Vonn said to the Duke, "Maybe Baron Kolm was trying to make the dungeon grow faster by feeding it blood? Either it worked badly, or too well."

In fact, his and Selen's real theory was worse and best not stated. What if the point of the blood sacrifice had been to spawn more dungeon cores in a controlled, predictable way? Nobody seemed to know when or how to make the things appear in the first place. Vonn would've been fascinated to try making it happen if there were less murder involved.

The Duke answered, "Perhaps. He might even have been trying to make the structure move aboveground. Do you know why tampering with the dungeons is treason, either of you?"

Selen said, "It deprives the kingdom of honest subjects, and creates more monsters nearby?"

The Duke smiled. "Also, it's a military threat. A man could try to control the monster population and use it to fend off his rightful lord. I suspect that Kolm meant to try harnessing the monsters that way, to help him do the mining and then to fend off my troops to form his own little domain. Yes, that would explain it. You can tell Baron Bogstep this. He is to contain the dungeon core and destroy it if practical. I'll put it in a letter. Don't spread rumors, in the meantime."

Vonn reluctantly opened his mouth. "May we tell the Dungeoneers' Society what we saw?"

"I'd prefer that the report go through me instead."

Vonn just nodded.

The Duke squished his toes through the dirt, took one foot out and looked at it. "On to another matter. It surprises me that you two young folk keep coming to my attention. First the theft of that lightning amplifier and your strange memory loss, Selen, and then the remarkable discovery you both made at Tukka's Hollow. You are both commoners of no great education, yet you've joined the Knowledge Society and I watched this Aves fly without wings using a bag of air. And then there's the winged flying machine. Vonn, is it true that you designed that one yourself?"

"With the help of my friends, your lordship."

"As a fourth-level Engineer, already equaling the highest rank in Grandbridge. Do you think you can and will gain more levels?"

"I believe so, sir. I haven't decided whether to do that right away or balance it with more levels of Mage."

He had been thinking about Mage partly to lie low, rather than intentionally standing out as what his old country would've called a "national security asset". So much for that!

"And you, Selen, have chosen a more conventional class, but you're hardly following traditional uses for it either. So tell me, both of you: where does this outburst of ideas come from?"

Vonn sighed. As he feared they might have to explain, he said, "We had a sort of shared vision, last spring, when each of us nearly died. We saw things from what seem to be another world, especially the strange machines that place has."

"And their stories?" asked the Duke.

Selen nodded. "There was a lot of information, but we hardly had a complete view."

"Is this other world a threat to ours, do you think?"

"I don't see any way that it could send an army or a weapon here."

"There are many kinds of weapons. I may have need of them. Vonn, can you build me another of these 'airplanes'?"

"I could, your lordship. But the one I made relied on a set of special Engineer abilities to work at all, plus the golden magicite. For its high output." He'd nearly slipped and mentioned its second ability, the anti-gravity effect.

"I would tell you to make one anyway, but I sense you're hesitant. Why?"

Vonn's tail twitched. "I was nearly killed flying the first one, sir. It was of poor quality. My team was focused on just proving the basic concept. Now that we've done that, we'd like to step back to build better tools and a new design."

"That seems reasonable. Selen, if I said to build me several more of your balloons, would you have similar objections?"

"No, your lordship. I want to improve my design, too, but it's less technically complex and I can do that more easily than him."

"Is your balloon better than the airplane?" he asked, looking curious to get Selen's reaction.

"They're like different kinds of fruit, sir. Each is better in its own way."

Vonn added, "In the short term I would trust the balloons more. And they'll still have specialized uses even after the airplane becomes practical."

The Duke contemplated them. "Then I want to buy a balloon, for use as a mobile scout tower and Aves flight platform. I may commission more later. Do you have adequate workshop space?"

"Not exactly," Selen said. "I've been renting a little place for my experiments and my friends' dyework hobby."

"Then you should have a better facility. Make arrangements with my steward to give you funding and see what you come up with."

Selen stammered but managed to say, "Thank you, your lordship!"

"Vonn. You're being funded by Baron Bogstep already. Continue your work and send me reports on your inventions. You'll have a tax exemption for selling them within my domain, in return."

Vonn just bowed.

#

They got out and Vonn was about to talk, but Selen whispered the code term "NSA". They were being watched.

It wasn't until they'd made it to the Shrike Tavern next to Selen's home that they even began to relax. "How screwed are we?" Vonn asked her quietly. In English.

Selen ordered beer and used English too. "Did I ever tell you how I raised my Sanity stat? There's a skill called Endure Alcohol. Me and Sunflare earned that one. Not eager to repeat that."

Vonn leaned back far in his chair, relying on his amazing balance, and looked up into the chandeliers and balcony tables. "I think we just got drafted."

"Better than being eliminated."

Kotta had been trying to gather a crowd to listen to him, but they just weren't interested. He excused himself and went over to Vonn and Selen's table. "You're alive; that's a good start."

They filled Kotta in. He said, "What was that saying you used? 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?'"

Vonn nodded. "We're all loyal subjects, especially if someone's listening right now. I'm just thinking, our work is getting less independent as we get this funding."

Selen rested her beak on her hands. "I'm worried too, but it might be a good thing. We now have the Duke recognizing that we're useful to him and that we're wild-cards best used by letting us do what we want. That gives us more of a chance to change society."

"By being state employees?"

"We're within the system, Vonn. I didn't rail against the Knowledge Society... well, not to their faces, much. I joined the group and I'm going to make myself important enough to influence it."

Kotta said, "It's strange to hear you two talking about changing anything. We're commoners."

"We peasants can still have good ideas," said Vonn.