by Noah Layton
I jumped onto the ledge and climbed inside silently.
No citizens. No furniture. No ornaments or decoration.
I took a step forward and felt the ground change from hard stone to something a little softer. Examining the ground, I found a large, square rug. In the centre was a lump that jutted up an inch or so.
I looked over my shoulder to the closed doorway. The guard was still snoring, but he was only a few yards away.
Grabbing the edge of the rug, I peeled it back slowly from the ground and cast it aside.
There was a cellar door, with a handle and a lock, just large enough for somebody to fit through.
I could likely slice the lock off with a few whacks of my sword, but that would bring the entirety of the Gaalus Tribe running my way, which would make for the worst stealth mission ever.
I crouched and ran my finger along the edge. It was set into the wood, so there was no way that I could see through the crack even if I had a light.
Think, you dumbass… That’s it.
Quickly bringing up my inventory, I retrieved the last of the three skeleton keys that I had recovered from the Mossley.
I felt its weight in my hand, examined it for a moment, then bit the bullet and placed it into the lock.
It slid into place, and I turned it clockwise in a full cycle until the padlock clicked open.
The key vanished from my hand into nothingness, just like the first.
I removed the padlock and set it down quietly on the ground, then grabbed the door and pulled it back on its hinges.
From within there was a whimper, and then a muffled quelling of someone or something stopping themselves from making any further sounds.
I lowered my head to look in and was only able to make out the first step, but the stench hit me almost immediately. Dirt, rot and decay – I had smelt some disgusting things in my time overseas but this one took the cake.
Covering my mouth, I took a step down into the cellar and descended along a series of steps. Even with my nose covered I could still feel the scent making its way to me.
The steps continued for six or seven more before I hit another stone floor. I could hear the breathing of others all around me. With my sword clasped in one hand, I opened my inventory with the other and retrieved a torch.
Its firelight illuminated the room, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
In the cramped space beneath the house were five figures. Their skin was matted with dirt and scratches, their ragged clothing hanging from their bodies like scraps of paper, and their faces held the most desperate expressions that I had ever seen.
But these faces, these looks, were ones that I had seen before.
I had seen it on the face of the foxgirl that I had rescued from a trading post after first arriving in Agraria. I had also seen the furred ears and pawed feet that they possessed upon her.
They were more of Ariadne’s kin, her own tribe members.
‘What the fuck is this…?’ I managed to whisper to no one in particular.
The group all pushed back against the walls, all five sets of eyes glaring back at me with intense fear.
No, not five… There were six. In the corner, away from the others, was a body. The fox-person had been dead no more than a few hours, and the body was just lying down here among its kin.
They were slaves, just a small portion of Ariadne’s former tribe members.
‘Oh, god…’
Gripping the handle of my sword was the only thing I could do to stop my hand from shaking.
I was halfway up the stairs before I regained any sense of cognisance or awareness of my mind, and even then my body felt like it was set to autopilot.
I wrenched open the front door the house. It slammed back against the wall and awoke the guard.
He had enough time to turn to me and go ‘what?’ before I plunged my sword into his gut so far that I struck his spine from the inside.
The guard’s face went a ferocious red, as if he was straining harder than he ever had. He grasped the sword in his palms then looked up at me with a confused expression.
I pulled the sword swiftly from his gut, bringing a string of blood and bodily matter with it. It sprayed from his body too quickly and he fell to the floor limply, his chair teetering over to the side.
I made for the tree and the adjoining guard house. My pace was a fast walk, but I was stomping so hard across the dry land that I realized I was grunting with restraint just to stop myself from screaming out like an animal.
My teeth were gritted so hard that my jaw began to ache.
I couldn’t think, but my mind perceived the path that would lead to the most destruction. I retrieved the Telekinetic Blast power stone from my inventory as I approached the guardhouse.
The guard that I had just killed hadn’t been remotely loud enough in his death rattle to awaken Werger’s three goons, but my boot-heeled kick against the front door of their house was.
BOOM.
The door slammed so hard that it recoiled back towards me. I barged in to the firelit ground floor.
My eyes focused on the first sign of life, Tarek, who was sitting at the kitchen table.
‘Telekinea!’
The blast flew from my hand and sent every object in the kitchen that wasn’t nailed down slamming into the opposite wall, including Tarek.
He let out a high shriek that was almost funny, but I was as far from laughing as I had ever been.
The table flew up and pinned him against the wall briefly, before both collapsed to the ground.
Tarek groaned painfully on his front. I paced over, drawing my sword again and thrusting the blade into his back as he tried to get up.
He let out a howl of pain loud enough to wake the dead, if the spell hadn’t done it already.
As I drew my sword from his back I heard the shouts from upstairs and the footsteps tumbling rapidly down the stairs.
I didn’t have time to sheath my sword; I dropped it to the ground and cycled to Arcane Blast, the stone landing in my hand just as Jork appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a dagger in hand.
‘Arcania!’
Purple flames erupted from my palm and coursed towards the second of the three main guards.
They engulfed him immediately, and in seconds he had transformed from a man awoken to a screaming mass of fire.
Right behind him, Clay appeared, bow in hand and arrow at the ready. He was guarded by the flaming body of his comrade.
I reached for my sword on the ground, and heard the twang of the bow just as my hand closed around the handle.
The arrow slammed into my right forearm, piercing straight through it. I yelled out in pain and dropped my sword, then glanced at the two remaining goons.
Jork’s screams were ear-piercing as he flailed about just a few yards away by the stairs. Clay’s face was fearful but ready as he reached for another arrow.
I forced myself to take up my sword and sprinted at them, delivering a kick to Jork’s chest. His flaming body staggered back and fell against Clay, the arrow dropping from his hand.
They both hit the ground in a bundled mess.
‘Get the fuck off of me, you fucking idiot!’
What Clay could see was Jork straddling him, his face wide and screaming, until his head flew from his body after my sword swept cleanly through his neck.
‘FUCK!’
I kicked off the remains of Jork’s now silent, flaming body as blood poured from his neck.
I held my sword with one hand, pointing the tip at Clay’s neck as I panted deeply. My face was spattered with the spray of Jork’s blood and the arrow was still sticking out of my arm.
‘Don’t hurt me…’ Clay whimpered, holding his hands up. ‘Please…’
‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.’
‘What’s this about?’
‘I’ll give you a clue – the hidden basement in the house across from here.’
‘The basement…’ Clay re
peated, looking to the side before his eyes went wide with realisation. ‘Oh, fuck, what, the slaves? Those fucking fox-people? Hey, you can take them. I’m sure Werger will give you a decent price. Think the young one might have died, though. That’s probably a discount. He was lazy enough…’
I jabbed my sword forward. The blade piercing through his neck and into his head, cutting into his brain from below.
Clay’s eyes went even wider, an eyelid twitching for a moment until I withdrew it. Blood poured out and pooled onto the ground as his body went still.
I turned like a machine and rushed back outside, then looked up to the treehouse. Just as I did the front door slammed open and Werger appeared, clad in a silk dressing gown.
His eyes searched angrily until they set on me. He looked confused, as if he didn’t know whether to be angry or terrified.
Then he set his eyes on me.
He turned and slammed the door, locking himself in his home.
‘Get the fuck out here, Werger!’ I yelled.
‘You are fucking crazy, tribe master! I knew I should have slaughtered you and your pathetic tribe the moment I found you.’
‘You get out here or in a few seconds that tree will be filled with arcane fire. You could ask Jork what it feels like but he’s busy being a smouldering, headless corpse in his house.’
Silence followed for several long moments.
‘I’m coming out,’ Werger called. ‘Don’t set me on fire.’
The door to the treehouse creaked open, and from within two figures emerged. They were too tall and too slim to be Werger – they were his wives.
The women were dressed in nothing but their underwear. Their shaking hands were raised by their sides as they looked between me and the steps ahead of them.
‘Get the fuck out of here!’ I yelled at them. They screamed out and ran off across the field into the darkness, leaving only their master.
Werger appeared once again in his dressing gown, sleeves descending over his hands like those of a wizard. He descended the steps slowly at a dawdling pace before reaching the clearing and standing across from me.
‘You took a turn,’ he said snidely. ‘Where’s that civilised, democratic leader I was talking to a few hours ago?’
‘He took a break after he found a group of slaves on your land.’
‘Ahh… So you found them. It’s nothing personal. Few travelling salesmen wanted rid of them and offered me a price I couldn’t say no to. You’d do the same, I’ve no doubt.’
‘Are you fucking kidding me? I wouldn’t try to buy them in the first place! I’d cut down the bastards that had captured them.’
‘Maybe. Maybe you would. But sooner or later that attitude is going to get you stabbed while you sleep. Things are peaceful out here compared to other parts of Agraria. The further you go to the edges of the map the more ferocity you’re going to stumble upon.
‘And who do you think lives in those situations? Who do you think is going to be the last man standing in a world like this? I will tell you who; the one who’s willing to do whatever it takes to seize power and keep his hands firmly grasped around it.
‘You can take a hit, I’ll give you that. That arrow’s gone straight through your arm. You’re strong. But you need to stop thinking morally and start thinking about looking after your own interests.’
‘I am looking after my own interests. They just also happen to be the interests of my people, who don’t take kindly to the idea of being tied up and locked in a cage. I know, because that’s where I found several of them.’
‘Listen to yourself. You speak about your citizens like you’re all part of one big happy family. There are only two types of people in this world – the leaders, and the slaves. You might have this vision of yourself being the bountiful, democratic leader, but you need to get your head out of your ass and understand how this works. Otherwise you’re end up in a cage just like all those idiots back at your tribe.’
I couldn’t hold myself back any longer.
I yelled out with a mighty war cry and lunged forward with my sword.
At most I expected Werger to fall on his ass with shock at my sudden movement, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
My mind was so clouded with anger that I hadn’t considered the possibility that he had been trying to enrage me.
He raised his hands, exposing the right and revealing the Brutal Limb Breaker that he had boasted of earlier.
I swung my sword down over my head with both hands as hard as I could. I should have hit flesh, but he caught it in the metallic hold of the weapon wrapped around his hand.
The sword was ripped from my grasp and thrown aside.
I was off-balance, and Werger dived at me, his metallic hand outstretched in my direction. I had a foot on him, but with the strength of the item he possessed I went falling onto my back hard, landing in the dried dirt.
The wind was knocked from me instantly as Werger landed atop me. His metallic hand went straight for my throat and clasped around me before I had a chance to move.
His other hand clamped down on the wrist of my left arm.
My windpipe was being crushed. I couldn’t breathe, and all I could see or process was the sight of Werger’s insane, psychotic smile as he looked me in the eyes, watching me die.
‘Don’t fight it,’ he groaned. ‘This is a waste of my time. You’re done here. Just let it happen…’
I managed to raise my right arm. I delivered a hard punch into Werger’s ribs. He groaned out, but it only made him clamp down on my neck harder.
The next punch I delivered was weaker.
My ears started to ring and my vision closed in. The peripheral sight of the house and the branches and leaves began to blur into a whirling mess that surrounded Werger’s smug face.
Even if I could call for Lara, she wasn’t coming to save me. She was asleep and probably too far away to hear any of this.
This was it. This was how I was going to do. I had no resources left… Apart from one.
One that was seconds away from being out of reach.
I groaned out and raised my knee, delivering a hard kick between Werger’s legs. He let out a scream like a trapped animal, and his grip on my neck loosened for less than a second before coming back down on me again.
But it was long enough to speak, long enough to summon what I needed.
‘Backstab!’
My right hand was no longer empty. I could feel the Dagger of Concealment in my grasp.
With a blood-curdling moan I mustered the last shreds of my strength and drove the knife in a wide arc, slamming the blade into Werger’s neck.
His mouth went flat, his eyes taking on a cold, grey dullness.
Blood dripped from his mouth and landed on my face, and his grip on me loosened.
He remained on top of me, but I didn’t let him go. I twisted the knife so hard that my entire arm was shaking, then thrust him from me with the force of the blade alone.
Werger toppled to the side with the knife still fully embedded in his throat.
I stayed on my back and coughed violently as my lungs begged for air. Once my senses had gained some semblance of their former glory I pushed up from the ground and looked down at Werger’s body.
He was dead.
I rounded to his side and pulled the knife from his throat, then checked my surroundings. I had caused more destruction in the last few minutes than I could even comprehend.
‘Jack?!’
‘I’m here!’ I coughed out, touching a hand to my bruised throat.
Lara’s silhouette appeared through the darkness as she hurried up to me with her bow and arrow drawn.
‘You picked a hell of a time to show up?’ I croaked in between gasping breaths.
‘What the fuck happened?’ She said frantically.
‘It doesn’t matter right now. We need to figure out what the fuck we’re going to do here.’
‘I’m guessing negotiations didn’t go to plan?’
>
‘Not exactly.’
***
‘Bite down.’
I sank my teeth into the matted pile of rags. Lara wrapped placed a palm flat against where the arrow protruded through my skin.
With enough leverage applied, she grabbed the other end and pulled towards herself sharply.
Snap.
It wasn’t the bone in my arm, but it damn near felt like it.
I groaned fiercely as she cast the snapped arrowhead aside. She did the same on the other end with the fletching, leaving just the body inside of my arm.
‘This is going to hurt.’
‘No shit.’
‘Ready?’
‘Just do it.’
‘Three, two…’
Before the one Lara slid the stick sharply out of me. One end receded into my arm, slid through my flesh then removed itself quickly.
I grunted harshly, biting down so hard on the rag it felt like my jaw would break.
‘Oh, come on, master,’ she said. ‘You’ve had a wolf tear a chunk out of this very same arm before.’
‘Sure,’ I said, pulling a potion of healing from inventory, ‘but I don’t like the idea of things being inside of me.’
‘Good thing I’m not the same.’
I shook my head and managed a smile, then drank back the potion. The wound looked a little better in seconds, but Lara still took a few minutes to wrap a bandage around it.
Lara and I returned promptly to the empty house and descended to the basement.
‘Good gods…’ Lara gulped the moment she saw the fox-people.
I surveyed the group once again. They were all roughly in the same places that they had been prior.
‘We’re not going to hurt you,’ I said firmly to the group. ‘We’re going to get you all out of here.’
Their weary eyes didn’t change; it was only distrust and scepticism that was present.
‘I don’t blame any of you for not believing a word I say, so… Just come up when you’re ready.’
Lara and I returned upstairs and headed outside. The sun would be up shortly.
***
Despite still having no way to gage the passing of time beyond the movement of the sun, I estimated that it had been twenty minutes before the fox-people finally emerged from the basement.
