Icy water splashed against my face, rousing me from a particularly rough slumber. The image of Celina's mashed face, her eyeball dangling loose as she watched her brother's head get stomped to bits, jolted me awake.

  I hung by my arms, stripped down to my underwear, stretched in the air with my wrists bound by heavy iron shackles forged with runic symbols embedded along the edges. A matching set tightly hugged my ankles, spreading me like an X, suspending me in mid-air in the center of a humid shack.

  Khaled stood beside a wooden table stocked with different torture instruments and a jar of needles soaking in what I assumed to be poison. He dropped the water bucket and tilted his head.

  "Good, you're awake."

  "Careful." Whitcomb's voice carried in from behind.

  "We need him talking," Khaled said.

  I yawned, glancing down at the glowing timer that only had 10 hours and 15 minutes left on it.

  "Where are we?"

  "Shut up!" Whitcomb cracked a metal rod across my back.

  "Ow, shit!"

  The bent rod clanked across the ground as Whitcomb recoiled back and shook out his arms from the stinging rebound shock.

  "What's with his body?" he asked, crossing in front of me, revealing his ugly bandaged mug and malice filled eyes.

  As he sat down in a cheap wooden chair in the corner, the front door swung open and Karma's Gaze lit-up.

  Target: Nyx

  Level: 9

  Karma: -5690

  Additional Data: Female, age 32. Veteran ranked Soul Viper handler. Responsible for overseeing day to day operations in the Ingcaster region. Trained from the age of 12 under the Bleeding Blossom Saint, mastering his secret technique by age 17.

  Would you like to request Bonus Data? Y/N

  Yes. What secret technique?

  Bonus Data: Allergic to peanuts.

  Where the fuck was anyone going to find peanuts? Did they even exist in this world? If they did, I hadn't seen any trace of them.

  She strode into the torture shack carrying the supply satchel they had stolen from me, face half-shrouded by a thin black cowl that clung from nose to chin. Braided walnut-colored hair coiled tight against her scalp, not a strand out of place. Her fitted short-sleeve shirt, and knee-cut shorts matched the cowl, lean and pragmatic. Beads of sweat traced the wrinkled lines of her analytical gaze as she finally spoke, "Can he talk yet?"

  "Want some peanuts?" I said, watching for her reaction.

  Khaled, who always seemed cool, calm, and collected, yanked a hammer from the table of torture instruments, screaming, "How dare you speak such filth!"

  The hammer cracked against my knee, and snapped at its joint, the impact feeling no worse than if a doctor was performing a reflex test. "Peanuts–I said peanuts."

  My clarification further enraged Khaled. He grabbed another hammer and a two inch nail with a sharpened point, placed it in the squishy crook behind my collarbone and pounded it twice with the hammer. The nail pierced through my skin and scraped against bone. I reeled back against the chains.

  "Pea-nuts—it's a food," I clarified.

  "What in Galdir's name is he saying?" Whitcomb asked.

  "He's speaking nonsense," Nyx said, waving them back from further assault.

  +1 Poison Resist

  I smiled as the bold text floated down from the ceiling and through Nyx's body. Even before the stat gain, I could feel the paralytic fading, now more rapidly so.

  There were no shortage of options for breaking free. Activating Shadow Weave with a flick of the wrist could sever the chains, and their heads. Yet, I waited for two equally valid reasons. First, I wanted to learn as much about Soul Viper as I could before killing them. For now, I'd let them maintain the illusion of having the upper hand, hoping they'd slip up and share more information around someone they considered soon to be dead.

  Second, I wanted to ensure Fisk was out of the equation. He had stopped my heart at a ridiculous range, even before Karma's Gaze could detect him. Keeping Abyssal Veil running at all times was too stamina intensive, and I had already found out the hard way it couldn't negate every spell.

  So, I grit my teeth and took the second nail in stride as Khaled hammered it into the top of my shoulder before Nyx motioned him back.

  "This is only the beginning of a long, painful journey if you fail to sufficiently answer my questions," Nyx said. "Certainly, you've already noticed how uncomfortable it is to have your mana restricted. I've heard it described as fire ants crawling through your blood vessels."

  "Oh, no, ow," I said, and lightly jangled against the chains, playing into the pain I was supposed to be feeling.

  "When you killed Drayvoss and ruined his shipment, you meddled in affairs beyond your comprehension. Where's the elf?" Nyx asked.

  "Days ago, back in Ingcaster, I told your associate she died in transit. So, I buried her."

  She signaled Khaled with a head nod and he drove a nail into my front quad. I reveled in the throbbing pain, truly grateful the assassins were giving me a juicy justification for the horrors I intended on inflicting upon them.

  "Cyprus, I don't believe you," Nyx said as she calmly paced back and forth. "You killed three of the men sent after you, and slipped our grasp once before last night. Then there's the dungeon report where Duskblade described your monumental role in the raid's success. I saw the trail of corpses left in the woods before the Silverlight Plains. Someone with your skills wouldn't get the elf killed in the crossfire."

  "She's dead."

  "Liar! Your secret's out," Nyx shouted.

  What secret?

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  A fourth nail pierced my thigh and I threw my head back, pain numbed by buzzing excitement.

  "I know you're secretly working for Black Diamond."

  I tried not to laugh, focusing on the warm sensation of blood trickling down my leg instead.

  "Did you forget you were traveling with four mercenaries wearing Black Diamond emblazoned cloaks? Clearly, they had you infiltrate the adventurer's guild after we explicitly warned you fools not to intrude in our domain. The only thing I don't know is how you found out about the contents of the shipment."

  Soul Viper's domain, huh?

  That tidbit almost felt worth enduring the four nails uncomfortably poking out of my flesh.

  "You're wrong. She's dead and buried. And I don't work for Black Diamond," I said, hoping the lie would be more believable beside the truth.

  "This interrogation will uncover the facts," she said in full confidence.

  I laughed. "Sorry. You're far off-base. You caught me on my way back from killing Barret and eliminating most of their captains. Check the proof, it's in my satchel."

  Nyx cocked her head, eyes locked onto mine.

  Can you see beyond my cold gaze?

  Is it any different from what everyone else sees before they perish?

  Something flickered in the reflection of her pupils. She looked away, and I claimed victory in the staring contest.

  Nyx dragged an end table over, and emptied the two supply packs they had stolen from me. Two healing potions, three mana potions, and the weird key I had received from the system as a quest reward fell out of the first bag. Broken glass, Black Diamond's contract with Pearl Banner, and the Quarry Dungeon key fell out of the second.

  She passed the contract off to Khaled, who read it in the corner while her focus drifted toward the keys.

  "Strange." She lifted the all black Quarry Dungeon key in her left hand. "Now, this looks like every dungeon key I've ever seen."

  She waved it in front of my face, then set it down and picked up the key with the cylindrical glass orb in its bow that contained the flicker of an azure flame.

  "Where did you find this one? I've never seen a key like it."

  "I got it out of a mirror, but it's useless. I don't have the slightest idea what it opens. You can keep it if you let me down from here and tell Soul Viper to forget about me and the elf."

  Nyx turned her back to me, ignoring my excellent, once in a lifetime offer as she raised the key up to the oil lamp, intently watching the azure flame swirl back and forth through the glass.

  "I'm sensing a larger mana signature from this key than I am from you." She swiveled on her feet, facing me once more. "Why is that?"

  Whitcomb's chair groaned as he leaned back in it, scraping the backrest against the wall. "I told you he's no mage. I'd bet all the gold in our coffers the bastard's more physically resistant than the Immortal, Tok-Thor-Gor. Tough bastard's a pure warrior."

  "Even the strongest warriors have detectable mana signatures."

  "The combined effect of the poison, sedatives, and anti-magic shackles could blot it out," Khaled suggested as he finished reading the contract. "Handler, he's not lying. Black Diamond was trying to capture him, not save him."

  For a brief moment, Nyx's hardened demeanor cracked with concern only for her to cover it up with false bravado. "Someone wise once told me one oddity invites a tale. A second brings suspicion. A third skewers the illusion of mere chance. That's proof of a demon lurking in the void, testing how much logic you'll ignore."

  What kind of spooky ass adage is that?

  "This key," she said, waving it between her fingers. "It's frigid to the touch. Like the metal's begging for warmth in the form of mana."

  "Hey, don't mess with my property if you're not going to let me go."

  "Too late," she said as she covered the key with both hands and muttered something inaudible under her breath.

  When she lifted her palm, the azure flame in the key's glass orb had tripled in size, filling up the glass bulb with blazing blue fire.

  "Incredible," she whispered.

  I considered breaking out of my shackles prematurely, thinking it was about to explode like a grenade, but she set the key back down on the end table and nothing happened.

  Her brow perked up and I could tell she was smiling beneath her cowl. "You'll tell me what that key unlocks soon enough. I can be patient until then."

  "Damn it!" I yelled, with the fervor of a high school freshman performing a one act by Shakespeare. "You're going to kill me, aren't you? Oh damn, I'm too young to die!"

  I tried forcing tears in the hopes of enhancing my performance by running personal tragedies through my mind. When that didn't work, I regressed to replaying a horse's death from a children's fantasy movie. I flared my nostrils, twisted my mouth, and sucked in my cheeks.

  "Are you going to shit yourself?" Nyx asked and pointed at Whitcomb. "The bucket, quick."

  "No–I'm crying because I'm scared..." I said, gently jingling the chains, hoping not to break them and that the sweat dripping down my cheeks would pass for tears. "Please have mercy, don't kill me!"

  "We are far beyond the point of you leaving here alive. The only question you should be distressed by is how much pain you'll endure before your end," Nyx said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

  "Damn... Fine, no more torture, I'll tell you everything. But please fulfill my curiosity first, as my last request," I said, scowling so hard my face was beginning to hurt.

  Nyx rolled her eyes. "No."

  "Handler, with all due respect you weren't out all night chasing this fool around, missing half your face, and a chunk of your leg. I want to go home and eat a sandwich," Whitcomb complained.

  "Fine. What curiosity?" she asked.

  "I've just always wondered, since Soul Viper started coming after me, where exactly are your Ingcaster headquarters located? And who's in charge?"

  Whitcomb slammed his chair forward. "Son of a bitch."

  "Enough pleasantries. Start the fire and heat the rods until they're white hot," Nyx commanded, and Khaled jumped into action the second she finished speaking.

  I let out a real sigh of disappointment, frustrated I wasted time playing the victim. I realized my talent for information extraction was rooted in fear and vicious displays of force, not passive subterfuge.

  "Well, I tried, Nyx."

  The assassin's jaw clenched tight, her eyebrows frozen mid-arch. "W-what did you say?"

  Whitcomb grabbed a woodcutting axe that was leaning up against the wall beside him as he jumped out of his seat. "What the fuck?"

  "Whitcomb, don't you dare hit me with that axe." I laughed. "Khaled, cancel that fire."

  "How does he know our names?" Whitcomb shouted.

  Nyx's complexion flushed red and she ripped off her cowl, revealing slender cheekbones and a tiny mole on her upper lip. She tossed the cowl at Whitcomb, absolutely livid.

  "It is plain to see you two incompetent bastard's let confidential information slip during the abduction!"

  I heard Khaled drop an armful of logs behind me by the fireplace. "Handler, we aren't permitted to know your name, we haven't been promoted yet."

  The cracks in her confidence flared again, sudden as lightning slicing through a midnight storm.

  "Before Barret died, he spoke about my frequency. He described it as being different from a mana signature. He could only make it out when he stopped listening for my spell force. Nyx, can you hear it, too?"

  "Don't say her name," Khaled growled.

  I heard him snatch a fire poker off the floor behind me. Whitcomb gripped the axe tight, too hesitant to move, while Nyx remained stunned.

  "I think he saw something in my shadow."

  "Handler..." Khaled's voice trailed off as the light on the wall flickered and Nyx stumbled back.

  "It worries me a bit, cause honestly, I don't remember taking his head off."

  "His shadow," she muttered, pointing past me.

  Sweat poured down Whitcomb's brow as he gulped. "I don't see anything."

  I glanced over my shoulder. "Me either."

  Nyx turned on her heels and swept the lantern from the wall, bringing it close enough that I could hear her heartbeat racing. The room's shadows shifted as she lifted the lantern up then down, like she was searching for something that didn't want to be found.

  "Is it humming?" she asked, taking another step toward me.

  "Don't get any closer, he'll bite your face off," Whitcomb warned.

  A sharp rattle tore through the silence, snapping everyone's attention to the source. The key reverberated on the table's surface, the glass cylinder in its bow cracking.

  Shadow Weave.

  I bent my wrists against the shackles and guided the shadows with my fingers, slicing through the chains above me. As my feet hit the ground, a brilliant azure light burst from the key in the center of the room, temporarily blinding and deafening everyone.

  I blinked twice and a rippling cerulean shaped oval appeared an arm's length away, rapidly expanding toward the floor and ceiling. An intense suction whistled as it took the shack's furniture, along with the firewood, Khaled, and Whitcomb like an endlessly hungry black hole.

  Nyx gripped the window's ledge tight as the pressure turned her sideways until the entire wall gave away, disappearing into the gaping maw that was now over six feet tall and four feet wide.

  The floorboards beneath me creaked, then snapped.

  Dagger Step.

  I teleported across the room, but it was like the further I got away from it, the harder it pulled. I activated the ability's second charge and blindly teleported through the wall, materializing a few inches away from a tree in the middle of a forest.

  The fresh air fleeted as the gravitational tug amplified and tore me back, ripping me through the shack's wall and stone fireplace. I kicked and screamed, ears ringing until the void took me and then there was silence.