Everyone took a step back as the arder leader hovered into the room. No-one dared speak as Julian surveyed the room, the breathless silence stilling the air. His soul-shell washed over the party, making its presence known, but only lightly, for now. Pellex schooled his features, trying not to let his expressions betray what he knew. The man in front of him had taken one of the worst sins possible and discovered a way to make it even worse. Pellex wouldn’t be the one breaking the pause.

After a few hours-worth of anxious moments, Julian addressed the escapees.

“Well done!”

Stunned silence was the only response the party could muster, but Julian continued anyway.

“There have been escape attempts in the past, but none have yet managed to evade my arders for so long. Truly a commendable feat.”

“You’re not, uh,” Ucria tried to speak, but trailed off midsentence.

“The desire for freedom is the greatest instinct of them all, the driving force behind almost all of humanity’s greatest achievements. I cannot fault those who act on such motives. And your attempts to disable the entire facility, freeing all the prisoners, rather than just yourselves, are even grander. However, I have freedom as well, and my power means that you cannot dispute what I choose to do with it. Unfortunate, but that is how the world works.”

Pellex felt like there was something wrong about that, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. He had probably just misunderstood what – oh. He felt his mind clearing, as the pirate leader’s passive sci skill stopped pulling at him. How powerful was that skill? If Holia hadn’t told him about it, what would have happened in that first meeting?

“Now, do not assume that I am here to punish you. As I said, your actions have not warranted such. On the contrary. I am here to offer you a choice. If you so wish to, you may join the ranks of the arders, under my personal oversight. You will work as my assistants and liaison with the regular crew, as I understand how interacting with the prisoners or partaking in raids may be troublesome for you. I will provide advancement guides, wisdom from my experience, and access to our soulmage when slots are available, in addition to grinding opportunities in this very dungeon. As an added bonus, I will let you keep whatever loot this dungeon managed to scrounge together. If you decline my generous offer, you will merely be returned to your original tasks and status as prisoners.”

Pellex looked around at his friends, and he knew they wanted to agree. And he couldn’t let that happen. [Cogsight] had shown him what he needed to do, and none of them had that knowledge.

“I’ll take that deal. If you don’t let them take it.”

The others recoiled in shock.

“Have you gone mad, Pellex?”

“I don’t see why Julian’s time should be split between the four of us, when I’m the most useful one here.”

Julian looked surprised for a second, then he began to laugh. This wasn’t genuine, like it was in the first meeting – it was more controlled, calculated.

“A cogent argument, young [Artificer]! And you are quite right. The trick with the [Dungeon Bees] is interesting, but more of a curiosity than anything else. I have no need for yet another gunslinger or phi-foundation brute. Your skills will best serve my purposes, and it will be much more rewarding to focus my time on a single assistant. And the ambition is certainly commendable. Welcome to Julian’s Eagles, Pellex.”

The arder leader brought his hands out, and green power rushed along his armor into his gauntlets. With a wave and a whispered word, white energy exploded from the dungeon around them, mingling with Julian’s green to blot out the world.

Pellex came to in a room he hadn’t seen before. It looked eerily like a generic corporate office, thin green carpet covering the floor, with cheap wooden furniture filling the room. On one wall there was a large window, and, after frantically checking and being relieved to find his storage rod on him, with all the loot still inside, Pellex got out of the chair he had woken up in and walked over to it. The window was behind a simple desk, which was perfectly clean, and didn’t seem to have any drawers. The window looked out over the airship landing platform, and Pellex could see people moving around it. The [Ulvis] attack had left a few scorch marks on the platform, but most of the damage appeared to have been already cleaned up.

As Pellex was checking for any sign of his group down with the rest of the prisoners, he felt the air stir.

“An interesting view, isn’t it. I don’t often have the time to come up here, so perhaps we can see about repurposing this as yours.”

Pellex had flinched back at the first word, whipping around to find Julian standing right next to him. The arder’s armor wasn’t glowing as brightly, and he was on the ground, but Pellex could feel the monster’s soulshell lightly brushing against his own.

“What do you think of freedom, [Artificer]?”

Thrown off by the sudden question, Pellex answered with the first thing that came to mind.

“It’s… nice?”

“You can think of a better answer than that.”

A wave of power washed over Pellex, and as he tried to parse it, he felt words rising from his throat, unbidden, but not untrue.

“I’ve seen a lot of people waste theirs. I don’t want to do that.”

“Excellent. A better answer than most. What do you know of Iriode?”

“The Facet of freedom?”

Julian merely nodded.

“I… admire his devotees’ work with the indebted, and I’ve offered the proper monthly prayers, but other than that I haven’t studied him much.”

“Iriode is much more than a patron of the weak. People forget this, I believe, assuming that only those in explicit bondage wish for freedom. But there are subtler chains, and subtler interpretations of his Facet.”

As he spoke, Julian began walking, and Pellex turned to follow, quickly exiting the room.

“The Facet of freedom is thought of as a small thing, as if the freedom he represents were nothing more than the safe freedom of civilization. What Iriode truly is, is the Facet of all freedom. Complete, unlimited freedom. Freedom from everything. Freedom from laws, from anarchy, from the freedom of others, from your own limitations. In Zolnre, a group is dedicated to plunging the secrets of life itself, searching for freedom from death. Iriode is not about chaos, not about rebellion for rebellion’s sake, but for freedom. Pure, untrammeled. Under Iriode, we have the freedom to follow laws, to break them, to respect others, to subjugate them. Undoubtedly one of the most interesting portfolios of any Facet.”

They had passed through several empty halls, a section Pellex didn’t know, and now stood before a large metal door.

“I tell you this, because the life of the arder is one of freedom. For those such as us, Iriode can grant strength, in return for nothing more than a display of our dedication. You have the freedom to not walk one of the paths the Facet provides, but you will be stunted, never to truly be one of us.”

Julian swung open the door, revealing a round Facet temple, of similar design to the many Pellex had seen before. In the center of the room, a soulbronze statue of the Facet stood twice Pellex’s height, Iriode’s symbol floating where a mortal’s head would be, suspended in lines of power above the nude human form that ended at the base of the neck. Around the statue, three short pedestals stood. Julian began talking again, gesturing to each pedestal as he spoke.

“The first of the paths you may take is Freedom from Others. Most take this path – it is simple, and easy. The Facet’s power will strip away your hearing, until you will no longer let the petty judgements of your fellow man suppress your freedom. Then, there is Freedom from Pain. Many think they can handle the torture, but will cry out after a single moment. Iriode’s power will bring you pain, as long as you touch the pedestal. This pain is pure and objective, cutting straight to your soul. If you can withstand it for five seconds, you will be free from pain, though greater power may be granted the longer you suffer. The third is Freedom from Hunger. Freedom’s power will turn food to ash in your throat, but if you survive, you will never need to eat again.”

Pellex considered his options. He couldn’t take the first one – if he wanted to escape, he would need to play along as Julian’s assistant, and he needed to be able to hear to do that job well. The second sounded awful, but the third was a bigger problem at the moment. He would need to be in his best condition, and starvation would not help with that. That just left the second. It was only pain, after all. Purely psychological. He walked up to the pedestal Julian had indicated earlier, and, seeing no value in hesitation, grabbed onto the column with both hands. And he began to scream.