Nick pulled himself back sharply, and the foggy, fractured world was torn apart.

  The canyon night snapped back into place, though the screams were gone, replaced by groans and low conversation.

  Calder Venn’s body lay where he’d left it.

  The bulging veins had disappeared. His eyes were closed now, no longer twitching, and the constant leak of mana had stopped, as whatever remained of him was gone.

  Nick exhaled, feeling a strange combination of satisfaction and sadness in his chest.

  He’d killed plenty of monsters and men before, but it had been a while since he had been so intimately familiar with who they really were. Since he had learned all the stupid, small, human reasons behind the choices that had nearly gotten them all murdered.

  “In your next life,” he murmured, echoing his earlier words, “pick better employers.”

  He forced himself to stand up, pushing away the image of the man’s happy family from his thoughts, and looked around.

  Rocks had been dragged into a rough perimeter, and beastmen lay tied up with roots, clay, and rope in a loose cluster, while their collars had been removed and piled nearby like a heap of poisonous snakes. Calder’s surviving adventurers were similarly restrained, though they’d been given a slightly wider berth from a watchful Malik, Yvonne, and Monte.

  There was some lingering tension, but it was less than Nick expected, which meant they had already explained what caused the current situation.

  Raphael was standing near a freed beastman, speaking softly, and Nick approached just in time to overhear the end of their conversation.

  “…two moons ago,” the beastman said. His voice was rough but clear, and his eyes, now that the collar was gone, showed wary intelligence instead of animal madness. “We were hunting in the northern grassland, but we couldn’t fight back when the mages came for us.”

  “Mages,” Raphael murmured, narrowing his eyes, while Nick focused on something else.

  Two months ago was before the war in the north had reached deep enough in the underworld to get any reasonable supply of dwarven artifacts.

  “You said there were others?” Raphael asked.

  The beastman nodded. “Three other villages were taken. Some went south with us, others to the east.”

  Raphael thanked him and moved back, rubbing a hand over his face.

  “That was long before the first werewolf stepped out of the dungeon,” Raphael said quietly, under his breath. “They were already moving the dwarven collars into position.”

  “This is a long-term project,” Nick replied. I already suspected as much, but it’s good to get confirmation.

  He glanced back at Calder’s corpse. “And they were very clear about their objective,” he added softly. “They don’t want the dungeon to fall into anyone’s hands because of something called the Well, which apparently would make it so their ownership of the dungeon couldn’t be contested.”

  He didn’t know how that squared with the King’s orders, but he was sure this, too, was just part of the great game the two archmages were playing.

  If there was one thing Nick was grateful to Calder for, it was explaining that much.

  Raphael’s head snapped toward him. “The Well?”

  Nick kept his voice low. “I saw it in Calder’s memories. He wasn’t sure what it did, but it was made clear that it was more valuable than his own life, and that he wasn’t the only one who had been given orders to take it.”

  Raphael swore under his breath.

  Deciding what to do with the prisoners was not easy.

  So far, Nick had solved such problems with judicious amounts of violence, but even he wasn’t so far gone as to kill those who had surrendered, especially since Calder hadn’t bothered to give them a rundown of his plans, which meant they’d been all taken by surprise when Nick started fighting back.

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  Several of them, like the ranger and mage who had ambushed him, hadn’t had much trouble switching gears and attacking anyway, so he wasn’t inclined to be particularly charitable. But others, like Lady Kestrel, had been completely focused on fighting the maddened beastmen and couldn’t really be faulted, aside from her choice of companions.

  “No, I didn’t know anything about any such plan,” she reiterated, shaking her head, and Nick could sense her sincerity. “Calder was a familiar face among the local adventurers, a veteran who led many successful missions. I had no reason to doubt his intentions to enter the dungeon when everyone above level forty was doing the same."

  Raphael looked at Malik, who gave a quick nod of acknowledgment. Clearly, the old man had kept his hands clean so far, or at least had been skilled enough to hide any wrongdoings from the public, which only increased Nick’s frustration.

  “I can understand taking a mission from a local noble to scout the dungeon,” he said, “but your team has been here for a while. Why haven’t you gone deeper inside?”

  He knew why. Calder was ordered to eliminate anyone with possible ties to the Tower, that was the reason. However, while Lady Kestrel didn’t seem involved in the plot, she had engaged in some very strange behaviors.

  She might not be personally guilty, but I want to know exactly what she thought was happening before I release the other prisoners in her custody.

  Terence twitched, probably feeling uncomfortable with the level of scrutiny being directed at a noble lady, while Monte watched the scene with a dark look but made no attempt to intervene. He was at least wise enough to understand that what had happened couldn’t simply be dismissed because of her status.

  Kestrel, on the other hand, didn’t seem all that offended. More like frustrated with herself. “I noticed that we were keeping away from the inner area of the dungeon, but I thought it was just a way for him to get a lay of the land, or perhaps even get the others to gain a few more levels before delving deep. It isn’t often that one comes across a wild dungeon, and everyone knows that is the moment when most experience can be accrued. Even those that have been stuck for a long time can finally start growing again in places like this.”

  Having heard enough, Nick turned and left the interrogation to Raphael, moving instead to where the beastmen were resting.

  So it was pure selfishness. She and the others never thought to question the oddness of camping away from their entry point because it was convenient. I guess that’s not too far-fetched.

  The wolfkin who had been the most talkative, Keiron, looked up from his stew with a wary expression, before his gaze dropped slightly upon seeing who was approaching.

  It had taken the beastmen some time to fully shed the effects of the dwarven chains, and it was understandable they’d be cautious of anyone affected by their rampage. But Nick had proved himself by defeating a powerful mage and being the one to identify them as victims, so he was allowed to poke and prod at them without too much annoyance.

  “Any change?” he asked, already taking notice of everything with [Empyrean Intuition]. Without the ability to observe the chains in their active state, he was somewhat limited in what he could learn of their functions, but examining the aftereffects and the traces left behind was not a bad alternative.

  I’m fairly certain I'll encounter more of this stuff before the adventure ends. I should learn as much as I can now.

  “The tremors are gone,” Keiron replied, somewhat indulgent, while the others behind him snorted.

  “I’m still hearing whispers, but they aren’t anything coherent anymore,” a female wolfkin said, offering information without being asked for the first time.

  Nick’s focus sharpened, causing a slight flinch, but she didn’t pull back as he moved closer. A quick gesture made the Shard drift into his open hand, and he lightly tapped it against her temple.

  There was a low hum, like from high-tension coils, and then she relaxed, smiling gratefully. “Thank you.”

  “It’s nothing,” he grunted. He only needed to exert a little spiritual pressure to chase off the leftover psychic mana, once again grateful that, however nasty that art was, it seemed very vulnerable to any kind of spiritual disruption.

  If he had been just a regular mage, or even worse, a knight, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything against such energies, and his journey would have ended in the grassland where he first encountered the dark dwarves.

  It made him wonder how his father was doing up north against an entire army wielding such artifacts, but he decided that a Prestige rank probably had better ways to handle mental intrusions than other martial classes.

  That, and Lasazar was now leading the charge, and that man knew how to handle anything esoteric, whether it be demonic or earthly in origin.

  “Will we be able to return to our homes?” A reedier voice asked, and Nick turned to look at the speaker, a wolfkin with white-tipped ears and tail, who seemed slightly younger than the others.

  He pursed his lips. Technically, nothing was stopping them, but if what they said was true, and there had been a wide-ranging operation in the southern grassland to capture as many wolfkin as possible, despite the scattered nature of their villages, there might be nothing for them to return to.

  He saw that same realization flicker in the older beastmen, but they remained silent, so he shrugged. “Well, once you get to Long Reach, you’ll be able to coordinate with our mentor on how to make the trek back without being harassed, but it might take some time before we're sure it will be safe.”

  The younger wolfkin nodded, seemingly pleased that the answer wasn’t a no, though his eyes stayed tight, as if he was worried about something else.

  Nick looked at him for a moment before reaching over and tapping the Shard against his temple. There was another flinch, which he ignored with practice, and then a sudden relaxation.

  “Ah, that’s better.”

  “I bet it is,” Nick said in amusement. Having their own internal voice turned against them wasn’t something that could be overcome in a few hours, and while he was sure almost every thread of active mana left behind by the chains was gone, it would take time for their minds to heal completely.

  Having finished, he turned back to his teammates and found that they had completed their interrogation and released five of Calder’s adventurers.

  They were the ones who had been completely unaware of the betrayal, and it hadn’t affected them even during the chaos of battle, so it made sense they’d be chosen to lead the group back. Still, he couldn’t help but watch them warily.

  When no one attacked, he relaxed slightly.

  “Alright, we should get moving if we want to make it out of the dungeon by twilight,” Lady Kestrel said as she put her armor back on, apparently having been appointed as the group's leader.

  The beastmen remained cautious, but soon enough, everyone was packed with enough supplies to return to Long Reach, and they received instructions on what to do and say to ensure they were welcomed.

  “Oh, and it’s possible you might come across two adventurers heading north. They are with us, so give them directions on how to reach this place,” Raphael said. “We’ll be scouting the area for a while and using it as our base camp.”

  Kestrel nodded, and the group set off, soon disappearing into the canyons and leaving Nick’s range.

  “Do you think they’ll be fine?” Willow asked, sounding worried.

  “It’s possible House Hone will send someone to kill them all,” Raphael replied, causing a flinch at the bluntness.

  Even Nick looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but he just shrugged. “I don’t think they will. If they have such resources, they’ll probably send them to kill us.”

  “Fantastic,” Nick muttered dryly.

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