Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 58

"I told you. He just wanted out. His wasn't lying."

"But he might change his mind. Do you know how long until the dungeon opens? I can get a bracelet and we can go to that city and make sure he isn't going to be a problem."

"I came here from the platform."

"You can go and find out."

"Getting ready for the new floor keeps Sto busy; he won't be listening to the outside. And there are things I have to do."

"More important things than making sure someone who knows those kinds of secrets can't come back to make your life difficult?"

Tibs considered the question, and even if he hadn't trusted Archer to mean it, the answer was the same. "Yes."

* * * * *

He hesitated before the door.

Excuses for things to do that were more important, or seemed more important, than this has come to him almost as soon as he'd left the inn, and Jackal. There were the stacks of papers; Those had to be more important than this. And Jackal could be right, maybe Archer would become a problem; they should take care of him now, before he could setup something like the letter again to protect himself.

And more to tempt him away from this course.

But he wanted; he needed to do this.

He knocked.

The house was in a better neighborhood than what Tibs had expected. It certainly wasn't the worker's boarding house he'd found Don in last time.

The door opened, and the sorcerer looked at him, first in surprise, then annoyance. "Looks who's back to darken my doorstep." He looked well, which somehow surprised Tibs. He was clean, as were his clothes, although he needed a shave. Tibs had never seen Don with facial hair before. The room was small, but respectable. The kind of place he'd expected someone like the sorcerer would pick when he had a choice.

Don sighed and stepped out of the way. "So good of you to end your time away and come see me." The tone dripped with sarcasm, and Tibs's mood darkened.

"I was planning on coming sooner," he said, fighting to keep his voice neutral as he entered.

"Oh, of course. But whatever took you away must have been so much more pressing."

"I was blackmailed into it."

Don paused in closing the door, eyed Tibs, then finished. "Jackal didn't tell me that."

"You talked with Jackal?" Tibs asked, surprised.

"What do you think, Tibs?" Don replied, his tone darkening. He took a breath. "When you didn't seek me out, I figured it was on me to be the adult and find you so we could talk things over."

"Oh." Tibs sat on the chair away from the desk, felling...small. At no point had it occurred to him Don might want to resolve things. Just like he'd decided the sorcerer was bad because he'd lied about how he joined his team. Then lashed out when Don accused him of keeping secrets. Tibs had come here expecting to have to convince him talking was the better thing to do.

"How did they blackmail you?" Don asked, taking the seat by the desk. His voice only held curiosity.

"They know I have more than one element and threatened to tell the guild if I didn't go with them."

"How did they know?" he asked, suspicious.

Tibs sighed. "When this started. If I channeled one of the elements, it changed how I thought. I became more like them. Because of that, I was careless. They were protecting Sebastian as he fled to the platform. He saw me use air and fire, and he knew I was supposed to be a water rogue."