Advent of Eternity - Chapter 87 (Patreon)

Cyll ran a hand through his hair, trying to figure out a solution to the predicament he’d thrown himself into.

“I knew the guild would send someone,” a boy said, his eyes red and cheeks stained with tears. He choked on his own words, trying to get control of his emotions and failing. A little girl sharing his cage trembled behind him, holding onto the boy’s clothes like a safety blanket. She could barely muster the courage to look out at Cyll.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Cyll muttered. “Godsdamn it.”

More of the people started to approach the bars of their cages, daring to hope as the reality of their captors’ deaths set in.

“Thank the gods,” a woman said from a cage to Cyll’s side. Her head was covered with a tarp bag that muffled her words. “Get me out of this damn thing and take these cuffs off me. I was beginning to think the guild forgot about us.”

More people called out to him in a mixture of thanks and requests to be freed. Cyll groaned, tugging at his hair. Knell probably could have figured something out, but he’d never been much of a strategist.

“Quiet, please!” Cyll yelled. Everyone snapped their mouths closed and Cyll chewed his lower lip. If only everyone had their eyes covered like the woman had. Then this wouldn’t have been an issue at all.

“You need to hurry,” the covered woman said. “Those bastards could come back, and their leader has a pretty powerful Path that lets him hypnotize you. What are you waiting for?”

He couldn’t even just leave. They’d seen his powers, and the idea of silencing them all filled Cyll with disgust. Even if they were just short-lived mortals, mowing down dozens of them just to avoid an inconvenience was the act of someone who followed the gods, not one who fought them.

Cyll approached the cage with the children and studied the lock on it. “Did any of you see who had the key?”

“It was the person you killed first,” the boy said, trembling. Cyll didn’t quite see why – the slavers were all dead, after all. He turned and strode across the floor of corpses, fingering a bloody hole in his tattered clothes. “He kept it on a chain around his wrist.”

He found his target and lifted the dead man’s hand, where the chain and key hung. Cyll tugged on it, but he couldn’t quite get it past the man’s palm. With a snarl, Cyll snapped several of the man’s fingers and ripped the chain off.

“Oops,” Cyll said, dropping the hand back to the ground and returning to the cage. He stuck the key inside the lock and twisted it before stepping aside and pulling the door open. Iron creaked. The boy stared at him, unmoving.

“Ah, I’m actually on a secret mission.” Cyll cleared his throat. “I have some illusion magic that lets me fake getting injured to get the bad guys. I’d appreciate if you don’t tell anybody about it, or it might make it harder for me to save more people in the future.”

The boy set his jaw and gave Cyll a sharp nod. The motion was somewhat ruined by the snot running out of his nose and the tearstains on his face. “I won’t, mister. I swear.”

“Well, go on,” Cyll said impatiently, walking over to the next cage and opening it. “You heard the bag lady. The bad guys are coming back, so you need to get out of here.”

He followed the children’s gaze to the corpses covering the floor, blocking the path to the door. Cyll sighed and kicked them out of the way, pushing the blood covering the floor back with his foot. “See? Nice clean path. Go on. Git.”

The boy swallowed. He grabbed the little girl’s hand and ran as fast as he could – which wasn’t particularly fast at all – across the room. They scampered out the door and up the stairs. Cyll shook his head and went around the room, releasing the other captives.

“Bless you. What branch of the guild are you with?” a thin, malnourished old man asked as Cyll helped him out of the cage. “I’ll make sure whatever reward the guild has promised you will be doubled. I might not have much left in me, but I didn’t want to go out like this. I owe you everything.”

Cyll cleared his throat. “Third party. Killing slavers was payment enough. Please just keep my abilities secret, or it could cause me some serious trouble later.”

The man pressed a hand to his chest and bowed, his legs shaking from the effort. “You are a great man.”

Cyll snorted. He helped another man out of the cage and gestured at the older one. “Help this guy get out of here. Get your feet moving.”

The two staggered out and Cyll went around the rest of the room, freeing everyone else. Finally, he wrapped back around to the front, where the woman with the canvas bag on her head sat, twitching impatiently.

“Your turn,” Cyll said with a grunt, opening the cage and dragging her out feet first. She hit the ground with a bump and cursed.

“You left me for last. Seriously?”

“I was getting everyone out,” Cyll snapped. “No need to trip over yourself thanking me.”

“Just get the cuffs, please,” the woman said curtly, rolling over. Her hands were locked behind her back and bound in black, slimy chain. The lock was made of the same disgusting black material.

Cyll stuck the key into it and twisted. The lock resisted him. His eyes narrowed.

“Hold on. There might be a proper way to–”

He twisted with all his force. The lock gave just as the key snapped and the chains fell off the woman’s hands, disintegrating as they hit the ground.

“Good thing I freed you last, or everyone would have been stuck here,” Cyll said dryly.

The woman snatched the bag off her head and threw it to the ground. Her face was stern, but had yet to fully develop lines from years of scowling. She was probably toward the end of her younger years, with dirty blonde hair and cold, yellow eyes.

She extended a hand to him expectantly.

“What are you, a princess?” Cyll asked, grabbing her by the collar and yanking her upright. “You could look a little grateful.”

“Gods, you’re uncouth,” the woman said, her eyes wide. She brushed her collar off and shook her head, blinking furiously. “You do good work, though. Illusion, you said?”

“Better if you forget all about it,” Cyll said with a sigh. “Please, the exit?”

The woman rubbed her wrists and nodded. She glanced around the room, locating the exit and starting toward it. She turned back and watched Cyll, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

“Waiting for something?”

“Nope. Just enjoying the scenery.” Cyll followed after her, repressing the urge to curse.

“Who are you?” the woman asked. “I’ve never known the guild to work with third parties.”

“Does it matter? I saved your asses.”

“And you speak like a pirate. You do good work, though,” the woman said as they headed up the stairs. Cyll’s eye twitched.

“That’s me. Loud and effective, like a big ole dog. I can bark on command, too.

“Oh? Do demonstrate.”

Cyll bit back a laugh – he wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction.

“Weren’t you concerned about that leader coming back and causing problems?”

“That was only before you unchained me,” the woman replied, turning back to smirk at him. “I was caught unawares before. That will not happen again. If you won’t tell me your affiliation, at least give me your name.”

“No.”

“What? Why?”

“You don’t seem to understand the concept of wanting to remain anonymous. I just saved your stupid bum – the least you could do is not question why.”

The woman spun, crossing her arms and Cyll nearly ran into her.

“Are you trying to annoy me? I asked you a question, you hairy brute!”

“Hairy brute? Did you learn your cursing skills from a nanny?” Cyll asked with a snort. “Get out of my way, shrimp. Your attitude is begging for a boot up your ass, and I’m not nearly nice enough to deny it much longer.”

Her eyes widened. “How dare you? Nobody speaks to me like that! I – wait. Do you not know who I am?”

“I genuinely could not care less,” Cyll replied. He stepped past her, pushing the door open and stepping into the night. Yells were rising up around the city as the escaped slaves cried for help. That wasn’t good. He needed to get out of here.

“You mean you didn’t come there to save me?” the woman asked, grabbing the back of his shirt as he made to leave.

“I’m about to un-save you,” Cyll said flatly, whacking her hand off. “You don’t have much rattling around inside your head, do you?”

“You saved us for no reason?” the woman asked, completely ignoring him. “Not because I was there?”

“I. Do. Not. Know. Who. You. Are,” Cyll said. “And if you want to repay the favor, you don’t know me either.”

The woman stared at him, her eyes seemingly searching for any signs of deceit. Cyll turned and strode into the night, leaving her behind him. He didn’t have any more time to waste on her.

He wove through the streets in case anyone had tried to tail him. Guards ran through the streets toward the warehouse as yells rose up. In order to avoid the crowds, Cyll hopped between alleyways and kept to the shadows. It took nearly an hour for him to return to the inn, where he climbed back into his room through the window.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Cyll stripped off his ruined clothes. There wasn’t much left of them in the first place – the slavers had been pretty thorough about that. He briefly considered returning to their warehouse to piss on their bodies, but decided that probably wasn’t worth the effort. Probably.

Once he was properly clothed once more, Cyll slipped out of the room. He wasn’t sure where Knell was sleeping, so he padded over to Stix and Maya’s room and rapped on the door quietly.

It swung open almost instantly. Cyll raised an eyebrow as he came face to face with Maya rather than Stix. She stepped outside and shut the door behind her.

“I wasn’t doing anything,” Maya whispered.

“Didn’t accuse you of doing something, but now I think you are,” Cyll whispered back. “Why are we whispering?”

“I don’t want to wake Stix up.”

Cyll cocked his head to the side. “Are you telling me you’re trying to run away? That doesn’t seem like a very wise move considering I’ve been ordered to make sure you don’t do exactly that.”

“What? No. I’m going to go train. I just didn’t want to wake her up.”

“Right,” Cyll said. “Not suspicious in the slightest. What are you training?”

“Everything.”

“Very thought out. Nice,” Cyll said. “Don’t care, though. Where’s the Cap sleeping? I need to talk to him.”

“That room,” Maya said, pointing across the hall. She paused and sniffed the air. “You smell like blood. Like, really badly.”

“I had a rough night. Go back in your room.”

Maya pursed her lips and turned, walking back through the door. She shut it quietly and Cyll shook his head. That was Knell’s problem, not his. He walked over to the door Maya had indicated and knocked on it.

A minute later, it creaked open. Knell’s glowing yellow eyes faded back to their normal color and the captain shook his head. “I interrupted my meditation. This better be good, Cyll.”

Cyll cleared his throat and followed his captain inside the room. “About that…”