Mordecai fell to his knees alongside Kazue and Moriko and took a deep shuddering breath as he tried to recover from the ritual. For the first time since he had awoken and fully assessed his situatioually felt safe. Desperation had driven him to turn himself into little more than a ghost. He'd e so close to death during the bonding that he had been relieved to verify that he wasn't one of the undead. Then a glimmer of hope, and the generosity of this young dungeon with problems of her own, and he now had a home, a core, and an avatar. Well, a partial core at least. All of his own magic was gone now, and it was only going to recharge at a trickle. He’d made sure to bahat in her favor, one of a few things he’d skewed that way for each of the women who’d helped him.

  Each of his wives.

  Wow, that hit differently wheually gave it a thought. Mordecai was old, and through his awakened avatars had known several lovers, somewhat fewer loves, and a sele of those he had called wife, even if they had never formally bonded. Now he had hijacked part of a sacred ritual in order to save his own selfish life, and formally bound himself with these two. So what else could he do but try and express the depth of his gratitude?

  So the a dungeon bowed his avatar low before Moriko and Kazue. “Thank you, truly. You have both given of yourselves, one first to save me, the other to then help give me more freedom in this world. You’ve trusted me, and I will absolutely do my best to make both of you happy. I-” Shock cut him off as he felt a presence of terrible strength suddenly approag. He may not know this particur aura, but a Divine Presence was a hard thing to nnize once you’ve felt it. “Oh shit.”

  As soon as those words slipped out of his mouth, Mordecai had a sudden sinking suspi of who was ing. Moriko had already used the swear "Oh by The Twins" so he khat they, and probably the rest of the Empyreal Pilrs, were still worshipped in this area. Kazue was a kitsune shrine maiden who had been saved by her goddess, and most kitsune followed either The Twins: Amirume and Mericume; or their respective children: Sakiya and Ozuran. That meant Kazue's goddess robably one of the twins, and said goddess would want to protect her handiwork, leaving only the question of whie Kazue worshiped.

  Which sister would actually be worse in this sario was debatable, but the sensation of wild night and growing darkness pretty muarrowed it down to one, Mericume, the goddess of the moons. Arguably, only one of the three was strictly hers, but it took a very foolish sort of person tue such matters with a goddess. “Okay, let me take the brunt of whatever is to e. Be polite, nice, and above all, humble. I think I just pissed off a goddess, let’s not make it any worse.” He sent over their link, then turo face the entrand did his best to not grit his teeth as he prostrated himself once more.

  Humbling himself to his new wives hadn’t grated at all. It was sihankfulness, and he hadn’t been able to think of a better way to show everything he was feeling. This humbling he was doing now was absolutely a ploy, being ingratiating out of y rather than because he wao express himself. Despite being an a and powerful dungeoried to not be too proud of a being, but this certainly stung his ego.

  Moriko and Kazue were a little fused, but in this sario, Kazue was quicker to cat and matched him, with Moriko following soon after. Good, he didn’t want to be distracted by trying to expihing right now. It also meant that they trusted him, so let's not screw it up, right?

  Moments ter their approag visitor was visible to Kazue and Mordecai through their dungeon senses, which they now shared. A tall kitsune woman with pure bck hair and tails stalked forward out of the shadow of a boulder by the dungeorance. All nine of her tails arced upward, sparking with elemental energies that danced in different fvors of foxfire along their tips. Her fingers were crooked to allow her nails to grow into wicked cws, with her right hand wreathed in the silvery light of the moon and her left dripping with the darkness of the void itself. Yep, she issed.

  It made him itch as her gre swept over the denizens of the dungeon, analyzing everything iail even in her rage, and he could tell Kazue felt the same itch. Oh hells, being evaluated by her teically ted as a challenge, he could feel the mana reserves of the dungeon filling with the bination of that and the energy her presence leaked. To bleed off the excess and prevent any acts, he quickly sent Kazue a few hastily sketched ideas on how to create interected warreween the rooms, as well as how to just send energy into her rabbit moo make them stronger but without ging them much. They didn’t want to do anything drastic, but this was not the time to let overflowing energy run rampant. He had to trust her to ha though, as most of the dungeon was in her trol.

  The goddess's avatar quickly swept through the small, one-floor dungeon. Though only a small splinter of a nigh-infinite being, even a god's avatar was incredibly powerful. A mortal would be able to face down dragons before they'd have been strong enough to make trouble for the avatar of a primogey. At the height of Mordecai's power, he might have been able to test against one in his dungeon's territory, though he'd rather have not risked it. Now? They were simply helpless.

  Which did make him wonder why she'd chosen to use a full avatar instead of a; it was plete overkill. But the goddess embodying the primal wildness of nature was known to be impulsive, to say the least.

  The cavern passageway crooked a couple of times so at least it wasn’t a straight path, but it was clear Kazue hadn’t put much thought into her yout. Wheraged visitor stepped through the final archway, her gaze quickly took in the room and locked onto the two-toned dungeon core. “What have you two doo my sweet little dungeon?” She hissed at Mordecai and Moriko. “And what did you do to that lovely little struct familiar I gave to her?”

  Oops. Maybe he shouldn’t have ‘eaten’ it. But the book hadly beeient, and Kazue had spent more time gring at it than refereng it. “My apologies for that Lady Mericume, that was my fault, I did not think out all the ramifications of my ritual, and it was subsumed in p the ritual. Kazue was truly gracious in her kindness and agreed to a ritual that had to be performed with haste.” He could feel a sudden spurt of annoyance from his kitsune as she realized her book was gone, but at the moment that quailed in the face of her goddess's wrath.

  The goddess had tilted her head to the side when he had spoken, and her gaze had slowly moved to nd on him. He felt himself analyzed at a level he couldn’t describe, and knew, in his heart, that she could just erase him with barely an effort. “Mor-de-cai.” The way she drew out his name in an almost g fashion might be more terrifying than anything else she’d done so far. “I had no idea you were still alive, though I am very much sideriifying that ht.” Theiced the ring on his finger, now a band of entwined purple and gold crystal. That was more than enough for her to put everything else together.

  “You married her so that you could fuse your core to hers? No, you tied all three of you together; how did you get another mortal roped into this too? I should just destroy you, but you’ve already tangled yourself up too deep to make it safe for either of them. Hmm, maybe if I unraveled you slowly, that would free them carefully enough. What do you think, Mordecai? Why shouldn’t I just start ripping off pieces of your soul and vert them into mana until my sweet little temple maiden is sed of your presence?” Mericume had crouched down to grab his hair, and yanked his head up.

  Mordecai retty certain she wouldn’t actually do that. Wantonly destroying a soul was sidered one of the worst sins, even fods. But she was rather angry, so he wasn’t pletely certain. “My dy, I promise you I will do everything I to help her and make her happy. I truly wao be safe and feel at peace here.”

  "At Peace?" Those st words caused Mericume to freeze a moment before releasing his hair. “Wait, where were you before? How could you have possibly gotten here?” The sparks of foxfire had suddenly stopped, and her hands ceased glowing as she rose and looked around again. “Ah, so, you came here by riding in the half-elf ... and she came up from ... over there.” She focused her gaze orap dn the intervening stone walls. “So, you were down…” and her gaze dropped to peer through the very earth until she found what she was looking for, “directly below Kazue. Which is how this o mixed up with you in the first pce.”

  For a moment the goddess’s tails and ears drooped, which rather discerted Mordecai. Then she sighed and shook her head to gather herself before turning to face the group. “Well, I o remember that making prophecies is not my forte, and if you try and press a Fate onto this reality too hard, it pushes back. Apologies, it seems to be my fault that you two are stuck with this stubborn idiot. You both get on your feet now. But not you Mordecai. I want something from you.” That didn’t sound promising, especially not with that wicked smile growing across her face. “A promise isn’t going to satisfy me.” Oh no. “Instead, I want to Witness you swearing an Oath. In His name.” Mordecai could hear every capital added to that sentence, and they both certainly knew who she was referring to. The Lord of Shadows. Gah, he didn’t even want to think of the name right now. “Go on, I’m sure that my son would be pleased to hear from his once favored Dungeon.” Crap.

  Well, nothing for it. Maybe it was better to face the musiow anyway. “Very well. I, Mordecai, do son the name of Ozuran that I will dedicate my life to making my wives happy, to keeping them as safe as they wish to be, and to truly care for them in all the ways I . They have already given enough of themselves for my sake that I only hope this will eventually bring us to bance.” He wasn’t foolish enough to say ‘love’ when he’d known them for so short a time, but he would certainly do his best to foster it in all of them.

  Ow. Mordecai could feel the words and i of the oath tg onto his soul in a nearly violent manner. Normally a binding oath didn’t hurt, but given the circumstances … he sighed as he watched the shadows deepening even further in the room. There was another kitsune avatar there now, and with his fair skin and dark hair and tails, he was very much a refle of his mother. Except his eyes were lit with a tone of molten gold not unlike Mordecai’s own, and for simir cause.

  “You.” The tone was ft as Ozuran stared at Mordecai’s avatar.

  And now the dungeon hosted avatars of two of The Empyreal Pilrs. Somehow, Mordecai didn't quite feel honored.

  Zagaroth