The transition from the warmth and light of the Guild to the cold, dry, dark of a FarPortal pavillion deep underground hit Kaden and had him stumbling. The air here wasn’t just dry, it leeched the moisture from his tongue and lips.
“Clear the pavillion for the next party,” The Portal Mage said in a bored, sleepy tone. “Welcome to Omnor, may the gods have mercy on you. Next!”
Beside him, Sara stumbled, and one of her horror’s pseudopods caught her before she could fall. Its bite took a chunk out of the stone support, so they moved on quickly, down cascading steps and into a sea of people moving through a city in perpetual night. Everywhere, mushrooms grew from stone, covering the walkways and squishing underfoot.
“Careful,” Sara said. “The entrance to Omnor proper is up ahead, but Mom said there would be thieves outside and in.”
[Split Second] let Kaden catch a teen boy reaching into Kaden’s pocket. He backhanded him, taking care not to break the boy’s jaw. “Hands off. I break bones. She tears limbs.”
Sara’s Horror opened its four-way jaws and whipped around to gurgle.
When the boy screamed and jerked away, Kaden let him, with a half-hearted non-effort to grab in his general direction. In this case, an escape was exactly what Kaden wanted. Dead thieves didn’t warn other thieves.
Kaden and Sara stood back to back in the line to meet the Omnor guards, though Sara now earned a healthy wide-space from the others. The gates to Omnor weren’t actually made to close, they were made to restrict traffic. The line dropped to single file and then turned sharply right, left, and back.
It reminded Kaden of his killing maze on the ship, and probably served a similar goal.
“Name and purpose?” The guard barked at Sara.
“Sara Scylla. I’m here on a Quest to return a Necromancer’s inheritance.”
The guard coughed. “What a load of bull shit that was. Why are you really here?”
Kaden jumped in. “She’s with me, sir. I’m searching for the lost city of Duradain. It’s supposed to be at the bottom of the nameless pit, at the center of the forest of lost souls. I’m not supposed to mention this to anyone, but I’ve been sent on an epic quest by the gods themselves!”
The Guard looked like he was going to vomit. “Not from around here, are you?”
Kaden shook his head. “No, but I shouldn’t talk about my biggest secret. I have a Destiny! Do you want to see my weapon? These belts are hard to work with, but let me whip it out and —”
“Second lifers.” The Guard muttered under his breath. “I hear there’s a nameless pit on the Northern Continent. Hey, Bifa, wasn’t the lost city of Duradain on the Northern Continent? And that Nameless Pit?”
“Right you are!” The other guard said. “Way up north, you’ll find whatever you’re looking for. Beast Master, that’s a…class. What does it do?”
“It lets me tame mice and rodents, among other things!” Kaden said. “If you’ve got one, I’ll show you. I’m hoping to get a talking wart at level fifty.”
“Go on, get out of here.” The guard waved them through. “Stupid second lifer. Err—I mean, thank you for your Quest and sacrifice, great hero of the gods. Idiot.”
Kaden gave the Guard his largest shit-eating smile. “Thank you, brave guard. I go to find my Destiny!”
Thirty feet past the gate, Sara began laughing. “Oh, great hero! The Nameless Pit! A Destiny! You!”
Kaden bowed. Just inside the gate they’d entered a combination market and crafting commune. “Does the Guild have an outpost here?”
Sara shook her head. “Too much authority for the city to tolerate. Mom gave me a safe place for lodging and instructions for the market.”
“Are you and her—”
“I don’t know.” Sara studied a street marker laced with runes and put a hand on it. It glowed in three sets and an arrow lit up pointing toward a right turn.
At every intersection, she checked the signs, and each time, followed the arrow.
*Heads up, we have four following us. Twenty threes,* Kaden sent.
Sara didn’t look back. *I’m ready. We’re close to the Lodging House, but if there’s going to be trouble, I’d rather it was now.*
Kaden let her take a slight lead and meandered left so a row of multistory shops lay on one side. Three of the gang following them split off, while a man continued to track Sara, moving closer now.
“There.” Sara called out loudly. “That’s where we’re staying.”
She spun on her heel and stalked toward the man, drawing twin swords as she did. “I was told to make an example. I think you’ll do nicely.”
The man split into three, each wielding glowing red daggers, and all three struck. Only one screamed as a Horror’s pseudod clamped down on his face.
Kaden stood, Remembrance in hand, facing the three men who had followed him. “Your friend there isn’t doing well. Hear that? That sounds like someone feeding the hunger of a [Cosmic Horror.] I don’t have one of those.”
The one closest drew a wand and pointed it at Kaden. “You don’t have Purchase Rights to walk these streets.”
“True. But I do have a TriTerror.” Kaden triggered his Elderitch Shield. “You want to meet her?”
“Get him!” one of the three shouted.
And all three screamed, because Kaden had summoned Trinity right behind them. One had a serpent head driving venomous fangs into his chest, another’s body convulsed as the blind head crunched. The last was the one doing the most screaming, because Trinity’s armored beak had nipped off his leg at the knee.
As the serpent head let go, Kaden poured a hundred points of mana into [Moment of Speed] and unleashed a spinning attack at the man’s skull with Remembrance’s hammer.
The memory would haunt Kaden for the rest of his days, as the man’s head caved in.
Brutal Blows has inflicted a permanently crippling injury.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
You have defeated the PadFoot Robert Ryan.
You have gained XP.
Kaden would have helped with the other two, but Trinity threw one body into the street and then put a claw down on the other’s chest.
“Stop right there!” A man shouted. “In the name of Salish Sales Emporium, why do you commit violence here?”
“They attacked us.” Sara didn’t look up. She continued to hack chunks from her attacker and feed them to the Horror.
“Three on one,” Kaden added, looting corpses.
The Emporium Guard looked left and right. “Well, if that’s how it was. Don’t go starting trouble. This block is the exclusive Sales Domain of Salish Sales Emporium. We’ll be expecting a purchase to pay for the blood.”
Crowds had gathered, but they didn’t gather too close, as Trinity continued her feast.
“Does that thing have to eat him?”
Kaden shrugged. “She’s hungry.”
“Does she have to do it while he’s alive?” The Guard had started to sweat.
“She doesn’t have to, no.” Kaden strolled to Trinity and wipped blood from her blind head’s jaws. “Good girl.”
The armored head took another bite and then spat flaming drool on the stump before moving to nibble a hand off.
The man’s clothing caught fire as the drool burned.
“I know you want to ask,” Kaden said, loud enough for the crowd to hear. “Trinity burned the stump so he won’t bleed to death while she’s eating the rest of him. Girl, stop playing with your food.”
Trinity stabbed the mage with her tail over and over, taking no particular effort to kill, but eventually she ran out of safe places, and rammed the spear-tail through his heart. Then groaned in disappointment.
“It’s ok, girl.” Sara came over to loot the corpse. “Someone else will attack us tomorrow. You can play with them.”
The crowd had fallen silent.
*Leave that one to be resurrected?* Kaden asked Sara.
She gave a nod. *I want someone to tell the story. Mine won’t be. Those two won’t.*
Kaden waved to the guard. “That one can still be resurrected. Is there a temple? And someone willing to drag his corpse there?”
“Stack them to the side, there’s a corpse-wagon that circulates through Omnor.” The guard was looking the kind of green that wasn’t good. He wouldn’t meet any of Trinity’s gazes, and given that she had a minimum of two eyes on every head, that took effort.
Kaden recalled Trinity in mid-bite and then picked up one corpse with each hand, tossing them to the side. “We’ll stop by the Emporium for some necessities, right, Sara?”
“Absolutely. Shall we?”
He offered her his arm and slung Remembrance over his shoulder with the other. And together they headed down the block. In the middle of the block, a four story red pagoda stood with green tile roof and red brick walls. Sara headed straight up the front and knocked on the door.
A thin, tall woman with dark black skin and a bald head answered the door.
[Amy Anderson - Hotelier]
It take a special kind of woman to serve hospitality in the city where might makes right. Mrs. Anderson no longer goes out on adventures, but that doesn’t maker her days boring. Her thirst for blood can still be satisfied when guests don’t abide by her rules.
“Sara Scylla! Your Mother sent a bird saying you were coming. Now, before you set foot inside, I have my own set of laws. No stealing, murdering, attacking, or any of that inside my walls. If you’re covered in blood—and you are—you shower in the side yard and come in through the back. If you’re drunk you can sleep it off. If you’re high I will kick you out.”
“Reasonable,” Sara said. “I accept.”
“Me too. Are Beasts welcome? I have a TriTerror.” Kaden waited.
Ms. Anderson put her hands on her hips. “Absolutely not. It’s a small house with small rooms and narrow halls. You’ve got the second floor. The third floor is haunted, don’t go up there. I live in the basement, breakfast is here on the ground floor.”
She stepped aside, and Kaden followed Sara in.
You have come under Authority (Amy Anderson). Your skills are restricted here. Combat will induce severe penalties.
She hadn’t been kidding. The entry room was smaller than Sara’s bedroom upstairs. The kitchen, a sitting room, and a dining room made up the rest of the ground floor, and an anorexic staircase at the back led to the second floor.
Sara headed straight there, while Kaden turned sideways and edged his way to the second floor. The room smelled of old paper and candlewax, and a single window looked out over the streets, which thronged with people.
The room wasn’t as cramped as Kaden feared. His room at the Saint’s Hall had been smaller, though Kaden himself had been thinner and shorter. The single bed didn’t bother him either, and if Sara cared, she didn’t show it. “Let’s get our pass to the Market now. We will need to be patient after we reach out to Digus. Mom said if we show too much interest, it sets off warning bells.”
If Kaden had worn bulky armor with paldrons, he wouldn’t have fit down the stairs. As it was, he squeezed down them, following Sara into the common room, where Mrs. Anderston was frying meat.
“We’ve got business to conduct in the Underground Market. Mom said the pass points change regularly.”
“They do, but I make it my business to know—”
The ground shook, and screams rose like a wave from the city. Through the front window, chunks of rock landed in the street and cries for help grew clouder.
Mrs. Anderson pointed at the door—it glazed over with rock as the ground shook harder and harder.
Then the swelling, shaking earthquake gradually subsided. The chimny exploded with ashes and a messenger bat flopped out to land on Mrs. Anderson. She listened for a bit and then shook it off. “Shoo, shoo. Another accident in the market. Unleashed another Great Old One. I’m sorry, dear, you won’t be going to the Market this week. It’ll be sealed until the Mages can banish whatever Elder God is currently wreaking havoc. The FarPortal is overloaded with people trying to escape. If you want, we’ll schedule a trip and you can come back next week.”
A single glance to Sara told Kaden what he needed to know. “We’re staying. I actually have business in Omnor outside the market.”
“With?” Mrs. Anderson asked. “There’s not much legitimate business here. Everything outside the market exists to serve everything inside the market.”
“I have something to return to a Necromancer. Their parents were running a Dungeon with mine when everyone died.” Kaden brought out the training wand. “This belonged to one of them.”
Ms. Anderson looked it over. “Go to the Necrosium. It’s where every Necromancer trains. I should warn you, it’s very dark. And dank. And filled with dead things that are remarkably mobile.”
“Not a problem.” Kaden unfolded his Eldritch Shield. “I have an icebreaker for talking with Necromancers. They love this thing. I fed it wraith bones.”
Based on the way she looked at Kaden, there were things she approved of and those she didn’t and the eldritch shield was on the not list. Kaden was dangerously close. He put it away. “Sorry.”
“Manners. I’ll get you a skill book,” Ms. Anderson said. “Give the city time to settle. Go shop at the Emporium, they’re serious about sales. A good sale wipes away almost any murder.”
Kaden considered the skill Ashi had transferred him. Would a sale that bought them peace be extravagant? Acceptable? Reasonable? Ashi wasn’t present to explain, and that was assuming she even knew. There was one way to find out. “Where’s the emporium?”
“Ask any guard, they’ll escort you. They get a bonus. Sara, your mother said this was your first time in Omnor. Was that stunt you pulled outside on her advice?”
Sara nodded. “She said ‘make an example.’”
“There’s making an example, and there’s inciting terror in a city block and challenging the Block Manager’s authority. There’s a fine line between the two. Don’t go making more examples and you should be fine.” Ms. Anderson pointed to the wall where an ornate timepiece lit up runes in a waterfall pattern. “Ashfall starts at seventeenth bell. If you haven’t been exposed to [Ash] it’s going to burn you steadily. If you have, it still burns.”
“Ashfall?” Sara asked. “There’s no volcano.”
“There’s nothing but volcano. That’s what keeps this place warm during the day and burns off the Blight when it creeps in from above. Geomancers stage nightly erruptions.” Ms. Anderson paused, her gaze distant. “Well, that’s sorted. The Emporium Manager is sending someone to pick you up. Play nice, buy something expensive, you won’t have a problem.”
“How can you possibly know that? Is it like Dominion?” Sara asked.
“I can see them out the window,” Ms. Anderson answered. “Do they not have windows up where you’re from? I like mine.”
The front door rattled as someone kicked it. “Open in the name of the Emporium, or we’re going to have a buy-none-get-all-free deal on spells.”
Kaden was already at the door, letting them kick once, twice—then yanking it open so the Emporium guard lost his balance and stumbled into Kaden, whose grip on the door let him do a passable imitation of a brick wall. “Hi. You might be looking for me. It’s your lucky day because I was looking for you. You are going to take me to the Emporium, you’re going to to do it now, and you’re going to do it quietly and without fuss. Are we clear?”
Sara’s exasperated sigh warmed his heart. “There are three of them.”
“Trinity has three heads. That’s my TriTerror. Would any of you three like to meet her?” Kaden waited patiently for the three to shake their heads. “It’s a pity. I stopped her from eating earlier and she’s still a little hungry. If you change your mind, let me know. Now, let’s go shopping!”