Keylynn stretched, luxuriating in the feeling of warm, loamy earth encasing her. All around, fungal colonies moved and digested detritus that she summoned for that purpose. Wyrm and their fellow insects crawled above and below her mycelium. Life and decay dancing together was precisely what she needed after Ody’s Journey.

  Her colonies needed it as much as she did.

  Her home fell into disarray in her absence. The puff shrooms covered everything in a thick layer of spores, which irritated the delicate gills of her bell shrooms. Her indoor pond, which housed her various water slimes, became a thick sludge that smothered her frog spawn mould. The insects that lived in her loamy soil floor home were struggling with the sudden influx of spores. The harmony that she cultivated in her home was gone.

  Before her dirt nap, she had to soothe the agitation of her fungal colonies. She reached out with her magic and apologized for her extended absence. She didn’t expect to be gone for as long as she was, and they were rightfully feeling fear and anger. She opened all of the windows and called for a tiny breeze to blow through her home to help the spores find suitable homes.

  Only when she was buried in her soft loamy soil did her colonies start to feel at ease. They needed to be connected with her as much as she needed to be connected to them.

  She remained in her loamy soil for nearly her entire evening. After she emerged, she found a place in her humid green room for her corpse floor mushroom. The room was used for potion making by the previous inhabitant, and when she moved in, she transformed the humid room for her fungi to live in. She kept the green walls.

  Puff shroom hyphae gently wound themselves around her arm, pleading to join with her again. A glance at the slug shrooms dotting her wall had her informing them that she would prefer if they stayed at home. Puff shrooms and slug mushrooms don’t get along. The multi-coloured fungus has a unique life cycle because it oscillates between a sessile form and a motile one.

  She reached out to the slug mushrooms and welcomed them to her active colonies. Slowly the slug-shaped fungus in hues of blue and green crawled up her arms and neck. One of the mushrooms settled happily in the middle of her left cheek. As they moved, she felt small hyphae slowly assessing her and pulling their fungal body along. She smiled, knowing that she made the right choice; she was already learning more about the odd fungus. Even in their sessile form, they still retain their motility.

  If she had time before leaving for work, she would have sorted through her newly acquired samples. For now she left them on her new acquisitions shelf to sort through and welcome to her home later. The last thing she needed was to introduce a new fungus that causes her home to spiral out of its harmony once again.

  Keylynn couldn’t help but smile as she walked past Tiv’s coffee cart, not only because of the long line of RADWAC office workers waiting for their coffee, but because today was the day she was going to confront Akzer. She had all of her birds in a row, and it was time to throw her stone. Nothing was going to stop her, not even the long, monotonous morning meeting.

  She held her tongue when her team was assigned even more digitizing work. At the rate they were going, they were going to be digitizing files until the Yule time celebration, which was still months away. She refused to take the bait and make a scene because doing so won’t help Gil or Zukyov.

  Akzer ended their morning meeting with an announcement explaining that the coffee cart that everyone has grown to love will be under investigation. She struggled to keep her mouth shut. Tiv being under investigation was ridiculous. It felt like a personal attack on her, as if they knew she had two birds lined up and wanted her to ruin her chance to strike them both.

  The peace of the office was shattered by one small end-of-meeting announcement. The office returned to complaining about the break room closure because of the loss of their source of coffee.

  She thanked the teal slug mushroom perched on her cheek for the ease with which her coworkers let her briskly follow Akzer. With one look at the fungus on her face, they gladly stood out of her way as if her fungal colonies were contagious. She wasn’t, but they didn’t need to know that.

  She glanced down at the printed-out eyewitness statement that Will sent her. True to his word, he filled out the forms and sent them back in record time. She had them in her inbox before she had her dirt nap. With Dauven’s help she had it printed before she took her seat in the meeting. It was a rule made back on floor five that she wasn’t to touch the copier.

  She followed Akzer into their office and closed the door behind her before taking her usual seat in the chair in front of their desk.

  “I don’t recall having a meeting.” The cold amber eyes focused on the teal slug mushroom inching closer to her eye. The tongue flicked out of their mouth several times irritably.

  Her eyes landed on the Cup Stop ceramic to-go mug on their desk. Tiv sold ceramic to-go cups and gave her customers a discount every time they brought it in instead of using one of the disposable cups. She initially suspected Akzer was behind the investigation into Tiv’s coffee cart. Maybe she was wrong.

  “My apologies, but this is important.” She tore her attention away from the ceramic mug and stared into their cold amber eyes. “You broke the coffee machine in the break room. Before you argue, I have an eyewitness account notarized by company standards.”

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  “I asssume you desssire sssomething sssince your ssspeaking with me,” they hissed at her, narrowing their gaze at her.

  They were handling this better than she anticipated. “Yes. I want you to end the dispute by placing all the blame on Zukyov and terminate him, and you will ensure the company replaces the coffee machine. An apology issued to Gil on behalf of floor seven is expected as per company policy,” she stated confidently.

  They leaned back in their chair with a frown. Their tongue flicked in and out of their mouth. “You want me to fire a member of your team?”

  Hearing it explained to her did sound ludicrous. “Yes. Breaking a corporate policy to that degree is grounds for termination that no one can refute. Not even a director.”

  Disbelief flashed briefly across their face. “You want me to agree to a cover-up?”

  “Isn’t that what you are attempting with the ludicrous negotiations? I saw those spreadsheets, and they have your scales all over them.” Only a floor manager has access to the numbers that they used in their spreadsheets. Not even Riv has access to them.

  “That brownie has alwaysss been a nuisssance. I took an opportunity.” She wasn’t expecting them to just admit to their involvement with the negotiations. She was grateful for her brown slime mould being wound around her neck gently. She hoped her brown slime mould would be a valid witness.

  They bored their cold amber eyes into hers. “And why should I forsssake my current path for yoursss?”

  That was a question she prepared for. “Forsake your path or lose your job.” She practiced those words endlessly with her colonies until she could do it in her sleep. The last thing she needed in this moment was to fumble her words. “Those are your options.”

  “Isss that ssso?” They arched an eyebrow at her as if challenging her. “Becaussse where I sssit you don’t get to terminate your worker if you tell the HR manager, which meansss no one winsss.”

  They were right. If she followed through with her threat, she wouldn’t get her two birds with her stone. But if she did, they would lose their job, and that would bring change to floor seven.

  “I am a fungal colony of many qualities and skills,” she replied calmly. She can always ask Lark to help her with Zukyov’s dream of a better job, and if he fails, she has her friends. Together there was little that they couldn’t do.

  “I assume you have sssome sssort of proof to show HR?”

  She handed over the witness statement from Will easily. Dauven helped her black out his name. There was little doubt that Akzer could figure out who made the statement, but there was no reason to throw them to the hungry snake.

  “How long do I have to make my decisssion?” Their eyes ran over the statement quickly.

  She was hoping that once they saw the statement, she would get an immediate answer. “Until the end of the day seems fair.”

  “Leave my office.”

  She stood up and bowed her head before leaving their office. To say that didn’t go as she expected was an understatement. She expected more haggling and arguing from Akzer. She also didn’t expect to leave their office waiting to know what they will choose. She at least had time to go check on Tiv and get to the bottom of Akzer’s announcement.

  She rode the elevating chamber down to the first floor and stepped outside of the office. She saw two people, one taller than the other, facing Tiv and her coffee cart. As Keylynn drew closer, she saw a hastily made closed sign. She hoped that Akzer lied about the investigation, and she feared the people in suits were paladins. They can be insufferable.

  She bowed her head at the two people in suits. “Salutations, I came for a delectable cup of mushroom coffee, as Tiv is the only one who serves it in Glimmerhold.” She hated calling the tea a coffee, but it seemed like the better choice. She caught a glimpse of their company badges; they were, in fact, corporate paladins.

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news for you, but unfortunately this coffee cart is closed for the duration of our investigation. With our current jurisdiction, that will be until the end of the day or when the coffee cart leaves the premises. Luckily for us, however, if we are able to complete our investigations and find there that there are no policies being broken, we will gleefully reopen the coffee cart,” the taller paladin said with an overly cheerful smile on his face.

  The taller paladin was clearly an elf, while the shorter one had the height of a human with the lush beard of a dwarf. Their hair was perfectly gelled back without a hair out of place. Their black suits were paired with a crisp white shirt and a standard navy blue tie. Clipped to their lapel was their ID badge.

  Keylynn tried not to shudder. Their perpetual smiles were always off-putting.

  “May I inquire about the nature of your investigation? Tiv, the business owner, has given us all such wonderful service, and I can’t see her willingly breaking corporate policy.” She used a sickly sweet voice matching that of the clerics.

  “That is a marvellous question, and lucky for you we are allowed to provide you with an answer,” the shorter paladin answered. He definitely has dwarf in his ancestry. “We have been informed that this orc here is an employee of the Royal Assessment Department and Adventurer Welfare, and as I’m sure you’re aware, no employee is allowed to run a business during office hours.” He has the same unsettling smile plastered on his face that never faltered as he spoke.

  Keylynn almost broke her overly cheerful mask. Tiv has never been an employee of RADAWC. It should be a relatively short investigation for the paladins to conduct and easy enough for them to discover the truth. All they would have to do was look through the company directory.

  “Now that you know what this investigation entails, I kindly ask that you do us the favour of stepping away. We are mandated by the Corporate Privacy Act to conduct our investigation without prying eyes or ears,” the elven paladin asked with a cheerful voice that promised they would make her leave if they had to.

  Both paladins looked at her, waiting for her to leave. They wouldn’t start their investigation as long as she was there. She shot a questioning look at Tiv. The orc understood her question and nodded; she can handle these two corporate paladins.

  “My deepest apologies, I have no intention of interfering with your investigation or forcing you to break the company privacy policy. I will be on my way. My fifteen-minute break will end before I can procure a hot beverage elsewhere, and I would hate to be late returning to my desk. We all know payroll has enough to do without managing my careless mistakes.” She bowed her head. If there was one thing the paladins appreciated, it was contentious employees who lived by the employee handbook as much as they did.

  “I speak for all of the Royal Assessment Department and Adventurer Council when I say thank you for your conscientiousness; we need more dedicated and like-minded employees such as yourself.” The elven paladin said, gratitude pouring out of his unsettling smile. Both paladins gave her a quiet salute in gratitude before turning their attentions towards Tiv.