POV: Deketer.

  “You will apologize to me immediately, cur.” I spoke deftly. My tone leaving no doubt as to what would happen if he didn’t.

  “And you will stop weeping. Bird. You shame your…” I stopped, now standing a bit taller with the force of my new authority.

  “Our station.” I finished. “We Vendors are a special few. Chosen to bring in the new species into the embrace of the System. You will bring your head high and you will pick up what little dignity you have left. Or else.”

  The fool who called herself Granny Golden continued to weep. A near-featherless pink mess wobbling and crying on the floor. Waving around what little bits of arm fat she had like banners. The strips of sagging meat trailing behind each swipe as she tried to shoo away unseen forces.

  ‘How did she ever manage to cling on to her Vendor status?’ I asked myself once more.

  The mere fact that she had was disheartening. Though perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

  If a weepy, useless fool like her could cling on to her post despite falling so hard and so far, then someone like me would soar to even greater heights in no time at all.

  ‘Perhaps I can even get mother’s acknowledgement without reaching a higher Tier.’ I mused. ‘It isn’t impossible. I am young and talented and already a Tier 3 Vendor with a stipend of my own. How many could say the same?’

  Sky Fart groaned.

  ‘Oh. Right.’

  I groaned as well.

  “Yes?” I turned to him. “Are you ready to apologize?”

  I bit my tongue lightly and managed to push out the next few words.

  “Sir?”

  His eyes looked bloodshot and his claws seemed to flare as the light from above shone on their tips. His hands trailing them slowly over his face and down to his mouth. As if he were a child peeking out from the cover they were hiding behind.

  “Are you serious?”

  He seemed to be weeping slightly.

  “Please tell me you’re not serious.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” I snapped. “The language you used to describe me could have had you killed if you were not my grandfather’s pet. Even then, I could have you flogged. Or worse. You will kneel and you will apologize to me and maybe, just maybe, I might find it in myself to forgive you!”

  He seemed incredulous, though I didn’t know why. Everything I said had been completely true.

  “You just went against your grandfather’s explicit orders!” He shouted back. Apparently not ready to show deference despite how much he’d gained from riding my coattails and benefiting from my own reputation.

  “I did. I and I would gladly do so again.” I snapped once more. Now invading his personal space and relishing the look on his face as he retreated.

  “Grandfather doesn’t know everything. Sir. He knows a great many things and a great deal more than me in regards to most matters. But he does not know everything. If he did, then he would have certainly let us know about all the potential benefits we could have reaped by choosing to come here and he would have changed his mind.”

  “It’s not safe! You dumb (Drake)!” He shouted at me. His arms almost touching my body as he waved them about like a drunkard.

  I scoffed.

  “My grandfather’s apprentice is here. In case you haven’t noticed. I don’t know who they are exactly, but I know they must be very talented to have piqued his interest. That and I know they must be loyal, since grandfather did them the favor of reaching out and bringing them under our influence. We will not be fighting monsters, sir. The only things we have to fear are the Students. A bunch of people who are barely halfway done with their Tutorial. The only one I need fear is the Savant in question and he would never hurt me.”

  “You don’t know that!” Sky Fart shouted. Forgetting himself yet again. “Master told me that the guy is unstable! Master told me he’s trying to keep him steady but that he keeps seeing signs that this Savant might snap and kill a great many people! For Gozo’s sake! He’s already actively planning to genocide an entire species!”

  I paused.

  “Which one?”

  He sputtered. Incredulous.

  “It doesn’t matter!”

  “No. It very much does matter. Which one?”

  “Gnomes.” The featherless wonder wept. “He hates gnomes. Almost as much as he hates himself. He can’t stand them. Every one of them offends him. Every crime of theirs offends him. Every breath they take offends him. He will kill them all.”

  I bust out laughing with obvious derision.

  “Ha! Hahaha! Hahahahahaha!”

  I turned to Sky Fart.

  “You’re telling me that it’s a bad thing? Mongrel, I have seen gnomish slavers plying their trade up and down the Emerald Rift. Passing through thousands of portals into tens of thousands of species-specific cities and doing what they will with the sorry inhabitants.”

  I paused to catch my breath.

  “In fact, weren’t your parents killed by gnomes? Weren’t you sold as a slave a few times before grandfather found you?”

  Sky Fart colored. His scales taking on a pinkish hue that made him seem unmanly.

  “So? What do you care? Why would anyone in their right mind care that he gets his jollies from killing gnomes of all things? My good cur, gnomes know other gnomes better than anyone else alive. And they hate each other.”

  I walked past him with a derisive sneer.

  “In fact, I have known very few people in my life who did not despise gnomes. (Drake). I myself hate gnomes. For all you know, this Student might be thrilled to spend time with us, discussing all the wars their kind lost against the Kenari before grandfather rose as high as he did.”

  Sky Fart massaged his skull some more. Suddenly looking a few decades older for some reason.

  “That’s not the point! You can’t kill every member of a species because a few wronged you! That’s insane!”

  I huffed, but didn’t bother arguing the point.

  This conversation had nothing to do with the topic at hand anymore, regardless of what this fool said or thought.

  “Whatever. I understand. You refuse to apologize and that is that. I will keep it in mind and bring the issue up with grandfather later.” I stated with an icy tone.

  “In any case, we need to go out and make ourselves known to the Students here.”

  He stopped and stared at me. Before sighing deeply.

  “No. We don’t. We’re here in the antechamber that leads to all the challenge rooms. That’s how the Peak difficulty Instance works.”

  He took another deep breath and sighed again.

  “If we’re lucky, we might not have to see him at a…”

  I walked right past him and entered the only active door. Leaving him sputtering like an imbecile in my wake while I dragged the pink featherless bird woman.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Whatever that idiot said, I would present myself to the Savant here and demand the respect I was owed as a princess. After all, what kind of Student would let his Master’s kin sit there waiting in some stark-white room devoid of all diversions?

  No.

  I would not wait here. I would sit out this assignment in the luxury I was owed and the Savant here would provide it, if he knew what was good for him and his other monkey friends.

  I passed through the barrier and came out into an island. The air warm and wet and comfortable. Like the high seaborne winds of grandfather’s home planet.

  I breathed it in and felt a familiar tingle trickling my lungs. Despite it having been decades since the last time grandfather and mother took me out for a visit.

  I also felt the grains of sand below my claws. Reveling in how easily they parted and how nice their remaining wetness was when the moisture clung to the bottom of my feet.

  Looking around, the ocean was also beautiful in its own right. A great never-ending expanse that shone like a million, million sapphires clustered together and moving in concert as the wind carried the gentle waves forwards. The skin on my palms began tingling again and not with a bad feeling this time.

  Instead, I felt a sense of nostalgia. Like I had just found a piece of myself I had forgotten about for a long time.

  ‘This looks like the beach grandfather took me to when I gained my first level.’ I realized suddenly. ‘The one where my siblings’ graves are located.’

  I wondered if that was one of the reasons behind grandfather’s melancholy. Perhaps seeing his new pet here fighting monsters ignited some of those old neurons of his. Perhaps he thought of what my long-dead half-brothers and sisters might be doing, if they were still alive.

  I shook my head to dispel the ill feelings and the lingering scents of the ghosts haunting my mother and grandfather. Resolving to move forwards.

  I must have taken three or four steps when the first ape came into view. A female, I thought. Given the lean frame and overall lack of heavy muscles on the upper torso, which at least on gnomes indicated a female.

  So, not my grandfather’s Savant, but someone who might be connected to him. Perhaps a mind-controlled pet or a possessed pawn hosting an Intruder or two in the material realm.

  “Greetings, Student.” I spoke with forceful vigor. “Please do be so kind as to fetch your Master for me. I would have words.”

  The ape turned and looked at me. Staring with widening eyes as if I were some kind of circus show tumbling through the air.

  Silence stretched on. For an uncomfortable amount of time.

  The she-ape did not move. Which only served to irk me further.

  “Your Master.” I repeated. “You stupid monkey. The being that you serve and that tells you what to do?”

  She shook her head. As if to dispel some illusion or dream.

  Then, she stared down at the drink she had in her hand, before pouring all of it out on the sands with a concerned frown.

  “Puffin?” She called out. “Puffin dear, I think my drink was laced with something. Could you please come and heal me?”

  I frowned. Sighing and stepping forwards while the bird in my grip kept wailing and weeping and trying to break free from my grasp.

  “I am no hallucination. Student.” I said sharply. Invading her personal space just as I had with Sky Fart.

  “Now go out there and get your Master. Perhaps if you do it quickly enough, then he won’t deign to punish you for your very appalling discourtesy.”

  The she-ape kept retreating as I kept advancing. Placing her hands before her as if to shield herself.

  “Puffin? Honey? I think there’s something here you should see! It’s some kind of…”

  She looked at me once more. Staring up and down my form before closing her eyes tightly, shaking her head in disbelief and staring me up and down again.

  “Seahorse person.”

  “I am a Kenari.” I snapped sharply. Backhanding her across the face as an answer to the implied insult and for the repeated acts of insubordination.

  I scoffed internally at the overreaction and waved away the notice.

  “And a System Vendor. You she-monkey. Now shake your useless behind and get your Master. I would have a word with him.”

  The she-ape started weeping on the floor. Her jaw having been dislocated so that only a half-strangled wail got through when she cried out in pain.

  “Stop!” Granny Golden wailed. “He doesn’t like it when you hurt his friends!”

  I scoffed.

  “Savants don’t have friends. They have rivals and lesser. This is a gentle punishment for disobedience for someone this weak.”

  I gave her a sideways glance.

  “Though I will admit I did not expect her to be this weak.”

  I gave the monkey a kick.

  “Stop crying already you…”

  I did not recall the strike. Nor the immediate aftermath.

  What I did recall was floating in mid-air. Feeling the sea breeze rushing past me at blinding speeds as my body seemed to weigh nothing at all. Then the pain finally started flooding back and I tried to breathe and let out a scream of my own.

  My lungs felt like they were both on fire and being stepped on by a mountain. My limbs felt empty and wrong. Broken in at least five different places so that some of my bones jutted out of my body. And my head….

  My head was woozy. My eyes unable to track the scenery as it changed quickly around me. Empty sky rapidly turning into the surface of the sea, quickly rushing in to swallow me.

  ‘Ah.’ I realized slowly. ‘I’m upside down. I’m falling.’

  I felt darkness overtaking me as my head hit the waves and the world faded from sight and mind.

  After that, there was a period of shouting, weeping, accusations flying up and down the swirl of nonsensical shapes that the world had become.

  I tried to focus. To see. To shout curses at whatever had hit me, but my sight was blackened and scarred and the words died in my throat. I didn’t know what was going on, or why my Psy wasn’t being properly marshalled to my call.

  I tried to pull away. To escape whatever bonds were holding me, but my arms still felt broken and shattered. My [Regeneration] refusing to come in and fix me.

  The sounds were hitting me as well. Invisible waves that came and went without any kind of warning or sense.

  I thought I heard something about seahorses. Whatever that was. I also heard a few words being thrown around. Words like kill or main or torture.

  I could not properly part them out from all the other noises though. Not with the darkness still enveloping me.

  That ended when someone ripped a hood off my head. Exposing my eyes to light once more while a rush of healing Psy entered me. Knitting my flesh and bones back together.

  “You’ll all regret this monkeys!” I shouted. “Let me go this instant or your Master will regret the day his sorry monkey tail got dragged into the Labyrinth!”

  I felt another strike and shuddered as my entire lower jaw was sent flying off into the distance. I gasped and the air was painful as it made contact with my exposed wound. The salt feeling like a whip as it scoured my new vulnerability.

  I tried to scream, but the half-strangled sounds only made the agony worse.

  Then, one of the monkeys healed me and I was able to draw deep breaths once more.

  This time, I didn’t shout out straight away. My mind trying to make sense of the situation.

  ‘Betrayal? Betrayal!?’

  It was possible. Perhaps the new Savant was stupid enough to think himself above my grandfather. But that did not explain everything.

  For one thing, where was Sky Fart? He was supposed to be here as a Vendor attached to Granny Golden just like me. What was he doing while I was out here getting ambushed and taken captive by these cowards? Had he turned his cloak and gone to the side of the new Savant? Or had he been enslaved utterly and completely and now didn’t see the need to defend his mistress?

  ‘But wait. That doesn’t make any sense. I still have my mind. If the ape was taking over people then surely my mind would be the first one he’d be taking over?’

  I heard a snort of derision from the side.

  “Lady, your mind could best be described as a couple of flies buzzing around the stinking corpse of a long-dead donkey. Do not overestimate yourself.”

  I raged, but decided to hold my tongue. Instead looking at the ape that had spoken.

  It was another female. Or at least I thought as much.

  She was tall and lanky. With a head devoid of hair in the topside of the skull and a few white whiskers on the sides.

  “Name’s Gus.” The female spoke. “And I am not a female.”

  “And what do you think you’re doing, Gus?” I snapped. “Taking a System Vendor captive like this? Striking me like some common…”

  “STOP!!!” The voice of Granny Golden cut from the side. Her beady eyes leaking bitter tears as she kept sobbing uncontrollably.

  “Just stop already please! You’ve killed us! You’ve killed us all!”

  She swallowed a lump of air.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!”

  She swallowed another gulp of air again.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHJHHHH!!!!”

  She did it again.

  “Please don’t hurt my family sir! Oh my Divine! Please let it end with me! My species did nothing wrong! It was all her! She’s the one who did it all!”

  Then she broke down into a series of nonsensical pleas. All dignity gone in an instant.

  I would not be so easily cowed.

  “You stand before Deketer! Granddaughter of Hazimon the Dragon! I demand to speak with your Master!”

  Gus the male ape looked amused.

  “And who might this master be? Young lady?”

  “A Savant of the Telepath Type!”

  “Ah.” He said at once. Nodding along slowly.

  “I know him. He’s my grandson.”

  The lean ape walked around me slowly.

  “He’s away right now, unfortunately. Out on an excursion with some of his friends. I really am sorry he was away at this time. I’m sure he would have loved to meet you.”

  I scoffed.

  “I’m sure he would have loved to as well. Now free me at once!”

  Gus clicked a tongue that was far too short and far too thick to be normal.

  “Not so fast miss. Not so fast. We have things to discuss, you and I.”

  “I have nothing to discuss with…!”

  “Really?” Gus interrupted. “Nothing regarding you striking my daughter in law? My grandson’s mother? Nothing regarding you taking her jaw off and almost killing her?”

  I groaned internally.

  That… was unfortunate. I had hoped to impress the new Savant with my own skill and all the boons I could provide at the merest whim. Hurting his mother probably wasn’t the right way to go about it.

  I marshalled my Psy and blocked off my mind as best I could.

  “It was a misunderstanding.” I explained. “My aide, Sky Heart, was to blame. He rattled me and made me too quick to act. I’m sure if you find him you’ll be able to get the truth out of him.”

  Sky Fart wouldn’t normally admit to such a thing of course, but even a moron like him would realize that me looking good in front of grandfather’s new pet was more important than his measly reputation.

  “Funny you should say that.” Gus spoke. Moving aside to show a hooded, bloody lump. One that had the outline of a Kenari. One that was missing all his claws. The stumps bleeding raw and red into the sands below.

  My eyes widened a bit, but only a bit, as the implications of him having been defeated washed over me.

  Perhaps this would not be so simple after all.