Chapter 423: Fettered (2).

He turned back to the creature, his mind working furiously through his options. Every path led to the same conclusion. He needed this thing’s help, whatever it was.

“What kind of seals?” he asked.

The creature’s posture brightened immediately, like a child who’d just been given a treat.

“Ancient ones. Powerful ones. But nothing you can’t handle, I’m sure. After all, you managed to find this place, didn’t you? That takes a rather special kind of person. The kind who can see things others cannot. The kind who can navigate spaces between spaces.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Patience, young man. We’re getting to that.” The creature began to pace, its four arms gesturing as it spoke. “The seals that bind me are complex. They require specific actions, specific words, specific… ingredients, shall we say. Things that only someone with your particular talents could provide.”

Nero’s eyes narrowed. “My particular talents.”

“Oh yes. You see, the seals were designed to keep me imprisoned even if someone did manage to find this place. They account for normal humans, for Templars, even for certain Abominations. But they don’t account for you.”

“And what am I?”

The creature’s mask turned toward him, and for a moment Nero could swear he saw something glinting in that darkness behind the eyeholes. Something that might have been amusement or might have been hunger.

“Something new,” it said simply. “Something the ancient powers didn’t anticipate.”

Nero’s jaw clenched. He didn’t like this. Didn’t like the way the creature spoke about him, didn’t like the implications of what it was saying.

But he also didn’t have a choice.

If he refused, they would die down here. All three of them would become corpses in this forgotten chamber, their bodies eventually consumed by the blue fungi until nothing remained but bones in the darkness.

If he accepted, they might at least have a chance to escape. Might at least live long enough to warn others about this place, about what lay sleeping in that impossibly deep pool.

“I have conditions,” he said finally, his voice steady despite the fear coiling in his gut.

The creature’s mask tilted, and that carved mouth seemed to widen into a smile.

“I would expect nothing less from someone like you. Please, do tell. What are your terms?”

Nero took a breath, feeling his broken ribs shift painfully beneath his skin. The blue glow of the fungi cast strange shadows across his face as he met that darkness behind the mask’s eyeholes.

“First—”

“—you wake up these two idiots up. Now.” He said, pointing at Arthur and Jacob.

The creature’s head tilted in that unsettling way. “Ah, but I already told you, their unconsciousness isn’t my doing. The spores—”

“I don’t care,” Nero interrupted, his voice hard. “If you’re truly as powerful as you claim, if you’re really some ancient angel sealed in this place, then you can wake them up. Or at least counteract whatever the spores are doing to them.”

The creature was silent for a moment, its four arms hanging motionless at its sides. Then that rasping laugh echoed through the chamber.

“Sharp. Very sharp. Yes, I suppose I could manage that. Very well, consider it part of our bargain. Once you complete the tasks I set for you, your friends will wake.”

“Not good enough,” Nero said. “They wake up before I start.”

The creature’s posture shifted, a subtle stiffening that might have been annoyance.

“That would defeat the purpose of a bargain, wouldn’t it? I give you something, you give me something. An exchange of equivalent value.”

Nero’s grip on his dagger tightened. “Then we have no deal.”

Another pause.

Then the creature sighed, a strange whistling sound that came from somewhere other than the mouth carved into its mask.

“Fine. I’ll wake one of them. Partially. As a show of good faith. The other remains as collateral until you’ve completed your end. Fair?”

It wasn’t fair at all.

But it was better than nothing.

“Which one?” Nero asked.

“Your choice.”

Nero thought about it. Arthur was the more experienced, the more skilled in combat. If something went wrong, having Arthur conscious would be more useful.

But Jacob was the more pragmatic one, the one who’d been quick to advocate for survival over honor when they’d first encountered the ruins.

“Arthur,” he said finally.

The creature nodded. “Very well. Second condition?”

“You don’t harm any of us. Not during the tasks, not after. Not directly, not indirectly. No tricks, no manipulations that lead to our deaths.”

The carved smile on the mask seemed to widen slightly.

“You’ve dealt with my kind before.”

“Something like that.”

“Acceptable. Though I must note that I cannot control everything that happens in this chamber. If you do something foolish and get yourself killed, that’s not on me.”

“Understood. Third condition…” Nero paused, his mind racing.

He had one more demand he could make, one more guarantee he could extract from this thing. But what? Safety? A direct path out? More information about what he was getting into?

No.

He’d learned enough from Mephistopheles’s mark to know that you didn’t waste your bargaining power on things you could get later. Sometimes the most valuable card was the one you held in reserve.

“I’ll save my third condition for later,” he said.

The creature’s head tilted sharply, like a bird examining something curious.

“Oh? That’s… unusual. Most would want all their assurances upfront.”

“Consider it insurance,” Nero said. “If you plan to betray us after I complete your tasks, I’ll still have one favor you owe me. Gives you incentive to keep your word.”

That laugh again, longer this time, echoing off the fungus-covered walls.

“Clever! Yes, very clever indeed. I see why you survived the fall when so many others would have died. Very well, three tasks in exchange for three boons. One boon to be determined later. I accept these terms.”

The creature extended one of its four hands toward Nero, palm up in a gesture of agreement.

Nero didn’t take it.

“Tell me what you want me to do first.”

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