I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “You’re sorry? Fuck your sorry!”
I threw him across the room to slam against the bar top. Jackson gave me an exasperated look as Phineas bled onto his counter. I grabbed Phineas by the throat and spoke to the bartender.
“Ale,” I said, tossing him a gold.
Jackson sighed, but poured me the drink, sliding it to me with a warning. “You know I called the guard, right?”
I took the ale, downing it, washing the last remnants of blood from my mouth, and shrugged. “Won’t make a difference, but sorry for trashing the place. I’ll pay for the damages.”
Jackson gave me a half nod and a grunt before going back to minding his own business. I eased my grip on Phineas, he gasped, trying to breathe normally again. Enjoy those breaths. You won’t have many more. As he stopped wheezing, I clamped tight over his windpipe again.
“Tell me what I want to know, and this stops,” I said.
He struggled against me, but he was far too weak. After a minute, I let him breathe.
“I can’t. He’ll kill me.” He coughed.
In a rage, I took hold of his hand and slammed my empty beer mug down on it. Fingers snapped, twisting in odd directions and glass shattered, piercing the soft flesh. Crimson ran out and down the dark wood. Dark enough that you couldn’t even tell it was blood.
“Tell me!”
Gripping his hand tight, I pushed up the sleeve of his coat, took the jagged edge of my glass handle, and ripped chunks of flesh from his arm. Ichor welled from the split gashes in his skin, spilling even more onto the counter. Phineas gurgled as I mutilated what remained of his hand, turning it into nothing but so much shredded meat and gore. Flecks of bone peeked through the hues of pink and red.
“Kill me. Just Kill me.”
Like hell, you're getting off that easy. I raised the glass shard to his temple and dug in, ruby droplets slithered down his temple. I was ready to flay his very face from his skull if need be.
“Stop…just stop. I’ll talk, I’ll talk.”
I nodded to him and lowered the handle from his face. “Give me a name.”
Phineas sighed deeply, defeated. He hung his head and whispered the name.
“Magnus. The name of the man you’re looking for is Magnus.”
I sliced a shallow line across his throat, carving his flesh. “What else do you know?”
“The auction house. It’s where Darren spends his time. I think his boss is there.”
I cut another light gash, right next to the first. Phineas shook his head, his eyes never leaving the bloody piece of glass in my hand. “That’s all I know, I swear. I wouldn’t even know that if I hadn’t overheard him talking about him to his friends.”
It was all I would get from him, and he’d outlived his usefulness.
I crushed Phineas’s windpipe.
Slitting his throat would be too quick of a death. His face turned purple as he was deprived of all oxygen, his eyes bulging out of his skull as he slowly suffocated to death. He attempted to run away, but a stretched-out leg caught him and sent him to the floor, from where he did not rise.
Phineas choked his last and died, all while pleading with me to spare him. Pathetic.
I walked over to the table where Phineas sat, scooped the large pile of gold in two bags, and tossed the smaller one to Jackson as I left. “Have a good one, Jack.”
“Watch your back, Duran.”
Back in the alley, I found the corpses of Doorman and Darren right where they’d been. The nameless goon was right where he fell. That much hadn’t changed. What had changed was that I now found myself surrounded by nearly a dozen guards — all with their weapons drawn and pointed at my throat.
“Howdy, fellas, fancy seeing you here.” I smiled.
All of them shouted at me in unison. Each one was shouting a slightly different version of the same thing. Get my hands in the air. Do not resist. Drop my weapon—the usual drivel.
My knee-jerk reaction was to pull out my sword and slaughter them all. I didn’t have time to deal with these clowns.
I twitched, my hand milliseconds from reaching for my sword when a voice stopped me cold. A voice I hadn’t heard in a very long time.
“Don’t do it, D.”
I looked around until I spotted the source. The one man I’d hoped to never see again.
Pushing himself through the circle of soldiers in the alleyway, he stood in radiant crimson plate mail that shone bright even in the dim lighting. A long golden cape trailed down to his knees and fluttered here and there in the slight breeze that rolled through the alley, and a heavy longsword was belted at his hip. Almost as unadorned as mine except for the large ruby fastened in the pommel and the golden inlay of his cross-guard.
His face hadn’t changed since the last time I’d seen him, over fifteen years ago when we’d stood blade to blade and tried to kill one another. He was still handsome, and his chestnut hair hadn’t changed much. But his brown eyes were so much colder than when I’d known him.
“Lonny. It’s been a while.”
I took note of his armor, especially of the golden crest on his chest plate—hands clasped in prayer surrounded by a halo.
I scoffed at the man I once called a friend. “You joined the fucking Cardinals?”
He nodded. “They’ve treated me fairly over the years, D. They gave me a family, after yo—after everything that happened.”
“Surprised I never ran into you when I was training.”
His face darkened. “The other paladins are quite displeased with you, not to mention the High Priest. By Whisper's lips, I’ve never seen him so enraged before. You earned plenty of enemies that day when you fled.”
I shrugged. They can get in line. It matters little to me. “So, you’re the leader of the strongest guild on Nexus. Quite an accomplishment, old friend. And while this little chat’s been fun—” I eased off my sword and moved to leave, “I’ve got places to be—”
“Hold it!”
Shit. “What do you want?”
He motioned at the bodies, an incredulous look on his face. “You killed three people, and you ask what I want.”
“In my defense, I only killed two of them.” I pointed at Darren. "Him and his crony over there killed the doorman and attacked me. I killed them. There’s no crime against self-defense.”
Jostling armor moved behind me. I turned to see one of the guards coming out of the Rose. He ignored me and spoke to Lonny. “Sir, there’s another body inside the tavern. The description the owner gave of the killer matches this man.”
Thanks for the sellout, Jackson! “Would you believe he came at me with a knife?”
The look Lonny gave me was withering. He wasn’t in the mood for jokes. Well, I’m not in the mood for your self-righteous bullshit, so that makes us even.
Lonny went for the handle of his sword, a warning in his eyes. “D, you know I have to take you in. Not counting the bounty still on your head, you killed three, maybe four people here. I can’t just ignore that.”
This isn't what I need right now! Godsdamn it, Eris is in danger! I didn’t have the time to waste, but I didn’t have the time to get killed either.
Lonny joined the Cardinals. Even as a level one hundred blade master, Lonny would’ve been a dangerous foe. He’s twice as deadly now as the last time we fought. He wouldn’t just beat me; he’d reduce me to a bloody smear on the wall. Maybe I could win with Dance, but no way could I get them all in time.
Darren said she wouldn’t be harmed, and even if I hated to admit it, I believed him. Slaves were only valuable in perfect condition. So, I could trust that she would be safe at least until she was bought. Of course, if Magnus was at the auction house, then all bets were off. I didn’t have much time to waste, if any at all.
“Fine, I’ll go with you.”
As the guards moved to arrest me, I hastily unequipped my armor and weapons, stowing them in my inventory. Can’t afford to have them confiscated.
I’ll never get them back. I didn’t relish standing there in my simple pants and tunic, but it beat losing my gear.
“Why do you always have to be so complicated, Durandal?” Lonny asked.
“Why’d you have to go and destroy our guild, Ascalon?” I countered.
Lonny sighed deeply and shook his head. I knew he held some regret over what he’d done, but it didn’t change the fact that he’d ruined everything. Over petty jealousy and grief, though it wasn’t solely his fault. Most of the blame falls on me. I’m to blame for what happened, but Lonny was the one who drew his sword first.
The bitterness of that day still lingered in his eyes, still haunted him all these years later. I’m sorry for my part in your pain, Lonny, but I lost someone that day too. You just never saw past your own grief to notice.
“You know why I did what I did, but our past doesn't change anything. It doesn’t change what has to happen right now.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Things could have gone so differently for us, but we both responded to our grief with anger, at ourselves and each other. It didn’t matter that we destroyed everything we’d built in the process.
We lost Sophia, so we took everything from each other.
I held up my hands and let the guards bind them with chains. Lonny was too rough with me as he escorted me out of the alley and to a nearby jail. Jails were like the markets in Central; there was one on nearly every corner.
Lonny walked through the prison like he owned the place and threw me in the furthest cell, removing the manacles around my wrists and shutting the door.
“Court is in two days, and King Elias will set your bounty then.”
The cell was a damp gray affair. A lone metal cot bolted to the wall and wet straw for a bed. There were myriad tiny cracks in the stone walls that made up the room. Gray stone walls, gray stone floors, and a gray stone ceiling.
Water dripped through one of the larger cracks in the wall to pool onto the stone floor, bringing a moldy chill to the room. The only window was three feet above my head and had bars through it, letting only a small amount of light into the cramped room.
Either I’d be forced to pay the bounty or serve a year in jail. Though Elias likes using prisoners to pad the ranks of the Alliance. Ten to one odds, that’s what he tries with me.
Quite a few of the poor who found themselves shanghaied into service never left. It beat begging at any rate. Pay, serve, or die. Since it was nearly impossible to jail players for long periods of time, it was always one of the three. The most drastic option was execution; sent back to level one was a harsh punishment, though.
I’ve got plenty of gold, and I need to get out of here now. I don't have the time to waste.
Before Ascalon could leave, I ran to the bars as he turned to walk away. “Lonny, wait! I can’t afford to spend two days in here. Whatever price Elias sets won’t exceed a thousand gold. Not for something like this.”
I pulled out a heavy bag of gold from my inventory, fifteen hundred gold, most of the money I had on me. “This is well over a thousand gold! Take it and release me. It’ll more than cover my bounty.”
Lonny looked surprised at my outburst. “What’s gotten into you, D? I’ve never seen you balk at a few days in jail.”
I held up my hand to show him my ring. The one sign of proof I could leverage to convince Lonny I was speaking the truth.
“The man I killed was a slaver. His thugs kidnapped my wife and nearly killed me. Please, I need to save her!”
Lonny peered at my hand through the bars. The glint of gold was unmistakable, but his face darkened, his jaw clenched tight. I knew what he was thinking. Pure hatred crossed his face, and I’d just damned myself.
His voice cracked, harsh and bitter. “So, someone managed to get you to say yes after all this time. Good for you. Too bad Sophia isn’t around to share in the good news.”
I slammed my fist against the bars. “Godsdamn it, man. I loved her too!”
He got right up in my face and roared at me, spittle flying out of his mouth. “Loved her! You fucking killed her!”
He turned and stormed out of the room, fury and pain clouding him, just like they had all those years ago. “Rot in here for all I care.”
Then he was gone, and I was left alone. Alone with my thoughts. He’s not wrong; she died because of me, because I didn’t see what was right in front of me.
The Screaming Cliffs were Sophia’s favorite place on Nexus, though I never understood why. We stepped out of the teleportation gate, and the wind immediately swept up around us, constant gusts that sounded like the wailing of the dead.
The muted brown and gray cliffs were high above the sea, and it always felt like the wind was trying to push us off and into the dark, turbulent waters below.
Sophia took my hand in hers and pulled me toward the cliffs. She’d dressed up, forgoing her usual leather armor and shortsword in favor of a cerulean dress with a revealing neckline, the hem stopping just above her knees and blowing about in the wind. Her walnut hair was pinned into a ponytail, her bright hazel eyes sparkling with excitement and nervousness.
We stopped just shy of the edge, and Soph pulled out a large blanket and an assortment of cooking supplies. She busied about setting things up and getting a fire built. A hard thing, considering the location. When I tried to help, she only fussed at me.
“Uh-uh, I don’t think so,” she said, handing me a tankard of mead. “You sit and relax. I’ll be done in a few minutes.”
I laid back on the blanket and sipped at the mead. It was homemade, blackberry and cherry mead, Sophia’s specialty, and it was delicious. The most delicious drink in the world.
I cast a sidelong glance at her. She was smiling as she worked. It's good to see her like this again—she's been so withdrawn and aloof lately. For a time, I stared out over the cliffs, enjoying my drink and the comfortable silence between us. The clinking of pots and pans and the howling wind melded into a song.
Sophia got the makeshift kitchen set up and started cooking for the two of us, boar steaks and scalloped potatoes with even more mead. My favorite meal. I savored the food while Sophia and I talked. To this day, I can’t remember what we talked about. Everything and nothing, perhaps. It all blended and faded into the abyss.
But I remember all too well what happened next.
The midday sun faded into warm twilight as we brought our outing to a close. I helped Soph pack everything up, and we were just about to head to the gate when Sophia stopped me, tugging on my arm.
I turned back to her. “What is it?”
“Um, there’s something I have to tell you,” she said, her face flushed with embarrassment as she picked at her fingernail, trying to work up the courage to speak.
“Go on,” I pushed, unsure what she was getting at.
She huffed but smiled at me. “Duran,” she began before shaking her head. “No, Sampson. I love you.”
Oh…this is what she wanted to tell me. It wasn’t like I didn’t know. I’d known how she felt about me for years, even before we joined the Ouroboros Project. I knew.
“Soph—” I started, but she cut me off.
“No, let me finish. I’m in love with you, Sam. I have been for a very long time now, and I couldn’t spend another day without telling you.” She stepped forward to take my hand. “I love you, Sam, and I want to be with you, forever.” She pulled a ring from her pocket and knelt. “Will you marry me?”
I pulled away, letting her hand fall from mine.
I’m sorry, Soph. I couldn’t marry her. Not because I didn’t love her—I loved her as much as I ever loved anyone, but even years later, the ghosts of my failures were too strong.
I was still suffering because of Micah, because I’d failed to protect my family. My excuse seemed reasonable at the time. I didn’t want to fall in love with someone else, only to lose them too.
Even though that’s exactly what happened anyway. I didn't know what my answer meant to her.
<
br /> “I can’t, Soph. I’m sorry, but no. I can’t marry you.”
She wasn’t shocked, as I’d thought she’d be. She’d known what my answer was going to be. She stood from the ground and gave me a sorrowful smile.
“I knew you'd say that, but it doesn't hurt any less.”
“Soph, I’m so sorry.”
“I know you are, Sam.”
I held out my hand. “C’mon, Soph. Let's go home. We can talk more there.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going home.”
“Why not?” I asked, shocked. I tried to go to her, but she pulled away from me, going to look out to the sea.
“I’m tired, Sam. Tired of this world. It’s as brutal as anything we survived back on Earth, and I’m so tired. Tired of the killing and the bloodshed. I never wanted to be a warrior, yet I’ve killed thousands.”
“You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to. We can leave the guild, go settle in the Compass Kingdom. We don’t have to fight anymore.”
“No, Sam. There’s too much blood on our hands to ever come clean. This world feels as real as the one we left. That means what we’ve done, we’ve done to real people. For years and years, we've gone on slaughtering whoever stood in our way, and I can’t carry that weight anymore. I’d rather die than keep on living with this guilt.”
“The one thing that's kept me going was you. I thought that if you could come to love me that would be enough, but that was a pipe dream.”
“I love you, Soph!”
She smiled at me, but it was hollow. “I know you do, but not as I love you. And it doesn’t matter, anyway. It was just an excuse for me, something to cling to when my world fell apart. I loved you with everything I had, but it still wasn’t enough to hold back the nightmares.”
“There’s too much pain, Sam. I just can’t take it anymore.”
She stepped to the edge of the cliff, and I wasn’t fast enough to stop her. I pushed as fast as my legs would carry me, but it wasn’t enough.
"Sophia!"
“Goodbye, Sam.”
She let herself fall over the edge. Down to a place she couldn’t come back from; a place I couldn’t follow.
Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) Page 36
