Nora’s leather gloves creaked as she flexed and released her grip on the hilt of her sheathed greatsword. She stared daggers laced with poison at the Lifekeepers who patrolled the long corridors of the vaults.

  She wanted to scream. She wanted to tackle and engrave her fist into their noses. Her hands trembled as she fought to restrain her anger.

  Her rage.

  It was more than apathy that they displayed to the fallen. They were benefiting from the deaths of the very people they claimed to support. It was vile, and they would pay for this.

  A loud shout of surprise and dismay broke Nora’s concentration on Bazz’s roaming surveillance. Three Lifekeepers were waving their hands frantically as if to search the empty space around them.

  Then, as she watched, Orro slipped out of thin air and reappeared a few feet away from the attendants. They started to berate him loudly, and Nora watched as Cade rushed over to join them. She only made out a few words, and her confusion only grew.

  “Specter…”

  “Spiritual plane…”

  “You insolent cow…”

  “Give that back…”

  Evie skipped down the aisle, holding a large staff in both hands. It was wrought from a long and twisted branch of redwood, with a grotesquely realistic carving of a horned satyr’s head at the top.

  The massive stick gave off a strange aura, and goosebumps rose up beneath Nora’s armor the longer she studied the staff.

  “I found it! Now it’s mine forever!” Evie declared proudly.

  An exhausted Lifekeeper was trailing the siren, and she reached out in vain right as Evie turned suddenly, nearly knocking down several chained items from their pedestals in the process. Despite her simmering anger, Evie’s oblivious joy brought a smile to her lips.

  Nora’s fists relaxed.

  “What did you find?” Nora asked patiently.

  “It’s the staff of the invidious faun, or something like that!” Evie explained with a bright smile. “It can do this!”

  She pointed the head of the carved staff in front of her.

  “NO!” The female Lifekeeper screamed in horror right as a wave of ethereal blue tendrils burst from the staff.

  Evie slid across the smooth marble a few paces and giggled as she and Nora both watched the ghost of a plump satyr charging headfirst down the corridor. It launched itself over a dozen yards before he vanished into thin air.

  “You…” Nora tried to get out. “You chose a staff that…” Nora pointed between her best friend and the vanished satyr.

  “Will protect me in a fight? Yes!” Evie finished her sentence gleefully before she skipped away. “It looks like you found your item too, Nor!”

  “What? No, I didn’t,” Nora replied with furrowed brows before she looked down.

  There, in her grasp, was a small wooden box. Across its surface were burned etchings of tiny soldiers and their steeds. The box had no obvious clasp or hinges and was incredibly light.

  On what she assumed was the top of the box, a single sentence was scrawled out in blocky text:

  Born in fire but fearing wind, I am as strong as a dragon’s breath yet as delicate as a fairy’s wing.

  “What in the hells is this?” Nora asked no one in particular.

  She had no memory of picking this up, or where it came from. This wasn’t the item she wanted, nor was it the one they needed. The paladin scanned the aisle for any Lifekeepers, swallowing her pride as she went to ask for help, but something in her felt that revealing this box would be a mistake.

  Nora studied its design for several long moments, rereading the phrase over and over again. It had a familiar rhythm to it, but she couldn’t quite place why.

  “Please get down from there!” Bazz screamed and Nora spun to see Jer climbing along the walls of the vault.

  The paladin tilted her head to the side, trying to ascertain how he was doing that with such ease until she spotted a pair of gloves she knew didn’t belong to the acrobat affixed to his hands.

  He whooped and dropped over thirty feet to the ground, his boots lighting up briefly as he landed and absorbing the worst of the impact.

  “These are brilliant!” Jer declared proudly as he studied the fingerless gloves. “I’ll be able to open all the jars now with these bad boys.”

  A circular rune pattern glowed lightning-blue across the palms of each device.

  “That’s what you’re excited about?” Elena asked her twin with a disbelieving shake of her head. “You just climbed a gripless vertical surface like it was nothing, and you’re excited about opening jars?”

  Jer simply smiled and shrugged. “Now I won’t have to ask Orro every time they get stuck. Besides, I can already think of a dozen uses for these little guys.”

  Nora watched as Bazz pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “You have our legendary vaults at your disposal for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain a rare treasure, and you choose those uncommon pieces of junk?”

  Jer looked incredibly wounded at the insinuation. “You only see junk because you lack imagination. Adhesion of this quality and control knows no limits! The only limit is you, Lifekeeper.”

  The acrobatic redhead walked away before Bazz could recover from his indignation.

  Nora shook her head and let out a small laugh. Bazz caught her gaze and glanced down at the small box in her grip. His brows furrowed, and she instinctively moved the box away from his cold stare.

  “Where did you find that, wandering paladin?” Bazz demanded.

  “It’s the item I’ve chosen,” she lied just as coolly.

  He stepped closer, the faintest tendrils of gold pouring out through his clenched fingers. Her senses warned her to run from this gold-ranked threat, but she stood her ground. She was not afraid.

  “That shouldn’t be on this floor, girl. It’s supposed to be locked far beneath…” Bazz’s words trailed off, but she still caught the slip-up.

  There were more floors to this vault.

  The notion poured fresh oil over the blazing inferno in her chest. Destiny only knew how many warriors and families were left without their heirlooms or honor after these gods-damned tournaments stole from the dead. The Lifekeepers had profited off of the murders of countless contestants for all this time, and yet this elf had the gall to act as though he were entitled to everything in here.

  “Hand it to me.” It wasn’t a request, but an order as Bazz held out his hand.

  She pulled the box farther away. Cold fingers reached beneath her cloak where she hid the box and stole it from her grip with wicked strength. Kallista snaked past her, box in hand. She held it up to the light, a victorious grin carved into her face.

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  “How she got the Pandemonium Box is beyond me, but I shall ensure its safe return to the holding cell, my liege,” Kallista spoke to Bazz with faux modesty.

  He bowed his head in response, and the tall wood elf glided past them, but not before she gave Nora a final sneer.

  Nora cursed and strode away, her heavy boots echoing off of the vast space. Despite the vaulted ceilings and warm glow, she felt trapped beneath the earth. She wanted out of this place as soon as possible.

  She took the first row toward the weapons racks and browsed briefly before a dagger sheathed in a simple brown scabbard caught her eye. It had no protective runes on it, to her surprise. Nora looked around to see if anyone noticed her curiosity, then she lifted the dagger.

  It thrummed with a familiar energy that both soothed and calmed her immediately. She partially opened the scabbard, and the scents of the ocean greeted her.

  “Hydrofang dagger,” Nora read off of the plaque the dagger had rested atop. “Suspected to originate from the fang of a leviathan of the deep. This dagger provides limited telekinesis over water conjured by the runes etched into the blade. It can also send concentrated jets of water from the tip, though this will use up the charged energy quickly. It does naturally refill through ambient magic but can be accelerated via water-dominion energy infused into it.”

  Memories of the Cerulean Wave techniques flashed through her mind, and she sheathed the dagger, taking it with her as she made her back to the exit where the team had started to gather.

  Evie skipped up to her and interlaced an arm through hers, the large staff she carried thunking loudly on the ground as she walked. Nora scanned the walls and noticed a pulse of prismatic energy ripple through the vast networks of roots.

  A few of the Lifekeepers gave each other nervous glances, but no one spoke up or halted the two clerks in charge of notating what items they were claiming that day.

  “Champion Orro, claiming the Spectral Veil Bracelet. Rare quality. Considered highly volatile and dangerous to the wearer and the public as a whole. Threat level 3,” one clerk droned as he quickly adjusted the highly magnified spectacles affixed to his freckled face.

  Orro walked past the clerk without a word and stood by the first step leading out of this accursed place. The line moved forward, and Elena raised a circular device with stained blue glass in the center.

  “Champion Elena, claiming the Mirage Lens Monocle. Rare quality. Threat level 1, though could be 2 if used for voyeurism,” the nasally clerk intoned.

  Elena gave him a wide grin, but didn’t contest the unspoken warning.

  “Champion Gavin, retrieving the Discord Dice…” The clerk looked up from the large tome placed on the simple lectern near the base of the vault’s steps.

  A few of the guards shuffled uncomfortably at this proclamation, though no one moved forward to apprehend the telepath. Nora tensed, ready to draw her weapon just in case.

  “Threat level 6. Considered to be highly volatile and a major threat to the public…” The clerk met Gavin’s even stare, a bead of sweat rolling down the Lifekeeper’s cheek. “Why would you ever want those things?”

  “I like to gamble, and pretty dice is kind of my thing,” Gavin remarked with a wink.

  Nora had the irrational urge to punch him but schooled her expression. The telepath marched past the Lifekeeper before he could respond, tossing a small velvet pouch high into the air before deftly catching it.

  The guards, Nora noted, winced every time he did this.

  “Champion Jer, claiming the Sticky Gloves of… Sticking.” The clerk looked up again, this time with an entirely different type of confusion written across his youthful face. “Really?”

  Jer leaned in conspiratorially.

  “Jars,” he whispered loudly.

  The Lifekeeeper was more confused than ever but didn’t argue as Jer walked past, and his quill noted the exchange. Nora shook her head and took another step toward the clerk.

  “Let’s hurry this up,” Kallista commanded from behind them.

  She strolled with hands laced behind her back, nose pointed to the heavens.

  “We’ve wasted enough precious Lifekeeper time on this useless escapade,” the bespectacled elf moaned. “They will probably all die tomorrow and make this paperwork redundant.”

  Nora’s dagger was out and at the woman’s throat before she knew what was happening. Kallista tried to back away, but Nora followed her gait until the glorified librarian was backed against a pedestal that had a chained book resting on his surface.

  The tall Lifekeeper bent awkwardly backward, but Nora didn’t give her any room to move out from beneath her blade. The bony surface of the dagger glowed brightly with cerulean light as she prepped the runes for activation.

  She couldn’t hear anything past the dull roar in her ears.

  No one moved.

  “You are an abomination,” Nora whispered into the woman’s face.

  Tears, warm and wet, slid down the paladin’s cheeks, but she paid them no heed. The leather hilt in her grasp creaked as she tightened her grip. Kallista’s eyes were wide with shock and terror, but it was when the elf’s nose crinkled with disdain that nearly pushed Nora over the edge.

  No apologies.

  No regret.

  There was only annoyance at the inconvenience of Nora’s blade at her throat.

  “And you are a dead woman walking, deserter,” Kallista hissed back, her wiry fingers searching for purchase on the pedestal that dug into her back.

  Nora’s eyes widened briefly, and Kallista pounced on the display of weakness.

  “That’s what you must be, right?” Kallista crooned venomously. “You carry yourself like a paladin. You fight like a paladin. But what paladin foregoes the armor of her god? You are a deserter, likely seeking to restore the honor of whatever shit-faced deity you betrayed when you left their oh-so-hallowed halls.”

  Kallista leaned into the dagger, a thin trickle of blood escaping from where the blade dug into the Lifekeeper’s throat.

  “We’re the only ones serving a real god, you worthless excuse of a life,” the elf hissed with a vicious grin. “Why my Lady lets ants like you live is a mystery I will never understand. You don’t deserve her breath in your lungs, deserter.”

  “Enough!” Bazz demanded, though to Nora’s surprise, his ire was directed at Kallista. “Let us be gone with this charade.”

  He stepped forward, hands aglow with golden energy. The roots above them started to move and shift as his fingers danced through the air.

  Nora ignored him.

  “You know nothing about me,” Nora whispered at the Lifekeeper still pinned beneath her blade, but it sounded hollow even to her own ears.

  What anger she possessed dissipated into something colder.

  Something harder.

  “You profit from the fallen,” Nora said coldly. “But trust me when I say the debt you and your goddess owe will come due. And I’ll be there when it does.” She slid the dagger across her throat with just enough pressure to cut, but far from enough to take the Lifekeeper’s life.

  Nora stalked away, unwilling to meet anyone’s gaze as she shoved the dagger in front of the clerk’s slack-jawed face.

  “Uhhh…” The clerk stammered. “Champion Nora, claiming the h—h—hydrofang dagger. Threat level 2.”

  Nora nodded and went to stand by the others, who gave her various expressions of approval and admiration. A blush spread across her cheeks at their immediate and unflinching support of her, despite the fact that she’d gone rogue.

  Well, kind of. It was par for the course when it came to her new friends.

  “And I’ll just be taking this old thing,” Cade spoke up with a maddeningly calm voice.

  He lifted a beaten and waterlogged book, and the clerk shifted his attention to their blonde team leader.

  “Really? That old thing?” the clerk proclaimed in amazement. “You lot are the most daft group I’ve ever heard of. What in Life’s name could you possibly want that for? It’s not even enchanted!”

  “Clearly. Look at the state of that shameful excuse for kindling,” Elena muttered dryly.

  “I heard that!” Cade yelled over to them.

  “Alright,” the attendant said with a shrug. “Well, Champion Cade claims the unenchanted tome entitled A Comprehensive Guide into Lifekeeper Wards, Arrays, & Enchantments, first edition. Threat level…”

  The clerk referenced a second tome by his side and whispered something to a nearby Lifekeeper.

  They both shrugged, and he turned to address Cade again. “Threat level inapplicable. This tome is used by our maintenance staff and researchers. Are you sure you want this old thing?”

  “I’m sure,” Cade confirmed and held the large book up to his chest affectionately.

  “A book,” Orro said under his breath. “Figures.”

  “At least this farce is over,” Bazz began, his scowl darker than ever.

  Kallista stood by his side, neck as clean and pristine as polished marble. Nora’s eyes narrowed as she met the elf’s malevolent stare.

  “I command you all to leave and never return,” Bazz commanded imperiously.

  With a cheerful grin, Cade waved eagerly at Bazz and Kallista, who Nora swore looked ready to strangle the man. Their team leader strode up the stairs out of this place with long, confident steps. Nora spared one final glance for the Lifekeeper vaults and the dark truths it represented.

  “I’ll set this right,” Nora said under her breath before she followed her team up the steps.

  Her hand went to the new dagger she had laced into her belt, but something filled her palm before she could set her hand against the sheathed blade.

  She pulled her hand from out beneath her cloak and took in the small wooden box that rested there. Her brown eyes widened, and she shoved it into her pocket, alarm and confusion coursing like tidal waves through her mind.

  The Pandemonium Box had followed her.

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