Chapter One

“Has anyone been in to see it?” Cayden asked, his gaze somewhat rudely focused not on Vilerat, but the video feed of their prisoner displayed at the corner of his AR glasses.

“No reason to. It didn’t say so much as a word when we brought it down or when we chained it up, and it isn’t like we need to feed it or anything.” Vilerat shrugged, glancing to the nearby cell door. “Not a total waste to snipe an officer or anything, but to be honest I’m not sure it knows how to speak, or if it is even sentient.”

“Only one way to find out.” Silver said, a gloved hand already reaching for the cell door.

Cayden scowled. “I thought we agreed you were going to wait out here.”

“That is because you wouldn’t lift the dungeon entrance restrictions if I didn’t.” She smirked, “Go ahead and turn them back on, but you’re going to have to physically carry me out first to get them to stick.”

The two men exchanged glances, then sighs. “She always like this?” Rat asked.

“Usually worse. Normally I have enough power that I’m less conniving and more threatening.”

With a screech of rusted metal that was certainly thematic, even though it made little sense given how new the prison actually was, Silver pushed the cell door open and strode confidently inside. Cayden followed quick on her heels, picking up his pace to reach her side, then slipped slightly in front of her, between the sorceress and their prisoner.

It wasn’t cheap chivalry, though he had a bad enough history of that if he was being honest with himself. Silver was just too valuable to risk in almost any situation. She was, as he’d called her, their walking, talking win condition for the catastrophe that was the current floor event.

Grim as it was, they could afford to temporarily, or even permanently lose him, or Shifty, or Celia. Even Des would be a heavy loss that they could recover from.

If Silver went down their chances of survival shrank from small to infinitesimal.

“It’s not even-“

Silver had only just started to scold him when the passive stone soldier had lunged with all its might. The bonds pinning it to the wall creaked and moaned, but held firm against the sudden impact, though cracks rippled up the terracotta façade of the officer’s arms.

It hadn’t shouted or spoken, its face impassive as ever as it struggled at the end of its manacles, arms wrenched behind it at an impossible angle. Twice more it threw its weight into the bindings, flakes of its earthen skin and clothing shredding off with each attempt. Then, as if only suddenly aware of its predicament, it relaxed.

“You done with the funhouse zombie bullshit?” Silver asked. Though she’d been interrupted, she was far from frightened, her footing steady, her own expression nearly as implacable as the meticulously carved statue.

“Were it so easy to dispose of you creatures.” The voice that boomed through unmoving lips was a nightmare in its own right. Loud and deep, it rattled something in the human psyche, the same way the bass of a lion roar could chill the soul even through a recording. “The trickster I know too well, but you… I wondered if you were perhaps a coward. I can feel the power radiating from you, but you have never confronted us.” The voice paused, the officer’s head tilting ever so slightly to one side. “A cold power, inert. Wrong. You are no threat.”

“Temujin.” Cayden said at last, moving to stand a few steps outside of arms reach of the once again motionless soldier. “Able to wear your subordinates like a glove, is this why you’re so good at monkey see, monkey do?”

“Are all of your kind so irreverent?” The inhuman general spat back in disgust.

“A little.” He admitted. “Truth be told though, I’m glad. We’ve needed to talk for a while in a place you don’t try to murder us on sight.”

“More like can’t.” Silver murmured from behind him, earning a quick glare.”

“What is there to speak of? My demand was clear, return the Shackles of the Liar King while there is still time.” The gravelly voice grew dour, and some small hint of emotion showed as the Warden clenched and unclenched his hands.

“Don’t you think we would have if we could have by now?” Cayden protested. “We… I ordered a city burned to the ground just to hurt you, to try and save what lives we could. If we had the damned things I’d hand them to you right this instant.”

“Your protestations of innocence or ignorance mean nothing. The guilt of one of your kind is the guilt of all in a matter as vital as this.” Eyes narrowed. “Not that I believe you. The magic of the shackles weighs strong about you.”

“You said that before. In Islo…”

“Our sense of the shackles is imprecise, but even through this host, I can see the traces on you. One of your kind took the shackles. We put him and his kin quickly to the blade, but not before they had passed the artifact to another. You either received them yourself, or you have touched the one who possesses them.”

“Then give us more time. If you can sense that much, I’ll happily march everyone in the fortress past you to try and narrow down the suspects. We can do some detective work, figure out who it is and put them in your chains instead until they tell us where the shackles are.”

The warden snorted in derision, a deep exhale of dismissal made all the more unsettling given that the creature did not breath. “You think we would trust your kind? With your history, with the things you have done even before you left the tower?”

“You should listen to him.” Silver protested. “It may take a little more time, but-“

“Time?” The earthen general roared. “We have spent too much of that already. Your cowardly resistance, pitiful as it is, has already wasted so much. Do you not understand the gravity of the situation? You keep a Warden in chains while you risk letting our prisoner free with each passing instant.”

“So we should just lay down and die?” Cayden asked.

“I would not expect such honor from those descended from the scattered houses. Sacrifice for any sort of greater good has never been your way.”

Behind Cayden, Silver rolled her eyes. “Never been much for dying pointlessly, that much is accurate.”

“Oh?” Temujin asked, the slightest hint of green only just now visible in his eyes. “Foolish of you not to send an underling to do this in your place then.”

“Command: Equip All,” Cayden shouted with alarm. Already the light in Temujin’s eyes had grown from a dim glow to a near blinding pulse of emerald. The same color seeped from the cracks made earlier when the soldier had thrown itself against its bindings, and within barely a breath the light dominated the room, casting away every shadow with its radiance.

No time to run, that much was clear. Whatever this was, it would be over before Vilerat could reach the door, unbar it from the other side and let them through. All they could do was endure. “Silver, behind me!”

“The hell do you think I’m doing?!” The caster asked, already down in full ‘duck and cover’ position at his rear, her clothing glowing with defensive spells triggered by the oncoming threat.

“Skill Use: Grasp the World.” Cayden chanted. “Earth wall”

Warden Officer hits you for 1690 Fire.

He was halfway through summoning a wall of earth to blunt the blow when the first wave of power hit him. His glasses blared warnings in his ear, a string of messages scrolling by as wave after wave of energy washed over him like the heat of a jet engine pointed in his direction. Painful, but at his level it was manageable.

Then the prisoner detonated.

Even braced with everything he had, the shockwave blew him clear off his feet and threw him into the corner of the room where he promptly landed with his back on Silver, his shield between them.

You have suffered 68 damage (Impact/Fall) Shield Destroyed!

One final emanation washed over them, almost a cool breeze compared to the battering they’d received. Then the room was engulfed in darkness, the torches blown out or obliterated.

Silence reigned for a few seconds before the screech of unoiled hinges preceded a shaft of light striking out into the darkness from the now open entryway. “Are you guys dead?”

“Yeah man.” Cayden half said, half whimpered. “Silver?”

“Super dead.”

“Well, so long as that is settled.”