After several breaths, her body grew still once more. Had it worked?
I cast [Insight], and the window flashed up before me.
=User Information=
Name: Ophelia Lovelace | Title: [Hand of the Dragon] | Class: Rogue | Subclass: Ranger
The system continued spitting off various bits of information, including her HP, Stamina, Mana, and even an assortment of different skills. It was a lot of information to take in but I tried to soak it all up.
Alongside the information golden notification appeared. I focused on it and it grew larger, forcing her skills out of my vision.
New Skill: Party Leader – When activated, allows the user to issue commands to the members of their party. All issued commands override party member's own desires.
Party connection synced. Ophelia Lovelace has joined your party.
I blinked several times at the message. What did a party have to do with anything, and could this new skill really give me control over what people considered in my party did? Would they realize it?
I was mulling over what that might mean when I felt Ophelia stir in my lap. I forced the messages away, turning my attention back to her, and watched as she slowly opened her eyes, her eyelids immediately widening.
"What does all of this mean?" She asked, her words raspy.
"About that…" I started. There really was no way to break this down easily. "You now have access to something called the System. It's hard to explain, but think of it as a helper of sorts within your head."
"That sounds ridiculous…" Ophelia muttered, her words trailing off and her eyes taking on a far-off appearance. "But I guess it's hard to argue when I can see it right in front of me, huh?"
I shrugged as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, her eyes still half-glazed over as she processed all the information that the System must be sending her way.
"You get used to it after a while," I said, maybe more to make myself believe it than her.
"I doubt that," she responded. "Can I make it stop?"
"We can't necessarily make it stop telling us stuff, I don't think. But we can control how often it pops things up. You just have to focus on whatever it's showing you, and then imagine it moving out of your vision."
Ophelia's eyes suddenly focused, the gaze of her green eyes slamming into mine. "You did this to me?"
The words bit at me like teeth. An accusation that needed no further evidence to back it up.
"If it means anything, it'll make you stronger."
She scoffed at that and stood up, looking around the dark cell. "What happened to the guards?"
"Well, I killed one, and the mafram dealt with the other."
For the second time I saw her eyes widen before she turned and stepped into the darkness, vanishing in the lack of light that bathed the cell. She returned a breath later and stepped past me, out into the corridor.
"So they are real?"
The question felt more like a statement, but I answered anyway, pushing myself to my feet and following her into the flickering light. "They are. There aren't many, but there are enough to keep the legends alive, I guess. To be honest, I hadn't realized their stories had extended beyond the immediate palace staff."
"Of course they did," she said over her shoulder. "Wait, you talk like you knew about them…"
She turned and her eyes widened once more, this time followed by a look of suspicion.
"Who are you, exactly? Leo wouldn't tell us, but you're someone important, aren't you?"
I shrugged. "I used to be. For all intents and purposes, I still am. Or, at least I will be. Once I reclaim my empire."
"Your empire?" She laughed, a loud noise that made me cringe. "What? I'm supposed to actually believe that you’re the Dragon Empress herself, stooped down to the levels of a pitiful human? As if she would be caught dead with people like Aurelion."
I let her laugh, merely crossing my arms as she did. When she looked like she had finished I made a tsking noise and shrugged. "You don't have to believe me. But, I'd ask yourself what that Title of yours means. [Hand of the Dragon]? It's a bit curious, isn't it? Considering I'm the one that granted you System Access."
Her mouth worked for a moment before she finally huffed. "You can't be."
"I am. How do you think I knew about the tunnel and the mafram? I designed this place. I made the decision to put the demons here to keep the prisoners from being freed."
Anger flashed across her face. "You… That was you?"
I nodded slowly. I'd known that might get a reaction out of her, especially after what had happened earlier, when she'd wanted to rescue the prisoners.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"So you could help them? You could find them and free them?"
Shaking my head I looked down the corridor in the direction that we'd come from originally. "I might be able to. But what I said before, I really meant that. The chances of them being alive are slimmer than the chances of you and I getting out of here without causing more of an uproar. We've already run into three guards and a demon. There's probably more waiting in the shadows. We don't have time to go looking for lost causes."
Ophelia scoffed and looked around at the remnants of the fight that I'd shared with the guards. There were pieces of armor strewn about where the mafram had torn them off, and both the swords the guards had used lay forgotten on the ground nearby.
"You fought them both?"
"For a time. They would have killed me, though, or captured me. I wanted to die first. Before they had a chance to…"
I didn't finish the sentence and she didn't ask me to. We both knew what they'd intended. Even if she'd been out for most of it. The predatory nature had been present in their eyes from the moment they'd found us.
"The mafram got to one of them, though, and that—and the skills the System has given me—gave me the opportunity I needed to put the other one down. It really is a blessing, Ophelia. And I think with it—with both of us wielding it—we could do really good things. For dragonkind and humanity."
Her lips twisted thoughtfully, one side of her cheek creasing up like she was biting at it as she mulled over the idea.
"Maybe," she finally said. "I'll think about it."
I couldn't ask for much else. I probably could have demanded it based on the new skill I'd received. But I wasn't quite sure I wanted to cross that line, or even if I could. A willing ally was always more useful than one forced into subservience. I wanted to stop the [Hero] from destroying my people, but humanity was also part of that.
I clenched my fist against my armpit and turned toward the end of the corridor that led back to the storage rooms. "We should get moving again, this little dally has already cost us a lot of time. We'll need to start moving faster if we want to make it out of the palace before daylight."
Ophelia didn't disagree, which I hoped meant she was ready to go along with my plan again, and that she didn't plan on tucking tail and running back to try to save whatever prisoners she thought might be hidden away somewhere in the dungeon.
"What about our weapons?" She asked before I could start moving.
"They left them back where they took us. We'll need to make our way back there and grab them." I stooped over and scooped up one of the swords. "Ever used one?"
"Of course I have," she said, grabbing the other one. She looked like she was scared it might bite her.
As we traveled back through the corridors, Ophelia began to ask questions about the System. She kept her voice hushed as she did, so I did the same. The chances of us running into another group of guards down in the same area was less likely, as I was almost positive those had been the same guards we had avoided earlier in the dungeon. But I'd already been wrong at least tonight.
"The only way I've found to earn new levels is to complete quests," I was explaining when we reached the place we'd first encountered the guards. I'd initially debated not answering her questions, but it was nice to finally talk to someone who had even less of a clue than I did about how all of it worked. Plus, if she was going to be connected to me and working with the same tools I was, it wouldn't benefit me to keep her in the dark too much.
I stopped long enough to grab my dagger, tucking its needle-like blade through my belt. I kept the sword I'd taken from the guards ready in my right hand.
Ophelia looked absolutely distraught at the shattered remains of her one-handed crossbow, but thankfully the second crossbow was still in working condition. She tucked a bolt into it and tossed the sword aside, careful not to let the blade get too close to her body at any point.
"Quests, huh? How does that work?" She asked as we picked up our journey once more.
"I really don't know," I admitted. "They just tend to pop up when something happens, and I usually accept them."
"You look into them first, right?"
"Sometimes. Most of the time I just kind of glaze over it and then accept it and figure it out along the way. I haven't really had much time to sit down and learn the ins and outs of this whole thing, so I'm just picking up things as I go."
"You don't think there is anyone out there that can teach you?"
I hadn't actually thought of that beyond asking Aurelion a few things. I'd just assumed I was the only one with access, and Aurelion hadn't seemed to think there were others out there. "I don't think so. Though I could be wrong. I haven't been outside of the city since I woke up in this body."
We started back up the corridor the way we'd been going before. Before long we reached a hallway that ended in a large door.
"Time to pick another lock?" Ophelia asked as I fumbled with the lockpicks in my satchel.
"Yeah," I said, pulling one out. I prayed that this time went smoother than the last and slipped the pick into the keyhole. It took a little shimmying, but after a few seconds the lock clicked open and I felt a rush as a notification appeared in the bottom right of my vision. I focused on it just long enough to see [Lockpicking +1] before shoving it out of my sight with a push of mental effort.
"Once we reach the top, things are going to move quickly. We'll want to keep our heads down and watch every direction that we can. Seven knows we've run into too many guards down here already, and we're actually walking into the dragon's nest now."
Ophelia seemed to bristle at the mention of the dragon's nest. I met her eyes.
"Ophelia, I need to know that you can handle this."
"I can."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "I need you to mean it. I know that what you're going through right now is overwhelming. But if you're going this far with me, then I need you to listen to me without question. If I say duck, you duck. If I say lips to the floor and you even hesitate a second, this whole thing is scrapped. Do you understand me?"
She nodded and then, as if reading my growing annoyance in my eyes, she opened her mouth and spoke softly. "I understand. I'll listen, I swear to the Seven."
Nodding, I pushed the door open slowly, making sure nobody was waiting on the other side, and stepped into the massive room beyond.
The open floor before us was larger than the door had made it initially appear from outside. A large stairwell ran up one corner of the room, the stairs circling around each other in a tall, winding column. Next to it the floor gave way to a large, bare indention, which was at least three hands lower than the surrounding area. Large chains hung taut against in the corners of the indention, their ends vanishing into holes in the lower part of the floor, the rest rising high into the air above us.
A large podium-like contraption stood tall next to the indention, a large lever sticking out of it. Ophelia gasped in awe beside me as she took it all in.
"Are we taking that?" she asked, pointing up at the large platform that hung from the chains far above us.
"No," I said, already moving toward the stairs. "If we do, we'll be sitting ducks for whatever guards are waiting at the top."
She let out a disappointed sound before following me to the stairs. I glanced up the column: the winding stone blocks that jutted out from the center wall had no visible rails. They weren't intended to actually be used all that much since the elevators had been installed.
I could still recall conversations about blocking them off completely, or just walling them in, but we'd decided not to, in the event someone infiltrated the palace from below.
At least if there were no walls or railings, the bodies could be cleaned up more easily.
Without another word I started up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Our footsteps echoed against the walls of the dragon-sized room, but taking these stairs slowly would only weaken our progress even more.
Plus, being exposed on the stairs with the potential for guards or even a dragon to come riding down on the elevator was not particularly enticing. Ophelia ran behind me without question. Just as she’d promised.