At Large

by Andrew Seiple

  He let her go. “Better?”

  “Better. Thank you.” Chase mopped her eyes, and headed over to Thomasi. “Hey. You.”

  “Hey you,” he said back, looking down at her with wariness.

  “I haven’t forgiven you yet. But I’ll make you a deal. I’ll forgive you, if you tell me... no, you tell us everything else. Everything you’re hiding that I need to know. No shenanigans! Do you accept this deal?”

  His face twitched. “Yes. But I’m not sure we have time. There’s a lot I haven’t told you.”

  “Then you can tell us the less-important parts later. The existential crisis stuff can wait.”

  “All right.” He rubbed his eyes. “May I have my hat back, by the way?”

  “Oh. Right.” She rummaged in her pack. “I keep forgetting to use the thing anyway.”

  “Thank you. It completes a set bonus when I’ve got it on.” He tried to put it on, scowled as the low ceiling got in the way. “Well, that’s irritating.”

  She laughed. She couldn’t help it. Part of it was his high charisma, she knew, but part of it was that she genuinely liked Tom. He was fun. Also he was a part of her new life, and she owed him for his part in her escape from Bothernot.

  Putting that aside, she brought her mind back to the task at hand. Like the Muscle Wizaard had said, you had to keep your head together while you were in a dungeon. “So. Tabita. Tell us about her.”

  “We were imprisoned together. Like most of the others she’d more than earned her place in the prison.”

  “Most? No offense, but everyone except maybe for you seemed pretty horrible.”

  “Compared to you and the villagers, yes. Zenobia... well, let’s just say her tortures made us all look like saints.” Thomasi looked away for a second, then shrugged. “Dijornos and Speranza were probably the least worst. Dijornos was brutal and loved violence, but he was in a line of work where that was not unknown, and he could channel his aggression to constructive ends. So long as he wasn’t bored he was pretty decent. Speranza could enslave people’s minds, but she usually held off on that unless the need was dire. She was big into lore and story, learning people’s backgrounds and working her own adventures into that.”

  “And Vaffanculo?” Her lips curled as she remembered the Necromancer. “Please don’t tell me about his good qualities.”

  “He was in this for the stress relief, I think. Honestly a pretty horrible guy all around. Self-centered and shallow.” Thomasi shrugged. “I still didn’t want him dead.”

  “What does death mean to you, exactly?” Cagna asked. “We might have to kill Tabita here. I’m not looking forward to her coming back a decade later for vengeance.”

  “It’s...” Thomasi rubbed his chin. “Okay. Without going into too many details, we used to be able to revive from death after a few hours of time. Also, we had things called tokens that could bypass even that waiting period and let us respawn at a time and place of our choosing... well, from any waystone we’d touched, anyway.”

  “I thought those things were just for teleporting?” Renny asked.

  “For you, they are. For us they have a few more uses,” Thomasi shrugged. “Anyway, not all of us bought tokens when we had the chance, and it’s pretty easy to blow through the meager amount you start with. Which is a problem, because there’s not many ways to get more of them now. You can’t just go out and buy them anymore.”

  “What about reviving regularly?” Cagna asked. “If it only takes a few hours, that’s still a problem.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” Thomasi said. “I do. You see, it doesn’t... it doesn’t work anymore.” He sat on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest.

  “Something stuck in my mind,” Chase said, moving up to him. “Back in the village. You didn’t want to kill Vaffanculo because it would send him to a fate worse than death.”

  “Yes,” Thomasi said. “If you choose revival, you get dropped into a gray place. You can talk with everyone else who’s waiting for revival. Or you can pay tokens to revive early. Those are the only things you can do, the only options you can see. And Chase...” he looked at her, and his face was filled with dread. “Some of the people in there have been waiting for revival for a very, very long time.”

  “Oh no,” Renny said, putting his paws on Thomasi’s arm. “It’s like soulstone madness!”

  “That’s hell,” Thomasi said. “Plain and simple. Dijornos told me about it... he died a year after the revival stopped working and was there briefly. They’ve gone mad in there. It’s screaming, and babbling, and threats, and thousands of voices talking all at once, and you can’t shut them off. If you weren’t mad before, that place will do it. I don’t want to send Tabita there. Even after what she’s done.”

  “She made herself a monster,” Chase said. “But... what you described? Nobody deserves that. Not even a monster.” Chase let out her breath in a sigh. The others echoed their agreement.

  And as they did, Thomasi relaxed. He chewed his lip for a moment, eyeing Chase, then seemed to come to a decision. “The good news is that it won’t kill her permanently here, no matter what we do. She has at least enough tokens for one more revival. Which also means that she won’t waste time or effort on vengeance.” He nodded to Cagna. “If the rest of the pack dies here, she’ll cut her losses and revive, probably on another continent. She was one of the few of us who traveled a lot before she got incarcerated. So if we have to... yes, you can kill her. I won’t stop you, and I’ll help as best I can. Although... it probably won’t come to that.”

  “No?” Chase asked.

  “I’m taking a leaf from how you handled Pandora.” Thomasi smiled. “All we have to do is pop this dungeon, then leave her for the Camerlengo and Pwner to sort out.”

  “Pwner?” Chase frowned. “He’s got no way to find her.”

  The others shared a look. “We forgot to tell her,” Bastien said.

  “To be fair, we were busy and she was sulking,” Cagna offered.

  Chase frowned, but it was true.

  “Pwner’s waiting outside,” Thomasi said. “I cut a deal with him back at the Ball. Remember when I asked you to leave him to me?”

  “Oh!” Chase blinked. He had, hadn’t he? That seemed like almost an eternity ago. Then she shot Thomasi a glare. “Hold up. What kind of deal did you get from him?”

  “A temporary truce, and he used his magic to get us here before the army. In return, he gets to take a whack at Tabita without interference from us.”

  “Sounds fair. I’m fine with that, actually.” Chase nodded. “And he’s here, so that’ll fulfill my bargain with Zenobia and the Doge.”

  “Wait, the Doge is involved?” Cagna looked up.

  “Yes. Also I’m technically under arrest.”

  “Oh don’t tell me that. Wait, I’m off duty. Okay, you can tell me that, don’t tell me that tomorrow.”

  “What? Never mind,” Chase frowned. “Hold on. Only a temporary truce?”

  “Yes. Once Tabita’s off the field, it’s open season. He’ll probably go after me.” Thomasi looked her in the eyes. “And this is the important part. If he does, you must not interfere.”

  “What? No, hold on—”

  “You must not.” Thomasi thundered. She took a few steps back, surprised. He lowered his voice. “Do not. He’s lethal. He’s designed for assassination, and I’m not just talking about the job. He’ll kill you. And unlike me, you don’t have any way of reviving.”

  “Actually...” Renny said, then shut his muzzle.

  “You don’t. Not here at any rate, which is the same thing,” Tom shot the little fox an apologetic look and ruffled his head.

  “You have a way of reviving? You have tokens?” Chase asked. Then she frowned. “You can’t lose them, can you?”

  “They’re only physical when I trade them. Big old golden coins, and so valuable...” he looked wistful for a second. “No, I can’t lose them. Not unless I give them to someone else. Which I won’t,”
Thomasi shook his head, and held up two fingers. “By my calculations I’ve got two fast revives left. If Pwner kills me, so be it. You know where to go, and I’ll meet up with you later.” He shot Chase a look.

  She nodded. “I don’t like it. But if we have to... I still don’t like the idea of you just letting him kill you.”

  “Now who said anything about that?” Thomasi smiled. “I’ll fight back or try to escape. But... frankly, this is what he does. I’m outmatched.”

  “You’re sure you can’t talk your way out of it? Use some Grifter tricks?” Chase frowned at him. “I’ve sized him up. His willpower isn’t good...”

  Thomasi hesitated... then shook his head. “There’s something you don’t know. It’s complicated.”

  “Then enlighten me!” Chase threw up her hands in frustration. “That’s the deal! You come clean, and we can do this! This isn’t the time to keep secrets!”

  The Ringmaster frowned in irritation. “I’m not! I’m just trying to work out how to say this... okay. I think I have a way to put it. Bear with me. Simply put... our physical attributes limit and affect us, to a degree. But our mental ones don’t, not as much anyway.”

  “What?” Cagna furled her lips back from her muzzle. “Why wouldn’t they?”

  “Because our brains aren’t really here! And that’s the complicated part and don’t ask me about it. Things like perception, that’s partially tied to our brains, so the best this world can do is sharpen our senses, but it’s still on our brains back at home to tie things together. Intelligence? Wisdom? Sure, they affect what our skills do, but they are at best an influence rather than a limitation.”

  “So what you’re telling me,” said Chase, eyes going wide, “is that even though Pwner’s willpower comes up as relatively low, he’s free to ignore my charisma, and he’s not as likely to be fooled if I lie to him.”

  “Yes,” Thomasi said. “That’s why I couldn’t work a better deal. Without the system influencing how charisma interacts with willpower, it’s his brain against mine, so to speak.”

  The ramifications were horrific.

  “No wonder the Camerlengo fears you,” she said, slowly. “You’re unpredictable. You’re chaos.”

  “Even the better among us cannot be controlled, not truly.” Thomasi nodded. “Some spells can force us not to do things, but those are only temporary. Nothing can truly make us do things that we don’t want to.”

  Chase nodded. Then she offered him a smile and a pat on the knee. “It’s all right. I didn’t do what my folks wanted me to do either. That’s their problem, not ours. They can just deal.”

  Thomasi stared at her for a moment, then laughed. “Birds of a feather! Equals, then! I’m good with it.” He stuck out a gloved hand, and she shook... and then the others gathered around, and they spent a second shaking hands and laughing, tension released in hysteria. “Well.” Thomasi said. “We shall not be hanged for nothing. All right. Any more questions?”

  “Just a few,” Chase said, sparing the goblin bodies a glance as they dissolved. From what Renny had said, they’d be respawning soon, so time was even shorter now. “Since I know now that I can’t depend on charisma alone, I need to know everything you can tell me that might give me an edge over Tabita...”

  CHAPTER 25: MY NAME IS ERROR

  The rest of the dungeon went quickly. Chase felt mollified by Thomasi’s openness, enough so that her mood didn’t affect the others anymore.

  There was still much to discuss, but if she died here she’d at least die knowing some of the secrets she hadn’t known before.

  Wow. Morbid, Chase thought to herself, as the notion occurred to her. Then again, it was hard to escape.

  The goblins in here didn’t act like regular people should. Or even like monsters should. They charged when the odds were impossible; they never ran even when they were losing, and they went to their deaths without a second thought. It was creepy, really. Like they were goblin-shaped puppets, acting out a play.

  That made it a little more tolerable. The death and blood still irked her and seeing her friends killing their way through bothered her more, but if she could pretend the goblins weren’t real, then it wasn’t so bad.

  That’s what they think of us, though, Chase’s eyes lingered on Thomasi.

  But that way lay dark moods and pursuing that wagon train of thought down its particular path would only lead to the others noticing and suffering again.

  Finally, after the eighth cavern, they emerged into a big room. Hewn from rock, it was covered in stolen tapestries, strewn with thatch and bone, wickerwork supporting skulls in a sort of awning leading up to a throne that had once been an outhouse. Someone had knocked three of the walls off, leaving one bloated goblin sitting there, wearing a crude crown of wood and metal scraps.

  “Hoomans!” he yelled, and the warriors kneeling before him turned, glaring. “You have invaded my cave! Storied cave of Gnawtoe tribe! Once you is hear our rich and colorful history, you will be honored to fall before us! It all started when—”

  BLAM!

  The king’s head jerked back, black blood painted the back wall of the ’throne’, and Cagna lowered her smoking gun. “Pass,” the Detective said.

  Thomasi wasn’t much help during the short but brutal fight that ensued. He was too busy leaning on the wall and laughing.

  Chase wasn’t laughing. She was too busy healing, because the goblins were literally coming out of the walls. Cagna and Renny’s elemental both took flanks, while she pressed her back to a solid patch of cave next to Thomasi and Renny and focused on keeping everyone alive.

  “Signature Move: You Shall Not Pass!” Bastien roared, and suddenly it got a lot easier. Instead of having to split her attention between healing Cagna and the elemental, she could focus on the Muscle Wizaard alone... which was good, because he was taking the brunt of pretty much all the goblins’ ire.

  This was the only fight they’d run into that truly worried her... and it did make Chase glad for her talk with Bastien earlier. Complacency might have made her lax, and it would have been his life on the line.

  But she was not complacent. She dumped most of her sanity into healing, while the others got to the business of killing, and by the end of it she was down pretty far.

  Doesn’t matter, Chase knew. In a second here...

  She waited. Nothing happened. Her friends looked around then relaxed, tending to their injuries and checking over their weapons in their usual post-battle rituals.

  “Um,” Chase broke the silence. “Shouldn’t we have gotten a level from that?”

  “No,” Thomasi said, shooting her a look. “Why?”

  “We... just survived a dangerous situation?”

  “Not really,” Bastien said. “I’ve had worse. Only had to use one or two skills. And you had my back.”

  “This is a low-level dungeon,” Thomasi said. “You can see the party screen, right? You can see my levels?”

  “I can,” she said, eyeing the list.

  Thomasi Jacobi Venturi

  Human 17HP227

  Duelist 11SAN175

  Grifter 18STA 320

  Model 12MOX 536

  Ringmaster 28FOR 268

  Tailor 12

  “Well, those goblins we’ve been killing have been between levels five and seven,” Thomasi said. “I’ve been deliberately holding back to see if you’d get more experience that way, but no dice, it seems. And since I was ready to step in if things got tough, the system knows that and refuses to give you the experience that you’d get otherwise.”

  “Wait...” Chase said, frowning. “When we were talking with Don Coltello, and it looked like he might murder me, I got levels for talking my way out of that. Are you saying you WOULDN’T step in if he’d decided to do that?”

  Thomasi shot her a hurt look. “Of course I would have stepped in! But we weren’t in a party then, so the system didn’t count it.”

  “That makes no sense,” Chase furrowed her brow... then she shook h
er head. “We’re getting distracted. And I’m low on sanity, so that’s probably why.”

  “Guys!” Renny said, from next to the throne. “I found it!”

  Chase closed her eyes. I’m too low on sanity for this. But... I prepared for this, didn’t I?

  A quick rummage brought out her blue potions, and she drank two of them, let them settle.

  Mana Potion recovers your Sanity and your Moxie by 50!

  Mana Potion recovers your Sanity by 50 and your Moxie by 13!

  And as sanity returned, so did clarity. She checked her status screen soberly... still down a few sanity points, but not enough to be worth another potion.

  Then Chase looked over to where Bastien and Cagna were drinking their own potions, and she dug out her second-to-last mana potion and drank it anyway.

  Their lives were on the line. They were depending on her to be their healer. She would not let them down. Not over a five-gold potion.

  Moving around the throne, she stared at the hole in the world.

  Black-edged, hard to see until you were up on it, an eerie green light flickered and played out into the small space behind the throne.

  “Is there something there?” Thomasi asked. Chase started in surprise, glanced up to find him squatting behind her, peering over her shoulder.

  “It’s right there,” Renny said, putting a paw into the hole...

  ...and he was gone.

  “No!” Chase said. “Crud! Go, go, everyone go!” And then she took her own advice and jumped in after her friend.

  This was not the plan... but few of her plans had ever gone without hitches, now had they? No time to think about it, the only thing she could do was improvise. Trusting her instincts, trusting her visions, trusting that Hoon wouldn’t have empowered her so if he were going to throw her life away here... trusting the world and her place in it, Chase jumped in and hoped the others wouldn’t hesitate.

  It wasn’t like she thought it would be.

  One second she was in the goblin throne room. The next she was nowhere. Blackness darker than night, darker than a moonless overcast sky, crushing and absolute filled the world, was the world... yet somehow she could see.