Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Mez took the coins out, except for theirs, which was in the center of the grid, then put them back in, starting by surrounding it with those stamped with a flower and two swords crossed over them. The eight immediately around it 'snapped' in alignment with the essence threads around the hole when he turned them so they were straight in their place.

"How do you know where they go?" Tibs asked, taking the rest and making stacks based on how they were stamped.

"I've had to study the world's geography," the archer replied. "These are Olvilon's coins." He placed the five left in his hand, but only one snapped when he turned it. He moved from one hole to the other around those already in place until each snapped. "It's the kingdom in which Kragle Rock is located."

"Why do you have to know that?"

"A proper noble must know all his neighbors," Mez recited with derision in a high pitch voice Tibs wasn't sure who it was meant to be. "Not that she knows what it means to be a noble," he added, and Tibs figured he was talking about his girl. "This is the first time any of it's been of use. Hand me those for Mirania."

Tibs looked at the stamps. "I don't know which one it is."

"Those with the hammer over a shield. They're Olvilon's neighbor sunrise ward."

"If Kragle Rock is in Olvilon, why does it have a different stamp?"

"The dungeon's ego?" the archer said, as he placed the coins, moving those that didn't snap.

"While that is possible," Don said, "it still plays into the fact that because it's a dungeon city, Kragle Rock is actually part of the kingdom of the Adventurer's Guild."

"A guild can't be a kingdom," Jackal said.

"When that guild controls a force able to topple any king it wants," the sorcerer said, "it can be whatever it wants. It also simplifies how the other kingdoms deal with it, since it means there will be something resembling a unified mindset across all dungeon cities, instead of each local guild running things as they want."

"Ah yes," Khumdar said. "The kingdoms' so well vaunted internal unity. If each guild is as such, then none should be surprised when they encounter their next posting and find that things there are done in a completely different manner as to what you have learned here."

"Spent time among a lot of guilds?" Jackal asked so innocently the cleric chuckled.

"No. But I have traveled through many kingdoms, and the unity is only as strong as the king's will to enforce it."

"Which leads to tyranny," Mez said, taking the stack with the badger and putting this to the right of Olvilon and Mirania's coins.

"Indeed," the cleric said.

"I defer to your experience," Don said. "Research tends to be narrowminded, so the conclusions when studying people tend to be just as narrowly focused."

Coins with the anchor and setting sun went above and to the left of Olvilon's, then a forest with an anvil before it made a line along the left coins. Beyond that were individually stamped coins, with a series of coins with waves and what Mez told him was a ship's helm.

When the last coin snapped into place, the door silently opened, revealing a large room with a white so bright it took him a moment to realize there was something wrong. Tibs leaned in to look left and right. The walls were far enough he should see the inside of at least seven offices on each side. He looked into the office next door, and it was still there, with the broken desk and shelves that resulted from Jackal's fight.

"How is the room larger than what space there is?" he asked Don.

"I'm... not sure. Can you sense anything of the space?"