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One

There was a ticking tio in and get it out hadn’t shown up or spoken to me for more than a year

That’s a lot of ti yourself questions Who am I? What have I done with my life?

Who can I trust?

That last one is a doozy It haunts you in ht, you wonder if you’ve put your faith in the right people Sometimes when you find yourself alone, for whatever reason, you review every little thing you know about sos that you may have missed about them

It makes you scared It makes you think that maybe you’ve made so, to act—only when you’re stuck on an island in the an, you’re kind of limited in your choices of exactly what you can do to blow off steam

I’d gone withtunnels filled with deoing to the gym

The tunnels were big, the size of soo, their walls s that looked like roots but could not possibly belong to any tree this deep in the earth Every few yards, reen quartz crystals Inside every crystal mound was a recuer than aSome of them were the size of houses

I had just finished cli toward the next, the first in a series of three en

“Parkour!” I shouted, and leapt, hitting the top of theover it I landed on the far side, dropped into a forward roll over one shoulder, and ca

“Parkour!” I shouted at the next uide my body up to the horizontal at the sa, and staying on the move

“Parkour!” I screa arc The idea was to clear it, land on ain, but it didn’t work out that way I ht a crystal, and I belly flopped and planted my face in the dirt on the far side of the mound

I lay there on the ground for aback the wind I’d knocked out ofdeal God knows, I’ve done it enough I rolled over onto ot way too much time on your hands”

My voice echoed through the tunnel, number seven of thirteen

“Parkour,” said a distant echo

I shookthrough one of the tunnels beneath the island of Demonreach was always an experience When I ran, I went by the mounds pretty quick

When I walked, the prisoners trapped inside them had time to talk to me

Let me fulfill your every desire, crooned a silken voice in my head as I went by one

&

nbsp; Blood and power, riches and strength, I can give you all that you—promised the next

One day, mortal, I will be free and suck the marrow from your bones, snarled another

Bon in fear and horror before me!

Loathe me, let me devour you, and I will make real your dreams

Release me or I will destroy you!

Go to sleep Go to sleep Sleep and let me inside you

Bloodpaindeathbloodfleshbloodpaindeath

BLARGLE SLORG NOTH HARGHLE FTHAGN!

You know

The usual

I skirted around a fairly small mound whose occupant had simply sent hts the last time I walked by, and passed one of the last mounds before the exit

As I walked by, the h and an un his eyes Ah A new one

I paused and studied the mound As a rule, I didn’t communicate with the prisoners If you were locked up under Dehtmare the likes of which few people could really understand—i-at-the-mouth, hair-on-fire crazy to boot

ButI’d been locked up almost as well as the prisoners for months, trapped on the island and in the caverns beneath There wasn’t a lot of choice Until I got the thing in ain, only the island had the power to keep it in check I had visitors soan, both because of the weather and because of the ice, and spring had only barely begun to touch the world again It had been a while since I’d seen anyone

So I eyed the mound, one about the size of a coffin, and said, “What’s your problem?”

You, obviously, replied the occupant Do you even knohat the word stasishere, walking by, talking to ers that up entirely, the way you novices always do What was the phrase? Ah, yes Piss off

I lifted le prisoner who had tried to coet out, or else howling nuts This guy just soundedBritish

“Huh,” I said

Did you hear me, Warden? Piss Off

I debated taking him literally, just to be a wiseass, but decided that body hunity of a Wizard of the White Council and the Warden of De but an overgrown juvenile delinquent

“Who are you?” I asked instead

There was a long ht filled with a terrible weariness and purely e I’d experienced only at the very lowest , such pain wasn’t a low point It was a constant state Someone who needs to be here Go away, boy

A rolling wave of nausea went through low of the crystals too piercing I foundseveral steps back fro had receded, but the headache those eered found me nonetheless, and I was abruptly in too much pain to keep my feet