The heavy wooden cart bounced violently over the ruined terrain, its iron-rimmed wheels grinding against the shattered stone. From where he stood near the crater, Taron watched Lord Rio Diamante step out of the carriage. Surrounding the cart marched the proud soldiers of Rio's house army, their armor gleaming in the harsh sun. They were disciplined and elite, a stark reminder of the military power Taron had accidentally provoked by letting the Guild's project get out of hand.
Lord Rio walked to the edge of the massive hole, his jaw clenched. The Lord's dark, vein-cracked skin looked incredibly sharp against his short white fade, and the solid white diamond of his torso caught the light with a cold, intimidating brilliance. Rio tilted his head slightly, his solid white eyes and glowing lavender-white irises straining against the shadows of the abyss.
"Lord Rio, be careful," Taron called out, stepping forward. "It is a deep hole. If you fall, getting you out is going to be hard."
Realizing how close he was to the edge, Rio tracked back, holding the side of his jacket. When the Lord turned his gaze toward him, Taron saw the absolute fury building behind those pupil-less eyes.
"If you were concerned about me, you should have told me from the start!" Rio shouted. His voice resonated with a terrifying, absolute pride that echoed across the empty crater, making Taron shrink back into the thick leather plates of his coat. Rio stepped directly into his space, towering over him. "This little slime of yours could make a huge hole in my colony, Mister Taron! Look around you!"
Rio gestured wildly toward the scarred landscape, his chest heaving. "Your absolute incompetence has completely destroyed my logging industry! The timber from these woods funded half my treasury, and now I have nothing but splinters and ash!"
Taron's sharp eyes darted to Rio's glowing diamond chest before looking down at the dirt. "Would you have believed me if I did?" he muttered, trying to defend himself.
"I still do not believe a small slime could do this much damage!" Rio yelled back, the veins around his unblinking eyes throbbing. "Not to mention it killed my subjects! Your greed has ruined us!"
Rio stepped even closer, his shadow falling completely over Taron. "Think back to our official meeting in my hall. You stood before me and promised that this creature would quietly collect coal from the deep veins. You swore it was safe! How did you fail to mention it could digest under the earth and create a catastrophic hole as big as this?!"
Taron opened his mouth, but no words came out. The memory of that meeting flashed through his mind—he had promised it would just collect coal. He genuinely hadn't known the creature's feeding habits would cause a structural collapse of this magnitude.
"The Guild did all we could to control it," Taron finally said defensively, trying to find his footing. "The profit we were going to make from the coal would have been enough to rebuild the colony. Now that we have nothing left to destroy, we can dig until all the coal is out of the ground."
"For your sake, and the Guild's sake, I hope you are right," Rio snapped, his voice dropping to a deadly, cold whisper that made Taron's skin crawl.
Taron shifted uncomfortably, clearing his throat to change the subject. "When do you think the knights will leave so we can continue our work on site?"
Rio stopped talking for a short time, staring at the ruin. "The knights will stay here for a while, and I cannot do anything about it."
Taron's eyes opened wide with shock. "Lord Diamante, it is your land! The knights don't have the authority for such an occupation."
"They have it, actually," Rio replied bitterly. "They are investigating this as an attack from the Zizo Empire. Your slime looks like an insect, and many see it that way. That is why the knights started investigating. Be grateful, Taron. If Commander Jabari finds out you have such a creature, I am sure he will be happy to take it for himself. You know how he is. By the way, did you retrieve the slime yet?"
Rio leveled a sharp, frightening look at him.
"A team of adventurers is looking for it as we speak," Taron admitted, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead. "We dispatched more adventurers to this location hoping to find it, but we've had no luck yet."
Rio's expression darkened even further. He leaned in close, his glowing eyes burning into Taron's mind. "Tell me, Taron... do you even have any capable adventurers left at your disposal, or did you throw them all into the meat grinder too?"
Taron froze. His mind went completely blank with dread. He intentionally avoided the question, dropping his gaze to the dirt because the truth was too terrifying to admit: the Guild's local roster was empty. That silent hesitation told Rio everything.
Rio let out a sharp, disgusted breath. "Could it have been captured by the knights?" the Lord asked grimly. Without waiting for Taron to recover, Rio turned on his heel and marched back toward his cart. "I believe the knights were here already."
As Lord Rio approached the heavy carriage, a guard opened the wooden door. Taron's sharp eyes caught a sudden flash of movement inside the shaded interior. A woman was sitting in the back of Rio's carriage. She wore a pristine, flowing white dress that stood out starkly against the dark velvet seats. Before Taron could get a clear look at her face, Rio stepped inside, blocking the view, and the door slammed shut.
Who could she be? Taron thought, his brow furrowing as the carriage began to roll away. Rio hadn't mentioned bringing a guest, especially not a woman dressed for a court gala in the middle of a disaster zone.
Taron walked back to the Guildhall in a daze, the echo of Lord Diamante's screaming voice still ringing in his ears. He smoothed his graying goatee, his hands trembling slightly against his leather coat.
His mind raced as he thought about Blake. Blake was the elite adventurer Taron had personally tasked with retrieving the slime from the woods. But remembering Rio's parting words—I believe the knights were here already—a horrible realization struck Taron's stomach like a lead weight. Blake knew exactly how valuable that slime was. If the knights offered him enough imperial gold, would Blake betray the Guild and hand the creature directly over to them?
When Taron pushed open the heavy doors of the Guild, he found one of his last remaining scout adventurers waiting for him in the shadows of the main hall. The adventurer looked pale and hurried forward the moment he saw Taron.
"Sir, I have news," the adventurer whispered quickly, glancing over his shoulder. "I think I found something. I saw Blake entering one of the destroyed buildings... and Commander Jabari was with him. The knights are using that specific building right now."
The cold spike of anxiety in Taron's chest turned into pure dread. His suspicion was right. Blake was already inside the lion's den.
"Keep your eyes on that building," Taron ordered sharply, his voice tight with suppressed panic. "Do not let them see you, but report every single person who goes in and out."
The adventurer nodded quickly, but then hesitated. "Understood, sir. But... what about Blake's mission? Should we send a backup team into the woods to look for the slime?"
Taron felt a wave of exhaustion crash over him. If Blake was already leaking information to Jabari inside a secure knight stronghold, the creature in the woods was likely already in imperial hands.
"Forget about the slime," Taron snapped, waving his hand dismissively. "Go. Get back to that building and stay hidden."
The adventurer bowed his head and quickly slipped out the door, leaving Taron alone in the quiet hall to figure out how to survive the imperial trap closing around him.