“Wake up! I think someone’s about to enter the safe room!” Val shouted in my head.

  I sat up quickly, and in doing so, woke Ersabet.

  “I think people are coming in,” I whispered to her.

  That cleared the sleep from her eyes, and she stood immediately, causing everyone else to wake up.

  “What…” Tabby started, but Ersabet shushed her.

  “Quiet,” she said. “Listen.”

  I strained my ears to hear, but I didn’t need to. When the heavy door unlatched and scraped across the stone floor, the sound of it echoed through the room.

  “What do we do?” I asked. “Should we hide?”

  “Absolutely not,” Ersabet said. “We play nice and hope they do as well.”

  The door opened fully, and a female Dalari emerged from the darkness. I didn’t recognize her. Two more male Dalari came through, followed by another female. I thought that she might be the last of their group, but one more Dalari stepped through the door, and the sight of him made my heart sink.

  It was Latro, Ersabet’s former friend. If I had to guess, the rest of these Dalari were Ersabet’s previous adventuring party – the one that kicked her out for her liberal beliefs.

  “This should be interesting,” I said.

  Ersabet didn’t respond. She was too busy glaring at the newest group of safe room inhabitants.

  When they noticed us, they paused to gauge the situation and assess how dangerous we were. It didn’t take long for one of them to notice Ersabet.

  “You must be joking,” the first female Dalari who had entered the room said. She was the shortest of the bunch, and her pale blue skin gave her a distinct look among her companions. Like the others, she was bald, but her head was tattooed with black rings, each stacked atop the next, covering most of her skull. “Ersabet Serapathia, is that really you?”

  The familiarity in her tone did nothing to calm my nerves, nor did learning Ersabet’s last name. These people knew her far better than I did. I wondered just how truthful Ersabet had been with me about her relationship with her former adventuring party.

  “Fela,” Ersabet said with a nod of acknowledgement. “Have you been following us?”

  Fela laughed delightedly. “Following you? There’s nothing to do in this sand-blasted city, so we run the dungeon regularly. Why on earth would I waste my time following you?”

  Ersabet frowned. “Because Latro wants me dead.”

  “That is true,” Latro said, stepping forward. He then gestured to the other female Dalari. “Mercella does as well.”

  “She is a pariah. I care little for whether she lives or dies,” Mercella said.

  “Just because she is outcast,” Fela began, “does not mean she deserves to die.”

  “I agree,” Ersabet said. “We were just leaving. The safe room is yours.”

  Ersabet started to turn around, but I stepped forward and asked Fela, “If there is nothing to do in Nessa, why do you stay?” I immediately blushed after asking the question, and I knew Ersabet’s eyes were burning a hole through the side of my head, but I had a theory, and I needed to explore it before we left.

  Fela looked curiously at me for a moment, then shrugged. “I do not know if you are aware or not, but your city has a portal in it, one that can be used to travel to other major cities across Vedra. The Dalari are allowed to use these portals, but Nessa’s is not currently functional. We are waiting here until it is repaired.”

  It took a lot of effort to keep my face neutral. “Thanks for sharing.” I turned to Ersabet and met her eye. Surely, she could tell what I was thinking. Judging by the rage in her eyes, she could.

  “Excuse us for a moment,” Ersabet said and grabbed me hard by the shoulder. She dragged me to the back of our group and whispered, “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “We can’t kill the gorgon on our own,” I whispered back. “They can help us, and only two of them want you dead. It’ll be fine.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “If we don’t bring them with us, Delen could die. Tabby could. Kitz could. This quest is too dangerous to complete with our current roster. We’ve done okay so far, but this is only floor one. It’s going to get more difficult. Too difficult for us. You know this.”

  “What’s wrong, Ersabet?” Latro yelled. “Did one of your pets have an accident?”

  “At some point,” Ersabet whispered to me. “Latro will have to die, but you are correct. Our chances of survival are higher with their assistance, even if half of them want to kill us.”

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  Ersabet walked closer to the group of Dalari. “If you want out of Nessa, then I am your best hope. I’m on a quest to receive a powerful item on the third floor of this dungeon. Once returned to the quest-giver, they will use it to restore the portal.”

  “Why should we believe you?” Latro asked.

  “Shut up, Latro,” Fela said. “How can we know you speak truly?”

  “I do not wish to be near any of you. Why would I subject myself to your disdain unless I needed to? My party is not strong enough to accomplish my quest on our own.”

  “Wait, you want us fight alongside you?” Latro asked, incredulous.

  “If what she says is true, then it’s our ticket out of here,” one of the other male Dalari said.

  “I believe that Ersabet speaks truthfully,” Fela said. “Even if she lies, there is little harm done to us. We’ve been talking about pushing the third floor, and now we have a reason to do so, and we’ll have others on our side. With a party this large, we are sure to succeed.”

  “It’s just Ersabet and a few humans!” Latro said. “And, if you didn’t notice, one’s a child. They’re useless.”

  “I’m not useless!” Kitz yelled.

  I turned to look at him, and his eyes were stark white. Kitz’s hawk screeched, and I turned just in time to watch Petri pull out of his dive and smoothly slash Latro across the scalp with a single set of his talons. Petri was back on Kitz’s shoulder a second later.

  Latro cursed, and I froze, waiting to see what he was about to do.

  His hand gripped his forehead, and blood leaked down his face. He stalked forward. “You’re dead, boy!”

  Mercella put a hand on his chest, stopping him. “The boy is a warg.”

  “Obviously!” Latro shouted.

  “He could be useful down here.”

  “You’re on their side?” Latro asked, shock on his face. “You can’t truly want to team up with Ersabet and her merry band of freaks.”

  “She can get us out of Nessa,” Mercella said. “You don’t have to like someone to use them.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Fela said. “We will travel together until we exit the dungeon. Will you share your quest with us?”

  Ersabet gave her best mocking laugh. “Share my quest with you? You mustn’t be serious. Any one of you could stab me in the back at any moment. The quest is mine alone, and if I die, so does your hope of leaving Nessa. If any of you intend to kill me, I beg you, kill me now. You can debate whether it was worth it for the next two months while you await the portal repair. Or forgive me for even offering such an outrageous solution, but you could walk to wherever it is you want to go.”

  “There’s no need to mock us, Ersabet,” Fela said. “Your point is made. Tell us what we must do to ensure completion of your quest.”

  Ersbabet smiled. “We must enter the third floor, track down, and kill the gorgon that dwells there. After it is dead, I will retrieve a necessary item, and then I will deliver the gorgon’s head to the quest-giver. The portal will then be repaired, and you all can leave Nessa at your leisure.”

  “A gorgon?” Latro said. “How do you plan to fight a monster with your eyes closed?”

  “We always find a way,” Ersabet said.

  “We?” Fela asked, some derision in her tone.

  “Yes, my party is quite strong, despite what you may assume.”

  Fela shrugged. “You do have a warg, but I’m not sure if there are any animals down here that he can convince to fight on our side. Tell me of the others.”

  “With pleasure,” Ersabet said with a gentle nod of her head. She gestured to Delen. “This is Delen Primm. He is perhaps the most intelligent human on the continent. You’ve already met Kitz, a powerfully competent warg. We also have Tabby the Tinker, a master craftswoman and knower of many things. And lastly, there is Milton Musgrave, a rather unique individual. The gods granted him special abilities, and he is quite formidable, even against one such as myself.”

  Her description of me sure seemed to pique a lot of interest, as each and every one of the Dalari were eyeing me up and down, testing my measure. If only they knew what I really was.

  I understood why Ersabet had used my original NPC name. It was a simple solution to something that may or may not be a problem. It was doubtful that the Dalari had caught wind of some man named John McClane who fought and drove the Kurskins out of Danver before the city was burned to the ground in retaliation, but it was better be on the safe side.

  I was confident that the rest of our team was smart enough to only refer to me as Musgrave while we were with this group of Dalari. They’d better, or there would be trouble.

  “My, my,” Latro said, crossing his arms. “That’s quite a collection you’ve got there, Ersabet. Are we allowed to play with them?”

  “If any of you harm any of my companions,” she said, “our deal is off, and you can continue wasting your time in the sand.”

  He held up his hands. “I’ll be good. Promise.”

  “You better be,” Fela said, then she turned her attention to me. “Since you’ve all been introduced to us, allow us to do the same. “I’m Fela, the wisest of this dimwitted lot of blues. You’ve met Latro and Mercella, but you haven’t met Damine (she gestured to a tall Dalari with a scar on his face) and Yurian.

  Yurian was a few inches shorter than Damine. I imagined he could have been a male model if such a thing existed in Dalari culture. His skin was perfectly smooth and flawless, like he’d never even been touched before. We’d see how well he could take a hit soon enough.

  I bowed, “It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I hope that we work well together.”

  “Now that we have all that foolishness out of the way,” Fela said. “We need to rest. Allow us two hours, please, and then we can all be on our way.”

  “Of course,” Ersabet said. “The extra rest will do my companions good.”

  The Dalari stayed on their side of the building, and we remained on ours. There would be no intermingling.

  So, do you have any thoughts to share? I directed the thought to Val.

  “No,” She said. “I agree with what you are doing. It is risky, but I don’t think that Latro fellow has enough support to cause any real trouble. It was smart of you to bring the Dalari into your mission, and their presence may well save your life or your friends'. The other humans aren’t really cut out for this sort of adventure.”

  I know. It was unfair to bring them down here, but even if they don’t have powers, they can still help. They’ve already proven that, but it’s better if they can hang back where it's safe. I’ll still have plenty of warriors by my side.

  “Don’t let any of the Dalari shake your hand,” Val reminded me.

  That won’t happen. Ersabet will do most of the talking. I plan to keep my mouth shut and stay under their radar.

  “That’ll be a first.”

  I’m full of firsts. Now, I’m going to try to close my eyes for an hour. Please wake me up if shit goes sideways.

  “No need,” Val said. “There’s no player versus player violence allowed in the safe room.”

  Oh yeah. I had forgotten. Thanks, Val.

  Despite knowing they couldn’t hurt me, it was still disconcerting to be close to so many other players. It was something I’d need to get used to, at least until this quest was over.