“I’m not sleeping here,” Dalthan said with a furtive glance toward the small room’s closed door. While he spoke, the [Rogue] anxiously spun the dagger he held, its blade spinning in a complex flourish. “There has got to be somewhere in this town to sleep where we don’t have to worry about having our minds mashed. Didn’t you see the innkeeper? The poor sod never so much as flinched after Sebastian knocked him off the bar.”

The dagger stilled in the thief’s hand, his emerald eyes taking on a considering cast as he mused. “Maybe I should have slit the innkeeper's throat to put him out of his misery? Would that have been a good thing to do?”

Keysha groaned and leaned back on the bed until her head struck the wall behind her. Unsatisfied with one thump, she tipped her head back again to hit the thin wall hard enough to fill the small room with a dull thud. Any question about the object of her frustration was immediately cleared up when her gray eyes cracked open to fix Dalthan with a merciless glare.

“Are you still going on about this being good shit?” The [Sharpshooter] growled like a starving dog clutching a bleached bone in its jaws. “Dalthan, your gods damned plan involves double-crossing our employers. A plan, I might add, that probably ends with this entire fucking town being put the sword.”

The thief wasn’t the only object of her ire. Keysha’s stormy eyes quickly sought out the room’s other occupant. “I thought the entire reason you were here is to talk some sense into this idiot.”

Sylvia rolled her eyes, offering only an indignant sniff as she lifted a bottle of wine to her lips. Unlike her companions, she’d quickly made herself at home. The nymph had liberated three bottles of questionable vintage from the tavern’s dusty wine rack and seemed intent on finishing all of them without offering to share a drop of her ill-gotten gains.

“I’m here to talk to him about the System.” Sylvia’s voice was smooth as silk, showing no indication that the woman had already finished one bottle of wine and was starting on her second. She’d been so eager to hit the bottle that the various pieces of her armor were still scattered across the floor beside the bed she’d claimed for her own. Now she was sprawled out across one of the room’s two lumpy mattresses wearing only a white top that failed to cover her flat stomach and a pair of thin, snuggly fitting black tights that clung to her like a second skin.

“Not that I’ve had much chance to do that,” she continued after taking a swig from the dark glass bottle she held. “This crazy chore hasn’t provided many opportunities for teaching moments.”

“Then I guess you should cancel all your dinner dates so you can do your fucking job.” Keysha flashed the other woman a mirthless smile. “Unless your idea of a ‘teaching moment’ is being on your back with your ankles in the air.”

“Oh, honey,” Sylvia murmured as she slowly licked away the wine clinging to her plump lips. “There’s no need to be jealous. You just need to manage your expectations. I met a lovely blind fellow that I think would be willing to throw you a bone.”

Forgotten in the face of the women’s shared animosity, Dalthan watched Keysha rise from her bed to stalk threateningly toward a grinning Sylvia. He should have been ecstatic over the thought of watching the two beautiful women scramble around on top of the bed, and yet, he couldn’t pull his attention away from the message that sat at the edges of his perception.

“You’d be thinking about good and evil too if you had the kind of day that I’m having,” the [Rogue] muttered as he read the strange message from the Celestial Framework for the hundredth time. It was filled with unfamiliar jargon and strange terminology that filled him with a mixture of excitement and dread. Mostly dread.

“What’d you say?” Keysha snarled as she menaced Sylvia by hefting an empty wine bottle as if it were a cudgel. The sight amused the nymph so much that she flopped back onto the mattress with a peal of laughter that shifted into a horrified squawk when she realized that she was spilling a steady stream of dark wine onto the dingy bed sheets.

Dalthan barked back, “I said do you think you two could take your bullshit to another room? We came up here so I could talk to Baki and Vex. Either calm your fucking tits or see yourself out the door.”

“What’s with you?” Sylvia’s amber eyes swept across Dalthan with an unnerving level of scrutiny. Shifting away from the stained bedclothes, the nymph sat up at the edge of the bed where she could get a closer look at him. “You should be cheering us on instead of bitching.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Keysha murmured. The bottle in her hand swiftly descended to tap against the back of Sylvia’s skull. The improvised weapon made a hollow bonk when it struck the druid’s head. Sylvia immediately dropped the bottle she’d been drinking from onto the floor in favor of clutching the back of her head with both hands.

Dalthan’s brows narrowed at Keysha’s smug expression. “Vex,” the thief said with a frown, “if Keysha makes any more racket, eat her.”

“Mmm…” Vex’s gurgling rumble rose into the room as the murder toad’s flat, triangular head broke the surface of Dalthan’s shadow like an alligator rising from a swamp’s brackish water. “The other one looks juicier, Human Dalthan.”

The slaad’s appearance erased Keysha’s triumphant smirk. Eyes widening with sudden concern, the archer stumbled back from the emerging abomination. “That’s not fucking funny, Dalthan,” she said as she fell back onto the bed beside Sylvia.

“I don’t think he was joking,” Dal offered blithely.

“Fuck no he wasn’t joking,” Sylvia grumbled, a tell-tale green glow of active magic radiating from the hand she held over her bruised skull. “Eat her ass, Vex,” she encouraged, pointedly looking toward the archer’s narrow waist. “If you can find it.”

Dalthan threw his hands up in the air. “Shut the fuck up, both of you. Vex, ignore them. Why hasn’t the damn lizardman come out yet?”

The blue slaad made a gurgling sound that Dal had learned to associate with confusion. “He can’t hear you. This blue slaad can see and hear through your darkness, but that is because I am a creature of Limbo. The stinky lizard was born of a world filled with heat, light, and sand. He is powerless inside the shadow realm.”

The thief winced, wondering if the lizardman’s time inside his shadow had been as bad as Vex made it sound. “Well bring him out then.”

Vex replied with an affirmative croak before reaching into Dalthan’s shadow with one clawed hand. The darkness rippled around the abomination’s thick, heavily muscled limb like water flowing around a tree trunk. A moment passed with the slaad digging through the shadow in a motion that reminded Dalthan of a kid grasping for the last cookie at the bottom of the jar.

When the abomination finally lifted its hand, it held the familiar lizardman delicately in its claws. Baki was curled into a fetal position while violent shivers wracked his body. A steady rasping sound slid from the warrior’s open mouth as if he were struggling to breathe, while his slitted eyes stared vacantly into the distance.

“Oh fuck.” Dalthan whispered, watching as Vex carefully laid the motionless warrior out onto the floor.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Then the smell hit him. It’d been years since he’d wandered the worst streets Low Town had to offer, but for a native like himself, the scents would live on in his memory till the day he died. There was something unique about the acrid combination of stomach bile and urine that made it unmistakable.

“What did you do to him?” Keysha’s voice was tinged with an undeniable note of alarm. A heartbeat later she followed Sylvia’s lead and lifted a corner of the bed sheets to cover her nose.

“I only told him stories of my homeland and the slaad collective.” Vex’s croaked response sounded oddly defensive. “He enjoyed the tales once he stopped interrupting them with his screams.”

Dalthan’s green eyes flickered back and forth between the slaad and the lizardman for several moments. This…was not part of his plan. As if fate hadn’t already threatened to upset his entire scheme. First, there was the cryptic message from something called the Celestial Framework. Now, he was staring at the results of his bodyguard torturing the soldier that had been picked to be his liaison to the lizardfolk.

If Dal’s confidence had been shaken earlier, now it was in shambles.

“Baki,” Dal said tentatively as he rose from his chair and slipped his dagger into its sheath at his waist. “I’m the man that met with you when your clan attacked the caravan.” He eased his way toward the catatonic lizardman, careful not to make any sudden or seemingly aggressive moves. “Do you remember me?”

Seeing Dal move, Sylvia tossed aside the scrap of threadbare cloth she’d been using to cover her nose. Face scrunched in disgust, the beautiful nymph’s slender fingers wove an intricate pattern in the air to accompany the soft sound of her short chant.

The hopeful look Dal directed toward the [Druid] was dashed into pieces by the shake of her head.

He should have known that magical bullshit wouldn’t be doing him any favors.

“There isn’t anything physically wrong with him,” Sylvia offered apologetically. “Aside from the smell. I guess I can fix that much.” The next chant was even shorter, some sort of nature cantrip that sent a soft breeze swirling through the small room. The wind carried a pleasant scent that reminded him of one of Wavecrest’s parks after a spring rain.

Giving the nymph a grim nod of appreciation, Dalthan slowly sank to one knee beside the shivering lizardman. “Baki, can you hear me? Asim will not be pleased if you fail your clan.”

The lizardman flinched when Dal mentioned the Second Claw of the Sunrunner clan. Seeing a response, any response, made him want to collapse in relief. Maybe his plan was still salvageable.

“Baki,” the thief murmured in a tone normally reserved for coaxing a kitten down from a tree. “I need you to talk to me. We have questions and if you can’t answer them we won’t be able to help your clan.”

The trembles vibrating through the lizardman’s body began to slowly subside. Baki made no move to rise from the floor, but he did tilt his head toward the sound of the [Rogue]’s voice.

“You,” the lizardman wheezed, his slitted eyes slowly focusing on the thief’s face. “You’re the one who sent me to that dark hell.” A shudder rushed through the warrior as he squeezed his eyes shut. “Darkness and whispers. The whispers never stopped.”

Baki’s eyes began to glaze over as they focused on something in the distance that only he could see. “The whispers never stop. Never stop. The whispers never-”

Dalthan’s palm struck the lizardman on the side of his jaw. “Get a hold of yourself,” Dalthan growled. He was certain he’d just done far more damage to his hand than he had to the lizardman’s face. The only saving grace was that Baki seemed focused on him again instead of whatever memory had been threatening to overwhelm the warrior.

“You hit me, human.” For the first time, the lizardman moved, lifting a claw to rub at the side of his jaw.

“And I will again if I have to,” Dalthan said curtly, hoping that he could talk Sylvia into fixing whatever he’d just broken in his hand. That was an issue for later. For now, he needed to get some information out of this asshole.

Dalthan made a point of tipping the brim of his hat back to peer down at the prone lizardman. Looking down his nose at the warrior had the desired effect, eliciting a snarl from the creature as it scrambled up to a sitting position. Baki might have made more of a ruckus if a deep-throated croak from Vex hadn’t caused him to instantly grow still.

“I have questions and you have answers.” Dalthan levered himself onto his feet in one smooth motion. Turning away from Baki, he tossed his first question over his shoulder as he reclaimed his chair. “What can you tell me about Rimewyrd?”

The two women leaned forward, momentarily forgetting their feud in a moment of shared interest.

“Rimewyrd is a great patron of my clan.” There was a note of pride in Baki’s voice. “One day, beneath Blightclaw’s banner, the Sunrunners will sweep across the Searing Sands and retake our home. When we do, it will be Rimewyrd’s aid that makes it possible.”

Unable to contain herself, Keysha blurted out, “So Rimewyrd is a lizardman? Like you?”

Baki scoffed. “No. Rimewyrd is a celestial. An agent of the Sun God. He came to our people to grant us a small portion of our god’s power.”

Dalthan frowned, carefully playing his conversation with Asim back in his mind. The thief quietly mused, mostly to himself, “But when Asim threatened me he clearly said ‘by Rimwyrd’s scales.’”

The lizardman blinked at the odd human. “Yes? What of it?”

Dal offered Baki a flat look. “I’m not too familiar with celestials, but the only one I’ve ever seen did not have scales.”

To the thief’s surprise, the lizardman threw his head back and made a strange wheezing sound. It took several moments, and a few concerned looks, before the evildoers realized that Baki was laughing.

“Not scales,” the lizardman said, voice tinged with amusement as he pointed a claw at his own arm. “Scales,” he said, holding his hands out flat. With Dalthan’s crew looking on in confusion, Baki lifted one hand while lowering the other.

“Scales for weighing things?” Sylvia ventured, watching Baki’s pantomime with open skepticism.

“Yes!” The lizardman nodded furiously. “For weighing things.”

“Why does he need a set of scales?” Keysha tilted her head as if she were trying to solve the mystery on her own.

“Scales are a tool,” Baki said, clearly struggling with a language barrier. “Rimewyrd is a captain? A matron?”

“An administrator.” Dalthan fought back a brief moment of nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. Instead of giving in to his urge to vomit, Dal forced himself to smile. “Rimewyrd is an administrator.”

Sylvia looked Dalthan’s way with one eyebrow arched but chose not to interrupt.

“Yes. Administrator. Administrator can use scales to bless the worthy,” Baki suddenly seemed ill at ease with their conversation. The warrior’s reptilian eyes cut from one person to the next as he spoke in a rush. “One day the Sunrunners will prove themselves worthy of the Sun God’s blessing. Blightclaw has promised.”

Suddenly, the pieces of the story clicked into place for Dalthan.

“But they aren’t worthy yet, are they?” The thief had never imagined a lizard’s wince before, but he instantly knew the expression that crossed Baki’s face for what it was. “Rimewyrd told Blightclaw this, didn’t he? That he couldn’t bless any of Blightclaw's clan.”

“The Sunrunners deserve the Sun God’s favor.” The lizardman’s voice grew defensive, only calming when Vex took a shuffling step closer. “It is only a matter of time until our god recognizes our worth.”

Hearing all he needed to, Dalthan turned to the two women and finished the story. “Rimewyrd hasn’t been able to help the lizardfolk win this war. I'm betting that Blightclaw is less than thrilled with being rejected. I think he's keeping the celestial under lock and key until he changes his mind about the lizardfolk being 'worthy' of being blessed.”

Baki’s silence spoke volumes.

The [Rogue] leaned back in his chair with a tired sigh. At least now they knew how a celestial could be helping the lizardfolk and be a prisoner to them at the same time.

What he didn’t know was why he and his team had been sent to rescue an angel.

He had a sinking feeling that it had something to do with the last line of the message he’d received earlier. He’d been told to contact a local administrator. At the time, he’d had no idea what that even was.

Now, everything had changed. Thanks to Baki, he knew what an administrator was.

And where to find one.