Nick said nothing as the runner panted between them, eyes flicking to Vanessa as though he’d just handed a live snake to a crazy bitch.
Her jaw was a line of steel.
“You’re sure?” she asked, voice low.
“Yes, ma’am. The fire investigators found no traces of any intruders that night.”
“The Thieves’ Guild,” she concluded.
The runner nodded. “Cork confronted them and they confirmed that someone fulfilled an open raid contract on your estate that same night.”
“And?” Her eyes narrowed.
“The contract didn’t include arson.”
She pursed her lips. “Either they’re lying, or someone used them as a scapegoat. I need to go.”
“You will,” Thordran said calmly, adjusting his spectacles. “But not yet.”
She turned on him. “This isn’t something I can put off.”
“Which is why we’re doing this now,” the old wizard said cheerfully. “Give me one moment.”
He reached into his robe and pulled out a full folding table made of dark oak, then four matching chairs, which clicked together mid-air and settled with a polite thump onto the grass.
“Shoo,” he gestured toward the runner, motioning for him to leave them.
Before the runner could react or respond, he disappeared.
Thordran placed a hand on the table and murmured a short phrase. A pale shimmer rippled outward like a glass bowl being upended. Sight and sound warped. The clearing beyond turned to a watercolor blur.
Ray stared at the magical display in bewildered wonder.
Nick arched an eyebrow. “Are you always this prepared?”
Thordran beamed. “Never know when you need to set up a heresy tribunal. Or a picnic.”
Vanessa dropped into a chair with the speed of a falling guillotine.
Duke Jantzen took the head seat. Resh leaned against the table, arms crossed. Thordan settled in like it was tea time.
Nick didn’t rush. He stood slowly, dusted off his sleeves again, and took the open seat across from the duke. Ray stood behind him like a very confused bodyguard.
“Let’s begin,” the duke said.
Resh spoke first. “Let’s talk about the public first. Right now, the story is chaos. Most of the adventurers who made it out are still wandering around like lost chickens. A few of them have already started talking, which is how we found out so quickly.”
“That was on purpose,” Nick said.
“I take it you had something in mind?” he pressed. “Other than drawing us out?”
Nick leaned forward.
“They don’t know very much. We entered the dungeon and made it to the end, and we somehow managed to end it. It’s vague and useless, but just enough to ignite the imagination.”
Vanessa sneered. “You’re trying to control rumors?”
“I’m selling a miracle,” Nick corrected. “If people think it was luck, they’ll look for the trick. If they think it was divine, they’ll wait for another. But if we say it was a calculated act, and we can replicate it as proof? We get to own the narrative.”
Thordran tapped a finger against the table. “And this skill of yours? The way you spoke of it implied that you weren’t one-hundred percent certain that you could replicate it.”
“Say it’s experimental,” Nick offered. “A joint effort between the Adventurer’s Guild and the Acolyte’s Guild, if you want—developed to safely unravel pseudo-dungeons to improve regional stability and safety.”
Resh nodded slowly. “That could work.”
“Include me in it, or not,” Nick added. “Either way, I’ll support the story.”
Vanessa shook her head. “This is lunacy.”
“Indeed,” Duke Jantzen said quietly. “It’ll probably work.”
“The public needs to know the truth,” Nick said. “They just need to know the version that lets them still sleep at night.”
His words settled over the table, Duke Jantzen and Resh exchanging glances before continuing.
“Well then.” The duke’s voice was calm, but no longer casual. “That handles what the public sees. But what about the rest of it? I assume you didn’t draw us all out here for nothing. You wanted attention. You wanted a seat at this table.”
He leaned forward, elbows resting on the edge of the table, expression unreadable.
“So tell me, Nick. What’s your next move?”
Nick met his gaze.
“I’m not a pawn. I’m not an accident. And I’m not planning to fade away after this.”
He glanced at the others.
“I don’t know what your goals or intentions are. I don’t know what you all think of this country or your culture. As an outsider, I don’t know enough to make any judgment calls.”
“That’s nice and passive of you,” Vanessa sneered.
“I don’t know enough,” Nick repeated. “But I want that to change.”
“What, exactly, do you have in mind?” Resh asked.
“First, I have a question,” Nick replied. “What is the purpose of Cairel?”
“The purpose?” Duke Jantzen repeated.
“I’ve seen a few maps,” Nick continued. “Cairel protects a border, but the maps don’t describe what’s on the other side of the border. People call it ‘the Wastes’, and I hear that people come from all over to participate in exploration out there.”
“But you think there’s more to it than that,” Duke Jantzen concluded.
“What’s in the Wastes?” Nick asked. “What is Cairel protecting the kingdom from?”
The duke sighed. “Figures you’d ask about that,” he muttered, glancing at Ray.
“If we say ‘monsters’, is that enough for you?” Resh checked.
“Monsters,” Nick repeated dully. “Intelligent monsters like beastkin, orcs, and goblins? Or wild monsters?”
“Just tell him,” Vanessa snapped. “It’s not like it’s that big of a secret anyway.”
“Every kind of monster,” Thordran answered. “There are beastkin tribes, orc cities, and goblin citadels out there, yes. But there are remnant immortals as well. We’re not sure of their exact numbers, but we’ve confirmed the presence of two elves and a slime.”
“…a slime?”
Were slimes powerful monsters in this world? Maybe they were more like a certain slime that was reincarnated…
“What is a remnant immortal?” Ray asked.
“Immortals are the leaders of monsters,” Thordran answered. “The fae disappeared ages ago. For the remaining four races, that’d be dragons, elves, slimes…” he paused and looked at her pointedly. “And vampires like yourself.”
Ray tensed.
“I’m not—”
“We’re not idiots,” Vanessa groaned. “We’ve known that a vampire entered the city since your first day here. Believe it or not, pet monsters aren’t that uncommon, but we do like to know when they’re around.”
“At first, we thought you were just a lesser vampire,” Thordran continued. “Recent events caused us to reevaluate. The only question we still have is why you’re so weak?”
“Weak?” Ray repeated, outraged.
“Immortals cannot reproduce,” Thordran explained. “They have lived since the creation of this world with no way to increase their numbers. If you are a true immortal vampire who has lived for thousands of years, you would not have needed to put in effort to face a C-rank adventurer in an F-rank exam.”
“Maybe I’m just so much stronger than you guys that I can pretend to be weak,” Ray grumbled.
“Are you?” Resh asked.
“…No.”
“That’s what we figured.”
“Damnit.”
Duke Jantzen cleared his throat, looking at Nick. “As you can see, we’ve been keeping tabs on you for a while. Other than a little incident where you killed three adventurers in the woods, which we’ve written off as self-defense, you’ve done nothing that warranted concern from us.”
“Until now,” Nick concluded.
“Until now,” the duke agreed. “We’ve answered your question about the Wastes. What will you do with that information?”
Nick leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table. He knew the next thing he said would decide everything.
“I’m going to learn,” he said quietly. “From what I’ve seen, there is a deep rot hiding in plain sight. I want to know what it is, where it comes from, and how to destroy it.”
The silence that followed was wary.
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“That sounds like the start of a crusade,” she muttered.
He met each of their gazes in turn.
Finally, Thordran broke the silence with a soft chuckle. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious.”
Resh leaned forward, eyes sharp. “You do realize the Underworld isn’t some little crime ring hiding in a sewer, right? It’s a continental network. A second economy. It runs deeper than most countries. If you start poking around too deep, you’re going to make enemies that don’t forgive.”
“I’m aware,” Nick replied. “I do also have my eye on the Underworld, but that’s not the only place that can be corrupt, right?”
He winked at Vanessa.
She stood, her chair scraping against the grass. “You idiot! You have no idea what you’re talking about. You think burning down some dungeons and making a speech makes you a reformer?”
“No,” Nick said calmly. “But I’m not trying to reform anything. You’re treating the rot like it’s a problem on the fringes. It’s not. It’s the skeleton under your city and your nation. The roots in your streets. It’s wormed its way into your ecosystem like a parasite and made itself seem irreplaceable.”
His voice didn’t rise, but the weight of it carried like an approaching storm.
“I’m not doing this because it’s righteous,” he added. “I don’t want to be a hero. But I’ve seen what happens when people ignore the monster just because it’s quiet. I’ve watched an entire world fall apart under that kind of silence.”
Ray glanced at him sideways, something unreadable passing over her face.
Nick leaned forward.
“I can’t fix humanity. But I’m not interested in waiting for someone else to fix it, either. I don’t do half-measures. But I’ve also seen what happens when people act without knowing what they’re fighting. That’s not justice… it’s just noise.”
Resh frowned. “Now you’re sounding like one of Jocelyn’s priests. Can’t say I don’t respect her, but it’s arrogant to assume the position as a nonmember.”
“No,” Duke Jantzen said. “It’s responsibility.”
He was watching Nick now with something new in his eyes:
Conviction.
Like he was looking at someone he could finally use.
Vanessa looked between them all, seething. “You don’t know what you’re starting.”
Nick met her gaze. “Don’t I?”
She sat again, slower this time. The twitch in her jaw suggested she wasn’t fully composed yet.
Thordran tapped a finger on the table. “Suppose we took you seriously. What would be your plan of action?”
Nick leaned back slightly, fingers steepled.
“Well, for starters,” he said, tone light as ash in the wind, “I know who torched Vanessa’s estate.”
The air around the table went very still.
Then—
“…WHAT?” Vanessa thundered, shooting to her feet again. Her chair toppled behind her. “You what?”
Nick didn’t flinch. “I’ve been pursuing a man. I don’t know everything about him yet, but he goes by the name ‘Cain’.”
He let the name hang in the air, watching the lack of recognition on their faces.
“I believe he’s affiliated with the Underworld. Loosely, perhaps, but the timing is too perfect. He arrived in Cairel the night your estate went up in flames.”
Vanessa narrowed her eyes, scanning him for lies. “And what, exactly, connects him to the fire? And how do you know he arrived?”
Nick tilted his head. “I’m a fire mage. You think I can’t follow the memory of fire?”
Ray choked on nothing.
She turned slowly toward him, eyes wide. Her mouth opened—but no words came. She just stared at him like she couldn’t believe he was spouting such bullshit and getting away with it.
Vanessa didn’t catch it. Or maybe she didn’t care.
Resh sighed, rubbing his temple. “So you’ve got some arcane intuition and a hunch. You’re basing all of this on some… magical vibe?”
“I have more than vibes,” Nick said. “I have a pattern. I have instinct. And if that’s not good enough, give me a week. I’ll bring you more.”
“And what does this ‘Cain’ want?” Duke Jantzen asked, voice low.
Nick met the duke’s gaze evenly. “He wants to dismantle the structure of control in this city. He believes the current system breeds rot.”
“…That sounds a lot like what you said earlier,” Resh pointed out.
Nick smiled. “It does, doesn’t it? Maybe he and I just happen to agree on a few things.”
Ray’s hand twitched, just barely brushing his elbow.
He ignored it.
Vanessa crossed her arms. “Why didn’t you report him sooner?”
“Because,” Nick said, “until now, I didn’t have a reason to report him to you. I didn’t have a seat at this table.”
The duke laughed. “As good a reason as any, I suppose,” he said.
Thordran leaned forward. “You said you’ve been hunting this ‘Cain’. Do you have a means of finding him?”
Nick shrugged. “I’ll find him. Let me stop him. Officially or unofficially—whatever lets you sleep at night.”
Vanessa shook her head. “I don’t like this. I don’t trust you.”
“You don’t have to,” Nick said. “But while you’re all twiddling your thumbs playing politics and chasing shadows, I’ll be out here permanently closing dungeons and capturing criminals.”
Resh exhaled through his nose. “You make a lot of claims with very little proof.”
Nick smiled. “Then I’ll bring you proof.”
“When?” Vanessa snapped.
“A week. Maybe less.” He stood again, brushing nonexistent dust from his sleeves. “I’m not asking for resources. Just room to operate.”
“You mean room to lie and spin tales while you set your next fire,” she muttered.
Nick gave her a look that was almost pitying. “I don’t start fires I can’t put out.”
Her hands clenched under the table.
Thordran, still seated, reached into his sleeve and produced a silver disk inlaid with a faint sigil. He rolled it across the table toward Nick.
“Consider this a token,” the old man said. “Temporary clearance from the Acolyte’s Guild. Should anyone question your legitimacy during your… investigation.”
Nick caught it and turned it over in his palm. “You sure?”
“I’ve lived long enough to know the face of chaos when I see it,” Thordran said cheerfully. “It’s always fun to see where it leads.”
Duke Jantzen rose as well, folding his arms across his chest. “I’ll back your story and make sure it sticks. Resh?”
The guildmaster nodded reluctantly. “We’ll prepare an official statement by morning.”
“Good.” The duke looked toward the fading shimmer of Thordran’s sound barrier. “Then I believe we’re done here?”
Ray exhaled, relieved. “So we can go?”
“Not quite,” Resh said, turning to Nick.
He pulled a book from his pocket and tossed it across the table. Nick caught it with one hand.
A skillbook?
“A reward for being the first person to end a dungeon. I know we’re acting ungratefully cautious, but your actions here may be the salvation of humanity.”
Nick wasn’t sure how to respond.
“That being said, I have one last question,” Resh continued. “If you catch this ‘Cain’… what will you do with him?”
The clearing stilled.
Nick looked down at the silver token and the new skillbook, then up again.
“I’ll do what needs to be done,” he said. “Even if it kills me.”
He met each of their gazes once more, lingering on Duke Jantzen last.
“After all,” he said softly, “you get infinite chances in this world.”
He turned on his heel, stepping back into the ash-lit haze, Ray falling into step beside him as the barrier shimmered, thinned, then broke like a bubble in the air.
The meeting was over.
But, even though nobody else knew it yet—
—the war had just begun.
Project Knightfall 