AN: Howdy y'all. Now that I've beaten Red Dead Redemption II, I'm stuck playing The Last Of Us multiplayer until God of War: Ragnarok comes out in November.
Also got a $75.00 gift card from work about a month ago. Used it for the first time today and found it only had $2.11. The Fuck? Checked with my workplace and hopefully they'll issue me a new gift card (they said this happened to three other people), but geez, that made me mad. It was supposed to be an incentive for being a valued worker and it only has two dollars on it. Let that be a lesson to you, dear viewers. If you ever get a Gift Card, use it the same day so you can see if the bloody thing actually has the money it says it's supposed to have!
But why am I telling you this? You came here for All Out Spaghetti, and, by Jove, it's Spaghetti you'll get!
Nothing happens this chapter. You. Can. Skip. It. Do it. I DARE YOU.
Disclaimer: I don't own Minecraft. If I did, I'd add Potions of Blindness
Chapter 220
The Cell
[Cobb]
Pain.
Burning, throbbing, stabbing, twisting, aching pressure and discomfort all over my body. That's what I first sensed upon waking. I didn't even register the fact that my face and body were pressed into a wooden floor at first because my nerve endings were being overwhelmed by terrible pain.
I groaned but didn't stir. Stirring would require movement, of which I didn't have. I tried, but my body wouldn't respond to my wishes.
My eyelids fluttered open and I thought I was in a pitch-black room for a moment since I couldn't see anything. But then, even in the blackest darkness, shouldn't I at least see what my cheek was pressed up against?
Then my last memory came to me. The fight with Trish and the Vivlio Zythopoiias. Getting blasted by all manner of afflictions and being reduced to an effect riddled lump of meat. I was paralyzed because I was hit by Weakness and Slowness. I couldn't see because I was afflicted with Blindness. I was in pain because I was afflicted by Wither, Poison, Hunger, and whatever else under the sun Trishmegistus had used on me.
"Ahh. I might've fucked up here." I groaned into the floor.
"No 'might've' about it." A voice rang out. "You definitely fucked up here."
"Who's there?" I called out weakly. It was a female, but it didn't sound like Trishmegistus. It did sound familiar, though. "Where am I?"
"What does it look like? Oh. Right. She blinded you." The voice remembered before footsteps approached. I had to rely on my other senses to feel out my situation. "You're on the Sporr - an airship. Though 'ship' doesn't do this small thing justice. It's more of a skiff. You know, since our main airship had its bridge blown up by your infernal archer."
I paused, my mind piecing together the context clues. "...You're a Berserker. And I'm on an airship? Seriously? How'd that happen?"
"I flew it in." The voice continued, much closer this time. "Trish had wanted me to pick her up today. Didn't expect to do a fly by during a battle, and I certainly didn't expect to have you onboard at my mercy. I'm not complaining, though."
A sneaker struck my stomach with great force and kicked the wind out of me, lifting me off the ground slightly and rolling me on my left side. I think my back was facing whoever kicked me, but I was too preoccupied coughing and feeling my aching body explode with pain. My stomach gurgled noisily and I bit back a groan as hunger gnawed at my insides.
"Go ahead and try to guess who I am." The voice continued mockingly. 'You've probably ruined so many lives you can't pin down who I am."
"Kicking a defenseless blind man when he's down. Look at you." I praised sarcastically. With my body paralyzed, the only thing I could run was my mouth.
"Still racking your brain?" She ignored my insult. "Here's a hint. You flooded my office with Guardians."
My eyes widened. "Hunderprest!"
"Ye - NO! Not Hunderprest!"
"Um... Blar-Blar_Jenkins?"
"What!? No! What!?"
Of course, I knew who she was. I had an eidetic memory. It was more fun this way though.
"Look, I'm sure you're probably some minor extra from some filler adventure I took part in. I can't bother remembering everyone's names, especially when they're background characters." It was worth the second kick to the ribs just to tick her off.
"Dahlia! My name is Dahlia_Darko! Former leader of the Berserkers' Jolin branch until your meddling cost me my position! I can't even show my face anymore because of you!"
"Uck. Weren't you supposed to be slated for life imprisonment? How'd you weasel your way out of that?"
"I was busted out. Brandr wasn't so lucky. Not that it matters. I'm a wanted woman. Everyone thinks I'm a criminal."
"You tried to assassinate a princess. What part of that isn't criminal?"
"The punishment is too cruel!" Dahlia spat. "They put this cursed pumpkin on my head! I can never show my face! My vision is always restricted! I can't take it off!"
That's right. In addition to making the Berserkers pay the kingdom of Jolin for abusing their authority, doing away with the Desideratum system, and arresting everyone involved with the plot on Princess Alaqua's life, the princess had the ringleaders - Dahlia and Brandr - wear pumpkins with the Curse of Binding enchantment. They could never be taken off, and, since they had no durability, they couldn't be worn off. They were stuck with those pumpkins until the day they died.
"I can't be seen with the Berserkers. I have to stay away from Jolin. All I'm good for nowadays is taxi service for the Sporr." She ranted. "Because of you, I look like this pumpkin-headed freak."
"I don't see anything wrong with you."
"What are you talking about? I'm a freak! I-" She paused for a moment as it clicked. "Oh, you think you're so clever, don't you?"
"I like to think so." I got another kick to the ribs. "Nnngh..."
I heard a door open as someone new walked in. "What do you think you're doing?" It was Trish's voice this time.
"Working through my frustrations." I received another kick to the ribs.
"Hey, hey! Easy!" There was a short scuffle, the two voices drawing back. "We only get the thousand emeralds if he's brought in alive. I've given him Health Boost and Absorption as a buffer against all those other ailments, but he can still die if you're too rough with him."
"He hasn't paid enough."
"He's riddled with debilitating and agonizing potion effects." Trish pointed out. "And when he gets to Nitebane, he'll either be tortured, killed, or left to rot in a cell with all those ailments."
"Those are too good for him."
"Too good for me?" I coughed out skeptically. "Oh come on. That's like every horrible option available. Torture, imprisonment, or death. Would you rather I get a Curse of Binding pumpkin too?"
There was a short pause I didn't like.
"Now there's an idea. He had a pumpkin on him, right?"
Before I could panic too much, Trish put an end to the idea. "We can't curse him. They need to see his name and face when we bring him in. We can't cover it with a pumpkin."
"After then? After they identified him, we could-"
"There's no 'we' here, Dahlia. He's my catch, not yours. If you're gonna be like this, then go back to the bridge and relieve Alfonso. You're the taxi driver, after all."
Dahlia made an irked noise at that title before I heard her footsteps leave the room. I was alone with Trish now.
"...You're not going to kick me too, are you?" I asked to break the ice.
She chuckled. "No point, really. You're poisoned, withered, fatigued, paralyzed, blinded, hungry. What's a few kicks going to do that isn't already being done?" I heard the floor creak as she leaned or crouched close. "You must be in agony. Yet you don't seem as affected by it."
Probably because of my endurance training. Regularly poisoning and weakening yourself will build up some form of tolerance. It still stung and I never had to deal with so many stacked ailments, but I could talk and think at least.
"Well, some hurts only show on the inside." I mumbled before my stomach made a noise of protest and clenched painfully. "Ooh... like that one. Ugh..."
She snorted as she stood back up. "So. What can you tell me about this book?" She must have been holding it out. "The Vivlio Zythopoiias. Where did you hear about it? Who made it? How does it do what it does?"
"I dunno." I lied. "Heard rumors about it is all."
"You sounded like you knew who it originally belonged to." She said. "Whose was it?"
Figuring to throw out a random answer just to keep her guessing, I replied honestly.
"Herobrine's."
She recoiled at the name. I heard it in her footfalls. "Ah. I should have guessed. So this is some errand for the Cult, then?" She sounded a little nervous. "Oh, they'd love to get their hands on this, I bet. But it's mine. Alfonso's worried about the Cult, you see. He was worried about hearing what those Withers could do. He joined me because he knew my book could protect him. And it did, as you can see. Or rather, as you cannot see."
"Blind jokes. Neat. Low-hanging fruit."
"Awfully talkative, aren't you?"
"When I can't move the rest of me? Yeah."
"I usually expect my prisoners to curse me out or groan in unendurable agony." I heard her sit down to ogle me like some oddity. "Doesn't seem like you have any hard feelings."
"No, I'm pretty pissed off." I admitted. "More at myself than anything for getting into this situation. Ugh." I groaned. "How long have we been flying?"
"It's the same day, but close to midnight." Trish told me. "We don't have to make any fuel stops. You won't have far to go. A few days and you'll be in Nitebane and I'll be a thousand emeralds richer. More than that, I'll be famous for taking in an Executive."
I opened my mouth to inform her I wasn't a cultist, let alone an Executive, but I closed it with a click figuring it wasn't worth the breath.
"What do you even need the emeralds for?" I asked. "You can just find another village to brainwash."
"Ah. You heard about that." She spoke, sounding entirely too pleased with herself. "It came about with the latest Bounty Day. Hero of the Village and Bad Omen appeared in my book." I heard the flip of paper as she perused the artifact. "Hero of the Village V makes the Testificates of a village shower me in wealth. They adore everything I do and seek my favor. Makes me feel like a goddess." I could hear her smirk. "And like a goddess, I can be wrathful. If I get ticked off, I can use Bad Omen V to start a Raid and wipe them out. With this book, I control the fates of those Testificates."
"...You're sick." I said, my voice dripping with disgust.
"Ah. There's that animosity I've grown to expect from my prisoners." She chuckled. "By the by, I took the liberty of stripping all your items off you. Your diamond enchanted armor, your diamond, Sweeping Edge sword, - very nice - your ender pearls," I felt my heart plummet with every listed item, "your buckets, ender chests, obsidian, planks, those little worthless shells at the bottom of your backpack, your furnace and crafting table, your flint and steel, all your food, your entry passes, your Citizenship Information - can't believe your number is one billion - your cobblestone, your bottles, sticks, flint, your stone tools I took just to toss over the side because they're shit. All of it. I took all of it. But, since I'm generous, I left you your green leather tunic for those cold days ahead of you in Nitebane's prison. Aren't I just the nicest?"
"I hope a Hacker kills you in Nitebane."
She laughed.
"No, really. I hope the Hackers in Nitebane kill you when we get there." I repeated earnestly, making her falter.
"...There are no more Hackers in Nitebane. They were cleared off by Queen Jillian."
"There's a Griefer army en route to Nitebane as we speak." I told her the truth. "Who do you think is leading them? The Hackers are out for blood. You'll be flying this ship directly into a war. I do hope the thousand emeralds are worth your life. I really do."
"...Ha. Haha." She laughed nervously. "Nice try scaring me. There's no Hackers coming." I let my ominous silence do the talking for me. "There's no Hackers." She repeated more forcefully before excusing herself.
Alone at last, I breathed out a sigh that turned into a groan when my stomach twisted. God I was hungry. I was grateful, however, for my caution in placing some of my valuable items in my Pocket Box and then that into my ender chest. I would have lost my totems and tridents to Trish if I hadn't. Really, though, I should have just listened to Baltic. The lure of an artifact was just too good to pass up.
There was a fresh wave of pain as more of my Health drained away only to be fixed by my Regeneration. Trish said she gave me Health Boost, Regeneration, and Absorption. That was the only thing countering the Poison, Wither, and Hunger effects eating through my Health. I wouldn't die, but my time on the Sporr and after wouldn't be pleasant.
There was another painful twist in my gut as my stomach demanded food.
Stomach: GIVE ME FOOD!
I couldn't think of a way out of this on my own. Every second I was getting further away from the Cadboro Bridge and Lenz, Baltic, and the rest. Without someone to talk to, my mind had no distraction from the pain. Trish and Dahlia may have been aggravating, but I preferred talking to dealing with the pain alone. The Mining Fatigue and Weakness made me want to shut my mind off and sleep. Blinded as I was, there was no difference between shutting my eyes and keeping them open.
Another painful twist as hunger gnawed at my insides. Could I even find sleep as I was?
It was ironic. I never thought about what hunger could do to someone until I was the one dealing with it. Imprisoning someone with no food.
This must be karma. I thought to myself before drifting off.
Ringwood was a wreck.
Stores were abandoned.
Streets were lined with the gear and Heads of the dead.
Distant explosions continued to rage as the Wither attacked.
I didn't care.
I should have, but I just couldn't.
I dragged her through the streets. She was at my mercy. Broken. Helpless.
She tried to talk to me.
I tried not to listen.
I tried to drown it out.
I was so hurt.
Inside? Outside? It all was just hurt.
Stores were abandoned in the Western District. It was already dilapidated and empty.
I found a store with iron ingots.
I made them into iron bars.
I took her into the basement.
I built a cell.
I put her in that cell.
I put her in that cell.
I put her in that cell.
"So this... is what you had in store?" She coughed. "I have to say... I'm disappointed. I expected more..."
I woke up in a cold sweat, a gasp tearing itself from my throat before I winced in agony. Was it the pain that woke me up or was it the vivid dream? I thought I was done with those nightmares but here they were, still coming back.
I couldn't even tell what time it was as all I saw was black. I didn't feel like falling asleep, though, so I just stayed awake and groaned through the pain. It was sad that I was hoping Trish or Dahlia would show up.
After a while, I heard the door open. Footsteps approached, but they didn't say a word.
"Who's that? Dahlia?" No answer. "Trish?" Still nothing.
I thought I heard the sound of someone chewing.
"...Are you Alfonso?"
The person stepped around me, stopping occasionally to do who knows what. Whoever it was, they didn't hurt me. They didn't touch me. They just circled me, pausing briefly at times. What was the person doing?
Eventually, the footsteps moved back to the door and I heard it creak shut, leaving me alone once more.
That was random. I thought to myself. The actions were so different that I could only attribute it to someone other than Trish or Dahlia. Unless there was a fourth or fifth person onboard, it had to be Alfonso. Did he come in just to ogle me? To check if I was still paralyzed? To see for himself I wasn't the threat he feared I was? Whatever his reasons, he didn't seem to want to talk to me. It meant I was stuck with the bitchy ladies. Lucky me.
In the stretching silence, my only companion was the twisting pain in my stomach. However, it seemed to have dulled slightly. Perhaps being like this was its own kind of endurance training. I still would have killed for a steak or cooked chicken, though. Even a loaf of bread would be welcomed.
Stomach: STOP TALKING ABOUT FOOD AND JUST GET FOOD!
I doubted they would feed me. No reason to. Trish only gave me positive effects so I'd still be breathing when she cashed in my bounty. Unless someone gave me milk to drink I was stuck like this.
I didn't know what time it was, but the temperature was cooler, or at least I thought so. So either night or early morning. Trish said it'd be a few days to Nitebane. I had until then to plan my next move.
We'd be flying into a war. A Griefer army more than five thousand strong and a Hacker or two likely in command. There was a good chance Trish would heed my warning once she saw the army from the sky, but what if she soldiered on in spite of it? Considering what he artifact could do, was there any reason to be afraid of Hackers. She could go in and out to cash in my bounty and fly off if things got hairy.
And what was Jillian going to do? She had my alliance with the Paragons to consider. If she paid the bounty, she could take me into custody, give me some milk, and have me back in action without any hassle. Losing that Sweeping Edge sword was a bummer, but as long as I didn't lose everything, I'd learn to deal.
Was there a chance Jillian would refuse me? No. Jillian was a figurehead that followed Carys' orders. Carys wanted me alive to help fight the Cult. Additionally, Carys wanted me alive to suffer seeing my friends die. Rejecting the Bounty would mean Trish and Dahlia killing me on the spot. Jillian would never allow for that because Carys would never allow for that. She'd pay the bounty.
All that left was the question of whether she'd let me go or not. It seemed a waste to spend a thousand emeralds on someone just to throw them in a jail. How was I supposed to help Carys if I was locked up? How would relations between Beginner and Paragon hold up once they learned I was being detained? Carys and Jillian would be forced to let me go.
So really I had nothing to worry about. I wouldn't have to talk my way out of anything with Carys and Jillian trapped by our alliance. Trish would turn me over for the money and I'd get some milk to dispel all the potion effects swirling around me. After that, I'd get a map message to Baltic and Lenz and try to join up with them in Oak Docks.
Depending on how Jillian and Nitebane handle the Griefers... maybe I'd help out. Maybe. I'd have to see what Jillian wants to do.
"Ngh..." I sharp twist in my guts had me wincing. I had far too much time on my hands to spend it doing nothing on the floor. If my body wasn't already numb, it'd be numb from lying on a hard surface. Not to mention, whenever I wasn't swathed with pain, I was inexplicably itchy. My nose itched, my cheek itched, my ear itched. Why was it that I was always most itchy when I couldn't move or do anything about it.
I couldn't stay awake. It was inevitable. Lying down with blindness simulating me with my eyes shut. Even with the pain gnawing at me, doing nothing made my consciousness drift away to dreamland.
Back to that nightmare...
The explosions had stopped.
The Withers' screams had been silenced.
Noman and the others must've did it.
I registered the achievement somewhat vaguely. I knew it was impressive. I should've felt proud for Noman.
I couldn't feel anything but pain.
"Locking me in a cell like this?" Jade coughed through a broken nose and neck. Her Health Meter was too low to fix the damage she had taken in our fight, and her Hunger Meter was too low to refill her Health Meter. "What do you expect... this to accomplish? Nngh."
I said nothing as I examined the iron bars of the makeshift cell. I grabbed a few and tested their strength. Solid. Hard. Unyielding. They'd hold.
"You think... locking me away... will make you forget me? Gonna turn me over to Wynn and what's left of Ringwood so they can watch over me and you won't have to kill me?" She coughed weakly. "Because let me tell you... you can never forget the people you've let into your heart. Like my bastard ex-husband... he was an abusive asshole and I killed him, but I can't banish him from my mind no matter how hard I try." She gave a lopsided smile. "That's how you'll remember me. I'll be in your heart forever. As a traitorous snake, true, but you'll never be rid of me. And every moment I'm in prison, I'll sustain myself knowing you're still thinking of me. And when Ember gets me out, I'll come see you again and bring up all those painful memories. Is that what you want?" She grimaced. "You'd be better off killing me... here and now. Ah, but then you'd have to cast aside your good nature. And that's not your style." She chuckled humorlessly. "Always the knight in shining armor, aren't you? Even after everything."
I put my linked map in a chest. Not an ender chest, just a normal one. I didn't want my friends finding me. Jade watched the action with an air of confusion.
"...What's that for?"
I used the chest like a chair, propping myself on it with my gaze resting on Jade and the cell I put her in. My eyes must've been empty and emotionless as Jade started to look a little worried.
"...What are you going to do?"
I leaned forward slightly in my seat. Dozens of thoughts ran through my head. Hundreds of things I thought I wanted to say and didn't. Words I contemplated to hurt her. Things I considered to design specifically to inflict pain. Perfect words I could use to make her understand exactly what she did to me... but I never uttered a word.
I just sat and watched her with a dead expression.
"Hey! Talk to me. Say something, damnit... ugh..." She winced from her injuries. "...What are you plotting?"
I woke up again to another painful twitch. These nightmares sucked. Was I having them because the situations were so similar? I could never forget the details because of my eidetic memory. Being poisoned was nothing compared to reliving that. It was torture.
It was warmer now. Daytime definitely. Afternoon? I also had a guest.
"Morning, sleeping beauty." Trish's mocking tone called out distractedly. She must have been paying only half attention to me. "You were mumbling in your sleep. What was it? Bad dream? Wet dream?"
"Could you prop me up and lean your face next to mine so I could spit in your eye?"
"Ha. Nope." She laughed. "You must be starving, right? I can hear your tummy gurgling from here. The pain must be excruciating."
It was, but I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction - wait, what was that smell?
I heard a crackle, felt a warmth fill the room. An aroma of smoked meat.
"Are you cooking food in here!?"
"Yeah, I am."
"You couldn't think to do this anywhere else!? It has to be in front of the starving prisoner? Don't you have a kitchen on this thing?"
"No kitchen on this skiff. Our old airship had a kitchen - a pretty nice one too - but we lost it when your archer buddy, you know, blew it up."
"I'm sensing a grudge here."
"I liked that airship. Had my own room on it and everything." Trish complained.
"Is that why you're cooking delicious food in front of the starving prisoner?"
"Yes. Mmm." She made a blissful sound as she took a bite of cooked meat. "Sho good..."
"...What you eating?"
"Cooked mutton. Had a hankering for it. I might have some steak later, though. You like steak?"
"Yeah."
"Definitely steak, then." She smirked with relish. "What? You gonna complain? Tell me you wouldn't do this to your worst enemy?"
"No..." I mumbled miserably. "I'd do worse."
"Oh yeah?" She chewed through a mouthful of food before swallowing. "Tell me about it."
I kept quiet.
I thought I was done losing fights after Thed and Carys. That's why I trained; so I wouldn't lose again. I thought I was getting better doing all that endurance training, and amassing EXP, and learning how to Quickswap from Z7, and practicing my lies. Even got new equipment from the End.
Instead, I got rocked by that Ravager in Milstatt. I got trounced by Trish. Just what was all that effort I put in for?
Had I just... hit my limit?
I killed a Level 1 Hacker and defeated a Lieutenant. Those weren't insufficient milestones, but maybe that was all I could manage. Artifact wielders, multi-leveled Hackers, Executives, Carys. Maybe they were all just out of my league. Beyond what I could reach on my own.
Like Trish said, maybe I just needed to know my place. To accept there were people I couldn't beat and be fine with that.
Jade and Wynn had told me I couldn't beat Ember. I thought I could strengthen myself and change that, but maybe I was only kidding myself. Lying hurt and helpless in an airship was the harsh reality check I needed to humble myself. If I had just listened to Baltic, I wouldn't be in the state I was now.
"Ah. That hit the spot." Trish dusted her hands.
"You don't even need to eat." I accused. "That Saturation effect of yours can keep you from starving forever."
"Saturation has no taste. I just feel full. Where's the fun in that?"
"The kind of fun like dooming a village or eating food in front of a starving man?"
"Look, those Testificates got to live a hell of a life." She defended. "They were privileged to shower me with wealth and goods. They were fulfilled in their final moments. I'm sure none of them would want to meet their end any other way."
"Is that what you told yourself in Jolin?" I challenged. "The people were privileged to have you take all their stuff from them?"
"You know what? Yeah. They were." Trish countered petulantly. "Desideratum was a good thing for us Berserkers. A good thing you ruined."
"Your boss was going to kill Alaqua."
"Why should you care? You cultists have a vested interest in Jolin's royalty? You stuck your nose where it didn't belong."
"Maybe." I conceded. "I don't expect you to understand with how dishonorably you treat Testificates, but I had my friend's honor to think of. Letting you Berserkers get away with assassinating Alaqua would have shamed him. You want to blame someone? Blame Dahlia for jumping to extremes."
A silence stretched in the room as Trish seemed to mull over my words. Her footsteps left the room shortly after, the door slamming shut and leaving me alone again.
With nobody to talk to, I tried to focus on the pain to stay awake. I didn't like the horrible place my dreams were taking me. I didn't want to be reminded of that cell, but my captivity and paralysis was making it impossible not to.
The temperature in the room cooled. Nighttime. I couldn't even pinch or slap myself awake as drowsiness took me.
Jade tried to talk to me the first few days. It was a combination of questions and requests that I let my silence answer as I watched her in that cell like a shark in a tank. I didn't sleep once. Instead I willed myself awake, slapping or pinching myself while sitting on that chest. Anytime my bottom got numb, I'd stand and prowl about the basement. I'd stretch my legs, but I'd never leave.
"I drifted off. Did you leave to contact someone to transport me?"
"Are you just going to sit there and... urgh... mope all day?"
"I never figured that housekeeper meant so much to you. You never brought her up."
"Can't believe that Severe Shield stood up to three Withers."
"Why are you hiding yourself and me from your friends? Why are you hiding me from the guards? Have you not decided whether you want to kill me or not?"
"Say something already. You're... ugh... freaking me out."
When my stomach growled, I took out some steak and bit into it. The meat replenished my Hunger Meter. Jade saw me eat and licked her lips.
"You... ugh... you gonna share some of that or what?"
I took another bite, my eyes uncaring as Jade's stomach groaned audibly.
"Come on... I haven't eaten since our fight. It's been three days!" Her eyes strayed to the Hunger Meter on her arm. It was down to its last dregs. "Just a bite. C'mon. You already stripped me of my gear. Even if I heal up from it, I can't break out of these iron bars with my bare fists. Not without breaking something."
I wiped my mouth clean.
Jade sagged dejectedly before her amethyst eyes twitched slightly. They darted around the cell I built her and then held on me. Seems she figured out my intentions. She started breathing in fast, panicked breaths.
Her Hunger Meter ran out and she began to starve to death. I watched as she took damage and her insides clenched in protest.
"Ahhh... haaaaah..." She groaned, her voice distorted and nasally from her snapped neck and broken nose. All she could do was squirm from the neck up, her voice breaking as she took more and more damage. The cries she uttered were pitiful and I had to remind myself of what she'd done.
"C-Cobb... please... don't do this..." Jade begged. "This isn't you... please... please don't sink to this..." Tears were in her eyes. "Don't do me like this. Ugh! IT HURTS! Please..."
I leisurely sat up from the chest, my hands going into my backpack as I walked to the cell. I broke it open using my stone pickaxe and I knelt beside Jade with something edible.
"Ugh... thank you, Cobb. I knew you wouldn't be so..." She trailed off when she saw I was holding out a hunk of rotten flesh. What little color left in her face drained away as she realized what I was telling her. "No... No, not that! Cobb this is too cruel for - Nnnngh!" She winced as her stomach twisted. I pressed the rotten flesh more forcefully into her mouth, her eyes glaring at me as she conceded and opened up. I wasn't too gentle jamming the strip of Zombie jerky down her throat. She nearly choked on it and coughed before getting it down with a disgusted grimace.
She stopped taking damage, but her Hunger Meter turned rotten, dull green particles swirling around her. It wasn't enough food to heal her up, but it was enough to stop the starvation. However, a rotten Hunger Meter drained faster.
That's how things went the next couple days. Whenever she started starving, I fed her some rotten flesh. She grimaced past every mouthful, nearly throwing up on some swallows. She looked green around the gills, and it had nothing to do with her hair color. Her begging pleas came faster, then. All of them falling on deaf ears.
"Cobb... you can't... torturing me like this... ugh... please... no more."
"You... you want me to talk? That's what this is? Well I'm not selling anyone out no matter how much rotten flesh you feed me... ugh..."
"You're sick! Only a sick man... would do this, uggggh..."
"After all our time together... heh... this is the worst date ever." She joked before coughing up her lunch and losing her vitality.
At some point on the sixth day, I procured some spider eyes and started feeding those to her. She just started whimpering as I popped them into her mouth, the green particles of poison enveloping her and shaving off more of her life until she was at half-a-Heart. On the very cusp of life and death.
If she went hungry one more time, she'd be dead in seconds.
"Kill... me..." She begged weakly, tears in her eyes. "Kill... me... Cobb..."
"AH! Ugh. HEY!" I screamed suddenly, desperately. "HEEEEEY! Give me some milk! I can't take this anymore! HEEEEEY!"
I screamed my head off to alert someone. I was hoping for Alfonso or even Trish. Instead I got Dahlia.
I received a kick to the ribs that cut off my shouting. "Keep your voice down. Some of us are trying to sleep."
"Dahlia... please... I'm begging you for some milk. I can't take another day of just lying here motionless." The dreams were becoming unbearable to experience again. I didn't want to see the last part. Not again. "I swear I won't run away. I'll come willingly. Just some milk. Please. Let me out of this cell."
"You're not in a cell. This skiff wasn't built with one." Dahlia pointed out. "This is the engine room."
"I'll do anything, so please just give me some milk! Tell Trish!" I heard someone else walk into the room. "Trishmegistus? Please! I need some milk. I won't run! I'll cooperate so please just dispel the effects!"
"This is what you wake me for?" She sounded spoiled as she groaned with a yawn. "You have to be crazy to think I'll let you have any milk."
"I won't run!" I implored her. "Please! Do you want me to say it? I'm begging you! Don't keep me like this! At least fix it so I won't be blind anymore! Prop me up in a chair or something! PLEASE! Oof!"
I received another kick that sent me rolling into the corner of the room. Squashed against the furnaces powering the airship. No idea who dished it out. Shortly after, the two women left the room and left me curled up in the corner, unmoving and blind.
"Ugh... I don't wanna see it again..." I pleaded. "Not... again..."
I tried my best, passed time from night to day just trying to focus on the pain, but it didn't last. I was too fatigued and weak. Sleep took me.
It was the seventh day.
Jade was little more than a shriveled husk. I could see her ribs poking out from her loose hanging clothes. Her face was sickly and gaunt, her skin sunken and her amethyst eyes no longer sparkling. They were a dull purple now as she stared back at me while I watched her starve to death.
I built that cell with the full intention of putting Jade inside and watching her starve to death. And there would be no friends to show up and tell me this was wrong - I knew this was wrong - and there'd be no guards or cultists to show up and stop me from finishing this.
It was just Jade and me.
She had stopped begging, seemingly accepting her fate. She would make pitiful sounds that would've tugged at my heartstrings if I had any left, and she'd eat the rancid food I fed her without complaint while I cruelly ate steak in front of her. The sounds she made - the rattling moans of someone going mad from starvation - it was the stuff of nightmares. The stuff I took no enjoyment in listening to. But I felt this was something I needed to do. Needed, not wanted.
Then, late at night, she just stopped eating.
Even when I still had rotten flesh to give, she refused to open her mouth. She just stared back with those dulled purple eyes...
And smiled.
"This... is... what... I... deserve..."
I stepped back, shaken. For once, my silence wasn't a conscious decision. She had stunned me.
"We... all... get... what... we... deserve." She sighed forlornly. "I... wish... things... could... have... ended... differently... between... us..."
She was weak now. She wasn't faking it. Her time was almost up.
"It... still... can... though." She smiled. "That's... the... beauty... of... Next... Life. Next... time... I'll... be... your... partner... from... the... beginning..." She smiled. "Enjoy... your... life... but... don't... keep... a... girl... waiting... too... long..."
I watched her Hunger Meter empty. Her Health Meter rushing to follow.
"See... you... in... the... Next... Life..."
"Love... you... lots... and... make... you... cry..."
AceOfJades burst apart. Starved to death.
It wasn't an explosion of spilled gear as I had stripped her of her items. All that came off of her was her Head. Lifeless and with an empty gaze.
I sat in that cell the whole rest of the seventh day just staring at it and processing what I had done. I didn't feel better. I didn't feel pride. I just felt anger. Angrier than I already felt. Angry at myself, angry at Jade, angry at the Endward Cult.
I tried to pretend her death didn't bother me. I tried to pretend the way I killed her didn't bother me. But I knew it would bother everyone. I was ashamed to admit to anyone what I did. What I did to her was the pinnacle of cruelty I thought myself incapable of inflicting on another Crafter. I'd tell no one of this. I'd never set foot in this basement again.
On the dawning of the eighth day, I took my map back out and I returned to my friends. The whole walk back, I meandered Ringwood's ruined streets in an aimless stupor, gaze empty, the dark moment that was so unlike me sapping my energy.
I didn't find any peace.
When I next woke up, my face was wet with tears. I felt shittier than ever being reminded of what I did to Jade. Back then I had been ashamed of myself, but it was tolerable because I shut off my emotions. Now that I reclaimed my Heart, it hurt all the deeper and there was no pretending I didn't feel anything. I wasn't made of stone.
I could've brought her to Wynn. I could've done that. But then what? Either she'd be imprisoned or executed. For the former, if she got out and caused more trouble, then it'd be on me. AGAIN. Letting her go the first time was a disaster. I didn't want to risk that. And if I just let Wynn execute her it felt too much like passing the buck. I would pawn off the choice to her and it'd be taken out of my hands.
Not to mention, as dark as it sounded, a sick part of me wanted to watch her starve. It was only after I did it that I realized it was a mistake. It was my Dark Moment. Now I had all those messed up memories of what I did to her.
So in a way, me getting captured, paralyzed, and starved was a kind of karma for what I put Jade through.
I heard the door swing open and someone walk in. They remained silent the whole time as they approached. The floor creaked as they knelt down beside me and rolled me over to face them. The hands felt big and callused. A man's, definitely. I caught a whiff of smoked meat before something piping hot touched my lips.
Stomach: Cooked porkchops! YES! OMNOMNOM!
I was ravenous as I ate my way through the cooked meat covering my face. Grease dripped into my eyes and hair, but I kept chowing down, even as more food was offered. Apples! Baked potatoes! Cooked salmon! Some dried, salty snack I couldn't place but tasted amazing to my empty stomach. Starvation was the greatest seasoning. I nearly choked on it all until the mystery man held a bottle of water to my lips which I guzzled greedily.
It was a pointless act. My Hunger Meter would drain back to zero anyway, but for a little while my stomach was full of warm food and there weren't any painful twists or clenching in my guts. For that, I was grateful.
"Thanks... Alfonso..." I guessed correctly as the mystery man stilled before finishing cleaning up after me. He washed the grease out of my face and deposited me against the furnaces in the corner, right where he found me. Then I heard his footsteps move away and the door close.
At least one of them wasn't an asshole. Ironic how the one most afraid of the Endward Cult would feed someone suspected of being an Executive. He didn't seem that bad.
Stomach: Alfonso is my new best friend.
Bladder: Buh... But I thought I was your best friend...
The day passed without much incident and I dozed off again when my freshly filled Hunger Meter depleted by about half. No more nightmares of Jade. Seems I worked the worst of it out.
I was rudely awoken at night by a kick to the back. I groaned in pain.
"Guess who." Dahlia mocked before the smell of cooked pork graced my nostrils. It felt close, like she was waving it in front of my face. "Poor thing. You must be starving. You want this?"
My guts were squirming and twisting something awful, so I guess I did. Something told me she wasn't going to just give it to me, though. So, spurred by the pain she caused by that kick, I purposefully mumbled something under my breath.
"What's that? You begging?"
I mumbled it even quieter and heard the floor creak as she leaned closer to hear it.
"Speak up if you're begging for table scraps, Fido. Say it again so I can hear your despair-"
I hocked up a glob of sputum and spat in the direction her voice came from. Judging by the wet, audible splop, I'm guessing my aim was as good as ever.
Dahlia made a sound somewhere between an angry vacuum cleaner and a sputtering muffler before I heard a crash as she fell backwards. I chuckled weakly before bracing myself for the kick that followed. I crashed into the wall of furnaces, but Dahlia wasn't done. She got me right against the wall as she kept kicking me over and over.
"Fucking! Disgusting! PIG! Ugh!"
The door slammed open and I heard someone rush in and pull Dahlia off of me. There was the sound of a sword being drawn before I felt it whip through the air and stick into the wooden planks near my face. It fell to the floor with a clatter, the voices becoming more audible.
"What are you doing drawing a sword!? Kicking the shit out of him is one thing, but swords are too risky. Too much damage and he'll die, and I know you have every excuse not to hold back."
"I know what I'm doing, Trish! Don't forget who's the boss."
"You think that's you?" Trish laughed. "You've been ousted. You're just a taxi driver. I don't take orders from you."
"After all I've done for the Berserkers-"
"What you've done?" Trish's voice became magnified by her outrage. "What you've done!? You killed us, is what you've done! The concessions we had to make to Jolin following your botched assassination attempt put the Berserkers one foot into the grave! Our guild has never been weaker! We're a joke! Nobody takes us seriously anymore! The Scouts have more clout! More money! So much that I don't know where they're getting it."
"Hey, can you guys hold off on the melodrama until after I'm not here to listen to it? Or, you know, just take this ELSEWHERE?"
""Who asked you!?"" They shouted at the same time before going back at it.
"It's just a spate of bad luck. We're turning a corner. You'll see."
"We're only turning a corner because the rest of us are putting work in to repair our reputation. A reputation you ruined!"
"You call what you do 'repairing our reputation'? Going on vacations to villages and having the Testificates foot the bill? I can't think of anyone doing more to tarnish our reputation than you!"
An eerie quiet settled over the room after Dahlia's latest accusation. Nobody moved as I tried to make out what they were saying.
"...So that's what you think of me?"
"...I didn't mean it like that-"
"No, no. I get it." Trishmegistus mollified, her voice projecting composed reason. "A lot of Crafters don't approve how I use this book of mine. I'm disgracing the Berserkers with how I play God. I'm not a Hacker."
"I never said you were one."
"But I've been getting a little heavy-handed." She compromised, Dahlia agreeing. "I only do it because our reputation keeps falling. We don't get any respect. I just want to be like you, Dahlia."
"Like me?"
"Sure! You were always my role model leading the Berserkers. Always keeping Desideratum going so we could reap the benefits." She praised liberally before sighing. "It just... it just hurts seeing you like this. How far you've fallen."
Dahlia quieted after hearing that.
"I mean, seeing you wear that cursed pumpkin day and night is enough to make me feel bad. You're so pitiable right now. Is this your new strategy to secure wealth? Act like a worthless beggar until people donate emeralds to you?"
"Show some respect, brat. Even as disgraced as I am, I still outrank you in experience."
"If the experience is landing our guild in the trash, I think I'm better off without, thank you."
"Get out of my sight right now if you know what's good for you!"
"You're trash now, Dahlia. A disgrace."
"And you're only something because of what you carry. If it wasn't for that book-"
"This thing?" There was a loud slap as something struck the floor. Leather cover on wooden floor. "Look. I dropped it. Right in front of us. Am I still nothing, now?"
There was a long silence as the two Berserkers sized each other up.
"Go on, pumpkinhead. Pick it up." Trishmegistus goaded. "Make a play for the book you think so highly of. That is, if you think you can grab it before I can. Too slow and I'll blast you with a face full of Wither, but if you get to it first, you can kill me and start rebuilding your tattered reputation."
"You think awfully high of yourself. Overconfidence can be deadly."
"Go and pick up the book, Dahlia. Go ahead if you dare."
"You think I'm too cowardly that I won't?" Dahlia chuckled. "What do I have to lose anyway? I've got no future. On the run from Jolin... Cursed to wear this forever..."
"Pick up the book, Dahlia."
There was a great clatter as a body dove for the book and rolled along the floor. I couldn't see anything, but I heard Dahlia's laugh of triumph.
"Shouldn't have overextended, Trish. Did you think I slowed in my age? Now your precious book is mine-" Dahlia trailed off as she read the first page of the book. "King_Cobb's Citizenship Information...?"
There was a blast of something before a body fell onto the floor, gasping and groaning. Pages flipped in quick succession. A slow stride sounded on the wood floor as a handful more blasts of potion beams were dished out, Dahlia's groans becoming weaker as they went off.
"Now wasn't that a stupid thing to do?" Trish mocked, the floor creaking as she bent down. "As if I'd ever let the Vivlio Zythopoiias leave my person. Now c'mere, leader!"
"Trish... wait... you can't do this to me!"
"Tell me I'm tarnishing the Berserkers? I'll show you. I'll show you the goddamn window is what I'll show you, you piece of trash."
"No... NOOOOOO!"
There was a resounding crash as something heavy was thrown through a window and out the airship. Dahlia's screams petered out of existence as she undoubtedly plummetted to her death. If the fall didn't kill her, whatever potion effects Trish hit her with would. The Berserker left standing panted audibly.
"You saw nothing, Cobb. Obviously," she conceded my blindness, "but you get the picture. What you didn't see is her coming right at me. Had to defend myself. Hooooo boy! Never meet your role models, huh?" She acted like killing her former boss was of no consequence. "If Alfonso asks, just tell him she tried to kill me and had to go. Least now instead of worrying about the pumpkin on her head she can worry about her head smashing open like a pumpkin when it hits the ground. If she doesn't wither to death first. I could go for a snack. Chicken and apples? Chicken and apples."
Only when her footsteps died out did I breathe again. I was at the mercy of an impulsive, bratty bounty hunter. Considering how quickly Trish flew off the handle, it was a wonder she left me alive. If it wasn't for the thousand emeralds - and the bump in her reputation - I'd have been joining Dahlia out that window.
Better not tempt her. I decided, keeping my mouth closed for however much longer this flight was supposed to be.
The temperature of the engine room cooled as night came. The broken window meant a bunch of wind was getting in and chilling me to the bone. As if being riddled with potion effects wasn't bad enough! I heard someone come in then and restock the furnaces with coal blocks before leaving just as quickly. It was probably Alfonso again. He didn't ask about where Dahlia went, but something told me he knew the kind of person his partner was and wasn't at all phased by it. He knew not to earn Trishmegistus' ire.
My stomach twisted and groaned and gurgled. My skin pricked and dulled and hurt. My body was sore. My insides burned. My front side had gone numb from lying down and not moving. I nodded off once or twice without any nightmares, thankfully.
Then, when I woke up one morning, warmed by the sun streaming through the busted window, I heard a male voice make an announcement.
"We're here." Alfonso told me before leaning down, grabbing me by my sides, and hoisting my limp form over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
In Alfonso's grip, I felt the airship slow to a stop around me. There was shouting coming from outside, but it was hard to make it out. The ship must've been as small as they said, because Alfonso didn't walk far before I felt wind whipping my hair and face. I was a little worried I was about to get thrown overboard.
"This is your final warning! State your business or we will open fire!" A rough voice called out.
"Easy!" Trish yelled back. "We're Berserkers. Here to collect on a bounty. This ugly mug look familiar?" She grabbed a fistful of my hair and tilted my head up so they'd see my face. I heard gasps and murmurs from several dozen new voices as they recognized me. There was more muttering after that as they decided what to do with me.
"Queen Jillian is too busy for this. She's managing a hundred different things."
"She'll want to see to this personally."
"Let's just ask her first. Any other time would've been better, but now he turns up? Rotten luck."
"We'll announce your presence to the Queen." One of the Crafters told Trish and Alfonso. "You may use this tower to dock your airship, but you'll have to come with us to a waiting room while we prepare the proper bounty. This piece of cultist filth will be escorted to a suitable cell in the meantime."
"You better not stiff us. I brought him alive and everything. Even prepared him especially so he'll suffer."
"We will honor the bounty. We issued the posters, after all, and we have the reward promised."
"Alright." I felt myself turned around by feminine hands. "Well, Cobb, guess this is goodbye. You know how they say, 'it's been a pleasure'?" She pushed me roughly and I fell onto some stone battlements. "It hasn't."
I was roughly seized and dragged to my feet by two Crafters before being taken away. The cold wind carrying the scent of the ocean left me as I was brought inside and down some stairs. I felt them feel around for any items in my belt or backpack, but I knew there was nothing. They let me keep my green-dyed leather tunic, seeing how it wasn't a threat.
"Holy hell. You see his arm?" One Crafter spoke.
"What?" The other took my arm for a better look. "Oh, wow. That's a lot of effects. Some of these I've never seen before."
"He's got so many different particles coming off him. What did that woman do?"
"Whatever it is, I'm sure he deserves it." I was jostled aggressively. "Come to think of it, he deserves worse for leading cultists. I hope to God Queen Jillian orders his execution."
"She's already stuck preparing the defenses for the invaders. I hear the number of Griefers is over seven-thousand now. They wouldn't gather numbers like that unless they had a Hacker to back them up."
"We'll be alright with Jillian leading us. She already bested two Hackers. She can handle a few more."
Except it had been Carys who had done the fighting. Jillian was just a competent puppet forced to take credit. It meant these guys didn't know. They weren't Paragons. For political reasons, the citizens couldn't know that they were now soldiers for the Paragons, of which the Kingdom of Nitebane now belonged to, and they were fully expected to lay down their lives for Carys and her war. The idea that there was a dichotomy between Paragons and citizens despite all the time they spent sharing a kingdom was ridiculous. Nobody could put two and two together that a guild had taken over?
We didn't go down many floors before I was none-too-gently tossed face-first into a stone brick room. It was a tower holding cell. I heard an iron door slam shut behind me before the guards took up position and started conversing. It was about idle things, but I made sure to wait until their conversation pulled before speaking.
"What day is it?"
"No talking, prisoner."
Welp, that shut me down.
[Lunar Castle: Great Chamber]
Lunar Castle had several chambers. Among them was the Great Chamber - a room connected to the side of the throne room and up a staircase, used as an all-purpose reception and living room. It offered Herobrine and his council some privacy from some of the castle staff and guards while he was king. Now, Jillian and the Paragons used it for the same purpose. It was here that Trish and Alfonso were escorted while they awaited Queen Jillian.
It took a while before the Queen finally set time out of her busy schedule to meet the bounty hunters.
She stepped inside with an air of authority that had the guards stand up straighter. She waved one arm and dismissed the guards without a word before moving towards the table. She had a polite smile on her face.
"Thank you for your patience." Jillian gripped both of their hands in a tight but brief handshake. "Things have been quite busy recently."
"Saw the streets from above." Alfonso commented. "You'd never believe it was ever ruined. You've done good work rebuilding here." Jillian nodded in thanks.
"The EXP Factories have been funding most of the repair work. Exports alone are-"
"Do you have our reward or not?" Trish cut off rudely.
Jillian recomposed herself. "Yes, of course. One thousand emeralds split into one-hundred-and-eleven emerald blocks and one emerald." She dug the amount out of her backpack and presented it to Trish, the Berserker swiping and counting it in front of everyone.
"It's all there." She nodded appreciatively before making to stand.
"In a hurry to be somewhere? I was hoping we could talk a little longer."
"We have eyes. We have ears." Trish retorted, one hand on her hip. "Everyone bustling around with arrows and fire charges. Swords being handed out like ice cream. Looks to me you're readying for war. A war with Griefers, definitely. With Hackers, maybe?"
"Some." Jillian answered.
"Then you'll understand why we're not too keen on sticking around." Trish beckoned for Alfonso, the former Bird of Prey obediently following.
"Just a minute." Jillian stopped them. "The man you brought in, King_Cobb. Are you aware he's the Billionth? He's the first Crafter to slay a Hacker." She cocked her head. "You captured him easily enough. What have you to fear of the Hackers?"
"His capture was easy. Cobb had help and it was still easy." Trish boasted. "Hackers are another story. Not least of all because slaying one paints a target on your back you can't get off."
"You can wear disguises." Jillian countered. "Masks to hide your name and face."
"Dahlia's kinda sworn me off headwear, thanks."
"Allow me to be frank." Jillian leaned forward, her hands clasped together. "The report I received implies Cobb has several infinite potion effects afflicting him. Would that have anything to do with the particles I see gravitating toward your person? Do you perchance possess some book that made this possible?"
"What do you know of this book?" Trish demanded immediately.
"I know it's powerful and I'd very much like you to use it against the invading Hackers I'm expecting tomorrow."
Trish considered Jillian for a moment before turning around and planting herself back in her seat. Alfonso remained standing, though he looked worried by the talks going on. He didn't like where the conversation was going. A moment ago, they were prepared to leave.
"I Withered Cobb." Trish explained. "Wither is the only progressive effect that can drain a Crafter's life. A Potion of Harming is instant, but the Wither effect will drain their life to zero. I suck up that life since I cast it." She held up the Vivlio Zythopoiias as she said that. "Since I always haul bounties in alive, I also have to hit them with Regeneration so they don't bite it. Since I'm still sucking up Cobb's life, I know he hasn't been given any milk yet. That infinite paralysis and health draining combo is a free of charge service to make your job easier. He won't be escaping anytime soon." She grinned at the Queen. "You get prime quality with me."
"I can see that." Jillian nodded back. "And exactly how much will I have to offer to get that same prime quality against the encroaching Hackers."
"You seriously thinking of hiring me for this?" Trish asked. "Can't imagine a bounty hunter is your first choice to defend a Kingdom."
"You must have ticked the Hackers off something fierce." Alfonso added.
"Call me desperate," Jillian opened her arms and leaned back, "but I'm willing to use whatever I can to protect this kingdom I have fought for. All this rebuilding will be for naught if the Griefers and Hackers take this place again. I know I can't steal the book off of you." Trish narrowed her eyes possessively. "I can't steal the book because you're skilled enough to bring in Cobb. My guards and I have no hope of getting in your way. We don't possess your strength, but what we do have is money and EXP. A bounty hunter such as yourself might be more willing to lend aid for the right offer. Name your price for killing the Hackers of this approaching army. The Griefers, we can handle, but the Hackers pose a significant problem that only you and your book can resolve. Name your price, and, as Queen of Nitebane, I shall honor it. Of course," Jillian added offhandedly, "I understand the Berserkers are losing credibility as of late." Trish wrinkled her nose in disdain for her guild's reputation. "A heroic deed such as, say, protecting a kingdom, might open doors for the Queen of said kingdom to start backing a certain guild and get some of that reputation back. They might even arrange for regular EXP exports for the Berserkers in exchange for your help."
Trish leaned back in her seat, her fingers drumming on the Vivlio Zythopoiias as she mulled things over. Jillian smiled internally over getting her interested. She'd been rehersing this offer ever since hearing of Trish's arrival three days ago. She was only too glad she arrived with Cobb a day before the Griefers so she could make this pitch. She drew on all her political experience for this proposal, enticing the self-absorbed bounty hunter with that which she would value. Money, fame. She'd appealed to her ego, flattered her achievements, and provided creative compromises to the minor obstacles she reasoned would spell disaster for such an offer.
I'm truth, Jillian despised the woman. She'd been informed by Heather that Trishmegistus killed Paragons and Nitebane citizens at Rosses Point. But what sort of politician would she be if she didn't know how to pretend to like someone? Jillian needed every advantage she could muster if she and Nitebane were to survive the approaching Hackers. If that mean cozying up to Trish, she'd do it.
"A heroic deed." Trish contemplated. "Well, I have been called a hero of late." She bragged. "And the Berserkers could use the backing of another kingdom. What exactly do you want from us?"
"...Us?" Alfonso asked before getting cowed by Trish's scowl. "U-Us. Of course."
"I've been bolstering the kingdom's defenses for weeks, preparing for this day." Jillian explained. "Our forces can handle the Griefers and maybe deal with the Hackers. It's not 100%, so I can make no guarantees. That's where you come in. Your infinite potion effects could be just what we need to trip up the Hackers long enough to kill them. That's the gist of what I want you to do."
"And as for my price," Trish's eyes glinted greedily. "You'll acquiesce to whatever I demand?"
"So long as it's something within my power to bestow, yes."
"Then I want a full set of diamond gear enchanted with the strongest Blast Resistance enchantment you got." Trish demanded. "Explosions are my biggest weakness, so I'd prefer having something to boost my defenses. I'll need it if I'm going toe to toe with Hackers. Also, I demand a price of twenty-thousand emeralds. Up front."
Jillian pressed the inside of her cheek with her tongue, but she nodded all the same. It was a steep price to pay up front, but she couldn't deny the Hackers were worth as much. Nitebane had the money. "Armor and money should be no problem-"
"I also want enough EXP to get me to level one-hundred."
Jillian paled at the latest demand.
"On top of that, I want you to regularly ship bottles o' enchanting and high tier, rare enchantments to the Berserkers and give them the rights to sell outside of Nitebane." Trish went on. "It shouldn't be a problem. Nitebane's EXP industry is booming, no?"
Jillian composed herself before answering. "The EXP will have to wait as the factories can't properly produce anything with the threat looming over them."
"I thought you said all my demands will be fulfilled. You refusing me?"
"Not at all." She recovered quickly. "I'm simply informing you we'll have to negotiate the terms at a later date. Once I've had time to assess our stores and decide whether or not to step up production. There won't be any production, however, should the Hackers take this place."
"I get it, I get it." Trish waved one arm.
"The armor and emeralds we can deliver up front, no problem."
"I also expect a more in-depth explanation about this book." Again, Trish waved the book before everyone's eyes. "I'll await that and the EXP and the enchantments you promised once this is all over."
"Anything else?"
"...The Berserkers could use Nitebane's backing. Maybe as a sanctuary. Bridges have been too badly burnt for us in Jolin."
"Help us and I shall see it done. Anything else?"
"None that I can think of."
"Then, we have a deal...?" Jillian stuck out her hand tentatively and Trish shook it with enthusiasm.
"We have a deal! Ah. Before I forget..." Trish deposited the Vivlio Zythopoiias deep into her pocket before dragging Alfonso before her. "I expect you have a room for us to mentally prepare ourselves? You must have your own master bedroom, no? Care to lend it to your amazing heroine come to save the day?" She asked with fake innocence.
"...What's mine is yours." Jillian answered back robotically.
"Thank you! Where might we find it?"
"Down the hall, up three flights of stairs, second door on the left."
"We're off, then. Don't bother giving us those escorts. Alfonso and I can find our own way."
"As you wish." Jillian allowed them to leave before her polite facade dropped. "Steeper demands than I expected..." She muttered to herself before going off to gather Trish's requests.
But I hooked her. She thought. Now to take steps to keep her.
She called for two trusted Paragons from her team, Team Delta. Travis and Shantal. They had cursory knowledge of airship piloting.
"There's a small airship docked at the west tower." She told them quietly. "Disable the inner workings so it can't fly away but be discreet."
"You want us to break the bounty hunter's ship?"
"I want you to ensure Trish won't be making a getaway the second I give her a king's - a second king's ransom." She amended wittily. "Make whatever you sabotage an easy fix. Something repairable. I don't want to piss her off, just guarantee she'll honor her promise. This is just me covering my bases."
Jillian would see to it that Trishmegistus honored the deal they shook upon. If she took the armor and emeralds and flew off, Jillian would look foolish and have to face the Hackers with what she had prepared. If she kept her word and honored the deal, then the airship could be fixed without her having to know it was ever sabotaged and both parties would be content.
As Jillian saw Travis and Shantal off, she decided to address one more matter personally before getting back to battle preparations. She ascended a stairwell, heading towards the tower holding cell where Cobb was waiting.
[Cobb]
Was it three days or four days? No, it had to have been three because I distinctly remember feeling three times where the temperature was markedly cooler. I spent three nights on that airship, so today has to be the 24th.
I spent my time in the cell not talking - as I was kindly instructed - but by working out what day it was. The fight on the bridge was the 21st, so it was now the 24th. Lenz said the Griefers would arrive between the 22nd and the 29th of November. If they hadn't attacked already, I could expect the attack to happen any day now. Knowing an all out war was about to be waged outside the walls I was imprisoned behind made me incredibly anxious.
Shouldn't the Paragons be letting me go soon? I thought after feeling a stab of pain in my gut. They had to have known I was coming here from Baltic and Trenay. They would have sent a report as soon as I was captured, so what's taking Jillian?
Jillian was the only member of Carys' inner circle in Nitebane. If she didn't give the order to release me, nobody would. Was she just busy dealing with Trish and Alfonso? What if the Berserker did a double-cross and killed her?
I heard a set of wooden doors creak open and several sets of footsteps enter.
"Your Highness!"
"Ma'am!"
The guards at my cell greeted immediately, letting me know Queen Jillian finally graced me with her presence.
"Has he moved yet?" An authoritative and distinctly feminine voice inquired.
"No, ma'am. And potion effect particles have continued to swirl around him."
"Any ramblings?"
"Just asked what day it was before we ordered him to keep quiet. He hasn't uttered a sound other than painful moans."
"Very good." I heard the footsteps near my cell before a lever clicked and the iron door sealing me in swung open.
"Your Highness!" Several guards raised protests, but Jillian ignored them as she approached. I felt her presence loom over my defenseless body. She knelt down close enough that I could hear her breathing and feel her braided hair on the back of my hand. Was she inspecting my arm to discern the potion effects?
There were a few bursts of wind like someone shaking something in my face. I didn't flinch or react because I couldn't see a thing.
I felt Jillian grab my arm at the elbow and bend it before moving it towards my face. Then she closed all my fingers except the pointer. Then she started moving the arm so that my pointer finger poked into my nostril, digging deep.
What the hell was she doing?
The finger withdrew from my nostril as Jillian manipulated my arm to pull pack and instead push into my mouth. I grimaced past the finger she was pushing past my lips and over my teeth before she started pushing it to the back of my throat. I gagged slightly, my eyes watering out of reflex as my fingernail brushed against my uvula. I thought I was about to throw up before she yanked my arm back and removed the pointer finger. Then she lowered my arm back to my side.
"He's definitely paralyzed and blind." She concluded her inspection. She stood up and exited the cell, the iron door swinging shut once more. "I've concluded that he's harmless." She told the guards.
"Was that your only purpose for coming here, your Highness?" A guard asked. "We could have told you he couldn't move."
"There's more. I would like some time alone to interrogate the prisoner." Jillian announced. "You're all excused. Go. Ready yourselves for tomorrow."
"Is that wise, ma'am?" A guard asked. "Leaving you alone with an Executive-"
"He's blind, paralyzed, at low Hunger and Health, and behind bars. I have a bow." She stated evenly. "I'm more likely to die by my own hand than his right now. Or are you doubting I can take care of myself?"
"I'm not doubting your abilities, your Highness, but... but he is dangerous. He's one of the leaders of the biggest group of fanatic murderers in the world."
"Right now, he's a paralyzed Crafter in a cage. He won't be doing anything until someone gives him milk, and I have no intention of letting that happen. What I plan on asking him is for my ears only. Go." She repeated, this time somewhat kindly. "You need to rest and ready yourselves. Tomorrow is the day."
"...Tomorrow is the day." The guard repeated, the words being echoed by what sounded like ten or fifteen other guards. She certainly had a devoted entourage.
"If you understand, then go. I have business with this Executive." She spat disdainfully. "He's going to be telling me plenty about his cult's operations before I'm through with him."
"You want us to bring the torture tools?" One guard asked eagerly. Just how badly did they loathe cultists? I know Herobrine spawned a Wither on them, but torturing a guy who wasn't even alive then?
"He won't stand up to torture. Not with his Health like that." Jillian reasoned to the disappointment of many guards. "But enduring all those afflictions might be torture enough. His Health getting chipped away, over and over, sucked and sapped dry, only for it to tick back up and deprive him of the sweet embrace of death he so craves." She paused to let that sink in. "Killing him is the mercy. He's tortured just by lying there. I don't have to do a thing."
The guards chuckled at her logic. They were clearly satisfied knowing I was in eternal pain. I took it as Jillian covering for me so I wouldn"t be lynched by an angry mob.
After Jillian called for the guards to leave one last time, I heard over a dozen sets of footsteps vacate the room. We were allowed our privacy, and Jillian waited a few minutes after they left before deeming it safe to speak.
"It's the 24th." She told me, answering the only question I posed for the guards.
"Guessed as much." I answered with a groan as my starved stomach gurgles painfully. "Ah. Ow..." I waited for her to continue, but she said nothing. Instead, I heard her drag a chair over. The door didn't open, though, so she was sitting on her side of the iron bars. "...So?"
"So what?"
"Are you going to give me some milk?"
"Why would I want to do that?"
"..." I blinked, taken aback. "...Because... we're allies."
"We're allies? Really?" Jillian posed the question as if skeptically. "You cost us the Asmodeus. You leaked Carys' identity to the Endward Cult. Those seem beneficial to you? What have you done to help us so far, hm?"
"Oh, come on-"
"We agreed to this alliance with the understanding that your unpredictability would be an asset. But picking a fight with a famous bounty hunter and getting captured? How does that help us? You were supposed to go to Oak Docks. Instead I'm paying your thousand emerald price, and you expect me to free you as if this is all commendable?" She balked. "I already had my opinion of you as a non-asset, but this just clinches it."
"You just caught me on a bad day." I tried to defend myself despite thinking something along the same lines. "I... I know I screwed up, but-"
"You want me to bail you out of the consequences of your own actions." Jillian outlined in a brutal statement of fact. Once again, I found her disapproving words cutting rough and deep. As a politician, she probably knew the best words to make someone feel down on themself. "You picked a fight and lost. You lost and Trish won. And that's why one of you is an asset and the other is a liability."
"But... but I can help with the Hackers-"
"Can you? Look at you." She uttered with contempt. "What do you got, hm? Nothing. Not a thing. Oh wait, yes. A green-dyed leather tunic. You have that. The shirt off your back. Dyed in the proud colors of your now derelict kingdom. That's the full extent of what you have to offer me after picking a fight with Trish."
I felt the leather tunic more prominently as it hugged over my hoodie. It was the only item Trish left me. My backpack and belt were bare.
"Now what does Trish have?" Jillian continued. "She has a former Bird of Prey with exceptional archery skills as an ally. She has the Vivlio Zythopoiias and the proficiency and experience to use it to its fullest potential. She has already proven her superiority over you. From a pragmatic standpoint, it makes more sense for me to invest my time and resources with Trish than you. She has assets to better resolve the predicaments I am facing. Therefore, she's the one I'm choosing to ally with. You see the sense in that?"
"Hell, no I don't!" I shouted back. "You're going to trust Trish over me? The girl's a loose cannon. She killed Paragons - members of your guild - at Rosses Point, and for petty reasons. She's been brainwashing Testificates into worshipping her, then siccing Raids on them at the drop of a hat! She's one of the same Berserkers who let Desideratum grip Jolin and kept the citizens there under the boot heels of bounty hunters!" I listed before hissing the last, worst thing. "The girl threw her former boss to her death over a minor argument. You don't know what she'll do next! And that's the person you're putting your trust in? Her!?"
"I'm not trusting her. I'm trusting her profession." Jillian clarified. "I'll be appealing to that which she values: money. Nitebane will pay her for her aid against the Hackers, and, while I maintain that the price is steep, I acknowledge that repelling the Hackers is worth the expense. I take no enjoyment siding with her." She spoke with evident loathing for the Berserker. "It tears me up inside having to ally with someone who killed my guildmates and my citizens alike, but I need to do whatever it takes to make sure Nitebane survives. Nobody is as good with that artifact as her; she's the only one who can match the two Hackers coming in."
"Trish'll just take the money and run! You can't trust her!"
"I trust her more than I trust you to resolve this. But you're right about one thing. She could just take the money and run. Even with the trade deal I'm offering with the Berserkers, bounty hunters are only loyal to money. She could easily cut and run, which is why I've taken the liberty to ensure that won't happen. As we speak my people are... But I don't see that I need to explain this to you." She stopped herself. "Your role in all this is to lay there, out of the way, while I handle things."
"And how will me lying here help stop the Endward Cult?"
"You misunderstand. I'm not just talking about your role in this coming conflict. It's for all conflict in general. Everything. Your job, until Carys declares otherwise, is to lie back in that cell and stay out of the Paragons' way."
I was stunned in more ways than one by her words. "You... you can't do that! You can't keep me here! We're in an alliance! What are my friends going to think!?"
"Your friends - the more useful ones like Floyd and Noman - will never know you're being imprisoned here. They'll be kept blissfully misinformed so that they'll keep on following Carys' orders."
"What about Baltic? He can't be okay with this!"
"Why wouldn't he be? He followed Carys' orders to the letter."
I felt the familiar chill of betrayal grip my heart. "...What are you saying?"
"Well, I hate to break it to you," Jillian said without sounding upset, "but on the night you made this alliance, Carys had her assassins deliver a set of orders to Baltic. The first order was for the assassins to tail you, report how you acted, and, if need be, kill Lenz and apprehend you should you do anything against the alliance. The second order - regarding you traveling in the vicinity of Nitebane - was to let you or Lenz get captured by bounty hunters and brought in so that Carys could keep you right where she wanted you: Out of the way." Jillian rattled the bars slightly as she hammered in the message. "Baltic and the rest let you be captured on Carys' orders. They knew not to lift a finger to save you. That's why you're stuck here and why nobody is coming to save you."
No... no that couldn't be true. I thought Baltic and I were getting along. I thought we were allies working together. He knew I didn't like Carys, but I thought we settled on a truce to fight the bigger threat.
And the others! Heather, Luis, Wing, Perry, Witige, Trenay, Dwight, Aurand, Doyle, Shroud, Z7. Were they all in on it? After all that time we spent together. Did they really lose on that bridge or were they throwing the fight to make sure I lost?
While I was lost in my thoughts, Jillian pressed her advantage. "I suppose I could give you a bucket of milk. Being eternally withered and poisoned is just cruel. But then I'd have to post guards around you 24/7 and arrange for round-the-clock Slowness and Weakness potions. You wouldn't be blind anymore because we can't recreate that. It's much more convenient to leave you to stew like this. You don't need to be fed, you won't starve, your Health will keep ticking back up. It's just perfect. I'm sure you understand."
To eternally have my health drained and for my guts to clench and twist and burn. Sure. I understood. I felt a bit more of my spirit get knocked out of me by Jillian's words. I was still reeling from what she told me about Baltic that I couldn't talk back.
"When I reported your current condition to Carys, she had a message for me to deliver to you." Jillian had one more knife to dig in. Her voice carried past the bars and into my ears without resistance. "She told me you being imprisoned here while poisoned, blinded, starved, withered, paralyzed, and in agony on a regular basis, and being helpless to do anything about it, still doesn't make up for what you did to Mr. Piggles," I heard her snort, "but it's a start."
I heard her stand up from her seat and knock one arm against the bars to conclude our chat.
"Now go back to your suffering."
Jillian's footsteps petered off and the wooden doors creaked closed while inside my cell I felt another stabbing pain in my stomach that made me wince. I rode out the pain as it engulfed me like a blanket, my previously unshakeable resolve flickering as her words reverberated in my head and demoralized me. I didn't think it possible to feel any worse, but Jillian proved me wrong.
My hatred for Carys flared. It was the only thing burning hot inside me. Everything else was either pain or apathy as I was stuck in that blasted cell, helpless to do anything but take it. Take the indignity, take the humiliation, take the powerlessness. I had to lie back and take it all over a goddamn pig.
I'll get her back for this. I thought with deepest loathing. I'll get her back if it's the last thing I do.
The next day, the Hackers and their army attacked.
Inventory (Cobb): 1 Leather Tunic [Dyed Green]
[EXP: 37]
AN: On that day, Nitebane received a grim reminder...
Hi Dahlia! Bye Dahlia!
*Trish throwing Dahlia overboard* No filler characters allowed!
In all seriousness, maybe I underutilized Dahlia, but her villain role is already over. Her purpose here was just to pick up Trish and Alfosno while also showing how volatile and dangerous Trish can be. She's the type of person to make you think she's backing down, then comes back and stabs you in the throat.
I think the chat between Cobb and Jillian was more fascinating. I spent some time on their dialogue. Also the reveal of what Cobb did to Jade, and how he's reliving the moment given the similar circumstances. I was originally gonna plan to wait before making this information known, but it made more sense to have Cobb revisit it while he's alone.
The tight writing will continue.
FAV. FOLLOW. REVIEW. PM. FORUM. DISCORD. CHEESE DOODLES.
