A Demon's Core

What Igneous has managed to bring back is concerning, to say the least. It is splayed out on the floor in front of my chair, Igneous and Rose standing over it and a few other imps gathered around out of curiosity. The creature itself is not the problem, though it is interesting, like a tiny dragon or something similar. I do wonder, briefly, if dragons are actually real; perhaps I will ask William what he knows of them later. What I need to worry about now is what the creature is wearing. It is clearly a fitted harness and what is attached to the harness is a small black box with a few circles that appear to be made of glass. I cannot imagine it as being anything other than a camera of some sort.

You found this flying over the city?

Igneous nods in response.

Was this the only one you saw?

He nods again.

“What is it? Is this a problem?” Rose asks.

I do not know about the creature, but the device on its harness is a camera, used for taking pictures and possibly recording video. It is definitely a problem, but how much depends on who sent it and what their objective is. Do you recognise the creature?

“No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before,” Rose says and looks to Igneous questioningly, and he shakes his head.

“What should we do?” She asks.

I think our best course of action would be to call William.

“What if the humans were the ones to send this thing?”

I cannot say it is impossible, but it seems unlikely. If the humans wanted to scout the area, I am sure they would be more straightforward about it.

After considering that for a moment, she nods and walks over to the desk with the radio. She climbs up onto the chair in front of it and plugs the microphone in. She hesitates before speaking into it and frowns.

“Do you think this qualifies as an emergency?” She questions and I have to think about that before I answer.

Probably. If the humans did not send it, then that means it was the vak. In that case, I am sure the humans would want to know about this as soon as possible.

“That makes sense,” she tunes the radio to the emergency frequency that William explained, then pauses. “What should I say?”

I suppose you should start by saying you need to speak to William Blake.

She holds down the button to activate the microphone and speaks into it.

“I need to speak to William Blake.”

“Sorry, could you please repeat that? Over,” a male voice responds from the radio’s speaker and I translate for Rose.

“I need to speak with William Blake,” Rose repeats.

“Am I saying that right?” She inquires, looking over to where I am beside her.

Yes. That is correct.

“Who’s speaking? Over,” the man’s voice requests.

“Am I supposed to be saying ‘over’ every time?”

I do not know, I think it is just something they say to indicate that they are finished talking. And you should tell them that it is Magentam speaking.

Turning back to the radio, she activates the microphone again.

“It’s Magentam…Over.”

“Please wait a moment,” the man says, then is quiet for a couple of minutes. “I’ve contacted William, he’s on his way. Over.”

“Can eat this?” One of the other imps asks after several minutes of waiting, pointing at the winged creature still on the floor.

“Not yet. We might still need it,” replies Rose.

“Just little bit?” The other imp pleads.

“No. If you’re hungry, you’ll have to go out and find something else. We can’t eat this yet,” Rose insists.

While dissatisfied, none of the gathered imps argue any further and they make their way out of the room, leaving only Rose and Igneous here with me. Eventually a new voice speaks out over the radio.

“Hey, this is William. Sorry I took so long, you caught me at kind of a bad time. What’s the emergency?”

“He didn’t say ‘over’,” Rose observes.

Perhaps it is just normal radio procedure for his organisation, but he doesn’t feel the need to do it with us because we’re not part of it.

I instruct Rose on how to respond and she relays the words slowly and carefully to pronounce each word as accurately as she can.

“We found a flying lizard with a camera attached to a harness,” she says.

There is a pause before William speaks again.

“That’s not Magentam’s voice. Who am I actually speaking to?” He asks.

Rose frowns, unsure of what to say, but I let her know that she might as just tell him. It will not really matter that much anyway.

“It’s Rose,” she states.

“Is there a reason why Magentam isn’t the one speaking?” William queries.

Just tell him there is, but do not elaborate further.

“Yes,” Rose relays and does not offer anything more. The silence drags on for a while before William replies.

“Right, and you’re not going to tell me those reasons, of course. Well, that doesn’t matter. Did you manage to catch the flying lizard?”

“Yes. It’s dead now,” Rose confirms.

“Is the camera still intact?” William inquires with a hopeful tone.

“The camera is undamaged,” she assures him.

“Excellent, that’ll be helpful. We need to see what’s on it. I’m coming to you. I’ll be there soon. Over and out.”

It is roughly an hour later when William finally arrives with Cassandra and another man I do not know in tow. The unknown man is carrying a rectangular bag that he places on the table in the meeting room. I ask Igneous to bring the creature down as the man opens the bag, extracting and unfolding a computer.

“So where’s this camera?” He asks.

It is on the way. I say to William and am amused to see him flinch. I am not the only one amused though as I see Cassandra is also wearing a smirk.

“It’s coming, apparently,” William informs the other man.

The man’s eyes go wide when Igneous enters the room, with Rose following behind, and he backs away in shock.

“The hell is that? You didn’t say anything about a giant…man-bat…thing,” He demands. Igneous just tilts his head and looks at him and Rose growls.

“He’s not a ‘thing’. This is my good friend…uh…you know what, I don’t think we actually got his name last time,” William tries to introduce Igneous to the new human.

“Wow, what a great friend you are,” Cassandra says, rolling her eyes, then turns to the other man. “Weren’t you properly briefed about this dungeon?”

“I wasn’t given a lot of heads up for this. I didn’t have enough time to read the full information packet,” he explains.

“Fair enough, let’s move on shall we,” William says.

Igneous places the winged creature on the table. William thanks him and removes the camera from the harness. He pushes a button on it and hands it to the other man. The man pulls a cable from his bag and plugs one end into his computer and the other into a small hole on the side of the camera.

Moving over to the door, Igneous crouches down to quietly observe the humans. I let him know that he does not need to stay but he makes no move to leave. Rose, as usual, is glaring at the humans. Though I did not specifically ask her to be here, I will not stop her if she insists on keeping an eye on the humans. Ignoring her glare, William smiles at her and attempts to initiate a conversation.

“It’s nice to see you again, Rose. I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve been learning English. How’s that going?” He asks. Even after I translate for her, she does not reply immediately.

“Still…learning,” She answers slowly.

“Well, you seem to be making great progress, based on what I heard over the radio,” he compliments her, but she does not respond and continues to glare.

“This one wasn’t even encrypted. You could have done this yourself,” the man at the computer complains. He turns the computer around and leans back in his chair. He pulls a book from the computer bag and reads quietly, apparently having no further interest in the computer or anyone else in the room.

“Excellent, let’s see where this thing’s been, shall we?” William says cheerfully.

Leaning over the computer, he starts scrolling through a series of pictures. The first images show bushland. As he progresses through them, there are a lot of similar images, but eventually the bushland becomes more sparse as the creature had approached the outskirts of the city.

At first there are mostly one and two story houses, some with significantly sized yards around them, but as the creature’s path continues towards the city centre, the buildings gradually become larger and more densely packed. Eventually there is a series of pictures taken at strange angles until the next picture shows a close up of Igneous’ face. There are a few more pictures like that and William stops scrolling through them.

“That’s obviously the point at which our buddy here caught it. The camera did continue to take pictures after that, but I don’t think we really need to go through all of them,” William states.

“Judging from the path of those pictures, it looks like it came in from the south-east, right?” Cassandra says.

“That sounds about right,” William confirms. “I’m sure Colonel Mcwhatshisface will want to send out a reconnaissance unit, but I doubt they will find anything. This creature’s handler will have already moved on by now.”

“Colonel Rogath,” Cassandra corrects him.

“Right, him. Anyway, thank you for bringing this to our attention. It’s important for us to know when the vak are snooping around. This one didn’t see much, but they will likely send more scouts when it doesn’t return. So keep an eye out for them.”

So it was sent by the vak then?

“Indeed, they often use such creatures for scouting,” William confirms.

They do not seem all that effective.

“You’d be surprised. They are small enough and quick enough that they can slip by pretty easily when we’re not specifically watching for them. So it’s great that you were able to spot this one, now we know to keep a lookout,” William explains.

“There are times when they will use sophisticated, high-tech drones for scouting, but it is easier, quicker and probably a lot cheaper to just summon one of these, stick a camera on and point it in the direction they want it to go,” Cassandra adds.

Summon? Is this creature from a dungeon?

“Yeah, dungeon creatures are useful for a lot of things since, even with limited training, they will usually try their best to follow commands given to them by the dungeon controller, as long as they can understand them. One of the many reasons why dungeon cores are so valuable,” William states.

Is there no concern of them getting lost, or simply choosing not to return?

“Not really, dungeon creatures always seem to know their way back to their dungeon, no matter how far they go, like some kind of instinct and they always come back eventually,” William shrugs.

That is actually comforting to know. No matter how far my creatures travel, they will always be able to find their way home. It could be particularly useful in the future if some imps decide to become wanderers as Rose said they sometimes like to do. It also reminds me of the lizard that River brought back from the other dungeon, I guess it must have made its way back to its own home.

Last time you were here you mentioned a dungeon in the river. Can you tell me more about it?

William blinked a few times in confusion and looked over at Cassandra, who shrugs.

“That’s a little bit of a non-sequitur. I can tell you a little bit, but only what information is already publicly available, which isn’t much,” he says.

Can you tell me how big it is?

“No,” he replies flatly.

Does it have any creatures besides the lizards?

“Why do you want to know? And how did you even know about the lizards?” He asks, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Some of my imps found one at the river and they recognised it as a creature from their world. It made me curious.

“Oh, was anyone hurt? Those things can be pretty dangerous,” he asks, suspicion giving way to concern.

No need to worry. The imps are immune to their venom. Cassandra perks up at that.

“Really? Completely immune?” She inquires.

Perhaps, Violet did not suffer any negative effects when it bit her. How bad is it for humans?

“A single bite isn’t lethal, but they have a tendency to swarm anyone who sets foot in the dungeon. It makes them quite a nightmare to deal with,” William complains.

Well that answers a few of my questions without me even needing to ask and helps to explain why the core has managed to remain undiscovered for so long.

Is there anything else you can tell me about the dungeon?

“I suppose I can tell you about the guardian. It’s basically the same as the lizards, except that it’s as big as a bloody crocodile. It also likes to travel beyond the dungeon’s borders, so be careful of that if you go down to the river. That’s about as much as I can say without breaking any rules though,” William laments.

I appreciate the warning.

As much as I would still like to know more, continuing to push for answers at this point might result in them becoming suspicious of my motives, so I decide to let the topic drop, for now.

“Well, it seems we’ve got everything we came here for, so unless there is anything else you wish to discuss, then we should probably be on our way,” Cassandra suggests.

There is something actually; a favour. I would say you owe me at least one.

“Fair enough, what can we do for you?” William replies.

Can you teach Igneous to drive?

For the second time, they are left momentarily speechless.

“Wow, you’re really full of out of the box questions today, aren’t you?” William breaks the silence with a chuckle.

“Who is Igneous?” Cassandra inquires.

He is the one crouched by the door.

“Oh, well, it’s nice to have a name for him so we don’t have to refer to him as a man-bat thing,” William says, sending a sideways glance at the other man, who is still reading his book and does not even acknowledge the dig. “But, do you actually have a car though? It would be kind of pointless otherwise.”

We have one that was generously donated to us by the Honey Badgers.

“Right, I think you did mention that previously. We just haven’t seen it before. Where’ve you got it parked?” William questions.

It is on the street a couple of blocks away. We have not had an opportunity to bring it any closer since no one here can drive. I had meant to ask you about this last time, but it slipped my mind.

“We probably could teach him, but that car might not be all that useful in the long term,” Cassandra comments.

Why is that?

“There are issues of fueling and vehicle maintenance that will inevitably arise,” she states.

“That’s a good point, it’s not like he could just drive into town for that stuff. But I’m sure we can figure something out,” William adds. “We can at least teach him the basics and bring the car a bit closer if you want.”

That would be appreciated.

“Great, are we finally getting out of here?” The other man asks, snapping his book shut.

“Sure,” William says, closing the computer and packing it back into its bag. He picks up the camera and hesitates, “Do you mind if we take this?”

If you wish, I have no use for it. Do you need the creature it was attached to as well?

“Nah, just the camera's enough.”

I am sure some of my imps will want to eat it, though it should be offered to Igneous first since he is the one who caught it. I ask Rose to fetch the keys for the car, though I have to remind her where to find them as they have mostly been forgotten about ever since Igneous brought them back. When she returns, she hands the keys to Igneous and they all filter out of the room.

You intend to follow them? I ask Rose when I notice she is heading down the stairs with the humans, though without following the switchback pathway they are forced to use.

‘Yes. I still do not trust them. I will make sure they do not try to take what is rightfully ours.’

Do you want me to send backup?

‘I think Igneous and I will be sufficient. Even if I don’t trust anything else about them, I don’t think these humans want to fight.’ She assures me.

Let me know if anything happens.

With that, all I can do is wait. I do not know how long it should take them to teach Igneous ‘the basics’, but he is pretty smart, I am sure it will not take him too long to pick it up. Despite that, it is still sooner than I expect when Rose contacts me.

‘Apparently the vehicle won’t start. They’ve given up on trying to figure out why and we’re on our way back now,’ she reports.

When they return, Igneous appears on the roof, having elected to fly up instead of climbing the stairs. Of the humans, only William comes back to the meeting room.

So the car didn’t start?

“No, unfortunately not. I’m not a mechanic, so you can take my diagnosis with a grain of salt, but I suspect the battery is dead,” William theorises.

So what can be done about it?

“If we had jumper leads, we could have tried to start it with that. We can get a charger that you could plug into your generator. Of course, that will only help if the battery is actually the problem, but it’s a place to start,” he offers.

And if it is not the battery?

“Well, then things get complicated and probably a lot more expensive. I'm sure we could still figure something out, but you might have to consider whether or not it’s actually worth it.”

I appreciate your assistance with this. If there is nothing more that can be done, then I think our business is done for today.

“Right, well, thanks again for letting us know about the scout. Keep an eye out for any more if you can,” he says before making his way out.

“Do you really believe him?” Rose asks after he is gone.

About the car? Do you think he is lying?

“I don’t know, maybe. It could be a ruse so they can steal it later, or extort us for more mana crystals.”

We will just have to wait and see.

When William pulled up outside the DMO building, the other man didn’t hesitate to get out, taking the computer with him. William reached for the handle to his own door.

“Wait.” Cassandra instructed. William hesitated, but didn’t move to leave the vehicle.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“Do you really think they found the lizard from the river dungeon by chance?” She replied when she was sure they wouldn’t be overheard. William sighed and shook his head.

“As far as excuses go, it’s not implausible. But…no, I think after my slip up last time, they specifically went looking for that dungeon,” he admitted.

“You know this is going to cause some serious problems, right?”

“If they manage to find it, yeah,” William agreed.

“Claiming a single core is one thing, it’s already hard enough to keep the military types from storming in to retrieve it. Under normal circumstances, they’d already be well past the point of using force. But if Magentam takes another dungeon core, I don’t think anything we say will stop those idiots from launching a full scale assault,” Cassandra warned.

“Perhaps we can get Magentam to assist us,” William suggested, his eyes lighting up.

“In what way?”

“The imps being immune to the lizard’s venom gives them a distinct advantage. But if we can convince them to help find the core and hand it over to us instead of taking it for themselves, I bet that would shut the idiots up; for a while, at least,” William explained.

“Do you really think that would work?” Cassandra gave him an incredulous look and William chuckled.

“Probably not. Still might be worth a shot though,” he replied.

“You know, you really should put in an application with the DID. I’ll even put in a good word for you. You’re too smart to be working for these morons,” Cassandra proposed. William considered it for a moment, then shook his head.

“Nah, Director Taylor is a family friend and he’s done a lot for me, even before I left the military. Besides, if I leave, who will be left to serve as their voice of reason?”