The warehouse was dark and empty as the intel said it would be. Ty and I moved in through the window and first scanned the environment for people. When we found the warehouse empty, we quietly moved to the back. We moved down the hall and I check the first room on the right while Ty checked the room on the left. The room was a manager’s office and with a cursory glance everything in the room was related to the everyday running of the warehouse.
Sensing that this room was a dead end, I came back into the hallway and met Ty who also found nothing. Ty led the way down the hall looking for another office, but we did not see anymore offices in the building. Once we were about 30 feet down the hall, lines started lighting up around Ty and the walls dissolved like smoke revealing 8 people in robes around the room and a blue sphere floating in the middle of the room.
“Ty!” I reached for my friend, but was burned by blue light that was wrapping around him. I could nothing as his skin started a faint glow as he floated toward the sphere. Two more robed figures came walking down the hall from the warehouse floor.
“Run.” I heard Ty croak out. There were six robed figures around the room that were chanting the spell that was affecting Ty. If I could eliminate one of them then maybe I could stop the spell. As I turned to the entrance of the room the two cultists from the hall were in the room with their clubs drawn. I backed further into the room toward one of the spellcasters and drew my sword. I never made to the spellcaster. One of the cultists took a swing at me while the other circled around me. I blocked the swing and took a step toward the attacker. I tried to duck under him and felt a stinging pain in my right arm. Having dropped my sword, I made a break for the door. I felt my shirt pull into my neck as it was grabbed from behind me. I was thrown to the floor and turned to look up at my attackers.
“You’re not going anywhere. We paid good money for you.”
“What do you mean?” I thought about the implications of what he said. Perfidia had double crossed us. It looks like this may be the place that my short life will end. I turned and looked at Ty whose soul was now extracted from his body. It floated up and joined the blue sphere in the middle of the room. Ty’s body fell lifeless to the floor.
“It’s your turn nex…ugh” I looked back at the cultist who now had a sword sticking out of this chest. Tenara was standing behind them.
“We need to go Jasum. It’s too late for Ty. With the ritual over, we are going to be outnumbered.” I did not like it but Tenara was right. Ty was gone, I needed to survive. I ran back to the hallway while Tenara was attacking the other cultist. As I burst into the warehouse main room, Tenara’s magic surged and blasted the hallway collapsing the second floor into the hallway. With this we were able to escape into the night.
“I’m sorry, I had no idea that Perfidia was going to betray you like that. I don’t deal in souls.” I stayed silent. My life as I knew it just ended. I had nowhere else to go and now my only friend was dead. “Go to the adventurer’s guild in the North East Quarter. Ask for Cassian and tell him that I sent you. I will need to stay to stop Perfidia from looking for you. Cassian will help you get set up as an adventurer. You should be strong enough now.” (Tenara)
“I will become strong enough so that I will not be stepped on again.”
“You are strong. You have survived the orphanage and then the thieves guild. You will survive this. You can’t let this loss stop you from moving forward. There is nothing left for you here. Go and live your dream.” (Tenara)