System deviation? What in the name of the Seven was that supposed to mean?
The window shimmered again, the writing fading to be replaced by different words.
Side Quest Complete: Investigate the Warehouse in the Eastern Quarter.
Reward: 700 Experience.
Congratulations. You have reached Level 3. +3 Attribute Points.
New Ability: Insight - The ability to look beneath the surface. To see objects for what they truly are. Provides the user with the ability to peer through illusions and veils when activated. Also useful for inspecting items for curses and other hidden secrets. Directly affected by the user’s [Perception] Level.
Well, at least that might be helpful. I immediately thought of the new skill, willing the windows to vanish, and looked right at the man with the cat-like eyes. His body shimmered with an outline, but nothing appeared. What?…
Was I doing something wrong? I focused on the skill once more, willing it to work. [Insight].
Again, the man’s body shimmered in a golden outline, and then nothing happened.
“Going to keep us waiting?” He asked, his voice calm.
I crossed my arms and stood there for a moment, staring him down. His amber eyes remained locked to mine, the faint sight of a smile visible on his lips. When he didn’t say anything else for a few moments, I finally caved.
The chances of them wanting to hurt me were not exactly slim, but even if I took off running right now, with no real idea of how to get back out of this place, I’d probably end up caught and hurt anyway. Might as well face it like a dragon.
I let out a huff of frustration—just to make my disappointment clear—and then entered the room, leaving my hostage to gape from the stairway. After managing to finally pick her lower jaw up off the floor, she followed me inside, taking up a spot somewhere behind the girl that I assumed to be Ophelia.
She was dressed in the same clothes, and her short, blonde hair was tucked behind her ears just as it had been. However, the freckles that I’d noticed before were now missing. I let my gaze hover over her face for a moment and then stood tall in the center of the room, with the group surrounding me. Dragons don’t run from fights. They faced them head on. With their heads held high.
“Nice to see you again,” the boy said. I noticed his club was missing now. Maybe that was a good sign.
“Come back for this?” Ophelia asked, holding up my coin purse, which clinked with her movements.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Maybe I did. Maybe I just came by to see what the neighborhood was like.”
The man in the center laughed, the glee in his voice reaching all the way to his eyes. He actually found all of this funny?
“Well, as you can see, the neighborhood is mostly what we make of it. Though, I’m sure that Felix, here, would be more than happy to give you more of a tour, once we’re finished.”
The boy, which I assumed was Felix, scoffed and crossed his arms, pouting as he leaned back into his cushy chair. A stab of jealousy ripped through me, but I tamped it down. Standing made me taller. That meant I was above them. As it should be.
“However, that isn’t the reason that we’ve been waiting for you. I heard whispers that you might come back this way—and no, it wasn’t from any of the friends that you left behind at that tome-woman’s shop.”
I had to force my eyebrows not to rise, masking my face in blankness. How had he known about Henrietta and Irinda? Had they been following me? No, surely I would have noticed them.
“The reason I’ve been sitting here waiting for you, is because I have a proposition to offer.”
I did raise an eyebrow at that. A proposition, huh? “If you’re expecting me to just roll over and give you whatever you want, then you’re very mistaken. You have no idea what I am capable of.”
His mouth stretched into a smile. Cat-like and scheming. “I think you will find that I have far more of an idea of what you are capable of than even you do, Aria Grace. Or should I call you by your birth name?”
He quirked his own eyebrow up as he finished the question. I felt sweat beading on the back of my neck. How did he know my name? Seven moons. How did he know my birth name? Perhaps he was just bluffing.
“I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Is that how we want to play it?” His hands rose in front of his body, his fingertips coming together in a thoughtful pose, as he stared over them with a gilded gaze which now seemed to peer deeper into me than before.
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“Very well. Well, we know your name; it’s only fair that you know ours. I’ve already introduced Felix, here. This woman next to me, though I suppose she’s more of a girl to you, is Ophelia. They’re the primary leaders of this ragtag group that calls this particular stretch of warehouse ‘home.’ They tend to work for me quite a bit, though, so I’d get used to seeing them.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember agreeing to do anything.”
He nodded slightly, his smile unwavering. “That’s true. You haven’t. Not yet. But I have a feeling that you will.”
Anger boiled up in my gut. This human, or whatever he was, was making a lot of bold assumptions about me. Assumptions that I didn’t quite like. He needed to be taught a lesson. Just like that gang in the garden.
“Now,” his hands fell to his lap. “My name is Aurelion. Though, most people just tend to call me ‘Leo.’ It’s easier on their tongues. Who I am is not wholly important. Just know that I have access to something you want. Something you seek.”
“And what could you possibly know about what I seek?” Heat dripped from the words, my anger brewing stronger. Almost boiling over.
He shook his head once, and then opened his arms wide, spreading his hands before him. “I know about the [Hero].”
Everything died.
My anger. My concern for my own safety. Even my own godsdamned pride. He knew about the [Hero]?
My confusion must have bled through my mask of neutrality, because his lips quirked back up into that sinister smile once more. I was really starting to hate him.
“How much do they know?” I asked, motioning to the others.
He looked at the others around the room. “Enough…” He drew the word out. As if to make it seem more final.
I shook my head. “You and me. We should talk.”
His smile expanded. “Of course.” He raised a hand, and Ophelia, Felix, and the other girl—whose name I still hadn’t been given—clambered out of the room.
When we were alone, I relaxed. “Who are you?”
“See, now you’re asking the right questions.” He held out his hand to me and something appeared above it. A golden window, like the ones that had plagued me since my reawakening.
“You’re not the only one it sent back,” he said, peering through the window. It slowly expanded, text appearing within.
=User Information=
Name: Aurelion DuPonte | Title: [King of Lions] | Class: Unknown | Subclass: Unknown
I gaped at him, reading the words once more.
The [King of Lions]? I looked through the window at him. The amber, cat-like eyes… They were the only indication that he wasn’t wholly human. But I had never heard of such a creature living within these lands. Humans or variations of them like giants and even dwarves were the only intelligent races that my people had discovered when we had landed here thousands of years ago.
That meant… The window faded, leaving the two of us in the flickering light of the fire once more. Now, with the revelation fresh in my mind, I could see the determination on his face for what it truly was. A thirst for the same thing that drove me.
“You aren’t from here,” I said.
He nodded his head. “You are correct. But does that make my debt any less important than yours?”
I thought about it for a breath. It didn’t. But, if he wasn’t from this world, and his fight was with the [Hero], that meant he had a reason to hate Marcus Ashworth. Could there be other worlds out there that the [Hero] had torn through? It was possible, I suppose. There were plenty of other worlds out there. And with the right power, it was possible to travel between them. It would explain why the [Hero]’s appearance had always felt so… abnormal. Why the power he granted my people had felt so different from anything else I’d ever faced. But that didn’t explain how or why he had been sent here.
“I suppose we both have reasons to hate the [Hero],” I replied. “What is yours?”
I crossed the short distance to Ophelia’s chair and sat down, not quite letting my body relax, but also not appearing as if I was on edge. Ready to move should he strike out. It felt fitting to sit for the rest of this conversation. If we were going to work together on something like this, then we needed to be comfortable with each other. Even if I didn’t fully trust him.
He shifted, leaning against the side of the chair and crossing his leg so that he could face me better.
“He took something from me, much as he took it from you.”
I shook my head. “I’ll need more than that if I’m going to work with you. You clearly know more about me than I about you. I don’t like that.”
He smiled, this one not quite reaching his eyes. “Your world is not the first to see a [Hero]’s rise.”
So I had been correct in my assumptions. That was troubling to say the least. Terrifying, actually. “So why are you here, and not there? Wherever there is.”
His smile faltered for a moment. He hesitated before he spoke again. “I did not choose where I ended up. It did.”
I almost asked what ‘it’ was, but then it clicked. The System. He had shown me a window just like the ones that I could see. That meant he could see it, too. I was prickled by that, slightly. Having the System had been one thing that made me even more special than I already was. Sharing its capabilities with someone else meant that there might be others out there like him and me. More with access to the power it could offer.
I had a thousand questions I could have asked, but asking any of them would show my weakness—something he could exploit. I was already at a disadvantage, and he didn’t seem intent on giving up more than he had to. But I could work with that. I could use him the way he hoped to use me. I’d just have to be better at it than he was.
He raised his hands, steepling his fingers once more. “The only question that remains is how far you are willing to go to see the debts that he owes paid in full.”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“Oh, I have nothing to lose,” his words weren’t calloused. Just matter-of-fact. “I cannot return to my world, and I have no care for anything in this one. I am simply here to collect what he owes me.”
“And what is that?”
“Everything.” The word was a growl. Or at least I imagined it as one. A low noise that had the potential to turn into a roar if the flames were fanned enough. I could be that fan. I just had to make sure I could control where the fire spread.
I finally offered him a smile. “Then it appears we are both in the same boat. So where do we go from here?”
He made a disgusted look at the comment. “I hate boats. But I have a few ideas about what to do next. May I?”
He held up a hand toward the door. I nodded. Even without them in the room, I was at a clear disadvantage. They could have been waiting outside for me to try to run, or worse, plotting to storm in with weapons drawn. My worries about that happening were less now than they had been when I first entered. It seemed we truly did have something in common. Something we could build a solid foundation on. But, I had been far too quick to trust Henrietta, and it had cost me. I would not make the same mistake with Leo.
And if he ever decided that he should remain a king, in a land where kings were not welcome… well. Dragons were much bigger than lions. I knew that, at least.
“Ophelia,” he called out. “Please bring Felix in. We have much to discuss with our new friend.”