Unfortunately for Aby, the element of surprise isn’t something easily granted to a group seventeen strong, slogging their way through meter deep water while their leader has to shout commands every few steps just to keep them in line. This was entirely unsurprising, but the core still felt a touch disheartened after it saw the mousy man essentially toss aside the small decorator crab he was holding, and face forward with his apparently default smile.

It was almost unnerving, seeing just how happy this man became at the slightest discovery, and it made Aby question if it really understood how the so-called sapient races expressed happiness. It didn’t have the time to ponder on that, though, since the man himself started talking at something than to himself again, saying things like ‘I knew you had more than this!’ and ‘I wonder what you’re going to show me this time!’

There was an utter lack of concern in his voice, and a definite spring in his step as he strode forward. Both confused the core, willingly embracing the unknown seemed mad, and the man still seemed utterly unaffected by waters that rose above his head in places. The core had already accepted the man as mad, but defying what it knew of nature and even physics didn’t seem to be a symptom of insanity.

Still, when the man rounded the last corner separating himself and the warband of kobolds, he showed the biggest reaction Aby had seen until then. His eyes widened, and his breath quickened as he looked at them all. Aby almost thought he was finally showing something besides joy, and in a way, he was.

Aby simply wished that ecstasy wasn’t what he settled on. The kobolds themselves were even more unnerved, his focus on them was quite literally palpable by that point, it felt entirely similar to when the Creator itself focused its gaze on them and it left them all confused, agitated, and upset. The chief lasted barely a second under his scrutiny before she barked a few words to the rest, and they readied their spears and launched harpoons.

She predicted a great many things happening afterwards, maybe he’d be boiled alive by her shaman, or perhaps skewered, stuck to a piece of coral by a well-placed harpoon. Maybe she or the drake-kin would reach him, and reduce him to scrap for the offense on the creator, or maybe for the rider and her tainted mount to come barreling through, and leave him a broken man like they had done so many others, or any combination of these things and more. What she wasn’t expecting was for the man to let loose a hearty laugh, before speaking up, in a tongue all of them understood.

“Oh, well this is a surprise! I must say, I had heard there were kobolds, and they were quite well off for a young one, but I never expected for you to have all this!”

Along with the voice, a voice that commanded attention and respect in a way even the chief was envious of, they felt his own presence. He hadn’t even moved and it felt like the world around all of them had frozen. Harpoons hung in the air, she, was locked mid stride, her body refused to work and even if it did, she could tell that her very surroundings wouldn’t allow her to move regardless. From the noises, or lack thereof, from the rest of her tribe, everyone else was in the same predicament, and they were forced to watch as this strange small man strolled up to them, muttering words while his eyes darted between each of them.

“Hmm, it seems you really know how to care for your creations, little one. Artifact harpoons, wyrmscale leather, and high quality spears…”

He stared at the floor as he said so, and it upset the chief when she realized that he was talking, or at least addressing, the Creator. And yet, struggle as she might, she could do nothing to teach this intruder respect. To hear someone call their Creator ‘little one’, that alone was deserving of a proper lesson. So clouded was her mind she didn’t even realize he’d shifted his gaze back to the group, more specifically, to her.

“Hmm, lesser dragonkin, two in fact, and a drake-kin. What an absolute treat you are.” He looked beyond her after saying as much, and with her body refusing to obey, she had no idea his piercing gaze had shifted to the kelpie. The horse in question was acutely aware of that, however, and for the first time it felt true discomfort from something else. The drake scared him, sure, but he knew the One Below was looking out for him, as long as he didn’t push things.

This one, though, was alien. Was strange, and he felt worry as he realized just how intent the man’s focus was.

“And you… What are you? I’m not often at a loss, you know, but I’ve never seen anything quite like you. A bunyip? No… they don’t take the shape of a horse, and I can tell this isn’t all you look like. How unusual. How positively splendid! Show me more, little one! I’ve never seen such a young one with so much to offer before, and now I can’t help but want more!”

His words weren’t meant the kelpie by the end of his spiel, though his focus never left the horse’s body. He examined, in far too much detail, the creature. From trying to figure out the mane, to seeing how ‘pliable’ the flesh of a new ‘shifter’ was, by the time he had apparently learned enough, the kelpie felt two new things. Fear, at being so helplessly weak in the face of this unknown, and fury, for the very same reason. He was shivering all over again, trying to force his disobedient limbs to order or even just turn his head and bite and yet, he couldn’t.

The man in question continued his rounds after the horse, blissfully unaware of Aby’s own discomfort at watching this man simply waltz through yet another ‘obstacle’ it sent after him, much less the treatment he was giving the core’s creations. By this point, even Sela was starting to feel uncomfortable, huddling closer to Aby, trying to comfort the gemstone and herself without even knowing what was going on to make the core so incredibly upset.

It helped Aby, some, to feel its faithful companion try and comfort it, though this was still limited in how much it actually helped. Even as the man walked by his kobolds, this time leaving them properly bound, rather than simply temporarily immobilized, Aby had to wonder why this invader had come for it. Even worse, why was he so incredibly happy at the distress he was causing the gemstone.

Even as he simply waltzed through the rest of the third floor, and then leisurely dove down the fourth floor, that fiendish grin never left the man’s face. He managed to effectively walk his way downwards, treating the water around him like some staircase nobody, not even the literal master of that water, could see. He simply didn’t breathe, didn’t try to swim down, just walked in some lazy spiral downwards while collecting and discarding anything of interest. His clothes weren’t even wet as he resurfaced on the fifth floor, and despite defying everything Aby thought could be done, he never stopped smiling.

Maybe this floor could change that, though. His grin did seem to stiffen up slightly as Carmine’s Song was carried to him, if Aby understood faces correctly. He even stopped muttering for a few seconds, and Aby was genuinely hopeful that maybe even he wasn’t immune to Carmine.

And then he started talking again. He talked and laughed, and Aby was all but certain by this point that he was talking to it, because he spoke again.

“How hauntingly beautiful indeed. Many tales of your devilish siren reached my ears, little one, and I must say they absolutely don’t do her performance justice. But again, why do you have a siren? And more importantly, why has she got a Song like this? You truly are unusual…”

Aby tuned him out after that, focusing on coordinating the four stars, as well as keeping Carmine as far away from him as possible while the four approached. She hovered on the floor beneath while the four creeped along the walls. Of course, their speed was anything but uniform, and the chimeric star was the first to be within range of the intruder. Better yet, it seemed he hadn’t noticed, or was at least ignoring it for now as he continued to break Aby’s heart and catalogue every creature or crevice he came across. This was the first time he seemed to do more than simply travel from point A to point B, exploring every passage of the multilevel mage and, apparently, commit it to memory as he did so.

It wasn’t until the sunflower star had managed to drag its way to the other three that things changed. The brittle star finally got Aby’s permission to lash out as he ascended a tunnel from the sixth floor to the fifth, and lash he did. In fact, it was the first time since the shrimp the intruder seemed a bit surprised, though if anything, that just made Aby’s mood a little worse.

If the star’s limb had managed to hit him, that may have been different, but just the same as anything else, it was frozen in place as soon as he realized it.

“Oho, so you finally come out to play, then? Ah, that’s why. You’ve gathered your companions, then?” The man’s cursed smile came back as soon as it stiffened, and he dragged the brittle star, and its two companions, out for him to see. It took him a moment to catch the chimeric star, though, and that was the first real indication that this invader wasn’t all powerful.

To Aby, this was everything it needed. It didn’t care that the intruder only needed a moment thanks to how taken aback he was by the star at first, and that it quite literally tore limbs off and flung them away to have a moment’s distraction. It didn’t care that it got two meters before being frozen. It was enough to give Aby a bit of hope, and that was all it wanted.

The man himself had no idea that the core had finally found something to hold onto for this hope, as he was giving the chimeric star, and the other three really, the same inspection as he’d given the kelpie.

“How grotesque, little one. How beautifully, fascinatingly grotesque! I thought sir Rok was lying when he said a starfish broke his arm, I truly did, and yet, here are four that can do just that!”

He rambled on for minutes longer after that, before leaving them in the same state as the kobolds, bound together, sealed in some magical construct Aby’s creatures had no way of removing, and then moved on, methodically exploring every inch of Aby’s fifth, sixth, and seventh combined floors. The entire time, Carmine was keeping her distance, singing herself hoarse. For the first time, she was afraid during her performance.

She knew something was wrong, the Voice seemed nervous, it was more direct in its commands, its instructions more detailed. She could tell for herself, though, that something was different. Her audience was listening, sure, in fact she had never had an audience so incredibly enraptured by her Song before, but they weren’t truly accepting it. How, how could they listen to her Song and not be moved by it?

And so her Song changed to reflect this. Her music asked how they could be so cruel as to ignore her, how they could crush her spirit by having something else in their heart. She was born to move audiences, she was created, she was Named for this and yet, someone wasn’t happy.

What did she do wrong, what can she do better? Her melody sung of the tragedy of being ignored while she so desperately sought to be heard, of the anguish she felt that the single best audience member she’d ever encountered was also the only one to have ever refused her gift.

And yet, no matter how much she grieved and lamented and pined for their acceptance, he simply remained a listener. He didn’t join her Song, nor did he denounce it, and that was what hurt most. That someone could remain so perfectly unmoved by her melody.

She had begun to realize how pointless an exercise it was by then. How something had happened, and she was broken now. The Voice would discard her for someone new, someone better. Even if they didn’t, Sela could never accept her, not with a useless Song. And so she weaved that into her grand melody, and it was only then that something seemed to change.

Only, it wasn’t what she wanted. Instead of accepting her Song, of embracing it with her, he did something back. He stopped wandering aimlessly while he listened, and instead started walking towards her. Obviously, this was not okay, the audience wasn’t allowed to see her, only hear her, but he ignored that and came closer even while the Voice guided her away.

Fear and loathing were mixed to her Song now, but that did nothing to keep the terrible man from getting closer and closer, and neither she nor even Aby could figure out how. He kept walking at the same leisurely pace and yet, his steps carried him much further than his small gait would allow. Aby could tell he was using a spell of some description, but had no idea how. There was no chant, no sign he’d even done anything. He simply turned towards Carmine, and started walking, weaving some utterly indecipherable mess with mana beneath his feet as he went.

Aby tried so very hard to keep Carmine out of the way, but he was adamant now. For the first time he’d begun pursuing, and even when Aby had Carmine stop singing altogether that seemed to do nothing to through him off her trail.

Five excruciatingly long minutes later, and he finally rounded the corner and saw her. Aby had been dreading this, dreading every moment of the futile escape attempt, loathing itself for not leaving any passages near her that she could have used to escape, and a horrible cocktail of other feelings, and yet, it could do nothing as Carmine was frozen all the same as everything else had been.

Carmine was even more scared, she was stuck, arms frozen by her sides and tail mid stroke to flee. She couldn’t even see the man as he strolled beside her, but she felt his inquisitive stare. She hated it.

“I truly do apologize, my dear.” He began, and Carmine felt nothing but contempt at his usage of the title, “But I absolutely needed to see you in person. I realize that nothing I say, and indeed, nothing I do short of forcefully removing you from the Dungeon’s, from your home’s, influence.

“Well, I suppose if the little one itself decided I wasn’t a threat, none of their creatures, including yourself, would see me as one either, but I doubt they’re very pleased with me right now. Truly a shame, but I can work on improving your view of me in the future. Unfortunately, I’m here on business at the moment, and I must offer you my most sincere of apologies for the intrusion.”

Both Aby and Carmine felt the same about this, but neither had the voice to share their feelings. Still, the man continued.

“Regardless, I realize that I’m doing a great deal to upset you all right now, but I refuse to be a brute. Now that I’ve seen you, and can honestly say I’ve done my due diligence for this floor, I’ll release you. Keeping any lady, much less one as passionate and talented as you, bound for this long is already a crime, and I refuse to go overboard in my investigation. Once again, I am so deeply sorry to put you through this much already, and I hope that you can continue making music as beautiful as you have for many moons to come.”

With that, Carmine felt her body freed, and she immediately bolted. Aby watched as she fled, its fury towards this invader only mounting. It was determined to figure out something as it watched him use that strange spell once again, carrying him towards the entrance to the eighth at a brisk pace.