Chapter 9: Escape (1/2)
The circumstances in which Jason regained consciousness were unpleasant for a number of reasons. He was cramped up in some kind of tight space, forced into a foetal position. His head was spinning, and there seemed to be a little man inside it, trying to pickaxe his way out. His nose was congested with what felt like a fistful of bees, and to top it off, he had a sudden urge to vomit. He lay curled up in the constricted space, throwing up on himself.
As the vomiting subsided he noticed the head section of his health silhouette was now a warning orange.
“I am getting knocked out way too much.”
He then heard a male voice.
“He’s woken up.”
Jason's eyes swam into focus, although they felt puffy and didn’t seem to open properly. He was in what looked like a dog cage, too small to stretch out his limbs. His new ability to see in the dark was intact, allowing him to make out that his cage was on a dirt floor in some kind of cellar. The roof and walls were rough timber, and there was a pervasive smell of damp earth. There were four more cages in the cellar with him, each containing a person. One had a black guy, two had white girls. The last cage was bigger than the others, with thicker bars. Inside was an enormous, impossibly hairy man.
“A Wookiee?” Jason asked deliriously.
“What’s a Wookiee?” the hairy man growled.
“Hey,” the black guy called out to him. “Did they put a collar on you?”
“Wha…?”
Jason’s thoughts refused to walk in a straight line.
“Try and focus,” the man said. “Looks like you were hit rather hard.”
Jason ran his fingers over his face, feeling the dried blood thickly caked onto it. He yelled in pain as his fingers brushed against what turned out to be his very delicate nose.
“Did they put a collar on you?” the man asked again.
Confused, Jason reached up and patted his neck.
“No,” he croaked. “Why would they put a collar on me?”
“To suppress your essence abilities. You can still use them?”
Jason nodded, which annoyed the man in his head who went on a pickaxe frenzy.
“Ow. Yeah, I can use them, but I only have two.”
“Can they get you out of that cage?”
“One lets me see in the dark and the other makes me sparkle, so probably not.”
“Sparkle?”
“I’d show you, but I think I might throw up again. Actually…”
Jason vomited again, ending in a coughing fit, after which he passed out again.
Jason swam at the edge of consciousness, hearing two people talk.
“He was in the underground ritual chamber?” a woman said. It was a controlled, elegant voice.
“Yes, milady,” a gruff male voice replied.
“You left him in quite a state.”
“Actually, milady, that’s not much worse than how we found him.”
“You didn’t put a collar on him?” she asked.
“Mr. Caruthers only procured the four, milady. For the ones we were warned about.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said the woman. “Feel how weak his aura is. I doubt he has more than two or three abilities at most. Do you really think he’s the one that killed Landemere?”
“That would be my guess, milady. He had more blood on him than wounds to produce it. He was also locked in the room with the young master’s body.”
“How could he even do it?” the woman asked. “He’s so weak.”
“It seems the young master had mostly done himself in, milady. Summoning spell gone awry, from the looks of it.”
“Is that why all those little monsters are running around?”
“It would seem so, milady.”
Quest: [No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service]
Objective complete: Discover the reason lesser monsters have infested the area 1/1.[Simple Shirt] has been added to your inventory.Quest complete.100 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
Jason stifled a yelp. He had been pretending to be unconscious when a bright blue screen appeared in front of him and his whole body went tense. The pair continued talking, however, as if nothing had happened.
“So whoever this is got lucky and killed my son when he was at his most vulnerable?”
“Not that lucky, milady. He met me.”
“Just so, Dougall,” she acknowledged. “Do we know what Landemere was trying to summon?” the woman asked.
“I had a bit of a potter through his notes, milady. It was one of them entities from beyond the void.”
Jason heard the woman sigh.
“Astral beings,” she muttered unhappily. “I told that boy it would be the death of him.” She said. “We’re a nice, traditional blood cult family. This nonsense about ineffable ancients from outside reality was never going to work out. What did you do with Landemere’s body?”
“Mulch, milady.”
“You mulched my son?”
“Well, he won’t be mulched yet, milady. Composting isn’t a quick process. I can fetch him out of the pile if you like, but milord wont be happy. He was quite specific as to the dispensation of the body.”
“I don’t care what my stupid husband thinks; he married into the family. This is my manor, my family and we do things the traditional way. Goodness knows what poor Landemere will taste like after having gone in the mulch pile.”
“I’ll give him a good and proper wash before I bring him into the kitchen, milady.”
“Thank you, Dougall. Excellent work, as always. Now, do we know where this man came from?”
“No idea, milady. As you said, he’s too weak to be an adventurer and he wasn’t exactly well-equipped. He did have a good knife, though. Not sure if he took it from the young master, so I put it with the gear we took off these others.”
“You don’t think he’s with them?”
“I wouldn’t think so, milady. He wasn’t up to much.”
“Did he say anything?”
“I think he might have been about to, milady, but that was when he walked into me shovel.”
“Why did you take his shirt?”
“He didn’t have one, milady. Didn’t have the chance to ask why, on account of his walking into me shovel again. Do you want me to send him to the kitchen as well?”
“No. If he really did kill my son, I don’t want him trotting off to death with his soul intact. Put him with the others for the blood feast.”
“Yes milady, although that will be one too many.”
“I don’t think the extra blood will be a problem.”
“I was thinking about the high priest, milady. You know how he gets.”
“Yes, quite right, Dougall. Very well. Pick out one of the others you like, and keep it for yourself.”