‘Ok… I know the whole layout now… The fort seems to be divided into three levels, the prisons are at the bottom, the second level is where the mages and craftsmen work, and the first level is where we all live, eat, and all that. It’s all run by three men, A goblin thief, an Ogre mage, and a human brawler. Taking on all three at once would be a nightmare… But If I took them all out separately I could take on everyone else at once, at least in theory… I’d bet on a war to beat out three of them.’

I let out a long, soft groan as I leaned back on the bed they had given me. ‘I’m running out of time… And if this place is close to Rothet then I’m really running out of time… I might be able to use earth magic to just carve my way out, and make a new tunnel to the surface from my room. It will take a while… But If they think I’m sleeping it shouldn’t take more than 8 hours.’

I sighed again, standing up and walking over to an empty wall. ‘Ok… I can do this right?’

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Every muscle in my body tensed as I jumped away wincing in pain as my body still adjusted to its new shape. ‘Sparks… I’m too late…’

“That ogre mage would be able to sense that much magic being used without you dampening it… Which you aren’t skilled enough to do.”

‘Wait… But… Why is she telling me this?’ “Hello, Oceanie…”

“I’m impressed… With you I mean, I’m severely disappointed in these rats… If I’m not mistaken though you still owe me 8 rounds.”

I slowly swallowed. ‘It’s a gamble… But I only have one play…’ “Actually, you owe me one… I won the game in the first round.” I pulled a copper coin from storage and flicked it to her. “I can use arcane magic… I wasn’t lying. So I won.”

She caught the coin, staring at it before slowly turning back to me. “You weren’t joking?”

“Nope…”

She sighed, flicking it back to me. “You should have said that from the start!” She whined, pouting for a moment. “Oh, unless?” She slowly walked up, backing me up against a wall and towering over me, lifting up my chin at the tip of a finger. “You wanted me to torture you? You said you hated being tiny, did you really want to grow up so bad…”

I shuddered as she traced a sharp nail down my neck, pressing it into my chest until it drew blood, which wasn’t difficult with how thinly stretched my skin was. “Or maybe you just like pain?”

I grabbed her hand and pushed it away. “I won the game… So… Will you honor the deal?”

She backed away with another sigh. “Yes… I’m disappointed in the incompetence of these rats anyway, so my work with them is done. I won’t help you break out, but I won’t stop you either.”

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I let out a heavy sigh of relief. “Ok. Thanks…”

Somehow I could just tell she was smiling under her helmet as her tail suddenly wrapped around my waist and pulled me to her, making my eyes go wide. “But, if you want to play another game, then I might change my mind.”

“I-I think I’m good… I should be able to break out on my own from here…”

She unwrapped her tail with a disappointed sigh, pouting like a spoiled little girl who got the wrong present for her birthday. “Fine… At least watching you break out should be entertaining. How will you get the key to the gate I wonder? Will you be able to steal it? Oh, maybe you’ll use your new body to sneak it away.” She giggled, slowly vanishing back into a shadow.

“You make me… So uncomfortable…”

She just laughed, her voice turning to a dark echo before disappearing entirely.

Once I was sure she was finally gone I slowly laid down again hugging a pillow and facing the wall. ‘In that case, maybe I really will just get some sleep… I haven’t had a proper rest in who knows how long… I wiped the blood from my chest, ‘Then again I’m not exactly comfortable enough to call this a good night's rest either… I could finish reversing the spell… But that would blow my cover… I’d look like me again’ I sighed, reworking my chest wrapping only looser, and then just decided to sleep without it once I realized it didn’t actually help the pain, and really only made it harder to breathe.

‘Ok… So I need to take out the wizard… At that point I might as well just leave out the front door though… Ok… The new plan, I take down all of them, and then I turn in the bounty. There are around 30 or so here, so that should be quite a bit, more if I keep them alive. Hm… For now, I’ll blend in until I get a better feel for when a good time to act is. If I’m not under a time constraint things should be fine.’

After some rest my body ached even more, but I could tell it was starting to adjust, as instead of intense pain and stretched nerves it was more like a deep soreness that made me want to just stay in bed. That seemed like a generally bad idea though, so I got up, got dressed, and headed outside to the main room where they gave me a bland meal. It was no better than what I ate when I was locked up… But it wasn’t drugged, so there was that.

“Hey Mochi, you brought them their food, right? How did it go?”

I turned my head over to the cook talking to the little girl. “They all hated it… But Nix didn’t hit me, so he must not have hated it as much as the others.”

‘Her voice is so lifeless and weak… She doesn’t look skinny or anything… Pretty bruised. Hm… She was raised by the three big shots, so she’d know more about them than anyone else right? It’s a good place to start.’

I was done eating anyway, so when she got her food and sat down on the floor I headed over and sat next to her. Before I even said a word she picked up her biscuit and handed it to me. “Oh, thanks.” I took it and started eating, and then she extended out the entire bowl she had gotten. “You’re name’s Mochi, is that right?” I asked, silently pushing her bowl back to her.

After looking between me and the bowl she nodded and then started to eat.

‘Doesn’t talk much I guess… Or maybe just not to strangers?’ “Do you always bring them their food?”

She slowly looked back at me. Pushing her bowl back over to me again. “They’ll get mad if you take their food… Take mine instead.”

‘What the…’ “I don’t want your food, you need to eat too.”

She looked down at it again. “But… You took my biscuit… Why else would you sit here?”

I stopped chewing, staring at the half-eating biscuit in my hand. ‘Did I just steal food from a little girl…’ I finished chewing, giving her back the other half. “I wasn’t trying to take your food sorry… I thought you were giving it to me.”

“I was.”

‘Why is her voice so distant… It’s like I’m talking to a golem…’ “But why would you give me your food if you wanted it? You… Do want it right?”

She picked it up, taking the smallest bit I could imagine before smiling so softly you could hardly see her face change at all. “Of course I want it… But if I’m going to lose it anyway, I’d rather lose it without getting hit…”

‘Yeah… I definitely stole her biscuit… Now I feel even worse…’ I sighed. “What are you doing after you eat?”

“Master needs a test subject. After that, I go and practice magic, and then I’m going to pray until the boss needs a punching dummy to vent his anger from everything that made him angry today

‘I feel like… Raised… Isn’t really the right term for what’s happening here…