The City and the Dungeon

by Matthew Schmidt

  And then we were still silent.

  "You know what's going on?" I finally asked. "With what happened to Alice Black?"

  "No," she said.

  "Mind saying that over telepathy?" I asked.

  "Yes."

  "It's something to do with the Houses, isn't it?" Xavier asked. "Someone or something hunting House parties? They got your House's top levels, they got Alice Black..."

  "I can't tell you," Elise said.

  "Is it the Deep House?" Sampson asked.

  "I said I can't tell you," Elise said. "Listen, if you have to guess, start wondering why not one House whatsoever has mentioned something in public. Houses that sometimes—more than sometimes—hate each other's guts."

  "So it does have to do with the Houses," Xavier said eagerly.

  "I didn't say that."

  "It's times like this that I'm glad I didn't stay with you," Mical said. "Too much drama."

  "That can kill people," I said. "Hey, Elise?"

  "Yeah?"

  "If you want to leave," I said. "Don't worry about it. We can—"

  "No," Elise said. "Even if I could break the House contract at this point, I'm staying. The Blues article is trash. They should know better."

  "I'm sure they'll change their tune if you yell at them," Xavier suggested.

  "And give them more detail? Dungeon, no." She laughed, and then the rest of us did.

  "Why are you staying?" Mical asked. "I don't know what's happened, Elise, but I've never seen you this unhappy."

  "I've been this way for a while," Elise said quietly. "It just came up all at once." After another pause, she added, "Listen. I'm a blue now. I can't let some petty dispute prevent me from delving deeper. I have a duty to humanity and the Creator."

  "Is this why you asked me...?" Mical asked.

  "Basically," Elise said, and to the rest of us. "A private matter."

  Please, Xavier, I thought.

  I won't, he protested. "Why are we all staying, by the way?" he asked aloud. "This is going to sound pathetic, but I, since a child, wanted to do magic. Then I realized that if I can get to Master of Magic, I can cast any spell. And... I don't know how to put it, but that's what I want."

  "I think you put it well," Elise said. "It's OK to have dreams."

  "It's fun," Sampson said. "Why not? What's better in life than to be with your friends?"

  "I'm here to send money home," I said. And I hadn't done that in a while. A long while. I know. "Andy, how about you?"

  "I want to find my parents."

  Oh. Oh. "Do you know what Floor they were last on?" I asked.

  "They Dug for Victory and didn't come back." Andy did not appear distressed by telling us this. Perhaps the tragedy was too old.

  "We can totally rove the 25th by ourselves," Elise said.

  "I'll get a heartstone scrying spell," Xavier said. "Or just another seekerstone. We can do this."

  "I need to send something home," I said. "But there's no reason we can't do this immediately."

  I have never seen Andy smile so brightly.

  * * *

  I fidgeted with the blue crystal on my way to the teller. I went back and forth—and forth. My reasoning, in the end, was this: how could I be rich, knowing my family was not?

  "I'd like to send this to my family," I said, and set the crystal on the counter.

  The clerk looked at it with a neutral expression—a forced neutral expression. "I am sorry, sir, but our service does not permit crystals beyond ten yellow to be sold and transported."

  I raised an eyebrow. "But there's nothing stopping me from walking over there—," I gestured to the FOREX room, "—and selling this, anyway, correct?"

  "Perhaps you would like to speak to an officer of the Bank?"

  I considered arguing, but decided clerks like him dealt with enough trash from high spectrum delvers as it was. "I would, indeed."

  "One moment, sir," he said, and his face went through a short telepathy conversation.

  I waited silently until two liveried green delvers came down the stairs. Guards in all but name, I'm sure—who would hire a green as an attendant? "Mr. Kenderman? If you would kindly come this way.

  * * *

  The officer had a pure white Lawful aura, if with no gold. Most likely he was someone who had never committed a Chaotic action, but hadn't gone slayer hunting, either. He appeared older, the stately gray hair of the aged. Of course, he could have just swigged a bunch of cursed Potions of Youth—or had a number of complications. But his bearing was suitably tired. His expression had the eroded lines of someone who must deal with recalcitrant delvers on a daily basis.

  "Kevin Hussein," he introduced himself. With a name like Kevin Hussein, I knew he was from the Second America—or, less likely, was the City-born son of a man from the Middle East and someone from the West.

  "Alex Kenderman," I said. I tried not to be irritated at being thwarted by someone with a yellow aura.

  "Please, sir, if you would have a seat," he said. After I had done so, he sat behind his wide marble desk.

  "Is remittance now illegal?" I asked. "Or FOREX trading?"

  "We would rather advise you against an unwise action."

  "Unwise," I said with skepticism.

  "As I am sure you understand, we must trade the crystals you wish to remit for the currency of your homeland. If we, or you acting on your own, were to sell a blue crystal in a single transaction, it would crash the value of crystals against the gold dollar. It would clear almost the entire order book, except for certain traders who hold absurd bids in case of such eventualities. Long positions would produce massive profits, but short positions would be instantly liquidated, driving many traders into a massive loss. Indeed, you would anger a large number of delvers with such a transaction."

  "I see," I said. Actually, I didn't, but I had high enough Intelligence now to see through the market-speak. I would, in essence, become the rich delver buying shirts, except instead of shirts it was money.

  "Such large transactions are therefore not done, you see. In addition to destabilizing the market, it destabilizes the foreign countries to some extent. My apologies if my assumption is incorrect, but the gold dollars you would receive would be of little use to your family, as it would be some significant portion of the total supply—and likely crash the market there, too. Such interference with foreign countries is generally against the Law." Or, more accurately, the High Houses acted to prevent such, for reasons ranging from altruism to the desire to have stable markets to sell loot to. But I knew he was too polite to say that to a High House member. "As I said, it would be unwise."

  "Very well," I said. "How do I remit significant money to my family without destroying any markets?"

  "If you desire, sir, we would supply you with a personal broker, who would then purchase gold dollars in accordance with your wishes. In addition, for delvers of your spectrum, we would also provide you with a personal banker for ordinary transactions within the City."

  "Good," I said. "I'll do it."

  "Thank you, sir."

  * * *

  My broker wasn't particularly interested in me, rather, only money. My money.

  "Depending on how much you wish to invest, the FOREX market may be suboptimal," she told me. "I would also suggest shares in high-spectrum publicly traded parties."

  "I'm a member of a High House," I said.

  "Most Houses, including High House Black, have a stock purchase scheme for their liegemen. In addition, I would consider a wider portfolio, buying equity in other Houses, so that..."

  I wasn't listening. What would it mean to own a share in High House Black? That I owned part of it? That I owned part of their parties?

  That I owned a part of Alice Black?

  Or if we sold equity in my party, could she own a part of me?

  Too weird. Too weird.

  * * *

  I was still thinking about it on the 25th. I looked around at my party as we stood, panting, over th
e remains of a War Tree. Greater Heal Party. "That was my last heal," I said.

  "I hate to break this to you all," Xavier said, and winced as he said the next words. "It's been a whole delve, and we've searched just one section. We can't keep doing this." He turned to Andy. "I'm sorry." She didn't reply.

  "If we do one a day," Elise said. "We'll have to find them eventually." Yet none of us could ignore the obvious math. One section a day, with ten thousand sections..

  "There's nothing wrong with us doing one a day," I said. "Every time we go down to the Deep, we'll pick a section to pass through, and Xavier can scry. And there's no reason we can't put a bounty out. We can afford a huge one. Andy? Are you OK?"

  She didn't have any expression on her face. "Let's go back."

  * * *

  At least no one in the Quest office complained about a big bounty breaking the market. We each put in a large share. And yet I still felt it pathetic, as if the most we could do for Andy was to pass some money over the counter and hope for the best.

  So much talk of money had made me wonder, and later that day in the common room, I couldn't wonder any longer.

  "Elise?" I asked. "I hope this isn't offensive to ask, but what's life like on the street?"

  "Bad," Elise said. "Hoping every day you can make it to the next few, when your crystal runs out again. And it will. People do—anything they can to live. Sometimes even that isn't enough."

  "You never thought about going into the Dungeon?" I asked.

  "I did. I would die alone," Elise gave an uncaring shrug. "Even if I did, that doesn't mean others can. If you've had one too many complications... you know what happens when all of someone's stats are five or lower? She can equip basically nothing, she can't get a job anywhere, and the Dungeon would just kill her again. If she has lots of Health from a class, maybe she can be a meatshield for new delvers. But, of course, if she can't afford the crystal to support her higher spectrum..."

  "But..." I said. "A green is nothing to me. It would mean nothing to me if I just gave it away. I could feed the entire population just from my change."

  "Every time someone's suggested that the City do something," Elise said, "someone else says it won't work."

  "It won't work," Alice Black called from the other side of the room, and walked to us with no small ire in her steps. I decided whatever discussion she and Seth Black had had with Elise must not been a peaceful one. "The economy won't handle it. If everyone had more money, the shops would have higher prices, and no progress would be made of it."

  "But no one would die of crystal loss," Xavier said.

  "Sure, but deaths would be permanent since revives would be even farther out of reach for new delvers. You can't increase the number of revivalists simply by dumping crystal on the market—far from it. Why bother to work at all, if you eat for free?"

  Sampson shrugged. "But why not only give crystal to those who need it?"

  "And who defines that?" Alice Black asked. "No money in one's Bank accounts? People will just empty their accounts. Or buy gear. Or buy foreign currencies. And then let the new money come in. Hyperinflation would be inevitable."

  Elise rolled her eyes. "And so the City does nothing," she said.

  "There are the booths," Alice Black said.

  "Sure. Now how many beggar boxes—I'm sorry, charity stations—do you see on a street?" Elise asked.

  "Two?" I asked. "There are some on the corners."

  "Sure, two. How many streets are there in the City?"

  "Hundreds?"

  "In that ballpark," Xavier said. "I read the statistics a while back, but the City keeps changing."

  "Call it five hundred," Elise said. "You can get a permit to use a beggar box for an hour, and they're open for ten hours. Now how many slots are there for begging?"

  High Intelligence gave me the answer in an instant. "Ten thousand," I said.

  "'Bout right. How many beggars are there in the City?"

  "Oh," I said.

  "That's right," Elise said. "Because the City can't bear to have its hands dirty, it makes hundreds of thousands fight over a schedule that can only fit ten thousand. And the Bureau is awful. You stand outside in the darkness, waiting in line, only to be told by some green that won't even look at you that they're out of room. Even if you get that box, you better hope you get fifty times what you need, in that hour, because you won't get another for a month—if you're lucky. If not, you'll eventually starve, or have to find one of the... other ways to get crystal."

  Alice Black went through several phases of frowns, until she quietly said, "That's horrible."

  "It's life," Elise said.

  "Can't—can't the City make some kind of distribution system?" Sampson asked.

  "I've already explained why that wouldn't work," Alice Black said, but with less enthusiasm.

  "And the RDU does nothing?" Xavier asked.

  "Why would the RDU care?" Elise asked. "It makes its money off red delvers paying dues. It's all in favor of delvers going downstairs—whether or not they come back out."

  "That's untrue," Alice Black stated. "I've met many RDU leaders who really do care about the red delvers."

  "And so... they do nothing?" Elise asked.

  I could sense the next argument between them brewing, so I interrupted. "It's not like any of us are red delvers, either. I mean, sure, we were red delvers once, but—"

  "For some of us, it was worse." With that, Elise got up and stomped away. Andy followed after a moment.

  Alice Black continued her frown and walked off with a troubled step.

  "Guess it's just us guys," Xavier said.

  "So, shall we talk about girls?" Sampson asked.

  "Please, please, don't," I said.

  Chapter Twenty-Two:

  Seth Black

  "What do you mean, it doesn't count?" I asked Anthony. "We're blue. Isn't that enough for us to enter the Deep by ourselves?"

  "A lucky survival of a summonstorm does not competence make," Anthony said. "Which you survived, I note, because you were with several delvers much higher spectrum than you."

  "Fine," I said. "What does it take, killing the 30th Boss?"

  "Precisely. So..." Anthony flipped through the papers. "Alice, Adrianne, and Adam Black are in the deeper Deep with optimization experiments. Isaac..." he flipped through some more. "Just missing. Figures. Told him he should stop doing that. What if he doesn't return? And I, as it happens, am too busy. You'll have to wait, I suppose."

  "What about our indigo parties?" I asked.

  "Are parties, and won't be the most interested in dragging some blues along. They're busy enough as-is."

  "Excuse me," Seth Black said, stepping into the office behind us. "I do have business in the Undercity. It would be no great difficulty for me to accompany you."

  Whoa. "Thank you, sir," I said. "That would be great."

  "You will have to prepare immediately. The business is, well, urgent."

  * * *

  Black Seraphim have a class feature called Aeviternal Fire, which allows their fire spells and attacks to pierce any resistance or immunity. Needless to say it's absurdly powerful. Though the tiers we give to subclasses are somewhat arbitrary, there aren't many who would put Black Seraph anywhere else but Tier Zero.

  That he could teleport us directly to the 25th Floor wasn't a class feature of Black Seraphim. "I find Master of Magic to be an incredibly useful utility class," Seth Black said. "I have also found it useful in learning fire spells."

  "I'm actually building for it, too, sir," Xavier said.

  "Perhaps for similar reasons, then? One moment." In a flash of burning black I saw six black wings grow from his back. The upper pair covered his face, the lower pair covered his feet, and with a single flap of the middle pair he was aloft. All around him were flames—but burning in reverse, as if collecting light rather than giving it. "Let us be on our way."

  * * *

  Seth Black was not interested in searching for any chest
s. To be fair, no loot would have been worth it to him short a violet chest, and that would be a rare spawn this early in the Deep.

  Nor was he that interested in conversation. I think we were all a little too afraid to talk to him—except Elise.

  "Sir," Elise said.

  "Yes, Ms. Purple?"