Liora had been running around for the past thirty minutes.
She had watched the other teams, picked up small details about their numbers, and even managed to switch into number nineteen, which was the highest she had seen so far.
Yet it seemed like Aiden and Jax were not taking this very seriously.
Jax had almost killed someone, which would have disqualified them from the round, and Aiden was seemingly wandering gods knew where.
It felt like Liora was the only one pulling the proverbial sled for this round.
And it was rather infuriating.
So she did what she assumed would be the most sensible thing.
She went hunting for where Thalia was frozen.
That was how she found herself wandering the library and making her way down to the basement through stairs hidden behind a suit of armor on display.
The secret passage had already been partially opened.
However, the basement had a one-person entry limit, which must have dissuaded the pair that had been here before.
As Liora made her way down the stairs, her hand traced the stonework.
Her mind drifted to other matters.
As it turned out, people rarely looked up when they were in a room.
So during the party, Liora had spent her time flying overhead and drifting around, listening to murmurs and bits of conversation here and there.
It reminded her of her childhood in Cliefop, where she would skulk around and listen to conversations between adults.
Sadly, the worst part was that sometimes, you learned ominous things.
Things you knew would be bad.
But not how to stop them.
As she thought about it, her mind drifted back to the party.
The smell of alcohol.
The sweet aroma of baked goods and cakes.
At the time, she had been flying by when she saw a member of Ymer's group approach Selene.
Liora had been ready to jump in to help.
But then the tiger beastkin seemed to give Selene something and run away.
Out of curiosity, Liora followed him.
He watched Selene from a distance until, finally, he seemed to get really mopey when Selene went over to talk to Aiden and threw the thing away.
That was when Ymer walked over to him.
And they began to talk.
"Yikes," Ymer said. "How heartless. To think she would reject you after all that hard work."
He smiled.
"Though I think we both know why she did."
The tiger beastkin had small tears running down his face.
He seemed sad, but he was trying to play it off.
"It wasn't all that much hard work," Pip said. "But I don't know. Maybe it had something to do with the attempted murder thing, yeah?"
Ymer smiled at that.
Then he wrapped an arm around Pip's shoulders.
"You're selling yourself too short," Ymer said. "You are Fateless, with practically limitless possibilities before you. Yet you say she could be the one."
His smile sharpened.
"Any girl in her right mind would be foolish to turn that down. So I have a theory."
Pip seemed somewhat uncomfortable with Ymer's arm over his shoulder.
But he did not pull away.
Maybe because of the party setting.
Maybe because he was simply curious.
"You see, when it comes to people, affection can be gained in many ways," Ymer said. "Helping one another is one of the most common, but the fastest is supporting someone."
Liora slowly drifted closer, keeping herself quiet.
"If you do a favor for someone, they might think better of you," Ymer continued. "But that's about it. However, when someone feels like they are crumbling, like they are about to fall apart, and you are the one who steps in to help them?"
Ymer's voice lowered.
"That is when they see you in a whole new light."
Pip glanced toward him.
"So, boss, you already have a plan for this, then?"
Ymer grinned.
Cruel.
"Indeed. You see, I believe that Aiden over there is leeching off Selene."
Pip's expression shifted.
"Think about it," Ymer continued. "He has promised her a cure for her condition and has done practically nothing aside from finding the recipe to even begin working on it."
He tilted his head.
"And from what I have gathered, he made her relive a trauma from when she was young using a herd of Oxwings. Hell, I bet he was even the first one to rush over and comfort her."
Ymer leaned closer.
"Think about it. He's using her power. Hell, I don't blame him. She went toe-to-toe against you with a twenty-level disadvantage."
For a moment, anger flashed across Pip's face.
He turned to watch Aiden, who seemed to either be ignoring them or simply had not noticed the glance.
"Fucking humans," Pip muttered. "Every chance they get to use you and lose you, they're gonna fucking take it. No offense, boss."
Ymer's smile did not change.
Pip looked back at him.
"What's the actual plan, then?"
Ymer pulled his arm back and patted Pip on the back.
"Well," Ymer said, "I have worked with you-know-who to get a liiiiittle surprise placed inside the basement area of the first round. If you head down there and collect it, we can make something to give Selene."
His grin widened.
"To show her how Aiden really is."
Liora opened the door to the basement area and saw the room where the puzzle was supposed to be.
She quickly moved past it and headed for the other door.
"Knowing Ymer, he wouldn't give that guy a mission that required too many puzzles," Liora said quietly. "So this path should be open as part of the room."
It was less a statement and more a quiet prayer that she was right.
The door opened.
Liora reached her hand forward.
No resistance met her.
She stepped into the hallway.
There was a wooden door to the side, and what seemed to be a set of dungeon cells lining the walls, ending with a large barred door at the far end.
As Liora walked, she saw a few people in the side cells and took a moment to look them over.
So far, her theory about the challenge design being the same for all teams seemed correct.
However, she was still anxious about the thing Ymer had requested.
On the right side, she saw an elven woman in a blue robe with the hood up, sitting on a small bench, her colors dimmed by the frozen status effect.
In the next cell over was the dwarven woman who had dropped her glass at the party before, a stern scowl on her face.
On the other side, Liora saw Thalia sitting in her cell, much like the elven woman.
At the bars, frozen like he had been screaming, was a human man with ghostly white hair and a black trench coat covered in small, thin silver chains.
Liora took a moment to look them over.
Then she remembered that they could, in fact, see her.
While they could not move, they could still see and hear things.
So she made her way over to the bars and looked to Thalia.
"Hey, Thalia," Liora said. "Pretty sure the puzzle is in that room back there, but I'm going to check down the hall just to be safe."
Thalia did not move.
Not that Liora expected her to.
But she could imagine Thalia nodding.
Liora continued down the hall toward the barred door.
She flicked her hand.
A wind blast flew from her fingertips, shooting toward the ground before curving upward and blasting the plank holding the door shut.
It bounced loudly across the cobblestone hallway.
Liora opened the door.
The first thing that hit her was the smell.
Rot.
Death.
The room itself was divided by a small wooden privacy divider.
To the left, a workshop with tools and other supplies stood.
Farther back, a bloodstained stone pedestal sat beneath gore-covered tools hanging from the wall and resting on a nearby table.
A small cage sat toward the back.
Liora stumbled back and leaned over.
She puked.
She had smelled rotting things before, especially in the necromancer's dungeon.
But this was different.
This was forgotten death.
The kind nobody cleaned.
The kind nobody took care of.
Liora took a moment to settle her stomach.
Then she held an arm in front of her face, using her sleeve as a makeshift filter as she walked toward the table with the magical tools.
Several papers sat there.
She picked one up and began to read.
Seed of Betrayal
A strange plant that was artificially created.
It is only able to grow and cultivate inside the corpses of those who feel extreme amounts of betrayal before their deaths.
This seed is said to cause an extreme hallucinogenic effect that searches a target's psyche and makes someone they see as close or precious appear dangerous or evil.
This can be done by soaking the leaves in water and injecting or ingesting the concoction.
Test Logs
Married Couple
Target: Wife
Initial State: They were a loving couple who seemed very close and kind.
Method: Slipped into wife's drink.
Effect: The wife began screaming any time her husband came within twenty-five feet of her. She kept mumbling about her husband attacking her.
Best Friends
Targets: Mike and Johanson
Initial State: Close friendship. Laughing and joking with each other.
Method: Applied to Johanson's bandage for a work injury.
Effect: Mike's body was found two days later after Johanson suddenly cut off all contact. Cause of death was slow dismemberment with signs of torture. Johanson was arrested and continued screaming about things Mike did that never occurred.
As Liora read the file, she noticed a small redwood box with golden outlines.
The lid was open.
Peering inside, she saw the item in question.
It was shaped like a pumpkin seed, flattened with a deep blue teardrop color in the center and deep brown around the outside, like moist bark.
Her thoughts raced.
Ymer's plan clicked into place.
With everything that would be happening in the next round, a small injection from something like a blowgun would hardly be noticeable.
By the time Aiden realized it, Selene would be trying to rip him apart or running away screaming.
Either way, that would basically take two members down.
And depending on the team sizes for future events, it could mean an almost guaranteed loss.
Not to mention what it could do after.
"Screw the events," Liora mumbled. "This could rip our party apart as a whole."
She turned, grabbing the box as she headed for the door.
She knew she had said she would free Thalia.
But she did not have time.
She had to warn the others.