Choosing Destruction (Part 1)

Idris had long since stopped hammering on the trapdoor leading out of the training room and up into the Seekers’ living area. He was strong, but even swinging his hammer, in the tight space he couldn’t get enough leverage to do real damage against the hard wood.

He was stuck, and he had been for hours.

In retrospect it was a little suspicious the way that Troy had answered the door, fully clothed and alert as if he had been awake for some time already.

Idris had started right in with his pitch, “Troy! There’s a whole group-”

“Of adventurers trapped out at the hive. We know,” Troy said, hesitating a moment before seeming to reach a decision, “Come inside.”

“Gendra said you guys didn’t want to come,” Idris said, walking in, “I know you’re annoyed with me but I thought maybe I could change your mind, or at least get some gear, anything that might help.”

Troy closed the door and held out his hands placatingly, “Calm down, there’s nothing to worry about. We all talked it over. The others are upstairs putting a few things together. We’re going.”

“Seriously?” Idris said, relieved and incredulous.

“Seriously,” Troy replied.

“Oh… Okay then. How can I help?” Idris asked.

“Actually there’s a chest down in the training room that has a few things we might need, grab it for us would you?”

“Sure,” Idris said, moving to the end of the hall and throwing open the cellar door. It was an easy enough task, and even after he heard the door close behind him he didn’t think anything of it.

It was only once he looked all over the room and found no chests except for some with some sparring armor that he went back up to clarify what chest exactly he was looking for.

It took some knocking before Idris really believed he had been betrayed and locked down here. And a whole lot more hammering and yelling before Troy had offered one comment of explanation, shouted through the closed door.

“It’s for your own good.”

That was the last thing he had heard.

In his boredom Idris took to casting Identify on every single object he could find, and was rewarded with a proficiency level.

Proficiency Level Up

Skill: Identify 3/5

Description: At level three, Identify reveals more information about items of Rare Rarity and below. Items of Epic rarity now reveal basic information.

Reward: 10XP

It was small consolation. Eana was out there fighting right now and he was stuck in a basement identifying bits of leather armor and wooden weapons.

Idris had transitioned to running his Detect spell until his mana ran dry, over and over, when finally he heard the trap door open.

Conrad came down the steep stairs and entered the training space. Idris almost rushed straight past him to get out there and find Eana, but before he could, he really saw the expression on Conrad’s face.

To Idris, Conrad had always been the picture of confident indifference. Too far above the world to care much for what was going on in it. But this was a look he had never seen. No longer was he the adventurer boasting and respected in the tavern, free with smiles and coin, praise and stories.

This man was Conrad the Battle Leader. The hardened killer.

He pointed to a bench against the wall and said one word, “Sit.”

Idris’s legs moved to obey before he consciously realized he might have had any other option.

“Conrad my sis-”

“Shut up. I’ve heard the rest of it. Been here an hour already. You,” Conrad said, “have got some mistaken notions about what it means to be an adventurer, and more importantly, one of my adventurers. We do well for ourselves out here because we have rules. And it’s time you learned them.”

Idris was about to speak again but Conrad silenced him with a gesture, “Do you have any idea how many fresh, head-in-the-clouds, morons have gotten themselves killed in that dungeon?”

“Everybody knows it’s dangerous,” Idris said.

“But not many know how dangerous. It’s a Hive type, Idris, it’s nothing like the one you closed with the others. Yeah, I’m pissed about that too by the way, but we’ll get there.”

Idris screwed up his face in indignation but he knew he was being petulant when he said, “They’re not in the dungeon, the adventurers are stuck near it.”

Conrad stared him down until Idris broke eye contact.

“Rule number one,” Conrad said, holding up a finger, “We never go alone. Now I’ll admit, the boys stretched that one a bit by going into the other dungeon with you. But they measured the risk by following rule number two.”

He held up a second finger, “We out class every challenge. This isn’t some macho bravado saying to hype us up. It’s a rule. If we’re not sure we’re going to absolutely stomp the challenge we’re up against, we train and grind until we are. That’s the whole reason I had them beating the hell out of you while I was gone. The only thing that can overcome stupidity is good luck, and the only thing that can overcome bad luck is overpreparation.

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“You know what the average toughness of most of the other adventurers around here is? The ones who even bother to spec into a class that has it,” Conrad asked.

Idris wasn’t about to make things worse by doing anything other than giving the bare minimum, “No.”

“Fifteen. Most of them are at or below fifteen. I wanted you at twenty-five before I let you into that dungeon. That’s what rule number two means.”

The difference between level fifteen and level twenty-five was significant. Idris expected the forest imps that had basically perforated him when he first invested in the advanced attribute probably couldn’t even pierce his skin with their crude weapons now. And he was only at twenty-two.

Somebody with a high enough toughness could walk naked into a fight and be in less danger than somebody without it and geared out in the finest plate mail.

Conrad, seeming to have sensed Idris had enough time to mull over the first two rules, continued.

He held up another finger, “Third, we never, not under any circumstances, work for free. That might mean we’re getting paid in information, maybe some choice gear, it might even mean good old-fashioned coin, but what it absolutely does not mean, is answering the call to charity and fucking charging out into the aftermath of a Chaos storm! One so bad that it stranded dozens of competent fighters!”

That was too much for Idris. Those people needed help and here they were sitting safe and comfortable while men and women were out there dying!

He stood, angry now. Nobody, not even Conrad seemed to even want to consider what it meant to not help. It was simple decency that required you to want to help people when lives were on the line. You didn’t do it because you got something out of it. You did it because you could.

And beyond even that, just like the rest of the Seekers, Conrad couldn’t seem to comprehend that to Idris it wasn’t just random people out there now. It was his sister. And if she needed him, he’d be Chaos taken before he abandoned her.

He started in, voice raised, “Eana is out there right now! All those people! And you want me to sit here and-”

Conrad shoved him back, hard, knocking Idris right back onto the bench.

Voice deadly, he said,“You’re not dumb enough to need to be taught this lesson again.”

The shock of the attack did more than put Idris on the bench. Immediately he was filled with the memory and shame of getting absolutely demolished by Tomme at the Inn.

Beyond that though, the sheer murderous intent he felt radiating off of a man he thought of as his friend and mentor said more to him than any cajoling or continued explanation could.

Idris nodded his agreement and straightened up. He knew he was no match here. Now was not the time to make further problems with the only people he knew who could actually help him out here.

“Good. Here’s the mistake you’re making. We’re not monsters, Idris. Any of us. We know you care about your sister, and what’s more, I know you see yourself as a hero and protector for her, and as of today for the others as well.

“But listen well, hero,” Conrad leaned in close before saying, “You let her go out there with the rest of them even though you knew already we weren’t going to be there. You let the moment sweep you up in the great righteousness of a quest laid before you and you put your sister back into danger, exactly how long after my boys helped you get her out? A day? Less?

“You pulled your sister from the jaws of death or oblivion or, I’ll be honest, I don’t even know what. And you did it at the potential cost of every shred of loyalty and good will you’ve built up with me and mine. You did it at the cost of us owning and growing an entire dungeon for ourselves! All consequences be damned, you got her out!

“But then you sent her out there! A group of people and an old woman show up at your house and said ‘give us your sister, Idris’ and you jumped at the chance because this time it felt right? Felt good?

“You did this, Idris, and now you’re here begging us to spend our lives trying to fix your decision. Trying to help you make it not be a disaster. And maybe she’s lucky, maybe they’re all lucky and they get out there and the worst of it is over. Chaos and Order willing they’re all on the way back here now, flush with stories and XP and carrying your sister on their shoulders, finally willing to see her as the hero Healer girl instead of whatever she actually is.

“But maybe it doesn’t go that way. And whatever happens, insofar as your sister is concerned, that’s on you entirely - and if it’s bad, and I think it is, then being locked in this basement saved your life.”

Cold dread washed over Idris. Everything Conrad said was so clear now.

He was right. About all of it.

Eana had even looked to him for permission. If he had told her no, she would have stayed with him. She would be here, and he could get calm, normal advice from the band that he had wanted to ally himself with since they had arrived in Irondale.

Eana had been acting erratically, without any forethought, and he had chastised her for it. But he had never considered that he might be allowing her, in that state, to be influencing his own decisions.

He put his head in his hands as he whispered the prayer that came so easily to him in all times except when he truly could have used the guidance contained in the words.

“Order preserve me.”

Conrad crossed his arms and nodded, “Order doesn’t give two points about preserving you or your sister. Which is why we look out for each other.”

Idris looked up.

“Rule number four. Trust your companions. If one of us says go, stay, up, down, fucking sideways - the rest of us believe implicitly that he knows something we don’t and we hurry to do whatever the fuck it is he wants.”

Idris remembered how quickly Troy and Jibs had abandoned everything to follow Karno and him out to the Shimmering Rocks. There had been no discussion, debate, or pleading. They just got up and went.

“I thought..” Idris said, “I thought they left us. When we all left the dungeon and saw the storm they ran off together after somebody shouted Chaos Storm. And I thought they left us.”

Conrad nodded, “And now do you get it? They trusted you to follow. There wasn’t time to explain and coddle you through some exposition about the positives and negatives of standing around in a Chaos Storm. They called the danger and ran. And what did you do?”

“We ran,” Idris said, “We lost them but we got out of there. But why weren’t they waiting to see if we got out, once we got back to the node?”

“Who says they weren’t? This is the first time you’ve been to headquarters since you got back.”

Idris sighed. He had been so caught up in his own perspective on things and so worried about losing his place among them that he had never even considered that possibility. Conrad’s words shook him so badly he didn’t have any idea what to do. It seemed every step he tried to take on his own was just leading him into disaster after disaster. So he turned to his mentor.

“What now?” Idris asked.

“Now, you trust me,” Conrad said, “You know the rules, and it’s on me for not teaching you earlier.”

He sighed and sat down on the bench next to Idris, rubbing his eyes.

“I’m going to find a way to make this work for us. I always do. And if we can help your sister we will. But for now, I need to speak with the boys. You should go see your father at the inn.”

Idris got up and hesitated a moment before venturing one final question, “Do you think… do you think she’s okay?”

Conrad shook his head and only said, “Go and see your father.”

The leader of the Seekers stood and Idris understood he was dismissed. He turned and headed out of the basement.