Cevian didn't leave him any time to think. She grabbed his arm again and lifted him up. Henry tried to free himself, but her grip was strong and he was too startled. He dropped the crate he was holding and the torch, that remained a single spot of light on the floor when the nibbler carried the heavily protesting prince away with her.

Only when he felt her dropping him into some sort of hole, he realized she had been following the crawlers to their hiding place. The hole wasn't deep, but very narrow, and Cevian barely managed to squeeze through after him. Then, faster than he could think, a few crawlers filled the hole with loose stones and earth, trapping him and the nibbler inside.

"Hey!" Henry found himself surrounded by pitch blackness. "HEY! What the hell are you doing, let me out!" He cried. Then panic gripped his heart. "Hold on, what about Cylindra and Thanatos?"

Cevian's voice appeared next to him. "Cylindra should be down here already, she carried the crates earlier. About your flier – I am sorry, he wouldn't have fitted through the entrance. He'll be fine though, cutters are not skilled jumpers, and he can fly."

Henry groaned in frustration. "But we specifically came here to fight – not hide like cowards!" He eyed the crawlers that were already scurrying away after sealing them in.

The nibbler proceeded to ignore him and continued to call for her friend. "Hey, Cylindra, where are you?", her voice echoed from the walls but received no response. "Cylindra!" She sounded worried now. "Her smell is all around us, but where is she?"

"Earlier here, your friend was, earlier." A quiet voice sounded from next to him and Henry winced.

"What do you mean, "earlier"?", Lovelace's daughter asked, her voice slightly panicky.

"Not here anymore, she is, not anymore." The crawler answered, and Henry realized Cevian must have followed an older scent, that Cylindra had left when she had carried some of the crates down here.

"Hey, Thanatos is out there too, he can carry her to safety", Henry said, unsure as to how much hope they could allow themselves. He knew Cevian was right, the flier would be fine, but what if the cutters had reached Cylindra before Thanatos had?

He tried to shake the thought. For now, he needed to get an idea as to where he was and how to get out again. Henry attempted to stand up, but in the process hit his head on the low ceiling. He cried in pain and held his throbbing head. Great – that would make a nice, big bump. He'd completely forgotten crawlers had those low ceilings.

After carefully squatting down again, he snapped his fingers. Click. Click. Apparently, they were in some sort of bigger cave. He envisioned the low ceiling and a wall on his right. Click. There was Cevian, there two or maybe three crawlers. They were hard to hold apart.

He couldn't make out an opposing wall or any sort of obstacle, so Henry slowly stood up again, taking care not to hit his head this time, and, hunched over as he was, walked forward.

He proceeded to check his surroundings with echolocation and soon found an exit tunnel, that led to an even bigger cave. Finally, the ceiling was – barely, but still – high enough for him to stand and he stretched his aching back.

Click. There were many crawlers here, Henry would have not been able to tell their number. Click. Now the exiled prince made out an object, it was some sort of bowl close to the wall on his left. He made his way there, repeatedly using the echolocation to not accidentally run into something.

Click. There it was, right in front of him. Henry took another step forward and realized he'd miscalculated by a few inches. He cried out when he stubbed his foot on the bowl-shaped object that had been a little closer than anticipated. Henry cursed silently and kneeled down, trying to make out what exactly it was by feeling it with his hands.

"Hey", he called out, "is this some sort of brazier?"

"Lit on fire, it can be, lit" one of the crawlers had approached him. Henry was unable to say whether it was one he'd already talked to.

"Oh yes, that's great. Echolocation is nice and all, but a good old fire is exactly what we need." He was, once again, thankful, his father had etched it into his mind to always carry firestones.

Once the brazier was lit, Henry was finally able to look around. The cave was about the size he'd envisioned before, but the number of crawlers around them was larger than he'd thought.

He felt slightly unnerved being surrounded by so many of them. Henry had always despised the crawlers for their weakness and supposed stupidity, they couldn't even talk normally! Being trapped with so many of them now was an unsettling thought.

"Hey Cevian, I made light!" he called for the nibbler, who soon poked her nose into the bigger cave.

"Ah, nice – well done!" She approached the fire and sat down next to him to watch the flames.

They were silent for a while until Henry finally wasn't able to keep quiet anymore. "Hey, so, what exactly is happening? When do we actually get out of here? I don't like this place."

Cevian threw him a glance. "Henry, you don't understand. We are not going to get out. We are under siege."

The word hit him like a tidal wave. "Siege?! What? How did that happen?" He called, feeling panic slowly but surely overwhelming him.

Cevian sighed. "The cutters have surrounded us. If we open up a single exit they will immediately take the citadel and we are all lost."

Henry's head was ringing. He suddenly felt like he was going to be sick. Leaning against the wall, he tried to calm his screaming thoughts and prevent the incoming panic attack.

They were trapped. Here – in this... crawler nest, and they couldn't go out. For how long? How long will the cutters keep their siege up? Wait, there was something wrong here. This siege shouldn't even be happening. Crawlers weren't sedentary. They would just leave and let the cutters have this place. Why did they even bother locking themselves up in here?

When he asked Cevian, she averted her eyes. "Under normal circumstances, you would be right, they would just leave. But..."

"No place to leave to, there is, no place." A different voice suddenly answered. "Stingers and pinchers have taken territory in north, cutters have taken all that remains, all that surrounds us, they have. Nowhere there is to go left, there is."

Henry didn't know why but he was almost certain the crawler that now stood before him was the same that had talked before.

"Wait, did I understand that correctly, they surrounded the crawlers? As in, this is the last remaining bit of land they still have?"

Cevian looked at him, a little reproachful. "You do realize he is standing right in front of you, and yet you are talking to me as if he wasn't there at all?"

Henry rolled his eyes. Then finally mustered the crawler before him. Was he actually going to talk to one of them? He gave a little sigh and decided it was probably easier to do so. Besides, while he had been a prince before, that had not wanted to degrade himself by talking to a lowly lifeform like the crawlers, what argument had he in his current state?

Henry took a deep breath, and using a considerable about of willpower, finally addressed the crawler directly.

"So, they have you completely surrounded?"

He twitched one of his antennas in approval. "The citadel the last standing is, the citadel. The last of us all here are, last of us."

"The citadel..." Henry looked around. "Is that what you call this place? It's actually not too shabby. Who built it?"

"We built it, we did." Henry was almost sure he heard a certain amount of pride in the crawler's voice.

"You? Really?" He had some trouble believing crawlers were capable of building a stronghold like this. It seemed to be heavily reinforced and nigh impenetrable.

"Henry, do not judge the crawlers too soon. They may not be fighters, but they are skilled builders and have the stamina of stones. They have so far defeated the cutters every single time by hauling up in here for weeks until they gave up and moved on. Never before has this place been taken, and these crawlers may be the last of their colony, but they are still many. And they are still here."

Henry looked around. As much as he hated to admit, Cevian had a point. Though there was one problem. "Hey, they may be able to stay in here for weeks, but we aren't. What are we supposed to eat and drink?"

The nibbler faced him and for the first time, he saw concern in her eyes. "You do have a point. This... oh, this is not good."

"You can have the food, you can!" The crawler raised his voice again and scurried over to a crate that had been set down next to the wall. It was the single supply crate Cylindra had managed to carry down here before the attack.

"That's very generous of you, but it won't last us more than a few days. And then there remains the problem of water." Cevian said, inspecting the crate thoroughly.

"Water we have also, but it is not safe to drink for you, it is not." The crawler hung his antennas as if to apologize.

"Hey, wait, if there is water, I can easily purify it by boiling. All I need is some sort of pot or bowl." Henry regretfully thought of how he'd left all the survival equipment he had received from the nibblers, or created with Teslas, at the colony. Same went for all his weapons, including the now proper and improved sling and the new dagger from king Gorger's tooth, except his sword.

"Oh, I'm sure they have something like that around here somewhere." Cevian gave him an encouraging smile.

A few hours later their situation still hadn't changed. The citadel was still closed off for the siege and Henry and Cevian had just eaten dinner from what little supplies they had found in the crate.

They would ration the food, but the exiled prince knew very well they would run out soon. Thankfully his plan to purify the water had worked. Turned out there was a steady supply through a small river that ran beneath the citadel. It was toxic for warmbloods in its initial state but boiling had killed off all dangerous organisms in it. It still tasted bland compared to the water at the colony, but it was better than nothing.

"We need to come up with a plan to get out of here." Henry just swallowed the last bite of his meal, that had been much sparser than what he was used to now, but he didn't complain. He had had worse.

Cevian nodded. "Yes, but – do you HAVE any idea? Because I can not imagine how we are supposed to get out with an army of cutters surrounding us."

Henry sighed. "I know. But we need to think. There has to be a way. I refuse to believe I survived the damned Prophecy of Gray just to die HERE!"

The nibbler eyed him curiously. "You never specified what exactly happened to you. Why have you never returned to Regalia?"

The exiled prince sighed. "Listen, I know this sounds suspicious, but – I'd really rather not talk about it."

Cevian averted her gaze but nodded. "I am curious, but I will not force you to disclose any secrets you wish to keep to yourself."

"Thank you."

They sat in silence for a while. Then, Henry suggested they might as well just go to sleep. It's not like there was anything else to do anyway.

To the exiled prince's surprise, the crawlers brought them furs to sleep on. "I didn't think they had any of this stuff!" Henry exclaimed when two crawlers dropped them at their feet.

"Oh, they have a lot of things. Mainly goods they intend to trade to the humans, or to us, for food. All sorts of things – furs, leather, fuel – they are, next to the humans, our biggest suppliers."

"Well, lucky us then." The sarcasm in his voice was clearly audible.

Henry couldn't sleep. For hours now had he twisted and turned around in the sheets, unable to let the black oblivion of sleep swallow him. He was tired beyond belief, but his thoughts were restless.

He continued to see the black mass of cutters before his inner eye, how they swept over and devoured anything in their path. This is not how he wanted to die.

And then there was the question of what had happened to Cylindra – and Thanatos. For the first time since his exile, Henry found himself separated from the flier, and although he had Cevian, he would have felt a lot better knowing Thanatos by his side as well.

There was something about the flier that made Henry feel safe around him. Safer than he should, or had any logical reason to.

He kept telling himself Thanatos would be fine. He had survived in the Dead Land for years on his own, there was probably little that could phase him at this point. But still – Henry found himself worried about his safety.

"Hey, if you don't stop turning soon, we might just both abandon the idea of sleep tonight altogether." Cevian's voice from the bunk next to him made Henry wince.

He turned around and noticed she was staring at him with open eyes. He remembered the nibblers' sense of hearing was much more sensitive than that of humans and realized he'd probably kept her awake.

"Sorry", Henry muttered. "I just can't... calm my thoughts."

"Let me guess – you are worried about your flier."

The exiled prince hated the fact that she had seen right through him. He decided to not let it show. "Hey, first of all, he's not MY flier. We aren't bonds or anything like that."

"Oh really? Then how come you two are so close?" Cevian's voice sounded a little humorous.

"We are not." Henry was starting to get annoyed. "He's a useful ally, that's all."

"You may tell yourself that – for what it's worth, he's doing it too, more than even you – but the two of you aren't fooling anyone else besides yourselves. You know, there are countless bets running on how long it'll take for you guys to bond, right? From what I hear, father is the one behind them."

Henry sat upright in his bunk. "What?! Are you kidding me? That's NEVER going to happen." He scoffed. "What's a bond worth anyway these days..."

Cevian looked like she wanted to ask what he meant, but kept quiet. "Still, you worry for him."

"Him and Cylindra", Henry admitted. "They are out there somewhere, possibly in constant danger. We are at least in here. Who knows what happened to them by now."

Cevian nodded. "You are right. Their well-being worries me too. But there is nothing we can do for them now. We should focus on our own survival."

"And we still need a plan", Henry added. Perhaps it was indeed better to focus on their own situation rather than worry for Thanatos and Cylindra, who they weren't able to help in their current state anyway.

"Hey, I'm thirsty. I'll go fetch a little water." The exiled prince got up. He snapped his fingers a few times, as they had put out the brazier for the night, and clearly envisioned the narrow tunnel that led to the main cave. From there a different path led to the underground river where he'd stored the supply of purified water. He also decided to set up another fire to boil the next batch.

Cevian followed Henry and watched him refill the little pot the crawlers had given him. While he worked, he stared at the steadily flowing stream of water beneath them. Suddenly an idea formed in his mind.

"Hey Cevian, can you ask one of the crawlers where this river leads exactly?" He turned around to the nibbler.

Cevian snorted a little. "Henry, you can ask him yourself. He is right here." Only now he noticed the shape of a crawler next to her and jolted back in surprise.

"Dammit, tell them they can't just appear out of nowhere all the time. It startles people!" His voice sounded a little more aggressive than he intended due to the exhaustion and worry.

"Hates us, the human, hates us?"

The words of the crawler caught Henry by surprise. He stared at him, then at Cevian, experiencing a, for him exceedingly rare, loss-of-words situation. There was no way he could answer that honestly.

"Hates us, the human, hates us." The crawler repeated in response to his silence. Only this time it didn't sound like a question.

"Henry!" Cevian's voice was accusing. She grabbed him by the arm, dragging him with her. "We need to talk."

"Hey! Let me go –" but she was stronger than him, and Henry had no choice but to follow her.

"You can't just go around making them think you HATE them!"

They had arrived back at the furs they used as beds. "Henry, they gave us shelter in their fortress, they shared their food and they even provided us with the furs. Their actions do not by any means justify your ungrateful behavior towards them!"

Henry was silent. He realized the crawlers had done all that, but he couldn't just abandon all the negative associations he had with them.

"If Thanatos was here, he would lecture you for hours about how disrespectful you are treating them. He would be disappointed."

For some unexplainable reason, her last sentence struck a chord. Henry averted his gaze. He took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, you know what, you're right. I know that you're right. It's just... My whole life I've..."

"...looked down on them, pitied them, thought of them as less because they are not strong? You wouldn't believe how many species do that. It's as common as it is wrong. Henry, do not let your mislead prejudice cloud your judgment."

The exiled prince snorted. "As if that's so easy."

"Hey. How about this", she looked at him directly. "All I ask is that you judge them like you yourself wish to be judged. By your actions in the present – not the past."

Once more Henry was left speechless. Her argument was impenetrable, there was nothing he could say to that. Still, just abandoning what he had believed for so many years was impossible overnight.

He explained that to her, but also added he would try his best nonetheless. Cevian realized that's as far as she would be able to get through to him, so she left it alone. Not without making him go back and convince the insulted crawler that he didn't hate them though.

That turned out to be harder than it should have – it took Henry more than half an hour of arguing before he had gotten the message through to him. They were indeed not the brightest creatures, he thought, but Henry decided to at least pretend to not hate them for how well they had treated him and Cevian today, from now on.

"Hey, so, where does the river lead exactly? Do you maybe have some sort of map of this area?" He asked after the crawler had finally believed him, at least somewhat.

"Long time ago nibblers helped us make map, they helped." The crawler responded, and started running in one direction. Henry followed and soon entered a room that his echolocation told him was a perfect square. There was another brazier on the floor here and after Henry lit it, he saw what the crawler had meant by "map".

An entire wall of the square-shaped room was taken up by a giant carving, showing the plan of the citadel and the surrounding cave system in high detail. The place was larger than Henry had expected and there were multiple layers, like floors.

When the exiled prince finally found the river on the map and followed its course with his eyes he was surprised to see it led directly beneath the citadel – and out of it.

"Hey, aren't you guys scared the cutters might come through the tunnel with the river?" He asked the crawler who had led him here.

"The cutters can not swim for long, can not. Flooded entirely the tunnel is in most places, flooded."

Henry carefully traced the course of the river with his finger and found it led to the exact cave Thanatos, the nibblers and he had landed in. It was the third tunnel entrance to that cave – the only one the cutters hadn't come out of.

When he traced the river further it seemed to end in a dead-end that was labeled "lake". But it could be accessed through the cave they had come from.

A tiny bit of hope rose in him. "How narrow is this tunnel?" He asked the crawler.

"Not narrow, it could fit you and nibbler, it could." He seemed to have guessed exactly what Henry thought. "But you can not escape through it, you can not. The cutters will kill you, they will. They are waiting in the cave, kill you, they will."

That was a problem. The map showed it was the only possible way to leave the citadel unnoticed. "Hey, do you mind if I stay here for the night? I want to think on this a little."

The crawler twitched his antenna, signaling he was fine with it.

Suddenly Cevian poked her head into the room. "Oh there you are, I was wondering what was taking so long."

He explained what he had just found out and that he intended to spend the night here. Cevian was greatly pleased by his findings and told him she would stay if he would.

They sat down at the wall opposite of the map and stared at it. Henry sighed, there had to be a way to use the river to their advantage. If they were only larger in number, he thought. They could actively attack the cutters, if only they had an army.

"We may not have an army, but our number is as large as theirs", Cevian answered when he voiced his thoughts.

"But what good are the crawlers if they can't fight?" Henry frowned in frustration. What good are the crawlers if they can't...

His head jerked up. Henry saw it clearly before his inner eye – the crawlers at the river, when the rats attacked, during the quest for the Prophecy of Gray. They had told Gregor and his sister to run, and after they were through had sealed the entrance shut with their bodies. Not even the rats had been able to penetrate their defense line.

Henry jumped up.

"Hey, what are you –", Cevian asked, but the exiled prince ignored her. His mind was occupied with going through all possibilities this realization opened up.

He walked closer to the map and started mumbling to himself, deep in thought. The nibbler watched him, slightly confused, but decided not to interrupt. Around ten minutes passed before Henry finally turned around, triumph glowing in his eyes.

"I know how we can beat the cutters."