Cat Core 3, Chapter 28.

Chapter 28.

“We shall let you live, for the time being, but we need to know more about how you can track Berikoz,” Stirman said as the cloud disappeared along with the wall of force.

“Well, I can sense the nearest corrupted core,” Florence said.

“Tell us what you know about these corrupted cores. We’ve been eliminating his phylacteries and thought we had found the last. Our diviners fear he is hidden somewhere they cannot locate. I believe a corrupted core may mask the lich from our efforts,” Stirman said.

“Berikoz can somehow place a part of himself in the core, exerting his influence and controlling it. He can also teleport from one to another when he needs to, so he’ll probably keep escaping until we get to the last one. When I find these cores, I can either free the core if there’s something of the person still inside like I did with George or, if there’s nothing left, I can at least destroy the core and stop the lich from using it,” Florence said. She wasn’t exactly sure how the whole thing worked, but she figured that was the gist of it.

“These cores, is there any way we can tell if they’re infected with the lich’s influence other than with your link?” Stirman asked.

“I don’t know, they go kind of bonkers the longer he has control over them, but that doesn’t seem to happen until he’s just about done with them, and there’s not much left of the core energy for him,” Florence said.

“That would explain the aberrant behavior that has been reported in several dungeons, including the one we found this creature at. Perhaps this Florence Valentine is the tool we need to track down the lich. None of our other efforts have been effective,” Lucinda said.

“I think we can come to some understanding then. Your link to Berikoz cannot be ignored and had we no need of you, I would order you destroyed immediately. Since you may possess a way to track these corrupted cores so we can destroy them, I believe the guild might allow you to exist,” Stirman asked.

“Wait, you can’t just destroy them, some can be saved. Look at George, he was in pretty bad shape, and now he’s part of my team,” Florence said.

“See, this thing is crazed, it’s just a weaker version of the lich, taking these cores from him to expand her power. Give them to her, and she’ll become as great a threat as Berikoz,” Keegon said.

“Woah, that’s a pretty big claim from someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Why don’t you hush up and let me talk to the reasonable members of your group,” Florence snapped back, not liking one bit what this guy was implying, and really not liking what any of them were saying at this point.

“Work with us, and live, refuse, and die, that is what I say,” Keegon growled.

“If you’re going to just destroy them willy-nilly, I want no part of it. Let me at least have a shot at saving them first. If they can’t be saved, then sure, you can destroy them,” Florence offered. She didn’t want another core like George to be killed for no reason. Sure, the core she had just destroyed gave her an extra level, but if missing out on a level from the cores that were too far gone was the price of saving another person like George, so be it,” Florence offered.

“There are no deals here beyond what we are offering, creature. I am the captain of the inquisitors and I have ways of making you comply,” Keegon threatened.

“Is he always this cranky? I’m not one of the bad guys, I’m just here to stop Berikoz,” Florence argued.

“While Keegon is a bit crude in his methods, he’s not necessarily wrong in his fears. The adventurer’s guild dislikes the idea of destroying any dungeon, but at times it is necessary. In this case, with dungeons infected by a lich, I see no alternative than cutting them out like you would a tumor. Help us do this, and the guild will support your continued existence,” Stirman told her.

The king had seemed nice enough, at least until she had mentioned the lich and seen the look on his face. She was willing to bet the man had gone a bit bonkers with the loss of his daughter, and once Keegon told him that she was linked to the lich in some way, she was pretty sure her days were numbered, no matter what the adventurer’s guild representative promised. She needed to try and buy some time and get her team back together.

“Okay, I don’t see any other way out of this other than to help you. I’ll need a few things to track down the next corrupted dungeon down. First off, where exactly are we?” She asked.

“The adventurers guild keep near the city of Sleeping Wood,” Stirman said.

“Can you point it out on a map? I need a reference point before I can search for the next core,” Florence told him. Stirman waved his hand and blocked out sound for her again. She watched the three of them in a heated discussion, and given that Keegon didn’t look happy, she figured that she’d get what she needed.

“I’ll get a map, hold on,” Keegon grumbled and stomped across the meadow. The beautiful setting disappeared as the inquisitor pulled out a key and unlocked the door to her cell. The whole thing had been an illusion, she wasn’t somewhere nice, she’d been in the gross cell the whole time. Slamming the stout door behind him, Florence could hear the locks engage and the Keegon clomping his way down the hall. A few minutes later, he returned and unceremoniously dropped an old map to the floor.

“Let me see,” Florence said, unrolling the map and giving Keegon the stink eye for not handing it to her nicely. It wasn’t right to make old folks stoop over to pick things up. It wasn’t the most detailed map, but Florence figured what she was gawking at would transfer nicely to the magical map she kept in her inventory. Stirman pointed out where they were, and according to the map, Sleeping Wood was a good-sized city to the west of where she needed to go. These clowns had no idea how long it took her to figure things out, and she needed to buy some time and try to locate her friends.

“I’ll need my companions to assist, especially George,” Florence said.

“Why, they are perfectly comfortable where they are,” Stirman said.

“Comfortable or not, they’re part of the process. Do you want this to take a few months or a week? Bring them here to help me and it’ll take a week, keep them locked up somewhere else, and you’re giving the lich a bunch of extra time,” Florence argued.

“What exactly are these companions supposed to do for you?” Lucinda asked. None of her three captors looked like they were completely buying Florence’s story.

“I have to focus my energy on following the link, those two are linked to my mana and by keeping them far away, they’re drawing too much of my power,” Florence fibbed, but she really was a bit worried about the two. They had been away from her for a good while now and while they weren’t as fragile as a dungeon defender, they would still need her core energy eventually.

“That is a reasonable request, but I expect results quickly,” Stirman replied.

“I’ll work as quickly as I can, I want Berikoz dead as much as you do. Get me my team, and I’ll have the next dungeon location in a week. Pushing or threatening me won’t make it faster. It’s also not helping that you have me locked up in a dark dungeon. How about somewhere a little more conducive to working,” Florence replied. Her captors teleported out, leaving her in the dark with the crappy map. She replaced it with her magic one, and crouched over it, keeping up the show in case any guards happened to walk by and check on her.

“I’ll see that you have somewhere to work but remember that you are inside a guild keep. Powerful adventurers are always near, and can deal with any treachery on your part,” Stirman warned.

About an hour later, she felt Doug and George were nearby. A guard led her from the cell she was in and brought her up several flights of stairs and eventually up into a tower. This here adventurer’s guild was like a little fortress dropped inside the sprawling city that she caught glimpses of through the arrow slits on the walls of the tower. Near the top, she was ordered into what looked like a converted guard room. A table and some chairs had been dragged in, and there were other maps for her to peruse.

“You’ll be locked in, if you need anything, tell the guards outside. If you try to escape or if any of your party attacks a member of the guild, you will be killed immediately,” their escort warned as he locked the door to her new, but much nicer, cell.

“We best speak among ourselves, no doubt the guild is monitoring the room through magical means,” Doug said through their link.

“Good to see you both, we’ve got some work to do, it’s time to track down the next core,” Florence said aloud before switching to their link. “They don’t know that we already have the location figured out, the only problem is getting out of here and off to the next dungeon without half the adventurers guild and all of the king’s army chasing us,” Florence said.

“Do you know where Fizz and Patricio are?” George asked.

“Patricio isn’t linked to my core, so I can’t sense him. I’ll check for Fizz, but they might be pretty far from here,” Florence said, concentrating on the links to her core, following the thin thread that represented the gnome. George and Doug’s threads were much more substantial, given they were truly a part of her core, but Fizz’s link was a new and tentative one. Among the other links was one that was black as night, the link to the lich, and she didn’t do a durned thing with that one. She knew where the next core was, and she would interact with the lich’s link as little as possible.

Fizz’s link unspooled before her, but instead of fading in the distance as she expected, she could feel him nearby. Not near like he was outside the room, but near in that he was probably inside or near the city. It was a shock to her, Florence had no idea how the little guy had covered so much territory so quickly. Concentrating further, she tried to reach Fizz, but it was difficult to communicate over this distance with the limited link they had.

“Fizz, can you hear me?” Florence asked.

“Woah, that’s strange. I was hoping you’d find me, but the whole talking in the mind thing is kind of odd. Your voice echoes a bit, but I can hear you. Oh, can you hear me, or am I just think-talking to myself?” Fizz replied.

“I can hear you, you durned fool. We were worried about you, Fizz, how did you follow us so quick?” Florence asked.

“Well, I didn’t follow you, but Patricio came through. He spoke with some shady characters in town and they agreed to help us follow you. Hang on, I’ll let him know I can talk to you,” Fizz said, the link going quiet as he conferred with the Bard.

“Somehow, Fizz and Patricio followed us. Fizz is getting the details from Patricio now,” Florence told the others and they waited for a response from the gnome.

“We might be able to get to you, and get you out, but it’s going to cost us,” Fizz said.

“Cost us how much. If that Bard is trying to blackmail us, I’ll feed him to the kitties,” Florence threatened.

“No, no, it’s not like that. It’s the rogue’s guild. They’re willing to help for a price, but I don’t know if it's one you can pay. They want reward chests, lots of them,” Fizz said. That was strange, she had never told Patricio about her deal with Bartleby and supplying him reward chests to sell. The rogue’s guild would love to get their hands on a bunch of those chests, but they didn’t have a pair of the gloves that Bartleby had, so they’d have to open them inside her home and cart off the loot. Maybe it could work, but the devil was in the details.

“I think we can work something out, how many chests, and how exactly do they plan to get us out of here?” Florence asked.

“They want a hundred chests for each of us, including Patricio. If we agree, they say they can get us out and to our destination without the guild or the king knowing what happened. They’re not exactly trustworthy kind of folks, but Patricio says they’ll keep their end of the bargain, as long as we keep ours,” Fizz said. Florence gave the details of the offer to the others and asked for their input.

“What do we have to lose, I mean, except for our lives. Can you make reward chests in that quantity, Florence?” Doug asked.

“Yep, I can, as long as those clowns are willing to wait for my mana to recharge over and over. They don’t know about the different tiers of chests, so I can make the lamest ones for less mana. Tell them we have a deal, but they need to get a move on, I can’t sit here in the cell forever. In a week, I’ll transform back into my home, and I doubt the guild will stand for what they would incorrectly call a dungeon appearing in one of their towers,” Florence said.

They didn’t have much else they could do except pretend to track down the next corrupted core. Unlike when she was first locked into the cell, up here in the tower there were plenty of guards wandering about. They were kind enough to offer food and water, but none of them needed it, thankfully, Florence sincerely doubted that the kitchens anywhere in this world would pass a health inspection. During the third night of their captivity, Florence heard a scuffle outside their door, and a few seconds later, she could hear the scratch of a lockpick rooting around.

“My dear Florence, I have returned to rescue you from your captivity!” Patricio said, doffing his hat with a flourish as he entered the room with several shady-looking characters.

“Good to see you too, now, how do we get out of here? I’m pretty sure the adventurer’s guild monitors me all the time, so they’re probably on the way,” Florence said, ready to be done with this place.