Mage Tank

[What would you do with fruit?]
[
]
I sighed and looked around the room again. What the hell was I supposed to do in this situation?
[If this were Earth, my first move would be to tie Glow up, call the cops, and try to keep Sleepy from dying, assuming he’s still alive.]
[
]
[I don’t know their names, man.]
[
]
[What? I was a little busy.]
I went over to Glow and knelt beside her.
She shook as her brain processed the question.
“Mishala,” she croaked.
“Ok, Mishala. What about him?” I pointed at the unmoving man missing his legs from the thigh down. He wasn’t bleeding, which was not a great sign.
“Jayko.”
“Cool. Thanks.” I stood and went to check Jayko, feeling for a pulse. Amazingly, he was still alive. I inspected his legs and saw that the wounds had been partially healed, the stumps covered in thick scabs. Maybe some sort of healing ability, I’d have to check the spell list later.
I went to the other three, finding them decidedly deceased.
“We got any rope?” I said.
Turns out, we did have rope. Some of Grotto’s supplies had come bundled together with thick cord and I spent a few minutes binding Mishala’s wrists and ankles. She was well-muscled, so I used three times the rope that I figured a normal person would take to keep tied up. She’d obviously invested in Strength.
“Alright, Mishala, I’ve got a few choices to make here, so I’ll need you to help me make them. Sound good?”
She nodded, still pale, but it looked like the effects of Grotto’s command were starting to wear off.
“First, why were you and your crew here?”
“We were hired to bring you to see our client.”
“I gathered that much. Who’s your client?”
“I don’t know. Artemix dealt with the business side of things.”
I glanced over at the bisected man. That was unfortunate.
“Ok, any hints or ideas? Anything at all?”
She licked her lips.
“Probably a noble. Most our jobs come from nobles.”
“What did they want me for?”
“I don’t know. Artemix… he might have. We don’t ask a lot of questions.”
“Earlier you said that I was supposed to be a mage. Where’d you get that idea?”
As far as I knew, there weren’t a lot of people privy to my powerset.
“It was in the dossier.”
“Ok. Where’s the dossier?”
“Artemix burns it after we memorize it.”
“Great.” I took a deep breath. “Where were you supposed to take me?”
“South. To the mountains north of Ravvenblaq.”
That was curious. Did Varrin’s family have something to do with this? It could be a coincidence, since they controlled a huge swath of the country, but Mishala
say a noble likely hired them. Maybe his parents weren’t as enamored with me as Varrin thought. But why would they want to kidnap me? It didn’t make sense, so I discarded the theory for now.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked.
“I haven’t decided.”
“If you don’t let me go, they’re going to kill me. If that’s your plan, you might as well do it yourself.”
“That’s a bit of an escalation, don’t you think?”
“Are you done with your questions?” A hint of anger had entered her voice. She was shaking off most of the effects of Grotto’s intimidation, and my own.
Maybe my soft-handed approach to interrogation was doing me a disservice, but it was hard for me to be rough with someone who was helpless. She hadn’t even been trying to kill me. I mean, she might have been trying to deliver me to my death, or endless torture and confinement for all she knew, but it’s not like she killed my dog. If she’d killed my dog this conversation would be going
differently.
Not that I had a dog. Did they even have dogs here?
I opened my mouth to reply, but she interrupted me.
“Wh-what is that
doing to Drake?”
I turned to see Grotto dragging Warhammer, whose name was Drake, apparently, across the ground toward the obelisk. His tentacles were wrapped around the man’s ankles, and the display of strength from his tiny form was impressive.
[Hey, Grotto, what’re you doing?]
[
]
[Wait, resources?]
Grotto dropped Drake next to the base of the obelisk, and tendrils of energy began to stream from the corpse. Drake’s body shriveled as the tendrils turned to thick columns, power pouring out of the body.
[Grotto! What the fuck are you doing?]
After a handful of seconds, all that was left of Drake’s body was a blackened skeleton inside his now vastly oversized clothes.
The Delve
Drake? He was worth twenty-eight THOUSAND mana?!
[
]
[Grotto! You can’t just EAT people!]
[
eat
]
[Still, you can’t do that!]
[
]
[Even if that
the case, Delvers assume the risks of delving knowingly. These people didn’t expect to be Delving.]
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[
]
[I...]
That was a good point. Why
I care that much?
Well, mainly because it felt a lot like hiding a body. By disposing of the evidence it made it look very much like we were guilty of something. This circumstance was a clear case of self-defense, but if we started throwing the bodies into the Delve equivalent of a wood-chipper, we would start raising a lot of legal eyebrows.
While I reflected on my feelings Grotto started dragging Tiny toward the obelisk as well. Mishala had begun struggling against her bonds.
“Gods be damned if I let you consume me!” she yelled, worming her body away from me.
“Hey, listen, it’s not what it looks like!”
The room was filled with the sounds of rushing energy as Tiny’s body desiccated and her flesh turned to ash and blackened bone.
“Goddammit Grotto, stop for a fucking second!”
Mishala angled her body toward the exit and she launched away in a physics-defying display of panic. Unfortunately, her aim was slightly off and she crashed head first into the wall just left of the doorway with a meaty thunk. Her body crumpled to the ground and she went still.
I went to check on her, finding her unconscious, probably concussed, and bleeding profusely from a fresh wound on her scalp. I tore some fabric from her shirt and pressed it to the wound, uncertain of what to do aside from figuring out how to call a Hiwardian ambulance. Fortunately, my new digs came equipped with a slate similar to the one given to me by Xim that allowed me to contact a form of emergency services.
I tied the cloth around Mishala’s head, then stood to go summon the authorities.
“Well, dicks.”
****
Myria looked over the bodies with concern, her eyes lingering on the three sets of blackened bones. A silver ten healer had accompanied her to my lair–I mean house–and was making sure that Mishala and Jayko didn’t join their less fortunate party members.
“You said your familiar did this,” she said, “to the bodies?”
“He drains mana. Aggressively.” I gave Grotto a dirty look, and the fake C’thon stared back impassively.
I’d closed my inventory portal and carried the bodies out into the foyer before the authorities arrived. My painting of the various Deaths seemed quite a bit more sinister when viewed next to the actual dead.
I hadn’t expected the gorgeous, dark-skinned woman to show up. I hadn’t really known
might show up. But when both Myria and Lito arrived, I have to admit my balls shot up into my body. It had been a little over a fortnight and I was back on their radar. This time with
mutilated bodies, rather than just a severed head. The quality of my atrocities was advancing rapidly.
Fortunately, Myria’s presence wasn’t having the same effect on me as it had the first time I’d met her. That was as much of a confirmation as I needed to decide that she’d been using some sort of magical charm effect the last time.
I’d already given the duo a rundown of the events, leaving out the matter of the Pocket Delve and being a bit ambiguous as to the specifics of the combat.
“This is kind of messed up,” said Lito. The smoking man had agreed not to smoke inside, chewing on a reed instead. It stuck out of his mouth, making him look like some sort of fantasy cattleman. All he needed was a cowboy wizard hat.
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess it turned out looking a bit grisly.”
“Hmm? Oh no, not the corpses. They broke in. Fuck ‘em. I mean the fact that five Delvers were trying to kidnap another.”
“That sort of thing doesn’t happen much?”
He shrugged.
“Delvers get into fights sometimes. People die. Some others steal shit. But kidnapping? It’s pretty rare. Kind of tough to kidnap a Delver. And if you do, how do you hold them? If they’re Strength based, they’ll break through chains and iron bars. If they’re Intelligence they’ll fireball the fuckin’ place. Agile? Just slip out of the cuffs. Only way to keep one contained reliably is to have another Delver dedicated to control effects. It’s a lot of hassle.”
“Plus, most Delvers are high profile,” added Myria. “So the list of potential perpetrators is small and the amount of scrutiny applied to the crime is high. It’s a risky endeavor.”
“Then you’ve got the fact that most Delvers are rich. Why kidnap somebody for cash when you can go do a Delve and rake it in?”
“So the motive would more likely be political,” said Myria. “Or revenge. But if it’s revenge, why not just
Arlo?”
“Torture,” said Lito. “Could also be trying to get information out of you.”
“So which are you?” said Myria, turning her hazel eyes upon me. “Someone’s political tool, someone’s enemy, or someone with valuable secrets?”
“I’ve done nothing to get involved with politics,” I said. “At least, not voluntarily. If that’s the reason, it would probably be because someone has something against Xim or Varrin.”
“Oh, some people definitely have problems with Varrin,” said Myria.
“I’d also imagine my list of enemies is small. As far as I know the only one I’ve had here is dead.”
“Hognay’s allies?” said Myria, raising an eyebrow at Lito. He looked exasperated.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Why bother trying to figure it out on your own? Stop messing around and just ask that girl, Myria.”
“But making predictions is fun!” she said, pouting. Lito glared at her as he chewed on his reed. “Fine. Kitha, please wake up the patient.”
The healer nodded and placed a hand on Mishala’s forehead. Her eyelids fluttered open and she looked around the room, dazed. After a few seconds her eyes went wide and she sat up, starting to struggle against her bonds.
“Stop, dear,” said Myria. Mishala looked up at her and froze. Myria smiled down at her warmly.
“
”
There was a weight behind Myria’s words and Mishala’s expression went from fear to serenity.
“I’m Mishala Houndel.”
“Nice to meet you, Mishala. I’m Myria.
”
“Of course.”
“That’s great! First of all,
”
“I am part of a Delver party known as the Artemix group. Our party was hired by a client to locate and retrieve the Delver known as Esquire Arlo.”
Myria waited for a moment before continuing.
“
”
“I do not know the name of the client. We were contacted by a broker known under the pseudonym ‘Typhoon’, who provided us with a dossier that included details of the assignment and known information on Esquire Arlo.”
Lito grunted when he heard the name, but said nothing.
“
”
“Typhoon is an information broker and fixer agent here in Foundation. I can’t tell you what he looks like because I’m under the effects of an Oath spell that will kill me if I do. What I
say is that he’s got a lot of non-Delver thugs employed that handle the normal stuff–intimidation, collections, enforcement–but he’s also known to hire Delvers on occasion for jobs. The rewards for the jobs are usually something better than notes.”
“
”
“We receive orders through dead-drops. Dead-drop locations are also part of the Oath spell.”
“
”
“I don’t know their name.”
“
”
“They look like an oath that will kill me.”
Myria sighed.
“I hate oaths. Ok, different angle.
”
“I don’t know.”
“
”
“South. To the mountains in the north of Ravvenblaq. There’s a cave with an old Delve inside. Artemix has a ring with the location inscribed on it.”
Lito turned to the bodies and I pointed out Artemix’s bisected corpse. After a brief search through the man’s pockets, Lito produced a simple copper ring. I inspected it.
“That’s interesting,” I said.
Lito tucked it into a pouch at his waist.
“
”
“Bleu.”
“Really?” said Lito.
“What?” said Myria. “It’s a lovely cheese.”
He narrowed his eyes at her.
“Anything
like to ask?” she said.
“Why are you risking your status as a Delver by becoming a criminal? You could be stripped of your titles; have your access to the Delve portals revoked.”
“
”
“I don’t
a status,” said Mishala, an edge creeping into her otherwise sedate voice. “I hold no titles. I
can’t use the regular Delve portals. I’m not and never was a noble.”
“Ok. So how did you sneak into the Creation Delve to become a Delver in the first place?”
“I didn’t,” said Mishala. “I never went through the Creation Delve.”
“What?” said Myria. “Then how are you a level ten Delver?”
“The Creation Delve… isn’t the
way to become a Delver.”