“Took you long enough.” Fink’s voice came from above, his tone bored. His guide was floating besides him, looking at nothing, as usual.

  Of course he’d give me attitude. “Wasn’t that easy to find you in this dump.”

  “You didn’t do much. Or at least that’s what I got from what Bryga told me.” He raised his eyebrow provocatively. “Anyway, you getting me out of here? The cage blocks me from using my items somehow.”

  I shook my head. “Not yet. I just needed to find you before we make a break for it tomorrow.”

  “Hmm? Just find me? Can’t you get me out? Like, really?? Surely there is something that can be done!”

  “No. The cages would hold, apparently. An old friend will help us get you and his friend out, and then we’re off.”

  Fink rolled his eyes, and muttered under his breath. The silent street carried his words well enough though. “I wish Bryga was here instead.”

  My nose flared as I thought hard on how to get up there to punch him. He was wrong if he thought that I’d take insults like that for much longer. Who did this fart guy think he was?

  Mark shot up suddenly, right next to Fink’s face, shocking me with the rapid movement. “Now listen here, you little shit. I don’t know what your problem is, but let Shrimpie be, okay? He’s here to save your ass, and we wouldn’t need to be here if you didn’t get knocked out somehow during that fight.”

  Fink scoffed, coming closer to the cage bars. “What, you think I’m scared of you, blue man?”

  Mark laughed all of a sudden. “Of me? No. But you should be scared of the possibility of us just leaving your ass here. Now, quiet down, and let us do what we need to do.”

  And with that, Mark started hovering closer to the ground, until he was almost next to me, and then he started hovering away, closer to the ritual site. I gave a quick look to Fink.

  He was speechless, hell, even I was. A barrage of insults in my defense was not something that I ever expected to hear from Mark, but I wasn’t going to complain. “See you tomorrow, Fink. We’ll be here.”

  He gave me an absent minded wave, visibly thinking about the confrontation already.

  I rushed to follow Mark, who was already about ten metres away. He wasn’t going fast enough to really make any meaningful distance, though. Walking beside him, I kept replaying the argument over and over in my head. “Thanks for that, dude. It was… unexpected.”

  Mark smiled, rubbing a finger on his lips as if that could hide the shy expression. “No worries, man. Made a promise, remember?”

  “I don’t think that accounted for you demolishing Fink’s self esteem for the rest of his life.” A goblin lady passed by me as I finished that sentence, smiling and waving shyly. Her hideous teeth were sticking out of her mouth, full of rot and some kind of grease. Never before have I wished for my memories to not come back to me more than I did in that moment. I DID NOT want to know where she knew me from, or why she smiled like that.

  A chuckle came from Mark’s direction, who kept looking forward. “Hey, the dude was asking for it. He did begin being a bit sour ever since we got back to the town, but this was on a whole new level. He was acting like a dickhead.”

  Sure, that was kind of true. It wasn’t anything new in this sapient life of mine, though. “Kinda like you when we first met?”

  “You surely mean us when we first met. Anyway, just forget it. Let’s see if we can find any of those mages’ houses, go back to Fink, finalize the plan and proceed.”

  “Go to see the houses? That wasn’t the plan before.”

  “No, but I still don’t trust Martin. We should check if he told the truth.”

  I smiled. “Fair. I don’t trust him either.”

  The ritual site was in front of us now. Nobody stood in front to protect it, of course. Why protect something that wasn’t in use at the moment, I supposed. The goblin’s logic was not as alien to me as the logic of humans, who I still had trouble understanding sometimes.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The ritual site looked like someone started building a concert podium and just decided not to finish it halfway through. Broken or half-built walls surrounded the huge stone circle that served as the podium, with enough rocks that probably served as seats placed around to hold all the goblins I’d seen so far. The podium itself was raised above the ground, a huge slab of stone that sat on the violet sand and dirt. And in the center of it all was a rock window, the portal.

  It looked like nothing special at the moment - a three metre tall window that had a pointed shape at the top, with some engravings in the stone material itself.

  “See anything int-” Mark began speaking, but stopped as footsteps suddenly sounded behind me. I turned around, and I found someone I seriously didn’t want to see at this moment - the smallest goblin that took me drinking yesterday.

  “Heya tall one, duh! You ready to drink again?” He grinned again, forcing me to clench my fist. Why did I want to hurt the guy for just existing? He couldn’t help that his facial expressions made him look like the most vile criminal in the history of the universe.

  “Hey there, duh. Trying to remember what I’ve done yesterday, duh.”

  “Ya don’t recall, tall one? Ya beat the crap outta like twenty gobbos! They called your mama fat, and you just punched them around like dolls! That’s what I call a good party, duh!” He grinned, and came even closer, looping one of his arms around me as good as someone half my size could. “Anyway, duh. Why you here?”

  Good question I had no answer ready for. I scrambled to think of something after a few seconds of silence, not wanting to look suspicious. “Excited for the ritual tomorrow, duh. Wanted to just watch the rocks, imagine the sacrifice.”

  The goblin nodded as if that was the most sensible thing to say. “Yah, makes sense, duh. Waiting for the mages to come watch?”

  I gaped silently, replaying what he said in my head. “Watch? The mages?”

  The goblin looked at me as if I hit myself in the head with something sturdy. “Of course, duh. Like they do every day, duh. Ya really drink a lot yesterdah, duh?” his calloused hand clapped my back then, the movement barely stinging my back even though he seemed to put a good deal of his strength to it.

  I watched the area again. Above the podiums, placed on several thick pillars, were three smaller podiums with just one chair placed on them, the podium itself smaller but still large enough to host several dozen people each. How would I attack the mages here?

  And as if by pure coincidence, suddenly, a small crowd started coming from one of the nearby buildings. And a goblin stood at the front, covered in expensive looking purple clothes.

  I grabbed the goblin ‘guard’ and jumped behind the stadium, using the small rock to hide me. Mark was completely silent, as tense as I was. Carefully, I looked over the podium, watching the goblins approach.

  The mage held a huge staff and wore a silver crown for some reason, though there were three of them overall. Why wear a crown if you’re not a king? Majorica would be offended.

  He was looking over the podium and the portal standing in the center. I could feel the energy seeping off of him, the dangerous aura that told of the magical power of this goblin more than anything else, told me of the danger he presented.

  But that I could have expected. What I didn’t expect was his guard.

  There were around 20 goblins, all of them wearing similar armor to the one I’ve seen the one that abducted Fink wear. But that wasn’t the worst of it, oh no. The most surprising part was the fact that he had a player in his entourage.

  Xila and four other players. I felt myself start shivering from pure rage. What the hell was she doing here, in the middle of the goblin camp? And why wasn’t she in a cage herself, but was instead walking right beside the goblin mage, as if they were equal?

  She hadn’t changed much since I’ve seen her the last time - Still wearing the same white dress, holding the same weapons. She did seem a bit different, but I couldn’t tell what changed without revealing myself.

  “Shrimpie, we need to go.” Mark whispered, urgent. “We can’t save Fink. We’ll fucking die if we try.”

  Keeping my eyes forward and holding my breath, I realized that the goblin got too quiet for his usual mannerisms. I looked back, and saw the goblin inspect his hand, the one he clasped me with. What was he doing? Did he hurt himself?

  And just then, I saw what he was looking at. The black dust falling to the ground from in between his fingers. The paint from my body. Mark said it would hold for three days at least, but that probably didn’t account for people smacking it with their sweaty palms. I met his eyes.

  And saw the realization slowly come into them. “Ya… Ya not a gobbo! Ya a player!”

  “Kill him, Shrimpie. Quick!” Mark whispered between his teeth.

  My shields? Just punch him? Bullet strike him?

  Blood rushed into my head, and I felt as if time slowed down around me. A hundred thoughts flashed through my head, most of them focused on just killing the goblin in several different ways.

  But above all, one thought just shone in front of all the others. A way to save all the players here, to save Fink, Martin and his friend, even if none of them deserved it. I couldn’t do that alone. I’d need help. My mind replayed all my memories.

  The memories of Anthony and his friendly way of talking, the memory of this goblin in front of me smiling at me yesterday as I downed my fourth drink. The memory of the dead players in the Carp men cave. My promise to Majorica.

  I wouldn’t kill him.

  Rushing, I covered his mouth before he could shout for help. The fucker bit at me, but I held on. His wide eyes watched me with a mix of fear and… okay, it might have been just fear. The smell of urine filled my nostrils.

  “Listen.” I whispered. “You said you have no rulers, right? Yesterday, at the gate I mean. Have you thought about making that a reality?”