Imri made his way toward Russ’s office, Emelia following close behind. It was getting late, and most of the town hall was empty at this hour.

“Imri, I was just about to leave, can it wait until tomorrow?” Russ asked as Imri entered his office.

“No,” Imri said simply. A bit of his anger must have leaked into his tone because the bald lawyer stopped packing his briefcase.

“I see, please have a seat,” the Warlock said.

“I’m fine standing, thanks,” Imri said.

“Listen if this is about how the last fight ended, I learned my lesson. I won’t hide anything from the group anymore,” Russ said. Imri couldn’t hold back, he started laughing.

“Really Russ, you’re not hiding anything?” Imri asked rhetorically.

“I…You know?” Russ stammered, looking over to Emelia for help.

“I’m not a big fan of keeping secrets, so I think this conversation is overdue,” Emelia said with a shrug.

“Tell me everything you know, and don’t lie to me, Emelia will know,” Imri said.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Russ said.

“Is there anything in your contract prohibiting you from explaining?” Imri asked.

“Not directly,” Russ admitted.

“What do you mean by directly?” Emelia clarified.

“I’m not allowed to work in any way that could be construed as deliberately sabotaging my quest,” Russ explained.

“Well, if you don’t tell us everything, I will ensure you never go near the caves again. I can’t speak for the council, but I think they would probably go further than that,” Imri said.

“Fair enough,” the man said with a nervous laugh.

“Start at the beginning. How did this Ancient One contact you?”

“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. For some reason, I could feel its presence when we settled here. It’s almost directly below us, though quite a ways down. At first, it just sent me vague impressions of what it wanted,” Russ explained.

“Which is?” Imri prodded.

“To be free,” Russ admitted after a moment's hesitation.

“Oh, hell no,” Emelia said.

“It’s not evil, I swear,” Russ said defensively.

“And how do you know that?” Emelia asked.

“It’s hard to explain, but I can sense it. It’s no more good or bad than the weather; our concerns and sense of morality are so far beneath it. We are less significant than ants to it,” Russ explained.

“Being described as less than an ant is not reassuring, Russ,” Emelia pointed out.

“I know, but that’s why I made sure to spend pages upon pages of the contract to spell out exactly how it wouldn’t harm us when it was free. When it revised the contract it didn’t alter any of that language. The only things that changed were the clauses where I could walk away after a good-faith effort.”

“What happens if it breaks its end of the contract?” Imri asked.

“I would be able to permanently keep all the power it gave me and would no longer be obligated to free it,” Russ explained. Imri and Emelia stared at him, spotting the problem immediately.

“That’s it?” Emelia asked.

“Why would that not be sufficient?” Russ asked.

“Russ, how much does a demi-god-like being need you after you free it?”

“Not at all,” Russ said, taking a moment to realize what that meant.

“We’ve been talking for two minutes and we already found the first problem,” Imri said with a shake of his head.

“Why did you make this deal in the first place?” Emelia asked before sarcastically adding, “It’s not like there aren’t thousands of other classes you could have chosen from.”

“It seemed like the fastest way for me to catch up. I need to get stronger,” Russ said, sounding almost desperate.

“Why?” Imri pressed.

“I take it neither of you are parents?” Russ asked. That’s when Imri remembered the first time he had met the man, back in the ruins of Minneapolis. Russ had been willing to throw away his own life for just a small chance at saving his family. Becoming a Warlock was done for the same reason, and he was risking other people's lives, again.

“Not yet,” Emelia replied. That response immediately scrambled Imri’s brain. Judging by the spike of emotion through their bond, Emelia hadn’t meant to say that.

“Not yet?” Imri repeated.

“Can we focus on the Warlock?” Emelia redirected, though she too was clearly flustered. Imri nodded, though he found it difficult to focus on the current conversation.

“I can see you two have other things to discuss,” Russ said, standing and trying to weasel his way out of the confrontation.

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“Sit back down,” Imri ordered, the man immediately complying. “Can we see the contract? It might help to have more objective people looking it over.”

“It sort of disappeared when I signed it,” Russ said. “I can remember most of it at a high level.”

“We both know that’s not good enough,” Imri said.

“Can you renegotiate with it?” Emelia suggested.

“Maybe, it still needs me as much as I need it,” Russ said with a shrug. “Though I doubt it would make concessions for nothing,” he added.

“What happens if you walk away?” Imri asked.

“The only explicit penalty is that I would lose all my levels in Warlock. However I don’t think the being would be happy, and I would prefer not to have a demigod as an enemy.”

“Did you know about the Troglodytes before signing the contract?” Imri asked.

“Not exactly,” Russ said.

“Out with it, what aren’t you telling us?” Emelia demanded.

“I didn’t know anything about the Troglodytes, I swear. However, I did get some information on the prison it's being held in. More specifically, the defenses of said prison,” Russ explained.

“Which are?” Imri asked.

“The prison was mostly automated with magic. The main defense was a small army of automated Sentinels powered by mana. The only reason the Ancient One could contact me was because the integration weakened the prison. It needs to be freed before the prison can be completely remade, a process that is taking a good portion of the facility’s mana,” Russ explained.

“The more I hear, the more certain I am that you should walk away from this deal. I’m sorry, Russ, but you got yourself into this mess and now you're going to have to deal with the consequences,” Emelia said.

“It’s not that simple. The Sentinels became active when the integration happened, and they won’t deactivate until they deem the area completely secured from potential invaders,” Russ said.

“So we leave them alone and they shut down, I don’t see the problem with that,” Emelia said.

“It’s the Troglodytes, they wandered too close to the prison,” Imri guessed. He had wondered why they had steadily been pushing closer to the surface, but if they were fleeing an even stronger opponent that would explain it.

“Exactly, they’re trying to get away from the Sentinels,” Russ said with a smug grin. Imri glared at the man who was taking satisfaction in the mortal peril of their settlement. While he didn’t think any of that was Russ’s fault, he certainly was trying to take advantage of the situation and wasn’t contrite about it.

“So, what do you know about the sentinels?” Imri asked, still annoyed with the shady man.

“And don’t think this means we’re onboard with releasing some Ancient Demi-God,” Emelia added.

“I don’t know much, my patron only gave me a vague impression of them. They’re some sort of automated defense system, a magical equivalent of robots, or something like that. Way higher level than anything we’ve faced so far, but limited by the amount of mana available. That’s why we need to deal with them as quickly as possible,” Russ said desperately, bordering on pleading.

“What about the creators of the Sentinels?” Imri asked.

“Not sure,” Russ said with a shrug. “They’re either long gone or have a relatively small presence.”

“So, we have a small civilization of cave-dwelling Troglodytes being forced to the surface by an ancient defense mechanism in the form of automated Sentinels. Which in turn was built by a powerful race of artificers to guard an ancient demigod which they imprisoned. To top it off, you made a deal with that demigod for a slightly more powerful class,” Imri summarized.

“I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but more or less,” Russ said guiltily. “Listen, none of that is my fault, the Troglodytes and Sentinels would still be a problem regardless of my deal. If anything I’m helping with the defense of Celestia,” He pointed out when it was clear they were not amused with his antics.

“Forgive us if we don’t consider you a hero,” Emelia said dryly.

They left when it became clear Russ didn’t know anything else. While Imri personally wanted to strangle the man, that wouldn’t accomplish anything. He was also dreading telling the council about this turn of events, but he knew this shouldn’t be kept a secret. He was glad he hadn’t decided to keep things a secret when he got a system notification.

New Quest

Defend Celestia 2: Find a way to defeat or divert the Sentinel and Troglodyte threats.

Reward: Personal XP, Credits, Upgrade to the Defender of Celestia Achievement based on contribution. Settlement XP.

The emergency meeting was held, with Russ summoned to answer the same questions he had just answered. While nearly everyone wanted to kill the man, Imri was surprised to find himself defending the Warlock Lawyer. If the Sentinels were as powerful as Russ seemed to think, they would need every able-body defender, especially with the knights and Sylvi gone for an extended period. Despite Russ answering every variation of the questions, and even some verbatim repeats after a while, nothing new was learned. The impressions his patron had given him were similar to Imri’s meditation and weren’t easy to understand.

“Can we talk about what you said? The ‘not yet’ comment when Russ mentioned kids,” Imri said when they had returned to their house. Imri immediately noticed Emelia's nervousness about the topic, but she just nodded.

“How do you feel about having kids?” She asked after a brief pause.

“I want them one day, preferably when Celestia isn’t being invaded by Chixel, Azala, Sentinels, Troglodytes, or anything else,” Imri said.

“And if that day was sooner than that?” She asked so quietly it was almost a whisper.

“Are you saying…” Imri started to ask but trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

“Holy shit,” Imri said as he began pacing around the room. His thoughts raced so fast he couldn’t think coherently.

“Imri, say something,” she said after Imri had continued pacing for several minutes without saying something.

“How?” Imri asked.

“Really? That’s the best question you could come up with? I would think that one is rather easy to figure out,” Emelia said, grinning at the obviously panicking Imri.

“But we were safe,” he said as if the universe would hear that and realize it had made an error.

“Nothing is a hundred percent, and that is for condoms that didn’t go through an integration,” she pointed out.

“You were fighting monsters. What if you had gotten hurt?” Imri said as the realization struck him, inducing a moment of panic.

“I am not going to sit around doing nothing for nine months. I am perfectly capable and not leveling for that long would be idiotic,” she said.

“But if you get hurt…” Imri started to say but then stopped. He was being protective, he didn’t want anything to happen to their child. He was going to be a father.

“I’ll be as safe as I can, but everyone is risking their lives. We don’t have enough people that I can’t take risks,” she said softly.

“Then I’ll make sure nothing gets anywhere near you,” Imri vowed.

Emelia sighed and nodded, probably realizing this was already a compromise on Imri’s part. Asking him not to be protective would have been futile.

"Just don't be too overprotective. I can still tie my shoes and walk without help," she clarified.

“I know, I just hate that this child won’t be born into a perfectly safe and normal world. They will only know what it’s like living in a post-system world,” Imri said sadly.

“I’m sure things will be a lot safer by then,” Emelia said.

“I’ll make sure it is,” Imri vowed. He hadn’t needed more motivation, but he had it now.