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Jazz’s fingers were steady as he lifted the artifact from the shelf, his vents were silent and his plating wasn’t so much as twitching. Not a single ward should have triggered, thanks to his counterspell sigil, and yet as soon as he had the thing off its pedestal, he was assaulted by an audio-splitting shrieking.
If he had been anyone else, the shrieking would probably have also been armor splitting. But he was insulated against sonic attacks and had been since the time a thief from their rival guild had attacked him with a shrieking wraith he’d conjured before Jazz could even draw a knife. He hadn’t needed it til today, but he was glad he hadn’t ever taken the modification back out. It gave him time to start running, as the palace guards roused.
You won’t make it out alive, you know. There are too many of them.
Oh, this was a Pit of a time for the voice from that ruined temple to show back up. “Little busy right now, sorry.”
I see that. The voice had the audacity to sound amused. If you die here, though, then you cannot fulfil your promise to me.
Jazz could hear the guards turning out over the shrieking. There were way too many of them for one little thief, what the frag was wrong with their boss?
I can help you, the voice continued.
“Yeah? What’s that gonna cost me?”
A pledge of service. Sworn loyalty until you die, or I do.
The shrieking was finally starting to get to him, the first of the guards was rounding the corner, and Jazz was rapidly agreeing with the voice’s assessment that he would not get out alive. Those guards looked dead and reanimated, which meant that not even dropping the damn artifact would save him.
Well, he could live to regret this choice or he could die with a stolen statue in his bag and nothing else to show for his life.
“Great, you have it. Now how the frag do I get out here?”
Jazz felt power coursing though his hands tha thad definitely not been there before. When he glanced down, he was glowing with a green light that would be worrying later, he was sure.
Throw one of your daggers at the guard. And then keep running for the window. Don’t stop for ANYTHING.
Jazz didn’t have the slightest intention of stopping, so that worked for him. He drew one of his daggers and threw it, deciding there were worse ways to die than trusting a voice that may or may not be a minor god.
Green light pulled away from him with it, and the dagger sailed true and landed with a thunk in the armor of the first guard. It sank into aged plating up to the hilt and then exploded in a burst of green-tinted iridescent light. Jazz ran through the light, realizing that the guards had been vaporized by the blast–and so had a chunk of the building.
He dived through the opening a moment later, as a second wave of guards clattered into the hallway. The fall was almost as terrifying as certain death had been, and then he was landing on a cart full of imported fabrics to the startled confusion of the cart driver.
“Sorry mech,” Jazz said, feeling elated and scared at the same time. He had signed up for something without even having a contract to read and now he would have to find out what that meant. But rather than worry about that now, he pulled a few coins from his pouch and set them beside the driver. “If anyone asks, you never saw me, you don’t know who I am and you sure as frag don’t know where I went.”
“Of course.” The mech nodded and scooped up the coins.
Jazz jumped out of the cart before they could change their mind.
Well done, Jazz. The voice sounded pleased. Now, go to the temple of Liege Maximo in the city center, and we will discuss your future.
“If it’s all the same to you?” Jazz reset his audios now that they were safely outside the shrieking ward. “I’m stopping at the Guild office first and getting paid.”
An acceptable delay. Ask for Silvertone when you arrive, they will be your guide and trainer once we have spoken.
“Right.” Jazz sighed and turned toward the guild office. After that, it would be time to find out the contract details and just exactly how fragged he was.