Into the Darkness

Standing in front of the stairs you close the door to the corridor behind you and a moment later you can hear the guards that followed you from outside arrive, panting and then arguing with the other guards at the doors.

"Where is he?"
"Where is who?"
"The guy in the cloak!"
"What guy in what cloak?"
"THE GUY IN THE CLOAK THAT JUST RAN IN HERE!"

You can't help but chuckle at them and then take a moment to think about what to do now. The options are going up or down the stairs and you have no clue which one would lead you to treasure or an escape. You don't have time to meditate on this, so you have to use your other skill. Your fingers slip into your coin pouch to produce a gold coin; a crown on one side and a castle on the other. Close enough. Crown is down, castle is up! You flip the coin into the air, catch it and slam it against the back of your hand. Ouch. You peek at the coin and see a crown. You consider flipping it again, preferring the stairs going up that are faintly illuminated by star light through the small windows over the ominous dark stairs going down. Heightened Elf senses or not, you can barely see down there and you evidently don't have dark vision. But you had already thrown the coin and the arguing had been replaced by clanking on the stone floor and orders being barked. The voice sounds familiar, a new arrival to the six guards and not one to bicker. Then you remember the voice, it's from the guy in the red cape. You don't know why exactly, but the thought of him searching for you makes you nervous; unlike the rest of the guards you don't think you can trick him simply by hiding behind the next best door. Also his sword would be a lot quicker than their pikes.

You stash your coin and head down, silently descending into the darkness. You have to move slower now, not wanting to slam your face into a wall or tripping over another set of stairs. You walk along a corridor and come to a four way intersection. You quickly scout each way, but they each lead to more intersections, though the lengths of the corridors vary and they don't lead away at right angles so you're not sure if they loop around or go to different areas. "Follow me, I can track him!" you hear some distance behind you towards the stairs. Your heart sinks. This isn't a cool Ocean's Eleven style robbery, this is Alice getting herself trapped in the dungeon under the treasury. You can feel stress setting in and consider logging out to take a break, but you don't know exactly how to actually do that and it would suck to save right before getting caught. Is there such a thing as saving in this game? You should definitely have done that outside the building. You see light behind you, torches getting closer and shadows dancing menacingly on the walls. Shit. You run into a random direction, hoping that your earlier scouting would throw their tracking off for at least a little, turn sharp corners, dashing right and left. You're not sure how long you've been running from them, but eventually the area you're blindly stumbling towards restricts your choices as intersections become rarer until you end up going down a narrow corridor. Despite moving quickly you can still hear voices not far behind you.

You move faster, taking it on faith that you won't smash into a wall, hoping you'd somehow end up outside the city coming out of a secret tunnel, but so far you have no such luck. And now at the end of the corridor the path ahead is blocked by another door. This one is made of thick wood, but it smells moldered and you don't really want to touch it. You can feel a heavy metal padlock, definitely too strong to break with your bare hands. Going back is no option, you can already hear them in the corridor. The urge to log out is becoming stronger. You're finally caught. The voices and torch light get closer. Maybe you should pray? Pray for divine intervention? No, you won't sink that low. Plus there is no outcome of a random event that could possibly favor you enough to save this situation. You turn back to the door and in the faint growing light you see more details. The door looks much worse than you initially thought. You give it a whack, but it doesn't budge at all, not even making a sound, just silently absorbing your kicks and punches. It's not molded enough to break open with your strength alone. You inspect the padlock again. It's big and simple. If only you had gotten lock picking skills.

Then your eyes stray to the rusty cast iron that provides for a lug to attach the lock. It's attached with rivets bolted into the door instead of screws. Those you could have unscrewed with your dagger, but the bolts seem partially loose, not holding as well in the molded wood as they originally must have. You quickly pull out your dagger and ram it between the iron latch and the door, then pull, using it as a makeshift crowbar. "Just give up already" you hear a voice behind you, way too close to your liking. It's Mr. red cape and the fact that he casually strolls towards you instead of charging at you makes you realize that you are caught already and there won't be salvation behind that door. Still though, you don't feel like surrendering just yet. Might as well see what's behind the door before getting thrown into the dungeon. Maybe it's the cell you will be locked in for years to come.

With a final exertion of strength the bolts rip out of the wood, the lock still locked, but now useless. You pull the door open, digging your finger nails into the soft moldy wood. "Hey stay out of there!" you hear behind you, but you just managed to pull the door open far enough to squeeze through. You sigh, disappointed, as the door reveals only a small room with a small chest in the center. You might as well see what your reward would have been had you succeeded the quest. The chest looks much more fancy than anything else you've seen down here, ornate with runes, almost shiny. You quickly open it. Whatever the purpose of the chest, it wasn't meant to keep you from getting at what it contains. Inside you see a dagger of sorts, pink and ... transparent? Also it seems to be moving slightly as if the blade of the dagger was a flame in slow motion, phasing in and out of existence. You know neither your arrows nor your own daggers would do anything to plate armor, but maybe this thing is a magical super weapon that gives you fighting chance? You can almost feel the presence of the guard captain behind you, so you grab the magical dagger and swing it in one fluid motion as you turn around. You need a miracle weapon right now, but just as you are about to strike the guard captain the dagger vanishes from your hand and an annoying little popup appears in your mind.

You curse the stupid thing for not saving you, but it wouldn't have anyways. The guard captain seemed to have read your movement and jumped back surprisingly fast for a man in heavy armor. Even if you had a proper sword the attack would have missed. He looks at your empty hand in a moment of confusion, not finding the weapon he expected you to have that he thought he dodged, but then snaps out of it. "Well well well. Looks like we caught the thief. Don't even try to run. There are ten guards behind me. If you come quietly I'll arrest you and you can plead your case in front of a judge." You look up to him and he looks like he means it. No hard feelings, just doing his job. Apparently he also didn't feel particularly threatened by your attempt to slash him.

Behind him you hear the heavy footsteps of multiple guards. Apparently he was bluffing about the 10 guards behind him. Or maybe he was stretching the meaning of 'behind' really thin. He steps into the door, two guards follow and you can see another five at least who try to see what is happening, but unable to fit in the small room. Your fight or flight instinct is thoroughly unhelpful as neither is an option, so you opt for the menu trying to log out.

Ethereal Dagger
Artifact: This weapon was created before this age
Properties: Ignores armor, Summoning, Soulbound
Do you wish to bind this weapon to your soul?
ACCEPT/REFUSE

That was not the menu you wanted, but you hit accept anyways. Oh, this explains why it vanished! Can't attack with a soulbound weapon without binding to it. That would make the property pointless. The guard captain meanwhile pushed your cloak back, revealing your elven face, pointy ears and raven-black hair. "How the hell did you get past the gate, tree hugger?" The other guards laugh, but you don't answer. There is no point. They would do what they want with you without you having any say in it. You are about to reluctantly surrender when you see his eyes leave yours and fixate on the open chest. "What have you done?" he asks you, sadness in his voice. "Wait, isn't this the dagger chest?" one of the guards exclaims. Apparently they are familiar with it. "Give me the dagger" the guard captain says sternly, holding out his gauntleted hand demandingly. You swallow and put the dagger into his hand, only to both watch it vanish. "I knew it. Stupid girl. You could have walked out of here alive, but you just had to bind to it. I'm sorry." He looks down apologetically, but you can see the other guards looking forward to what would come next. "The only way to unbind this dagger is to kill whoever is bound to it." You see his hand go towards his sword and panic.

"Wait!" you yell out, unsure what you could possibly say to save yourself. "If you don't let me go you'll regret it!" Your bluff doesn't even slow him down. In one swift move he draws his sword in the tight room and thrusts it forward, piercing through your armor, piercing just under your ribs, stopping just short of your spine. The world around you seems to slow to a crawl. You take a look at the combat log.

> Guard Captain Lavrov deals 91 damage
> Guard Captain Lavrov deals a lethal wound, reducing your maximum Health to 0
> Alice uses Mind Overdrive

You can see your health bar dropping. That was probably intended as a cool effect, but now it means you're technically still alive for another half second or so that it takes for the animation to finish, a half second that your ability stretched out to what feels like ten long seconds already. You can also see your Concentration draining, but it's draining slower than your Health, so it doesn't matter. The pain in your belly is excruciating, you cannot breathe and as your Health drops you feel increasingly sick. Bastard you think. Your arm feels heavy and sluggish, just like the rest of your body, but you **** it up and forward. Your muscles are aching, straining against their own momentum, racing the Health bar. The world goes red around you, signaling that you're very close to ****. Your fingers grip around the dagger that you managed to summon into your hand and feel it find purchase in something soft. With your last strength you twist the dagger and your world goes dark.

Lavrov staggers back as Alice's lifeless body collapses, the dagger vanishing from his insides. He did not expect this. How can a level 1 commoner be this insanely fast? Pain spreads from his side. He looks down, expecting to see a gaping wound, but there is nothing there but his flawless well-polished plate armor. Under it, however, he can feel blood pouring out of him, running down the inside of his armor, eventually making it down his legs and dripping down his feet. He grunts and sits down against a wall, ignoring the yelling of the guards. A quick glance at the combat log tells him it's over. He had to give it to this Alice, that threat wasn't as empty as he thought it was. He is not sure what he would have done differently had he believed her. He was to protect the treasures in here with his life, and that's exactly what he did. There is no regret in him, not a single instance he can think of where he felt like he acted wrong. Lavrov knew he served the guards well and even the criminals he caught respected him for his fairness. He looks over to his subordinates, disgusted with them poking the dead girl's body with their pikes in fear, making extra sure she will not stab them as well. Help would not find him in time. He did everything right and this fate is not fair. Why did it have to end like this? he wonders as his world goes dark as well.