I’d portalled us back outside the rear of the barracks, and all three of us had hurried into the street, away from the scene of the crime. Or, well, crimes. We very quickly remembered that our whole strategy here was to blend in, and three people walking quickly around a palace—like they actually had places to be—didn’t scream “wealthy and privileged”.

Now back at a walking pace, Arzak grabbed my arm much like Val had done earlier, and we began walking like a couple, which had the added benefit of hiding the burn to the shoulder of her dress. I had to admit I preferred this pretence when I was doing it with Val, particularly because the witch had allowed me to lead, whereas Arzak did not.

Val, still in her borrowed soldier’s uniform and—more importantly—borrowed soldier’s face, lead us towards the record office at the end of the street. The sheer scale of the palace still struck awe in me; these roads within the palace walls were like a city in and of themselves, if with the notable difference of it being fancy, clean, and with well-maintained paintwork on the towering buildings.

When we reached the records office, just where the soldier from earlier had told us it would be, Val kept her head held high and led us inside. ‘Two for the records, on order of Her Majesty. I am required to accompany them.’

The woman behind the desk, an old orc roughly Arzak’s age, didn’t look up from her paperwork, which she looked at through half-moon spectacles. She held out her hand. ‘Form Cresent-E.’

I looked at the doorway behind the woman’s desk. It was a solid metal door—no problem in and of itself for portalling through—and one with glowing metal symbols around it. I’d spent enough time in the thievery game to know exactly what those were—the markings of a trap, and a trap that they wanted visitors to know was there. That could mean one of two things: either it was a bluff, and there was no trap, or it was a trap so nasty that they didn’t want to deal with the clean-up. In a place like this, I had no doubt that it was the latter. I couldn’t portal us inside. This meant that both Plan A—Val escorting us inside as a soldier—and Plan B—us using my portals—were both out.

‘It is an order direct from Her Majesty, Queen Amira,’ Val the “soldier” said.

‘Then must have right paperwork,’ the orc said, pulling herself upright. When she saw Arzak, she did a double-take. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Orc! Not many orc here. Only workers.’ She gestured to herself.

Arzak smiled, releasing my arm and stepping forward. ‘Not in Goldmarch much. On holiday. Honeymoon.’

The records keeper leant to one side to get a better look at me, then raised an eyebrow. I smiled as naturally as I could manage.

‘He good at swordplay,’ Arzak said, and from the knowing nod she received from the other orc, I realised this wasn’t meant literally.

At my side, I could see Val’s body shaking slightly, as she struggled to suppress a laugh.

‘You help us? We look for Player records.’

The new smile that was crossing the civil servant’s face faded as quickly as it had come. ‘Oh. Oh.’

‘We help with Player death in Tundras. Wrap up. Orders of queen.’

The orcish records keeper kept quiet for a moment, studying Arzak and the burn on her dress. ‘Need more forms for this. Much more forms.’

‘We no have.’

‘Maybe when colleague gets here, I go check?’ the orc suggested.

Arzak nodded. ‘OK.’ She returned to Val and I’s side.

‘Why did you say OK to that?’ the witch whispered. ‘As soon as she checks, she’ll know we’re lying.’

‘I got plan. I charm her.’

‘Arzak…’

‘I charming with orcs!’ Arzak insisted.

‘Sure, but charming her is one thing, charming her so much that she lets us go look at highly sensitive documents is a whole other thing.’

The orc shook her head. ‘No. You not understand. I distract her. And you…’

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a paper bag. One filled with a load of enchanted sweets. ‘Sneak in.’

Arzak nodded, then returned to the records keeper’s side to begin chatting. The orc behind the desk looked curiously over at me and Val for a moment before Arzak began complimenting her glasses in a very rigid and overstated manner, which the other orc fell for completely.

‘I don’t get orcs,’ Val said.

I raised my eyebrows in agreement, and turned my attention to the sweets inside. I’d already studied what each of them did, so it was just a case of pulling out the right ones. When I finally located the three I’d been looking for, I looked Val in the eye.

‘I’d rather have my saliva in your mouth than yours in mine,’ I said.

‘Gross.’

‘What, you never kissed anyone before?’

‘Obviously I have. It’s you putting it like that that’s gross, not—’

‘So you don’t have any problem with it, then. Good.’ I tossed the first of the sweets into my mouth, sucking into it a good chunk before wrenching it out, and offering it, sodden, to Val. She groaned, sighed, then tossed it into her own mouth.

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‘I hate you sometimes.’

‘That’s an improvement on “all the time”,’ I replied.

Active Effect: Lightfoot

Minutes remaining: 29 / 30

Footsteps silenced.

‘You sure we should be wasting all these immediately?’

I shrugged. ‘It’s like good wine; you get a nice bottle and then you spend years waiting for an excuse to open it. By the time you do, it’s corked.’

‘Like you know about “good wine”,’ Val said, taking the next of the wet sweets and putting it into her mouth.

‘I used to make it.’

‘You used to try, maybe.’

Active Effect: Eyeslide

Minutes remaining: 29 / 30

Dramatically reduces chance of being noticed.

‘Might wanna stop bickering with me,’ I said. ‘We’re trying not to draw attention.’

Val stuck her tongue out at me, quickly enough that the woman behind the desk didn’t notice. Or perhaps that was the eyeglide effect doing its job, I didn’t know for sure.

Active Effect: Invisibility

Minutes remaining: 29 / 30

Renders you and all currently equipped items near-invisible.

‘You not think this is overkill?’ Val asked.

‘You want a whole kingdom hunting you down for this?’ I retorted.

‘Fair point.’

Armed with the three active effects, I grabbed the now invisible Val by the hand and strolled casually over to the door. As I put my hand on the handle, I prayed that these effects wouldn’t be considered magick abilities, for purposes of the trap. I considered letting Val go first, but that was a terrible instinct for me to have. With a deep draw of breath, I opened the door, and stepped inside.

I was faced by a human man the size of which I’d never seen. He’d have made Lore seem minute in comparison, and there was definitely something magick going on to make him so tall. He carried an ornate greatsword, engraved with runes that I didn’t understand, but made me realised I absolutely did not want to mess with him. One swing of the sword would render me completely and utterly dead—this was something I knew for sure.

But the guard’s eyes remained glazed as Val and I stepped inside the room, and after a moment he furrowed his brow, walked over to the open door, looked about, and closed it again. Moments later he was returned to his original position.

Val and I turned away from the guard to face the records room, and I felt a tug on my hand as the witch staggered backwards. From the number of bookshelves in front of us, twenty-nine minutes was clearly not going to be enough time. There were maybe a thousand, two thousand, maybe more boxes of records in here. I was never that good at estimations.

When we were far enough away from the guard, Val whispered to me, ‘Knight of the realm.’ Her mouth was a bit closer to my ear than I’d have liked, though I supposed it was hard to judge when you were both invisible.

‘What?’

‘Knight of the—’

‘Yes, I heard you, I meant…’

‘The man at the door. Big boy. We don’t wanna mess with him.’

‘Yeah, I figured,’ I said. ‘I’m not entirely stupid.’

‘I know. Just mostly.’

I shook my head in exasperation even though I knew Val wouldn’t be able to see it. ‘We should split up.’

‘Yes.’ Immediately I felt Val move to unlink hands.

‘Wait.’ I pulled a freshly purchased spool of thread from my pocket, felt for the end of it, and handed it to Val. ‘Tie this around you. It’ll help you find me.’

‘And the documents that’ll be floating in the air won’t be enough of a giveaway?’

‘Just do it, will you?’

We parted ways, me still holding the end of the spool, and I hurried down one row of bookcases, glancing up at the helpful labels every few units announcing the section. The minutes faded faster than I’d have liked, and we grew close to being very visible indeed. What’s more, the spool was rapidly running out of thread, and soon enough I wouldn’t have been able to find Val until the minutes were up anyway.

So it was probably a good thing that, at the very end of the room, on a case of its own, I saw a sign that said, simply:

THE RECORDS OF THE ARCHITECTS.

"Styk"

Level 13 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 32

Intelligence — 124

Dexterity — 57

Strength — 62

Wisdom — 38

Charisma — 21

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 30

Knifework — Level 26

Stealth — Level 11

Identification — Level 10

Needlework — Level 9

Abilities:

Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Stab II — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 20%.

Execution II — Attack a target while undetected for +200% 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.

Execution II — Attack a target while undetected for +200% damage.

Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.

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.

Stealth Attack — Passive. 50% 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].

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

Basic Cloth Armour — Craft basic cloth armour, quality dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +900%

Lightfoot:

Footsteps silenced.

Eyeslide:

Dramatically reduces chance of being noticed.

Invisibility:

Renders you and all currently equipped items near-invisible.