Heroe's Dilemma

The monster formerly known as Xem howled and raged as it was floating towards us, no longer threatened by the frozen bodies surrounding it. It howled "Second phase!" and its body once more began to transform. The pieces that had formed his head before, where the remnants of it were stretched over, began to come together and reformed into the face of the simulacrum that we'd seen before. Where its neck would have been, something akin a neck sprouted, only instead of a head coming from out of it, the stretched face of Xem sat on the stump. The shards and sharp edges of the creature came together in dozens of thick, frozen, stumpy appendages and it howled once more.

"My magic! I have all of my magic once more," it howled.

It was so, so cold now. Even with it not doing anything else we wouldn't last past a few minutes. And it started chanting an invocation in a bassy, frozen voice. I could tell it was a long and complex one, and I knew I had nothing to interrupt it with. I could only close my eyes and hope. It reached the final syllable and I grated my teeth in quiet desperation.

"Out of mana? That can't be right. Wait! No! No, I would have noticed it, I would have…" he said. And his face exploded. From inside it there swarmed a true deluge of parasitic, transparent worms that were nonetheless perfectly visible and deadly. The psychic construct worms dissipated into aether mid-way to the floor. As my spell resolved, the creature died in a way that was perfectly anticlimactic, its heavy body thudding to the floor.

Mind Worm: Psyche, Tier 2, Rank 1 Below is the sigil for the Mind Worm spell of the Psyche school. This spell conjures an incorporeal, parasitic mental construct in the form of a carnivorous and congnivorous worm. The worm will do ongoing damage to the mana, hitpoints and the soul of the target, for as long as the target doesn't pay direct attention to it. Most intelligent creatures are capable of destroying a mind worm once aware of it.

Requirements to upgrade the spell to Rank 2: Kill 1/1 Creatures with Mind of 3 or higher with this spell

Requirements fulfilled! Rank 2 Reached. Choose a Mind Worm Rank 2 ability.

I heard the scratching from my Journal and knew exactly what it would say. The spell would rank up and I'd gain a bunch of experience, likely enough to level to fifteen. I hadn't really had a chance to use the mind worm spell, it was gross and it wasn't particularly quick working. I still didn't know exactly how it worked, but I had been lucky enough that Xem had been distracted enough that he had never noticed the mental attack. I shivered at the thought of someone casting it on me, and then I continued shivering, and realized I couldn't stop. It was not getting any warmer, and many were collapsing to a fetal position or holding on to their neighbors for warmth. It must have been below -50 degrees, colder than I'd ever experienced, even living by the Great Lakes.

"Fire!" Anna shouted, "Get those desks in a pile, quick!"

As the Guild was still the least disorganized group of people in the room, we got to work as soon as she'd made the demand. It took us only a few seconds to throw half a dozen of the standing desks in a pile in the middle, otherwise I'd have started casting before I started gathering the wood. As soon as it was done, I stood opposite the imminent bonfire with Anna, and cast greasefire, while she cast a low-level ignition spell. I pumped everything I had in it, triple-casting the oil portion of the spell, to give the fire as much fuel as I could. It roared to life, and as soon as the people around the edges of the fire felt it, many turned around to get the more frostbitten people towards us, while on the opposite edge of the room other mages were beginning their own fires.

Hannah alone looked perfectly comfortable in both temperatures (though she started steaming instantly if she came too close to the fire), and so she went out to get people who were still alive, but rendered immobile by the freezing temperatures and bringing them back to where Bjorn was already setting up a triage station for the injured.

There were more dead than injured, but there were more living than dead. There was no way in hell we should have expected this outcome to this fight, and there was no way I'd get lucky enough to subtly kill someone with mind worm again (unless the upgrade was really good), but it had worked. And now, with the fires roaring, I was pretty sure that no more people would die.

I looked around. Sure, hundreds had died. And I hated myself for it, but I wished it had been more than a thousand. I cared for everyone here in a vague, abstract sense, but I wanted the Guild to live, I wanted my friends to live. And I would have been willing to sacrifice every single other person here to make that happen. Hell, I almost had. I guess you never really know what you would do in a situation like that until you're in it. Except, don't you? When thousands are dying in factories, battlefields and prison camps across the world, and you would rather stay safe and comfortable at home, are you not choosing to sell their lives to keep yours and your loved ones safe and comfortable too? I was just making excuses here, but I couldn't help how I felt. I wanted my friends to live, and so I wanted the rest of them dead.

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Whatever happened next, it would be a conflict. Whether it be a battle between the survivors to reach the stairs first, or a debate and discussion about who is worthy to ascend, and who deserves to die, we were all at risk once more, for the Tower didn't lie. As I stood by the flames of two dozen chairs reflected in the downcast eyes of my friends, I knew that. The architect of this place didn't need to lie. If he wanted something to be other than the truth, he would make it so. Honesty by absolute power.

I turned to see Artemis approach me, and barely had the time to notice the fierce look on her face before she punched me square in the jaw.

I flew in the air for about ten feet and landed on my back, crushing a standing desk underneath me. If I didn't have my mage armor on, I would have probably been knocked unconscious and had my nose broken, but I was just rattled, as I scooped myself up from the debris.

"Who gave you the right?" Artemis was saying as she walked up to me. I had a feeling that she wasn't quite done with me yet. But Hannah stood between us.

"He did the right thing," she said. "He saved us. That is not the same thing," Artemis said. "It is. Do you think what was happening was fair?" Hannah said. "Nothing is ever fair. We do what we can with what we have," Artemis said. "And what did he do?" Hannah said. "He killed two hundred people is what he did," Artemis said. "You touch him again and you're next," Anna said, walking up hands extended to her sides, ready to burn, and now a crowd was gathering around us. "Ms. Artemis, perhaps you would consider what the situation was before Mr. Vorhal's interference," Clarence said. "He had no right," Artemis said, but at her old lawyer friend's words she was deflated. "And what are rights?" Clarence said. "Fuck," Artemis said. "We have talked about this, my dear. Rights are just as much an illusion as fairness. And if Mr. Vorhal hadn't done what he did, what of the rights and fair treatment of the people farthest away from the staircase? What of those who hadn't put points into the physical attributes?" Clarence said. "He-" Artemis started, but I had my air back. "It was still not my decision to make," I said.

I had to speak loudly over the din of conversation. People from other camps, other sectors were now coming over and the situation was being explained to the others through the usual social osmosis in a situation like this.

"I stopped them because I wanted to. I wanted to protect my friends and to make sure you didn't do something stupid like give up your spots above by something as stupid as first come first serve. I wanted to do it, because whatever comes next, I didn't want the people who made it through to be the ones who were the quickest to resort to violence and panic. I didn't have the right. But I had no time to ask for a quorum either. And I don't regret it for a minute," I said. "I- I understand. And I am sorry for punching you," Artemis said after a moment to cool down.

A man in the middle of the crowd that had formed around us shouted:

"So now what?".

He was an older man, one of the oldest I'd seen survive into the third day. He wore a flat cap, flannel shirt and suspenders, but was old enough that he had probably been alive the first time around they were in fashion. I noticed that, even though the barriers were down now, nobody was rushing towards them. Indeed, the remaining people had gathered around our fire, and it was a bigger crowd than I'd seen since coming into the Tower. Bigger by far. It was like lunch hour downtown, hundreds of people all around me, all focused on me. And the panic I had come to expect in situations like this through a lifetime of experience didn't come. I stood, and I spoke loud and clear to the gathered crowd.

"Most of you don't know me, or my friends. I am Alex Vorhal, and we are the Adventuring Guild of the Tower. We don't have a leader, and the leader we don't have is this woman next to me. Her name is Artemis, and she is the most honorable person I have ever met in my life. If there is a way to do this fairly, she will figure it out," I said, and I turned to let her speak.

"Look, I really am not anyone's leader. I hate hierarchies and bosses. I just help organize things," Artemis said. "Then organize this!" A voice shouted from the crowd, but we couldn't see who was speaking. "Oh, what the hell. Alright, the first thing we need to do before anything else is get a headcount," she shouted, "line up and we can see how many of us are left."

Among the frozen corpses of our former compatriots it seemed a macabre sight, and no one liked lining up to be counted so that our fates may be decided. One by one people passed by Artemis, and one by one we counted them. It took less time than you might think, a person was passing every few seconds and soon enough we divided people into two lines which made the counting go even faster.

One thousand, five hundred and thirty two.

"So, what ideas do we have?" Artemis said. "Volunteers?" Hannah said. "I guess so," I said. "Fuck that. If we get volunteers, the best people are going to stay behind," someone said from the crowd of people, to a murmur of agreement. "What, don't want to do it?" someone else said. "Fuck that, no way in hell. I'm only not running to the exit because someone would stop me," the first man said. "Might still be the most fair way to do it. If people are willing to sacrifice themselves, maybe they should be given a chance," Anna said. "I'd stay," I said. The words were out of my mouth before I thought them, but as I said them I meant them.

"I said it's a dumb idea!" the man who'd spoken up before shouted out and came into the firelight. He was closely shaved, but clearly a few days without a shave or a haircut like all of us here. "Any suggestions?" Artemis said. "Highest levels leave. They'll have the best chance to survive whatever the next challenge is," he said. Once again, there were some murmurs of agreement, but also some sobs of despair. If we did it this way, I was sure that me and my closest friends would be fine, but I was much less certain about the rest of the guild.

"Random chance," I said, "Just draw lots." "Alright, we have some options. Let us put it to a vote," Artemis said, and we started organizing the draw.

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