Fire's limbs were still stiffer than he would have liked, but after waking up from a potion-induced sleep that was to be expected. While he was running he reconnected to the Mencur-Besh network and was met with a flood of information.
It seemed that just a few minutes ago an assault on the Mage Guild had started, roughly fifty people armed with crossbows and silver bolts had quickly taken most of the guild by force. From what he heard Emilia Spellblade was still holding out but it seemed that that wouldn't last. It would probably only be a matter of minutes until the wards fell and the front gate opened. So far this was within the acceptable limits, however there was something else that was a much bigger danger than the revolution. Even with the weapons and magical advantage the rebels had, the Royal Guard would have no problem containing them, especially with Bedrock's immunity to magic. That was, if they weren't stopped earlier.
Fire had to reach the central tower as quickly as possible, ideally before the rebels start spreading out. Shadow had informed him of a critical flaw in the eye of the tower, he needed to be there to protect it. It was a wonder that nobody had noticed it earlier. The fact that the flaw was there had suddenly turned a watertight plan into a potentially unfavorable gamble.
As Fire arrived at Carol's door, the inevitable happened, the wards went down. He didn't pay much mind to it, this was expected. Fire knocked on the door, he didn't get an answer. Carol was home, he knew that much from the information from the network. Why wasn't she answering the door?
Fire decided to not put anything at risk by waiting and instead entered an enchanting trance. He knew the enchantments in the artificial bedrock well, in part because he had had a hand in their creation. After he invoked the enchantment, the lock of the door clicked and the door swung open.
The inside of the tower was completely messy, this was unusual. Every time he had been here before it seemed like Carol placed high importance on keeping everything clean. Carol herself was nowhere to be seen.
Fire slowly went up the winding stairs, he took quick looks into the storage room and bedroom floors, with the same results. This was bad, if Carol was in the tower but not on the lower floors…
Fire started sprinting up the stairs after realizing the implications. As he reached the top he suddenly heard something behind him. It took him longer than usual to react, his recent sleep was probably to blame. As he looked over his shoulder he realized that the source of the sound had been Carol firing a crossbow bolt at him. The world around him slowed down. Under normal circumstances he probably could have dodged or even caught the bolt but his delay in noticing it had cost him valuable time.
The bolt impacted the side of Fire's abdomen and as it sunk into his flesh a burning sensation surged from the wound outwards through his entire body. This was no surprise to him, he knew that the tower keeper had silver bolts to defend the tower with. When the burning reached his head, the world around him returned to normal speed. His momentum flung him up the remaining steps, against the low wall that served as a railing.
Carol screamed. She probably hadn't expected him to be the one coming up the stairs, especially since according to her knowledge he was dead.
With every passing second it got harder to move, Fire did his best to assume a somewhat upright position. Even while this close to the eye, his connection to the network had become weak and full of static thanks to the silver. It seemed that the rebels were getting ready to assault the rest of the city with their newfound magical superiority.
Carol said nothing, she just blankly stared at Fire. She then walked over to a chair she apparently had placed there and sat back down. At this point Fire knew what was happening, this was the worst case and he could do nothing to stop it. If Carol touched the eye her spell would directly connect her to the network, there was no telling what would happen then. The gamble was rapidly turning into a losing game.
A few seconds later Carol seemed to remember that she had just shot someone. She slowly got up and looked at Fire.
"Are you okay?" She slowly asked.
Before Fire had an opportunity to answer, Carol looked at the eye and very slowly extended a hand towards it.
Speaking was difficult but Fire said: "Whatever you do, don't touch the eye. It'll kill you, if not worse."
Carol didn't react and continued her motion. Fire said: "If you do this it is a danger to the entire server."
That stopped her.
She said. "I just want to listen."
Fire heard noises at the bottom of the staircase, heavy steps going up, then another set of lighter steps. The sounds of a set of plate armor, the rattles of chain links.
Carol remained frozen in her position, one hand mere centimeters away from touching the eye. A few moments later a bulky figure came up the stairs, without a doubt Captain Bedrock. He was followed by someone else who had the look of a mercenary. His hair was obscured by his chain hood, from his pale, beardless face two grey eyes looked directly at Fire.
Bedrock bellowed: "Tower keeper! Do not touch the eye! That is an order!"
Carol remained frozen for a few more seconds, then slowly repeated her previous statement: "I just want to listen."
This was all the proof Fire needed, the gamble was lost, now it was time for damage control. With what little strength he had remaining he gripped the bolt stuck in his abdomen and pulled on it. After a few seconds it was out, he then rammed it into his other side. Another burning wave rolled through him, this time his connection to the network was severed entirely.
This was no second too early. Carol leaned towards the eye and closed the gap, Bedrock was too far away to react. As Carol's palm touched the eye, a stream of energy shot up her hand and through her body. Her mouth opened and let out a scream that was somewhere between human and demonic. Carol's hand was suddenly pulled below the surface of the eye, the rest of her body quickly followed but her scream kept going until a few seconds after she had completely vanished.
Bedrock balled his fist in anger. "We were too late."
Fire slowly replied: "So was I. What little there was left of Carol is gone now. On a positive note, we are still alive, this could have ended very differently."
The mercenary said: "I don't think I'll ever understand or forget what I just saw.
Bedrock asked: "How badly are you hurt, Fire?"
Fire weakly pointed to the silver bolt. "As hurt as you would expect from this. I'll live for long enough, you're needed out there."
Bedrock nodded and silently went back down the stairs, with a look he wordlessly commanded the mercenary to stay. The mercenary seemed lost, more lost than you would expect of someone in the center of an unknown city.
Once Bedrock was out of earshot Fire said: "So… You found me. What are you going to do, Jack?"
Jack sighed. "Of course you would know my name."
Fire tried his best to shift into a position that was a little more comfortable but remained silent.
Jack asked: "What was that… just now?"
Fire said: "That's what happens when you feed the human brain signals it wasn't exactly designed to handle. It changes to be able to accept those signals but sacrifices many other things, personality being one of them. When she touched the eye her mind was absorbed into the network."
Jack asked: "But the admins surely have some sort of safety built in, right?"
So this really was the right hand man of the hacker who had taken an entire server hostage. When Fire had first read Jack's profile he hadn't seemed like the type to blackmail people with hostages. The fact that he was right in front of him was proof that if one thing he was tenacious. But he was right, there was supposed to be a whole suite of safety mechanisms. Unless… maybe there was hope for him after all.
Fire ignored Jack's question and asked: "So, why would you try to hunt me down?"
Jack said: "You're assembling some kind of backdoor, right?"
"Correct. And there is nothing you can do in here to stop me. The moment I reached my base was when you lost all hope of doing that."
Jack said: "How can you be so sure about that? I could just kill you right now and you'd be set back many days."
Fire said: "I would refrain from doing that while you are connected directly. Hindering my mission might provoke the enforcer."
"How is that relevant?" Jack took a step back.
Fire pointed behind himself. "Why don't you look over the railing and find out?"