I nodded sagely.
“You know best. So what is so brilliant about restraining your ability to commit suicide? Or were there precedents?” This situation was getting curiouser and curiouser. So then, Nata was not lying when she snorted at my Doll saying she did not need surrogates.
“Think whatever you will. That is not brilliance, but simply caring. But you cannot understand this!” Now the druid was looking like a real common woman as never before. I should remember this moment in case I began doubting it yet again.
“A caring catorian is something outside of my reality. And using collars as well. Just don’t try to tell me it’s a flea collar and that you are reciprocating Archibald’s care.” I had the last word in that after all.
Dolgunata was tired of trying to explain herself, so she changed the topic:
“Did you find the orc?”
“Yes, I did, he’s already waiting for us. Are you ready?”
“Just a moment,” Dolgunata picked up the photograph and tore it into little pieces. Still unhappy with the result the druid threw the bits into her inventory. Then she drew her sword and with inexplicable fury cut up the collar. Once she was finished with the emotional anchor objects, she straightened up and lifted her chin proudly.”I am officially stating: you killing me now does not in any way affect the duel and its outcome. You are doing it because I asked you myself. Go ahead, strike now!”
“So that you would know the weak points of my strike? You have enough protection to rival a heavy tank!” I grinned, extracting a “Templar’s Blow” scroll. “We’ll do it differently. I think I don’t have to tell you where to stuff this for maximum damage? You have five seconds.”
Nata just flashed her eyes at me, grabbed the scroll and held it to her throat. I grinned: the druid was anything but stupid, and knew very well that I also needed to know her weak spots. Now she “showed” me her “unprotected” throat, so that was definitely NOT the area I should go for.
Nata disappeared instantly; I supposed she must have simply dropped all of the protection she had. I gave her only one scroll on purpose, wanting to see how it would affect her protection. I doubted very much that had it been active it would have any effect on the druid. Now that I was alone here, I took out one more scroll.
“Stop!” Steve shouted once I did it. “Stop!”
I stopped and waited for my assistant to explain himself.
“Pieces of the photograph!” Steve was pointing at the place where the druid had stood just a moment ago. “You cannot take out of the trap things that were created by it!”
I looked at the small pieces of paper without Steve’s enthusiasm. Dolgunata had torn the photo up so thoroughly that the largest piece was hardly bigger than a small fingernail.
“Just turn them all face up.” My subconscious kept insisting despite my sound skepticism, prodding me all the while: “We have no more than a couple of minutes; after that the druid might start suspecting something. Two minutes can be explained by having to prepare the scroll and to brace oneself. Come on! Go for it! You do want to know who was there on that photo! I will be able to show you!”
The assistant kept working on convincing me while I was already scanning the photo pieces. It was not easy, given how little time we had. About half of the fragments were scattered face down and I had to turn them over without scattering the rest even further. Had I not had help from my artifact, which highlighted the ones that were not yet scanned in red, I could not have hoped for success.
“Now! Time is up!” Steve ordered, rubbing his hands with pleasure. “We can’t stay here any longer! I processed 87 percent of all fragments. That’s more than enough!”
I activated the scroll, and found myself in the treasury once again.
“It took you quite some time.” The druid frowned suspiciously.
“It’s not every day that I have to kill myself.” I gave her the reply I had thought about in there. The druid said nothing. Even if she did not like that explanation, in any case there was nothing she could say to object. We were glad to see that the fog had dissipated. All the prey had escaped from the trap, so it became inactive; now we could see a long hallway lit by electric lamps, with a metal door. Behind the door a loud argument could be heard regarding how to fulfill Iven’s order and stop the intruders, if the door was locked. He had promised to be there any minute.
We turned away from the door and took in the space in front of us. It resembled the passage I had had to go through in the Academy to reach Madonna’s diary. If so, the mental trap was far from being the only obstacle we would have to face.
“Yari, what are you standing here for? Dolgunata was standing next to me now. “You think that’s a trap corridor?”
“I am practically sure.” I nodded. “I’ve been though one like that already. Besides, one fog trap would really not be enough, I think.”
“I agree. But we don’t have time. Either they will force the door open, or else Iven will show up. We’ll have to risk it and…”
“Trust the orc.” Alard finished her sentence with a grin. He proudly extracted a small box from his inventory by way of explanation. “Traps are a task for Snufflesnout.”
“A tracker?!” The druid exclaimed without hiding her joy. Apparently she had not counted on such a boon from fate.
“Brother knows how to use it?” Alard handed the box to me. “Brother Paladin is an explorer. My teacher said good explorers are rare. And that if I meet one, I should hold on to him and listen. It’s an honor with our people to be friends with explorer. You can see the right way. The tracker will help.
“Give me five seconds.” Steve had rolled up his sleeves, and even put on a pair of glasses; he was rolling the box in his hands, thinking. “Press here. This must be the ON button… Now, here, adjust the handle. No, not this one… Then… You know, let’s ask the orc, shall we? It will save us time.”
“Thank you, Alard, but it would be faster if you show me first.” I had to admit I was not up to using it. Alard quickly showed how to use the device. Steve nodded, looked busy and generally indicated he supposed that would be the right way. Even though I knew exactly what my subconscious was doing. People are such people. Until the device is still in one piece, we would never use the manual; only when it starts breaking and smoking, we would start looking for the manual we had thrown out eons ago and leafing through the guidelines in contemplation of the developers’ stupidity. Because we would have done it so much better!
“There are dynamic rays here.” A minute later I was standing in the corridor and exploring the space around me. Steve showed the first obstacle, which was some laser rays that were moving chaotically, or so it seemed at first glance. Back, forth, sideways… even after a minute of analysis there was no discernible pattern to the movement. “Even if I were to pass through that, I wouldn’t be able to guide you through.”
Then there must be a switch somewhere,” Nata stated. “I can’t really imagine Iven jumping here to avoid the rays.
“The rays may be just nothing.” The orc shrugged. “I am going in.”
Before I had a chance to stop him, Alard rushed down the hallway.
“You can go now,” he shouted from the other side. We could not evaluate the damage he sustained from the rays – the orc had no external symptoms. He did, however, drink an elves’ ointment while he was waiting for us to join him. I checked the hallway with the tracker once again: the rays had disappeared as if they had never been there.
“Valiant, but stupid,” Dolgunata mumbled. “Right in the spirit of the Paladin orcs. You, at least, activate your protection! The last thing I want is to have to keep going alone.”
“Are you alive?” I asked once we reached the orc. But my concern was groundless: the orc’s face had just turned pink, as if he had spent too much time in the sun.
“I am fine!” Alard hissed through his teeth. “Orcs are resilient! We need to move in that direction.”
The orc pointed at the spiral staircase, which went str
aight down. Without waiting, Alard kept playing the spearhead and went down first.
“Come on down!” we heard him shout in a couple of minutes.
He did not have to ask us twice. We ran down hastily, and found ourselves in a huge space filled with neat rows of shelving. I was looking with some disappointment at a huge automated warehouse rather than a treasury. There were tags, numbers, mechanisms, rail tracks, points of acceptance and issue for the items stored on the shelves. Iven did not even need to come down here in person: computerized automatons would bring up anything requested on their own.
“The Lecleur’s are obviously not begging,” I drawled, looking at the shelves. Carefully arranged stacks of gold bullion towered up high to the ten-foot ceiling. There were transparent boxes with precious stones and jewelry, rolls of gold coins, rolled-up carpets, paintings in climate-controlled transparent containers… this storage had it all!
“How come they have accumulated such wealth?” Even Dolgunata was impressed with this picture. “Just the gold here is worth several thousand granises. I would have never imagined that the players who lived in the province could… Alard, are you sure you are OK?”
The orc was coughing madly, spitting clots of blood right there on the floor.
“Radiation,” the orc rasped once he could talk. He sat on the floor exhausted but still managed to grin: “That was a lethal dose, the elves’ ointment is not enough to overcome that. Go on without me. There is no honor in being a burden to you.”
“Open your mouth!” Dolgunata ordered harshly and poured another portion of healing potion down the orc’s throat. “Don’t even think of dying here! Better if you run straight home then. You will go into the Reverse, hear me? Yari, what are you waiting for? Find the entrance and open it! The orc won’t be able to hang on long!”
I had not expected such a reaction from the druid, and nearly missed the information provided by Steve that the Imperial set would protect Iven against the rays should he decide to visit the treasury personally. The shimmering entrance into the Reverse, visible only to me, was located a few yards away from the nearest shelf, but I was in no hurry to share my find. I had all my attention on the unit controlling the warehouse. I had never had to use a system like that, but as a child of the digital age I had a gut feeling that it was worth trying to figure out.
“Yari, come on! Look for the entrance!” Dolgunata repeated angrily, tearing herself away from the orc. Never before had the druid been known to exhibit such nonsense as love for orcs‒love for humans was not her forte either‒ that made her actions look strange. Look out: Nata was going to become a saint and go praying with some priests. I chased away the persistent images of the druid in a nun’s robe, and studied the control unit. The computer woke up from sleep mode, but was locked up. A small reader next to the monitor had a special slot which was exactly the same shape as the treasury key. Apparently I was in luck!
Dolgunata stared at me in surprise as soon as I asked for the key. She asked suspiciously if I were looking for the entrance before giving it to me. I unlocked the computer while assuring her that the search was the only thing on my mind. I was able to locate the search function pretty fast: at least whoever had developed the local software was familiar with the concept of a user friendly interface. I typed in the inquiry for “ring” and scanned the enormous list of things. I had to look at every line thoroughly. The druid could not wait any longer while I found my elusive “known unknown”, yet she would not leave the orc.
“This is it! Send the robots!” Steve said enthusiastically, pointing at a line. I smiled. If the “Ring of Power” was not what I was looking for, then I must be a nun myself. So, the earrings I received through no effort of my own. The ring I stole like the damnedest… Well, whatever! One would be an idiot to miss such an opportunity. All that remained was to find the pendant in the Reverse. I hoped greatly that by collecting in one place the whole set that used to be called “Joy” and handing it to the owner would bring me just a step closer to Madonna.
The chance that the set worked as a compass of a sort was negligibly small, but I still could not afford to miss it!
Chapter Nine. The Reverse
“WHAT ARE YOU doing?” As soon as the system came into motion, Dolgunata realized that all that time I had been lying to her while pursuing my own objectives. A robotic arm rushed into the warehouse along the rails; very soon it returned with a small container.
“Get moving!” I ordered, stuffing the little box into my inventory and ignoring the druid. That’s when the alarm went off. “Quick! We must make it!”
As I was running, I pulled out the key to the Reverse and rushed towards the glimmering doors that only I could see. Good thing we hurried – white foam that solidified instantly started pouring from the ceiling. Logically thinking, it was obvious that if we were caught in it, there would be no hope of escaping. The bulk of this nasty stuff accumulated near the exit, blocking it completely; a few rivulets trickled over the floor of the treasury. To avoid it we had to jump like grasshoppers from one shelf to another towards the entrance. That was the only way to move around the warehouse now. Nata grabbed the orc like a piece of fluff, and dashed after me, deftly avoiding the streams of dripping foam.
Actually, we were incredibly lucky. One stroke of luck was that the entrance to the Reverse was close to us but directly opposite the treasury entrance. Another was that as we approached, the door became visible to the others. Yet another was that Dolgunata was strong enough to throw in the huge orc and then jump into the passage that I had opened from three meters away. However, I doubted that the latter was simply a stroke of luck. It was quite likely that the druid was beside herself – barking mad because of what I had done in the treasury. In any case, the second leg of our quest was completed successfully. The moment I shut the door, cutting off the foam flows, the passage was plunged into complete darkness. I figured out where the druid was by her angry and therefore noisy huffs, and hastened to get out of her way, following the golden rule of drivers: “Keep back”. It would be difficult to start the search for the pendant while being torn into a hundred little paladins.
The serendipitous druid, led by her desire to kill me here and now, lit a lamp right away.
“Are you a total moron?!” Nata hissed through her teeth. Had she been a dragon, her flaring nostrils would definitely have breathed fire. “Do you understand you put us all at risk? Do you understand that because of you we nearly failed the quest? What did you take from the treasury? And don’t you dare lie to me, you cretin!”
With each word the druid came closer and closer, making me retreat. I said nothing, just trying to drag out the time, so that she would blow off some steam without physical contact with me. It would hurt my feelings more than my body. If I were to be beaten by a girl, at least it would be better if it were to happen at the duel tomorrow; at least I would keep some semblance of dignity that way.
“Sister, there is no honor in…,” Alard started rasping something to back me up, but the druid was not going to stand on ceremony with him.
“I am not talking to you!” The druid harshly turned towards the one she had just recently been protecting fiercely, transformed her right hand into a panther’s paw, and easily cut off the red-skinned one’s head. Her claws flashed in the dim light. Silence dropped over the Reverse. I used the pause to activate my defense. It would be silly to be sent to respawn because of a girl’s moodiness, particularly now that we had reached our goal. I was in no hurry to take the first step, wary that I would provoke another fit of fury. To my relief, Dolgunata calmly withdrew her claws.
“Consider yourself lucky. Tomorrow, during the duel, your death will not be easy. I promise!” the druid smirked, and shrugged her shoulders in a very feminine way. Then she turned away and took care of the lamp, turning down the flame. I looked at my partner in bewilderment, completely taken aback by this turn of events. One moment she was protecting the orc like a mother, then the next moment she killed
him casually in cold blood. Where was the logic in that? “I will ask you later about the thing you stole from the treasury. Now is not a good time.”
I was able to see the logic a couple of minutes later once Nata took out her comm and called the teacher:
“Archibald, we are on location. We have gained access; the anchor works.”
A portal opened next to us and the catorian came out of it purposefully, casting a measuring glance at the darkness around us.
“Amazing: it does exist!” Archibald drawled, obviously pleased. “Do you have the key to the Reverse?”
“No, Yari does. I have not had time to take it away from him yet,” Dolgunata responded. That made me raise my defenses another notch. In the best tradition of game relationships they had already decided everything about me, not bothering to inform me. I noted dryly to myself that I had stopped having any feelings about that. Must be getting used to it.
“I see…” Archibald said slowly and shifted his measuring gaze to me, looking me over from head to toe. “That’s yet another blunder, student,” he said to Nata. “Before calling me, you should have made sure that you had all the necessary tools for staying in the Reverse. You have failed at that.”
“I need one minute.” Nata snorted. “It will be enough…”
“No it won’t.” My breath caught as Archibald beheaded Dolgunata with a quick flick of his sword. The druid’s body crashed onto the floor while her head flew a couple of yards through the air and landed somewhere in the darkness. Seemed as though today was some kind of “Off with their heads!” day! But you could always tell a virtuoso – the druid was just a dabbler compared to him. I expect that would not be the last time the catorian would play the executioner to his student, and that Dolgunata, in her turn, would saw his furry ears off with a dull saw.
Archibald twitched his ears in displeasure, and kicked the leg of her headless body that was lying inconveniently across the hallway:
“I will have to continue with you, my hapless student. Don’t bother wasting Energy trying to protect yourself. If I had decided to get rid of you, I would have done so by now. Although, whatever… An illusion of safety would do you good.” The catorian waved his hand in the air, picked up the lantern and calmly started down the hallway. As he turned the corner I was left without the light, and Steve hastened to visualize the space around me, allowing me to get my bearings in the dark. I was in no hurry to catch up with the catorian. Quite the opposite – I stayed where I was, waiting for him to return, and preparing to bargain with all my might. I rightly considered that if Archibald needed me so much – and that had been demonstrated by the scene of getting rid of the unnecessary members of the team I had just witnessed – his furry highness would in fact stoop to explain, and then I would be able to demand a hefty piece of the loot. Otherwise I could just as well stick my spikes into my own neck and return to the respawn point. The key would then return to Madame Lecleur, I would be left without the pendant, while the catorian will not get his stroll through the Reverse. I was sure that this prospect would be about as pleasant as a kick in the balls for more than one party. So I simply waited for the negotiations, that promised to be pleasant in more ways than one.
The Quest (Dark Paladin Book #2) LitRPG Series Page 29
