Venita, first daughter of house Hascavir, was walking the halls of their palatial estate on the top tier of the main city of the Shattered Sky. She looked out over the wall at the rising columns and rounded architecture of the city proper. Most Deep Dweller architecture took into account the natural curves of stone and metal. In the distance to the west, she could see darkening clouds and knew rain was coming to the region. She waved one frilly floral patterned wrist and a house servant approached cautiously.

“Yes, my lady?” the servant asked.

“Bring me a canvas and some magical paint. I wish to capture this sky in all its splendor. Do it within five minutes or be punished,” Venita demanded before waving her hand to shoo the servant away.

Her dress was made of the finest silks that could be imported from the continent across the sea. The Shattered Sky was known mainly for the Gnomes sky islands, but the Deep Dweller city had a massive dock that launched ships into the Ocean of Solace regularly. The dress was made of white silk with a rose pattern woven diagonally through it. The red of the roses enhanced her green eyes and dirty blonde hair. Another benefit of the dress was that it periodically released the scent of fresh cut flowers in an area around her. Venita has always been fascinated with the art of painting. Her mother Atlanta, the Sovereign of house Hascavir, ensured she had the finest tutors to help her increase her painting skill as much as possible. Although they lasted no longer than a week in most cases since Venita insisted on using enchanted painting equipment. They all said the same thing, “You will never improve unless you use your own skills.” This was unacceptable to Venita who would much rather have the paint brushes copy what she was looking at. Thus her painting skill languished at a measly level three with a progression of zero percent. She insisted the tutors lied to her mother about their skills and always had them dismissed.

“Your supplies, my lady,” said the panting house servant.

“Put them down before you sweat all over them and get me something to drink. Chop chop,” Venita said as she clapped her hands together in quick succession. She believed todays painting would be her best yet.

Typhus hopped down to check the large scroll cases in the back of the wagon. Another had gone missing. That left him with five in total. Someone was definitely working against house Bloodbeard in his group. He had originally hoped the traitor would have gone with Daskus’s group but no luck. Typhus didn’t understand how they were getting away with this. They must be sneaking off with the cases, checking the contents, then leaving them behind to thin out the possibilities. Keeping a closer eye on them was going to be troublesome. He supposed he could have Alfred watch them but then he’d never find the culprit. Their thieving skills must be at a high level to keep grabbing them out from under his nose.

Digging through the five he had left, Typhus decided to keep one strapped to his back at all times as bait. Perhaps they would think that case was the most important one and make desperate attempt to snatch it. Either way he needed to make a bigger deal about the scroll cases for his plan to work.

“Alright you blighters! Which one of you is working for the Hascavirs? I’ve had just about enough of this goblin shit,” Typhus said making a big production of strapping the scroll case to his back.

“Typhus? Is something wrong?” Tantus asked concerned enough to give up his seat in the carriage and hop out.

“I started out with sixteen of these scroll cases. I split them evenly between our group and Daskus’s. Someone keeps taking them!” Typhus explained as he raised his voice. Several of the other Deep Dwellers turned their heads to look away.

“Maybe there is something I can do to help,” Tantus offered moving closer.

“No. I’ve got this, keep your mage hands to yourself,” Typhus shot back gruffly and moved toward the carriage Deacon and the rest of the Regulators entered.

Space in the carriage was at a premium. While they had several other wagons in their now shortened caravan, most of the guilded Adventurers were in this one. Tantus was stills standing outside the carriage stroking his chin in contemplation in the middle of the road that lead east from Hilcrest village. He began to walk around the carriage while shoving a hand into one of his pouches. The air outside the carriage started to whip around them as white light shown in the oval eyes of the Kel’Aish. Suddenly it all stopped and Tantus made his way back to the door.

“What are you up to bud?” Deacon asked.

“I remembered what you told me about the Ministers carriage. You know how you couldn’t feel the road. Then I thought about the ambulator and had an idea. Why couldn’t I set the carriage up on a cushion of air just like the ambulator? Should cut back on the bouncing a little,” Tantus answered absentmindedly.

“So you just enchanted this carriage? I can’t wait to see if it wor—” but Deacon was cut off as Tantus rushed into the carriage slamming the door shut behind him.

“No, no. The reason nothing was happening was the door was opened. The enchantment requires a seal between the two anchor points. Have to rethink that… oh there isn’t anywhere for me to sit?” Tantus asked as he realized he was hunched over in the center of the carriage in between peoples legs.

With Sophie, Typhus, Ralph, Amanda, Deacon, and Tantus the carriage was a bit snug. Typhus was short but he was easily the widest. Ralph and Deacon were shoulder to shoulder and the ladies were each pushed against the wall near the windows. Typhus reached up and banged on the wood to let the coachman know they were ready to go.

“Master Deacon, perhaps now would be a good time to test the limits of my ability?” Alfred asked from the Dungeon Nucleus on Deacon’s lap.

“Agreed,” Deacon replied essentially dropping the nucleus on the floor since Tantus was preventing him from leaning forward.

The standard visual effect of Alfred’s material spread along the inside of the carriage. It covered the interior walls and windows, blacking out the glass. Within a flash they were all inside Deacon’s mansion again. Only this time they all fell on their rears since the bench seating was gone.

“Master Tantus, I believe your enchantment of the carriage has minimized the chances of a dimensional bubble rupture. That was an inspiring decision. I suspect my pocket dimension will hold with eighty-five percent efficacy. Better than my predictions,” Alfred said immediately materializing next to Tantus.

“What’s with the floor treatment?” Deacon asked dusting off his back side and standing up.

“I’m surprised you didn’t materialize inside a wall considering you triggered the change while in motion,” replied Alfred.

“Wait, What? Who gave you permission to gamble with our lives like that, Deacon!?” shrieked Amanda reaching for Deacon’s throat before Ralph feebly restrained her.

“Bit of an overreaction there. Look this will make traveling way more comfortable. We’ll even be able to do some training down in the field. Hey Alfred, do you think you could make the area around the door mimic what it looks like inside the carriage? That way we wouldn’t have to compress the dimension every time someone has a question or there is an issue,” Deacon asked before Sun Wu jumped out of his body and stretched like he’d been sitting in chair for hours.

“I’ll see what I can do. I don’t anticipate an issue,” Alfred said before Sun Wu draped an arm around Alfred’s shoulder.

“Not before finishing my temple, right?” Sun Wu asked waggling his eyebrows.

“Master Deacon, I mean really? The dragon at least kept quiet,” Alfred mumbled to himself.

“Hang on Sun Wu, let’s set ourselves up for the trip first and you won’t have much time to lounge around anyway. There is training to get to,” Deacon said like a child opening a new toy.

Three hours later Deacon, Tantus, and Ralph were standing on the thirty yard line of the training field dodging medium sized barrels thrown by Sun Wu. Deacon was not amused by Sun Wu’s attempt at training humor. Tantus was bruised and bloody. He’d threated to quit three times already citing this wasn’t necessary for his class. Ralph called him a chicken each time and Deacon had to separate them before another barrel came bouncing there way.

“Enough of this Sun Wu, you promised to train monkey style kung fu. There is nowhere else in this world we could possibly learn that. Plus, you are a master so the training time will be accelerated. You don’t intend to renege on your bargain, do you?” Deacon said and he felt a familiar dimensional pressure surround him. It was feint but he did feel it. That was the same time Sun Wu stopped conjuring barrels and shot over to Deacon.

“I will not. How dare you even say that? I have been training all three of you this whole time. Look,” Sun Wu said before crouching down into a fighting stance with his hands close to his chest with his thumbs pressed to the tips of his fingers. He then spun his arms in a wave to punch out at Tantus. Tantus immediately dodged to the left. Then Sun Wu tossed back his head and shoulders and kicked out at Ralph who dove to the right.

Deacon caught on quickly and jumped straight back as Sun Wu swung the top half of his torso using his waist as a fulcrum to double punch his fists where Deacon was just standing. Deacon then retaliated with a right hook that Sun Wu ducked under spreading his legs out in a new stance. This one had his left knee bent with his right leg stretched out on an angle with his toes pointing parallel to his body. His right arm was outstretched four fingers pointing to the sky thumb tucked while his left arm was bent up behind him hand posed in a claw shape.

“This is more like it,” Deacon said excitedly hopping up and down on the balls of his feet.

“I needed all three of you to be prepared. You are sparring with a deity, do not waste time with words. That one is a swordsman who is trained to parry not to dodge. If he parries my attacks, I will break his wrist. That one is a mage who isn’t trained for hand to hand combat at all. He would be the first to fall. You are the only one here capable of surviving my opening move. Now you are all capable. One mistake in the outside world could mean your doom,” Sun Wu explained taking a more relaxed stance.