I could feel my rage moving inside me like a wild animal. The blast of energy which had torn apart my bindings had also sent queen Donna flying across the room. Her landing hadn’t been graceful. In her eyes I saw a matching fury, which only served to intensify my own anger. My new prompts did help calm me slightly.

New Ability - Mana Drain

Effect: When a spell or ability which uses mana is directed upon you, you may absorb the mana from the spell instead.

Familiarity with the spell increases the efficacy of this ability.

New Spell

You have learned the spell “Psychic Spike”

Cost: 40MP

Project intense pain into the mind of the target.

Being subjected to the agonising spell over and over again must have been a trigger for learning the spell. I hoped that not all spells required such methods, but I allowed myself to revel in Donna’s shriek when I cast it for the first time. It wasn’t a cost I would have willingly paid, but if I escaped then learning this new spell would mean it wasn’t a complete loss to come to Remula.

As she wasn’t bound like I had been, the spell caused Donna to curl into a shivering ball. I kept my eye on her and my own mana. I could cast the spell every eight seconds without whittling down my mana. So I did.

For the first few minutes of revenge, I was more focused on the doors to the chamber. Finally able to get a good look around, the place was ghastly. Hooks were hung from all over, holding pieces of meat. Pieces of me. Purple scales were reflecting torchlight onto blood, dark shadows dancing in the spaces between light.

There were three doors, and no windows. None of the doors were special compared to the others, but clearly expensive. I felt a pang of something like jealousy at the decadence. I wanted an expensive torture chamber.

That was just the greedy dragon within speaking, I knew. Torture wasn’t something I wanted a whole room for, really. It was just high on my list of priorities right now. Initially I had been surprised when queen Donna’s screams did not bring anyone running, but after ten minutes with no interruption I had some ideas.

“It’s not the way to rule, you know.” A metal table holding surgical equipment - strange spinning screws and devices which looked like pizza slicers - had been crumpled by my forceful rebuke and now served as a warped chair. Sitting on it, I had a few things I needed to work through. “I’m not that nice, myself, but I think you’ve overdone it. No one looking to protect you?” I looked around the room and thought back to Donna’s expertise at skinning me. “Probably because you’re always torturing some small animal, you psycho.”

I wasn’t entirely sure whether Donna could hear me. There wasn’t a sliding scale of pain applied, just whatever effect my magical power produced. Without casting it upon myself, I wouldn’t be able to truly gauge the inflicted pain of my psychic spike. That was fine, it was definitely working and that was all that mattered.

“I don’t think I drooled like that, though. I think it’s about time for us to part ways tho- Oh no you don’t.” Once again, the white-hot branding of her own psychic spike was aimed at me. Once again I yanked her mana from her. “You didn’t want me in this door?”

I had walked to one of the three doors. My control over Donna had not slipped, but as I approached to open it, she had managed to focus through the pain and cast her spell. She’s crazy, sure, but that was impressive. I didn’t think that I would be able to use magic while having my brain scrambled.

“I’m bored of you now. Rot in hell.”

Each spell felt different to cast. My blast of force or intent had the feeling of a heavy water balloon filling in my hand. Enhance felt like a quintuple espresso right to the heart. Dragonbreath felt like belting out my favourite song at the top of my lungs.

Psychic spike felt like stabbing someone with my own soul. I despised the feel of using it almost as much as having it used on me. It felt dirty. Using it on Donna made me feel dirty.

And yet.

Ten at once. Similar to when I had over-channeled my blast of force all that time ago, I let the mana of the spell overfill. Bubbling in my core, the magic felt infused with the tingle of static energy. As it filled, ready to be cast, I instead “stored” the casting of the spell. I moved the dangerous feeling energy to my hands. One in each of my three large fingers, another charge of the spell in my thumb and a final charge in the palm. It was a careful process. I could tell the magic didn’t want to do this, the spell itself rebelling. Too bad, I’m the overlord and even magic bends to my whims.

Letting it go felt fantastic for two reasons. First, the casts of psychic spike all left my hand at once. It was like instantly losing pins and needles. My own discomfort alleviated at the same moment Donna’s mind exploded. I was a little disappointed her actual head didn’t pop, but it may as well have.

Blood squirted from her eyes and nose. There was no scream coming from her would-be howling lips. All of her joints were locked as though rigormortis had occurred in moments. She wasn’t even able to curl into a ball of pain. She wasn’t dead, as far as I could tell the spell still hadn’t done actual physical damage, but she definitely wasn’t going to be any problem for now.

The room around me was absolute carnage, and I hated it. I decided what to do, but the other rooms came first.

“Now,” I said aloud, “why did Donna not want me in here?”

I threw the door open. Stink exploded out of the foetid room. I slammed the door. Vomit exploded out of the kobold.

After a string of expletives I managed to calm myself. That was the worst smell I had ever experienced. In truth, there wasn’t anything I could compare it to. I had smelled some nasty stuff, but this was magnitudes above that. It was rotten plague mixed with poisoned rat dung in a sack of infected fish guts. I almost wished I hadn’t rattled the elf queen’s brain so hard so I could ask what that was about.

There were two doors left, and I hadn’t found my property or a way out. Going with my theory that left is always right, and ignoring that I had turned around making the idea meaningless, I went for the door to my left. Jackpot. While the items that had been in my inventory had stayed there, unreachable with the nulcite on me, I felt… lesser without my ring.

Slipping the ring of will on, along with the amulet of solitude, I felt more myself. My clothing and armour had been thrown in the same small closet, so I walked back out of there fully equipped. If they were happy leaving these magic items down here, I could only imagine what might be in the other rooms of the massive palace.

Before I could get carried away thinking of looting the place, there was a loud bang on the door to the room. I waited, expecting a stream of guards to pour into the room. Even equipping the triad blade, I braced for combat. Combat which never came. Clang. The sound wasn’t coming from the other door, which I expected was the way out.

I grimaced and turned to the other door. Was there something alive in there? Looking at the still frozen Donna, I couldn’t put it past the twisted monster, but that was beyond the pale. I hadn’t even considered throwing her in there, what could the creature inside have done? It must have seen me open the door.

Resenting the fact there were no windows in the room, I opened the door once more. From within, a wretched figure darted out. It was humanoid, but that was all that could be told. Covered from head to toe in the thickest muck of faeces, the pitious thing cowered in the light. I slammed the door shut as soon as I realised I could, my sensitive nose thanking me.

“What the hell are you?” I said to myself, definitely not expecting an answer. The poor thing under the filth looked at me, tilting their head. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it could understand me, but I didn’t even think it would be able to hear under all that caked in viscera.

I felt a kinship for the thing. We had both been tortured by the elf queen who was drooling on the floor. If I was getting out, I’d take this thing with me. Beneath the muck I began to make out eyes, piercing through the mess covering it. Purple. The same shade as me. As if I needed another reason. “Wait there.”

The thing followed my command, though it shrank back slightly as I passed it. I opened the other door, ignoring the pity I felt. A dark hallway greeted me, no issue for me with my darkvision. As I thought, there were no guards posted. Whether that was because Donna like to do her torture in private or whether the guards couldn’t stomach the sounds, I didn’t know. I moved the stench-monster into the hallway, keenly aware of the impact it would have on stealth.

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Stealth was never going to be an option.

Locked somewhere in a giant palace, the chance of escaping unseen was impossible. My plan was a little more… inflammatory. One direction had stairs, the other led to more rooms. There was a feeling akin to physical pain as I made the choice not to explore further. This was a terrible situation, and there was no promise of safety. Not the time to be looting.

“Get ready for the chaos.” I intentionally emptied my lungs after saying the words. To make room for the fire. As I stood in the open doorway to the scene of my torture I took it all in. The high elf queen, Donna, was writhing now. Something akin to consciousness was coming back, but there was a yammering, unintelligible babble coming from her. In response, I roared.

I roared out all the pain. I cast the spell over and over, refilling my lungs with furious crimson flames to be belched over the room. I incinerated my trauma along with the carvings of my own flesh. Step one of the chaos.

“Come on then Stinky, it’s time to break out.” Stinky actually made a noise that was probably annoyance at that, which actually made me feel better. “We’ll get you cleaned up afterwards. No point doing it before all the blood.”

————————————————————————

The massive semi-circle of dark paved stone that surrounded the Eradix Aranaea was designed so that your approach would be noticeable. In times past, the half-mile space was a large part of the palace’s power. Now, it had various stalls and merchants making it feel less imposing.

Yet as Abrus walked the black cobble to the palace, he felt as though every single eye must be on him. How could it not be, with what he was thinking? Surely, Abrus thought, they can hear how crazy my thoughts are. A feeling had crawled up Abrus’ spine throughout the day and now, as the city’s ambient light dimmed to night time, the feeling had straightened his spine altogether.

He could not let the kobold be ripped apart as his friend had said would happen. Queen Donna’s torture cells were the most hated part of being a palace guard. At this point, all the drow was hoping for was that the kobold was still alive.

It took a while to breach the line of excited traders. Everyone was desperately crying their wares to the rest of the city, often intentionally competing with another stall.

“Come to Bashir,” a marid exclaimed, “where the ice creams are truly magical.”

“I scream at that cream,” an ifrit boomed like an explosion, “only the roasted nuts of Goshad should be consumed this night!”

Remula was a city of chaos, inclusion and oddity. A melting pot, and a powerful one. While there were countries, kingdoms and empires in the overworld that apparently singled out races as greater or lesser, Abrus couldn’t picture it. What would life be like without the arguing djinn? Or the gnomes that created incredible works of engineering?

What would it be like if there were no dragons?

Abrus had seen kobolds before, though they were less civilised and generally rude creatures. Some roaming bands are scattered through the great labyrinthine system of tunnels which houses the empire of Remula. They were mostly considered an annoyance, but they were also fairly harmless. Supposedly, they’re fantastic surveyors when it comes to mining rare minerals due to their affinity towards earthen magic.

The creature he had spoken to on the roof was not like those kobolds. There was a regality to the thing. It could have torn Cyrus to shreds and Abrus would have been helpless to stop it. Instead it had left the pair of them alive. It hadn’t retreated, it had been benevolent. Abrus was a little shaken in truth, he really had come close to losing his life, he was certain of it.

Around halfway between the market and the palace, Abrus lamented and groaned at himself. “What are you doing, you sunken fool? You have no place to speak to a vizier, let alone the queen.” He began to doubt his actions, the imposing walk to the palace fulfilling its purpose well. At around halfway back towards the market, he spun to face the Eradix Aranaea once more. “Don’t be a coward, now, shadeguard.”

As fate would have it, he was just stopping to return to the stables when the alarms started blaring. He had given up once more and decided to return to Cyrus, but now he was sprinting towards the palace. It seemed too coincidental, the kobold must have done something. It took about a minute of full sprint to reach the steps of the Eradix Aranaea, Abrus’ breath becoming a little ragged as he bounded up the large stairs one at a time.

He plunged into the palace without stopping, the guard at the door itself clearly out of his depth. None of the good fighters end up in the service of queen Donna, so you’re left with unsure children, drunks and lazy idiots like Altissima. A massive entrance hall lay in chaos. Abrus saw at least four guardsmen giving disjointed orders, confusing the men and women under their command. Some soldiers were looking thirsty for blood, others were looking for anyway out of actual combat.

Altissima had, after a few heavier drinks which Abrus paid for, explained the actual path to the dungeon for him, so the shadeguard slipped across the entrance hall and began downstairs. He wrapped his cloak around himself, feeling it’s subtle magic at work. Abrus owned a chamelion pelt cloak, which made him less interesting to others. It was a strange illusion magic, but it was useful when tracking and apparently, when infiltrating your nation’s safest places.

It really was disconcerting how easy it was to make his way further and further into the palace. The smell of smoke was beginning to touch Abrus’ nose as he descended. Oh Abrus, he winced to himself, what have you gotten yourself into?

————————————————————————

“This place is a god damn maze.” I was doubly frustrated, certain that I had kept a good mental map as I was taken from the cage to torture chamber. “I am sorry, we’ll get out of here soon, miss.”

The muck had fallen away a little, though it had taken me a while to notice. The skin underneath was of course filthy, but dark patches of skin were now showing through. Over our quick run, some of the thicker parts of mud had revealed her frame somewhat. She still hadn’t spoken, but I at least knew now that she was a dark elf woman.

I hadn’t asked yet, but I needed to find out what she had done to deserve being thrown into that awful chamber. Able to see her eyes, I could tell that if there was a personality underneath the suffering, it wasn’t online at the moment. My current thinking was that maybe Salan could help, but it wouldn’t be relevant if we never got out.

There were no windows at this level, though we had climbed two sets of stairs. How deep could we possibly be? Rounding another corner, yet another set of dungeon rooms. How many prisoners could one person even need? Honestly. The journey hadn’t been far, but Stinky was already flagging and clearly weakened.

How had this not occurred to me before? The spell said “a target or yourself” after all. I raised my hand and felt the energising energy fill my palm. At the same time, Stinky recoiled. I didn’t have time for cuddles right now, so I sprang quickly, tapped the filthy dark elf and let the magic do the talking. Her gasp was one of bewilderment followed by grunts of excitedness.

“Ah!” She effused. “Ah! Uh! Ya!” She hopped happily and even clapped, taking me by surprise. I chastised myself for not casting the spell on Logue previously, it would have trivialised the combat with the chesmites. A boon for next time.

Conserving mana, I didn’t cast it on myself but kept point. However much stronger the spell made her, it would only last a minute and I explained that I would try to keep the spell refreshed. She “mm mm”ed in acknowledgement. Did she even speak an actual language or was my strange ability translating me into poop-speak. Strange thought, but when all the halls look the same your mind wanders.

Boredom quickly changed to tense surprise and then… recognition.

“You? What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question.” The drow policeman from earlier replied. Then his nose caught up with his eyes, and his face scrunched in rebellion. “What is that?”

“This is Stinky, my fellow prisoner. Be nice. Are you here to stop us?”

“No, I was here to get you out. Why is it smoky?”

“I may have set fire to a room, the consequences of which I will deal with later.” I pressed past the man to look up the stairs. “Can we get out that way?”

“Not without a fight.” The drow male looked conflicted. “The guards are all kids and fools…”

I could understand his issue. He wanted to help me, but if that cost drow youth their lives, what was the point? Luckily, my dragonic vengeance was happy with the destruction in the bowels of the dungeons and I wasn’t looking to kill anyone else. Even if the EP might be worth the guilt.

“They won’t be able to touch me if I don’t let them.” If they really were inexperienced, any less powerful than Hadonis and his party had been, I would have no problems. “Can we get her out?”

Stinky was getting closer and closer to the dark elf, which he was clearly unhappy about. “Please, you’re fine over there,” he held out hands to keep her back, “I think so… oh gods.” He unclasped his own cloak and threw it over the woman.

“Chivalrous,” I joked. I could tell the cloak was magical, and the effect of it was strange. It seemed to remove her presence from the room, only when I was looking for her specifically could I seem to find her. Even the smell was muted. “That’s an impressive cape.”

“Yes. Expensive too. Can we leave?”

“Yes. It’s time to run though. Follow me outside after twenty seconds. Get that weird dog bird and I’ll find you on the roof where we met.” I cast enhance, this time twice. I had planned to use it three times, but my spellbounce effect carried over to myself when cast on Stinky. I didn’t give the drow time to respond before I exploded out of the doors. Thanks to his directions, we were on what he considered the “other side” of the entrance hall, and so hadn’t bumped into any of the guards. They would be finding Donna soon, for certain. We needed to move.

So I did. A purple flash of lightning, carried by feet and claws and wings all at once. Grabbing the floor with my claws, I heaved and flapped my wings in one pouncing motion. I tore the pristine tiling and saw a large room opened before me. The dark marble of the palace really was gorgeous, with white minerals webbing through it. Very thematic.

I heard a few guards yell, and the room mobilised to chase me. Good. Follow the pretty lights, idiots.

Flying around the room twice, making sure they saw me, before shooting up the massive stairs to the upper levels of the palace, I had to draw attention away from the dark elves. It was easy enough to barrel through a few hallways and find a window to break out of. I wasted enough of the guard force's time that as I breached the wide open expanse of Remula, I could see my two new friends crossing a mass of black stone.

That was the last time I gave royalty a chance. May you rot in hell, Donna. I flew away from the palace, disappearing into the huge dark cavern.