Chapter 1086: Uncertainty

Edmund Hensley’s assistant was still trying to reach Eclipse when Taigi finished speaking.

The contact page had become slow enough that each attempt left her waiting. Across the room, Edmund watched the broadcast with both hands resting on the arms of his chair.

"Mr. Hensley, the conditions..."

"I heard them."

His excitement had sobered as Kaiden explained the bond. Becoming another species, with his life dependent on a dungeon core and the man who ruled it, was a price he needed to understand before agreeing to anything.

She looked toward his wall of windows, beyond which Manhattan glittered around the buildings his money helped fill.

"You would have to be ready to leave all this. But perhaps... I believe those people can leave the dungeon. Maybe you can return."

Edmund considered the city beyond his reflection. There was so much he still wanted to do in it. Even walking unaided into one of his buildings would be a pleasure now, as would sitting through a dinner thinking about the company and the food.

He was so tired of planning his days around medicine and appointments, of having his body decide how much of his life he could enjoy.

"A body that keeps growing stronger," he murmured. "And never grows old. Can you imagine what that would be worth?"

In his interface, Taigi remained beside the steps, powerful and healthy after everything he had watched happen to her. Edmund wanted to feel that strength in his own limbs.

He could buy into businesses whose returns lay decades away, see them prosper, and still have decades left to enjoy what they earned. The thought of having that much life ahead of him made him hungry for it.

"If there’s a chance of restoring my health and keeping it, we must pursue it."

His assistant looked down at the contact page again.

"I’ll send an inquiry."

"Ask for a private meeting with his people. Tell them I’m interested in becoming Dungeon-Born and financing the settlement."

She began composing the message while Edmund considered the unfinished houses in the recordings. Kaiden wanted to fill that land with people. Accommodating them would take work, and Edmund could put a substantial amount of money behind it.

"Make certain they understand the scale of what I’m offering," he added. "I can do considerably more for him than most of the people asking to move in."

His assistant paused, then added another sentence to the message.

...

By the time Taigi finished speaking, the President had pulled his chair back to the table.

The agreement remained open before him. He had read the two clauses again while the woman spoke about remembering her father, searching for a restriction his own aide had missed.

He found none.

"So they can leave humanity and still call themselves its defenders," he muttered. "Unacceptable."

He pushed the tablet toward his legal aide. Around the table, officials had begun waiting for him to dismiss them, and the sight filled him with fresh anger. They were the government of the United States, sitting here as though a boy had decided what they were allowed to do.

"We are still the United States of America, the most powerful nation in human history," he said. "Our military, our economy, and every institution in this country don’t cease to exist because Kaiden Grey found a generous interpretation of his contract."

The security adviser sat forward. "If we secure the approach to the gate while we review-"

"With what justification?"

"A temporary security measure, sir. Until we establish-"

"And when his mother comes out to ask what our people are doing there? What do I tell her?"

The adviser stopped.

"That woman just threatened to declare war on us. She walked through my donors’ buildings while their staff crawled under desks. I had those people begging me to stop her, and I couldn’t even get her assistant to answer the phone!"

His voice rose again, but he forced himself to remain seated. He wanted to send someone to that gate so badly that he could feel himself reaching for the first excuse offered. Vespera would make him pay for a bad one.

"Then we need an option she cannot dismiss as another attack on her family," the domestic policy adviser said.

"There may be grounds in the agreement itself," his legal aide spoke up suddenly. "Eclipse promised Association investigators access to study the dungeon. Vespera Ashborn expelled our personnel from headquarters and declared their access to her son’s property ended."

"Including the scientific delegation," the security adviser added. "If they can’t carry out the research we agreed to, hasn’t Eclipse breached its obligations?"

"Possibly. We’d have to establish that they’ve refused the promised access, and that the breach is serious enough to justify terminating the agreement."

The legal aide scrolled to the research clause and turned the tablet toward the security adviser.

"That would include withdrawing our recognition of his sovereignty," she continued. "We could argue that he no longer has the right to exclude federal authorities from the dungeon."

The President listened with Grey’s live feed still open in his vision. He wanted her to be right. Every comment asking how to move into the dungeon made the prospect of reclaiming authority over it more tempting.

"Then we’d have grounds to secure the entrance," the security adviser said. "We could suspend entry while the dispute is resolved."

"No," the President said through gritted teeth. "If I tear up that agreement, I burn our relationship with Grey forever. He and his mother will never trust another promise from us. America will make an enemy out of such a prominent international figure - and its own citizen - over what? Him inviting his fellow citizens to live there?"

"Sir... the refusal of research access would be our grounds."

"And we’d use that to keep Americans here by force. People who’ve lost their homes see a chance at a better life, and I put armed men in their way because I don’t like where they’re going? I didn’t take this seat to leave behind the legacy of the most hated dictator ever."

His legal aide drew the tablet back toward her. "Understood, sir."

"Find me something we can actually use."

"Yes, sir."

Around him, phones came off the table and chairs scraped back as his staff got to work. The President remained seated with the live feed open in his vision, listening while Kaiden began explaining how people could apply.

...

Mrs. Weller was still beside Milo when he noticed a reply from the carpenter among the comments.

- SawdustDad: I need to talk to my wife. Is there somewhere we can ask about this?

- HomeAgainSomeday: We don’t even know if we’d qualify. Can we find that out before deciding?

"There’s a link to Eclipse’s page beneath the broadcast," Kaiden spoke up with perfect timing. "You can ask questions there and arrange to visit the dungeon for an assessment. Everyone should get in touch before making the trip."

The link appeared as he spoke, and Mrs. Weller studied it in her own interface.

Milo read the words beneath the link.

Dungeon-Born applications.

He knew how to open things on the media platform, but he had never applied for anything. Mrs. Weller usually handled the paperwork for the children here. He wondered whether she would help him with this too.

This one was asking whether he wanted to become something other than human.

Kaiden stopped over a large donation.

- Erica: My husband died in a break. Could your dungeon do that for him?

"I’m afraid not. It can only restore someone whose life is already bound to it."

Milo lowered his eyes.

He had known. Kaiden had said he couldn’t give people their old lives back, and Taigi still missed her father. Even so, hearing it plainly made his throat hurt.

For a little while, he had let himself imagine explaining all of this to his parents.

His mother would have made him go back to the beginning. His father would have wanted to see how Taigi’s warriors fought together again. They would have talked over each other, asking questions while Milo tried to show them the same recording.

He pressed his lips together until the thought stopped hurting enough for him to look up.

"Would I still remember them?" he asked.

"Your parents?" Mrs. Weller turned toward him, and he nodded to her.

"I believe so. Taigi remembers hers. But Milo... are you thinking about applying?"