Jackal Among Snakes

The Alchemist walked through his abode of obsidian with Argrave struggling to keep up just behind. Argrave thought that they were heading into the library once more, but the Alchemist reached into the walls as he walked to retrieve an obsidian staff. He slammed it on the ground, and the whole placed pulsed with purple lights.

Like that, the whole of it came alive. The hallway that they’d been walking through descended, forming a slope downwards. The walls and floors looked like ferrofluid manipulated by a magnet, glossy like metal but flowing as liquid. Despite this, each step that they took was as solid as stone. The Alchemist’s home had been manipulable in Heroes of Berendar, but now that it was beyond the constraints of the game, this place seemed capable of doing whatever the Alchemist pleased.

Argrave hated admitting it, but he somewhat hoped that the Alchemist’s back would split open to reveal a mouth that told him something—anything. The silence, however, was deafening, broken only by the soft fleshy footfalls of the Alchemist and Argrave’s boots impacting against the malleable obsidian all around them. They headed deep, deep, and deeper, following the sloping path.

Eventually, when Argrave looked around, the path backwards didn’t exist anymore. In all directions, it was endless blackness, disorienting enough that Argrave couldn’t tell which way was the direction they’d come from. Up could’ve become down long ago—it seemed feasible, given the gravity-defying pathway they’d walked through just to show up at the underground jungle. All he could do was follow this silent giant, fearing to speak in case he sparked anger.

Finally, the obsidian pathway became a fair bit brighter, and Argrave narrowed his eyes to shield from the light. As his eyes adjusted, recognition dawned—they emerged into the Alchemist’s chimera lab. A stairway descended downward into it, landing ungracefully in a secluded corner of the room. When Argrave finally took his feet off the stairs, they rose behind him and vanished. The Alchemist dropped his obsidian staff, and it sunk into the home like it never was.

The chimera lab was not a place with abominable creatures floating suspended in glass containers full of green goo. It more so resembled a morgue that had been taken over by a very tall librarian. The place had a ceiling about thirty feet tall. There were tall columns of impeccable white books imbedded in the walls, but between each tower of books, drawers resembling mortuary cabinets filled the space from bottom to top. In morgues they’d hold the dead—here, they held the living. Or unliving, in any case.

The Alchemist walked down into the chimera lab, his pace slowing somewhat. He raised his hand up, and it thinned as it stretched out. When it reached a certain shelf, he stuck his hand inside the obsidian, then pulled it open. From there, he grabbed the one within and lowered the subject down ungracefully. As he did so, he slammed the cabinet shut once again.

Argrave stared at this chimera as it was placed down. It was humanoid, and clothed in black robes—a good start. But as he stared, he came to realize the thing looked uncannilyclose to him. Things were off in certain places—Argrave was bulkier than it was, but perhaps that was simply the difference between when he’d left here last and now. The eyes were still the black-and-gold color they’d been the first few months after acquiring Garm’s eyes. The hairstyle was different, too—curlier, a little drier. And the face had some sort of uncanny wrongness to it. He certainly wasn’t worried about any of his party members being fooled by this thing.

“He’s let me out the box again, I see,” the chimera muttered, then looked at Argrave. “Nothing’s ever so blissful as seeing a face like yours. Well, honestly, I’d say that to any face, so long as I get some time to walk and talk.” He held a pale hand out. “I’m Pawn.”

to blindly jump into a quicksand pit in the middle of the Burnt Desert to encounter the Alchemist. They didn’t stopyou, of

needed ingredients.

one who got new hearts put into me.” The chimera tapped his chest in revelation. “Things work beautifully. The Alchemist did a checkup on you when you entered here. And…” Pawn realized the awkwardness hanging in the air, and said, “It

from a normal person. Indeed, most people found him quite likable. Likable or not, he was still the product of the most advanced necromancy in the world. He was powerful physically, possessing all sorts of superhuman enhancements made to aid in

said, “If he’s brought you out, the Alchemist probably wants you to explain something to

and the one hearing them. You can view me as a

to display here, but an effort was

discussing whether or not Heroes of Berendar might get a sequel on another continent. Berendar was a tall, somewhat narrow continent shelved away in the bottom right of the map, and relatively isolated. He saw Veiden—larger, but also mostly uninhabited—and all the other continents. The player never left Berendar. Instead, the other denizens of the other continents came to them, each in a

does Gerechtigkeit descend?”

plain between the two. As soon as Argrave lifted his finger away, a needle pierced the

he works,” Pawn explained amicably. “Now… we

of a vast multitude of gods. Some of them he could place, because they had consistent ties to the land like the elven gods. Others were left to the wind. A needle quickly stabbed each spot he pointed out, and then more

seen the blessing of the god on him.” He pointed to Pawn. “And if your boss can take the blessing harmlessly, make his body whole again, do it without issue… we might be able to see right into the path to finding how to end the cycle of judgment.” Argrave tapped his chest. “I

a few moments of uncanny reflection. “It is true that a blessing from a god draws the Alchemist’s attention. For your other assertion, an argument: this power was bestowed on Ingo by a god. No one, god or mortal, has broken the cycle. Why would a blessing prove capable of spotting

finger curled. “But with the things that

this as objectively as it was intended. Factually speaking, you are one of many who have endured Gerechtigkeit. What gives you superiority over them in ending the cycle? It comes once every one thousand years. Gerechtigkeit does expend a great deal of effort in making people forget his existence, but reality and simple probability dictate that some exist like the Alchemist who know he will come. Foremost among those knowing when the calamity comes are gods, lest we forget.” Pawn paused,