[EN] The soul blade 8

“Is everything alright?” He looks worried.

“Yes, I’m just… a little bit dizzy.” You lean in again “Why wouldn’t you send one of your own men?” You consider asking the same about other adventurers, but the bones you saw before flashes through your mind again.

“Because I am the only person I can trust within the Dark Lanterns right now. Lucan was a master spy that specialized in counter-intelligence. He revealed hundreds of enemy spy networks during his duty-time and I am not sure if he has any connections left within the organization. It is way faster and better to depend on an outsider’s hand.”

“That makes sense. If he managed to get to the vault without getting detected, that means that he at least knows half a dozen people that helped him.”

“I’m… afraid that is not how it went. As strange as it may seem, he appears to have walked on the tower’s walls as if they were flat ground, bent many new recruits’ will to decipher the vault’s code and kill them afterwards. He… seems to have gained some powers he didn’t have previously.”

“How do you know if he hadn’t been hiding them during his service?”

He looks at you for a long moment, and then talks.

“When you honestly swear loyalty to the Dark Lanterns while wearing a perpetuous pendant,” He points at the pendant that’s still hanging from your neck with his jaw “ your mind connects with it. While synchronized, you can understand our speech and see our letters and documents. If you don’t, the pendant doesn’t recognize you as a member.”

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You nod, slowly, trying to keep the pieces of information you’ve been just given together. Then, your eyes slowly drift onto the drawing.

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“Exactly. That was your second test. If you wouldn’t have been able to see it, I wouldn’t have shared this much with you.”

“So, something must have turned him against you” You suggest

“That is what we suspect. We have scanned his living quarters, and found notes — that he thought he had destroyed— mentioning that he is heading to Trolanport, in Zilargo. We do not know his intentions, but the other word we managed to salvage is ”Krell“. We do not know who or what a ”Krell“ is. Now you know everything I know.”

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You nod as Victor stands up.

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“We will provide you with a magebred horse, consider that part of your payment, and traveling papers that identify you as working for the king himself.”

You stand up and smile.

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“And I hope that you’ll get me some clothes too. I’m not sure if these bandages alone are fashionable enough to be worn by a king’s worker.” You laugh. Victor reciprocates. He does seem like a genuinely nice person.

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You see, Sharn isn’t a place that generally welcomes the king’s eyes and ears. On paper, it is part of King Boranel’s kingdom, but when it comes to reality, it is a city that is a few miles away from the frontier. Most criminals captured near the border are “walked” to this city, as they call it, and killed, to avoid both nourishing and protecting them. That is, until criminals took over it and started “walking” every soldier that came to it, no matter what their rank is, to the border, to send a message of independence. The king’s hands, no matter in what uniform they come, are generally frowned upon. However, maybe all those rumors you heard aren’t true, and not all of them are rotten fellows that only look for money, like you do, in any way they can, unlike you do.