Archemi Online Chronicles Boxset by James Osiris Baldwin

Author:James Osiris Baldwin [Baldwin, James Osiris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781980248460
Publisher: Gift Horse Productions
Published: 2019-09-15T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 35

Red led us through the building and down a flight of hollow wooden stairs, as graceful and quiet as a ribbon of smoke. The hall had the dreary, grimy look of a shuttered nightclub, with dirty floors and clusters of empty, dirty tankards, paper, and straw. The refuse was being swept up by the morning cleanup team.

“What’s this place called?” I asked Red, following behind Suri. We naturally fell into letting her take point - she was the tank, and I was the guy who could almost see behind his own head. It was natural that I followed up the rear.

“It isn’t called anything,” Red rasped. She still had that gravelly, pack-a-day voice. “If someone wants to drink and find a fight, they know where to come.”

At the bottom of the stairs was a basement lined with kegs and barrels. Red strode to the far wall and vanished right through it.

“Whoa,” I said. “Illusion.”

“Yeah.” Suri nodded her agreement. “Probably keyed to these rings.”

She passed through, and I followed. The illusory wall had to have been fairly solid, because there was a noticeable temperature drop on the other side. Behind the curtain was another part of the Lethos Cellar complex - what looked like an ancient mineshaft. Clusters of brightly colored glass lamps hung from the ceiling, lighting a path that led down to an ancient cistern. A solid beam of light shone down from overhead, illuminating the center of what had once been a round, shallow reservoir for water. Now it was a fighting pit with a fence built around the edge.

“Does fighting pay well?” I asked Suri.

She eyed the ring with an odd expression on her face. Nostalgia. “If you’re good at it.”

“To the death, or...?”

“Depends. Death matches pay better than anything else, though.”

I smiled faintly as we cut around the arena and headed down a narrow stone passage. “I’m guessing they didn’t call you ‘Lioness’ just because you came out of Al’Asad.”

Suri chuckled. “Nooope.”

Red strode to a door at the end of the tunnel and knocked twice before opening it. I nodded to her, and paused as my HUD chirruped. I had a message - when I glanced across, my heart jumped when I saw who it was from.

[You have one unread private message from Rin Lu]

Dammit. Talk about shitty timing. I pushed the notification back with a thought, and followed Suri into the room while Red held the door.

The office beyond was cool and sweet smelling, offset by the soft sound of trickling water. It was beautifully furnished, with antiques from every part of Archemi blended into one seamless artful composition. A purple divan was partly hidden by jade and pearl-inlaid ebonwood screens; fringed colored lanterns lit the dingy place with blue, red, and yellow light. At the back was a firepit, which burned high and clean behind a large mahogany desk and the lean, tall figure who sat behind it. As we crossed the floor, he stood and came around to greet us. He was

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