Even as Valterra gathered his Awareness, preparing to shift his attention to Geckodo, he felt the touch of something alien and yet familiar. His Awareness snapped to the tree and the presence he had felt. There, staring directly at his Awareness was a massive avian form. Its feathers were black to the point of appearing almost purple. Its beak seemed to be made of obsidian, and its eyes shone with wicked intelligence. No…he realized an instant later. Not just intelligence. Sapience.

  As if waiting for such a realization, the bird let out a croaking groan that nonetheless translated into words. “Rraakaah…Hello, son of my master. Kakakaka…It is good that you have come at last. There is much to discuss.”

  Valterra couldn’t blink in stunned disbelief, but he tried his best. The beast just perched there and let him recover his wits. What do you mean, ‘Son of my master’? The Core finally said, letting his Awareness rise until he surrounded the large avian. If the beast was concerned by such attention, it didn’t show it. Its feathers barely rustled at the Aether that flowed around it.

  “Krekah…I sense the echoes of my master in you. You carry aspects of his presence within your Spark nature. It is clear you are his creation…Kakaka. My master was clear that whatever came after him, he would consider his child, and your soul is distinctly male. Thus, you are his son.”

  Valterra simply stared at the creature for a moment more before asking the next pressing question. How did Calamvor come to be your master? If you don’t mind me saying so, you are not natural to this area, I would imagine.

  “Kekeke…I am more natural than you suppose, though you are correct, at my stage of Ascension, even this Location of Power is hard-pressed to keep me fed. I cannot move much at all for fear of starving. If I left, I would need to fly far…Krakah…to find the sustenance I would need.” The large bird dipped its head in a bobbing motion that Valterra found strange but humorous. “Rraaaa…But as for how I came to be the servant of your father…well…that is a story, albeit a relatively quick one.”

  The bird fixed an eye on a strand of Valterra’s Awareness before speaking further in its strange manner. “Your father was a mighty magus and high in the echelons of power before he came to this place…Krakaaah. He quickly erected his wards and began his experiments, unknowingly straying into places he had no right to be in. In short...Kekekeke...he met the Fae.”

  Valterra bristled at the mention of them, though it wasn’t as bad a reaction as before. His encounter with Lady Ish’Matar had taught him that not all Fae were out to get him, and his creatures now bore some of their powers. The great bird noticed his reaction but only dipped its head and continued.

  “A trespassing human perhaps would not warrant any great outburst, but a great Archmage and High Architect of one of the gods…Kakakaka, now that is something else indeed. So a pact was brokered between the Low Court and the High Council. The god’s servant would be allowed to remain, but not unwatched. I was chosen…Yukyukyuk…to be the watcher and become your father’s familiar.”

  Valterra’s attention caught on the mention of another court, this one made up of Fae, apparently, but his attention came back to rest on the bird. A familiar of his father. Why did it remain after his father had passed away? Why hadn’t it returned to where it had come from?

  Once again, the bird seemed to infer his thoughts because it spoke up after a moment of silence. “Kekekeke…After your father died, I felt the bond snap, but we had already decided that I would remain to offer you something of a gift and to protect this first place of power in case the worst should happen. Once here, I could not easily leave this place even though the pact was broken. Where I come from…Krakah…it is a place removed from this land. It is the Other, the place where the Fae Lords and Ladies dwell. Kekekeke…not a place for unsuspecting mortals and mundane creatures.”

  Valterra considered that for a moment. The fact that the bird was here to protect this place lined up with how he suspected his father had set things in place for him to succeed. As far as the place the bird had come from, he had references from his newest creatures about the Other. They were considered Other-Touched. It brought to mind the Aether hyphenated Ascensions he had access to. His rats were the prime example. Perhaps the Other was its own place and substance all in one. What kind of gift? He asked shortly, wanting to get to the point.

  He appreciated the fact that the bird had been his father’s familiar and that it had stayed behind to safeguard his father’s plans, but he had things to do. The Fae bird was a powerful and apparently unclaimed creature, for all that Valterra had claimed the garden for himself. He had checked the moment the bird had registered in his mind and had found no trace of a Framework or acknowledgment of claim.

  “Yukyukyuk…I cannot stay long now that you have claimed this place. I will need you to get home, a process that will provide its own benefits. In return, although I cannot grant you my own Framework, I can grant you a lesser form taken from it. The ensuing creature will be intelligent…kekeke…but not Sapient and may never reach such a height, but perhaps you will find a way, considering your luck so far. Do we have a deal, you and I?”

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  Valterra eyed the bird speculatively but gave in within moments. He would not look a gift horse in the mouth, a strange saying he had to admit. I will do it. What do you need from me?

  It took far too long in Valterra’s estimation for the alien avian to guide him through the steps it needed. He had to carve a series of sigils into the bark of the tree in a complex diagram that was impossible for the bird itself to create. Well, it could, but the process would have required an immense amount of Aether that it didn’t have to spare. Once it was finished, the avian joined him in pouring in Aether.

  Valterra’s contribution was unaspected Aether, but the Fae creature’s was something else entirely. It truly was Other to his senses, a rippling energy that warped what it touched. Their contributions hit the sigils, and they immediately ignited into purple-blue flame. The tree groaned before its trunk split open and the fire flared to fill the gap. Valterra gazed in awe at the portal, only to have his attention drawn back to the creature. He found it plucked feathers from itself, leaving them to fall to the ground where they rested.

  “Krakah…I leave you now to your domain. Make use of my gift well, another paid for its cost.” The avian’s large eyes fixed upon where the majority of Valterra’s Awareness rested. “I suspect you are not done with the Fae yet, young dungeon core. Kekeke…Good luck and may your bargains ever be in your favor.” Having said its piece, it moved in a blur of purple-black feathers and was gone through the portal. The portal flashed before flickering out, but the tree remained scorched and split, the sigils having been spent but not removed.

  Valterra felt a change ripple through the garden, but he spent no time checking on things. He claimed the feathers and absorbed them, feeling the now-familiar sensation of Potential flow into him, followed by something else. His System blared at him with a notification, and he pulled it up quickly as the golden words blazed their way across his core.

  Congratulations, Valterra Unok’Davaas!

  You have absorbed 5 Essences of Other (Demi-Divine) and 500 Divine Potential!

  Ne’Am Skota has given the following Framework to be added to the System Records:

  Other-Claimed Raven (Unique, Rank C - Steel)

  The fluctuating energies of the Other have thoroughly transformed this avian. Wickedly intelligent and with a powerful beak and claws, this bird is a portent of doom and destruction. Entirely at home in the skies of the Other, it has never been seen on the mortal plane. Taken from the Path of Ascension of Ne’Am Skota himself, the potential of this Framework is immense and has never been offered to a dungeon before.

  The core has absorbed five Essence of Other and has received a Framework new to the System. That Framework has now been entered, and the core is rewarded.

  Progress to Core Ascension:

  55%

  Valterra wasted no time in diving into the Framework. He was reminded of the last time he had seen a bird’s Framework, which was back when he had been creating his Wyvres using the Helpdesk. What struck him was not its similarities, but its differences. The whole creature seemed to fluctuate on an entirely different spectrum, and the instinctual parts of his core knew that it would make reality fluid in an area around it.

  What the effects of that would be, the core didn’t know. It could be similar to his Other-Touched Mice, but they simply had Aether fluctuate in beneficial ways, almost like they had instinctual spells. From the way the Other-Claimed Raven felt, it seemed like it was a total transformation. He was excited to see it in action, but he needed to find a place for it within his dungeon where it would fit. Although…

  He turned his Awareness toward the tree and the charred split that marred its wood. Aether flooded from his Aether funnel and flowed over to the garden. The tree shook slightly as three shapes took form on its branches, black feathers shining and purple eyes gleaming. The three ravens cawed in synch before taking flight, beginning to circle the tree. Valterra fashioned three separate nests out of the large one Ne’Am had occupied and watched for a moment, observing how the birds interacted with reality.

  The air seemed to warp and flex around them as they flew. When they landed on their new nests, the wood seemed to flow together, creating a pocket of personal reality around each individual bird. Dead twigs grew leaves, and then they died, with the cycle repeating as long as the bird remained nested. The leaves that grew and fell just withered to nothing, releasing more of that Otherness into the Aether around the tree.

  With his observations finished but with questions still remaining, Valterra flexed his will toward the heart floating in the center of its hollow and felt at the borders of its territory before enforcing them. He felt the click come from his Title and Boon, and a change rushed over the garden. It settled, and he felt the heart begin to breathe in Aether and then release it out, with the excess flowing toward the rest of his Dungeon and joining the streams flowing there. He waited and was rewarded by the ping of the System.

  Congratulations, Valterra Unok’Davaas!

  You have successfully created your first detached floor using a Location of Power. Would you like to keep its Name?

  Valterra only had to process the System's request for a moment before he denied it. He would keep the majority of it, but he was going to honor his father more than just giving homage to his title. He put in his choice and let the System generate a description. He read over it and then accepted, paying the 100 Divine Potential it required.

  Congratulations, Valterra Unok’Davaas!

  You have renamed a Location of Power and have formed your first Divine Domain. Greater agency over the space is now available.

  Calamvor’s Garden (Rank D - Iron)

  Personally cultivated by the dungeon’s father, Calamvor, the heart of this garden was formed from a Dryadic Monster Core. As a failed experiment to create a dungeon core, the heart contains the Frameworks of the creatures that entered its territory. The heart will provide a bonus to plant-based monsters, increasing the chances of natural Dryadic evolutions.

  The core has created its first detached floor from a Location of Power. It has also Named this floor and created its first Divine Domain in the process.

  Progress to Core Ascension:

  65%