The Dead King

When Travis covered the hole, all the light from the sky was lost, and the sewer became pitch black.

That didn’t last for more than a moment, however. Travis produced a floating flame in his palm, that shown brightly enough to illuminate all of their surroundings.

The flame reflected itself in the mirror-like ice that held the unfortunate guard hostage.

“How long will he be frozen?” Travis asked.

“What would be a good amount of time?” Marin responded, feeling deep sorrow for the man who was just trying to do his job honestly. He stared down at him.

“I’m thinking six hours.”

Marin wiggled his fingers, and the ice crackled as its composition changed. The experienced wizard was able to adjust the length of time his ice would take to melt – it was no easy task for any elemental, but for Marin, it didn’t take him more than a thought.

“There we go,” he stated to himself, but loud enough for Travis to hear.

“That’s not going to kill him, is it? Being in ice that long?” Travis asked.

“I’ve altered its properties so it won’t. But he will be quite cold once it melts enough for him to move around,” Marin explained.

The duo gathered their bearings after the quick events that had just unfolded, and Travis began guiding Marin down the sewer path. In the tunnel they were in, waste water flowed by down the center to some exit point, and the two of them walked on either side of that.

Travis’s flame illuminated the sewer quite well. On the walls were torch holders that would once light this tunnel a long time ago, but no one came down here regularly enough to have them stationed any more.

“We can relax a bit now,” Travis breathed. “We’re going to be the only ones down here for a while.”

“Are you aware that the guard will defrost and report who you are and what you look like?” Marin bluntly pointed out.

“Don’t remind me,” he responded in a dreaded tone.

“Yet you didn’t ask me to kill him. On the contrary, you seemed quite concerned about his well being,” Marin added.

“Yeah? What’s your point?” Travis asked slightly annoyed.

“You’re not such a bad person, I don’t think.”

Travis shook his head. “Drop it.”

Time passed as they navigated the sewers under King’s Row. Despite the maze-like layout of the underground, Travis knew every turn they had to take. Every once in a while, a rat scurried by their feet, or a skeleton was found lying on the cracked brick flooring. It was the remains of some poor soul who dared cross the establishment – whether that was the Scarlet Eye or some other shady order. Bodies were regularly discarded down in these abandoned rat ways, according to Travis.

After walking for a while longer, Travis suddenly halted. He held his arm out to stop Marin from advancing further.

“Look down at that,” Travis instructed.

If he hadn’t stopped him, Marin would’ve completely missed what his more perceptive partner had noticed – an almost invisible trip wire about three feet from where they stood.

“I’ve never seen them set up traps this far ahead,” Travis said to himself.

Travis took a step closer to analyze the wire. “Marin, don’t move an inch closer. Just wait a sec.”

Marin watched as he stepped over the wire, and began shuffling his feet on the stone bricks below him. He crouched down and looked above. After that, he took another step, and slid his feet on the bricks ahead of him. Halfway through feeling them out, a single brick pressed in.

When that happened, a large metal rod shot forward with a spike at the end of it. If Travis had been standing some few inches closer, it would have grazed him.

“Wow, they’re getting good,” Travis stated while grabbing the rod, and yanking it from its base in the wall.

“Marin, would you step back a few feet?”

He obeyed, and walked backwards a bit.

Travis took the impaling rod he held, and tripped the wire that he had stepped over previously with it.

Nothing happened, even after several seconds.

“Yup, that was a dummy trap. That trip wire did nothing, it was the brick pressure plate ahead that would’ve killed ya,” Travis explained.

Damn, Marin thought. This order was no joke, and Marin lacked all of the knowledge Travis had to counter all of their set ups. He would have really gotten his body into a terrible predicament if he had tried pursing them himself.

“You see,” Travis continued, “they counted on you noticing that tripwire, avoiding it, and letting your guard down thinking you had outsmarted their set up. Only to meet your demise a few seconds later.”

Travis tossed the rod down to the ground aside to him. “It’s time for me to be even more perceptive than I’ve been before, seeing as we’re now in their territory.”

He gestured Marin to keep moving. As they started to walk again, Travis’s attitude had changed, he had become far more quiet and serious as they neared the end of their journey to the Scarlet Eye’s headquarters.

Marin was sure to keep his guard up too. He tried his best keeping his eyes peeled in an effort to assist Travis with finding any traps laid out, but he feared his untrained eyes would miss even some of the most obvious set ups.

Sure enough, Travis called out all of them far before Marin could. He was fascinated as he watched Travis disarm several different types of traps, all of which he freely explained as he did so. Marin was shocked by some of the designs and cleverness these rogues possessed. Travis informed him though, that these were from blueprints refined and handed down through many generations, and mastery of these traps hadn’t been developed overnight.

Travis explained that while the Scarlet Eye wasn’t a very old organization, they had been given knowledge and resources from higher up roguish factions, which they would continue to pay back to in the form of money that they earned.

“You know so much about the Scarlet Eye,” Marin pointed out.

“I would hope so, seeing as my parents were involved with them, and me doing what I do,” he responded while popping several springs out of a clamping trap.

They continued onward. Eventually, the met their first torch that was burning in a holder on the wall. It was a sign that they had made it close to their entrance. Travis extinguished his own flame that had granted them sight this whole time in exchange for the more dimly lit alternative.

Since the rogues were in this area enough to warrant a permanent lighting fixture, the two of them didn’t need to be spotted from far away with a large bright light of their own.

“Listen, Marin,” Travis started as he realized they were about to greet the entrance of the Scarlet Eye’s home. “There’s a very real chance one of us could get killed in this mission. It’s a low chance, but one regardless. I just want to offer you one last choice to sit this out and let me handle it. I’m used to doing this alone.”

“Out of the question. And, I will be sure that harm doesn’t come to us. You have my guarantee,” Marin responded, wondering why Travis was just now telling him this.

“Don’t guarantee things that are out of your control,” Travis warned.

That sounded a bit ominous, but Marin thought not much past that. Instead, Marin began to explain yet again that there were two very specific rogues that had earned their death sentence, and he would not stop until he saw it through.

“Okay. This is your choice, then. I hope you find who you’re looking for.”

The two crept forward, slowly advancing. Behind every corner was another lit torch that had been burning for hours now. Travis was expecting at any moment to have an encounter with a rogue who was patrolling the sewers they walked in.

Meanwhile, Marin began wondering why Travis sounded so against him joining the infiltration all of a sudden. He even had tried scaring him with the chance of death. Was it that Travis had begun to care about Marin, and was against the king risking his life for some revenge? Or was it due to some other reason that he had yet to figure out.

The way he said that things would be out of his control sounded threatening as well. Marin even toyed with the idea that maybe Travis was wise of a plan that was going to get Marin killed, almost as if the Scarlet Eye knew he was coming, and Travis gave him a final offer to be free of it.

These thoughts troubled the ice wizard, but Marin reminded himself that these were petty rogues compared to the power he wielded. Even the woman who was a senior member of the organization was no match for him, despite all her jumping and evading tactics.

Marin would see this done. There was no plan that was good enough to see his demise. He was stronger than anyone else here. Even if they managed to stab him, he was already dead. What more could they do?

The robed King balled his hands into fists, flexing them.

They would all see ice.

They would know an ice age never seen before, moves of an elemental they wished they hadn’t messed with. It would only be some time now before it began.

“I wouldn’t worry about any danger, Travis,” Marin finally said. “If they had any idea what was coming – even you – you would all stay out of my way.”