Peek: The Twisters of Fate

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Violet

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The young dungeon watches as her Mentor works an incredibly-complex spell, only wishing she could observe more through the bond they share. As it is, she can feel something huge forming, and also feel something she hasn't seen in her mentor before: his mana draining. He's always seemed like an endless font of mana, a fungus always spreading and growing mushrooms, always knowing just where the best nutrients lay. To see his reserves plummet like that is something she never expected.

She also never expected to be able to potentially help her mentor, but she sees a way now. She gives her mana freely, keeping in reserve only enough to keep herself running. She would even give the large sum that's marked for her in the ally pool, but she doesn't have control over that. If it comes to it, she'd gladly spend it, and even consume her nodes to help her mentor!

It would hurt to remove her bunnies for a while, but she's willing to do it if needed. Thankfully, she can feel her mentor's Vassal pitch in.

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Hullbreak

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His liege's war under the surface has largely been something Hullbreak has been trying to ignore. The only reason he's had any success in ignoring it is the simple fact there's not much he can do to contribute to the effort. His only contribution thus far has been to try to not take up much of his liege's time and effort. He doesn't like how little he can offer, but he finally understands the dire straits he was in before Thedeim intervened.

It still stings his pride, but the only thing worse than focusing on his recovery would be to fall into old habits and hurt himself trying to contribute. Even more than a stinging pride, though, is the lingering shame that he's thankful his own denizens are unable to contribute to this battle.

The Quartermaster watched from high in the air as Thedeim's denizens marched off to battle. The flood of emotions he felt watching them go is still something he's trying to process. Relief it wasn't his dwellers. Longing for his own dwellers to be so strong and confident. Shame at the knowledge he would probably try to force his merfolk to stay, if they somehow found a way to go.

And now, he feels shamed again as young Violet starts pouring her own mana into the effort Thedeim is weaving. Hullbreak has never dealt much with fate magic, but any dungeon with functioning senses can tell there is something big happening. And now little Violet is doing more than he, in offering her meager and precious mana.

He wallows in pity for a moment, before the First Mate asks a quiet question: why can't we contribute?

He reflexively starts to answer that he has no mana, but his reply cuts off as reality asserts itself. He... he actually does have mana. Quite a bit of it, now that he actually looks. It's been so long since he had proper mana flow, he still forgets sometimes he's not starving. In truth, his stocks are as swollen as high tide during a full moon!

Resolve flows through Hullbreak as he launches a full broadside of mana to the effort, almost giddy at not only having the mana to contribute, but also for having something worthwhile to spend it on!

Still, it's like trying to fill a bucket with holes for how quickly Thedeim's spell is consuming the energy, but no matter! He would rather say he tried, rather than having hid and done nothing! And it seems he's not the only one, as the Southwood makes his move.

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Southwood

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The Southwood's ally is most certainly a symbiont, and a very effective one at that. He is also much more powerful than he really should be, though that may be due to the level of symbiosis he displays. The Southwood has seen delvers combine their efforts into a spell or skill that is greater than the sum of its parts, but he has not seen dungeons able to replicate that, until now.

The process is so interesting, he almost doesn't notice when Violet starts pouring her mana into helping. In absolute terms, her mana isn't much. She is young, and even with her strong growth under Thedeim's mentorship, she still has a long way to go before her absolute contribution is noticeable. However, The Southwood can still feel a discernible increase in the potency of what is building. Even a meager effort in absolute terms is still a potent contribution in a combination, it would seem.

Then Hullbreak starts contributing, and the Southwood watches as the collaborative effort continues to feed into the potent working of fate magic. It is still drawing in so much, though. The Southwood looks over his own stores of mana, not unlike a bee overseeing swollen combs of honey. He has been stockpiling for some time now, hoping to increase his territory once more, before he had been forced to start spending it to counter the least invaders.

But now, now only has he not faced a least in over a month, but he's had more delvers this last month than in the last several years combined! He runs the numbers and is surprised at the hard proof of how beneficial of a symbiote Thedeim is, and that doesn't even take into account the fact that this entire battle is being fought on the Southwood's behalf! While he understands his ally also made a promise to his High Priestess, there is no denying the fact that the isolated forest dungeon would benefit greatly from this succeeding.

The Southwood nods to himself and starts pouring his mana into the group effort, actually sating the hunger of the spell for a few moments. He once offered himself to be subsumed by Thedeim, thinking himself doomed. While his dropping stores of mana are not quite that bountiful, he can get much closer than he would have expected with his stores and the increased delving.

He watches as the ally pool drains as well, feeling the fate magic is almost complete, wondering if it will end up being enough. It is, thankfully, and the Southwood watches with interest as the spell is finalized. The complexity and range are staggering, but considering how much mana went into it, he shouldn't be surprised. He studies the magic as well as he can without having Fate affinity himself, and watches through the bond to see how the battle develops.

With that much Fate in the air, things can't help but be intriguing.

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Inspired by Crazydud, who wanted to see the friendly dungeons' take on what happened.