Flowers preserved and tucked away into deep inventory slots, Dom and I commenced with the honeymoon of our dreams. It wasn’t a honeymoon we could have had in my old world, and it wasn’t the one I’d dreamed of as a little girl. It was a honeymoon born of frustration and a furious need to bathe in the blood of our enemies. Sounds dramatic, I know, but it worked for us.
Okay, look, I love you bunches, my favorite reader, but I’m not going into the CMS. I think you’re glad. How interesting. Good. Now that I’ve put behind us my old whiny self that persisted without Dom, I can get on with the truly remorseless person I can be with at least one person who loves all those sides of me. I’ve read many books where the character is either very honorable or dastardly, but I’ve rarely met a person who isn’t a little of both.
I like that you like both sides of me too. I feel more comfortable telling you about our lovely revenge, knowing that you will keep reading through it even though I’m not completely the white knight. I’m going to try to cast aside my need to whitewash this bloodbath, because somehow, I trust you to see this side of me. I’m scared, but I do trust you. So, here goes.
Dom and I slid silently into the sewers of the Capital, and I wished I’d gotten a spell that could make it rain long enough to wash away the disgusting stagnant waters of a less than perfect sewer system. Was it just ambience that the walls oozed refuse and the murky water at our feet splashed with a slick feeling that made me want to clean everything? Okay, so I cast Bleach more than a few times. Of course, it was like sweeping the dust out of an unexplored Egyptian tomb. I gave up and tried to ignore it. I think I succeeded for the most part.
Beauty -5
Bleach +3
Exp +30 (2,630/788,209)
Rogue – Level 22 (Health 652/1048) (Mana 294/840) – Poisoned (-75/5 seconds)
I kept the Rogue’s attention, practicing the Ice spell I’d gotten right before being taken to the Capital. Dom slid in and out of the shadows, backstabbing the poor thing over and over again. It was done in a lovely little pocket of pure silence.
Ice +5
Exp +50 (2,680/788,209)
Rogue – Level 22 (Health 527/1048) (Mana 250/840) – Poisoned (-75/5 seconds)
I’d gotten my Ice version of my elemental spells to settle into a spike of ice that acted a little like a magic missile, only colder. I was playing around with the different flavors of cold and ice that I could create. I could get it to snow if I focused just right. I had plans for that if I could focus it enough to sell snow cones. What? I’m an entrepreneur at heart.
Ice +5
Spell Upgraded to Ice Missile and Snow
Exp +50 (2,730/788,209)
Rogue – Level 22 (Health 404/1048) (Mana 294/840) – Poisoned and Bleeding (-115/5 seconds)
Besides, Dom and my poison spell did most of the damage necessary to slaughter these mobs. We couldn’t really talk about anything during the silent fight. Dom needed to do most of the damage anyway. He was the one set to overtake the Underground here as he’d done in Siff.
Ice Missile +3
Poison Cloud +1
Exp +40 (2,770/788,209)
Rogue – Level 22 (Health 286/1048) (Mana 294/840) – Poisoned and Bleeding (-115/5 seconds)
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy myself. I loved making new spells and morphing old ones. Watching Dom slide another bloodied knife into a major artery made my heart soar. He moved with a grace and surety that neither of us could have imagined in our aging old world bodies. See? Honeymoon.
Poison Cloud +1
Exp +10 (2,780/788,209)
Rogue – Level 22 (Health 122/1048) (Mana 294/840) – Poisoned and Bleeding (-125/5 seconds)
“Join me or die,” Dom gritted out to the Rogue as the silence snapped off.
The Rogue didn’t call out for help. That was the Underground way. If someone bested you, you followed them. That was the code of thieves. If you ever thought you could best them back, take a shot anytime you wanted. It was a dog-eat-dog hierarchy and Dom and I were just proving we were bigger dogs.
“Join,” the Rogue panted out, just before his health bottomed out.
Dom and his new Rogue Follower shook hands initiating the loyalty dynamic. I had a heal prepped and the Rogue Follower was at full health, his armor repaired, and his clothing as clean as the rank sewer could make it.
Rogue Follower Loyalty +20
Rogue Follower – Level 21 (Health 960/960) (Mana 680/680) (Loyalty 21/100)
I taught him the basic spells of Spark, Basic Heal, and Basic Buff. Once a follower joined you, you had to earn loyalty. Their level got knocked down one, but you could empower them with spells or skills if you thought you could trust them. Most of the Rogues would change loyalties on a dime from their previous masters because their previous masters hadn’t focused on making their minions powerful enough to overthrow them as leaders.
Teaching +1
Exp +10 (2,790/788,209)
Rogue Follower Loyalty +30
Rogue Follower – Level 21 (Health 960/960) (Mana 680/680) (Loyalty 51/100)
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I knew the rules from when I’d done it last time. Dom knew them just as well, having done it himself in Siff. Loyalty started at one with the handshake, but we earned ten loyalty for not killing them, and another ten for healing them up. Then I eeked out another ten per spell we taught them.
“What are your orders?” the Rogue Follower asked, reluctantly. At fifty percent loyalty, they would accept basic orders and fight for us. His reluctance would fade with higher loyalty. That was good because I had plenty of ways to earn that loyalty. I pulled out a few high-quality daggers from the Vampire dungeon, boosting loyalty again. They were worth thirteen points per dagger. I had over two hundred of them, so it wasn’t a sacrifice to hand over three of them to our new ally.
Rogue Follower Loyalty +39
Rogue Follower – Level 21 (Health 960/960) (Mana 680/680) (Loyalty 90/100)
“My loyalty is yours,” the Rogue Follower stated his line and that was when Dom gave him orders. At seventy percent, they would not join another unless they were sure of their impending death. At ninety percent, they would fight to the death.
“Can’t I teach them the clean spell and have them at least start to clean this place up?” I scrunched up my nose, making Dom smile as the Rogue Follower went to follow Dom’s orders. We were having the followers lay low until we had something closer to half the Underground turned.
“I don’t think their loyalty would stay high if they were forced to be sewage workers,” Dom chuckled at me, casting clean to get the blood off his armor. The name of the old guild had been the Thieves’ and Assassins’ Guild. Dom had changed the name to the Underground, something I hadn’t thought of at the time, but he’d said it allowed him to recognize his own versus the old regime.
“It didn’t bother them when I did it,” I muttered under my breath, but I wasn’t really upset. I had enough to do in my college takeover.
“Really?” Dom stopped to consider it. Dom sent Spite after the follower, who returned promptly.
“Want another spell or two?” Dom asked the follower.
“Sure,” the follower responded eagerly. Magic was a commodity held tightly by UNLV and they held spells in tight copywrite-level hold. Anyone selling spells that didn’t bear the UNLV copywrite were burned at the stake, twice. They seriously burned them at the stake, resurrected them and then burned them again. I’d been made to watch four such punishments during my first three years of helplessness. The memory only fueled my anger. I had no fear of punishment. They’d have to catch me first.
“Then we offer you a quest of loyalty,” I butted into the conversation, wording my request carefully. “Bring us one of your comrades who has little loyalty to their master, and we will grant you two new spells that will both repair your equipment and clean you up so that you can go topside without carrying the odor of the sewers to betray your origins.”
Charm +1
“It shall be done,” he vowed eagerly.
I passed him two scrolls. “You may show these to your compatriots as proof of the power of the Underground.”
I could have gotten his loyalty to a hundred, but that is where it capped. As long as the follower’s loyalty was above fifty, all we had to do to keep it there was to have an officer of the Underground meet with them once a day. If they were beyond our influence, they would lose a single point of loyalty per day.
“Officers get to offer quests,” I explained as the follower scampered into the darkness. “They earn experience, and we get another little bit of loyalty by giving rewards.”
“It’s not like we can’t afford it,” Dom agreed in his own way.
Dom was the Prince of Thieves, and he’d dubbed me his Queen. He might have outranked me, but he’d honored me with a perversely higher title. He had reasoned that Kat would be a Princess, so I could only be the Queen. His title of Prince was also to infer a lie that there was a King above him, but it was also so that we would not compete with the King of the kingdom, which might anger the actual King.
“Our next quest is a cleaning one, though,” I pointed out as I cast another clean on my clothes.
“Maybe as a punishment?” Dom suggested.
“Do you really think they like living in the muck like this?” I argued without heat.
“You have a point,” he admitted, casting his own clean as we made our way to another junction.
Charm +1
The best thing about followers with loyalty above the seventy percent mark was that Dom could send Spite or Malice to fetch a follower and the follower would follow the crow back to Dom. Dom and I headed to another portion of the grid maze, but with my knowledge of it imprinted on three years of crawling through it to take over the Capital’s seedy side, we were never in danger of being lost. I was as familiar with the sewer map as I was cooking or doing dishes.
Dom had waited until we’d reached the sewers to summon Malice, his second crow. At the summoning of the second crow, Terra had left the sewers in a huff, professing to have errands of her own that I couldn’t even fathom. Cats. What could you do? While Dom’s pets were obedient and eager to work for tidbits of meat and shiny baubles, Terra was more independent. Then again, I was pretty sure she was much more powerful, at an almost equal level to me. The fact that she kept her plans close to her furry chest was irritating, but I trusted that she’d have my best interests at heart and call for me if she ever got into something too deep.
Assassin – Level 22 (Health 1145/1145) (Mana 470/470)
Assassins were rarer than the rogues and they had a different system of honor. Their loyalty wasn’t earned through near-death experiences. I’d had fits figuring out their code of honor the first time. I put a hand on Dom’s arm before he slid around behind the Assassin. I’d show Dom the first one, but then he’d have to subdue a later one. This one we would have to kill.
“Join or die,” I whispered into the Assassin’s ear.
The Assassin whirled with a snarl, but I was still behind him, and Dom was completely in the shadows, so the Assassin saw nothing. I’d used my very good Hide and Sneak skills to remain in the shadows behind the Assassin even as he turned. “Never,” the Assassin muttered into the emptiness.
Hide +1
Sneak +1
Exp +20 (2,810/788,209)
“How much?” I asked the Assassin in the same way I’d said the first, using my new Sense Emotions spell to make sure I was going the correct direction. Every one of my questions was a die roll. If I rolled high with Luck, he’d turn on his masters, but if I didn’t, the Assassin could deny us as he just had or even lie to us. I felt his avarice.
Luck +1
Sense Emotions +1
Exp +10 (2,820/788,209)
“I’m for hire, but I can’t be bought,” the Assassin sneered.
“What do I need with you, when I can do better myself?” I taunted him, knowing I’d failed both rolls. There were only two chances. At this point the man would say anything, but always be looking for a way to betray us. I drove the knife into his back, slicing up through his ribs and deep into his left lung even as I cast a full dose of poison into his system.
Backstab +1
Exp +10 (2,830/788,209)
The Assassin gasped and bucked away from my knife, his look and feel was a mix of anger and fear as he realized my statement was true. Dom faded out of the darkness in front of the angry man, but seeing as the Assassin was turning toward me, Dom got a backstab at him as well. The Assassin only managed to scratch me, but it was enough for Dom to see red.
Health -14 (19,384/19,398)
Assassin – Level 22 (Health 920/1145) (Mana 470/470) – Poisoned and Bleeding (-115/5 sec)
Maybe this Sense Emotions spell wasn’t a waste of a page in my spell book. It had warned me of the betrayal without having to guess, so I was pleased. The first time, I’d just killed all the assassins after the first one had tried to betray me with a stupid coup.
“You touched my wife,” Dom growled, placing his hand on the Assassin’s chest as the man was turning around. I saw a flash of light as what I could only conceive as a Fireball erupting inside the man’s chest right before he collapsed to the ground.
You have killed an Assassin of the Thieves’ and Assassins’ Guild
Exp +572 (3,402/788,209)
“What was that?” my eyes met Dom’s grin over the falling corpse.
“That is a Fireball cast inside the chest cavity of a person,” Dom explained, obviously pleased that he’d surprised me again.
“Niiice,” I drawled out, imitating his normal drawl.
“You surprise me all the time,” he took my hand and kissed it even as he kicked the corpse to loot it. “It’s only right that I get the chance to surprise you back once in a while.”
“Mission accomplished,” I purred at him. It was our honeymoon. We were allowed to be disgustingly lovey over fried bloody corpses.