“So they just walked right in?” Asked Ullen he Dune and Flux were standing outside the archive. There was a buzz of activity around them as guild members of the silver crown ran about. The Trio stood at the foot of the steps leading into the building. Inside the archive lobby more guild members were setting up a temporary HQ, which was more of an infirmary. At first they had been in there but, the wannabe wizards were tossing bottles of acid at there raiding parties and they often came back looking mangled. They had stepped out to get some air.

“No, they started a bar fight in one of the taverns the guild frequents, then walked right in.” Flux said, Dune gritted his teeth.

“We literally must have just missed them by like 10 minutes.” Ullen said.

Dune glared up at the archive, “is there another way in?” he asked. The other two only shrugged. “The fuck does he even want in there.” Dune said.

“Books probably.” Said Flux, Ullen gave her a sideways look and shook his head.

Dune started shouting, “Who the hell wants, to read goddamn books in a video game!” he went on for a while, Flux and Ullen stepped back and spoke to each other.

“Why is he so angry about Goodman?” Asked Flux.

“He caused half the city to burn down, although I don’t really think he meant too. Also he stole all the good loot from a dungeon once and left the boss alive. Which we ran into. It got a few of the old squad, and we didn’t get anything for it. He was really mad about that. Went on about how the loot belongs to us because we beat the boss, ‘we deserve it’ that kind of thing.”

“Do you still feel like that?”

“Not really I’m over it, I mean sure it was annoying but I survived. So whatever I guess. I was a lot more angry about back when it happened. Now I think he just sort of latched onto Goodman as his Nemesis. He is kind of an asshole.”

They looked over to Dune who was organizing a squad mad up of heavily armored warriors and wizards. He pointed at Flux and Ullen, “Come on.” He shouted.

“Looks like were up.” Said Ullen, the pair walked over and joined Dune.

“Whats the plan?” asked Flux.

“Wizards crouch behind a tank, and toss stuns at whoever is nearby. Then tanks charge and mash them into the ground.” Dune said.

“What about the acid?” asked Ullen.

Dune shrugged, “what about it, there are rooms full of armour and weapons in the citadel we can just replace whatever gets burned up.”

“They can’t use that stuff the stats are too high,”

“One thing at a time Ullen lets move.” The new squad was made up of two parties, making 12 players in total. They marched up the steps tanks first. The lobby of the archive was a mess, players with burned up faces and limbs lying around and shouting for a health potion or for someone to fix their armour. A lot of them were just angry, much of their gear had been destroyed during their attempted assaults. A couple were waiting by the door and psyching themselves up to charge back in. When they saw Dune approaching they cheered, he told them to tag along at the back if they wanted in. They followed the group through the main doors and into the archive. There were discarded warped weapons and mangled armour scattered about, along with black stains and indents in the ground where the acid had splashed against it.

Dune ordered the group into formation. The original 12 lined up 4 lines Tanks, wizards, tanks, wizards. Ullen and Flux stood to either side of the formation and Dune followed along at the back with the group that had joined at the door. Many of them were wearing light metal armour or in some cases studded leather. They also had a variety of weapons from short swords to axes to daggers. Really just whatever they still had in their inventory or hadn’t been ruined by the acid. They advanced slowly up the wall of the archive, following Dunes standard practice of sticking to the left wall as much as possible. When they came to a room Ullen and FLux would stick their heads in announce it clear and the party would continue.

“Where the fuck are they.” Asked one of the players at the back of the formation, “they were at the fucking doors to the lobby not 5 minutes ago and now they just disappear.” He gripped a short sword in his right hand. Dune recognised it as one of the city guards weapons.

“Stay cool” said Ullen.

“Stop,” said Flux. The whole formation halted, “I heard something.” The formation fanned out a little making more of a semi-circle against the wall with the wizards in the center. They stood like that tense and listening.

“Hey,” Ullen started even though he whispered his voice carried and was easy to hear in the silence of the archive.

Dune Shushed him, but he went on, “Wasn’t Rano from the archive?”

“So what?” Flux whispered back,

“He had invisibility potions.” Said Ullen.

No one said anything back, to him. There was a snort like someone was trying to stop themselves from laughing.

“Shit.” Said Dune.

“Shit is right.” Someone said. They appeared behind him speaking broke the potions effects.

Panic surged though Dune as he turned wildly swinging his sword in the direction of the voice. Time seemed to slow down. The speaker came into his sight. He was a handsome player with perfect skin and golden hair, that didn’t match the ragged brown robes he wore. He had a satchel filled with potions some of them faintly glowed. As Dune slowly turned, he saw the rusted hunk of sharpened metal the player was thrusting towards his face. It was all happening in slow motion, Dune had time to notice the other figures in brown rags appearing within the formation and stabbing at the wizards and tanks and soldiers. He saw his people start to panic and swing wildly. He saw bottles of acid flying in the air thrown from outside the formation.

Dune snapped his focus back to his attacker. Everything was moving slowly. He could tell that his sword would be to slow. That it’s weight was stopping him from being able block the oncoming attack. So he let go, and with one hand moved to knock aside the shiv and with the other he made a fist and started to swing. Slowly his right hand knocked the shiv away and his left got closer and closer. With some satisfaction he watched his attackers face change from smug to surprised. Then his fist connected, and the world sped up again. His attacker flew backwards and hit the wall crumpling as he did. Dune saw his sword fly past him and bounce of the back of a tanks head knocking him down where two brown robed players jumped him with make shift shivs. Stabbing and stabbing.

He glanced around him trying to get stock of the situation. His entire battle plan had failed. The formation was broken. There were Wannabe Wizards both inside and outside what should have been the defensive line. They were tossing bottles of acid around and slashing with shivs. The tanks were holding up the best. Swinging wild and screaming. Although many of their attacks hit each other. Or event he wizards and soldiers that were with them. The soldiers had resorted to brawling but most had been killed in the initial attack. More bottles were tossed into the fray from those outside. They smashed against both silver crowns and wannabe wizards. Dune could hear laughing and jeers from outside the battle.

The wizards were actually the most organised of his forces. At least those closest to flux were. They had formed a line and were blasting bottles out the air and anyone that got to close. The Wannabe Wizards didn’t seem to care and weren’t bothering them instead going after the easy prey. The wizards were retreating.

“Hey,” Dune Shouted at them, “Come back here and fight!” not one of the wizards moved out of formation, they took another step back. He picked out Flux from her pink hair and stared at her. She gave and order, the wizards took another step back. She looked over at him smiled sadly and shrugged. She mouthed ‘sorry’ then gave another order and the wizards turned and ran.

Dune watched them go and gritted his teeth. He looked around the battle for Ullen but couldn’t see him. A wannabe wizard charged him bottle in one hand Knife in the other. The Attacker swung the bottle intending to smash it against Dunes chest while at the same time stabbing downward with his shiv. Dune knocked the hand with the bottle away, but took the shiv in the shoulder he winced and kicked at this attacker who went down. Then Dune yanked the shiv out of his shoulder and drove it into the back of his attackers head. He grabbed the dead wannabe wizards satchel and swung it around his head and tossed it like a sling over the battle towards were he guess the rest of the wannabe wizards were standing. From the shouts of alarm and following explosion which knocked nearly everyone over. He assumed he was right. He shook himself ears ringing and sat up. The other people were stirring but over their prone bodies he could see the results of the explosion. A crater had been blown out of the floor and the bodies of many wannabe wizards were scattered about.

Ullen appeared out of no where and grabbed him under the shoulder shaking him. “Come on,” he said, “before they get up again.”

“The others” Dune stammered as Ullen dragged him away.

Ullen glanced over his shoulder “Don’t think about it.” He said.

Flux Retreated back the way they had come with her wizards. They jogged most of the way but when they got back to the lobby, they found it abandoned aside from a few fresh corpses. The door outside was sealed as well. The wannabe wizards had chained it shut with thick steel chains and a lock that was as big as a human head.

“Alright,” said Flux, “we go out a window.” The other wizards looked up at the windows in the room. They were about 20 feet of the ground and the wall was a smooth stone.

“Not those windows.” She said, “we will find some better ones in there,” she pointed back into the archive.

“No way,” said one of the others.

“If we stay here we will be trapped, just look at them,” she gestured towards the recently dead players. Then walked back out the door and turned right instead of left. The others followed her.

“Just keep your guard up.” She said.

They walked in silence jumping at every little sound. Once they heard the sound of glass breaking. Flux announced that some of the others had clearly had the same idea and found a way out. It wasn’t a lot of comfort for the wizards. They walked sticking to a wall and hoping for a low window. They moved passed stacks and stacks of old books. Shelves that went up 50 feet filled with them. They kept walking.

They took a break in a study room, many of the players sat with their heads in their hands others were summoning balls of light and dismissing them again and again. The window in this room was the right height but it wasn’t big enough for anyone to fit through. Flux stood with her ear to the door listening for anyone that might pass. Her new plan was to capture a wannabe wizard and have him take them to a window, or even open the main doors.

A few of the other wizards were talking,

“Where did they even get that lock?” asked one

“Looked like something out of a dungeon.” Said another.

“Fuck man it was not a good idea to come here, we aren’t ready.” Said the first

The second agreed. Across the room a few of the players were looking at the books on the shelves. A few had picked some of and were skimming through them. Flux glanced around the room and decided, ‘why not?’ she ran her faintly glowing hands along the shelves. Reading titles. ‘Problems with close range combat’ ‘developments in economic theory after Armageddon’ ‘the generals of the Crownlands war’ she continued along running her hand along the spines of the books. Something like a static shock ran up her arm. She yanked her hand away shaking it and frowned at the bookshelf. One of the books didn’t have a title. It was just a pale blue spine that looked like it had never been bent. She reached out and touched it again. The same static shock ran up her arm. This time she didn’t pull away instead she tried to pull the book free of the bookcase. It didn’t move. She pulled harder. Some of the other players had stopped what they were doing and were watching her now.

“What have you go there?” one of them asked.

She gripped the book from the top and pulled. It moved, slowly and downward like a lever. The players jumped at the loud clunk the book made when it stopped moving. On the other side of the room one of the book shelves slid back into the wall and then to the side revealing a hidden tunnel. The players crowded around and stared in. Black stone steps led down into darkness.

“Nope.” Said one of the players.

“Yeah, no.” Agreed Flux, “we want to get out of here not die in some pit. Does everyone agree.”

A few players looked like they might have gone down but decided to go with the group. Flux nodded, “alright lets move on.”

“You guys are a bunch of giant pussies.” Said a Wannabe Wizard, she appeared by the door, grinning. She tossed a bottle up and down in one hand.

“We can take one” said Flux summoning a ball of light into her hand.

“One?” said the Wannbe Wizard. A bottle flew from the other side of the room smashing into one of the Wizards, he screamed and went down. A few wizards started to toss spells but they were random and not a single one seemed to hit or was charged enough to do damage. More bottles flew at the wizard herding them towards the staircase.

“Fuck this,” said one of them he turned and charged down into the dark using a spell as a light. The wannbe wizards laughed and continued herding or killing the wizards.

Flux looked at the chaos and dying around her, the floor was turning into a mess of bubbling dissolving stone. She looked back down the stairs and muttered under her breath before turning and following some of the other wizards down the into the archives basement. She held a spell in her hand and ran down the stairs leaving the noise of dying and shattering glass behind her.

At the top of the stairs one of the Wannabe Wizards said to another, “one group dead, one in the garden and a third in the basement.” She smiled, “we’re three for three.”

The second one said, “I still cant believe Sain got that lock up here and didn’t get eaten by that thing.”

“Lucky us,” said the first, “unlucky them.” They closed the secret door and walked back out into the archive proper.

The steps down where and worn flagstones. The Wizards that escaped gathered a short way down lit by the small balls of light they held in their hands. It flicked slightly making their shadows dance. They were chatting nervously about what to do next. A few where half-heartily boasting that they had hit a few with spells. When flux joined then the others went silent, and waited.

“What?” she said,

“Well you’re in charge aren’t you?”

She looked at them, and stammered “Well, I guess.”

Goodman led the way through the garden batting away leaves and branches with his sword. Ammy and Brett were walking next to each other behind him chatting about their real lives. Red was helping Amok hold up the cart with one hand and clutching a dagger in the other. Her cloak was wet with water from the leaves and was starting to get heavy. Amok pushed the cart and nervously watched the trees on either side of them.

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“Why didn’t they follow us?” asked Red,

“Because the garden is full of man eating plants.” Replied Amok.

“Wish you had said that before.” Said Red

“I tried.”

Goodman shouted from the front, “what are you talking about back there?”

“Man eating plants” Red shouted back.

“How big are they?” asked Ammy

“Kinda big,” said Amok.

They lapsed into silence for a moment, “are we going to die?” asked Red

“Maybe.” Said Amok.

Goodman stopped and turned back to the group, “we were going to die back there too.” He said.

“We never had to come back at all.” Red answered, “we were tough enough to survive out there, we could have started doing dungeon runs. With Jax and the others.”

Goodman snorted, jump in and out of caves all day? Fighting dumb mobs, and hoarding loot? PVE only?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Asked Red, the others stayed silent watching the two, “we did fine back in that forest dungeon. We got the loot and got out fine. We could be successful doing that. Why do we need to keep pissing of Dune and the Wannbe Wizards, and every other player that we come accross.”

“You know why.” Goodman said, “you’d get bored.” He turned and started walking again. Brett and Ammy went after him. Amok watched her for a moment, then started walking too. She sighed and followed.

A short while later Goodman asked Amok where they were in the gardens and how to get out. “I’ve never been in the gardens.” Amok answered.

“Perfe-” Goodman was interrupted when a thorny vine as thick and a mans leg shot out the undergrowth to their left and struck him across the face sending him spinning to the ground dazed. Ammy and Brett shouted pulled their weapons free and manged to deflect two more vines that struck at each of them. Amok and Red were to far back and didn’t get attacked.

Red sprang over the book cart flipped over Brett and Ammy and sliced the vine that hit Goodman in half with her dagger as she landed. Goodman sat up and grinned at her. She rolled her eyes. More vines burst from the undergrowth and after it came a big shambling plant. It looked like a giant rose with a long snout in the center, which drooled a luminous yellow liquid.

“This is the worst garden ever.” Red said, Goodman laughed as he got to his feet. Brett and Ammy charged past them screaming weapons ready.

“We’ll be on vine duty then,” Goodman said getting to his feet, he pointed at Amok, “you do some magic and help where you can.”

Amok nodded and summoned his magic, his hands alight with green fire.

Brett and Ammy engaged the rose. One of them striking and drawing the monsters attention. The other would move around the back and bury their weapon into it or take a swing anything that might look like a weak point.

The Vines grew from the top half of the rose and reached down, they were trying to get into range of Brett and Ammy and trip them. Red and Goodman kept them at bay. Goodman would swing his sword upward and slice them wherever he could but most of what he did was act as a platform for Red to jump off, she ran at him leaped onto his shoulders or head or shield then sprang off into the air swinging at the vines with her duel daggers cutting them away. The Runes on her cloak glowed as she did, lending her the extra agility she needed to get the height and control while in the air to make this an effective strategy.

Amok did what he could throwing sharp rocks or small boulders at the roses mouth or vines trying to help keep Brett and Ammy covered. The strategy worked, and the monster fell with a final swing from Ammys axe and a her yell of timber. The group gathered around the fallen monster, Amok was already on his hands and knees gathering the lumiius drool and collecting petals.

“What is all that?” asked Goodman, Red had gone to fetch the books.

“It’s one of the ingredients of the acid the Wannbe Wizards are always tossing about.” He replied.

“How do those nerds kill these?” asked Brett,

“They don’t they just track one and get the drool of the ground.

“And the petals?” said Goodman

“No idea. Never seen a dead one before.”

Red wheeled the books up them, “let’s keep going, we must be nearly though by now.” She said. The others nodded and they set off again, they saw a few more trails of the lumomius yellow drool but didn’t have to fight any other rose monsters, just a few ‘cursed shrubs’ which the warriors could kill with a single brutal blow.

“That wasn’t nearly as bad, as we were led to believe.” Said Brett.

“Well they don’t have any warriors to tank or anything, the monsters are way harder to kill if your armour is lose fitting tattered robes.” Amok said.

“Phhff,” Ammy said, “they’re just a bunch of giant pussies,” Ammy and Brett laughed, at that and waited for Goodman to open the locked up door back into the archive. He lifted his boot and kicked it of it’s hinges sending it flying back into the corridor that the door led into.

“Our famously subtle approach as always.” Said Red flatly.

Goodman only grinned at her, before he walked through the door.

Ullen had yanked Dune out of the battle and they had made it into one of the study rooms where Ullen had pulled a bookcase down in front of the door. For a while they could hear the Wannbe Wizards shouting on the other side of the door. Although they never tried to break it down just taunted. Ullen and Dune sat in silence for a while lisening to the players on the otherside of the door but eventually they went quiet as well.

“Do you think they are still there?” asked Ullen

“I don’t know.” Said Dune

They lapsed again into silence for a time. Listening for anything they might hear outside. The room they were in was cramped compared to some of the others.

“This was a stupid idea.” Said Dune, “we should have let the Wannabe Wizards have them.”

“Nah” said Ullen, “this was fun. What else are games about.” He kicked his legs up onto the table he was sitting next too and looked up at the ceiling. His armour had been damaged and he had taken most of it off. It sat black and stained in the corner. He was wearing the simple shirt characters started with and some heavy trousers with big military boots. His sword hung at his side. When Dune didn’t reply he went on, “I mean sure it would have been cool to get back at Goodman and all but like, come on. There are other things we could be doing. If we get out of here we should try a gate boss. Or the next level of the citadel.

“How are we going to get out of here?” Asked Dune.

Ullen didn’t acknowledge his sullen tone, “just storm them, charge out the door swinging. At least take a good few of them with us. It’s not like they have any armour we’d both probably one shot them.”

Dune looked at the door then back at Ullen, “you see Flux in the fight?” he said, “just abandoning us like that.”

“Hey man, what would you have done, she was a rookie. We hadn’t had time to get her used to the straight forward way we do things.”

“She rescued those guys in the forest. She should have been better that that.”

Ullen shrugged, “maybe she just got lucky you know? A few good crits and bam, she’s a hero.”

“I don’t think that’s it.” Said Dune, “there’s more to her than that.”

Ullen shrugged and said, “well whatever, you want to charge the door or not?”

Dune looked around the small study room and realised just how trapped he felt. He couldn’t hear the players outside the room anymore but he was sure they were there. Sure they were just waiting for them. He wondered how long tit would take. “Yeah,” he said, “fuck it.”

They both stood up and moved the book case away from the door. “Right I’ll kick the door open you charge out first since you still have most of your armour.” Ullen said, Dune nodded and got in position.

“Ready,” he said and took a deep breath focusing, Then Ullen screamed and kicked the door, it burst open and Ullen stepped aside. Dune Charged, sword ready. Take as many with you as possible. The world seemed to slow down as he cross the threshold, there was a lone player in a brown Robe leaning against a bookcase. Dune charged him, the world moved slowly around him, he saw the slow surprise spread across the Players face, saw his hand start to move towards his pouch, Dune shifted his grip on his sword and made an upward swing, the blade moved slowly and smoothly through the air, Dune barely felt any resistance at all as it cut through the players wrist. Then the world sped up and Dune was able to hear the Wannbe Wizards cry of alarm, he rapidly shifted his grip again on his sword and swung decapitating the the player.

The body fell limp and the head rolled away, Dune saw a notification pop up, ‘focus skill unlocked’ “huh,” he said, he turned and saw Ullen walking out swinging his sword wildly about him at nothing.

“I don’t think there are any invisible ones about.” Dune said, “I think it was just him.” He pointed down a the body.

“Oh, does he have anything on him?” Ullen said sheathing his sword.

“Just potions.”

“Why only one guard?”

“I don’t know. Let’s go see if any of the others made it.” Dune said, he grabbed the players potion satchel and tossed it to Ullen who slung it around his shoulders.

They walked down the corridor Ullen leading them back towards the scene of the fight. There was nothing there but blood stains, the bodies had been dragged away, in several different directions it looked like. Scotch marks could be seen on the walls in the direction the wizards retreated. They stood in just outside the area where the fight took place, it was marked by half dissolved weapons armour and chunks of floor. And a lot of blood, there was a lot just spread out.

“We gotta figure out a way around that invis potion,” said Dune, “where do you think they were all taken? There’s no way they executed all of them right?”

Ullen didn’t reply he was digging around in the stachel,

“What are you doing? We gotta get out of here, this was a disaster.”

“Or,” said Ullen pulling out to bottles of clear liquid, “we drink this, and find Goodman, and finish what we started.”

There was a label on the bottle with the word invis, crudely scrawled on it.

Dune grinned, “I thought you wanted to leave,”

“That was before we could walk around without getting seen.” He tossed one of the bottles over to Dune who caught it in one hand, “bottoms up.” They drank, the liquid burned as it went down.

Flux walked at the front of the group holding her hand out. A orb of glowing white light sat here lighting her way. It was the same spell that stunned or damaged depending on how much mana you put into it, but you could hold it indefinitely and it made a good light source. The other wizards followed her each with their own lights. The stairs had given way to a corridor made of the same solid large stone bricks. It was dry and the air smelled stale. Their footsteps and voices echoed around them as they walked. No one had said anything in a while. Sometimes they would come to stairs leading upwards, when investigated they always ended in dead ends. They speculated that these were other secret doors around the archive. But they could only be opened from the other side and they were forced to turn back and continue back down the corridor.

the wizards only had their small bubble of light to see, like their world was condensed to 3 meters around them. Only the sound of breathing and footsteps. Flux didn’t walk at the front because she wanted to, but because everyone expected her too. ‘Dune put you in charge’ they had said, ‘where do we go?’ they asked. She didn’t have any answers for them, instead she lit her hand and started walking, hoping that something would become apparent to her quite soon. This was not how she thought being in the silver crowns inner circle was going to go. She thought it would be all strategy and big words. She was good at that, it’s how she had rescued those people in the forest. Talking her squat mates into an attack, moving people into the right positions and flanking the enemy. Catching them in a pincer maneuver. It was part of the reason she had wanted magic. So she wouldn’t have to be at the front lines. But Dune leads from the front and she had been dragged into his squat because she was worried about saying no to the guild leader. Now she was stuck at the front in the basement of a building filled with players that tossed bottles of acid about like they were snowballs.

She had to retreat, Dune must have seen that. The Wannabe Wizards were appearing out of no where and there were so many of them. There was nothing she could have done. Retreating made sense. It was the only thing that made sense. Anyone could see it.

Someone coughed behind her and the whole group jumped a foot in the air spinning ready to throw their spells at whatever broke the silence. A few chuckled nervously when they realised what had happened. Flux smiled weakly and a part of her brain made a note that if everyone tossed their spells at the same time the group would be left in the dark, giving the monster or other player an advantage, if it survived of course. A safer bet would be to stagger throws. Put people in groups. She did none of this, and kept walking.

“Are we really going further down?” someone said, “I thought we were trying to get out, out is up.”

Flux hadn’t noticed but they had come to the end of the corridor and it ended in another downward staircase. She had started to walk down it already and was a few steps away from the others. She looked down into the dark, then back at the other wizards that stood at the top of the staircase watching her.

“Where else are we going to go?” she asked

“We could try and get though one of those doors?” someone said

Flux shook her head and sighed, she looked back down into the pit and wondered if dying would be so bad. respawn back with starter gear on a random shard somewhere else. Be able to get a proper character build going. Maybe they were having better luck on the other shards. Maybe dying would be a good thing. She started to walk down the stairs. She heard the others at the top ask her to hold on, and that they should talk about this but there was nothing for her to talk about. She continued down. None of the others followed her.

At the bottom the air smelled even more stale and small dust particles filled the air. It made her want to sneeze or cough every time she breathed. She walked on some more and noticed in the light of her spell the walls were stained with dried blood, the dark brown colour was sprayed across the walls in wild patterns. She thought it might have looked pretty if it was still red. She didn’t have to move much further down the corridor before she started to see the bodies. Manged messes of flesh wrapped in bloody brown robes, “wonder what got to you” she muttered to herself. She stood up again after examining one of the bodies and looked into the dark of the corridor. She took a deep breath then hurled the spell in her hand forward. The ball of light left her and traveled down the corridor lighting it for a moment as it went. She watched it land and burst in a room at the end of the corridor. For moment she could see the full extent of the carnage, bodies manged and strewn about blood covering the walls and parts of the ceiling. And at the end of the corridor a room. She lit her hand again and walked slowly towards it. The light from her last spell gone in a moment. The room was hexagonal with a raised Dias in the center. As she stepped up to it she saw that on the dias was a podium with a closed tome on it. It had the an overly dramatic picture of a white demons skull on the front other than that it was bright red. There was a thick padlock on it with no keyhole. She touched the lock and a static shock ran up her hand, she quickly yanked it away. The lock started to glow. Then in a voice like blood gushing and spurting from a wound, a voice said,

“Worthy.”