Once, after a mighty battle, Ouroboros was caged by Granesh and the deity demanded that the World Snake give over the secret of his immortality.

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Oroborous slipped out of the cage, leaving behind a molt so realistic that Granesh continued to ply it with demands for many moons.

While Granesh was distracted, Ouroboros snuck out and stole the secret of Fire, leaving five silver coins in its place.

Jason Salazar

Get this message to the 6th floor right NOW.

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Poke.

Poke.

Will’s left eye fluttered open.

His right eye was swollen shut, throbbing with the beat of his heart.

He was splayed out, Kit missing, hanging midair, every limb strapped to an unyielding steel X at least a couple inches thick, designed to contain a climber’s superhuman strength.

Will tried to move Phantom Hand and found it completely unresponsive. Not unexpected, but it still brought a cold sweat to his brow.

At least I still have my hand and feet. Will thought.

His worst fear would be-

Will cut off that line of thought for a couple reasons: first because it was pointless to think about now, and second because he didn’t know if they had a mind-reader on-site. No sense giving them his worst fears right out the gate.

Will’s eye focused on the saint as the grizzled veteran stepped away, his poking finger still extended.

“Welcome back,” Jairus said with a smile.

“Good to be-,” Will said before a hacking cough interrupted him. A little blood must’ve gotten into his lungs while he was passed out.

“Now, let’s get started, shall we?” Saint Jairus asked, pulling a chair in front of the Will Chandelier and taking a seat.

“What, no knives and brands?” Will asked.

“Other leaders in the church of Granesh jump straight to torture. I prefer to establish a dialogue first.” Jairus said, folding his hands. “I have a great deal of experience with interrogations in general and have found that it always works out to my advantage to have a long conversation before I bring out the knives and Truth Debuffs.”

“Why’s that?” Will asked, his mind lingering on the ‘truth debuffs’, finger itching.

“Because if I ask you the same questions before and after a Truth Debuff, it reveals to me what you think is important enough to lie about.”

“Oh, interesting. Should you be telling me that?” Will asked.

“Oh, it’ll let you wiggle a little bit, I’m sure, but not to a great extent. The things you feel are important won’t change. Meanwhile, I believe that establishing myself as the wellspring from which Truth flows is more important.”

Every word I say you can take at face value. That’s why I’m not making any grandiose threats. My threats will be simple, actionable ones that will be enacted the instant they leave my mouth.” Saint Jairus leaned back in his chair.

“Shall we get started?”

Will shrugged, best as he could.

“What are the names of your Primary Abiliies?”

“…”

“I see. Silence would seem like the best option in these circumstances,” Jairus said, nodding. “Allow me to make you an offer, then. If you answer my questions, then not only will we avoid torture for quiet some time, I will also go out of my way to allow your Party to move on to the next Floor.”

Will considered.

Time was good. Buying as much of it as possible should be his priority, and if he simply stopped answering questions, they would skip the step where he could lie to them entirely, possibly spelling his doom. It was 100% in Will’s best interest to go along with this. But how not to seem desperate?

“My whole party?” Will asked.

“Yes.”

“Including my Tangled and my Kobold?” Will asked. “I know how you people are.”

“Your Tangled killed no less than fifteen sailors.”

“Who attacked her first.” Will said. “She’s a sweetheart if you’re not trying to kill her or use her as a living weapon. Something I’ve been trying not to abuse.”

“The kobold isn’t in your Party.”

“It totally is,” Will replied.

“Interesting. Yes, I suppose a Deceiver would have affinity for the scaled subhumans.”

Will cocked his head to the side.

“How about this?” Will asked. “I’m going to die here, yeah?”

“Probably.” Jairus said with a shrug. “Barring special circumstances we will execute you at the end of our interrogation.”

Will chuckled. “You really are committed to telling the truth.”

“A man’s word is powerful, as long as it remains unbroken.” Jairus said.

“I’ll give you all the answers you want, if you give me all the answers I want. Then when we’re done, you can kill me as planned. No sensitive information leaked.”

“What makes you suggest that?” Jairus asked.

“I’d like to know what a Deceiver is.” Will said. “It’s not like anyone taught it to me growing up.”

Jairus seemed to consider for a moment.

“You are aware of the conflict between Granesh, god of order, and Ouroboros?”

“Vaguely.”

“During their first battle, the blood of Ouroboros rained down on The Tower, proliferating every scaled monster.”

“I’ve heard of it,” Will said.

“Well, a few of the more powerful types, Immortal Serpents among them, carry on the ancient battle against order that is imprinted in their very blood. They use shapeshifting to replace human Climbers and send their half-breed children to sow chaos.”

“So you’re saying that my parents…”

“One of them was replaced during their Climb, conceived you, and then delivered you to an orphanage, like a seed of chaos waiting to sprout.”

“Hmm…” Will mused. His life was pretty chaotic. He’d guessed most of this already, but it was nice to hear it straight from the priesthood themselves.

“My turn. What are your Sacrifices?” Jairus asked.

“Gravity goat, Uru drake, and my left hand.”

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“…” Jairus paused, glancing over at Will’s missing left hand. “You realize that confirms that you aren’t fully human?”

“I had an inkling,” Will admitted

“Your turn,” Jairus said.

“Why do I have a strange empathy for certain corpses?” Will asked, praying that he wasn’t giving away more information than he was asking for.

“What do you mean?”

“Every now and then I’ll come across the body of a dead person and I’ll see myself as them. Have conversations with them, even. This happened a lot more in the first few Floors.”

“It’s your affinity for other Deceivers. Your progenitor scattered thousands of spawn outside the tower, and they leave a psychic imprint upon their death that you unconsciously absorb, drawing you into the last few moments of their life. The reason it’s stopped in the upper floors is there’s significantlyless Deceivers who’ve made it this far.”

“Huh,” Will cocked his head. “Does that mean I could get psychic Abilities?” Will asked, thinking back to the Tomahawk of the Serpent.

Jairus shook his head and waggled a finger. “My turn.”

Will groaned, but nodded.

“Do you know where your parents are now?” Jairus asked.

“No, last I heard they were making their way back down, from the upper floors, but that can take years. I haven’t seen them since I was ten.”

“Hmm…” Jairus scratched down a note.

“My turn. Do you know which of my parents is the serpent?”

“Typically it’s the male.”

So that’s the one I need to punch, Will thought, pursing his lips in thought.

Jairus opened his mouth to speak when an urgent knock on the cell’s door interrupted him.

“Excuse me!” the saint’s assistant ducked his head into the room. “There’s a messenger here for you.”

“And?” Jairus asked, motioning for him to send the man in.

Joshua cleared his throat nervously. “He was very insistent that it was for your ears only.”

Jairus groaned and pushed himself to his feet.

“I’ll be back in a moment. Sorry to stop just when we were getting somewhere.”

“I’ll think of some questions while you’re out,” Will said with a shrug.

“Keep an eye on him,” Jairus said to his bodyguard, who nodded and fixed his gaze on Will, intent on not giving him any wiggle room.

A moment later, the Saint swept out of the room, leaving Will alone with a powerful Warrior in full kit. Easy peasy.

Hmm. Will tugged on his bonds experimentally, satisfied when they threatened to slip off of him as if they’d been made of greased seaweed.

“Don’t.” The warrior threatened, tensing.

“Don’t what? Test my bindings? You haven’t held many people captive before have you?” Will asked, testing Phantom Hand.

It was sluggish, but starting to recover from the numbness already.

Ring of Total Freedom

+15 Focus

This Relic hides itself and causes Physical, Mental, energy-based, causal, and Ability-based Bindings to be slowly worn away. Aids in escaping grapples, adhesives, engulfing attacks, resisting slow debuffs, and allows the wearer to fit through significantly narrower spaces than they might’ve otherwise. Scales with Focus.

Reactive: 1 Charge

Dive into a mental projection of the self.

Will’s ‘big favor’ to ask of Jean was to borrow the Ring of Total Freedom. It was the last lifeline that allowed her to avoid being captured and used as a living weapon, so naturally she was reluctant to part with it.

Will had to do some pretty impressive groveling, and make the four girls several dubious promises he was unsure he could actually follow through on before they gave it up.

All he had to do after that was put the ring on, allow it to hide itself, then put the Ring of The Eidolon on over it, acting as camouflage.

Naturally, only the first ring would be active, and the second would be inert.

So the Ring of Total Freedom was able to pass unnoticed when they took the Ring of the Eidolon, the people searching him assuming they’d cleared that part of his kit.

Unnoticed by the guard, Will swished the Phantom Hand around the room until he felt that he’d shaken out most of its sluggishness.

He switched from the Wand of the Undead Retainer to the Sickle of Cold Harvest, causing a shiver to run down his spine as the Phantom Hand’s finger popped and turned black.

“NNG!”

The guard let out a muffled grunt of pain as a steel dart emerged from Phantom Hand at point blank, perforating his neck and instantly sheathing his entire body with oversized ice crystals due to Cold Harvest’s effects.

Will slipped out of his bindings and sprinted up to the bodyguard, feeling Cold Harvest’s lifesteal effect causing the bruises and lacerations crippling him to begin fading away.

Will reached the guard’s sword before his hoarfrost-slowed hand could reach it, whipping the blade out and killing the man with a well-placed thrust to the eye.

Will lowered the body quietly to the floor and put his ear to the door to see if anyone had heard. In the distance, he could make out Saint Jainus’s receding footsteps.

He’s already around the corner.

Saint Jainus was old, and specialized in Focus. That meant Will could hear him before he could hear Will.

Will cracked the door open and peeked out, seeing nobody.

He crept out and followed the saint’s footsteps until they came to an end.

“I’ll return to my duties,” Joshua said, his voice preceding him as he approached one of the doors in the hall.

Surging with adrenaline, Will sprinted forward and leapt up, directly over the doorway his voice was coming from, clinging to the wall and ceiling.

The door opened underneath him and Joshua walked out, not bothering to look directly above him.

The assistant walked away, disappearing down the Officer’s hall.

“What’s this message then?” Will heard Jairus’s voice ask.

“Not just yet,” the messenger’s voice said, before Will felt a Charge move through the air in the room across from them, and suddenly the sound went dead.

Damnit.

Will scanned his surroundings and spotted that the door opposite him was open, revealing a room with books inside.

Will used Phantom hand to steal a piece of paper out of one of the bibles. The extra thin stuff.

He pried a long splinter of wood off the wall about the size of his palm, and jammed it through the ultra-thin paper before feeding the splinter through the gap in the door.

When the splinter was about halfway through the gap, the extra-thin paper began to vibrate with the faintest sound that his outlandish Acuity could barely pick up.

“Oroborous slipped out of the cage, leaving behind a molt so realistic that Granesh continued to ply it with demands for many moons.

While Granesh was distracted, Ouroboros snuck out and stole the secret of Fire, leaving five silver coins in its place.”

Will frowned.

“So the Prophet thinks he’s going to escape us?” Jairus asked.

Prophet?

“I’m just the messenger, but it would certainly appear that way.” The other voice spoke.

“What’s this about five silver?” Jairus asked.

Will’s eye twitched.

“Again, I’m the messenger, and we were instructed to deliver the message before the prophecy could be completely interpreted. It was deemed important that it reach your ears immediately, given its potential time-sensitive nature.”

I know what the five silver is about. Will thought, letting himself down from the ceiling and creeping away from the door before sprinting back down the hall on the balls of his feet.

Now I just need to find my kit.

If anything he could sniff it out. It had been steeping in the scent of rotting fish aboard Shimmer for weeks, after all.

As he was running, a body turned the corner, nearly running directly into Will. Will’s adrenaline was so high that the sword was halfway to Travis’s eye before he identified him.

“What are you doing here?” they whispered at the same

“Escaping, obviously.” Travis replied. “Our stuff’s over here.” He thumbed over his shoulder.

Together the two of them sprinted down the hall until they reached the room where Will’s kit had been stashed.

Will listened at the door and determined there were at least two people breathing on the other side.

“Two enemies,” Will signed, pointing at the door.

Travis nodded, and a moment later, Will cracked the door the tiniest amount, using the Ring of Total Freedom to ooze his way into the room without opening it more than a couple inches.

“You’re not that sneaky,” Loth’s voice came from atop the chest with Will’s gear, causing all the tension to drain out of his body.

Will glanced over and saw that Ria was standing beside Loth, acting as the saboteur’s bodyguard.

Behind them was an insect-chewed hole in the side of the ship, marking the path of their escape.

“…I know I just asked for a huge favor,” Will said, turning to Ria. “But would you mind doing one more big favor for me?”

Shortly afterwards, Jairus finished the debrief with the messenger, drank a bit of water to clear his throat, and headed back to the interrogation room.

The room was oddly chillier than he remembered it, but the guard still stood in the corner, watching the Deceiver with a steely gaze.

The Deceiver’s bruises seemed to have faded, his lacerations scabbed over.

I wasn’t gone that long.

“Did something happen?” Jairus asked.

“The Deceiver had a healing potion concealed in their collar. I as able to pry it out of their mouth before they could drink too much.”

“Is that right?” Jairus asked.

“Yes, Saint.”

Dictum of the Divine.

153-123 charges remaining.

“Nonbelievers cannot lie to me.” Jainus said. There was no time to go through the typical process of slowly extracting information and cross-referencing it to get a deeper understanding of the subject.

William Oh took in a sharp breath.

According to the prophecy, Will was going to escape any second, or perhaps he had already. He no longer had time to dance around the issue and instead must cut to the heart of the matter.

“Are you William Oh?”

“Yes.” William Oh said.

That’s good. I was afraid he’d left his shapeshifting Tangled pet here in his place.

“Are you planning on escaping?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“How?” Jainus said, his voice taking on an edge.

“Well, my working plan is that I’m going to paralyze you with hoarfrost, slip out of my restraints, subdue your bodyguards, then I’m gonna drag you out onto the ocean and escape into the confusion of the Scramble as the fishpeople you’re working with sink your ship with a bit of help from Loth the Luminary.”

Jairus almost laughed off the absurdity of Will’s ‘plan’, until the ‘fishpeople’ were mentioned.

How in the Abyss does he know…Shapeshifting pet?

Jainus glanced behind him where his bodyguard stood, inhaling through his nose. Sniffing the air.

Cold air. The faintest scent of blood. Something he hadn’t been conscious of until he had grown suspicious. He’d assumed it had been Will’s blood. His eyes widened.

Dictum of the Divine.

123-93 charges remaining.

“Nonbelievers cannot-“

A piercing pain assaulted Jairus’s chest an instant before hoarfrost locked his jaw shut.

Ice covered Jairus’s eyes and ears as he froze in place, toppling to the ground.

Around him he heard the muffled sounds of battle as his hidden bodyguards engaged with Will and the false one that had been replaced while he was gone.

Jairus felt the ship begin to rock, and beneath the shouting and ringing of steel he thought he could make out someone shouting ‘Scramble!’