“What just happened?” I asked, confused about the lights.

“He was murdered.” Someone croaked. “Those lights don’t appear if you die from a trap, they only appear when someone directly caused your death.”

As she finished speaking, a few cries filled the room. When I turned to see what was going on, I caught sight of lights streaming off another person as they collapsed. It was only because I was looking in her direction that I noticed a girl nearby puffing up. The girl looked as though she was going through a cartoonish-style allergic reaction. Unlike cartoons though, her skin cracked and bled as the skin stretched.

The sight broke whatever had the group under its spell as multiple people fled toward the door. I stayed where I was, unsure as to what to do. While I could run, I doubted that would do me any good. If this was a disease and I was infected, then I would be spreading the thing to people outside. If it was a poison, well I was dead anyway. I wasn’t the only one to stay where I was either.

Still, the sounds of people beating against the door joined the cries that echoed through the room. “Why won’t it open?!” Someone cried while others wailed in fear. “LET ME OUT!” “I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

Still, the door stayed closed no matter what they did to it. One by one, I watched as lights flit from body after body as they dropped to the ground in various states of dead. One shriveled up as all of the water, and other bodily fluids, poured out of every opening. The gross brown-colored liquid caused quite a few of the panicking people to slip and fall. A few heads bashed against the group.

Even with my limited medical knowledge, I knew that most of the falls were nonlethal. Fuck, most of them should have only yielded a small bump. Whatever was affecting everyone made its presence known in a few victims by thinning their bones. Their heads practically splattered against the ground.

Others rose from their fall only to start vomiting. At first, their stomachs released every bit of food it held, but the retching got worse, not better. I shivered as I watched one of the men wretch up an organ. What organ? I had no clue nor did I want to know.

The sound of a familiar cry pulled my attention toward the first Oracle I had met. As my head turned, I found that most of the people who had remained at the table were slumped over, dead or dying. While the sight was sad, my eyes continued to move until I found the person who had cried out. Slumped back in her chair sat Philipa. Her ashen face helped her fear-filled eye pop out at me.

As if the fact that it was someone I had watched die once, my mind tried to break out of the stupor and indifference I was in. Why was I just sitting here? Why was I watching people around me die and doing nothing to help some of them? Surely there was a way for me to get us out of the room or at least keep a few people alive until help came.

I tried to work through my options but it was like wading through mud. My mind worked but each thought took a while to form and when it did it was as if it was made of mist, always trying to dissipate. Eventually, though, I managed to get my feet under me as I worked my way toward a struggling Philipa.

I shoved chairs out of my way as I pushed my body to move faster. Her breathing was coming fast and shallow as a trickle of foaming blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth. All signs of blood in her lungs, or at least that was what I had once read in a book long ago. Whether it was right or not didn’t matter. All I knew was that she was struggling for air and the blood was likely making it hard for her to breathe.

Finally, I got a hand on her. Mana flooded out of me as I forced as much of it as I could into my Emergency Healing spell. Sure the spell ate mana and was incredibly wasteful but what other choice did I have? Should I just let her die, again?

Just as her breathing started to improve and the color returned to her skin, someone slammed into me on their way to the ground. The heavy body smashed me into the table, pinning me there as he landed on my patient.

Immediately Philipa released a spray of blood into the air as she let out of rattling cry of pain. Before I could so much as shove the idiot to the side or even stab him, bubbles of light flit out from Philipa’s body. She was gone. She had died a second time and there had been nothing I could do about it.

As if it had been waiting for this moment, a sharp pain stabbed through my heart. Whatever it was didn’t stay there either. Before I could recast my healing spell, the object grew in length. Growing from the top of my heart to the end of my spine. Every breath felt like fire as the object ground against most of the organs inside my chest.

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I was in enough pain that there was no chance I could focus enough to cast a spell. Which meant that all I could do was wait for whatever it was to kill me. Of course, the first face that popped into my head was the stupid alpha’s. It was his fault that I was here. That I was dying.

The next faces to flit across my mind’s eye were Barti’s and the girl’s. For a moment I wondered what they were up to. Were they still in the beginner town or had they escaped with the rest of the non-humans we had freed? Maybe when I came back I would ask around. Surely someone would know the answer.

It shouldn’t have surprised me, given the reminder of the starter town and all that had happened there, but the next faces to pop up were those of Linda and her party. Well, all the ones that I had either killed or helped kill. Seeing them, I wondered what had happened after they died. Did Michael and the two guys respawn up here or did they come back with Linda, wherever that was?

Then again, did it matter? I doubted I would see them again and even if I did I was fairly sure they wouldn’t hesitate to try and kill me. Hell, her father would probably be the only one that wouldn’t kill me on sight. No, that creep would just try and bind me to him. Likely so that he could fuck me or get me to do things for him. Either way, I hoped I would never see those five people ever again.

As if it had been waiting for me to shove those images away, I found myself thinking of the wolf. Sure, he had been an asshole but how much of it had been his fault? I was sure that Linda and the rest of her party did quite a number on him in an effort to break him. Of course that didn’t excuse what he had done and the damage he had caused.

Hell, I probably would never forgive him for the way he had treated me the first day we met. Why? Because I doubted that any of them had ordered him to do what he had done. After all, I was a dime a dozen in that tiny town. A nobody. If anything they simply took advantage of the situation to further their goals. Just my luck.

Still, I didn’t push his image out of my mind as something about the wolf gave me pause. I almost wondered what would have happened if we had met under different circumstances. Maybe I wouldn’t kill him the next time we met – if we ever met that is.

Ginger and Pendragon came next. She was cradled against his body as his wings surrounded them both. I wondered how those two would have reacted in this situation. Would they have tried to blast their way through the door or would they have managed to heal everyone? How would they react to my death? Sure it wasn’t permanent but the fact that it had happened under their watch and the manner in which it happened, they would probably take it hard. Fucking hell, the moment I came back I doubted those two would let me out of their sight for more than a few moments.

Of course, that brought my mind to the one person who had entrusted my safety to his sister. The one that had come to save me once already. In my mind, I saw Xander in not one image but in an endless stream of them. From the times that he laughed at my bad jokes to the times he and I had argued about how to cut a part out. An image of him covered in lubricant after a hose in his machine had broken nearly caused me to laugh. Let me tell you, laughing hurt. Still, I missed those days. Days where all I had to worry about was getting orders done.

Not that I would change everything that had happened so far. If anything, I wouldn’t change any of it. I know this sounds stupid but even with what I now know, I wouldn’t kill Linda or her group any sooner than I had. After all, without their trust how would I have ever freed those trapped below the city?

Without warning, the spike lancing through my chest took that moment to remind me that it was there. Tiny barbs grew out in every direction. Blood bubbled out of my mouth as the barbs tore through everything fleshy.

A loud booming sound reverberated through my body. Given how slow it was, I was sure that it was my heart as it tried to pump around the obstruction. Tearing itself up as it tried to keep the blood flowing through my body. To be honest, it was probably making the issue worse but what else could it do? If it stopped, I was dead. If it continued, I was still dead, just not as fast – though I would be in a ton of pain.

First came the tingling sensation of my limbs going numb. Then came the tiny black spots as my vision started to narrow. Suddenly the banging, vibrating, sound that had filled my ears stopped as something nearby exploded. As quickly as it had disappeared, the sound was replaced with a cacophony of pounding and voices as they yelled and screamed.

For what and at who, I had no clue. All I knew was that someone was here to save those of us that they could. Still, I doubted many of us were able to be saved. I was probably already too far gone and I was one of the last to be poisoned.

What would death be like? I know that everyone who had died shivered at whatever they remembered. Even Linda and her group had told me that it was not an experience they wished to repeat. But I guess it would be inevitable that I was going to experience it.

Unable to keep my eyes open, I let them fall. They weren’t doing me any good anyway. Most of my body had gone numb and my sight was gone. Replaced by darkness. Even my hearing was on the cusp of giving out as well. Well, that is if the fact that everything sounded far away was anything to go off of anyway. Still, I could almost swear that someone was calling my name, but that couldn’t be right, could it? No one knew where I was. Even if they did, I doubted that the guards would have let them into a room filled with the dead and dying. Those murdered by someone or something.

Seeing nothing but pain and no way out, I finally gave in and gave up. Letting my hold on consciousness go. The darkness wrapped me up and welcomed me. It held me in its warm embrace as we both waited for whatever came next.