Dragon Harem Quest - Or: Saying You Were Gay Wasn't The Conversation-Ender You Hoped For

"Hnnnnnnnnnnnalright I suppose I can stay the night," you say at last.

[YAY! ] Abzu signs triumphantly, literally jumping for joy. But only once. They have some standards.

"That's all well and good for you, but what of my arrangements?" Makram interjects.

"What of you?" you shoot right back, folding your arms. "You can teleport. Stay or go, I don't give a shit, I'm not your nanny."

"But you are my master," Makram remarks with just a slight teasing lilt. "Your every wish my command~"

You narrow your eyes to slits. "I loathe you." He just smirks that insufferably smug smirk.

Abzu, possibly distracted doing something else or signing something you missed or otherwise completely uninterested in the continuing saga of your rivalry with Makram, grabs you by the arm and starts dragging you around the room show you things. A startled "h-hey!" is the most you get before they start feverishly signing and honestly you didn't expect someone mute to be so overwhelming. You can't muster up the energy to be irritated and snap at them to stop touching you already because you're too busy trying to keep up with the signs and the voice in the back of your head -very small and ill-used voice that is- reminds you that when you can't talk there's literally no alternative to get someone's attention. Plus Makram might somehow enjoy it if you snapped at Abzu and in the name of giving him no further satisfaction you will endure any discomfort no matter how protracted.

Over here is a book that reads itself aloud to you in a voice that is at once neutral and wonderfully expressive. [It was hard to teach it to speak when I couldn't just dictate.] [But that just made it more satisfying when I did.] [Sometimes I like to imagine that's just me reading aloud.] [But I never really had anyone to talk to before you so!] Off to another station with what looks like a bronze fountain pen filled with white ink - until Abzu starts drawing in the empty air with it. Just a few rapid strokes and they've sketched out a startlingly faithful wireframe reproduction of how the tower looked from the outside, signing with their free hand all the while. [Three-dimensional pen!] [This was mostly for fun.] [But maybe architects could use it?] [Or artists!] A quick round trip of the various alchemical glassware. [I dabble in this stuff but I can't drink potions to test them so ehn] [Sometimes stuff like paint or solvents, y'know, just in the downtime] [I might have discovered a new colour but I have a sneaking suspicion I see a different spectrum to most people.]

Abzu drags you back across the room to the door you came in through, waving their hand at a locking mechanism you couldn't see from the outside. Something turns over with a mechanical click and when the door opens it leads not to the elevator-like antechamber but a different circular room. This one is a little more boring and functional, simple grey stone -albeit carved quite nicely- lit by a dozen orbs of pure white light set in the ceiling and containing what appear to be five hovering points of inflected reality contained within carved circles of stabilising magic script. Abzu waves their hand and all five open at once into ovoid doors, two-dimensional gateways rimmed in smoky violet energy. You take an experimental step sideways, watching how a window into what appears to be a small tropical island simply vanishes behind the invisibly thin side of the portal. It's slightly perturbing so you step right back to Abzu's side.

[You know about the Beyond, yeah?] Abzu asks.

"Of course." You point them out in order. The aforementioned island is part of the southern Beyond, island chains rising from beneath the endless waves and then sinking again completely at random. The one next to it is the eastern desert, scorching sands and storms as far as the eye can see, revealing millennia-old ruins beneath the dunes every time the wind changes. The one next to that is the frozen north, nothing but a wall of mountains that just seem to climb infinitely high and glaciers clinging jealously to hidden secrets with frost-rimed fingers - full of wildlife that's long since died out in the static world, fantastic for fur and meat trade. Next there's the western border, a forest of every kind of tree known to man and plenty more besides, growing back practically as soon as you cut them down, growing denser and denser as you wander from the shore until they're a literal trunk-to-trunk wall of impenetrable lumber and foliage. Which just leaves... ah, the underground layer. All you see through the portal is a small cave lit only by what light is spilling through the portal from your end, but that's all it has to be. Maybe Abzu or their master scouted a prime spot where a natural cave directly abuts the depth level when the Beyond takes over - that way 'refreshing' whatever you're trying to mine's theoretically as easy as turning the portal off and on again.

"All in all I'd imagine it's pretty convenient to have all five on tap for your work," you finish.

[Well yeah but I mean besides exploiting it for infinite resources.] Abzu signs.

"Eh?" you say blankly.

"They're asking you to use your brain, darling. I know it's a frightening prospect," Makram comments. "Why do you think the Beyond exists?"

"Be... cause it always has?" you respond, brow ridges furrowed in confusion. "I don't understand the question, are you gonna ask me why the sky exists next?"

"Your inquisitive mind astonishes me at every turn," Makram says.

[Okay let me try a different angle] Abzu goes on. [You know how the world's round?]

"Is it? Last I heard they were still debating that a lot."

"The fact that this is still up for debate even in your time is simply staggering and deeply disappointing," the ifrit interjects once more. "Back in my day this was quite conclusively solved."

Abzu is either ignoring him or too wrapped up in signing at you to even notice. [The world is round!] [In fact what we call the static world we live on is really just a small part of the globe.] [You just have to measure the curvature using the horizon!]

"I'll uh, take your word for it?" It's really not very interesting but Abzu has the kind of enthusiasm about it that simply demands courtesy. Abzu steps away and does a short circuit, peering through each of the portals in turn as if to refresh their memory.

[Just think about it.] [What if the Beyond wasn't infinite like everyone says?] [What if, if you just went far enough, the magic wore thin and you could break through to the other side?]

"And... see the rest of the world?" you ask. "As in the real thing?"

[Exactly! I mean just think about it! There could be an entire 'dark side' to our planet or more, potentially with its own species, its own cultures, its own everything just developing silently in parallel with us!] Abzu brings their fists to their shadowy 'face' and sort of jiggles with excitement. [Gods just thinking about it!]

"People are always trying to get further in just to see what happens," you point out. "The line's been kind of creeping forward over the years I think but far as anyone can tell it's still infinite."

[Well that's why it's a work in progress, dummy.] Abzu waves their hand and all the portals collapse back down again. [I work on all the other stuff to give myself a break.] [Y'know, between attacking the Beyond thing seriously.]

"Such a shame about djinn then, and their notoriously spotty memories," Makram comments once more, like a cat meowing for its dinner increasingly insistently. You don't know if Abzu is ignoring him on purpose but you sure as hell are.

"So that's your big goal?" you say, idly chipping a piece of fused sand off your left horn. "Be the first to break through the Beyond and see the far side of the world?"

[Mhm! Further than anyone's ever gone!] [Portals and other point-to-point teleports don't work when both points are in the Beyond] [So I kind of have to invent my own method.] [Or make portals and stuff work.] [I'm working on both!]

"Sounds like a long way to go," you remark, unable to keep the distaste out of your voice. You notice the quizzical look Abzu's shooting you. You shrug. "I dunno, I've always hated travelling. If I got my way I'd never go further than Söfnun for the rest of my life."

[I dunno, you came pretty far past that to get here.] [Seems to me like you just need the right motivator :3]

"H-hey, we already established I was here for money," you say with a frown.

[I'm just teasing, dummy.] [But the point stands.] [Comfort zones are what you make of them, honestly.] [Your world's as big or as small as you're willing to let it be.]

"Yeah yeah," you grumble, tail swishing irritably. "What about all this then? Staying in this tower for... how long's it been for you, anyway?"

[I haven't really been paying attention] Abzu signs, waving their free hand dismissively. [Memory's wonky and it doesn't really matter.] [I mean yeah you're right it's not the same for me, I can teleport.] [But for one I'm still here 'cause of the black water.]

"Is that not something you can just grab from the Beyond?" you ask, idly wandering over to one of the closed portals to inspect the weird, rippling surface of the oily black 'orb' in the air. You almost forget you have to look back at Abzu to actually read their reply.

[Nope! The Beyond only has natural resources and precursor ruins.] [The black water's manmade. Kind of.] [It collects in the groundwater and other subterranean reservoirs at sites of major battles and other conflicts.] [Charged with necrotic energy and endlessly fascinating.]

You let the silence go on a moment longer, scratching your scaly chin introspectively. "... in a way, doesn't that mean both our answers were right?"

[Mm?]

"You mean for that awful riddle?" Makram asks.

[It was not awful! >:[ ] Abzu waves the sign belligerently.

"The substance you're working on I mean. The riddle's meant to be about it, isn't it?" you explain. "I answered 'War', Makram answered 'Water'. But if it's created the way you say, it's kind of both."

[...] Abzu helpfully keeps the ellipsis sign held up as they just stare, blinking their paintblotch white eyes once. [I was secretly a genius this whole time.]

"I'm confused, were you not just vehemently defending your work under the belief that the simple surface-level answer was correct?" Makram 'innocently' asks.

[ >8[ ] Abzu retorts eloquently. They turn back to you. [But I suppose I probably should do a little renovating of the puzzleroom at some point.] [Maybe I'll mess around with it once I'm done building your bedroom.]

"Wait, 'building'?"

[Yeah?] Their eyes arc up in an incomplete little grin. [Did you think I just had a suitable dragon lair lying around?]

"I don't know what wizards do with their spare time and real estate," you grumble.

[Point is I'll just whip something up once you're wanting to head off.] [But we've got some more time before then so we can still hang out more! ]

With Abzu offering to just spontaneously create a comfortable bedroom out of the aether for you, you're feeling a little more inclined to be conciliatory regarding Abzu's boundless enthusiasm for conversation and -in your opinion- overwhelming acceptance of the idea that the two of you could work as an item because a magic map said so. In any case you feel like this is a good point to contribute at least a little, if nothing else then to show you're not just a very large and scaly teddy bear that Abzu's marching around their home and lecturing. You are not prepared for this.

[ ] Brainstorm better riddles and/or puzzles for the entry chamber. Odds are equal or better that Abzu will take it as an attempt to help over another criticism and get defensive again, and maybe this way Makram will be snide and constructive.
[ ] Brainstorm something that Abzu could work on in their spare time, like another magic item. They seem the sort that appreciates having a million things on the burner at once (you aren't, it's nightmarish) and this way they can ramble about their creative process for a bit.
[ ] Ask about this 'creating a bedroom' thing more in-depth. If they have some kind of architectural wizardry, maybe they'll be of some use back at your actual lair for sprucing the place up? That is one of the things Mother badgered you over.
[ ] Give Makram some attention. He's all but pawing at your ankles and you're slightly concerned he'll start finding more dramatic ways to try and make the conversation all about him if you don't nip this in the bud. Maybe follow up on some of his pointed comments.