“There’s only so much fear a person can have. When I started to remember being a core, and the dungeon I’d built…Well, I haven’t known fear for a long time now.”
“Then you won't be scared to find your way out,” said Tomlin. “Go, girl. Tomlin and Dark Lord are busy.”
“Do you always let your kobolds talk for you, Dark Lord?” she asked. I couldn’t help but laugh at her sarcasm. Dark lord really was a crummy name.
“I…uh…run my dungeon a little differently to others.”
“Whistling is allowed in Dark Lord’s dungeon,” said Tomlin.
“Is this true?”
“Yes. Whistling, and singing, to a certain extent.”
“I should have sensed the greenness on you from miles away,” said Vedetta. “You’re a graduate, aren’t you?”
“First dungeon. Already had an evaluation, from which I earned perfect marks.”
“Yes, I can tell you’re as green as they come. You’ve made the kobold a mining specialist, haven’t you? Psh. Kobolds make terrible miners. He’s done an awful job making this room.”
“Yes, he…uh…did a poor job in excavating this room. This is awful, Tomlin. Absolutely awful.”
The kobold looked at me, hurt. “Tomlin didn’t-”
“Hush!” I said, in my most commanding voice. “Do you make a habit of interrupting your dark lord?”
“Tomlin didn’t-” he began.
Vedetta shook her head now. She saw straight through me. Tomlin looked upset, and I felt bad.
“Fine. What a pair you are,” I said. “Tomlin didn’t do the crappy digging, okay? I carved out most of the dungeon myself, and Tomlin only dug the tunnel ahead. Tomlin did a fine job.”
“A core should always be honest with himself,” said the girl.
Tomlin smiled at her now, and I got the feeling that I wouldn’t have an easy life if the two of them got friendlier. I was the core around here, damn it! If anyone was going to rebuke anyone, it’d be me. This was my rebukedom.
And I was being an ass.
As soon as I had the diva-ish thoughts, I knew what an ass I was being. As well as that, I had things to do.
“Well, Vedetta,” I said. “It was nice to meet you. But despite your past lives, you are a human girl in this instant, and you still meet the technicalities of being a hero. I’m sure you know that I’m duty-bound to try and kill you, unless you run for your life.”
“The old evaluation thing, huh? Those overseers, listening in to everything and all that crap.”
“Annoying, right? Still, you’ll need to at least pretend to flee here, preferably screaming.”
“Or, there’s another way,” said Vedetta.
“Hmm?”
“I remember back to my first dungeon. That horrible evaluation period when at least 75% of cores get scrapped and ground to dust. It’d be nice to feel like that wasn’t a risk for you, wouldn’t it?”
“What are you saying, child?”
“Perhaps it would be helpful for you to have an adviser. One who was such a great core in one life, that she ascended. One who could even procure things from the surface, things you could use in your dungeon.”
Ah. She was onto something here. Every successful core needed to find him or herself a surface liaison. I just never expected an eleven-year-old, former core girl to be mine.
“I’d have thought you would have spent enough time in dark, horrible pits. Why not enjoy a life on the surface?”
“Because somewhere down here, core, somewhere underground, there is a resource I need. One that the alchemist says could cure my mom’s illness. Despite how much I changed when I learned about my past, despite how much learning this has aged me, she is still my mom.”
This was so, so strange. When she talked about her mother, she sounded like a kid again. Just a normal, nice little girl. When she talked about core stuff, you’d swear she was hundreds of years old.
I thought about what she said. She was right about the core-failure rate during the evaluation season. She was right that it would be incredibly useful to have her around. What’s more, I was the kind of guy who would take any advantage he could get.
But there was a problem.
“We’ll have to come up with a way of getting the overseers to accept this arrangement,” I said. “Having a fellow core advising me is against the rules. So is allowing a human free reign in the dungeon.”
“Quite a conundrum.”
“Here’s the deal,” I told her. “I’d be grateful to get your advice, and as such I will accept your proposal. You can dig in parts of the dungeon to find the materials you need. You’ll have to tell me what you’re looking for, and we will need to agree where exactly you can dig. I won’t compromise the structural integrity of my dungeon. Actually, Tomlin will do the digging, but only when I can spare him.”
“Structural integrity….ha. Fine, Core.”
“Secondly, you will have to flee from my dungeon, screaming in terror, in precisely five minutes. Thus satisfying my requirement on hero protocol. Tomlin here will chase you and pretend to be a territorial kobold.”
“I’m sure I can act that way.”
“Finally, how did you even get down here?”
“I have been digging in a spot marked by the witch, getting further and further into the ground. I have made my own series of tunnels. Today I dug through a wall and then fell straight through it and into your dungeon.”
“So there’s a direct means of entry into my dungeon now. Hmm. I am going to place a locked door on the hole you made coming in here. You will only visit the dungeon once every week, during which time I will update you on mining progress, and in return, you will answer my questions.”
Vedetta stared at me like she wanted to shatter me with her eyes. Let me tell you,
