My feet slipped off the last rung and settled onto the floor just as a man spoke. “Hello, are you yet another new traveler or just another sad soul stuck coming back to our city after failing to make it to the next city?” Unlike what might have happened the last time I had been here, his voice didn’t startle me. After all, it wasn’t as though the priest was a stealthy individual. Combined with the empty stone walls that carried sound, I had heard him coming from pretty much the moment I had started my trip down.

  My hands went up as I turned to face the priest. I worried that he would take offense to my non-human status. “I am not here to make any trouble. I am simply passing through.”

  His eyes flickered up to where my ears were no doubt making themselves seen. I prepared for him to yell at me or even attack. To my utter surprise, the priest’s body relaxed against the nearest wall. With one hand he gestured for me to lower my arms. “No need for any of that. You are safe here. At least as safe as anyone can be in this town.”

  My hands tapped against my side as I tried to understand what he meant with his words. Not only that. His entire demeanor was different than it had been when I had last passed through. “What is with the change of heart? Did something happen?”

  His gaze swept over me as if he was looking for something. He must not have found though judging by his next words. “I know that my memory is slowly going but I would like to think that I would recall someone such as yourself passing through here.”

  The way he spoke reminded me that he would have no clue who I was. After all, I had been both human AND male the last time he spoke to me. “Yeah, let us just say a few things happened since I was last here.” Then I returned to my previous question. “But that still doesn’t explain the change of heart.”

  I watched as his eyes glazed over and hardened. It was almost as though he was thinking back over some event or person that made him mad. Everything was silent save for the soft dripping of water on stone somewhere down the hall. Finally, though, with a flat, emotionless voice, he spoke. “Not long ago, non-humans lived in this city. Unfortunately for them, many – no, most – of the humans treated them as slaves. No, slave is not the right word. To most of the city, they were little more than playthings and objects to punish as they saw fit.”

  I watched as his eyes shut. To me, it looked as though the man was struggling to keep his emotions in check. Instead of letting the silence consume him, I tried to distract him with another question. “But the city isn’t like that anymore, is it?”

  “No.” Slowly, his head shook from side to side. My shoulders sagged a bit in relief at the thought that the idea that the discrimination had stopped. The relief was cut short as he continued. “No. If anything, it had gotten worse.”

  “What do you mean it got worse?!” I struggled to keep from shouting at him.

  “There was a fight between the guards and most of the stronger non-humans. Scratch that, there were also quite a few humans that helped fight the guards.” He waved his words off. “They managed to release most of the non-humans in the city before making their escape.” I tried to not smile at his words as it confirmed the fact that most of those I had helped save had made it out of the town. “None of that is a bad thing. If anything, I am happy that those people are no longer being tortured for merely living.”

  “Unfortunately, the problems made themselves known within a few days.” The priest continued. “At first it was the lack of skilled adventurers and guards. There were enough to man the wall, but nowhere near enough to repair the walls, let alone keep the monsters from reaching the city. Then the city made a formal request of the adventurer guild. Asking for them to send help. And do you know what they did in response?”

  Something about the way he asked the question gave me a bit of an idea but I still asked the question. “What?”

  “They recalled all of the guild personnel.” His voice held a resigned chuckle in it as he spoke. “It was the first time I had heard of a guildhall being shut down and I honestly do not blame them. Not when the guild stands for both freedom. Freedom to choose your jobs. Freedom to join or leave. Freedom of who to talk to or work with. Freedom to travel between cities. Freedom to be who you want to be no matter your background. To rely on your skills and sheer luck rather than what others hand you.”

  I wanted to stop the man. To point out that there were times when people in the guild were not free, but he didn’t give me a choice. It was as though the man suddenly didn’t need to breathe as he continued.

  “Still, their decision wasn’t without repercussion. The city council declared the guild illegal within the city limits while at the same time enacting a version of their own. One in which the rules were stricter. All adventurers in the city limits at the time were rounded up and stripped of any and all credentials and bags before being drafted into the city guild.”

  I waved my hands to stop him. “But they can’t do that.”

  “They can when they declared martial law and declared this city under attack.”

  “Surely other people would have stepped in and stopped them.”

  “A few tried.” His face told me all I needed to know about what had happened. “It turns out that those in charge are willing to stoop so low as to hire assassins to take care of any problems. That is if the people didn’t do the job first.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  My stomach dropped as I suddenly had a bad feeling. After all, there was no way we could have removed every non-human in the city. Not if the entire thing was to be kept a secret. “Tell me that there are no more non-humans in the city.”

  “I can’t.” He shook his head as his words cut my heart in two. The horrors those who had been left behind suffered must have been extreme. I would honestly be surprised if they were even still alive. “The other priests and I have worked hard to help get the few we could out before the blockades went up but now there are those stuck here, hiding, waiting for someone to send help.”

  “Have you managed to send for help or are you simply praying…” I asked more out of curiosity than anything. Even if they did manage to get someone to agree to help, it would be a while before anything could be prepared, let alone make the trip.

  “While we pray,” his tone was a bit wry as he interrupted me. “Every person we managed to smuggle out carried a letter addressed to the head priest in the capital. Each begging for help.”

  The two of us descended into silence as I thought about everything I had heard. While I would be able to get out of here without much trouble, was it worth it if I left others behind? Sure, I wasn’t responsible for them but they were in this situation because of us. With a resigned sigh, I realized that I couldn’t do it. I could not leave these people to suffer. Even if it was a bad idea and caused more harm, I wanted – no, I needed to help these people.

  While I had planned to take my time and level up properly during my trip toward the front lines, I could ask for a ride and Xander would happily provide it. With a finger held up toward the priest, I called out to my AI. Praying that the system would work long enough for me to make a single phone call. “AI, call Xander.”

  “Calling Xander…” This time, the voice that spoke was stronger but it seemed a bit robotic. I needed a distraction as I waited for the call to connect or go to voicemail, so I let my thoughts wander over everything that was going on with my AI. The last few times the system had been spotty or even outright unstable. Sure, it was cold back on Earth and a lack of power would cause issues, those issues would be related to speed and ability. It would have no issue with a connection to me and my interface. Not when the pods seemed unaffected.

  Or were they affected? It wasn’t like I was inside the pods while here on Paradox. What were the pods used for then? Connection nodes between Earth and Paradox? Places for tunnels through time and space to tie the two places together? Which would make sense given that the planet needed to be pulled and tied to the tree somehow.

  Wait. Who was on Earth still? Who was maintaining everything? Sure, that wouldn’t be an issue if the system was well maintained but none of it was. As far as I could recall, every bit of the infrastructure was patched together with whatever anyone had on hand. I wouldn’t be surprised if parts of it had already failed. Hell, one failed system could cause failures in other systems. If a pump station lost power then it would stop providing the city with water. The tiny generation facilities that relied on that water would automatically E-Stop to prevent damage which would cut power from the system. In turn, the lack of power could cause yet more systems to fail.

  “Alex,” Xander’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. His voice was clear. Almost as though he wasn’t speaking to me over a likely dying system. “One of the guards mentioned that you were on your way into the tower. There was also a weird explosion in a side room that they are investigating. Tell me you were nowhere near it.”

  “Um,” I grimaced as I answered him. “I was the one to set it off.”

  “Why?” From his tone of voice, I could tell that he was pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “If I told you that it was to kill a rogue maid and her mind-controlled guard, would you get mad at me?” Xander didn’t speak for a good minute. Given the way that the priest’s eyebrows were raised, he was likely wondering what the hell I was talking about and with whom.

  “Do I want to know why?”

  “I…” I started to respond but he interrupted. “Wait, did you just say mind-controlled guard?” Something about how he spoke told me he must have figured something out. “They wouldn’t have anything to do with the reason why multiple guards are suddenly finding evidence as to who was targeting the oracles, would it?”

  “Maybe.” I shrugged. Who knows just how much she was suppressing and controlling. “I just know that the maid confessed that she was the one targeting them and me. Something to do with her family getting left back on Earth even though a contract she signed with someone included them being brought over.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” Xander let out a sigh. “I will get someone to look into the people she was working for and I will let Pendragon know about her involvement. Was that the reason you were calling or was there something else?”

  “I was actually calling to ask for a ride, and maybe a bit of help with a local issue.”

  “Why do I have the feeling you are back in the starter town?”

  “Because I am.”

  “You do know that place is likely unstable after the damage you and the rest of the group did to it on your way out, right?”

  “Yeah,” my voice came out a bit softer than I liked. It wasn’t my fault that what had happened had happened. Based on what I knew, it was going to happen with or without me. “A local told me. He also said that they have a few people hidden. People that need help getting out of the city before someone discovers them.” The priest’s eyes widened in panic as I spoke. With a hand, I gently patted the air in a calming gesture. While the guy didn’t go screaming or attack me, he looked like he was a second away from doing one or the other, maybe even both.

  “Fine,” Xander suddenly sounded tired. “Let me see if I can get permission to come save you from that stupid city…again. But the moment we return to Gravepoint, you are resetting your spawn point.”

  “Sure…” I agreed. I mean, I would change my respawn point the moment I reached Gravepoint, it just might take me a bit. “Just let me know so I can get ready.”

  “I will call you back within the hour.” Before I could say anything more to him, Xander hung up.

  With a shrug, I spoke to the priest. “One of my friends is going to see what he can do.” To my surprise, the priest relaxed. It was as though he trusted me and my word. Which was odd given that he didn’t know me or what my agenda might be.

  “Good, good.” The man turned and started down the halls. “Let us get some refreshments and introduce you to those you are here to help.” His words made it sound as though I had already agreed to help them all. While I had, that didn’t mean that I would be able to. If Xander came back with no way to get to me, I was going to have to leave them all behind.

  It wasn’t like I wanted to do that but it would be more dangerous to try and save them on my own. Sure, I was probably powerful enough to take on the guards on my own, but I couldn’t take a whole city down without help. Then there was the Guard Captain. If that fucking demon had managed to make it back, I was likely screwed.