Therasphue was one of the few stronghold cities still held by an NPC: a level 25 witch. The settlement was just outside a massive marsh, with a slow-moving river flowing through it and into the bay. Crocodiles, snakes, spiders, and every other creepy thing called it home. Drugs, alcohol, BDSM, and other kinks were popular here. It didn’t have much of a nightlife, as the buildings weren’t large enough for the dance raves or casinos Jace had experienced in Ironfel. The structures were all 1-2 story bungalows built from clay with thatched rooves. Everything was cursed, hexed, or venomous. It was a goth enthusiast’s dream, but it was more often a nightmare. Several players had tried to defeat the current owner to make it their stronghold, but none were successful, and most were turned into lycanthropes. When that happened, you either went with it or had to start your character over.
Gracie told all this to Jace, and he relayed it to Esther. They stood on a wooden dock were the river meandered into town. They were both aware they were in a PVP zone. Unlike Ironfel, no guards greeted them. Instead, they saw water rippling and knew snakes and crocs patrolled the shores. A curtain behind them led into the boundary zone next to the city. It was identified as a Level 20 Hostile PVP Zone. Jace thought the town that lay before them looked hostile enough, but he knew it wasn’t the same thing.
Global time was still night, as Jace had only accelerated his personal MIM to dawn, and the dimly lit streets and buildings of Therasphue looked about as inviting as a budget haunted house on November 1st. But in there, all of the NPCs and animals ran off a script. The predators would stay in the water or the trees unless activated by whatever rules the city’s keeper put in place. You could move through the streets with relative assurance that you wouldn’t be bitten, stung, poisoned, or eaten. Any drink you ordered was probably cursed, the fortunetellers were casting hexes, and the working girls were all succubae, but that was what you signed up for when you entered.
Jace, Esther, and Snowy weren’t going into the city. They were headed into the swamp. All bets were off there, and everything was designed to kill you. Jace wondered if it had been a mistake not bringing Draya, as the woman could have done some impressive landscaping work with a constant stream of fire, but he needed her fresh for later and hoped his original companions could get the job done.
At the edge of the platform, a board held several notices. The first and most prominent warned players not to enter the swamp under any circumstances. That was just a legal disclaimer because underneath was a list of bounties for certain types of animals you could find in the swamp and who in the city would purchase the remains. Jace wasn’t disappointed to see “Shade Salamander” listed among them. “What do you know?” he said.
{How do you think I found this place?} Gracie replied.
Jace chuckled and started toward the swamp, seeing a small trail that led off the dock and into the bush. Paths connected all the locations in the realm, and you could conceivably walk everywhere if you wanted. He gathered that this continent was slightly smaller than Australia. It would take some time to traverse the whole thing manually, but it was possible.
“We are going in there?” Esther asked apprehensively.
“Yes,” Jace said. “Trust me.”
“When has that ever gone wrong?” she replied dryly but moved to follow. Snowy didn’t want to go either. Not only did she know what a shade salamander was by its scent, but she could also smell a dozen other deadly things.
“Come on,” Jace urged the wolf to lead the way. “Let’s make it quick.” He drew Diamond Etcher and started hacking away at the branches. Esther drew her weapons and followed. It wasn’t as bad as they were expecting. The area right next to the city wasn’t densely populated with animals. The few other players who did go into the swamp, mainly after bounties, usually killed a few things before they were overwhelmed. While the swamp regenerated monsters frequently, they were less dense near Therasphue.
With both players linking their senses to the wolf, they could see and smell the things around them, so nothing caught them entirely by surprise. Snowy picked up a sent pretty soon, and they marched into the swamp. The foliage wasn’t kind to someone as tall as Jace, so he hacked at the low-hanging branches, killing random animals with every swing.
“I really hate the new goblin,” Esther said, exposing what was on her mind. “He’s just so . . . so . . .”
“Jealous,” Jace finished for her, killing a spider the size of a turtle that scampered across the trail.
“I was going to say mean or possibly something worse. But that’s the problem. I can’t think of the right words. I can’t understand him when he talks, and I feel stupid.” She waved her arm at a buzzing sound near her ear and casually sliced through a mosquito the size of a hummingbird. “I definitely wouldn’t say jealous, though.”
“He’s jealous,” Jace confirmed, swatting an eagle-sized bat out of the air before it could land on Snowy. “And you need to give him what he wants.”
Esther paused to cut her rapiers in a scissors fashion through the body of a snake that had dropped from the branches above and tried to grapple her. “Why would he be jealous of me? He hates everything about me. He hates what I used to do, what I am, how I dress, and how I think.”
Jace parried a lunge from a sword beetle and turned it into a triple critical back, stabbing straight down through its back. “I have watched you kill enemies twice as strong as you that outnumbered you six to one with your bare hands. Gromphy can’t do that. We are in this swamp because he needs an ingredient to fashion a potion to kill someone. And then he will give me the potion to use because he wouldn’t know how to trick anyone into drinking it. If I asked you to kill someone, you would just do it. No ingredients, no weapons, no help needed. He sees that power in you, and it makes him jealous. So, he must turn you into something he can hate to make him feel good. He has a hostile personality that I can’t change, so he probably won’t stop without reason. You need to learn to give him what he wants.”
Esther didn’t understand but paused when a panther jumped at her from the left. She sent a web at it, which secured it to a nearby tree. She then cast True Strike, hid in the shadows, and struck at the cat the following round with such force that she took its head. “What he wants? From what I can tell, he wants me dead or gone or both. I’m not going to give him that.”
Jace laughed as he cut a constrictor in half that was trying to ensnare Snowy’s back leg. “If he wanted nothing to do with you, he wouldn’t insult you at every chance he got. He would be ignoring you and begging me to send you away. No, I’ve already told you what he wants. He wants you to be an undead, evil hooker who seduces people to kill them afterward. That way, he can hate you. He knows deep inside that isn’t what you are anymore, so he has to work hard to make it true. It is standard bullying tactics 101. Rotten school children with low self-esteem have been doing it since the dawn of time. But if you superficially give them what they want, they have nothing to force anymore, and their bluster disappears.”
“So, I should be an escort again?” Esther asked, dodging the spit from a poisonous frog before slicing off its legs. “I heard the Gilded Swan is back in business under new ownership. Are you saying I should return to my old job?”
Jace laughed again as he took the head of a zombie trying to rise from a marshy spot next to him. “No. I said superficially. Next time he says you’re dumb, apologize and tell him you will start attending school with Draya. When he says your clothes are too revealing, ask him to craft you something more appropriate. If he makes fun of the variety of people you’ve slept with, tell him you were with a goblin once, and it wasn’t that bad, and you can make another exception for him if he wants.”
“I’ve never been with a goblin,” she said firmly, and just then, a swamp goblin ran screaming at her through a tangle of vines. He was instantly too close for blades, so she dropped them, grappled him into a Helpless position, and snapped his neck. She held the dead creature before her and wrinkled her nose. “They don’t even taste good.” Esther tossed its body into the marsh. Without bending over, she touched the fallen weapons with her feet, summoned them back into her inventory, accessorized the blades to her hips, and drew them in one smooth motion. “But I see what you’re saying. If I did those things, he would be completely off balance and embarrassed. He wouldn’t know what to do next.”
“Exactly,” Jace replied, sending a burst of electricity through a vulture that swooped too low, ripping off a wing. “He knows what he is saying is no longer true of you, and ridiculously calling him on it exposes the lie, and he has nowhere to go. But if you keep trading insults with him, he will always be able to punch back, and – no offense – he is better at the word games than you.”
“That might work,” Esther said. A shambling mound rose from a cluster of reeds to her right, and she tossed a ruby at it. Dragon fire lit up the night as the beast ran away in flames. “Now, can we talk about you giving Trixna what she wants?”
Snowy stopped their conversation to say they were close to the shade salamander’s den. “Sorry,” Jace said. “Duty calls.”
Esther frowned but changed gears when they emerged from the dense foliage into a small clearing. A pool edged by rocks and reeds stood to their left while a short cliff rose to their right with a ledge ten feet in the air and what looked like a cave opening beyond.
Only because Jace was linked to his familiar, and then only because the wolf had the creature’s scent was he able to see the amphibian slinking along the edge of the rocks. It looked no bigger than a crocodile, maybe eight feet in length. Its strategic hunting strategy was obvious. It sat and waited for larger animals to come to this pool for a drink, jumped onto their backs, and sunk its teeth in, shooting its victims full of venom.
“I’m going to bait it,” Jace whispered, seeing that Esther also spotted the creature in the dark. “When it jumps at me, I will try to bat it to the ground, and then you jump on its back and try to wrestle it into submission.”
{It has impressive Athletic and Resist scores,} Gracie said, identifying the defense for Esther’s grappling ability. {But it varies on how big the salamander is, and that one looks small.}
Esther didn’t hear the warning, but she reached into her gem bag and activated the Athletic boon Jace had given her to be sure. Jace cast the same spell on himself and found a solid stone slab to place his Armor totem, giving him +14 to his AC in preparation for deflecting an attack. Esther and Snowy stayed in the brush’s shadows, hoping that few animals were stupid enough to hang out around the salamander’s lair. Jace gripped his sword tight and approached the edge of the water.
The creature’s movements were deathly silent, and even though Jace was waiting for it, he heard nothing when the beast jumped and only got a warning from Snowy.
Jace pivoted to where he knew the salamander would be and raised his weapon to parry the strike. He had no practice defending against claws and teeth but still trusted his skill over a random dice roll. A low parry result could kill him. Gracie told him he got a 13, enough to deflect the animal to the ground, but it wasn’t a critical success and sent Jace stumbling backward into the water.
The salamander landed on his back but flipped over quickly and raced to the pool’s edge to judge its prey’s swimming ability. If Jace drowned, the creature could pull the dead body from the water without entering, and if he tried to climb out, the beast would have an easy attack. If he could swim and didn’t leave the water, the amphibian was undoubtedly the better swimmer and could go in to get him. It never got to figure which it would be as Esther leaped from behind onto the salamander’s back. She struck from the shadows, but the shade creature was immune to sneak attacks, and Esther only got to apply her normal grapple ability. It was enough, but only barely, and she didn’t get any criticals to consider the beast pinned or to use her vampire ability. Also, she got no benefit from having the creature prone on the ground since this was its natural position.
This meant the beast could try to wrestle out of her grappling hold every round, and Esther felt like she was riding a bucking bronco. Gracie informed Jace that the animal had a 15% chance of breaking free of Esther’s hold, and, given enough time, it would happen. The orc had other things to worry about as Jace realized that, unlike sword skills, knowing how to swim in the real world had no impact on keeping your head above water in the game. He had a high enough Athletic talent to keep from drowning, but he was making no progress in getting to shore. His unwillingness to drop his sword in the murky water wasn’t helping, and once he successfully sheathed the weapon, he could dog-paddle toward the bank and find purchase on the mucky bottom.
It took two more rounds before he was dripping beside Esther, who had survived four rounds of wrestling the beast but didn’t know how much longer she could last. Snowy was trying to nip at the creature’s backside, but its tail thrashed about, and the wolf took more damage than she gave. Jace drew his sword and hacked at the salamander but didn’t know where the 20 slot was, and its armored scales had significant slashing resistance. Gracie informed him of this, so he reversed his grip on his sword and stabbed it straight down, doing piercing damage instead.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
This worked much better, and the sword skewered the flopping animal through the shoulder as the blade used its enchantment to penetrate the rock below. Esther wisely reached up to grab the sword hilt to take advantage of the Pinned condition on the salamander and finally grappled the beast into a Helpless condition. She still didn’t have a critical success to kill the monster, but now Snowy could safely attack from behind and poke at it with her claws.
The three fighters hacked apart the heavily armored creature for a few rounds before it got a chance to wrestle free again, and this time it threw Esther from its back in a fit of rage. She flew into a collection of vines and was momentarily entangled, forcing Jace to take on the injured beast. Snowy crept in behind the salamander, wary of attacking the volatile tail but giving Jace an essential flanking bonus. The creature leaped at him again, but Jace was ready this time, seeing the attack from the start, and executed a more effective parry, earning him a critical. He struck back with a 19, triggering another critical from Etcher. The damage dropped the enemy below 100 HP, and after a Cone of Frost attack from Snowy and another brutal critical from Jace, the beast finally lay still.
Jace dropped to a knee to catch his breath, more worn out from his swim in the pond than the fight. Esther walked beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “That wasn’t so hard,” she said. “I thought these things were supposed to be super deadly.”
“I think we got lucky it was a small one,” Jace said. He went into his inventory and retrieved the wand Gromphy had given him. “Either way, I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to.”
“I’ll see if there is any loot in its cave,” Esther said. “Maybe there are some unique bones our new goblin can use.”
“Be careful,” Jace said. As Esther easily scaled the rocky cliff to the cave entrance above, Jace moved to the dead salamander. It looked more like a reptile than an amphibian, with scales as hard as mithril and black as night. Shadow wisped off the magical creature like smoke from a smoldering fire. Snowy was sniffing it tentatively but wrinkled her nose. “No,” Jace agreed. “I don’t think this would make a good meal. In fact, I wouldn’t eat anything in this swamp. Go ahead and heal yourself.”
The wolf was the only one who had taken any damage, and she cast one of her three healing spells to bring her back to full. Jace funneled mana through his new wand and watched the salamander’s body magically dissolve into components. Icons hovered over the body, and Jace retrieved the flasks Gromphy had given him and touched them to the green and red fluid blobs floating in the air. The vials filled with venom and blood, and he quickly stored them in his inventory before his clumsy fingers accidentally spilled them. He also picked up a load of scales, teeth, and claws, happy again for his high Carry skill.
“Jace!” Esther called from above. “You should see the size of the egg this thing laid.” He looked up and soon saw Esther holding a light gray shell fragment twice the size of a beachball. “There are several more pieces this big,” she said. “I don’t see any bones, though.”
A deep sense of dread filled Jace’s soul. “Esther, get out of there. This thing didn’t lay that egg; it crawled out of it. It was a baby. We don’t want to be here when momma shows up. Get down from there.”
“Okay, I just have to . . .”
Esther obeyed on impulse, throwing herself out into the air off the cliff ledge. Jace saw the scene in slow motion as a massive set of jaws emerged from the shadows and snapped closed in the space where the woman had just been. It was like watching a great white shark trying to snag a seal but missing. And the size comparison was accurate, for Esther looked tiny compared to this enormous salamander, whose head was as high off the ground as Jace’s.
The athletic woman hit the muddy ground like a cat, rolling in a summersault and popping to her feet. “Run!” Jace shouted unnecessarily as the three raced back along the path they had just cut. The ground shook behind them, and they heard massive tree trunks snapping like toothpicks as the angry mother chased down the characters who had killed her child. Jace kept expecting the beast to fall further behind, but she didn’t, and he swore he could feel her breath on his back. All the animals they had fought through on their incoming trip fled before the charging monstrosity, leaving the characters focused on sprinting.
They saw the dock in the distance and doubled their efforts. Snowy was the quickest, leaping up onto the platform first. Esther was close behind, and the lumbering orc pulled up the rear, finally diving through the curtain that divided the zones and tumbling to a stop on the damp wood. Jace turned to look behind and saw what looked like an adult black dragon slam its snout into the invisible barrier. The digital forcefield held, but the shaman felt the actual game shake beneath him. The massive salamander banged her head against the curtain twice more, but she had lost her charging momentum and quickly saw she wasn’t getting through.
Jace was sprawled on the dock and eased himself up, his breathing again coming in gasps. He had managed to keep his hold on Etcher during the sprint and wondered if he would have ever gotten up the courage to go back and get it if he had dropped it. As he stood, he sheathed the weapon and looked around. Esther was already on her feet, having rolled nimbly onto the platform. At level 14, Snowy’s head came up to the woman’s chest, and she hugged the wolf and ruffled her behind the ears. “Thanks for the warning, girl. Nothing quite reminds you that you have a pulse like getting it pounding.”
Jace tried to laugh at the insane comment but couldn’t find the energy. His eyes were glued to the creature staring at him from ten feet away through an invisible forcefield. Even though he was seven feet tall, standing on a raised platform, he looked the salamander in the eyes. He knew from Snowy that animals could still smell things through a game curtain, and the mother was focused on the character who held her child’s remains. As long as they stayed, she wasn’t going anywhere. Jace thought leaving was an excellent idea and finally turned from the gargantuan monster. He saw for the first time that they weren’t alone, as three other players had transported in right before they got there. The new players had wide eyes and mouths agape.
“Jace Thorne?” one of them asked. “Esther?” Jace had a necklace to disguise himself as a human so people wouldn’t freak out when they saw an orc. He imagined he would still need it occasionally, but now people assumed any orc they might see in a public area like this must be him. Always being accompanied by Esther didn’t hurt either.
The rogue was more poised than her leader for once and responded to the players first. “At your service,” she said, bowing deeply. “Enjoy your time in Therasphue, folks,” she added. “I recommend you stick to the streets.” She motioned to the notice board and tapped the shade salamander bounty to claim it. “Leave the swamp to professionals.”
Jace lumbered up behind her, and the three other players looked from the woman up to the orc and back again before realizing they were blocking the travel node. “If you don’t mind,” Jace said, motioning for them to step aside. They obeyed, and he initiated travel back to his stronghold.
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Jace entered their home and went straight to the lab. He expected Trixna was sleeping, and the gnomes, who lived underground and didn’t follow the sun’s schedule, were likely asleep too. Gromphy better be awake. Jace entered the room and was impressed. It almost looked like a modern science laboratory, with clean shelves, sinks, stoves, enchanted ice chests, and half a dozen tables. They hadn’t cut a window into this room, but Jace saw sunlight streaming into an adjoining chamber that was probably Gromphy’s bedroom. The goblin wasn’t working but was paging through a thick book of spells.
Jace hadn’t announced himself yet but looked instead at his level 50 crystal, set up in a unique contraption on the near side of the room. It looked like the mana stone he had taken from the lich module was funneling energy into the crystal. So as not to disturb the Goblin, Jace chatted with Gracie through Snowy, who had followed him in.
{It is quite an ingenious contraption,} she said. {He’s enchanted an ivory rod with his Maker’s Bank ability to turn raw mana into crafting mana. He’s got the mana stone that generates over 200 mana a round, hooked up to the shaft, feeding that crafting mana directly into the crystal. The level 50 item can store 3,250 mana, and since you aren’t in combat mode, it will take almost 90 minutes to fill, but once it does, he can use his Maker’s Crafting to turn it into 1300 crafting points. In theory, that’s enough to make a level 34 bow, but that would probably require something infinitely more exotic than dragon wing bones. Either way, you will only be limited by Gromphy’s imagination. Or his access to spells, which is what he is doing now.}
Jace nodded and cleared his throat, a frightening sound coming from an orc. Gromphy nearly jumped out of his clothes as his attention was firmly on his spell collection. Esther laughed, which ruined any goodwill she might have gotten from the crafter, even after Jace’s talk with him.
“Back so soon?” he asked. “Didst thee not find one?”
“We got it,” Jace said and walked up to the largest table in the middle of the room. It was carved directly from the stone so that its legs seemed to grow out of the floor like stalagmites. The top surface was smooth marble, and Jace thought it looked strong enough for him to drop the mother salamander on, but he only had the baby. After a few trips into his inventory, he deposited everything on the table, gently setting down the fragile vials of poison and blood.
“Very impressive,” Gromphy said, putting his book down and scrambling over to the table. Jace saw that on the other side, the floor was raised so the short goblin could easily reach the top, which was at orc height for him. He smiled at the clever gnomes who had built everything custom. “How didst thee slay it?”
“Esther held it still while I did most of the damage. Eventually, it got free, but Snowy and I were able to finish it off.”
Gromphy looked between Jace and Esther and couldn’t help himself. “Didst the vampire seduce the beast to alloweth thee to rend it from the rears?”
Jace wanted to reprimand him for the unnecessary comment, but Esther was ready with a comeback. “I thought about flirting with it,” she said, “but it was only a child, and I have standards too.”
“Bah,” the goblin said, not ready for that bold a statement, “it probably gazed on thy front and bethought t’was feeding time. Milk aplenty for an entire brood.”
Jace thought it was a bit foolish, as someone with 18 Intelligence and 24 Wisdom should know amphibians don’t drink milk, but it showed how off-balance he was from Esther’s first retort. She didn’t disappoint in her response to this either, though only the mention of milk gave her any idea what he might be talking about.
Esther looked down at her exposed cleavage and shrugged. In a flash, the armored vest was off, and she was holding it in her hand while wearing her black dress. “You’re right. The vest doesn’t really do a good job of covering me. It’s only level eight and doesn’t offer me much protection. Perhaps you can make it more appropriate with the scales we recovered from the shade salamander. They were so strong, Jace could barely hack through them.”
Esther walked toward the table and set her vest next to the pile of black scales Jace had deposited. The shape and size were different, and Jace could tell her armor was made from another type of animal, but they were both shadow creatures, and Gromphy should be able to make it work.
The goblin was stunned for a moment. “Uh, yes, I think I can achieve something for thee. Level eight only? Inconceivable? I can soon maketh one most improved and, uh, more proper to ensconce a lady in battle.”
“Thanks,” she said, throwing a wink at Jace that the distracted crafter didn’t see. Once she had him going, there was no reason to stop short. “I don’t think these work very well either.” She drew her rapiers and placed them on the table. “As you said, I usually have to charm and seduce my victims before I attack. That’s because my weapons don’t do enough damage. They are only level 6, +2 blades. They are useful, but I’m sure someone of your skill could improve them.”
“Level six!” the goblin was outraged. “Thee shouldst has’t much better. I will worketh on them forthrightly.”
“After the bow,” Jace interrupted.
“Ah, yes, the bow.” He paused. “Thou needeth 1.2 furlongs?”
Jace nodded, hoping that was 800 feet.
“I don’t bethink I has’t the right spell for that. I’ve been pouring through everything,” he motioned back to the book of spells, “and tis all damage, fire, or criticals. Nobody careth about distance. One canst cast a fireball such a ways; thus, no archer requireth it either.”
“Can you disguise yourself as a gnome or a dwarf?”
“Wherefore in the realms would I wanteth to?” Gromphy said, crossing his arms in disgust.
“Because the people in Crestfall will scream in terror if they see a goblin walking the streets,” Jace replied.
“Even one as handsome as yourself,” Esther added, piling on.
“Put on whatever disguise you want,” Jace said, “and go to the university in Crestfall. Ask for Master Dayrin and tell him that you are working for Jace Thorne. He will get you anything you need.”
Gromphy nodded, thinking he should probably disguise himself as a human.
“But before you do any of that,” Jace said, picking up the vial of poison from the table. “I need my potion. You have all the spells for that, right? Do you need to wait for that to finish charging?” He motioned toward the crystal set up.
Gromphy shook his head. “If thy victim needed to fail the saving throw, mayhaps, but the basic brew is simple.” He snatched the poison from Jace’s hand and moved to a different table against the far wall.
Gromphy took an empty flask and began adding ingredients: leaves, roots, two small gemstones, and a few berries. He suspended it over a circular ward and then activated it with mana. A flame reached the bottom of the flask, and as soon as the contents began to smoke, Gromphy poured the poison in slowly. The concoction steamed and bubbled, and all the contents soon melded into a bright blue-green slurry. Gromphy performed a crafting check, got more than he needed, and cast a spell with the remainder.
The poison was done in a flash of mana, and he removed it from the fire. He pulled a cork from a bin and sealed the contents. The crafter was back in front of Jace in under six minutes, holding a vial with a bright blue liquid inside. “Nary drink this,” he said. “Ever. And whichever party member thee giveth this to wilt be dead ere the empty flask hitteth the floor.” He looked back to his alchemy table. “I has’t enough venom for a few more, but I pray thee, one is sufficient.”
Jace took the vial gingerly and stowed it in his inventory. “Thank you. Now get to town. The next portion of my plan will probably take a few hours. I hope you are finished by the time I get back. Oh, and Esther needs a medium shield too. The kind that collapses on her wrist when not in use. I imagine there is enough material here to fashion it, or there are the dragon scales.”
Gromphy nodded and waited to see if his companions had anything else to add to his long list of crafting responsibilities. He wasn’t upset. A busy crafter was a happy crafter, and Jace supplied him with components he had never dreamed of. After he confirmed they were done, Gromphy raced into his bedroom to get what he needed for his trip to town. He would likely leave through his window, and Jace returned to the main hall.
“Am I coming with you?” Esther asked.
“Yes,” Jace said. “I will definitely need your help with this.”
She looked back at the lab. “Should I have kept my armor and weapons?”
The orc shook his head. “No, you can leave them with Gromphy. You will need equipment, but it will have to be custom. I don’t know what yet.”
Esther could wait no longer. “What are we going to do? Who is that poison for? Are we going to get your archer now?”
Jace nodded. “We are going to see Psycho.”