“You love the guy?”
“What?” The question flummoxed her, made her blush. “No! He’s... he’s a good friend, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh,” Dijornos said, chuckling. “Damn, those are some twitchy ears.”
Still feeling her cheeks burn, Chase jammed her headscarf down over her long, pointy ears. “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a human. Uh, not that I mean anything by that, no offense.”
“It’s easy to forget that she’s still a young girl, isn’t it?” The Muscle Wizaard asked.
Chase bit off her retort, as Dijornos laughed.
“Yeah, it is. Serious charisma on ’er. All right. All right. Sure, I’ll help you. Hell, you’ll need me along to manage Speranza. You thought Tabita was crazy? You don’t know crazy.”
And just as he said that, Yubai gave a shout. The wall crumbled, lanternlight flooded in... and several strange voices shouted in alarm.
They’d tunneled into a barracks, Chase realized, and she reached for her cards.
“Time to make the donuts!” Dijornos barked, and charged in ahead.
“Better the dragon you know, huh?” Chase looked to Renny and Bastien.
They looked back for a long, solemn second.
“Go!” Chase told them. “Knock out as many as you can, before he—”
Someone screamed, a shriek that ended in a gurgle. Chase flinched. “Just go!” She repeated.
They went. They fought, and Chase moved in behind them, cards flashing, throwing as many demoralizing shots as she could to end this fight faster, and trying not to flinch every time Dijornos killed some poor guard with his bare hands.
Sometimes the dragon you knew was still a dragon.
CHAPTER 4: UP IN SMOKE
“Hold’em,” Chase muttered, and the silver cards flashed back into her hands. Around her, the last defenders of the prison lay unconscious or dead.
Mostly unconscious. It had taken a brief and hot argument with Dijornos over his methods to get to that point. Only when Renny pointed out that he actually got about the same experience for knocking his foes out as he did for killing them, did the player concede the point.
Even then, she was pretty sure his ‘accidental’ slips which resulted in a few odd corpses here and there were in no way accidental. And every last one was her fault, for unleashing this particular beast.
“You’re doing it again,” Bastien said, as he moved up next to her in the quiet, ruffling her head. “We can tell you’re unhappy.”
“It’s on us... on me. What have we done to these poor guards? They were just doing their duty.”
“Those poor guards killed teenagers for the crime of daring to explore haunted ruins,” Bastien reminded her. “That was their duty, too. Weak but evil people are still evil.”
“It doesn’t make it any better,” Chase said, staring at her toes and the blood that had worked its way between them. Except... that was a lie. It did make it better, a little. It was easy to forget that these people had thrown in their lot with a conspiracy that didn’t hesitate to kidnap, torture, and murder.
Not completely better, just a little better. She took a breath and tucked Enrico’s Last Hand back into its box.
Only then, did she look up at the cell door ahead of them. “Speranza first,” she decided. “Cagna will be fine. I’m pretty sure we took down everything in the prison that could be a threat to her...” her eye fell on Dijornos, who was struggling into a stolen pair of pants. “...everything that isn’t on our side, anyway. Or will be, shortly.”
“Will she?” Renny asked, as he moved up next to her. “We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.”
“If she isn’t on our side then she doesn’t leave.” Chase shrugged. “It’s that simple. We came here to get a player to help us find a player. We have one. If she declines, then we don’t need her.”
When they moved up to the door and waved, Yubai got the idea immediately and did his thing.
It was a similar setup. A dark cell, a figure chained to the wall... they hadn’t stripped her and put her on a toilet, at least. They’d left her enough slack to get to the porcelain throne and left her hands free enough to manage matters in that department. But they’d masked her head, like a falcon’s hood over an unruly bird.
Seeing that triggered another question. “How did they plan to feed you and get you water?” she asked Dijornos.
“They didn’t,” he said, shortly. “We’re high enough level we can take a lot of dehydration and starvation. Which reminds me, have you seen a kitchen around here anywhere? I should eat something.”
“Southern wing, sixth door off the main corridor,” Chase said. “Meet us back here when you’re done.”
Dijornos considered her, then looked to Speranza’s still form. “I’ll wait until this is done.”
“You don’t trust us?” Renny asked.
“You don’t trust me,” Dijornos shrugged. “Not really. And I really want to hear what you’re going to say to her.”
“Fair enough,” Chase shrugged. “Yubai, can you...” she tapped the chains.
Speranza startled when the bear-man moved up and started crafting. Bastien restrained her easily though, and once the chains were cut away he untied the hood and pulled it off her.
Blonde hair spilled free, dirty and matted and long, and pale eyes flickered around the dim room. They fell on Renny and Chase and she took a deep, deep breath....
“Nope!” Renny said. “Phantasm! That Je Ne Sais Quois!”
And instantly her head was a frog’s head, and the song she had been going to sing was nothing but croaks.
“Yeah, you remember that trick?” Chase said, staring into those bulging illusionary eyes. “We do. So stop it with the song, and let’s have a nice talk where you don’t try to turn us into your slaves.”
Froggy lips closed and Speranza nodded. With a pop the illusion vanished, leaving a wan, beautiful, pale woman’s face staring down at her tormentors.
“Haven’t you done enough to me?” she whispered.
“Nope,” Dijornos said, and she started in surprise. Her head whipped around, wispy hair flying as she saw him for the first time.
“Oh god, oh god no!” she shrieked. “Please! He’ll kill me!”
“Nope again,” Dijornos said, but Speranza shrunk back against the wall, hugging herself and muttering.
“Speranza? Speranza?” Chase moved in front of her. “Look at me. Please. I owe you an apology, first. And then I have an offer for you.”
The woman’s muttering slowed, and her eyes glittered through her fingers, glittered in the lantern-light trickling in from outside. Crazy eyes, mad eyes, and Chase swallowed. Captivity had hit her hard. She’d been contained in an especially cruel cell for over a decade, seeing no one, only hearing those she was permitted to hear. Where the other players had at least had some basic contact, she’d had stone walls and the knowledge that they would kill her in a heartbeat if they felt like it.
Honestly, Chase would have been surprised if she DIDN’T have some form of madness. Although, come to think of it, Chase had a skill to help with that sort of thing, didn’t she? “Bastien? Go drag one of the unconscious guards back in here, please.”
“Are you sure?” The Muscle Wizaard said, looking from Dijornos to the madwoman and back to his friends.
“It’ll be fine. We all know the stakes, here,” Chase insisted. Then, as he moved away, she gave the madwoman a good, hard look. “Diagnose.”
Speranza
Debuffs: None
Conditions: Extreme Anxiety, Dehydration, Extreme Obsessions, Hydrophobia, Overwhelming Compulsions, Paralyzing Depression, Starvation
Chase sucked air through her teeth.
“It’s that bad?” Renny asked.
Chase shot him a surprised look. “You’re feeling empathy for her? You told me what she did to your comrades.”
“Well yeah, but I don’t like seeing people suffer. There’s punishment and then there’s... this, you k
now? This isn’t good.”
“You got a bleeding heart,” Dijornos told him.
“I don’t have a heart, not really. Or blood.”
“Figure of speech,” Chase said, turning as the sounds of armor dragging against stone heralded the arrival of Bastien with a groaning, mostly-unconscious guard. “Let’s see now.”
Speranza flinched as they dumped the guard next to her. She shrieked when Chase touched her. “Choo, choo, chuck,” Chase whispered. “Chicky chicky chuck...” She’d been a farm girl first, and knew how to soothe animals. The same principle seemed to apply here, for the crazy Bard settled down a bit.
And when she was as close to calm as she got, Chase put her other hand on the somnolent guard and said “Absorb Condition. Transfer Condition.”
She couldn’t do anything for Speranza’s dehydration and starvation. Those were caused by the absence of something, so as soon as those conditions were removed her body would realize that she still hadn’t eaten or imbibed in a while and would put those conditions right back on her. But the other things? Those Chase could pass on. Four times more Chase repeated her words.
Your Transfer Condition skill is now level 16!
And at the end of it Speranza was silent.
“Won’t work,” Dijornos said. “Not all the way.”
Chase stared at him.
He rubbed the back of his head, and looked away. “I still have... a few problems with water. Not as bad.”
“Diagnose,” Chase said.
Djiornos
Debuffs: None
Conditions: Aversion to water, Dehydration, Starvation
Another diagnose on Speranza made her raise her eyebrows. The hydrophobia was gone, but the other mental issues were still there, they just weren’t extreme, overwhelming, and paralyzing anymore.
Then something Thomasi had said came back to her. “Your brains aren’t here. Not all the way, not really. I guess he was telling the truth on that. So I can... So I can only handle the stuff that’s on this part of things. I can’t do much for what you’ve got on the other side.” She gave Speranza’s arm a squeeze. “Sorry.”
And she was surprised as hell, when the women grabbed her and pulled her close.
“Hey!” Bastien yelled, but Chase whipped an arm up.
“It’s all right! It’s all right. I think...”
“It is,” Speranza said. There wasn’t much strength in her arms, and she wasn’t trying to use it for anything but a hug. “You’ve helped. Thank you. You’re not Zoloft but I guess you’ll do.”
Dijornos barked laughter, but Chase gave her a big squeeze, then patted her arm until she was released. The woman’s gaze was hot upon her. Speranza’s eyes seemed to glitter with light as she stared into Chase’s own from inches away.
She’s got a lot of charisma herself. I might not be a match for her on this front. Chase resolved to size up Speranza later, and find out. But now there were things to discuss, and time was certain to be short.
It always was.
“You have a choice,” Chase told her. “You can walk out of here and walk away. But the Inquisition will run you down again. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when.”
Speranza opened her mouth, and Chase put her hand on the lady’s grubby cheek. “Please hear me out! Let me finish. The second choice is to come with us and help us find Thomasi.”
The woman’s eyes softened... but only for a second. She frowned at Chase. “The last time you told me something about this I ended up in a collapsing prison and unable to escape because someone gave me hydrophobia. You betrayed me, girl.”
“And you enslaved my friends!” Renny burst out. “You turned them into... into... I don’t even know what they were! They hated it!”
She had the good grace to look a little ashamed, at least.
“And that’s something else,” Chase said. “If you go with us, if you help us save Thomasi, then I want you to not use your most powerful weapon. I want you to tell me that you won’t use your Charming Song on anyone unless I give the okay. Do you understand that?”
Speranza’s face fell into a mask of confusion. “I understand that, but... why are you bothering to break me out, then? You’ve got him, why do you need me if you’re not going to let me use something I’ve devoted a job to learning?”
“That’s a few questions. But... ah, how do I put this... we don’t like your trick because it enslaves people. But we might run into a situation where there’s something worse that’ll happen if we don’t use it. So it’s a weapon we’ll have but might not have to use. And the consequences will be on me, so long as you keep to our agreement.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then we kick you out of the group and let the Inquisition have you again.” Chase frowned at her. “We’re much, much higher level than we were when we first met you. And we all have ways of countering you now, even without the froghead trick. We can leave you and walk away. And this time, when you’re imprisoned, it’ll be your fault entirely. All because you couldn’t honor a promise.”
“I can honor a promise...” She gave Dijornos a sidelong look. “But now that you mention it, didn’t he promise to kill me? What about that?”
“I swore I’d kill you for backstabbing me. For leaving me to rot. But I didn’t say when I’d do it, now did I?” Dijornos shrugged. “I’ll give you a truce. So long as you don’t screw me over I’ll put off going after you. Hell, I assume your PVP switch is off anyway. What can I do unless you betray me?”
His grin was a little too wide to be innocent.
“Given your griefing ways? Lots,” Speranza grimaced. “But it’s not much of a choice, really. All right, girl. Set me free. I’ll help you save Thomasi. After that, we’ll see.” She glared over at Dijornos again. “If nothing else, I can help keep him honest.” Then her eyes widened. “Wait a minute. Is that why you’re setting me free here?”
“Part of the reason. But it’s also wrong to keep you here. What happened to you doesn’t sit well with me.”
“You’re against prisons in general, then?” Speranza got to her feet, accepting Bastien’s hand up and following them as they left the cell. “And who’s the panda?”
“The what now?”
“Mister Yubai.” She pointed at the bear-man. “He’s a panda bear. They’re usually not found around here.”
“That’s funny that you know his name, because we didn’t introduce him to you,” Chase said.
She was good. There wasn’t even a flicker on her face, as Speranza shrugged. “I heard one of the guards mention a bear prisoner, and I just assumed—“
“We know you can see his name and levels. All players can,” Chase interrupted. “So, do you want to grab any equipment before we leave?”
They made it a few dozen more feet down the corridor before realizing that Speranza had stopped.
Chase turned and looked at her, found the pale woman leaning against the wall, staring at her with abject fear. “What do you know?” Speranza whispered. “What do you think you know?”
Chase looked to Dijornos. “We had this conversation earlier. Could you fill her in on... things?”
“I can do that. Save the Matrix crap for when we’re out of here.”
“Okay,” Chase shrugged. She’d be more likely to listen to Dijornos, anyway. Right now the priority was finding Cagna.
They figured out they were on the right trail, once they started finding unconscious guards that they didn’t remember fighting. They followed the trail to a series of rooms full of desks and cabinets, several of which stood open, with broken locks dangling from shattered wood.
“We really, really need a Burglar,” Chase muttered, staring around at the place.
“That had better be you, Chase,” someone growled from behind a rack full of boxes.
“Cagna!”
Movement from between the boxes, and then the dog-woman stepped out into the light.
“Oh no,” Chase gasped as she took in the
beastkin’s state; one ear was torn, her armored corset was slashed up, and bloodstains trailed down the side of her cloak and pants. She’d been in a fight... scratch that, multiple fights.
“It looks worse than it is. You should see the other guy.”
“Okay, I like her. Not normally a furry fan, but she’s okay,” Dijornos decided.
Bastien and Cagna looked at each other and scowled in the player’s general direction. “Is this Il Macellaio?” Cagna asked.
“Oh, you’ve heard of me? Cool.”
“Yes,” Chase said. “This is him.”
“Why the hell are we letting the Butcher loose?” Cagna bared her teeth. “I thought we were going with the Siren.”
“They were starving him. They had him chained naked to a toilet. No food, no water, no pants.”
“What?” Speranza looked shocked.
But Cagna’s eyes blazed with anger. “That’s no way to treat a prisoner! That’s disgusting.” She shook her head, ears back. “Now I’m not sorry for what I had to do to get in here.”
“You ah... your code’s all right?” Bastien asked, gently.
Cagna had three main jobs. One of them was Knight, and Knights had to abide by a code of chivalry if they wanted to get the most out of their job. The group had learned early on in their partnership that you had to be very careful what you put her through. Not only did Cagna enjoy the benefits of her code, she believed in it with all her heart and soul.
That said, there were ways around it. And she was flexible and realistic enough to know that pragmatism sometimes took precedence over idealism.
“This is an illegal prison run by a depraved conspiracy that’s abusing its inmates and killing locals who investigate it,” Cagna reminded The Muscle Wizaard. “There are a lot of times when my career forces me to make hard choices but this isn’t one. That said, if my boss puts out a warrant on this scumbag, he’s going down.”
Dijornos laughed and cursed at the same time, and Chase winced to hear it. “—me, you’re a cop! I love it! Police dog woman, sure, why the hell not?”
Cagna scowled. “The pertinent files are there, there, and there. Wizaard, got a free arm or two?”
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