Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 86: Warning the Right People

Shortly after Ambassador Lagurith and Ralnor had left, Queen Enania had let the Ambassadors take a 15 minute break, so they could inform their respective nations of the mind controlling cult, and how it contained members of every sapient species.

Unlike Lagurith, they had all waited for the Queen to excuse them.

Before the Ambassadors were set to return, Advisor Acacia's emco once again began blinking a vibrant purple, though this time from its center position in front of the elven Queen of Alfamér. And while Advisor Acacia was still in the room and had been given the right hand seat, Enania had taken command of the emco in question and was the one to reach her hand out to accept the call.

"The cult's goal is to fix their broken goddess and they believe all the world's Dungeon Cores are the many pieces scattered of the goddess, that Dungeons are 'keeping imprisoned'." Enania could hear the disbelief in the voice of Advisor Acacia's youngest daughter even through the emco. "And with how hard it is for high tier people to gain permission to even enter The Royal Dungeon, the cult got the idea to Brainwash the Crown and have her collect its Core for them. Only for them to realize that the Queen never allows her in the Dungeon without being guarded by the Queen's own Guards. Whom they can't get alone to mind control!"

The young dungeon mistress paused for a moment before continuing. "We don't know whether they can't mind control people unless they're alone with them, or if it's more of a 'it's too obvious I'm doing something, so I won't even try unless we're alone'. The only guy here who knew turned out to be… untrustworthy and was promptly executed."

A gasp came from Advisor Acacia at that and her face turned pale and horrified. Enania immediately knew why her Advisor had such an extreme reaction to the news.

Enania would likely have reacted similarly if it had been her own daughter stating she had to have a person executed.

"Nonetheless, the cult then decided to play the long game by waiting till the Princess takes the crown before having her grab the Core for them."

No one spoke for a moment as they took in all the new information.

"Any questions or messages you want me to relay?" Advisor Acacia's daughter asked, breaking the silence.

"Can you keep Our heir safe for Us, as We arrange for her return home?" Enania enquired.

"Who is this?" The young dungeon mistress questioned. A question which had the Queen smirking slightly in humor, as she had never before heard it aimed at herself.

Advisor Acacia didn't take it with the same humor, however. "It's your Queen!" She snapped. "Show her the respect she deserves!"

"..." A quiet gulp could be heard by a keen ear before the elf on the other side of the emco started talking again. "My apologies, my Queen! I will do anything in my power to keep the Crown Princess safe! We don't expect the cult to be able to react to the events of today before at least a month has passed, so having her highness stay with us for a while should cause no problems, my Queen! And even if the cult somehow manages to attack before that, we can simply ask The Dungeon of Karma for sanctuary, and they'll be freed of their mind control before they reach us!"

Enania raised an eyebrow at that. "What do you mean when you say you'll ask the Dungeon for sanctuary?"

"Uh… right… So… Parts of this I can't tell you- it's not that I don't want to, I can't tell you, or anyone for that matter," the dungeon mistress was quick to emphasize her inability to speak of some of it. "I have spoken to the local high priest and we have come to the conclusion that… My Queen, I don't know if you're aware, but The Dungeon of Karma is much more unusual than fate would allow, so Fader Ginkgo and I have come to the conclusion that the Dungeon has been blessed by the holy System to be able to do things that normal Dungeons can't. We can send you a report on how we reached this conclusion, but we are quite certain of it!"

Enania raised an eyebrow at that as she concluded she would indeed like a report on this Dungeon. If nothing else to hear more about its ability to undo mind control. "We look forward to reading it and everything else you have on the Dungeon."

"Of course, my Queen!" The dungeon mistress immediately agreed. "So, the Dungeon of Karma has been blessed by the System, which makes it better at killing sinners and only sinners. It doesn't do any harm to anyone else. And as every mind controlled member of the cult is considered a sinner while they are mind controlled, the Dungeon will do us no harm while it does all it can to kill the cultists. Which it is really good at despite its age and size. I mean it almost took out-" She cut herself off, but the Queen knew what she had been about to say.

"But of course as soon as the mind control was over it freely let her go!" She quickly reassured the Queen. "As I say; it doesn't harm good people!"

"Mmhmm." Enania found the younger elf's panic slightly amusing.

"Or we could just fill out the second Floor and block them out of the Dungeon and away from the Crown Princess till reinforcements come to get her…" The dungeon mistress mumbled in embarrassment over her outburst.

"Yes, perhaps you should do that instead." The Queen replied, before asking confused: "Why the second Floor?"

"The anti mind control only works if the cultists are inside the Dungeon, and if we're waiting for reinforcement anyway we might as well be working on undoing any Brainwashing going on, right? ... Your majesty." The last part was clearly the young elf reminding herself that she was speaking to her Queen and that she needed to be respectful.

Enania didn't mind the more casual way of speaking the dungeon mistress sometimes slipped into. She was keeping her heir safe when the Queen couldn't do it herself, after all.

A knock could be heard from the door to the meeting room as the now returned Ambassadors requested reentry.

They would have to wait just a moment longer.

"Very well. The life of Our heir is in your hands. Keep her safe."

"Of course, my Queen!"

"We have one last thing to ask."

"Yes! Of course, my Queen!"

"Your mother seems to have neglected to tell me your name. Might you correct her mistake?" Advisor Acacia turned pale once again as her mistake was pointed out, but she knew better than to answer a question directed at another.

"Sarzina Acacia, my Queen!" There was a clear hint of bragging in her voice, though the Queen didn't know what she might be bragging about.

"Very well, mistress Sarzina Acacia. Do have your reports ready for Our heir to take back with her."

"Of course, my Queen!"

And with that, Enania disconnected the call and signaled her Guards to let the Ambassadors in.

That was when the Queen heard Shadow's voice updating her ruler on her newest mission: "Ambassador Lagurith is indeed a spy for a cult as you suspected, my Queen. As I was investigating the possibility I overheard him ordering a plan initiated immediately as and I quote 'the heathens have found the Phoenix Seed' end quote. He gave no indication on what the plan entailed. However, he referred to himself as 'Cardinal Lagurith', so it seems safe to assume he is highly ranked in their organization and that whatever plan was initiated is a credible threat. I have already warned the leaders of the usual targets of a possible terrorist attack."

With Shadow's immensely powerful - and hard to achieve - Ability preventing others from overhearing conversations with Shadow they weren't themselves a part of was what allowed the Queen - and only the Queen - to hear this report. For when Shadow had become the Spymaster, Enania had ordered an artifact build to accompany Shadow's Ability. Shadow would activate the artifact and speak into it while thinking of who the message was for.

If anyone else used the artifact, everyone in the Queendom would hear the message as if the speaker was right next to them. The artifact didn't have any form of control of who received the message, instead everyone did.

It was vastly different from an emco as the receiver didn't have to have one on them themselves, making it much harder to make and no one had figured out how to make it give the message spoken to specific people, instead of everyone in its radius.

Making it a largely useless tool for everyone but Shadow.

Of course there was in theory the slight possibility that someone in the Queendom had achieved the counter Ability - letting them overhear every conversation they wanted - but the odds for that were sufficiently small that the possibility was generally discounted.

It was obvious to Enania - who simply had more of the puzzle pieces than Shadow, so she didn't fault her Spymaster for not realizing - that the plan Lagurith had initiated was about taking the Core of the Royal Dungeon. And while the Captain of the Dungeon Guard was certainly one of the people Shadow gave a terror warning to, Enania would much prefer it if they received a more detailed warning.

And perhaps some back-up. We don't know how large the cult is, nor how powerful their members are.

Ignoring the Ambassadors who had sat back in their previous chairs for now, the Queen once again pulled out her full moon fan. This time she opened it once for only a couple of seconds, just enough time for her Party to see which fan she had picked. Once folded again, Enania 'thoughtfully' tapped the end of the fan against her right earring, one with a big ruby as its centerpiece. What earring it was didn't matter, however, it was the placement of the tap which did. It referred to Shadow and how her own right earring would announce her Queen's need of her.

'The message to come is spy related and has to do with Shadow', the secret message said. Enania trusted her Party to realize she had heard back from Shadow and was acting on her information.

"Advisor Acacia, please allow Dame Picea to escort you to the Dungeon Guild and inform them of the cult's desire to remove Dungeon Cores from their Dungeon. And the Portal Guards on duty as well. They might want to increase security till this has been dealt with."

"Of course, my Queen!"

With that, it was time to resume the original meeting.

Hopefully we can finish the meeting before 'the mana has refilled for another shot' as they say.

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"Chief Nerok?" The kobold acting as my mouth caught the old ursakin's attention. "The Great Mother wishes to speak with you at your earliest convenience."

Chief Nerok had been in the middle of conversation - the kobold knew it was being rude and didn't seem to care - which he quickly excused himself from.

With the Crown Princess having seen them, my 'dungeon mistress' having recognized beastkin as sapients and made it illegal for them to be enslaved, as well as all the good will the elven Queen now had aimed in my direction - via the Lightning Mage as the Queen didn't yet know of my sapiency -, I felt it was time for the Tribe to come forward and claim their place in the still developing Dungeon Town.

I knew it would take some convincing; the Tribe was still wary toward elves. Though at least they didn't hate elves based on bias anymore; my puzzles and general theme had successfully convinced them not to judge a person on their species.

On that account too, it felt like it was time.

And I was fully prepared to argue for it! I wasn't going to force them to leave or anything. But I wasn't against using their emotions against them by reminding them of the feeling of a cool breeze, the sun against their skin, and, most importantly, actually being free to come at go as you wish.

And I certainly wasn't about to remind them we had only just entered the second month of winter. The seasons couldn't affect the temperature of my Dungeon as it was its own dimension. And with my part volcanic theme I was sure the Tribe had forgotten how cold the Surface World was at the moment.

Not that the heat was anywhere near that of an actual volcano. However, it was still possible to feel the temperature difference between my cool, but not cold, forest rooms and my warm, but not hot, volcanic rooms.

My emotional pressure was completely unneeded though.

I should have seen that coming a mile away!

Their god had given them the order to pack their things and move out. So, of course Nerok would agree immediately, no questions asked. If I thought it was for the best, then it was for the best! It was as simple as that.

I had to have the kobold call him back before he could announce the move to the Tribe and have them all start packing immediately.

We need to plan it first! I wanted to have the approval and support of the Lightning Mage if at all possible, which included sending her a warning before the Tribe moved back out. And I got the feeling that giving the Tribe some rules for how to act around elves would help them immensely. 'My god said to play nice, so I should' was a perfectly good mentality, but I thought it was prudent to include a couple of 'unless they do this' to it, alongside a couple of reasonable reactions to rude elves.