Vin stumbled and clutched at his head as a wave of images and emotions suddenly slammed into him. It was like someone had distilled a lifetime of experiences and was trying to pour them into the mold that was his brain.

  Only problem being of course, that the mold was already filled.

  “Stop, stop!” He cried, squeezing his eyes shut and doing his best to force the unwanted experiences from clawing their way into his head. For a few seconds the world was in utter turmoil, and he was so focused on remaining him that he completely forgot where he was or what he was doing. And then, after the chaotic, foreign ocean of memories…

  Blissful silence.

  Vin let out a ragged, shuttering breath as he realized it was finally over. Cracking his eyes open, he blinked in surprise at the scene he found before him.

  The Rebel Queen’s chambers consisted of little more than a small room filled with crude furniture that looked like it was made of hardened dirt and bits of grass and sticks. Unlike the rest of the tunnels this room didn’t seem to be filled with that same strange, ever present dim light that appeared to come from nowhere. Instead, the once dark room was currently being illuminated from the gentle green glow of Alka’s unsheathed sword.

  Currently pressed against the throat of the largest one of the strange beings they’d yet to come across.

  Vin gasped as he took in the sheer size of the Rebel Queen. She had to be nearly eight feet tall; tall enough that in order to hold her sword against the queen’s throat, Alka was floating a good few feet off the ground. Rather than two antennae filled with white feelers, or four, this one had twelve, each positioned perfectly around the rim of her head as if forming some sort of living crown.

  Other than that, she looked rather similar to the rest of her kind. Dark green eyes far larger than what you’d find on a human and four arms, all of which were currently clasped together as if praying.

  While Vin stared at the giant being, Alka glanced back toward him, nodding once she saw he was alright.

  “Good,” she said, pressing her sword ever so slightly into the queen’s throat and drawing a small drop of bright green blood. “Now the elf.”

  “If you are referring to the one with the pointed ears, it is too late,” the queen said, the weight of her voice nearly making Vin black out all over again. “The one with the pleasant smell resisted my memoric-transfer somehow, but the other did not. They will be fine in a few minutes.”

  Despite the intensity of the voice, Vin got the distinct feeling that she didn’t mean them any harm. In fact, if he had to pick an emotion that he was picking up from the powerful voice echoing painfully in his head, he’d say it was fear.

  “Alka, it’s alright!” Vin said almost too late as the ghost pressed her blade into the queen’s throat a little harder. His throbbing headache had almost made him forget that Alka wasn’t able to hear the being’s voice, but he managed to stop the Slayer before she killed the queen.

  “I’d hardly say it’s alright,” Alka growled, staring down the wide-eyed Rebel Queen. “Welcoming in a group of people who just want to talk and then hitting them with a surprise attack isn’t exactly something good people do.”

  “I don’t think it was an attack,” Vin managed, even going so far as to try a quick cast of Renewal aimed at his head. When that did nothing for the pain, he grit his teeth. “I think… I think she was just trying to communicate with us.”

  “Precisely,” the queen said, and Vin winced at the fresh icepicks it felt like were being driven directly into his eye sockets. “I learned from the two that came before you that direct language is too much for your primitive brains to handle. They required communication through memoric-transfer.”

  “I see what you mean,” Vin hissed, rubbing at his temple. Every word the queen spoke was like a toddler kicking him in the side of the head with all its strength. Not enough to actually kill him, but certainly enough to hurt like hell. His brain hurt too much to tell whether he was getting the notifications he suspected he was, but on a hunch, he willed up his interface.

  Resistance increased to lvl 15! 1,500 exp gained.

  Resistance increased to lvl 16! 1,600 exp gained.

  Resistance increased to lvl 17! 1,700 exp gained.

  Wow, this is fantastic for power leveling at the very least.

  And 100% not worth it.

  “Alka, we’re okay,” Vin tried again, struggling to think coherently through the pain. “I’m pretty sure if she wanted us dead she could have literally killed us with a thought. She’s not like Patty… She’s not trying to influence or control us; her mind is just so powerful compared to the others of her kind that speaking with us is too much.”

  The Slayer hesitated for another few seconds, but finally, she pulled back her sword. Drifting down next to him, she planted her sword in the ground and crossed her arms.

  “Fine. But if you end up passing out or going all weird like Shia over there, I’m taking her out.”

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Understood,” Vin said, glancing over at Shia. Sure enough, weird was an apt description for what the elf was going through. Shia was currently standing there, staring blankly at the far wall and blinking faster than Vin would have thought possible, as if trying to parse through an endless slideshow of information. Resigning himself to what was about to happen, Vin looked back up at the large being.

  “She’ll be okay?”

  “In a few minutes they will finish going through the memoric-transfer and return to normal,” she confirmed, shooting Alka a hesitant glance. Unlike the rest of the remarkably stone-faced beings they’d run into, the Rebel Queen actually showed some emotion on her face. Vin could easily make out the uncertainty and fear in her eyes, as if she was regretting her decision to allow them entrance into her chambers.

  No doubt she had never experienced an enemy she couldn’t mind blast into next week if it got too close.

  “Look, we don’t want to hurt you,” Vin sighed, hoping to somehow salvage this strange meeting. “Like we told your guards, we’re hunting down the man with the golden sword. He’s done some terrible things, and we’re going to try and stop him.”

  At Vin’s confession, the queen blinked, and her fearful look was quickly replaced with one of hope. So much hope in fact, that Vin immediately grew wary.

  “You speak the truth?” She asked, Alka all but forgotten as she fixed Vin with an almost hungry stare. “You wish to stop The One With The Golden Blade?”

  “Yes, we do,” Vin nodded, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, despite the painful conversation. At the very least it was becoming slightly more bearable with every level he gained in Resistance. “Why do your people have such convoluted names for everyone?”

  The Rebel Queen hesitated, clearly wanting to answer his question but deciding to hold back. “I fear answering that question would require enough discussion that you might lose consciousness. You should ask your companion once they finish digesting.”

  “Shia?” Vin blinked, glancing at the still rapidly blinking elf. “What exactly did you give her?”

  “An explanation,” the Rebel Queen said, her four hands shaking slightly as they gripped each other all the tighter. “…and a request. We’ve been holding our own against the True Queen up until now, but with the emergence of The One With The Golden Blade, I fear my people don’t have much longer. Unless you are able to help us, we will be forced to choose between fleeing what remains of our home or making a last stand.”

  Vin swayed, hanging onto consciousness by but a thread as the queen’s lengthy explanation proved to be almost too much for him. Feeling something warm on his face, he reached up and stared at the blood on his fingers, realizing just listening to her had given him a nosebleed.

  “Vin, you have to stop talking to her! You’re killing yourself!” Alka warned, glaring up at the queen and grabbing her sword once more.

  “It’s okay, this much I should be able to heal,” he said, letting Renewal wash over his head again and fixing whatever physical damage the queen had caused. It still did nothing for the horrific migraine he was suffering through, but at least it stopped his nosebleed. “Where can we find him? The One With The Golden Blade?”

  “Your silent companion is right, we should speak no longer,” the Rebel Queen said, even going so far as to take a step back. “Your friend can tell you what you need to know. Let Guardian show you to your room.”

  Before Vin could ask who Guardian was, he heard a scuffling behind him, and he turned to find one of the two guards waiting in the doorway.

  “The Rebel Queen wishes for you to follow me,” it said, as if the Rebel Queen’s orders were law and there would be no argument. After Vin’s conversation with the queen, it sounded almost as if the guard was whispering, and Vin nearly wept at the words that didn’t make his head feel like it was filled with gravel.

  Giving the silent Rebel Queen one more look, Vin nodded. Taking Shia’s hand, he led the elf after the being known as Guardian as it took them further into the network of tunnels. One small saving grace was that despite the horrific migraine Vin was dealing with, his Mental Map worked as advertised, recording everything automatically and providing him with a clear path back out of the tunnels should they need to leave unexpectedly.

  Vin briefly noted that his Mental Map only seemed to pick up and record the tunnels he directly walked through, despite the fact that there had to be a giant nest of passageways dug all over the place. Still, being able to backtrack flawlessly made it a bit easier to follow Guardian as it led them deeper and deeper underground, to the point that Vin was beginning to wonder if the Rebel Queen was purposefully trying to make it impossible for them to escape.

  This far underground, the number of odd beings grew exponentially, so much so that Vin quickly lost count and could only guess at how many they passed on their walk. While the vast majority acted just as strangely as the few they’d already met, they did end up passing a good number that seemed more put together, like the guards stationed outside the Rebel Queen’s room. From what Vin could tell, it was thanks to this small portion of the Rebel Queen’s forces running around harvesting food and maintaining the tunnels that their society, if you could even call it that, was still functioning at all.

  Eventually, Guardian stopped walking, gesturing for them to head into a small room. A quick glance inside showed it contained little more than two rough spots for sleeping filled with the shredded remains of some sort of plant and little else. It didn’t need any sort of light thanks to that strange ambient glow, but it didn’t even have so much as a door.

  “You are welcome to rest here as long as you’d like,” Guardian informed them, gesturing to one of the more put together members of society running past with some sort of squishy looking orb in its hand. “If you require food, stop one of the Growers and they will assist you. When you wish to speak to the Rebel Queen again, ask anyone and they will relay the message.”

  Not bothering to wait for a reply, Guardian turned and immediately walked away, vanishing amidst the maze of tunnels in an instant.

  Shaking his head and then immediately regretting it at the fresh stab of pain it caused him, Vin led the still barely conscious elf into the room, carefully laying her down and sighing as she transitioned to rapidly blinking up at the ceiling rather than close her eyes. The Rebel Queen had said she’d be fine in a few minutes, but it seemed that wasn’t quite the case.

  “Alka, do you mind guarding the door? I think I’m going to rest for a few minutes myself,” Vin admitted, falling back into the other bed pile. To his surprise, the shredded plant bits were actually comfier than he’d expected, and it was less like lying on itchy straw and more like a large pile of freshly cut grass.

  Vin thought he heard a response from the ghost, but he couldn’t quite be sure. Closing his eyes, he let out an exhausted sigh as the pain in his head finally began to dull slightly, and he welcomed the darkness that rapidly closed in on him.

  Just a few minutes of rest…

  What could possibly happen in just a few minutes?

  never ask questions like that. Thank goodness for his divine boon, because that's quite the dangerous flag.

  Patreon

  Discord