I stared at Little Boss intently, deep in thought. Behind me Connor paced, agitated, and Werner stood in the doorway. We were in the back room of Alvar’s smithy, where he sat out front with the injured boy.

“Whaddya want, human?”

“What did you do to him?” I asked, jerking my head back towards the doorway. The wound to his leg had been nasty for sure, definitely painful, but not something that should have had so much of an effect on him. The boy was floating in and out of consciousness, and when he was awake, he was as likely to vomit as he was to just pass out again. Alvar cleaned and bound his wound, but it seemed like things were much more serious than what any of us could treat on our own.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, scaly boy?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Werner, Connor. Would you mind stepping outside for a bit?”

“Hell no! We can’t trust this little prick any farther than you can throw me, and by the looks of things, that’s not very far!” I wasn’t surprised at Connor’s reaction. He had been against keeping Little Boss alive to begin with. I turned to him.

“Trust me. I’m not gonna let him go. I’m just gonna build a bit of a rapport with him. When I’m done, he’ll be cooperative. I just think you’re…” I considered my next words carefully, as Connor looked ready to start a fight at a moment’s notice. “...a bit too aggressive for my methods to work. He’s on edge with you here. That’ll be useful, but it can come later.” I glanced at Werner.

“I think he’s right, Connor. Come on. We’ll be right outside, we can come in if we’re needed.”

“Fine. If I hear anything that sounds like trouble, I’m coming right back in here.”

“Thank you.” Great job, Werner! I’d have to thank him later. For the time being, I turned back to our captive goblin.

We didn’t really have anywhere to lock him up in the smithy, so we had settled for using my new rope to tie him up. His hands were bound in front of him, where we could see any movements, and the same rope bound his feet. He could wiggle around, and even roll if he really wanted, but he wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

“Human thinks he’s a biiig strooong man, going one on one with Little Boss while he’s tied up! Undo these ropes and we’ll see who comes out on top!” There was a frantic edge to his voice. He was being belligerent, but that was only natural. Flight wasn’t an option for him—all that he had left was “fight.” I sat down in front of him and spoke gently.

“I’m going to make this clear for you. You’re going to tell me what I want to know. We’ll start with something easy. If you don’t tell me, that’s fine. I can learn it anyway. It just might have… unpleasant side effects for you.” I narrowed my eyes.

“What did you do to the boy?”

“Ha! Just hit him with a little axe! Not my fault he’s so weak!”

I sighed. “That’s not the answer you wanted to give me. Now I’m going to have to take the answer from you.”

I pulled out a notebook from my backpack, which I had stored the folded-up piece of parchment within earlier. I grabbed a pen and held it above the page and began to speak again, staring intently at Little Boss.

“Oh, ancient spirits of power! This pathetic creature before me seeks to hide information from me. Rip it from his mind, though it may damage his soul!”

Little Boss went pale, but forced a smile. “Haha! No way! You can’t do that!”

I pretended to write on the paper before me. In truth, I was staring at the parchment, which now showed Little Boss’s stats. I had a sneaking suspicion I already knew what he’d done, and so I focused on one specific part of the parchment until it rewrote itself, revealing the specifics of the special power he wielded.

Filthy Coating

Cost: 1 MP

Duration: 1 minute

Your weapon becomes coated in filth, muck, and other unpleasant substances. For the next minute, any time you draw blood from a creature using the affected weapon, they will be subjected to the coating on your blade. If they succumb to the effect, they will fall terribly ill.

I snapped the book shut, then turned and opened the door. Connor was practically right in front of me and snapped to attention as I did.

“He’s been poisoned. The goblin coated its weapon in filth, and it’s made him extremely sick. If there’s anyone in the village who can help with that, pick him up and take him there now.” I slammed the door once more, turning back to Little Boss. He looked uneasy. I hope they can at least get the kid somewhere that can help him.

“L-...Lucky guess!” I leaned in close and smiled.

“Are you sure you want to risk that? Let me guess: your hands and feet are starting to feel a bit tingly. Or maybe just completely numb? Seems like the magic actually did damage your soul. Poor you…”

Tears welled up in his eyes. All I had done was describe how his arms and legs were going to sleep thanks to the tight ropes, but he didn’t realize that. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

“I’m sorry, human! Please don’t hurt my soul any more! I need that to liiiiiive!” I gave him a grim smile.

“Well, that depends on how cooperative you are. I don’t like doing this, you know. You’re the one who made me do it. Now, are you going to answer my questions?”

“Yes! Little Boss will answer any question you ask!” He began crying in earnest, fat tears rolling down his face and joining with the snot flowing from his nose, all dripping pathetically from his upper lip into his wide, open mouth.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Good.”

* * *

Little Boss continued to weep as I stepped out into the main room of the smithy. Connor looked absolutely gleeful, while Werner seemed almost concerned.

“What… happened in there? It didn’t sound like torture, so how did you do that to him?”

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” I said, smiling but feeling exhausted. Even in his eagerness to please, Little Boss was at times almost more opaque than when he was trying to lie to me. Mostly it was because of the crying. He could barely form a full sentence at times, at which point he would go on to repeat himself like a broken record until he finally finished his thought without a sob interrupting him.

“Well I hope those secrets don’t involve what he told you.”

“I’ll fill you in on what I know. Have a seat.

“Apparently, the goblins have a leader now. There were plenty of individual groups who followed someone before, but now some goblin’s come around who’s talking about uniting all the goblins. They call her the Big Boss. Say she appeared about six months ago, and started gathering power almost as soon as she showed up.

“Once she had lots of goblins loyal to her, she started trying to whip them into shape. Says she’s fighting for goblin supremacy, going to give them a place where they don’t have to scrounge for scraps just to survive, all sorts of grand ideas.”

“That makes sense, I suppose. It would take a charismatic leader to drive them to ignore their cowardice and be so aggressive,” said Werner, stroking his chin. Connor, on the other hand, was staring at the ground, his hair hiding his eyes, but I could see him trembling.

“That’s why? That’s why those gangly little bastards went out of their way to kill everyone I care about?”

“That means we can stop them, though, Connor.” He looked up at me, unshed tears in his blue eyes reflecting the light of the fire. “If we find out where this Big Boss is, go and take her out… Well, it’ll be like cutting off the head of the snake, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it will. But I’m not gonna stop there. Every single goblin on this island is gonna pay for what they’ve done!” I frowned.

“Well, for the time being at least, I’d rather we not do anything else to Little Boss.”

“Huh? Why the hell not?” asked Connor. Even Werner looked uncertain.

“I actually agree with Connor here. He’s tried to kill us twice now, and seriously injured a young boy. We can’t just ignore that.”

I sighed. “Look, he’s our prisoner. I just don’t feel right killing someone who’s at our mercy and can’t fight back. At least not without giving him a chance.”

“And what chance did they give the people they killed?”

“I know! But… don’t you guys have some kind of legal system? Like, a judge to come and-”

“Judges be damned! They’d say the same thing and we’d get the same result, it’d just take a hundred times longer while we waited for one to arrive and then waste his time on a case with an obvious answer.” Connor began to pace again, shooting venomous glares at Little Boss every time he was in his line of sight.

“Connor is right. Besides, the law allows for self-defense. I can’t imagine a judge finding fault in us for defending ourselves from the future actions of a known attempted murderer.”

I was about to keep trying to argue my point when the door to the smithy slammed open. We all turned to see Alvar entering. His craggy face was red with fury and streaked with tears.

“Alvar! What happened?”

Werner’s question went unanswered as Alvar strode past him, stopping only long enough to grab a hammer from near his anvil before almost running into the room where Little Boss’s weeping transitioned to screams of terror.

“N-No! Little Boss is a prisone-hurk!” Sickening crunching sounds filled the smith as Alvar brought the hammer down on Little Boss’s head once, then again, then again and again…

I stood watching in horror, the grisly spectacle was hidden from me by Alvar’s broad body, but I could see splashes of blood and other things meant to stay inside of a body decorating the room as Alvar smashed the goblin to a pulp with repeated hammerings.

Finally, he stood up and turned around. Little Boss wasn’t moving anymore, and he closed the door as he stepped back out into the main room.

“Adric is dead. The little bastard’s poison did him in.” His voice was thick with suppressed emotion, and I felt a pit form in my stomach.

“Oh, Alvar. Come here.” Werner hurried forward and pulled the large man into a tight hug. “It’s not your fault. You know that, right?”

“I sent him out there. Was too lazy to go looking for that armor myself and now he’s…”

“Shut up! It’s not your fault. The goblins attacked him.” He let go of Alvar and stepped back, hands on his shoulders and looking him right in the eyes. “And we’re going to go stop them. You stay here and help defend the town.”

Alvar nodded helplessly. It shook me, seeing such a hard man reduced to an inarticulate mess like this. I turned to Connor, who stared at me grimly.

“I guess you were right. Sorry.”

“You’re just naive. I won’t hold that against you.”

Alvar left with Werner soon after, leaving Connor and I to sit in silence. Alone with my thoughts, I couldn’t help but think of the dead goblin in the next room. I already saw goblins die, so why is this bothering me so much? I placed my elbows on my knees and rested my head in my hands. I couldn’t stop shaking, and the memory of Alvar in the room with the goblin…

“Was that your first time seeing death?” asked Connor, suddenly. “I mean, I know you at least saw me kill a couple during the fight, but that was life or death. Your blood was pumping so hard it didn’t really hit home. You’re bothered now because the heat of battle wasn’t there to burn away your reason.”

“Yeah. You might be right.” If this is enough to shake me so badly, how am I going to deal with everything else I plan to do?

“Good. A bit of self-reflection like this proves you’re not just some headstrong idiot.” I blinked, looking up at Connor. He held my gaze, his blue eyes clear and determined. “You wanna go out there and make a difference in the world, you need to be careful not to lose your humanity. Feeling like this is a good thing. And it’s something I’ve been… trying to avoid, myself.” His face fell and he looked back at the ground as he said that.

“Connor, we need to do something about these goblins. I don’t know if I want to kill them all like you do, but I know if we don’t do something, plenty of other people are going to get hurt or die too.” I clenched my fists to stop them from shaking. “Please join me. I don’t think Werner and I can do it on our own.”

“I…” He sighed. “Yeah. I don’t think you can either. I also don’t think you should. You, me, and everyone here should pack up and head south to Dongannon. If the dwarves let us in there, we’ll be safe from anything that might come our way.” I shook my head.

“No, we won’t. The orcs in the south are up to something, and I need to get stronger and gather strong allies to deal with that. Dongannon is well-defended, but it can’t hold out forever if the orcs get their way. We need to deal with the goblins. Once we do that, we can work on making the rest of this island safe. I want you to help me with that.”

A long silence passed. I didn’t press the issue—Connor could have all the time to think that he wanted. Finally, after a long time, he spoke up again.

“Okay. I’ll help you.”