He turned back to the creature, his mind working furiously through his options. Every path led to the sa conclusion. He needed this thing’s help, whatever it was.
"What kind of seals?" he asked.
The creature’s posture brightened imdiately, 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 are complex. They require specific actions, specific words, specific... ingredients, shall we say. Things that only soone with your particular talents could provide."
Nero’s eyes narrowed. "My particular talents."
"Oh yes. You see, the seals were designed to keep imprisoned even if soone 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 mont Nero could swear he saw sothing glinting in that darkness behind the eyeholes. Sothing that might have been amusent or might have been hunger.
"Sothing new," it said simply. "Sothing 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 beco corpses in this forgotten chamber, their bodies eventually consud 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 seed to widen into a smile.
"I would expect nothing less from soone 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 t 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 so 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 mont, 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 sothing, you give sothing. 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 ca from sowhere 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 sothing 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 seed to widen slightly.
"You’ve dealt with my kind before."
"Sothing like that."
"Acceptable. Though I must note that I cannot control everything that happens in this chamber. If you do sothing foolish and get yourself killed, that’s not on ."
"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 phistopheles’s mark to know that you didn’t waste your bargaining power on things you could get later. Sotis 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 sothing 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 . Gives you incentive to keep your word."
That laugh again, longer this ti, 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 agreent.
Nero didn’t take it.
"Tell what you want to do first."
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