“What’s the hold up your grace? The prisoner giving you trouble?” I head a gruff woman’s voice call from above and a woman in an officer’s uniform like the man I had seen earlier was waiting for us at a side hatch along the hull. She held it open and gestured forward.

The hatch led out into a short deck that had a ramp leading from it. The airship was sitting snug, high on a gigantic cradle built into the side of a mountain. I felt snow whip around me as I shivered and was led down the ramp onto cold, snow covered stone. I looked up and gaped. The foot of a gigantic stone tower reached the sky above me and as I turned, I saw high walls that reached around the tower.

This fortification was built into the crag of a high mountain, and through the rushing snowfall I could see far below me was the open sea. Smoke from battle covered a far horizon where I saw a port city under siege. Dude Edris immediately drew out a spyglass and studied the battle from afar.

“Looks like they are lifting the siege around Bosroy. Good.” He cackled and there were a few muted cheers from the others around him as he passed the instrument.

“Inside! We have business here to dispense with, and we can be on our way to join the battle.” He snarled and thrust the spyglass into a pocket of his golden robes.

Behind me, I heard a shriek of fear, then Kai was tossed over the shoulder of a guard who lazily stomped along next to me as we entered the massive tower. Inside the halls of the tower, I could see that it was made from some sort of white stone, polished and carved almost like a cathedral, with strange beasts and unfamiliar men and women. The design of the building and others was like nothing else I had seen so far, and was quite removed from how I had seen the other fortifications I’d encountered so far. There was a lot of glowing scrip that made my skin buzz slightly built into almost every stone.

The deeper we went down, the stronger the power felt. Descending only a few levels down we stopped in a set of vast halls that swarmed with robed men and women, all wearing various colors of robes. There were a lot of teenagers and children as well, all swarming through as if it was a busy town or from my impression, a university.

Our procession was given a wide berth by them, and the passersby stared at the rough crewmen from the airship and at Duke Edris with desperate curiosity.

The smaller set of rooms we entered off that main hall housed rows of desks and cubicles, men and women in uniforms stopped what they were doing to peer at us for a second before we were sat down on benches around a stone table. The table was narrow, with glass orbs spaced down it, and my eyes widened when I guessed what the orbs were for.

A few moments later a uniformed man entered and talked with Duke Edris before he put his hand on one of the nearby orbs and did that thing to make it a truth stone. It glowed briefly then he gestured to me.

“I am Arbitrator Locke, and you are being questioned to your involvement in connection with the following charges.” He read off a long list of offences and my eyes widened. Just how many people had I managed to get killed? There were also a few absurd ones like conspiring with the enemy, and a few ones that puzzled me like treason against the league, because I wasn’t even a citizen of their country.

They read a similar list of charges in front of Kai who simply began to sob with despair, and I frowned as they charged her with treason as well, and all the same crimes I was charged with, as well as the typical aiding and abiding stuff.

The questioning began in earnest, and lasted for hours, they forced me to respond while I held a glowing truth stone.

I tried to be as helpful as possible, and there was little recourse anyways. In the end though they wouldn’t drop most of the charges except for the stupid ones. I realized that Duke Edris, or whoever had written them up had made the assumption that both of us were part of the League of Silvania.

“Honored Arbitrator, why is Kai being charged with conspiracy to aid the enemy, if the enemy was trying to kill her and me?” I asked and he laughed.

“We are not talking about the Dark ones, but you yourself. Your god is the enemy of all people, everywhere, don’t you understand?” I shook my head.

You can’t lie when over a truth stone, but if they don’t ask the right questions, I was finding they could twist a lot of the events in whatever fashion they wanted.

“So… you would have rather the Underdark monsters, or whatever they are rampage through your lands, level your castle, enslave or kill every man, woman or child, and then continue across your kingdom? Let me try and stop them! I did lose control, and for that I can offer no excuse… however I did stop them.” I argued and he just laughed at me.

“They were a minor nuisance that our grace, Duke Edris assures me he could have vanquished.” He snorted derisively and I shook my head.

“Did you not listen to how I described the fall of Gilford? You really think that Duke Edris would have eventually fared any differently?” I snarled and he waved me away.

“His grace is not under questioning here; you are and you have been judged guilty.” He remarked and then pointed at Kai.

“I have been asked to show mercy on the girl, as she is quite strong of the great magi blood. She will not be executed, as his grace, Duke Edris has requested but will be given an indenture and apprenticed to the artificer’s guild.” He said and then turned to me.

“Champion Nimue of the dark god Aegaeon you have been found guilty of the following charges.” He then spent another five minutes reading off a long list of charges, and I swear the list was actually longer than we had started with.

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“You will be remanded to the Labyrinth of Light, where you will remain until the end of your days.” He said and when I looked up, I saw that Duke Edris was not looking any happier than I was.

“You said she would be confined! Why isn’t she being remanded to the royal dungeon?!” He bellowed, and the arbitrator simply stared at him until the man finished his rant.

“I apologize your grace, but it is the law. Her crimes are far too numerous, and frankly I doubt the royal holdings can contain her in any event despite the fact you yourself oversee their operation.” He said and Duke Edris exploded.

“She killed my son! I deserve to make her suffer! It is my right to extract vengeance!” He screamed and the arbitrator’s eyes narrowed at him.

“The law does not agree with your position. Do you need me to question you on the treatment of your prisoners? It does seem as if grief has… affected your mind in this matter.” He stated and Duke Edris timidly cringed and nodded, his face suddenly going pale.

“Perhaps it has honored arbitrator… I do not dispute your ruling. Thank you for your time.” He said through gritted teeth before turning and storming out of the room.

“What a piece of work…” I grumbled and the arbitrator turned to me. “You were involved with the death of Captain Wilhelm Edris of the Cloudfire. He was an only son and heir. I understand the death was not premeditated but you will repay either way. The labyrinth will see to that.”

I shivered. “What will happen to Kai? I know you said she is to be indentured… is it like slavery or something?” I asked and he shook his head.

“She may be able to work off her debt in a few decades, but it is doubtful. She will be given an education though and the Artificers Guild here at Dawnwatch is perhaps the best on the entire continent of Hygarth. Do not trouble yourself, as she will not be mistreated and will be cared for.” He said kindly and motioned to several men and women heavily armed and armored who grasped me by my bounds and led me down a long hall. I was tossed into a cell, and guards slit my bindings.

“Remove all of your clothing convict!” A gruff sounding voice prompted and I rubbed my sore wrists for a moment and looked around.

There was a glowing blue crystal in the ceiling of the cell and I saw it begin to pulse ominously I glared at it. “No.” I stated, deciding on my course of action. I knew there would be pain but I highly doubted that they could actually take my clothes off of me willingly, suspecting they were just like my statuette and could be recalled somehow. They had slid a very familiar crystal box through a tiny opening in the cell, presumably for me to place my clothes in and I kicked it back out.

Arcs of power stabbed down from the crystal and it felt like my body was on fire, I screamed and fell to my knees with pain. The pain intensified and went on and on until it was suddenly cut off.

“Place your clothing in the box now convict!” The voice was more insistent and I stood up again and glared at the crystal. “No.” I said and the pain came once again.

After the third time, I felt as if I was going to die, and I sincerely hoped it would be the case. Perhaps I would respawn somewhere else. Kai was out of my hands now, and I had nothing to lose.

My skin was red and blistered, some my clothing, while unmarred was plastered to my body with sweat. The pain I was enduring here was some of the worse I had experienced so far, but it did give me a sense of power. They couldn’t force me to remove the garments gifted to me by my god and they couldn’t extort me by threating to either kill me or hurt Kai.

I was assuming a normal person would have eventually decided they had enough, but the request went on and on until I finally blacked out. I woke up on a slab with a worried looking woman in white robes peering down at me and shaking her head.

“You fools nearly killed her! Let her keep the stupid robes, we can ask her over a stone if she has anything in them!” She cried and they thrust a glowing truth stone in front of me.

“Do you have anything in your robes that is dangerous, are the robes dangerous?” She asked and I put my hand over it it as I responded with a no to both when she held up the stone, it glowed green. They had taken my only possession that I could consider dangerous.

“See? They are likely just a set of soulbound robes! Be off with you! I’ll have her taken to the entrance when she is strong enough to walk!” She bellowed and I felt healing warmth over my body as she closed blistered skin. I was given water to drink before the woman gruffly herded me off to another section of their processing area. I limped along, trying to keep the water down in my roiling stomach.

I wasn’t bound, but they did summon some sort of glowing, enchanted bands onto on my ankles and wrists. They shrunk to form like a second skin around my body with no gap for me to stick a finger under. “Don’t even think of trying to cause trouble.” The woman cackled as I stared at the strange summoned constructs, a bit curious if they were actually physical or some sort of spell.

“You give me any problems and they will lock together and you will be trussed up. The guards will have to drag you out and you don’t want that.” She explained and I nodded, picking at the collar around my neck. I could still feel it draining my energy, and acting like a barrier every time I tried to reach out with my power.

“What is this Labyrinth of Light?” I asked and she shrugged.

“I believe you travelers call such places a dungeon. It is indeed filled with monsters. If you die there the dungeon will bind your soul back to it. There is no escape, and you can only live by serving the Labyrinth. Your food will only be earned by what you contribute in there. We do not know much about it, other than texts that have been sent back through the return box.” She huffed.

I nodded. Sounded better than a dark cell, but I highly doubted I would last long without my powers. At least if my character was destroyed on my last life, perhaps the game would log me out so I could create a new one.

Thinking on that a second, I wasn’t sure I liked the prospect. This was a game after all and I was in fact not willing to lose. Every game I had ever played, no matter how difficult did give you some way to win. I had screwed up, badly but there had to be a way to win.

I was led out through crowded halls and then down deeper into the ancient structure.

With every step I could feel the growing power I had felt earlier rise in intensity before finally we entered a room with a single glowing archway. A massive armored box sat next to the door, and I watched it glow and pulse for a second before there was a clang.

Guards peered into the box, spears ready and sighed as they saw there was a pile of crystals, a few weapons and other objects. Removing the contents onto a waiting dolly, they then pushed parcels and crates into it and slammed it shut.

Clerks swarmed over what had been removed from box and started to inventory the items, marking something down on a ledger slate as they wheeled the dolly away.

There was a pulse and I watched the contents they had put into the crate vanish. I stared at the arrangement, then at the glowing archway in confusion.

As the guards pushed me forward the archway pulsed brighter, then lit up in a cascade of power, a portal forming. I could see nothing but a shimmering vortex of energy. There was a violent shove from behind and I was pushed into the whirling vortex of power.