"Are you a registered adventurer?"

 

 

 

 

 

Stratos paused halfway toward the table where everyone was playing cards. He was preparing a rather nasty spell to set the stage and finally get some answers when Andy called out. Stratos paused and turned his head to look at Andy, "What?"

 

Each previous reset, Andy hadn't quite heard what Stratos had said by the door, but when he spoke loudly, 'Fourth time's the charm.' Andy figured that SOMETHING was going on. In every previous version, Andy wanted to wait and see what happened, but hearing that was just enough to make Andy make a different choice.

 

"I said, are you a registered adventurer? We don't let just anyone in here. You need a license to use Guild Hall services." Andy held up his hand and made a 'gimmie' gesture, "C'mon. Let's see some identification, friend."

 

Stratos glanced back at the card game which had gotten tense, then refocused on Andy, "This is new." He relaxed his hand as he walked over to the front desk and stared at Andy as Stratos muttered to himself, "I wonder what changed?"

 

Andy's eyes flickered over towards to card game, then gave Stratos his full attention, "Been a while since you visited a guild hall?" He pointed at the halo of glowing runes floating around Stratos' head, "Illuminate, right? Don't see a lot of your kind around here. Don't know if I'd be willing to accept sterility to become one, but I'm sure you had your reasons. Third son?"

 

Stratos blinked at the questions, "I... Yes. You are correct." Andy's friendly demeanor had taken Stratos off guard causing him to let Andy take control of the conversation.

 

Andy nodded slowly, "Third son? Fourth? Usually, the Illuminates only select someone from a noble family who had no chance of inheriting a title. I never understood their obsession with 'good breeding'. I mean, it's not like you're going to be having children." Andy shrugged, "Sorry. So how long has it been since your becoming?"

 

Stratos stammered and squinted as he tried to process the information, "What? I-" He glanced around, noticing all the eyes were on him, then turned back to Andy and replied rudely, "I Don't See How Any Of That Is Your Business."

 

It was a subtle change, but Andy's friendly demeanor went from genuine to a mask concealing his emotions at that moment. He had asked those questions knowing that a normal person would be offended, but an illuminate wouldn't care. They were a race that spent decades training their new members. This resulted in most of their race being rather cool emotionally, but also being rather open about personal details. They were seekers of truth and simply didn't care, or perhaps no longer understood the need, to conceal personal information. They were racially predisposed to 'overshare'.

 

The fact Stratos was annoyed only confirmed to Andy that this HAD to be an infernalist.

 

Andy paused at the response, just long enough for Stratos to think something was up, but before he could act, Andy smiled a bit wider, "Sorry. Just trying to be friendly." He reached under the counter to pull out a form, "I'm assuming you don't have a license, so you'll need to fill this out." He placed a form on the counter in front of Stratos and pushed an inkwell closer, "You can read, right?"

 

Stratos nodded and looked at the form. He glanced around, noticing that nobody else was moving or doing anything. The people at the card game were just pretending to play. Something he was doing was provoking them, but he still wanted to know why. He briefly contemplated restarting but decided to get a little more information first, "This doesn't seem like a busy place. Is there a dungeon nearby?"

 

Andy nodded, "Oh yeah. Got a little map of the area to tell you where it is, if you want." Andy pulled out a folded piece of parchment, "Here. Let me point out some important stuff." He grabbed a quill and started scribbling quickly on the map. A minute later, he offered it to Stratos, "Can you read it? How bad is my handwriting?"

 

 

Stratos picked it up and was surprised to find words written on it in English, not the common tongue of the kingdom:

 

MAKE AN EXCUSE TO LEAVE. GET OUTSIDE. FLEE THE VILLAGE. TRUST NO ONE.

 

 

Stratos stared at the map, then nodded as he folded it up, "Not bad at all." He looked at Andy and pointed at him, "Say, I didn't catch your name."

 

Andy's smile faltered for a second, "Name? Oh, uhhh... Andy. I'm the Assistant Guild Master."

 

Stratos nodded once, then snapped his fingers, "Hold on. I saw a shop while coming into town. Andy's Apothecary. That your place?"

 

Andy's left eye twitched, "Uhh... yes. That's my place." He cleared his throat, "Well... uh... By the way, did you come to town alone? Do you have any friends?" He tapped the form, "Because if you are going to register as a party, that's some additional paperwork. If you don't mind I'd like to fill-"

 

"Nope!" Stratos cut Andy off, "I'm here all alone!" He grinned widely, "So Don't worry about that. More than happy to fill out these forms." He reached out to grab a quill and started to fill in the blanks, "By the way, everyone seems rather tense. Has anything bad been happening lately?" He smiled as he muttered under his breath, "{True Sight}"

 

Andy was about to reply when the incantation made Andy pause. He narrowed his eyes and was about to answer when Karl spoke loudly from the doorway behind him, "Problem, Andy?"

 

As Andy turned to reply to his boss, Stratos's jaw dropped open. To his eyes, Andy was entirely made of highly reflective liquid metal. As if he was made of Mercury. Stratos quickly glanced around the room, noticing that everyone else looked normal.

 

Except for Noel.

 

Noel, the one who had been the most aggressive in the previous iterations of this moment, was no longer a young, local man, but a rather stunning Elvin woman. Whatever enchantments she used to change her appearance, the illusion wavered in and out, like whisps of fog drifting over her. Stratos realized that he had gotten lucky in penetrating her magical disguise.

 

Karl brought up an orb on a stand and placed it on the counter, "Well, why don't I take over from here?"

 

Stratos shook his head, "Nah. Instead, how about a RESTART?"

 

---

 

"Save point"

 

 

Stratos stood in the doorway. He glanced around. Determined there was nothing left to learn, then let out a single word, "{Teleport}" A second later, he vanished. Everyone at the table jumped up and looked around.

 

Andy stood behind the counter and blinked, "What the...?"

 

Elyin, disguised as Noel, was the first to act, rushing over to the main door and throwing it open. She looked around outside then came back in, "He clearly Teleported and I don't think he's licensed."

 

Andy called over his shoulder, "Hey! Karl! We... uhh... something just happened."

 

Elyin walked up to the main counter, "I think I saw a poster about him in another town. I swear, that was an infernalist."

 

The rest of the card players came over to the front counter as Karl came limping out of the backroom, "What the Hell happened?"

 

Andy pointed at the front door, "An illuminate walked in, muttered something, looked around, then teleported away." He looked at Karl, "I don't suppose you've heard of any high-level adventurers who have a glowing halo of blue runes that float around their head, have you?"

 

Karl stared at Andy, "That some sort of strange and bizarre race?" Andy nodded. Karl smacked his forehead and rubbed it, "Bloody hell. That sounds like the kinda crap that an infernalist would be." He bit his lower lip, then pointed at Noel/Elyin, "You got a good look at the asshole?"

 

Elyin nodded.

 

Karl sighed, "There's a silver in it for you if you run to both main gates and verify if that fucker came through the gate legally or if they have no idea what you're talking about."

 

ELyin started to back up to the exit, "On it. And so you know, It IS an infernalist. I FEEL IT." Elyin made no effort to disguise her unfettered disdain for infernalists. She didn't say the word so much as spit it out.

 

The rest of the card players nodded in agreement to Elyin's opinion, "Yeah Karl, he sure looked like one. Bizarre outfit, strange-looking, glowing halo, the works. We got orders to kill on sight?"

 

Karl turned to Andy, "You saw him. What do you think?"

 

Andy took a sharp breath and paused to think. He glanced around at everyone staring at him, waiting for his reply. His shoulders sagged, "I hate to condemn a man without knowing one hundred percent he's guilty, but... if you wanted me to guess..." He closed his eyes and nodded.

 

Karl pointed at Elyin, "Go check anyway. If they haven't seen him, or they didn't clear him, give them a description and let the town guard know we got an infernalist in town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karl glanced around the room, "Get the word out."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The usual Bounty Applies."

 

---

 

Andy had to work late.

 

 

 

The guildhall was buzzing with rumors and everyone was out and about. Bagging an infernalist was hard, but it was also big money. At the very least, you got paid if you could come up with information leading to finding the infernalist. For the next few days, any team in the area would be notified and everyone would be watching.

 

Andy slowly made his way home. The front door of his shop was locked and the closed sign turned around. Not unusual at this time of the evening. Andy inserted his key and let himself in. The bell over the door let out a soft ding-a-ling.

 

Something was wrong.

 

The inside of the shop was too quiet, too dark. Mir hadn't called out to him. Andy almost called out himself, then thought better of it. He impulsively rolled to the side and hid behind a counter. He waited a minute, then cursed under his breath as he snuck his way towards the backroom where he had most of his lab.

 

Nothing out of place there.

 

He turned to the stairs and started to slowly make his way to the top. As he did, the only light was coming from the shrine. He pulled out his mister in one hand and a dagger in the other. He prepared to rush into the shrine room when a voice called out, "You set off the alarm spell I cast. I know you're out there. Please, come in."

 

Andy cursed again, then slowly pushed open the door and walked in.

 

Mir was lying on the altar covered in a translucent, immobile shell of amber. Sitting in the chair at the work table was Stratos. He gestured towards Mir, "She's unharmed. I had to resort to an amber prison to immobilize her. I was most impressed by how aggressive she was. Tough little lass." He smiled in a vain attempt to try to keep Andy calm, "I wanted to chat, but she became hostile as soon as I arrived... most likely because I teleported into your home." He paused then added, "Understandably."

 

Andy stood in the doorway, "What do you want?"

 

Stratos shrugged, "Information. However, I must say..." He pointed at Andy, "You being a mirror duplicate, I get it, seeing that you are hanging out with a mirror imp." He pointed at Mir, "But HER being a mirror duplicate of a Mirror Imp? That's something truly unique. It implies some truly sinister stuff I stumbled into." He paused to take a deep breath, "Except... you were the only one in town who tried to help me, so that makes me wonder..."

"Wonder what?"

"Well, if everyone in town hates me, and the one guy who helps me is working with a mirror imp, of all things, then that begs the question..." He gestured around the room to indicate Andy, himself, and Mir.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Are we the baddies?"