Hey everybody :). So the next chapter is a little different because I thought it would be fun to check up on poor Jess. The chapters of this particular part of the story will alternate so you, my readers, will get to see what happening with Brenna and Staci, and with Jess. I really hope you like this chapter! Enjoy -

Chapter II. A Gnome??

A dim light flickered in the dungeon as a slight breeze brushed past. Shallow breathing came from one of the cells along with the occasional moan. Footsteps began to sound from the stairs which in turn caused the entire dungeon to fill with whispers. The footsteps belonged to two foot soldiers from Daein. They walked past the cells enjoying the superior feeling they had over the cowering prisoners when they finally stopped at the cell that was home to the shallow breather. One of the soldiers pulled out a dirty and corroded key and slipped it into the keyhole. The door made a loud "thunk" as it unlocked and the door squeaked open to reveal a scrawny old man. The soldiers laughed at him as he tried to turn around but before he could make it to his feet the soldiers had him by the arms, one on each end, and they dragged him out of the cell.

"I'm surprised that he lasted this long." One of the soldiers commented as the old man slumped forward.

"I'm more surprised that Lord Vince let him last this long. Normally they don't live through the first couple of weeks." The other soldier said and the both laughed at the misfortune of their prisoner.

"Well that's about to be corrected, huh slime?" the first soldier kicked the man in the side and let out another annoying guffaw.

The man gasped for air in quiet wheezes and the soldiers just continued to drag him across the cold stone to the stairs. They were about to climb the stairs when one of the soldiers caught a blue light coming from one of the cells.

"Hey, Chase?"

"Yeah, Todd?"

"What is that?" Todd asked and motioned towards the blue light.

The old man gathered what strength he had and looked over his shoulder to see what Todd had meant about a blue light. In one of the cells a blue light was glowing on the floor.

"Oh that…" Chase said with disgust in his voice. "Lord Vince wanted us to pick her up from the battle in Bengian. He says she's worth something big but personally I don't think she's all there…plus she's creepy."

Todd looked at the light very curiously and inched towards it. He clenched his weapon tightly as he drew closer getting nervous but the light didn't change. Todd glanced into the cell and stared at the figure in the corner of the cell. She was glowing with the bright blue light but it seemed like there was no happiness surrounding her. She had her arms wrapped around her legs and sitting up right with her back against the wall, but her head was hanging low. Todd shuddered at the sight of her and that slight movement alerted her to his presence. She slowly raised her head and looked at him through the bars and the light started to creep over to him. Todd was so paralyzed by the light that he didn't think to move out of the way. Chase saw what was happening to his partner and ran over to him just in time to push him out of the way as the light tried to grab Todd.

"Wha? What is that thing?!" Todd asked with astonishment as the light formed into a liquid form that resembled water.

Chase and Todd didn't waste any time gawking at the water; instead they grabbed their weapons and carefully, but quickly, maneuvered around it and ran up the stairs in fear. The old man, who was left on the floor, stared at the water in shock. The water flowed over to him but it seemed as if some sort of energy was wrapped around it to keep it in a tube form. The old man froze in fear as the water surrounded him but it didn't envelope him like he thought it would. It gently picked him up and brought him over to the cell door where he could see the girl in the corner.

"Where do you belong?" the old man could hear the eerie voice of the girl but her lips weren't moving.

He took a deep breath when he realized that she was using her mind to talk. "Do you mean where my home is?" He asked still wary of what she was going to do.

"Yes."

"My family is in Crimea. I was sent to war to fight for our king because I have no sons. My wife and three daughters are in the capital…and are probably extremely worried or think I'm dead and have lost hope." He said letting the tone of his voice drop.

He felt a small tear trickle down his cheek and dropped his gaze to stare at the ground in frustration. The girl slowly stood and approached the broken man, careful out to scare him away. She kneeled in front of the door and placed her hand under the tear and let it drop onto her finger. The old man looked up at her and for the first time saw her face. It was ghostly white and her blond hair swirled around her with energy giving her a mystical look. The part that caught his attention the most were her eyes. They were blue but for some reason they looked lonely. He felt like he was getting drawn in by the depth of the sadness of this girl. He carefully lifted his hand and touched her cheek slightly but she jerked back in fear. That's when he noticed that all along her arms and neck were bruises and there was a long scratch from her hair line to her chin across her cheek.

"You've been through a lot…haven't you?" he asked but she didn't answer.

She took the tear on her finger and brought it up to her lips. She softly blew on it and the tear sparkled and stretched out into a flat circle.

"Think of your family, your home, and nothing else."

He closed his eyes thinking of his beloved wife and children when he felt a strange energy flow over him. He didn't feel anxious or scared but calm. He felt the girl's presence in his mind, soothing his thought of home. "Thank you." He said and the energy picked up speed. It swirled and danced around him until the same blue light flashed brightly. When the light died down the man was gone and the girl was lying on the floor exhausted.

Jess felt her power drain. She knew that using transportation drained her almost completely but she couldn't stand seeing him in that condition when she knew that she had the power to help him. Know she was feeling the effects of her kindness…exhaustion. She forced her body up to a sitting position and stared out the cell door. Her water had dispersed on the floor since she no longer had the energy to control all of it. She pointed at a small puddle and swirled her finger causing the puddle to rise into a small sphere of water.

"Be a mirror of my mind." She told the water and with the little energy she had the water did as it was told and formed into a picture of Kieran's face. She raised her hand and reached out to him but with her energy spent the water collapsed next to her.

"So you've been antagonizing my soldiers again." Jess jumped and looked up at a young man just a few years older than her and had a little more color to his skin than her, but not much. He wore a loose white shirt with a V-neck cut and black pants. He also wore fancy boots that looked like riding shoes. He had short cropped silver hair, green eyes, and a single gold earring on his left ear. "At this rate I won't be able to find anyone to take over the night guard down here." He smirked. "You're becoming more of a hassle than I expected."

Jess glared at him and tried to move away from the door but her body protested and wouldn't move. The young man sat down just on the other side of the door and leaned his head on the bars. "So how does my little dandelion feel today?" he asked and smiled at her.

Jess' anger grew but she suppressed it knowing that he would just get a kick out of her outburst. She despised him…especially the fake smile he used to mock her. She diverted her gaze from his face to the ground, letting her hair fall in front of her face so she wouldn't have to look at him…standard procedure.

"Go away Vince." Jess said still looking at the floor.

"Awww, don't be like that." Vince exclaimed and pouted at her. "I hate it when you're so distant to me." Vince stared at her to see if she reacted to what he said but like always she kept her gaze on the floor. He sighed and combed his silver hair with his fingers. "You can't keep doing this and expect me to just ignore you. That wouldn't be the polite thing to do…" He looked at her again but this time his smile was gone and his eyes had a menacing look to them. "Eventually you will open up to me and do what I want or else…" He leaned in close to the bars and his presence made Jess shiver. "I'll stop being so nice to you." Jess hugged her legs close to her to calm her shaking hands. "I'll come back down and visit you soon my dandelion." Vince said and slowly stood and walked off, leaving Jess in the dark, alone once again.

'I can't stand him! One of these days I'll sock him right in the jaw and send him flying. Or I could use my water to drown him in his own personal bubble.' Jess thought to herself and she calmed down thinking about her enemy struggling for breath. "I hate him." she said to the darkness.

But the darkness answered back.

"Well if you would stop ignoring him and humor his personality a little bit then he would probably seem like less of a jerk." Startled, Jess looked around in her cell and saw a small figure in her corner. "But of course you would still have to deal with his arrogance which believe me can get pretty old after the first few hundred monologues."

"Who are you?" Jess asked trying to see the newcomer.

"Allow me to introduce myself." A little man with a pointy blue hat, a red shirt, green pants, red shoes, a green jacket and a pipe, walked forward into the light from the small window. "I'm Bartholomew. I've come, on orders, to help you out."

Jess just stared at his little body. He couldn't have been taller than her knee and yet he had the start of a beard and a deep voice like a grown man. Suddenly a connection to her world popped into her head.

"You're a gnome." Jess said bluntly.

Bartholomew seemed to be flustered by the last comment and his face grew red in frustration. He puffed on his pipe a couple times and took a deep breath. He cleared his throat and tried to pull himself together before he spoke. "I'm not a gnome…I am a small magical creature of great intelligence." He said with a proper voice.

"………you're a gnome." Jess said with finality.

"Wha?! Now listen hear young lady. I do not like to sit on lawns and I don't have rosy cheeks or a fancy white beard!! My size is just a normal thing I need to deal with but it does not make me a 'gnome'." He said and had to take a deep breath again.

Jess looked at him and started to giggle. "…gnome."

Bartholomew slapped his forehead and sighed. "Why do I get all the incompetent teenage girls? For once I would like to look after and advise a scholar or a noble, heck even a family man or woman, but oh no! I get stuck with all the hormonal, crazy, giggling, teenage girls!!"

"Wait, how is someone as small as you able to help me? I mean, it's not like you can handle a sword or an ax, and I'm pretty sure you're not picking up a lance any time soon." Jess asked letting a little bit of her sarcasm escape through.

"You have issues…" Bartholomew stated and Jess became serious. "…and I was sent here to help you with your problems…….Maybe that's why I don't get scholars, they don't have issues." He said the last part to himself but Jess ignored him.

"I'm sorry, but unless you can defeat the entire Daein army, kill a possessed fire sister, reunite me with my sisters and bring back the dead then I don't think you can help me." Jess said letting her sadness peak out in her voice.

Bartholomew walked over to Jess and cupped her chin in his little hand. He forced her to look at her and smiled. "Don't write me off, just yet. You might want to hear what I have to say and then you can decide for yourself whether or not someone like me can help you." He said with confidence.

He released her and she looked at him in astonishment. Her heart started to beat fast as she thought of the possibility of leaving the darkness of the cell and walking in the sun again.

Wow! Yay for new characters!! Alright so now whats gonna happen? I kind of made Jess a little "not quite there", but I guess that's understandable when the love of her life died before her eyes. It was very interesting to write this chapter and I loved writing about Bartholomew. I hoped you enjoyed and please tell me what you think. Later.