"Why did you come back?"
"Things didn't go as planned, and I couldn't return then."
"Do you have any idea what I've suffered because of you?"
"Like what? Did the little boy get a boo-boo?"
"Don't you dare mock me. Do you know how they tortured me?"
"Oh, really? I didn't notice you when I was resting in Adi's room. So who tortured you, boy? They broke your legs and bruised your ribs a little. Mommy will pet you now, and you'll stop crying."
"You're lying. If you'd been in Adi's torture chamber, you wouldn't be standing here. Everyone who goes in there comes out a vegetable. And you're trying to convince me that you were caught and escaped from there? That's a stupid lie."
I turned around and took off my robe. Unlike my stomach, I hadn't had time to remove the burns from my back – more important things came first. It had all healed, but the burn scars remained and hurt – though compared to the pain from a few days ago, it was nothing. The room's light was enough for him to see my disfigured body in all its glory.
"But those are healed burns – how could they heal so fast?"
"Idiot. Who healed you a few days ago?"
"But how did you escape?"
"That's none of your business, little whiny boy. I came to get you out of the city, but it turns out that instead of a brave young man, all that's left is a little crying girl with broken legs. If you're broken, why haven't they killed you?"
"I'm not broken, I just…" He'd clearly been under pressure for a long time – a young kid who'd seen too much evil but hadn't yet become a hardened survivor. I'd given him hope, and then that hope shattered when I didn't come back – and he couldn't hold on anymore.
"So, did the clan find out you'd recovered?"
"I left the house and tried to escape the city, four days after you left. They caught me at the gate."
"And what's the plan now? What are they going to do with you?"
"They're bringing a mind-mage to break me, turn me into a puppet. After that, I'll sign the deed to my ancestral lands with my own hands – even though they already control them, they want official documents stamped by an imperial clerk, just in case."
"But I thought they were planning to rebel and secede from the Empire – what documents?"
"They're not rebelling. There's an ancient treaty – the clan submits to the Emperor as long as he protects them and supports them against external enemies. They're deliberately provoking nomadic attacks to have a legitimate reason to secede. At the moment of secession, the land they legally own will remain theirs – that's why they're buying up all the land around here. Everyone who could, fled the clan's territories."
"And this mind-mage – is he coming here? Is it the heir by any chance?"
"Turiy? No, of course not. He wouldn't bother with someone this small. They'll probably bring their mind-master – he'll break my mind easily."
"Are there many such masters?"
"No, mind magic is very rare. Only two are studying at the Djer Academy, and they went there because of Magister Turiy. The clan has only one master besides the heir."
"Are you familiar with their stealth expert?" I described the man who'd caught me.
"The Osm's hunting hound – no one knows his name. He recently returned to the city. One of the most secretive figures in the clan – there's no proof of his existence, and everyone who sees him usually dies. I know about him because when this all started, many of my family were killed by him. I saw him once, but they decided to leave me alive, and I didn't die."
"Alright, then it's time to get you out of the city. When is this master supposed to come?"
"I thought he'd come today, but he didn't – so tomorrow. We need to leave before he arrives."
"On the contrary. As I understand it, this master is a valuable asset to the clan – it would be rude to leave without greeting him."
"You want to kill their mind-mage? Do you have any idea what kind of hunt they'll start for you?"
"I don't think anything will change – they're already hunting me. Tell me, do you have something that can hide emanations coming from an object?"
"What kind of emanations?"
"Ki emanations."
"The Faraya box should work – it completely shields artifacts. What are you trying to hide?" "Just an item with lightning attributes – it gives off a strong signature." I wasn't about to tell him I planned to steal from his basement, specifically the Ring of the Priest of Darkness. "Can you find such a box in your parents' room on the second floor – the last door on the left from the stairs? And how do you plan to get out of the city?"
"I'm going to blow up the city gates."
The kid was clearly frightened by the maniacal smile on my face. Speaking of my face – the first thing I'd done when I entered the house was look in a mirror. The skin on my face and head was smooth, no scars left, with short millimeter-long hair visible. The disfigurement was behind me – I just needed to grow my hair out, and I'd be a beauty again. I'd always taken care of myself, even when I was a man – and in a woman's body, I certainly wasn't going to become a hag.
I found the box in the room – it had runes of concentration, cleansing, and reflection woven together in an intricate pattern, the runes passing through each other. The box was made of simple dark wood. I took it and went down to the second basement level, straight to the treasure chest. I scooped the Ring of the Priest of Darkness into the lid and closed the box. Only then did I examine the rest of the chest's contents. There were four spatial rings, among other things. I divided the loot into three parts and put them in the rings – one hid in a crevice in the wall, one I put on my finger, and the third I decided to give to the rightful owner. I also found a beautiful black tunic in the rooms and put it on.
After finishing my looting, I returned to Part's room. Healing his fractures took ten minutes, and then I started planning the escape. On the first basement level, there was plenty of junk – in particular, I filled my ring with dried meat and tools. Fortunately, I'd left all my books by the chest in the basement, and I still had the unread blacksmithing book. There was plenty of rotten wood – I started stamping out fire and light mines on them. I was afraid of these things, but they'd proven a hundred percent effective. I finished late at night and went to sleep – tomorrow would be a very hard day.
In the morning, I positioned myself in Part's room and waited for the guests. They came an hour before noon – the two brutes who'd been feeding Part, and two new faces, both system-users – one level 19, the other over 25. As soon as they entered the dark room, the level-19 system-user approached Part and placed his hands on his temples. "I need forty minutes – the boy's resisting strongly."
The others nodded; the two brutes left the room, and the high-level one stood guard. I was in stealth at the far end of the room. Approaching him was problematic – I'd have to expose myself to the mind-mage, and I didn't know his Perception level. I had to improvise – I decided to use a skill I'd only used a couple times: Shadow Leap. The teleport happened in a fraction of a second, but in that fraction, my brain registered the world in shades of dark gray. I landed in the system-user's shadow and immediately struck with both hands – to the neck and the temple. Both blades went in only about four centimeters – his body toughness was high. But I'd long figured out these system mechanics: if you can't land a killing blow, drain their health bar to zero. I immediately struck again – to the temple on the left and a stab to the ear on the right. The ear strike went all the way in, but I couldn't hit the same spot on the temple, only grazing the brain. The fact that brain damage wasn't lethal and could be easily healed was insane – but what could you do, it's the system.
Still, that didn't finish him – the brute elbowed me in the chest, sending me flying across the room. Before I hit the wall, a violent headache began – it felt like red-hot needles were piercing my brain. The mind-mage had joined the attack on me. I slammed into the wall and slid to the floor. The mental attack lasted only a microsecond before my defenses repelled it, but it disoriented me and cost me momentum. The brute charged – he was slower, but I couldn't get into position in time. This was a failure; even if I escaped, the whole plan was shot.
I rolled left to avoid his kick. The mind-mage stared at me, apparently trying to attack again, but the element of surprise was lost, and my defenses held. To the brute's credit, he immediately angled sideways to slash down at me with his sword. Shadow Leap – I appeared behind Part's bed. He was unconscious. The two cheerful friends tried to find me and couldn't. I didn't even think about continuing the fight – I lay quietly in stealth, reconsidering my next steps. I couldn't leave Part to them – they'd turn him into a puppet and take the lands. At least here I could screw the Osms.
The brute acted smartly – he immediately positioned himself in the doorway, cutting off my escape. The mind-mage scanned the room, searching every shadow; within three seconds at most, he'd spot me. Part's room opened onto a narrow corridor ending in a large foyer. I had a Plan B, and I'd even rehearsed it. I wish I could say my conscience tormented me and I faced a hard choice – but nothing of the sort. In one and a half seconds, I charged a light mine – it would explode in two seconds. Shadow Leap into the corridor, then immediately into the foyer. My core and meridians ached badly from this trick, but there was no choice. I immediately rolled behind the stairs to the second floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the mind-mage run out of the room – and at that same moment, I closed my eyes and ducked.
There was no sound – the light exploded silently, simply incinerating everything in its path. When my vision cleared, I walked toward the room. The mind-mage lay face-down, his entire back coal-black – the light had burned him. But to my surprise, he was still alive – though clearly on his last breath. Without hesitation, I drove a dagger into his head, then his heart. I entered the room – everything was black; nothing remained of Part, not even a corpse. The brute lay dead on the floor. The two remaining ordinary soldiers were in the next room – the wall had shielded them from the light, and they'd only heard the noise during our fight. They sat silently on chairs, doing nothing. I killed them in under a second. I grabbed the bag of mines from the foyer and left the house.