The lucky Storyteller

I had no idea how much time it would take the guards to discover the fire. I hoped that a lot, to make everything unrecognizable. From my little expertise from police serials and documentaries, I knew that the fire can hide the real cause of death, especially the stab wounds would shrivel and seem almost invisible. If they had any doubts though, they could've just put the blame on that creature, and if that wasn't enough and they wondered why the bleeding didn't occur earlier, that meant that the poison did all the hard work and the person died before the creature managed to escape.

"Am I overthinking? But what if they wonder why there is little to almost no blood at all in that corpse? Does the blood evaporate in a fire? It wasn't mentioned in that documentary. This detail could become the kryptonite of my plan and ruin everything. Since I was summoned, won't Bezmal at least pretend to investigate my death, just in case the other heroes ask about the fire? Oh damn! As I recall, one of those twins was a medic. If the king will require an autopsy, would she figure out the truth? After all, the newbie doctors don't start their practice on dead bodies, performing lots and lots of autopsies?"

I bit my lip at those thoughts and while I was getting further in the tunnel, sometimes I would've stopped and listened carefully for any sign that the fire was discovered, but there was only a strange silence that fuelled my worries.

"I can't do anything about that anymore, so I may better be far away from this castle, if or when my worries prove to be right. But, somehow, I feel they won't even care about that, since they have a body. Maybe they'll think it's way too far-fetched to think that a useless person would do anything else than die in their morbid traps. But it's too soon to get my hopes high."

When I approached the kings' secret door, the auction was at its peak, the nobles raising their voices and still arguing. I returned to the kings' room and immediately verified for the last time the blueprint of the castle. From now on, I knew there was no room for mistakes, since I had to take a safe route, for the sake of everyone in my care. I double checked every detail again, then made up my mind. There was no other way. 

Before leaving the kings' room, I took the opulent rope-like tassels that held the heavy drapes of the four-posted bed and made an improvised ladder from them. Then returned to the prisoners and watched them in silence for a few minutes, evaluating their situation and if anything unforeseen occured. Everything seemed fine.

"I see that the healing is done."

They jumped slightly at the sound of my voice.

"You're back! We thought that..."

I didn't bother to look at who was talking. I tied the rope-ladder to one of the crystal supports, then pulled out a pile of clothes, wigs, and boots, because I didn't want them to know about the magical pouch. I've set aside the portrait and let down the ladder, after throwing next to one of their cells the set of keys I took from the king.

"Take the key and open up all the cells, but after everyone gets out, close them with the key again. The last one of you should blow out the candles from the prisons' door." 

"Yes," agreed an elder."This way, when the guardians return, they will just assume that the candles ran out, and won't check inside." 

The passage seemed very crowded with all of them there.

"This staff is amazing!" said the healer, handing it back to me. "I've never held anything like this before, but I've seen a few in my life, and one like this... I can't even imagine how expensive it can be, since it's forged by elves. A fortune is not even enough to describe its price point. It works wonders, amplifying mana that takes from the wielder and increasing the healing with less resources from the healer. I've never been able to heal and grow broken bones, or even a deeper wound, but with this... The one who has this staff will truly perform miracles."

I nodded. Despite the situation, her enthusiasm was clear.

"Then keep it. It will be of more use to you than to me." 

I returned to them.

"Quickly, put these clothes on you," I said, getting back the ladder and letting the painting down again. "Now, follow me in silence."

They were surprisingly docile, looking at me in horror and awe. What was it about me that struck such a fear in them? Was it my dagger? I didn't care. That assured me they wouldn't try anything funny with me. 

I've led them to the semicircular glass room of the statues, beneath the great hall. They immediately heard the voices above and looked at me even more scared.

"Is this another pervert joke?" whispered someone, and her voice broke out in tears.

"What do you mean?" I asked, giving her a frown that made her go quiet in less than a second.

She shook her head, tears smearing her face, refusing to give me an answer.

"This place..." began the elder, holding tight his arms around the nephew, "it's where they took us blindfolded, then made us watch... how they killed our relatives below. And they said something worse is waiting for the rest of us. Is this what they had in mind?"

What a traumatic experience! So that's why there were those transparent walls. But I was out of empathy for the moment. I couldn't do anything for the dead, and I've had it pretty rough since my summoning here. It was hard for everyone.

"My plan is to escape right under their noses. This secret passage leads to a guest room, and from there we can go outside through the servants quarters... I suppose that most of them are on duty to serve the guests. Then we will only have to pass to the gate guards, and we will put on an act to deceive them, by impersonating a group of nobles that are angry because they lost the auction to their favorite..."

I stopped talking, as I noticed them looking one to another in a conspirative way, realising that one or more of my words forced a sudden change of mind in them.

"You plan to get revenge? 'Cuz if just one of you attacks them or tries something to harm them, it will be clear suicide for all of... you." I deliberately said 'you' instead of 'us', because I was not willing to die if they got caught for not sticking to my plan and tried to play the martyr-avenger role. "You are not ready to face them and anger makes it worse, because it blinds you from what is truly worth it: your lives. You won't do any favor to the dead, by throwing away your lives for a revenge that you already know it's out of reach... for the moment."

I could see that my words mostly fell on deaf ears, as more and more of them were ignoring me, and made some weird expressions as if they were communicating through their eyes. And I knew I've lost all my tough image for them. Which was annoying, as I went to such lengths to give them an escape chance.

"How could we just walk away, when they laugh there as if nothing happened, after they've ruined our lives?" asked a robust man with his fists clenched, probably one of the team members of the wizard girl. "This would be our perfect chance to give them what they deserve. Just look at us! We are dressed up like them. We can blend among them easily, while they are unaware of..."

"He is right!" said the wizard girl. "Also, even if we escape, they will replace us with other victims for now, and they'll send assassins to find us. That priestess can cast very powerful spells, especially curses. We won't be safe, no matter where we go."

I didn't understand them, maybe because I hadn't lost anyone there, unlike them. How could they have the courage to stay for revenge, after witnessing the death of their families? Maybe precisely for that reason they were willing to give up on their lives. 

More and more people sided with the wizard girl. But they were all grown-ups and seemed to already have made up their minds on this matter. 

"How many of you want to stay?"

At my question, twenty seven hands raised in the air without hesitation, and that was disturbing. The only ones remaining on my side being two children, five elders, and two teenagers. One of the teenagers slowly raised his hand.

"I... will stay with my dad," he said, almost crying, and a man nodded with pride at his gesture.

"What the heck is wrong with these people?"

"Well, if a kid has so much courage, I would be ashamed to get away like a coward, so I'll stay too," said an elder, and three of them followed soon.

The only ones on my side now were the elder with his nephew, and a little girl with her older sister. I felt betrayed.

"If I had known that all my efforts were for nothing, I would've left you all in the dungeons. Why did I even bother with you? Anyway, if you want to take revenge, you'll need some items. Tell me your weapon type."

As they told me their weapon preference I took the required weapons from my pouch and offered them to the people, along with the blueprint of the castle.

"You should wait until we leave the castle to start your revenge. This map will help you a lot, if you make a plan. Also, if you find a purple door, don't touch it! It's poisonous."

After this advice, I wanted to take my leave, but they suddenly went silent.

"What else do you have on you?" asked the wizard girl, and the others looked at me greedily, as if until then they wore a mask just to make me let my guard down.

Then I remembered!

"Bezmal said that the sacrifices were not innocent people, that in order to perform this summoning ritual they needed guilty blood. What on earth did I release?"