by Edward Brody
“That sounds extreme,” I said. “This was all an accident.”
Mylynzen smirked and shook his head. “You think with your human brain, but you do not know Barbaros. You do not know orcs.”
“What do we do?” Jenzyn asked.
Mylynzen shook his head. “We have to get rid of the bodies.”
“How?” Jenzyn asked. “We can’t sneak them out of Barbarosia—not without anyone noticing. Anything suspicious will be inspected at the gates.”
Mylyznen nodded in agreement and started rubbing the thick fur of his chin. As he thought, his eyes caught sight of the baby that Sung was holding. “Is that… an orc child?”
“Cute, huh?” Sung said as he patted his finger on the baby’s chin.
“Eden’s Gate, have mercy,” Mylynzen said. “That complicates things even more. Why would you two humans come here with an orc and her offspring?”
“I rescued her,” I said. “She was fleeing soldiers in the Freelands.”
Mylynzen widened his one eye and looked at the orc corpse sideways. “‘Rescued’ might be a poor choice of words.”
“Well, we tried to rescue her,” I amended, “and we sat her down here to talk in hopes that we could learn more about why the Scourge is attacking the Freelands. Goblins have also been spilling into our village and wreaking havoc.”
“I see…” Mylynzen said low. “I suppose that’s understandable, and certainly not Barbaros business, at least until now.” His eye darted between the two bodies. “You must step forward and take responsibility for this. It’s the only way.”
“No,” Jenzyn said. “They’ll be barred from Barbarosia, and any Barbaros who sees them will try to kill them on sight.”
“It’s their fault,” Mylynzen countered.
“No,” Jenzyn protested, shaking her head. “I tasked them with bringing Trynzen back home. Gunnar only did what I asked. I shouldn’t have assumed Trynzen’s time away would make his brothers change their ways. I should’ve known better, planned better.”
Mylynzen moaned. “You wanted to bring him back for more experimentation, I assume? More silly research and testing…”
“It’s not silly,” Jenzyn rebutted. “I have hope.”
“You’ll kill him for good someday with what you’re doing,” Mylynzen said. “Let him be…”
More talk about testing and experimentation drew me back to the forgotten conversation before Trynzen’s brother arrived, and the way Mylynzen was putting things worried me a little. I may have gotten my reward for Trynzen’s return, but I needed to know if he was going to be abused in some way. “What are you two talking about? What do you plan to do with Trynzen?”
Jenzyn pressed her lips together, and I saw her muscles tense. “Nothing…”
“I have an idea,” Mylynzen suddenly blurted and started rubbing his chin again. “You won’t like it, Jenzyn, but I think it’s our only chance.”
“What is it?” she asked.
“We burn the place down…”
“What?!” Jenzyn cried, shaking her head. “What are you talking about? Burn here? My home? Burn my house down?!”
“Well, if we burn the bodies in your house, it will unfortunately cost you your home as well.”
“No way,” Jenzyn said. “I have everything here… all my work, everything.”
“It can be replaced,” Mylynzen said. “Gather anything you have that’s irreplaceable, and we’ll move it out beforehand.”
“My study… my lab,” Jenzyn muttered.
“The lab in the basement should remain somewhat intact,” Mylynzen said. “I believe only this level will be completely destroyed. What’s burned can be restored.”
“Lab?” I asked, creasing my brow.
Jenzyn waved a dismissive paw. “It’s nothing.”
“There’s no reason to hide it from them,” Mylynzen said. “We’ll need their help if this is going to work. Tell them what you’ve been up to.”
Jenzyn’s face twisted. “How can they help? I don’t understand.”
“You and I need to be long gone from the city when the fire begins so that no suspicion is cast on us,” Mylynzen explained. “The bodies will need to be burned enough that their remains can’t be identified, but also arranged in a way that it looks like they were attempting to rob you.” Mylynzen shrugged. “A couple of people looking to rob potions from your lab, who just happened to drop a powerful explosion potion during the process. That’ll be the story we frame.”
Jenzyn snarled her lips and lowered her eyelids a bit. “So, we’ll need Gunnar and his friends to light the fire and sneak away before someone notices…”
Mylynzen nodded. “Now you’re getting it.”
“I’m still stuck on the lab,” I said. “What exactly have you been doing with Trynzen?”
There was a long silence before Mylynzen said, “Just show them. Knowledge of these deaths is a far greater threat than your experiments.”
Jenzyn took a deep breath, held it a second or two, and sighed. “Fine… I’ll show you, but you must keep this to yourself.”
I wasn’t sure if we would honor her request, but I gave her a nod of affirmation.
She moved over to the rug on the center of the floor and pulled it back so that it completely revealed the trap door underneath.
“It’s time?!” Trynzen asked and sulked away a little in fear.
Jenzyn shook her head and said, “Not now, Trynzen. We’re just going to have a look.”
Jenzyn grabbed the metal handle of the trap door and pulled it open, causing a high-pitched creak and a loud slam when it was released to the other side. She turned, stepped down onto a ladder, and motioned her paw for us to follow. “Careful as you step down.”
“I’ll wait here,” Mylynzen said. “I don’t particularly like being underground.”
“Can you watch the baby, then?” Sung asked.
Mylynzen took a step back and held up his paws. “I don’t know anything about babies.”
“Just hold it,” Sung said, stepping toward the one-eyed Barbaros. “Feed it some food ration if it cries. It’s easy.”
Mylynzen grunted and groaned as Sung shoved the baby into his hands. He looked uncomfortable and worried as he held it in front of him. “Just hurry,” he barked.
I followed Jenzyn down the long, wide ladder, and both Sung and Trynzen were right behind me.
Each metal rung of the ladder made a chinking sound as my feet made contact, and when I reached the bottom, my feet touched down on a hard stone ground.
The room below looked even more finished than the upper level. It had smooth, polished stone floors, and while the walls were made of dirt, they had been flattened so that they almost looked like dark brown stone themselves. It smelled of medicine and herbs, which made the space feel somewhat more sterile than it actually was.
A long table with several drawers fastened below it had been built up near one of the walls, and above the table were shelves. A few potions were spaced neatly on one of the shelves, and on the tabletop were two empty vials, a mixing bowl, and a glass syringe with a long, terrifying needle.
Near that table was a wooden device that looked like a cross between a restraint rack and dentist chair. It was a little bit bigger than a typical human body, had no padding, and two long rods with leather straps extended from the bottom to elevate and hold down the feet. A wooden headrest was at the top, and several long cloth straps were dangled at the sides of the device to obviously hold down the body and other limbs of whoever was in it.
On the other side of the room was a desk with an inkwell, a few books, and several papers scattered on top.
“What is this?” I asked.
“Looks like a torture chamber,” Sung said.
“Torture chamber?” Jenzyn shook her head. “Not at all… This is where I study.”
“What are you studying?” I asked.
“Trynzen…” Jenzyn said. “His affliction.”
“His affliction?” I ques
tioned.
Trynzen had moved towards the strange table and was slinking around it, looking at it cautiously as if inspecting it in some way.
“I told you when we first met that Trynzen was born a leper,” Jenzyn said. “He’s always been in this condition.”
“Yeah, I remember,” I acknowledged.
“But I didn’t tell the whole story.” She moved toward the table near the wall, opened one of the drawers, and pulled out a golden ring. “Let me show you something.” She raised her voice a little and turned toward her cousin. “Trynzen, will you come here, please?”
Trynzen jerked his head towards Jenzyn and scurried over to her. “Yes, yes…”
“Hold your paw out please,” Jenzyn ordered.
Trynzen raised his paw to her, and when he saw the ring that Jenzyn was about to put on his finger, his eyes lit up. “Ring, ring! Trynzen remember! Trynzen remember!”
Jenzyn slid the ring on Trynzen’s finger, and the leper Barbaros immediately perked his shoulders up a bit. He blinked a few times, lowered his eyelids slightly, and shifted his eyes back and forth slowly, as if he were able to see more clearly. He stood up straight—not completely straight due to his malformed back, but noticeably straighter than normal.
“How’s that?” Jenzyn asked.
Trynzen groaned before speaking in a more structured and normalized manner. “Much better…” He shook his head and blinked several times. “It… it… It’s been so long since I’ve felt this way.”
Jenzyn chuckled. “You’ve been away for some time.”
Trynzen nodded and turned to me. “And to you, Gunnar…” He turned to Sung. “And you, Sung…” He paused and gave a slight smile. “Thank you both for helping me out of the prison. Things are a bit foggy, but I know that you’re both responsible.”
I creased my brow, and my mouth fell open in astonishment. It was the first time I had heard Trynzen speak like a normal person, so I wasn’t entirely sure what Jenzyn had done. “Yeah… uh… no problem.” I looked to Jenzyn. “Care to explain what’s going on?”
“My father was a healer,” Jenzyn explained. “He was the best at what he did. He healed wounds, cured poison, dispelled diseases. Some said he had even learned the art of restoring missing limbs—though I’ve seen no evidence of that.” She raised her eyebrow. “Anywho, he was in love with a girl in town, but in the end, she chose another Barbaros—his own brother—over him.”
I glanced to Sung before turning back to Jenzyn. “And what’s this have to do with Trynzen?”
“During my father’s time, there was a strange affliction that had been going around, affecting bipedal races in Eden’s Gate—an affliction that caused the bodies of individuals to slowly warp and their minds to deteriorate. After much work, my father discovered a cure, and created a cocktail which healed the afflicted.
“With my father’s creation, the affliction was eventually wiped from Eden’s Gate and no new cases arose, but my father saved a few blood samples of the patients for future study.” She sighed, walked over to the desk, and opened a drawer, pulling out a thick, brown book. She sat it on the table and said, “After my father died, I inherited his transcripts and notes, and unfortunately learned that he was responsible for Trynzen’s affliction.”
“Your father hurt Trynzen?” I asked.
“When he found out that the woman he loved was expecting his brother's child, he poisoned her with afflicted blood while treating her for another illness. The affliction ravaged Trynzen in the womb, and that’s how he was born the way he is now—mostly. He’s been through a lot of trauma since then as well.”
“Whoa…” I spoke. “That’s horrible.”
Jenzyn nodded and flipped open a page in the book. “From what he wrote, he regretted it almost immediately after doing it and even more so after he saw the pitiful state that Trynzen was born in. But even in his regret, his jealousy was too much. He eventually cured my mother, whom he still loved, but he viewed Trynzen as an abomination. Even after having a wife and children of his own, he just couldn’t get over the fact that she chose another over him.” Jenzyn shook her head. “I grew up thinking my father was a good man. I never knew he held on to such terrible secrets. I suspect he killed his brother—Trynzen’s father—as well.”
Sung shook head. “That’s pretty hardcore…”
Jenzyn nodded. “I’d like to believe that he documented what he did because he hoped someone would find his journals and correct his wrongdoing. I’m not a renown healer like he was, but I’ve been using his writings to try to figure out a way to cure Trynzen’s disease.”
“He didn’t write the recipe for the cure?” I asked.
Jenzyn nodded and flipped to the back of the book in front of her. She pulled out a piece of worn wrinkled paper that was tucked into the crease. As she began to unfold it, two frayed pieces fell out and onto the desk. “This page was torn from one of his journals.” Jenzyn chuckled. “Father left a treasure map where he had buried several items of importance to him. It took me years to follow the map and recover everything.”
She finished unfolding the remainder of the paper, set it on the table, then aligned the pieces as if putting together a puzzle. “This recipe inside was written without any context, though I suspect it’s a cure for Trynzen’s strange affliction. It was dated shortly before he noted that he had found a cure. It’s as if he didn’t want anyone but him to know the cure in his lifetime but couldn’t let his life work be lost forever.”
I walked over to the desk and looked down at the pieces of paper. The top half looked like it had suffered severe water damage, and the bottom two pieces looked to have been purposely ripped from the top half. The ink was faded, but the majority of what was written could be made out.
Jenzyn rubbed her finger across the paper. “Saltwater, ginseng, whittlegrass, miskilim, yeti tears, and…” She circled her finger over where two of the pieces of paper met. “Half of the last ingredient is smudged, and the other half is mostly torn. I can only make out that the last ingredient ends with the letter ‘E’…” She moved her finger down the page. “Heat until the mixture forms a paste, then thin with sage oil.” Her finger slid to the bottom of the page. “Oral consumption for… unreadable, and blood inoculation for… unreadable.” Jenzyn sighed. “Needless to say, I’ve tried over thirty different mixtures on Trynzen, but there’s probably a thousand other reagents that end with ‘E’. I haven’t gotten lucky yet.”
“You’re giving him random mixtures? What if you kill him?” I asked.
Jenzyn groaned. “I’ve used three resurrection potions already. I spent a fortune on those… But I wouldn’t risk the experimentation without having a way to resuscitate him and a few health potions nearby. Thankfully, most failed attempts have had little or no effect.”
Trynzen took a deep breath, and his eyes panned the ground.
Knowing the pain of death, I felt a little bit disturbed by what Jenzyn was doing. Trynzen must have suffered immense pain in Jenzyn’s quest for a cure, and there was no guarantee that she would ever find one. “So that’s why you’re so secretive about this? You’re killing him over and over… hurting him over and over.”
“Not only because of that,” Jenzyn said. “Miskilim is forbidden in Barbarosia, and there’s a few other substances I’ve collected that aren’t allowed in the city or are very rare. I could become a target for robbery if the wrong people found out what’s down here or accused of smuggling if anyone wanted to cause me trouble.” Jenzyn shook her head. “Either way, I must keep my experimentation a secret.”
“Wait a minute,” Sung said, raising his hand. “You placed a ring on Trynzen’s finger, and now he seems like he’s okay. If the ring fixes his illness, why not just let him keep the ring?”
Jenzyn snorted. “The affliction that Trynzen has reduces intelligence by 90% and prevents any acquired ability points from being allocated to intelligence. Since Trynzen has been afflicted since birth, his intelligence rating is only 1, or
90% of the underlying base intelligence that everyone is born with.” She pointed towards Trynzen’s hand. “That ring is a legendary, Brilliant Intelligence Ring of Weakening… It’s worth…” Jenzyn shook her head and exhaled loudly. “… an immense amount of gold. It reduces the wearer’s strength and dexterity substantially but provides 100 intelligence. When Trynzen wears it, he gains only 10 intelligence, due to the affliction, which brings him to a mere 11. As you might imagine, Trynzen would immediately have a target on his back if he left here with such a valuable ring, and he’d be less able to defend himself due to the weakening effect. It’d be lost, for certain.” Jenzyn waved a dismissive hand. “Besides, 11 intelligence is a functional intelligence level, but he’ll never get any further unless the affliction is removed. The ring or other items isn’t the answer.”
My mouth watered at the mention of a ring that provided 100 intelligence. I didn’t know the exact other stats of the ring, but the fact that it existed, and I knew where it was got my mind turning for a moment. What if I started being a bad guy? What if I decided to attack Jenzyn, Trynzen, and Mylynzen right there so I could run off with the ring? I knew I wasn’t going to do that, but the fact that the path existed made me wish I was playing a chaotic, evil character. I probably would’ve never found out about the ring without doing good deeds, but still… the question of ‘What if?’ lingered in my mind.
I was torn about Jenzyn’s experimentation, however. She was clearly doing something that she felt was good, but she was also doing it to a character who wasn’t in a healthy state of mind. While it was an ‘affliction’ as she called it, I had sort of gotten used to Trynzen being a little off. Even though he was annoying as hell sometimes, my guild and I had learned to accept him for the most part. And even with his 1 intelligence, Trynzen was still a wholesome guy who could make good choices. He had helped me in the prison multiple times, and even upstairs in Jenzyn’s house, he had chosen to kill his own brother to save me.