It turned out that one more drink did hurt. One more drink had turned into two, and I woke up with a world-class hangover. It had been so long since I had gotten drunk, and my body wasn’t prepared for the event. Levelling up had made my body strong. I could tank a hit from a Kurskin now, but sadly, that artificial strength did nothing to combat a hangover.

  At least we had managed to make it home last night without getting into any real trouble. Delen had nearly started a fight when someone bumped into Ersabet, causing her to spill her drink, but the offender backed off when he saw who he was up against. Delen, drunk off his ass, believed his macho display had driven the man to flee, but I knew that it was the deathly glare Ersabet had leveled at the man that sent him running. I kept my mouth shut and let Delen have his moment of glory.

  It took all the mental fortitude I could muster to pull myself out of bed, but I managed to extricate myself from the comfortable mess of sheets. I groaned as I stumbled over to the wash bin to splash some water on my face.

  If all went right, we could be on the other side of the continent today. Val and Ersabet both thought there would be some quest associated with the portal, but Val couldn’t find anything in her rolodex. Her ability to do pretty much anything useful was severely diminished, so it was entirely possible there was a quest – she just couldn’t detect it. Although we were in a hurry to get to Liport and track down a channel-crystal for Val, part of me wanted there to be a quest. I should be grinding out levels and growing stronger, but getting sidetracked with quests was a luxury I couldn’t afford. My priority had been to put as much distance between myself and Danver as possible. I had hoped to have the time to take on a quest or two in Nessa before portalling to Liport, but casual questing was out of the question without Val backing me up. Without her ability to track the bad guys, it just wasn’t worth the risk, but if everything went smoothly, I could be back to the grind by the end of the week. That was a big if…

  Shortly after cleaning up, I met everyone for breakfast. We all bonded over our shared hangovers, and the innkeeper brought us a big bowl of fruit. Ersabet had to slap Kitz’s hand to keep him from devouring the whole thing himself. Along with fresh fruit, he provided us with eggs and bread slathered with a thick, salty butter. I savored every bite and tried to block out the memory of the silkworm larvae that had been served to me the night before.

  “Before we go,” I said. “I want us all to be on the same page. These portals are here for the players, not NPCs, which means Ersabet is going to take the lead today. Whoever is in charge of the portal will be more likely to listen to her than any of us, so it’s probably best we keep our mouths shut and let her do the talking.”

  “That is wise,” Ersabet said, “considering the trouble your mouth has gotten us into in the past.”

  “Ha!” Val laughed in my mind. “I was just about to say that same thing. Tell her she stole my line.”

  I ignored Val. “My mouth has also gotten us out of trouble, you know?”

  “Tell her,” Val said. “Tell her. Tell her. Tell her.”

  “Oh my God! Fine,” I said aloud, causing everyone to look at me in confusion.

  Ersabet cocked an eyebrow. “Is something the matter, John?”

  “Yeah, I have an annoying AI in my head that never stops talking to me!” I took a calming breath. “V liked your joke.”

  “My joke?”

  I sighed. “Your line about my mouth getting us into trouble.”

  Ersabet puckered her lips and straightened her back, like a proud cat. “Thank you, V. I am pleased that someone in this group has a good sense of humor.”

  “Hold on,” I said. “I’m the funniest person in this group. I make you guys laugh all the time.”

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  Tabby leaned over and patted my hand. “Oh, honey, we’re not laughing with you.” She winked.

  ***

  “It’s breathtaking,” Delen said, taking in the sight of the grand palace before him. “An architectural marvel. To see this up close with my own eyes…well, it almost makes this trip worth it.”

  “Maybe when we go inside, that almost will turn into a definite,” I said. The palace really was breathtaking. Its domed roof was massive, swelling to the sky in a perfect arc, and two smaller domes flanked the centerpiece. Intricate spires from each corner of the complex reached twice as high as the roof.

  “Can I stay out here?” Kitz said.

  “Absolutely not,” Delen said. “It’s not safe for you to be out here by yourself.”

  “Petrie’s not far away,” Kitz said. “He can watch over me.”

  “A bird won’t protect you from kidnappers,” Delen said.

  “If anyone touches me, Petrie will peck their eyes out!”

  “Why don’t you want to go inside?” I asked.

  Kitz looked at the palace warily. “It’s too big.”

  “You’ve been inside lots of buildings,” I said. “This is no different. I promise we won’t stay in longer than we have to.”

  “But there’s so much stone. It’s too heavy. What if it falls while we’re inside?”

  “According to lore, this building has been standing for over a thousand years,” Val said. “And according to reality, it was built using the most advanced technology in the galaxy. Nothing will bring this building down. Tell him that.”

  Being Val’s voice was frustrating at times, but Kitz looked up to her, and her message was a message I was happy to pass on.

  I reached out and patted his shoulder. “V says it’s safe because it was built using some of the most advanced technology in the entire universe. The people who built it could fly through space in giant ships. A building like this is a cakewalk to them.”

  He frowned. “What’s a cakewalk?”

  “It means that something is easy. The term comes from this game where you walk around in a circle. There’s music playing, and when it stops, you stop walking. Depending on where in the circle you stop, you win a cake.”

  “That is not the origin of the term cakewalk,” Val said. “It’s actually derived from a pre-Civil War era contest among enslaved African Americans. There was a sort of dance they would perform, and the best dancer would win a cake. The term could be considered offensive by some. You should apologize, just in case.”

  Interesting fact, I replied to Val. And one I’m not about to try to explain to everyone.

  “Let’s go,” I said to everyone else and headed toward the wide staircase that stretched upward to the entrance of the palace. Two heavy gold-trimmed doors marked the entrance, and one was swung wide open, allowing admittance. A set of three guards stood at attention around the opening but allowed people to pass freely.

  I froze momentarily when I caught sight of a pair of Kurskin passing through the courtyard ahead of us. My worry doubled when they began to walk up the stairs toward the entrance of the palace. I took a deep breath and centered myself. They weren’t here for me. There was a good chance they knew nothing about the destruction of Danver, let alone my involvement in it. This building was the heart of the city. It was quest-central. Of course, there would be players here.

  “Ersabet, lead the way,” I said.

  She seemed to walk with a little extra swagger as she led us up the sandstone stairs. As we approached the guards, I took note of how their freshly polished halberds gleamed in the sunlight. The weapons looked heavy and sharp, and the guards looked like they knew how to use them. They wore clean, tan robes and a bright red sash around their waist. If not for that red sash, they would have looked like any other citizen, albeit in finer cloth. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed bulges beneath their robes, indicating they were wearing armor underneath the cloth.

  I held my breath as I passed them by. One of them looked me up and down, but then his attention drifted away to someone else a few yards behind me. I let my breath out and then gasped when I crossed the threshold and saw the inside of the palace.

  The central chamber opened up wide before us, and we could see all the way to the ceiling, where the underside of the dome was painted with an elaborate scene of great rulers and wars and myths and miracles. A grand hallway cut through each side of the cavernous chamber, carved through with inhuman precision. They reminded me of the mountain pass I had taken through the Divine Mountains so long ago.

  We walked forward slowly as our eyes were locked on the amazing sight above us. The chamber echoed with chatter and the footsteps of scores of people. I noticed that nearly everyone remained within this great, circular room. The main hallways were empty, each attended by a set of guards. I had a feeling that what we were seeking was likely down one of those hallways, but there were plenty of doors and other rooms around the edge of the main chamber for us to explore first.

  Before we had the opportunity to do so, we ran into the first bit of trouble.

  “Ersabet?” said a silky male voice to our group’s left. “Is that really you?”

  In unison, everyone looked to the side and saw the same Dalari we had watched kill a Kurskin on the streets of Nessa the day before.

  It looked like things weren’t going to go nearly as smoothly as I’d hoped.