‘Hello,’ one of the elders replied—a woman who couldn’t have been younger than eighty. I hadn’t realised until now that the title of “Elder” was a literal one. Where were all the young elders at?

‘Are we “hello”-ing intrudes now, Alia?’ another said.

‘I was caught by surprise,’ the woman said, considering Styk and the others who were just now stepping in through the doors. ‘But now that I have a moment, do we think that this is…?’

‘We do,’ replied the other. ‘The seducer.’

Corminar, Raelas and Val all smirked at this. Well, actually, Corminar full-on burst out laughing. ‘Seducer?’ he repeated.

‘I don’t think they mean it like that,’ I retorted over my shoulder, but this didn’t seem to do much to stop members of the team grinning at the idea.

The elder known as Alia rose slowly from her seat, her arms shaking a little with the effort. ‘We will have to report your trespass, you know,’ she said.

‘Well, yeah? We figured,’ I replied. ‘Either way, though, we’re gonna be taking back what you stole.’

‘Is it thievery when you steal from a thief?’ Alia retorted.

I looked back at the rest of my team. ‘I mean, yes? I’m gonna go with “yes”, it is.’

Alia ignored me. ‘This artifact, and those like it, was meant for the Architects. It is meant for those who bless us with their presence, having made the journey from the Ascended Realm. It’s not for the likes of you.’

Those like it? I didn’t like the sound of that.

‘You say that like they’re here of their own free will,’ Val said. ‘Like they’re so kind to be living around us. But they’re—’

I shook my head at her; it wasn’t that I disagreed with what she was saying, only that I knew it’d be fruitless. These people were clearly already loyal followers. I would have known that even if they weren’t wearing pale orange. ‘I just wanna say—in case you hadn’t realised—that if it comes to a fight, we’re probably going to win.’

The Council of Elders said nothing.

I took a step towards the table. ‘So, we’re gonna be taking this now. And I assume you’re gonna let us?’

‘No,’ Alia said.

‘OK, well it’s just that you seemed to have trouble even standing up, let alone doing a whole fight.’

‘No,’ the elder repeated.

I gestured a thumb back towards the balcony, and the outside. ‘I could just drop you through a portal, fling you into the air out there. Just so you know.’

‘You’re not having the artifact.’

‘Did you hear what I just said about throwing you into the air?’

‘Hm,’ Arzak said pointedly behind me. I looked around to see her raising her hand. ‘If this is opposition, why we all need to come?’

‘Well, I didn’t know—’

Alia took a step towards me. It would have been menacing if she didn’t seem to be having trouble with every step. ‘You will not have the artifact. It is our privilege to serve Yusef, and it is our duty to protect it with our lives.’

‘If Yusef wanted you to protect it so bad, why didn’t he leave you with guards?’ Val asked.

‘He did,’ Alia replied.

We all went tense, as though they were about to spring a trap on us. But no trap came.

‘...Where are they?’ Tokas asked.

‘Downstairs.’

‘We didn’t think you would come in through the window,’ another elder volunteered.

‘You know, these Players used to feel a lot more menacing than they do these days,’ Val said. ‘The pyroknight almost killed all of us. Twice. Niamh is, well, Niamh. But this Yusef? I don’t know, it feels like he’s a lot more fragile than we thought, since we learned he was a fraud.’

One of the elders roared with fury at this assertion, and charged at Val, dagger raised in the air. It was just a shame that this “charge” took approximately twenty seconds.

‘So, are we fighting them, or…?’ Val asked as the elder charged at her.

‘They’re attacking us,’ I replied. ‘I suppose we’d be in our right to defend us.’

‘It doesn’t feel very heroic,’ Lambkin said, hitting the nail on the head in terms of my doubts.

The elder swung his dagger at Val, and the witch stepped casually out of the way. ‘Hey, he was the one suggesting throwing them out of windows. And he thinks he is a hero.’

‘Whatever we do, may I suggest that we do it soon?’ Corminar asked. ‘We know there are guards below, but we do not know how soon they will arrive. Best we, as you humans say, skedaddle.’

‘Nobody says that,’ Val replied.

The elder swung a dagger slowly towards her once more, and I stepped through a portal to push him out the way. He cried out with pain as he fell to the floor.

Elder of Zelas defeated!

Worldbending — +10xp

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

We all looked down at the fallen man as the rest of the elders rose from their seats.

‘Did you just…?’ Val started, pointing to the man who was motionless on the floor.

‘...Yeah.’

‘How you feeling about that?’

‘Not great.’ I turned back to the “charging” elders. Admittedly, some of them were faster than others, though I still could have played a full game of stones before having to dodge any attacks.

‘So, we’re killing them?’ Tokas asked.

Arzak glared at her.

‘I don’t want to,’ the tiefling clarified, ‘I just thought…’

‘OK,’ I said, stepping aside as a weak fireball flew past me. How were even their spells this slow? ‘New plan: no more killing.’

‘But you just—’ Val started.

‘I really didn’t think that was gonna be contentious. No more killing. I’ll grab the artifact, and we’ll get out of here. Any questions?’

Everyone raised their hands. Val blasted a fireball away with a casual summoned gust, and it caught a wall hanging. ‘Oops,’ she said. ‘So no killing. Is arson fine?’

I put my head in my hands. ‘OK, Arzak, what’s your question?’

‘Do still have to leave on outside of building?’

‘Yes. Corminar?’

‘When they say seducer, do they mean—’

‘Val?’ I asked, cutting him off.

‘If the artifact is here, then Yusef’s been here. He trusts these people.’

I caught an elder’s wrist in mid-swing, holding their sword in place, before turning back to Val. ‘I don’t hear a question.’

‘Question is, maybe we should look around quickly?’

I nodded. ‘Raelas, you take Arzak, Lambkin and Tokas, start getting down. The rest of us will have a quick look around and catch up.’

Raelas matched my nod, and the four of them began their escape while the rest of us fanned out in the room. I hopped up onto the table, narrowly avoiding the swing of Alia’s knife. And when I say “narrowly” I mean “it wasn’t at all close”.

Alia scoffed at me.

‘Problem?’ I asked, as I crossed the table to pick up the Sisyphus Artifact. I considered placing it in my Pocket World storage for safekeeping, but there was something comforting about feeling it dangling against my torso. So I still opened the pocket world, but instead pulled out a piece of thread from my Needlework supplies. I pushed the thread through the loop on the top of the artifact and hung it back around my neck. When I felt its touch, I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding in.

‘The problem is that you should treat your elders with respect!’

‘That’s ambiguous.’

‘What?’

‘I mean,’ I said, ‘is it that we should treat all older people with respect, or just this council? Because I’ve got an answer for each of them, neither one that you’ll like.’

Alia spluttered.

‘Good answer,’ I said, before turning to the rest of the gang. ‘You got anything?’

‘Over here,’ Corminar said, gesturing to a stack of papers on the council’s table. He leafed through it. ‘Follower movement charts. There are still hundreds in Coldharbour, but Yusef seems to have realised that a mistake; every follower west of Coldharbour is heading here, or here already.’

‘He means to use them against us?’ Val asked.

‘Either that or something else. Perhaps we should attack him now.’

‘You think we’d still have the element of surprise?’ I asked. ‘Cos I don’t. I think there are more than enough cultists here already.’

The elder nearest to Corminar pulled a document from the table, and from his manner, it seemed that it was a document he’d chosen specifically. I approached, and plucked it from his hand.

‘Got something?’ Val asked.

I nodded. ‘He’s staying in the Tower of Hope, wherever that is. And… Lore’s there with him.’ At that moment, I heard a sound coming from behind the door. Footsteps, on the staircase, maybe. But was that the noise of charging guards or servants going about their business? It didn’t matter, I supposed; it was time to get out of here.

I hurried over to the window, my friends running at my side, the elders behind us, moaning something about this being completely disrespectful. And I opened the first portal.

"Styk"

Level 20 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 52

Intelligence — 227

Dexterity — 137

Strength — 82

Wisdom — 76

Charisma — 50

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 61

Knifework — Level 45

Stealth — Level 26

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Throw III — Throw blades at great speed towards your enemy. Deal considerable damage to armourless area, with addition damage scaling with [DEX] and [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

Portal Relay II - Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%