Mat was certain someone was screaming at him. Why? How? Who? He wanted to open his eyes, but darkness persisted. Wanted to move, but his hands would not listen. He tried to run, but his legs only dangled in the air.

“What the hell?!?” he yelled and cursed.

And then a torch was shoved in front of his face, and he saw a figure in full body armor staring at him. A silver helmet covered the whole head.

“Hold him!” he heard the words in funny accept come from the inside of that helmet.

“He is fighting!” came an answer from Mat's left side, so he turned to see a giant in dark body armor holding him up by his left armpit, twisting his hand hard.

He turned to the other side, the pain in his right shoulder suddenly jolting him awake, to see another giant holding him by the other side.

“Fuck!” he cussed and tried to relax. “You people scared the shit out of me. For a second, I thought I was falling down the endless, darkest pit you can imagine.”

“Yeah, we can try that,” said the silver-helmeted guy holding the torch.

“Who the fuck are you?” Mat asked him.

The man took off his helmet with his free hand, revealing a long scar next to his dark eyes, dark hair braided, thick beard trimmed. "You need to give us some answers here," he said and pointed the torch to his head as if he was ready to toast him with it.

"Relax," Mat told. "Of course we can talk. Not no monsters here. We all are speaking the common tongue. You are human, right?”

“That I am.”

“An ugly one, but still a human”

The torch got a bit closer. “Who are you?”

“I… Just a traveler,” Mat said and rested his eyes on the man’s occupied hands, one holding the torch, the other holding the

"And where do you travel?"

Mat sighed and asked. “How long was I out?”

“How would I know?! Do I look like your pa? ”

"Pia?"

"No, I said 'your pa'. What the hell is wrong with you? And I’m the one asking questions here."

My receptors went all offline, so I can only estimate.

“Give me an estimate then?”

“Answer my question stranger, or Link and Pirk will tear your limbs off your body.”

Twenty hours since my receptors went blank. I told you not to trust her.

“Are we really going to do that now?” Mat asked Pia not believing she wanted to rub it in.

“Yes, no better place than to tear man's limbs off than in a dark dungeon!” the scarred man said and got into his face.

“Well, at least I’m feeling better.”

“Not for long, if you don’t answer my questions fast.”

“So, what, that was some kind of a serum to take us both out?”

Actually, its formula was well advanced. Among other things, it boosted the nano-h-cells to over 95 percent mark.

“Hell yeah! No wonder I feel good.”

Pretty advanced for someone in Class 3, don’t you think?

“You feeling good? Twist his hands harder!”

“Yeah, let’s see if those cells did their job. So what is my health now?”

“Your health? You seem bloodied and mad.”

“Witchery," said the giant to his left. "The priests had possessed his mind. We need to kill him, kill him now. He is possessed.”

Your Health is Eighty Five percent.

“Hell, yeah!” Mat yelped happily.

“You admit it??”

“This man is mad. Mamran, if you don’t want him killed, we should at least smack his head a bit. Maybe that would pull his mind together. I hear that works really good against lost mind.”

“A lost mind?” Mat said suddenly turning to the giant on his right. Except, now he could clearly see, he was not a giant, just a very tall man, at least a whole foot taller than him. “And who are you, Link or Pirk?”

The guy opened his mouth to say it, but Mat stopped him right away. “Oh, it does not even matter. And talking about smacking around. There is going to be smacking around all right. Especially if you don’t put me straight down!”

The man seemed not to have liked the fire in Mat’s words and his grip and arm twisting only grew stronger.

“Oh, well, don’t ever say I did not warn you all, Link or Pirk - Mamran‘s Dick.”

“What??”

Mat inhaled a deep breath and held it there for a second longer, relaxing his body all he could. And then he exploded. First, with a swift leg kick, he smashed right into Mamaran’s face. As he flew backward, the man holding Mat instinctively set one of his hands free of Mat to try and reach the falling comrade. Mat used the free space to put his whole leg behind the man’s neck and locked them there, and then twisted his body so that the man lost his balance and flew sideways, knocking into the man on the other side, freeing Mat completely of their embrace.

Mat did not wait for the one still on his feet to draw his sword out as he spun around and landed his boot in the man’s chest, sending him to crash into a boulder six feet away.

He then reached down to free the sword of the fallen man’s scabbard, but something sharp had stopped him dead in his track, something cold and sharp that had pressed against his throat. It was not the first time Mat had someone press a knife against his skin, and Mat slowly raised his hands and strengthen his back up, not ready to risk getting cut again and losing those precious nano-h-cells again.

“I told you, Mamaran, to be careful with this man, didn’t I?” the voice from behind Mat’s ear broke the sudden silence.

“Yes, Captain. I’ll be more careful next time,” said Mamaran who was slowly getting up, lifting the torch up and revealing a busted, bleeding nose.

"And I thought you could not get any uglier," Mat told him, and it seemed Mamaran was going to slam him, but then held back

“Link? You all right?” the Captain asked, the blade pressing hard against Mat neck arteries.

“Yes, I think so,” the man from the darkness answered, his armor clanking as he was getting himself up.

“He’s a slippery fucken’ fish, that’s for sure!”

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” the Captain asked.

Mat sighed and told me a short version. “Just a traveler from far away land. Came here looking for the.. priests. Found the Monastery destroyed.”

“We are here looking for ‘Eilain,” the man said. “Have you seen her?”

“Who is ‘Eilain?” Mat asked even though he was guessing the Captain meant Helen. Or was it ‘Eilain?”

“Dark-haired young witch.”

“No,” Mat said, fighting his urge not to turn his head around and look at the cell where she should be still locked up. That look would have betrayed him, made them aware she was locked up in there.

“And what happened here? Where are the priests??”

“Man, I am looking for them as well. Have you really not seen them anywhere?”

A moment of silence. Mat felt as if the knife poking his skin just eased up a bit.

“He’s lying,” came a woman’s voice from somewhere behind.

“How many of you are here?” Mat suddenly wanted to know.

The woman soft steps filled the silence of the dungeon before she spoke. “But... he’s no a priest and not a dungeon keeper either."

“Smart," Mat had to admit, then a thought flashed inside his head and he asked Pia, not minding talking out loud, actually enjoying to confuse people around. "Are we talking to another agent here?”

No, I cannot detect any agent.

“We are not Agents of Dak, if that's what you are trying to imply,” the woman spoke sternly, slowly approach him from behind, on loud knock of her boot on a hard stone after another.

“If they are a higher class than I am, I would not be able to detect them, right?”

Mat knew the answer. Why ask?

That is true. I have clearance to detect only a lower class agent.

"Of course we are a higher class than you," the woman told him. "So higher you cannot even see it."

“We think his mind is not working right, that he has been possessed by the Priests,” Mamaran said.

“Mamran, you’re an idiot,” Mat told him.

“He is a warrior,” the Captain said. “I can feel his blood flowing. His heart. He is strong and calm, as calm as a pond.”

“Who do you serve?” the woman said, finally coming around to look at Mat’s face.

“Hello, there!” Mat said as he saw her. "hopefully I can serve you. Damn you pretty! Now that’s what I’m considering a true Fantasy World. Long red hair, pretty face belonging more to an angel than a human, and dark eyes of a devil, ready to cause you more harm than a blade ever can.”

“He’s a bubbler.”

“I have to say, seeing only you guys around, I had to wonder, where are your women? You guys had me worried. The way you held me tight, so tight between two of you, Link and Pirk, I started almost to think you have no women here.”

“He’s a Farlander," the woman said, paying him no attention. "The one we heard about. If his mind is twisted, I think it got twisted a long time ago. Isn’t that true?”

Use your chance now! - Suddenly, Mat's mind became completely blurred. Was that Pia or was it some other little voice inside Mat’s head that told him to act fast as the blade eased just a bit more from his throat?

“I don’t know what you heard, Princess,” Mat said as he was trying to clear his mind, the pressure of the sword easing even more, with him now able to even stretch his neck a bit. “But if what you heard were good things, then it was definitely about me.”

She raised her eyebrows and asked. “How do you know I’m a princess?”

The knife reversed its course, now starting to dive deeper inside his skin again.

“Not again,” Mat said and jerked his head violently backward, landing it right in the nose of the Captain.

While he twisted his knife-holding hand to get hold of the knife, Mat moved to his left side, and landed another kick into Mamaran’s face with his extended right leg, sending him down to his back again.

Holding the wrestled-out knife, Mat moved toward Link, jumping out of the way of swinging sword, making a somersault in the air, and landing both of his feet on top of his head, knocking him to smash against the boulder again.

Met paid no attention to Pirk who jumped in front of a princess, drawing his sword out and making a defensive stance, guarding her in case Mat was to attack.

But he had other plans. He stepped to the Captain and picked him up from the back “And you’re the Captain?” he asked as if it did not make any sense.

Kill him. Kill him, kill them all! pounded inside his head. It sounded like Pia. But, that would not be like her. He knew he could do it. So easy. His eyes twitched with excitement.

“And you want to use a blade against a man’s coming throat from the back?” he asked him and pressed the blade against him now. “Well, if you do, you lock in your elbow and press it against the back of his neck, so he can’t fucken wiggle around or tilt his head back and take your nose out,” Mat said, but decided to ease the pressure on the man’s throat as he saw the reddening of the blood, the captain leaning his head down into the blade, and tilting it to his left side to look for something there. Mat followed his gaze and only then did he notice the man’s left hand was missing.

“Ooops, Captain, my bad,” Mat said and instantly backed of the blade against his throat. “Crippled? And a captain? Damn, your organization is certainly socially correct.”

“Farlander, if you think I could not fight you with one good hand-”

“Oh, fight me with one hand you could,” Mat said. “And lose your other hand too. If not something more. But this is the last warning I give you, so put your fucken’ blade away from my face,” he added, pointing a knife’s blade against Pirk who stood firmly with a sword still in a defensive position, waiting to defend.

But the Princess put a hand on his shoulder and made him sheath his blade and move aside.

Mat made a step toward the princess, the men to her side instantly rushing to intercept him. But she raised her hand to stop them, allowing Mat to approach her slowly.

“Who are all of you? And how many more of you can I expect to meet?” Mat asked as he slowly moved, suddenly enjoying each step as they were completely pain-free, enjoying her pretty face, wanting to come so close to her that he could feel her breath. Then he realized she looked so clean in her bright yellow rope, and he feared he must have reeked worse than a wet dog, so he stopped himself a few meters away.

“We are Knights of Ramtin,” the woman said with pride in her voice.

“Knights, huh?”

“Yes, we are.”

“Do you know what happened here? What destroyed this all?”

“Star of Barden,” Mamaran burst out, not understanding how Mat could not know that. “What else?”

“Star of what?” Mat asked, the term completely foreign to him.

Mamaran opened his mouth to say something, but the princess's words were faster. “Hush,” she told him, and he shut his mouth.

“I guess I won’t get any more answers from you, am I?” Mat asked the princess.

She did not answer but said in a calm voice, “We will leave you, Farlander. No need to spill blood. Not yet anyway.”

Kill them. Kill them all. You can do it. Would not take you more than ten seconds. Another pounding in his head made his eyes twitch, his knuckles going suddenly white with the fist he made. It sounded like Pia, but she knew better... Had to know better.

“Spilling blood you say?” Mat said, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the princess intensively. "No need for it?"

It is your mission. All of them need to die.