The Echo was a scrawny, ill-looking woman with bone white skin like the Baranax. Unlike the towering Baranax, she was barely above five feet tall, with narrow sunken eyes, brittle, brown hair and a sour disposition.

She entered my room alone, early that morning and without so much as a hello, she dumped a smelly hessian sack in the middle of the floor.

"Your gear for the next few cycles," she said in a drawling, tired voice. "Get dressed, check over what you have and then let's get out of here. I've got places to be."

I examined her from the bed but no identifier appeared. Either she wasn't ascended or like Tanl the spider dude, she was able to hide it.

"I'd like to say it's nice to meet you too, but Christ woman, you're like a cold draft on a warm day."

"Fascinating. We need to go, check or don't, but don't waste my time."

Clearly she didn't understand who she was dealing with. There were ways to get me to co-operate and ways to get me to be a right bastard and she was ticking all the wrong boxes.

I stretched and yawned, which brought out a high-pitched fart. Then I sat up and took a drink from the water pitcher. A long drink. She watched me like a hawk and I could feel her irritation cranking up. Then I ate some of the bread and ham on my side table, before taking another drink.

With my thirst slaked and some food in my stomach I stood, and headed over in her direction. Then I walked past her to the bathroom where I ascended my throne.

After about ten minutes had past there came an almighty bang on the door. "This is not funny. Out here now, we need to go." Her voice had reached a level of energized anger I didn't think was possible from her animated corpse.

"Goddamn it!" I roared back. "You just scared the crap back up into me. That's gonna take at least another ten minutes to coax back out."

"You think you're being clever? You're going to put the whole mission in jeopardy!"

"Every word you say interrupts my morning ritual. You just added another five minutes at least."

"That is it! I am going to get Onlan."

"That's another five." I shouted back through the door as her light footsteps padded away. I heard the door open and close and I leaned back against the wall chuckling to myself. It was good to have a little entertainment.

When she returned ten minutes later she was with Irian not Onlan. That made me laugh even more, though I kept it quiet so they couldn't hear.

"Is everything alright Earl?" The concern in his voice had me biting my lip to stop laughing out loud. "Loosh said you were having difficulties."

"All good here, Irian. Just cleaning up."

I stepped out of the bathroom affecting a serious expression. "Such a tight time scale. I feel like maybe I should have been told about the urgency earlier. Then perhaps I could have mentally prepared. I'm quite sensitive to sudden changes."

"Just get the bag and follow me," Loosh snapped. "You can get changed there. Your lounge clothes shouldn't draw too much attention, but we need to go."

I grabbed the bag and Irian relaxed.

The I undid the knot at the top and tipped the contents on the ground. "Let's see what we've got here then."

Loosh's jaw dropped. "What! Why? Are you stupid?"

Irian winced as I winked at her. "Very. In fact, I'm so stupid sometimes that I can't tell friend from foe. Keep up with your shit and you'll find out what I mean first hand."

She looked to Irian. "Did he really just threaten me?"

He nodded. "Yes, I believe he did?"

She clenched her fists, skin darkening to gray as an energy radiated from her. "You do not know who you are dealing with, Earl Henshaw." She spat my name out like it left a bad taste. "Do not confuse no visible identifier with weakness. I am twice your level."

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Irian placed a hand on her arm as I stood up from raking though the items. "He won't care either, Loosh. Just drop it and let's all be civil with each other."

I jabbed my pointer at her. "You don't fucking know who I am either. You swan in here, like you're the queen fucking bee. Ordering me about like I'm a little skivvy. If you'd come in and said hello, and explained the situation, we'd be on your shitty moon by now. So before you start pointing the finger of blame, check yourself, you little fucking runt."

Quicker than my eyes could follow, she blasted me with a ball of dark energy. It smashed into my chest and tickled a little. I replied with a straight right that caught her clean on the nose and sent her flying back a dozen paces."

Irian grabbed me as I stalked toward her. "The fucker was way stronger than I expected, but lucky for us all I hadn't truly lost my rag. Yet."

"Double my level?" I spat at the shellshocked woman on the floor, nursing a gushing, bloody nose with her hands. "Would have thought you'd be a little more durable than that."

"How?" she stammered .

"He is resistant to magic," Irian said for me. "It was in the report we sent."

A glow of the same dark energy she'd thrown at me coated her head. When it vanished she was fully healed, and scowling as she pushed herself up from the floor. Her scowl was for Irian. "I feel like that particular skill wasn't given its full weight or importance in the document." Then she looked at me. "I apologize for my rudeness earlier. I thought you were a random bareknuckle brawler being sent to make up the numbers on the inside." Then she glared at Irian again as he let go of me. "I do not appreciate being kept in the dark?"

He looked irritated now. "You don't need to know everything about him. You just need to get him into the pit. As always the less you know the better."

"I wanted to point out my ability shouldn't affect how she treated me. But I couldn't be bothered. That was people everywhere. If they think you have value, they'll kiss your arse. Instead I went through the bags contents again. "Sure I shouldn't put some of this on if I'm going to look the part?" I asked.

"No," she replied, all traces of anger gone. "I'm bringing you in from an arena. It wouldn't be unusual for you to be wearing clothing like that."

"Fair enough," I said putting the other garments back in the bag. It was all cheap crap and I was a little disappointed that I would have to wear crumpled old rags that looked like they'd been pulled from a charity shop's sorting pile.

Irian was looking at me peculiarly as I stuffed the gear back in the bag. I raised a brow at him in question.

His eyes flickered guiltily to Loosh, and then back to me. "I'm surprised you didn't continue fighting. We were warned that once you began fighting you didn't stop. I wasn't so sure, but seeing you in Elterio confirmed that for us."

"Wasn't a fight," I muttered, eyeing a cheap dagger among the gear. "She slapped me, I slapped her. We came to an understanding. Job done."

He frowned, and Loosh shifted uncomfortably, but I'd already forgotten about it, until Onlan brought it up again.

I shoved the knife in my waistband, and tied the pouch of money I found there too. Fiddling with the extra-long strings.

Loosh clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Tie it to sit across your neck and under your arm. Also, you want it under your shirt or it'll be stolen within half an hour of arriving. I nodded, grateful for the advice, then faffed around with it, until it sat fairly comfortably under my shirt.

"Alright" I said hauling up the sack. "Let's get going"

With one last, curious look from the small mage woman, she set off. Irian offered a strained smile as I followed out of the room.

We went directly to the portal chamber, though she ignored the mages stationed there. Instead, she moved to the runes on the floor and with glowing hands and some chanted words a small portal appeared.

With her usual directness, she leapt straight through. I wasn't entirely sure why she leapt, but I copied the move and I was glad of it on the other side as there was a two-foot drop as soon as you stepped through.

She was watching from the corner of her eye as I came through, and though I couldn't see well in the gloom, she nodded something like approval.

"Weird place to have a portal entrance," I said, grimacing at the taste of the thin rancid air.

"The moon is small, and places to hide Siroth portal runes are hard to come by. Follow me and keep the wall to your left close by at all times. The path will narrow at points and there is a drop to your right-hand side. I don't know how good your race's dark vision is."

"It's shite. I can hardly see a thing."

"Then keep your shoulder brushing the left wall at all times. I'll go slow."

She set off, leading me into a tunnel, and as the portal disappeared, so did the light. I was left to follow in complete darkness. I kept my shoulder to the left as directed, but thought it unnecessary as we were in a tunnel. It wasn't until a gentle gust of wind blew across my face that I realized we'd gone outside. I felt my stomach turn over at the thought of a massive drop to my right that I couldn't see.

Several minutes later a ghostly white light appeared above our heads illuminating some of our surroundings. We were in a narrow ravine no more than twenty feet across and I could finally just about make out the pat I was on. It was best not to think about it, so I kept my eyes on the silhouette of Loosh's back and my shoulder to the wall.

After another ten minutes we hit a rise that carried our path upward and even though it was gentle I was breathing hard by the time we reached the top. That wasn't a good thing as the air was foul.

Emerging from the ravine we reached a ravaged landscape of blacks and grays. I saw signs of industry, in the distance. Smoking slag heaps, glowing forge fires, towering chimneys belching out black smoke. Further in the distance, I saw signs of a town. Hundreds, possibly thousands of little buildings huddled together against the harsh environment.

Beyond that, a cold bright disk cast harsh light over the entire sorry affair and I started to feel some regrets over my willingness to come here.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.