Big Trouble

by Andrew Seiple

  “Right,” Chase let out a sigh of relief. Then she glared at the uniforms again. “But I’m still wearing a disguise, darn it.”

  “Okay. It might help, I guess. None of them will fit me, though.”

  “I thought of that already.” Chase grinned. “You’re my prisoner.”

  The Fox’s eyebrows rose toward his ears.

  Five minutes later, a black-uniformed halven with her cap pulled low led a very penitent-looking fox behind her, his front paws bound. She’d found a rope in one of the drawers and held the other end loosely, peering up the stairs as she climbed them. They were made for humans, and this was a stretch, especially in the trousers she’d put on over her skirt. Fortunately, they were made for someone with a bit of a gut, and loose enough that she didn’t rip them as she ascended. The downside was that she was stuck holding them up with her other hand. If she did have to run, her first step would be to lose the pants as quickly as possible.

  “Remember, we have to be careful,” Renny whispered. “You’re sure your prisoner said that we could find him by following the water?”

  “Yes, absolutely.”

  “Then we’ll have to go right past the monster’s island. I don’t think the monster can get to us as long as we stay on the path, but I’m not sure. Best to be quiet, just in case.”

  “Smart idea. Let’s start now,” Chase said, feeling her nerves on edge as the top of the stairs approached. Lanterns flickered as she passed them, but it was darker up there, far less light. It helped drum in the seriousness of this place... the consequences, should she be caught unprepared.

  For a second she thought about using foresight to peek up at the top of the stairs, but she resisted. That skill was useful, but it consumed ten points of fortune every time. Fortune, like all her pools, regenerated a point every ten minutes. Faster if she slept, true, but the thought of taking a nap in this place was ludicrous, at best. No, she had enough for eleven uses without recharging, but they’d go quickly if she went jumping at every shadow and starting at every noise.

  Renny took his own advice, and they wound through a hallway past open doors that showed bunk-bed-filled barracks and storerooms with crates. The lanterns grew farther and farther apart as they went, the darkness seeping in like water.

  It was an apt comparison, for water was what the two of them heard, dripping and trickling and lapping against stone. Until finally they turned one last corner and came to an iron grille with a barricade behind hit. Beyond the grille, she could clearly hear the water, flowing and vast, far more than the river that ran out of the cave.

  But Chase found her attention fixed on the crumpled bodies behind the barricade. Black-uniformed, all six of them, they lay with weapons near them, facing down the hall towards her.

  “Did you fight them too?” Chase asked, feeling another shudder pass through her.

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you come in here and kill them?” Chase asked, looking at the little fox behind her with a sudden wariness.

  “At first it was because they had shot at us, outside. But after we got up the stairs, we thought this was a sort of dungeon. If it wasn’t, then it wasn’t safe to leave behind us. And if it was, then perhaps we could find a way home within it. It was very close to the waymark, and dungeons that are close to things like that are often involved with them somehow.”

  “A dungeon?” Chase asked, glancing around. “Really?”

  “I don’t think it is, now that I’ve had time to think about it,” Renny shook his head. “Dungeons usually have at least a few puns in them. This place has nothing like that. It isn’t funny at all. It’s scary.”

  Chase swallowed her agreement and did her best to screw her courage into place. “Let’s keep moving.”

  The door in the metal grille was unlocked, and she passed through the thick barred-portal, gazing around with caution.

  The room beyond was vast. No, not a room, she realized, but a cavern. High-ceilinged, with a massive underground lake in the center, only two areas of it were lit. The first was the path she was on, leading around the side of the cavern until it ended in darkness. The second was an island in the center of the lake, an island whose only feature beyond a few standing lights in iron candelabra was a set of stairs descending into darkness.

  But there was something else on the island. A figure sitting calmly, a figure smeared with dirt and darkness. A large figure, wearing the remnants of metal armor.

  A figure smiling widely, with white, white teeth in the flickering light.

  “Chase! It’s the monster!” Cried Renny.

  “There you are!” The prisoner spoke and beckoned. “Come girl, let’s talk it out.”

  CHAPTER 9: ECHOES OF ANOTHER WORLD

  “This guy killed all my friends!” Renny started tugging on the rope, doing his best to haul Chase back. But she resisted...

  STR+1

  Her own strength, honed by years of chores, was far more than adequate to fend off the frightened fox. “Wait! Wait, hold on. He’s far enough away, we can run if we have to,” Chase said, trying to talk some sense into Renny.

  “You won’t have to,” the man called out. Then he stood up and put his hand to his eyes, peering past the lights. “Is that the toy that got away? I can’t tell from here.”

  “Stop fighting!” Chase said, finally letting go of the rope, and the little fox barely managed to avoid falling on his rump. “Yes, that’s him. You admit that you killed his friends?”

  “I did no such thing. They’re all still alive,” the prisoner spread his arms.

  “You lie!” Renny howled, tail poofed up in alarm. “They fell out of my party, one by one. I watched the party screen as they dropped off. I’m the only one left!”

  But there was a trace of uncertainty in his voice.

  Chase’s lessons came back to her. “Renny, could they have left the party instead?”

  “Why would they do that? They wouldn’t leave me— they wouldn’t do that.”

  “They didn’t have a choice,” the man called again. “I can tell you what happened, but it’s a long story. We can keep bellowing across the lake and maybe risk getting you attacked by guards or you can come over here and we can talk like civilized people.”

  Chase stared at the underground lake, and the ink-dark water. “I think I’m going to have to decline. I’m not that great a swimmer.”

  “Don’t worry. The wa-wat...” The man coughed. “The stuff is barely two feet deep. Even a short-stuff like you could do it.”

  That was definitely a stutter. He’d stuttered the last time he’d mentioned water. “Renny, is he telling the truth? Is it that shallow?”

  “Yes. Baconator and I rode on Moira’s shoulders, and it barely came up to her knees. But I can’t believe you’re considering this! He’s a monster! He took us all down in less than a minute...”

  “To be fair, you’d been murdering your way through the prison.” The man shrugged. “I heard the screams of the men you killed at the barricade. I thought you were coming to kill me, so I struck first.”

  “Why don’t you come to us?” Chase said, putting her hand on Renny’s shoulder. “If the water’s that shallow, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  The man looked away and was silent. When he turned back, he wasn’t smiling anymore. “They did something to me. I can’t cross the, the water. Even the thought of it... even the thought of it terrifies me. This is not a thing I admit lightly, girl. Let that testify to my sincerity.”

  Chase stared at him, trying to gauge his honesty. She couldn’t. The distance was far, and his face was barely visible, even in the light. But then another thought struck her. “So it’s like a condition?”

  “It’s exactly a condition,” he said.

  I have just the thing for that! “Diagnose,” Chase whispered.

  Words filled her view.

  Il Macelleaio?

  DEBUFFS: None

  CONDITIONS: Hunger, Malnutrition, Insanity: Hydrophobia

>   Hunger and malnutrition, those were words she knew... things to frighten young halvens into behaving and give them nightmares. Insanity she understood, as much as anyone did. But hydrophobia? That was an unfamiliar word. “Help hydrophobia,” she whispered.

  Hydrophobia: An insanity that is shown through an extreme fear of water. The being afflicted will not willingly enter or cross significant bodies of water and takes moxie and sanity damage from contact with the substance.

  “I believe you,” Chase called and glanced back to Renny. “You’re a Tailor, right? You can clean and press?”

  “Yes. You’re not seriously going to do this?”

  “It’s that or try the disguise idea. And if he saw through it, the guards will.”

  “Chase... if you get within arm’s reach of him, he can kill you. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Which is why I won’t.” She raised her voice. “I want your word that you won’t harm us.”

  “I swear I won’t.”

  “Or cause us to come to harm.”

  “That, too.”

  “Swear!” Chase commanded and folded her arms.

  But the man merely laughed at her display. “I swear. Now come on, get over here. If we’re really lucky, your noise hasn’t let half the prison know you’re here yet.”

  Chase knelt down next to Renny and hugged him. “You don’t have to go. You can stay here, if you want. I’ll be fine, he doesn’t know what I can do. And I’ve no intention of telling him.”

  “I’ll go,” whispered Renny. “If there’s any chance of getting my friends back I have to try. And right now, he’s the only one who might give us answers.”

  “Yeah,” Chase said, giving him one more squeeze, then lifting him up to her shoulders. Then she pulled the rolls she had left out of her pockets and put them into her pack, lifting it up so they wouldn’t get soggy.

  The water was as cold as she thought it would be, and Chase shivered as she slid into it. It was clammy and frigid, and the bottom of the lake was slimy with unseen mud and vegetation. At least Chase hoped it was vegetation.

  Far to her right, where the light’s didn’t reach, the water gurgled as it drained away and formed the river flowing down through the mountain. Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a current, so that was one of her worries laid to rest.

  It seemed to take forever to cross over to the island, but it was probably only a minute or two, all told. She took her time, moving carefully and keeping her footing on the slick mud.

  Your Swim skill is now level 7!

  The words didn’t cheer her like they normally would have, though. She was too busy staring at the prisoner. Now that she was closer, she could make out every detail, and she didn’t like what she was seeing.

  He was the tallest human she had ever seen. He had to be over two meters, perhaps by a third again or so. Even for humans, she thought that was big. His muscles shown through his torn clothes in lumps and bunches, even though he looked thin and out of proportion to his height. That could be the malnutrition, she knew. It was hard to tell exactly, for he wore the tattered remnants of a suit of metal armor, embossed with broken leonine faces and crusted with dirt and gore. The few bits that weren’t mucked over with grime shone goldish in the light, and two lion’s eyes on the breastplate glowed blue with magical light.

  But the armor was broken, over half of it missing. His legs were bare save for shredded trousers, and his feet were muddy and pale, pale as the deep sea fishes she’d read about so long ago. His face was pale too, black hair wild and shaggy, contrasting with the rest of it. Matted with gore, heavy bangs fell over his glittering blue eyes. His features were as leonine as his armor, and tension showed behind his smile. Once she found those eyes, she could no more look away than a mouse could break the gaze of a serpent.

  I fear this man, and I’m not afraid to admit that, Chase thought. There was no shame in showing weakness before this man; he was very clearly dangerous, and only the truly stupid would deny that. Absurdly enough, the thought gave her the courage to look away.

  WILL+1

  “Who are you, girl?” The prisoner asked. “And you, too, little toy. I’m Dijornos.”

  “I’m Chase.”

  “Call me Renny.”

  “Interesting. Your names don’t match the local area. Now why is that?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Chase said, staring at him, trying to get used to the cold, cold water. It was truly horrible, standing in this stuff. She rather thought she was losing feeling in her toes. “My name is a good, halven one.”

  “Ah! Halven, that’s the explanation, then. Some races are exempt from the regional naming algorithms.”

  “The what now?” She didn’t know that last word.

  “Don’t you worry about it, it’s inconsequential. Is ah, is that bread for me?”

  He’d apparently caught sight of the baked goods poking out of her pack. Not too unexpected, given how she was carrying it above her head, to keep the rolls from sogging up. “I suppose I could share. Do you remember your promise not to hurt us?”

  “Of course,” said the man.

  When he was done talking, she muttered “Foresight.”

  Again, time slowed, and the ghost image of herself splashed through the water, getting into the shallows around the island. She saw the shadow of the prisoner back away, hands raised, and sit on the ground as if calming an animal. Ghostly Chase put the rolls down and backed away, and the prisoner slowly approached and knelt, eating hungrily as Chase retreated to the shore.

  “All right then,” Chase said as time renewed, and she darted forward, feeling that band in her chest tighten... and relax as she followed the course of her prediction.

  Your Foresight skill is now level 3!

  Seconds later, she was back at the edge of the water, feeling Renny tremble on her shoulder as Dijornos gorged himself on her rolls. He ate with gusto, making no pretense of table manners, rolling his eyes with pleasure.

  “Do you want that clean and press now?” Renny asked.

  “No. We might have to get wet again all of a sudden if he decides to break his word.”

  Dijornos glanced up at that, smiling, finishing off the last scrap of bread. “Oh girl, I won’t. I could hug you!” He stood up and spread his arms, and Chase backed up, holding up her own hands.

  “Please keep away. You’re still very scary. And, er... well... it’s ah...” She sniffled. The man smelled horrible, now that she was this close.

  “Ah. I understand. It’s the business with the...” he gestured at the lake. “I can’t clean myself that way. And I’m not a tailor, so...”

  “Clean and Press,” Renny spoke, and instantly the grime was gone. The man sighed in relief, his armor gleaming now, his hair flopping down from gore-stiffened spikes into a long mane.

  “Kind of you to do so,” Dijornos smiled and sat down. “I understand your caution. In your place I’d do the same.”

  “Chase, let me clean you too at least,” Renny offered. “It doesn’t take much sanity.”

  The air was no less cold and clammy now that she was out of the water, and she was tired of shivering, so Chase just nodded. Renny muttered, and it was done.

  “So you’ve got the Tailor job to repair yourself? Clever,” the prisoner said. “I suppose that little stuffed pig is also a Tailor, to handle his own repairs, too?”

  “Where is Baconator? And the others, for that matter! What did you do with my friends, you monster?” Renny clutched Chase’s hair with one hand, pointing in accusation at the prisoner.

  The prisoner stared back, and his eyes lost any warmth they might have held. “Toy,” he breathed, in a tone that shook Chase’s spine. “You would do well to speak to me with a respectful tone. Two decades I have been down here, and I have no patience for insults.”

  Renny fell silent.

  “He meant nothing by it,” Chase said, hurrying to dispel the worrisome silence. “He’s upset. You would be too, I’m sure.”
<
br />   The prisoner closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Took another, and the halven and the golem watched the madman, and listened to him pant in the dark. Only when he smiled a rueful grin did they relax. Just a bit, though. “You’re right, of course,” The prisoner said. “Your friends are alive. Let me think... your father told you that this place was built to hold five of us?”

  “Five prisoners, yes.”

  “He also said that they couldn’t kill us. Do you know why that is?”

  “No. I don’t.”

  Oddly enough, Dijornos seemed to relax. “It is because we’re different than you. We operate by... different rules.”

  Chase weighed her options for responding and stayed silent. If this man had been down here for two decades, then she thought he might appreciate a pair of sympathetic, silent ears.

  She thought correctly, as Dijornos waved a hand, and continued. “They can’t kill us, because we don’t always stay dead. And when we come back, we appear somewhere else. They want me off the board; they don’t want me respawning... coming back to life, I mean. I doubt you’d know the other term.”

  “Is that a term like griefer?” Chase looked at him, watching for his reaction.

  She wasn’t disappointed. His eyes went wide, and he started to stand, only stopped when she took some hasty steps backward.

  “How did you hear that word?” he breathed.

  “Thomasi said it,” Chase lied.

  CHA+1

  “Ah. Heh. That hypocrite. Insisting we keep things secret from the ennpeasies, and now he goes and drops some gamerspeak.” Dijornos settled back down, chuckling.

  “I’m sure I heard that peasies word wrong,” Chase said, relaxing. Just a bit.

  “Ennpeasies. It’s what we call you. You and everyone else who was... born in this world.”

  “That’s a strange thing to say.”

  “Hum. How do I explain it... think of us like demigods. We weren’t from this world, originally. This is... one of many that we wandered through. But something went wrong, and now we’re stuck here. Those of us who are left, anyway.” Dijornos looked at her, soberly. “For the record, repeating anything I say here will get you killed at some point. Whoever put us here is ruthless, plain and simple.”