Chapter 10 He’ll Live

Isaac opened his eyes. They stung and watered but weren’t really taking any damage. He tried to blink away the tears that were forming but it only seemed to make it worse. He caught the familiar armor of his love and smiled. “Took you lon-oof” He was cut off by Lenna dropping to her knees and all but tackling him in a hug. The hug was short as Lenna recollected herself almost instantly. She sat back on her heels and grabbed him by the face with both hands.

“You reckless, ignorant… do you know how worried I was once I got caught in a poison bubble?!” Lenna scolded him.

Isaac’s slightly squished face started to smile a little bashfully. “Yeah the poison bubble wasn’t fun.”

Lenna froze. She finally got a good look at Isaac and noticed the bloodshot eyes and the fact that he kept trying to blink away tears that wouldn’t stop. “How did you even get caught?” She asked quietly.

Isaac placed a hand on one of her hands that were cupping his face. “The door was boobytrapped.” He explained. “I tried to open it because there was an active Globe of Negation on the other side so I couldn’t teleport. It must’ve needed a special key or a passphrase to open it.” He squinted at her and ran death flames through her body. His face fell. Her lungs were shredded. They didn’t stay that way for long. “How were you still functioning?” He asked her with furrowed brows. “Wait.” He finally realized what she had said earlier. “You got caught too? How did you survive?”

Lenny cleared his throat, he was still invisible so neither of them could see him and thus he was forgotten about. “Not to interrupt the boss and lady-boss’s reunion but where is my brother?” He asked to get the pair back on track.

“Probably further down the tunnel.” Isaac explained. The tunnel turned sharply a bit ahead of them so they had no idea how much further it went.

“We must’ve crossed half of town by now.” Lenny complained. “I’m gonna check it out.”

Isaac nodded. “Be careful. We’ll catch up in a minute.” He replied and turned back to Lenna. “Now, how did you survive?”

Lenna gave Isaac the short and sweet version before he did the same with his experience. When he was done Lenna just stared at him in silence for a long moment. “I didn’t think you could surprise me anymore with your ridiculous power and abilities.” She commented.

Isaac grinned at her. “And I didn’t realize my image of you could get any more unassailable but here we are.” He said as he rose to his feet and offered her his hand. “Come on, we need to catch up to Lenny before he gets himself killed.” His eyes were still burning but not as badly as before. Lenna had told him how she was completely out of mana so he couldn’t ask her for help. He just had to wait until his body and the potion finished expelling the poison. Every now and then Isaac would cough a cloud of green gas that would quickly disperse. His insides still hurt and a good bit of his regeneration was going to dealing with the poison but his reserves were nearly back to full by the time Lenna had shown up.

Lenna took the offered hand and rose to join him. “Thanks.” She said but held his hand for a moment longer. “We aren’t splitting up again.” Her comment was a statement, like saying the sky was blue or grass was green. She brokered no argument. Isaac smiled and gave her a curt nod. He wasn’t sure how else to reply. He knew that at some point they would have to for one reason or another but he would cross that bridge when they got to it. For now, they had a rogue to save.

The pair headed down the tunnel carefully and then rounded the corner. What they saw was a ladder that led to a closed trapdoor. Isaac walked up to it and started climbing. He lent Lenna the rest of his mana regeneration to silence her armor and she followed after him. Once at the top of the ladder Isaac slowly pushed the trapdoor open a bit so he could peer out. “Clear.” Isaac whispered and opened the door the rest of the way before pulling himself out into the large warehouse they found themselves in. There were thick shelves full of boxes surrounding them so they could only see a small area of the building. Lenny was nowhere to be found. Isaac offered Lenna a hand again and helped her out of the hatch.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

They snuck over the edge off the row of shelves. Isaac vanished before peering around the corner. What he saw was much worse than he hoped but better than he feared. James was chained to a chair and bloodied beyond reason. They had only had him for around an hour and it looked like he had been beaten half to death and half to death again. He was still breathing from the look of it but it looked labored. Before Isaac could say anything to Lenna or do anything at all the man standing over James arched back and Lenny appeared behind him with his dagger in both hands pressing into the man’s back. Past Lenny, his victim, and James was a section of stacked cages large enough to hold a few people each. Inside one of them a small family of three gasped in surprise and the father wrapped his arms around the mother and child. In another cage a dehydrated and starved old man was staring at the ceiling and rocking back and forth. The other three were empty.

Isaac reappeared next to Lenna. “Lenny just engaged. Move.” He told her and vanished again. Lenna ran out from behind the shelves and bolted down the middle aisle. Isaac teleported next to Lenny while still invisible and looked around. A guard was standing a dozen paces away and had been looking out the door. His head had snapped around at the noise of his companion getting stabbed. Isaac teleported behind him and grabbed him by the back of the neck while reappearing. “Move and you die.” Isaac purred deeply with threat and death dripping off every word. The man froze. “Good.” He drug out the word but didn’t otherwise move.

Lenna looked around and realized that they were the only ones in the building. “Where is everyone else?” She asked. “They had to know we were coming.”

Lenny was hovering around his brother fiddling with a key that he had taken off of the man he had just killed. His hands were shaking too much to get the key in the lock. James was still unconscious and the rest of the prisoners looked like they were trying to both go unnoticed and severely hoped that they were going to be freed. Lenna’s gaze settled on the man in Isaac’s grasp and they met eyes. “I ain’t tellin’ you shite.” He told her. His tone was a mix of fear and defiance.

“I met your boss.” Isaac told him. “She ran away.” His grip tightened. “Tell me where she went.”

“I can’t.” The man said and swallowed.

“Why not?” Isaac asked. “You don’t want to trade information that leads to the death of Mr. Nobody for your life?”

The man tried to shake his head but Isaac’s grip was firm. “It’s not that. I can’t. I don’t know and I’m not allowed to think too hard about it.” He tried to explain.

“Then you’re useless to me.” Isaac replied coldly and closed his hand while coating it in death flames. The man dropped, with the back half of his neck missing, to the ground in a heap. His eyes met Lenna’s. “Free the prisoners. I’ll take a quick look around the building and then we are heading to the smithy. Hopefully we aren’t too late.”

Lenna nodded and got to work. She enhanced her strength with her aura and cleaved through the locks on the cages. “Take the old man and find the nearest guard. Tell them some random adventurers just rescued you and tell them where this warehouse is.” She ordered the family. She got a bunch of hasty nods in return but it seemed like none of them were quite up for talking. Their lips were chapped and it looked like no one had given them water in a while. Lenna reached into her bottomless bag and tossed them a waterskin to share. “Small sips.” She explained and moved on.

In the meantime Lenny had finally gotten his brother out of the chains. “Come on you fossil, don't go dying on me like this. Wake up damn it!” He swore. He was about to get up and find Isaac or Lenna when Lenna arrived next to him. She handed him her last healing potion. “Thank you.” He told her with great sincerity. He knew that she was out of mana so this was all she could do for his brother. He hoped that it would be enough. He carefully opened his brother’s mouth and poured the red liquid in. Some of it dripped down James’s chin but he swallowed the rest unconsciously. Some of the wounds on his face started to close up and some of the bruises started to lighten. They both knew that the potion would not be near enough to get James back on his feet but it would hopefully be enough to be able to move him safely.

Isaac was opening crate after crate. Some had gold coins, some platinum ones, some gold dust, some quartz crystals, some a fine white powder, and five were full of mushrooms. “Money, drugs, and ritual materials. About what I expected.” Isaac thought aloud. He finally got to a section of nothing but random metalwear. Rings, daggers, goblets, armor, necklaces, broken guild badges. Anything and everything of value that was made of metal was tossed into the crates. It looked like the warehouse was where they stored all the fenced items that they hadn’t gotten to yet. The items had likely started to pile up after the recent crackdowns. “We are going to make a fortune.” He said with greed in his eyes. He teleported back over to Lenna and the brothers. “How’s he doing?” He asked.

“Not great.” Lenna replied honestly. “I think he’ll live but we shouldn’t move him yet.”

Isaac nodded. “Do you have anything in your bag that you absolutely need right now?” He asked.

Lenna pulled out a blanket and wrapped it around James. She shook her head. “No. Throwing spikes I guess.” She replied.

“Great.” Isaac replied. “Give Lenny your bag.” He told her and then turned to the boy. “Those two crates there are full of coins.” He told Lenny and pointed out two crates he had opened. “Stuff as many in the bag as it’ll take. Don’t touch anything else and be done before the guard arrive.” He pulled his badge out of his Inventory and handed it to Lenny. “When they get here, tell them you are working with me and were left to hold down the building until they could arrive… and that your brother needs a healer.”

Lenny’s eyes went wide as he took the bag and badge. “You got it boss.” He replied. “Do I get a cut?”

Isaac smirked. “Of course. I told you guys I was going to pay you big time for this job. Now I have money to make good on my word.” He clapped the boy on the arm. “Be careful and hurry up.” He turned to Lenna. “Ready to track down Mr. Nobody and end this?”

Lenna cracked her knuckles. She spoke only one word but it was enough: “Yes.”