Rituals, Regrets, and Really Dumb People

Chapter 7: The Power of Friendship and Sugar Gliders, Part 2

The back door hadn't been touched. Guess Typhous didn't know about it, and if Ishmael had, it probably would have been collapsed. Regardless, this was to our favor. I was the first to go in; it was my castle, which meant they were my men, and if I was first, there was less of a slip up to happen. Also—didn't exactly what to see either side get hurt. Don't tell anyone I admitted that.

The old passage was narrow and dank and dark, but it fit us well enough. It led right to a closet that was near the stairwell, which would allow us a freedom of movement between the levels in the castle. First place I wanted to go was the basement, which is where my freaks and engineers were. I didn't have a prison, I usually exiled or killed whoever broke the laws of the land, but there was that torture chamber, which would have had a few cells. I wanted to check it all, see if I could find any body here that was still loyal to me.

There were very few guards down here, usually some around the more important rooms, but it was often sparse. The engineers did not like being bothered, so I often had left the place rather unprotected. Most of the guards would be at the outer walls and on the first floor of the castle proper, least I hoped as much. It was clear of cultists to the engineering department, at least.

All eight of us snuck into the engineering department unscathed and unnoticed. The lights were on, the engineers all here. Hel, Jo was here too. The tension left me as I walked over to her at her work bench, head down, food wrappers scattered all around here. I figured out then and there why that guard hadn't seen Jo.

"Jo," I said. "You haven't left the department in a week, have you?"

"Huh?" she grunted as she raised her head. She looked like she hadn't slept, her eyelids heavy and dark, those large goggles on her face doing little to obscure her exhaustion. "That was fast, been a day since you were gone."

"Week."

"Uh—week and a half, Mathias," Lilly remarked.

"Oh yeah, I was out—a couple of days, I guess. Anyways, Typhous has usurped me and took over the castle."

"What?" Jo said, jumping up and grabbing that helfire revolver she had shown me just a few days ago. "I'll blow him to smithereens. Uh, Sanguine, why did she call you Mathias? Why do you have Sanctuary's elite guard here with you? Is that Geraldine?"

"Yes, that's Geraldine."

"Yo," Jo said to her, waving a hand.

"Uh, hi."

"Anyways, master, what has happened!?"

"Well, it's a long story, Jo. Not a follower of She anymore, or He really. 'Their agent' they called me, or well, He did. I'm—not a tyrant or a villain anymore."

"Truly!?"

"Yeah."

She hopped up and hugged me. "Good for you. The first step to recovery is not worshiping dark devil-gods anymore. I'm proud of you, master."

"Well," I started, looking down at the still hugging Jo. I slowly pulled her arms off my neck. "Don't blow me away with your gun, please. Trigger discipline, Jo, remember Eight Toes Jerry?"

"Sorry."

"And—She is a complex character; I'll explain it to you sometime later. For now, we have to take the castle back. Typhous has the Seal and he has some alien-freak that is going to help him turn this world into a rot garden of decayed flesh and bile."

"What?" That was said by multiple people. I hadn't exactly explained the goal of Ishmael to them. Whoops.

"Guys," I said to all of them, including some stray engineers. "Focus. We need to retake the castle. Jo, you knew none of this happened, right?"