A Demon's Core

I do not usually think much of it when Marble takes off from her place on the roof. It usually just means she is going out hunting, either for food or to chase down one of the flying lizards the vak use for scouting, assuming Igneous does not go after it first. Now that I think about it, it has been a while since we last saw one of those. We usually see one every three or four days, but now it has been about a week since the last one showed up so we are overdue. It would be nice if the vak would just stop sending them altogether as it would be one less thing for me to worry about, but I do not want to get my hopes up about something like that.

When Marble returns, she does not return to her normal place on the roof, but instead enters the stairwell. This does catch my attention as she rarely comes inside without specifically being requested to do so. Even when she catches one of the scouts, she will usually just eat it herself after removing its harness and leave the camera aside for an imp to bring down later, or she will hand the whole thing off to whatever imps happen to be on the roof at the time.

I do not have any vision in the stairwell above the fifth floor so I just have to wait for her to get down here to find out what is going on. I idly wonder if it is related to the strange buzzing thing that Calyx and Lily reported over the radio. Given the timing between when they reported and when Marble took off, it is plausible.

When she finally reaches the fifth floor and enters the hallway, it is easy to see why she felt it was worth coming down herself. She is carrying a heavily damaged machine that looks to be made primarily of plastic and metal that I can not see as being anything other than some kind of observation drone. It is big enough that she is standing upright as she walks so she can carry it with both hands, looking to be almost as wide in diameter as an imp is tall. A few imps trail behind her, having followed her down from the roof, curious about what she had found.

With a circular main body and six limbs evenly spaced around its circumference, though one of them is bent out of shape and many of the propeller blades are damaged or missing. Many of the plastic parts are cracked and broken, revealing the electronics beneath. It has really taken quite a beating.

I ask Marble what happened and she shows me a series of images of chasing down the drone and beating it with a large stick. I experience a fuzzy sensation when she tries to express what she felt when she first touched it. It resulted in a slightly uncomfortable tingling in my arm as she shares the memory of the pain of that moment.

Thank you for doing this. Your vigilance in protecting us is appreciated. Can you please take it to the core room?

Marble nods and carries the drone where I directed and places it next to my chair before retreating back to her place on the roof. The imps who came down with her gathered around the drone to inspect it and play with the propellers that are still intact, spinning them around.

This seems like something I should probably inform William about. If someone is flying drones like this around the city to spy on us, it is something his superiors would probably want to know about. Of course, there is always the possibility that they were the ones who sent the drone, in which case, I could try demanding an explanation, assuming they would actually admit to it. Even though William is coming here tomorrow and I could just show it to him then, this might be a little too important to wait that long.

If I am going to contact him, I will need someone to operate the radio, preferably someone who knows a bit of English. Even if Violet is not as proficient as Rose, I believe she can handle this task. She went out a while ago with her sister and a few others and has yet to return, but it is a simple matter to call her back.

Violet, would please come back now? I need your help to call William on the radio.

'Okay, I'll be there soon,' she replies.

When she returns, accompanied by Coal, she heads straight for the core room where the radio is and gets distracted by the drone as soon as she spots it.

"Oh, what's this?" She asks poking at one of the propeller blades, then spinning it around when she sees how it moves.

That is what I want to talk to William about. It is an observation drone that Marble caught.

"What's it do?" She inquiries next.

It flies around observing things and presumably sending information back to whoever sent it.

"Is it broken?"

Yes, Marble had to give it a good beating before she brought it in.

Violet moves over to the radio, climbs up onto the chair and plugs in the microphone. We should probably use the emergency frequency, like we did when we found the flying lizard scout as this seems just as important, if not more so. I instruct Violet to tune the radio to the appropriate frequency and she stares at it blankly for a moment.

"How do I do that again?" She asks.

That is not unexpected as it is usually Rose who operates the radio when we need to contact the humans.

Rotate the large dial in the middle.

Once properly tuned, Violet presses down the transmit button and speaks.

"Hello humans, you hear me?" She says cheerfully.

"Loud and clear. Are you calling on Magetam's behalf? Over," Comes the reply from the speaker.

I translate for Violet and instruct her on how to respond.

"I want to talk to William Blake," she says slowly.

"One moment please." The radio is silent for a while before the speaker continues. "He's out of the office at the moment, but I've been told he will be back soon. Are you calling for something urgent and do you need to speak to Mr. Blake specifically about it?"

I do not think it is urgent enough that it needs to be dealt with this very second and I would rather speak with someone I already know and somewhat trust than dealing with someone new so I have Violet tell them that we will wait.

While we are waiting though, a different voice rings out from the speaker.

"Am I addressing Magentam?" A gruff voice asks.

Violet frowns at the radio.

"That's not William is it?" She questions.

No. It is not.

The voice was a little deeper than William's and did not sound like any that I recognise. After some private deliberation, I decide that we might as well ask who it is at least.

"Who is speaking?" I have Violet ask.

"Major Adrian Taylor. Director of the local branch of the Dungeon Management Office. I am William's direct superior. I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself and since you called on the emergency frequency, I assume you have something important to discuss. Since William isn't here yet, would you mind discussing it with me instead?"

While I cannot deny the potential benefit of making a connection with someone of higher station than William, he has previously mentioned that some of his superiors want to come and take my core by force with no care for diplomacy. Until I can confirm this 'Adrian Taylor's' position on the matter, it might be safer not to get involved with him more than necessary.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"We will wait," Violet repeats.

I expected some kind of push back, but they did not persist further. Instead we just wait until we eventually hear from William.

"Hey Magentam, it's William. I heard you wanted to talk to me?"

"We caught a drone, it yours?" Violet reports.

"By 'drone', you're referring to a small, unmanned flying machine, right?" William inquires.

"Yes," Violet confirms.

"Can you describe it?" He requests.

I guide Violet though giving a description of the drone as best I can and when we are done, there is a pause in the conversation as we wait for a reply.

"Would I be correct in assuming that it was Marble or Igneous that caught it?" He inquires.

"Yes."

"Did it do anything to them?"

I remember what Marble shared of the pain she experienced in her arm when she first grabbed it and have Violet relay a brief explanation of it. There is another extended pause before William speaks again.

"Is it still functioning? Please tell me you actually made sure it was shut down before bringing it into the dungeon," William implores, his tone taking on a serious edge.

"Marble broke it," Violet replies.

"Well, I hope she was thorough. I'm coming over now. To be safe, it is probably best to put the drone somewhere where it is not inside the dungeon until I get there," he advises.

"Why?"

"I'll explain when I get there, just trust me. I'll see you soon."

With that, we are back to waiting again. I examine the drone and think about what to do with it. Insisting we take it out of the dungeon seems like an odd request, but he sounded pretty serious and I doubt he would tell us to do something like that without a good reason, so I ask Violet to drag it to one of the unclaimed rooms across the hallway.

Not long after that, William arrives by car and parks right in front of the building's main entrance. After climbing the stairs, he asks to see the drone right away so I have Violet lead him to it. He disappears from my sight for a few minutes when he enters the room Violet dragged it into and when he returns, he is holding the drone with a grim look.

"This is what I was afraid of," he laments.

What is it?

"Remember when you caught the flying lizard the first time and we told you about how the vak sometimes use high-tech drones for scouting? This is one of them," he says, leaning the drone against the wall.

When he puts it down, Violet continues playing with the propeller blades, spinning them around and giggling quietly.

You are certain?

"Yeah, I was already pretty sure of it when you said it hurt Marble just from touching it, but seeing it in person, there's no doubt," he confirms.

What exactly did it do to Marble? She said it hurt her arm but was not able to provide much more detail than that.

"Just an electric shock. Something they can do to deter animals from interfering with them. There aren't a lot of birds on earth who would mess with drones of this size, but it's presumably more of an issue in their world so it's just built in as a standard feature," William explains.

I see. Why did you insist that it be taken out of the dungeon?

"That would be because of another standard feature. Drones like this have sensors specifically tuned to react to dungeons. If those sensors were still active when you brought it in, it would have alerted whoever was controlling the drone."

Were they?

"I don't know. Marble did a real number on it, which made it easy to open up its casing. Inside, I saw a small blinking light, which means at least one component still had power. I made sure it was fully shut down now, but I don't know what was still functioning or if it was still capable of transmitting anything," he admitted.

So it is possible that the vak know exactly where we are now, is that what you are saying?

"Not specifically, they don't have precise GPS tracking capabilities here, as far as we know, so the best they are likely to have is confirmation that the dungeon exists and a general direction. The cameras are pretty busted too, so we don't have to worry about them getting footage of anything after Marble took it down either," William clarified.

If what he is saying is true, we can be thankful for small mercies I suppose, but this still raises some serious concerns. Even if the dungeon has not been revealed to the vak, at the very least, they now know about the imps and hellhounds being in the city. I do not know how they will react to that, but from what I have heard about the vak, I cannot imagine it will be good for us. I had always known it would probably happen eventually, but I had hoped we would be in a more secure position before it happened.

When I am quiet for a while William continues.

"I need to get back to report this. If the vak are showing increased interest in this city again, then we need to prepare. Do you mind if I take the drone back with me, see if there's anything more we can learn from it?" he requests.

As long as you agree to share anything you learn that might be relevant to us.

"Of course, thanks. If you encounter any more, you'd probably be better off just destroying them and not bringing them back here," he warns as he picks up the drone.

As he heads towards the stairwell, he stops just before the door.

"Oh, one more thing. Director Taylor wants to know if you'd be willing to meet with him in person, or at least as 'in person' as you usually do," he says.

Why?

"I guess after everything I've said in my reports, he probably wants to meet you for himself and make his own judgement."

Is he trustworthy?

"I think so," William answers without hesitation. "I've known him most of my life, he's a good man and usually reasonable. Plus with his rank, if you can get him on your side, his words will carry a lot more weight than mine in convincing others."

I will consider it.

"Great. I'll be back tomorrow to help with sealing the elevators and deliver more of the stuff you asked for. Actually since I'm here, there's one thing I can tell you now instead of waiting to say it tomorrow. I heard back from my contact… The Honey Badgers have agreed to send a representative to meet with you," he reports.

When will they be coming?

"They didn't specify, though I can't imagine you'll have to wait too long. I still think it's a terrible idea to be dealing with them, by the way. Would you at least tell me what it is you want to hire them for?" William implores.

No. I think it is best you do not know for now. But if they can do the job, I am sure you will hear about it eventually.

"Figured as much. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's probably dangerous, so just be careful, alright?" He warns.

After that he departs, leaving me to worry about the future. If the vak are getting more serious about encroaching on this city, we may soon be forced to choose between allying ourselves with the humans or finally leaving this place and migrating to the orchard town, or possibly even somewhere else if that also proves unsuitable.

But that would only delay the inevitable confrontation. We cannot hide forever. There are also certain threats that would need to be dealt with first before we can consider a real alliance with the humans.