Chapter 26: The Circle of Truth

I awoke in a dark room.

My vision was blurry, but I could make out three figures standing in front of a wooden door. Above me was a single, dim light—and it was doing no favors for my throbbing head.

I’d been beaten—savagely, I realized.

I looked around, turning my head slowly so as to not worsen the throbbing, and saw that the room I was in was empty, filled only with discarded rubbish.

An abandoned building?

I tried to move but found my legs had been tied to the chair. My hands, too, were tightly bound. I reached for my mana. I might have been physically constrained, but they couldn’t leash my magic.

Spellcasting failed.

You are inside a dampening field. Your mana, psi, and stamina abilities have been inhibited.

Uh. I guess I was wrong. Sagging listlessly, I accepted the truth. I was trapped.

“What… doesn’t know anything?”

“Of course… does. She… one Enari told… about.”

Enari?

“But… level sixteen… noob!”

“…must know…”

My ears were ringing, which meant I only heard bits and pieces of the hushed conversation between the trio.

Turning my attention inwards, I scanned the Game messages waiting for me hungrily, hoping for some insight into my situation.

Warning! Your health is dangerously low at 19%.

Player status unavailable.

I would’ve snarled if I could, instead I winced. The Game’s message was far from helpful, but they did tell me one thing: whoever held me—us—they weren’t amateurs. They knew how to hold players captive.

There was only Adalinda left to check on.

My lower lip trembled. I’d not checked on the celestial yet for only one reason: the silent gaping silence I felt where she should’ve been. She couldn’t be… could she?

Screwing up my courage, I threw my voice in the void at my center.

“Ada, are you okay?”

No answer.

My pulse quickened. “ADA!”

Still, no answer.

“ADALINDA!” I screamed. “Answer me please!”

“El…?” came a faint whisper.

Relief sang through me. Despite my wounds, despite the cuts and bruise, for one glorious moment, I fell none of it. “Ada, thank goodness,” I cried. “Why didn’t you answer?”

I sensed her unease. “I tried, but I couldn’t… I was fading, I think.”

I didn’t ask her what that meant. I didn’t think I wanted to know.

“I’m… stable now, I think,” she added, sensing the emotions coursing through me. “What about you?”

“I am, barely. Do you know why we’re here? Did you hear anything?”

She sighed. “Whoever our captors are, they’re cautious. I haven’t been able to catch more than snippets of their conversations. I know they’re looking for information, and they think we have it,” Adalinda said.

I looked down, disappointed. She knew as little as I did then. “Can you manifest?”

“I did earlier,” she replied, her voice small.

“Oh,” I said, only now gaining an inkling of the source of her pain.

“They subdued me as easily as they did you. They were going to kill me El,” she said, clearly anguished. “I was forced to flee back to you.”

“It’s alright,” I said soothingly. “The important thing is you’re safe. We’ll figure something out.  What’s your health?”

“About the same as yours,” she said hopelessly. “And I can’t manifest again. The dampening field is stopping me.”

I didn’t know what to say. “We’ll think of something,” I repeated lamely. I didn’t believe it though.

“She’s awake,” one of the voices said suddenly.

I lifted my head to see a dwarf drawing closer. Given his height, his face was level with mine, and it was impossible to miss the hole where his right eye used to be.

The dampening field had blocked my access to my Game abilities, but not to see spirit signatures, and I saw the dwarf’s clearly.

This entity bears a Mark of Greater Light.

He’s a player, which means they probably all are.

“Why have you come here?” he demanded.

“Because you brought me?” I spat.

The dwarf chuckled as he wiped away the gob of spittle that I had let fly from his cheek. Grabbing my neck, he raised me up, lifting both me and the chair clean off the ground.

Gasping, I struggled to breathe.

“Killing her won’t help,” a cool voice to my left said. “Put her down, Groff.”

“Bah!” the dwarf exclaimed, before dropping me and the chair back to the floor. “She’s pathetic.”

Coughing, I glanced in the direction of the second speaker. A human woman was sauntering toward me. She wore a black cape and her hair had been shorn close to the scalp. “We will let you live, but only if you answer our questions,” she said in gentle encouragement.

“What do you want to know?” I rasped, figuring there was no harm in trying to divine what sort of information they sought.

“Who is that women you met with?”

I blinked. “Odenna?”

The woman nodded. “If we believe what you have to say, we might let you live.”

“She’s a herbwoman.” I looked down, trying to conceal the lie in my eyes. “I came to the city looking for health potions. That’s all.”

“You came to shop? In the middle of the night?” Groff asked. “Ridiculous!”

“Why would you go to a herbwoman for potions? Are you that stupid?” the woman taunted.

I flushed. “I’m a noob, you should’ve figured that much by now!”

The human’s eyes narrowed, but before she could question me further the third speaker intervened. “Not everybody has your experience, Glenda.”  She walked into the light, swaying in a distinctive manner. That, her snout-nosed face, and her scales identified her as a lizardwoman.

I had not seen one of her kind in a long time—in fact, it was strange to find any lizard folk in Mesina.

Glenda rolled her eyes. “Not even a noob can be a stupid as this one pretends, Zwela.”

“You have an interesting Class,” Zwela remarked, ignoring her companion. “Empyrean… where did you get it?”

“How do you know what Class I have?” I asked, wide-eyed, and aping the noob they thought me to be.

Although… to be fair, it didn’t take much effort. I was very nearly as uneducated in the Game as they suspected.

Zwela hissed sibilantly. “I analyzed you. It’s a basic ability.”

“A rare Class,” Glenda mused. “Especially for a primary slot. Where did you get the stone from?”

“I found it one of the many piles of garbage lying discarded in the slums,” I lied. “If you search hard enough, you can always find a hidden gem or two.”

Glenda backhanded me across the face. “Do you take me for a fool?”

My face throbbed anew, but I ignored it. For a scrawny woman, she really hit hard. How much Strength has she invested in? I wondered.

“Why, yes I do.” I said, tilting my head in fake consideration. “And a bully too.”

Glenda growled and raised her hand to strike me again, but Zwela caught it before the blow could land. “Back off,” she hissed.

“What were you doing at Odenna’s shop?” the human asked again.

“Looking for health potions, like I told you,” I insisted.

“And you had to go to a herbwoman to do that? All the way across the city?”

“Yes.”

“You’re hiding something,” Groff declared. “She is a damn prole, not even a player. Why go to her?”

I stared at him. “I told you—”

Zwela cut in. “Did you find your Class in the dungeon?”

I gaped at the question. “Dungeon, what dungeon? There are no dungeons in the poor quarter!”

“Did Odenna give you the stone?” Groff probed.

“You said so yourself. She is a prole. What would she be doing with a Class stone?” I retorted.

“You’re a liar,” the dwarf accused. “Why did Eoman send you to her?”

I blinked. How does he know that?

I realized my interrogators were trying to keep me off balance with their seemingly random questions, but slowly, but surely, I was building a picture of what they knew—and didn’t.

“I don’t why Eoman sent me to her,” I said. Which had the advantage of being true.

“Who do you report to in the resistance?” Groff asked.

I couldn’t tell if this was a serious question or not. “What are you talking about?” I snapped. “Resistance against what?”

Glenda cackled.

Groff glared at her.

“You have to admit. She’s dumber than a post,” Glenda remarked.

“Or a very cunning actor,” Groff retorted.

“Really,” Glenda asked. “Her?”

“Groff has a point,” Zwela said. “Our girl here has certainly lied with admirable conviction about things we already know to be false. That either makes her ignorant or a practiced deceiver. Its time to determine which.”

Groff nodded. “I agree It’s time to use the artifact.”

Dwarf and lizardwoman turned to face the human.

“Oh, very well, let’s do it,” Glenda conceded.

Extracting a curiously shaped object from one of her pockets while doing her best to conceal it from my sight, Zwela attached it to the back of my person.

Zwela has activated the circle of truth, an artifact of unknown rank.

A thin blue line materialized from the object at my back, and moving clockwise, gradually encircled me. When the circle snapped close, a strange force suddenly pushed its way into my mind.

All at once, my head felt clearer than it had since I’d awoken. But it was not me in control. Something was compelling me. I tried to speak, but the questions on the tip of tongue refused to emerge.

“Don’t even try,” Zwela said. “Until we’re done, you will only be able to speak when asked to.”

I frowned. I had never heard, much less seen this kind of spell before.

“We have three questions,” Zwela said suddenly. “Who wants to go first?”

“Me,” Groff said and came to a half before me. “Are you part of the resistance?” he demanded forthrightly.

“No.”

The words emerged mechanically from my mouth in direct response to the question, with neither intervention nor encouragement on my part.

“Damn,” Groff cursed. “I really thought she was bluffing.” Still, grumbling, he walked away.

“Next,” Zwela said.

Glenda stepped forward. She took longer than the dwarf to frame her question. “Who is Odenna?”

“An elf,” I said in a monotone voice. “A herbwoman. An old family friend. A mother to me. And a friend of my parents.”

Glenda’s eyes narrowed. “And?” she demanded. “What else is she?”

“You question is done,” Zwela chided. “She has answered you as fully and completely as she can. Step aside.”

Muttering under her breath, Glenda withdrew.

Zwela took her place. She, too, spent a long time studying me before finally speaking, and her question, when it emerged, was remarkably simple. “What is your name?”

“Elana Shanis,” I replied woodenly.

As the words escaped my mouth, the blue circle disappeared, and I felt myself regain control of my faculties.

“Well,” Glenda said, “that was remarkably disappointing.”

Groff grunted. “Was Enari wrong?”

Zwela snorted. “She is never wrong.”

“What do we do then?” Glenda asked.

Neither of her two companions responded.

“Please just let me go,” I whispered. “I’ve answered all your questions, and as you can see, I know nothing.”

All three ignored me.

“Well, she obviously isn’t part of the resistance,” Groff said. “Should we have asked about her bloodline?”

Zwela shook her head. “No matter the questions, the answers we received would’ve been no different. Whatever she is, the girl is clearly ignorant.”

“But that doesn’t mean she’s not a threat,” Glenda said. “Or won’t be one in future.”

“Agreed,” Zwela said.

“So, again, what do we do with her?” Groff asked. “Killing her won’t help and might even create more problems when she turns up in the safe zone.

Zwela shrugged. “We kick it up the food chain. Prepare your reports, and I’ll send them to Enari. Let her make the call. She’s not spymaster for nothing. We’ve wasted enough time with the girl as it is.”

She turned to the dwarf. “And in the meantime, beat her senseless, Groff. Take your time and do it right. I want her an inch from death, but no closer.”

The dwarf beamed. “My pleasure.”

✵ ✵ ✵

The dwarf did his job well, and just the way Zwela wanted.

Time lost all meaning as the spiteful brute beat me over and over, with every type of blunt instrument he could get his hands on, and everywhere he could think of.

Inch by inch, my health dropped.

Warning! Your health is dangerously low at 1%.

Warning! Death imminent.

Until finally, it was done.

“There,” Groff exclaimed, sounding immensely satisfied with himself. “All done now.” He patted my cheek. “Don’t you forget this now, girlie. Oh, and take your time dying, will ya?”

Turning around, he picked up something from the floor and left the room.

A dampening field has been deactivated.

The others had long since gone, and at long last I was alone. Or not completely.

“I’m here, El.” Adalinda said, her voice gentle.

“Please… will… you…” Trying to hold a coherent thought was difficult, but eventually, I got the word out. “… manifest.”

Adalinda has cast manifest, taking the form of a fire lizard. She has 20% psi remaining.

I lost track of time again, but this time knowing Adalinda was around, I let go of it willingly.

Some time later, I felt a tug on the ropes binding me.  Bit by bit, Adalinda sawed through them with tooth and claw, doing her best not to aggravate any of my wounds further.

Until finally, I was free.

When she was done, I tried to stand up. My legs wobbled, and I collapsed—repeatedly—but eventually I managed a step.

I couldn’t give up now. Nothing was broken or bleeding, after all. Groff had made certain of that. I took another step. If I could just get outside and see where we were, maybe I could still find help.

Arrogantly, the players—spies, I corrected, that’s what they’d called themselves—had not taken my backpack.

Pushing my palms gingerly into the floor, I carefully lifted myself upright again. Adalinda helped as best she could, and together we made it to the door, one painful step at a time.

To my surprise, when I stepped outside, I realized, the building I’d been held in was right next to the spot where I’d been knocked unconscious. Odenna’s house was up the street, but in my condition, I knew I’d never make it that far.

I glanced left. There was somewhere closer I could go to for help—if Odenna’s judgement could be trusted. I have no choice, I decided.

Shuffling down the street, I made my way to Tommin’s Apothecary. Inch by inch, I drew closer to my destination. I saw no one, and only after a while, did I realize what that meant—it was nightfall.

Which was both a blessing and a curse.

When I finally reached the shop, I sank to the floor before the door, unable to go any further. So close.

My eyes, failing me, closed on their own accord. And for a time, all I heard was the sound of Adalinda screaming my name.

Then darkness finally took me.