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“Goals are good, no doubt about that,” Pyre said and nodded as he grabbed a nearby lizardman. Purple smoke billowed out of his mouth as he spoke, “Go gather the dwarves who were working in the prison and have them clean up the mess.”
The lizardman was about to protest but realized who gave her the order. She abandoned her meal and scrambled away, cursing her bad luck. Justitia furrowed her brow as the lizardman disappeared down a tunnel. “You really are a bully,” she said and stared at Pyre. “To everyone.”
Pyre shrugged. “In this world,” he said as he picked up the lizardman’s meal, “there are two types of people: Those who’ve suffered and never want anybody else to suffer the same as they have. And those who’ve suffered and want everybody else to feel the same type of pain. I am the latter.” He nodded as he put away his pipe and munched on a roasted arm. He used it to point at Raea. “She’s the same as me.”
“Huh?” Raea raised an eyebrow as her head swiveled. Her three companions were staring at her. “Me? Aren’t I the former? I dislike suffering.”
“You want revenge, don’t you?” Pyre asked.
“Well, yeah,” Raea said and knit her eyebrows. “But—“
“So doesn’t that make you the same? You suffered, so you want the people who made you suffer to feel the same pain,” Pyre said. “There are no ifs, ands, or buts.”
“No, no, no,” Raea said and shook her head. “This is a special case. I don’t want the whole world to suffer. I just want to avenge my sister. Only the people involved in her death have to die.”
“Like Palan?” Pyre asked and chuckled. “I’m pretty sure you have some hatred flowing towards him.”
“He’s a special case too,” Raea said and pursed her lips. Justitia took a step back, hiding half her body behind Palan.
“Are you sure you’re not just a hypocrite?” Pyre asked. “You say you want to prevent other people’s suffering, but you’re willing to set them on fire. You say it’s a certain subset of people that you want to kill, but you’re pardoning someone who’s in that subset. Why can’t you forgive them all?”
Raea bit her lower lip.
Pyre grinned. “See, there’s nothing wrong with being a hypocrite,” he said. “Everyone—“
Raea kicked the plate in Pyre’s hand, launching it into his face. “Eat your stupid leg and shut up!” Raea said and snorted. She crossed her arms over her chest and whirled around, heading towards the tunnel leading to the harpy nest. “Let’s go. I still haven’t finished browsing all the treasures.”
The plate slid off of Pyre’s face. He coughed and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “It was an arm,” he said to Raea’s and Palan’s backs. Justitia stuck her tongue out at him before following after the duo. Pyre shook his head as he grabbed a nearby goblin and used her as a towel, wiping the juices off of his face. He sighed and dropped the disgruntled goblin. “That’s what I get for trying to improve her powers. Whatever. I should start on that slave collar.”
“Slave collar?” the goblin asked as she tried to wipe blood off of her dress. She raised her head and looked around, but Pyre had already disappeared. “No one else heard that?” she asked. There was no response, and the goblin shrugged before cleaning up the mess on the floor.
Though Raea and Palan were far away, they heard Pyre’s words, causing Raea to snort. “Improve my powers,” she said and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. Didn’t I just say I didn’t want to be devoured by wrath?” She nodded her head at every harpy that greeted her as she walked down the tunnel, following slightly behind Palan with Justitia at her side.
“You mentioned treasures,” Palan said, ignoring Raea’s comment.
She snorted. “Remember that room you found me in?” Raea asked.
“The one you nearly set on fire?” Palan asked.
“Don’t try to blame that on me,” Raea asked and furrowed her brow. “Would I have done that if you hadn’t made those contracts?”
Palan kept his mouth shut as the trio made it to the top of the harpies’ territory. “Not this again,” Justitia muttered to herself and sighed. A tail snaked around her waist, and she closed her eyes. Wind rushed past her body as the ground disappeared from beneath her feet. When she opened her eyes again, the three were at the bottom, near the central pillar of the bone nest.
“You’re back,” Cory said and blinked. Her wings flapped as she righted herself from her previous upside-down position, causing soot to fall off of her legs. Within the nest, hundreds of halflings were bound and gagged, lying on top of each other like potato sacks. The red harpy puffed her chest out. “Look at how many people we caught.”
Palan raised an eyebrow. “How’d you tie them up?” he asked and raised his hands, wiggling his fingers like Cleo would. “Cause, you know.”
“Oh,” Cory said. She gestured towards a troll who was sitting beside the halfling pile, his arms and legs unbound. “He helped us.”
Raea pursed her lips as a few screams punctuated the air. Three goblins fell from the sky, landing against the ground with a cracking sound. The troll stood up and tied their limp bodies together before throwing them on top of the pile. “I think that’s enough…,” Raea said and scratched her head. “Are you even sure all of them can read?”
“Kidnap first, ask questions later,” Cory said and nodded. “If one out of a hundred goblins can read, then we just need to kidnap a hundred goblins.” Her head leaned to the side. “Right?”
Raea sighed and shook her head. “It doesn’t … you know … never mind. I guess this is why we need to kidnap the dwarves,” she said and headed towards the curtain in the pillar.
As the trio descended the stairwell, they heard Cory yelling, “The harbinger has spoken! No more goblins, lizardmen, centaurs, and trolls! Only kidnap the dwarves!”
“You’re not going to correct her?” Justitia asked as she stumbled on a protruding step and supported herself with the wall. Unlike Palan and Raea, she couldn’t see in the dark.
“Sometimes mistakes have to be made before people can learn,” Raea said and nodded as she swept aside the curtain leading into the harpies’ treasury. The floor was blackened, and a few treasures near the fringes of the piles were burnt or melted. “The harpies had a system: contribution of treasures directly related to quality of rooms. The harpies who contributed more got to live closer to the main nest. This is everything they accumulated over the years.”