"Now," the creature said clinically, "Before I get started, care to enlighten me as to what you are?"

"Any chance you'll loosen these chains if I do?" Razhik asked. Something about the chains, or the light flooding the laboratory, inhibited his abilities, keeping him from falling into his own shadow.

The goblin tilted his head, appearing to consider the request. "No, we can't have that, I think. Too much fight still in you. Very well, it's a minor detail, really. Serpentine beast will suffice; I'd be hard pressed not to recognize one of your kind in the future."

"Don't suppose we could just talk instead? I'm sure I could tell you way more than you'd find out doing…whatever it is you're planning," Razhik suggested.

The goblin only looked at him, blinking three times. "And where, may I ask, would be the fun in that?"

"Me and my friends have tons of fun talking," Razhik replied with a smile. "At least, I do. I can't speak for them, I suppose, but they definitely seem to have fun more often than they want to drop me off a cliff."

"Perhaps," the creature said, turning its back as it selected its first choice of tool, "You should have considered these friends before coming here alone. Honestly, what kind of fool would explore this place on their own? Your folly is my fortune, though."

The creature's words reminded Razhik of something important; He wasn't alone, not really. He always had his squad of loyal Grokar close at hand.

Just gotta hope they can get out here, since I'm stuck. What an utterly undignified position to find myself in, Razhik thought with a huff. I'll probably only get one chance at this. Suppose it doesn't matter too much if it fails, though. Things really can't get much worse from here.

"Yes, yes," the creature said without turning around, apparently mistconstruing Razhik's harsh breath, "Our mistakes always seem most clear when someone lays them out plainly. Perspective is a many-faceted tool."

The goblin finally turned around, holding a thoroughly unpleasant-looking device. "Now, what shall we examine first, hmmm? Better collect some samples before I miss my chance in all the excitement to come."

While the creature busied itself pulling off scales and collecting scrapings from the fresh wound on his chest, a thoroughly unenjoyable experience, Razhik did his best to subtly reach out towards the shadows with his, as he thought of it, shadow touch. As he worked, he felt each scale the creature plucked, along with a growing, indignant rage.

If the light, not the chains, was inhibiting his abilities, well, he supposed he had a little time to figure something else out.

The shadows felt slippery to his mental touch, like one of those blasted bars of soap Orion had tried to use on him that time. It had confounded him how his friend seemed to think his natural musk was anything less than appealing.

Razhik kept trying, focusing more intently than he had in…well, longer than he cared to admit. Normally, this came easily to him, but at that moment it felt sickeningly like work. There were few things he hated more than necessary, hard work.

But, alas, a King who doesn't rise to the occasion has failed in their duties, and the people shall suffer. And they'd definitely suffer, because he didn't have the faintest idea what would happen to his Shadow Guard if he went and died while they were trapped. Somehow, he couldn't imagine it would be anything good.

While he struggled, he watched the goblin take his precious scales and perform various tests. It ground some into dust, putting the substance into vials for later, Razhik presumed. It dropped them in various bottles of liquid, resulting in a range of effects. Some dissolved the scales, some appeared to have no effect whatsoever, and some were far stranger.

One made a scale entirely see-through, another caused a scale to emit light of every color, while another caused strange growths to sprout from a scale, and one somehow tapped into Razhik's own magic, wrapping it in a familiar blackened shadow.

That was…encouraging.

"Curious," the creature said, jotting down notes Razhik didn't even bother trying to decipher, as it mumbled to itself. "It would appear…yes. If I used the dust to…it should be possible. I'll just have to collect more before I move on. Always troublesome, working with limited resources."

Limited resources, Razhik thought. Guess I'd better get out of here before this gobber figures out how I heal in water.

The King focused on the sensation given off by the shadowed scale, even as it swallowed the light from its luminescent neighbor. There was something interesting there, but he couldn't tell just what it meant, and he didn't have time to think about any further implications. His whole focus was on that little, black scale.

That all but proved he should be able to summon his allies, in his eyes, even if escape was beyond him.

Normally, summoning them was simple. He just reached into the shadows and made a pathway. The rest happened naturally, once there was a path. He could still feel the shadows, just as his scale beckoned his powers. It had to be possible; he just had the wrong approach. Gripping the shadows with all his focus, he reached out, fully intent on opening the path with his Touch, when the chains grew taut against his natural armor. They constricted like so many snakes, a decidedly insulting method of restraint, and energy ran through them.

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Razhik convulsed where he lay, his concentration slipping.

The creature ignored him for the most part, only glancing up with a "tsk" as he writhed, clearly confident in whatever suppression it had in place.

Can't say I feel confident in breaking out…but then again, maybe I don't have to. Razhik breathed heavily, or as heavily as the chains would allow, when the energy stopped coursing through him. Definitely the wrong approach. The minute I tried to use my magic…

An idea, a hope, really, popped into Razhik's mind.

Trying something new, something he'd never had cause to attempt before, Razhik reached out, not with any intention of opening a path for his Shadows this time, merely with a call. Eyes closed, he focused on the innate feeling of his abilities, something he'd never had the pleasure of observing from this angle, which the small scale clearly emitted. Just as the scale beckoned him, he beckoned to what lay beyond the curtain.

And something within the shadows responded. A doorway, it seemed, could open from both sides.

At once, five forms clad in Shadow materialized from the dark beneath the table, noiselessly pooling like spilled ink until they sprang from below, surrounding the creature. Each had its weapon primed to strike at their master's captor.

Grodo held a simple spear, deadly and efficient. Froaky wielded a curved longsword in one hand and a great shield in the other. Croaky stood ready with an immense hammer of his own choosing. Hoaky was armed with a poleaxe, longer than the spear, capable of bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing. Babblin the Small hefted a great axe that seemed likely to topple the creature. Each weapon was coated in the shifting form of shadow, rippling under the light of the orbs.

A brief glimmer in the creature's hands preceded a brilliant, arcing blast of blue that jumped between each of the summoned Guard. The blast dissipated against their shroud of Shadowed armor, having drastically less impact than on Razhik himself. Before the Shadow Guard could react, the creature had disappeared in a blink, a line of scintillating energy left in its wake.

Without a moment's hesitation, the Grokar closed ranks around their liege. Babblin the Small set about freeing the trapped monarch, receiving more than a few shocks for his efforts, as the chains did not take kindly to his meddling.

"Figures that you guys would be kept safe by my gift," Razhik said with a sigh while Babblin worked, "Meanwhile, I get blasted into shame. Last time I go anywhere so unprepared." Babblin merely glanced up with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence!"

Razhik, trusting in his support, had taken his eyes off of the enemy, focusing on the chains so he might wriggle free at his first opportunity. With Froaky at the head, the goblin's assaults broke upon his shield. A round of crackling shatters sounded from all around.

The creature was quick to change tactics, it appeared.

"Couldn't just let us have that one? We haven't even hit you yet!" Razhik called out to the creature, as it utterly ignored him.

The tanks, or rather former tanks, that lined the room were vacated rather abruptly, and their stitched, shambling occupants jerked to their feet, homing in on the intruders with twitching, lurching movements. Razhik could only look on, helpless, at the ensuing battle. The shambling corpses far outnumbered the Shadow Guard, especially with Babblin preoccupied.

Babblin, for all his fervor, was not the most adroit at disentangling Razhik from his bindings.

Still, he couldn't help but be impressed with the performance of his underlings. It helped that his armor shielded them from the magical attacks of the goblin, and that the creature's own minions were far from coordinated. Their movements might have struck terror into less capable, or even slightly more intelligent, warriors, but the Shadow Guard could lay claim to neither of these faults. They were, in Razhik's humble opinion, the ideal Royal Guard. He didn't have much need of grand thinkers, being a creature of instinct himself. He'd leave thinkers behind in a heartbeat.

They moved with control that humbled him, and he realized how lucky he was to have formed a bond with these five. Sure, their grace was like a child's first steps next to Anilith's, but at that moment, they appeared to move as fluid as water, and each compensated for their fellows' shortcomings, patching holes in their defenses almost as they appeared.

Razhik's own contributions were less than stellar, however. Throughout the battle, he failed to engage the goblin verbally, to his great dismay.

Those two made it sound like banter was a given, he thought, figures I get the oddball.

That the goblin's arcing spells struck his own army more often than Razhik's elites, a hazard of overwhelming numbers, didn't hurt their odds at defending. It would have been better if the creatures had stayed down, or even really been incapacitated by the blasts. The burns didn't seem to slow the corpses down at all, and they weren't crippled as Razhik had been, but even the minor reprieve allowed the Shadow Guard to hold the line.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity in chains, the cascading rattle of falling metal whispered freedom. Wasting no time, Razhik forced his way to freedom, not trusting the chains to remain inert. With a grin, the King summoned his own armor and issued his command.

"Formation three! You're in trouble now!"

Without a second thought, the Grokar, Babblin included, spread out, cutting down their opposition. Even as they moved, Razhik leapt about, striking from the shadows of his underlings' armor. The inferior army didn't stand a chance when the Shadow Guard regained its commandant.

Before long, the floor was littered with twitching body parts. Even disconnected from their main form, some impulse urged these abominations to attack, ineffective as the efforts were. The goblin, nameless as he stood, found himself surrounded.

"Shame I didn't have longer to experiment," the creature lamented. "I, Second Warden of the Forest, Champion of Animation, stand defeated by my own ignorance. I'll have to figure out a way to neutralize abilities such as yours, as, evidently, magic suppression alone will not always suffice. Get on with it, I know a foregone conclusion when I see it."

Never one to toy with his prey, Razhik ended his foe with a gracious blow. The head of the unnamed goblin rolled to the floor, its body collapsing beside it. Stillness returned to the room as the mysterious energy vanished, the shambling creatures at last returning to rest.

A thin, blue blade lay clutched in the goblin's grip.

"Bring that here," Razhik commanded, and Grodo eagerly complied.

A crystalline, blue shaft, not longer than a pen, stood attached to a blue, stone blade. Even after the death of its owner, the tool thrummed with a soft sense of the goblin's magic.

As he stared at his prize, and had his underlings loot what appeared valuable, Razhik shook his head. He wasn't sure which was more humiliating: being captured so handily or his enemy's complete disregard for his attempts at banter. The nerve!

He'd have to come up with a good story before he left, one that left him looking a little Kinglier. His Shadow Guard would support whatever tale he concocted; they always did.

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