Mordecai was not in a great mood at the moment. The silver-haired strahat had visited Kazue, Moriko, and Bridgette was uling and had left that iteed to set the bance of the world right. But instead of him doing that, the three women were walking into danger on his behalf, which he did not want any of them to do.

  Worse, at this point, no one knew what the danger was. The idea that it was 'festering', whatever that meant in this case, implied that one of his creations had gone even more awry that he could at for. On top of that, he'd felt obligated to remind Moriko that in the worst-case sario, Kazue's avatar could be recovered if she died, with Deidre being an example of how a dungeon could not retrieve a securely captured avatar.

  Moriko was not happy with him. Mordecai was fident that she uood the possible a purely practical level, but her emotional rea was also perfectly uandable. He wasly happy with himself either, but he'd be even more unhappy with himself if he didn't say anything and things went astray. Sometimes there were no great choices, only less bad options. He'd taken the immediately unpleasant choice that would probably be unneeded rather than risk an uable possibility.

  All of this he had to pack up a aside for the moment. It was time for a very importaing, and he awaited Baron Demidov in the office adjat to the feast hall, as did Kazue via her illusion, each seated behind a desk. Both rose to greet the baron wheered. "Wele, Baron," Mordecai said, "how did you enjoy your delve?"

  "Please, take a seat," Kazue added, "and if you like, rovide refreshments while we talk.

  "It was an iing experience," Emanuel Demidov responded as he accepted the offered seat, "and light refreshments would be wele, thank you." Social ies tinued for a short while until they had a small table at the baron's side with a tray of small snacks and some freshly brewed tea sweetened with honey and a small spsh of bourbon. More of everything waited at a side table should it be needed.

  "So," Demidov said, "while I will not cim that the delve has given me incredible insight into the two of you, it has given me some. For the path you suggested, there is a certain theme of fun and games, which I suspect is mostly the influence of Lady Kazue. I admit, I struggled some with this. Participating in games like this is not something I have done mu quite a while, and the circumstances do not particurly ence that sort of mood. Still, it behooved me to tackle the challenges with siy."

  He took a moment to sip his tea, closing his eyes as he savored the taste. "There are lessons being taught, lessons that I do appreciate. Patiehoughtfulness, humility, a willio learn and to persevere. There was alsmatism, letting people pay their way through some of the more time-ing aspects while still providing a challehe baron smiled at a memory. "I also get the feeling that your s witch had some sort of restri pced on the challenges she could give. She seemed displeased about the choice of challenges she could provide me and my group."

  Baron Demidov was corre that assessment. Kazue and Mordecai had restricted Carmil from the extremes of her options; she was not allowed to seduce the baron or his party, nor was she allowed to indulge in the dirtiest or most humiliating possible challenges. "Yes," Kazue replied, "Carmil be a bit temperamental and willful, and we felt it best to ehat there were no diplomatic issues."

  "I see," the baron said. "I appreciate that. Now, that covers the prelude I believe. So to business: what do you want of me."

  Mordeodded and said, "Correct. What we want is simple in its nature, if not its execution. Iheme of a life for a life; a freedom for a freedom. The price of your son's freedom is the freedom of the duhat the Puritasi have ensved." He waited a beat before adding, "However, I do not expect you and yours to plete this task yourselves. In fact, I think we will o cooperate to make this a reality. But your son's freedom does rely on the result, not the attempt. Should the dungeon not survive with her mental faculties intact retive to her curreal state, then your son will live out his life as our prisoner."

  her Kazue nor Moriko had been happy about that dition, but he had vihem to agree to that absoluteness. It was ruthless in a way, but it was the best guarahey had that the baron's efforts would be as perfect as possible.

  Baron Demidov stared thoughtfully at Mordecai for a long moment before saying, "Clever, and perhaps devious, but I see why you would not be trusting. But I must ask, presuming that you are correct about this dungeoence, why you said 'she'?"

  "I believe I mentioned anuest who delved that path in order to know us better. She has chosen to use the name Deidre." And that was a cue.

  "Hello, Baron," came a new voice. The curtained alcove that covered the passage used to deliver the refreshments had also been used for Deidre to listen in to the versatioaining to her future, and she now made her entrance. She passed behind the desks and took a seat off to the side, fag the baron. That simple a pced her squarely on the dungeon's side of this iation. "It's been a long time since I saw you in my territory." She gnced over to Mordecai briefly. "I am willing to aowledge that he has always been at least professional, as far as I recall."

  Mordecai smiled slightly. "She was forced to participate in the most ret attack. While it was not a pleasant process, we did mao take her prisoner and we have treated her as kindly as the situation allows. While Deidre's restris limit what be learned, she has been spending a lot of time with some of our people, and there have been many versations. There is a lot one learn if one knows how to listen."

  Baron Demidov was visibly surprised, though he did recover himself quickly. "Well, that is ... iing. It certainly makes deniability a moot point." He covered taking the time to think by eating one of the small snacks. "I think I should hat uhe right circumstances, svery is legal in Trionea."

  "Perhaps," Mordecai replied, "but the w of your ws also makes it impossible for a duo be held as a sve legally."

  The baron frowned and asked, "How so?"

  "Do you know what is involved in the e of a dungeon's core? No? Allow me to expihe most extreme ends of your ws still limit magic to pg restris on some as and enabling punishments for disobedience." Mordecai's calm facade cracked as the heat of his anger crept into his words. "A dungeon's avatar could be bound by such things, but the core ot. The only way to truly trol a dungeon is through dired tinual dominance over the core's mind. Her free will has been abrogated and her mind and soul tinually vioted by this trol, and through her, all the inhabitants of her dungeon have been ensved simply by the nature of the retionship."

  It was a struggle to not shout as he tinued, his voice tight from maintaining that trol. "The Primogens may, teically, allow for physical svery, though you will find almost any priest to be opposed to it. But svery through mental domination is clearly aedly beled as bsphemy and a true sin." A sneer slipped into Mordecai's voice then. "Though I do hat Dormire does not seem to have mentio in any of his texts."

  There was a heavy silence while Baron Demidov processed this informatioal domination was not pletely forbidden, it had uses for situations like taking prisoners before they could be physically restrained, but there were strict limitations on its usage. What Mordecai had doh the mad wolf monster was an example of using it as an aercy, bringing a peaceful end to a creature that could not be allowed to live freely. A certain amount of mental influence was also allowable and was reflected iure of some creatures. But the bonds of loyalty to a dungeon were not absolute and could be broken if pushed, and a faerie could work around its restris on speaking the truth. True, tinual domination of another's will was another matter entirely.

  "That is troubling," the baron finally aowledged, "and even before this meeting, I had been growing somewhat dissatisfied with the empire's retionship with the Puritasi. But I am not in a position to uniterally break that retionship."

  "True," Mordecai allowed, "but you take wbreakers as prisoners, no matter what the official position of their anization. Allow me to expin what we have in mind. Step one is that you attempt to take Dimitri Igorek as a prisoner while simultaneously taking trol of the pound and isoting the dungeon. Should you succeed, all his personal effects should be secured to await for when I am free to travel there. I will need only oem from his possessions and once I have it, my team and I will then proceed into the duo establish unication and ease the transition to her freedom."

  He khat the item he needed was a ring, that had been easy to uncover. He'd simply asked Deidre if there was any type of jewelry or accessory she particurly disliked. After giving him a long look she'd replied that she found rings to be about as distasteful as colrs. Mordecai had then promised that he would avoid both of those for any prizes ifts she received from the dungeon, but they both knew what the question had really been about.

  "I will note here that aid with the transition will be he bindings have forced her to hold on to far more mana than a dungeon should be able to tain without growing. No one wants that going wild."

  Demidov nodded and asked, "What do you want doh Dimitri?"

  "Strangely, I find that I do not care much so long as his ability to attack me and mine is removed," Mordecai replied. "His personal life is too far down my priority list to spend muergy with. However, others may have differing opinions, even if they are not currently free to express them." He gestured to Deidre before tinuing, "You may want to do your best to ehat no one will have any reason to pin."

  "And should we not succeed in capturing him?"

  "That is the possibility I am spending a fair amount of effort preparing for. Should yes not be able to block him, I believe he has a tingen pce that will bring him to the heart of Deidre's dungeon. At that point, you simply want to keep the dungeon isoted with heavy fortifications. The surplus of mana should keep the dungeohy for a very long time, but I do not know what Dimitri will try to do. Yoal here is entirely defensive, and to not allow anyone or anything to be brought into the dungeon's territory. And this is when I begin training on how to raid a dungeon correctly." Mordecai gave the baron a smile that showed teeth. "And plete isotion is part of the methodology. A dungeon with exterior support is nearly impossible to raid without overwhelming force. Done correctly, we minimize causalities."

  The baron frowhoughtfully for a few moments. "This is going to be politically difficult. What will the training involve?"

  "A moment please. The versation so far is uo cause any leaks to Deidre's core that she be forced into revealing before as have been taken. Once Dimitri is on guard and questioning the core, any vague information from across the spiritual link might be advantageous to him. Deidre?"

  She sighed and rose before saying, "I uand, but I wish I could participate in this. I am pg a lot of trust in all of you." Deidre paused and looked at the Baron. "The trust does end to you directly. I am trusting their ability to make this happen. I do not reend opposing their pns." And with that, she left.

  "I am going to go as well," Kazue said. "Battle pnning is Mordecai's forte, not mine, and my focus is better used elsewhere. Baron." She o him before dismissing her illusion. She had mostly made herself present to ensure a message of solidarity and to be a polite host by meeting with their guest again briefly. Kazue already knew what Mordecai intended, and she did not feel like hearing it discussed again.

  Once he was sure that Deidre was out of hearing range, Mordecai tinued. "The first part is that you send teams of ten to delve our retly opehird path. I assume you have heard about our limited ability to prevehs?" Mordecai asked.

  "Yes," Demidov replied.

  "The design of our third path makes it signifitly more dangerous. We will be letting teams of teer, but only if every member of the team is protected by our boon. If anyone has been saved by our boon within the past year, they ot delve this path. Your people will be uhe same restri. Here I will train your soldiers to be the type of squads needed for this sort of extended close-quarters bat. Once we have enough teams with the correct training, the stage is to have the teams train with each other. Every team o be able to tell what any other team hem is doing, and to trust each team to take care of their part of the mission."

  Mordecai stood up to hand the baron a scroll with a rough schedule spanning well into the spring of the year, with notations for possible extensions. "Ideally, we will be training thousands of your people here. Those who fall ond o be saved by our boon will be anized into groups for safer training aually sent back to begin training more of your troops. The broad shape of the pn is that the teams will be able to coordinate in overpping waves and the entire dungeon will be occupied room by room and floor by floor. Normal military training is insuffit, the dungeon will be able to respawn its inhabitants every six hiven that I have uood Deidre's hints correctly. Not only will they have to be prepared for that, but a dungeon hold back a revival. So the teams will have to be able to maintain the correct levels of alertness for long periods on a rotating schedule."

  He sat down and leaned forward, pg his elbows oable. "This is going to provide the dungeon a lot of mana, especially for the days it will probably take to force our path to the core. But it will also limit what the dungeon do. And the final part could be very dangerous without the proper practice. Once we have secured the core, your soldiers o begin evacuating in an anized manner. We will he freedom to spend the excess mana properly, and the presence of so many people will be problematic."

  Baron Demidov sidered the rough pns before saying, "The expense of sending this many soldiers for fn training alos this beyond my authority, at least, without approval."

  "Oh, but Baron, you fet something. This is a dungeon, and they will be spendieime and effort here. There is no reason that all of your soldiers who do well shouldn't leave here with mithral ons and armor." Mordecai would be more ed about providing ons like these to a less-than-friendly nation were it not for his iion to provide Kuic with eveer ones. He'd always rewarded just enough special materials ao keep hope alive and filled the remainder of rewards with valuables that did not have such strategic potential. Now he was in an alliah a nation ruled by his own desdants, and to whom both of his wives held personal allegiahe Azeria Mountain Dungeon was absolutely taking sides.

  "That does ge things, signifitly," the baron replied. "But that will still take approval, lest the empire feel ed about rebellion. I will promise to keep unications open and to do my best to take Dimitri Igorek prisoner. Beyond that, I guarahing." He rolled the scroll back up and rose from his seat. "I think that this is as far as we go for now. I should like to see my son."

  "Of course," Mordecai replied as he rose as well, "and you may take as much time with Antoine as you like. No matter what happens, I will always allow family to visit him."

  Zagaroth