Chapter 13

  A King In A Broken Tower

  It’s odd being back underground after so long, Nik thought, surprised to realize that he had gotten used to the day and night cycle of the surface. Some time had passed since he’d gone about his days, sleeping and waking as he pleased. It was difficult to tell how much time had gone by when there was no sun to track the day’s progression to night. Well, if we have the time, then I guess I might as well show Pearl what I got from the quest and from defeating the last adventurer.

  “So would you by any chance be interested in what I picked up this morning?” he asked.

  “Always, especially if it offers you any help for what is to come,” Pearl replied.

  He opened his inventory to select the armor and tried to grab it from its slot this time, instead of just letting it drop to the floor of the cell. The attempt was nearly successful. The small leathers slipped between his claws and bounced off of his limbs as he swung them wildly to catch the studded armor. He quickly snatched it up from the ground and snapped back up, pretending that he hadn’t just fumbled it around before dropping it.

  “You are just so very smooth,” Pearl said with a chuckle. Then, realizing what he held, she said, “Actually, that might be something that could help with what is to come. How is that small enough to fit you? Did you not get it from the adventurer?”

  “I don’t understand how the system works, so I couldn’t tell you. It does look like it’ll fit me, though. It also gave me five copper coins and a single gold coin.”

  Nik’s hood jiggled and shook as an excited Ryan climbed up to his shoulder, licking their lips and looking at Nik expectantly. With a deep sigh, he pressed a claw to the square that held an image of the copper coins, he watched the number in the corner split into two. As he held his claw to the image, the second number went up and the first went lower. Nik removed his claw as the first number dropped to one, and four copper coins fell clattering to the ground.

  Ryan leapt at the coins, flapping his wings in an awkward half-glide and half-flutter to the ground. Nik rushed to collect the coins before Ryan could get the chance to grab them all. Ryan would only have the one that was already in his tiny claws today, the rest were returned to the inventory.

  Nik sighed as the little fae-dragon’s miniature-sized mouth somehow took bites right out of the coin’s edge. “Remind me not to let him nibble on my fingers,” he said to his friend.

  A hard thud sounded from another cell as one of their fellow prisoners dropped his tome. “Is that what I think it is? Is that a child of the fae-born dragons?” said the goblin, in a surprisingly soft, paternal voice.

  “He is, yes. Ryan here was a gift from a flutter-fox,” he said.

  “That is a great gift indeed, and from a noble bein’ such as a flutter-fox. Does Lord Cril know of this creature?”

  “He didn’t come up in the conversation, and he was asleep in my hood at the time. Why, what would she have done?” Nik asked the gentle-voiced goblin.

  “Probably decide you count as an honorary goblin and give you a clan name, for all I know. I was curious how she might have responded, but that’s just the curiosity of an old man. You should be careful where your trust and secrets fall, though. You might end up seeing a lot more like me, otherwise, and people like me are often the last you ever see,” he said.

  “People like you?” Nik asked, the feathers on his head standing straight as a chill ran through his body.

  “Yes. People like me. Murderers, killers, assassins, and generally traitorous creatures,” he said calmly.

  Pearl’s voice cut in before Nik could talk any further, and she said, “Maybe we should keep our conversing limited to the people in our own cell, Nik.”

  “Hah, that’s funny. You think that would make a difference for you. Don’t worry, I won’t cause either of you any harm here—though I could, if I wanted to. Oh, but the lord has her ears in every shadow of her domain. She knows now anything that has been said or done by you. I think I’ve had enough of reading and relaxing here. It’s time for me to leave,” he said, picking up his book. He walked toward the back of his cell and pressed a hand against its solid wall.

  The earth opened up before him, as if a tunnel had been carved in only moments. He turned to them before walking through its mouth and said, “I can feel it in my bones; the tower is changing. Remember my warnings: be careful who you trust. I’d like to see where your path leads.”

  His back blended into the shadows within his first steps, and he was gone. The guard at the entrance never even reacted to what had just happened inside of the now empty cell.

  “What in the tower was that?” asked Nik.

  “I do not know, but I really did not like it. I was getting a really bad feeling from that guy. It was unsettling,” Pearl replied.

  “I don’t think we are in danger at this very moment, but I’m gonna put the armor on now.”

  “Better to be safe than to be dead.”

  “That had always been my stance until I started making the very poor decision of facing terrible odds for the sake of others,” Nik said with a grin

  This armor is definitely on backwards… Nik thought as he doffed it and then put it back on facing the correct direction.

  Pearl laughed heartily and said, “How did we get here? I mean, I remember the paths we took and the choices made, but how did they add up to the situation we are in? It is completely ridiculous.”

  Nik watched Ryan savor the last bit of his coin and let out his own chuckle. “It is ridiculous. We are in a goblin burrow awaiting some kind of a trial, feeding coins to a fae-dragon, and receiving warnings from some sort of killer that walks through the earth as he sees fit. It’s insane. Seriously, I used to just have one-sided conversations with a skeleton.”

  The two of them allowed the laughter to run its course between the two of them. It was nice to have a moment of lightness after interacting with their former cell neighbor. Even once the laughter died the room still felt a bit lighter somehow.

  “I’ve never asked, but would you tell me about your family back in the hollow?”

  “It is the typical family of faeries. Little brothers and sisters with no sense of boundaries, and parents who were not much better. There is a lot of love to be found in our tree, and it was a good place to grow up. My mother and father trained me well, and in turn I helped to teach my younger siblings. It was safety and warmth, and it was the same day after day. I grew tired of the routine, which is why you found me outside of our border ring the day I was tangled by that trap.”

  “That sounds exactly like what I want, but sometimes mixing it up is nice, too,” Nik said, trying to be sympathetic.

  “I do miss them, but if I had been back at the hollow, then the goblins we saved would have had a very different future. I think the trade off for leaving home was worth that difference. I know you spent your share of days in your sunken castle with the goblins, but you must have had a family once. Do you remember them at all?”

  Visions played through his mind of his parents running and his mother hugging him one last time. An ache of longing gripped his chest, and he said, “No, I have no memories of them at all, just the castle.”

  Why did you lie to her? You trust her, so just what are you protecting by keeping these memories away from her? he asked himself.

  A loud bang interrupted his thoughts, and a fog of green spread across the floor. Pearl lifted higher into the air and used Gentle Breeze to waft the gas away from them both as Nik stumbled back from the quickly dissipating cloud. Ryan sat up in the middle of the cell, recovering from his gaseous burp. He laid himself down, closed his eyes, and smiled. With his little fangs hanging over his lower lip, he went to sleep on the spot.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I think we might need to be careful where and when I feed him coins.”

  “Yeah, I am inclined to agree with you on that. He is going to have one powerful breath attack when he grows older,” she said.

  “I can only imagine. I’m not sure how long I should wait between giving him coins, but he might need to learn some control over that at some point. That might need to be sooner than later, if we’re gonna be stuck down here.”

  “Oh, did the system teach you how to train your fae-dragon recently?”

  “No, it didn’t teach me how to train him, but it’s still a true statement. No need to be snarky,” Nik said, arms folded over his chest.

  “Maybe not, but snark is part of my personality at this point. It keeps younger siblings from clinging to your back and stifling your wings.”

  “I’m going to start training now. There are a lot of abilities that might be frowned on if I were to use them here, but others are a little less loud,” Nik said as he activated his Candlelight. “I’m going to focus on this for now. It might not level up my flame skill, but I’ll take whatever progress it gives me towards that.”

  “That is not a bad idea. Just be careful around Ryan, in case his breath is flammable.”

  While Nik sat with his back to the wall, holding a small flame, Pearl similarly let her Gentle Breeze ability cycle the air around their cell in a repeated, flowing path. The room was quiet, aside from the unending speech of the goblin who spoke to the corner of his own cell. The hole in the wall of a third cell remained, and the guard still gave no indication that they had noticed anything at all had transpired within it.

  The next few hours passed, and Pearl joined Ryan in being overcome by the need for sleep. Nik remained focused on keeping his flame going for as long as he could, until another hour had passed and he could no longer fight back his own drowsiness. The three of them slept, each in the place they were when sleep took them.

  * * *

  All around Nik were the battered stones of what had been brickwork. THUD, THUD. A wave of energy smashed into his back, followed by another. THUD, THUD. Two more washed over him, their heavy vibrations rocked through his entire body. He stumbled forward into a crumbled half-wall of black bricks. Hurricane-force winds tore through the world around him. The view outside of the structure was alien to him, a jungle of vivid colors he’d never seen, growing over structures that had long ago fallen victim to abandonment and the encroachment of nature.

  There was no sound but the oppressive wind and the steady thud. As he turned his back to the wall, waves blasted through him again. Fighting to keep his eyes open in the high winds, he looked up to see a figure sat before him. They looked even more ancient than the world around them, like a light wind could cause them to break apart and drift away. Yet, they withstood the booming crash of energy. No. They were the source of the oppressive force that blasted through him.

  What are you? Nik thought. The being responded as though Nik had spoken the question aloud.

  “I am the heart that beats. I am what remains after. Mine is a crown of onyx, and it shall not be touched by the likes of you,” he rasped through parted lips. His crown gleamed darkly as he stood. Nik cried out in pain. The bricks at his back buckled as waves of pressure crushed his body into them.

  The figure moved in a flash, appearing in Nik’s face as he said, “This tier is mine, and you are too weak to take it from me.”

  The next wave slammed him through the bricks, and Nik felt his ribs crack.

  * * *

  He bounced off the wall of their cell, crumpling to the ground. The breath was knocked from his lungs, and pain shot like daggers made of lightning through his torso. His companions woke, and both of them rushed to his side. The little dragon nuzzled his face to check on him, while Pearl began a verbal barrage.

  “What is happening to you? Are you injured? Why are we always waking up like this?”

  “My ribs, I think they’re broken. I thought it was a dream, but he hurt me. I was helpless.”

  Nik’s body shook as anxiety wracked him, which only caused another cry of pain to tear from his throat.

  “Guard! We need a healer, please!” she shouted.

  The guard finally moved from his post, reacting for the first time since they’d been brought back to their cell. Moments passed with Pearl and Ryan trying to comfort Nik as they waited for help to arrive. The door burst open above as a healer was walked down by another member of the upperguard. The healer was let into their cell, but Ryan stood protective between them and Nik. Hissing and growling at the intruder, the tiny dragon had to be snatched up by Pearl and hauled aside.

  “Hello, I’m Loffka. So, tell me, what do we know about the patient’s condition?” he asked.

  “He said that his ribs might have been broken. Also, he suffers from shaking induced by panic that I believe is worsening his pain as well,” Pearl told him.

  “Good to know. Keep the pet back, and I will get to work.”

  The door banged open again and lowerguards flooded the prison, before the Barrow Lord entered. “Healer, can he answer questions?” Lord Cril asked.

  “Only for a moment, I already used an ability that will have him sleepin’ shortly, my lord.”

  “Who did this? Who was able to reach you here, kobold?” she demanded.

  Nik was barely able to get the breaths out between his shaking broken ribs, but he whispered, “A king—in a broken tower—He was ancient—and he wore—an onyx crown.”

  “Then we are runnin’ out of time, it’s already startin’. War will be coming soon, and it will come on black wings. Captain Takk, get the rest of the lower and upper guards ready for war. Healer, get the kobold ready for his trials.”

  The leader of the lowerguard saluted with an open hand over his chest before leaving. Lord Cril turned and looked to the empty cell beside theirs and cursed, “Seriously, I swear on the Black Tower… He left and nobody thought it was worth mentionin’ to me that the traitor had vanished through a giant hole in the wall? Send someone to see where that tunnel leads, but instruct them not to engage the traitorous rat, he’s dangerous for a vermin.”

  The Burrow Lord left the prison with that command.

  Nik’s consciousness faded, and the trembling slowed as the healer’s ability took hold of him.

  * * *

  Wind battered his clothing and debris slapped his face as it was flung through the air. “No, no, no, please, no!” Nik whimpered, even as felt his ribs being stitched back together. He was back in the domain of this tier’s King.

  “Why do you return here, foolish, pathetic creature?” the King inquired of him.

  “I don’t want to be here, I’m just sleeping. Please have mercy on me,” he begged.

  “This is mercy.”

  Nik was flung into the black bricks of the crumbling tower, once again.

  * * *

  As Pearl watched on, unable to aid him, blood spilled from the sleeping kobold’s mouth.

  “I don’t understand what’s happenin’ to your friend. It’s as if he was being injured over and over as I keep healin’ him. Upperguard, I need more healers,” Loffka said.

  “Is it him, this king person? Is he hurting Nik?” she asked, pleading for answers that she knew none of them held.

  “I don’t know, but I can’t wake him up now, not after using my ability to cause him to sleep. If he is with this king while he is dreamin’, then all we can do is try to keep him alive until he wakes.”

  All she could do is stand by, out of the way of the team of healers who worked to heal Nik’s wounds. His body was healed and broken over and again, in a horrifying display of brutal violence. “I… I cannot watch this. I am going to be sick,” she said before she hurried to the corner and emptied the contents of her stomach.

  They took rotations healing Nik while the others recovered mana. The cycle of healing and wounding continued on for over an hour before anyone spoke any words of significance.

  “His wounds are healing faster, did one of you get a new ability?” Loffka asked his fellow healers. The only responses were in the negative; all present denied the use of any new abilities.

  * * *

  “Why don’t you just answer me? How many times do I need to break your body before you tell me who you are and why you have come here?” the king asked.

  “I am a nothing-kobold from a nothing-castle on the lowest tier of the tower. I don’t know why I’m here. You have broken my bones over and over again, what willpower do you think I possess that I wouldn’t have told you the truth already.”

  “Maybe I should find you and hurt your friends, maybe then you would open up to me.”

  “No, I won’t let you do that!” Nik screamed at the powerful being before him.

  “To think that you still have a spine even after it’s been broken. What would you even do to stop me, little nothing-kobold?” said the king.

  Nik stood to his feet and took a step forward against the thudding beat of the waves of power emanating from the king. His eyes went wide for a moment as Nik took another step. The bell that normally tolled in his head rang aloud, and the king searched the room for its source.

  Skill gained: Divinity Level 1!

  You sure do get hurt a lot!

  Divinity ability gained: Regeneration!

  Passive

  Mana Cost: 0

  Hidden Quest Succeeded!

  Resist the will of the King!

  Congratulations!

  Experience gained 150!

  Congratulations!

  Level Up!