Jackal Among Snakes

A giant gray-green humanoid sat in a strange octagonal stone booth in the middle of a large room with eight paths branching out. It seemed to be wearing a bag made of skin over its head, but where the bag met its neck, eight arms shot out, all identical. Its hands toyed with abacuses on the booth. It wasn’t clear what it was using the instruments to count, but it used them adeptly. Stone bead after stone bead slid up and down rods, and the thing’s head swiveled from left to right to monitor all of them.

Then, all of its hands stopped at once. It slid some of the counting instruments aside, peering into the stony darkness ahead. A figure materialized at the end of the dark-shrouded tunnel ahead, illusion magic dissipating. Argrave stood there, holding a great red bow. He released the string.

A dark maroon bolt shot across the giant room. It moved quickly enough to generate winds. With a travel time of perhaps half a second, it struck past the stone, the abacuses, and the humanoid all. It slammed the necromantic creature into the stone behind, digging about five feet deeper even after that. The source of its magic was stored in its chest—without so much as a single spasm, it collapsed, nothing more than flesh now.

Hegazar’s illusory form seemed to materialize from nothing, and he placed his hand on Argrave’s elbow. “Good shot, partner. Must have taken some archery classes—your ma must be proud.”

“Maybe,” Argrave answered, breathing a little unsteady.

The remainder of the group stepped out of the darkness, rejoining up with them. With Hegazar’s help, Argrave had easily dispatched the Cipherer, their sole obstacle to the deeper parts of the living fortress.

Everyone reached a consensus after things had calmed down after Anneliese’s ‘betrayal.’ Despite the shifting of the scales, the crux of the matter was fundamentally still one S-rank mage versus one S-rank mage. ‘Even distribution,’ both Magisters agreed—they might even keep that agreement, provided neither saw an opportunity. With that settled, things proceeded for their party to discover what, exactly, would be an even distribution.

Argrave played the role of the gambler gone bust—he disclosed what was supposedly all of his plans and knowledge to Hegazar without fuss, acting as though the man was his only lifeline. Argrave couldn’t say for sure what Anneliese was doing, but they had agreed earlier Anneliese would be trying to get as much from Vera as she could, to play her part as an ambitious and enterprising rising star. Whether or not she went with it was irrelevant—he trusted her judgement.

There wasn’t much room to maneuver with the position they’d put themselves in. They would have to earn some leeway by force of necessity. Hegazar and Vera did not offer trust—theirs was an alliance of convenience, and the Magisters viewed them only as disposable tools; Argrave and Anneliese were but gloves with which to handle the other Magister, discarded once dirtied. To get these Magisters to move like Argrave wanted, they’d have to misdirect, misinform, and misguide the two Magisters just right in this living fortress of the Order of the Rose.

Argrave had always loved these living fortresses when playing ‘Heroes of Berendar.’ The player needed three mage characters in the party to open any of them, but once within, they’d be greeted by a hall of locked-off but high-leveled loot—the heart chamber they’d seen earlier. To get at the treasure, the player didn’t have to endure a long dungeon crawl with countless enemies or solve some needlessly tedious puzzle. Argrave enjoyed those, to be sure, but they were a bit dull on subsequent playthroughs of the game. In these living fortresses, all the player had to do was fight a very fun boss.

Argrave felt no guilt completely ruining all of that ‘fun’ by masking himself with Hegazar’s high-ranking illusion magic and dispatching their foe with [Bloodfeud Bow]. He didn’t have the Blessing of Supersession even still, and he didn’t care to take risks, even if it meant showing some of his capability.

Vera stepped up to Argrave and healed his arms, cracked from the heavy use of blood magic. She looked to Hegazar. “There. You cloaked him, I healed him—all as we agreed.”

Behind, Anneliese toyed with her duster’s hood. The Starsparrow, which she’d been hiding this entire time, rushed off into the deeper part of the fortress. Argrave quickly averted his gaze back to the two Magisters. If they had seen anything suspicious, they did not show it.

“So, our accountant giant had the key to all the riches in this little slice of flesh and stone made by the Rose?” Hegazar stared out with them.

“Key to all the riches… burning them or getting them,” Argrave nodded in confirmation.

“Let’s go together, then,” Vera directed.

Neither would dare let the other go ahead. And that was precisely what Argrave had been hoping for.

#####

Durran ripped the bag of skin off the Cipherer’s head, tossing it aside like a filthy rag. There, a great lump of flesh that barely constituted a head housed several rather conspicuous fleshy bits. Argrave gave his hands a little shaking, steeling his resolve. Then, he reached down, plunging his fingers into its nose.

Argrave pulled firmly and steadily, doing his best to ignore the slimy noises as he freed a long hollow rod of bone. It had several holes in it, like some sort of poorly made flute. He unscrewed the nose, tossing it aside. Next, he turned the head on its side, then grabbed its floppy, cartilaginous ear. It stretched uncomfortably as he tugged on it, and then popped like a cork. He screwed it in place where the nose had been. Lastly, he opened up the Cipherer’s mouth. He tested each tooth, some of them wrenching free.

One by one, Argrave fit all the teeth into their correct slot. By the end of it, he had something rather horrifying in his hand. He sighed, marveling at how far he’d fallen from his days as a clean freak. “There we go,” he announced.

Hegazar pointed. “That’s all you need?”

“Yeah,” Argrave nodded. “This’ll let us into the brain chamber, where we can communicate with the living fortress.”

Argrave looked to the ear, staring at it for a moment. There was a hole in the key, and he could see right past the ear into the ground beyond. Shaking his head and shuddering, he held it and proceeded forth.

#####

The brain chamber was not so far ahead of where the Cipherer had been. The level of the protective enchantments seemed to make the Magisters on edge, but so long as Argrave and company were willing to press forward, so were they.

Before long, a thick circular metal door blocked their advance. Argrave took his cue to step forward, planting the ear key in a slot just beside the door. It took some turning, and then Argrave had to say, “The ear is one key to the mind.”

The metal disc slid aside, and Argrave was reminded of the doors in Nodremaid that they had used Garm to open. As Argrave twisted and pulled the ear key free, Vera and Hegazar came to his side, spell light illuminating their path. They did not proceed until Argrave did, ensuring no trap awaited them. The brain chamber was bathed in light as they stepped deeper in, illuminating its uncomfortable confines.

The cramped and damp room did resemble a brain, largely from the wrinkly stone walls. Argrave was certain that if they chipped at the stone, genuine brain matter would be beyond it—that was probably why protective enchantments were so thick there. There was a small stone table in the center with a few chairs near it, while a large fleshy apparatus waited in the background. It had a slot in it that obviously matched with the blocky key of bone Argrave held.

“The key goes in there,” Argrave disclosed. “From there, you give commands to the fortress while supplying it with magic power. It can receive and accept commands that it is familiar with. If the key is pulled out, it’ll go back to its current state—that is to say, all secure doors or vaults will shut, and all sections will be waiting for proper command. Barring this room, of course—it’d be hard to take the key out of the room if the door shut automatically. I assume it was designed this way to prevent negligence, but I cannot say for sure.”

Vera looked to Anneliese, who nodded in confirmation. After, the Magister ran her hands along the stony walls. “This entire thing is alive?”

“If you consider necromantic creations truly alive, I suppose so,” Argrave confirmed.

“Enough of this. Pointless to learn of what we cannot touch,” Hegazar waved his hand, stepping past Durran and Galamon. “Put the key in, and let’s get on with this.”

Argrave nodded, then moved to insert the key. As he pushed it past the flesh, he felt like bone touched against bone and shivered. Even still, the key fit snugly. Argrave took a step backwards, but nothing seemed to change. All stood around expectantly. As Argrave turned his head back, a flash of gold passed through Argrave’s vision, so quick it seemed fake.

“…now what?” Hegazar pressed.

“Allow me,” Anneliese stepped forth, placing her hand on the flesh beside the key. “Open all vault doors. Open all market cages,” Anneliese commanded plainly. Argrave could see the magic flowing out of her hand, pulled like wisps out of her body. Vera waited expectantly, and then far behind them, screeching echoed down the stone halls.

When the two Magisters turned to the sound, Argrave held his hand out and cast a spell. His Brumesingers scampered out of his coat, spreading out and climbing up beneath the table. Their dark gray fur blended near perfectly with the stone, but even then, they stayed incredibly well-hidden.

“I don’t trust any one of you enough to leave you here within this chamber,” Hegazar said frankly. “Be it negligence or malice, you might make things go awry.”

“We agree on that front,” Vera nodded. “So, we’ll go to the vaults together. We’ll collect what is within. We’ll bring it to this… heart chamber, we’ll divide things, and then we’ll leave the way we came in. No opportunity for deceit. No opportunity for bloodshed. Fair, Hegazar?”

“It sounds fair. I suppose we’ll find out if it is,” Hegazar said disdainfully.

Yeah. The people who did all the work will get all the goods, Argrave thought.

#####

Argrave stared up at the towering vault doors. They were thick, at the very least two feet of dense metal. They had slid to the side enough to allow passage. It wasn’t just the doors, either—the walls they were connected to were just as formidable. This place was surely built to last. It could keep out all comers for a long, long while, be they S-rank mages or behemoths like Orion. It probably had.

“I know—you could stare at them for an eternity,” Hegazar pushed Argrave. “But hurry. I’m eager to see what’s within.”

Argrave looked to the Magister, and then into the vault ahead. Even now, the two of them would not enter this place first. Maybe their paranoia was fitting.

Not that it matters, Argrave assured himself. Greed brought them here. That greed will keep them going.

Argrave was the first to step past the vault doors. The area ahead was like a museum entirely divorced from the macabre fortress they’d come from. There were rows upon rows of display cases, each of varying sizes and housing different things. Pushing past his anemia-induced headache, Argrave walked deeper in, eyes wandering for the thing he’d come here to get. It was in the same spot it always was.

Peering down at the matching set of bronze, sharp jewelry locked in its case, Argrave smiled. Just as he turned his head all the others entered the vault, eyes wandering about. Though Argrave’s company looked to the walls, the two Magisters immediately fixated on what was within the display cases.

“Argrave, now!” Hegazar shouted. Though Argrave stared at him in bewilderment, Vera immediately raised her hands and prepared to cast spells. Durran and Galamon ducked away, ready to take cover.

After a short moment, the Magister burst into laughter. He stepped deeper in, letting out a satisfied sigh. “Let’s keep things civil, shall we? It’s the final act,” the bald man cautioned her, whistling as he ran his finger along the glass of the display cases. Vera glared at him in disdain.

“The final act,” Argrave echoed in agreement.

Whatever Vera or Hegazar had planned would surely happen here… or so each of them would be thinking. And it might just be Argrave that would give each the push.