Their descent from the 23rd floor passed in solemn silence. By the time they reached the 15th, the party had tacitly agreed that Daz's betrayal- and his final fate- would be obscured, they decided his heroic sacrifice had bought them the time to survive that barbarian onslaught. They had left his body deep in the winding corridors, trusting that hungry dungeon denizens would claim what remained. No rites were spoken; only a shared if somewhat reluctant nod before they turned away, stepping once more toward the world above.
As the glow of the surface windlight reached their eyes on the 1st floor landing, Carmine paused at the massive stone arch. She drew Caelun aside, voice low. The nerves in her tone apparent "Ishtar isn't like the other gods," she warned, eyes flickering with both admiration, apprehension and a deep worry that Caelun would become another one of Istar's thralls. "She's goddess of beauty with among the most potent charms of all the goddesses of her kind- and one of the mightiest deities in Orario. Her charm can bind any mortal who looks upon her. I would understand if you wanted to back out of my offer to join our familia." Carmine didn't want to see Caelun stripped of his will even if it meant her familia would lose a powerful asset in the making.
Caelun halted, the soft echo of his bare feet disappearing in the hush. Then laughter- rich, boisterous- roiled from his chest. He clapped Carmine's shoulder, making sure he didnt knock over the stalwart beauty with his mass and strength, with unexpected warmth. "Thank you, Carmine. Truly," he said, grin wide and genuine, almost challenging the world to throw the worst it had his way. "But I have suffered under far more potent enchantments and lived to tell the tale. I will be fine."
Carmine studied him for a long moment, uncertainty flickering in her gaze. She remembered the laughter they'd shared, the stories told by firelight, the warmth of his cloak around her shoulders and her waking against his iron hard chest, the only thing differentiating it from a hunk of metal being the intense warmth that radiated from it. With a determined breath, she nodded hesitantly. "Then let's claim Ishtar's favor together," she said softly, though her heart pounded at the thought of leaving their own bond behind.
Shoulders squared, Caelun fell into step beside her, Arson padding at his heels. Above them, the dungeon's maw sealed shut, and the city of Orario awaited- gods, glory, and all the perils of divine intrigue.
The tunnel beyond the fifth landing disgorged them into a swirl of torchlight and voices. Though night reigned above, the Dungeon's lower floors never slept- level-ones and twos, and the occasional level-three parties passing through, clustered around pulsing lightstones, sharpening weapons and trading whispered rumors. Their dull clatter ceased the moment Caelun and Arson stepped into view. Wide-eyed, those fledgling delvers recoiled instinctively, faces paling as they mistook him for some undocumented "monster rex" spawned without warning. Only when they noticed Carmine and the others in step beside him did their terror twist into uneasy curiosity.
With one nod from Carmine, the party passed like royalty. They'd agreed that the simplest lie was the best: Caelun and his hellhound were newly tamed monsters and an unheard of tamed humanoid monster, captured on the 33rd floor. Arson's black-furred bulk with red accents reinforced the tale. A few of the more perceptive onlookers caught the gleam in Carmine's amethyst eyes and the ease with which she leaned on him, but no one dared contest a party boasting five level-fives and a low level-six captain, though said captain was nowhere to be seen for some reason. They would report this later- of course they would- but by then Caelun's name would already be ingrained as the public psyche as the newest addition to the Ishtar's familia. He would stand among her Familia as both sword and spectacle, too valuable and exotic for any god to ignore.
Arson padded quietly at Caelun's side, unaware of the stir he and his master caused. Caelun felt the weight of a thousand stares but carried himself with lumbering indifference. He understood the vanity of gods all too well, the way his mother's Golden Order prized devotion above all, how Radagon bent his own fate to the whims of the Two Fingers. In Orario, a pantheon of deities- each more capricious than the last- would vie for a prized warrior like him, a living weapon without Falna or affiliation, which is why they veiled his true nature for the short amount of time it would take to rectify those issues. Even unspoken and unexplained, he knew he was about to become a pawn in divine vanity.
By the time they reached the outer gates, the low-level crowd had parted around them, not wanting to risk drawing the ire of a dubiously tamed beast. Carmine lingered at his side, a hand brushing his cloak as if to anchor him. He offered her a faint, serious smile. The world beyond the Dungeon entrance buzzed with city life, which with his striking figure halted as if the entire city had stoped breathing for a moment before the murmurs began, somewhere ahead waited Ishtar's temple, its lanterns beckoning. As they stepped into the fresh night air, Caelun's mind was already racing through the chaotic patterns of worship and power he'd witnessed before. A society of gods might be a glorious stage- or a battlefield more savage than any Dungeon floor. Either way, he would carve his own path.