by Skyler Grant
‘You need to hurry up and get inside,’ Yvera said inside my head.
‘Do you know what is going on?’ I asked.
‘I have some idea, but this is not the time. If you don’t get inside soon you’ll be desperately trying to rut with Ashley even as she tries to gut you and Walt takes notes.’
That all sounded all too reasonable right now.
I began to run and the others followed. It was another four grisly signs we passed before we finally found the right one and slipped through the doorway of the Inn of a Thousand Cuts.
Inside it was brilliantly lit, painfully so, and it took several moments to see past the light to the intricate tapestries and colorful pillows that made up much of the decor.
I began to feel whatever was affecting me fade. It wasn’t gone completely, but no longer an inevitable tide sweeping me away.
I looked over to the others. Ashley still had claws, and Walt green eyes, but they too seemed to be in control of themselves. The other patrons seemed the same—nobody was quite human.
“You guys okay?” I asked.
“Oh, I am better than okay,” Ashley said, the words almost a purr. “I feel like I could take on the whole world.”
“I’m smart. Focused. I like it. What about you?” Walt asked.
“I want to sleep around a lot. I feel pretty much like I always do, just a bit more so.”
They both gave me the look they give me when I say something regrettably expected. Screw it. It was true.
“So, what happened to us? To everyone?” Ashley asked.
A dark-haired woman prowled up to us. The turquoise silks she wore left nothing to the imagination. “First time in the city and nobody gave you the talk. Shame, shame. You’d better come with me. I’m Aria.”
That was the tale spinner that Earthquake mentioned.
“We were actually looking for you,” I said.
“Oh, I know. Think I greet every handsome stranger at the door?” Aria asked, then paused before continuing, “Well, a sizable number. But you have a purpose besides the usual. Join me, I have us a table.”
I guess that saved us the trouble of going looking for her. I shrugged at Walt and Ashley, and followed her through the room.
The patrons had the energy of a crowd with a few drinks in them. Laughter was a little too loud, bodies a little too close.
Aria brought us to a table.
“So, first the explanation. Did you get to see the city by day?” Aria asked.
“Just the back alleys. We got into a bit of a brawl,” I said.
Aria pursed her lips. “Thieves Guild, and out of the public eye. That’s allowed. You’ll never find that on the main thoroughfares. In the day it’s always a smile on the surface to give you everything you want. Behind the scenes it is ruthless and a cut-throat competition to separate you from your coin, your freedom, and your very soul.”
“And at night?”
Aria gave me her best seductive smile. It was tremendously effective. “At night all the masks come off. The cities, ours, yours. We all show what we truly want.”
“As Liam is suffering from a dramatic loss of blood to the brain right about now, I should make introductions,” Walt said.
“No need,” Aria said with a smirk. “I know you all. Liam Ottani, The King of Genea who bends knee to the Lady of Flame. His companions, the seeker of vengeance with a kinder heart than she lets on, and the seeker of knowledge with a head full of lies.”
“You really should tell us how you know so much, before I make this inn live up to its name,” Ashley said, as she withdrew one of her daggers and began to not-so-casually play with it.
Aria laughed and said, “You come to me because I’m supposed to know things, and you get upset when I do? Just think of this as me demonstrating my value. Let’s talk deals.”
With a swirl of flame Yvera appeared at the table, nursing a glass of wine. “Don’t mind me. I just love this part and love to watch.”
“Do you have to make everything creepy weird?” Ashley said. “Seriously. I had an uncle like you.”
“Stunningly beautiful and intelligent? I think not. I see no trace of those genes in your family.”
“I do enjoy putting on a show,” Aria said, her words laced with meaning. “It gets me into all sorts of trouble, which brings me to my price. Rescues.”
“Rescues?” I asked.
“I know things. I know all kinds of things. You want to find Mela? I can point you towards her prison and what you’ll need to open the seals holding her,” Aria said.
She not only knew who we were, she knew exactly what we wanted to accomplish. I might be really into Aria, but I didn’t like that one bit.
“And what do you want in exchange?” I asked.
“Two rescues for that knowledge. Whatever scrape I get myself into, you fly in and get me out of it. Or, if you prefer, I’d be willing to go for a long-term deal. Become my knight in shining red armor riding to my rescue when I require it and I will on occasion give you the most tantalizing secrets,” Aria said seductively.
I might be easy to play, but I did know when I was being played. I was in no place to make reasonable judgments right now. Give me half a chance, I’d give her anything she wanted.
“Ashley, negotiate.”
“I don’t even have a hostage,” Ashley said with a frown. “Lady, right now you are a lot of talk and not a lot of clothes, and that might work on Liam, but it isn’t doing a thing for the rest of us.”
“I’m into it,” Yvera said.
“Of course you are,” Ashley said, rubbing at her forehead. “Show us you have the goods. The… other goods.”
Aria grinned at that, leaning back in her chair, her fingers drumming on the table as she thought. “Oh, I’ve got it. You’ll like this one. Well, you’ll hate this one, but it’s very juicy. Do you remember the last time you were here, Yvera?”
“I do,” Yvera said, in a tone unusually devoid of emotion.
I didn’t know she’d been here before. I sat up straighter so that I could better look between them.
“You didn’t wipe,” Aria said.
“I assure you we did,” Yvera said.
“Catch the rest of us up here?” I asked.
“You know I was in this world before. We fought the last boss here. We wiped. Any other death we came back from, but that booted us and none of us ever got to return,” Yvera said, keeping her gaze fixed on Aria.
“Wrong. One of you didn’t wipe. One of you made it out. One of you has been here this whole time and simply lied to the others that your fate was shared,” Aria said.
“Veros,” Ashley said, her tone all but dripping with hate. “It was Veros wasn’t it?”
Aria gave the tiniest of nods, a self-satisfied smile on her lips.
“Yvera? Is it true? Is that fucker here?” Ashley said, as she spun to face the Goddess.
“Perhaps. He was our tank, and he wasn’t down when I died,” Yvera said. “It might even explain some things. He was never like the rest of us afterward. We came back changed, but he came back broken and with tricks the rest of us didn’t have. He never engaged with the world in the same way.”
“As if his focus was elsewhere,” Walt said.
Aria looked between us expectantly.
“If you were out to push my buttons, you pushed the right ones,” Ashley said.
“I always do,” Aria said.
“We’ll take the deal. For the ongoing offer,” Ashley said.
“You’ll want to head to the palace in the morning. The Sultana has the key. I’m done talking for the night,” Aria said. “I have rooms booked for all of you. You can find them upstairs. Liam, I trust you’ll join me in mine. Yvera, you are free to watch. Liam, you are free to pretend I’m her. I know you want to and I don’t mind.”
“Fuck, if that isn’t all new levels of creepy,” Ashley said.
“I’m in,” Yvera said.
I was too. Of course, I was too. One of th
ese nights I’d get some sleep.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Another night and another tangle of bodies. Despite being exhausted, that didn’t keep me from enjoying myself. Yvera did stick around awhile, but I knew it was mostly for effect. She was always in my head and therefore always playing a silent spectator.
Aria was more like a lover I’d known for years than one I just met. She knew exactly how I liked to be touch, exactly what I liked. I had to explore and experiment, I enjoyed that, I always did, but to her I was incredibly familiar. I suspected that came from the same gifts that let her know everything else.
Sleep was welcome when it finally came, my arms wrapped around her. Waking up was not nearly so pleasant.
Quest Completed
Tell Me A Story
You met Aria and took that crawling into bed with her literally. I’m not judging. I’m just your friendly wakeup call that the morning after can really suck.
When my eyes next opened I was in agony, my health bar largely gone and so many debilitating effects I couldn’t count them. I tried to scream as a violent tremor coursed through my body, but my throat wouldn’t work to let out the sound. Nothing more than a whimper escaped me.
A figure crossed in front of my eyes and I recognized him. Barton the Brute. We’d killed his band of thugs preying on a band of refugees a while back, but he’d gotten away. I’d never expected to see him again.
“Don’t try to talk,” Barton said, as he leaned over me. “Not that you can. Can’t talk. Can’t scream.”
I focused my will into my Smite smell and released it. Nothing happened.
“Can’t do anything really. Pricey stuff, this poison, but I didn’t want to take any chances, not when I saw it was you. Let me tell you how you’re going to die,” Barton said, as he idly played with a knife. He bent over—I think he cut something off me. Probably something I wanted, I was in too much dazed agony to tell.
“Your muscles are quite useless right now. You are completely helpless, but still able to feel every tiny little thing. Soon your organs are going to start liquefying. You’ll start shitting blood, coughing it up, maybe you’ll drown on it. You’re going to melt from the inside out boy, just like you melted my lads,” Barton said. I suspected another part of me went missing.
“Yvera?” I thought.
“I’m here love. I can’t do anything, not while he has your ability locked. I act through you. Not apart from you.”
Great. Just great. How could anything hurt this bad?
“You’ll be hours dying and a long time coming back from it,” Barton said with a grin. It was the last I saw of him. He cut out my eyes.
“Last time, I told you next time you wouldn’t see me coming. Seems fitting you don’t see me going either. Stay out of my way or I’ll make it far worse,” Barton said. “Come on girl, and say goodbye to lover boy. I don’t know what you did to piss off the palace enough to get a bounty like yours, but I’m eager to collect.”
I heard movement as Barton slipped away and I was left to writhe in agony as my body tore itself apart.
“I’ve got something. I’d say this is going to hurt, but I doubt you’ll even notice,” Yvera said in my head.
She was wrong. I did. I suddenly felt like my entire body had been set on fire. If I could have screamed, I’d have screamed myself hoarse.
In addition to the pain I started to feel a sense of exhilaration. I recognized it. This was my Fire Within passive that usually kicked in when I was badly injured.
“What did you do?” I thought.
“I’ve boosted your abilities before. This one is supposed to be there for you when you are gravely injured. It is not meant to handle anything nearly as bad as this poison at your level though.”
My world became fragmented colors as my eyes began to heal themselves, everything began to blearily come back into focus.
I still couldn’t move or speak, but my thoughts were becoming clearer. I was going to kill that man. I didn’t know how I was going to find him again, but for this I was going to have to find a way to do something worse.
“Fuck, it hurts. It seems to be working.”
“A bit. This poison is a work of art. We don’t want you to die. If you die you’ll be days before you can resurrect.”
I had to stop the conversation as I needed to get more seizures out of the way. These knocked me from the bed and left me face-down on the floor. In the aftermath though I could move again, albeit weakly, and I shakily pushed myself up.
My health bar was at only about half its normal length and my stamina bar nearly exhausted.
I couldn’t even think of getting back into my armor. I toggled a heal potion from my inventory. It had no effect. Great. Staggering to the door I managed to get it open and stumbled to the next one.
Walt answered my knocking and took one look at me before calling out, “Ashley? We’ve got trouble.”
Ashley poked her head out behind him and looked me over. “A naked Liam. A seriously fucked-up, naked Liam. How many debuffs do you have? Is this some kind of magical STD?”
Walt grimaced and took a step back.
“It’s not—and too many. I should be dead. Barton the Brute, he poisoned me and he took Aria captive.”
“This is why you never leave anyone alive,” Ashley said.
“Yell at me when I’m not half-murdered and have clothes on.”
“Like either of us think you mind the last bit,” Walt said. “If we get you back in your armor are you going to fall over?”
“I think I’ll be okay.”
It took a while. Fine motor control was not something I had, but eventually they managed to get me armored up once more.
“So, we’re going after them right? You owe that fucker a lot of pain,” Ashley said.
“We also had a deal with Aria and we honor that. She’s in trouble and we help out, plus we need to go to the palace anyway for the key to free Mela,” I said.
“Perhaps,” Walt said with a shake of his head. “Given all she seemed to know and her insisting on rescues as payment, she probably knew this was coming. Giving us extra motivation to go to the palace could be part of a scheme.”
Walt was smart and that always made him worth listening to. I knew Aria was playing me last night. It was why I stepped out of negotiations. I got played a lot though. I used to question everyone trying to play me, but these days I was trying to take it in my stride.
“We made the deal. If we want to back out later we can, but she gets this rescue.”
Walt and Ashley exchanged looks, but neither objected. Good.
“So how do we break into the palace?” Ashley asked.
“I’m a King. We’re going to go up to the gates and be pains in the asses until they let us in.”
Soon we left the inn—which by day had turned into The Prancing Pony. The other establishments seemed to have become far cheerier as well.
“I wonder how people remember where they are staying,” Ashley said.
“I would guess they tell you both names when you check in,” Walt said.
“Were-deathtraps are weird.”
We were slow making our way through the city. I could move with my armor on, but I was nowhere near full strength. I wasn’t just weak, I hurt, a dull ache that wouldn’t fade. I took a moment to read through the debuffs I still had up.
Weakness of Body
Target has their Strength and Endurance halved for the duration of the effect reducing maximum health and endurance.
Duration: 3 days
Torment
Target suffers pain equal to moderate wounds in every body location.
Duration: 3 days
Stay Down
Target will have a timer of 3 days before any respawn can occur if they die during the duration of this effect.
Duration: 3 days
Enhance Peril
Any negative effects which the target experiences while under the duration of the spell will have their duration ex
tended to 3 days.
Duration: 3 days
Ability Lock
Target is unable to use any of their active abilities or spells while this effect is active.
Duration: 3 days.
That really sucked. Right now I’d be completely useless in a fight. My ability to tank had been largely mitigated and without my spells a major source of my damage was gone. At least nothing detracted from my Charisma. Being a social beast was an important aspect of my build and one I imagined that we would need at the palace.
Navigating the main thoroughfares of the city proved far easier than the alleyways had. Any time we stopped to ask for directions we got help with a smile. We scarcely needed it. The palace towered above everything else in the middle of the city.
Vibrant silks were the most common attire. Vendors shouted offers to us as we passed stalls filled with wonders. In other circumstances we would have lingered and shopped, but we were on a mission.
The towers of the palace were surrounded by a massive wall with murals covering the surface. What at first appeared decorative I knew must be more. I recognized a few of the runes from Lea.
“Their magical defenses put ours to shame. Wards against teleportation, scrying, curses,” Walt said.
“Didn’t Castle Sardonis have something like that up?” I asked.
“Think of it as an active versus passive effect, this is far more elegant.”
Elegant or not, the defenses of Castle Sardonis had held out for centuries. Maybe I was just defensive of my Kingdom because it was mine, but I really didn’t think we had anything to be ashamed of.
Quest Granted
Be A Charmer
You need to gain access to the palace. Surely someone with your ludicrous levels of investment in Charisma can talk their way through the gates.
