by Skyler Grant
I’d have to be careful with my new power source, of course. None must know what I’d taken or how I’d gotten it. Publicly I had to be just one of a coalition that had done their part to try to stop a great threat. The Agate was too great a prize for any of the others to know existed.
A week passed and all was going exactly to plan. I’d even gotten footage of the Sword of Light and its final moments from a trade-ship that had been making its exit from the city at the time. I provided the information to the Righteous. If Boreas was torturing his prisoners it might be a cause for war between those two. I could hope.
What wasn’t working out to plan was the perception of my role in events. Caya was grateful for my saving her life and credited me with the plan that had ultimately taken down the Sword of Light—even if not as planned. A great many of the Divine credited me with working to defend their home, our home.
Two weeks after the Sword’s fall Caya took a knee before Anna and swore her allegiance and that of the city of Diamate. In a huge ceremony she wasn’t the first to swear that day. Anna had even dressed up, she looked ridiculous.
Upgrade Notification
Congratulations
Your hierarchal command structure has expanded to encompass multiple cities
New Classification
Province
All abilities have been upgraded
Superhuman upgrades unlocked
Appoint a new Aefwal administrator
It was an unexpected prompt. I could already feel myself starting to grow new processors located in Diamate. I thought Aefwal politics were bloody, my initial readings showed Caya had it far worse.
A problem for another time. I needed to appoint a new administrator for Aefwal and ideally it should be one of the existing District Lords. I also got the sense it should be one of the more powerful, I had four who fit that bill.
Jade had absorbed Ares’ core and while her decades of rebellion had seemed pointless I respected what she’d done since Sylax had been overthrown. Ophelia had consumed Bast’s core and was weak-willed enough to be compliant, she was also home to Amy who I distrusted immensely. Crystal was ancient and strong and another upgrade core. Blank had proved her loyalty, but placing her in charge of the city would probably weaken every Powered there.
I had to rule out Blank and that left three.
I didn’t trust her, not really, but with Aefwal now housing the Agate I needed a schemer and manipulator in charge.
I promoted Crystal. Crystal must have been ready for it. The appointment to take over her district came only seconds later, Medusa.
I knew the name, one of the Children of Dust and one of Sylax’s students able to turn people to stone at a touch.
Only the Powered could claim a District, she must have enough.
We were a rising power now and I knew the Scholars well enough to understand what that meant. A fight would be coming. We’d be ready.
Coming Soon
The Province
There is a coming storm. Tensions between the Righteous and the Scholarium reach a new high and the threat of a devastating war between the core and the rim grows daily. It is a poor time to pick a fight, but Anna chooses the moment to wage a very personal war threatening to tear the newly formed Province apart.
Author Notes
This is book number four for a series I really didn’t think would have more than one. It is because of your input that this series exists, give yourself a cookie.
I’ve always been sad at the edge of the game map. That point where the world ends, the closed door of the houses that you can’t walk through. It is always sad when you hit that last level and there is no more advancement to be had.
I’m a fan of dungeon core and obviously while this series started out in the dungeon it is quickly becoming something more. I’m trying to remain true to the essence of the idea even while drifting away from the actual underground lair. Emma is powerful because her people are powerful, because of what she builds, how she upgrades, how her resources are placed. In these works now I’m trying to capture what might happen if the game didn’t end and those walls didn’t exist.
Emma keeps growing, keeps getting stronger. To her drones she is a thing both benevolent and terrifying. The ever-watchful eye that guides their lives and rules their destinies. They never know a moment of privacy and yet owe her for their very existence.
Those are the original notes. At the time I didn’t know there would be another four to go. Things just keep getting bigger, if you want to read the next four pick up that Omnibus.