The Magistrate officers pulled Jace from the door and threw to the ground, pinning him to the sidewalk slick with rain. One held him down with bodyweight, constricting steam-powered handcuffs around his wrists as he fought to raise his head, to see her one last time. Tears rolled down Ishanti’s face like the rain as she covered the eyes of the newborn in her hands. He tried to shout, to call out, to tell her that he was sorry for going back into the game, for never being truthful enough.
But no words escaped his lips louder than the rain.
“Mommy, his teeth are small!”
Jace jolted awake, greeted to the sight of an Orcish little girl pulling his lips down and pointing at his teeth, comparing it to her own pointy white teeth just barely poking upwards out of her bottom limp. She jumped in surprise as he shot upright, panting, clutching his pounding chest.
He wasn’t in the rain, nor facing Ishanti yet. He sat on a couch at the side of a tight living room, barely a few feet away from a fireplace with family pictures sitting on top. It was on the other side of a rug with a nice pattern matching the closed curtains. The kitchen was to his right — where a woman pulled the little girl away, picking her up. Behind her, behind the kitchen counter, Gnarl stood with his arms crossed.
“You’re awake,” Gnarl said, running a hand along his fearsome helmet sitting in the sink, wet as he wiped the blood off. “Welcome to my home, Jace.”
Jace glanced around, with it being the first time he was out of the prison in ten years. “You saved my life.” In his confusion, pointing out the obvious was all he could muster.
“Indeed, and I brought you here after we fled, though it was my job to end it. That is why you cannot get used to the sight of it.”
Jace gasped. “They’re gonna be after you for saving me.”
“For obstructing in your execution, and my part in the escape. We do not have long before they come here to track me down, next.”
Gnarl’s wife scowled at Jace, as she crouched down in front of a set of suitcases, one full of clothes and toothbrushes, the other full of clothes, toothbrushes, and two stuffed animals.
“Mommy, can I bring Charles?” Gnarl’s daughter asked, raising the elephant stuffed animal in her hands.
“No, honey,” his wife said, not taking her eyes off of him. “You’ve already brought Jaysca and Pumar. We don't have room for Charles.”
Gnarl’s daughter’s shoulders sank. “We can come back for Charles after we get back form the trip, right?”
Gnarl’s wife clenched the shirt in her hands she was folding. “I hope,” she spat, tone full of venom.
Lip quivering, Gnarl’s daughter ran past Jace, running back to her room and hiding tears.
“I’m sorry,” Jace said. “I’ll help you guys get to safety. I gotta find my family, too, and get them out. Do you think Ionat’s a good place, Gnarl?”
“It would be ideal, being outside of both the Magistrate and the Republic of Arroz. But, do not jump ahead, Jace.” Gnarl dropped his helmet in the sink with a loud clang, pacing around the sink towards Jace. “I freed you. Prove yourself.”
“What?”
“Prove to me that I freed you for a reason — that you are the messenger from the Divine.”
Jace’s breath caught in his throat. He read Gnarl’s now-familiar Nature with his Talent, feeling the religious devotion, and the seething anger, searching for a possible answer.
“[Speech 34/35]
The only other time his Talent had shown up like this was when his Speech wasn’t high enough for it to work. At this point, it would be a gamble for it to satisfy Gnarl, but Gnarl glared at him, expecting an answer. Jace gulped. “All will be revealed in due time, Gnarl. You have to—”
“No!” Gnarl shouted, his voice booming throughout the room just as loud as it did in the prison yard.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“How long do you expect blind faith to satisfy us, Jace?” His wife snapped. “We’ve lost our home. My husband’s lost his job, and he sacrificed both for you and, apparently, the Divine.”
Gnarl clenched his fists, glancing to his side, where his executioner’s axe was still hanging on the wall. “What do you know about Immortality? Prove yourself, or I will finish the job I was meant to do. Perhaps that will save us from the Magistrate.”
Jace’s heart pounded in his chest. His Talent was useless; it wasn’t yet strong enough for him to convince Gnarl further of the lie. If Gnarl lunged at him, could he Speedbind himself through the window? How much of the Magistrate were already swarming on their way here? Could he escape from them again, too? He was a mouse, backed into a corner against a starving lion, one willing to tear him apart in front of a cub.
A knock came at the door.
“Executioner!” a voice shouted. “We know you’re here, executioner. Open this door this instant, you damn Orc. This is the Magistrate!”
The color drained from Gnarl’s wife’s emerald skin, and she dropped the shirt in her hands, which went to her face. As Gnarl turned towards the door, apprehension in his stance, she paced across the room and passed Jace, rushing to their daughter.
Jace rushed to the door, shooting Gnarl a glance. He cleared his throat. “Hello?” he yelled back, raising the pitch of his voice as high as it would go. Jace peered through the peephole, where two officers in black uniforms waited at the door.
“Do not play games with us, Orc!” one said. “We must take you in for questioning regarding the escape today!”
As soon as the Magistrate officer answered Jace’s words, his Talent got to work, and he felt the officer’s nature in his mind. He was orderly and organized, like the Warden, preferring to do everything by the book. But, at the same time, he had a certain affinity for the other gender, likely to bend the rules for their favor.
“[Speech 30]
Jace cleared his throat. “Uh, I’m not an Executioner! He doesn't live here! I can’t open the door either. I’m naked!”
The officers looked between one another, eyebrows drawn in confusion. The other officer shrugged. “Our orders say right here that this is the address of Executioner Gnarl Johansen, ma’am. Would you like to—”
“I don’t want to see — I just told you I’m naked! You’re banging on my door while I was in the middle of changing! Are you trying to take advantage of me?”
“No, ma’am—”
“Then leave me alone, or I’ll call the police for rape!”
“We are the police, ma’am, and that isn’t necessary,” the other officer chimed in. “We only want Executioner Gnarl. Are you sure he doesn’t live here?”
“[Speech 30]
“Yes I’m sure, dammit! And you should've just told me you wanted Gnarly,” Jace said, his voice nearly cracking trying to do the impression. “He lives upstairs. I can always hear their footsteps while I’m listening to my radio operas, that whole family of orcs. Go bother them and let me finish bathing, or I’ll call the police for rape!”
The lead officer sighed, jabbing a thumb down the hall before his cohort nodded. “Okay, ma’am, sorry for the interruption. Have a nice day.”
Jace let out a trapped breath as the officers left, sighing in relief as his Talent spoke to him once more.
“Level up! Master Speech raised to level 36.”
Behind him, Gnarl was only a few more steps away from his axe. He raised his rough eyebrows.
“As far as they know, a very fine woman lives here, and she’ll be in the bath. We have maybe thirty minutes before they come back,” Jace said.
Gnarl rushed into the living room. “They’re gone, Curl! We must finish packing and leave, immediately!”
“I know! I’m still getting Hope dressed!”
Gnarl turned back to Jace. “I haven't forgotten our quarrel. We have time for you to prove to me that sparing you was worth the trouble. Speak.”
Jace reached out to Gnarl’s Nature, and his Talent returned a more pleasurable answer. Appealing to his religious faith was still his only successful option, but now, passing the two speech checks in the conversation with the guards had raised his Speech high enough for it to work.
“[Speech 35]
“I’m sorry for bringing you this far off of pure faith, Gnarl,” Jace said. “But yes, freeing me was the beginning. The Divine sent me here with a plan to free all Orcs, from poverty and prosecution, and when I do that, he will send his son Stoach to reward us with everlasting life.”
“Immortality.”
Jace nodded. “Getting your family out of the city comes next, and then my wife, too. But I can’t do the rest alone.”
Gnarl ran a hand down along the neck of his axe. “I will have to leave my axe — it will draw too much attention, and my Skill works with any melee weapon, regardless. But I understand, Jace. I will follow you.”
“Thank you. Let’s get them to Ionat, then. The real work starts after that.”