I stand awkwardly in front of the dungeon cell, fully aware of my Crossfit attire, my “Nice Snatch” shirt that has lasted way longer than it has any right to, and the blood of the guards spattered across my front.

To be fair, the prisoners aren’t looking much hotter. They may have been better off before this whole ordeal began, given their formal office attire, but now they’re bloody and exhausted, hunched in their small dank cell, stewing in the lingering smell of their own stale piss. It’s a good reminder that things can always get worse.

I have no clue what to do here. I knew we’d meet another party eventually, but I figured it’d be out in the field where we’d all share a beer and some laughs or just immediately get to killing each other. Not this. Unfortunately, it’s too late to turn around without looking like an idiot, and for some reason, that continues to matter to me, despite my previous descriptions.

Ugh. Dealing with this shit is way above my paygrade. But the thickness of night is waning, and we still need to find Afric.

Alright. I’ll just glean a little information from them and then get the hell out of dodge before this gets too weird.

The woman speaks first. “You’re another player.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you,” the man beside her scoffs. “You going to get us out of here or stand there being pathetic?”

“Dave, will you shut up? She’s not going to do anything if you’re being an asshole.”

Well, they’re definitely American by the sounds of it. East Coast maybe? They must have worked in the same office when this started. I wonder what they are now. Rogues? Mages? The guy strikes me as an archer, though it could just be the cloak. I’m not sure about the others.

“Um. Right. Hi.” I shrug. I don’t know what else to say.

“We haven’t encountered another party,” says the woman. “Are you alone? Why are you here?”

I shake my head. I don’t want to give too much away. “We have a quest. There was supposed to be someone else here.”

“That must have been the other prisoners they mentioned,” she says to the man beside her. Then she turns to me. “We haven’t seen anyone else. However they made it sound as though there are others still somewhere in the building.”

“Thanks.” I scratch my arm. “Well, I have to-”

“Wait. You need to help us.”

“I don’t know…” I reply, a statement heavily undercut by the fact that the dungeon keys are literally in my hand. “How’d you end up in there?”

“Melinda shot a fireball into the bakery,” the man in the cloak sneers.

“Excuse me?” the woman bites back. “You started the altercation. You stole directly in front of him.”

“I was smooth as fuck, and you know it. We would have gotten away just fine if Howard hadn’t been staring at me like an idiot the entire time.”

“Or we could have just paid like everyone else.”

“We’re not everyone else.”

“Alright,” I say, deeply regretting this entire conversation. “You seem like you have a lot going on, so I’m just going to…”

“Wait, wait,” the woman pleads. “We’re not bad people. We were just trying to prepare for our travels. We were tasked with defeating an enemy in a tower. There was an… issue. Lord Something - he and his guards managed to capture us after killing one of our own. There’s an arcane lock on the cell door. We can’t open it. Nothing works. Even the guards won’t touch it. We don’t want to die in here.”

My heart skips a beat. “An enemy in a tower?”

“A wizard or something. Necromancer, I think he said. Why?”

The man beside her laughs joylessly. “Melinda. Look at her. She already knows.” He levels his head in my direction, his piercing eyes gazing at me from below his brow. “You have the visa quest.”

“Um…”

“Shocker.” The man snorts. “Look, here’s the deal. If you get us out, we can work together to reach the tower, and then whoever kills the necromancer first wins. Or, you don’t get us out. We tell the next guard what you’ve done. Then we get out of here ourselves, hunt you down, and kill your entire team.”

Yeeeeah, he’s going to murder me the second I open this door.

“Don’t listen to him,” the woman says. “I have a better idea. There’s more than one visa quest out there. If you let us out, we will find another. You and yours can take the necromancer. We won’t harm you. I promise.”

Something strange happens then. I believe her. The other guy, I trust as much as I trust a drunken frat bro in a girl’s locker room. This woman, however, seems genuine. Sure, there’d be no reason for her to hold onto her side of the deal if I helped them, but there’s something about her that I trust.

I approach the cell door. Closer, it gives off that same feeling that the empty field did, like lightning about to hit. In fact, from a certain angle, there appears to be a faint shimmer across the bars.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

New Skill Unlocked!

Detection

You can now spot traps, illusions, alarms, hidden pathways, and other forms of visible enemy trickery, whether created by magic or otherwise. Improve this skill to spot more advanced executions as well as to better discern their precise locations and nature.

[Proficiency Bonus: Resolve]

Warning! Detected: Lesser Arcane Lock

Well, I can’t do something about it now. But maybe if I…

Hold on. Why do I trust her? Furthermore, why do I care? So long as we’re after the same goal, we’re competitors. And while I most certainly am not about to kill any real people, I don’t necessarily feel driven to let them out of predicaments they’ve clearly gotten themselves into either. So why do I suddenly want to help her?

She looks at me, eyes unblinking, her face the perfect sculpture of desperate sincerity. Too perfect.

It’s an act.

Skill Proficiency Increased:

Observation 4 (+3 Resolve Bonus)

And just like that, my heart hardens again.

Whoa. It’s all about skills, isn’t it? The woman is probably using Persuasion, whether she knows it or not, which is undercut by Observation. Charm vs. Resolve. But I only have 7 total points of Observation. If someone has a higher score than that, will I just immediately be taken in by anything they say? Is that what just happened?

No, that can’t be right. Luci has 20 charm. That’s a +6 proficiency bonus. She’s bound to have higher skill totals then. Or is she charming me too? Maybe a higher score doesn’t make the outcome a certainty; it only increases the chance that I’m convinced.

Shit. I’ve always been able to read people and persuade people, and now I can’t trust my brain because someone dumped their stats in charm? I need to get out of here and never speak to anyone again ever.

“You know what,” I say, clapping my hands together. “We still have that other quest, so if we run into something that disenchants an arcane lock, we’ll be back. Okay? Okay.”

Before they have a chance to respond, I bolt. I hurriedly drag the table over the blood I left behind - knocking over something, I don’t know what -, check to make sure I didn’t leave anything else other than an entire party as witnesses, and race back up the stairwell.

At the top of the stairs, I take a deep calming breath before opening the door. The corridor is still dark. When I return to the mudroom, I look in every direction to make sure we’re alone. Then I clear my throat.

“I’m back,” I whisper.

Tossing off a cloak, Éogan leaps to his feet. “Where’s Afric?”

Elias shushes him. “Keep your voice down.”

“She wasn’t there,” I reply. “But there are other prisoners. They’re being kept somewhere else.”

Luci squeezes out from behind a pair of crates and dusts herself off. “So we keep looking?”

“That depends.” Arms crossed, Elias moves to the side of the archway. “How is the opposition?”

“The opposition?” I ask, my breath hitching in my throat. “Oh, the guards. Not too hard. Better than monsters so far. I vote we keep going.”

Somewhere in the darkness of the corridor, footsteps echo. We collectively freeze, our eyes speaking for us as we listen. They don’t sound close. Near the main hall maybe? The steps are light, without the clinking of a halberd against stone. Not a town guard then. If it’s another dungeon guard, we’ll be outed sooner than I thought.

A moment later, the steps grow quieter, then fade into nothing, though I imagine a few extra seconds of rustling anyhow. We don’t move. But the footsteps don’t return.

“Kitchen worker,” I say, my voice low.

“There is one potential issue,” Elias continues. “If they discover us, we may be able to fight, but I have doubts about Ron.”

“Oh, shit. He’s still sleeping.”

“I’ll go back for him,” suggests Éogan. “Stand guard ‘til either he wakes up or Cathal’s men come.”

“What, really?” I reply. “What about your sister?”

“I trust you. And I think I’m ready to admit you’re all far better off without me muckin’ up your way. I want Afric back. That’s all.”

“Oh, hold up, I totally forgot,” says Luci, smacking her head. “We have that Call of the Matriarch thing. We can call him from anywhere.”

“Shit, good memory.” Seriously, I have got to review my menus now and then. “But if it doesn’t wake him up, we’re still kind of in the same boat.”

Éogan’s nose twitches as he crosses his arms defiantly. “I’m your best choice. Let me do this for you.”

I look the kid up and down, trying to figure out what ulterior motives he might have. More than likely, he just doesn’t want to fight. And it is probably better that we don’t have a backstabbing Level 5 tagging along. Besides, if he decides to attack Ron for some unknown reason, that’s definitely an attack the guy can take. It’s certainly better than an ambush full of armed guards.

Both Elias and Luci seem to be waiting for me to decide, so I give the go-ahead. “Sure, okay.”

“Good.” Éogan moves for the door, then spins around. “Oh, and you oughta take a look in Lord Cathal’s office.”

Elias’ eyes narrow. “And why is that?”

“You heard the guards say they have prisoners elsewhere, that right?” the boy asks me.

I glance at Luci. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“Well. There are no prisoners in the main room, that’s for right sure. None upstairs either ‘less the lord’s an eejit. I believe the kitchen’s down the corridor there, the dungeon takes up the basement to the east, which leaves the west side, and only the lord’s office is down that way. Must be a trapdoor, like.”

“Huh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“Right then. I’ll find you after.”

And with that, the boy opens the door and slips into the night. The rest of us stand there, unsure of how to react.

“Guess he really didn’t want to fight,” I say.

Luci snorts. “I mean, he tried to feed us to an otter.”

“True.” Resting my hands on my hips, I survey my party. Just me, Luci, and Elias. Like old times. I kinda like it. “So, um, I should check out Lord Cathal’s office then?”

“Yeah!” Luci cheers. “I’m coming too.”

Elias exhales loudly. “Chispita…”

“Oh my god, Tío,” she groans. “The system gave me cowardice. I’m not going to hide all day. Besides, if we’re caught, then it won’t matter if it’s Helen running or all of us running. And I have the best ability for it.”

I give him a sympathetic shrug. “That’s true.”

He throws me a hard look. “And how are we meant to get into his office? Surely, it’s locked.”

“Maybe.” With a grin, I jangle the keys. “But I don’t think it matters.”