The dwarf nodded his head and again the ghost of a smile appeared on his face,<strong>"Exactly so, exactly so.  You're quite bright for one so young.  In fact it was my clan who first put forth the facts almost three hundred years ago that proved, to us at least, that the dimensions of the Dungeon do not work on our plane of existance.  Time and space are almost exactly as they are here, but to those who know stone work the way my clan does, there are the occasional... 'hiccup'."</strong><br/><br/>He looked over his shoulders and seeing no one other than the priest behind Lydia, he leaned in and whispered, but his eyes were locked on the judge's shadowed cowl,<strong> "These 'hiccups' these instabilities, tend to occur deeper in the dungeon, where fewer contestants ever penetrate.  I'd be willing to sponsor you if you give your word that should you penetrate to the deeper levels, you try to seek out these instabilities, these 'cracks' in the dungeon.  The Æther eyebots don't pick up much detail, but every bit of information helps.  It gives us information on the nature of the dungeon, on it's structure, and maybe some day that information could mean the downfall of the dungeon itself."</strong><br/><br/>He stood up straight and returned to his normal tone of voice,<strong>"Of course that's assuming that you don't beat it this year young one."</strong>He chuckled lightly, but something in his tone said that such a comment carried no malace.  In fact the odds of Lydia being the one to finally defeat the dungeon were extremely low, but of course, possible.  The fact that the dwarf even entertained the notion of her beating it meant he had at least some faith in her abilities.<br/><br/>Just then a tone sounded, it was now twenty minutes to the top of the hour.  Where had the time gone?  Lydia had an important decision to make, go to the Lady Verde's alcove to secure her sponsorship or try to quickly secure someone elses.  Glancing about many of the contestants were gone, in the private alcoves, and with them most of the sponsors that were not otherwise engaged in conversation.  Again the three older women with red flowers seemed free, but Lydia didn't know if she could gain sponsorship in twenty minutes with them.  Still the dwarf seemed willing to back her, so she wasn't leaving empty handed, as sometimes happened with contestants.  Plus, she might be able to gain indirect help from new sponsors if she did well in the dungeon.  But these next twenty minutes, could be a huge gain to how she started out in the dungeon.