Even as I boarded the bus, the small thread of energy persisted to the dungeon. It felt nearly the sa as the one connecting to the cores. Would it actually stay attached when we returned ho? If it did, that ant we would need to keep greater tabs on this dungeon sohow.
I didn’t like the idea of splitting our resources, and would have preferred letting the governnt watch it. But if it was attached to , there was just no way I couldn’t make sure it was protected. I sighed as the bus door closed behind , almost glad to see my life continue to spawn new problem after problem. At least it ant nothing had really changed in the great sche of things.
“Connie, what was that thing?” I asked, my nerves finally starting to settle.
“Not really sure. Gramps calls them outsiders on account of their not coming from normal space. The origin of the Stellar Opera ca from him encountering one of these things, and as he tells it, a mont of brilliance in how to fight them, but I tend to think it had more to do with desperation.” Her voice broke several tis as she answered. That was more fear than I’d ever heard from her. She had faced the Arena with total confidence so far. This didn’t bode well as a new problem.
“It’s my fault it managed to break in at all. Well, most recently my fault. There’s a very long string of events where the fault doesn’t begin with , but today I suppose I’ll take the bla,” a new voice joined the conversation. Karlinovo spoke fast, but every word was perfectly articulated in a deep voice.
“What happened in there? Why were the penguins dancing?” I asked the man. This almost felt like a first eting, but considering we had been talking for months in my mind, I knew it wasn’t. It was just strange to see him as a real physical being now.
“Distraction mostly. At the sa ti, I sent you that ssage that the dungeon core had noticed , but it was for an entirely different reason than I realized; it didn’t want to enthrall . Right behind my form being pulled into this world ca that outsider. Oh, and Trelione might be claiming to have nad the monsters these days, but he didn’t. He also isn’t entirely lying about the inspired act of the Stellar Opera. These things are captivated by certain lodies. The rhythmic dance of the penguins worked well enough, but it took all of my and the core’s focus to even keep that up. I’m surprised it was so willing to work with ,” Karlinovo explained. The whole ti he spoke, he kept running his hand through a ssy black beard, entirely failing to straight it.
“Wait, you know Gramps?” Connie asked, her voice instantly shifting from fear to interest.
“Know is a strong word. Dave, correct if I’m wrong, as I’m still trying to adjust to the idea of a physical form again, not to ntion one that only has two arms. But did you take control of the dungeon from the core?” Karlinovo asked.
“I did, at least I think I did. Let’s table that conversation until we are back. I want to know a lot more about what happened, but I want to have that conversation with a few more people. Is the new dungeon core safe to travel in that penguin form?” I asked. I honestly had thought dungeon cores couldn’t leave a dungeon inside a captured form like that.
“I think I am fine,” a small, chirpy voice replied from the penguin.
“Good enough for now. Timon, let’s get us ho and we can discuss everything there,” I said, taking a seat and focusing on the line connecting to the dungeon. I wanted to watch for any changes as we moved across the world.
>Dave: Corey, can you still see the mana thread to the dungeon?
>Corey: Yes, surprisingly, the ambient mana draw is not increasing the further we get from it.
>Karlinovo: Good, this still works. Yes, I suspect that the dungeon will just be less efficient at generating mana the further distant you are. But we will need to deeply examine your connection to it. Unless much has changed since my untily death, this is sothing new.
>Maud: Yay, you saved him! :)
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I closed the chat window as a strange feeling played in my mind. The idea of having Karlinovo alive and with us was sothing of incalculable value. But I suspected this ant I would be sharing my workshop now. I knew it was for the best, but a slight tinge of disappointnt ran through anyway. Considering I had already planned to share it with Gamma, it wasn’t that big of a deal, but still, I’d have to make sure in the future we each had our own private areas.
Lost in my own thoughts and worry for the future, I barely noticed the return trip. The sparse conversations likely ant a bus full of people with thoughts similar to my own. What did Karlinovo’s appearance really an for us? And most of these people were far more familiar with the Spiral and his work than I was.
l was waiting for us outside the bus the mont we landed, a scowl mixed with a look of astonishnt on his face. “What the hell is he? So kind of mana beast turned human? Ain’t a dungeon core in there as far as I can tell either, but that thing has one. The hell were y’all up ta?” he said.
“Let’s talk in the hall. Our communications should be as secure there as they are in the bus now,” Pryte said, trying to shut up any outside talk.
“Beta, Gamma, can you go find Grant, Maud, Glorp, and Sanquar? I want them all here for this eting,” I said, instructing the cores, who flew off in their respective tools without a word. We continued the walk to the hall in silence, l apparently having understood the need for it.
“Soone explain before I have a hemorrhage!” l yelled the mont the doors were closed to the hall.
“I am Karlinovo, apparently my fa precedes itself still. Thanks to the connection my soul ford with Dave, I live again. I believe it is in the best interest of all of us to keep that revelation as quiet as we possibly can. Soone once worked very hard to kill , and I’d rather keep that from happening again anyti soon,” Karlinovo answered, as he lounged in one of the cushioned chairs near a corner.
The door opened again as the others entered. “So you all know how problems like to compound themselves? Well, possibly for the first ti, we have a problem that’s value far outweighs the new problems it creates,” I said, waving my hand to the burly man still fiddling with his beard.
“Oh, yes, hi again. I’m Karlinovo for those who don’t know . Which I think is all of you, other than Maud. Interesting to see your form is near identical to when you sleep. Dave, for so reason, is much more balding,” Karlinovo said, without moving from his seat. I choose to ignore the comnt on how I still pictured myself.
“Really, we’ve t before, haven’t we?” Sanquar said, walking over to the man, examining him closely. “Though I believe you used to have several more arms. What species were you then?” Sanquar asked.
“Yeah, and you weren’t this bird form then either, so how about we keep the insults to ourselves,” Karlinovo said, and then burst out laughing. “No, no, you’re right, my mutations seed to have vanished with my death. Honestly, good to see you again, not that we interacted much in my past life, but resurrection has a way of making you appreciate any old connection.”
“Pick a new na, Karlinovo!” Connie yelled suddenly, surprising . I hadn’t expected her, of all people, to care that much about keeping him secret. I had had the idea as well, and I was sure Pryte was going to get there, but why was she up in arms about it?
“I’m not entirely sure why Connie is so worked up about it, but yes. You do need a new na. The na Karlinovo is never to be spoken outside this room. Grant, that includes when you tell your superiors we have a new resource. I’m okay with them knowing about him, but they need to be inford here, in a much smaller need-to-know group situation,” Pryte ordered.
“Understood. The president already expected sothing with a classified type of information to co up, and we have a protocol planned for just such a mont. I will use that,” he said, nodding at Pryte.
“Huh, a new na. What na fits soone who looks like on this world?” the man in question asked, looking thoughtful.
“You look like an Ivan to ,” Maud answered. She wasn’t entirely wrong. He did have the look of an older Russian man going.
“Ivan, it is! Now for much more important things. What are we going to do with Dave’s dungeon that an outsider has already attempted to breach?” He asked.
“What’d ya an exactly by Dave’s dungeon?” l asked, his glare returning to .
“Oh, that was my fault! I accidentally let the weird monster in when I was trying to figure out what he was. I was very lonely and I could hear his voice, so I thought, why not give him a body, and then we could be friends!” the penguin said, pointing to Karlinovo.
“Yes, what an odd dungeon core as well. None of the usual madness you would expect from one. In fact, quite on the ball as far as understanding the world goes,” Karlinovo replied.
“Dave, I am going to have Traveler join us. We will need their opinion on this developnt,” Corey said, manifesting near .
“Good idea, go grab them,” I replied. This new dungeon core was vastly different than the other four as far as I could tell, and the fact that I now owned their dungeon was sothing I needed a more experienced voice to speak on.
I have seen sothing today that has made question all I know. I suppose it is my own fault for thinking I ever truly had a grip on the things that lurk in the eternal dark, but this ti chaotic space has thrown even my sanity into question. It was not the monsters that broke , no, despite their unfathomable appearances, it was what they were guarding. I believe I have found the gates to sothing beyond all we know, and I feel drawn to sohow find the way to pass through them.
Voyages of Chaos by Captain Squidlen
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