Pawns

Rufus coughed out in shock at what he had just heard. He clenched his hands together and bowed, clearly attempting to beg this beastly man to spare Deus from any such fate. "This young lad didn't mean anything by it, please forgive him! If you do, I'll definitely provide many benefits to your master…"

"Hmph," the other man simply grunted out as if he hadn't even heard him. "It doesn't matter, just remember your place boy." His gaze matched Deus's for a moment as he threatened.

Just as soon as he arrived, he turned back around and walked away, seemingly satisfied with how everything had occurred.

After a few moments, Droh spat out, "What was that about?! Deus, have you ever seen him before? He seemed to full-on hate you."

"Heh," Deus sighed as he shook his head, "I've never seen him before in my life… seems like he has his own opinion about me, already. Well, nothing I can do about that. Rufus, who was that?"

"Oh, right…" Rufus replied, shaking himself out of a stammer. "That really caught me off-guard, you know? That guy was scary from the get-go… but he never really challenged me when I first got here. Something about you, Deus, that he just didn't like. You're sure you don't know him?"

"I'm sure," Deus answered quickly, defending himself. "Maybe he understands how ridiculous all of this is, and just wants me dead since I had shot some of their soldiers?"

"Shooting men in war cannot be avoided, and I doubt it's that since the Direfell soldiers they have placed atop that tower are generic and boring… but practically everyone I've run into within this bunker has been weirdly impressive."

Changing the subject, Rufus went on, "So, allow me to explain some stuff since I imagine you're both incredibly confused. This might take some time, and may even seem a bit too farfetched, but please, stay with me."

Deus and Droh seemed appreciative as they listened.

"You see, I was born within the city of Mythgarde, climbing through the ranks slowly and having acquired quite the impressive list of accolades and allies. I specialized in intelligence and management regarding their secretive autonomous soldiers. That's one of the reasons I sought out the Orion clan, truth be told… I figured I could sell them my information and live handsomely for the rest of my days."

"Wait, Mythgarde? Is that what this is all about?" Droh asked in a rush as if some sort of puzzle piece had finally come crashing down into place. "From what I can remember, Roland used to speak about some sort of arrangement he had involving that place… but I never bothered asking about it."

Hearing everything, Deus lifted his hand into the air as if he were some young school child with a question. "Excuse me, both of you… what in the hell is Mythgarde, and how is this relevant?"

"What is Mythgarde?" Droh repeated, sighing under his breath, "Do you not listen to anything? Do you remember when we first got to Direfell? One of my old buddies got us into the city, yes? Do you remember that? He even specially mentioned all of this to you…"

Droh was mentally exhausted as he could only sigh and rub his temple. "Mythgarde is a powerful city-state of similar power to Direfell. These two sides have been opposing forces for some time, over some unknown feud between each Lord."

Rufus cut in with a positive beat, "Indeed! I grew up being warned to keep a fair distance away from Direfell, as it was a place where only the vile wretches of darkness gathered. I, however, had only been more interested in this place upon learning that. A place such as that had to have some stories, right?"

"You came to Direfell for stories?" Deus asked.

"Mhm," Rufus could only muffle out as he seemed almost embarrassed at his previous childlike wonder. "Of course, things didn't go exactly as intended when I first arrived. I had almost immediately been roped in by some clans or another, one of which was the Orion faction. For my freedom and a handsome reward, I promised Master Elias to connect him and the rest of the Orion with some of my previous friends and allies from Mythgarde."

Droh looked doubtful for a moment as he asked, "Hold on, what would Roland want with Mythgarde? He's not strong enough to fight against Direfell's leadership, but even with another city involving itself, it's not like he could hope to gain anything of value."

Rufus answered, "I highly doubt he wanted to simply seek future allies… he most likely wished to obtain something far more sinister… you see, Mythgarde's leadership is known for their… experimental abilities. I won't deny it. It's likely that was what the Orion was after by using my connections."

The three of them stood around as they each evaluated this. Unfortunately, all they could do was speculate, as without Rol'an himself, they'd never know the full truth.

"Things didn't go exactly as planned, though, as it seems that Direfell's leadership also knew about my existence and Roland's intentions, and so they grabbed me away before I could meet with anyone. That's why I'm here, you see, to meet with someone high ranked and sell my information. That's also why I was even working with you all because I needed Master Elias to trust me and set up a meeting."

'That makes sense, I suppose…' Deus pondered, his mind dazed and confused as everything seemed to be happening too quickly. "Hold on, so what does any of this have to do with what is happening right now? It seems your answers leave me with only more questions."

"Hah," the heavyweight Rufus bellowed out laughter as he nodded his head, "I can only imagine that to be the case, hah hah! Allow me to explain, as I've been brought up to speed on most things once I arrived."

He exhaled as he drew closer to the two, ensuring their attention was on him. "This base-site isn't what it appears, and the Orion clan's leadership—Roland in specific—knew about this somehow. It seems that Direfell had a traitor amongst their upper-echelon, and so the military captain plotted with a few other powerful forces to lure Orion into a trap…"

"A trap?" Droh repeated in shock, "Wait, so everything up to this point was all within expectation? Us arriving, the worm dying, and even having our ship shot down? Everything was a trap just to lure out Roland and catch his clan red-handed?"

"Unfortunately so, it would seem. I don't know everything, but from what I've gathered… it seems that our crew member Thaddeus wasn't what he appeared. It was odd, as the first time I met him he seemed more hurried, but on the day of our departure his attitude was more lax and confident."

At that moment, Deus remembered how Thaddeus had arrived late on the day of their departure, and how he began acting more sneakily and even confrontational the further along they got. He had directly challenged many of Elias's plots, even going as far as to call many of them games and such. 'The signs were there, I just didn't notice them thoroughly…'

"Be warned, I'm not sure who he is now but he's absolutely not the same man we met in that club, Nova… I believe the plot goes deep, to the point of being willing to sacrifice even a valuable midnight centipede, and even revealing the existence of this location."

Rufus warned them, only stopping once he was satisfied that both of them had fully grasped the situation. They weren't the targets of this plot, but they had somehow ended up involved nonetheless.

A plot to upheave a mighty clan like the Orion wasn't something that could be understood with a mere glance, especially by those who didn't think like how the truly powerful thought. Huge sacrifices could be excused as being merely collateral damage. Such a mindset was dangerous and overwhelming.

Deus practically jumped as he went to ask, "Hold on, does that mean my sending of the message to Roland was within expectation and even an end-goal? Do these people even know about me and what I had thought up?"

The idea frightened him, but he couldn't ignore it. Even Droh showed an ugly expression as he understood what Deus was hinting at.

"Surely not… right?" Droh asked in a hesitant and shaky voice.