When the chains loosened their grip around my limbs, I was inside a stereotypical prison cell. Cubical. No windows. Bars. A lumpy mattress pushed against the western wall and a bucket next to it posed as my saving grace. Light was scant, coming only from the blazing torches stuck into rusty sconces from beyond the bars.

I whipped to Arzo who had just clicked the lock in place. He flashed me a sly grin—a direct opposite of the gentle ones he used to give us. I clenched my jaw. This wasn't going to fly. I thought only movies and books have this betrayal arc, but I had never been more wrong.

I needed to get out here. Fast. My hand reached out in the air, searching for the familiar tug of the sword made from Haalor's scales. I'd cut down everything in my way, even if it's a friend. Then again, it's not like Arzo's one. Not anymore.

A chuckle distracted me. Why was it taking so long to summon the sword when I used to do it with just a thought before?

"You look like your eyes are going to pop out of your head," Arzo raised his hand from the metal padlock as large as his palm. The light had just faded from his fingertips from whatever spell he cast on it. "Let me make it easier to understand."

He pointed to the ceiling and circled his finger. "This part of the temple is enchanted to disrupt the magic flow in your body," he said. "You won't be able to cast your wildcard spells as long as you're here. Better luck next time."

I stalked towards the bars and slammed my hands against them. "Why are you doing this?" I said. You won't get away with this sounded bland and cliche. Besides, I didn't even know what he's trying to do.

Arzo rolled his shoulders. A different kind of dark shadowed his eyes, turning them into shimmering ocean depths. Now that I thought about it, I never really knew what his real eyes looked like.

"To restore the Western Tower's honor," he said. "That's all I have to say about it."

"By doing what? Kidnapping townsfolk and imprisoning adventurers?" I scoffed. "You're not doing your territory a whole lot of favors."

He narrowed his eyes. A vein began pulsing on his forehead. Oh, yeah. Not a lot of people find me the opposite of infuriating. And if it's to a person I didn't like, I could be more. A lot more. Let's see how long he could last before he burst like a red blister.

"What I do matters not when it's completed," he said. "Once Laela has risen again, she will make the Western Tower great again. Away from the hell I've lived through. She will bring forth a new golden age for the West so that no other child has to live through hell like I did."

I opened my mouth to speak but Arzo wasn't done. "But it's not like you knew what's really going on in this world," he ran his eyes from my head to the tips of my boots, acting like he's studying my soul. "You just dropped from out of nowhere and started wrecking havoc."

"If it's havoc you want, get me back my magic," my hands tightened around the rails, the metallic cold seeping into my palms. "I'll make sure you never see the light of day again."

Arzo snorted. "Wasn't planning on doing that," he said. "Thank you for the suggestion, though."

"Also, who's this Laela chick?" I said, switching gears after having ran down the past conversation to the ground. "If she's so great, why can't she raise herself from whatever hole she dug for herself? Why does she need you to run around and clean up after her mess?"

From the way Arzo's fists clenched beside him, I hit a sore spot. I decided to stick my thumb in it and twist it around. Make it hurt. "I shouldn't have released my hold on your mouth," he muttered under his breath. Thanks to my uninhibited spiria senses, I still heard it. And it's not like he's trying to conceal it either. "I guess you illiterate fool don't know your history," he said.

I cocked an eyebrow. "I don't, no," I said. "Like you said, I just dropped here and started wreaking havoc."

Which made me wonder how much he knew about me and Rin crossing worlds and with Solarlume being one inside a game. Before I could ponder over that, Arzo crossed his arms, a scowl coloring his features. "You adventurers always think you're above even the Guardians and the Divines," he said. "You should ask your superiors about what happened in the War."

"Let me go, then," I sneered. "You can skirt around being a history teacher for a second."

A reddish tinge arose in his face, and it couldn't be from the flames flickering behind him. "It's because of the Great Crusade that the Western Tower has never recovered," he said, taking the history teacher mantle for himself. Ha! Check. "If we're going to rise above all of the Empires looking down on us, we need power. And the greatest Monarch of all is the only one who has that."

I didn't know how resurrection magic goes in this world, or if it was even possible, so I didn't comment. "And by Monarch, you mean the Laela chick?" I said.

Arzo growled and matched my stance against the bars, eliciting a loud clang. I jumped away with a squeak. "Her name is not meant to be sullied by your uncouth lips," he said, sounding a lot like Shakespeare and Haalor combined. Oh, so it's the Laela chick, then. "You will rue the day you insulted Her Excellency."

Right. We're in a game, after all. It's all part of the worldbuilding.

Laela. Monarch. Something Heather said about the past War happening near Gabyle. If it's the same war Arzo was talking about, then it must be the Great Crusade or whatever. And if the Monarch has fallen there...

My eyes widened. That must be the entire plot of The Legends of Solarlume. I recalled there was an evil lady with monsters that the players needed to defeat as the biggest and final quest. Rin and I both defeated her and her army. That's the Great Crusade?

Which meant...

Rin and I had fallen into a version of Solarlume after the game. After everything had happened. It's why everything was different, why everything wasn't quite the same as we remembered it to be.

"You'll remain here while we prepare for the summoning ritual," Arzo said. "Then, we'll see a world remade."

"What do you need me for?" I said through gritted teeth. "Out of all the adventurers here, why me?"

Arzo's lip curled upward, like he suddenly saw a weakness in my facade he could exploit. "Raising the dead after the body has withered away requires a vessel," he said. "And I've picked you."

He let go of the rails and stepped back, a relaxed grin replacing his frown. "Ever since I investigated who handed Taka's ass back to him in Suprana, I became intrigued by your power," he continued. "Just the sheer edge of it compared to most of the nutters in Raventhorne. I knew I must have you."

That's...ew.

"So, what? You convinced Heather to approach me that day?" I replied. It didn't take long to connect the lines to the right dots after Arzo's confession made them fall into place. What happened during my registration couldn't have been a coincidence. "And then you played us for fools by masquerading as a scout, then as Heather's friend? That's real low."

Arzo shrugged. "Small prices to pay for the glory that is to come," he said. "When Her Excellency is here, I may ask her to spare the Crimson Knights based on their unwitting service to my plan, years in the making."

"And the runes?" I said. "Was that part of this ritual?"

He exhaled a quick gust of wind from his nose. "Catching up now, are we?" he said. "If only you hadn't spent your time quarreling with that boyfriend of yours, you two would have pieced it together sooner. Really, people are the creators of their own doom."

"Don't get all Socrates on me," I hissed. "Are you the one who did that to Kora?"

"I'll leave that to your imagination," he said. "I should have driven the blade deeper, used a few more drops. You want him gone anyway, right? I was just doing you a favor, and the man had presented me with a chance by nosing into things he shouldn't."

My heart twinged, its beats pounding harder and faster in my temples, my ears. Everywhere. My fingers curled into fists. I stepped forward just as Arzo began turning away. What would I even say? I'll make you pay? That's just as bland and cliche as all of the other lines.

"You despicable pest," I snarled. "What makes you think you, a spiria who couldn't even surpass the Class rank, can perform a summoning ritual? Resurrection magic, too."

Arzo's grin only widened. "Thankfully, I'm not a spiria."

My world stilled. What?

"Oh, if I have any way of freezing your face just now," he doubled over in laughter, wiping the corner of his eyes with a hooked finger when he straightened. Before I could react, he extended his hand and never took his gaze off me. From his pocket, he drew a small knife. "Enhance," he chanted.

Immediately, a familiar flash of light echoed around the blade. My blood drained to my feet as my gut sank. A valdyrsi. All this time...

A small gasp flitted out of my lips. That's why he didn't seem to be progressing much as a psalm spiria. He just flew under the radar because nobody really took the mage seriously, even Heather. But as a valdyrsi who copied the psalm abilities for as long as he did, he might even be as strong as Aevi and Rin. Maybe even stronger.

"And I have a better gift for you now that you've discovered my secret," he extended his hand towards my face. "Skill lock."

The chains returned in my limbs, weighing be down. This time, he wasn't the one holding the reins, though. Nobody was. I just...couldn't do anything. A valdyrsi could restrict abilities too? How was that fair?

"I'll leave you to stew in your newfound misery, then," Arzo's boots scratched against the dusty stone floors, tucking his hands into his pockets. "You won't be able to for much longer."

My hands wound tighter and tighter until my wrists throbbed. Arzo's back grew smaller and his footsteps faded the farther he got. I was left standing, my chest heaving from the breaths I have to take to calm myself down.

Just then, something white whizzed in my periphery. I looked down to find a rectangular card bright against the dark floor. What the fuck? Where did it come from?

I crouched and picked it up. A slew of letters and words blinked back at me. The card read: My name is Iruna. I'm in the adjacent cell. Let's escape together, shall we?