Motives

Quint did his utmost not to shit himself when the lights went out. Something magic was definitely happening, though he had no fucking idea what. There was just no other explanation for them being plunged into pitch darkness in the midmorning like that.

This was one of the rare moments when one of his little tricks might have been handy. He wasn't good at it, but he could make little orbs of light. When he could remember his chants anyway, or how his mouth and breathing worked.

"Let's start simple, gentlemen. You know me as Deux, the mayor, and that's true," Deux began voice seeming to come from everywhere in the dark. Her voice changed as she spoke, turning softer, whisper-like.

Dim lights began to glow but they didn't seem to really illuminate things. Just define the edges of the darkness better. Quint could see his hands though and the chair he was still sitting on. The table was gone though and he couldn't tell where they were, only that it wasn't the town hall. It was too big.

"The valley and the town in it is part of my domain, and I'm honest when I say I like to keep things pleasant and safe up there," Deux continued. Her voice shifted more, sounding familiar and not as it took on a layered aspect, like two women speaking just faintly out of sync.

The light continued to brightened, revealing more details of the room, like the fact it was made of a black stone which was why it was so hard to figure out where the shadows ended and the stone began.

"But I'm also more than that," Deux added. The lights came up further and Quint found himself looking at a carved stone dais.

"I'm this dungeon master and it includes everything within the valley as well as underground," Deux said as the lights came up enough to reveal a throne with a tapestry behind it. The figure on it seemed to be made of shadow, difficult to distinguish from the black stone of the throne. Its shape was revealed in contrast to the tapestry, oddly elongated but almost human in some ways.

It shifted strangely as Quinte looked at it, as if his eyes couldn't quite track it. The only steady part of it was a pair of green flames where the eyes should have been.

"Oh fuck this!" Pip shouted, bolting from his chair. Quint looked to see where he was going and found it was a massive door. He hit it hard, clearly trying to force it open, but it didn't budge. Jarod and Cord weren't far behind him and Quint had no idea where Argent was. His chair was just empty.

"I want you to kill another dungeon and I'll give you the heroic classes and equipment needed to do it," Deux called out.

"What?" Quint caught off guard. He'd been trying to decide if he should join the others or try and remember any kind of anything that might help him come up with a plan to get out of the nightmare they were in.

"That's the job offer. I'm powerful in my domain, but I can't act outside of it, so I need contractors to do it. I want the other dungeon dead because he's spreading diseases like Bloody Mana fever," Deux added.

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A shout from the other side of the room indicated that the rest of the group had perhaps heard her but clearly weren't listening.

"Why would you care?" Quint asked. It didn't make any sense, though a few other things were starting too. The town being too orderly and well managed had bothered him even though he'd liked it. How that was possible was pretty obvious if it was hand built by a single being.

"Move idiot!" Pip shouted from across the room.

"I want to know," Quint said, finding what little courage he had. The situation was terrifying, but no one had moved to actually harm them yet.

"She doesn't, she's just fucking lying," Pip yelled.

Deux got up, moving down from the throne, her shadow form seeming to slip in and out of focus as she moved.

"Well, sure, I supposed that you have no way to verify my motive. My wanting Dr. Satan, the other dungeon, dead and him spreading disease is true though," Deux countered. "I've got no reason to lie about that part, particularly since you need to know how he operates if you do decide to take the offer."

"Why the fuck would we do that!?" Jarod demanded.

"I'm not going to presume," Deux said with a shrug. "But I am going to ask you all to sit back down. The sooner you get the job contracts and make your choices, the sooner you're free to go."

"NO THANK YOU!" Cord shouted. Everyone looked at him in confusion, never having heard him speak so politely before or with such clear terror.

"Okay, clearly this isn't going to move forward productively… I'm going to send you all back to the dorm. You can flee in terror or take some time to cool off if you prefer," Deux said.

"Wait, we're free to go?" Quint asked.

"Per the deal, yes. You've heard my secret and been offered the job. I'd prefer you actually reviewed the offer, but you've made your ten gold," Deux said simply.

"Why do you want the other dungeon dead?" Quint asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

"I assume some of it is instinct. I don't think beings like us can tolerate being in proximity to each other… but mostly I understand how terrible disease can be. So as far as I'm concerned, fuck that plague rat and anyone like him," Duex said.

"Would killing him cure the diseases he's made?" Quint asked.

"Quint, stop asking fucking questions! We'd like to leave," Pip shouted.

"Fuck you, if something makes them then I want it dead too," Quint shouted back, surprised by his own anger. He'd been ten and he didn't know what happened to his mother. Just that his father was coughing up bits of himself even as he still dragged himself to the copper mine to try and make a living.

Nobody had noticed or cared much, plenty of miners coughed. His father had simply been one of the ones to be pulled out dead at the end of the shift. Scarlet cough had run rampant through the mining towns after that.

"I don't know if he made it but I can look it up. As for his death curing it, I have no idea," Deux said. She made a gesture and suddenly the room got a great deal quieter. Quint looked back toward the other daggers and found them gone.

"Back up in the sunshine, like they wanted, and free to go with one exception… You know,that guy is freakishly good at climbing," she added, looking up. There was a banner hanging on the wall and in the rafters above it a flash of quivering silver. Argent, doing his best to ball up and hide. He disappeared too.

"Also free to go," Quint said, not really believing it.

"You won't be able to betray me due to the contract, so I have no reason to keep anyone against their will," Deux said with a shrug. She headed back to her throne but the room changed around them, becoming smaller. She sat at a desk with two seats in the modest sized chamber. "I accepted that I might fail when I decided to be honest."

"So why be honest?" Quint asked, still unable to keep his curiosity in his pants.

"Because I don't really enjoy lying and doing it more than strictly necessary will get out of control very quickly for an operation like this. So I'm going to offer you a deal, you'll review it, and you'll think about it then accept or refuse it," Deux said, like it was simple. As if anything about the situation could possibly be.

"Fine," Quint said, sitting down across from her. If nothing else he was going to hear her out.

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