Chapter Three-Hundred Ninety-Seven (Patreon)

Well that’s not ominous at all.  Especially not with Tiny suddenly wanting my attention, too.  Teemo?

“On it, Boss.  I’ll be back in a few minutes, Rezlar.  Tiny needs something, and I bet it has to do with whatever you saw.”

The elf looks uncomfortable, but simply nods in reply before turning his attention back to my core.  His eyes don’t unfocus and he doesn’t go still, so he’s probably just appreciating the view, rather than another vision.

It takes Teemo all of a few seconds to slip through a shortcut to Tiny’s nest in the hedge maze, where my largest scions awaits.  He still looks pretty calm, though I can feel quite a bit of caution through the bond.  He chitters at Teemo at length, before my Voice finally starts translating.

“He says he felt a disturbance in the weave, a lot of threads moving and shifting.  He doesn’t look close enough to change things, but he can feel when something big changes, like a fly getting trapped in a web is more felt than seen by a spider.  And whatever is going on, it feels big.”

I mentally sigh at that.  It’d make sense for it to be big.  From what Rezlar said, it’s related to whatever made the Harbinger.  And Order confirmed it was the Betrayer that made the Harbinger.  So… yeah, probably pretty big.  Does he have any advice?

Teemo shakes his head.  “Not yet, anyway.  He says, as far as he can tell, it’s trying to observe before taking any action.”

Hmm… I would have expected it to try to come and destroy us.  But if this Betrayer is as clever and patient as it’s supposed to be, it’d know just attacking like that would draw way too many eyes.  It’s trying to pretend it’s still shackled, so it’s probably safer for it if we think it can only look, not act.  Even if we know the Harbinger belonged to it, it was just one monster.  Well, and its spawner.  Would it expect us to discover the bit about the stagnation in the spawner?  Hard to say.

If it had a few more Harbingers handy, I’d still expect it to attack, if only because I’ve proven I can beat them.  But if they’re too far away, it’s probably better off watching and waiting.

…I don’t like having my own sneaky approach used against me.  I know just how effective it is.

Rezlar said he found a tendril out at sea to follow back.  We need to give Hullbreak a heads up and get him to fortify.  There’s a fair bit of mana in the ally pool he can use, too.  And I should get to work on my blank spawner.  I just need to figure out how to get some amber.

Teemo, would you ask Rezlar?  Something shiny like amber should be something a noble would know more about than most, right?

Teemo shrugs.  “Maybe.  I should let him know about what he saw, too.”

Yeah.

My Voice heads back to the Sanctum, where Rezlar is looking over the books, trying to pick one out to read.  Or at least pretending to.  He drops the act once Teemo shows up.

“Is everything ok?” he asks, clearly worried.

“For now, yeah.  I forget if we told you, but the Harbinger was made by what Order called the Betrayer, some ancient dungeon that tried to wipe out the world way back when.  Before you panic, it’s shackled, though not as securely as once hoped.”

“That sounds like a good reason to panic,” points out Rezlar, trying to not freak out.

“Maybe, but it can’t act openly.  Tiny says it’s going to be watching, but we know how it works, so we can keep an eye out for any weird invaders or anything else suspicious.  We need to help out Hullbreak to make sure he can handle if the Betrayer does try anything, though.  We have a lot of mana in the ally pool, and the Boss has a special project he’s paused, but now needs to get back in motion.  And for that, he needs amber.”

Rezlar gives Teemo a confused look.  “Amber?”

Teemo chuckles and nods.  “It’s probably his weirdest idea yet, but yeah.  Specifically, he needs amber with a mosquito in it.”

Rezlar looks confused for a few more moments before he speaks.  “Have you asked Hullbreak?”

Now it's my and Teemo’s turn to be confused.  “Hullbreak?  Why would he have any?  Did they used to ship amber in from overseas?”

Rezlar shakes his head.  “No.  Well, maybe, but pieces of amber occasionally wash up on shore.”

“Yeah?  Sounds like I need to get going, then.  Not just to warn Hullbreak, but to see about some amber.  If we can get some, he might be able to be the second dungeon with Boss’ new creature type.”

Rezlar’s eyes widen.  “A new type?”

My voice smirks.  “Yep.  Told you it was weird, even for him.  Anyway, I’ll be back later.  I’ll ask Aranya to stop by before I head for Hullbreak, in case you need anything, yeah?”

Rezlar absently nods and sits at one of the chairs, trying to wrap his mind around the idea of me coming up with a whole new creature type.

True to his word, Teemo pops in next to Aranya who’s still in the cathedral, and lets her know to come see Rezlar when she gets the chance.  She’s going to be very busy soon, once the news of Rezlar’s ‘demise’ spreads.  That done, he heads back into the shortcut, eats a couple alchemical ants with water affinity potion in them, and quickly makes his way to Hullbreak, where the First Mate is already waiting for him.

“Teemo.  The Captain says the Admiral has something important to discuss?"

He nods.  “Yeah.”  He glances around to make sure there’s no delvers nearby, and it looks like clear water as far as he can see.  “The short version is that the thing that attacked the Southwood might be coming after you, next.  Hullbreak should feel free to use whatever in the ally pool he needs, but he might want to hold off for the moment.  If he can help the Boss with something, he should get access to a very strong creature type.”

The First Mate looks concerned, and I can feel determination from Hullbreak.  It’s good they’re not worried, but rather looking ready to do whatever needs doing.  “What can the Captain help with?”

“Do you guys have any amber?”

The great white shark scion looks just as confused as Rezlar did.  “I… no?  He could make a node, but he hasn’t before.  Should he place a few?”

Teemo shakes his head.  “Rezlar says amber pieces sometimes wash up on shore.”

“Ah,” replies the First Mate.  “The dwellers like to use it as decoration and to trade with.  They had a small mine outside the Captain’s territory, but I don’t think they’ve returned to it yet.”

“Did they ever find some with bugs in it?”

The shark thinks for a few moments.  “I’m not sure.  I don’t recall seeing any, but I also never paid it too much attention.”

“Can we go talk with them, then?  Boss needs some amber with a mosquito in it for his thing to work.”

She nods and Teemo clings onto one of her fins as she makes for the enclave.  It’s been a while since I looked, and man, the place is looking a lot better now!  The merfolk are happily swimming around, doing things, people and coming and going, and I even see what have to be a few surface merchants haggling with the locals for goods.

I can feel Hullbreak swelling with pride at his enclave, as well as a tinge of regret for ever having put them in the poor state they were in when I first came here.  I pat the bond with encouragement.  He’s done good by them ever since he saw the truth.

“I don’t see Yendo around," comments Teemo, which earns a toothy smirk from the First Mate.

“He’s out exploring.  He’s been in contact with the Rangers, and I think he and his son are intending to do a similar job under the waves as they do in the surface wilds.”

“Cool.”

They swim through the enclave and to the kelp fields beyond, where Hullbreak keeps his Sanctum.  It’s not technically a secret like mine is, but good luck finding it through the dense kelp if you don’t know where to look.  What starts as a simple sea cave soon transitions to worked coral and a few bits of amber, which gets me excited for the possibilities.

The merfolk bow at the First Mate as she passes, and soon she enters the true Sanctum, with the tetrahedron that is Hullbreak’s core standing point down in an intricately carved pedestal.  And before said pedestal is the High Priest of Hullbreak, beaming at not only the First Mate, but Teemo, too.

“First Mate!  Honored Teemo! Welcome to the Captain’s Sanctum!”

Honored?

“Honored?”

The merfolk nods with a wide smile.  “Of course!  You helped fill the Captain’s sails and set Him on a proper course once more!  And He tells me you have need of us?”

Teemo nods as he lets go of the First Mate, letting him swim around on his own.  “Yeah.  We need some amber.”

“Our vault is open to you.  How much do you need?”

“Well… just one piece, actually, but it needs to be a specific one.  We need one with a mosquito in it.”

“A mosquito?  We do have several with some land creatures sealed in them.  They were a point of fascination before the disaster, and a forbidden treasure in the dark times.  Let us see if we have what you seek.”

He turns and leads the way deeper into the complex, and eventually into what must be the vault.  There’s a ton of weapons and armor on display, and works of art as well.  Deeper in are sea chests that must be full of gold and gems and stuff, and he stops at one of them and opens it, revealing amber with a bunch of different bugs inside!

Teemo dives in, and the priest accepts pieces as Teemo hands them out to make room to look around.  The butterfly one is probably the coolest, and Teemo even takes a few moments to appreciate it before continuing.

“That one was always my favorite, too.  I really should put it on display, instead of letting it sit in this chest.”  He starts making a small pile of ambers as Teemo continues to dig through them, picking the best poses to eventually put on some kind of display.

We don’t find what we’re looking for until Teemo gets down to the bottom, but we do find it.  It’s all scrunched up and difficult to tell, but it’s what we need.  Not only is it a mosquito, but Teemo can see the abdomen is swollen and slightly red.  It’s no fist sized chunk fit to sit on the end of someone’s cane, but rather just the size of a marble.

Teemo grins as he holds it up, much to the confusion of the priest and the First Mate.

“That one?” the High Priest asks.

“It’s probably the worst one in the whole chest,” points out the First Mate.

“Definitely this one,” confirms Teemo, because he can feel the resonance it has with my concept of a dinosaur.  It doesn’t matter that it probably doesn’t actually have dino dna.  I can tell I won’t need to mix it with a frog, either.  This is how you get a dinosaur.  Now I just need to use it.