Page 10 of Crown of Flame

I leave their speaker alive. He seems to be the one responsible for the group. Perhaps he can give me answers.

“Why did you bring me here?”

He looks at the deceased bodies around him, meals for me to enjoy later, and he tries to run in a panic.

I feel frustrated by his refusal to answer me. Then I notice another creature in the corner.

She doesn’t have the same tainted soul, and her ears are differently shaped.

She can provide me with information and possibly help me get home.

Without a thought, I kill the last pointy-eared creature in the room. I snap his body quickly, a mercy he doesn’t deserve.

The female hunches against a wall behind a broken cell door. She looks equally terrified, but she also carries a pain unlike the others.

I approach her, and she recoils in terror. Unlike the other creatures, she doesn’t seem to have any magical capabilities, so she won’t be a threat.

“Please don’t kill me,” she begs.

But I ignore her. Killing her would not benefit me in any sense.

“What is this place?” I ask.

My words enter her mind, and she looks up at me in confusion.

She doesn’t seem to understand the question. I repeat it.

“Tower,” she stammers.

But I don’t know what she means, so I repeat the question again.

“Dark elf tower,” she says.

I feel like there might be a linguistic disconnect, even though I can understand all languages by their basic thoughts. I have no idea what a dark elf is.

She can’t explain further.

Perhaps I will have to see this realm to understand it.

“Show me where we are,” I reply in frustration.

She asks how, and I tell her to guide me.

She stands up, trembling. As she steps over the bodies on the floor, I sense a deep sadness running through her.

The female turns to me, regarding me in confusion and fear. I can’t articulate why, but it upsets me that I frighten her.

“Thank you for freeing me,” she says.

It’s the first explanation I’ve gotten from her, though it’s not one I asked for. I had never planned on freeing her, so I don’t accept the gratitude.

“Did they trap you?”

She nods.

So this female was their prey.

We descend a stone incline, and I discover an entirely new realm. Cells line the walls here, and the air is heavy with the scent of iron, though it’s accompanied by a musty smell.