Grand Game 337: What Retirement Looks Like (Patreon)

“How?” I gasped. “How is it that you can be what you claim?”

While waiting for his response, I went over everything I’d learned. Matters were no closer to making sense. If anything, they’d grown even more confusing.

Retired players? It sounded like an impossibility. How did a player even leave the Game? I’d never heard any mention of anything like it before. Nor did the moniker, ‘possessed,’ bode anything good. It suggested that Castor and his companions had used dubious means to achieve their new status.

Castor smiled as if he could see my scrambling thoughts.. “Taim, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

“You will get the answers to all your questions in good time. But for now, you will come with us.”

It was a thinly-disguised order, and one I was little inclined to follow. “No,” I said curtly.

“No?” Castor glanced at one of the mages on the opposite line. “You hear that, Avery? Taim here thinks I was asking.” He turned back to me, his eyes cold. “I wasn’t.”

“Be that as it may, I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said with no hint of give in my tone.

Avery flung back his hood. “You think you can take all of us?” he hissed.

I smiled with false pleasantness. “We’ll find out, won’t we?”

Avery matched my smile with one as fake. “I’m going to enjoy this. When we’re done with you, you won’t—”

“You want to leave the dungeon,” Castor said abruptly. “Don’t you?”

I broke off from my staring contest with Avery to glance at him. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Castor laughed, at ease once more. “Didn’t they tell you?” he asked, gesturing to the council. “We control the exit. You’re not getting out of Draven’s Reach without our help.”

I frowned. It was a bold assertion, and one made with such confidence I could not bring myself to doubt it. Still, I glanced at the council, seeking some hint of confirmation.

Surprisingly, it was Stormhammer who nodded as our gazes crossed.

I turned back to Castor. “I see,” I said, backing down from my confrontation with Avery as if it had never happened. “And what will your help cost me?”

“Your body, for starters.”

I blinked. “My what?”

“Your corpse,” Avery interjected, grinning maliciously. “Don’t worry, we don’t need you. Just your body. It’s better, in fact, if you’re not there to foul up the plumbing.”

My lips twisted sourly in realization. “Right. Possession.”

Castor chuckled. “See? You’re finally getting it.”

I rubbed my chin as if I was considering the offer. “So, just to be clear, you want me to die?”

Avery beamed with exaggerated cheer. “Not so stupid this is, is he?”

Taking his words as confirmation, I continued, “And in exchange for one of my lives, you will let me leave the dungeon?”

“For one of your lives and answering all of our questions, the boss just might,” Castor allowed.

I nodded, filing away the information. There were more possessed elsewhere in the dungeon, and Castor, it seemed, wasn’t the one in charge overall. That complicates matters.

“Two lives might be even better,” Avery quipped. “How many do you have remaining, Taim?”

Ignoring him, I kept my gaze fixed on Castor. “What questions?”

“Nothing too difficult. Where you’re from, how you entered the dungeon, what’s going on in the Kingdom, and how you managed to locate the seed in the fog bank. Things like that. Simple, really. Now why don’t you have a seat, and we can get started?”

Why do they keep trying to get me to sit? I wondered irritably. It’s almost as if—

I broke off, eyes narrowing. Reaching out with my will, I analyzed each of the other players one by one. To my relief, Castor was the only elite amongst them. “Ghost, sink down to the floor below. Find an empty room and wait for me there.”

Bobbing her head in acknowledgment, the spirit wolf exited the room wordlessly.

Castor meanwhile was waving his hand to gain my attention. “Taim, did you hear me? I said: sit down.”

I glanced from the chair to the possessed. “Why?” I asked mildly. “So, your trap can snare me?”

Castor’s face tightened nearly imperceptibly.

That the chair was trapped was only a guess, but the possessed’s reaction implied that I wasn’t wrong. Whether he spoke truly or not, Castor didn’t intend on negotiating with me in good faith.

“You can see tier five wards?” he asked, his eyes resting speculatively on my spectacles.

“I can,” I lied.

The possessed leader’s gaze shifted towards Avery. “Go ahead. Take—”

Not waiting for him to finish, I pressed my finger down on the trigger in my hand.

A blot of darkness trap has been activated.

Two explosion traps have been activated.

Multiple hostile entities have failed to detect you! You are hidden.

Plumes of dense blackness mushroomed out from beneath me, enveloping me, the possessed, and the four councilors. Tugging gladly at the darkness, I vanished from sight. At the same time, twin explosions wracked the hall’s main doors, ripping them off their hinges and blowing them apart.

Dagen has died.

Nestor has died.

The two New Haven sentries perished instantly, and I felt a sliver of regret at their passing. It was the possessed who were the true targets of my ire, but the guards’ deaths were unavoidable—and necessary misdirection on my part.

In the hall itself, chaos reigned.

The sudden shift to violence had caught the possessed unprepared and contradictory orders were shouted. The mages first scattered, then tried to regroup. The councilors wisely ducked under the table, then not so wisely began to shout or cry—I couldn’t tell which—adding to the general mayhem.

Long seconds later, weapons were finally aimed, to point at where I’d been, the chair, and everywhere I wasn’t. I’d already repositioned and placed myself out of harm’s way.

“Find him!” Castor screamed when he realized his quarry had flown. “And someone get rid of this bloody cloud.”

Nestled in the corner farthest from the destroyed doors, I smiled. My foes were all blinded. I, on the other hand, could see perfectly well, and for one reckless moment, I was tempted to wreak further havoc in their ranks, but the possessed were too much of an unknown quantity to tackle just yet. And that was not even factoring in that Castor was an elite. I may have gotten the upper hand over him, but I was certain I would not retain the advantage for long.

“Guard the door!” Avery shouted. “He is going to flee that way.”

He was only half right. I was going to flee. Only I wasn’t going to do it using the door. Weaving psi, I shadow blinked.

You have teleported to Ghost.

I emerged beside my companion, transitioning between one second and the next from chaos and shouts to silence and calm. Glancing around, I saw I was in a storage room of some sort. “Nice work,” I told Ghost.

Rising to my feet, I drew psi and cast another spell, then pressed a stud on my belt.

You have cast facial disguise, assuming the visage of Dagen. Duration: 3 hours.

You have activated the simple mode enchantment of the belt of the chameleon. Your armor and weapons are now hidden.

None of the New Havens knew I could teleport, and I hoped they would remain guessing about the manner of my escape for a long time yet. Wearing the face of the dead hall guard, I exited the room.

It was time to leave.

✵ ✵ ✵

Fleeing the fortress proved easy.

Barely any of the castle servitors glanced in my direction as I made my way to the gate. The fortress at large had not been put on alert, and I was simply one more face amongst many. When I neared the keep’s main doors, I blinked out with Ghost’s help, leaving the guards posted there none the wiser.

“Do we flee the city?” she asked.

I glanced up. The protective dome around the city was still active, and given that the possessed would almost certainly be hunting me, I expected it would stay in place a while longer.

“Not yet,” I replied. “We’re only just beginning to untangle matters in New Haven. Before we leave, I want to understand the entirety of what is going on.”

“Where do we go from here then?”

I thought about the question for a moment. “First, we return to the antique shop.”

Ghost’s ears went flat in confusion. “You want to talk to the old man again. Why?”

“He’ll know where I can find Elron. If anyone has answers, it will be the marshal.”

✵ ✵ ✵

You have cast facial disguise, assuming the visage of Taim.

You have teleported to Ghost.

Swapping my face to one Gamil knew, I shadow blinked into the center of the shop. It was as empty as before. “Where is he?” I asked Ghost, who’d already scouted the building.

“In the back room,” she replied.

Lifting my head, I called out. “Gamil? You here?”

Footsteps shuffled closer from the back of the building, and the curtains partitioning the rooms parted to reveal the old shopkeeper. “Taim,” he remarked with mild surprise. “You’re back.” He limped closer. “Elron not with you this time?”

I shook my head. “The marshal is why I’m here, actually.”

The shopkeeper tilted his head to the side and looked at me questioningly.

“I’m trying to find him. Do you know where he lives?”

“At work, where else?” Gamil chuckled. “That boy spends more than half his time in the barracks with his men. You’ll find them near the city’s southeast tower.”

I shook my head. “I can’t meet him there. I need somewhere... more private.”

The amusement faded from the old man’s face. “What’s this about?”

I hesitated. I could placate him with lies, but sooner or later, I expected everyone in the city would know that I was a wanted man, and when that happened, I did not want Gamil running to the authorities.

Better to tell him the gist of what happened and learn now how far he can be trusted. “There’s been trouble,” I said finally. “With the council. I’m being hunted.”

“Is Elron alright?” he asked sharply.

“He is, or I think so anyway. The marshal wasn’t with me during the council meeting. And before you ask, I don’t mean him harm. But he is possibly the only one in the city still willing to help me.”

“Elron left you alone with the council?” Gamil asked, still seeming puzzled by that bit.

I nodded.

“Huh,” he grunted. “That’s not like him. The only time I’ve known him to…” Falling silent, the old man scrutinized me for a drawn-out moment. “This business, does it involve the possessed?”

I drew in a sharp breath. “You know about them?”

He spat to the side, not hiding his disgust. “Unfortunately, I do.”

“Does everyone in the city?”

Gamil shrugged. “Sort of. The possessed are an... open secret. Nearly everyone has heard of them, but few understand their true nature, and no one likes to talk about them.” His eyes drifted towards the back room. “You must have guessed by now that the possessed are the source of the artifacts you purchased.”

I nodded slowly. “Did you buy the items from them?”

“Not directly,” he said. “But just like the rest of us proles, the possessed have no use for Game items, and over time they’ve abandoned them.”

“After which they made their way into your hands,” I concluded.

He nodded. “Are the possessed the ones after you?”

“They are,” I said heavily. “Which is why I need to find Elron.” I held his gaze. “Will you help me?”

“I will,” he said with barely a flicker of hesitation. “Elron has a house in the southern city quarter. He doesn’t leave the barracks often, but when he does, you will find him there.” Pulling a map from a nearby shelf, he began scribbling on it. “Here, let me direct you.”