We reached the cave entrance and tried to look through the shrubs.

I heard another branch break outside.

I looked at Lyria, raising a finger to my lips.

“Kass?” Minara asked.

I spun on her, pressing my finger to my lips hard, but it was too late.

Whatever was out there had heard us.

Dammit. I clutched my Alchemist’s Kit hard, peering through the overgrown cave entrance. Whatever was out there was coming closer.

A dark figure appeared as if he was unfolding from the shadows. His hood was drawn and he held knives in both hands. He was walking toward us, face hidden in the shadow of his hood, except for the white curve of his smile.

My body went stiff with anticipation and fear.

[Human, Level 50 (Iron)]

“You know,” he said, voice low and deadly. “You all leave such obvious tracks. At first, we thought you knew we were following you. Then those three broke off on their own, and I realized you were all clueless.” His smile widened.

He kept coming closer with a kind of steady calm that was more frightening than if he had been running. It spoke of confidence and violence.

“Let me guess,” he said, stopping just outside arm’s reach.

Lyria had her shield raised and sword in one hand. She hadn’t activated the elemental effect yet. Minara was holding a hand up and I saw the faint yellow light of one of her barriers between us and the man.

“You three are the guard dogs?” he asked. “The tracks tell me there are nine more in there. And I could cut you three down before you knew what was happening.” He said it without any bravado. The matter-of-fact tone was more like he was stating a simple truth that was obvious and hardly needed explained. “But lucky for you, we only need two more bodies for bait. So whoever you’ve got hiding in that cave can stay hidden, for all I care. I’ll take you two for the bait,” he said, pointing one deadly looking curved knife at Minara and Lyria. “And you,” he said, aiming the other knife at me. “You and I are going to talk about that helmet.”

My throat felt dry.

The man winked out of view, and before I could react, he was behind us. Cold metal was to my throat and he had the tip of his other knife resting on the nape of Lyria’s exposed neck.

His voice came quiet from behind me. “That helm is voidsteel, right?” He lifted the knife from my neck, giving the helmet a tap with its tip. “Once you untether it and give it to me, I might even be grateful enough to let you live. How about that?”

I almost told him I didn’t know what he meant, but kept my mouth shut. Even if I couldn’t figure out how to untether my helmet, I should take the opportunity to be held separately.

“Nobody has to get hurt,” I said.

“Well, that’s rarely true,” the man said.

Lyria drew her shield in a rush, waving one hand over it as sharp yellow light began to form on its surface. She spun away from the knife, trying to backhand the man’s weapon.

Her shield passed right through him, trailing wisps of black smoke as his body vanished.

I blinked, and he was gone.

I was almost relieved until I heard another sound outside the cave.

The man was back outside the cave again, but he wasn’t alone.

“Ice them, Jai,” he said, producing some kind of fruit and taking a bite as he leaned against a tree.

A gray-haired woman with bags under her eyes spoke. “Apologies. This will sting.” She raised both hands, and I felt like I’d just stepped into ice-cold water up to my ankles. The sensation kept creeping up my body. I tried to run, but my muscles stopped working. With horror, I saw sparkling white frost climbing up Minara and Lyria, passing their chests and climbing up to cover their faces. The ice seemed to stop at my neck.

“Huh,” the man said, moving out of the tree's shadow to come my way. “Did you stop the ice at his neck on purpose?”

I was too cold to shiver. My vision was going black at the edges and I felt like I was barely clinging to consciousness.

“No,” Jai said tightly. “Must be his helmet.”

“I want—”

Darkness crept in.

#

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I woke by a fire. The warmth felt impossibly good. It was sinking through my frozen flesh and slowly reaching toward my bones, which felt like rods of ice inside me. I shivered violently.

The hooded man was crouched in front of me. He smiled when he saw me wake.

“I didn’t properly introduce myself. I’m Rake. Now, I’m prepared to—”

“Don’t tell him your name,” Jai sighed. The gray-haired woman wore a tattered gray robe, but I saw the hint of expensive-looking gold jewelry beneath the sleeves. “Now he knows you’re going to kill him.”

Rake raised his palms, glaring at the woman momentarily before turning back to me with a smile. “She’s kidding. Terrible sense of humor, honestly. I was going to say I won’t kill you if you simply tether your helmet to me. Easy, right?”

I was gaining a little more awareness as I looked around. There was another man I didn’t recognize. He was bald, with red tattoos running up his neck like spiderwebs. He had on a blood-red tunic over chainmail armor.

Like Rake, the bald man and Jai were both level 50 and Iron rank. No wonder they’d won the skirmish against Bloody Steve, Perch, and Kass.

Then I spotted my party. Minara and Lyria had been propped up against a stone pillar. None were bound or tied, but a red mist slowly churned around them, clinging to their skin and snaking up their nostrils as they seemed to sleep. The bald man watched them so closely that I was certain the mist was his doing.

There were more pillars around like the one they’d been tied to. It seemed like we were in the center of a ruin deep in the forest. It was crumbling, and rock fragments were everywhere, but I guessed it might have been a temple once.

The last thing I noticed was a heavy, metal cauldron just behind Rake. It was bubbling and sending up steam. It also smelled like hot garbage.

“Well?” Rake asked. “What do you think of my offer?”

“I think… it’s a good place to start,” I said.

Rake laughed, throwing his head back with his amusement. He casually produced one of those long, winding knives from his belt, spun it neatly in his hand, and then let it rest over one raised knee in my general direction. “You’re funny. I like that.”

To my left, the ice wizard, Jai, was holding a thick book that looked ancient. She was reading something silently, lips moving. Every so often, she glanced our way.

“What’s she doing?” I asked.

“Oh, that?”

“He doesn’t need to know,” Jai said.

“Summoning ritual,” Rake explained casually. “See this?” He half turned to indicate the cauldron. “This is a very special mixture of ingredients. Works kind of like bait for one specific creature. They’re called briarwraiths, and this stuff smells like raw memories to them. Apparently, they’re drawn to strong memories. Anyway, we’re hunting an accomplishment. Rumor is you can get an Iron Ascension Token for taking down a fully fed briarwraith. Seeing as we’re all just itching to advance to Silver, we banded together in a noble effort to rid Eros of one terrible beast. Which we’re currently trying to summon to Eros,” he added with a shrug.

“Idiot,” Jai muttered. She didn’t seem too bothered that he was telling me so much.

I decided that was a bad thing. She'd be more worried if she thought I stood a chance at making it out of here alive.

“Fully fed?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’s the tricky part,” Rake said. He spoke with the air of somebody proud of his clever ideas and in search of recognition. “But I knew a guy who knows a guy.”

“Don’t you mean you know a guy who knows a guy?” Jai asked.

“Past tense,” Rake said, not looking her way. “I had to kill him.”

“Oh, okay,” Jai said, returning to her book and reading more.

I was trying not to miss any details of the story. If there was something I could use to help us out of this, I wanted to catch it. But I was also frantically scanning the area for any other ideas. It helped that my helmet completely obscured my eyes. To Rake, I probably looked perfectly attentive as he continued speaking.

“Anyway,” Rake said. “I knew a guy who knows a guy. Actually… I didn’t kill the second guy myself, but I heard he got stabbed the night we left Bree. So I knew a guy who knew a guy. Point is, I, ah… Shit. I was going somewhere with that…”

The bald man let out a long, suffering breath. When he looked our way, I noticed a certain gravity to his face—almost like an air of command. I’d taken him as a lackey, but now I wasn’t so sure. “Perhaps you were going to shut up?” he said.

Rake seemed surprised to hear the man speak. “That’s ‘the Acolyte’.” He leaned closer, smirking as he lowered his voice. “Guy is creepy as hell. He makes us call him that.”

Rake got up, moved to the cauldron, stirred it with a long stick, and then came back to sit with me. “How much longer is that going to take, Jai? The bait shit is ready. That lady said it would lose potency if we cooked it too long.”

“I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” Jai said. “The briarwraith will spawn within a mile of the ritual. It will smell the bait, even if it’s not at maximum potency.”

“Alright, alright. We won’t get the accomplishment if it’s not fully fed. I’m just trying to make sure this goes smoothly.” He used his knife to pick some of the dried blood from under his nail, then seemed to remember I was sitting there. “Oh, right. About your helmet. See, here’s the thing. Everything we managed to find said a briarwraith is fully fed after it eats about five people. If one of them has some really good memories, it can supposedly take less.” He half-turned, counting with his finger as he tallied up my sleeping party. “But look at that, we’ve already got five. So I don’t need you to die. But that’s only if you kindly hand over your helmet.”

“You said the tomte doesn’t count as a full person,” Jai said.

“Okay,” Rake sighed. “Truth is, I might need to feed you to the briarwraith either way. But I don’t have to poke a bunch of little holes in you before I do if you play nice. What do you say, hm?”

“Well…” I said. I had just one idea, and it felt like it was very far from a good one.