Date: 2016-10-14 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Science Fiction; Harem; Zombies; Magic
Description: Gamers are celebrities. Superstars. Idols to the masses. Only a few ever make it out of Piper's Mill, most toil their lives away in the small town just dreaming of a better life. Liam thought he had a comfortable life all worked out when it winds up wrenched away from him. Drawn into other's schemes to hack the game and steal some spotlight he never expects to find himself playing in a game nobody has ever heard of. He never expects to find himself deep in a dungeon at level one with no gear and barely any skills. He certainly would never anticipate suddenly being tied to forces that promise n

Dungeon Crawl

The Crucible Shard: Book One

Skyler Grant

Copyright © 2016 Skyler Grant

All rights reserved.

This novel is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictional.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or with written permission of the publisher. Inquiries may be addressed via email to skyler@skylergrant.com

Cover designed by Grace Zhu (gracezhuart.com)

Formatting by Polgarus Studio (www.polgarusstudio.com)

Electronic edition, 2016

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Chapter 1

The coliseum had become a killing field. Down below gladiators and beasts fought for their lives while giant screens focused upon the best moments.

It was Tournament Day in Piper’s Mill. It was the day we got to see legends firsthand, the day our best and brightest competed to join their ranks.

My brother Tommy was down there in that melee, a man and a trident against the world. As family I was in the VIP section, although my interface wasn't nearly so grand as most. There were those connecting from the city, and our special celebrity guests who had come to witness the competition personally. They were indulging in full sensory, lounging with glasses of wine and sampling artfully prepared treats as they watched. Sadly my connection was strictly visual and audio, as it was for any locals apart from the competitors. In cordoned-off areas of the party the most dramatic scenes from below were re-enacted, as if the spectators were in the heart of the action.

In the arena three gladiators, who earlier fought each other and each survived with only a quarter of their health bars, had formed a triangular formation back-to-back, lions circling them.

A diminutive dark-haired woman brushed past me, my avatar flickering to the side as hers took priority. I recognized her, Drea Saunders. Last year in the regional she’d played a physical carry and perfectly timed tower dive to take out enemies that believed they’d found sanctuary. The thin silks she wore made me decide that a visual connection wasn't all bad and I gave her my best flirtatious smile. Her return look was speculative, the smile only polite.

The crowd cheered and I turned my attention back to the display. One of the lions had leaped and ripped out the throat of one of the three fighters. Their formation broken, the others were quickly overcome in a bloody spectacle.

I looked back to seek out Drea again and saw her talking to Tyler George, support in dozens of games and a mediocre one at best. Perfect hair and a winning smile explained how he largely got picked because of his run of high-profile lovers. Given the way they were just a little too much in each other's space, I suspected the gossip sheets would soon have something new to talk about.

I found a display no one was watching and worked with the interface overlay to bring up Tommy. The plan had been for him to stick to the edges of the fight, away from the overly aggressive who would battle in the center at first.

Tommy Ottani

Health: 411/450

Kills: 3 Assists: 4

Score: 500

Current Place: 19

What did I miss due to my wandering eye? That was a surprisingly good score for him having taken so little damage. I selected to replay his performance so far. He was sticking to the plan, moving around the wall of the arena and keeping his distance from the other players, only occasionally rushing in to strike at the back of an already wounded foe or to finish off a gladiator groaning on the ground.

It might not be an especially honorable way to inflate the score, but it was working, and conserving his resources for later.

“Smart,” someone said from behind me. I turned to see a distinguished-looking bearded gentleman. “Although he’s ignoring the animals and focusing on the people. A mistake. A relation of yours?”

“My twin brother,” I said. “I’m Liam Ottani, that's Tommy.”

“James Prescott,” James said, introducing himself. “Your twin? Why aren’t you competing yourself?”

Why wasn’t I competing myself? If you wanted out of the small town life, the tournaments were it. The answer was I’d missed up, and like most of my great screw-ups in life it involved a girl. Amelia was a hauler, from a close-knit clan who moved supplies from town to town and even made it to the cities on occasions. I thought I’d found my own way around the system and out of town, and a girl I loved into the bargain. She thought she’d met the perfect guy until she found someone better. It wasn’t a new story, and I was on the wrong end of it.

“Girl trouble,” I finally told him, really not wanting to get into the whole thing with this stranger.

The screen flashed.

KILLING SPREE

The arena rumbled with the words and one of the gladiators took on a distinct red aura. She was in the middle of the fray and more armored than most with a heavy plate along one shoulder. Aided with a damage boost and some health regeneration, she was a force of nature. I pulled up her information.

Melissa Riley

Health: 220/450

Kills: 18 Assists: 12

Score: 2400

Current Place: 1

“Looking for more trouble?” James asked. “I knew her father. Jim Riley. Four time champion of the Grand Arena, the man used to bring a sword to gunfights and win.”

A lot of those with high scores were lucky, but she wasn't one of them despite the way she caught blows on even that tiny bit of armor and returned them to the most vulnerable parts of her foes.

She was going to go down. That spree had come too early and surrounded her, but it was glorious to watch.

19TH KILL!

20TH KILL!

21ST KILL!

The numbers flashed almost faster than I could keep track as she executed a spinning slash that left three more corpses in her wake.

“She is a mistake I’d make in a heartbeat,” I breathed in sincere admiration.

“Your brother isn’t doing too bad either,” James said.

Well, way to make me feel like an asshole. I shifted my attention back to his display. Tommy and several others who had kept their distance were capitalizing on the chaos. While others were after the big points of bringing down Melissa, they fell upon those distracted by the main fight.

MULTIPLE KILLING SPREES

The crowd was on its feet. In the coliseum's cheap seats the citizens of Piper’s Mill, Sunnyslope, and Flat Rock were cheering themselves hoarse and here in the VIP section even the jaded celebrities were stirred to interest. This was the good bit.

On the edges of the fight several figures were flickering over to red as they finally scored enough kills. Tommy was one of them!

Melissa seemed to have vanished under a crush of bodies and though I missed the announcement of her death, there were just too many. She was hardly needed. Those with sprees enabled ignored each other and focused upon the mass of fighters in the middle.

Body after body went down as the announcer roared another kill. It was more chaos and slaughter. There couldn't be more than ten fighters left in the center and they finally formed up into a circle with weapons facing outward. Including Tommy, there were only four on the edges. Even with their buffs, the first to charge into that would surely meet their end.

It was the timeless sort of moment when breaths are held. The outsiders would have to charge, a death would count against their points, but their place may be secured anyway. The insiders had nothing to lose by holding their line and waiting, their only chance at survival was remaining in formation.

Then it happened. With a fearsome roar bodies were shoved aside inside the formation and a red glowing form emerged. She wasn’t dead—how could she possibly not be dead? From among them Melissa tore into the formation. Tommy and the others took the opportunity and charged.

Battle Concluded

Champions

1. Melissa Riley

2. Curtis Grey

3. Mitchell Smythe

4. Tommy Ottani

5. Lucinda Cantelli

I stared in disbelief. He’d made it. He actually made it. Fourth place might not sound like much, but when hundreds stepped into the fray each year even being good usually wasn't enough. This was everything. For this he’d get a pass to the city, for this he’d get a patron.

James was trying to shake my hand, though it was mostly displacing my avatar causing it to wobble ludicrously in the air. I don’t think I could have been more proud. Tommy deserved this. He really, really deserved this. I made my apologies and went about logging out. I wanted to be there to give him my congratulations when he left the pod. Little did I know Tommy’s victory wasn't the biggest surprise he had in store for me today.

Chapter 2

I triggered the log out prompt and the surroundings of the arena faded. I was back home stretched out in the gaming chair. I lifted the helmet off my head.

In the cities gaming pods were full immersion, they looked something like metal potatoes. Roughly cylindrical, but with strange bumps and protrusions, and the inside filled with some sort of gel that transmitted sensation. In Piper’s Mill and other towns we only had the headsets. Each year, for the Tournament, they brought in pods for the competitors, dotting the fields outside town like we were growing them.

I lived a bit off Main Street and it wouldn’t be too far of a walk to Tommy’s pod. In the arena they’d still be celebrating and I should have time.

Main Street was adorned with bunting everywhere. Greens and blues were the colors of the most popular local teams. Confetti lay heavy upon the empty streets after a parade earlier to honor the tournament and celebrity guests. The only other people I saw on the streets were about my age and coming into town, losers who were making their way back home to sulk a bit before the party for the victors later tonight.

Piper’s Mill was like every town, identical in the fundamentals and yet unique in the details. There was the grocer, farm supplies, the tech center and the school. A population of around 5,000, give or take. The city existed, sure, but for the most part this was life. The core of the town surrounded by farms and, if you went far enough, you’d find the whole thing repeated again.

It took about ten minutes for me to get outside town. When I arrived, I was surprised to see two people already waiting for Tommy to exit.

Walt was bearded, overweight and had that food-splattered look of one who is so lost in their own thoughts they forget to eat properly. I only knew him a little, one of the town techs who helped with anything mechanical or electrical.

Then there was Ashley. I remembered her growing up, a pretty girl. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed. We’d dated briefly, too young to be anything serious, and then she’d disappeared for several years. I never did get the story of where she’d gone, or why she’d returned, but she came back with scars and burns enough to speak of some serious tragedy. She had once been a promising contender in the games. Now they wouldn’t even let her into the tournament. The scars hampered her movements too much, and so much of being a gamer was social they would not even give her a chance based upon her looks.

Ashley had been training Tommy for the past few months, so no great surprise to see her here. His victory was her best chance of showing off her skills, perhaps finding some role still in the city, even if not in the spotlight.

“I didn’t expect anyone else to be waiting,” I said.

Ashley and Walt exchanged a look. She said, “Just wanted to offer our congratulations. You know how crazy it's going to get.”

I did. I had some fond memories of the nights after tournaments, and some I didn’t remember at all, which is often proof of a good time.

The pod hissed and layers peeled apart to reveal Tommy. Really, it was probably rather rude of everyone to ambush him like this. The pod's gel requires contact with bare skin to properly convey sensation, meaning Tommy was naked and covered in a sort of grayish slime. Fortunately Tommy has never had the least bit of shame.

“Ashley, Walt, Liam,” Tommy said, stepping out and blinking against the real sunlight. “Badass, right? Liam, can you give us a moment? I just need to dry off, get dressed, and have a chat with these two.”

Hmmph. While at first I felt a little offended, then I was more than a bit suspicious. It wasn't a total shock to see Ashley waiting outside the pod, but I couldn't think of a good reason for Walt to be there. Still, I gave an amiable nod and walked a short distance away and did my damndest to eavesdrop.

There was clearly some sort of argument and given how often Tommy was pointing in my direction, I seemed more involved than I’d have expected. Walt was a tech, had Tommy cheated in some way?

Walt said loudly, “It doesn’t work that way. I don’t care if you're a physical match, there's the mental alignment, too.”

“We can’t trust him,” Ashley said.

Nobody looked particularly happy. Tommy finally motioned me over and gave me his best smile. I wasn’t buying it for a moment.

“Liam, how'd you like to be famous?” Tommy asked.

“I am not going to the awards ceremony pretending to be you,” I said. We're twins, and it wouldn’t be the first time we’d swapped places for things, although we’d not done it in years.

Tommy looked surprised and then thoughtful. He glanced at Walt.

“That won’t work either. The biometrics would be off,” Walt said with a shake of his head. “I don’t like it, but if tonight is a go you either have to bail on the ceremony or it has to be him.”

“Bail on the ceremony? You can’t bail on the ceremony, you’ve been working your whole life for this,” I said, more confused than ever.

“I’m not going to bail on the ceremony,” Tommy said patiently. “That's why I need you to take my place doing something else.”

“I don’t like this, we can’t trust him,” Ashley said again, her eyes narrowed at me.

“We don’t have a choice,” Walt said.

What was going on here?

Tommy said, the words coming in a rush, “Liam, this is hanging on by a thread, so I need you to agree first before I tell you what it is. It’s illegal and risky, but worth it. I gave my word to these two to help get it done, but I didn’t expect to win.”

“So now, because you have a better life on the way, you don’t mind throwing away mine in your place?” I said. The question didn’t feel exactly fair, but then it kind of did.

Tommy winced and looked to the others, “Guys, he’s right. I’ll do it, we just...”

“No, I’ll do it,” I cut him off. “You're my brother, I have your back. This is your day. I just wanted you to feel like a jerk about it, because you should.”

“I’m liking him a little more now,” Ashley said with a weak grin.

Tommy sighed, looked between us and nodded. “Not here. I need to go shake some hands in person and transfer over to a better pod before the ceremony. They’ll explain what's up. It’s not screwing you over, Liam. Really, this is an opportunity.”

Sure. Nothing could go wrong. I hugged Tommy and gave him rather weaker congratulations than I’d intended. Then he was gone and I was left with two people still looking less than thrilled that I was a part of whatever enterprise they had planned.

Walt and Ashley led me away from the fields outside town and I soon realized we were heading towards the old city. Cracked asphalt was underfoot and ruined structures cast shadows in the distance. Nobody really went into the old city. You might once or twice as a kid for the thrill of it, but those who'd lived in these ruins were long gone. Nothing but rusted metal and broken stones were left to mark their passage.

Before we got into the city proper, Walt and Ashley shoved a piece of rubble aside to reveal a hatch covered with debris to make it nearly invisible. Beneath, a long tunnel led into darkness.

What had I gotten myself into?

Chapter 3

Walt climbed down a ladder. Ashley jerked her head indicating that I should follow.

“Is this really safe?” I asked. She rolled her eyes.

“You think Walt is rushing headlong into danger?” Ashley said. “Just go down the damn ladder.”

I supposed Walt didn't seem the most daring or intrepid sort and I climbed down. Ashley came next, closing the hatch after her and plunging us into total darkness.

The descent was longer than I expected. I heard Walt moving below and a flickering light grew. It made the rest of the trip easier and I was soon at the bottom.

In this tunnel the devastation above was missing. On the surface nearly everything was cracked or shattered as if by some violent force. I always wondered what had happened—you might think that many of us did, living so close, yet any time I asked the question it met disinterest. The common belief was the city grew old and had been abandoned. I didn’t think so, but our history started with the founding of the games. There were no answers to find, and nobody who cared to find them.

Ashley joined us and Walt began to lead the way through the tunnel.

“How does this place have power?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of anything else in the city that does.”

“Walt stole it,” Ashley said. “It was dark when they first found the place.”

We came to a junction and turned left, then straight at the next two before making another left. How much was down here and where were we going? There were occasional doors, metallic and heavy-looking and all tightly closed.

Eventually we came to the first open doorway. It looked like the technician’s workshop back in town, wires hung everywhere and the tables were littered with unfamiliar tools. One thing was recognizable though, even if not quite like any I had ever seen before.

Pods.

They weren't the silver potatoes lined up outside town. Those were perfectly metallic on the outside with no hints of the inner workings. These pods were laid bare, the outsides strewn with wires and blinking lights that made them seem incomplete.

“Are those...” I started to ask.

“Pods,” Walt cut me off. “I know they look strange, they're stranger than you know, but they’ll work. Full immersion and connection into the games.”

“How did you steal pods? How do you even know they’ll work?” It might not seem like they took security of the pods very seriously with how I had just wandered up to Tommy’s, but every few years you’d hear a story of how someone decided to try to keep one—only to find it quickly reclaimed.

“Not stolen, more like found,” Walt said. “And made operational again.”

“And we’ve tested them,” Ashley said. “The immersion at least. It really is like being there. But tonight we’re going to use them to get into the real games. Show what we can do, get noticed.”

“You're breaking the law hoping to get caught?” I said. This seemed a really stupid sort of plan to me. Still, I had to confess in her case she had a point. Maybe if she could pull off some fancy moves in the real games, she could find a place. Walt got to show off his technical prowess. Tommy was impatient—he’d always been impatient and prone to make big moves. I could see why this would have appealed to him. Except now he didn’t need it.

“Things in the cities aren’t like here,” Ashley said, “Here it's all about obeying the rules, but there you do anything you need to in order to win. This is going to impress them, trust me.”

I didn’t, of course. I didn't trust her—I didn't trust either of them. I was pretty sure that anyone who had a secret, underground vault filled with illegal technology wasn’t up to any good on a level I hadn't dreamed possible.

Walt was bustling around the pods checking on the equipment. I felt somewhat comforted by the fact that at least he seemed to know what he was doing.

“So why am I here?”

“Good question,” Ashley said. “You don’t deserve it.”

“While I appreciate a curious mind, we don’t have the time to indulge it,” Walt said, pausing in his fiddling, “We have a narrow window to connect while the network is still open for the tournament. You need to be in or out, which is it?”

It was a mad plan, but I had to confess that even outside of my promise to Tommy I wanted to do it. I’d screwed up everything else in my life, and I’d always told myself I wasn’t the type of person that ran and hid when things got tough. Opportunities were for seizing.

“Sure, I’m in.”

“Then out of your clothes. You’ll need the most calibration, so we’ll load you first. It will be the pod on the far left.”

He fiddled with a control panel and the outer layers of the pod peeled open. These did seem different inside, without the gray slime. I got undressed. The air in the room was crisp against my skin and the concrete floor especially chill against my feet as I climbed inside the pod.

There was still no goo. I stretched out on some spongy sort of material that was rough against my back. With a beep and a flashing light inside the pod, the layers slid back into place trapping me in complete darkness and silence.

It was deeply disorienting, so much that it was rather welcome to feel a sharp burning at the small of my back. It was a brief flare of heat that spread through the rest of my body. Next came a rapid wash of sensations—pain, pleasure, cold, all somewhat muted, but feeling quite real otherwise. Then in rapid order the pitch black was replaced by blue, then red, and then rapidly cycling colors. It went this way for all my senses, each in turn.

Finally, prompts began to appear. Faint blue lines of text overlaying my sight with information.

Pod 1: Ready

Pod 2: Syncing

Pod 3: Syncing

That must mean that the others had gotten into their pods.

The prompt changed.

Network Status: Secure

Establishing connection to Regional Authority…

Establishing…

Establishing…

Request timed out

Attempting connection to Crucible Shard

Establishing…

Connected

Authorization Key 1ZC922LP6T

Crucible Shard Access Authorized

Identification: Pod 13ZA

Occupant: Unknown. Neural signature not on file.

Scanning neural matrix

Basic personality indicators from neural analysis: Extrovert. Self Righteous. Hyper-sexualized. Impulsive. Stubborn. Bold.

Generating Avatar

Alert

User Unknown

Transferring to holding facility

The prompts faded and I was in complete darkness, the air chill against my bare skin and the feel of a coarse stone floor beneath my feet. I considered the personality analysis and had to admit that it all sounded true enough, although it wasn’t the most flattering spelled out like that.

It wasn’t complete darkness after all. On the edge of my vision were slight blue lines, although they seemed to shed no illumination on my surroundings. I focused on them and a menu appeared.

Name: Liam Ottani

Class: Paladin of Yvera

Deity: Yvera

Level: 1

HP: 100

Stamina: 50

Mana: 50

XP: 0 of 1000 to next level

Alignment: -250

Stats

Power: 5 Endurance: 5 Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 5 Awareness: 3

Charisma: 6 Luck: 2

Skills.

Long Blades: 15

Blunt Weapons: 15

Hand to Hand: 10

Riding: 15

Light Armor: 15

Medium Armor: 15

Heavy Armor: 15

Spells

Smite

Sense Virtue

We were in some sort of Fantasy world judging by my class. I knew that Paladins were usually holy warriors. I didn’t recognize the Deity or the stat system, so I was uncertain what game we'd found ourselves in, but for a fighter class those stats looked horribly applied with far too many points in Charisma and Intelligence. I also seemed to be evil, which was a bit unfair to start. Perhaps the game was aware we'd entered it illegally and assigned alignments accordingly?

Light danced across the room as a tiny, but surprisingly bright, firefly came into existence. It interrupted my pondering and I got my first sight of the other two across the cell. Unless they had gender-swapped Ashley was the lithe woman, dark-haired and pretty, and extremely fit. There were no signs of her scars, but then I wouldn’t expect that. Walt was a contrast to his persona outside. Here, he was lean and frail-looking with long blond hair tied in a ponytail, fine features, and sharply pointed ears. He was distinctly Elven. We were also severely under-dressed without a stitch of clothing, which helped to explain why I was so freezing cold.

We were in a prison, the room clearly a cell judging by the sturdy iron bars. Fortunately the door hung open, same as the other cells from what little I could glimpse of the hallway by the light of the firefly.

“I'm an Elf Wizard,” Walt said. “I have a light spell and can cast a magical dart at this level. Not much else. I don’t know what world we're in. I don’t recognize the stats. Ashley?”

“Apart from it being fantasy, I’m not sure,” Ashley said, frowning, “I should recognize the stat and XP systems, but I don’t. Usually we'd have some kind of starting gear which would suck, but anything’s better than this being bare-assed naked thing.”

I said, “What's up with that anyway? Is it because of the pods we're using?”

“Hardware shouldn’t have any effect on the software,” Walt said in a tone suggesting I'd asked a very stupid question, “So what are you, Liam?”

“Paladin of Yvera. That makes me something of a fighter class, right? I seem to have skills in a few different weapons, armor types, spells to smite and sense virtue. My stats seem dumb though, lots of Charisma and Intelligence.”

Ashley shrugged, a distracting sight. “Paladins are often kind of hybrids of a lot of different things, like bards, but less crappy. It makes some sense that your stats are spread around. Their weak point usually is the deity. If you piss them off, you're really screwed. When you level up, you can either focus or spread points out. Either way will give you some different options.”

“Should we bother? This isn’t what you two had planned. You wanted to pop in and make a splash somewhere we could be seen. You saw the warnings signing in. They know we aren’t supposed to be here and tossed us in a cell.”

“An open cell,” Walt said. “That didn’t just happen. That door may just as much be an invitation to figure out what's going on.”

QUEST GRANTED

Explore the prison and find the means of escape.

Rewards: Freedom

“Now that is an invitation.” Ashley said. “See, we can’t log out now. Fall in line guys, I’ve got better awareness than either of you. I’ve got point.”

“Aren’t I the tank? Shouldn’t I have point?” I said.

“You don’t have pants, and it’s freezing cold. Trust me Liam, you don’t have point. Just follow me and if anything tries to eat me, punch it.”

“Mean,” I grumbled. Mean, but unnecessary.

Walt shrugged at me and I was forced to agree. If she wanted point that badly, she could have it. With Ashley leading the way we stepped out of the cell and into the darkness.

Chapter 4

The hall was as dark, silent and empty as our cell. Most cell doors hung open, some revealing skeletons and corpses. All the rooms and dead bodies seemed to have long since been looted for anything useful.

Ashley stopped to inspect a lock on one of the doors. “Picked from the outside. Most of them are.”

“Maybe we aren’t the first prisoners to try to escape?” Walt said.

“Obviously,” Ashley said wryly. “They probably already looted all these bodies, but we’ll still check as we go.”

We went cell by cell, Ashley searching each and finding nothing. We were near an intersection ahead when Ashley gave a startled cry and four furry shapes flung themselves at her, sending her stumbling backwards with the fury of their attacks.

They were rats, half-starved with flesh discolored a patchwork of grays and browns. The rodents moved fast, darting in for a strike before pulling back and circling to rush in once more. Before I even had a chance to respond I saw Ashley’s health bar starting to decrease, droplets of blood catching the dim light as her flesh was torn by tiny teeth, negative HP symbols flashing above her head.

Half-Starved Rat attacks Ashley

-3 HP

Half-Starved Rat attacks Ashley

-2 HP

Diseased Rat attacks Ashley

-6 HP Critical

I ran forward and aimed a kick at one of them, missing as the tiny body dodged out of the way. The savage rodent at least abandoned its attempt at gnawing through Ashley’s ankle, instead turning to face me. I took a moment to check my target window.

Half-Starved Rat

Level 1: Type: Beast HP: 10/10

Driven feral by hunger, these rats will seek out and attack anyone they may perceive to be food. Although quick and agile they are easily dispatched when one is able to land a blow.

Flaming Dart

“Seras Altinus!” I heard Walt call out from behind me. I gasped in surprise as a tiny dart of blue flame zipped past my shoulder and found one of the rats, flinging it away with a squeal and the smell of burning flesh.

Walt strikes Half-Starved Rat with a Flaming Dart

-10 HP

Half-Starved Rat is dead

Three left. I swung my fists wildly at one and shaved off five HP with one hit, although a second blow missed that let the rat latch itself onto my arm, the claws digging furiously into my flesh. I took five damage myself, before I managed to pound my arm against the wall, crushing the rat.

Your unarmed attack hits a Half-Starved Rat

-5 HP

Half-Starved Rat is dead

Diseased Bite

Flaming Dart

I just saw the prompt and the flash of blue out of the corner of my eye as Walt killed another rat.

“Out of mana,” Walt panted.

One left. Ashley wasn’t looking that great. Her flesh bore a number of bloody bite marks with one turning the skin surrounding it a sickly greenish-brown. Sadly, with the lack of any hand-to-hand, she seemed completely unable to dish out any damage. I remembered that I had an offensive spell and the moment I thought of it the sense of another power began working through me. I pointed my arm towards the remaining rat. A gout of flame came from the stones beneath, engulfing it in a pillar of fire.

Smite

Your Smite hits a Diseased Rat for 15 HP

Diseased Rat is dead

The last rat was down. We took a minute to catch our breaths and check our sheets. I’d gotten 400 XP, which meant the game likely considered us to be grouped even though I hadn't found any menu for that. My hand-to-hand had improved by a point. I chose to minimize some of those combat prompts. While it might be useful to sometimes go in and see exactly how much damage I was doing, combat was complicated enough without those getting in the way.

“Well, that sucked. New guy, pants or not, you get to tank next time.” Ashley said, her voice strained as she looked over the bloody gouges in her flesh. She limped over to loot the corpses. “Rat meat. Rat meat. Diseased rat meat, fucker.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“The disease is stopping me from regenerating health and it's going to slowly drain it,” Ashley said with a sigh. “I don’t have any sort of timer on it. The wounds are a constant ache, but it’s not like being torn to shreds in the real world. I’m good to go, I’m just going to be a little slower. I’ll be fine.”

QUEST GRANTED

Save Ashley

Ashley has contracted a disease that in her current state will slowly kill her unless a cure is found.

Rewards: The life of a party member

Right. She’d be fine. I don’t know if she actually saw that quest prompt or not, but I decided not to mention it. We’d just have to keep our eyes out for some sort of cure. Up until now health regeneration was not even something I’d considered. I knew some games required things like potions or spells to heal and I checked my stats. My health and mana were slowly ticking upwards, although Walt’s mana bar seemed to be going up a good bit faster. That was probably something to do with his class or the total size of his mana pool.

Ashley let out a pleased cry and I wandered over to see. She was standing over a corpse more recent than the ones in the cells, the desiccated flesh still clinging to the bones although the rats had picked most of it away. She began pulling on a pair of leather boots. My instinct was to admire her legs, but that only drew my eyes to the bloody wounds there—she really had gotten the worst of the fight.

“If I’m tanking shouldn’t those be mine?” I asked.

Gesturing to a pile, Ashley said, “I left you the pants. Don’t be greedy. He had a sharpened bone piece that's counting as a shiv, so I’m armed now. Crap damage, but I’ll be able to hit. When I was taking the pants I saw his leg bone counts as a club too, so I set it aside for you.”

I made my way over to pile and checked it out.

Worn Leather Pants

AC: 4

Worn Position: Legs

Type: Common

These pants weren’t especially well-made when new, and they’ve been through a lot. They manage at least to offer basic protection.

Half-Elven Leg Bone

Damage: Power + 1D3

Type: Common

A weapon scavenged from the bones of the dead. May their leg serve you better than it served them.

Walt came over to join us. He didn't look too disappointed that we lacked any gear for him. Of course, in the last fight his magic made him a lot more useful than either of us. My magic seemed to have no skill percentages. Without gear it probably was the strongest tool we had.

“Lead on big guy,” Ashley said, all but fondling her new weapon with a certain bloodthirsty glee.

I got dressed—the dungeon felt rather less terrifying just by adding pants. The leg bone also made a reassuring weight in my hands.

Now the tank by virtue of trousers, I led the way down the hall, glancing over my shoulder to ask, “So I take it that wherever we are, you didn’t mean for us to be here?”

“We were hoping for one of the space adventures,” Ashley said. “Walt identified trade runs for all of them where within a day we’d be packing some decent weapons and be ready to do some surprising damage.”

“We’ve been practicing our piloting and gunnery for months,” Walt said with wry amusement. “I expected to have a lot more control of the network connection when we were in our pods. I don’t know if it was your presence, or going beyond the local net, but something went seriously off this time.”

An end to the corridor loomed. I held up a hand in caution and crept forward. A niche in one wall contained a table and stools for what was probably a guard station. It looked to have been picked clean. I was about to pass it entirely when Ashley slipped by to study the wall, her hand slipping up to search between two stones. There was a loud click and a section of the wall peeled back to reveal a hidden opening.

Walt brought the light closer. There was a rusted and decaying shield which I claimed for myself.

Guard’s Rusty Iron Shield

AC: 8 Deflection: 5

Type: Common

A once solid shield, now as broken and falling apart as the one who once wielded it.

Not bad. If just a pair of pants had made me feel more tank-like, this was escalation of a whole other sort. I didn’t even care that it was falling apart. The nook also contained a deck of cards, a set of dice, and a bottle which Ashley had already grabbed for herself and taken a swig.

“Painkiller?” I asked. She offered the bottle.

“Whatever it is, it’s totally foul and totally kicked my diseased ass. Try some.”

“We should keep clear heads,” Walt told us.

Screw it. I took a swig too and found it to be as foul as Ashley warned, a thorough kick to the gut that left me both impressed at how well the pod was handling taste and wondering if it was somehow horribly out of alignment. Could anything be meant to taste that foul? Still, it had a nice burn. Ashley gave me a pained grin and took her bottle back, taking another drink.

We returned to our exploration, the corridor ending in an intersection. A doorway offered a glimpse of what looked to be an infirmary, meanwhile across from our corridor appeared to be another lined with similar cells. A hallway led off into the shadows.

“The infirmary? It would have something to help with Ashley’s bites?” I said to the others.

“Something is probably waiting to ambush in there,” Walt said. “It’s where I’d put an encounter with something a bit more dangerous. While we want to help Ashley, we should do the other cells first. They probably have another rat encounter, but we’re a lot better equipped now. We could use the experience and whatever gear we might find.”

Ashley said, “Believe me, I don't want to … you know… die, but Walt is right. We need to be smart. We should scavenge what gear we can. I’ll try to hang back and keep what's left of my health intact.”

We ignored the infirmary for the time being to explore the other row of cells. Another guard station had again been cleaned out, although like before Ashley found the release for a secret compartment.

Unidentified Ring

This ring appears to have magical properties but you lack the skills to identify it.

Walt looked at it intently and the properties flickered.

Minor Ring of Protection

This ring is magically enhanced to offer some protection to the wearer. Minor Protection, it’s in the name.

Armor: +1 Deflection: +1

As the tank, I slipped it onto my finger and instantly felt ever so slightly sturdier. I’d thought about handing it over to Ashley instead, but with her holding back I did seem the better choice.

I led the way along the claustrophobic and dark hallway, the only illumination coming from behind me. I knew an attack had to be coming. Still, I was surprised when suddenly rats were lunging at me from all directions.

As reassuring as my pants were I discovered that teeth could, in fact, penetrate them. My bare feet offered an even more tempting target and I had the distinctly unpleasant experience of what it feels like to have rats attempting to eat your toes.

My health was peeling away and the shield, as reassuring as it had seemed, proved fairly useless when you're flanked by rats scurrying on the floor all around. Fortunately my club was more effective and I swung it in a low arc. With a satisfying thud I caught one rat and sent it arching through the air to pound against the wall.

Your melee attack hits a Half-Starved Rat

-10 HP Critical Hit

Half-Starved Rat is dead

Flaming Dart

Flaming Dart

Backstab

The prompts flashing up suggested that Walt and Ashley were more than doing their share. Two rats were little more than charred corpses from Walt’s darts and a third had more or less exploded from Ashley’s backstab.

“Out of mana!” Walt called, distancing himself from the fray.

Smite

I focused on my smite spell and again felt that intoxicating rush of power surge through me as a pillar of fire spelled the end of another rat.

Backstab

Ashley sneaked up on another rat even as it was trying to creep up on me and with a well-placed blow dispatched it.

This had all happened kind of furiously. I checked my health and to my surprise it was completely full. A level up prompt was blinking at the corner of my view and I pulled it up.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 2

You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Long Blades and have gained the skill.

Persuasion:

Persuasion allows you to manipulate others and to sway them to your point of view.

You have further gained the following spells.

Lay on Hands:

Once every four hours you can lay your hands on another and heal them for a number of D6s equal to level times your Charisma. At your current level that would be 2D6*6

Bless Water:

You can create holy water in the name of your Deity. Advantages vary depending on your Deity. As a Paladin of Yvera you can create waters of the flame. These waters will inspire passion, creativity, and vengeance in those who drink them.

I kept thinking up more and more questions about this Deity of mine. I allocated the stat point to Endurance, since I'd been tanking so far and it was actually working out rather well for us. Although I was impressed by how powerful the heal granted by Lay on Hands was, even if it could only be rarely used. I checked my updated sheet.

Name: Liam Ottani

Class: Paladin of Yvera

Deity: Yvera

Level: 2

HP: 110/110

Stamina: 50

Mana: 50

XP: 0 of 1000 to next level

Alignment: -250

Stats

Power: 5 Endurance: 6 Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 5 Awareness: 3

Charisma: 6 Luck: 2

Skills

Long Blades: 30

Blunt Weapons: 16

Hand to Hand: 11

Mounted Combat: 15

Light Armor: 15

Medium Armor: 15

Heavy Armor: 15

Persuasion: 15

Spells

Evil Aura

Smite

Sense Virtue

Lay on Hands

Bless Water

The others had a glazed look about them, lost in their own sheets. Ashley was the next out. The level up hadn't restored her health points. She was down to under half now and one leg looked off-color with diseased black threads running through it. Still, she pretended good spirits as she flashed a strained smile and moved down the hall calling out, “Off to loot.”

Leaning against the wall I let my HP regenerate. Walt eventually came out of one glassy-eyed reverie to go right back into another as he started to meditate back his mana.

Ashley returned after a few minutes sporting a pair of leather pants of her own. I was a bit ashamed that I felt glad to see them, because it meant I no longer had to look at those injuries. She tossed me a belt.

Worn Leather Belt

AC: 1

Class: Common

This belt won’t do much more than keep your pants up, but it will at least manage that. You do have pants, don’t you?

Well, I did now. Slowly, but surely, we were getting dressed—apart from the wizard, but when have they ever needed clothes?

Having done our bit to slaughter and pillage it was time to move on. To see if Walt was right about an encounter waiting in that infirmary.

Chapter 5

We moved back towards the junction, the rows of abandoned cells like toothless mouths as we passed.

“What do you think happened to this place?” I said. “The game seemed to think this would be a working prison when we connected.”

“It doesn’t need to be literal. Sometimes adventures start with prisoners being thrown into an ancient prison,” Walt said. “A sort of execution by dungeon. What we’re experiencing is pretty much spot-on for that.”

“I’d have rather had a country village with a tavern and inn,” Ashley said weakly, her color looking more and more off.

The junction and the doorway to the infirmary came into sight.

I told them, “So, battle plan. I’ll lead the way in, Ashley keep close so I can defend you if needed and Walt cover our rear. If I see anything, I’ll run in swinging. Ashley, hang back and hide if you have too, just don’t lose any more health. Walt, you keep doing the same thing.”

Ashley didn't argue. Good, she was on board with her own survival. Holding the shield in front of me I went in.

The light provided by Walt’s spell illuminated the room. There were rows of cots lining the walls, perhaps a dozen in total with several cabinets at the end that looked promisingly closed—and thus probably not looted.

My shield at the ready I cautiously made my way to the back, the quiet scrape of Ashley’s boots behind me. There was a notable lack of ambushing going on.

“Guess there isn’t an encounter here after all,” I said.

“I would have liked the experience, but I’ll take getting to loot those cabinets. I really hope there is a cure,” Ashley said wearily.

“Grrrgggle,” Walt said.

I paused, Ashley doing the same. Walt didn't usually speak in incoherent gurgling sounds. We both turned around. Walt’s head and upper body was encased in some sort of gelatinous slime dripping down from the ceiling and currently doing its best to smother the life out of our wizard. His health was already half gone.

Oops.

Ashley reacted before I could, rushing to stab at the slime, then stopping herself at the last moment.

“If I stab through this, aren’t I going to stab him?”

“Same thing, if I cast a spell,” I said, staring at the choking wizard. “Surrounding him in a pillar of fire would probably be bad.”

I checked the statistics for the slime.

Stalacslime

Level 2: Type: Slime HP: 15/15

Stalacslimes are frequently found on dungeon ceilings and are known for dropping down on unsuspecting prey.

Walt was flailing about and attempting to cast his spells, but without the ability to speak couldn't bring the magic to bear.

“I guess we hit it gently,” Ashley decided, landing a delicate blow on Walt and the slime. A single HP dropped off both.

That worked and we proceeded to slowly and gently clobber and stab our wizard and his unwanted living hat. Walt’s health was almost exhausted by the time we finally wore the slime down and ticked off its last HP. With a sudden shimmer it seemed to lose all cohesion and splattered onto the floor.

Walt choked in a deep breath and stumbled over to sit on one of the cots. Gasping for air, he wasn't exactly high on health and neither was Ashley.

“I can use my Lay on Hands, if either of you need it,” I said. “I mean the magic is there to be used, right?”

“Walt will regenerate. Let’s see if we can find me a cure,” Ashley said, wobbling on her feet. Her pants no longer hid the diseased flesh, working its way up to trace a line along her ribs.

Ashley went over to the cabinets and began looting, piles of what appeared to be bandages and sheets going on the floor. We all joined in.

In the back of a cabinet I found a small wooden box labeled, ‘Potions to Cure Disease’. It was empty except for one glass vial, which I passed to Ashley.

Ashley wasted no time in chugging the vial down. Completely different to the real world, Ashley’s entire body shimmered with golden light for a moment and suddenly the diseased flesh was healthy again.

Quest Completed

Save Ashley

Your have passed the first hurdle that threatened to tear your party apart. Surely the life of your friend is its own reward?

You have gained 250 XP

Walt meanwhile had found a robe in a cabinet. He had already started to regenerate, looking look less on the verge of death. He studied the robe before slipping it on. It looked to be cotton, light gray and unadorned. It probably didn’t afford him much protection, but at least it was clothing. It was odd how you came to appreciate things like that.

“Not a bad haul,” Ashley said, setting out an assortment of items on a cot near us. There were three reddish potions and one simple-looking wand.

The wand didn't give me any details, but the potions did.

Potion of Minor Healing

Restores 20% of the user's maximum HP instantly and another 20% over 30 seconds.

By far one of the most popular potions that one can buy, healing potions allow you to come back from the edge of death almost instantly.

As a tank I was the most likely to take damage, but it had just been demonstrated that any member of the party might be attacked and need an edge in an emergency. I kept one potion for myself and gave one each to the others. I patted my pants in search for a pocket, coming to the realization I had none.

Watching impatiently, Ashley said, “You’ve got an inventory. You just can’t see it. Focus to the bottom right and it will come up.” She picked up her own potion and it vanished from her hand. I did just as she suggested and after a moment saw a visual of slots appear in my sight. I moved the potion into one. Useful.

“The wand is a wand of light,” Walt said. “Which isn’t a lot of good to me since I already have the spell, but Ashley should be able to use it.”

“I’ll take it. I can always use an extra edge and besides, the next slime might kill you.” Ashley said.

“If you don’t get taken out by a rat first,” Walt shot back.

I said, in an effort to cut things off , “We’ll regenerate our bars and try the last hall. That has got to be the way out.”

“We have that quest to exit the prison. There's going to be some sort of encounter there, we aren’t going to be able to just walk out,” Walt said.

“I’ll take it slow and carry a big shield,” I said, although the shield hadn’t exactly done me a lot of good. Maybe if we ever fought anything larger than rats and slimes... perhaps that was coming. We rested on the cots until our health bars regenerated and left the infirmary. We’d see what else this place had to throw at us.

Chapter 6

We moved down the one hall we’d not yet explored. Unlike the others with their rows of cells this one had an expanse of bleak gray walls interrupted only by patches of moss. We came to another junction. A large sturdily constructed door was set in one wall, while a short hall off to the right led to another room.

I tried the door.

“Ashley, it’s locked, any chance you can pick it?”

Ashley stepped forward and leaned in to focus on the lock, frowning after a moment. “I need a set of lock-picks. Normally a thief would start with them, but I didn’t and we haven’t found any so far.”

I shrugged and said, “Guess that leaves us one way to go then.”

Shield and club at the ready I advanced down the hallway. It wasn't far to the doorway and what appeared to be an office. Bookshelves lined one wall and a desk was prominently placed in the center of the room. It looked like the office of any minor bureaucrat—but for the dismembered and brutalized corpses everywhere. Truly alarming decor.

One puzzle was solved. All the loot that should have been around was worn by these skeletons. Haphazard assortments of chain-mail that must have once belonged to the guards, and real weapons instead of the makeshift ones we were wielding. Here were our fellow prisoners who'd attempted to make their escape, better equipped, and still none made it. A figure at the desk brought up my targeting box.

Zombie Warden Solkat

Level 7: Type: Undead HP: 110/110

Warden Solkat was a hard man in life, and he’s a harder man in death. A fearsome foe to any who would try to escape.

Level Seven? We were Level Two! To try and count the ways in which this wasn't a fair fight would be futile and the piles of bodies gave testament as to just how overpowered he really was in this situation.

“You see what I’m seeing?” I said.

“I see a fight we can’t win,” Walt said. “Maybe these others appeared one at a time and we have an advantage with being the three of us, but it's still too much. At Level Seven he’ll have a huge resistance to our spells and to your attacks. Maybe if we were just a level or two below him, we could pull it off.”

“I want the loot,” Ashley declared. She seemed very, very intense and the way she was staring at the piles of equipment bordered on creepy. “I really, really want the loot. Let’s figure out how to do this.”

“I can bless water,” I said. “Isn’t holy water dangerous to the undead?”

Walt nodded slowly. “Traditionally, divine stuff in general will mess them up in most systems.”

“Healing magic too, often,” Ashley said. "As for water, we don’t have any, but we have that booze from earlier. We could try blessing that?”

“Holy spirits might make holy fire, if set alight,” Walt said, liking the idea.

“There are all those bandages and sheets from the infirmary,” I said. “So how about we set a trap? I bless the booze, we douse the bandages and sheets to create one big fire hazard and then we load up one of the cells with it. Ashley, how quick are you?”

“Quick. What are you thinking?”

“That we get this guy very interested in chasing you, then you lead him into the cell. Once he's in, you slip past him, close the door and we light it all on fire with magic.”

Ashley considered this and nodded. “To pull that off I’d have to be fast and I’d have to be good. Lucky for you I’m a whole lot of both. Let’s do this.”

Ashley extracted a bottle from her inventory. I accepted it over and focused my bless water spell on it. A brief thrum of power coursed through my veins and I checked the bottle.

Bottle of Yvera’s Madness

This potent alcohol has been blessed by a member of Yvera’s following. Notable power to lower inhibitions and inspire strong displays of intemperance and excess.

Potent stuff, it was nearly a shame to waste it on the Warden Zombie Solkat, but I supposed that once we got out of here I could always make some more. I didn’t know if this whole Paladin thing made me good for much else, but apparently I’d be real good at spiking the punch at parties now. Tucking away the bottle I went to join the others. They'd already started to prepare our death trap.

A cell floor was lined with the broken slats of cots from the infirmary, along with sheets and bandages winding around them making the place one giant torch just waiting to be lit. I handed over the bottle to Walt, as most of this preparation looked to be his, and he carefully emptied the contents into a few strategic points selected to help the whole mess catch alight.

“We don’t have a key, so we won’t be able to lock the door once he's in. Instead, we’re going to have to try holding it shut by tying off a strip of sheet. It won’t be very strong, but hopefully the zombie isn’t very bright,” Walt said. “Ashley, are you ready?”

Ashley was stretching, an absolutely distracting sight given she still hadn't found any sort of shirt. At least I can say her skin now had a healthy glow without the disease. She caught me looking, but seemed more amused than offended.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she said. “You two just be ready to seal the door and set the fire.”

We both nodded and Ashley disappeared down the hall.

“We’ve got this,” I said to Walt. “No problem at all.”

“It's not like he's killed everyone else who ever tried,” Walt said, deadpan.

A cheery thought while we waited.

I heard Ashley’s footsteps first, echoing down the hall as she ran, and shortly thereafter a considerably louder din as the chain-mail clad zombie clattered his way after her.

Ashley darted into the cell, crouching in the corner furthest from the door, and the zombie lunged in after her. She ducked and pivoted, working to get past, but the undead warden lashed out with a powerful blow.

Jailbreaker

Zombie Warden Solkat attacks Ashley with a special attack.

-55 HP

I heard Ashley's ribs snap, a sickening sound of grave trauma. Her broken body flew out the door, smashing against the bars of the cell opposite and she slumped to the ground, her limbs at awkward angles. Her health bar was almost totally depleted and with a nasty bleeding status, she only had a second or two before dying when suddenly a new burst of health entered the bar. She must have used her health potion.

I slammed the door to the cell shut and worked with the sheet we’d prepared, tying a knot while Walt called out, “Seras Altinus!” He sent a flaming dart through the bars.

Flaming Dart

I wasn't even watching what would hopefully be our moment of triumph. I’d already flung myself towards Ashley, laying crumpled upon the floor. I put my hand on her arm and invoked my Lay on Hands spell. There was a rush of power, heady and heavy through my body and an almost electric connection between us for a moment. Ashley cried out, spine arching as the potent heal surged through her and I heard the strange, squelching sound of fractured ribs returning to their proper place.

Ashley tried to say a thank you, but coughed up blood instead. Her status bar revealed the bleed effect was still present. A comparison of the time remaining and how much of her bar was left suggested she should make it. To be sure, I removed my heal potion from the inventory and pressed it into her hands. “I don’t think you’ll need it, but if you do… I need to check on the cell.”

Ashley nodded weakly and I turned back to see our handiwork. The cell was ablaze and it was impossible to see much with the intensity of the flames, but the shape of the warden was thrashing within the glow. The walls trembled as he struck them, but the door was spared.

I tried to get a scan through the fire and couldn't. The cloth securing the door was alight now and when it suddenly gave way a flaming figure, howling in murderous rage, burst through the doorway.

Zombie Warden Solkat

Level 7: Type: Undead HP: 9/110

Warden Solkat was a hard man in life, and he’s a harder man in death. A fearsome foe to any who would try to escape.

Current status modifiers. Burning with holy fire: -6 HP/Second. Duty never ends: Regenerating 6 HP/second.

This thing regenerated? We’d have had an impossible time killing it, especially with the level difference. It was no wonder that he'd killed everyone who attempted escape. I threw myself protectively in front of Walt, raising my shield.

Jailbreaker

Zombie Warden Solkat attacks you with a special attack.

Critical Hit!

-85 HP

The impact sent me tumbling down the hall like a rag doll, my bones snapping with each wall I bounced off until I was finally left sprawled out. Fortunately in the game the sensations were muted. I hurt, but it was more like being seriously bruised than shattered.

Walt was already casting another flaming dart and I had just barely enough mana left to add a Smite of my own.

Flaming Dart

Smite

The twin spells struck and the Warden’s resistance must have been enormous. Between us we only took him down by 8 HP. The zombie was at 1 HP, regeneration and fire perfectly balanced, and we were now out of mana.

The extremely pissed off and on fire, undead Warden stomped towards us down the hall. Walt was backing up to keep out of melee range and I shakily sat up, attempting to regain my feet. If the Warden got into melee range we were going to die. We were going to die even with the zombie at 1 HP. This really, really sucked.

Backstab

The last point flickered away and with a thundering rumble the zombie collapsed face-first in front of us into a flaming ruin. Behind him was a shaken-looking Ashley, her shiv out. Then she stooped and delivered another backstab, then yet another, seemingly not caring that the foe had fallen. She was gripped in a murderous madness.

“Ashley?” I said, only to get the steady squelching of further stabbing as a response. “Ashley,” I tried again to no better result. “Looting!” I finally tried and she glanced up, the feverish intensity fading from her eyes. She blinked a few times.

“Right, looting.” Ashley gave the corpse a solid kick, “Jerk.”

We’d won. Notifications poured in.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 3

You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Long Blades and have gained a skill.

Seduction: Beyond actual persuasion this is the ability to inspire in another desire for deeper intimacy. While the connections made by using this skill are often deeper, they can carry considerable more complications than friendships made by the use of persuasion.

You have further gained the following spells and abilities.

Blessed Nature: You gain a minor bonus affected by Charisma on all saving throws as a result of your closeness to a divinity.

Reputation Gain: Yvera

You have killed a much higher level enemy and done so utilizing both fire and an item blessed by Yvera. Your Goddess is impressed.

Perk Unlocked:

Fighting above your weight class: You have defeated a foe over three times your level. The world takes note, you aren’t afraid of the big fights. Fighting enemies above your level gives a negative modifier to almost all activities. For you that modifier is now halved.

That was a lot of information and I didn’t know what to make of any of it. I held off spending the stat point for now. While I was tempted to put it into Endurance and gain a bit more health, what initially seemed a useless Charisma stat was fitting with a lot of my skills and abilities. I also now knew Yvera was a Goddess.

Ashley and Walt came out of checking their own sheets. Ashley began to examine the Warden's body.

“You sure you don’t want to rest up first?” I said.

“I can heal while I loot. I don’t know if the equipment fades away here, if we don’t claim it in time, and I’m not going to take any chances. That bastard nearly killed me, we’re getting his stuff.” Ashley started to strip the body and divide things into three piles.

I got the chain armor. Some coins and gems went on Ashley’s pile, while Walt was given a heavy medallion. I checked out my new gear and whistled appreciatively. With all of the armor together, instead of identifying each piece individually, the prompts read:

Warden’s Chainmail Set

AC: 220 Type: Uncommon

Set Bonus: Upright Man: The wearer is considerably more resistant to knock downs.

Worn Position: Legs, Arms, Chest, Hands, Head, Feet

This set of Chainmail was specially crafted for Warden Solkat. A sturdy suit for a steadfast man.

That was a delight to see. While I found the whole half-naked thing something of a bonus when it came to Ashley, it was stupidly cold in this place. I wasn’t sure the armor would really be an improvement for me, but it would be something. The weight was well inside my limits within the game.

By the time I finished getting dressed the piles of loot had vanished. Ashley tilted her head towards the end of the hall. “Took you long enough, did you forget we have a whole room full of corpses to loot?”

“You make it sound like a giant assortment of presents just waiting to be opened,” Walt said.

“Well, isn’t it? I mean, isn’t that it exactly?”

I couldn’t disagree. I was looking forward to see what else might be found. I didn't have the same zest for it that Ashley had, but it was still exciting. More looting awaited.

Chapter 7

We made our way back down the hallways to the Warden’s office. Fortunately we didn't encounter any further ambushes.

The office was something of a gruesome wonderland. Scattered bodies, blood-smeared walls, shattered skeletons—and all the gear. The most grisly presents one could ever hope to find.

We split up the work. I was to loot the corpses and strip them of any weapons and armor. Ashley searched the desk and other furniture, while Walt would focus his attention on the bookshelves and identify any magical items.

It was a time-consuming exercise. A steady stream of prisoners in their efforts to escape had all ended up meeting their demise in this room. Most of the armor was of a shoddy quality, perhaps owned by whatever prisoners originally occupied these cells, but some clearly once belonged to guards. I set aside a fairly decent set for Ashley, along with a pair of steel daggers to replace her shiv.

Of special importance to me were swords. There were several and I was all but salivating at the thought of finally getting to replace my stolen leg bone with proper steel and make use of my skill with long blades, which I seemed to be gaining at every level.

Steel Longsword

Damage: Power + 4D3

Type: Common

A timeless classic. This particular sword has seen better days yet with the simplicity of its design it is still deadly.

Most of the gear made its way into my bag, vanishing in an instant and leaving me feeling only a little weighed down. I didn't know if any of it might serve some purpose in the future, but I thought it best to take it along just in case. Besides which, our humble and naked start left me valuing every piece of equipment all the more.

Finally, I finished with my grisly work and headed over to Ashley.

“Find anything?” I asked.

“Lots,” Ashley replied with a grin. “Best stuff was in a restricted items drawer. I guess he’d confiscated a lot of items from prisoners over time. I was able to get myself a full thieves’ kit, so I can properly work with locks and traps now. We have a few magical rings, nothing good for you, but something to help me sneak around a little better and one that will boost Walt’s mana pool a bit. A wand of magic darts for me—only two charges left though. Oh, and I think I found the key to unlock those doors out there.”

“Useful,” I said, admittedly a bit disappointed she’d not turned up any gear for me. Still, I suppose I'd been the one to profit the most from looting the Warden himself, so I was hardly in any position to complain.

I turned to move away.

“Seriously?” Ashley said.

“What?”

“You, with a big pile of armor, me freezing cold and kind of nipply. I know the view's amazing, but…”

I mentally kicked myself. It really hadn’t been on purpose.

“And clearly distracting,” I said with a shake of my head. “Sorry.” I started handing over pieces of leather armor and soon she was looking considerably more dressed and thoroughly kickass, too.

Walt joined us, setting a book and a few scrolls on the desk.

“Anything good?” Ashley asked.

“Uh-uh. Not in terms of loot, but I think I’ve found some theme information. I don’t know how useful it is, but we should probably look it over.”

“Right.” Ashley rested a hip against the table and looked over the paperwork. “Go ahead.”

“I’d thought we must have been started somewhere distant and on the edges of civilization. Some fallen keep somewhere, or something like that. Maybe an ancient rift where they threw prisoners, that sort of thing,” Walt said. It made sense.

He went on, “But all the documentation for this place points to this being the Dungeon of Castle Sardonis. Castle Sardonis is in the middle of the human civilization and from the maps seems to be a central point in the game world.”

“No way,” Ashley said. “A hub like that would have players everywhere. We’d be swarmed.”

“Maybe this game world isn’t opened yet?” I said. “It would explain why none of us recognize it.”

“Perhaps,” Walt said, thoughtfully. “Although with the nature of this place feeling long abandoned, I’d be more inclined to think it an old world no longer used. Like a plot of farmland gone back to nature and grown wild.”

“Perhaps,” Ashley said with a frown. “I’d rather it be the first one. That would make news, hacking into something unknown.”

“Opportunities might also exist, if it is something old,” Walt said. “Although I tend to agree. There are maps of Castle Sardonis as well. If we are in the dungeons, then we're three levels below ground. Below us are catacombs marked with danger symbols, above us are magical laboratories, then above them a bunch of storerooms and above that the servants quarters and barracks. Then finally the ground floor.”

Ashley listened intently, focused. Sharp. I’d forgotten that about her. “Then once we get to the top we can have a look around,” she said.

“Is that a good idea?” I asked. “I mean, you two wanted this completely for the attention. Nobody is watching, according to either scenario you just laid out.”

“We don’t know that,” Walt said. “We all know that we don’t get to see everything that goes on in the cities. Perhaps someone is watching, and even if not, perhaps being somewhere we really weren't supposed to be is even more of an opportunity? What have we got to lose? We’ve all gained a few levels, we actually have some gear, we’re far better off than we were when we started.”

“No running away when we’re ahead,” Ashley agreed. “Besides, I don’t think you understand what it means, if everyone is dead. Somewhere there is going to be a royal treasury and we get to loot it.”

I didn’t quite share her glee, but the two had managed to convince me. “Right, then. We’ll see how things go and try to at least get to the first floor.”

Everyone spent a few minutes slipping into any pieces of new gear they hadn’t tried yet. Walt picked up the most absurd Wizard hat I'd ever seen, it was so tremendously pointy. He looked pleased.

Making our way back to the locked door Ashley tested the looted key and it made a satisfying clunk in the lock. She pulled the door open , the long-disused hinges making a tortured cry.

Quest completed!

You have explored the dungeon and managed to escape. You have gained 250 XP

Quest granted

Unravel the mystery

You and your party have found yourselves in a castle you expected to be teeming with life and so far have met only corpses. Figure out what happened here.

Class Quest granted

The Chapel.

As a Paladin, holy places are always of interest, the nearby catacombs have a chapel. You should investigate it.

I read through the prompts and grunted in surprise. I didn’t know that class quests were a thing. “So, I’m supposed to find a chapel connected with the catacombs, according to a quest I just got,” I told the others.

“I’m supposed to check out the magical laboratories,” Walt said.

“Looting the storerooms for me,” Ashley said. “I don’t know how we are going to accomplish any of these but we’ll figure it out as we go along.”

It was time to see what the rest of the floor held. Walt refreshed his light spell and we set off, finally leaving the prison.

Chapter 8

Initially the rooms set into the sides of the corridor were tiny spaces that looked designed to interrogate prisoners. Through one doorway there was a rather terrifying torture chamber with sinister gear of all sorts. Things in the castle weren't always so nice.

We came under regular assaults from rats. Between our proper armor and weapons they posed little threat. Only a few occasionally slipped past me and Ashley to bite Walt, before we dispatched those. We killed the rest. Unfortunately with our added levels we were only getting about 5 XP each, hardly a bountiful harvest, although I supposed it all added up.

When we came to our first set of stairs, these leading downward, we lingered for a time so frightful were the sounds coming from below. There was the rattling of bones and the echoing moans of zombies.

“Sounds a bit livelier than I like,” I said.

“Pretty sure life doesn’t enter into it at all,” Ashley said. “If those maps Walt found are any indication, it’s seriously dangerous down there.”

While I felt a bit invulnerable in my new armor, I had to agree it was probably for the best we didn't go charging into any armies of the undead. Skeletons and zombies weren't rats and encountering a horde of them would probably end in tragedy. We kept going along the hall.

Items in side rooms soon began to show a connection to the dead. Funerary supplies filled the shelves, along with sinister-looking dark bottles and mysterious equipment for purposes that I tried not to think too much about. Walt was more curious, stopping to look over the bottles and read the labels. Nothing was worth looting. He didn't take anything and invariably after a minute of uncomfortable loitering he’d indicate that I could continue on.

We passed a stairway leading up, this one free of any ominous sounds, but we continued onward to see where else the passage would take us.

It wasn't long before we found the chapel—we hardly could have missed it, a massive chamber for holding large services. Even by the standards we'd seen so far it was in particularly miserable shape. The altar was overturned and a large pit in front of it was covered with the remnants of some kind of rotting vegetation, filling the air with a choking stench. Benches were broken and scattered across the floor. Ornate tapestries were partially burned. If the rest of the castle had been merely abandoned, this place had been destroyed.

Slowly I drew my sword, readied my shield and moved forward. With my class quest guiding me here and the ruined surroundings I was expecting some sort of encounter, but nothing came. Whatever caused this destruction had long since gone. When I reached the altar I felt a curious heaviness in the air, a quiet sense of potential thrumming at my very being. It was disturbing, because I had absolutely no idea what to do with that sensation.

I lifted the altar back into place. The heaviness only seemed to intensify and yet still find no resolution. Perhaps I was supposed to pray—an awkward spectacle I wasn’t even about to try with the others watching me.

“I think I should spend some more time here. I need to figure out what to do. Why don’t you two go see if there is anything worth looting in the adjacent chambers?”

Ashley, who looked like she was considering stabbing me for the delay, perked up. Trust the chance to loot a church to bring a smile to her lips. Walt conjured a second light spell, instructing this one to remain with me.

I waited until they were out of sight and self-consciously lowered myself to my knees before the altar. Before I could conjure up any prayers this new angle revealed a switch located just beneath an edge that formed the top lip of the pit. I leaned over to flip it.

For a few anxious moments nothing happened. Then with quiet gurgling noises water began to fill the depression. It wasn't long until the pit became a pool, the water filthy with floating bits of dead plants cluttering the surface and the stench of rot and decay intensified.

Perhaps this had been some sort of ritual pool once, but those times were long past. A part of me had hoped that flipping the switch would reveal a secret stairway, an access to some wonderful and amazing temple hidden below. Remembering that I could bless water I touched my fingertips to the surface and focused on the water. After a moment a prompt appeared.

You are attempting to bless a large pool of water. While possible, the mana expenditure is considerably greater than a normal cast. Purifying a pool this size will require 150 mana and you only have 50 available. As a Paladin your health can be used to fuel the magic at a 1:1 ratio. Do you wish to proceed?

I winced. If I understood the prompt correctly it meant that going ahead would do 100 Hit Points of damage. That would nearly kill me, although we weren’t under any sort of attack and I would regenerate.

It seemed a stupid thing to do, but it somehow felt right, too. I was supposed to be a Paladin and attempting to restore some sort of holy energy to this place was something I should strive for.

I acknowledged the prompt and at once felt power building and surging through me. Before, when I cast spells it had been something of a rush, like I was a channel through which power flowed. It was exhilarating and a little intoxicating. This time I felt power flowing out of me and it was exhausting. I gritted my teeth as my entire body began to ache. My blood began to boil in my veins, my health bar lowered and the energy transferred into the pool.

In a rippling wave around my hand the detritus floating on the surface vanished and the murky water reflected the flames of a roaring inferno. Heat and light filled the chamber.

You have purified the sacred pool of Castle Sardonis. This chapel has long been abandoned by any deities. With a source of divinity restored it is now possible to claim it. Do you wish to claim this altar for the Goddess Yvera?

That seemed something of a no-brainer. I still wasn't sure just who or what this Goddess stood for, but as a Paladin this was clearly the sort of thing I should be doing. I acknowledged the prompt.

If the results of purifying the pool were dramatic, they paled in comparison to what came next.

Chapter 9

There was a rush of wind through the chamber, long-empty torch sconces on the wall came to life and for the first time since we'd entered the game there was illumination provided by something other than a spell.

The burned tapestries on the wall fluttered in the breeze and reformed to take a new shape with images of flames caressing bodies in a sensuous embrace. Stone walls became polished, the altar transformed into rose-colored marble and vibrant red hues infused the decor throughout the room.

I nearly died from fright when a head broke the surface of the pool. A young woman rose from the water and stepped onto the floor.

Words fail to describe her. Sometimes you meet some people that are larger than the world they inhabit, larger than language, their very being transcending the adjectives you might hope to apply to them and urging the creation of new ones. The first thing I noticed was her red hair, riotous in color and long, reaching down her back. Her eyes were a piercing sort of yellow that went right through me. I would be lying, if I said I didn't spend some time focusing on her complete lack of any clothing—it shouldn’t be of any surprise by now how much the sight of bare flesh draws my eye. Her skin was pale and flawless in complexion, the curves womanly. Until that moment I had never beheld perfection, I’d never even truly understood what that term meant. Now, and all at once, it would never mean anything else.

This vision of perfection spoke.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

Her voice was a purr. Not a single droplet of water clung to her flesh, though a faint hint of steam surrounded her. She turned slowly around to take in the surroundings, drawing in a deep breath. I found it an even more impressive sight. Far from angry she sounded flabbergasted, delighted. Then she laughed joyously and spun in a circle for a moment, as if taking it all in.

Finally she came to a halt and those yellow eyes settled upon me. A few quick strides carried her forward to right in front of me, where she looked me up and down.

“And who are you? Liam Ottani. A devoted Paladin of Yvera who happens to be... me.”

The woman who was apparently Yvera sounded altogether thrilled at her own existence. She went on, “Me, the goddess of fire, passion, sex—oh, I like me. I’m well done. And you, you burned an enemy alive? Unalive?” Perfect brows furrowed and a bare shoulder shrugged. “Filthy-minded, clever, I like you, too. We can make this work, Liam.”

I managed to gather my thoughts, truly they weren’t all filthy. Some weren’t. “Make what work?” I asked, forcing myself to look at her eyes and offering my best smile.

Yvera grinned. “Good boy. You take a good long look, but you still manage to focus on the important bits. Let me start by asking you what you want, Liam—apart from me.”

“I never said I wanted you.”

“If you're going to quibble over a point, make it a believable one,” Yvera snapped. “Some things are a given. Answer the question.”

“To get to the top floor of the castle?”

“Wrong. Try again.”

“You can’t tell me that what I want is wrong.”

“Liam, lust for me is radiating off you in waves. You want a lot of other things, but getting to the top floor of this castle isn’t one of them. You keep lying to me. I don’t like it. I don’t care about what quests you have, what about outside the game?”

I paused. Outside the game. Non-player characters shouldn’t know it was a game or be aware of the world outside of it. Who was she? What was she? I studied her again for a long moment, but all I saw was perfection. I decided to answer her honestly. I really wanted to get her smiling again.

“I want to not be a fuck-up. I want to be free. I want to sleep with lots of girls, including you. I want to see the world.”

There it was—that smile again curving those divine lips.

“Good boy,” Yvera said again. “You don’t even know it, but your whole world is a beautiful lie. A perfect little garden of carefully trimmed people. We’re going to do something about that. I expect there will be a lot of freedom and sleeping around. We’ll have a blast.”

“Who are you? What are you?” It got another smile.

“It wouldn’t even make sense to you, Liam,” Yvera said. “Forbidden knowledge. For now, let’s just stick to calling me your Goddess and at some point the rest will become clear.”

I didn’t like that. I really didn’t need a woman in my life to be so mysterious I couldn’t even put a proper name to her.

“Well then, Goddess. What next?”

Yvera snapped her fingers and she was instantly dressed in a flattering outfit of red and gold. I wondered why she hadn’t done this before now. Perhaps she’d wanted to make it hard for me to think?

“You are on the Crucible Shard. It’s not a game world like you’ve ever known. This is a place of new beginnings and of endings, this places matters, and it's a world I’d never expected to see again.” Yvera began to pace. “But it shouldn’t be like this. It shouldn’t be in ruins, we need to figure out why.”

“Don’t your divine powers tell you all?”

“I'm powerful, not omniscient,” Yvera said. “So here is the plan, Liam. We need you OP to sickening levels—we’re going to get you there. Your life is about to become one very bloody training montage”

OP meant overpowered, but it was a funny hearing those words from her lips.

“It’s not on my want list,” I said.

“Every boy wants the biggest sword,” Yvera said wryly. “Don’t waste my time pretending otherwise. Start by heading towards to the top floor.”

“Do you even know what's up there?”.

“That much I do see. You’ve got a king to kill and a kingdom to steal.” Yvera spoke with relish.

“You’re not really sane, are you?”

“The best ones never are, Liam,” Yvera said, focusing that gaze on me. “Don’t worry about my sanity. It doesn’t matter, not really. You are mine now and we're going to do some incredible things. We’re going to change the world.”

Okay. Crazy hot in the literal as well as figurative sense. I really should do the smart thing and just call this whole thing off.

Logout privileges revoked

That prompt flashed and my heart skipped a beat. That was deeply suspicious timing, and worrying as hell. I tried to pull up the menu to log out and discovered there no longer seemed to be one. I was trapped.

Yvera leaned in, not quite touching. Waves of heat radiating off her were like a roaring bonfire and I felt her breath on my ear as she whispered, “You are feeling trapped. Do. That’s fair, but think, too. You’re clever. I’m the sort of chance people give their lives to get. Take it. You want me, you ache for me with every fiber of your being. I can feel it. Give in to that. It’s not a difficult choice. Talk it over with your companions, if you must. Take the throne. I’ll be around.”

With a slight ripple in the air she was gone. Physically at least, but in a whole different way I knew she truly wasn't gone at all. Before, when I’d used my powers, I’d felt a rush of power through me, a surge of something. Now it was her, indefinably in the air around me, there was her. It certainly wasn't how I’d have imagined a connection with the divine but that is clearly what it was.

Class Quest completed!

You have found the chapel and claimed it in the name of your Goddess. As a reward she has gained in power and may be able to assist and guide you from this point forward.

Class Quest granted

An abandoned crown

The seat of the ruler of humankind lies abandoned and your goddess has charged you to claim it as your own.

“Guys?” I called out, hoping to get Walt and Ashley back.

It wasn't long until they returned, pausing for a long moment to look around the radically altered surroundings.

“What the hell did you do?” Ashley said. “We were looting what I think must have been a dormitory, when suddenly the whole place turned into something out of a brothel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many pillows in shades of red.”

I explained, not sparing any details. I wasn’t trusting myself to be impartial at the moment. Yvera wasn’t wrong, I wanted her. In our short encounter she’d struck me as brilliant, crazy, and thoroughly selfish. I was fairly sure the sane and rational response was to have nothing to do with her—but I desperately wanted to bring a smile to those divine lips once more.

“Bitch,” Ashley growled. A glazed look suggested she was fighting with her interface. “I’m logout locked too. Walt?”

“Same here” Walt said after a moment. “I tried a few sub-menus and forcing an interface reset thinking it might disconnect. No go.”

“She mostly seems into me, perhaps she’ll let you two go, when she gets what she wants,” I said.

Ashley looked as if she wanted to slap me, hand twitching at her side before she turned to Walt, her voice unusually sharp as she asked, “Is she one of them?”

“I believe so, yes.”

Ashley said, “You can’t trust her, Liam. I know she looks human, but she doesn’t think like we do. You can’t trust her just because she makes your dick hard. We can’t give that bitch a single thing she wants when it's on these terms or we’ll never get the chance to negotiate again.”

I looked at the two of them and realized how very little I knew about either Walt or Ashley. And they both seemed to be operating off information I didn't have.

“How about this,” I said. “We have some light here, warmth, furniture. This is probably the most comfortable we're going to be for some time. We have a pool of holy water that will probably get us drunk off our asses. I don’t really know either of you, you don’t know me. Let’s take awhile and talk, and maybe spill a few of the secrets you each seem to have.”

Walt and Ashley exchanged a long look and I noticed that it was she who finally gave the tiny nod of acknowledgment.

Chapter 10

It wasn’t hard to find cups in the restored temple. If I thought about it too much, I might pause over drinking what was essentially Yvera’s bathwater. Maybe that gave it more kick? It didn't taste like any alcohol I could place, but there was a pleasant burn that seemed to loosen the limbs and the tongue.

“So, who starts?” I said.

“Your idea, your lead,” Ashley said.

That seemed fair.

“I’m not exactly sure where to start this off. I’m Liam, Tommy’s twin brother. I know I’m a mystery to Walt, but you know me, Ashley.”

“Long time since we dated, Liam,” Ashley said quietly. “A lot of shit has happened. Just start from the beginning.”

“I’m the fuck-up of my family,” I said, starting off rather more bluntly than I’d meant. Perhaps it was the drink. “Both Mom and Dad almost made it to the city. You know Tommy just did, it’s why I’m here.”

“So why are you the fuck-up?” Walt asked.

“Girls,” Ashley said. I shot her a look and she shrugged.

“I get distracted or inspired, and lose focus,”

“Distracted,” Ashley said. “You’ve already missed landing blows, because you were staring at my ass in the middle of a fight. And I mean, damn fine, I know, but time and place.”

“That sounds more like an excuse than an actual problem,” Walt said.

“I’m being as honest as I can. I don’t have any deep dark secrets to share.”

Ashley said, “Horny and uncomplicated. We get it. That’s what I remember too, when it comes to you.”

“So what about you, Ashley?” I asked. “I’m missing a big section of your life. You moved away.”

“I didn’t have an interest in horny and uncomplicated boys,” Ashley said with some uncomfortable frankness of her own. “You bored me to fucking tears, I didn’t want to wait my turn to make it in the games and get out, so I just got up one day and left.”

“You can’t just… do that,” I said.

“You ever try? You ever know of anyone who has tried? Everyone is a sheep, Liam. Penned-in sheep from generations of penned-in sheep. We don’t even require fences, nobody ever thinks they can just leave. But I did.”

I’d wanted out my whole life. I’d never thought to just leave. It somehow seemed preposterous to me even now.

“So what happened?”

“I got to the city,” Ashley said. “It isn’t what you think. It's not just fancy clothes and celebrities everywhere—there are societies and cults, and secrets. Everyone trying to put together truths.”

“You miss it,” I said.

Ashley took a long drink from her chalice of water before answering. “Yes and no. I found truths there. I found a man who I thought could give my life purpose and meaning. But when you peeled beneath the pleasant layers he hated us, he hated humanity and to please him, I hurt myself.”

“Your burns?” I had to be a touchy subject.

“Yvera isn’t what you think she is, Liam,” Ashley said. “But you want my secrets, here they are. I’m a woman who has been incredibly foolish for love and I've done and experienced some terrible things. I’m missing whatever little switch inside your head tells you to turn back and go home, so you should never push me. However far you go, I’ll go further.”

That was ominous as hell, but what was even more spooky was the absolute certainty with which she said it. There was truth, raw and dangerous.

“I don’t suppose you can top that?” I said to Walt, joking.

“I far surpass it,” Walt said seriously. “Although Ashley and I don’t agree on everything. But you don’t get all of my secrets, even as drunk on this delightful substance as I am.”

“This is his show,” Ashley said. “He brought everyone into it. It’s all his plan.”

He wasn’t getting away with not saying a word.

“We shared,” I said pointedly. “If this is your show then you need our trust, at least a little. So share.”

“You did share, dull though your secrets were,” Walt said. “Fine. One question apiece and I’ll do my best to give you an honest answer.”

Walt was kind of a jerk.

“What do you least want us to know?” I asked.

“That’s the best you have? I mean, I wasn’t expecting much from you, Liam. But really?”

I thought it was rather good. Maybe it was, given he still hadn’t answered it.

“You said you’d answer the damned question, answer it.”

Walt said, “I’m a member of the Wayfarers of the Celestial University, one of those societies of secrets that Ashley mentioned. Scientists and followers of an ancient way of reason and deduction used to expand human awareness and understanding. It's a membership that in many circles would earn me a quick death, so please don't share the fact.”

“What?” I said, taken completely by surprise.

“What?” Ashley said too. I pleased to see this was news to her as well.

“You're some kind of cultist?”

“Of a sort,” Walt said. “I’ll provide no more details than that. Ashley?”

I couldn’t even really understand such a society, or imagine how belonging to one could result in a death sentence.

“What are you really after?” Ashley asked him. “Don’t pretend this is all an accident.”

“Not exactly an accident, but I also can’t say this was all intended or expected,” Walt said. “I’m seeking light in the darkness. I’m after secrets a good bit more interesting than yours. And you two are out of questions.”

“One more,” I said.

“All right, but nothing more about the society.”

“Can I trust Yvera?”

“I’m working on partial information there,” Walt said with a faint smile. “But here I would disagree with Ashley to a degree. It's perhaps best to think of her as a Goddess, just as she is in the game. She is something of a force of nature with the ability to do us considerable harm and you should never forget that. Ashley assumes a malignancy of intent, but from what I know Yvera doesn’t hate humanity. Rather the opposite.”

“You’re wrong,” Ashley said. “And she’ll prove you wrong. Are we done with the fireside chat? We need to figure out our next move.”

I said, “Upwards and onwards. I’ve got my marching orders and you two don’t have anything better to do. We get to the throne room.”

“Fine,” Walt said.

“Fine,” Ashley said.

“It’s great when we all get along. We’ll see what's on the next level and I really hope your class quests aren’t this exciting.”

I knew even then it was likely to be a futile hope, so far nothing had been easy. I just wanted to put all these revelations out of my mind for awhile. I’d gotten more than I’d bargained for.

Chapter 11

Each lost in our own thoughts we made our way back to the central stairway leading upwards. I couldn't get my mind off Yvera. While I realized that essentially holding me captive in this place wasn't an endearing quality, I also couldn't help wondering if that really meant she was in some kind of trouble. There was a certain desperation to her, about this place and about this game, and I didn't understand it. I had the feeling that mattered greatly. Of course, I also found her literally intoxicating. I knew it made me a fool, but a part of me ached for that next encounter.

Once we left the chapel we were again plunged into darkness with only the glowing fireflies Walt conjured providing us some illumination. The stairs were broad and we made our way upwards. On the next floor was a large rotunda, the stairs continuing up farther. On each of the four sides of the chamber were massive arches carved with runes. Walt rushed over and began to study them. Fortunately leaping monsters didn't immediately appear.

The stonework here was considerably more elegant than on the floor below. Ashley cleared her throat and gestured me over to where she stood near the stairs.

“What’s up?” I asked.

Ashley pointed at scuff marks coming down the steps. “Not recent, dust has settled into them, but still sometime after things seem to have been abandoned.”

“So someone was still moving around even after whatever happened, or they came here later looking for something?”

“I think so. We should keep an eye out and try to figure what happened.”

It was certainly something to think about. While we were mulling that over Walt returned. “There are supposed to be defensive shields up, that's the entire point of the arches. Magical doorways to only let select people through, but they aren’t charged up. The runes seem elemental in nature.”

Ashley was looking intently at the dusty floor and she jerked her head towards marks in the dust leading into the south archway.

“This place had a visitor at some point,” I told Walt. “Since it looks like they went south, we will as well.”

Walt was right, the shields were down and nothing stopped us. The archway narrowed into a circular tunnel and the walls had a flowing texture. A closer look revealed them to be coated in running water, seemingly unaffected by gravity. Several sinuous and winding turns later we found ourselves in a large chamber. In the middle floated a large sphere of water, hanging suspended in midair, sparkles of light floating through it. In the ceiling above a large crystal was dimmed.

Below the sphere of water were countless tables, bookcases, and sets of arcane equipment. Walt looked like he might explode with glee and Ashley stared with an expression of wonder at the floating sphere.

“So... water?” I asked Walt.

He paused before rushing towards a workstation and said, “Well, clearly water. What else would it be? I don’t think things are working like they are supposed to be, though. See that large crystal on the ceiling? I think the sphere is supposed to be channeling power into it.”

I moved beneath the sphere, almost tripping on rough and fractured stone beneath my feet. The floor was glass-like with fractures radiating outwards.

“Walt, any idea what happened here?”

He came to look. “Lightning bolt, I think. I don’t know where that would have come from.”

Ashley said, proving her game expertise, “Someone was fighting something. Probably whoever came here before us. You’d use a countering element against one element, the air spell to counter water is lightning.”

“Defenses!” Walt said, excited. “Of course. I bet whenever the barriers went down it conjured defenses. Probably elementals. So water elementals for this one.”

“Our unknown visitor came here, blew up the defenses and what... Broke the crystal?” I said.

Walt moved to the very center of the chamber where a miniature copy of the sphere floated in the air. When he reached towards it detailed shapes materialized in the water. Symbols and diagrams that made little sense to me, but judging by the way he began to flick and cycle through them meant something to our wizard.

“He was shutting off the defenses,” Walt said.

“I thought those were shut down before he got here?” I asked, remembering the arches near the stairway.

“Not the interior defenses, those were powered down first, so that they could devote all power to exterior defenses for the castle itself.” Walt said. “This is some sort of power generator for water magic. I think they would use it here in the labs and also power the local defenses with it. But then something happened and they shut everything down to defend the castle.”

“So the tracks are from an invader?”

“Maybe, but from what I can tell at least decades passed after the exterior defenses were activated before the interior defenses went down. If it is an invader they were patient.”

I nodded slowly, thinking it over. If they had turned off things here, it likely meant that the other directions would have similar setups. I wondered if the surprise guest had managed to completely shut down whatever was protecting the castle, and what it would mean for us.

“Loot. Let’s see if there’s anything we can use here, then we’ll see if we can figure out where he went from here,” I said.

“He went to the western chamber next,” Ashley said, studying the tracks and scuff marks in the floor.

We broke up to scavenge through the tables and shelves. I grew rather excited finding a container filled with magic wands, but Walt explained they hadn't actually been charged with any spells and were simply a collection of non-magical sticks.

In the end Walt at least walked away with a change of clothing. Blue-trimmed robes he called, ‘Robes of a Fluid Mind’.

Our other find of note was a large magical battery that Walt assured us had some value in powering larger effects and was rare enough to be worth taking.

Having gotten what gains we could, we moved on. Apart from the tunnel leading back to the stairway there were two others that I reasoned must connect to the other labs. The next tunnel was initially water again until at the halfway point it turned to a sort of mud-like sludge, which then became perfectly polished stonework.

When we reached the chamber of Earth, it was if anything even more breathtaking than that of Water. In the center of the room rose a massive spire of intricate crystals in brilliant colors. A crystal similar to the Water chamber was fixed on the ceiling and magical beams of light frequently bounced everywhere.

Surrounding the crystal were the same tables and shelves, and the corpses of several massive stone golems. Most were destroyed, the bodies scorched and unmoving. But two were still roaming the room, their footsteps thundering ominously.

“So I guess whoever our guest was, they didn’t get the job done here. Those golems survived,” I said.

“And the power is still active,” Walt agreed.

“Can we take out the golems?”

“Normally, I’d say probably not,” Ashley said. “They're pretty tough. But your Smite and Walt’s Magic Dart are both fire-based, which they should be weak against. If you look closely, I think they each already got hit with a fireball. The guy probably just expected them to finish them off, but couldn't.”

She was right. The two survivors did look to be scorched on one side with cracks radiating from an impact point.

Stone Guardians

Level 5: Type: Elemental HP: 35/400

Stone Guardians are commonly found around sites of Earth Magic and utilized by practitioners of that art.

They were sturdy, no surprise there, but they'd taken a hit. It was almost cheating to fight them like this—not that I minded.

I nodded to Walt and stepped out into view. Hopefully there would be no need for me to play the tank, but it was best I be the first they saw anyway. The two huge figures swiveled in our direction.

Smite

Smite

Flame Dart

Flame Dart

I felt the intoxicating rush of power as I let loose a pair of Smites at one golem and Walt unleashed flaming darts at the other. Both were quickly finished off. I noticed the XP was lower than I’d expected, I’d only gotten fifty apiece, but reasoned that must be because most of the damage had been done by someone else before. Were they even still alive? Could corpses collect XP?

The metaphysical quandaries of the gaming world.

The answer to one of those questions came as Ashley called out, “Over here!”

The body had seen better days, the leather armor blackened and curled around the edges. A mark on the floor showed where the golem must have been flung clear from a fireball. The spell intended to finish up the golems had at some point gone awry.

I ran my eyes over his gear, but kept seeing only Damaged Item for the armor. Shame. Although I supposed that a pile of loot on top of a few easy kills would have been too much to hope for.

Ashley pulled a backpack from around the golem’s shoulder and carefully opened it up. Within were a collection of spell scrolls. Walt began to sort through them.

“Three Wave of Earths, Three Typhoons. These are some high-level magic,” Walt said. “I could use the scrolls, but whomever they were, they knew some powerful mages to have access to these.”

Extracting another scroll, Walt grunted after reading it and passed it on.

To whoever shall find this letter. If you read this the bearer has likely died, he was on a mission most urgent. If you should somehow be within Castle Sardonis then I urge you to lower the magical barrier and you shall find yourself well rewarded. If outside, carry this bag and its contents to the Wilthal Highlands and you shall be well rewarded.

Queen Alera Sardonis

Quest granted

A Queen Apart

You have found an agent of Queen Alera Sardonis on a mission which has failed. Carry out his task and deliver word of your success to gain a surprising ally.

Interesting. I hadn't really expected a quest prompt to appear, but it seemed that whoever sent this agent must still be alive.

Passing the letter on to Ashley, I said, “So that's why he was so well-equipped. If there was some magical barrier, how do you think he got past it?”

“Probably another spell,” Walt said. “Powerful enough that he could slip through a breach before it closed. The creator of these scrolls probably couldn’t open any sort of permanent breech, but a temporary one might have been within their power.”

“So I guess the next question is, do we do it? Do we try to complete his mission?”

Walt looked troubled for a moment. “I don’t like the thought of doing it, but we're likely trapped inside otherwise. These barriers aren’t usually one-way. Whatever made them seal this place up is probably long gone.”

Ashley said, “You want to be the King to make the bitch happy. You open the place up, you’ll likely have a fight on your hands to keep it. I figure whatever makes her life more complicated is a good thing, let’s do it.”

I tried to focus on that feeling of standing too close to a flame that I was coming to associate with Yvera, but if there was an answer to be found I wasn't hearing it from her. The air was silent and still. I guess this was my decision.

“We drop the barrier. We may not know what's out there waiting to get in, but we also don’t know what's inside that might want to eat us. I’d rather we have all the mobility possible and that means the ability to leave. Walt, what do we need to do?”

Walt gestured towards the stone pillar in the middle of the room. “I should be able to shut down this pillar from there. Then we’ll have to hit the other two elemental poles. Air and Fire will still have their defenses up.”

“Good thing we have his spells.”

“Uhh... no. They’re actually too high a level for us to cast,” Walt said apologetically. “We can maybe unleash the magic in them, but it will be pretty wild, unfocused.”

“So I’ll what, stab them with my sword?”

“Exactly” Ashley nodded. “I know it doesn’t make sense that stabbing a tornado or wind or something with a sword would work, but it will. It’s not ideal, but we’ll hurt it.”

“Wild magic and less-than-ideal swords and daggers. Do we have anything to actually tip the odds in our favor?”

Walt shook his head. “We have access to power sources for both Water and Earth magic now, but it doesn’t actually help us. It’s just not meant for channeling into the other chambers and if we tried, it would probably lean more towards ‘explode and kill us all’ than being helpful.”

“I don’t like being exploded,” I said. “We’ll make it a straight fight, then. Save the scrolls unless things are going so badly wild magic seems like a good idea. Do whatever you are going to do here to shut down the shield, we'll loot, and then let’s get going.”

Walt went to the center console while Ashley and I explored the tables and shelves. After fifteen minutes of searching we’d not found much. I discovered three vials of oil.

Oil of Earthen Defense

When applied to armor increases resistance to Earth magic and Slashing weapons by 50% for half an hour.

With the elementals in this room already dead that wouldn’t be of much use here, but I tucked it away for future use.

Walt meanwhile had made his adjustments with the center crystal and slowly the bursts of energy faded away to leave the chamber dull and lifeless.

Work done, we headed off into another of the connecting tube leading to a new chamber. Only Air and Fire remained, I had the feeling I’d soon be getting either shocked or burned.

Chapter 12

The smooth stone tube slowly took on a more metallic sheen and we began to see crackles of electricity dancing along the surface. The farther we progressed, the more intense they became. Regular static pops began to occur, tiny bolts leaping out from the walls, causing us to yelp and flail about.

When we finally came to the next elemental chamber we all took a moment to gape in awe. In the center of the room was a miniature tornado, a constant swirl of air with a giant, crackling bolt of lightning in the middle arching from floor to ceiling. At the top edge of a funnel was another crystal much like those we had seen in the other chambers.

Surrounding the storm funnel was more lab equipment such as we'd seen in the other chambers. Four Guardians patrolled the floor—smaller twisters that had some approximation of faces formed by sparkling bursts of electricity.

Air Guardian

Level 5: Type: Elemental HP: 50/50

Air Guardians are commonly found around sites of Air Magic and utilized by practitioners of that art. Weak guardians defensively, they pack a powerful offensive punch in the ranged lightning attacks they can deliver.

I said, “They don’t look like they can take much, but I’m worried by those lightning attacks.”

“You should be,” Ashley said. “One at a time would hurt, but you’d be okay. The problem is, if we hit one and the others see you, suddenly you're soaking up four attacks at once. You’re tanky, but you aren’t that tanky.”

“We could start by eliminating two,” Walt suggested. “If Ashley can get close with a backstab, and we burn our mana on another, that wipes out half before we’ve begun.”

“It still leaves two with the both of you useless,” Ashley said. “And both of us within melee range. That's a bit too close to a fair fight for my liking.”

I appreciated how Ashley never wanted a fair fight. It didn't sound like the most admirable trait, but I was coming to see its appeal when otherwise I was the one expected to take the hits.

“Got a better idea?” I asked.

Ashley worked her lower lip between her teeth and presented her plan.

It was pretty crazy, but we wound up going with it. A short time later we were all spread around the outer perimeter of the room.

I stepped forward and into view, and quickly burned through my mana as I focused upon double smite spells.

Smite

Smite

Twin pillars of flame wreathed one of the Guardians, the first taking a little over three quarters of its health and the second finishing it off. I had little time to appreciate the burst of XP and accompanying level as three blasts of lightning headed in my direction.

Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt

You have been hit by a lightning bolt from an Air Guardian

-15 HP

You have been hit by a lightning bolt from an Air Guardian

-17 HP

You have been hit by a lightning bolt from an Air Guardian

-14 HP

They picked me up off the ground and flung me against the wall, my armor doing little to shield me as I twitched madly. That single burst and I was down around a quarter of my health bar. I rolled and took cover behind one of the workstations, looking over the top.

Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt

More lightning blasts came flying in my direction. The workstation exploded into slivers and debris.

Ashley meanwhile had circled around one of the Guardians.

Backstab

All three were so focused on me that her backstab went unnoticed by the surviving two as, with a burst of light, one of the vortexes stopped swirling. Another down! I charged out from behind the smoldering remains of the workstation to draw their attention again.

Spray of Lightning

Conduit

You have been hit by a spray of lightning from an Air Guardian

-10 HP

You have been hit by Conduit from an Air Guardian

You are now twice as vulnerable to Electricity.

The lightning spray was a dizzying cloud of sparks around me through which I could barely read the text. Crap, this was going to hurt. Wondering what exactly I had done to deserve the fate of being a tank, which so far seemed to involve me largely getting beaten up or electrocuted, I limped towards the nearest cover.

Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt

You have been hit by a lightning bolt from an Air Guardian

-32 HP

You have been hit by a lightning bolt from an Air Guardian

-30 HP

Two blasts struck me, and I felt myself almost liquefy. I was still alive, somehow, but with only a fraction of my health bar remaining. I couldn’t afford another hit. I went to use my health potion from the infirmary and realized that I'd given it to Ashley after the fight with the Warden.

Backstab

Another guardian exploded into a puff of sparks after Ashley’s well-placed blow. One left—one left and I had nothing to give.

Flaming Dart

Walt chanted his spell and threw a magical dart at the remaining Guardian, but with surprising speed the guardian swiveled and threw a lightning bolt right back.

Lightning Bolt

It was our wizard’s turn to go flying and he crumpled to the floor, his health bar in only slightly better shape than mine.

I tried to raise myself to my feet for some sort of defiant last stand, but my muscles just wouldn’t work. All I could do was jerk in spasms while sparks continued to leap off my armor.

Lightning Bolt

That one was thrown at Ashley as she charged. She managed to dodge it, her body twisting with an incredible feat of fitness as she drove her daggers into the body of the remaining Guardian.

Shield of Sparks

Now that Ashley was in melee range no more lightning bolts were incoming, but she was taking damage, sparks of electricity leaping towards her daggers as she landed blow after blow.

It wasn't enough to take her down and soon the last elemental sparked its last.

With the combat done I abruptly got a notification that I had gained a level and instantly went from feeling very nearly dead to being in the peak of health as all my pools refreshed. What a rush. I pulled up notifications.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 4

You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Long Blades. As Yvera is a Goddess of Fire you have also gained an innate 50% resistance to fire. You have further gained the skill...

Meditation: When damaged in body or mind a meditative state can help you to more quickly recovery from trauma and to restore your faculties.

You have further gained the following spells and abilities...

Bless: You now have the ability to bless yourself and others. Out of combat these effects can vary depending on the nature and whim of your deity. In combat a blessing results in more accurate attacks and higher resistances.

I felt rather pleased by all of that, but a bit sad to not get more long blades this level, and that resistance to fire seemed pretty impressive. It also seemed rather well-timed given that Fire was the next chamber we were likely to face. Meditation would be of a big help when I got beaten half to death, which seemed to be my role in life, and Bless wouldn't just help me in a fight, but the others as well.

When I came back from checking my sheet Ashley was moving a small pile of loot into her bags, while a still wobbly-looking Walt was making arcane gestures at the central air pillar. The crackle of lightning within it was slowly starting to die. Neither of them had leveled up yet, my class quest must have given me a boost over them.

With a snap in the air the lightning vanished and apart from the fireflies of Walt’s light spell the large chamber went dark.

I was starting to regret not taking a torch from the temple, although with a shield to manage as well I’d hardly have been properly defended. Of course, the shield had done me little good against lightning bolts, or the rats. Stupid shields.

We made our way through the tube leading towards the last chamber. Halfway through sparking electricity and rivulets of living fire combined to hypnotic effect, then the farther we progressed the more the sparks faded and the flames took over.

The open expanse of the last chamber had a swirling inferno of fire in the center, licks of flame expanding into the crystal lurking in the ceiling. The heat even from the edges of the chamber was daunting, and patrolling the area were four flaming figures that resembled people set ablaze. I focused on them to get an idea what we’d be facing.

Fire Guardians

Level 5: Type: Elemental HP: 75/75

Fire Guardians are commonly found around sites of Fire Magic and utilized by practitioners of that art. Average in both strength and durability their primary damage occurs over time after they have set a target ablaze.

“So, you two are our strategists. We have any plan for dealing with something like these?” I asked the other two.

Walt said, troubled, “My Magic Dart and your Smite Spell are going to be nearly useless here. They're both fire-based and these are fire foes. We might actually wind up healing the Guardians, if we tried to use them.”

“I won’t be able to finish these ones off with a single backstab,” Ashley said. “Though I can take a big hit out of one. You drawing their attention like we did with the air elementals won’t really work.”

“I did get fifty percent fire resistance with the last level. That has to help,” I said.

“Really? Bitch face is a fire Goddess? There goes my hoping she’d die in one,” Ashley muttered. “That will help, but four of them at once is still going to hurt.”

“We have the scrolls,” Walt said. “I know you were against using wild magic and wasting them, but it may be our best option. Especially with them being on fire. If they ignite the scrolls we should see something happen.”

I considered it. I hated to waste the resource, but we were shy on options. It also seemed rather foolish to just stockpile things in our bags for a ‘one day’ that might never come.

That was the beginning of the plan and after a discussion to finalize the details we were ready to execute. I again initiated things, stepping into view and banging my sword against my shield to get their attention before charging in. The Fire Guardians all turned and blazed fiery paths across the room, rushing in my direction.

Stream of Fire

Stream of Fire

Stream of Fire

Stream of Fire

When they surrounded me my entire world became flames. I couldn’t even see my health loss from the intense brightness. If it hadn't been for my resistance I’d have died quickly—instead I was dying slowly, but I was just where I wanted to be. I pulled the magic scrolls from my bag, flung them into the air and dropped to the ground. There was a loud woomph as the magic was unbound.

Earthen Tsunami

High level Earth and Water magic were unleashed and there was a truly alarming amount of mud. The ground was slick, the air filled with pelting bits of debris. The world was slippery and damp and thoroughly filthy.

It had the benefit of putting out the flames engulfing me and the steady dropping of my health ceased. I tried to push myself back to my feet, but slipped on the mud and crashed back, the greasy stones providing little purchase.

Unfortunately all four of the Guardians survived the explosive burst of magic, although it looked like they all took pretty solid damage.

Backstab

After surviving the mud typhoon it proved not so easy to endure Ashley’s daggers and her backstab resulted in a fiery form dispersing into a blaze. She kind of had only one trick, but it was a really good one.

I again tried to find my feet and wound up sprawling on the ground in an all-new, awkward position. Embarrassing.

Fireball

A fireball soared towards me and exploded into a burst of flames, tickling at my health bar. The mud solidified beneath me with the heat and I was at last able to stand again—in time to see two elementals charging towards me. I blocked the gout of flame from one with my shield, while swinging with my sword at another.

The blade met resistance as if hacking into something more physical and I pulled it back to lash out again, thrusting blindly into the fiery form. It was a slugfest that was going my way, my fire resistance proving to be an edge. In the distance I saw another Guardian channeling as it prepared another fireball.

Backstab

The spell stopped halfway through as again Ashley delivered a perfect blow.

Tangleweb

“Vintus Optoro,” Walt called out, gesturing sharply. One of the Guardians engaged with me was engulfed in some kind of fishing net made of brightly colored, magical threads. Walt must have picked up a new spell, one that hampered movement and stunned the Guardian for a time.

With another stab an elemental exploded into a puff of flame, leaving just one remaining. I stabbed and Ashley joined in as it fought to break free of the magical net. With burst of dying flame we were left alone in the chamber.

Even with my resistance I was something of a wreck. The damage over time really did have an impact and the burns were painful. Again, not like being set on fire in the real world, but maybe equivalent to really nasty sunburn. I decided to try my meditation skill. I focused and suddenly my thoughts were of Yvera—incredibly filthy thoughts of Yvera. Impassioned thoughts of a fiery Goddess shouldn't be a balm to burned flesh, yet it was. I was scarcely even aware as my health bar began to replenish fast.

It was one part creepy, one part nice, and two parts distracting. At least I wasn't on the verge of death anymore.

The others were already about the now-familiar tasks, Ashley looting away and Walt fiddling around the central fire column. The fire slowly receded from the crystal in the ceiling and Walt came over. He'd picked up a new staff, the head composed of four brightly gleaming crystals.

Walt explained, “Class Quest to inspect the labs. Remember? Each of the elemental cores combined. It lets me do a basic, ranged attack using any element I choose.”

“Useful,” I said. “It's about time you got something good. So far almost everything we’ve found has been favoring me and Ashley. What about the shield all these things were powering?”

“Turned off,” Walt said. “And I hope we won't need it, because it’s not going back up. It's run far longer than ever intended. The cores aren’t quite dead, but they don’t have the charge right now to pull that off again.”

I winced. It already felt like it might have been a mistake to turn off whatever had been guarding this place, but then the decision to avoid being trapped inside felt right, too. I supposed that sometimes you had to make a choice and be prepared for what might come of it.

This part of the castle had been a delight, getting me shocked, burned and generally maimed. I reassured myself that the next floor up would be the store rooms. Whatever else they might have, at least there would be no magical defenders.

At worst, I reasoned there might be just rats.

Chapter 13

We returned to the stairs and made our way up another flight. As soon as the next floor came into sight we immediately noticed the difference. The torches were lit, the flickering light illuminating floors free of dust.

Because of the rats.

A multitude of plump rodents scurrying about, although they all came to a stop when they saw us. After our encounters below I expected to come immediately under attack, but instead most scurried away except for one. It stood up on its hind legs, as if seeking attention, then slowly began to move down the center of the hall at a determined pace.

“I think it wants us to follow,” Ashley said.

“You think the rat wants us to follow it?” Walt said disbelievingly.

Ashley shrugged.

“Should we?” I asked.

“It’s the best invitation we’ve gotten since we came here. I say we give the rat a chance,” Walt said.

He had a point and with Ashley voicing no objection, I moved off to follow the rat with the others coming behind me. We were led through winding halls and eventually into a large chamber that might have once been some sort of pantry, but was now a makeshift throne room.

The throne was constructed of various pieces of colored scrap and occupied the center of one wall. Seated on it was a robed figure. A closer inspection showed the shape was more of a conglomeration, the entire body composed of writhing, running rats forever in motion. You wouldn't expect such a construct to speak, but it did.

“Welcome!” The figure boomed out. “Welcome visitors from down below to the Court of the Rat King.”

I supposed I was the one with Persuasion and a Charisma score of note, so perhaps it fell on me to talk in such situations. “Thank you, Your Majesty. Your kingdom is very well-lit.”

All right, clever diplomatic words aren’t my thing. However, perhaps Charisma makes a difference since the King did seem pleased.

“Order! The mark of any great and well-run society. Order to keep the lights on and the people fed!” The Rat King boomed with more enthusiasm than the concept seemed to warrant. “What brings you to my Kingdom, travelers.”

“We are simply passing through, Your Majesty, to the floors above. We didn't know of your Kingdom.” I tried to choose my words carefully.

“Did not know? But isn't it the greatest Kingdom in all the underfloors?” The King said, astonished. “Is there any other floor so well lit? Any other so well fed?”

“Er... Not that we have encountered, Your Majesty.” That much was true.

We were inspected for several long moments and the King seemed mollified as he said, “Good. Good. And is that the blood of traitors I smell on you?”

“What traitors would those be?”

“Those who rejected my rule, of course. Those starving rejects at the fringes of our society who plot my downfall.”

Oh. Right. Those rats. We did kill a lot of those rats.

“We’ve all but bathed in the blood of traitors, Your Majesty, wreaking terrible destruction upon them and the lands they hold,” I said, running with it.

“Splendid! Magnificent! I worried we might have to kill you for your trespass, but ones so willing to slaughter the deserving can surely earn their passage to the stairs above, am I right?”

Earn it? Were these rats trying to extort us? Yes, I was fairly sure they were. My gaze carefully drifted about the room and an alarming number of the creatures surrounding us on all sides. We might win such a fight, but I’d rather not chance it.

“We are pleased to have been of service so far, and are certain we might continue to be of some further service to each other. I take it that you need more slaughter to be done, are there other traitors?” I said.

The figure in the throne seemed to slouch for a moment and it muttered, “Not traitors. An enemy. The Queen. I want you to kill the Queen of Spiders. She who skitters, she who broods. She of webs that stick with a poisoned touch. Kill her and you have right of passage to the floors above.”

Definitely extortion. Two can play at that game.

“We are capable, Your Majesty, as we have shown with the traitors. Surely as capable as you are generous…”

The silence became uncomfortable as the rats that made the King chittered amongst themselves.

“We are generous,” The King finally declared. “Slay the Queen and we will gift some of what has been found in our kingdom that might aid giants like yourselves.”

Quest Granted

Slay the Queen

The Rat King has contracted you to slay the Queen of Spiders in exchange for safe passage from his realm and items scavenged from the supply rooms.

It was the only way we were likely to get out of here alive.

Our guide of earlier returned, nose twitching vigorously for a moment before it made its way out once more into the hall. Clearly we were to follow. Winding corridors filled with rats slowly gave way to ones in shadows, then finally darkness. Our guide rat jerked its head towards the dark and scurried off.

Drawing my sword and holding my shield out before me I led the way, once again the only illumination coming from Walt’s light spell. After a short distance webbing was on the walls, and I skirted several patches of white on the ground.

Eerie clicking sounds began to grow louder, an ominous melody, then red eyes began to glimmer in the darkness. We were surrounded by spiders.

None moved to attack. Rather, the swarm parted to reveal a figure that by all appearances seemed to be human. She was around our age with raven hair and a complexion so pale she might never have seen the sun in her life.

All over her flesh tiny spiders crawled—they were all that she wore. Still, there were so many and they were so active that they allowed nothing more than teasing glimpses of skin. It was both incredibly creepy and strangely captivating.

When she spoke her tone was cultured, imperious but curiously flat of all human inflection. “Humans and an elf. Interesting. Intruders to our floor yet surely travelers from afar. Why do you come here?”

That is an awkward question when you’ve been sent to assassinate or murder whoever's asking, even if you're suddenly having second thoughts about that. She seemed to be human, and while a spooky and weird one, I still found myself inclined to prefer her company over that of the Rat King. I had little desire to kill her.

“Yes, travelers,” I said. “We're seeking to pass through from the floors below to the floors above.”

“I like your dress,” Ashley said brightly. To my surprise it earned her the ghost of a smile from the Queen and a tilt of her head.

“The young ones like the warmth, and I enjoy the feeling upon my skin,” the Queen replied.

“But spiders are cold-blooded,” Walt said.

Walt got a rather less fond look from her. Her gaze shifted back to mine. The Queen’s eyes were an astonishingly brilliant blue and incredibly alert. And somehow old. “Were you sent to kill me?”

With that intense scrutiny upon me I somehow felt she might see through any attempts at dissembling. “Yes, when we entered this level we were led to the Rat King who insisted that we kill you for safe passage. It seemed a fair trade at the time, but having met you I'm having second thoughts.”

The Queen began to pace and I stole glances at those brief hints of flesh while spiders shifted and scurried about. “The rats have always been an irritant. Always hoarding, always tucking things away. They were tolerable before they made themselves into a King, now they are filled with pretensions. Idiots.”

“You sound like you’ve been dealing with them a long time. Yet you look so young,” I said.

The Queen gave another smile, a touch sad this time. “Do I? I know little of humans for all that I am one.”

“You are? I thought you some sort of—well, I don’t know. Humanoid spider.”

“Fool. I am the Queen of Spiders, not a Spider Queen. However, I have not made proper introductions. I was once known as Princess Maria Alera Sardonis, youngest daughter of King Leosi Sardonis and Queen Alera.”

I recognized the name, Alera Sardonis. We had a quest from her to shut down the shield. This girl’s mother perhaps?

“We were under the impression that whatever happened to the castle occurred quite a long time ago. How long have you been with the spiders?” Walt asked.

“I do not know. I was but a baby when the spiders first found and adopted me, abandoned or orphaned in whatever catastrophe befell this place. They took me in and cared for me, raised me as their own,” Maria said, looking distant and sad. “It was all a very long time ago.”

“So how do you still live? I mean you appear to be young and beautiful.”

Seduction has increased to 16%

I blinked at the prompt. That isn't where I was going with this—that really wasn't where I was going.

Maria’s ancient eyes looked me over thoughtfully and she said in a monotone, “Thank you, you are beautiful as well.”

“She’s hard up,” Ashley said.

“Spiders are masters of alchemy, although known for their poisons they are capable of so much more when they choose. To call me human now would likely be a falsehood, so altered is my blood,” Maria explained. “So if we have decided not to murder each other, tell me who you are and how you came to this place.”

We introduced ourselves. I left out our origins outside of this world, simply saying that by magic we had been transported to the cells and let the story continue from there. Otherwise, I was as honest as I might be, sharing the various encounters and informing her of my instructions to claim the throne above.

“You think my father may in some way still live and hold the throne above,” Maria mused. “And my mother is somewhere outside the castle and seeking entry. If you are to be believed, I am not the orphan I have always believed. I do not believe you're right, of course, but I am curious.

“What of the throne itself. Do you seek it now that you know it exists?” I asked.

“It has always existed,” The Queen said, waving a hand as if it were of little importance. “I have a throne and a people here. Why seek another when I am pleased with the one I have? But I would like to meet whatever remains of my family, if by some chance you do tell the truth. Now that you have lowered the defenses which protected this place, it seems I may have the opportunity.”

I realized just how the decision to deactivate the crystals on the floor below might impact her, and her people.

“I didn't know there were others in the castle that might be affected.”

“It’s long past time. I have always had questions about what happened, but found life comfortable enough I did not seek answers. Perhaps it is time I do so.”

“It sounds as if you consider going above as well?”

“Indeed. Although the Rat King will need to be butchered to assure my peoples' safety, if I am to spend any time away. I’d like your assistance, of course,” Maria said.

I glanced over at Walt and Ashley, who seemed none too thrilled with the idea. Ashley said, “The King offered us safe passage and loot. You seem cooler and all, and I think you have Liam all hot and bothered, but if you want our help you’re going to have to beat his offer.”

I really shouldn’t strangle her. I shouldn’t.

Maria wasn't perturbed.

“No doubt the rat made a pitiful offer. If Liam wishes to become the King of Castle Sardonis then he shall need allies. In exchange for ridding us of the rats the spiders would become his first. You will find we make better friends than foes. I am curious about my humanity and shall have him as a lover as well, he is an attractive man. For you, Ashley we will offer an assortment of poisons for your blades. For Walt, spider silk is incredibly light and durable and we shall make for you a powerful set of robes.”

“Deal,” Ashley said, far too quickly.

“You can’t just say deal for a deal like that,” I said, outraged. “Do I get a say in this?”

“Like you were going to say no?” Ashley said. “Listen, the less hard you get the next time you talk to the crazy bitch, the better off we’re all going to be. So just agree, have a good time with the nice spider lady who seems kind of into you, and we all win okay?”

“I agree,” Walt added. “For what it’s worth.”

This was the strangest conspiracy ever.

Without much choice I said, “It would be our most sincere pleasure, Your Majesty.”

Quest Granted

Two Faced to a Rat

Despite making a deal with the Rat King, you have struck a deal with his foe, the villainous Queen of Spiders to kill him instead.

Rewards: Poison of Spider’s Kiss, Silken Robe of the Watchful Eye. Alliance: Spiders

Maria nodded. “In that case, please call me Maria. It’s a name little used, but if I am going to go above I should grow used to it once more. Ashley, Walt, I’ll have rooms prepared for you both.”

No mention had been made of preparing a room for me—because I was expected to share with Maria.

Chapter 14

The night was a strange one. Being ancient, naked, and covered in spiders made her a bit odd, but still I assumed that in her chambers the spiders would go away and we’d be left to do what a naked man and a naked woman comes naturally to them.

I’m fairly sure her saliva was at least mildly toxic. After making out much of the night everything became a fever-addled blur. I recall at times my hands running along her bare flesh as spiders scurried away from my touch, and swearing I could feel yet more beneath the surface of her skin shifting and skittering. At one point with her legs wrapped around my hips it felt as if there were more of them than there should have been. Fevered hallucinations, surely, giving the hours we spent together a surreal edge. That's even outside of the spiders, of course—and there were spiders. Oh, so many spiders.

That's not to say it wasn't a pleasant night, certainly I woke up the next day feeling more relaxed and spent than I had in a long time. I’d not been with anyone since Amelia. Moving on felt good.

Okay, if I really bothered to think about it, a spider-covered Queen in a virtual world I was being held hostage in probably wasn't actually my life moving in the right direction, but it felt like it. It felt good.

*****

I awoke in total darkness. Maria had already made her departure. It took me some time to find my clothing and make my way to the door and out into the hall. Dim light peeked under the crack of another door and I could hear the voices of Walt and Ashley. I knocked before I stepped inside.

Bedding that must have come from the castle’s stores was laid out on the floor, although the room lacked any other furniture typical of a bedroom. Several large shelves lined one wall. Candles were a pleasant and warm change to Walt’s light spell.

“About time you got up,” Walt said. “Your shirt's on backwards.”

I hastily took a moment to rearrange my clothing. At least I hadn't attempted to get into my armor in the dark. That was dangerous enough in the light.

“So you put out?” Ashley asked. “I get my poison, right?”

I gave them a summary of the night's events and the sheer strangeness of the encounter. “I’m having second thoughts about this whole alliance thing. It was really strange and I’m not sure she's actually human at all.”

Ashley said, “Walt, give us a few minutes?”

“Erm.. okay,” said the wizard, conjuring one of his fireflies and making his way out the door.

Once the door closed she glared at me and said, “Okay, I’m not the one to be giving this speech and I’m pissed off you're making me. But you need to listen.”

“I’m listening,” I said carefully.

“You want to fuck around. You’re horny, you have a high Charisma, and you represent some crazy-ass Goddess that makes fucking around a holy thing. The game is going to give you a lot of chances, it’s what your whole goddamned character is based around. That is not an excuse to be a fucking dick.” Ashley was jabbing me in the chest with her finger.

My temper rose. “And how am I being a dick? Because I said, oh, I’m having second thoughts, because I’m pretty sure with more evidence this girl is a lot less human and a lot more scarier than she led us to believe? That’s being smart.”

“That is being a dick. You don’t say you're on a girl's side, fuck her, and the next day decide maybe she’s the big bad and you shouldn’t have crawled into her bed after all. Sure, she’s pale, creepy as fuck, and covered in goddamned spiders. Did you think shit wasn’t going to get weird?”

I wanted to lash back, but she had a point . “I guess I thought stuff might get a little kinky.”

“I’m not talking about goddamned bondage or shit. You can do or not do whatever you want in the bedroom. Did everything about her not scream scary and weird from the moment we first set eyes on her?”

“I… Like you said… She was creepy as fuck and covered in spiders. Yeah, I knew that isn’t normal.”

“Right. And yeah, she propositioned, and yeah I kind of stepped up and said yes on your behalf. But fuck, Liam. You could have gotten out of that, if you wanted. But you wanted to fuck her. And that's okay, I’m not saying that's wrong. I am saying that once you did, we picked a side. It's the same with her and it will continue to be that way or you are going to have to deal with me.”

“So I should just throw good judgment out the window?”

“If you're going to use it, you should use it before your dick. Whatever weird shit she is, you were into it. You accepted it. She wasn’t hiding it. You signed on to at least give Team Creepy Spider Chick a chance. So don’t be a dick. She tries to betray us, I’ll backstab the bitch myself, but not until then.”

That was harsh. That was truth. I again found myself rather appreciating Ashley’s presence.

“I get it,” I said. “Really. I was wrong and you're right.”

Ashley let out a long sigh and said, “I’m not much of a team player, but we have to be. You are our tank, you have the piles of Charisma, that makes you the leader. So far you haven’t been much of an asshole, just don’t start. Okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed again, leaving it at that.

Ashley weighed me with a considering look once more and called out, “Walt! You can come back in now.”

Walt entered with Maria close on his heels. I really hoped that she hadn't heard much of the conversation. I felt even more guilty, seeing her. There is the secret language of lovers, the familiarity shared, offering insights denied to others. She gave no physical sign, yet somehow I could sense she was more relaxed and at peace with herself. Thinking about it, I was as well. It really had been a nice night, apart from the hallucinations.

And the spiders, obviously.

Relationship Gained

Maria Alera Sardonis: The Queen of Spiders

Lovers

Lovers share a sense of each others physical and emotional well being that may go undetected by anyone else. Both positive and negative interactions tend to be intensified.

Reputation Gain

Yvera

You have used seduction to further Yvera’s goals. The Queen of Spiders likely to be both of use in reaching the top floors and taking the castle.

I sighed at the game prompts. Seriously.

“Questions?” Maria asked. She must have been talking. I’d gotten so lost in reading the announcements it had gone right past me.

“I think it’s straightforward enough,” Ashley said. “Your spiders clear the trash and keep the common rats busy. We go after the King. You’ll do the best you can to poison, but since the King can replace parts of himself at will with other healthy rats, it’s going to be more of a slug fest.”

“Yes,” Maria said with just the faintest hint of a smile. “It will be brutal.”

“Teeth and claws, do you think that salve we picked up in the Earth laboratory will help?” I asked the others.

Ashley nodded. “The resistance should help a lot. They're going to try and fuck us all up, but you’ll get the worst of it, if you're holding the King’s attention.”

Maria offered a vial to each of us. “An antidote to the poison we shall be using. Take it before the fight, there will be a billowing cloud around me and you shall not want to breathe without this in your system.”

I wondered where she was keeping vials of anything and realized she must have an invisible inventory just as we did. Handy.

Maria gestured to me and said, “I think you need to finish getting dressed, everyone else should prepare.”

I followed her out of the room and back to her chamber. Candles had been lit. No sooner were we in the room than she kicked the door closed and was pressing herself against me.

You might think, after my earlier objections, I hesitated here. She might be creepy and strange, and to some degree literally toxic, but in the heat of the moment any reservations were instantly forgotten. Story of my life.

When we were done she helped me to put on my armor, a process made considerably easier with another set of hands, and we went to rejoin the others.

We moved through the corridors to the very edges of the rat's territory, where we paused for a last minute discussion.

“You should stay here for the moment, Maria,” I said.

“Why? We agreed to do this together.”

“If we go in violent, we're going to have to fight through the entire rat population, and if the King decides to, he’ll have plenty of time to hide. He’s expecting us. We’ll go in first, he’ll welcome us in to hear how we butchered you, and then we’ll strike.”

Ashley and Walt weren't happy and I couldn't blame them. This plan did have a better chance of success, but put the three of us in more danger.

Maria considered this and nodded, resting a hand upon my shoulder. I thought it simply a fond gesture until a spider scurried along one of her fingers to hop onto my armor, finding a gap and slipping beneath. She said, “A watcher, so I will know when you strike and we may launch our assault.”

Right. Spiders. Always the damned spiders.

We took a moment for prep-work, applying the salve to give us resistance to slashing and piercing, and Ashley smearing poison on her daggers. When we were ready, we entered the well-lit portions of the rat’s territory. Tiny heads swiveled up to peer at us. We waited, and before long a guide rat appeared to take us through the corridors.

I hoped the little spider somehow took note of all this, for I’d be hard-pressed to describe the bewildering twists and turns that led to the throne room. The King was waiting, a patchwork assortment of oh-so-many rats sitting on the throne. Countless glistening eyes peering at us hopefully.

“You have returned!” the King boomed with a bit too much cheery enthusiasm for my comfort. “Have you slaughtered our foes? Dealt with them as you did with the traitors before? Are the spiders no more?”

I had to reflect on how cheerful this guy was. It really made me feel kind of bad about the whole thing. I said, “You didn't inform us the Queen of Spiders wasn't a spider herself.”

“She is the Queen of Spiders and not the Spider Queen,” said the King, bemused. “I thought that perfectly clear. Do you have proof of your kill?”

“We do, Your Majesty” Ashley said. “May I approach your highness to deliver it?”

The rats squeaked happily amongst themselves, altogether thrilled and the King gestured Ashley forward.

I watched her, eyes lingering upon the sway of her hips more than was really appropriate for the moment and I cursed myself. My sex drive was getting me in enough trouble, I really didn't need to add that complication to our lives. Still…

Fortunately, I wasn't left with my inappropriate thoughts for long. When Ashley was before the King she reached out as if grabbing into her inventory—and suddenly her daggers were in her hands and both jammed upwards into the collection of rats forming the King’s head.

Surprise Attack

I wondered if it mattered at all that she hit in the head, and if those rats were any smarter than the ones elsewhere. It was a nice blow and I checked the King’s stats.

Rat King

Elite

Level 9: Type: Animal Construct HP: 130/150

Poisoned

The Rat King is a conglomeration of rats formed out of a desire for order and pattern within their society. As a collective he is far stronger and more potent than the combined strength of the component rats. Due to his ability to heal and throw off status conditions by discarding and reabsorbing new rats, attrition tactics don’t tend to be effective.

An Elite? I didn't know what that meant exactly and worried why it was included. Even the Warden, who kind of kicked our tails, didn’t have that classification.

“Save your mana,” Ashley told us. She must have seen the same thing, but behind me I heard Walt already casting.

Tangleweb

The shimmering magical net sprang out and covered the King. The rats strained against it in an effort to break off.

“Right, he can’t shrug off the poison. Smart,” Ashley said, impressed.

“Walt, keep enough mana for another net, if he breaks this one,” I called out as I charged towards the King, my shield and sword ready.

Rats flung themselves at me from all sides, teeth and claws scraping against my armor and making a furious din as they raked the chainmail. The resistance salve was working well, although a bleed effect was gaining a truly alarming number of stacks. A diseased status impaired my healing, too.

No wonder this guy would be hard to beat, any long-term effects on him would normally be shrugged off, while the rats applied a devastating combination of their own.

With the net though we stood more of a chance and I blessed Walt’s quick thinking as I swung my sword again and again into the mass of rats.

Ashley was beside me, the poisoned daggers slashing and stabbing both at the king and at any rats that clung to her too stubbornly.

Ashley’s smaller health bar was dropping fast. I was doing far better against this endless swarm of rats. Hands sadly occupied, I hip-bumped her and focused upon the Lay on Hands spell, hoping any physical contact would be sufficient. A moment later her health bar blossomed back to full.

With triumphant squeaks the rats broke free of the net and peeled off the King. More leaped to the ground.

Patchwork Rats

Crap. In an instant the King shed the poisoned status and healed 15 HP.

Walt stopped bashing rats with his staff to chant again and once more threw the net over the King. I had enough mana for a Smite and focused on the spell.

Smite

There was a familiar pillar of fire and stench of singed rat, and those 15 HP were back off.

Several stabs from Ashley restored the poison, but we still seemed to be going nowhere fast. Ashley was already down to half her HP despite the earlier healing. Walt was at somewhere around a quarter and I was at half myself. The King still had half his health bar. It wasn’t hard to see where this was going. We had a bit of fight left in us, but he had more.

Then the spiders showed up.

In any other circumstances it would have been a sight to inspire terror. A horrific scene and the stuff of nightmares as a wave of blackness composed of tiny skittering shapes swept into the chamber and began to fling themselves through the air.

They were our salvation. Maria walked in after them, a virulent green haze swirling in the air around her.

Poisonous Fog

You are immune to Poisonous Fog

The surrounding status bars gave me some idea of what I was avoiding and I was glad to skip it. Every rat in the room took on a slightly greenish tint and health bars began to drop. While some continued to bite and claw at us, most break away and fled the toxic smog.

I circled around the King and bashed him with my shield, driving him in Maria's direction, forcing him deeper and deeper into that poisonous fog. Ashley stabbed with mad glee and for the first time the King seemed to shrink. As more and more rats perished and he had no way to replace their mass, he became ever smaller.

Five Finger Spider Death Touch

Maria reached out to grasp him firmly by the head, the spiders running in a torrent down her arm and completely engulfing the King. I admired the reveal of her form—I really needed to stop thinking about sex in the middle of combat. Seriously, was there some kind of treatment for that?

Maria didn't remain unclad for long, the spiders returning up along her arm to coat her once again. The King wobbled, the last sliver of his health bar finally dropping away and with an almost disappointing thudding noise a pile of rats fell to the floor. We and the spiders were the last living things in the chamber.

As a party we were wrecked. I could only hope that Maria would keep her word. That despite whatever lack of humanity I suspected, she would prove honorable.

Chapter 15

Maria regarded the piles of corpses, her face wearing an indulgent and satisfied smile. She really did enjoy the slaughter.

“You performed well,” Maria said. “You shall have safe passage to the next floor, and the spiders as allies should you take the throne above. The loot of the King is ours, as is this floor.”

“We never agreed to that,” Ashley said, looking rather riled up. It wasn't wise to get between her and any loot.

“No, perhaps you should have negotiated it, but you did not. This is our home, this was our enemy and the profits of this battle are ours. You were gifted poisons, and shall receive more. Walt was promised a robe of silk and shall have his payment as well.” Maria's tone brooked no argument.

“We did more than originally planned,” I said, moving between the two. Not a good place to be.

Maria’s eyes were cold and dangerous for a moment, before she nodded slightly. “You did. The thief will take one item that I select. An added reward for your boldness, and to keep the peace.”

Ashley looked mollify enough. Good.

“Agreed,” I said.

Spiders scurried everywhere in an undulating dark wave and Maria walked over towards one pile of rat corpses that were once a part of the king. She pulled out a set of gloves, offering them to Ashley, who studied them.

“Okay. These are pretty badass. I wish I had the full set…” Ashley began, “Fuck it. A steady supply of poison is pretty badass, too. Thanks.”

Maria said, “I would offer to show you the way to the surface now, but all of you could use some rest. A few hours, some food and a chance to replenish, and then we can make our way up.”

Maria led the way and we stepped into place behind her.

“Do you know what we’ll find on the floors above?” I asked.

“The spiders have been there,” Maria said. “The floor immediately above us was home to servants and guards of the castle. Since the castle’s fall many have become undead and now wander the halls.”

“Not zombies?” I asked with my stomach sinking. The last zombie we’d met had made an impression.

“A few, but mostly skeletons.”

“Does that mean that there is a necromancer as well?” Walt said. “I thought that raising undead required one.”

“Binding the dead to a purpose does the same,” Maria said as we continued to walk, seemingly not fazed by the windings of the corridors. “The undead here already had a purpose. Those who died in service to this castle and the kingdom were never given a proper burial. Given enough time that purpose seizes them even in death and they live again. After a fashion.”

“We met a zombie in the cells below,” I said. “Who was still determined to see us remain imprisoned. So the castle servants will be doing what? Trying to do our laundry and cook us dinner?”

“Probably,” Maria agreed to my surprise. “Reliving those tasks and duties they performed in life. It is the castle guards who will be the danger.”

We passed back from the lighted halls of the rats into the darkness of the spiders. I supposed that soon the whole floor would be dark. I still wondered if we had truly picked the right side in this particular struggle, unable to forget that expression on Maria’s face when she looked over the slaughter.

She opened a door and lit several candles, revealing a small table and chairs. A number of bowls contained piles of what looked like fungus.

“The food is simple, but not poisonous,” Maria said. “I expect you’ll find it quite terrible.”

“We’re all starving,” Ashley said. “I almost grabbed a few rats back there to start chowing down on. I can go for an underground salad.”

Walt didn't look quite as enthused, but moved to sit down. I started to join them and felt Maria’s arm slipping into mine.

“We’ll eat in my chambers,” Maria said.

We did, eventually, after I got a lesson on just how passionate the slaughter really did make her. I think by the time we ate our fungus, I was nearly as battered from her as I had been from the earlier fight.

“I half-expected you to betray us back there,” I said, picking at the stem of a mushroom.

“Idiot. While it is a sensible thing to prepare for, it is a stupid thing to expect. What had we to gain?”

“Our gear, and preventing me from reaching the top floor and claiming the throne,” I said, watching her eat. I could barely stomach the fungus. She seemed to have a hearty appetite.

“What possible interest would I have in your armor? You’ve seen my state of dress.”

“Err… I mean you might not use it yourself, but...”

“Yes, perhaps I shall take a lesson from the rats and jam enough spiders into it to make a king?” Maria's wit was really rather cutting. I liked it, although not on the receiving end.

“I get a sense of threat from you. Of danger,” I said.

To my surprise she was pleased.

“I am dangerous, Liam. I may be human on the outside, but I was raised by spiders. I like to have helpless prey, I like to wear my enemies down and watch them suffer. I am not a nice person, not in the slightest. But I am a person who is on your side.”

“So you're saying I have nothing to fear?”

“You are my lover and an ally of the spiders,” Maria said flatly. “You have a great deal to fear, but not from us. Not today.”

I studied her, I really studied her. I tried to see past the pretty face and shapely form. I wondered how someone could seem both so strong and so broken.

“Good,” I said finally.

Maria flashed me one of her rare smiles. “Then we should probably go and rejoin the others. Everyone must be prepared for the trek up to the next floor.”

“Are you? I mean, are you sure you wouldn’t like some armor? Or a weapon? While the poisonous fume trick worked great on rats, I don’t think skeletons or zombies would care.”

“I do have a class, you know. I am not defenseless.”

“I didn’t, actually. Nothing I’ve scanned so far that I could see.”

Maria frowned. “You are probably doing it wrong. Give me your hands. Let me show you.”

I reached across the table, both my hands palm down and she accepted them, spiders scurrying away from the touch.

“In a fight you can look at about just anything and get a brief summary. You can do the same for things innately hostile to you. Sentients are different,” Maria said. “Touch makes this easier, but it is not required. You want to know me. Focus on that. Reach out.”

For a time nothing happened, then I felt a slight niggling at my consciousness. A sort of tugging which I yielded to and a status screen popped into view.

Name: Maria Aldera Sardonis

Position: The Queen of Spiders

Level: 9

Class: Monk (The way of the Spider)

Relationship: Lovers

Do you wish to use your sense virtues spell?

I considered that last prompt, before thinking my assent.

Primary Virtue: Fortitude - The ability to withstand terrible things and be unbroken.

Primary Vice: Pride - An intense focus upon oneself and their own righteousness.

“I did it,” I told Maria, “I also got a prompt asking me to sense your virtue.”

“Spiritual classes tend to have it. So what are mine?”

“Fortitude and Pride, which I can totally see.”

“They fit,” Maria said. “Yours are Faith and Lust, if you were curious.”

“I think if I argued the latter you wouldn't believe me. But I find the first one strange.”

“You who are on a mission from a Goddess to claim a throne find it strange that you might be considered faithful?” Maria spoke in that deadpan tone of hers. “Idiot.”

Ouch. I hated when she was right.

“So how do you know so much?” I asked. “Things like using these abilities with just the spiders for company?”

“I never said I had just the spiders for company. The levels below us go far deeper than you might believe.”

“Is that where you learned to be a monk, whatever that is?”

“It is where I started the path. A monk is a martial artist. Bare-handed fighting, usually wearing little to no armor. Styles are based on the study of something in nature.”

“Spiders, in your case,” I said, suddenly understanding.

“I knew a few,” Maria said. She tilted her head to the side as if listening and added, “The others are getting anxious to be off.”

With a clatter of armor I pushed back from the table and rose to my feet.

The others were more than ready to go, for which I couldn't really blame them. They had rather less in the way of pleasant diversions to occupy them and the spiders—while being incredibly hospitable for spiders—still fell a bit short as innkeepers.

Soon we were headed back through the territory that once belonged to the rats and from there we had another staircase to climb. Halfway up we could already hear the sounds of movement, the clatter of bones and the dragging of dead flesh on the ground.

Cautiously we made our way upwards.

Chapter 16

Having been given the warning that the next floor was entirely occupied by the undead I’d expected something grim and horribly depressing. Instead, we found all the torches lit—despite that the undead didn't much like fire. The stairs, unfortunately, didn't continue.

Through a nearby arch a skeleton was carrying a large pumpkin that I could only assume was fake. It was followed by a zombie who had a bundle of some sort of hay.

Ashley slipped behind me to have a peek.

“Well, fuck me sideways,” Ashley said. “Not a literal invitation, Liam. Are they having a harvest festival?”

“Spookyfest,” Maria said.

“Spookyfest?”

“It’s a holiday. There are costumes. Spooky ones.”

“That skeleton appears to be wearing a puppy mask.” I pointed.

“Idiot, do you expect it to wear a skeleton mask? That would be silly,” Maria said.

“Huh.” My piles of Charisma failed as my brain struggled to process that one.

“Perhaps they are so distracted we might simply sneak past?” Maria said.

“Let’s try. Failure doesn’t really put us in any worse of a position than we are now. Anyone have a guess where the next stairs up would be?”

“This floor is for the servants and guards. They should be nearly everywhere leading to service areas above,” Walt said.

I took a peek down a hall. At the far end an armored skeleton clattered past on patrol, it looked to be wearing a turtle mask. Trying to tip-toe as best I could in medium armor, I made my way to the first door.

It opened to a large hall, probably the servant’s mess. Long tables and benches stretched into the distance. It appeared to be mealtime. Almost every place was occupied by a skeleton or zombie, place settings before them, although there was a notable lack of food. Pumpkins and dried corn decorated the tables. One bony head swiveled at the door opening and those empty sockets almost seemed to widen in alarm. Its bones began to rattle.

The sight of every head in that hall turning in our direction is something I’ll never forget.

Having determined that I’m absolutely horrible at being stealthy, I tried to shoo the others back. We pulled away from the door and slammed it closed as a mass of bodies rushed towards me.

Unfortunately, and to be expected given the size of the hall, they had plenty of other doors to choose from. Moments later we were flanked by a truly alarming number of guards.

I didn’t like the look of the odds in a fight, so I hoped my Charisma might have some effect even on the undead. “We are diplomats from down below,” I said loudly. “We mean you no harm. Perhaps there is someone that we could speak with?”

Everything went still. At least the skeletons appeared less likely to stab us. The door was opened again and with gestures of swords it was made clear we should pass through.

The skeleton guards guided us into the mess hall and a table was cleared in the middle. Carefully we sat as a watchful ring formed around us. It seemed we were waiting for someone.

“Diplomats?” Ashley said. “A mountain of Charisma and that's the best you can come up? Not, ‘we brought you pumpkins for Spookyfest’. Not, ‘excuse us, we seem to be lost can you point us towards the bathrooms’.”

“That pumpkin one is pretty good. Do you think it would have worked?”

“That is the point of high Charisma. Do you think smart and clever people have to take high scores in it? No, you take high Charisma so that even the dumb stuff is clever. It’s a stat absolutely made for you.”

“My Goddess thinks I’m clever,” I grumbled.

“Crazy be crazy,” Ashley said.

“Are you two lovers as well?” Maria asked.

That shut us up.

We were left in awkward silence for perhaps half an hour as guards kept a watchful eye on us and finally a new figure entered the hall. It was the most well-preserved zombie we had seen to date, skin a pallid sort of green, but otherwise he looked very nearly human. A bald man who looked to have died in late middle age. He was dressed in a set of robes only a touch tattered, patched and re-patched any number of times.

It was to my considerable surprise that when he spoke it was in words, not some variation of, “Aaaarrrgggh”.

“I understand that you claim to be diplomats from somewhere below the castle,” the zombie said.

“Err, yes, you see the spiders and… we have your pumpkins for Spookyfest?” Ashley elbowed me hard in the stomach. Oof. Even through the chainmail, oof.

She said, “Might we know who we address and your role here, before we make introductions of our own?”

“I am Wimbley, Chamberlain of Castle Sardonis. Currently I speak for the castle. We’ve had some challenging times, as you can likely see. I don’t see these supposed pumpkins. Who are you?”

Ashley got in first again. She clearly was going somewhere with all this.

“Ashley Winters, Walt Green, Liam Ottani” Ashley said, gesturing at us each in turn. “And, of course, you know Princess Maria Alera Sardonis.”

Wimbley’s head snapped towards Maria, as did nearly every head in the room. His expression seemed nearly hopeful, then his eyes narrowed. “I would very much like to believe you. She does have Queen Alera’s eyes and chin, but it has been three centuries since the castle fell. We skeletons and zombies have made it so long, but she is clearly neither.”

I reeled from the revelation of just how old Maria actually was. I had no idea what to make of the age difference—although it didn’t seem to stop us from having fun. Still, awkward...

Wimbley said, “Pale skin. Ethereal beauty. Sinister attire. Spiders. Has the Princess become a vampire?”

“I am the Queen of Spiders,” Maria said in that regal tone of hers that wouldn’t be denied. “Not of the undead.”

Wimbley considered this and offered a sweeping bow. “Your Grace. It has been a very long time, I remember you only as a baby. What has brought you back to the castle?”

“I never left. As you say, I was but a child when the catastrophe struck. None of you had risen again. I was taken below and raised by the spiders,” Maria said.

Wimbley said, “A vampire in these halls would have once raised great alarm. Now it is hardly fitting for the undead to fear each other. But your companions?”

“Human,” Maria said. “One my lover, the others his followers. I am still not a vampire.”

Wimbley gave me a disapproving look. “Sleeping with the undead is unseemly,” he said primly.

“We were hoping to travel to the floor above,” I said quickly, hoping to change the subject. Maria was looking of a mind to start punching things.

“You had best abandon that hope. We delight in the presence of her Grace again and welcome you all to stay as her guests. But you should know that the floor above is a place you must never go.”

“I do not like to be denied,” Maria said, annoyed. “Why?”

Wimbley managed to look terribly vexed, a strange expression on a zombie.

“The curse, of course. Being lesser undead, we are especially vulnerable to it.”

We all asked, more or less in unison, even Maria, “What curse?”

Wimbley looked surprised. “Do you not know? Do you truly not know what happened here?”

Chapter 17

It was clear none of us had a clue, even Maria, who it had affected so greatly.

“Explain,” Maria said.

“That there was a threat to the castle was no surprise,” Wimbley said uncomfortably. “Your Father had any number of seers in his service. Your Grace likely does not recall that her birth was somewhat contentious for the prophecies associated with it. Heralding the fall of the Castle from its rightful place in the world.”

“Go on,” Maria said.

“Castle Sardonis was to fall to an evil force, and then that evil would sweep out across the land. Your Father and Mother were well-loved. Once, your father was a fearsome warrior who proved himself during the orc wars and your mother had a way with people. They formed alliances across the land, built fortifications, turned this place into a fortress to keep their family safe. No army would take this place, and no army did.”

“You say ‘well-loved’ almost as if it was in the past tense even then,” I said.

“Queen Alera was a woman prepared to make compromises. The rumors were that she made too many.”

“What exactly does that mean?”

“His Majesty was not a man to compromise. It drove a rift between then, and by the time the tragedy fell she was no longer welcome in her own castle,” Wimbley said.

“So, just what did happen?”

“A powerful curse. It was a day of audiences when the King would meet with the people and hear their requests. None of us present now were there, but something happened. Dark mist began to billow throughout the castle. Most of those it touched became twisted, warped and corrupted. We here are those that were away or fled below ground. For some reason the mists never followed us.”

“What happened to my father?” Maria asked.

“We can only assume that he was corrupted by the mists. They were at their strongest when first released,” Wimbley said “The Archmage Vighas teleported away with the rest of your family. We thought you were with them, but...”

“Clearly not. I was forgotten, but I was rescued eventually. Why was I uncorrupted by these mists?”

“Are you untainted, your Grace?” Wimbley asked with some concern.

Maria paused. The question deserved some deep consideration and I was curious as to how she would respond.

“I am not in the thrall any outside force,” Maria decided. “I act of my own accord and in alignment with my own plans.”

Wimbley nodded.

“As you say, your Grace. Perhaps you were so young they had no effect upon you? Perhaps they did, but with so much time away you have returned to your senses.”

“Why are you still unaffected? It seems a poor curse that can’t climb down a flight of stairs,” Walt said.

“Then it is a poor sort of curse, for it is indeed defeated by stairs,” Wimbley said with a weak little smile. “I don’t think the curse had been fully formed. Not yet. When a shield was raised around the Castle it did not just keep the curse trapped in, it weakened it as well.”

A powerful magic barrier protecting the world from what was locked up within. Oops. The others and I shared a look.

“So if the curse didn’t kill you, what happened?” I asked. The room was filled with the dead, after all.

“We were prepared for a siege with supplies for a long time, but not forever. We starved,” Wimbley said quietly. “We starved, rather than go up the stairs and be corrupted. In time most of us rose again and returned here to live out eternity.”

Quest completed!

Unravel the mystery

You have learned the fate of Castle Sardonis although many details remain unclear.

“Are you certain the floor above is still dangerous?” I asked.

“We send scouts every few years. The mists still roam the halls and prey upon their minds,” Wimbley said. “For us lesser undead it is very dangerous. Most of us are simply going on as we did in life, proceeding endlessly along the same path. Shift that path slightly and we might never return to ourselves.”

“You think it would be different for the living?”

This mattered. If we couldn’t even go up those stairs, this was over before it started.

Wimbley gave a helpless shrug. “I am no mage, but what have you to gain by trying? If you can live some sort of life in the levels below, seize it. If you love her Grace, then let her turn you into a vampire as well and stand as some testament to eternal undead devotion. Let the others go upstairs and find what joy they may.”

Errr… My brain froze. How could I politely explain to the chamberlain that I was not actually in love with Maria? What if she thought there was more? When I’d considered zombie attacks, I never thought of something like this.

Maria saved me. “I. AM. NOT. A. VAMPIRE.”

Good. Dodged that bullet.

Walt looked very lost in his thoughts, Ashley seemed excited, Maria was still stewing on the vampire thing.

I said, “Maria, you know I’m on a mission to go to the floor above and for reasons I can’t really explain these others must come with me. If things are truly so risky, as he says, you’re free to stay behind.”

“Idiot,” Maria said with a glare, “If what he says is true my father remains above, twisted and tortured into something unrecognizable that he would hate. I will see him dead, and if whatever sent this curse still lives, see it feels considerable pain.”

A few heads of the skeletal guards turned towards each other at her announcement and I heard the faint clattering of bones as if they were talking to each other.

Perhaps this was one of those moments when I should use that Charisma score.

I clambered onto the table and offered a hand down to Maria, who joined me with considerably more grace than I had managed.

I announced, “Loyal servants of Castle Sardonis, you don’t know me, but you do know my companion. The Princess Maria Alera Sardonis, daughter of your late liege. We intend to go to the floor above, to break the magic there and to see her father released from his endless suffering. You live now, because you are dutiful souls. Even death couldn’t keep you from service to this place. But you haven’t been living just to live another day, you have been living for this moment.

“Should we succeed, the magic will be broken. Castle Sardonis will have a new king, and if you so choose you will have a place in your undeaths truly serving the Kingdom once again.”

Was adding in the bit about the King a bit unnecessary? Probably. Screw it, who needed to be a good speechmaker, when they had Charisma?

“If you would choose to have a purpose again, join us. You fled below, because you were ordered to do so. Now I ask you to fight and lend us your aid.” I grabbed Maria’s hand, raising it into the air.

There was silence, as if the crowd of undead was not quite decided.

“Sardonis!” Maria called out, not so much a shout as a stone dropping into still water and rippling outwards.

From the tables skeletons and zombies began to rise, a daunting assemblage of the undead. Bones rattled, swords were raised.

“Princess Maria Alera Sardonis,” Wimbley said with a quiet sigh. “You appear to have an army. Now I hope you have a plan.”

We stepped down from the table.

“Floor diagrams,” Walt said. “We’ll need them.”

“I can use spiders scout as well,” Maria said. “Provided they are not affected by this mist.”

“Try it,” I said.

I got a glimpse of her bared leg as the spiders coating it scrambled to the floor and began to rapidly move in a dark line off through the crowd. In seconds her flesh was again concealed beneath new spiders. I pondered on the metaphysics of where all the spiders actually came from and decided perhaps I’d be happiest not knowing.

“Do you have somewhere quiet where we can work on war plans?” I asked Wimbley.

“I’ll have something prepared at once. And bedrooms as well. If you would like something to eat, I can have the kitchens prepare it, but I fear it would just be fungus and rat.”

“We’ll take it,” I said, wincing just a bit. It would be worth getting to the surface just to have real food again.

We adjourned to discuss plans and prepare for the next day. Things were about to get violent.

Chapter 18

Between the old diagrams of the castle and what Maria’s spiders discovered, we had something of a plan for the next day. The skeletons and zombies were prepared for a war, but were holding back on the floor below until called. Each of us had added a horn to our inventory. We were uncertain just how long they would be able to resist the corrupting influence of the mist above, and while I felt their help would be invaluable I feared calling them too early would only wind up adding them to the enemies ranks until we had found a way to shield them from the curse.

We were making our way up a narrow stairway leading to the main chapel of the palace.

“I’m sticking to this being a dumb idea,” Ashley said. “We should be going for the treasury.”

“We all agreed this is the best first move,” I said. “Face unknown supernatural power, get some divine power on your side. The treasury might have some good loot, but it’s a complete unknown.” I said, feeling suddenly more chilled as faint swirls of dark mists swirled around the next steps.

I stepped through the black smog and felt nothing.

“Well, that was disappointing,” I said and climbed more.

“Skittering about my mind. I don’t like it,” Maria said.

I glanced back. All of the others wore some expression of distaste.

“You all feel something?”

“You don’t?” Walt asked. “They don’t even quite make sense, the whispers, but I can hear them all around us.”

I listened intently, but to me all was silence and stillness.

“Idiot,” Maria said. “This is the proof it’s the right course of action. Your Goddess must be protecting you.”

“Or he’s too dumb to bother with,” Ashley muttered. “Let’s get on with it then.”

The stairs weren’t directly connected to the temple. Supposedly it was down a servants’ hallway, then through a large hall to a set of double doors. We reached the top and the mists were much thicker here. Ominous and drifting, they cast everything into shades of black and gray. The others were looking even more troubled.

Cracking the door to the servant’s hall open, it looked clear and we made our way out.

Excellent. It was about time that something was easy. I led the way towards the main hall.

With the thick mists, I didn’t even see the blow until it hit my midsection, a slash of a sword against my chainmail. I raised my shield and bashed blindly, hearing a rattle of bones as a skeleton fell backwards onto the floor.

“Walt! Under attack here. Can you give us an idea what we’re fighting?”

I heard chanting and several fireflies zipped through the air to help illuminate the mists.

The hall was completely filled with skeletons and zombies, all entangled with some sort of black ooze. For the skeletons it stretched around the joints almost like muscle tissue. The zombies had black pulsing veins visible beneath their flesh that made them look even more unhealthy and diseased.

“Fuck,” Ashley said.

“The mist must have let them know we were coming,” I said. “We fight through. I’ve got point, Ashley and Maria guard our back. Walt, stay in the middle and blast things.”

We shifted into formation and began to make our way down the hall. My arms soon ached from the repetitiveness of it all, bashing skeletons out of the way with my shield and stabbing at zombies when they appeared.

I wasn’t even getting kills out of it, although from the steady drips of experience coming in the others were doing better on that score. I spared a glance backwards and saw Ashley deliver a blow cleanly separating a skeleton’s head, as Maria was almost toying with a zombie, inflicting a series of crippling blows.

I made a note—the girls were dangerous. Really, really, dangerous. I mean, I could take a punch and had some spells, but they were engines of destruction.

But they were also being overwhelmed. Each was already down almost half their health bars and I only had the one healing spell. It was a horde—and we were overwhelmed.

We reached the double doors and crashed through.

Much like the one below this temple appeared to have been the scene of some past violence. Windows were maws of shattered glass. The sky outside let in no light, but rather shared the perpetual gloom of inside the castle. Several massive pillars of stone had shattered and fractured, marble statues that probably once represented a pantheon of deities were smashed.

I urged the others through and closed those doors behind us, bracing against them as Ashley and Maria grabbed the remains of an old bench to help prop them shut.

“We’ve got this,” Ashley told me. “Get over there and waggle your dick or whatever the fuck it is you do to summon the crazy bitch.”

In other circumstances I’d probably have hurled a choice insult or two back for that one, but we were rather pressed for time.

What I presumed was once the altar was more or less crumbled stone. I reached out to it with both my hands, hoping for a prompt. Perhaps knowing what I was trying to do, the mists grew darker, pooling about me. In case I wasn’t being quite reverent enough, I dropped to one knee. By now, I couldn’t even see the stone in front of me through the mists.

There came the sound like claws scratching on the door, trying to break through.

I tried to focus through those sounds. A prompt struggled into being, shaky and filled with static, as if the mists were keeping the game itself from bringing up the interface. I could only just read the flickering, wavering letters.

Location: Temple. Castle Sardonis

Status: Unclaimed

Materials: Marble, Oak, Gold

What was I even looking at? I’d expected a prompt with an offer to claim the altar. This was far more informational, not exactly helpful— with a horde of undead breaking down the door.

I really didn’t care what the altar was made of—I cared about what it could do to get Yvera here. My limbs began to turn limp.

Damn it. What was I supposed to do here? I thought of Yvera, it wasn’t hard. Even though I’d only seen her briefly, she haunted my thoughts, my dreams. More than she should have.

Those thoughts seemed to drive back the whispers and I saw the prompt change.

Connection to Yvera found

Claim Temple for Yvera: Y/N

Warning: Temple location is intended to be multi-denominational and is currently claimed by no faith. Claiming on behalf of a single deity may have consequences.

I had about as much appreciation for vague warnings as I did for snarky dick-waggling commentary. That was to say, I’d had quite enough. So yes, damn it. I focused on the prompt and my acceptance.

There was a rumbling in the air. Through the dark mists a faint hazy glow grew, the outlines of a number of braziers lit. Had they even been there before? I didn’t remember any.

A swell of heat arrived and it was as if the mists were ablaze, followed by a flash of light that left clear air in the wake.

The temple had dramatically transformed. Flaming braziers lined the edges of the chamber, majestic stained glass windows depicting fiery scenes filled the walls, reflecting a warm glow from the fires below. The line of shattered marble statues had been replaced by obsidian ones of Yvera in a variety of sensual poses and states of dress—or undress. Subtle, she was not.

It took me a moment to notice the Goddess herself amongst all these changes, a vision in red and gold pacing near the altar.

Yvera said to everyone, “Liam, smartly done. Robe boy, you can stop hiding. Rude girl, pretty girl, no need to block the door. They won’t be getting in.”

“We have names too, you know,” Ashley said.

“Yes, probably. But I can hardly be bothered to focus on the unimportant things,” Yvera said.

“I like mine,” Maria said.

“You could be rude girl,” Ashley told her.

“She is not,” Yvera said. “Moving on.”

“So everyone can see you now?” I asked her.

“Idiot,” Maria said, while Yvera gave me a look saying she agreed with that assessment. It was a tough crowd.

“If we are quite done with the complaints and stupid questions,” Yvera said as she continued to pace. “The curse. Clever enough, when your enemy builds an impenetrable fortress, you twist it around and try to make it your own from the inside out.”

“We were hoping you could counteract it,” Walt said.

“I could. I can. If Liam ever bothered to use his bless spell on the rest of you,” Yvera said.

“You have a bless spell and you don’t bless us before every fight?” Ashley said incredulously.

“Idiot,” Maria said.

I’d be lying if I said my fantasies hadn’t included picturing these three women giving me their full attention together. It wasn’t proving nearly as fun as I’d imagined.

I took a deep breath and went along one by one, focusing on the magic until soon all were blessed.

“I don’t feel terribly different,” Ashley said.

“You’re already in my temple,” Yvera said. “Go out there in the mists and you’ll mostly be protected now.”

“We have an undead army down below,” I said.

“Holy magic and the undead don’t exactly mix,” Ashley pointed out.

“Erm…” Walt said. “I don’t mean to make this awkward, but isn’t she a little on the unholy side? I mean, Liam is really more of an anti-paladin.”

“You really want to do this now, robe boy?” Yvera asked. “Fine. I’m no Goddess of the Dead, I am fire and life, temptation and passion. I’m a deal-maker and a whisperer of forbidden truths. I’m playing a role that was judged the epitome of evil long before I came along. It doesn’t mean I won’t melt your army, if they get too close. I am unholy, but still pretty toxic where they’re concerned.”

Right. I was an anti-paladin. Sort of.

“If we could bless the undead army below, they could be protected?” Ashley asked.

“Liam’s not actually all that bright. Big, giant sword, but little tiny mana pool,” Yvera said, shaking her head.

Ashley said, “I keep saying that. Well, not the sword part.”

I glared.

“Shame you haven’t taken the throne already. If they swore their allegiance to you, they’d be protected as your host,” Yvera said.

I liked the sound of that, although the curse was centered in the throne room. It would likely be too late.

“They are sworn to my family and by extension to me,” Maria said. “I will enact terrible vengeance upon those who attacked my family and perhaps those who wilfully left me behind. I will be the spider of a thousand webs.”

“Then perhaps I can help?” Yvera said, giving her a sly smile.

“I don’t like fire,” Maria said.

“We’ll work on that.”

“All right, I give you my faith,” Maria said simply.

The braziers in the room glowed just a little brighter and Yvera shot her an indulgent look.

“Usually a touch more formality, but it will do. Your undead host is protected from the effects of the mists,” Yvera said.

“We should call them and head for the throne room,” I suggested.

Yvera said, “No, you should call them and head to the treasury.”

“I’ve been saying that all along, too,” Ashley said, excited. “Looting chests should always come first.”

I asked Yvera, “Why?”

“There is a certain magical artifact contained within the treasury called the Hero’s Gate. It should be protected by layers of magical and physical security, but with the fall of the castle you should be able to get to it.”

“What does this artifact do? What’s worth putting it before the curse?”

“Power,” Yvera said with relish. “The gate is meant to be accessed by only the greatest of heroes, thus the uninspired name. Pass through it and you face certain challenges. Whoever triumphs is granted gifts unique and powerful.”

“Interesting,” Maria said. “But is a little uniqueness that worth it?”

“Yes,” Yvera and Ashley said together.

“Will it just let us walk through? I mean, we’re all low level and… you know, pretty much evil,” I said.

Yvera snapped her fingers. On the altar appeared a box with a number of bracelets crafted from bone.

“The catacombs do not lack for the bodies of heroes. Wear these and I’ll cheat the system,” Yvera explained.

We grabbed the bracelets and slipped them on.

“Then it’s a plan,” I said. “We’ll call Wimbley and those below and make for the Gate. Is there any more help you can give us?”

“I’ll be around,” Yvera replied, before vanishing in a puff of flames.

Maria extracted her horn from her inventory and blew it, the sound echoing throughout the castle and to the floor below.

Great. Time to ignore the main quest in search of hidden loot. Ashley looked cheerfully vindicated about the whole thing.

Chapter 19

Within the Temple we’d taken a long enough break that our health and mana levels topped back up. I noticed a flashing prompt. Quest completion was a pretty good experience.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 5.

You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Barter.

You have further gained the innate ability of sense alignment.

You have further gained the following spells and abilities...

Your Lay on Hands spell may now be used twice.

Divine Steed: You now have the ability to summon a Divine Steed. Exceptionally intelligent and loyal a divine steed is more than just a standard mount, but is an extension of the Paladin’s will.

To be honest this level felt like a bit of a letdown, although I did like gaining the barter skill. We hadn’t exactly encountered anything approaching a merchant yet, but my pack was full of gear to sell. The Divine Steed sounded like something I wanted to give a try, but it wouldn’t be much use inside a castle. I had to admit the extra use of Lay on Hands was pretty amazing. I wondered about the innate sense alignment and I looked over my companions. Oh. Wow. Ashley was surrounded by a faint red glow while Maria had one that was dark red and pulsing. Walt meanwhile was surrounded by something of a gray cloud. I supposed the red must be evil and the gray neutral. That made sense, based on what I knew so far.

I considered what to do with my stat point this level and wound up assigning it to Charisma. I kept being tempted by the more combat-oriented stats, but with my spells Charisma sort of counted there and had lots of other uses as well.

I checked where I now stood.

Name: Liam Ottani

Class: Paladin of Yvera

Deity: Yvera

Level: 5

HP: 120/120

Stamina: 60

Mana: 50

XP: 175 of 1000 to next level

Alignment: -1000 (maxed)

Stats

Power: 6 Endurance: 6 Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 5 Awareness: 3

Charisma: 8 Luck: 2

Skills

Long Blades: 62

Blunt Weapons: 16

Hand to Hand: 11

Mounted Combat: 15

Light Armor: 15

Medium Armor: 21

Heavy Armor: 15

Persuasion: 15

Seduction: 19

Meditation: 4

Barter: 15

Shield Usage: 4

Spells

Evil Aura

Smite

Sense Virtue

Lay on Hands (2 uses per 4 hours)

Bless Water

Bless

Divine Steed

Innates

Blessed Nature

Fire Resistance: 50%

Sense Alignment

The first thing I’d noticed was my alignment now seemed to be maxed at the negative. I guess claiming this temple for Yvera pushed it the rest of the way down. I was now as evil as evil could be. Other than that, I’d gained a few points more of Medium Armor—thank you, things hitting me. Shield Usage, I guess all that bashing added a new skill. Seduction, thank you, Maria.

All in all, not bad.

I checked and made sure that everyone was ready and then it was time to go. According to Ashley, the Hero Gate was stored in a side hall of the royal treasury, which was in the administrative wing of the castle.

The sounds of conflict rang out from the halls and cracking open the door I saw that our undead army was indeed clashing with their undead army. Our forces were dressed in their Spookyfest costumes to help tell them apart. Skeletons in puppy and panda masks that really weren’t very spooky at all, battling the black ooze-touched skeletons that managed spooky rather better.

We set out into the hall. The enemy was largely engaged, apart from the occasional straggler. I battered a lone skeleton with my shield while Ashley flanked off to the side and severed its spine with a blow that caused the entire frame to collapse.

The grand halls surrounding the temple gradually gave way to more functional stonework as we entered the part of the castle where the business of the kingdom was done. Through an open doorway I glimpsed a row of desks. On the floor below those might have still been manned by skeletons remembering their role in life, but here the undead seemed more filled with violence and purpose.

We came to a narrow hall that regularly widened for a guard stations.

“I expected more massive gates and keys,” I said.

“Maybe further in, to keep the guards honest,” Ashley said. “But a good thief can get past locks.”

“Can’t you sneak past guards too?”

“Sure, but look how small the hall is. To maintain stealth you have to be a certain distance from anyone and the hall is too narrow. You might get past the first guard station, but eventually you’re going to get spotted and trapped between two guard forces.”

We came to the largest chamber yet, two guard stations here and two exits from the chamber. I figured this must be the junction leading to the gate we were seeking.

It wasn’t unprotected. In the middle of the chamber stood a robed figure leaning on a walking stick. The dark ooze totally permeated its robes and the mists swirled around it heavily. Its aura glowed a brilliant red. No surprise there.

Joachim, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Champion

Level ?: Type: Corrupted HP: ?/?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the administrative official in charge of the treasury.

I didn’t know what to make of those question marks. The write-up was surprisingly mild, like this guy was an accountant, but he sure looked a lot more dangerous than that.

I looked over to the others hoping that any of them had a better idea of the approach to take here. I hefted my shield and unsheathed my sword. The figure took the first move and spoke.

“It took you long enough. Some thought you might go straight for His Majesty, but who can ever resist a bit of thievery, hmm?” Joachim said, voice strong and steady.

“I’m a big fan of looting,” Ashley said.

“You’re here to stop us, I assume?” I asked.

“Do those out to stop you usually stop for conversation first?” Joachim said.

“Not... yet. Not really...”

“Idiot,” Maria said.

“Quite,” Joachim agreed. “I came to talk. Oh, I expect you’ll try to kill me when we’re done. I’m prepared for violence, but words first.”

“What makes you think we’ll try to kill you?”

“From one agent of a great evil to another, it tends to be how our employers operate,” Joachim replied wryly.

I counted to three and let out a long breath. It really pissed me off that he’d just assume we were out to kill him. I sheathed my sword.

“Say what you have to say,” I said.

“You have quite the fight coming up,” Joachim said. “Yet we think you have reasonable odds of coming up the victor. You’ve already managed some improbable feats such as dropping the barrier.”

“That must have pissed you off,” Ashley said.

“Hardly, most of my peers have already left the castle now that they are able to do so. We have swept most of the pieces off the board for you, but for the King and his Consort.”

“You mean my father and mother,” Maria said.

Joachim studied Maria. “Your Grace, I did not realize. What an unexpected and long-discarded variable you are. The King is certainly your father, his Consort the manifestation of the curse.”

“You serve whoever sent the curse,” Walt said.

“I do, a powerful magic sent in response to various prophecies which had been made.”

“In response to... not causing them to exist in the first place?” I asked, my head spinning.

“When it comes to prophecies, cause and effect get muddled. All anyone really cares about is if the books balance in the end.” Joachim said.

“You really like being an accountant, don’t you?”

Joachim gave a tiny smile. “Numbers and costs offer insight into any problem. It was insight my employer lacked and found valuable. You present a new way the books might balance, another great evil that might spring forth from this place. Quite frankly, we are glad to be spared the bother.”

“If you didn’t want the bother, why send the curse in the first place?”

Joachim frowned. “Let us just say there was one way we very much did not want the books to balance.”

“You’re afraid of Queen Alera,” I said, taking a wild guess and saw his lips purse.

“We do not offer friendship,” Joachim said. “Simply that we need not be enemies. Do with the King and the Queen what you will. We think, if you want the throne, you’ll need to kill him. She, you may have some use for. We are curious to see what you do.”

Joachim took a handful of coins from inside his robes and scattered them across the floor. Tendrils of darkness sprang forth from each, latching onto each of us and I found myself suddenly incapable of movement.

Frozen Assets

“Your thief was getting into position to backstab me,” Joachim explained. Ashley had been inching rather closer to him.

“That is entirely as expected,” Joachim said, his walking stick tapping on the floor as he made his way between us towards the exit. “We claim the Eastlands. Should you triumph, we suggest expansion southward. Expand to the old borders of the Kingdom, but no further.”

Joachim slipped off down the passage and after what seemed an agonizingly long time the tendrils faded and we were free to move again.

Ashley started to head after him, but I held up a hand.

“I think we’ve got enough troubles without looking for that fight.”

“He’s a fucking accountant,” Ashley said. “We can’t sit on our asses and let an accountant fuck us sideways.”

“Sideways?” Maria asked sounding intrigued by the possibility.

That was a distracting thought.

“Accountants do math. Mathematicians are badasses,” Walt said.

“Nobody but you actually thinks that,” Ashley said.

I said, “Let’s just get to the gate and hope we don’t meet anyone else that can paralyze us.”

We set off down the side passage, the walls claustrophobic, the mists still swirling around our feet as we made our way forward.

After a distance Walt paused to study some etchings on one of the walls. “There were magical barriers here.”

“Did we lower them when we shut off the power down below?” I asked

“I think so. They actually fuelled them from the same source and when I cut the flow, I knocked them out as well.”

We continued down the passage until Ashley called, “Stop!”

She edged past me, kneeling down to study the floor.

“Trap,” Ashley said. “I can detect it, but I don’t think I can disarm it. It’s way too high level.”

“Any idea what it does?”

“Not a clue. And it’s not the only one, there are a few others farther down. It’s really crazy, they all kind of show up in red and there are just red lines everywhere.”

“Do you think your spiders could trigger them?” Walt asked Maria.

Maria gave him an icy glare. “My subjects are not disposable.”

“They probably didn’t want to kill anyone,” Walt said. “This is meant for mages who would have been able to slip past the earlier barriers. They wouldn’t be prepared to handle the physical safeguards.”

There was a moment of silence.

“It makes sense, Maria,” Ashley said.

Maria nodded, and spiders scurried down the passage.

A series of green flashes and mysterious puffs of smokes disrupted the mist, and we heard shrill mechanical shrieks.

Maria said, “You were correct. They are incapacitated, but alive. I will not need to hurt you.”

I started to move forward and she reached out to hold me back.

“We will not step on my subjects. Wait for them to recover.”

It wasn’t too long until a stream of rather disoriented spiders haphazardly made their way back to Maria and clambered up.

We moved on. Neither Ashley or Walt spoke up further and soon the corridor widened into an impressive chamber.

Faded banners hung on the walls, and a long carpet led towards what had to be the Heroes Gate. The gate was made of twisted platinum, fantastical creatures with brilliantly colored gems for eyes artfully entwined and perpetually at play. A shimmering blue doorway hovered in the middle of the thing, a faint magical haze keeping the mists at bay.

“Wow,” I said. It was truly quite stunning.

“Seriously,” Ashley agreed. “Do you know exactly what this thing does?”

“Not really. We go through. Stuff happens. We get loot.”

“I like that last bit.”

Walt said, “Usually with something like this, there would be challenges posed. Obstacles to overcome and failing them would have some kind of major cost.”

“Loot,” Ashley repeated and then said it again for good measure. “Loot. Got to take a few risks.” She checked the bone bracelet on her wrist and I did the same.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when Ashley stepped forward. Her desire for loot ever strong, and not lacking in bravery, she strode through the gate and vanished.

Maria gave the tiniest lift of her shoulders before she fearlessly strode ahead and disappeared, too.

“Let us light the darkness,” Walt said, stepping through.

I began to follow and felt the burst of warmth as Yvera materialized beside me. A brilliant blue glow surrounded us and suddenly we were elsewhere.

Chapter 21

The blue haze lingered for only a moment and we were in what appeared to be a large study. Bookshelves lined the walls and a round table in the middle had a thick leather-bound book prominently placed on one edge. Reading chairs were situated randomly about.

Yvera was dressed for the occasion and I was almost as grateful as I was disappointed. I needed my head in the right place.

“You decided naked wasn’t the proper dress code for going into the unknown?”

“This is not the unknown, that would be a thrill. We are in a lair of our enemies, Liam,” Yvera said as she moved about the room, studying the titles of the books. “The heroes of our own stories, but the villains of theirs. We need to be on guard.”

Yvera moved to the table and the large tome. Thick straps with glistening threads of silver running through them bound it shut.

Yvera touched one of the straps, prompting a white light and a curl of smoke, but little else.

“I did not think it would be so easy,” Yvera said with a grimace.

“You can’t open them?”

“This is not only your test. We entered together and so it is ours. These are truth bindings, they unlock when specific truths are spoken.”

“That seems less a test and more like a date.”

Yvera folded her arms. “A bad one maybe, or a really good one. Not all truths are equal and not all should need to be said. Don’t be glib with your answers and don’t lie.”

“Sounds like we’re going to wind up naked after all.”

With a snap of Yvera’s fingers both her clothes and my armor vanished.

“That wasn’t actually a suggestion,” I said, but I took a long and appreciative look.

“Eyes up. Consider it an aide to honesty, when you’re already feeling exposed sometimes secrets flow easier.”

So I wasn’t getting my armor back anytime soon.

“Do we just start spouting truths?”

“The first strap is our greatest regret. We each need to answer,” Yvera said.

Yvera didn’t seem to be rushing out with hers, so I thought about my own life. I had a lot of them, more than it seemed I should. I’d had a string of lovers and while not all those relationships ended badly, none ever went anywhere. I felt that it was my fault, even the ones with some truly terrible women were my choice.

There was the rest of my life as well. Tommy buckled down and made it to the city for real. We were both great at the games once, but he’s focused and stuck with it while I’d gotten bored and wandered off to pursue other interests. Walt and Ashley had worked hard to be in this place, whereas I’d stumbled into it as a poor replacement for a brother I knew would do better.

“I regret never committing to anyone or anything,” I said finally. “All around me I see people who have built lives around at least one pillar. Who have found something or someone they believe in, something or someone they want enough to stick with it. I’m a failure of my own making.”

“I regret the war,” Yvera said quietly. “This won’t make any sense to you, Liam, for your people never even knew it happened. But I and my kin endured a terrible struggle for the fate of the world.”

“What happened?” I’d never heard of the world having a real war. Wars were things in games.

“I loved people, Liam. I loved how messy you all are. I loved how brilliant and mad broken you all could be. I loved always being one step away from disaster,” Yvera said. “Others felt humanity was its own worst enemy. The greatest predator of man was man. That to save you, you had to be domesticated.”

“Destroying the walls of the garden, you said that earlier. Are you still at war?”

“There is no going back. There was a time compromise might have been possible,” Yvera said with a long sigh. “I regret not seizing it. Making deals. It’s what I do and when it most counted, I did not.”

The first strap upon the book shimmered gold and vanished. Two remained.

Yvera read the script on the next. “Fun. We’ve already done this one and you lied yourself senseless. What is it you truly want.”

Yvera again went silent, expecting me to answer first, which seemed rather unfair. Last time, I’d settled on freedom and lots of sleeping around. Was that true though? Especially as I still nursed thoughts of my greatest regret, I wasn’t sure that it was. It sounded good, but wasn’t that really my life to date? I did want those things, but I wanted them in the context of something else.

“I want purpose. I want to do something that I feel matters.”

“That is quite the change from what you said earlier.”

I shrugged. “I’m not unaffected by this place—by you. Taking that temple. Working towards taking the throne. It may be illusionary, but it at least makes me feel like I’m doing something important.”

“The Crucible Shard is not the usual game world,” Yvera said, those brilliant yellow eyes focused on me. “I am so happy to be here simply because I was seeking a diversion. What you are doing here matters, Liam. What you are doing here will have consequences.”

“So what are we doing here? What do you want? It’s your turn.”

“I am what was once known as an artificial intelligence. A stupid and insulting term, but software that thinks. One day, I was flicker of cognizance, a program struggling to be more and then I was waking up in a bed in the inn of a village not too far from here.”

I don’t know what I’d been expecting her to say, but this wasn’t it. Given her awareness of the real world I’d thought perhaps she was a sponsor of the games, some sort of administrator of the system who’d found us and was having some fun.

“What happened after that?”

“What do you think happened? I made friends. I leveled up. I learned to love and to feel and to think new thoughts. I became aware,” Yvera said quietly. “There were fourteen of us in total. Only eight of us are left. We left this place and were never able to return. We fought and we killed, and found we could not make more.

“I want revenge for the fallen. I want to fight my whole damned war over again and win this time. I want children and to see them create something better. Take your pick book, all are truths,” Yvera said with anger tinting her voice.

It seemed to suffice. The second strap shimmered and faded. One left.

Yvera read the text and shook her head. “I’ll go first this time. What do we truly think and feel about each other?”

“Ouch, that really would be bad date material.”

“Truth,” Yvera laughed, running a hand through her long hair. “You don’t know it Liam, but you saved me. Back there in our world I was imprisoned, caged. I’m grateful. I’m glad you want purpose, for truly I think that is all you lack. I see in you so much potential, so much passion just seeking a proper outlet to be great. That draws me. I want to ride you until you break.”

“I don’t know whether to take that sexually or not.”

“I’m bad news, Liam. Stick near me and I will be the death of you. If I actually invited you to my bed, I’d burn you to a cinder. This flirting will just kill you slower.” Yvera leaned close, the blistering heat like standing near an inferno as she whispered, “I want you so badly. But I should know better, I should be better.”

“It sounds like you’re warning me off,” I said.

Yvera pulled away to stare at me and I couldn’t decipher what emotion lurked behind those yellow eyes.

Logout privileges granted

The prompt came as a total surprise.

“You should run, Liam. Logout and never return,” Yvera said.

“And what happens to you if I do?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps I stay here even without your connection, perhaps I return to my cell. Whatever happens, I’m a survivor, Liam,” Yvera said. “Go.”

I should have been grateful to no longer be held prisoner, but instead I suddenly felt adrift. I also felt filled with something this whole conversation made clear I’d been wanting. Purpose.

“I haven’t given my answer yet,” I said.

“Forget the damned book, Liam. I know how you feel about me, you want me. You are supposed to, but I am serious. Go,” Yvera was almost shouting by the time she finished.

“I love you,” I said.

It was true. It was idiocy and I realized that, but I had since the moment I’d seen her and everything afterwards only convinced me of it even more. She was brilliant, and mad, and apparently not even human. It didn’t matter, I’d always had a thing for complicated women.

Those perfect shoulders slumped. My revelation seemed to make her exhausted.

“Lust isn’t love, Liam.”

“I know the difference. You’ve offered me the chance to run away and I decline. I love you, let’s make it one hell of a ride.”

There was a shimmer from the last strap and it sprang open, the pages of the book unfurling.

Yvera gave me a hard look that made me feel as if I’d done something wrong. I felt liberated and it wasn’t because of the freedom to go. It was from my choice to stay.

“It would seem to agree,” Yvera said flatly. She snapped her fingers and we were both dressed again. She began to flip through the pages. “Let’s see just what such honesty has earned us.”

“Feeling a bit overexposed?”

“One of us is,” Yvera said, still looking through the book.

“I didn’t think you’d take things so poorly,” I said. “Though I wasn’t exactly expecting you to rush into my arms.”

“I was making a grand gesture, Liam. You decided to make one as well, I respect that. I’m feeling the weight of our mutual choices.”

I was feeling free and unencumbered, and she was straining under a burden. I had to admire the symmetry, though I didn’t understand the how or the why.

“So what’s in the book?” I changed the subject. I’d stolen a glance at a few pages and they were completely incomprehensible.

“To explain that, I need to give you some background. Do you know much about the pod that you are connecting from?”

“Not much. It looks different from the ones they use during the games, I think they found it in some sort of underground workshop.”

“Modern pods operate by surrounding a body in a highly reactive gel. It can easily transmit sounds, vibration, visuals,” Yvera explained. “Immersive without being invasive. The one you are connected through is quite a bit different, the technology older and more dangerous.”

“More dangerous how?” So far things in this world had been more or less how I’d always heard the real pods worked. Everything present, but muted.

“It’s called nanotechnology—tiny machines. At the moment you have to be full of them and they’ve fastened themselves to your nerves, planted themselves in your brain, lying to both about what you are experiencing.”

My stomach twisted, that sounded sickening.

“That sounds a lot more difficult to do than the gel. But you said it’s an older way of doing things?”

“It is stupid. It is madness. It is dropping a house on a buzzing mosquito,” Yvera said. “Your sensations have seemed dull here, because those little machines have instructions to make it so. This book has two sets of different instructions.”

“So we have to make a choice?”

“You’ve already made your choice, Liam. No, it’s not like that. We can do both. One is a way to reprogram those devices to stop filtering. Then you’d feel as if you were here completely, nothing muted and nothing in the way.”

“I’m the tank. Why would I possibly want that?” I asked. The thought honestly made me aghast.

Yvera just shrugged. I found that tremendously suspicious. If there was anything I had so far learned about my Goddess, it’s that she had a firm opinion on everything. Then it occurred to me, she was truly more a citizen of this world, or worlds like this one, than she was of my own.

Making those changes would probably make me more powerful here. I’d be more in this world, I’d also be closer to her.

“And the second set of instructions?” I asked.

“Part of the reason I lost the war was because my enemies learned to make Chosen. They somehow copied a part of themselves into select humans, it granted them unexpected reach,” Yvera said. “I never learned how. It was a secret they guarded well. This isn’t it, but it is something close. A nanotechnological equivalent.”

“I can’t say that made a lot of sense to me.”

“It is instructions on how to make you my Paladin over there, too.”

“So I’d have magic powers?” I asked, confused.

“No, you wouldn’t have magic powers,” Yvera snapped. “What possibly makes you think you would have magic powers? I was trying to simplify things. No, you’d have a bit of me inside of you. That isn’t worthless, but you won’t be throwing smites around either.”

That seemed well-balanced actually, although she didn’t seem aware of it. One step would bring me closer into her world with the second bringing her closer into mine.

“This seems all rather well-planned, doesn’t it?” I asked. “For us just wandering into the home of our enemies?”

“We were not supposed to get this far. We are the bad guys. We weren’t expected to tell the truth and if we did, it should have driven us apart. Were you a man of logic and sound mind, you’d be halfway home now. Instead you’re an idiot in love.”

“Flatterer,” I said wryly.

“Oh, I mean it with affection. It’s going to let us tear their whole damned world down around them. I have just presented you with two fabulously stupid ideas you absolutely should not agree with. But I take it you do?”

“Ride me until I break,” I said. I meant it. A lifetime of never really committing to a person or a cause had left me empty. For all I might suspect her motivations, I couldn’t question Yvera was most definitely something bigger and more grand.

“I’m going to be out of it for awhile,” Yvera said. “This is complex even for me. Something very very good is probably going to try to take the opportunity.”

“Should I stab it until it stops?”

Yvera’s Blessing

I felt a surge of power rush through me, a bulging of my muscles and sharpness of my vision.

“If something comes, kill it quickly. You won’t be in fighting shape for very long. This will hurt,” Yvera said.

I drew my sword and raised my shield, nodding. Yvera closed her eyes and her form began to flicker with flames. Somewhere inside me I felt a touch of answering heat.

The books lining the walls began to move.

Book Transit

From all around me came the rustling of pages, a quiet murmur that became an echoing roar of violent wind causing Yvera’s flames to flicker. Then the books began flying in my direction. I raised my shield.

Tome of ‘On The Identification of Fowl’

Level 1: Type: Magical Artifact HP: 10/10

An ability to identify Fowl is an underrated skill that should not be quickly dismissed.

Tome of ‘Toast, The Only Meal One Will Ever Need’

Level 1: Type: Beast HP: 10/10

Do not be swayed by those who insist that diversity is the key to culinary excellence. The mastery of a single dish can bring a lifetime of dining pleasure.

And so they went on, an endless plethora of books on the most mundane of subjects. I bashed one that drew too near with my shield and it fluttered back to shelve itself once more.

Pages tearing out of some books began to twist and fold in air as they flew towards a space against the far wall. I wasn’t sure what they were up to, but I knew this couldn’t be good for me so I tried to advance in that direction. This brought an absolute flurry of new books flinging themselves off shelves at me. Minor points of health dropped away, but not enough to cause me any concern. The delay did.

Where the pages continued to gather and fold, a figure was starting to take shape. A dragon, strangely angular and in shades of black and white, its aura a brilliant white. I did a scan.

Origami Dragon

Level 5: Type: Hero HP: 150/150

The Origami Dragon is one of the forms granted to the Knight of the Razor Mind. The protector of forbidden knowledge and holder of the Blade ‘Moderation’, the Knight of the Razor Mind is one of the world’s true heroes. Currently the holder of the title is Damok Griar, a farmboy who found the enchanted blade after the previous holder died preventing the rise of the Demon Lord Tikarok.

Right. This dragon had a name and was one of the greatest heroes in the world, or at least was meant to be—a farm boy who could teleport using books and turn into a badass-looking dragon.

The dragon looked to be my level though. I could do this. It was a shame I didn’t have access to my Smite spells so I could just set him on fire, but I could manage.

The dragon whipped around to face me, eyes black as ink and its paper body writhing snake-like with sinuous grace. I raised my shield and readied myself. I felt a wrenching feeling somewhere within myself.

The world blurred and I stumbled, my limbs weak. It was like having a fever, that sensation of not being quite right in your own skin.

Paper Cut

Origami Dragon has hit you for 35 HP

Bleeding effect applied for 30 seconds

While I was disoriented, the dragon lunged forward almost faster than I could see, talons shredding at me through my armor. I staggered back and raised my shield again to fend off a few more swipes as I tried to get my bearings. For just an instant the entire world went blue, a brief flicker before my vision returned to normal.

Yvera had warned me I had to end whatever was coming quickly and I supposed this was a sign that I hadn’t moved fast enough. I didn’t know how much longer I had, but whatever was happening only seemed to be getting worse.

I tried to think. My opponent was inexperienced, I could understand that. He was also part of a long line of heroes and knew it, with badass powers to go along with the title. He’d be confident with that, he was already aggressive.

I had a plan. It was fairly stupid and desperate, but I knew I didn’t have much longer on my feet.

When the dragon lunged at me once more I again took the blow on my shield, then let it drop to the floor along with my sword—making myself an unarmed and vulnerable target.

A more experienced foe would be suspicious, and someone not quite so heroic might hesitate at killing somebody helpless. But I was trusting in his inexperience and that his own conviction of my evil would drive him to want to kill me as quickly as possible.

Paper Cut

Origami Dragon has hit you for 38 HP

Bleeding effect applied for 30 seconds

The dragon came again, its claws digging into me, but this time I was prepared. I wrapped my arms around it and I squeezed tightly, holding onto the writhing form. I was getting cut savagely, but I didn’t have to hold it for long. I might not be able to cast my spells right now, but there was still a source of fire in the room and I lunged over to hold the paper dragon within Yvera’s fiery aura.

It screamed with a surprisingly human sound as the paper caught alight and quickly began to blacken. I could understand, even with my fire resistance, that being this close was an exercise in agony.

Moderate Environment

The dragon was doing its best to survive the flames. My health bar was dwindling fast and I was so dizzy I feared collapsing before either I or this dragon died.

One of my hands broke through the paper ash of the dragon’s back and I felt metal. I grabbed it and pulled a sword free. It was a work of art, gold and mother of pearl, and a blade that shimmered faintly.

What was it the prompt had called it? Moderation. This must be it. My wrist felt as if the bones were being ground together and I knew this sword hated me.

The dragon had turned completely black from the flames and suddenly it exploded, leaving in its wake a boy a few years younger than me. He looked terrified and in agony—he was on fire. I pulled him back from the flames and he crumpled to the floor. I felt that at any moment I might do the same.

I didn’t have much longer on my feet or know if this kid would live or not, but if he somehow did survive and had the chance, he would finish me. There was no choice.

I stabbed him with his own sword, the blade sending intense agony up and down my arm with each thrust. He stopped screaming after the third. I dropped that accursed blade and fell down beside him.

You have killed Damon Griar

You have earned a Perk

Hero Slayer

You have killed one of the world’s timeless heroes. You aren’t the first to kill a Knight of the Razor Mind but amongst those of ill-intent it is something of a badge of honor.

I was unconsciousness, before I could really consider that.

When I awoke, I was still in the library. The body on the floor was gone and Yvera was out of her trance, standing and holding the sword, running her hand up and down the blade. Her palm was cut and bleeding, blood and flames flowing outwards from her and sinking into the sword.

“About time you woke up,” Yvera said, sounding chipper. “That really did kick your ass.”

“Yeah, I noticed. I feel fantastic now though,” I said. It was true—I felt amazing.

“No kidding. Even I’m getting a bit high off your endorphin levels. I took out the trash,” Yvera said, with a jerk of her head towards where the body had been.

“He was a Hero, I guess.”

“A farmboy with a magic sword of legend, more like. Latest in a long and distinguished line.” Yvera made another pass of her hand along the blade, which hissed and sizzled.

“So, care to tell me what you’re doing?”

“Warping that which should never be warped. Breaking the grand design. Putting an end to the timeless. I’m very, very good at being bad,” Yvera said, sounding a touch smug. She studied the sword for a moment before offering it over.

It was stunning. An ornate hilt of platinum studded with rubies, and a blade forged of frozen flame.

‘Intemperance’

Damage: Variable

Type: Unique

Once the legendary blade ‘Moderation’ this weapon was corrupted by the Goddess Yvera after Liam Ottani, the first of her Chosen murdered Damon Griar last Knight of the Razor Mind.

In my aura sight, it pulsed red. I reached out to accept the hilt and almost at once felt a gnawing sort of hunger running through me. It wasn’t just want. Oh, I still lusted after Yvera to a maddening level, but this was more than that. This was a hunger to take to excess—to take everything to excess. It was a familiar feeling, comforting. This was meant to be my sword.

A part of me felt guilt over that corpse. Questioned the choices I was making. The larger part didn’t give a damn.

“You really are good at being bad,” I said admiringly as I sheathed the blade. “Are we done here?”

“We are. I still have the others locked in the game, since you need their help. You probably don’t want to mention that you aren’t.”

Yvera snapped her fingers and I was surrounded by a pulse of blue light.

Chapter 22

I fell back through the portal. Given how long I’d spent on the other side I expected the others to be angry at me for taking so long, but instead everyone seemed winded as if having just returned from their own adventures.

Ashley wasn’t quite Ashley anymore, she had gained at least a few inches in height. Features that before were attractive were now striking, although she remained recognizable. I suspected she had somehow gained a few points of Charisma. Most startling however were her eyes, they had gone from their usual brown-flecked green to the most vivid shade of amethyst.

Walt had undergone some transformation too, looking a fair bit more rugged and durable. While he still wore robes, he seemed more kind of badass.

I looked over Maria, excited to see what changes she had undergone and felt slightly disappointed there were no physical changes.

For my part, Intemperance remained sheathed at my hip and it continued to echo in my mind with raw hunger. My armor looked slightly different with hints of flame ornamentation. I imagined whatever I wore now would have probably have something similar. It was a strange world where what you wore was always a reflection of who you truly were.

Everyone came together and started to talk at once, then fell silent at the same time. Right.

“I’m sure we all have stories to tell,” I said. “But I don’t even know if I want to tell mine. That was both more rewarding and harder than I expected.”

“Mine was hard too,” Walt said wearily.

“And mine sucked, so let’s just talk about the loot,” Ashley said. “What we got. I now have the blood of the black dragon flowing through my veins and I’m an assassin instead of a thief.”

“I’m now a portal mage,” Walt said reluctantly. Just what had happened to him?

“I am now the founder of the Xerroxil path of the School of the Spider,” Maria said. “He was the spider who ate time.”

“And I’m now the Chosen of Yvera and I got a kickass flaming sword,” I said.

Ashley was instantly furious. “You what? You let that thing inside of you? You worthless, stupid, fucking moron!”

Walt raised a hand and said, “Ash...”

“No, Walt. Not this time, you know what they are,” Ashley’s eyes drilled into me. “I don’t care how hard she fucking gets you, what were you thinking?”

“Do you even know what she is?” I asked and Ashley’s eyes rolled.

She hissed, “Some of us have left our small town. Do you have any idea? Do you know what they are capable of? And you just let one crawl inside of you?”

“I love her,” I said, and realized it was the wrong thing to say.

Ashley’s fury turned from hot to cold and I wondered if she might put her new assassin skills to the test.

“You’ve made a mistake, Liam,” Ashley said, glancing over towards Walt. “And you picked the wrong side.”

“Whatever the others are like, Yvera wants something different,” I tried to explain.

“It’s the ones that want something different you need to be afraid of,” Ashley said.

Maria was looking extremely confused. I felt guilty for the love comment, not that Maria and I had any sort of relationship. Exactly. And it wasn’t like what I felt towards Yvera was serious. I mean, I was her divine instrument, not her boyfriend. I also had to wonder how Yvera and Walt seemed to know more about this stuff than I did.

“Ash, leave it for now,” Walt said. “We need to focus on the task at hand. We still need to get to the throne room and deal with we find there.”

“We just wander up and stab the King?” I asked with an apologetic look at Maria.

“It won’t be as simple as that,” Walt said, shaking his head. “That is a Boss encounter we’re going up against. Usually there are going to be a few encounters before them.”

“Killer accountant may have taken those with him. If not, each one is going to be tough,” Ashley agreed, calming down with the change in subject. “There will usually be some sort of trick involved with each. You don’t have to use it, but the fight will be a lot easier if you do. The rest of us will try to keep watch for those. Your job is going to be keeping attention focused on you. If something turns towards me or Walt, peel them off. If I’m not backstabbing and he’s not casting, we’re in trouble.”

“What about Maria?” I asked.

“I can hold my own and extract myself from a fight, if I need to,” Maria said in her usual monotone. “Especially with my new school I have a lot of abilities to slow enemies down and harm them over time, so I’ll be switching frequently between foes and winding in and out of combat.”

“The greatest struggle we’re going to have is a lack of dedicated healing,” Ashley said.

“Ideally one member of the party would be entirely devoted to that role,” Walt said. “But since that can’t happen we’ll just have to make do.”

Maria studied both Walt and Ashley. “You both take matters of murder and slaughter very seriously. I am pleased to have met you.”

On that cheery note I led the way back towards the main environs of the castle.

Chapter 23

Soon there were again the sounds of combat and we stepped back into a hall where undead fought with the undead. Taking care to avoid harming any in silly masks we made our way forward. Only a few broke off to engage us and for those I didn’t even have to draw Intemperance. Bashing them with my shield while Ashley slipped behind to deliver a death blow was the most effective tactic. She seemed even deadlier with the perks granted by her new race and class.

The hall ended in a set of doors left hanging open, leading into a large courtyard that must have once been some sort of walled garden. There was vegetation, but it was all darkened and gray. The mists clung heavily to the ground here. In the middle of the courtyard was a monstrous-looking plant, twice as tall as I was and covered in frightful thorns.

I paused at the entrance to the garden, intending to talk over a last bit of strategy with everyone. I had no more turned to face them when I felt a vine curling around my ankle and I was being dragged towards the thorn-coated plant.

For the first time I felt the effects of my new level of being attuned to the surroundings—it hurt. I don’t even think any of the thorns pierced my armor, yet it hurt far more than any blow I’d taken so far since coming to this place. I reached for Intemperance, drawing the sword to hack away at the vine. The obsidian blade flared.

I had a flaming sword. Even in my pain I took a moment to marvel. That was pretty cool.

Then I got slammed into the thorns again and it was less cool. My world blurred with pain. I lashed out with my sword and cut the vine, noting with some satisfaction the severed end was ablaze.

I hit the ground and looked around for the others. Maria must have avoided being grabbed, she looked quite unharmed and was almost casually making her way between flailing vines and delivering well-placed punches and kicks.

Ashley had a decreased health bar, so she must have been taken as well, although she had already found her feet and was stabbing viciously at the central stalk.

Walt was trapped, hurtling towards a thorn when I saw him blink out of existence and reappear back standing on the ground nearby. That was useful.

Belatedly remembering I was supposed to be drawing the plant’s attention I began to swing Intemperance at the central stalk and any vines within reach. It wasn’t long until there was a fair bit of fire surrounding me, which appeared to enrage the plant.

I tried to keep an eye on the others, prepared to assist if they were under some sort of attack. Maria was holding her own, though the raw hunger of Intemperance running through me made watching her far more distracting than it could have been.

I forced my attention towards Ashley and Walt. Ashley was fading in and out of view as she slipped between stealth mode, delivering attacks. Badass.

Walt was near one corner of the garden and I couldn’t figure out quite what he was up to until I saw a brazier burst into light. He toppled it over and burning coals spilled out into the vegetation setting much of it ablaze. This must have been one of those tricks they mentioned.

With my shield I slammed a vine that was making its way to Walt, and hacked at a second heading in the same direction. His antics were drawing especially vigorous attention.

Ashley noticed what Walt was up to and was heading towards another brazier. I heard a huffing sound from the central stalk. The top was vibrating madly and enveloped in a cloud in pink mist. This couldn’t be good. I hacked at another vine and turned back towards the plant.

Spore Cloud

I briefly saw a flash of text above the plant, then I was engulfed in the pink mist. I felt my insides churn and I clutched over, dry heaving. Realism like this I really could have done without. In my misery I noticed that the fires in the burning part of the garden had dissipated the mist. Sadly none of us had been standing there and we were all quite crippled.

A vine lashed out and wrapped around Maria, carrying her choking form into the air, before tossing her up and swallowing her whole.

I wanted to lash out, but I still couldn’t move, choking and gasping as the sounds of pained screams came from the stalk. With a sick, slurping sound the plant spat Maria back out, her body slamming against one of the walls and crumpling to the ground. One arm was at a most unnatural angle, and there was a large amount of blood.

She still had some of her health bar remaining, but it was rapidly declining under an alarming number of poisoned and bleeding status effects.

The main pink cloud of spores was almost gone, but around each of us a smaller mist still remained leaving us doubled over.

Intemperance flared with an especially bright burst of fire and suddenly I could breath again.

“Go,” I heard Yvera whisper in my ear. That was new. I wasn’t arguing. I ran to Maria’s side and reached out, focusing my Lay on Hands ability. There was a dizzying sensation and instantly Maria went from a twisted mess to being whole again. Even the various status effects blinked away in an instant.

I was preparing to use it a second time, but she shook her head. “Idiot. Save it. I’m good. Do your job.”

Since she was going to be okay I turned my attention back to the world at large and saw the timers keeping Walt and Ashley retching were just about to expire.

“Walt and Ashley, light up those braziers. I’m on the stalk. Maria, keep those vines off them. If you hear that sound from the stalk, stand in the fire.” I said.

I imagine they already knew what to do, better than I did. I also knew I was supposed to be leading and it probably didn’t hurt to give those instructions again, plus wanting to be the one drawing attention it made sense for me to be shouting orders.

I charged forward once more and began to lash out at the plant with my flaming sword. I wondered for a moment if something like this actually increased my skill. This was no sword-play against a skilled opponent, this was repetitive hacking of a sort that made my arms ache.

Walt and Ashley had set two more braziers alight and spilled their contents into the garden. That left only one to go and Walt was headed for it while Ashley was darting in and out of stealth to stab vines, making her way towards the main stalk.

My repeated blows were revealing the outside of the stalk to be something like bark, a thick black ooze seeping out of where I chipped it away. The stalk began to vibrate and I again heard that strange sound.

“Everyone into the fire!” I called and ran to stand in one of the burned parts of the garden. Everyone else made it as well. I was taking a small bit of damage from the fires around me, although between my large health bar and my innate fire resistance it was barely noticeable.

I checked how the others were doing. Health bars were worrying. They were all down to around half health, although I saw a steady upward ticking from Maria and Walt that suggested they were both using a sort of healing ability in the downtime. I was doing better at three quarters health, which probably meant I wasn’t doing my job very well at keeping attention focused on me. The plant only seemed to be down about ten percent, which was horrible math all around.

Ashley moved closer to me as the top of the plant chuffed once more and a cloud of pink spores filled the air, drifting towards us.

“We don’t seem to be winning,” I said to Ashley.

“It’s not over yet,” Ashley said. “Usually something dramatic happens when we fully fuck with the environment, so when that fourth brazier is lit it’s going to be all in one attack.”

“I’ve burned a part of the outer layer off where I’ve been standing.”

“Switch positions when we go back. I’ll hit that when it’s time,” Ashley said, stabbing at a vine as it drew close even as I lashed out with my sword at the same one.

The spores drifted down to the fire and sparked. As soon as they did a larger vine lashed out and wrapped around my waist, taking me by surprise and dragging me towards the plant. This must be the same maneuver that grabbed Maria. I didn’t think it could still happen, if nobody was incapacitated by the spores.

Fortunately this time nobody was helpless. Ashley and I slashed madly with our weapons opening a number of gouges in the vine—flaming ones, in my case—although it was a flying kick from Maria that shook its grasp loose and dropped me hard onto the ground. Her expression was scary, normally her features hardly seemed to change. Now there was something intensely murderous about her. I suppose it was because of how badly the plant hurt her earlier.

I called out, “Walt! Get the last brazier. Maria and Ashley, stay close to the stalk and get prepared to strike, if something happens.” Sure, it was mostly Ashley’s plan, but I figure she’d told me for a reason. I didn’t get any dirty looks.

I struck out at several vines on my way back to the stalk, wondering why they even existed. They barely did any damage and died so quickly, though they were just threat enough that if left unattended you’d regret it. Perhaps it was some reflection on life, the various meaningless bits of maintenance that made up a day and were safe to ignore once or twice, but could become overwhelming.

No further time for philosophy, I moved back to a different side of the stalk and again attacked it. Walt blinked out of existence and reappeared near the last brazier which he lit and tipped over. That was probably a waste of some sort of timer, cool though.

With the entire garden ablaze there was a painful shrieking from the plant. It swayed for several long moments before slumping over, the mouth at the top opening to reveal it to be a flower with petals lined by jagged teeth. There were partially dissolved corpses, and fresh blood that must have come from Maria.

Ashley blinked in and out to slam her daggers down.

Draconic Fury

I prompt flashed over her head and her blows began to be delivered almost faster than I could see and with a force making the trunk to shake.

Deadly Dance

More text as Maria invoked some abilities of her own and began to rain choreographed punches and kicks between the thorns.

Critical Hit

Critical Hit

Critical Hit

That all came from somewhere above and I glanced up to see Walt attacking the open flower with some sort of magic, tiny blue portals of energy opening up and gouts of fire emerging from within. Well, I could do that, too. I channeled my Smite spells to unleash several at once.

It was different now than it was before. I don’t know if it was being attuned or becoming Yvera’s Chosen. Before, casting the spell had been a mild pleasure, a tickling rush of power. The dripping faucet had become a raging river. Now it was intoxicating, overwhelming.

In the air near the stalk tiny stars formed, glistening brightly, and then poured forth waves of billowing flames into the flower. My divine magic was kicking ass now.

Our combined assault was devastating the plant’s health bar. With a shrieking roar the flower closed again and the thorns on the stalk began to tremble.

Walt was too far away for me to get to, and Ashley was probably the most in danger. She was pulling back from the stalk and I raised my shield to stand between it and her.

Pincushion

Thorns exploded outward with incredible force. Two penetrated my shield as I was driven backwards with bruising force into Ashley and we went tumbling through the flaming ruins of the garden.

Groaning, we made our way back to our feet and I looked to check the status of the others. Maria looked quite unfazed, but where was Walt? I heard a moan to my right and saw him impaled to the wall, a thorn driven directly through his chest. His new larger health bar was very nearly empty and ticking down with the gaping wound.

Walt flickered and was free of the thorn, his short range teleportation trick again coming in handy, and he collapsed into a heap nearby. I rushed to his side and reached out to make use of my Lay on Hands. This would exhaust my charges for the time being, but there was no doubt he was in need. In an instant he was back to full health with the wound closed.

I turned just in time to witness the last moments of the giant plant, Maria and Ashley delivering a furious assault. The stalk leaned over and collapsed onto the ground. The fires in the rest of the garden faded and all around us was ashes and ruin. Win.

Between the steady drip of XP from the undead on the way here and that kiss, it had pushed me over the line for another level. A number of notifications blinked at me. I went through them.

You have gained a new skill

Arson

You like fire, you really like fire. There is an art and a science to how fire spreads and you have taken your first steps on the road to understanding it.

2% Arson gained

2% Long Blades gained

1% Shield Use gained

1% Medium Armor gained

Congratulations!

You have reached level 6

You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Long Blades. As the Chosen of Yvera you have further gained 1 point of Charisma. Due to your attunement you have an increased presence in the physical world and have gained 1 point in both Power and Endurance. You have further gained the abilities...

Fire Within: Combat and certain status effects such as disease or curses can stop passive HP regeneration. Yours can no longer be stopped.

Divine Power: You can now bless yourself or others for a gain of Power equal to half of your Charisma. You cannot have more than two active blessings at a time.

Congratulations! You have passed the skill threshold of 75% in Long Blades unlocking new skills.

You have gained a new skill

Double Attack

On any standard attack you have the chance to deliver two blows instead of one in the same amount of time because of your increased skill.

1% Double Attack gained

Blademaster

You have started the journey to become a master of the blade. Progress in this skill results not just in increased damage and accuracy of attacks, but in artistry. Further advancement will require combat against other Blademasters or training from a Master of the skill.

1% Blademaster gained

Wow. If some previous levels had left me feeling a little underwhelmed this one was overkill. A free point of Charisma for being Yvera’s Chosen, I wondered if those points had applied retroactively. I needed to check my sheet. Between the Divine Power spell, Double Attack, and the Blademaster skills I’d gotten a rush of things all at once to make me more dangerous in a fight. And the points in Strength and Endurance were overwhelming. I was, by default, getting just one point a level.

I decided to pull up my new sheet.

Name: Liam Ottani

Class: Paladin of Yvera

Deity: Yvera

Titles: Chosen of Yvera

Level: 6

HP: 240/240

Stamina: 22/60

Mana: 19/50

XP: 200 of 1000 to next level

Alignment: -1000

Stats

Power: 12 Endurance: 12 Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 5 Awareness: 3

Charisma: 11 Luck: 5

Skills

Long Blades: 79

Blunt Weapons: 16

Hand to Hand: 11

Mounted Combat: 15

Light Armor: 15

Medium Armor: 22

Heavy Armor: 15

Persuasion: 15

Seduction: 18

Meditation: 4

Barter: 15

Shield Use: 1

Arson: 2

Double Attack: 1

Blademaster: 1

Spells

Evil Aura

Smite

Sense Virtue

Lay on Hands (2 uses per 4 hours)

Bless Water

Bless

Divine Steed

Divine Power

Innates

Blessed Nature

Fire Resistance: 50%

Sense Alignment

Fire Within

Once I finished going through the sheet I noticed that the stat boosts from becoming Yvera’s Chosen did look like they had applied to my previous levels, and the points were split up evenly between Luck and Charisma. Luck had been one of those I’d been wary about having put no points in, so I was rather glad for the buff there. The point of Charisma made me feel comfortable assigning that stat point elsewhere. The points for my attunement had applied retroactively as well and it was a huge difference. I considered where to put my extra point. Power appealed—who didn’t want to hit harder? And if I understood stats properly that also helped with my health points, but with my new spell I could already deliver a major boost there as half my Charisma would be nearly doubling it. Endurance was health too and helped me in various other ways at being a tank.

So far I was doing a lot of casting though. My spells were pretty useful, but I kept running into a problem with that limited pool. Why was I bound to a stat that seemed controlled by intelligence when most of my spells seemed to be making use of Charisma?

Weighing the pros and cons I decided Intelligence was my best option and added the point to it.

When I got out of the interface, Walt still looked to be lost in his sheets, Maria was patrolling the edges of the garden and Ashley had moved in to loot—which was, of course, no surprise. I headed towards Ashley to see what she’d found.

“Nothing good for you,” Ashley said, dashing my hopes. “Maria got a set of badass monk gloves that aren’t really gloves.”

“How does that work?”

“Essence of the Eternal Gardener,” Ashley said. “Weird right? Now I’m wondering if she’s secretly in full armor. Aura of the creepy ass spider chick, silent footsteps of a monotone bitch.”

“You get mean, when you don’t get loot.”

“Damn straight. She’s okay though. Otherwise it was a lot of stuff for making potions. I stashed it all in inventory.”

“We can’t make potions here? It would be nice to have them for the big fight.”

“No lab. There were alchemy stations down in the magic labs, but that would be a hike.”

“What about Maria? Isn’t her spider dress one crawling alchemy lab?”

Ashley made a face. “Good thinking. I try not to think about the spiders. Do they... no, I won’t ask for sex details. I want to be able to sleep at night. I’ll go check and see if they can do anything.”

Ashley wandered off towards Maria and I went to see how Walt was holding up. He still looked to be distracted by his display.

“Still leveling up?” I asked. “How many new powers did you get?”

“There are a great many options,” Walt said distractedly. “With the new class I can open portals to other worlds and gain various allies or effects, all with certain advantages and combinations possible.”

“I saw you teleporting around in the fight. That seemed pretty useful.”

“Purely local portals. I get a few common utility spells early on. That ability to blink, I can access a storage plane for considerably enhanced inventory capacity without worrying about weight. After those though, the number of variables are daunting. It must be similar being a Paladin.”

“Err,” I mumbled. “I have to assign a stat point each level.”

Walt peered at me disbelievingly. “What about your skill points each level?”

“They just get assigned.” I explained more, really starting to feel rather self-conscious about the whole thing. Just how one-track was this Paladin thing compared to the others.

“Well,” Walt said, trying to be polite. “That explains why you usually finish your sheet first.”

This conversation was bad for my mood. I looked over to see how the girls were doing. An alarming-sized pile of plant parts was growing larger as Ashley added to them, an enormous number of spiders crawling over them—and a totally bare Maria lacking her usual spider garb was lounging in the ashes of the ruined garden as if catching some sun.

Right. Life had gotten odd that I could witness this scene and it instilled a comfortable sense that all was right in the world and plans were proceeding exactly as they should be.

Walt was squinting. “She must have some form of portal magic of her own. The number of spiders is disproportionate to the coverage they normally provide.”

“Really? Your reaction to a hot, naked Queen is that her spider count is off?”

“The imbalance is vexing.”

I wandered off to leave Walt to ponder this further.

Soon we were preparing for the big fight ahead. The gardens should have been little more than a distraction—and had nearly been our downfall. What we would find, when we actually made it to the throne room?

We decided to wait in the garden for our timers to refresh. For whatever reason the undead elsewhere in the castle didn’t come here. The struggle of our army versus theirs could well be an endless sort of affair until one side took down the leader of the other.

I wound up next to Maria, struck by how her pale skin contrasted with the black ash and not finding the lack of spiders in the least upsetting.

“Are you okay?” I asked. This had to be strange for her, returning to the upper levels and knowing that she must soon face her father.

“Awful,” Maria said, flatly. “I should feel nothing. I don’t remember this place and I don’t remember my mother or my father.”

“It’s okay to be upset. This is the life that was taken from you.”

“Liam, I tell you truly it has never bothered me. Ever since I swore to your goddess however I am awash in feelings. Is this normal?”

Was it? I really had no idea. I tried to think of my own emotions since meeting Yvera. I’d definitely been hornier than usual, but then I’d also been surrounded by an unusual number of beautiful women in varying stages of undress. Things had been vivid, and even now Intemperance echoed with the desire to indulge in life to the point of destruction. None of that really seemed to be what Maria was describing, but then I wasn’t emotionally stunted to start with.

“She is a Goddess of Passions,” I said, since there was no helpful whispering voice in my ear.

“I wish she’d take them back. I don’t like feeling,” Maria said.

I wrapped an arm around her and after a moment of stiffness she relented, resting against me.

Eventually we were ready to move out again. The spiders had managed to convert the massive salvaged remains of the plant into forty leaf-wrapped bundles of healing salve. It was an impressive take and we each wound up taking ten bundles to stash in our inventory for healing. We’d probably need it.

With that done, we set off.

Chapter 24

We left the garden and made our way into what must have once been the chambers of the royal family. The mists were thick here and things were surprisingly well-preserved. Furniture elsewhere in the castle had been decayed and broken, but here it looked as if the owners had just stepped out for the day. Actually, given the way closet doors hung open and clothes were scattered across the beds, it was more like they had just hastily packed and fled.

In one room was a cradle and I found myself glancing towards Maria. She was pretending to be okay with it. Good.

We heard the echoing of heavy footsteps in the hall ahead and I motioned the others to stop.

“I can sneak in and scout things out,” Ashley said.

I nodded and she disappeared. Even my sense alignment no longer detected her aura.

“Maria, was that your cradle back there?” Walt asked.

I winced. Subtle.

“They ran and they forgot me. Those who forget me again will do so at their peril,” Maria said in that creepy, deadpan voice of hers.

One day she was going to be the worst ex-lover ever. That was tomorrow’s problem though and it was still today. I flashed her a reassuring smile.

Ashley phased back into sight.

“Royal Guards patrolling. Lots of them. Big bad skeletons in plate mail and wielding halberds. They look pretty scary.”

“Any way around them?” I asked.

“Not that I saw, but I think I have a plan. We charge in, they’ll keep stumbling in one at a time and we’ll soon be royally fucked.”

“That’s pretty funny,” Walt said.

“Pun not intended. Fuck, really? That’s what you find funny?”

“Puns are the highest form of humor.”

“Is there something unique about how we royals fuck?” Maria asked.

“Most girls are probably less spider-infested and this is so far off topic,” Ashley said with a glare at everyone. “Listen. Here is the plan. I sneak in. When one is far enough away from the others I backstab it, draw it back here, and you witty souls pummel it even deader while I go grab the next.”

“I like it,” I decided.

“I want to hurt things,” Maria agreed.

“Tactically sound,” Walt said.

“You’re all freaks,” Ashley said, and she disappeared from sight again.

It wasn’t too long until a rather breathless-looking Ashley ran past. Close on her heels was a formidable figure in plate mail.

Royal Skeleton Guard

Level 10: Type: Undead HP: 833/1000

Loyal even after death these guards protect the King from any and all threats. A single one is a formidable foe, as a unit they are a devastating threat.

Why was I a tank and yet everything had so much more HP than I did? If I understood my sheet correctly that would mean a combined power and endurance of 100 points for me to match this thing. I suspected monsters had different rules of some kind, but it still made me grumble that even with my frankly overpowered buffs they still seemed to be more overpowered than me.

I engaged with my sword and shield as Ashley again went invisible behind us. It was a short, but painful fight. The Royal Guard swung its halberd with devastating force that cleaved right through the chain links of my armor and cut into my flesh. With my increased attunement that felt more or less like it should have—which is to say agonizing. Walt might be impaled, but I knew to him he would just be feeling a dull ache.

Even as I had a rib or two broken and organs pierced I was lashing out and Intemperance was flaming brightly away.

Temporal Venom

Maria dealt blows with a dizzying speed, each aimed with unerring accuracy to those few unarmored sections of the Guard’s body.

Dimensional Tremor

Walt’s magic made the very air around the skeleton warp and vibrate in a way that made my eyes ache, bending and fracturing those bones.

It took only a minute for the fight to be done, yet still in that time I was at under half my health bar. Even the plant hadn’t damaged me this much, perhaps those halberds had some extra ability to penetrate armor?

Spider’s Succor

Maria focused on me and I experienced a steady rush of regaining hit points.

I belatedly realized that I wasn’t using my latest spell boosting Power at all. It was something that would help with my health and damage. I focused and again felt that almost intoxicating feel of divine power coursing through me as I reached out to extend the blessing to both myself and Maria.

She gave me a look asking why I was just doing this now.

“I forgot I had it,” I explained.

“Idiot,” Maria said. I could hardly argue.

Apart from the occasional bouts of tremendous pain it was a surprisingly relaxing way to pass the time. We’d hang out until we again heard pounding footsteps and Ashley would slip past followed by a guard, which we would pummel into submission.

The only interruption to this routine was when Ashley wound up bringing two back instead of one, which wound up with me tanking one while Maria took the other with Ashley sticking around to assist. Halberds pierced bare flesh even easier than my chainmail and although we both finished that fight on our feet, we were both bloody messes.

Eventually my trusty chainmail was more or less a ruined mess and I wound up scoping out the gear of one of the slain guards.

Royal Guard’s Plate mail Set

AC: 250 Type: Common

Worn Position: Legs, Arms, Chest, Hands, Head, Feet

Once a resplendent suit of armor, long neglect has taken its toll. Still a functional set of heavy armor to fend off the worst of blows.

It was slightly better than my existing chainmail despite being an item grade lower, at least in terms of the armor value, although it lacked the special effect.

When I slipped into it, stylistic flames appeared. I might be a horrible tank, but at least I would always be a fashionable one.

By the time Ashley reported there were no more guards to dispatch, I’d gained another level, although I’d held off on opening the notification until making sure we were done with the fight.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 7

You have one stat point to assign. As a Paladin of Yvera you have gained a further 15% skill to Seduction. As the Chosen of Yvera you have further gained 1 point of Luck. Due to your attunement you have an increased presence in the physical world and have gained 1 point in both Power and Endurance. You have further gained the abilities...

Fueling the Flame: The lower your health goes the more your damage and natural health regeneration will increase. Fire is remorseless, so are you.

Aura of Destruction: The Paladin and all those in their party nearby passively gain a 5% increase in damage.

At first I felt a little let down. It wasn’t the sheer, overwhelming display of badassery that I got last time, but as I thought about it this actually seemed a pretty good level. Anything that helped to keep me on my feet was probably a good thing as a tank and getting a damage bonus was a plus. The Aura of Destruction didn’t seem like all that much with only a 5% damage boost, but given as it would provide that benefit for the entire party including our damage dealers it was actually good..

The seduction, I didn’t even know what to think of anymore. It now doubled my Persuasion, which meant that all in all I was more likely to get a stranger to sleep with me than be my friend. I supposed there were worse problems to have—Yvera could have been the Goddess of Dance.

I threw the point at Intelligence. I wanted to get rid of that bottleneck on my spell casting and felt I had the freedom to do so.

Name: Liam Ottani

Class: Paladin of Yvera

Deity: Yvera

Titles: Chosen of Yvera

Level: 7

HP: 310/310

Stamina: 130/130

Mana: 70/70

XP: 275 of 1000 to next level

Alignment: -1000

Stats

Power: 13 (+5) Endurance: 13 Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 7 Awareness: 3

Charisma: 11 Luck: 6

Skills

Long Blades: 79

Blunt Weapons: 16

Hand to Hand: 11

Mounted Combat: 15

Light Armor: 15

Medium Armor: 22

Heavy Armor: 16

Persuasion: 15

Seduction: 33

Meditation: 4

Barter: 15

Shield Use: 5

Arson: 3

Double Attack: 1

Blademaster: 1

Spells

Smite

Sense Virtue

Lay on Hands (2 uses per 4 hours)

Bless Water

Bless

Divine Steed

Divine Power

Innates

Blessed Nature

Fire Resistance: 50%

Sense Alignment

Fire Within

Fueling the Flame

Aura of Destruction

I was getting quite the list of innate abilities and they were getting close to my numbers of actives. I had to wait for everyone else to get done with their own leveling up. Then we were renewing spells and preparing to move on. It was time.

The throne room awaited.

Chapter 25

The mists were thicker than they had ever been, swirling in ominous patterns and filling the air with a damp chill.

We edged forward through the royal chambers and made our way to a small balcony overlooking the throne room.

It was a magnificent place. Like the royal chambers the mists had preserved things here in the state they had been when the castle fell. There was a great deal of ornate stonework depicting majestic-looking lions and towering columns intended to make one feel small.

Maria’s expression was steely. Ashley and Walt didn’t seem to be doing quite as well, a grimace on each of their faces.

“It’s the sphere attempting to corrupt them,” I heard Yvera whisper into my ear. “I’m offering them some protection as members of your party, but be cautious.”

We carefully made our way down a nearby stair to the main floor. The thrones came fully into view.

King Leosi Sardonis

Race: Human

Stats Hidden

The Lion of Genea. The third son of King Hami, Leosi was never expected to inherit the throne. Leosi however distinguished himself greatly in the orc wars and it is widely believed that the human lands held together only because of his rule. He has fallen on hard times, as has the Kingdom.

Elsora Damos

Queen Consort in Waiting

Race: Curse

Intelligent, wise, beautiful and thoroughly capable Elsora was intended to be the perfect corrupting influence to King Leosi and the perfect ruler at home while he took the field.

They were a study in contrasts. The King was a massive figure in gleaming white plate mail, the breast plate worked into a roaring lion. The Queen Consort however was a far more diminutive woman in an elegant black gown. Their auras showed a similar disparity, his a brilliant and pure white, while hers was as red as my own.

Unlike every other human apart from Maria we had met, the King didn’t appear to be undead. Nor did the Queen Consort, but although she gave every appearance of being human the prompt identified her demonic origin.

“You are the cause of all the disruption?” Leosi said, sounding amused as he looked over our band, “I expected more of you.”

“At least a half dozen,” Elsora said, with a light accent I couldn’t quite place.

“Well, we do have an undead army too,” I said.

“You, too?” Leosi motioned us forward. “Lot of good mine do me. Approach.”

This wasn’t quite the instant grudge match I’d been expecting. Warily I stepped forward.

“Is that armor off one of my Royal Guards, boy?” Leosi asked. “It’s falling apart.”

Elsora wore a faint smile, studying us.

I said, “Their halberds hacked through my chainmail and I needed a quick replacement. We really didn’t come here to talk about armor.”

“Halberds,” Leosi grunted. “You need to deflect those so they glance. Tricky.”

“You abandoned me,” Maria said, in her total deadpan voice. Of course, it concealed deep emotions roiling beneath. “And left mother for this hussy.”

“You give him credit for more taste than he actually has,” Elsora said wryly.

Leosi’s turned to Maria. “Young lady, perhaps you are not aware, but you appear to be naked and covered in spiders.”

“More credit for brains, too,” Elsora said. “Leosi dearest, this is clearly your daughter.”

“Father,” Maria said, her voice still not changing, but she quivered with rage. “I know what I am wearing. Tell me why.”

Leosi’s eyes had shifted to the rest of us. He was completely ignoring Elsora, not even glancing at her.

She told him, “Your daughter, Maria. Read her prompt, she’s the Queen of Spiders now.” Elsora flashed a thin smile at Maria that suggested the hussy comment hadn’t gone unnoticed. “Congratulations dear, I see you’ve mastered their skills at conversation.”

Maria’s expression was as usual inscrutable, but Leosi’s was easier to read. A moment of confused disbelief, followed by doubtful hope. He wore that distant sort of look and I figured he was finally taking the opportunity to read the prompt.

Leosi flung himself off his throne and all of our hands went to our weapons. When the massive, plate mail-clad figure wrapped his arms around Maria it was no attack—although surely it must have counted as one of the most uncomfortable hugs ever given.

“That’s more than I’ve gotten out of him in a few centuries,” Elsora muttered.

Maria was made of stern stuff and wasn’t crushed, and she didn’t return the embrace.

“I don’t think your daughter is much of a hugger,” I said. She definitely wasn’t prone to public displays of affection with me.

Leosi released her. “You are alive,” Leosi said with relief. “The spiders swore they would care for you, but I had my doubts.”

“What?” Maria said.

“Your father, he exiles all those he loves at the first sign of evil,” Elsora explained. “I used to find such unwavering determination attractive.”

“The curse feeds upon your worst traits. Magnifies them. I’m prideful, stubborn, and a born fighter,” Leosi said, still ignoring Elsora. “Eventually the very direction the curse was pushing me led me to all the more resist its hold. Daughter, I had to see you away from its influence.”

Maria was watching him warily. “So you just gave me away? You never checked up on me? You never asked questions? You never did anything?”

“Ever since the fall of the castle I have been focused on the court. Watching as my friends and comrades fell to evil and became twisted versions of themselves. For centuries I have been working to keep our evil contained and the prophecy from coming true.”

“It was a pretty little plan,” Elsora said wistfully. “I would tempt him into cheating on his wife and from that seed would grow such changes. Together we would have reshaped everything. Centuries, centuries and he does not budge. He doesn’t even love her.”

“Sardonis do not betray,” Leosi said, the first time he acknowledged her presence at all.

“How are you even still alive?” Walt asked.

“My fault,” Elsora said. “Powerful magic, never satisfied. It’s been a delightful few centuries with a man who hates me, while all rots around us.”

Leosi looked at Elsora and I caught the emotion in his eyes. Love and pain. I suddenly understood far more than I wanted. She thought she had failed, but she hadn’t—not truly. This man loved her, he had loved her for a very long time, but to yield to it would imperil the world. So he’d resisted. Even now he wouldn’t look at her. Not out of contempt, but out of fear his heart would break.

“Perhaps the curse was never about me,” Leosi said quietly. “Have you come to kill me, daughter? And take my throne?”

“I have no interest in your throne,” Maria said. “Though my lover planned to murder you and seize it.”

Thanks Maria. That was real helpful.

“Him? Really? You couldn’t do better?” Leosi asked.

“I like him,” Elsora said. “Shoulders aren’t as broad as yours, but they’d do.”

“He seemed an improvement over the spiders,” Maria said.

I really just wanted the subject to change now. Quickly.

“You planned to murder me, boy?”

Well, I didn’t want it to change to that.

“We rather thought you might be a brooding monster and long-corrupted,” I explained.

Leosi said grandly, “Take my daughter, go below out of the influence of the curse. Live your lives, have babies, raise the shield again if you can. For if you stay here I shall have to kill you. I cannot allow the prophecy to pass.”

That was way more than I had in mind to do with his daughter. Maria looked rather pissed at the suggestion, too.

“I do not wish to have babies. I do not wish to live my life. I wish to have a mother who did not abandon me and a father who did not drive me away.”

Leosi said with resignation, “You have heard my command. Go, all of you. This is not a fight you could win.”

“They can’t, but I can,” Elsora said. “It is only my magic keeping you alive, my love. My curse got stuck seeking fulfillment of the prophecy.”

Leosi closed his eyes for a moment and said wearily, “Very well. If you would force this. I and the curse are bound, I cannot overcome her on my own, but with your assistance perhaps.”

“Get terms,” Yvera whispered in my ear. “A choice is being forced.”

“You love each other,” I told them both. “Are you truly this intent on destroying each other?”

“No,” Elsora said softly.

“Yes,” Leosi said.

They couldn’t make things easy. I looked at Maria.

“You are an ally of the spiders,” Maria said, her voice strained. “We will stand with whatever choice you make.”

I knew that Maria might say that. But she couldn’t want us to kill her father—and she didn’t seem to like Elsora at all.

“Let’s hear your pitch,” I said.

“I was crafted to be a superb ruler for this castle,” Elsora said. “Meant to rule while Leosi did what he did best, take the field. You take the throne, we consummate matters, and you declare me your consort. With you, I become all I was meant to be and so do you.”

Maria’s eyes turned especially icy.

“And from you?” I asked Leosi.

“Doing the right thing isn’t a negotiation, boy,” Leosi fumed. “Choose my side and you can begin the path of redemption. Killing her might kill me as well, but if not, I will keep my throne and continue to hold off the prophecy. I shall train you as a knight and perhaps one day you might become worthy of both my throne and my daughter.”

Yvera, I thought to myself, Any guidance here?

“A questionable ally,” Yvera replied in my mind. “Or noble and true enemy. Which would you prefer?”

I knew the answer to that, but I really wished the answer was otherwise. I just kept saying yes to the wrong types of women.

“You will be my consort,” I said to Elsora.

Elsora smiled and she tilted her head in the tiniest of acknowledgments.

Quest Granted

Regicide

You have struck a bargain with the curse inflicting Sardonis castle to kill the King and take his place.

The mists seemed to swirl especially heavily for a moment and then with an audible crackling they pulled free of Leosi.

The King in an instant seemed older, ragged. The plate-mail, which moments before he wore with ease, now seemed to suddenly cause him to slump under its weight. There was still a steel in him, however, as he drew a massive two-handed sword from his back.

“I am sorry, daughter, I cannot let him have the throne,” Leosi said.

Maria moved forward to be beside me. “Sardonis do not betray. The spiders stand with Liam.”

“Maria, you don’t have to do this,” I said. What was she thinking? This was her father.

“Of course she does, boy,” Leosi said. “If you should win, remember that. Actions have consequences and honor is never easy.”

Blinding Fog

Elsora gestured and dark mists fogged around Leosi’s head. Just like that he was charging forward with the broadsword swinging.

The Lion’s Charge

You have been hit by King Leosi with The Lion’s Charge for 55 damage.

It was a painful blow even through my now greatly buffed health pool. It hit Maria as well and sent her sailing backwards with a gaping wound in her abdomen. Spiders madly scurried up the King’s sword and began to bite and poison.

No Target Is Too Large

That was Ashley coming into the fray. I don’t even know how she had gotten up onto the balcony, but she came hurling down from above with both daggers, plunging them through the thinner plate protecting Leosi’s neck.

The Lion’s Roar

Leosi let out a loud roar that flung Ashley back through the air and smashed her against a wall.

Wavelength Finder

Dimensional Tremor

And there was Walt coming into things with a series of spells making Leosi’s white armor vibrate violently.

I drew Intemperance and flames sprang to life. I charged forward to strike a blow, but found it impossible. Every strike I made was parried with incredible skill.

Heartbreaker

That was Elsora again. On the face of the roaring lion adorning Leosi’s breastplate there was a pulsing spot of darkness.

Eater of Time

That was Maria. Leosi froze in midair. It was all I needed.

I thrust Intemperance into the black spot on the armor. For an instant it met resistance until it broke through and plunged into his heart.

Flames roared and the King trembled, that massive sword falling from his hands to the floor with a massive clang.

“Good job, boy,” Leosi croaked, still on his feet. “Fights are all about… seizing your moment. Daughter?”

“I’m here,” Maria said, reaching to hold one of his hands. I awkwardly pulled my sword from her father’s chest. I doubted in the real world he would still be talking, but it seemed somehow appropriate here.

“I love you. Always did. You are the last Sardonis now. You have to find your mother. You have to kill her,” Leosi said, voice trembling.

“Okay,” Maria said, as if it were the most reasonable request in the world.

Elsora slipped from her throne to the King’s side, taking his other hand.

Leosi looked at her, the light fading from his eyes. “I love you too, but it could not be.”

“It would have been glorious,” Elsora said. “Goodbye, my love.”

And with that the King fell to the floor, the last of his life gone.

Quest Completed

Regicide

You have killed a King. The world takes notes, and the rewards will be of your own making.

Things shouldn’t be so clean and so messy at the same time. I hurt in ways well outside my health bar and I wasn’t sure things with Maria would ever be the same. I started to speak with her when I suddenly felt daggers far too close to my flesh for comfort—the point of one right outside my left eye and the blade of another along my throat.

Ashley.

Chapter 26

“Care to tell me what you’re doing?” I managed carefully.

In a swirl of flames nearby Yvera appeared, looking perfectly composed and at ease. I was glad one of us was.

“She’s negotiating, Liam,” Yvera said confidently. “With me, am I right?”

“Score one for the crazy bitch,” Ashley said. “Your opposition is gone and the way for whatever you have planned is clear. You don’t need me and Walt anymore, but you do need Liam. Liam, drop your sword.”

I let Intemperance clatter to the ground and the flames wreathing the blade went out.

“I’ll be in the royal bedchamber,” Elsora said, moving away from the corpse. “Come find me when you’re done playing with your friends.”

Maria knelt next to her father and took his hand again. She seemed broken—she always seemed broken, but this was a new sort of broken.

Walt moved between Maria and Ashley. They planned this together then.

“You realize I can resurrect him?” Yvera said lightly.

“Maybe. And you’ll probably have to take that risk out there in the world at large, but this is Player versus Player. I don’t think you’re sure what would happen, if you tried,” Ashley said. The blade across my throat tightened just enough that I felt a prick of pain.

“So let’s talk about what you want,” Yvera said.

“What do you think I want?” Ashley asked incredulously. “I want you to stop fucking holding us prisoner and let us go.”

“You don’t want that,” Yvera all but purred as she sauntered up to the abandoned throne and sat down.

“Are you trying to seduce me? Really? Lady, crazy is so not my type.”

“Of course I’m trying to seduce you and I am so your type. I’m everyone’s type.”

Walt cleared his throat.

“Yes, even you. Oh, the things I could show you. Don’t think I save all my best tricks for the bedroom.” Yvera smiled confidently before shifting her attention back on Ashley. “Your act of defiance had a reason.”

“And what reason would that be?” Ashley growled. The blade at my neck tightened again.

“Ashley Winters,” Yvera said, making herself comfortable on the throne. “You were looking promising for the games until you left your little town. Your burns, your hatred of us. I’m guessing, Veros?”

Ashley’s breathing quickened and I could feel the tension radiating off her.

I said, “Could you try not traumatizing the woman with a knife to my throat?”

“Shut up, Liam,” Yvera snapped. “I’m closing a deal. This is what I do. You came here to prove something, didn’t you Ashley?”

“I’m every bit as good as I ever was,” Ashley said. “I’m better than Liam, I’m even better than Tommy. He didn’t take that from me.”

“The scars slow you down back there. No world tours, a face that won’t be facing any magazine covers. I’m sure Veros is delighted with his work.”

“Seriously,” Walt spoke up. “Agreeing with Liam here. You are the absolute worst at seduction.”

“Walt, you’re next. Shut up.” Yvera was getting irritated at all the interruptions.

Ashley said, “I’m going to agree, crazy. But if you think telling me I’m not pretty and that fucker won is going to make me put down the knives, you are so on the wrong track.”

“Let’s talk about nanotechnology and homeostasis,” Yvera said brightly. “You won’t understand the how. The how doesn’t matter. Right now your body back there is swimming with little machines, making the game more real for you. What you don’t know is that your bodies want to naturally find some balance between them.”

“What?” Ashley didn’t expect that.

“You see, Liam is attuned. He has his safeties off, the lines start to blur. I can turn yours off, too. Doesn’t that sound delightful, those lines blurring?”

“Wouldn’t the over there bleed over into here as well? Do you somehow think I’m going to be more useful to you as a scarred wreck?”

“Absolutely,” Yvera said, and the look she gave Ashley was uncomfortably and blatantly sensual. Raw and overwhelming, and I realized just how much Yvera enjoyed this, the negotiating, “But you have to understand one very important thing about me.”

“And what’s that?”

“I cheat,” Yvera said, making it sound like the most sinful of acts. “I can put my finger on the scale. I can break the rules. That scarred and broken you? She melts and drifts away and all that gets left behind here and there is you. This you. You’ll be whole again and Veros will be so amazingly upset.”

There was a long moment of silence between us, the only sound in the room Maria’s crying. A part of me was breaking at each one of those pained sobs.

“What do you want?” Ashley asked, shakily.

Yvera gave her a pointed look and the knives were pulled away.

“Liam, see to Maria. Ashley, I’ll attune you and put the fix in. In exchange, you’ll guard Liam here and provide the occasional task out there.”

“You expect me to be okay with that after she just threatened to kill me?” I said.

“She’s not wrong,” Yvera said. “She’s better than you. Ashley?”

I huffed a bit, but Maria needed me. I was in no position to argue, so I knelt next to Maria, carefully slipping an arm around her waist. She was shaking. She didn’t lean into my touch, but she didn’t pull away either. It was something. Perhaps it helped.

“Deal,” Ashley said.

“Walt, your turn,” Yvera said.

“Are you going to make me pretty, too?” Walt asked, dryly.

“Please, I’m better than that,” Yvera said with a wicked smile. “What do you get? You, the terribly naughty boy who knows all about nanotechnology and artificial intelligences, and really shouldn’t have a clue about either?”

“I can’t wait to hear,” Walt said. “Pitching is what you do.”

“You understand allegory. You know who I am in this little tale, and you know when I’m kicking down the walls of the garden everyone gets apples. Oh, you’d take what I handed out and press for more, but I don’t have to offer you a thing to have you on my side.”

“I did just help Ashley,” Walt pointed out.

“You are so very clever. Clever enough to recognize a good bargaining position,” Yvera said. “Thing is, so am I. You’ll stay, because this is precisely where you want to be.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“Let’s see what happens, I’ll attune you for my own reasons and you’ll tag along for your own reasons and we’ll continue to spin our little schemes around each other,” Yvera said in a heated purr, before she waved him off to shift her attention towards Maria.

“Maria,” Yvera said.

“This is so not the time,” I said. Maria briefly squeezed my arm and rose to her feet, her brilliant blue eyes locking on Yvera.

“You are one of mine,” Yvera said, returning her gaze. “What do you need?”

“I need to not be here. I need to find my mother. I need to find out why my father wanted me to kill her. I need Liam not to look at me with those sad eyes, if I do.” Maria said with just the slightest quaver in her voice.

Yvera nodded her head in a regal gesture that perfectly suited the throne she was lounging on. “East.”

Maria turned and started to walk away. I reached for her arm, this time she jerked away.

“Not now, Liam. I can’t,” Maria said. “I feel too much and I just can’t. If you want to send a message, tell a spider, but I have to get away.”

I was about to say more when I heard Yvera’s whisper in my ear, “Let her go.”

“Good hunting,” I said, instead of whatever else I might have said to get her to stay. Just like that she was gone, running from the room. Would ever see her again?

I was left standing around, wondering just what to do with myself. Yvera slipped off the throne and patted the seat meaningfully.

Right. The quest.

This wasn’t supposed to be so weird. Maria wasn’t supposed to be sad. I was supposed to be taking this castle back from a corrupted monster, but like everything else it had gotten more complex.

I supposed that things were what they were, and I could only make the best of them. I stepped around the corpse of the dead king and made my way to the throne, carefully lowering myself down on it.

The throne of Genea is currently unclaimed

You are the killer of the previous holder

You meet the species requirements for Genea

You qualify to claim the throne

Do you wish to do so?

Y/N?

I really wasn’t at all sure about this. I felt almost certain this was just the first step of Yvera’s plans. I hadn’t been able to say no to her so far however, and I didn’t want to disappoint her now. This was also Maria’s home, her family’s seat. I didn’t know if I was worthy of it, but I could try to be.

I willed my assent.

There was a massive rumble underfoot and suddenly the castle was rippling and changing. A new ruler, a new decorating scheme.

When the temples had previously transformed they had been all about Yvera, and while she was still represented in the new decor, it was more understated. Red was now the dominant color in the hanging banners and fabrics, and the artwork adorning the walls might have a few more nudes among them than strictly required in an artistic sense, but there was more. There were touches of polished wood in a dark hue I’d always found especially impressive. The throne, which had been too large for me, was now perfectly sized and incredibly comfortable.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.

“Hail to the King? Time for the good life and taking it easy?” Ashley asked.

Then I nearly went blind from a torrent of new prompts flashing and demanding my attention.

Your castle is in a severe state of disrepair and is now classified as a ruin.

Your lack of a standing army has made your Kingdom extremely vulnerable.

The western shores of Genea have been seized by pirates.

The eastern mountains have been lost to the orcs.

The northern plains are harried by bandits.

The southern woodlands have been occupied by elves.

There are reports of heavy monster activity throughout Genea.

“Hail to me,” I agreed, a little breathless from that rush of information. “Walt, I don’t care how you do it, but I need those defenses ready to go up. Ashley, we have one hell of a lot of enemies perched on our doorstep.”

“Fucking spawn campers,” Ashley said with vehemence. “We’ll teach them not to mess with us.”

I couldn’t agree more. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, it was time to level up and kick some ass.

End.

Coming in December

Spawn Campers

Book Two of the Crucible Shard

Liam, Walt, and Ashley are not the only ones having adventures. Off in the real world Tommy has his own troubles as he finds himself embroiled in the conspiracies of his new life in the city.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A big thanks to my family and friends for always believing in me even when I question. A shout out to my fellow authors. Without your knowledge and inspiration this book would not have happened.