Family Matters

Chapter 36

On my way down the ramp, I heard an odd noise. A sort of bubbling that was strangely unnatural. A message alert also appeared at the same time. I checked the alert and found a notice for a potions allocation to someone named Irene Marsh.

That was beyond weird, Elim had indicated his only living family was his mother and daughter. They also didn’t have a last name. Unless it was a system error it seemed like this Irene was a distant, but important, relative which left me with new questions.

Thinking about it, I realized I hadn’t asked him about his family in detail. His wife being deceased had put me off the idea. As I was contemplating how to approach the matter tactfully, another bubbling sound went off and a new alert appeared for someone named Gordon Savex.

“What the fuck!?” I yelped. I didn’t need to guess who Gordon was a relative of. Panicking a little, I started digging through the tooltip explaining the potions system. When that failed to turn anything up, I went to Elim’s information and looked through it with a fine toothed comb. I had to expand it three times to find a family tree.

Elim’s direct family formed a tree. His mother, Erica, was linked to a greyed-out box that read Castor Grey (Deceased), his father. Their boxes were connected by a line and down from the center of that line a new one descended to connect them to Elim. Elim was connected to his wife June, (Deceased), with Bessy under them as their child. A very neat little family tree.

Selecting June turned up nothing; her family tree all read as deceased. Erica gave a similar result and selecting Castor was what finally gave a result. His name linked into a new tree that was mostly listing deceased relatives. One of them joined up to a more lively third tree a number of generations back.

Six degrees of separations at its finest. Elim was only distantly related to the earl. Probably distantly enough they might not even be aware of the connection. Despite that, I didn’t think it was something I should just ignore.

That didn’t make it less of a fraught subject though. I had no idea how inheritance laws worked. There was a strong possibility any such connection could be inconvenient to the both of us if acknowledged. Even so, it wasn’t my life or relatives which meant it wasn’t my decision.

I considered writing about it but gave up the idea. It was better to just call and get the matter over with. I opened my communications interface and made a call.

“Elim? You there?” I asked once the call connected but I didn’t hear anything.

“Mistress? How am I hearing you?” Elim asked, sounding confused. Shit. I’d forgotten that this wasn’t a normal method of communication. Not that it would have been in my own world either.

“Magic,” I said then felt like a total asshole. Yes, obviously, what an illuminating explanation. He would certainly have no questions now.

“A kind of communication magic. One we can use because of the contract like the texts,” I added quickly. Not really better, but at least more descriptive.

“Oh, that's quite convenient,” Elim replied, sounding amused. I was thankful for his good humor and adaptability once again.

“Yeah, very much so. Anyway, I’m calling because of an issue of sorts,” I said, struggling for how to say the next part.

“You have some relatives, Gordon and Irene, who seem to be in some kind of trouble. They just got potions from the system as part of your healthcare package. Do you know them personally? You didn’t mention them during the negotiations,” I continued. It was far too roundabout but I decided not to do anything about that. He’d know them or he wouldn’t.

“No, but I can ask my mother once we arrive… Oh, I forgot to ask. What is the earth hound's name? He said it was yours to decide or mine if you allow it,” Elim said. I felt my orbs flicker, I hadn’t actually interacted with the earth hound. Naming them had slipped my mind. I pulled up my monster panel and found them, a male as it turned out.

“You can do the honors if you have something in mind,” I offered.

“I really don’t, I’ve never been good with names. Bessy’s lucky my mother did the honors or she’d have been something like Hortencia,” Elim said, and I could hear the grin. I felt like Glemora would have thoroughly approved of that choice.

“Alright, see if he likes Marlow, if not I can try something else,” I offered. A moment later I heard Elim talking to someone else and the earth hound’s entry changed to reflect the name Marlow.

“He says thank you Mistress and he likes it fine,” Elim

“Good. I’m not really any better with names myself,” I admitted.

“I’ll have to take your word for it. About the family you mentioned… There is a bit of irregularity with my lineage, do you know how I’m related to them?” Elim asked, his tone more careful than I was used to hearing.

“Castor Grey- Through your father I mean,” I said, botching things a little. I was still looking at the family tree so I’d read it rather than answer directly.

“Castor Grey is my father?” Elim asked.

“Yeah-” realization hit me much too late, “is that a problem?”

“Are you certain that's true?” Elim asked, voice small.

“Yeah… I mean, he was listed in your traits and your family tree. I can't see a reason why they’d both be wrong,” I said lamely. All the while wondering what kind of land mine I’d just done a jig on top of like an idiot. The system could be wonky with active counts like points and mana but I hadn’t seen anything else not work correctly.

“No, if anything its a relief. There was some question on the point, but he’d always been my father in any way that mattered even when it was uncertain,” Elim said and his voice relaxed.

“Thank you for telling me, my mother will also be pleased to hear it too,” Elim added and then laughed.

“Happy it was good news,” I said with honest relief. I heard a baying then, either in the distance or sounding like it because the hound wasn’t part of the call. It seemed excited to my ear though I couldn’t make out words like I did with the lava hounds.

“Mistress, I’m afraid I’ll have to cut this short. Marlow smells trouble,” Elim said then cut the connection before I could say anything. My first instinct was to call him back and ask what the hell was going on. Fortunately, I was too surprised to act and the moment passed.

If something were going then I couldn’t help and a call would just be a distraction. It was better to wait until Elim called me back or otherwise got in touch.

“Shit...” I muttered to myself. I understood what the correct thing to do was, but that didn’t make it easier. I did my best to keep busy, but left the window showing his stats open as I worked. It let me keep an eye on his health, which was better than nothing.

Or a weird kind of self torment I found after an hour of trying to focus but flinching every time I thought I saw a fluctuation. The health bar would only tell me if he took actual damage. He could thoroughly be in trouble and I’d be none the wiser.

“You better fucking call me when you're safe,” I muttered to myself. In reflection of my mood I wasn’t bothering with attention-intensive tasks like design. Instead I was breaking stuff. Specifically magic crystals that produced light.

They were nice little bland things I could buy in any color I liked but didn’t have a setting adjustment for the type of light they gave off. I wasn’t particularly interested in a cheerful steady stream of it and was meditatively smacking one with a rock.

I’d dropped one by accident and it had flickered charmingly before going dark. It took six of them before I found a level of broken that gave me unsteady results but didn’t die out after a few moments. After breaking ten of them I had three new options. A random stuttering pulse like a fluorescent tube on the blink, a guttering candle kind of look, and a very dim version.

They populated my item shop and were twenty for a single mana instead of ten like their functional counterparts. As hours crawled into a full day without word I found my mood and decor choices darkening subtly.

It was hardly a professional reaction, but I couldn’t be fucking bothered with that. I had two friends and a kind of okay (probably?) supervisor in my very limited contacts list. The idea of losing one of them did not sit well with me.

Whoever might visit my dungeon next would do well to pray my friends list didn’t get any shorter.