* * * PARTHIA – BLUE LAGOON * * *

Trisha watched Mary go and rolled her eyes in exasperation. She sighed and glanced apologetically at Danilus Oakborn. He, for his part, was unable to suppress a brief smile at the Sprite’s evident discomfort.

Trisha gathered herself and said, “Danilus, I’ve arranged for the harbour and channel to be monster free. Then too, the islands themselves are currently free of dungeon monsters, though I understand the feral pigs can be dangerous. The beaches of this island are safe as is an area of one hundred meters offshore. At my urging you have all been recognised by Mary, and our monsters won’t hunt you, but if you step on one of her rays, well sorry, instinct will kick in.” Trisha glanced at the mangroves, “I’d suggest avoiding the mangroves, I know she’s planning to do something with them, and when she does it might prove dangerous.”

“Can we fetch in more people, my guards are enthused by our new home, but they feel they need more guards to make it truly safe. Also I want to ask for a temple builder to inspect it. It’s a perfect defensive building for exposed locations like this.”

“Trust me Danilus, if you put it that way, Mary will agree. She may have mostly lost interest in her fortified manor house,” Trisha nodded at the little castle, “but she does like it when people admire her projects.”

“Well is there anything we can do for you, to thank you for all you’ve done for us,” enquired Danilus.

Trisha blinked thoughtfully, licked her lips and said, “well I’m not sure how – safe – it would be in the long run, but if you could get us some live sea creatures we haven’t found so far, I’m sure Mary would be delighted.” She paused, deep in thought, “Don’t bother with sharks, several have showed up but she hasn’t paid them any attention, except to kill the one that seemed intent on settling in the lagoon.

“Oh yes, if you do see a shark, it won’t belong to the dungeon, so count on it acting like a shark.”

* * *

Mary was putting the finishing touches on the little project she had been working on and off on for a month or so now. She hoped Trisha would like it. It was a small underwater folly made of toughened glass and coral, with three widely separated underground escape tunnels. It was furnished with elegant versions of the sprites’ furniture, and it included an air filled suit of rooms.

Then she forgot all about it, and set about creating her buried palace dungeon. The entrance was designed to look like the top room of a buried tower, with the roof just breaking the surface. The entrance itself was a half buried window, with a fan of sand allowing easy access to the floor of the circular room. Engraved on the walls would be the story of Rapunzel done as a manga.

The dungeon proper would be accessed through a trapdoor located in the middle of the room. Stepping on it would be enough, as the wood was purposefully rotten, and would disintegrate if stepped on.

This opening would lead to a set of four intact rooms. These rooms would be partially submerged at high tide and would bear the tale of the fable of the three little pigs. Also done as a manga. The partially collapsed end room would lead deeper into the fully submerged part of the dungeon.

At this point she decided to rest and do something more interesting than digging holes. Mary rejoined the world to the sight of an exasperated Trisha. Thinking quickly, Mary decided to try and distract her.

« Hey Trish I’ve something to show you, here, what do you think it’s for you. »

And she made Trisha aware of the home she had created for her amongst the coral reefs in one of the more inaccessible of the passages between islands.

Once Trisha had explored her new home, and shown it to Purple Murex and Blacksand, Mary diverted her again by asking the three to look over the beginning of the decoy dungeon, and asking what they thought of it so far and what monsters would be appropriate.

The murals had the unexpected consequence of making the place very popular with the children, all of who could swim like fishes, and were having the time of their lives.

* * *

One month after the arrival of the temple folk a small temple trading ship called by to see how things were progressing. After collecting and delivering mail, they left with tall tales, several letters, five large pearls and one very happy sailor. They left supplies, mostly unneeded, paper and ink, desperately needed, and news and gossip about the rest of the world.

Three weeks later a small two masted pirate ship came calling. Trisha was surprised to find Mary already aware of the threat. This worried her as she realized that her dungeon was keeping scouts well outside her domain. And keeping secrets from her.

« Hmph, you can thank Ocidon for that Trish. He appropriated my Mk.3s. But I can still use them. I was able to figure out how to link to them, it was kinda easy. I think he did that on purpose. »

That was the only explanation Trisha received from her dungeon partner.

* * *

The Pirates circled the archipelago seeking entrance, they dropped a raiding party in a longboat offshore from the island the locals had originally inhabited – the locals had long since decamped to the much more comfortable homes Mary had created on Mangrove Island – before continuing around the archipelago intending to force the passage into the lagoon. The landing party was probably intended as a diversion.

Mary directed two of her modified lampreys to attack the ship. The lampreys attached themselves to the bottom of the pirate’s brig, and started drilling their way through the hull.

Mary urged one of the schools of her of flying fish from the lagoon to join the school that had been patrolling the sea outside the lagoon. Or at least that part of the ocean that had already been claimed by Blue Lagoon.

The lampreys that Mary had been modified to eat coral had no difficulty boring holes in the hull. It didn’t take long before the ship began to settle. The pirates lining the rails intent on the coming action didn’t notice.

The raiding party who had hauled their longboat across the island and launched it into the lagoon did notice the lamprey that commenced work once they got about forty meters offshore. It was very hard to miss a ten-centimetre diameter hole being created by saw like rotating teeth in the bottom of an open rowing boat.

* * *

The guards in the castle raced up their tower and prepared to use their baby. The locals were ushered into the safety of the castle, issued weapons and directed to the ramparts.

Harpoon guy, Jaasoon Sunhigh assured Rhondaa, the guard in charge of the seaward wall that they wouldn’t be needed as the spirit dolphin would handle things. After all if her lampreys could eat coral they could eat ships.

Rhondaa cheered when the ballista crew killed the helmsman with their first shot, then watched wide eyed as the lagoons flying fish rose up on each side of the ship, most flying over the ship but some striking the pirates.

Jaasoon laughed, “Die scum, no more will you prey on us.”

Mary was ecstatic. Her Mk.4s were a success. And the weak water magic she had given the males was enough to allow the majority of them to pull themselves back into the sea after depositing their poison laden stings in their targets. Said targets that were now convulsing in their death throes. A second wave allowed the remaining males with unused stings to deliver their gifts of death. Yes! Even some of her fish who had been stranded on the deck had managed to parlay their water attachment to get back into the sea.

The ship was soon awash and Mary sent her stingrays to finish the job. From what she knew of Earth history, pirates were scum and she had no interest in keeping any of them alive.

She did find two grossly mistreated prisoners that had apparently been kept for the pirates’ entertainment, and once one of her lampreys had cut the wooden bar keeping their cage shut, they had been able to escape with no further help from her.

In the Lagoon it was worse for the pirates. The Mk.4s had wiped out the longboat’s crew easily, as they had not been paying attention to anything except plugging holes and getting back to shore.

‘Pity, but it won’t work as well next time, and armour will definitely be a problem... Hmm yes that might work... anyway I seem to have lots of mana so lets get claiming, a bigger domain means more depth, more depth means a better defence.’

* * *

Danilus Oakborn watched while the former inhabitants of the island held a celebration, led by their chief Jaasoon Sunhigh, for the destruction of the pirates and for the return of one of their own captured some time back. Thankfully Ocidon had been merciful, and the two former captives had been healed body and soul. Also all the former inhabitants of the islands had converted, though they still venerated the spirit dolphin. Ocidon made him and his acolytes aware that he found this acceptable, and amusing.

Thankfully this dungeon seemed to want to cooperate with Ocidon, and thus by extension his priests and priestesses. Mary Silvestre was – unconventional – her sprite seemed to despair of the lack of an actual dungeon. But finding one small gem in an oval lagoon ten kilometres by three, would be virtually impossible, unless it was in a well-defined dungeon.

* * * EARTH – MARY * * *

The meeting with Dr Andrews and the members of the biology department had been surprising. She had trotted out several of the things she had been learning in her dreams. She had been able to temper some of her thoughts with things she had read in the library.

She had had a discussion, almost an argument with Dr Andrews regarding stingrays. She vehemently disagreed with one of the textbooks that had a couple of paragraphs about them.

After what her mama told her later was a nearly an hour of discussion Dr Andrews had burst out laughing. He admitted that the textbook was dated and the part containing the reference to stingrays was known to be partially incorrect.

Mary was not amused to realise that they were being taught out of books that were known to be incorrect. Though she had to admit to herself that she wouldn’t have cared even a month ago. The discrepancies were small, if crucial.

And now she had more homework. She had a dissertation to write on Stingrays.

Mary was surprised at how proud mama was of her after their meeting with Dr Andrews. So she was now enrolled in an advanced study biology course in her High School with access to some marine biology material and if things went well the possibility of mentoring by someone from the university.

She blinked at the bright sun, yeah, there was time to head out and do some fishing.

It was getting dark when she got back home lugging her fishing tackle and a cooler with the best of her catch. She saw to cleaning and storing her catch and gear before she headed back to her room for a shower and change of clothes.

Then wanting to please her mama she fired up her computer and went online to check out the records she had access to. She decided that there really wasn’t that much on flying fish and stingrays. Most of the data she could access seemed to lack relevant details, especially regarding how stingrays generated and stored their poison.

So she racked her brain and blinked thoughtfully as details streamed into her consciousness. When she concentrated on interesting details, there seemed to be a small delay before the facts streamed in.

Mary jerked herself out of her fugue after the third time her mama yelled at her about dinner. She blinked at the screen at the reams of text and tables. She saved her work and closed down her computer before following her mama down to dinner.

Before going to bed she revised her paper and printed it off. The following day she handed it to a surprised Dr Andrews.

* * *

Dr Andrews ploughed through the mass of ill organised data that showed a surprising mind. He wondered how in hell he had missed the signs that must have been there before being confronted by this mass of scholarship and supposition. He could see the potential for years of work in this paper.

He returned it to Mary with numerous suggestions on how to improve her dissertation. He also suggested she add some potential experiments and suggestion on how to test her theories.

* * *

After another night of strange dreams Mary woke with a few more ideas. She revised her paper, completely reorganising and expanding it. It took her the rest of the week, and her mother had to drag her down to dinner every night.

Somewhat reluctantly, that Friday morning Mary handed a folder containing her expanded dissertation to Dr Andrews.

Now, a week later the mentoring was a fact and mama was bursting with pride.

And yeah, it was time to head out and do some more fishing.