Chapter Ninety-Six: Out of the Frying Pan…

Fear. Everyone felt it at some point or another. It was a survival mechanism. Fear kept you alive. It was a reminder of what you had to lose and how badly you didn’t want to lose it. When kept under control, fear sharpened you. Made you cautious. There were only two kinds of people who didn’t feel it. Those too stupid to understand the danger they were in and those who had absolutely nothing left to lose.

That was especially true in the lower quarter. Fear was everywhere. Demi-humans had so many reasons to feel it, after all. Fear that a human would take advantage of them. Of losing everything, whether because they did something worth punishing or because a human was in a particularly bad mood. Families afraid for members taken by the Accords. Parents terrified of their children’s future. Demi-humans scared that this might be the day they lose a loved one to a corrupt system.

During my time in the lower quarter, I’d been surrounded by so much of that fear that [Predator’s Pursuit] had faded to a nearly inaudible hum in the back of my mind. I’d become nearly blind to it. Even the members of my household weren’t immune to it. Every night I could feel the fear of my servants who were simply waiting for the other shoe to drop. For this seemingly impossible stroke of luck to come to an end. The skill was all but useless lately, like trying to pick out whispers in a crowded room. I’d all but tuned it out at this point.

But Karina’s fear cut through the din like a battleaxe cleaving through a skull. It flooded my senses. Drowned out the world around me. It was a sharp, all-consuming fear. One I knew all too well. The fear of being powerless in a very bad situation. Of knowing for a fact that something very, very bad was about to happen to you and there wasn’t a damn thing you could do about it. It was intense from the word go, and it only grew from there. Every second it ramped up as whoever she was with became more and more of a threat. My Agility ticked up point by point as I hurtled through the hallways towards her, carving through anyone in my path with Serena, Safina, and Noelle hot on my heels.

Then the fear had shifted, in taste if not in intensity. The sour taste of hopelessness replaced with the burnt acrid flavor of pure desperation accompanied by the fear of someone else near her, there and gone in the blink of an eye. Something was happening, but she was fighting back. Then, about the time I carved through four guards in the blink of an eye, it shifted again. It lessened, though it was still plenty strong enough for me to feel. Jumbled, panicked fear replaced the desperation, and somehow I knew she’d gotten the upper hand on whoever was in the room with her.

Then that fear spiked again, but only for a moment. Then it faded in the worst way possible. It didn’t disappear, but it dwindled away until all that was left was the fear of someone resigned to their fate. The worst part was that I could see the room she was in. The solid wood door that separated me from her. It was just on the other side of six guards that wore armor different than the ones we’d fought so far. A personal guard, if I had to guess.

I didn’t even have to speak before Safina and Noelle were surging past me. They crashed into the guards and sent them scattering, Safina’s lightning infused mace and Noelle’s massive battleaxe a very proper incentive to get the fuck out of their way. Serena darted in after, using her spear to create space. They engaged the guards and pushed them back enough to give me an opening.

Trusting them to handle themselves. I hurtled through the door. My shadows lashed out just before impact, turning the door to kindling. My feet had barely touched the floor before I registered the four men moving towards Karina, who stood with a dagger in one hand, pure white light in the other, and a thick spattering of blood on her front and face.

That was all I needed to see before my blades were sinking into the chest of the first men, finding the gaps in his armor like they were drawn to them. He screamed and fell back, taking my blades with him. I didn’t care. New blades were in my hand before he’d even made it halfway to the ground while my shadows lashed out at the other three.

The second hesitated in his panic, his gaze drawn to his dying comrade, and I wasted no time in sinking my blade into his exposed throat. I left that one there to as I summoned a short blade and lunged at the idiot with a longsword. It clipped the wall, giving me plenty of time to slip inside his reach and making the long weapon useless. My shadows cut through the unenchanted chain under his armor like it was made from butter, and my blades followed. A few deep cuts later and he was on the ground as well, his blood pooling and mixing with the first guard.

By the time I turned towards the fourth guard, he was already as good as dead. He’d lost the fight against my empowered tendrils and was now crawling towards the door, choking on his own blood. I felt like I was watching someone else kneel down and pull his head back before dragging his blade across the man’s throat, but when the head flopped lifelessly to the ground it was still me that banished the blade to my storage.

Only when I was sure they were all dead did I turn to Karina. I did so with a heavy dose of resignation. Karina hadn’t lived an overly easy life thanks to her race, but she had lived a sheltered one. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out. I was willing to wager she’d never seen a man die, much less four trained guards executed in a single, violent assault. So when I finally met her eyes, I expected to see fear and revulsion. I accepted I’d see a look I’d seen a thousand times. The expression of someone looking at a monster.

But all I saw was fading despair, being slowly replaced by relief. Her shoulders sagging as the fight drained out of her all at once. A flash of silver from the corner of my eye as the dagger slipped from her hand, then a choked sob as she threw herself at me.

She’d barely hit my chest before I’d banished my own weapons and wrapped my arms around her. “It’s alright,” I said, the words far and distant, as if being spoken by someone else, “I’ve got you now.”

I was aware I was probably crushing her with how hard I pressed her to my chest, but she voiced no complaint. Her hands fisted the cloak Stella had made for me as she burrowed deeper into my arms. My shadows reacted to her touch immediately, wrapping around her and lifting her slightly from the ground. Covering her like a blanket and protecting her from any further threats.

The sounds of fighting had died out and a heavy silence settled in the room, broken up only by her near-silent sobs muffled by my chest. I gently stroked her hair as whispered words of comfort slipped past my lips as if someone else was speaking them. With every pass of my hand down her back, I came back to myself a little more. As her grip on me lessened, bit by bit, so did the presence of the Zaren I’d been on the battlefield.

My head snapped towards movement in the doorway, but it was just Safina poking her head in. She was spattered with blood, her pupils slits as adrenaline from the fight surged through her, but she merely looked at us and nodded, her shoulders relaxing. Then she retreated, giving us space.

[Danger Sense] told me the others were done fighting as well. The skill told me that Tiana was safe, and Karina’s warmth in my arms meant so was she. Rational thought started to return, which meant it was time to start worrying about possible consequences. A brief glance at the man in the corner—the one whose face had been reduced to pulp but whose clothes screamed noble—meant those consequences were likely to be a pain in the ass.

Then my gaze trailed from the body to the bloody iron collar next to it and my rage returned. I understood a bit of Karina’s fear a bit better now. His goal had been to enslave her, but judging by the looks of things she’d bludgeoned him to death with the very tool he’d planned to use to take her freedom away. But that didn’t answer the question that was burning in the back of my mind.

Why?

Why go to such lengths for one Seelie woman? I knew why Karina was dear to me—or, at least, I had a very good idea—but why did this man involve so many other guards in trying to take her? What about Karina prompted the simultaneous strikes that led to her capture? The collar suggested it was for far more than a simple ransom, and with how recently I’d become her Patron a ransom didn’t make much sense anyways. There was no way for anyone to know why she was important to me, which meant there was something I didn’t know. Some other reason the now-deceased noble man wanted her.

All it took was a quick glance around the room to find a clue. A silver tablet sitting on the table. I used a shadow to scoop it up and bring it to me, and when I read the words on it everything clicked into place. What could only be her blood still filled the small reservoir at the top, and the crimson words told me everything I needed to know.

Lightborn.

She was one of the six Primal classes that were allegedly tied to the fate of this world. The kind of thing that absolutely warranted the use of so many resources to ‘acquire’ her. If I’d known her class, I probably wouldn’t have let her out of my sight. If her class was half as important as Rhallani seemed to think it was, she was something worth fighting wars over.

Whether my body language had shifted or she had simply gathered herself enough to stand on her own feet, she chose that moment to pull away. She looked up at me with red rimmed eyes, her rosy, plump lips opening to say something, before she realized what I was holding. Fear slammed into me again as her expression contorted with horror. But she didn’t pull away, even if her body had gone ramrod stiff.

Making each move slow and deliberate, I banished the tablet to my storage and gently put my palm to her cheek. “We can discuss it later,” I said softly. The tension started to bleed out of her and she leaned into my touch. “I’d prefer to have that conversation somewhere safe, and I think you’ve been through quite enough for one day, don’t you?”

She swallowed heavily, then nodded. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice ragged. “Tiana kept saying you’d come for us, but I just… I thought that if you did get us back, it would be long after…” her words trailed off and her gaze fell to the man on the floor. Her face turned a shade greener and her lips became a line.With my hand still on her cheek, I turned her head away from him and gently pulled her to my chest. She didn’t fight me, wrapping her arms around me without complaint. “It’s alright. You did good, fighting for as long as you did. You bought me time.”

She sniffled. “Tiana told me to. Like she knew you were already on your—” She froze, then gasped. “Jayme! She—”

“Jayme’s fine,” I promised, my thumb tracing the ridge of her cheekbone. “She made it to safety and told me about what happened. She’ll be back at the manor by the time we get there.” A choked sob slipped past her lips and she leaned into me once more, her temple pressed against my jaw. “Do you have mana left?” I asked her.

She shook her head as best she could without breaking the contact between us. “My skills do a lot of damage, but they cost a lot of mana at the same time.”

I hummed thoughtfully. “My skills don’t do a lot of damage up front, but they don’t cost much either. I overwhelm my enemy rather than taking them down with a single blow. It makes sense that you’d be the opposite, I suppose.”

“Why would that make sense exactly?” she asked.

“Because my main class is Shadowborn,” I said softly. “Your opposite. Or counterpart, perhaps. We aren’t really sure yet.”

She pulled back, looking up at me with her swirling silver eyes wide. “What?” she demanded.

I grinned. “You’re in good company.” Then my smile fell. “Will they try again?”

She glanced back towards the noble, biting her lip. “No. I think Davvon was the only one who’d pieced it together. From the way he talked, I think he wanted to keep the glory for himself.”

“Let’s hope you’re right, but all the same we’ll be taking some precautions in the future.”

I was thankful she didn’t fight me on that. If anything, she seemed more relieved. “I want to learn how to fight. Like Tiana.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” I said earnestly.

Her eyes flicked back up to me, something in them pinning me in place. “I figured.” Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips as she gathered the courage to say whatever it was she wanted to say. “She mentioned you preferred women who can handle themselves.”

Heat bloomed within me, both in my cheeks and somewhere a bit further south. These women were going to be the death of me. “She wasn’t wrong about that one. I always did like a girl who could kick my ass,” I said with a shrug.

Her eyes widened and her cheeks darkened. She lowered her face, but not before I saw the corners of her lips pull upward. “Guess I’ve got some work to do then,” she said, so quietly I wasn’t sure if I was meant to hear her or not.

“Not as much as you might think,” I mumbled.

Judging from the way her grip on my cloak tightened, I was pretty sure she heard me. “Can we go home now?” she asked softly.

“Absolutely,” I told her. But as I stepped towards the door, still holding her to my side, an uneasy feeling passed through me. All of this felt a little too easy. Just like I knew I’d been missing some key information about Karina, I felt like I was missing something now.

I only hesitated a moment before I pulled the enchanted cloak off my shoulders and wrapped it around her. Then I summoned a few tendrils at her waist to give her an added layer of protection. They sunk into the cloak immediately and it came alive with shadows. When she looked up at me with a question in her eyes, I just winked. “Better safe than sorry, right?”

I left the room with her tucked into my side. The other three were waiting outside for me next to a pile of bodies that had formerly been the guards to the room. Serena’s eyes flicked towards Karina. “Are you alright?” she asked softly.

Karina’s grip on me tightened. “Not in the slightest,” she admitted, “but I’m not injured, if that’s what you’re asking.”

The cuts on her wrists from her bindings, the cut on her palm from where she’d slammed the hard edges of the collar into Davvon’s face, and the mangled puncture on her thumb told me differently, but I wasn’t going to push her just yet. While they were undoubtedly causing her pain, none were life threatening. And if that physical pain helped her cope with the emotional pain of taking a life until I could get her somewhere safe, then I wasn’t going to argue.

Serena’s eyes found mine and I didn’t need the Link to understand the unasked question in them. I shook my head softly, indicating that we’d made it before anything could be done to Karina. Her shoulders relaxed and she smiled. “What should we do about them?” she asked, gesturing towards the bodies stacked in the corner, no doubt by Safina.

“Most of them were mercenaries,” I said. “Not particularly good ones, either. The real problem is Lord Serrick Davvon, also known as the corpse in the room behind us. Him and his personal guard being dead could cause us problems, but that’s something to worry about when everyone is safe at the manor.”

She nodded. “Lets get moving, then.”

Noelle and Safina took up spots on either side of me and Karina while Serena led the way. I checked the Links while we walked. From what I could tell, everyone else was waiting for us at the front of the warehouse. But as eager as I was to get out of here, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t over yet.

The thought had barely left my mind before both [Danger Sense] and [Giant Killer] flared. I summoned a blade and came to a halt. The other three, through my actions or through whatever they felt through our Links, did the same. Karina clung to me, her breath coming in short gasps while all of us searched for whatever had set me off.

“Impressive reaction time,” a voice said from behind us. I whirled, pushing Karina behind me, and the other three took up positions on either side of me. Leaning against the wall like she hadn’t a care in the world was a woman with chin-length black hair, blood red lips, and a thick scar that went over one of her eyes, both of which were a swirling mix of violet and crimson that screamed bad news.

I lifted my blade, but made no move to attack. Even if the woman didn’t hold herself like a warrior, her gear would have told me she was a threat. It was very good quality, but it had seen more than its fair share of use. Not to mention its design was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. “Not sure we’ve met,” I said.

Her lips quirked up. “We haven’t, which is such a shame really. I’ve been wanting to meet the late, great Zaren Nocht for some time now.”

Her words put me on edge for more than one reason. The sultry, seductive tone would have been enough to set off the alarm bells, but what really made my blood run cold was her accent. I could almost place it, like a name that was just out of reach. I’d met a lot of people with a lot of different accents over the years, but hers I couldn’t place. It was almost a dozen different things, but not quite any one of them. All I knew was that I needed to get the people I cared about far, far away from this woman.

“A pleasure,” I responded dryly, “but we really must be going.”

Her smile widened. Her eyes were that of a predator, and for the first time in a long time I felt like prey. “I had a feeling grabbing the busty mage would make things interesting,” she purred, pushing off the wall and sauntering towards us. “I had a feeling you had some tricks up your sleeve when you pulled that stunt with the Dark Elf’s disappearing act, and I figured it couldn’t exactly hurt to let that cute little Neko follow us here. Looks like I was right on both counts.”

My blood ran cold. “Safina,” I said under my breath, “I need you to take Karina and get her out of here.”

“But boss—” she started to protest.

“Karina’s tapped and untrained, and I can’t fight all out and protect her at the same time. Please, Safina.”She clenched her jaw, then nodded. Karina, pressed firmly to my back, was trembling, but Safina would at least keep her safe while I held off the woman in front of me. I knew telling Serena and Noelle to go with her would be moot, even if I wanted them as far from the scarred woman as possible. It had been a long, long time since I’d felt so threatened by a single individual.

The woman in question’s smile widened. “Oh, go on then. Let the little Seelie run off. Not like I really care about her. She was always Serrick’s obsession. I’m far more interested in you, Zaren.”

“I wish I could say I’m flattered, but unfortunately my harem is just about full up,” I shot back.She chuckled. “A shame.”

She cocked her hip and raised a brow. I nodded once to Safina, and she lurched into action. She scooped Karina up and took off in the opposite direction. I shifted onto the balls of my feet, ready to intercept the woman, but true to her word she just stood there and watched.

“Now then,” she said, drawing a long, thin blade in either hand from thin air, “it’s been a long, long while since I’ve had any real fun, so do me a favor and don’t go dying too quickly, will you?”

I barely had time to throw an [Empower] at Noelle and Serena before the woman was in my face. I blocked her strike, but the force behind the needle-thin blade snapped my own sword in half like it was made from wood. The other bit into my chest with lightning fast speed once, twice, three times, leaving searing cuts in my skin as not even my shadows could keep up.

Serena reacted first, jabbing her spear at the woman, but she moved in a blur. Her blades moved so quick I couldn’t even keep track of them, cutting Serena’s spear into evenly sized pieces before kicking her away with enough force to crack ribs. Noelle roared as she swung her axe, but the woman stopped the strike cold with one blade before hooking the other under the swell of the axehead. She knocked Noelle away just like she had Serena, only the bind her blades had on Noelle’s axe ripped it from the Malachai’s grasp.

I summoned two more blades, this time enchanted, but whatever magic her swords carried was stronger. I managed to trade blows with her for a brief moment, but every time our blades crossed cracks spiderwebbed through the metal of mine. Then the enchantments failed and the blades shattered, leaving me unarmed once again.

“Come on now,” she said, twirling her blades, “that can’t be all you’ve got. You’re the great Zaren Nocht! Killer of Zagrith Grimsbane! Wielder of the cursed blade. Godslayer. Reaper. Deathbringer. Harbinger. So many titles, all for this?” she tutted. “Where’s your flair, Zaren?”

I hated falling into traps, but there was nothing more frustrating than seeing the metal jaws of the trap and knowing you have to step on the pressure plate anyways. I knew exactly what she was doing. After her initial attack, she’d barely done any actual damage to me. She was destroying my weapons, trying to draw out a weapon that couldn’t be destroyed. Unfortunately, there was nothing else I could do other than draw it. Not while Serena and Noelle’s lives were at stake.

And so, knowing full well that I was playing directly into her plans, I drew the Jailer’s blade from my storage.Her blades lowered. “Finally,” she said. Then her tongue rolled around inside of her mouth. When her lips parted next, a perfectly round gem with swirling blue and violet magic inside was between her teeth. Just as my thumb touched the latch to free Ash’s magic from the scabbard, she bit down.

A wave of magic exploded through the hallway, slamming into me. Everything came to a stop. Literally. I could move my eyes, but that was it. Every other muscle in my body was firmly locked in place. I fought and struggled, but even my shadows were completely motionless. I tried to access my skills or my storage, but it was as if everything but my mind was frozen in time. A brief glance told me that Serena and Noelle were equally trapped in place.

The woman had no such trouble, though. A rune unlike any I’d ever seen—even on the Jailer’s blade—glowed on her breast. Her swords vanished and she pulled out another gem. The one bloodred. She slammed it into the wall and something disturbingly close to blood spattered out from it. It fell prey to gravity at first before trailing out to the sides and up the wall until there was a crimson rectangle the size of a door on it.

Then she strode over to me. “You were fun while you lasted, I suppose,” she said, her tone disappointed. She patted me on the cheek. “Don’t feel too bad, you lasted longer against me than most.” Then her gaze fell on the Jailer’s Blade. Her expression twisted with revulsion and disgust.

It was at that moment the crimson door opened and someone stepped through it. They were tall. As tall as me. Long, well-kept golden hair cascaded down past his shoulders. The clothes he wore were of a fine make, riding the line between fashionable and practical. Thick in places I knew were likely padded and etched with stylized runes I figured were additional armor. Eyes the color of tarnished gold fixed on the woman and he scowled.

“You’d better have good reason for bringing me here, Lilith,” he said. His accent I recognized. Somewhere to the west, unless I was mistaken.

She scoffed. “Maybe take a look around the room before you start acting like a dickhead?”

His scowl deepened, but he did as she bid. When he saw me, his eyes widened. “I heard the rumors,” he said, “but it really is him, isn’t it?”

Lilith crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. “Hard to say. He fights like a demon, that’s for certain, but if he’s got more than thirty total levels I’ll eat my left shoe. Hardly a war hero.”

The man strode up to me, getting so close our noses nearly touched. A cruel smile spread over his face, and though I was confident I’d never seen the man before there was something familiar about him. A revulsion and rage that I couldn’t explain. All I knew was that the man in front of me was, without a doubt, my enemy. I fought against whatever restrained me again, every fiber of my being desperate to rip this man limb from limb, but to no avail.

“Oh, it’s him alright,” the man said. He walked to the side and wrapped his hand around the hilt of the Jailer’s blade. He started to peel my fingers off it one by one, his grin widening. I fought with everything I had, but nothing I did even slowed him down. “He’s just gone and lost all his levels.”

Once he pried the blade from my hands, he returned to stand in front of me. “When you returned, I was certain you were an impostor. There wasn’t nearly enough fire and brimstone. The Zaren of old would have razed this city to the ground. You must have been a pretender. But now I know the truth. You’re a shadow of who you once were. You haven’t acted because you can’t, can you? You’ve gone and lost all your levels.”He started back towards the door. “You can kill them now,” he said, waving his hand.

But Lilith just stepped in front of him, a hard look on her face. “Draw it.”

The man paused. “For what reason?”

Lilith took a step closer. “Because I just wasted my last chronotrap on this venture, Arthal, and the plane that makes them isn’t exactly around any longer. I want to see if it was worth it. Or have you forgotten that our entire relationship is predicated on you being able to wield that sword? No? Then draw it.”

Arthal. I knew that name. It was the name Valith had overheard. There was every chance the man in front of me was the one in charge of whatever Karn’s operation had become. He scowled, but he didn’t argue further. I had a feeling he was as outclassed by this Lilith woman as I was.

He grabbed the hilt in one hand and the latch in the other. A smile spread over his face, one filled with greed and lust for power, as he flipped the latch open. His expression as he drew the blade an inch from its scabbard was one of pure triumph.

Right until the pain set in.

Crimson smoke shot out of the gem and latched onto his arm like furious snakes. He screamed as his clothing dissolved under the assault, black veins sprouting through his flesh and creeping towards his shoulder. He fell to one knee as shadows—shadows nearly identical to the ones I wielded—erupted from Arthal’s body and pried the sword away. It skittered to a stop dangerously close to where Noelle was trapped, crimson smoke still rising from the blade. Arthal’s shadows took the form of long, spindly hands rather than the tendrils mine did, but I felt an instant kinship with them even from a distance.

Arthal was a Shadowborn.

“What the fuck, Kevran?” Lilith demanded, grabbing the front of his tunic and yanking him to his feet. “You said you had it handled. That you’d be able to wield it.”

“Get your hands off me, devil!” he cursed, shoving her away. She hardly moved, only serving to shove himself against the wall as he cradled his arm. Even separated from the blade it was beginning to wither. “Everything I am is so that I can wield that blade! I don’t understand any better than you do! I followed every instruction to the letter, took every class that had any success with the damn thing! You’ve no idea the sacrifices I’ve made to wield that sword.”

Lilith’s eyes drifted towards the blade and she took a step away from it. “They don’t mean shit if you can’t hold it for more than a few seconds.” She stepped even closer to him than he had to me mere moments ago. “I don’t need to tell you what my master will do when he learns of your failure.”

Fear flashed across Arthal’s face. “I’m well aware.” He rose to his full height as best he could with a fucked arm. “And I haven’t failed yet. Nobody knows the blade better than I.” Then his eyes drifted towards me. “Well, nearly nobody.” He walked towards me, a little unsteady on his feet.

He drew a short dagger made of green crystal in his good hand. “Why don’t we see what secrets your soul holds?”