Memories give rise to one’s inclination, but it is the soul that gives our will direction.
- Vincenzio Barbierri.
Whatever magic the Necromancer used to preserve me had faded. My bodily urges returned, and I found myself needing to use his bathroom. The flowing water was a technical marvel for this place, but for me, it felt like an experience from the third world.
Making sure to wash my hands, I rejoined Larynda in the ancient storage room. I shuddered as I remembered the countless times I watched others refuse to wash their hands after doing their business, both in this world and my old one.
In the end, I decided to take some time to sort through my gear. I stuffed my looted plate harness into a large oiled-leather rucksack we found in the corner, along with my crossbow and assortment of weapons. Not expecting to need them immediately, I placed the potions, Hamsa’s concoctions, in a side pouch of the rucksack.
Seeing the potions, a look of faint nostalgia crossed Larynda’s features, accompanied by a wisp of a smile. It made me think for a moment and, deciding to err on the side of caution, I placed the potions in a satchel we found to take with me.
“We'll send for the rest later once we’re done,” I said, more to remind myself. “Where have you been while I was asleep?”
“You always did like repeating yourself, don’t you? I’ve still got a room at the Begonia’s. Do a few chores now and then, help out a bit here and there,” Larynda replied wistfully.
“You do, do you? I still have a place to return to, I take it?”
“That’s right, you sure do! Naira’s one of those sentimental types. She kept your room for you, you know. Never lets guests in there,” she answered cheerfully. “Brought your things down to Vince’s once the trouble started.”
“And what of… what was her name… Zariyah? Yes, Zariyah,” I asked as casually as I could.
Larynda rolled her eyes, and I had to tamp down an urge to cuff her around the head.
“Oh, her…. Ooohhhh. You liked her didn’t you. Uncle Elwin always said she played you like a lute, she did. His words, not mine, mind you. Oh, right, where to begin? She had the whole street gossiping for months and months,” she started to ramble, the words flowing and clashing against one another without pause.
“…Well, one of the merchant princes of a Shareholder house took a right fancy to her when he was slumming it down here with the commoners. Anyways, he wanted her in his seraglio, the fancy place where rich people keep their stable of women…” she explained, looking meaningful at me.
“I know what a seraglio is,” I said with a minor note of irritation, gesturing for her to carry on to her main point.
She nodded to herself. “Well, of all things. She sold herself off to him! Signed one of those contracts things and everything… like the one she used to have with you. Gave all the money to her mother and just went off and left… It was a really big thing…”
I stood up with a creak of metal, moving towards the door. “Where is she now?”
“Wait! Wait! That’s the thing, it was one of the scions of House Alim. But! But!” she continued, blocking off the entrance and holding up her hands. “One day she just disappeared. Gone. Nothing. Those girls inside that big palace of theirs are locked up tighter than any vault. Was the whole talk of the city!” she explained.
I stopped. Absurdly, as if to punctuate her explanation, and for no reason that I could explain, I saw the experience counter on my Status go up by one. Was I getting experience just from exchanging gossip and news? I highly doubted it…
“Alright, so where is she now?” I tried to ask smoothly, a fixed smile on my face,
She glanced sideways. “No one knows… but there were rumors.”
“With her mouth, she was probably killed, no doubt,” came my matter-of-fact reply.
Larynda shook her head in disagreement. “No, with the king’s ransom that they paid for her… no way. She was too valuable for that! Far, far too valuable to be killed just like that. I think.”
“Okay,” I said holding my head in one of my gloved hands.
“What’s an o-kay?”
I had slipped. “It means, alright,” I explained, closing my eyes, realizing that too many things had happened in the time that I was trapped in the dream.
Kidu promised to watch over me while I slept, but promises grew thin with the passing of the years. Elwin had promised undying loyalty since I healed his hand but was now the gods know where. Cordelia had basically worshipped the ground I walked upon.
Everybody, it seemed, had a penchant for betraying me.
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Zariyah, well Zariyah, I had been expecting. For some reason, I felt that Zariyah becoming part of some rich man’s harem hit just that little bit harder. Added to this was the fact that these blows had all come at once… Well, it was enough to make even the strongest of men morose.
There was a light punch on my arm. “Don’t you worry! You still got me!” Larynda tried to reassure, her hands beating her chest with one hand.
Looking curiously at her, I was momentarily stunned by her bold claim.
I decided to correct her. “I believe you are in error, it is you who has me. That is the reason that you brought me back from the dream of Dust, correct?”
“That’s right! You and me, and a little bit of Vince, are more than enough for this. Don’t you worry, we’ll show the Bulls a thing or two!” she announced with a bright, sunny smile.
I was about to give a sarcastic response before I saw the familiar figure of Vincenzio suddenly filling up the door.
“You have to stop doing that Vince…” Larynda complained, having been taken completely off-guard.
“One will stop doing this… the day you, and the others like you, cease calling me Vince,” was his annoyed response.
Despite my distrust of him, I felt a pang of sympathy. There was something about extended doses of Larynda that distinctly annoys.
He turned to me, hiding his hands in the folds of the sleeves of his dark robes “You have a plan?”
“Walk into wherever they are holed up and slaughter as much of them as I can. They won’t be expecting it and none of them can best me. There is an elegance to simplicity,” I answered, audible cracking my neck in a show of bravado.
He nodded. “It is common knowledge where their main stronghold is in the city, the compound near the Exchange. But their other bases will not be so easy to find, that is where…”
“You come in, yes? My thanks,” I cut in pre-emptively.
“Yes, the faster we get this over with, the faster we can continue with our original goals. Oh, and before I forget, this is for you.”
He walked up to me, crossing the threshold of the storage room. Reality seemed to fold slightly, his image distorting as he came closer.
He came up to me and handed me a small box. “You will need money if you are to survive in Al-Lazar. I took the liberty of investing your assets in the Exchange. You have made a lot in profit while you have slept.”
Leaning in closer, whispering in my ear. “Make sure you kill some of them in ways that are horrific and painful. That way their souls will linger for longer in this plane, allowing for me to extract information from them. Open this when you have finished your assault at their main of operations, there is something alongside the money that will direct you to where their remaining dens or members are.”
He pulled away, giving me a thin-lipped, calculating smile. There was more to it than he gave on. An urge to open the box was upon me, a need to sate my curiosity. However, a part of me felt that this sudden desire was not quite exactly all my own so I fought it back.
“Larynda is of one purpose with us. She too understands the threat that Kaila de Arancrai and the Adventurer’s Guild represent, and has at least until today, played her part well.”
The half-elf rolled her eyes.
Unperturbed, he continued, “How the Evil Mother has sunk her claws deeply into that institution. It must be uprooted by any means necessary,” he pronounced, the last few words ringing with uncharacteristic passion. “One will ask again, The Bulls of Heaven are a powerful gang and number in the scores, are you sure you are capable of the task?”
There would be no refusal to this call, for it aligned too well with my own desires. I smiled grimly. “Their numbers matter not. No matter how much trash gathers before me, trash is ultimately still trash. More importantly, you are sure the City Guard will not intervene?”
“It is an almost certainty. As I have explained before, as creatures of the Council, foreign gold can at best buy the neutrality of the City Guard, not their aid. There is no love for Aranthia in the city at this moment. You do not have to slaughter them to the man, just strike a great enough blow that they will have to reconsider their place in the city.”
“He’s right Gil, we just need to show them some strength. The Bulls are basically cowards. Also, the City Guard are just plain lazy. Waste of the taxes we all pay, too!” chipped in Larynda, grumbling towards the end.
It sort of made sense. Law enforcement, no matter the age, era, or even world, had a tendency to either grow complacent or corrupt. In Al-Lazar, if these two were to be believed, it was a perfect combination of the two.
“Very well then, we had best start now. I am as ready as I will ever be. Come Larynda,” I declared.
The Necromancer bowed to me. “One would appreciate if you took care of the girl, she can be a nuisance at times, but she has grown on…”
“I understand. I have always done, and will always do so,” I promised without a moment’s hesitation. With this pronouncement, Vincenzio bowed a touch deeper.
Flustered at my words, Larynda looked away.
“I will send someone for the rest of my gear,” I said in the passing as I left the storage room, a feeling of dislocation overcoming me. It soon passed and I crossed the back into the Necromancer’s laboratory proper.
I turned to the right and began to walk down a corridor.
“Gil! That’s not the way out,” blurted Larynda.
I paused in midstep and swiftly turned around. “Of course, it is,” I admitted. Strangely, of Vincenzio, there was no sight.
“These robes are from Vince,” she said, holding out a dark cloth bundle for me.
With a sigh, I removed my weaponry, baldric, pouch, and belt from about my person. After slipping the robes over my head, Larynda helped me to put them back on, patting me on the back once she was done.
“It’s this way, Gil!” she bubbled, almost skipping as she led me through the underground lair of the Necromancer.
Dried herbs dangled from the rafters, casting flickering shadows over the cluttered room. Wooden shelves, laden with an eclectic array of specimens suspended eternally in crystal glass, lined the walls. The workbenches groaned under the weight of alchemical tools—alembics, mortars, calculators, retorts, and other arcane instruments of their ilk. Ensconced at precise intervals along the walls, Zajasite crystals of a bright, shining blue bathed the chamber in an eerie light. Among the curiosities, open crates filled with white, bleached bones drew particular attention, their stark presence a grim reminder of the Necromancer’s sinister purpose.
I had to admire the brazenness of a man who had set up shop beneath his very enemy.
Finally, we reached the heavy doors of the entrance. I traced a hand across the heavy, dark wood, thinking back on all that happened to me so far. I quivered slightly, the prospect of slaughtering a score of criminals a heady thing for me.
I wanted my next level, no, I needed it. My soul demanded that I offer up their souls for sacrifice on the altar of my progress.