Dungeon Life

Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Four

Onyx

Being chosen as Voice filled Onyx with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, being chosen is an incredible honor. On the other hand, it’s an honor she would have expected to go to Legs or Cappy. They’ve been with Violet from the start, whereas she and Nose came after her first expansion. She feels a little guilty getting the title over them. Or she would have, if they didn’t seem to be fully onboard with her receiving it.

Legs is much happier tending to his metalworks, creating things for the denizens and delvers. She can’t forget the wonderful metallic claw gauntlets he made for her, and she hopes they’ll still fit once she finishes adapting to her title.

Cappy seemed interested in the title, but he’s enough of a thinker to point out the obvious flaw with giving it to him: he can’t easily leave. They’ve all seen Teemo go on long expeditions to negotiate for Mentor Thedeim, and though Cappy could probably manage to spread himself to the points of interest inside Fourdock, something like a trip to the Southwood would be beyond him.

She even asked Nose if he might have wanted the title, but he seems to have his claws full with just being an Explorer now. He’s more interested in going out and looking at all the interesting things around. While that would make it easy for him to go on long expeditions to other dungeons, it would make it harder for him to communicate with the delvers and Mentor Thedeim.

While Onyx is still uncertain about the decision, Violet seems happy, even excited to see the gremlin become her voice. With her new expansion, Violet will sure have a lot to say to the world at large, and maybe even need Onyx to explain to the two new scions how things will work in detail. She’s tempted to delay her ascension to meet the two new scions properly, but she can feel the need to return to the spawner. She doesn’t know what will happen if she doesn’t, but she’s not sure she even could resist for much longer.

She settles for trying to greet them through the mutual bond they all have with Violet, hoping Teeth and Slimy won’t feel snubbed, as she enters the crack in the wall that holds her spawner.

She hasn’t been here since her last lesson with Berdol, and she’s looking forward to learning more from him once she emerges. Inside the spawner is so much different than outside, like some peacefully-dark version of one of Teemo’s shortcuts. Reality works differently here, in ways she can’t describe.

She settles in, though she can’t quite wrap her mind around how, and feels her thoughts start to drift. She can feel herself changing, feel her senses changing. It could be terrifying if not for the bond with Violet slowly growing more and more clear, her happiness and excitement providing a stable bedrock for her shifting form and perceptions.

She wonders how Teemo sees Mentor Thedeim, as his Voice. She and the other scions know Violet is much simpler than he is. She’s so much younger, so it makes sense. She can already tell she’ll need to interpret a lot more than Teemo probably does. The swirl of emotions she senses from her dungeon is growing clearer, not more complicated. Delvers are fun, invaders are painful, sewage is… tasty?

Even in whatever state she’s in, Onyx shudders at that thought. It’s good for Violet to have a stable source of mana, but it just feels wrong for her to think about it like that. She’ll try to explain it to her once she emerges, maybe. Should she potentially deprive her dungeon of a good source of mana, just because she personally doesn’t like its source?

… she won’t try to make Violet reject the sewage mana, but she can hopefully get her thinking in terms of it being useful instead of tasty. Time seems to pass in a haze as she tries to think of a way to do that, until a question drifts through the bond, quiet as smoke and as easy to miss as a shadow.

What should I say first?

It’s not said in so many words, but rather a swirling mix of impressions and memories. Mentor Thedeim is eager to hear her say something, and Rocky is even waiting outside the spawner to greet her once she’s done. They expect something, but what should Violet say?

The expectation seems to trigger a slow anxiety in her dungeon, which Onyx is quick to try to address before it can get out of hand, even with her still in the spawner, her ascension not fully complete.

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“What would you like to express that you couldn’t before?” she asks in her mind, the concept moving through the bond with only slight resistance. The anxiety is waylaid as Violet tries to think, more memories and emotions spilling out of the bond as her ascension nears completion.

First is a memory of fear, of great things beyond Violet’s power, prowling just outside her territory. Freddie and Rhonda, the orc and goblin that Violet still likes to think of as mushrooms sometimes, her first delvers. First, she thought them overwhelming invaders, but they created mana from fighting her denizens, rather than stealing it away. Invaders, but not? Then Teemo, and Aranya. The terror of first seeing them is so at odds with how Violet sees them now, and Onyx can feel more a bit of shame from her dungeon at how she first perceived them.

Then the offer of mentorship, and the gratefulness of Mentor Thedeim’s guidance. He protected her from the scythemaws, encouraged her with her nodes and spawners, even helped teach Onyx how to fight! Fighting is still scary to Violet, but a little bit of challenge isn’t too bad.

Onyx sends her own feeling of relief through the bond at that. She knew her desire to fight was something Violet wasn’t comfortable with, at least at first, but it seems she’s coming to accept it, in moderation.

She’s also come to see the necessity of fighting at times. She was elated to see Hullbreak also come to learn from Mentor Thedeim, even if she’s having trouble understanding the difference between protege and vassal. All she knows is her Mentor is helping a dungeon much older than she is. Even old dungeons can learn, so they both should learn as much as possible from Mentor Thedeim.

Then came the problem with the Southwood. While she was happy to see an ally, even if she still doesn’t quite understand the distinction, the new invaders were absolutely terrifying! Violet knew she couldn’t fight them directly, but when Mentor Thedeim started that big fate spell, she saw a way she could finally contribute!

The happiness at helping sticks with Onyx as she finishes ascending, and makes her way out of the spawner. Her movement is different now. While she could always slip through tiny cracks, she feels like she has to slip everywhere now! Her senses come into focus and she takes the time to examine herself, and the extensive changes she’s undergone.

Gremlins are small shadows, but need to mostly retain their shape. But now she’s a shade, able to freely change her form, to become a darkness clinging to surfaces, or to become a figure standing wherever she pleases. She explores the ability before suddenly needing to check something.

Her gauntlets are laying just outside the crack, and she’s relieved to see she can form her hands inside them and move the gifts from Legs around freely. She even takes the time to copy something she’s seen some shadow affinity delvers do, and encases the claws in shadow, allowing her to easily move them wherever she pleases.

“That’s a good trick, Onyx.”

She jerks against the wall in surprise, holding her claws up defensively, before she realizes it’s just Rocky. She deflates and reaches a claw toward him, before thinking better of it and swapping to a hand without a weapon. “Hello Rocky.”

He grins and bumps her fist. “A shade now. You’re going to make the delvers jumpy, especially if I start teaching you how to fight properly.”

Onyx is utterly unaware of how creepy her grin at that idea looks, especially with Rocky looking just as eager to start training. Before he can lead her to a better place for it, though, he pauses and nods. “Right, Coach wanted me to watch for you to come out, in case Violet had anything she wanted to say to him. Teemo would be here, but there’s a new inspector or something that Coach wants him to keep an eye on. So, anything to say?”

The anxiety from Violet starts creeping back in, but Onyx smiles as she speaks up. “Yes. I think, most of all, Violet wants to say ‘thank you’. Things are still confusing for her, and she wants your help to understand it, and she also greatly appreciates everything. I do mean everything, too. She knows there’s been a lot of things you’ve protected her from, dangers she could vaguely see, but had no idea how to combat. You’ve kept her from the overwhelming things, and let her grow with the challenges she can handle. So thank you.”

Rocky is quiet for a few seconds, before he dons a small smile. “I don’t need to be a Voice to know the Coach is happy to hear that. He worries about a lot of things, but now maybe he has one less thing to worry about. Or one more thing, heh.”

Onyx smiles as she feels Violet’s happiness settle over her like a warm blanket, though the new Voice isn’t without her own concerns. “That reminds me, though. I want to train, but I should probably try to explain to Violet the difference between tastiness and usefulness.”

Rocky looks confused at that, making Onyx sigh and continue. “Sewage. It’s good mana, but…”

She trails off as Rocky snorts in amusement. “Fair enough. I’ll be in the Coach’s caverns for a while, or at the arena. Come find me later, yeah?”

Onyx nods. “Yeah. See you around, Rocky.” She waves as he takes his leave, then melts into a pool of blackness to more easily make her way to the Sanctum. She can feel Violet’s curiosity about what she wants to talk about, and tries to organize her thoughts. Sparring with Rocky would probably be easier than explaining this, but it needs to be done.

“Alright, Violet. Uh…”

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