Our first idea was to check out where the big monster came from. This led us to discover a much larger cocoon, but no other clues.

‘I think it is time we call it quits’ I said, tired.

‘What do you mean?’ Aki asked, with a weird mix of hope and disbelief in her voice. ‘You want to leave the monsters down here? Laachersain and that Behemoth are blocking our way out, too…’

‘I see no other options,’ I said. ‘There are likely hundreds of these monstrosities if not thousands. I don’t see us facing them AND Laachersain, because let’s be honest… we are undersupplied and underequipped for this. What… Caei has one mana potion left and that's it?’

Deirdre chimed in then:

‘I also have one health and one stamina potion.’

‘Our cup runneth over…’ I sighed and pointed at Caei. ‘She’s our only healer. Once she runs out of mana and we divide that healing potion four ways… ’

All three of them winced, and just like that it was decided.

First, we went to one of the windows and checked what the loud crash from before was. As it turned out, Laachersain used the Behemoth to break through the ceiling in the exactly wrong place and the beast fell to the square below. Its body was currently being swarmed by dozens of monsters large and small and was being rapidly stripped to the bone. That convinced us that getting the fuck out of Y-Ram was the correct move, as there was just no way for us to live through this, and a major problem has just solved itself. We couldn't see Laachersain and his party anywhere, and frankly, we did not care enough to look for them in the pillar. If they wanted to go exploring they were more than welcome to do it. I was starting to suspect though, that the Sanguine was smart enough to see what was down here and just nope out of here as well. Per Deirdee, their party was just four higher Sanguine and a dozen Hunters. They probably stood a better chance than we did, but, from what she told us, Laachersain was likely in deep shit over the Behemoth. It belonged to someone named Tirrleena and she decided to send two of her men to look over it.

‘Wait!’ Caei exclaimed, shocked. ‘Laachersain borrowed a Behemoth from a Crimson Vicar?’

Wouldn't this be an equivalent of him taking the Air Force One for a joyride and crashing it?

‘Some explanation for us who didn't grow up among blood monsters?’ Aki asked, mildly annoyed.

To my amazement, Caei actually looked embarrassed.

‘Sorry,’ she said and explained. ‘Crimson Vicars are basically high priests of The Blood. They are the most powerful members of our… the Sanguine society.’

‘No need to correct yourself, ‘I reassured her. ‘You only left them yesterday. It will take you a while to stop thinking in terms of “us”. Assuming you ever will. And hey you are still a Sanguine. Just no longer a part of their society.’

She gave me a curt nod and looked at me with a puzzled and sad expression.

‘Is this how it is for you? You will always think of yourself as an Earthling?’

‘The common term we use for ourselves is Terran. But yes. Terra, Earth is where I am from. It will always be my homeland. For you and Deirdee it’s the Pale Badlands. And for Aki… I imagine her village first and foremost.’

Tears started gathering in her eyes. That wound would take a while to heal.

I sighed.

‘We are all a bunch of lost souls, aren’t we? Looking for our place in a world we don’t understand.’

‘I guess we are,’ Caeileera chuckled.

And that's how we started calling ourselves “the Lost Souls”.

‘So the Vicars?’ Aki pressed, wiping tears off her face.

‘Right,’ Caei continued. ‘Tirrleena is one of the Inner Circle. They are a semi-formal group of Vicars with whom the Blood actually communicates.’

‘All the requests to use the Serrated Blades by other Sanguine also need to be approved by them, as we… they… are primarily meant to serve the needs of the Blood.’

Which would explain why it got pissed at me for getting Deirdee to leave.

I still haven't told anyone about the notifications I got. I was planning to talk with Aki about Naevud during some quieter period. I was conflicted about whether to tell people about the Great Game, but I decided I would have to. If there were to be assassins coming for us, which would likely mean Deirdee’s former colleagues, they needed to know.

Anyway, long story short Deirdee and Caei explained that Behemoths were relatively rare in the Pale Badlands and highly prized. As taming one was insanely hard, only high-level Sanguine attempted to do it. There were less than a hundred Lesser Behemoths in “private” hands, and only the Crimson Vicars commanded normal ones. Only a few Greater Behemoths were ever seen, and none in living memory. Legends had it that they were easily over seventy metres tall. I had a sneaky suspicion the Blood was keeping these for “special occasions”.

We got to the ladder leading to the top of the pillar. Sadly, we could only climb them one by one, so I went first. Being the most durable person in the party and the only one wearing armour had its downsides. Luckily, nothing was waiting to bite my head off, and soon we were all up back where we started. I looked at the collapsed bridge and frowned.

‘How do we get back?’ I asked and looked at Deirdee.

She shrugged.

‘We came through there,’ she pointed at the rock shelf where we saw the shrine. ‘You were actually already here. We flew over you to cut off your escape and sprang up on you.’

I noticed her voice became really mechanical, then started cracking and tears appeared in her eyes. I waved her off to stop.

‘I understand. Any other ways?’

She motioned with her head in agreement.

‘There is another entrance on the top level. Laachersain and his party were guarding it. We had matching pairs of portal prisms. If you were spotted we would summon the other.

Why couldn’t anything be easy?

It took us five hours to find the route to the top level of the dungeon. The caves here were a real maze. By the time we reached the “entrance” we were thoroughly bonded by our absolute hate for the place. We also spent the last hour walking in absolute silence because our morale was low.

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

‘Finally!’ Aki huffed upon seeing the hole in the wall.

‘Look alive, people,’ I sighed. ‘We don’t know what’s there…’

‘Look alive?’ Deirdee asked. ‘I’m sorry, Lilyth, but I have no idea how I would look “not alive” right now…’

‘My bad,’ I responded, thoroughly tired by the cultural disconnects. ‘It’s military slang for “be ready for trouble”’

They seemed somewhat dejected but assumed some semblance of readiness. So instead of looking alive we got looking “mostly dead inside”. I didn't blame them, as I probably didn't look any better.

The Old Gods must have been with us, because the floor was completely devoid of life.

Laachersain must have taken all his forces with him, I decided.

After a few minutes of walking, we made it to Laachersain’s “Throne Room” as Caei called it. It was a simple square chamber with some faded tapestries depicting some battles on the walls and a small frayed red carpet on which there indeed stood a throne. Or rather, a block of stone carved in a “spooky” chair, with skull relief on the headrest, and, you guessed, armrests ending with actual skulls.

This looks like something a teenage edgelord would do.

There was another exit on the other side of the chamber, a large dark wooden desk just stacked with papers against the wall to our right and two beds against the other.

I pointed at the spooky chair and asked Caei,

‘Whose…’

‘Not Laachersain’s, if that is what you are asking,’ she interjected, a bit too quickly. ‘It belonged to Rivard.’

I briefly blanked out on the name.

Oh, right. Löwe’s master. So a necromancer edgelord.

Of us four, only Aki seemed to feel anything else than a second-hand embarrassment, and rather than fear it seemed to be a mix of curiosity and awe.

‘This Rivard must have looked so imposing on this…’ she said softly.

Then she sat on it.

‘Wow!’ she gasped. ‘This is so fun!’

I couldn’t help but laugh seeing this. I knelt on one knee, bowed my head and said:

‘What is thy wish, Dark Lady Aki?’

A wicked smile crossed her face.

‘This is something we will need to discuss in private, my loyal servant.’

‘As you command.’ I responded solemnly.

‘I’ll hold you to it!’ she giggled and climbed down from the throne.

I looked around and saw that Deirdee and Caeileera were doing their best to ignore us and were looking at something on the paper-covered desk. We approached them. I saw that the papers were some sort of alchemical formulae, written in two distinct handwritings, one of them clearly Löwe’s as everything in it was in German.

On top of the pile lay a pair of Sanguine masks. Caei and Deirdee were looking at them stunned.

‘Laachersain’s, I presume? I asked.

‘At least one of them,’ Caei confirmed. ‘Not sure who owned the other.’

‘Probably Veersavil,’ Deirdee added.

Caeileera sighed.

‘Yeah. It would be him. Laach and Veer go back a long way. My brother saved his life at some point, and Veersavil swore his loyalty to him. Over time they became very close friends, but some debts run deep.’

I grunted in acknowledgement.

‘You were right then, Deirdee. Laachersain IS finished among the Sanguine it seems.’

‘Yeah,’ Caei agreed. ‘And it seems he chose exile instead of facing the music back home. Tirrleena will likely still go after him, her image demands it, but if Laach is smart they’ll never find him.

‘You would be surprised what us Blades can do,’ Deirdee disagreed. ‘But it would take a lot of effort, and the Blood is unlikely to agree to that, as there are rumblings of something big happening in the near future…’

The Great Game, I thought, terror spreading through my body.

‘H-how near?’

‘You never know with the Blood,’ Caei answered absentmindedly. ‘The gods operate on different timescales.’

‘Yes,’ Deirdee said. ‘Could be tomorrow, could be in ten years. There was a… purpose to our latest deployments, though it didn’t seem to be concrete… yet.’

‘So… nothing immediate then,’ I sighed in relief.

The quest did indicate we had some time. And nothing Ereshkigal said implied urgency. If she’s involved in the Game she would likely warn me.

Then I did something I never expected to do. I prayed.

Oh, Ereshkigal… guide me. Help me protect my friends.

There was no response. Which was an answer of sorts.

Not unexpected. The Gods help those who help themselves. No one said it would be easy. I’ll proceed according to her latest orders then. We need to prepare. And for that… we need money.

I sensed approval coming from the distance.

So, she WAS listening.

I turned my attention back to my companions, who were discussing what to do with the papers and the masks.

‘I wonder… why were they placed on the papers?’ I asked.

‘Probably a message,’ Caei explained. ‘“Those are the results of my work.” Or something along this line. In essence, this would be a signal to other Sanguine that they should review this, and if they are satisfied return the masks to them.

‘Could also be one for you, Caei,’ Aki suddenly added. ‘“You were right” or “I’m abandoning this life too.”’

The Sanguine bit her lip and her eyes got wet.

‘Maybe…’ she whispered.

‘Let’s burn the papers,’ I said to them after a moment of silence. ‘As for the masks… you take them, Caeileera as a memento, or to give it back to Laachersain if we ever meet him again. Or just throw it out.’

‘No…’ Caei said. ‘I’ll… keep them. I think I finally found my calling.’

I looked at her surprised.

‘I want to break the society of the Sanguine. I want us to begin living… like people, but… I think the casting off should be a conscious decision. I can’t break them behind his back.’

She looked at Deirdee awkwardly, but the former assassin shook her head.

‘Things were decided for me my entire life, and, while I am not happy that even this last most important one was also made for me…’

She looked at me with a mix of resentment and sadness and continued.

‘...I don’t think I could have continued with the mask still there. And I’ll happily help you make your dream happen. Because I do finally want to start making my own choices and become myself.’

Yeah. This wound will take a while to close.

Caeileera wordlessly packed the masks into her bag, we stepped back and then the Sanguine pointed her hand at the papers and a torrent of flames emerged from out of it.

Quest Completed: The Master of the Tower

Description: Laachersain has abandoned his plans and the research conducted in the Tower was destroyed.

Rewards:

* 500 experience points

* 1 Perk Point

* Approval of Akh’Ret

* Approval of Ereshkigal

* Rune of Shadow Bolt (Umbral Arcana)

Rune pouches dropped before me, Aki and Caeileera.

Did we forget to share the quest with Deirdee?

But then a violet-and-green backpack dropped before her. There was a note attached to it.

To start a new life - Akh’ret

Just as Deirdee moved to investigate the divine gift I sensed movement in the corridor we came from.

‘Get…’ I began to shout, but then a bolt of fire hit me in the side.