“No!” Orrin yelled and grabbed at the empty air a few feet from him. He was too late. His friend had been kidnapped.

Orrin opened his [Map] but the only party member he saw was Madi. Daniel hadn’t responded to the invite request he’d sent. He probably wasn’t able to. His eyes were open, so he was conscious. But he couldn’t move or even speak.

Madi ran up beside him and started tugging at Orrin’s arm. She was yelling something about getting inside the house where it was safe. The ringing in his ears made it hard to understand.

A small cough from the ground caught his attention.

“We need to get inside in case they try to come back,” Madi was saying. Orrin ignored her and pulled his arm from her grip. He walked over to the crawling form with a sword stuck through his back. The blade scraped along the ground under his body as he pulled himself forward. The man’s hood had fallen back and blond hair was matted in sweat. He reached out toward the spot Daniel had been teleported away and let out a moan of despair.

Orrin used [Identify].

Tymon Depin

Ice Shadow Level 23

HP: 9/100

MP: 150/200

Strength: 10

Constitution: 19

Dexterity: 14

Will: 20

Intelligence: 22

Orrin scanned through the man’s spells and skills. No [Teleport], just a bunch of stealth skills and ice magic.

“I’m going back to Tony’s house,” Orrin said quietly. He grabbed the handle of his sword and pulled. Tymon let out a scream as the sword was jostled inside of him. Orrin put a foot on the man’s shoulder and pulled harder, sending a healing spell down to keep the man from dying.

The sword came out with a disgusting, wet slurp, and Tymon passed out. Orrin checked the man’s health which had stabilized at about half. He turned to Madi. “Are you coming with me?”

Madi looked back at the safety of her house, her father, and the life she’d always known. Orrin saw her steel her shoulders and knew her choice.

“Let’s go.”

Orrin couldn’t teleport the man when he was unconscious, so he simply picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. With his strength buff still active, it was easy. He imagined he looked comical, carrying the larger man through the town. Except for all the blood.

“What are you planning to do?” Madi whispered as they walked the same path that Orrin had a few hours before. “Just ask Anthony to break all the rules set up for his kind?”

“He’ll tell me how to get to Daniel,” Orrin answered stoically. He had [Mind Bastion] up still. He’d activated it so quickly during the fight and couldn’t turn it off yet. “And if he won’t, there are other ways of making a person talk.”

Tymon low groans from his back echoed down the street.

Tony was already standing on his small stoop as they approached. “What in the fiery pit are you doing back so soon? You can’t even go one day without...Who is that with you?”

“Tony, this is Madi. Madi, Tony. You can yell at me all you want later but somebody just kidnapped Daniel. I need your help making this one tell me where he is.” Orrin flipped the man bodily to the ground in front of Tony’s steps. “Quickly.”

Tony’s eyes darted between Orrin, Madi, and the groaning man at his feet. “You don’t know what you are asking.”

“I don’t care,” Orrin nearly yelled. “Drag the information out of his head or I’ll spend my points on skills that’ll let me do it myself. You know I’m not bluffing.”

Madi was looking back and forth with a puzzled look on her face and Orrin realized Tony had not been talking in her mind. To Madi, Orrin was having a one-sided conversation with the mind mage.

Tony’s face softened and he shook his head. “Young Catanzano, please talk some sense into your friend.”

Madi flinched. She breathed out slowly and talked to the ground, “By the power of the Catazano House, I release you for any crimes you may commit in the aiding of this request.”

She turned her eyes up to look Tony in the face. “Please help us find Daniel.”

Tony sighed and waved for them to come inside.

Orrin felt silly having to pick up Tymon’s body again as Tony ushered them into the house. Madi made sure to stand with Orrin between her and Tony as they entered. Orrin could feel her trembling as they walked down the long hallway into the kitchen.

“I promise I will not eat your eyes or attack you while you are in my home.” Tony grabbed the extra chair and spun it against the wall.

“What?” Orrin asked.

“He was talking to me,” Madi said in a quivering voice. “He’s listening to my thoughts.”

Orrin slumped Tymon in the seat and pulled out some rope he’d stored what felt like forever ago in his [Dimension Hole]. He looped it around Tymon a few times before Madi hip-checked him out of the way and did it correctly.

“He does that. Just ignore it. He’s really not that scary,” Orrin said as he stepped out of the way. He checked the man’s HP again but, without the sword stuck through a lung, he seemed to be stabilized.

“Please stop misinforming the next Lord of Dey. I am quite scary and not to be trifled with.”

Tony was pouring tea into three cups and setting cookies out. “Now young Catanzano, would you like one or two cubes of sugar?”

“Tony! This is not the time for tea,” Orrin chided. “Get in his mind and find out where they took Daniel.”

Tony raised an eyebrow as he looked at Orrin. “He’s unconscious. If I jolt him awake, his thoughts will be scrambled. I’ll do my work as fast as I can but don’t assume to tell me how to do it.” He turned back to Madi. “Two sugar and a dash of cream?”

Madi cinched the rope tight and wiped her hands on her pants. After a pause and an audible gulp, she responded. “Yes, thank you.”

“Tell me what happened, while we wait for our friend to wake.” Tony pushed a cup into Madi’s hands. He took a sip of his own and looked up expectantly.

“Daniel was ahead of us walking toward the house when he went down. Some people appeared and took out the guards. There was a fight and someone got Daniel and teleported him away. How long before he wakes up?” Orrin explained in a rush, ignoring the smell of chamomile next to him. He paced in the tiny room and pointed to the unconscious man.

“He’ll wake when he wakes.” Tony ignored Orrin. “How did Daniel go down? A toxin of some sort? That has to be it. You can’t teleport an unconscious body. I wonder-“

Orrin tuned out Tony’s rambling. He’d already learned that talking only with his mind lead to his conversations sometimes taking a stream of consciousness path.

Orrin pulled up the [Map] again and tried inviting Daniel to his party of two. No response and [Map] still showed nothing.

Tony snapped his fingers in front of Orrin. “I’m over here strategizing and you’re ignoring me?”

Orrin sat heavily in the remaining chair. Madi stood holding her tea politely and eyeing the front door.

“Sorry. I’m distracted.”

“He had to have been hit with some sort of poison or biotoxin. You said he went down. Did he move or seem awake at all?”

Orrin could still see the pain and fear in Daniel’s eyes. “He was awake. He knew what was about to happen and couldn’t do a thing about it.”

Madi shivered in the corner.

“So a neurotoxin, something that froze up his ability to move or even resist the pull of being teleported away.” Tony tapped his chin. “You don’t have any healing spell except [Heal Small Wounds], right? I’ll be right back.”

Tony stood up and headed upstairs, passing Madi. “I promise it isn’t poisoned. It’s actually quite good.” He looked down at her full cup of tea.

Once he left, Madi sat down quickly in the empty chair and pushed the cup away from her. “How do you react so calmly around him knowing he can read all your thoughts?”

Orrin shrugged and watched Tymon’s breathing. Had it become more shallow? “I just figure if he’s going to read my thoughts anyways, I should imagine he’s a nice guy and hope he reacts well to that.”

Madi squirmed in her chair.

“He can probably still hear your thoughts upstairs,” Orrin added. “You can wait outside if you want.”

“I’m not going anywhere and you better not leave me behind,” Madi grabbed the tea and took a big gulp of the hot liquid. “Ahh. It’s scalding.”

“It’s tea, what did you expect?”

Tony’s footsteps down the stairs alerted them to his return. He was carrying two books as he walked back into the kitchen. He slapped one down next to Orrin.

“I can’t remember which one has the information, but check in there.”

“What are you talking about?” Orrin asked. He had to wipe a layer of dust off the book to make out the title. “A Healer’s Field Guide?”

Tony slipped a finger behind a page and flipped through his own book. “Look for the chapter on anti-toxins. There’s a skill for it and if you’re going off on a rescue mission, I’m assuming having your [Hero] up and about might be preferable.”

“H-hero? We...we are trying to find our party member Daniel, not a hero,” Madi stammered out.

Tony did his eyebrow thing and shook his head. “You need to get better at lying, young Catanzano.”

“Leave it, Madi,” Orrin whispered and opened the book.

No table of contents but each chapter has its own heading, at least. He flipped through the few hundred pages quickly but saw nothing on toxins.

“Found it.” Tony turned his book around and pushed it close to Orrin. “That’s the one. It’s usually only unlocked in higher level Healers, but you shouldn’t have a problem with that.”

“What does that mean?” Madi questioned but Orrin was reading.

After the seventh conduit is unlocked, a new branch can be explored, including those dealing with toxins. While the fourth conduit has remedies for particular toxins, not all can be covered by the lesser paths. Along this higher path is a skill [Remetabolize]. This ingenious skill allows the healer to change the very structure of the toxin until it is benign. While this author posits the skill is duplicative of the fourth conduit remedies found in chapter sixteen, others have theorized-

“Tony, you’re a genius. This will let me get rid of the toxin keeping him prone.”

Tony beamed. “Exactly.”

Orrin opened his store and searched.

Remetabolize- change the toxicity and structure of a toxin (50 MP) (4 AP)

Would you like to purchase for 4 AP?

Yes or No

Orrin hesitated. “I don’t need this though. If you can find out where he is, I can [Teleport] in invisible and just pop back with him.”

Tony frowned. “True. However, think about this. Once they’ve got him secured, they’ll likely have him drugged up so nobody can attempt a rescue.” He scratched at the stubble on his chin. “But they’ll also have anti-teleport precautions. You should bring all this information to Silas- I mean your father. He’ll be able to help. But that can all wait.”

“Why?” Madi asked.

Orrin swore the lights dimmed and the shadows ran along the walls. Tony’s face became more angular in the dim light and his mouth changed from his playful smile to a downright evil looking grin.

“Our guest has joined us.”

Orrin turned with Tony to see Tymon’s eyes fluttering open.