Ransoms and Ramblings

D&D club is great

When she came to, she was bound. Sky sat on her left, the friendly blonde bard attempting to talk to the troll who drove us here. Stephen or something like that. Her ukulele was on the other side of Nemesis's basement, sitting dolefully on the floor. Beyond her, Andy, R3X's builder, was tied. His shock of pink hair stood out sharply against the computers' blue glow, and his whip had been confiscated as well.

To her right was Tyler, the time- and space-traveling mage who had gotten them out of the morgue. That was a long story in and of itself. She didn't quite know him well enough to trust him yet, but he seemed all right. He had been tied directly, instead of bound limb first; perhaps he had managed to escape for a moment?

Furthest to the right sat Agathocoles, the dwarven cage fighter. The trolls had taken off his hood, revealing his raw, melted-looking face, and were now punching him in the gut while Nemesis, the foot-tall pixie, stood behind them with crossed arms and a half-raging, half-pleased expression. Next to her stood Rebecca, unbound and talking to the pixie, whose wards on the room were unaltered.

You traitor, she hissed silently. We trusted you. You made us think you weren't just another rich businesswoman, and you stabbed us in the back. Damn you.

Nemesis said a word to the woman and stepped forward, gesturing the trolls aside with a motion of her hand. She stabbed a finger into Agathocoles's electronic eye socket and hissed, "Where is it?"

The dwarf headbutted her instead of answering. The pixie flew back a few paces and commanded the trolls to continue beating him, and Sky began to hum a tune next to her. A feeling of drowsiness overcame her, and the others in the room seemed to calm slightly as well, except Nemesis - one of the wards in the room began to glow slightly, unnoticed by anyone else, and she seemed even angrier than before. Was she the only one who could see the glowing of the magic? Probably. Tyler wouldn't note that kind of thing, and the others weren't very magic-oriented.

Nemesis shouted a command to the trolls, who quickly piled up the five mercenaries in a small heap while the pixie opened a cabinet and pulled out a small grenade-type object. She heard a small inhalation from Agathocoles as Nemesis came closer. A glow clearly came from the grenade, and after she placed it in the center of the group, her teammates were glowing as well.

"Nemesis, this wasn't part of our deal," Rebecca protested, while the pixie hushed her. Her teammates were clearly panicking.

The elf took a small breath and whispered an incantation under her breath. A blue-shimmering forcefield materialized around herself and the grenade. The glow around her friends vanished, while her own grew steadily stronger.

I am Sererae of the Diamond River.

Sky and Tyler had both turned to face her, and seemed to be shouting her name. She couldn't hear them over the beating of her heart and the fizzing of the grenade.

Her defiant eyes met those of Nemesis, who seemed stunned. Her chin was raised, her heart raced, and her mouth formed a single word.

Then the world went dark.

Twenty-eight.

—ruby