To stare at the sun and not be blinded was a skill no man had, but every man possessed the ability to see evil in the mirror and not bat an eye. It just so happened that members of Septic Eel were masters of hardening their souls and not caring for the plight of others. They weren’t concerned for those outside their guild, they didn’t care for weak people, and they never bothered with emotions beyond aggression and a false sense of superiority. That’s just the kind of guild they were. And as Kenji’s party was dragged through the gates of Crow’s Watch, he all but snarled like a dog at every wicked scumbag he laid eyes on.

Unlike the outpost from before, Crow’s Watch was a stone giant in a land of miniature people, and its towers cast a frightening shadow as if one step into the shade could freeze a person solid. It was behind a rocky crag where jagged, natural spears stabbed the sky, hence the reason Kenji and the others couldn’t see it from the tunnel exit; meanwhile, the interior of the fortress was a proud military installation built hundreds, if not thousands, of years in the past, and it had multiple buildings, many levels skirting the bailey, and a keep built straight into the crag itself. Flags with the guild’s emblem swayed high in the wind, and at least forty Adventurers were stationed there, essentially living within the Spire.

But despite its size and daunting appearance, there was another aspect to the fortress that worried Kenji even more: the massive, otherworldly tear in space at the bailey’s center, which was oval-shaped like an eye turned sideways, yellow-green in color, and shifting like a portal to another world. From it leaked a steady stream of the poisonous ooze that filled the Rupture, and that tear was said to be the source of all toxic chemicals in the district. Who on earth would build a fortress around that? And why? Was it to protect the tear, or to control it? Whatever the case, Kenji was unable to observe it for long, for he and his party were guided below ground into a dungeon and thrown into a cell, their wounds and ailments untreated.

That subterranean grotto of the unlawful was occupied by a kingdom of rats, slugs, and spiders, and their grime was thriving in a place that scarcely saw the light of day. There were droppings on the floor, webs in the corners, leaks in the ceiling. And after being thrown in the cell, Kenji charged toward the bars and clutched them tight, yelling at their captors on the other side to let them out. But the Ranger from before did not listen. Instead, he offered little more than a scornful chuckle as he walked away with ease, like he was a hunter who had just returned with a supply of food for the winter.

“Come back here!” Kenji demanded. “Let us out! Our friends need help!”

In response, the man held up a single hand as he continued walking toward the exit. “Not a chance, brat. You better get comfy, because you’re gonna be in there a while.”

And in a matter of seconds, the dungeon’s metal doors creaked and slammed shut, leaving them in shadow except for the barred skylights in every cell. They were trapped.

“Damn it!” Kenji rasped. “Screw those bastards!”

He hammered his hands into the bars several times, and when out of breath, turned back to his friends. Unsurprisingly, Misumi and Cleo were in worse condition than before, and Amelia’s attempts to ease their pain did nothing.

“How are they doing?” he gulped.

“Quite poor,” answered Amelia with a nervous rattle in her voice. “If Cleo’s wound isn’t treated soon, then, well…you know.”

“…yeah.”

He couldn’t believe that Septic Eel would be so cruel, that they’d not only kidnap them, but refuse to give treatment to two people who desperately needed it. Now, without their supplies, Kenji could do nothing to help them, not even clean the wound in Cleo’s shoulder.

“There must be something we can do,” pleaded Amelia. “Anything. Surely, they will not just leave us here in this condition.”

Kenji looked up through the skylight, unable to see a single part of the fortress outside. Though muffled, he could hear people out there. “Or they just might. They have no reason to do otherwise, and from the looks of things coming in, our guildmates aren’t coming to help us.”

“What makes you say that?”

He glanced down at her. “I saw no signs of them outside, did you? If they were coming, they would have gotten here long before us.”

“So what are you saying? That we are abandoned? I refuse to believe out guildmates have come and gone. If they are not here now, they will be.” She glanced away sheepishly toward Misumi and Cleo, and when her voice returned, it was soft and fearful, “They must…”

There was nothing wrong with being hopeful, but at the end of the day reality would seep in, and even though Kenji realized that, he would agree with her for now, for that was the only path through which their party walked out of that dungeon in one piece. As he stared at Misumi, at Cleo, their breathing was labored and the poison spread faster as their bodies weakened, now slumped against the wall. If not for they arrow, the Divine Blessing would be powerful to get them through this, but now…their chances of survival were dwindling fast. Kenji couldn’t fathom the idea of them dying in that prison cell, and the mere thought of Septic Eel’s insanity made him want to tear someone apart.

“We’ll figure this out,” he swore, eyeing Misumi. “That I can promise.”

In the time that followed, Kenji did everything possible to try and break free, be it pulling at the bars to loosen, trying to squeeze thought, and even looking for weak points in the wall that might could be chiseled away, yet no matter what he did, no matter how much he yelled and taunted the guild members of Septic Eel, they never came to free them. Finally, as he became angrier than before, Amelia told him to calm down, but it was another person’s voice who caught and held his attention: Misumi. She was slumped against the wall and barely able to speak, but the words met his ears despite being so feeble.

“Don’t worry…” she said to him. “They others will be here…I know it…”

Kenji came near to her and got on one knee, telling her to stay quiet and rest, but she insisted on speaking more.

“We just have to be patient—” She coughed hoarsely. “—right Amelia?”

He had little hope that their guildmates were coming or that they were even out there; for all he knew, Septic Eel could have already dealt with them. But as he glanced to Amelia, she nodded and told Misumi exactly what she needed to hear: that everything would be okay.

“See? Amelia thinks so too…”

After coughing again, she fell into a state of rest as Cleo did the same, leaning against the wall with just one shoulder. Both were deteriorating so fast.

However, as Kenji hunched next to them, watching them sleep with a hopeless, bitter expression restructuring the shape of his face, a wailing clunk echoed from elsewhere in the dungeon. The door—someone was coming in.

He raced back to the cell bars to see who had arrived, and when the intruder was presented, Kenji saw the hooded man from Linette’s bakery, they one everyone assumed was Darkfire. Like all members of Septic Eel, he carried himself with a sense of dominance, like was on top of the world and everyone else was just a bumbling peon made to support his kingdom. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell he had good intentions.

“Ahh,” the man said, stopping in front of Kenji on the opposite side of the cell. He never removed his hood and his face was shadowed, hidden. “We meet again. I must say, it brings me great to see you on a leash.”

“Shut up!” Kenji shouted. “Our friends need to be treated or else they’ll die, so let us out of here! You can’t do this to innocent people!”

“Innocent? As I recall, you’ve been a foul odor under our guild’s nose for quite a while now, so I could hardly say you’re innocent. It’s quite the opposite, actually. You’ve ruffled too many feathers, and now the master of Septic Eel has ordered to feel the consequences.”

“I only stepped in because your guild is full of thieves and egotistical bastards!”

The man chuckled and glanced over Kenji’s shoulder. “Is that right? Well, you see where meddling gets you? Where it gets them? The people you care the most about are knocking on death’s door, and you have no one to blame but yourself. Stop pointing fingers.”

“Just let us out already!” Kenji frothed at the mouth.

“Oh, I will. But only you. The other three stay while I give you a personal tour of the fortress, and after that, a meeting with Master Vani. You can discuss your plight with him, because I really don’t care, kid.” He unlocked the cell gate with a key, then held it open. “Get moving and don’t try anything stupid. Trust me, you won’t what happens if you do.”

From inside the cell, Kenji knew he couldn’t just leave his friends behind, not unless they were guaranteed safety—which they weren’t. However, if he wasted time, whatever treatment they might receive in the near future would only take longer to acquire, and an abundance of time was something they just didn’t have. Therefore, he looked back at Amelia, letting their eyes meet and linger until she nodded. He faced the man again. And upon exiting the prison cell, the gate squeaked shut behind him and his friends remained inside, but if there was any chance at all Cleo and Misumi might be treated by healers or doctors, he’d make it happen. He didn’t become an Adventurer to watch others die; no, he signed on to that lifestyle at the promise of making a wish come true, and he wouldn’t move an inch closer to it unless Misumi was right there beside him.

I’ll come back, he thought while following the man out of the dungeon. And when I do, we’ll all be walking out of this place together.

 

******

 

Like a criminal kicked to his knees before a judge, Kenji was thrown on the floor of a balcony that overlooked a pit below, something like a miniature colosseum. He was in the fortress keep—that massive cut-out structure from the rocky crag—and there were dozens of Septic Eel members behind him, while only one stood nearby: Darkfire.

The man gave his name during the walk from the dungeon, and indeed, he was an Illusionist that masqueraded as an Assassin, fooling every enemy he faced. He was a master of deception in more ways than one. Nevertheless, who he was and how he disguised himself didn’t matter now, for as Kenji’s face smushed against the gritty stone, as he pulled himself together and got to his knees, all he heard were high-pitched shrieks of fear from the pit, along with canine howls and barks.

“You interfered with Septic Eel’s business,” Darkfire told him, now leaning over the balcony railing in a comfortable slouch. “You struck a member of our guild, made a mockery of him before hundreds of people.” He respired, turned around, and leaned back against the railing, halfway sitting on it. “But most importantly, you arrogantly assumed we would take that lying down. Fools like you make the biggest blunders of all.”

“Eat shit,” Kenji spat, now standing.

Darkfire laughed. “You first, kid.”

Back on his feet, Kenji got a good look at the chamber around him, and found it was less like a fortress and more like a torture chamber, for if its walls could talk, they would have only threats to make. Walls of bleak stone scorned the damned within, and firepots, withering souls that they were, grew dim with little fuel left to burn. An odor like wet dog infected the halls, and the ambient drafts of air were unnaturally cold, like death made its bed nearby and was hibernating, waiting for its time to wake up. But of all the things he noticed in the keep, one in particular gripped him with fear, for he couldn’t believe his own eyes.

Linette. Vincent. They were strung from chains at their wrists and dangling over the pit. Below them, a pack of wolves barked, growled, and yapped, leaping upward, trying to latch their jaws upon fresh food that was just out of reach. And based on her hoarse screams, she had been there a long time, terrified to her core as her father failingly sought to calm her down.

“What the hell is this?” Kenji whispered in shock. He took the scene in as Linette cowered from the wolves, which continuously leapt toward her feet. He shouted at Darkfire, “Get her down from there, now!”

“You sure about that?”

Just as a signal was given, Linette dropped about a foot, letting out a terrible scream as the wolves were inches away from reaching her with every jump.

“Hold on, Linette!” her father rasped, able to squirm but not aid her in any way.

Meanwhile, Darkfire didn’t even flinch, and appeared to be at ease with the whole situation. “So, are you gonna stop shouting at me? Or do I need to let her all the way down?”

The wolves below were ugly creatures, not regal in the slightest like the rest of their kind, and they had matted fur, jaws that dribbled saliva, and many of them had scars from long ago. They were beasts trained to kill, to devour whatever prey fell into the pit.

Kenji watched her and listened to her cries, then asked, “What is it you want from me?”

“Simple. We of Septic Eel want recompense for the harm you’ve caused. We want justice. You intruded time and time again, and now we want you gone.”

“Gone how?”

Darkfire answered, “We want you out of Duncaster and your guild disbanded.”

That had to be the most ridiculous thing Kenji had ever heard. Even if he agreed to those terms, disbanding the guild wasn’t his decision to make, but Flanigan’s. And even beyond that, the members didn’t necessarily have to go anywhere. “It isn’t up to me whether the guild disbands or not,” he stated.

“Of course it isn’t. But it is up to the King. And lucky us—we’ve got a hand in his pocket, so he owes us a few favors. A couple of forged documents here and there and your guild is dust in the wind, kid, so we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Option one: the guild disbands and you leave Duncaster—everyone survives. Option two: defy our orders and not only this girl, but your friends will die too. After all, two of them have one foot in the grave already.” He paused, letting Kenji soak in those words. “Your guildmates will come soon. They’re on their way right now, in fact. The stupid chumps think they can sneak in through the mines, but like many dead corpses have done in the past, they underestimate us. We’ll capture them, question them, and inform them of their options, and in the end, your guild will be no more—unless you’d like to witness a mass burial of your own friends.”

“You can’t do this!” Kenji shouted as he clenched a fist. “These are good people!”

“Wrong again. We can and will do this. And all people have a bit of evil in them, kid. No one’s a pearly white slate.”

With the wolves so close to Linette and the Adventurers behind him, also filling the fortress of Crow’s Watch, Kenji knew he was at a brick wall. There was no where to run, no way to help his friends, no way to get out of there without someone dying. Unless, of course, his guild went through with Septic Eel’s demands.

“You guys will get what’s coming to you one day,” he insisted, trembling with anger as he clutched the balcony railing and watched Linette. “Tyrants don’t live forever. And when that day comes, I and everyone else you’ve hurt will look the other way and let you die—mark my words. When the fire rains down on you, you’ll remember this moment, because it was the first time someone made a prophecy that came true.”

But like every other threat he heard, Darkfire laughed it off and pushed up from the railing, proceeding to work the kinks out of his neck. “Whatever you say, genius. For now, we’re the ones with all the power, so you better kneel—otherwise, you won’t like what happens.”