The Sinner's Banquet

The Price of Survival

"You want me to be your weapon," I said, my voice cutting through the quiet cell.

I did not stand up. I kept my knees on the cold stone, but I let the broken iron collar drop from my neck. It hit the floor with a loud clang. The purple shadow hand around my right wrist flared, its dark light reflecting in Lily’s eyes. She did not jump back. She did not even blink. She just watched the shadow hand with a look of intense calculation.

"I want to live, Ethan," Lily replied, setting her silver lantern down on a wooden bench. "And so do you. Malakai is using both of us. He thinks I am just a talented girl he can control with wealth and status. He thinks you are a dead man walking. We can use his arrogance against him."

I looked at the leather satchel in her hand. "You sold me out to him hours ago. You stood right next to him while his mages burned me with holy nets. How do I know this is not another trap to make Malakai look like a hero when he catches me running?"

Lily took a step closer, her face entirely serious. "If I wanted you dead, I would have stayed in my room. Malakai already thinks he won. The guards outside are drinking wine because they believe the sun-stone chains completely drained your magic. I used my new position as his apprentice to bring you food, but I packed this instead."

She opened the leather satchel and pulled out a small glass bottle filled with a dark blue liquid. Beside it was a folded parchment map and a heavy iron key.

"This is a core-masking potion," she explained, holding up the bottle. "It will hide your dark magic for exactly two hours. The map shows the secret drainage tunnels beneath the palace. They lead straight to the lower district wall. The key opens the final iron grate."

I slowly stood up, my taller frame casting a long shadow over her. My right shoulder still throbbed from the broken bone, but the dark energy inside me was moving fast, dulling the pain.

"And what happens when Malakai finds out I am gone?" I asked, staring down at her. "He will know someone helped me. He will look at you first."

"No, he won't," Lily said, and a cold smile touched her lips. "Because you are going to attack me before you leave."

I stared at her, wondering if she had lost her mind. "What?"

"If you escape without a fight, Malakai will search the entire palace for a traitor," Lily said, her voice dropping to a sharp whisper. "But if the guards find me knocked out on the floor with bruises on my neck, Malakai will think you used the last of your hidden strength to break free and overpower me. He will think I tried to stop you. It makes me look loyal, and it buys you a full night's head start before he sends the high hunters after you."

The sheer coldness of her plan made my stomach turn. She had mapped out everything. She was completely willing to take a physical beating just to secure her spot as the High Priest's trusted apprentice while using me to eliminate him in the future.

"You really have changed," I said, my fists clenching. "You do not care about anyone but yourself."

"I care about staying alive in a city that kills weak people for sport," Lily snapped, her eyes flashing with sudden anger. "Do you think I wanted to work in those mines with you until our lungs turned to dust? Do you think I wanted to beg the upper citizens for scraps? Malakai killed our parents because they discovered a secret faction contract. He will kill us too if we are not smart. I am playing my game, Ethan. You need to play yours."

"Hey, kid," Kaelen’s rough voice echoed inside my head. "She is right about one thing. If you do not hit her and make it look real, they will catch you before you reach the outer wall. Take the potion and the map. We need to move right now."

I swallowed my anger and took the leather satchel from her hand. I pulled the cork out of the glass bottle and drank the blue liquid in one gulp. It tasted like bitter ice. Instantly, the purple glow around my right wrist faded, and the shadow hand disappeared back into my skin. The cold energy wrapped around my core, hiding my magic power completely.

"The potion is working," I muttered, tucking the map and the key into my belt.

Lily took a deep breath and stood right in front of me. She lifted her chin, exposing her neck. "Do it. Make it look like a real struggle. Hit my shoulder first to break the skin, then choke me until I pass out. Do not hesitate, Ethan. If it looks fake, we both die."

I looked at my sister, the girl I had protected for years, the girl who had just given me a map to freedom while plotting the death of the most powerful man in the city.

I raised my hand, my fingers trembling slightly. Then, I remembered the way she had looked at me when Malakai arrested me. I remembered the property deed in her hand. The hesitation left my body.

I slammed my fist against her right shoulder. The force of the blow pushed her back against the stone wall, and she gasped as a dark bruise started to form on her skin. Before she could recover, I gripped her throat with my left hand, pinning her to the wall.

Lily did not fight back. She gripped my wrist, her eyes locked onto mine as her breathing slowed down. Her face grew pale, and her eyelids fluttered. Right before she lost consciousness, she whispered two words.

"Kill him."

Her hands dropped to her sides, and her body went completely limp. I caught her before she hit the floor, gently laying her down near the broken iron chains.

I turned toward the unlocked cell door, my heart pounding against my chest. I slipped out into the dark hallway, keeping my back against the wall. The hallway was completely empty, just as Lily had promised. The faint sound of laughter and clinking glasses came from the guard room at the far end of the corridor.

I moved in the opposite direction, following the crude lines drawn on Lily's map. I turned left down a narrow spiral staircase that led even deeper into the earth, where the air smelled like stagnant water and old rust.

At the bottom of the stairs, a heavy wooden hatch sat in the floor. I lifted it, revealing a dark, slippery ladder that dropped down into the city's main drainage system.

I climbed down quickly, closing the hatch above me. The air down here was thick and hard to breathe, but my system screen popped up in front of my face, glowing faintly in the dark.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

Quest Updated: The Fleeing Demon.

Time remaining before core-masking potion wears off: 1 hour, 42 minutes.

Warning: High Priest Malakai has just activated the palace alarm.

A loud, booming bell began to ring from high above, the sound vibrating through the stone walls of the tunnel. They had already found Lily.

I did not waste a second. I started sprinting through the shallow water of the drainage tunnel, my boots splashing loudly. I had to reach the outer wall before the potion wore off, or the mages would track my dark core instantly.

I ran for twenty minutes, following the turns on the map until I finally saw a massive iron grate ahead. The night sky was visible through the thick metal bars. Beyond the grate lay the rocky cliffs of the lower district.

I pulled the heavy iron key from my belt and jammed it into the rusty lock. It turned with a loud click. I pushed the heavy grate open and scrambled out onto the muddy ledge, looking down at the dark outer slums below.

"Stop right there, traitor!" a loud voice boomed from above.

I looked up. Standing on the high palace wall directly above the drainage exit was a man wearing silver armor. He held a massive black bow, and a glowing white arrow was already aimed straight at my chest. It was one of Malakai’s high hunters.