The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) by Jonathan Brooks (e ink epub reader .txt) 📕

assure you that it wasn’t to buy your loyalty, because I have no desire to enact some sort of coup to take over and rule.  No, like I just recently told Echo, a coup has already happened.  Instead, I gave you all the Orbs so that you could use them, to stay alive longer while culling dungeon monsters throughout all of Symenora, to prove to you how useful they could be.”

Echo had to interrupt.  “Why in the name of the Creator would you have to prove how useful they could be?  Anyone can see that, clearly?”

There was silence throughout the room, and the young Ranger knew she had touched on something important as the faces in the crowd appeared conflicted.

“You would think so, Echo.  You would certainly think so.”  Elder Herrlot seemed to deflate, slumping down in place as she visibly considered her next words.  “It’s not as easy as that, however.

“You see, some years ago the Royal family, our dearest King and Queen, were in need for a replacement Chamberlain, someone who could oversee their day-to-day activities while they could deal with other problems.  Old Methuin was set to retire, having served the Royal family for over 800 years without complaint; replacing him would be difficult, if not impossible. So, it was with some surprise that one was found in less than a month.

“The new Chamberlain, who was stripped of his given name as soon as he took the position, as it would be a devoted appointment for life (or until retirement), was a young Elf barely 100 years old, which raised a few alarms, but he appeared to fit his new title perfectly.  From all that I had heard, since I was no longer running through those Royal circles at that point, the new Chamberlain did an even better job than the one he had replaced, which was high praise, indeed.”

By the bored way that the crowd reacted, they seemed to have heard this before, and so had Echo.  Everyone had heard about the Chamberlain, and how he had swooped in and taken control of the position as if he were born to it.

“Yes, I thought the same thing.  Perfect placement of the perfect candidate.”  Elder Herrlot started to pace back and forth as she spoke.  “Flash forward to a month or so ago when a dungeon was found to have created these Energy Orbs, and we started to send them back to the capital, and more importantly to the Royal family, to distribute to our Elites.  Except, apart from an initial distribution to a few select groups, most of those I sent along were never distributed.”

That still can’t be true.  Why would the King and Queen hold them back when they could do so much good?

“As most of you know from your own experience, it was impossible to get them for your use, even though enough were sent along that nearly every Elite would be able to obtain at least a single one of them.  When I got word of this, I started to hold back parts of the shipments, fearing the worst was happening back home…and I was right.  Churven?  If you will?”

Emerging from the shadows in the room was the same older Elite who had met them up above, the white streaks through his dark-blue hair making him feel even older in her presence that he probably was.  Though, I could be wrong. 

“Yes,” Churven said, walking forward to address the whole crowd.  “Working on scant and contrary information, Herrlot contacted me to do a little investigating.  I was never really inclined to spend any time around the Royal family, as I preferred to spend my recent days like I spent my youth: destroying monsters with my bare hands.”  As he spoke, he lifted those hands, and a swirl of flame-tinted darkness swirled in between them.  “However, the Elder and I used to be good friends back in the day – eradicating monsters by the hundreds, and we even destroyed a good half-dozen dungeons – so I figured it couldn’t hurt to look into it.

“And I was disappointed in what I found.  Not that I didn’t find anything; in fact, I found too much.

“Without going into too much detail, I looked into why the King and Queen were keeping the new Energy Orbs away from our people.  Alas, I discovered that they didn’t even know about them; all information about the Orbs was kept from their knowledge, stopped before it could reach them – by the Chamberlain.

“Why?  Well, that was where I was disappointed – in how we had let things get this way.  I can only blame the slowly increasing state of our defenses in the form of Elites over the years that we turned our attention away from such things.  As long as our Elite members were being sent out to where they were needed most, with intelligent orders, we didn’t care from whom those order came from – we are here to protect our people, after all.”

The assembled Elites were now enraptured at Churven’s speech; finally, they were hearing something new to them.  “What did you find?” Winter asked, politely for once.

“Nothing good, I assure you.  Suffice it to say, the Chamberlain is using his elemental energy to cloud the minds of not only the King and Queen, but almost every Royal Guard, as well as some select Elites.”

“What?” Echo blurted out.  “How?  And how do you know?”

“I’m not going to go into specifics, because such a practice was banned over 2 millennia ago, but it’s a form of mind control.  By using Nether and Spirit energy, he has created a self-perpetuating spell that both sucks the innate energy from his targets, as well as weakens their minds enough to be susceptible to strong suggestions. I know this because I was warned against its use over a millennium ago by my parents, who found