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  "At least we captured the snake's head," noted Izzy. "What Hadrian accomplished took a lot of careful planning. I doubt Jackie and the Rough Riders have the finesse to fill those shoes."

  Izzy was right. The stalemate was just as damaging to Hadrian as it was to us. Even more so considering he was in a cell.

  But that was in a normal situation. With Haven launching in three days, the pressure was flipped to us. The end goal wasn't catching Hadrian, it was undoing all the strife he'd manufactured. Without his full surrender and cooperation, I didn't see how that was possible anymore.

  "So we're boned," said Kyle.

  Stigg nodded with enthusiasm.

  I quizzically studied the Viking. "Like, totally, utterly screwed," I added.

  Stigg's nodding grew more emphatic.

  I pressed my lips together. "Stigg is a big fat dummy."

  The mystic's head bobbed up and down in agreement.

  I paused and took in the big man, bright red robe and mane of black curls. I squinted, brushed his hair aside, and pulled a pearly bud from his ear. "Are you listening to headphones?!?"

  Stigg's eyes went wide. "Shh! They're not headphones, they're enchanted sound stones."

  "THEY'RE HEADPHONES! How'd you even..."

  "Look," he said, pulling out the other ear bud, "you get a legendary dragonspear, Izzy has the winter staff. You don't think ol' Stigg deserves some loot?"

  "I..." I was speechless. I didn't really know how to respond to his sensible appeal. I placed the unattached ear bud to my ear, but couldn't get it too close due to the combination of raging guitars and ridiculous volume. I handed the item back to him. "You haven't heard a word we said, have you?"

  He shrugged. "Just point me where you want me and I'm there."

  "We've started using party chat to keep him in the loop," explained Dune.

  I scratched my head. "Okay, cool... I guess I just didn't know you were a fan of heavy metal."

  The big man snorted. "What did you think? I'm a thirty-year-old man with wild hair, a glorious beard, and I dress up like a Viking. How could I not bang out to metal?"

  "Good point. What do you listen to?"

  "Mostly Mongolian rage metal, but some Nordic punk and Badlands chopper core too.

  Everyone stared blankly at him.

  "You know," he remarked, "Engines of Dissection, Apocalypse Bagpipes, and the Entrails of Our Souls?"

  Everyone stared blankly at him.

  "Screw you guys." Stigg put his ear buds back in.

  Kyle lit up. "Ooh! You got Post Malone?"

  "Glad everyone's having so much fun." I snorted and turned to leave.

  Izzy hurried to keep up. "Talon."

  "I know what you're gonna say, Iz. I just don't think everyone's taking this as seriously as they should."

  "What do you expect them to do? We're cooped inside a city, XP ground to a halt." She pinched my side. "Have you noticed how many cheap shots we take at each other when we're stuck in close quarters like this?"

  I nodded.

  "People need an outlet for that tension. Trust me, I know that need more than anyone."

  Despite my best efforts, a smile crooked the corner of my mouth. "Isn't that the truth? You're the queen of avoidance."

  "That's right. And when I can't go out adventuring it forces me to process."

  "The horror. How do you deal with such torment?"

  She yanked me into a branching hallway. As the rest of our crew headed to the exit, Izzy playfully dragged me to a dark corner. "Oh, I find ways to keep busy." Her clothes suddenly vanished, replaced by a lime-green push-up bra, garter belt, and stockings.

  "Wow," was all I could say before she pressed her body and lips to mine. It suddenly hit me and I broke away. "So that's why we've been having so much sex lately." I chewed my lip. "We should have sieges more often." She kissed me again to shut me up. The moment was invigorating but lamentably short-lived.

  "If you're gonna insist on locking lips," groused Chadwick from his cell, "at least do me the decency of shutting the hell up. And some popcorn would be nice."

  Izzy's midnight-blue tunic immediately covered her sexy ensemble. I scowled and turned to the locked door. The weaselly gangster's face was pressed to the barred window set into his cell door.

  "Oh great," I snarked, "a room with a view."

  "And that's the best view you'll get!" snapped Izzy as she stomped away. I went to follow her.

  "Look at you," spat the deposed gangster. "You think you're running this town, do you? You think you're safe out there, but Nooner's the real threat. Do you really think you can trust him?"

  "I know," I sighed, "he's a Galatian. What's your excuse?" He scowled and I moved close to the bars. "The difference between you and Nooner is, when push came to shove, he worked to protect the town. You're nothing but a parasite." I abruptly turned away and continued down the hall.

  "You're wrong about him," he called after me. "He'll turn on you first chance he gets!"

  I stormed outside, foul mood dissipating as I hooked an arm around Izzy's waist. We giggled and exited the jail yard to the city streets. "We were bound to relocate anyway," I pointed out. "As much as I appreciate that green getup, I prefer a private zone where I can rip it off."

  She put an extra sway in her hips to torment me. "My thoughts exactly, which is why I've been working up a surprise for you. I rented a room in the Pleasure Gardens. Just us, but plenty of, um, VR accompaniment."

  My eyebrows stretched high. "Why have I been wasting so much time with Hadrian?" I scooped the pixie off the ground Gone With The Wind style and started to the city's affluent eastern quarter.

  "Am I really so predictable?" I asked. "Brooding at every sign of trouble?"

  "Just the big stuff," she said to soften the blow. "But it's who you are. You care too much."

  I smiled and carried her boldly forward. "Such is the burden of leadership."

  She rolled her eyes extra hard but I didn't let it pierce my armor.

  The Pleasure Gardens was a lush property of thermal baths, libraries, and cozy spots. The idyllic greenery was a mental break from the no-nonsense stone architecture of the rest of the city. It was like a master Off button. The digital media rooms were the polar opposite: a cornucopia of brain-overloading experiences and pleasures.

  Izzy grinned in my arms and leaned her head back. It was nice to be able to put our various concerns aside and relax like normal people for once.

  Barracks Complete!

  I unceremoniously dumped Izzy on the ground.

  "Hey! I wasn't expecting you to carry me the whole way but more than ten seconds would've been nice."

  "Sorry," I blurted, already focused on my party chat window.

  Talon: Kyle.

  Kyle: Saw it, bro. Checking it out now.

  Talon: On my way.

  We rushed back to Oldtown. Izzy grumbled outwardly but she was excited too. As we passed our faction buildings, Baz, our largest ogre, posed beside the rebuilt barracks and took a screenshot.

  "Even mobs are taking selfies now," groaned Izzy.

  A small crowd admired the building. While it wasn't an especially impressive or momentous event, the barracks were important for a multitude of pragmatic reasons. Additional respawn, troop training, and—

  Dragonperch headquarters has reached level 3!

  Congratulations, you have unlocked a base production of 10 Headquarters Resources per day.

  Next Level Up: 17 Headquarters XP

  And there it was.

  As we hurried past, Bandit playfully trotted up.

  "All done with outside time?" I asked. "Let's go."

  I climbed atop the mountain bongo's saddle, pulled Izzy behind me, and started to Dragonperch.

  1590 Legacy of the Void

  The mountain bongo galloped to Dragonperch, through the large door, and up the stone steps. Climbing steep rock was kind of her specialty so we made it to the war room in no time. I wasn't even out of breath. Izzy hopped
off.

  "Good girl," I praised, dismounting and scratching her ear.

  Bandit farted.

  "Ugh, we were just outside."

  The bongo snorted and cantered up to the roof.

  "She does that on purpose," said Kyle, laughing with Izzy by the flat-screen.

  I waved the air in front of my nose and cleared out of ground zero to join them. "Gimme some good news."

  "I was totally right," boasted Izzy.

  "Come on, we just got here. Kyle-"

  "She was totally right," he said.

  I huffed. "Fine. Let me rephrase. Gimme some good news that I care about."

  The pixie's eyes narrowed. "You do care about your girlfriend being right. Especially after the way you dropped me."

  Kyle opted to closely inspect the sanctum master panel. I wished I could similarly escape Izzy's glare. "Fair enough," I peeped.

  Izzy warmed into a chuckle. Kyle sighed in relief and wasted no time wading into his story. "So, it was like Izzy's research uncovered. With the headquarters leveled up, we got our choice of socket to unlock, one of three separate advancement trees."

  Izzy ecstatically cut in. "Fire, rock, and space!"

  I pressed my lips together. "And... ?"

  "Space," she repeated. "Don't you get it? Space is a void. It's a vacuum, which relates to the under realm."

  My face scrunched up. "Does it though?"

  "Don't push your luck. This is the one. I can feel it."

  The brewmaster drew the void pearl from his inventory. The jewelry fitting had already been prepped; it was just waiting on a socket to call home. Our resident artisan made the necessary adjustments and snapped it into place.

  "It fits!" announced Izzy, probably more excited to be proven right than for the new functionality.

  "Hold your horses," said Kyle. "Let's see what the thing does first."

  The socket display welled with black energy, drawing a pipeline through the vertical diagram of Dragonperch. The map pulled up and shifted to a top-down view. We were looking at Oldtown. Several black dots were highlighted on the screen under the heading "Teleport."

  "Whoa," said Kyle.

  "It's not completely surprising," explained Izzy. "The void pearl was a shadowguard drop. Those mobs had a mean special attack that teleported me halfway across the Midlands."

  "Except this is only Oldtown," I said, sliding and zooming the map freely but being constrained to the rough geography of the local teleport points. "What are those things?"

  We all squinted at the screen. It didn't make sense. According to the display, there were four teleport selections extremely close to each other within the tower. That... wasn't useful at all.

  "It's moving!" alerted Kyle, a finger tracing the flat-screen.

  Our eyes locked on the moving black dot, looping around our position. It circled, and circled, and circled...

  "Hey everyone!" blared Trafford.

  The three of us simultaneously jumped, our focus shifting from the master panel to the shopkeeper who had just entered the war room.

  "What's with the jumpiness?" he asked. "You watching porn?"

  "Porn for nerds," said Izzy.

  "It's a new ability," I explained. "We're just trying to figure it out."

  As Trafford approached and I pointed to the screen, I was confused to find the teleport markers jumbled together.

  "Why is..." I jutted my lips out.

  Izzy's eyes lit up. "It's us!"

  "What's us?" asked Kyle.

  "The black dots. They're us. Watch." Izzy took a few steps away and circled the oak war table. One of the markers in Dragonperch traced her movement.

  "Those are us," I said. "Four dots, four of us in the tower. It must show party members. And the one black dot not in Dragonperch is Errol. Right..." I slid the map to the pirate's location.

  "In the brothel," finished Kyle.

  We all grinned.

  Izzy's eyes narrowed. "Wait. Why's Errol's teleport marker moving back and forth so fast?"

  "Nah," I said. "It's just a location. It can't possibly have that level of precision."

  Errol's black dot jiggled slow, then fast, then slow again. Then it disengaged, ran to the other side of the room, and jiggled somewhere else.

  We all blinked awkwardly. "Wow," murmured Kyle, "dude's keeping busy."

  Trafford slapped his belly and laughed. "So you guys are watching porn!"

  "Not for long," piped Kyle. "Izzy's gonna be my wingwoman soon!"

  "Doubtful." The frost mage swiped the map back to Dragonperch. "Let's just... focus on the new ability and never mention that again."

  "No promises!" cackled Trafford. He stepped to the table, pulled out his favorite padded chair, and plopped down. Apparently bored with the show, he opened that heavy tome of his. Besides operating a newbie welcome shop, being the Black Hat general and buildmaster, Trafford was also one of Haven's questkeepers. He regularly went through the books and posted new adventures for players.

  "Whatever," Izzy snorted. "Are we gonna test this out or not?"

  "Right," I said. "It looks like one of us can teleport to another party member. Is that the gist? But we're all in the same place."

  "I could teleport you to Errol," offered Kyle.

  "For science," I said with a cheeky grin. It evaporated under Izzy's glower. "Or one of you guys could walk somewhere non-brothel related and teleport me there."

  "Better," declared Izzy, stomping to the stairs. "Let's give it a go."

  She disappeared down the steps. When her dot settled into place, I gave Kyle the nod. He engaged the void pearl. I blinked, and I was surrounded by shelves of hardbound books.

  I jerked in place. The transition wasn't painful but the suddenness was unsettling. I would've preferred a gentle fade or longer warning, but who was I to complain? I had blinked one floor below the war room into the Dragonperch library. I turned to see Izzy leaning against a table, wide eyed in horror.

  "What happened to you?" she asked.

  I checked my hands. My clothes and skin were all black, like shadow, and I was translucent.

  "Okay, this is weird."

  Kyle: Whoa. Where are you, bro? Was it a success?

  I stared at Izzy.

  Talon: I'm in the library with Izzy. But I'm not me. I'm like a shadow version or something.

  Kyle: Well, you sure disappeared on my end. It looks like I have the ability to recall you back to the war room.

  "Interesting," said Izzy, pushing off the table and approaching. "You're definitely you, but with limitations." She poked a finger into my chest. Her entire hand pushed through me like air.

  "Wait a minute." I tried to clutch her waist, only I couldn't.

  "Hmm," she mused. "It's like you're inhabiting the shadow world or something." Her eyes narrowed to mischievous slits. "And you can't touch me."

  "I guess not."

  Izzy opened the front of her tunic. "Ooh, it's so warm in here."

  "Really? It feels okay to me."

  "And libraries are such a turn-on."

  My brow furrowed. "Libraries? I always thought they were too stuffy and dignified."

  Izzy's pants disappeared in a flash. She rolled away from me and placed her hands on the table. Her body yawned forward, the bottom of her tunic slowly rising over her ass.

  "Okay, I see what you're doing. Ha, ha. But this isn't a private zone so it's not like we can do anything anyway. We—"

  Izzy rubbed her fingers against her loincloth and moaned. "But I want it so bad," she purred.

  I swallowed. Logic be damned, Little Talon was never a scholarly thinker. I stepped forward, hands up but held back, trying to maintain the illusion that I was really there.

  "Don't you just want to kiss me?" said Izzy.

  I did. I really did. I dropped to my haunches and shook my head at the amazing view. Slowly, I leaned in.

  And I was staring at Kyle's crotch.

  "What the hell, bro?"

  "What the hell,
dude?" I sprang to a stand. Kyle and I were back in the war room. Trafford was dubiously watching us with his good eye.

  Izzy's fit of laughter wafted up from one flight below.

  I cleared my throat. "We were just... uh... testing things out." I glanced at my hands and massaged my face. "Apparently my shadow form can't make physical contact with stuff. And it's kind of itchy, come to think of it." I rubbed my arms. "I need some fresh air."

  I hurried up a level to the roof. Bandit was stretched out in the sun and I suddenly understood why she loved it so much. It reinvigorated my skin. She bleated in greeting before closing her eyes again.

  "Hey," called Izzy, rushing up the steps. "You okay? It was just a joke."

  "It's not that. Just have a cold sweat or something."

  "Sure you don't need a cold shower?" I didn't answer and she frowned. "Huh." She hugged an arm around me as we gazed from the highest vantage in Stronghold. "If you really were in the under realm, you might experience some negative effects."

  I sighed. My stats were fine, I didn't show any debuffs, and I was already feeling better. I suspected this was just something I needed to get accustomed to. That was all.

  "I'm okay," I asserted. "But that was a dirty trick down there."

  She chuckled. "It was fair play. Remember, I wanted to go to the media rooms."

  My eyes strayed to the distant Pleasure Gardens. Maybe Izzy was right. Maybe some time off to relieve this tension was past due. We could retire to the spa, get cleaned up, and hump like rabbits. She rubbed my chest and likely pondered the same thing. As we admired the green vista before us, a flaming piece of wreckage sailed through the air trailing smoke and crashed into a pool of Scented Ladies.

  "What the—?!?"

  We spun to the source of the projectile. Blaring horns from the west gate overtook our serene city. The tended land outside the walls was a rush of activity as goblins, ogres, and imps advanced.

  City Alert:

  The pagans are at the gates!

  Stronghold is under threat. All residents may engage in combat. While within the walls, all watchmen and residents are immune to friendly fire.