Another day, and the party continued their diving. They had continued fighting the first floor monsters, strengthening their cores, and gathering spoils of battle. They fought hard throughout the entire day in the labyrinth, never daring too near the corridors with the plants and glowing flowers.
Yet even as she watched them, Zola was still left unimpressed. Looking at them in the large scrying orb in her laboratory, she wondered what had brought these children and Emile together. They were not warriors, not like Emile was in any case. They were simple fledglings, and their wings would be plucked by the labyrinth's perils soon enough.
Zola left the focus of the scrying orb on the party of youths as she moved to a nearby table. As they battled another pack of shadrats, the dark wizard flipped through the pages in her heavy tome.
The book had been gifted to her by a daemon after forming a contract and subjugating it. It was huge and bound in the flesh of some horrid beast from the realm of demons, words etched in dark red that described spells and rituals mortals could hardly conceive. It was foul magic that the world forbade.
For Zola there was no such thing as foulness to magic. Magic was amoral. Magic was power. The spells in the grimoire were the strongest, and that's why Zola would learn them and use them.
Voices were shouting in the laboratory, and Zola watched the scrying orb again. They had encountered a new type of monster in the form of a kobold. The humanoid things with their dark green skin covered with boils and a trio of horns on their head were some of the tougher monsters on the first floor of Veranus.
The diving party had come across a pack of four kobolds with all of the monsters wielding heavy clubs. Zola watched for a moment, then turned away when the young Imperial charged into them with his sword and cut it down with a few simple strokes of the sword. She made note to inform Lord Hamli that the monsters needed to be made tougher.
There was a more pressing matter to her. A new presence was detected in the laboratory. It was one that Zola recognized, but had not expected to be present deep in her meager labyrinth home.
When she looked up from her book, there was a thick cloud of black smoke floating several feet off the ground. It was large enough to conceal the source of the smoke, but did not attempt to spread further like natural smoke would. Zola was not bothered much further, instead choosing to once again focus on her book.
"Not even a hello?" a voice said from within the smoke. It was not the one Zola knew belonged to the magic signature she felt, but she was also aware that the magic did not lie. It could not lie.
"I am busy, Levia," Zola told the smoke creature. "If the Dark Council needs my presence, you may go in my stead. I trust you to appropriately use my vote."
"Oh I'm not here for anything boring like that." The voice sounded young. Zola was briefly curious about what magic Levia was using, but stopped caring as she read about a spell for converting blood to magical energy.
"I'm just curious about how things are going with this labyrinth," Levia continued. "Getting along well with the labyrinth's lords and ladies?"
"We are cooperating as is necessary," Zola answered, undercutting the truly deranged devotion that Lord Hamli had for her. "This place is not strong enough, though. It needs to grow more."
"You have a big pack of divers out there. Imperial involvement as well."
"They haven't even made it past the first floor yet." Zola clicked her tongue in disappointment. The conversion spell required a Level 6 Labyrinth Core, and Veranus was only at Level 3. Realizing that the smoke cloud had been inching closer to her table and tome, Zola slammed it shut and tucked it away in some pocket dimension with her magic.
"Damn," Levia said, though his voice still sounded like he was smiling. He was more like a child playing a prank than the high level dark wizard Levia truly was.
"Oh." Levia's utterance was followed by the cloud moving once again. Faster this time, and coming to a stop right in front of the scrying orb. Zola saw that the diving party had slain the kobolds, and they were working on gathering up the spoils when Levia continued, "Now this is interesting?"
"A man from my past has come to this labyrinth," Zola explained. "He wishes to kill me, but he is still far too weak to do so. These children are members of his diving party."
"I see," Levia replied, but he did not sound like he heard a word Zola said. A hand followed by an arm shot out of the cloud. As the hand gently caressed the scrying orb, Zola realized that the arm did not match the one she knew Levia to have.
When she saw Levia in person previously it had been more than a decade ago. He was an old man then, at least on the exterior. His skin was wrinkled and covered in spots, signs and proof that even a dark wizard could age. The arm that came out of the cloud did not belong to that Levia.
It was young, and the skin tone was dark.
"So you've begun your journey, Yan," Levia told the scrying orb. "Oh how beautifully poetic. A taste of my newfound luck and the divinity of fate that has brought us together again, my boy."
"You're speaking nonsense again, Levia," Zola commented. She looked at the scry again. Levia's hand had adjusted the view, focusing it on the Imperial boy. An Imperial boy with the same dark skin as Levia's new arm.
"It seems that this labyrinth will be more interesting than I thought," Levia said mainly to himself. That would be a nuisance to Zola, as that meant Levia would be visiting Veranus again. It would impede her, having to share access to the labyrinth with another dark wizard. However, she had no choice in the matter.
Levia was too strong to oppose.
For now.