It also illuminates a man, who is very confused. Is he dead? Is he merely teleported? Plane Shifted? He's still wearing his immediately previous outfit and holding his mace so probably one of the latter two? Where is this, is anyone around -

Nobody's visible.

The sunlight faintly illuminates a single path heading away from the flowers.

He is not a drunk man under a streetlamp. "Light."

There's some rubble around, and purple brick walls that look intact enough to be annoying to climb, and a purple brick path heading away from the flowers. In the distance, he can maybe make out an archway.

What does the lit-up path lead to?

The archway.

Finding nothing obvious hidden in the shadows waiting to leap at him he will follow the path.

Past the archway is another patch of sunlight illuminating a single larger golden flower. It turns towards Blai as he enters.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower!"

"Hello. Can you tell me where I am?" ...is this Taldane?

"We're in the Underground below Mount Ebott. You're new here, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused."

It's not Taldane. There's an area translation effect of some kind, sort of like how Hallow can do Tongues.

"I'm not familiar with the mountain. Do people often appear here after being attacked by snake monsters?"

"Nope. You sound really confused! Someone ought to teach you how things work around here. I guess little old me will have to do."

Flowey draws closer. A deep blue radish-shaped object pops out of Blai.

"- what have you done?"

"That heart is your soul, the very culmination of your being! It's how you interact with magic, so it pops out to help with that."

"My soul is absolutely not supposed to do that and has not needed to for me to cast spells before."

"I guess here is different. Anyway, your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV. What's LV stand for? Why, love, of course! You've already gotten some, which is great."

"I would prefer to have this explanation take place with my soul where it belongs."

"All right."

Flowey scoots back. The soul pops back into Blai like it never left.

"You want more love, don't you? Don't worry, I'll share some with you! Down here, love is shared through… little white… 'friendliness pellets'. Move towards me when you're ready."

"I do not think I have grapsed the nature of the thing you are asserting that I want."

"People with stronger souls are better at hurting their enemies and harder to hurt, regardless of their skill. We call that strength love."

"That is... a strange thing to call it."

"What would you call it?"

"In spellcasters it's called circles. I agree it makes sense to refer to the phenomenon in non-casters also, but it has nothing to do with love."

"Huh, circles. I'll keep that in mind. Are you ready?"

"You are trying to tell me that you can just manufacture and dispense this property? I'm a cleric and my circles come from my patron."

"Yup!"

"So this will have... what effect, on my spell circles, and if it's any, what effect on Iomedae and the power of Heaven?"

"It would make your spells hit harder. It won't affect anyone who isn't here… unless you use your spells on them!"

"So it's only the property fighters have, not circles per se. - that is of course still revolutionary. Why are you offering me this?"

"It can be dangerous for humans down here! And I have more than I can really use."

This is extremely weird.

"I take it you have no prospects of sending me back whence I came?"

"Yup."

"Then that is - hospitable of you," Blai allows with considerable politely-concealed dubiousness.

"Yup! Maybe we'll be best friends!"

Flowey approaches Blai, whose soul pops out again. He sends a few oval-shaped pellets floating towards him.

"Move around! Get as many as you can!"

Wouldn't it make more sense to do this one at a time - well. He reaches for one.

With his soul, or with his hand? He could move either.

He remains of the opinion that his soul belongs inside his body! He has not even begun to process the concerning implications of it being able to go for a visible jaunt while leaving him sensate and ambulatory!

It hurts a bit when it touches his hand.

Flowey dismisses the other pellets before they drift away.

"That's silly. You're supposed to catch it with your soul, not your body."

"The soul doesn't retain its living strength in the afterlife," says Blai skeptically.

"…so?"

"So it is puzzling that the strength would reside there. ...I suppose it is puzzling that you can do this at all. I do not actually know how to move my own soul. Or why it is... blue."

"It's just how things work? And human souls come in different colors. If you try to move yours it should move, just focus on it a bit."

Will it... spin around in a circle.

It sure will.

Great. Okay. "I see, thank you."

"You're welcome! Are you ready to try again with the pellets?"

"Yes, though why do you do them in batches?"

"Good question. I guess it's just habit."

"I suppose if it's not too costly to lose one," says Blai.

"It's not. You ready?"

"Yes, thank you."

Flowey releases another set of pellets.

Aaand catch -

The pellets do not make him feel stronger. In fact, they hurt quite a bit.

That’s not actually that strange, considering how this normally works. "How do you calibrate the dose?"

Flowey gives Blai a contemplative look.

"You feel warm and fuzzy when you're done. I'd say maybe 12, 15 more."

He sends out another round of pellets.

"Done?" He catches another one.

"Absorbed as much as you can in one go."

"I see."

Flowey is happy to keep doing this until Blai catches on.

Well, he's going to burn a Forbid Action on a Cure after the third one.

Okay, that's just boring. Time to end this farce.

Numerous pellets surround Blai's soul and close in on it.

"You idiot. In this world, it's kill or be killed. Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this!?"

"Die."

- the pellet hurt a lot less on his body than the blue radish thing so he is going to reach and try to clasp it in his hands -

Blai doesn't get to find out if this would help, because Flowey gets knocked away by a white fireball before he can hit Blai with the pellets.

The presumable source of the fireball approaches.

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth… Ah, do not be afraid, my child."

"I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down."

"You are the first human to come here in a long time. I will do my best to ensure your protection during your time here. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs."

"Ma'am, the last person down here who offered to help me was that flower."

"Oh dear. I don't suppose there's something I could do to demonstrate my good intentions?"

"I don't know, is there?"

"I could heal you?"

Toriel looks through her pockets.

"I could give you my spare cell phone, but I think those are cheaper on the surface. I could stay at a distance and wait for you to take some time to think. I could lead you at a distance and you could watch my exact steps, instead of taking my word on how to avoid hazards."

"I don’t know what a cell phone is."

"Are you familiar with telephones?"

"No."

"All right. Telephones are devices that are used to send sound to other telephones that are far away, hence the name. Early telephones connected to each other with wires, but cell phones are portable and don't need that kind of connection. To make a phone call, you enter the number for the person you want to call. To reach me, you would enter 23549, then press the call button. After that, my phone would ring, and I would answer the call."

"Can you demonstrate?"

"Yes."

Toriel gets out a pair of black devices and sets one on the ground, then steps away from it a bit. She unfolds the other one, and shows Blai the buttons. She then presses buttons on it. Each button makes a different beeping noise. Shortly after she presses the sixth button, the device on the ground starts ringing.

And does not then go on to explode or anything?

It does not.

Eventually, Toriel presses another button and the ringing stops.

He picks up the spare phone. "Where do you advise I go? I was on my way to an obligation in my home country and if the flower was lying perhaps there is a way to return?"

"I would advise you come home with me and get some food and rest. Reaching the surface would be very dangerous."

"...I have a Create Food prepared and it was early in the day when the monster that sent me here attacked."

"I didn't think human magic could do that. And there are no monsters on the surface. We were all driven underground."

"It's divine magic, wizards can't do it. ...perhaps you are using the word 'monster' differently than I am."

"Do you want me to explain my understanding of humans and monsters?"

"Why not."

"There are two kinds of people: humans and monsters. Both kinds have souls. Humans have strong souls, like yours, which come in a range of colors. Monsters have much weaker souls which are white and look like upside-down versions of yours. Humans are animals that are people, so they have sturdy physical bodies made mostly of water, but their magic doesn't flow easily, and they have to go years between uses. Monsters are spells that are people, so we have magic bodies and can do magic so often we sometimes do it just for fun."

"That does not sound like an accurate description of my planet at all, but perhaps it is of this one."

"If you're from a different planet, I don't see how getting to the surface of this one would help you."

"Perhaps it would not."

"I would encourage you to come home with me. The Underground can be a dangerous and inhospitable place for humans, but I have cared for them before."

"Is there more to it than hostile monsters?"

"The monsters in the Ruins are mostly not that hostile. I'd worry more that if I didn't keep an eye on the ones who saw you, someone would eventually sneak past me to the exit and try to turn you in for a bounty, or such. Also, if you set up in an abandoned building and avoided other people … well, you'd be in an abandoned building avoiding other people. Even if you can conjure your own food, it would likely be difficult and unpleasant to address all of your needs on your own."

"I may be missed in a few weeks and retrieved then, although I would not wish to count on it. Why would there be a bounty up for me?"

"The king… Asgore… plans to absorb seven human souls to gain the power needed to break the barrier. He has six."

"Ah. What does he mean to do after that, or hasn't he said?"

"He's claimed he's going to destroy humanity."

"Very well. Which way do we go?"

"We'll mostly want to be heading east, but first we want to go north through this gate and up a flight of stairs…"

A tiny star shines through a pile of leaves between sides of the staircase. Toriel doesn't seem to notice it.

Squint. "What is that?"

"What is what?"

He points at it.

"That's a pile of fallen leaves."

"There is something glowing or possibly reflective among them."

"I don't see it. Maybe humans on your planet can see more kinds of light than humans or monsters here can?"

"I suppose that is not out of the question." He will go have a look. It wasn't there before - if it's a scrying sensor he has already pointed straight at it -

It twinkles.

It feels good, if he gets close to it.

"You really don’t see this?" he asks as he nudges leaves aside with his boot.

Toriel leans in and has a close look.

"I do not. Do you want me to try feeling for whatever it is?"

He picks it up.

His hand passes through it. It's warm.

If he had any injuries left after healing himself, they're gone now.

If Blai were to die, or otherwise encounter a serious problem, would he want the option to return to this light?

A serious problem like his soul being harvested for the annihilation of humanity? Uh, yes?

There's a new magic action he could take. It's not channeling or casting a spell or using a domain ability.

That's alarming. He's gonna not at this time.

If he doesn't use it, it won't do anything right now.

"I am also willing to not attempt to touch the thing you're seeing."

"I would not presume to stop you if you want to."

Toriel reaches in the general direction of the tiny star and feels around. Even when her hand passes through it, she doesn't seem to react at all.

"Huh."

"Hm?"

"You really seemed to be seeing and doing something. But whatever it is, I can't feel it."

"Mysterious."

Toriel leads Blai through the gateway and into the first room. It has an arrangement of 6 pressure plates leading to a lever. She steps on the outer 4 and pulls the lever, opening the door to the next room.

"Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins. The Ruins are full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them."

Why does she talk like that? Maybe it will become less weird with exposure to the translation effect. "I believe such things exist on my world also but they are not popular anywhere inviting much traffic."

"The Ruins do not invite much traffic. These puzzles are historic defensive measures which were not removed."

This room has a plaque on the wall, if Blai wants to read it before they move on.

Hopefully it doesn't say "I prepared Explosive Runes this morning"?

It reads: "Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road."

Well that's not very helpful but it's not exploding. His standards are low.

In the next room, the path turns east and has two bridges cross two small streams. There's a bit of ivy. On the left wall, there are some levers and a plaque. Spikes block the way to the room after that.

"Are you willing to attempt this puzzle? I will prevent you from being hurt by it."

"Why do you want me to do that, ma'am?"

"It would make you more prepared to navigate puzzles in the future."

"...my intention, assuming your hospitality is sincere, is to hide for a few weeks in the hopes that the archmages will retrieve me before the person who wants human souls to power his annihilation ritual becomes aware of me. This process will not involve puzzles."

"Ah. In that case I can lead you."

Toriel pulls on the labeled switches but not the unlabeled switch. The spikes blocking the way to the next room lower, and she leads them across.

He follows her.

Toriel leads them past a dummy and across some circuitous floor markings while not actually taking the circuitous route.

"I can draw up a calendar once we're home."

Up ahead, the room is full of water, with a bridge covered in spikes forming the only path across.

How deep and how wide, would an Air Bubble cover him walking across the bottom?

He could plausibly cross before an Air Bubble expired. The water might even be shallow enough that his head would be above water if he stood on the floor, though it's hard to say. The water is running perpendicular to his direction of travel, though, so walking might be difficult.

Also, the gaps between the bridge and the wall are in many parts narrow enough that he could keep a hand on both a non-spiky portion of the bridge and on the wall simultaneously.

"Is this a puzzle or just a navigation challenge?"

"The spikes will harmlessly sink into the floor if you follow the path matching the last room. I can lead you along it if you're comfortable with that."

"Why hasn't anyone dismantled these permanently?" he asks, falling into step behind her.

"Well, there's not a lot of people in the Ruins, and those of us who live here are used to these puzzles. In the more populated areas, the king has been working to discourage spikes."

"To prevent the construction or to encourage the disassembly?"

"I expect both, though of course it's easier to target new construction."

Toriel leads them across the bridge. Blai is not impaled.

Hooray.

They head down a long hallway.

"I worry that the people you expect to be picked up by could get stuck here."

"The... archmages."

"We have had some skilled magicians ourselves, but none of them have gotten past the barrier."

"Is the barrier meant to keep humans out, or monsters in? The archmages are so far as I know all humans."

"The barrier was built with the intent of keeping monsters in, not keeping humans out. Humans have fallen through previously. However, it was also intended to prevent us from sending out various non-monster hazards, so it in fact prevents humans and inanimate objects from leaving."

"Well, they're archmages. I would be a little surprised if they had trouble with this. But if I instead receive a Sending instructing me to make my soul unavailable through some other means I will have in mind that this was a plausible outcome."

"A Sending?"

"Your 'cell phone' seems a little like an artifact of Sending, only the spell doesn't require the recipient to have any particular object on them and doesn't work by sound, they would just cause a short message to reach me."

"That sounds very useful. Could you cast it, too?"

"It's fourth circle, I'm not powerful enough."

"Oh well."

Up ahead is a leaf pile with another little star.

"There's another one." He visits it; the last was harmless, a heuristic that fails with mimics and if considering dismissing a food taster while possessed of enemies but good in other situations.

It's warm again, and it plausibly would heal him if he'd gotten injured.

If Blai were to die, or otherwise encounter a serious problem, would he want the option to return to this light instead of the other one?

...can he tell if he gets to pick whichever light or if it's just replacing the first?

It would replace the first if he picked it.

The likeliest way to need this service if in fact the service exists at all would be if Toriel were untrustworthy. So no, he doesn't want to replace his old one with one nearer her house.

Well, then he doesn't have to.

They take a brief turn south, then continue heading east.

There's a pair of doors in the wall, with no outer handles. Separating them, and blocking the way east, is an unsubtle false floor.

"The fastest route here involves both of us going through the false floor into a pit."

"How long a fall?"

"Same as from here to the ceiling. There's an Underground-wide spell up to make falls safer these days, but I'd understand you not wanting to trust that. In that case I'd go in and hold the door for you."

"Do they work for humans?" He looks up at the ceiling.

"Yes. I'm guessing it was easier to build that way."

"If you'll go first so I can have a look at the drop I am amenable."

Toriel walks onto the false floor and falls through. The drop is as she described.

He follows.

He is uninjured. There's two ramps heading out and Toriel has picked one.

She seems like a decent sort but she might just be playing a longer game than the flower.

They exit on the other side of the false floor. There's a rock by a pressure plate and spikes blocking the way. Toriel slides the rock onto the plate to make the spikes retract.

"Up ahead is another puzzle where you need to walk a specific path, or else you fall in a pit and the only route out sends you to the start. I have it memorized."

"If you traverse this route often would it not be more convenient to destroy the traps?"

"You make a good point! I think some people here might not like it, but I don't even know that for sure."

"You have neighbors?"

"Yes. They're easily intimidated by me, especially when I'm in a hurry like this, but sometimes we get to talk."

"Also, to destroy some of these traps, I'd have to install door handles or build staircases or reinforce floors or such, and I don't know how to do those."

Acknowledging hum.

Toriel carefully leads Blai along another circuitous path.

"I'm trying to keep the ruins a safe place to hide humans, and that makes hiring construction workers difficult."

"The previous six also tried to hide here?"

"I wanted them to, but I could not convince them to stay."

"...they didn't believe you?"

"A lot of people would rather risk death than spend their entire lives never leaving the Ruins."

"Were they... expecting a bad afterlife...?"

"I don't think they were really thinking about afterlives."

"...and you definitely told them that their souls would be absorbed to power a ritual that is intended to annihilate humanity if they were caught by the agents of the king."

"I told them the king would try to kill them. They were children. It's a lot to explain to a child. They weren't the seventh."

"Also, I wouldn't summarize the situation that way. There is no ritual that uses seven human souls to annihilate humanity. Absorbing human souls simply makes a monster powerful, and seven is estimated to grant godlike power and be sufficient to take down the barrier. You may call me an optimist, but I do not think the king has the will to follow through on his statements."

"It could be a very small chance that he does so and still worth sending my soul on to its destination ahead of schedule to avoid."

Toriel nods.

"Perhaps human archmages could negotiate with him and the surface government over Sending."

"I don't know how likely that is. I don't know them personally, I was only summoned to be part of a political pet project of theirs."

Toriel nods. They continue on.

Toriel shoves two more rocks onto pressure plates.

She then sighs, and approaches the third rock.

"Please move onto your pressure plate and stay there until we cross the spikes."

Is that rock a creature? How many of the rocks are creatures? Are they carnivorous? Do they report to the King?

"Hmm? So you're askin' me to move over?"

It's a creature and it talks!

"Yes. I, Toriel, the caretaker of the Ruins, am asking you to move over onto your pressure plate, and to stay there until we cross the spikes."

Caretaker of the ruins? Does that mean that her job title is caretaker, of some unrelated charge, and that she is of the ruins, toponymically, or does it mean that she is caretaking the ruins, which would put their conversation about disabling the traps in a different light...

The rock scoots over.

"You're giving me a real workout."

The spikes retract.

Does she have to ask it to do this every time she goes through this room? If it resents having to move why doesn't it just live on the pressure plate at all times?

"Nobody is forcing you to be part of a puzzle here, you know."

The rock does not respond.

...if it is free to go what will she do if it does and why doesn't she do that without waiting to be surprised on her way to market?

Toriel leads Blai across the spikes.

Up ahead are a low-table with poorly-aged cheese and another little star.

He is not in need of a star at this time. "...cheese?"

Toriel looks at a gap in the brickwork near the cheese table.

"I think someone must have been trying to lure out the mouse here."

"The mouse."

"We don't get a lot of true animals down here."

"Oh. What do they want with it?"

"I don't know. It's possible they just wanted to see it. The cheese has been out a while and I don't know who put it there."

No further mouse or cheese related questions.

They take a brief turn north before continuing east.

A sign right by the path reads "Did you miss it? Spider Bakesale down and to the right. Come eat food made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders!"

Some frog creatures hop away from them.

Are the frogs going to report him to the King?? Is Toriel worried about that -

Toriel does not seem concerned.

The next room has more false flooring.

"We only need a switch flipped in one of the pits, shall I just get that myself?"

"If you don’t mind. Should we be taking measures to avoid potential informers seeing me?"

"We should avoid the spiders, which I've been trying to do. Possibly I should see if they can be bribed to leave, though of course that kind of offer is a bit informative."

Nod. "The frogs are not a concern?"

"They are not a concern. The ones intelligent enough to tell you're human are non-hostile, just shy around me."

Well, he has only Toriel to go on that there is anything serious to worry about at all, so fair enough.

Toriel pops down into a pit, and the spikes blocking the way to the next room retract.

She comes back out from a door shortly afterwards.

He follows. This must be such a tedious commute for her.

They head through what seems awfully like multiple versions of the same room with lighting from different directions. Toriel flips some switches.

Finally, they make it to a brick building whose door has a regular lock and a handle. There's a leafless tree and another star outside the house.

"We're home!"

"Thank you, ma'am."

"You are welcome."

"I would appreciate it if you used your food magic today, though I can probably still buy groceries if I'm quick."

"I can certainly use it today. Everything will come out a little undersalted but I have rock salt. The spell can make enough for more than a dozen people and only lasts a day, though I don't know whether sharing it with your neighbors would be suspicious. What would you like?"

"I'm in the mood for butterscotch-cinnamon pie, but I'd also love to try any human foods you think are good."

"In terms of suspicion… I want to ask 'are you conjuring normal magic food?', but that doesn't sound like a very helpful question."

"I don't know what you consider normal magic food. It is safe to use the products of the spell to feed humans and similar species on my planet, and also for example horses."

"When you digest it, do you get the energy from it instantly, or does it take a long time and leave you with a need to use a toilet?"

"The latter."

"Then it's not like monster food… If you could do snails, I could perhaps claim that I received a discount on snails and purchased more than I was prepared to cook. Though nobody has seen me go shopping."

"I can do snails but I do not know if I can do the precise sort of snail you have locally."

"I have some snails here."

Toriel fetches a bucket of snails.

"Then yes, I can mimic those. Is there anything else? The casting will take ten minutes."

"How about you tell me what you were thinking of conjuring, so then if there's any problems somehow we're more likely to notice? Oh, and if you're doing a pie I should get the pie dish."

"And any other plates you have conveniently available. I usually make pies and filled rolls and cheese and fruit if I don't have a bowl or pot for a soup - I can make the crust hold the pies together - but I can add soup if you have a vessel. Plus your snails and butterscotch cinnamon pie."

"I have a lot of dishes. All of those foods sound good, and I do have a soup pot."

She'll show Blai to the kitchen and open some cabinets.

He lays out plenty of dishes for plenty of things and then if there's nothing else he gets underway on casting.

There's nothing else.

Toriel watches him cast but doesn't seem to be using magic detection or anything.

And then there is a feast! He underpowers the spell a little - it can feed fifteen, and even if she gives away a lot of snails they won't get through that much even stuffing themselves. But there's her pie in her pie dish, and lots of human food, little pies sweet and savory, rolls and cheeses in heaps, a platter of grapes and apples and pears and blueberries and cherries and strawberries and oranges and pomegranates and peaches. The pot fills with beans and spinach and dumplings and onions and broth.

Toriel grabs an unused dish and serves herself a bit of everything except the large fruits, which look like they might spoil faster if they're cut.

"We have powdered salt, so don't worry about grinding your rock salt unless you prefer the taste."

"How convenient, thank you." Sprinkle sprinkle. Chicken pie.

"You are welcome. Thank you."

Toriel takes a bite of pie.

"Eating human food is strange."

"I am accustomed to it."

"That makes sense."

"You've been uninterested in learning to navigate the Ruins, because you expect to be picked up soon. What would you like to do in the next few weeks?"

"Do you play chess?"

"What's chess?"

"It's a board game I'm fond of."

"How is it played?"

"I can teach you, one moment while I make the pieces. Prestidigitation." He scoots aside a stack of pies and creates the board, then each piece.

Toriel watches intently.

"One takes turns - the player with the white pieces always plays first - and moves exactly one, each turn, according to how each kind moves -" He lists all the movement patterns. "- and captures diagonally like so," he concludes, regarding pawns. "The object is to place the king in a situation where it cannot avoid capture; because that is the object of the game you may never move to put your king in a threatened position, that being just an unnecessarily elaborate resignation."