the others. “Who’s next?”
“I’ll do it.” Pastor Faust said slowly. “It won’t…hurt, right?”
Ellie laughed. “Not in the slightest. Mana is meant to leave the body constantly, the worst you’ll feel is somewhat tired, and that’s only if you’ve used all of your Mana. You don’t need more than a point or so to get the door to appear.”
Pastor Faust nodded, walking up to the door and placing a hesitant hand on the spot where it would appear. Her face screwed up in concentration, and a long minute or so went by, silence interrupted only by the occasional word of encouragement from Tess or Ellie.
And, finally, the door began to appear, Pastor Faust’s face lighting up in delight as it did. “I see.” She said. “That’s a little different, but I should get the hang of it in a few tries.”
Ellie gave her a smile. “You did great.” She said. “Which of you two wants to go next?” She asked, nodding at Jacob’s parents.
“I suppose I can try.” Robert said. He stepped forward, and a process not dissimilar to Pastor Faust’s began, though it took a fair bit longer. And, after about a minute and a half, the door appeared. Lucia was almost identical in terms of time taken, and soon everyone was through the door and back on Mael.
“The door will go away on its own if you leave it for a minute or so, but if you want to dismiss it earlier, just put some Mana through it again.” Ellie instructed. “And…that’s all you really need to know for now. If you have questions, text Tess or I and we’ll get to you when we can. We’re only going to have patchy service for the next month or so, but after that we should pretty consistently be able to get back to you. Until then, though, Jacob’s probably the next most knowledgeable person on these things, so just ask him.”
Marie nodded. “If I want to register for this guild, is there anything I need to be aware of?”
Ellie frowned. “Grandpa had to pull some strings for Jacob, so…probably, but we’ll get it taken care of. Just wait to register until we contact you and you’ll be fine.”
Marie asked a few more questions as they headed back towards the truck they had arrived in, but Tess was cut off from the conversation as they got in and she took her place in the bed. She could have just used her enhanced hearing to hear what was going on, but…if it was important, she’d get a message from the gods, so there was no need to eavesdrop at the moment.
As she pulled out her phone, though, she came across an unexpected message from a number she didn’t recognize, addressed to both her and Ellie.
Thomas, Ellie, this is Aleksander, it read, I know we haven’t talked in a couple of years and this is a new number and it’s late there but I’m lowkey freaking out and mom and dad say you guys know about everything and I just need to talk with people in the same situation
Tess frowned. Aleksander’s family was an “old family friend” of Gramps’s, which, now that she was thinking about it, likely meant they were from the wider world. It was the most logical explanation, but she didn’t want to make assumptions and give anything away. But, just as she was going to ask the gods, it seemed they had taken notice of the situation.
| Death: Wait they were telling him today? Life: Checking my calendar, it seems that is indeed his birthday. I was not expecting him to text these two, however. Tess: So, his family are ambassadors or whatever we’re calling them, right? Life: Correct. Tess: How many more are there, exactly? I don’t think I ever got a hard number Life: Discounting your family and his, three others. Tess: And are they all in the dark too? Life: Yes. You two were the first to know, and Aleksander was second. Tess: Okay, we need to set up a meeting between all five families, then. There’s some rule that the kids can’t know until they’re eighteen, right? Surely, we can bend that if the others are going to be eighteen soon. Death: I guess six months isn’t that big a difference, and if we’re ramping things up over here anyway then who cares Life: I suppose you have a valid point. Very well, I’ll have Fate get in touch with Evan and have him set something up. Tess: Thanks |
Tess turned back to her phone and began to type out a message of her own.
Yeah, we know. She replied. Where are you now? Can you get to the City?
Uh, the city? Which one? Aleksander asked.
THE City. It’s just called “City”. The one with the guild headquarters.
Oh, um, apparently, we have a door in our house that takes us to another house in the city or something? I’m there now.
Can you get us the address? We’ll be there in probably forty minutes.
Aren’t you on the other side of the continent? How are you getting here so fast?
Same way you do. We’ll explain more when we get there. We’re going to look different and will probably have another person with us, though, so just prepare yourselves and let your parents know we’re coming over. If they ask questions, tell them our grandpa sent us back home on an errand, they’ll understand.
Um, thanks for coming over on such short notice.
No prob. We’ll help talk you through things.
Aleksander sent the address, and Tess threw it into her phone’s GPS before updating her party’s group chat.
| Tess: I let him know we’re coming. Still…what are the odds that we got called back for two things in one night? Dungeons: Better than you think. Fate has a tendency to dabble in these things, even if it’s just passively. Fortune: Even if it’s usually just to make things more convenient. He doesn’t like to do anything too noticeable, give people at least some agency in things. But…changing the timing of an event that was going to happen anyway, or causing a chance meeting? He doesn’t really care. Maven: That would certainly a few things. |
The rest of the car ride went without incident, and Tess was soon climbing out of the bed of the truck as the rest piled out of the front. Everyone began to go their separate ways, but to Tess’s surprise, instead of staying in the truck to head back to the church, Marie got out with everyone else while Pastor Faust moved over to the driver’s seat.
Tess didn’t comment until her party was safely in Ellie’s car and on the way back home. “Why’s Marie staying?” She asked.
“She wanted to talk with Jacob now.” Ellie explained. “But what’s this about Aleksander?”
“Oh, right.” Tess said. “His family are ambassadors too, and they just let him know about everything. He’s freaking out and wants to talk to us, so I said we’d head over. Maven, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but if you do, I mentioned you might be there as well.”
“I am not doing anything else at the moment, so I see no reason not to come.” Maven said. “Unless you believe it would be easier if I was not present.”
“It’ll be fine.” Tess said. “He’s more likely to freak out about me than he is about you.”
“Very well then.” Maven replied.
“Where is he? I assume we’re meeting him in the Outlands, right?” Ellie asked.
“Yeah, there’s a door in his house that leads to the City. Not the guild building like ours does, but a house. He gave me the address and I told him we’d be there in forty minutes or so.”
“May I ask who this Aleksander is?” Maven asked as she got herself buckled up. “I have gathered that he is another one of the ambassadors to Mael, but perhaps I might recognize his last name?”
“Um…” Tess frowned, trying to think back and see if she remembered his last name. Like Aleksander had said, their families had lived on opposite ends of the continent, and they had only met up on a few occasions. He was kind of like one of those cousins you only met at family reunions, someone who she knew the name and face of, but didn’t really know well.
“I think it’s Aesal?” Ellie ventured. “I remember because I always thought it was a funny name when I was young.”
“Then I am afraid I do not recognize the name. I am sure his family has some sort of standing somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you what it is.”
| Death: I could tell you, but I’m worried it might be a little…insincere? That’s not the right word, but I feel like it’ll be a bit more comforting to him if he’s the one telling you about everything, instead of you already knowing. Fortune: There are some advantages to knowing, it makes them seem like they’re confident and in control, I think. Death: But that also makes them seem like they’re “in on it”? He wants to talk to people who are in the same boat as him, and they’re obviously not in the same boat as him anymore, but he doesn’t know that. Ellie: You guys talk about that and let me know what you decide later, I gotta get driving. |
Ellie got the car moving, once again taking it somewhat slow in town before slamming on the gas outside of it. As they drove, there was more discussion in the group chat before it was eventually decided to leave Tess and her party in the dark on what Aleksander’s family pedigree was; it wasn’t information that would change how they approached the situation, and having a more genuine reaction was deemed important in the situation.
They soon got back to Tess’s house, then made their way through the door in the house and back onto the streets of the City. Tess pulled up her GPS again, and set the destination before guiding the group on their way. It was, admittedly, slightly nerve-wracking for her; while she had learned to deal with people who were angry, she was still somewhat out of her depth when it came to being comforting, especially when she wasn’t sure exactly what the problem was. Still, being nervous about it wasn’t going to get her anywhere, so she did her best to put it out of her mind, and instead began to think about how exactly she was going to explain her transformation to Aleksander.
Fighterman481 This is something I've been meaning to get to for a long time, and now was as good a time as any to do it. For this, I have to thank Fate, because he is a rather convenient person to have around when I want to shorten the timescale.
I wanted to get into the conversation in this chapter, too, but I am apparently chronically over-talkative and ended up reaching the word limit before that, so...here we are.
That being said, next time we will get into that, so look forward to it!
And, as always, thanks for reading!
