Back to Work

9/8/4999

The next morning when Jessica woke up early and she groggily walked to the vanity in her room and sat down. Jesse came in and undid her braids, brushed her hair and redid her braids. It was a new ritual they had developed over the past few days. Jessica had quickly grown used to him taking care of her. She liked that someone she loved would take the time to show her care and affection when she first woke up in the morning.

"You are going to need to wash this with shampoo, soon," Jesse informed her and Jessica pouted.

"I can just magic it clean," she pointed out and the P.A.I.L. shook his head.

"You know that your hair needs to washed the old fashioned way at least once every 6 months otherwise it gets frizzy," he reminded her gently.

"But it takes so long," Jessica whined. The process of washing her hair took at least 3 hours but it had been nearly 6 months at this point so it would take twice as long as they would insist on doing it at least twice.

"Then why don't you cut it into a bob like mine," Her mother called from the door.

Jessica winced at the thought. "If I did that no one would recognize me." She said making a lame excuse.

"Or more like you wouldn't recognize yourself in the mirror," Her mother joked laughing at her.

Jessica looked in the mirror she did a quick spell to clean and iron her clothes so she wouldn't have to change. Her mother saw this and was about to say something when Jessica turned to her.

"Mom, I can't take anymore time off. I have had plenty of rest and I have a great many things to do," Jessica said holding her mother's eyes with her own. Mrs. Strongwell just nodded and Jessica teleported away to Peter.

"NAUGHTY NASTY FAE," she screamed scaring the everloving crap out of Peter who had been talking to the female triplet Fae.

"What" "did" "we" "do" they started from the left and all said do.

"Not you three, that one right there," Jessica said pointed at Peter who felt a cold chill up his spine when they talked like that.

"You want to talk about nasty? Let's talk about you bringing up Stephanie," Peter said calmly looking at her with a blank expression.

"You want to know why I brought her up? Fine, you loving me is like you giving up hope that she will be revived. You giving up hope on that tells me you don't have faith that I will keep the promise I made to you when I was one and you first told me about her," Jessica replied her tone also calm but a little forceful. What the, oh right, Jessica thought looking at the triplets. They must have been using a calming aura spell to try to talk to Peter.

"You were only one when you said that why would I have believed you?," Peter asked.

"Maybe because I have been working hard ever since to keep that promise and every other promise I have ever made," Jessica said, "Or maybe just maybe because I have actual found the path to finding a way to do it, finally."

"Well, I can't really argue with that but that doesn't mean my feelings are something you can dismiss so easily," Peter retorted.

"Easily? Do you think anything about being me is easy? I only told you the truth you didn't want to hear and you fucked off and left me," Jessica replied.

"I am sorry," Peter said dropping his gaze to the ground.

"I am sorry that it is taking me so long to keep my promise," Jessica said tugging on her right braid a little.

"Better" "now" "we" "think" this time right to left and the last word together. They pulled back and ended the calming aura.

"Thanks you three," Jessica said walking up to Peter and grabbing him. She teleported him to Harmon's house on the way there in that split second she held in that space but couldn't detect a reason why him teleporting would cause him to disappear. Frustrated she release the timelock and they appeared.

Harmon was standing by his front door dressed and ready. He nodded to Peter.

"Namesake?" Jessica asked.

"My mom is watching her for now," Harmon replied and Jessica put her hand on his shoulder. They appeared in front of Arloho's home and he too was waiting outside ready to go. He was just a little distracted when they showed up because he had bent down to pet a passing minx cat on the hunt for a new home.

"Hey," Jessica called to him and he walked over.

"Missy, what is the plan?," He asked.

"There is a quest for non magical scientists to study the path leading to dungeon and about half of the 100 have agreed to meet us by the entrance today. I am thinking about doing a sweep and make sure our initial observation that it was clear of danger was the correct one. We are going to be staying in the mountain for a long time. So, if you forgot anything go grab it now," Jessica told him. They were all used to long sudden trips and kept enough supplies in their bags for a least a month. Arholo's mother rushed out the door and handed him something. This time he didn't fight her. She had been right about the handkerchief so he would trust her from now on. He put it in his bag and grabbed Harmon's free hand. He waved goodbye to his mother.

They were standing at the entrance to weird dungeon path that didn't seem to follow the rules of Karth. Jessica played back for them the video of the broken door and they began to look around for clues.

Jessica and Peter took to the air to study the surrounding landscape carefully. They could just see forest for kilometers around. Jessica flew to the nearest city with a teleport pad, New Tokyo and Peter took place in front of the entrance. Jessica called him on her phone.

"Hey, can you set up two poles about far enough apart that two large semi trucks could pass each other comfortably apart on you end?" She asked him. Peter picked up two sticks and handed them to Harmon. His plant life skills were not high enough to raise him to the level of low priest but they were enough to grow the two sticks into large poles.

"Ok, Harmon did it with his magic," Peter replied not entire sure what Jessica was about to do. Jessica seeing no further reason to hide the fact that they had found the entrance. Was busy building a spell in her head and didn't answer. She started casting and then remembered that she was being watched by the holocams in the city.

"Fuck it I am not going to waste my time saying rymy words. Right now I am just going to reach out with my magic and connect with the poles to create road from New Tokyo to the entrance because there is going to be a lot of people traveling to and from it for the foreseeable future," Jessica said as the land in front of her began to reshape itself slowly to allow for living things to move out of the way. When the path reached a hill it would reshape itself. When it came to a water source it created stone bridges that could hold large amounts of weight. When it reached Peter nearly 30 minutes later he just stared in awe at the smoothe hard dirt ground road Jessica had just made. There had been nearly 85 kilometers between them. Jessica flew up to him and landed roughly. She felt a little woozy but was otherwise fine. She pulled a cookie out of her bag and ate it. The woozy feeling faded a little.

Arholo walked over to her and handed her a root of the heartbreak flower to chew on. He could sense her nausea and impending headache. She thanked him and happily chewed on it.

"Jessica, what the hellscape did you just do?," Harmon asked her.

"Look, I am sorry it isn't paved maybe I will do that later but for now I wanted to save some of my magic to finish getting this place ready for visitors," Jessica said off handedly and walked into the holocamp they had set up while waiting for her. She walked into the cabin and flopped down onto the couch.

Harmon followed her, "Exactly how much of your magic did that," He pointed behind him, "actually take? I have seen you cast before and that is like when you said Path but on a much larger scale."

"Honestly, Harmon, about as much as it would take you to grow a redwood but in about 10 minutes after the spell has finished working out the kinks it will all come back to me don't worry," Jessica said. It would take Harmon about a quarter of his magic to grow a redwood and days to recover the amount lost in such a short time frame.

"Being your friend can be a little intimidating sometimes," Harmon said playfully.

"Oh and being friends with a famous singer hailed by his fans as the sexiest elf alive is a picnic for me?," Jessica said laughing at him. He blushed and covered his face. They all had their fans but Harmon's were the most vocal when they were in public.

"It had to cut through at least one mountain but it made the tunnel about twice the height of a semi truck. I am sure the committee can get a road crew out here today and add the necessary lights and things needed. If I had let them build the whole road it would have taken cycles since the crews don't have magic anymore. As it stands they whole thing should be finished by next week," Jessica sighed deeply, "For my next trick I am going to have to think of a way to add holo projectors along the stupid ass dungeon path. It would take too long for everything to get set up and since most of the people who will actually be in the path don't have magic I don't want them working in that annoying green light."

Harmon looked at his friend who had always been amazing and gain new wonder at her not only her magical ability but her foresight and planning skills. It is one thing to be able to cast large spells but quite another to have a mind capable of mapping out something so large scale. Jessica's gleamed and she stood up.

"Oh that could work!," She exclaimed and teleported away. Harmon tapped his foot and waited. She reappeared two minutes later holding two of the completed spheres of wires that were supposed to be for the P.A.I.L.

"When exactly did you make those?," Harmon asked her. She looked at Harmon and blushed.

"I set up an unmanned automat in a hidden place in M.U.G. I still have the bigger on the inside spell from when it was used as everbag storage and those have all been moved. I have a couple hundred that I just need to quality check by hand when I get the time," Jessica said handing him the ball in her left hand.

"And how exactly did you have the time to do that," Harmon asked hoping she hadn't been cheating and using magic this whole time.

"Don't worry I set up it up when I was in the middle of my work frenzy. I popped over before the agreement and paid the system plenty of steel bars to run without my magic." Jessica replied not just to his asked question but also to his unasked one. She looked at the ceiling in the cabin and stretched. Harmon went to the fridge and grab a glass container of wormmilk.

Jessica took it gladly but pulled a pouty face.

"What?," Harmon asked.

"The worms this came from must have been watching scary movies it tastes like blackberries," Jessica said setting it down.

"Finish it anyway, I am sure Arholo just put in the wrong order," Harmon said picking it up and placing it back in her hand. She drank it down and played with the sphere in her hand tossing it up and catching it.

Harmon looked at her in shock.

"Oh for crying out loud I build these suckers tougher than a dragons back chill," Jessica teased and let it fall to the floor. Harmon put the one he had down and pick up the one that fell he tried to touch it with his magic but the technology was so advanced he really couldn't tell if it had been damaged or not. She finished off the wormmilk and set the empty container on the table. She picked the other sphere up and headed out of the cabin.

Peter and Arholo were picking up some things from the ground and placing them in bins.

"Did you guys find anything good yet?" Jessica asked as she walked past them.

"Some pieces of wood from that door that had splintered off and the claw of a griffon," Peter called back, "I think it is safe to assume that at least a griffon had to clawed the door open from inside."

"Yeah, that sounds about right, this place is fucking stupid," Jessica replied standing in the entrance. Her 360 cam was still recording everything and Jimmy called her.

"How you doing, fellow flyer?," She asked answering the phone.

"Pretty good. Hey, they keep walking past an oddly shaped stick to the right of the entrance could you please pick it up it is driving me nuts," Jimmy asked. Jessica looked to where he was talking about and handed Harmon the sphere in her hands. Held the two tightly to his sides. She carefully lifted the stick and looked down to see a spear head that had fallen off of it. She pulled out her quickident and scanned it.

Spear of a goblin- hunter class

Jessica looked at this confused. Goblins were not monsters why would they have need of a weapon. They lived in carved out hills as families. No one had figured out yet how to talk to them as their language could not be translated. From interaction and observation it had been determined that their intelligence was just short of a human from earth on average. They had been offered citizenship but the language barrier made it impossible at this time. Jessica was in no mood to wait for answers and popped over to the closest goblin village. The goblins seeing her arrive ran up holding out items for trade. She smiled and shook her head no and showed them the spear. One of the females ran off to grab their chieftain. He came out and Jessica handed him the spear. He took it and tossed it to the ground. Jessica was confused. This not being able to talk to each other bullshit was starting to piss Jessica off. She didn't know when the last time anyone had tried to make a proper translation spell but she decided today was as good a day as any to try. She grabbed a box from one of the goblins.

"Box or container," She pointed at it the goblin opened it and it was empty. He pointed at the empty space and said what she assumed from context was a word meaning empty or fill. She decided there was no science solution to this spell and went with strong intent.

These friendly goblins

To whom I need to speak

Open my mind to hear them

For all time and clearly not just weak

She wrapped the words in her intent and magic. She focused so hard the ground beneath her feet began to shake a little.

"What the fuck are you doing? We live here you know?," She heard the chieftain say.

"Sorry, I was just trying to get a translation spell to work," Jessica answered. The Chieftain fell on his ass in shock.

"First you bring me evidence of our past and now you can finally speak our tongue. Who are you?," he asked.

"My name is Jessica Strongwell," she replied.

"We know the Strongwell name, though it is nice to hear it natural sounds," one of the men said.

"I was hoping you would my family has been on good trading terms with your kind from the beginning," she replied.

"Well then it makes sense that you would find a way to speak to us your clan has always been stubborn about what they think is right," the chieftain said.

"I knew you guys understood better than our inability to properly communicate would have one believe," Jessica said smiling.

"You know it freaks us out when you bare your teeth like that," a woman said, "why do you always do it?"

"It is called smiling it is something my kind does when something makes us happy," Jessica replied and closed her lips.

"We thought so but it is still weird to show your teeth to something you aren't trying to eat," an older gobin said.

"I can see why you would think that," Jessica said nodding.

"Why did you bring us this spear?," the chieftain asked spitting at it.

"I found it near an entrance to a long tunnel a good ways from here and was confused when it identified as something goblin," she replied.

"That is nothing our kind would ever make," the chieftain said offended.

"I know that," Jessica said a little annoyed, "I know everything we were ever able to learn about how you guys live. The one thing I can't put my finger on is that there have always been 5 villages of 100 goblins. Now are you the same goblins who have been here from the beginning or not because those," She pointed to the head stones in a clearing nearby, " Look like graves to me."

"They are graves but no one is buried there," the chieftain replied, "Just these weird gems that appear when they were taken by hunger when we were trapped in a room along that tunnel you speak of," The Chieftain informed her solemnly. "We will not go back." He added firmly.

"I don't want you to," Jessica replied, "When you were trapped in the tunnel were you also trapped in the side room?"

"No all the creatures trapped behind the great door clawed at it day and night for what we believe was months to get free," The chieftain said sadly, "We made use of the little food and drink we could find and when the door broke open we spread out across the land with the understanding that should we meet again we would be enemies." Jessica nodded her understanding.

"It took the pain of starving to get us to put aside our differences and break free," the woman standing next to the chieftain said.

"Ok I am going to ask you a strange question now," Jessica said eyeing the graves. "When they died and the gems appeared did any new of your kind appear from anywhere?"

"No but it did happen once when a griffon died a small chamber nearby opened and an egg hatched. The bird grew much more quickly than nature would allow," the chieftain replied.

Jessica nodded and pulled out a bag of goblin friendly candies. One of the triple J's had discovered the recipe and she always kept some with her. She handed them to the chieftain.

"Thank you for answering my questions," Jessica replied, "Do you want me to end the translation spell or make it so all the different people can talk to you?"

The chieftain knew this would require great magic but as she had already identified herself as a Strongwell he took her at her word, "We would very much like to be able to talk to you and you kin please do so." Jessica spread her magic across Karth and hit all of the villages. They could now at will communicate with the other sentient species. They could allow them to understand them or choose to speak in secret.

"You won't be able to speak in goblin behind my back but you can if you choose to, when you communicate with others," Jessica said. She wanted a way for them to keep private things private and this was the best way to do it. She popped back to the entrance.

Jimmy who was still on the line was screaming to get her attention. She looked down at her phone she had forgotten the call.

"What the hellscape?," Jimmy asked mortified.

"I honestly don't know," Jessica replied, "So what do we know now that we didn't before?"

"We know that at the very least all of the goblins, griffons and dragons of Karth came here from in this tunnel," Jimmy said.

"We knew that dragons and griffins can lay eggs and reproduce. They live and die but why not the goblins?," Jessica said fire burning above her head. In a display of raw physical strength she pounded her fist into the mountain face next to the opening. A large hole formed and it cracked a little. Jessica waved her hand at it and it repaired itself.

"For every answer we find," Jimmy said.

"New questions arise," Jessica finished. She was not happy that things were so out of sync with the reality that she knew. The exsistance of this place was so foriegn and just so so stupid.

"I am going to set up the holoprojectors so lighting issue is resolved. It will be able to handle any P.A.I.L. that want to come check things out too. I am also going to have the boys set up towers here and at the dungeon entrance to get our phones working inside. I am sending you a link to these spheres and they should alert you when the path is fully covered," Jessica told Jimmy and hung up. She typed something into the half keyboard on her side and took one of the spheres from Harmon.

Jessica set aside her new questions for now the think tank could come up with theroy's she needed to get this "Epic Dungeon" mapped out and ready for study. She tossed one of the spheres into the entrance and did a spell that would have it unspool and attach itself to the walls and into the side room. She then took the second one and teleported to dungeon entrance tossing this one down from the other end. They were each made of enough materials that one would have been enough but Jessica remembered the old rule, plan A always fails. Also the enter path would be mapped out quicker with them meeting in the middle.

Within an hour, half the Fae and 30 of the former M.U.G. customers had shown up. They used wind powered motor cycles and the like to race down the newly formed road. One person arrived that Jessica was very excited to see.

"Hey, there my sister from another mister," Jessica called out to Harmony. She looked exactly like her brother but with breasts.

"Hey there OP human girl!," Harmony called back. She walked over and hugged her. Looking at Harmon and shaking her head.

"Brother could you please put on some pants? I get that you like dresses but this is a dungeon," Harmony said indicating her own shirt and M.U.G. adventure pants.

Harmon sighed and slunk off to the cabin to go change. Jessica lets me wear want I want to on adventures, he thought to himself. He was very glad to have her back in their party again no matter how annoying she could be.

When everyone saw exactly how long the path was they groaned.

"You guys are so lazy," Peter said teasing the group.

"You think so huh?," Jessica asked calmly.

Peter nodded and put his hands on his hips.

"Who else just heard Peter volunteer to walk the path alone while we all go to the dungeon?," Harmony called out. Everyone raised their hands. Peter eyes got really wide and started to aim at Harmony with a static spell when Jessica's eyes flashed.

"Whot now, Missy?," Arholo asked.

"Who wants to do a meet in the middle map spell?," Jessica asked. She hadn't done one since playing lost and found as a child. It was a survival game that parents would get their children to play. The basic idea is to reach out with your magic and touch the magic of someone else who was reaching out for yours. It was a great way to keep track of children with a pension for wandering off.

Harmony clapped at raised her hand.

Jessica was surprised when someone asked, "Play what now?"

Peter and Arholo laughed at the two girls who looked around confused that no one had any idea what they were talking about.

No one else had ever had to play this game as child because unlike these two they did not wander from their parents nearly as often and their magic had also not been nearly as powerful. Her father had invented it because when she first started to walk at 7 months it became nearly impossible to keep track of her. They tried giving her a phone of her own and she had quickly taken it apart and sent to be dragonbird crow for her garden after seeing the old Earth movie robocop.

"Jessica," Harmony said sadly, "I think maybe that was only an us game." There is a reason she had been set her own task on the North Pole she had been magically inclined as a child as well. She hadn't started playing the game until Jessica's dad had taught it to her father when they met in kinder class. She would wander off to play with animals and trees.

Jessica pouted and went to the cabin, "You guys explain it to them." She called out as Harmony followed her and they closed the door.

The boys explained the spell and how it worked to the group. While they were doing that Jessica and Harmony helped Harmon pick out a good dungeon outfit.

The committee informed by Jimmy that they could now speak with goblins set up a quest for people to take holopads and voter registration forms to the goblin villages. In the hopes that the goblins would want to become full citizens of Karth.

Peter walked into the cabin to inform Jessica that everyone was up to speed just as they finished getting Harmon ready. He put on some M.U.G. paints and boots but then made the girls add flower sequence on the legs. He refused to go with flare. Jessica and Harmony had looked up patterns with him and when he selected one Harmony made them grow up the pant legs. They actually had a lot of fun doing it even if Harmon had to sacrifice a skirt for the materials.

When they went back outside everyone had split into two teams and Jessica took one of the team to the top on path 5 at a time. When all 25 from team A was at the top she called Harmon on the phone. He set her up on speaker so everyone could hear."

"I rewrote the spell so it will do what we want so everyone listen up reach to your partner and we everyone is connected to someone on the other end wave the strings around loosely and feel for any life force," Jessica said. She sent out a mass text of the words to use and everyone got started.

Grow through this path and find my friend who is not near.

Tell me, please, and tell me quick is there, danger here.

They repeated the words until they had reached each other. It took about 5 minutes before everyone was fully connected and another 10 to make sure they had reached into every nook and cranny. They found some more unhatched eggs and Jessica called Jimmy to note where they were and inform him there was nothing left living in the tunnel. He told her that the first goblin village had elected to become Karth citizens and she smiled. It lifted one of the smaller weights that had always been on her heart.

Once they finished she called for a group vote to ask if they wanted to start level 1 today or not. She had expected to spend the first few days on the tunnel alone. The basic response she got back was.

Hellscape, yeah let's do this. She teleported everyone else to dungeon entrance so they could get started it was 9 am already and from what she had seen she thought they could get a least part of the dungeon cleared by 15:00 and take a break.

Their total number including Jessica's party was 56. They puzzled for a bit and decided to add to members to Jessica's party list and have two more parties of 24 each. The thought behind this was solely to make her party reach the minimum requirements. No one really cared who was on which team because they were all friends. They were geared to the teeth with quickidents at the ready. They had all studied how past adventures had cleared dungeons and knew what to expect.

Jessica approached the screen again.

Congratulations you have gathered a raiding party!

Would you like to enter the first dungeon? Y/N

"If it is as stupid as the path to get here not really. Since we are all here let's do this," Jessica pressed Y feeling ready for anything.

Nothing in her life or in the history of Karth could have prepared her what came next.