Still a little stunned, a panting Rory just sat there staring and blinking at the thing that he was positive had been seconds from adding him to its collection.

Then he recalled the flash of white scales that had saved his ass. “Leilah?” he called.

He got nothing but silence in response. Entering his ghost, he found her still wrapped around the golden globe, simply laying there. She did look a little smaller though. Thinner, less glossy. Diminished was the best word.

Everything has a price, he thought sadly.

He thought at her gently, “Leilah?”

She shifted ever so slightly but didn’t respond. He thought he felt a little bit of an emotional response, but it wasn’t pleasant. Mostly complete exhaustion. But underneath was a terrible grief and loss. Maybe she was mourning her brother. Or her freedom? Hopefully, she didn’t blame him. Despite all of that, and what it had cost her, she had saved his useless ass. Sighing he shook his head. Once again, he needed to do better. Another good person diminished because of him. His mum and da had been good people too.

Letting out a big breath and with a determination to improve, Rory left the ghost and stood up. Patting himself down to verify there were no extra holes – and finding none – he starting moving around Lucifer’s nest. The first thing he did was retrieve his weapons and recall them. He told himself that that always had to be his first priority. He didn’t know the consequences of losing one and it being beyond his recall range, but he didn’t want to find out in the midst of a fight like that.

Speaking of, he tapped his ring to get the results of that clusterfuck.

{Adolescent Rainbow Ferret Snake} slain…

Calculating…

168% Myst Gained…

Vessel filled…

Vessel filled…

“Bloody hell!” Rory exclaimed. “What level was that thing?” Then he thought for a bit. “Ugh. More math.” Rory tried to figure it out. In the end he came to the conclusion that, assuming he knew what he was talking about in regards to vessel size growth, it was only level three.

Nodding, he thought, It was only level 3 – that’s a relief. Too bad about not capturing its soul, but a pair of vessels is still rather spectacular.

He thought about what to do with them, but then remembered why he was there and decided to stow them away for now.

After going back to his backpack and drinking a little water, Rory went to the rainbow snake, grabbed its tail, and dragged it towards its head. After some shifting, he was pretty sure it would fit in a three-foot cube and touched it while tapping the bottom right square. The snake got sucked in and he fist-pumped.

Brilliant!

After that Rory spent the next hour cutting the two large snakes from the stash of the rainbow chap up into pieces so they would fit in the vault’s cells. After wiping the sweat and blood off himself with a ratty t-shirt he had brought for just that purpose, he rested and ate a snack.

“So far so good,” he mumbled to himself through a full mouth. “Hopefully I can sell all that snake meat for a good bit of quid and it wasn’t a huge waste.”

Having recovered his energy some, Rory moved onto the next target, which was the treant pieces. Chopping them to size took much less time and it all fit into a single square.

That only leaves one thing before I have to go down for the cells.

He looked at Lucifer’s molted skin for a moment, remembering the snake. He strangely felt quite close to Lucifer, despite the fact that he had only known the snake for less than an hour. But he couldn’t help it. When he thought of the big black serpent, more than anything he was… grateful. He had hope again, and the only reason was because of a creature born of death. The irony made him shake his head at himself and then he checked the time. It was nearly noon. Following the evils of math, that told him he had less than five hours.

To avoid any unforeseen circumstances, Rory decided he would head downstairs and get the cells, then come back to chop at the skin until it was time to go. He figured that that would probably not be enough time to do the whole thing given how slow he had cut through it the prior evening.

Another decision made, Rory clapped his hands and said, “Let’s do it.”

***

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

It was just after 6:30 by the time Rory reached the stash and changed everything back into his standard public clothing. He moved at a light jog to speed things up and reached the end of the tunnel by 7:15. Breathing heavy but thrilled with having the endurance to run so far, Rory leaned over with his hands on his knees at the cave entrance, breathing heavily. Reflecting for a moment, he realized, he felt happy about the day. It was the first time he had felt that way in… well… he couldn’t really remember. Certainly since moving to this dump. But hopefully, we won’t be here for much longer. Things are looking up.

“Grab him,” sounded a few yards from Rory in a growly but unfamiliar voice followed by the sounds of shoes scuffing on stone.

Rory panicked and froze for just a moment before his brain kicked into gear and he tried to summon his weapons. Just as he had that thought, two bodies slammed into him and he was driven into the rough stone floor of the mine tunnel. The air was pushed out of lungs in a whoosh and the focus needed to call his chakram left with it. As he tried to take in a breath, he felt one set of hands press down on his back and shoulders hard and another grab his wrists.

After a moment, Rory was able to suck in breath, and his mind focused. He was scared shitless, but also angry. As much at himself as at his attackers.

How could I be so careless. All these years of being cautious and I get caught by a bunch of thugs cause I was too busy being pleased with myself. Fucking idiot!

Rory gritted his teeth and pulled as his arms but before he could take any other action, that same unfamiliar voice spoke again. “Stop fighting, kid.”

He was able to follow where the voice had come from this time and lifted his head. A man walked into the light of the lantern that had fallen from him in the scuffle. He looked up and saw someone he definitely hadn’t expected. He figured they were probably thieves, desperate enough to steal and maybe even kill. At worst, he thought it might have been Mycroft’s guys coming to get their money early. But this?

“Marvin?” Rory’s voice sounded out his obvious surprise.

As in Mick’s Marvin who guarded the door. He was dressed in a clean white button-down shirt with a posh brown jacket, brown slacks, and brown casual dressy shoes of some kind.

“Sorry, kid,” the big man told him in an almost regretful tone. “What ya got is too valuable. We’ll be takin’ it.”

Confused by Marvin’s purpose here, Rory asked, “Mick was about to get them anyway. Why nick them before I get there?”

A huffing laugh sounded from the barrel-like chest of the guard. “Mick doesn’t know,” was his answer.

“You’re stealing from Mick? Are you cracked?” If Rory thought he had been surprised before, this was just mindboggling. Nobody ever stole from Mick. Everybody in all eight slums knew that was a death sentence, and not a nice one.

“We’re not amateurs, kid. This isn’t the first time someone has run off on Mick and it won’t be the last.”

Wanting to see if he could fix this, Rory pled, “Don’t do this, Marvin.”

“Like I said, sorry, kid.” Marvin responded. “It’s not personal.”

Not personal…

For just a moment, Rory flashed back in his mind to those words being said to him as child, strapped to a table. Not personal…

“I’m glad it wasn’t Mick,” Rory growled. Then his chakram appeared in his hands.

The guy holding his wrists screamed in pain as the constructs sliced into and through his hands. Blood sprayed all over himself, the other guy holding him down, and Rory’s back and legs.

Reacting to the surprise of both the attack and blood flying in his face, the tough holding his shoulders lurched backwards. Rory took the chance to rolled away and got to his feet. He saw Marvin backing up out of the light and reaching into his jacket. Rory knew that if he drew a pistol, Soul Weapon or not, this was over. Quickly, Rory snapped his right arm and wrist forward, underhanding his white chakram at Marvin just as the big man stepped out of the dimming torch’s light. Rory heard a grunt and stumbling sound followed by a thump.

Without checking to see what happened to Marvin, Rory spun and swiped his left hand with the black serpent chakram across the throat of the third guy. He fell, gurling blood from his mouth and neck. The guy with only half his hands was on the floor, his back against the wall and he was screaming bloody murder. Rory silenced him with another swipe and then picked up the lamp and ran to where he had last seen Marvin. He found the large guard face down on the ground, the white chakram pushed part of the way through his back from where it had struck him in the chest.

Gritting his teeth, Rory glared down at the man. He was so angry he swore and kicked Marvin. Why did you say that? Rory screamed in his mind. Why did you make me do this? Then yelling wordlessly out loud, he kicked him again. And then three more times, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Panting, Rory stared down at his victim for a few seconds before recalling his chakram. He grabbed Marvin by the feet and grunted as he dragged his corpse towards the two other bodies.

This wasn’t the first time Rory had killed a human. In fact, it was his fifth, sixth, and seventh since coming to this fucking planet.

The first time was the very week they had moved into that shitty flat. A middle-aged man had seen “fresh meat” and came by to take their stuff, because new people always brought at least a little with them. Rory had been too weak to fight the guy off so he had used his old rusted Soul Weapons. He had learned that day that against non-myst beings, even weak Soul Weapons made killing easy. Rory remembered being covered in blood and the feeling of the weight of the man as he fell on Rory, leaking blood onto his face and into his mouth.

Rory had thrown up and cried himself to sleep that night. His mum had not been quite as bad back then, but apparently seeing her eleven-year-old son slice a man’s throat open and be covered in his blood had broken her even more.

Anyway, each time got easier after that. It still wasn’t easy for him, but Rory had defended himself and his mum and would again if they were threatened.

After a few moments to gather himself, he proceeded to search the bodies, finding a total of seventeen pounds in cash, two rings, three standard wrist commos, and Marvin’s laze pistol. Rory stripped them of all of their clothes and stuffed them in his bag. Pushing the bodies all up against the wall, he bent their legs to their chests, wrapped their arms around them, and touched each with his ring. He only had two open shelves after the recoveries from the facility, so Rory was forced to pile the two smaller guys in one and the gigantic Marvin in the second.

Looking down at himself, he realized his school clothes were covered in blood.

Great. Not that I was planning on going back to that shitty school, but still… they’re perfectly good clothes.

Sighing at the waste, Rory stripped out of them and stuffed them into the bag on top of the other bloody clothes. He left the mines in only his t-shirt and shorts, frustrated at being the one to have to give Mick the bad news.