Kay woke up groggy and confused. Also, his head hurt. Like, a lot. Why did his head hurt so damn much? It wasn’t like he’d been beaten unconscious. He tried to stand up and staggered onto his feet, clutching his head.

“Oh, he’s up.”

Kay tried to look towards the voice he’d heard, but the bright lights sent lances of pain through his head. He wrapped his arm around his eyes instead.

“That… Doesn’t look good.” A different voice said. “I thought they used the powder. The powder doesn’t do that to people.”

“They said they used the powder, but he’s acting like he got hit in the head.”

“Shit, the Director isn’t going to be happy if he’s hurt.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t do that, and he’ll be pissed at us if we don’t tell him. You run grab a healer, I’ll tell the Director.”

“Seriously? You’d do that?”

“You all need to pay better attention. Carter is the one that blames the messenger. The Director is a good leader.”

“Whatever, I just don’t want to tell the people in charge that bad things happened.”

Footsteps trailed off into the unknown distance, and Kay dropped back to the floor, his back to the wall. The ebb and flow of the waves of agony running through him kept his attention entirely on them until more voices penetrated the pain.

“What happened to him?” This voice was older sounding and very annoyed.

“I don’t know, sir. The Graceful Success people brought him in like you ordered. They said they used the powder and carried him here. When he woke up, he started groaning in pain and staggering around.”

He’d been groaning? He couldn’t even tell. Was he groaning right now? His head definitely hurt enough for some groaning.

“Has a healer seen to him?”

“Not yet, sir, I sent Daniel to go get- Oh, there he is, sir.”

“Good.”

“What happened?”

“We don’t know. Supposedly Orios Powder was used to knock him unconscious, but he’s acting like he has been hit in the head.”

The loud sound of squealing metal hammered into Kay, and he curled tighter into a ball to hide from it. A shadow blocked out the light that was making it past Kay’s arm. A warmth started flowing up his neck and into his head a moment later, banishing some of the pain.

“Definitely a concussion. Someone or something hit his head pretty hard.” The pain started to wane as the warmth took its place. “No internal bleeding, which is good. I can reduce the swelling easily enough.”

“Will he be alright?” The older voice asked.

The person next to him snorted. “He would be better if someone hadn’t kidnapped him. As it is, I can deal with the concussion.”

“I do appreciate that we were sent a tier five healer.”

The healer muttered something Kay couldn’t understand. A few moments later, the pain entirely faded and the warmth left with it as the healer stood up. “There, done.”

Kay opened his eyes and looked up.

A human man about his age with pale blonde hair looked down at him. “It’s good someone thought to bring me to you. You might have died if that hadn’t been healed.” The healer turned around a scowl on his face. “Whoever did this-”

On the other side of the bars of the cell Kay was in, an older man, also human, raised a hand. “It will be dealt with. I did not order him injured; in fact, I ordered that he was not to be injured, and whoever decided to disobey will face the consequences.”

“Good.” The healer walked over to the cell door and waited as one of the other two men opened it, both of them keeping an eye on Kay. The healer paused in front of the older man. “Director, I…”

He placed a hand on the healer’s shoulder. “I know. I feel the same. But duty is duty.”

The healer straightened up. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” The Director looked at the two guards. “Watch him. I’ll be back shortly.”

“’Yes sir!’”

The Director and the healer walked out. The two guards settled into place, watching Kay.

Free of pain and feeling fantastic because of it, Kay stood up a little too quickly.

Both guards jerked in place, hands going for their weapons. There was a tense standoff as Kay just stood there, watching them back. They eventually relaxed.

Kay glanced around, taking stock. His weapons and armor were missing. He’d left the house with his sword and punch dagger as well as being kitted out in his armor since he hadn’t felt like stripping out of it. He was wearing a loose pair of canvas pants and nothing else. Looking down at his shirtless self, he felt pretty good about his physique for a moment. If I had to get kidnapped and stripped, at least I look something like an action star instead of the way I used to. A dad bod just doesn’t look that great when you’re locked in a cell in a fantasy world.

The cell walls were worked stone; the bars were some kind of metal, with no rust in sight. The door was the same metal, with a small lock.

The two guards stared at Kay. Kay stared back for a moment. “Thanks.”

“What?”

“That healer said I could have died if someone didn’t help. I think I heard one of you went and got him or something like that? So thank you.”

They glanced at each other for a moment, confused and conflicted expressions on both their faces. “You’re welcome?”

Kay nodded, then leaned against the wall. He wasn’t going to try anything with two armed guards staring at him, so he’d wait for that Director guy to come back. Then maybe he could figure something out.

It was a bit of a wait. Kay wasn’t the best at determining how much time was passing, not without something to reference, but he felt it was at least an hour. Of course, he’d felt other periods of time were about an hour, and he’d been wrong then, but it wasn’t a big deal in this case.

The Director walked in, and Kay got a better look at him. An older human man with salt and pepper hair and a goatee, almost entirely gone to gray. His bright blue eyes narrowed as he looked back at Kay.

“Step outside, please.”

“Yes, sir.” The two guards filed out.

The Director stared at Kay. Kay stared back. He had the feeling that this was one of those moments where the first person to talk lost. Kay was terrible at those kinds of moments.

The staring continued until Kay broke first. “So, I’m ruining your plans enough for you to have me kidnapped, huh? I didn’t realize I was even mildly impeding any of your plans.”

The Director scoffed. “You aren’t even mildly impeding anything. Typical Outworlder. Why do you always think everything is about you? How could a tier three who hasn’t even been in this world a full year get in the way of our plans?”

“What?” That wasn’t what Kay was expecting. “Um, well, right before I got knocked unconscious, Coultron said something about how I was ruining his plans. And that was right after your guildmaster got all angry at me for not turning over that Blood Mage’s body. And that was after you guys started spreading rumors about me being in league with that blood mage. Which happened after Coultron and his cronies got in trouble with the guard for harassing shops in the city, which was sort of my fault. And when I first got here, Coultron tried to drag me along to your guildmaster without permission from the city.”

“Oh. Well, I can see how from your perspective, things are more centered on you than they really are.” The man acknowledged. “But in reality, Coultron’s plans are not our plans. He has been trying to butter up Carter and move his way up in the world, which has nothing to do with our actual plans.”

Kay cocked a brow. “Oh really?”

The Director chuckled. “You need acting lessons. I’m not going to monologue all of my plans like some storybook villain.” He sighed and rubbed his face. “But things being the way they are, I actually do have to tell you some parts of them to make sure that we end everything the necessary way. So…” He stopped and stared off into the distance. “Right. I’m Director Kurtis Nel, head of the Illuminators. Guildmaster Carter is my counterpart. Your teacher has become something of an annoyance, and,” He sighed, “Carter has decided that we’re going to hold you hostage until she signs an Agreement to stay out of our business.”

“That business being the attempt to manipulate Tumbling Rapids into joining the Kingdom of Nelam through political maneuvering and trying to drive the Adventurer’s Guild out of the city?”

Kurtis Nel groaned loudly. “His Majesty’s hatred of the Adventuring Guild can be incredibly obnoxious. We could have sent half the manpower and materials and been done much faster if we’d just stuck to convincing the City Council directly! But no, we have to embarrass the Adventurer’s Guild and ruin their reputation. As if they actually care that much about one city! The only things that have come of that entire debacle are problems!” He breathed deeply for a moment after his rant, then frowned. “My apologies, I’ve been a bit annoyed recently.”

“If you find the whole plan stupid, why are people from your Illuminators putting False Identify on adventurer’s items when they bring them in to be Identified?” Kay countered.

“What?” Kurtis looked at him in what appeared to be actual confusion. “False Identify? What are you talking about?” He paused. “Wait… No! I told Carter we couldn’t do that!” He clutched his head and groaned again. “That idiot! If it gets out we’re scamming people, it will ruin everything! We’ll lose every bit of political capital we have with the neutral Councilmembers!” He looked over at Kay. “Thank you for telling me about that. I have to go deal with it now, so I’ll cut short what I was going to say. You’re a hostage; behave, and you’ll be fine. I don’t have any interest in hurting you, especially because it would probably make your teacher attack us more than anything, but Carter can be vicious. As long as you behave, everything will work out fine.” He nodded once, then walked out. The two guards stepped back in a moment later.

Well… Shit. Kay cursed silently. I think I just helped them.

The guards watched Kay silently as time passed. And more time passed. Kay quickly got bored and decided to poke around in his status and notifications, looking for anything interesting. It was distracting enough that he wasn’t sure how long it had been when the door to the outside opened.

In strolled Coultron. “You two, leave!” He snapped at the two guards.

They stared at him. “Why?” One of them asked.

“Because I am going to question the prisoner!”

They glanced at each other. “What for? Isn’t he here as a hostage? Does he need to be questioned?”

Coultron glared at the one that was talking, his face getting red with anger. “Shut up and get out!” He shouted.

“But-”

The guard who hadn’t spoken grabbed the other one’s arm and pulled him towards the door. The door shut behind them with a thunk.

“Now then.” Coultron turned to Kay, a creepy smile on his face as he pulled out a knife. “I’m going to teach you why you should never get in my way.”