Where Everybody Knows Your Name

There was milling about, arguments and questions. Then, the wizard's voice came from the empty air.

"Ah, of course. You cannot see the countdown. Then, in my eternal magnanimity let me state: thirty minutes remain!" he said. And suddenly people were a lot more motivated. We held the vote with raising of hands. I was on counting duty, along with a few other high Knowledge people. Ultimately, random chance won. I should have expected it. People saw it as and 80ish % chance to survive. It wouldn't help the ones who drew the short sticks, but for each individual it made sense to take the odds.

"People will freak out, boss. And try to cheat. Then run," Chum said. "Alex can put another barrier around the exit," Artemis said. "Then how do we leave if we live through it?" I said. "Kill the ones that lose the draw?" Hannah said. Everyone looked at her, shocked, and she seemed to remember morality, "Right. We shouldn't do that. Because that would be wrong."

Once again the room broke out into argument about how to best ensure that we could actually enforce the lottery if we did it that way. I heard a voice, through it all, because it was breaking into tears, high and so, so very sad. I unleashed a blast of air onto the crowd to silence them, and walked up to the tearful woman. She reminded me of my aunt Daisy, a large, round-faced woman with rosy cheeks and smile lines around her eyes. But she was crying when she spoke.

"I know how to do it," she said, now that the rest of the room was quiet. "We're listening-" Artemis said, waiting for the woman's name. "I'm Jo- uh, Jody-, I thought about it and I have an ability that would- that would maybe make it not so bad," Jo said. "What's this ability?" Artemis said. "Well, my class, it's witch, I though that was funny, you know. So, one of the abilities is I can brew potions. There is a potion for sleeping, and maybe if folks are asleep when- when it-" she said and broke out into loud sobs. "Can you make two hundred of those potions in twenty minutes?" I said. "I don't get it," someone from the crowd said. "We line up 1200 drinks, randomly, everyone drinks one, the ones who fall asleep are left behind," I said. At least that's what I assumed Jody's plan was. Nothing else made sense. "I can do it. I can make them in batches and ones that don't do nothing too," she said. "We have our method for drawing lots. If you fall asleep… that'll be it. A better fate than most of us faced in this hellhole," Artemis said.

And we got to work. Jody really could make them fast, it only took five minutes for several desks worth of identical potions in color and shape appear in small potion bottles. It didn't seem like there was any method to it, but the tables were set quickly. It took a little more time for Artemis to make sure everyone was standing in line for their potion, but we still had plenty of time by when the first person was supposed to drink of the witches draught.

"Someone should pick one for me," Jody said. Hannah picked out a bottle at random, and one for herself too. They drank immediately and walked off to the side. The next twenty minutes was a nightmare of anxiety. The first person to drop unconscious a minute or two after drinking it caused screams and panic in the line, but people kept lining up. I was around the middle of the line and when I reached the table I was more terrified than I had been since facing my fears in the Cafeteria yesterday. I drank it and it was delicious. I thought of Jody, and wondered if she'd made it taste good on purpose, or if it was just something from her ability. I walked off to the side where around a hundred people were laid down unconscious. A man was laying motionless but for his chest moving up and down in steady breaths while a woman was shouting at him to wake up, shaking him, until Artemis had to intervene.

It was a fucking nightmare and one of the most evil things that the Tower had done to us so far. No, not the Tower. I didn't have to use euphemism anymore, I knew who it was. Yngarothrax Xem was the name of our captor and enemy. He had done this to us. As more and more people fell around me I thought I was getting woozy. Was it just the exhaustion from another long day with not enough sleep, or was it, well, was it the end?

"Ah, I apologize, Ms. Artemis," Clarence said in his perfect voice, and fell face-first onto the floor. "Fuck, goddamit," Artemis said. Her voice didn't quite break, but it was close. I walked up to her and put an arm around her shoulder. I said "sorry." What else was there.

And then, then I heard a scratching from my notebook. Nothing should have been there. As the last people were taking their drinks, I flipped open my Journal. I hadn't done anything worth experience or note in the last few minutes, so why-

Log Simulacrum of Xem Slain. Experience gained. You have reached level 14! 1 Ability gained 1 Attribute Gained

Rulebreaking by one of the Tower's representatives has been resolved. Your property has been restored. The qualities of your property have been improved in recompense. You didn't think that trying to kill you was the part where Xem broke a rule?

What the fuck did that mean. Since it took me only a few seconds and could have given me a tool that would help, I quickly scanned the ability page and circled a good-enough wizard ability- The Elder Tongue.

Abilities:

Level 14 class ability choice pending:

The Elder Tongue: You gain the Elder Tongue language skill. As the skill improves, you will learn to understand the meaning behind your incantations. This has many uses.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Delayed Spell: Holding off on pronouncing the last syllable of the incantation will no longer fizzle the spell. You may keep a spell near-complete for so long as you can maintain your concentration on it and spend 1 mana per 10 seconds.

Overcharge (Range): You may choose to cast an additional 50% of the cost of any spell to increase its range. This additional cost may only be cast from hit-points and is modified by any blood magic cost modifications. The additional distance is dependent on the spell.

I went through everything in the Journal, looking for any sort of discrepancies my now near-eidetic memory would surely pick up. There. It was on the final page I looked, because I had only used it one or two times.

Achievements:

Where Everybody Knows Your Name: You've completed a quest involving clearing a rest area in the tower. Reward: You are now the owner of the Adventuring Guild Lounge. The Lounge shall be cleaned out and regularly replenished with food, drink and air. The Lounge will remain safe.

Before it had said The Lounge will remain a safe area until the end of the first challenge. Holy fucking shit.

"Everyone shut up and kill the fires!" I shouted in hopeful desperation.

And everyone responded. Personal lights from magic and candles went out, and I cast the water sphere to put out the central bonfire, while others killed their own fires by means magical and mundane, until everything was dark.

Come on, please, please. There! I saw a light coming through the cracks of one of the doors that had been behind us. This floor of the Tower was now completely collapsed- completely collapsed, that is, except for one remaining room. The Lounge where we'd taken refuge for most of the second day.

"I need volunteers!" I shouted. "We only have minutes, we have to get out," a man in the crowd said, but Artemis and Zack were already rushing towards me. "See that light there? It's the Lounge, I think it'll stay safe when this place collapses," I said. "If you want to save our people, carry them over to that door! The one with the light in the cracks. If you need to go, go up now," Artemis shouted.

I had no faith in these people. I expected the worst to happen. The worst always happened. They would take their chance and run and we'd save-

I saw lights coming back on, and while a few people were running to the staircase, most were frozen. Then, Elijah pointed to a stranger next to him and said "You grab the shoulders, I'll take the legs," pointing at a young woman at his feet. And then the seal was broken, and we started doing actual fucking work. I grabbed a large man together with Artemis, forgetting that her physique attribute was now triple mine, so she was more or less carrying him on her own.

When she realized that, she took another person and threw her over her shoulder, and so we managed to carry two between the two of us. Zack and Hannah were both carrying a couple each, and by the time we reached the door, every single unconscious person was behind us, carried by volunteers who'd decided to risk their lives in order to save both friends and strangers.

I leaped for the doorknob, and when I opened it up I almost cried for relief. It was there. Our warm, comfortable Lounge, with half-drunk glasses of spirits and half-eaten salad bowls on the counter, and space enough- just barely- for two hundred people. And we got them in there. Clarence was among the first of the unconscious, along with five more of the Guild that I didn't know well enough to have feelings about. The crying woman now carried her man inside by main strength and more and more followed. It would be enough.

"I will stay here," she said. "You'll be trapped here. They'll be trapped, but it's better than dying," I said. "I know. But we'll be trapped together. And I'll be able to explain what happened," she said. "Alex, no time to argue," Artemis said. "Right, alright, lady, it's your choice. We'll come back if we figure out how," I said. "And we'll get out if we can figure out how," she said. "Let's go, no time," Hannah said, and I moved the rest of the group outside and started running after slamming the door shut on the way.

I ran, as hard as I ever had, with my increased stats I likely ran harder even than I had run when fleeing the spike gremlin on the first day. But just about everyone else had more physical attributes than I did by now. And I was lagging behind. Soon enough it was just me and Elijah, good twenty feet behind everyone else. He was waiting for me, a physical class could definitely outrun me easily, at least so long as I couldn't activate my run screaming ability.

"Run! There's nothing you can do for me," I said, already going out of breath. "I understand now. I understand why I was saved. It was providence. They need you, and I am here to make sure you get to them," Elijah said. "Kid, it doesn't work like that," I said. The first of the people were reaching the staircase now, Artemis sending people up, looking at me fear in her eyes. I motioned her to move and after a pause she did, disappearing up into wherever that hole in the ceiling led. "Look around, Mr. Vorhal," he said, "You will need me."

I looked around. And I saw that the darkness on the edges of the room was no longer simple lack of light. Elemental, smoke-tendril darkness was gathering around the edges and then advancing a hundredfold faster than I could run. I overtook Elijah for a moment, and saw him activate his massive shield ability. I knew he couldn't move while it was active.

"Come on, let's go, there's still a chance," I said. "Tell Mrs. Xiang I am sorry. I see now why it had to be like this, but I wish it was different," Elijah said. "Let's fucking go, kid!" "Even though I walk in the shadow of the valley of death, I shall fear no evil," he began. And by god, the shield actually stopped the darkness. It was still approaching from the other sides, but maybe-

Fuck. Here I was. A choice between letting a kid die for me and living myself, or both of us dying together. The same choice I had made the first day. Except, it wasn't exactly. He had chosen it, and the Guild needed me. I glanced back to him one more time, and saw that he was holding back the darkness, though its tendrils were pushing through, and where they touched him they erased pieces of him.

"-and your staff, they comfort me," Elijah said. I really hoped that there was a god that would hear his prayer. It seemed so pointless otherwise. But if I'd learned anything it was that really hoping for something didn't make it so. And I ran. His prayers carried on the wind of nothing left behind by the moving darkness in the walls of the Tower.

As I reached the spiral staircase, reality was disappearing around me. I had to leap over several stairs with each step, as they were disappearing faster than I could climb. Finally, I just jumped as high as I could as everything around me disappeared.

Two pairs of hands grabbed mine.

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