Broken Lands

Chapter 349 – Return to Mazehold

All four members of the other team lay under the canvas of the tent, dismembered and partially burnt. Sophia didn’t know who attacked them, but it was obvious by now that that was exactly what happened. Jax was the first to declare that the attack was done by bandits, and it was obvious that If it were a monster attack, the monsters would have either left them where they fell or taken them to be food; they wouldn’t have shoved the bodies onto the campfire, then added more fuel. 

Sophia wasn’t sure if they’d have been able to tell what happened if everything had actually burned well, but it looked like whoever did the killing did a half-assed job on the cleanup. The tent pieces seemed to be a last-minute addition, and they were clearly a bad choice because as they burned, they shifted and managed to partially extinguish the fire. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t really matter that they’d failed to cover up the deed; they hadn’t left anything obviously incriminating behind. Even if they had, Sophia wasn’t certain she’d be able to get anyone to do anything about it. The Maze was dangerous and unmonitored; it wasn’t within the jurisdiction of anyone in Mazehold. As it was, though, there wasn’t really even anything to report beyond the team’s deaths. Yes, all of the bodies had metal mana in the wounds, but that didn’t really help.

A search of the remnants of the campsite revealed that the obvious valuables were taken, including the team’s weapons but not including their armor. Two partially disassembled electric-antlered deer lay off to the side. Nothing seemed to have been taken from their corpses, but that didn’t change the fact that this looked like a robbery. It was odd that the bandits hadn’t also taken the valuable bits of the lightning-deer, but perhaps it would have taken too long. It was no secret that the link-gate Sophia’s team used to get to the Night Market was in use, after all; while it was open, the portal was clearly visible. 

They headed back to Mazehold immediately instead of spending more time in the Library of Monsters. No one really wanted to spend time reading after seeing the destruction, and Xin’ri wanted to get Mikka back to town as soon as possible anyway. It was a good thing they weren’t very far in, even if that was how the bandits found them in the first place.

Sophia wasn’t certain how she felt about the whole thing. She hadn’t liked what she saw of Johan and Niklaus, but they didn’t deserve what happened to them. She hadn’t even met the other two, but she was certain they didn’t deserve it either. It wasn’t the same as people who died in a dungeon; they’d chosen to take on that risk and failed to meet the challenge, failed badly enough that it cost them their life instead of simply an injury. That was sad but not the same as murder.

It definitely wasn’t the same as people who died to monsters that attacked their homes, though that was far closer. The monsters did not choose to kill when they had other choices; they didn’t have the ability to make those choices.

Whatever this was, Sophia didn’t like it. She also knew she couldn’t fix it.

They reported their findings to the Registry Master when they returned to Mazehold; he was the closest thing to an authority for the Maze that they could think of. He was happy to see them until they told him why they were there. He asked for all of the details they had, but in the end he told them exactly what they expected: there was nothing he could do. 

He couldn’t even figure out who the culprit was; he knew of half a dozen people with a metal-based Signature or a shape-shifting weapon, even without checking the records. Most of them were third upgrade and would easily have been able to travel through the cleared zones they’d seen to manage the attack, even on their own. Almost any of them could have killed the entire group as long as they caught them by surprise.

The only thing he could do was put out the word that there was someone killing people in the Maze. It would probably help some, but no one could be alert all the time. It wasn't the first time, either, though the last report Registry Master Sebas ko’Orthlinn had of killings in the Maze was a couple of years old. It might well explain some of the disappearances, but they’d never know.

A discussion with Bai confirmed what the Registry Master said, with more detail. There were reports of serious infighting and even deaths in the Maze a couple of times a year in his records. The majority were intraparty conflicts, usually over how to split up rewards, but fights over romantic partners or even which Arena team was the best had also been known to end up with someone dead. No one was ever punished for those fights, at least not directly; what happened in the Maze was the business of the people involved.

Bai did mention that particularly problematic groups were quietly run out of town by the Professionals. You had to be a major problem for everyone to be willing to gang up on you that way, but when the only place you could get service of any sort, from selling your gleanings to buying new gear, was the Registry building and even there you got the absolute minimum, it wasn’t a recipe for success.

It was pretty disheartening.

They arrived at their house in Mazehold late that evening after a quick dinner at the Registry’s tavern and a surprisingly long trip to escort Mikka home. Xin’ri offered to stay with her, but was turned down; apparently, Mikka had roommates that weren’t her team and they were friends of hers as well.

Ci’an was the first through the door. “Marcie? Are you here?”

“Ci’an?” Marcie’s voice came from the party room. “What are you doing here? It’s only been a couple of days, I thought you were going to be in the Maze for another four.” Marcie followed her voice into the entry hall. The mouse-eared librarian was dressed in a cotton robe and thick, fuzzy socks. It looked like she was getting ready for bed.

“There were some problems,” Ci’an admitted. “Uh, well, do you know Mikka?”

Marcie frowned for a moment, then nodded. “Short stocky girl with brown hair she’s always brushing to cover her ears? Yeah, I’ve met her. She’s the only one on her team that actually uses the Registry library.”

“Yeah, that’s probably her.” Ci’an rubbed the back of her neck. “I didn’t know her before today, but Xin’ri did. We ran into her and her team out in the Maze, and uh, the rest of her team was killed while she was with us. Bandits, we think. They stole their weapons and whatever else valuable they had.”

Marcie frowned. “You don’t need that on top of everything else. Can you stick to just expeditions with lots of people until whoever it is is found?”

“I don’t think so,” Ci’an shook her head as she spoke. “The Registry Master doesn’t know who it was and says there isn’t much he can do anyway.”

“Why don’t you talk to Sweetfire? He knows just about everyone, he’ll probably know who buys weapons. If they’re unique enough, you can figure out who brought them in.” Marcie shrugged as if it was an obvious next step. “Then you’ll know who the problem is. Maybe Master ko’Orthlinn can do something about it after that.”

It sounded like the sort of thing police should handle to Sophia, but then Mazehold didn’t really have police. For Called, there was only the Registry and the Arena, and the Registry Master already said there was nothing he could do. Sophia wasn’t about to take the matter to the Blade; from what Jax said, she wasn’t exactly a paragon of justice. She’d only care if it impacted the Arena, and this wouldn’t. 

Sure, Johan made bets in the Arena, but the team didn’t compete and Sophia was pretty sure the bets were small change compared to the sort of money a third upgrade fighter or Arena performer could throw around. She might be more interested if the deaths had something to do with the Arena, but there was no reason she’d worry about a thief that didn’t affect anyone important to her.

Sophia trusted the Registry Master more than she trusted the Blade, even though they’d had very little to do with either one. She wasn’t certain Marcie was right, though; if it was that simple, why didn’t the Registry Master have anyone look into it? Maybe he didn’t really want to know?

It wasn’t like he didn’t have people to look into things. That was Jax’s job, after all. For that matter, he could have simply tasked Jax to handle it, yet he hadn’t. Maybe he had someone else looking into it? 

But then why would he keep that secret?

Sophia really didn’t get why any of this was secret, but fine. Clearly it was. They’d just have to do what they could and hope that the Registry Master could do something once they found the culprit. Or maybe Sweetfire would? Marcie’s suggestion really was a good idea.

“Oh, and we’d like to talk to you about - I mean, we found something in the maze. A library.” Ci’an bit her lip and opened and closed her right hand, obviously nervous.

Marcie blinked in clear surprise. “A library? I’ve never heard of a library in the Maze.”

“It’s called the Library of Monsters, but it’s not a bunch of monsters, it’s books about monsters,” Ci’an started. “It wants a librarian…”

That was the end of any discussion about the bandit attack for the evening. They spent quite a while telling Marcie what they’d learned about the Library and about Hubs in general, and Sophia was certain that Marcie and Ci’an would talk more later that evening. 

The only decision they made that night was that they’d wait on deciding if Marcie was coming with them until after the dyleda tournament. No one really felt like heading back into the Maze immediately, not with bandits working in the Maze and the known route to a token door for the Library of Monsters on the other side of the attack site.

No, the right choice now was to spend a little more time in Mazehold and plan another longer trip in a few weeks. That would give them time to talk to Sweetfire and look into the bandits. They could also ask Bai about hubs, since they’d forgotten to ask when they spoke to him about the bandits. He might well know something they didn’t, since he actually had records that spanned back to the original Tower. 

Sophia wanted to head underground and talk to Tiwaz. It was earlier than they’d agreed for their next visit, but Tiwaz was the only entity likely to know even more about hubs than Bai. The only trick there was that it would require leaving Mazehold for a few days, so it would probably have to be after the tournament; while they still had a few days to play with, they needed to use that time figuring out more about the bandits. Sophia didn’t want to end up surprised by several people who were all at the third upgrade. That was a fight they probably wouldn’t win, any more than Johan’s group had.