by J. Cee
Zeudah watched Ceph leave before turning to greet the woman. It was Lisha.
She rushed to meet him. “Zeudah, what happened? You disappeared. The Pits have been overrun by the Word’s lackeys. What’s going on?”
Lisha had been one of his most loyal guards. Could he trust her? No, he couldn’t trust anyone. He hoped she wouldn’t use her Inspect skill.
“It’s a long story. Lisha, I order you to forget this meeting. Tell the others they’re released from my service. That’s my last command as your master.”
“What?” Lisha stepped back, unsure of herself. “Why? Did we fail you?”
Zeudah shook his head. “No. I failed myself. Go.”
“I’m not leaving. What’s wrong? You look different. Where’s your usual gear?”
Lisha’s eyes widened. “Shit! What happened to you!” She was shouting now.
Zeudah closed his eyes and swore under his breath. He tried to shuttle Lisha off into a quiet corner. People were staring.
“Keep quiet, Lisha, please!”
“Your aura… what’s wrong?” Lisha pounded one fist into the other open palm. “It’s that bitch, Jexaka, isn’t it? She did this.”
“Yes, but I don’t think it’s only her. There’s more to it. Lisha, leave this alone.”
Zeudah couldn’t bear to tell Lisha everything he had learned in the last day. She probably wouldn’t believe him, and if she did… she wasn’t like him. Lisha was volatile and passionate. Once she set upon a goal, she wouldn’t turn back, no matter what. He didn’t know how she would react to the truths he had learned. He knew it would destroy her.
Zeudah looked into her fierce, worried gray eyes. He was a hard man, even ruthless, but that didn’t mean he lacked a heart.
“Lisha, I’m begging you, as your former master, as your friend. If you ever respected me, if you ever cared at all for me, leave me now. Go, and don’t look back.”
After leaving Zeudah, Ceph reached the end of the atrium and turned right, as the guard at the entrance had instructed. As he walked down the hall, he spotted a pair of guards in front of a door. Neither of them were Everborn. There was an official looking sign above the door, although Ceph couldn’t read it from where he was. He assumed that this was the Word’s office.
Ceph pictured the powerful Word sitting at an office desk shuffling papers. It was absurd.
The hall ended in a dead end with a large window. There were several more doors past the office, and he guessed that the apothecary would be behind one of them. Ceph rushed past the men standing guard with a confident air until he was at the end of the hall. The last door on the right had a mortar and pestle engraved into its front. That had to be it.
The door was locked. Ceph fumbled about as if he was looking for a key, trying not to attract the attention of the nearby guards. One of the guards looked like he was about to ask him with a question. Ceph stepped towards him instead.
“Can you believe it?” Ceph said in a loud voice. “I’ve lost my key. Hey, you, which wing’s the Keymaster in? He’s going to kill me. Second key I’ve lost this month.”
The closer guard, a mustached middle-aged man, had been about to speak but closed his mouth in confusion. The other guard, a young man about Ceph’s age, replied instead.
“Excuse me, sir?”
Ceph wracked his brains for a way to distract the guards. He could kill them, as they weren’t Everborn, but the thought of killing people that lightly disgusted him. Violence also increased the risk of being found.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a key to the apothecary, would you?” Ceph asked. “I could break the door pretty easily, but, you know, the boss gets mad at us for that sort of thing.”
The guards shared a glance. “Sorry, sir, what was your name again?”
“Martin. Marty. I need to get in there. What do you say? Can you help?” Ceph stepped closer to the two guards.
The younger guard shrank back slightly with a worried look. The older guard with a mustache didn’t flinch, though. “I can check with the Word, if you’d like. It’s inside.”
The older guard turned around, reaching for the door’s handle.
“Oh! Look!” Ceph cried while slapping the guard gently on the back. He pointed his finger franticly into the air, searching for something to land on. Across from the Word’s door was a portrait.
“There. Look at that painting. Isn’t that a fine painting,” Ceph babbled.
The older guard’s hand rested on the door’s handle, but he let go at Ceph’s outburst to see what he was pointing at.
“That? The Word’s proud of its portrait, I suppose.” The guard turned back to the door.
There was a mild thump from inside the Word’s office. For a second, Ceph’s world slowed to a crawl as he realized that a flimsy piece of wood was all that separated him from his former torturer.
Ceph didn’t have time to debate morals or weigh consequences. Out of pure terror, he grabbed the older guard, wrapping an arm around his neck, and twisted hard. While still holding onto the broken man with his right arm, Ceph’s hand shot out and grabbed the head of the younger guard. He squeezed tightly, and the skull collapsed with a soft crack.
The double murder had taken an instant. Yes, this was murder, Ceph thought in shock. Rapid footsteps approached. Ceph looked up, his adrenaline racing. It was Zeudah.
“What’s going on!” Zeudah hissed.
“The Word’s inside. I had to stop them. I had to.”
“Quiet, we need to hide the bodies. Anyone could step into the hall right now.”
“The apothecary is over there.”
“Bring the bodies.” Zeudah walked over to the locked apothecary door and twisted the handle with a slow but firm grip. Ceph winced at a sharp crack as the lock broke, glancing at the Word’s closed door. Nothing happened. Ceph pulled the two bodies into the apothecary, trying not to drip blood from the crushed skull onto the floor. Zeudah closed the door once Ceph was inside.
“I killed them. I can’t believe I killed them.” Ceph stared at the dead guards.
“So what?” Zeudah said. “We kill people all the time.”
“These weren’t Everborn. They were my people. This was real murder.”
Zeudah rummaged through the shelves. “We don’t have time for this. Save it for later. Help me find the mimic powder.” There were hundreds of glass bottles labeled in small script.
“Eye of newt. Nope, let’s see. Toe of frog. Too far. Where’s ‘m.’ Manticore whiskers. Here we are.” Zeudah shuffled through the various bottles.
Ceph stepped next to Zeudah. “There. Mimic blood.” Ceph picked up a small bottle filled with a dark purple powder.
“Okay, let’s get out of here.” Zeudah cautiously cracked the door open a sliver and peered out into the hall. “The Word’s door is open too. He’s coming out.”
Ceph’s face turned white. “No, no, no.”
Zeudah closed the door gently. “He’ll wonder about the guards. Quick. The mimic powder. How does it work?”
“But we need it later!”
“It won’t matter if we’re dead. Come on. Give me a pinch.”
Ceph handed the bottle over to Zeudah, who removed the stopper and poured a small amount of the purple powder into his hand. He cocked his head back and tossed the powder into his mouth.
“What now?” Ceph asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll try to think about one of the guards.” Zeudah pointed at the older guard. “You try it with the younger one.”
Ceph took the mimic powder back from Zeudah and almost dropped the bottle as he jumped in surprise. Zeudah now looked like the dead guard with a mustache.
“Hurry!” Zeudah snapped, then paused at the oddity of another man’s voice coming out of his mouth. “We don’t know how long this will last.”
Ceph took a generous pinch of powder and stoppered the bottle again. The dry powder tickled his throat as he swallowed. Ceph struggled to hold back a reflexive cough.
> Zeudah slapped Ceph’s back in exasperation. “You’re kidding me, right? Don’t you dare cough.”
Ceph coughed. “Sorry,” he said weakly. He looked at himself. His arms and body looked like the younger guard.
Zeudah wasted no time as he moved to the dead guards. He crushed their heads with his feet, their faces disappearing into a gory mess.
“What was that for?” Ceph hissed.
“Keep quiet and follow me.”
Zeudah opened the door and strode out into the hall.
“Help, help!” Zeudah rushed to the Word’s office. “We found two dead guards in the apothecary.”
Ceph raced behind Zeudah. He froze as he saw the familiar hooded creature in robes appear.
“What is it?” The Word didn’t seem to be in a rush. “Show me.”
Zeudah ran over to the apothecary and pointed at the dead bodies lying beyond the doorway. Ceph remained frozen, staring at the Word. The Everborn returned his stare with a curious expression.
“Don’t mind the boy. This is his first sight of blood. It’s rather shocking for him. See, here.” Zeudah gestured towards the bodies again.
To Ceph’s relief, the Word turned and walked into the apothecary. It bent to examine the blood before turning to Zeudah.
“You two. Watch the corpses. Nothing is to be touched. I will go find a tracker. I will leave Nansi here in case there is trouble.”
The Everborn whispered an incantation in low tones using words that Ceph didn’t understand. Ceph tried to shrink into a corner behind Zeudah.
A sharp crack split the air, and Ceph smelled the faint odor of smoke. Standing next to the Word was a masked figure in brown leather. The demon looked exactly like the one that Ceph and Aeri had met earlier at the challenge site.
“Stand guard for intruders,” the Word ordered the demon. Then, the Word vanished.
The demon turned to regard the two men with its yellow eyes. It sniffed the air. Then the demon pointed at Ceph and laughed hysterically. Ceph didn’t dare to move. Zeudah’s jaw tightened as he lifted an arm to attack.
“Wait,” Ceph whispered, holding Zeudah back.
The demon continued laughing. It raised a gloved hand, closing it into a fist except for the ring finger.
“Shinies,” a coarse voice hissed.
The demon laughed one more time and turned away from the men, standing guard next to the Word’s office.
It had to be the same demon. Ceph could have swore the demon was making fun of him.
“What was that about?” Zeudah asked.
Ceph shook his head. “I’m not sure. I think it’s leaving us alone. We should go before it changes its mind.”
Ceph and Zeudah ran past the demon. The demon ignored them, but started laughing again after a few seconds. Ceph looked at Zeudah.
“The powder. It’s worn off!” Ceph looked at himself. He was back to Ceph.
“Act normal. We’ll go back the way we came in.”
The demon still hadn’t moved. They rounded the hallway into the atrium.
“By the way, who was that woman looking for you here?” Ceph asked. “What happened?”
“Nothing. I took care of it.”
“We’re on the same side now. You can tell me.”
“It’s none of your business.”
Ceph wasn’t in the mood for arguing, so he didn’t press Zeudah further. They left the complex and walked past the iron gates. As they stepped through the wide iron gates, the Word walked briskly past them in the opposite directions with a woman in dark green clothes. Ceph and Zeudah had walked about ten paces past the gate when they heard a shout.
“You there!”
“Ignore them,” Zeudah said. “Keep going.”
Despite Zeudah’s warning, Ceph lowered his head, trying to look behind him without appearing to do so.
“Uh, Zeudah,” Ceph said. “Your boots.”
“My boots?”
“Look.”
Zeudah was leaving a faint trail of bloody footprints behind him. The Word, now on the other side of the gate, peered at them.
“Shit, run!” Zeudah yelled.
Ceph cast a Soulstrike at the iron gate, hoping to disorient the Everborn. Then, he turned and sprinted after Zeudah, who had barreled ahead into a covered market across the street. Zeudah dodged around a group of Everborn on horseback with Ceph close behind him.
“Sorry,” Ceph said as he weaved his way between the horses, turning around to send a Soulstrike into the beast.
He plunged deeper into the marketplace, not waiting to watch the chaos of blood and screams unfold. Glass wares shattered, wooden stalls cracked, and human limbs snapped as Zeudah and Ceph raced through the market crowd with a frantic urgency. A part of Ceph recoiled from the destruction they were inflicting. This was a market for ordinary people, with hardly any Everborn around. He remembered watching an Everborn slaughter a farmer’s livestock. But fear and the will to survive overpowered any regret.
The men emerged on the other side of the marketplace, a swath of terror and anger left festering in their wake. There was no sign of the Everborn. Zeudah ran down a side street, and Ceph followed. They had escaped, but at what cost?
Chapter 24
The two brutes, similar to the one Ceph had fought in the tournament, walked back and forth across the cavern entrance. Yellow auras ringed each of the brutes to Ceph’s eyes, highlighting the danger of a direct attack.
“They’re yellow to me,” Ceph said to Zeudah, who crouched with him in the undergrowth.
Ceph and Zeudah had returned to Myrtle’s shop following their theft of the mimic powder. After checking on Aeri’s location, the two men had set out to scout the grounds. The cavern entrance was within an hour’s walk from the edge of the First Zone, but they couldn’t proceed further without slipping past the pair of brutes.
“Where does she keep getting those things?” Ceph muttered.
“We could use the mimic powder,” Zeudah said. “The question is who to mimic. Would they let locust-men past? Or Jexaka?”
“We used up a third of the bottle already. We shouldn’t use it unless we absolutely have to.”
A disturbance drew the attention of the men back to the cave’s entrance, where three locust-men had appeared. They made chittering noises at the brutes, who responded with a series of roars. Suddenly, one of the brutes lunged forward and tore an arm off a locust-man. The three smaller creatures shrieked and retreated back into the cave, the wounded one dripping dark ichor. The brute still held the torn arm in his hand. He tore a piece off with his mouth. The other brute reached for the arm, but the first brute batted him away and continued eating.
The men watched the grisly scene in silence. Ceph spoke what they were both thinking.
“So much for sneaking past them.”
Myrtle’s shop had become an impromptu headquarters for the mission to rescue Aeri. Myrtle and Ceph sat on opposite sides of her desk, while Zeudah remained standing. Myrtle hadn’t replaced the chair broken by Ceph the other day.
“They’re too strong to fight,” Ceph said. “I could try to raise my rank, but we don’t know how long we have.”
“I’m too weak to fight. I might be able to help with a distraction.” Zeudah paced back and forth in the small shop.
“Do you know if you can even gain ranks?” Ceph asked.
“I haven’t had the chance to try yet.” Zeudah stopped pacing. “I should raise my rank as soon as possible. It’s unnerving, with my life at risk all the time.”
“Welcome to our world,” Ceph said.
Myrtle took off the strange helmet with flickering lights and thin ropes. “Whether you fight the creatures guarding the cavern or try to create a distraction, it’s clear that neither of you is currently fit for the task.”
“Thanks for the encouragement,” Ceph said with a sigh. “Any ideas?”
“Raising your ranks the old-fashioned way is too slow,” Myrtle said. “You’ll need another way to get s
tronger. I can think of two ways.”
“Allies,” Zeudah said. “Where do we find allies, though?”
“That’s right, allies. I don’t think any Everborn will help us. Not unless they also happen to be in the same position as Zeudah.” Myrtle’s covered head nodded in his direction.
Zeudah grunted.
“Onceborn, like me, then,” Ceph said. “But I thought Aeri and I were the last ones remaining. Kaine’s dead.”
“Kaine may be gone, but the First Believers live on. They could aid you, perhaps birth new Onceborn to lend their power.”
Ceph slowly shook his head. “That’s… extreme. We’re asking other people to become like us. Regular people to be involved with the Everborn.”
“It’s their choice, isn’t it?” Zeudah asked. “At least they can choose. I didn’t have the choice to become this, damn it.”
Ceph wanted to say that he hadn’t had a real choice, either, but he kept the thought to himself.
“I still don’t like it,” Ceph said. “They’d only be rank nine. Would more weak Onceborn even make a difference? Quantity over quality?”
“That’s what the Swarm did,” Zeudah pointed out.
“You said there were two ways to get stronger. What’s the other?”
Myrtle looked at Zeudah with an expectant air.
“You’re going to make us think? Alright.” Zeudah paced for several seconds. “Equipment that’s powerful enough to make a difference. Not your everyday equipment. Something special.” He stopped pacing. “An artifact?”
“Indeed,” Myrtle said. “Ceph can retrieve an artifact. Those also lack rank restrictions.”
“But artifacts show up randomly,” Zeudah said. “Not to mention the fiendishly difficult challenges they have. We skipped the last challenge to get the mimic powder, remember? An artifact will be worse.”
“I can’t help you on the challenge, but I can help you find one,” Myrtle said. “An artifact challenge appeared at the Adventurer’s Hall today.”
“What?” Zeudah was speechless for a moment. “Even if that’s true, we’ll have to compete with hundreds of other Everborn,” Zeudah said.
“Compete?” Ceph asked.
