Mordecai tried to not flinu the face of his god’s obvious displeasure. It didn't help that he could also feel across their shared bonds that Moriko and Kazue were displeased with how his past and present maations had attracted the disapproval of two gods. At least Ozuran was a lot less mercurial than his mreetings my lord.”

  “Shush for norove that you still have some modicum of self-restraint,” Ozuran replied. He then took in the room, noting both the physical and mystical signs of what had transpired, and then turo Mericume. “Mother, would you be so kind as to expin how this mess came to be?”

  The goddess sighed. “Well, it turns out that it was slightly my fault. But there was nothing interfering with their free wills; so only a little bit. I think we should start with Kazue there. She was one of my shrine maidens, and though sincere and sweet, she was never very good at it. Oh, she's a great artist and a fine dancer and singer, but more sedate rituals teo make her fall asleep.” Mordecai could feel Kazue’s misery at Mericume’s frank words, and a growing sense of mortification. So he sent a quick pulse of f emotions to her, to help ease her pain. Seeing Ozuran’s eyes flick toward him reminded Mordecai: tracts and bonds are very much Ozuran’s domain, so with him nearby there was not going to be any private unication this way.

  Mericume tinued without seeming to notice the hint of interruption, though he doubted that she had actually not noticed. “During a ceremony, she got very drunk on some rice wine and wandered out to the refle pool, got too fasated by my moon's refle, and fell in. Inebriated as she was, her water-logged clothes were too much for her, and she drowned. In shallow water.” She shrugged. “I couldn’t help but take pity on the poor thing. Resurre rituals are too expensive for most mortals, and I could feel the potential f for a living dungeon here, so I asked her soul if she’d like to have a more peaceful life. She accepted, I made a prophecy that turned out to be badly worded, but only if you interpret the nguage in a particur way, got her soul to bee the seed of the newborn dungeon, and created a magic book to be her familiar.” She shot Mordecai a gre.

  “Then apparently this half-elf… um, what was your name dear?” Mordecai was aware that Mericume could have chosen to know, but it seemed that she was choosing social ies now.

  “Moriko, my dy.”

  “Right then. Moriko came wandering in, and fell down a trap that somehow ected to a bunch of old tunnels, and nded in what was supposed to be his tomb. Looks like they made a pact that let him bond his soul to hers so he could escape with her, supercharged her temporarily, and climbed out. Then somehow vihis sweet little thing to help him out to get him a new body by merging his soul into her core.” Through all of this Mordecai could feel Kazue wanting to run away and hide in a er.

  Ozuran nodded “And it seems you wao judge him, seeing as how you had him swear that oath. Very well, but give me a moment; my sister and father have noticed I’m distracted.”

  “Of course dear. Give my niece my apologies, a your father know I’ll e and make up for your distra ter.” Mordecai suspected that Ozuran would rather not do that sed part. The Lord of Shadows was a touch more reserved than his mother or sister. His temperament was closer to that of his aunt’s. Ozuran closed his eyes a moment to focus his attention elsewhere, and when he opehem settled his gaze on Mordecai once more.

  “Very well, I’ll take care of this. Thank you fing this to my attention.” Ozuran and Mericume nodded farewells to each other, then the goddess slipped bato the shadows. “Now, as for you… where should I begin?” And here it es. Mordecai mentally braced for the oniure, one he kneell justified.

  “You are one of my followers. Supposedly a devotee even.” That st bit was ced with sarcasm, and well deserved; some of his avatars had acted as clerid champions for Ozuran. “Yet, when pushed to vengeanot only did you go past the bounds of the rules you had set for your own life, but also the divine rules that are part of the bance of being a living dungeon. You vioted oaths you made to me in order to seek retribution in the now and sought to salve your pain with violence.” Ozuran was beginning to paow, his frustration with Mordecai clear.

  “And it didn’t work, did it? You slew those who had tried to wipe out your bloodline, and a lot of others who were little better, but many people got caught up in your petty war that didn’t deserve it. And when your vengeance had run its course, you just retreated bato your core to sulk and ighe rest of the world. Do you know what you left behind? Not only shattered kingdoms and empires; no that is not the greatest of your sins. You left a different legacy too. The dragons you spawned using the Breach powers, the ones you designed solely for battle, born to a life of war; they were oside of your territory when that torrent of power faded. But there was energy to be found and you had not raised them to care about life. You had created them to kill. And to survive. So they did. They tie the nd to devour enough energy to endure, for you had not built them as stable life forms. Tyrants and kings alike sent their heroes, champions, armies, and whatever other forces they could muster from around the world; it was a matter of survival.”

  There was a w there that had caught Mordecai’s attention, making it harder to listen to the rest, but he forced himself to tuck that bit of hope away for ter. “We gods intervened and helped as much as we could of course; but too much divine force could have ravaged the world as thhly as what you unleashed, so we couldn’t just wipe them all away, as much as we wao. It was a disaster. Which is why I helped the priests desiguals that sealed you away." Ozuran's tone softened slightly. "And to the extent we could justify, amy was offered to most of your former inhabitants, though some were loyal to their very end, eveuries ter. Which I respect at least. So I took in their souls when they did eventually pass, and gave them safe harbor.”

  Ah, Mordecai had been w why he couldn’t feel the soul patterns of any of his former inhabitants. He hadn’t had the capacity to respawn them anyway, but he should have at least been able to find their souls.

  “And now here yain. You fed a sp-dash ritual in order to save your own sorry life, hijag a sacred ceremony in the process to help you possess this woman; thehat same cobbled-together spell to bond yourself to another young woman. Oh, and you then proceeded to eat her magic book. Am I missing anything about this messy cobweb?” rowled, waving his hand as his power coursed over the various threads of magiding them together.

  Mordecai couldn’t help but yelp when that power hit a certaiion. “Ow, careful!” Frozen hells, that hurt! He didn’t realize that the fail-safe hadn’t faded and merged into the rest of the bohat was enough for Ozuran to pause, then curl his hand towards himself as if examining a small puzzle. Oh, Mordecai could feel that deeply.

  “You didn’t tell them about this, did you? No, of course not. You are a special sort of idiot.” Ozuran sighed and released his grip on the web of soul bonds. “Ladies, you should know that the imbecile of a husband you are stuck with at least had the good grace to set himself up as the lin for a fail-safe. If anything had gone wrong with the ritual either time, he’s probably the only ohat would have been hurt or killed.”

  The ailed kitsune began pag again, then paused to peer closely at Mordecai. “Wait, you tweaked your avatar too. Hmm, no, not quite cheating; you paid a lot for that, didn’t you? None of your others are avaible to you anymore, not even your full dragon avatar. You’d have to create any new avatars from scratch, and you won’t be able to even think of doing that until our little dungeon maiden has a lot more capacity. Alright, I’ll let that pass.”

  Ozuran was thinking still, and none of the three particurly wao interrupt him, but Mordecai had to ask ohing. “My lord, there hrase you used earlier… ‘tried to’?” Did he dare let even a flicker of hope exist here?

  “Oh yes, you have desdants still. A few were survivors from the atta the town you founded; others were already living their lives elsewhere and mao go into hiding. One particur line was involved in founding the kingdom you are o, but no, none of the members of the royal family know of their e to you. And you’re lucky too; I already checked: her of your wives have any direct bloodline e.” Ozuran looked Mordecai directly in the eyes. “You didn’t think that part through back when you were making your little bargain with them, did you?”

  “No, my lord.” That was all Mordecai could say. Infernal fmes. He knew several bloodliion spells, and he hadn’t even thought about them. And there was quite the fluster of fused emotions ing through from the bonds. He couldn’t bme them for that.

  Ozuran nodded and tihinking out loud. “This is really quite a spectacur mess you’ve made. And it’s even more amazing that there was no backsh. Putting in a fail-safe like that increases the ces that something will give, as you should know. Absolutely insane luck.” Ozuran froze briefly, his head tilting to the side in a gesture simir to the one his mother had made earlier. “Oh, I think I see.” This wasn’t making Mordecai feel better. Watg Ozuran slowly smile like that might be making it worse even.

  “Alright, I’ll give you a sed o special punishments or curses. Doing anything else without hurting your two wives would be difficult at best anyway, and really, my mother shouldn't have directly intervened before she knew about you," The divine avatar shrugged wryly, "But she is known as the mercurial goddess of the moon for a reason. However, I’m expeg an old friend of ours to e visit me sometime soon. And then I tell him that the person he calls his ‘best, fu dungeon-friend ever’ has gotten back from vacation, and tell him where your new home is. I mean, at some level, he must already know, but it does make it easier for him this way.”

  It took Mordecai a few moments to ect the dots, but the phrasing about 'fu friend' was the key. “Wait, no, why are you getting him involved in this?”

  “Oh, but Mordecai, do you really think Li isn’t already involved? My mother may not have the focus for making the best prophecies, but for a transtion error to catch you up in it? That’s stretg ce, even if people were associating your story with ‘justice’ and the aftermath with a dark, grim sort of peace while everyo things back together again. No, I think our ratling friend simply missed an old panion. And this sort of twisted lud fate is exactly the kind of thing that happens with anything he's involved in.”

  Mordecai wao respond, but he just couldn’t think of a goument. He certainly didn’t have anything against Li personally, few did, and Mordecai sidered him a friend even, but Li's existence was a kind of chaos inated. “Well then, we’ll just have to make sure repared to greet him when he es to visit.”

  Ozuran nodded, “Agreed." He then paused a moment, studying Mordecai, "Your war not only killed enemies and is, but also those who should have been allies instead. If you had asked me for help, all of my devotees on this ti would have beeo aid you. Instead, they were trying to keep people alive against a swarm of monsters." Ozuran shook his head then sighed, "I hope you do a lot better this time. Please don't force me to make Li sad." Now he looked over to Kazue and Moriko, "Your husband will need your help as much as you will need his knowledge and power. Mordecai will be under scrutiny above that whiortals get." With that, he stepped iy space, leaving Mordecai to deal with a pair of intense gazes full of questions.

  Zagaroth