Very Letha-centric chapter.

Warning...a lot of this chapter is just in Letha's head. Some may find this boring. Others may enjoy the insight...

The poll hasn't changed much, same placings as last chapter. And hey! Check out my deviantart page (link in profile). There's another Letha picture up, one for the sake of front, back, and side views. I did it because The Fool Arcana made FAN ART. Just remove the spaces, or follow the links from my favorites...

http :/ sylph writer .deviant art .com/ #/d34treb

http :/ sylph writer .deviant art .com/ #/d34tsp4

http :/ sylph writer .deviant art .com/ #/d34tukx

x x x

Chapter 23: Helpless

x x x

Yuri and I hurried down streets full of semi-controlled chaos. I just barely managed to avoid getting bowled over by a man with a spear running by. I considered shaking my fist comically at the man's back, but it wasn't the time to be goofing around.

"Is he really planning on going to war just to lure those rats out of hiding?" We had reached the central square, and Yuri eyed the rapidly growing mob. Whitehorse stood in the eye of the storm, a rather reluctant looking Raven at his side.

"This has gone beyond being just a bluff." I winced at the blood thirsty shouts of men working themselves up for a fight. "He can't just tell them 'Sorry guys, I wasn't serious' and expect them to go home quietly. He's really taking an all or nothing gamble." Ho man, if Flynn doesn't get back here in time, it's gonna be HELL. I felt my blood go a little cold as I realized something. And I can't assume it'll work out because of the game. Flynn could be too late, or the guilds or knights might not accept that it was a mistake. "Let's find the others fast."

"Yuri! Letha!" Karol called out and came running up from behind us with Estelle. They found us, so does that mean Yuri and I both have to cook? Damn, he's better at it than me. Serious time, shut up Letha.

While Yuri was talking with Estelle I looked around for Rita. Wouldn't she be sticking close to Estelle? And...right, the ninja pooch Repede was missing too.

"But Yuri, things have gotten really bad!" Karol was bouncing up and down, just short of waving his hands in the air and screaming about the coming apocalypse.

"Yeah, I noticed," was the dry answer, as yet another group of weapon carrying enthusiasts ran by.

"No, that's not what I mean!" Uh, hey, if he's so worked up about it, could it be...?

Same idea seemed to be occurring to Yuri. "What else?" he asked, voice steady in an attempt to get Karol to calm down and talk straight. Didn't work too well.

"I saw them!" The Blood Alliance, say the Blood Alliance already! I chewed on my bottom lip to keep from blurting out in impatience. Did we really have the time for this?

"You saw...who?"

"The Blood Alliance!" Thank you Estelle! "Barbos wasn't with them, but..."

A bit calmer, Karol finally managed to give us some clear facts of his own. "Rita and Repede are shadowing them right now." Ohh, right. I never thought it was a big deal, not knowing every twist exactly, but it would sure be helpful now that I'm living it all. That's what happens when you don't have the time or money to buy new game systems and games.

Yuri grumbled a bit angrily to himself, no doubt getting irritated at being used so easily. But he followed as Karol lead the way to wherever Rita was, and would have taken the lead himself if he'd known where to go.

I had fallen to the back of our conga line (yes, nothing like a conga line, shut up) and was trying to remember the route we were taking by looking at the streets we passed. I get lost in new places easy and have a lousy sense of direction, don't judge me. Anyway, that's how I happened to see a flash of something familiar in an alley that made me stop short. Wings? I could swear I saw fairy wings!

Peripheral vision for the win! A blade came swinging at me from a blind spot, and I just barely managed to see and dodge it before my neck was sliced open. Instead I had a two inch slash in my right shoulder. Having moved so suddenly I lost balance and fell on the ground with a grunt. Standing above me was a lone Red-eyes. He was about to stab me with both wavy bladed knives while I was down and helpless. I kicked him hard in the knee and scrambled back to my feet.

"Letha!" Yuri and the others had noticed and were about to come running back to my rescue.

"I got this!" I called to stop them, "Just one of George's pals on a vengeance run! You go ahead before we lose our only lead!" They hesitated, but apparently the look I shot Yuri over the Red-eye's shoulder was enough. He nodded and dragged the other two after him.

Satisfied I wouldn't be screwing up the story by holding them back, I concentrated on beating the Red-eyes in front of me. Wait, I just volunteered to kill this guy, didn't I? Biiitchin' Fuuuck. I swallowed hard and drew my daggers. Why the daggers? Because I'd somehow been nearly backed into the alley and wouldn't be able to move as freely with my dao.

The Red-eye slashed at me, too fast for me to keep up with. I blocked a few wild swings, but for the most part found myself backing up further into the alley. Shit, he's doing this on purpose, why? A narrow space is only an advantage for one person trying to take on a group!

Desperate to win and get out before I learned the reason why, I hummed and made my daggers vibrate with aer. Humming Blades! He blocked my attack and then gave a shocked cry when my daggers cut through his blades. With nothing else to do, he threw the hilts at me. Ducking them, I raised my daggers for the kill shot, but then hesitated.

He's unarmed...I can't kill someone who's defenseless, even if they were just trying to kill me!

Caught up in my indecision I didn't pay attention to the scuffing footsteps behind me. I saw the defenseless Red-eye smile victoriously just before something heavy hit the back of my neck. My head hit something hard as I crashed to the ground and fell senseless.

x x x

I woke up because I was moving. Now for me that's nothing unusual. I sleep a lot during road trips so I find the sensation of being in a moving vehicle soothing. But I wasn't in a vehicle, someone was carrying me with his shoulder constantly digging into my stomach. That and the blood rushing to my head made me feel awful queasy. And didn't help the mega headache.

Kicking my legs (futilely) at the air, I gasped, "Put me down before I hurl down your back!" Yeah, normally I'd be all about keeping my mouth shut and hoping to overhear something useful while they thought I was out. Screw it, the dots swimming in my eyes were blinding me. Maybe if the guy dropped me I'd have a chance to bolt and run away. My hands were bound, but I could probably deal with that, right?

Apparently they thought so too, because while the guy did put me down (roughly, but at least he didn't just dump in a mud puddle or something) another kept a knife to my back so I had to keep walking in front of him. Looking around, I was in the center of a small group of Red-eyes who were leading me through a forest. Uh oh, George's frat buddies caught me. Shit, why? It isn't really for revenge, right? No, then I'd be dead already...

My eyes fell on one Red-eyes walking ahead and off to the side. He had a familiar satchel bag over his shoulder. "Hey, give me back my bag!" I blurted before thinking about how inadvisable it would be to antagonize the people leading me around with sharp pointy objects. Someone behind me boxed my ear, which made me groan at the ringing in my ears combined with a sharp spike in my headache.

Right, shut up, pretend to be a model prisoner and wait for the opportune moment. In the mean time, maybe figure out why you've been abducted? Well, the Red-eyes were Yeager's lackeys. Yeager hadn't put in an appearance yet (enemy and ethnically confused he may be, but it would still be awesome to meet him), but he was supposed to be working in the background right now. Currently for Ragou and or Barbos, right? Couldn't remember who specifically had hired the Leviathan's Claw guild at this point. Then they'd work for Cumore later...right? God, Yeager had his fingers in so many pies I had trouble remembering.

But I do know for sure that ultimately he's working for Alexei. SHIT, does that mean Alexei already decided I know too much? But if I was a nuisance, he'd probably have me killed, so maybe he's just paranoid and wants to find out what I know? But having Raven spy on me should have already been the ideal plan for him!

Without realizing it I had slowed down and got a sharp jab in the back to make me speed up again. Bastards, I'm groggy and my balance is out of whack from when you hit me! Cut me some slack! If only I hadn't hesitated to kill that Red-eyes, I probably would have made it out of that alley and back to the others.

…

Oh God, what a horrible thought. It may be true, but God...

I shied away from thinking about that further. Moping and being an angsty drama queen wouldn't help. If being cold hearted got me out of my latest mess alive, then so be it. I wanted to die even less than I wanted to kill, and that's what it all came down to.

So I trudged along and observed quietly. Four that I can see, and the one directly behind me. They're all dressed the same, they have hardly any distinguishing features from each other. The one that was carrying me seems to be the biggest of the group. That guy up there with my bag is surprisingly thin, oh, and that one doesn't have weapons so he's the one I fought. Other than that I can't tell them apart, and I don't know how many are behind me.

What with me being so quiet and obedient, they were starting to relax themselves. Two appeared to be grumbling to each other about a third slacking off. One complained about a rock in his shoe, then got Gibbs smacked to the back of the head (I miss watching NCIS...). The Red-eyes who'd smacked him was the only one not showing a trace of any cracks in his discipline. Either he was the one in charge or just always had a stick up his ass. A glare from him was all it took to shut the other two up.

Totally like Gibbs.

We're bound to stop soon, right? It was already getting dark when Yuri and I left the Union... Aw man, what about the others? Right, odds were they'd already had their fight with Barbos, and the fake pirate man had used his chainsaw to fly away. (Seriously, what the hell?) Judith would have shown up on Ba'ul (cue Rita's FURY), and then Yuri would hitch a ride with her to follow Barbos. So they were probably on their way to that tower, Ghasfarost, and the others would be following on foot.

How the hell do they manage that anyway? Just how can they tell which way Barbos went once they're left behind? Raven? He is supposed to be with the group again when they meet up with Yuri in the tower. Whatever, I shouldn't distract myself from the current situation with details I couldn't do anything about.

Knife or no knife at my back, I couldn't keep going. I kept stumbling on uneven spots in the path and roots hidden in the dark. So tired, why won't this day just end already! It actually came as a shock when I stepped into a circle of light. Looking up instead of staring at my feet, I saw there was this rundown shack right ahead of us. The knife holder prodded me towards it, and I eagerly went inside.

A pretty rude place, not much besides a large, round table, some warped looking wooden chairs, and boxes left here and there. There were some oil lamps placed around the single room on top of some of the crates, and a single Red-eyes who looked like he'd just woken up from a nap. I'd guess it was a secret storehouse, one for smuggled goods or weapons?

It's not like they'd just bring me out here to kill me, right? Right? Whatever they kidnapped me for, it'll wait 'til tomorrow, right? Gibbs shoved me so that I was kneeling on the floor. The ropes my hands were tied with were loosened, then my hands were pulled behind my back and tied again. Shit, that'll make things harder for me. Then I was shoved into a corner and ignored.

To my relief they finally started talking. It was creepy how quiet they'd been. Assassins are human too, and should have a human urge to fill the silence. There were seven of them, though Gibbs was being antisocial and had his mouth clamped shut, and the lot of them pulled up chairs around the only table. A few had to use some convenient crates instead. From somewhere they'd produced a deck of cards and started playing poker.

What are they going to bet with? It doesn't look like they have anything with them... The first round ended, and the winner reached down...and pulled my bag up onto the table. Oh no, nononono-

"First pick!" he crowed and dumped my stuff out on the table.

"HELL no!" I stumbled up onto my feet, intent on running over and kicking them all into submission if I had to. "NO! You keep your paws off my stuff or I'll castrate you with a rusty letter opener!" They just laughed (why do people keep laughing at me when I'm angry about something?) and the nearest one stood up and punched me in the face before I could do anything. I crashed to the ground and groaned. "Bastards..."

"Gag her," ordered Gibbs.

A rag was shoved into my mouth and secured by another piece of rope tied around my head. Meanwhile someone else also took the chance to tie my legs together at the ankles and knees. Shiiit. Odds of escaping, rapidly going down. I could only fume and make the occasional muffled curse as I watched them pick through my things each time someone won. The one whose weapons I'd broken took my daggers, the big guy took my dao, and my gels all found their ways into various pockets. My Earth clothes were pretty much ignored.

Gibbs had frowned at the pile, and picked the bag as his first prize. FUCK! My stuff from Earth is in that! I'd been praying they wouldn't notice the slight extra weight and would just throw the bag away. Next time Gibbs won, he took the case with Sophia's notes. Ugh, not good... And the next time he took my journal, after one Red-eye had flipped through it and complained that it was "full of scribbles and chicken scratch." (Shut up, my hand writing's pretty good! Except when I'm taking notes in a hurry...) But I was worried. He'd picked out all the stuff I was most afraid of losing and having studied by others. Was he doing that on purpose? But how could that be?

Eventually one pulled out some food (looked like dry rations) from a nearby crate. I could feel my mouth watering as they ate, which was nasty because the gag interfered with my reflex to swallow. Seeing me watching, one of the less distinguishable Red-eyes stood up and sauntered over.

"You hungry, wretch?" he sneered. I glared at him, but to my humiliation my stomach chose that moment to growl. Face turning red, I jerked a nod. But he just smirked. "What's that? I couldn't hear you." I nodded again, feeling the burn in my face intensify as the men at the table snickered. They'd stopped playing cards to watch the show, and Gibbs didn't show any signs of caring.

The one taunting me turned back to look at them. "She's not saying 'yes' so I guess she doesn't want any. Little bird must be on a diet." The man I'd newly named Birdman laughed as he returned to his seat and the game. One day, I'm gonna tie you to an anthill, one with red ants, and dump a jar of honey on you. I've heard of something similar being an old method of torture...

I allowed myself to fall on my side with a soft thump, and curled up as tightly as I could. My arms had started to ache terribly from the unaccustomed position, and my jaw hurt from the gag. With my eyes closed, I tried to think and forget how miserable I was.

Before the attack...I saw what looked like a fairy's wings in the alley. A connection? But it doesn't make sense for Nevi to have me jumped and kidnapped. He did that already, and now essentially has me at beck and call. So could it be Alastor? But...I can't be sure, but the wings didn't look like his. Or Nevi's for that matter... I tried to remember that flash of memory, but it was so brief I could almost believe I'd imagined it. Maybe...they'd been green?

Maybe I was fooling myself, hoping it was someone else. Alastor usually was a dick, but I'd thought he wouldn't actually try to get me hurt. If it really was him behind this attack then that would mean I'd read him wrong. I lifted my head slightly, and let it fall on the floor again with another soft thump. Tears of frustration and helplessness burned my eyes.

x x x

I slept fitfully for the rest of the night. Whenever I did wake up, I would look around to see what the Red-eyes were doing. But even once they all went to sleep (with blankets and bed rolls they didn't share with me) there was always one staying awake to keep guard. Whenever I shifted positions I could practically feel the current guard staring at me for minutes afterwards.

Dammit...maybe Nevi will come save me. I thought about that. No. He didn't save me even when I nearly died in Ragou's basement, not bloody likely he'll help now.

The longest, most uncomfortable night of my life finally ended. Gibbs was the last one on guard duty, and at dawn he woke up his men with kicks and barked commands. Totally must be the one in command. "You," he pointed at one of the other unimpressive Red-eyes, "feed her."

Without much interest in his chore, the Red-eyes grabbed one of the ration bar things and a canteen. He pulled the rope and gag from my mouth and thankfully let me have a sip of water from the canteen first. My mouth felt so dry and rough, I probably wouldn't have been able to swallow anything. The ration bar was bad enough. It seemed to be made of oats or something, like a granola bar, but was somehow devoid of any flavor.

The moment I finished the gag was shoved right back in my mouth. Joy.

Morning was slow to pass by, but at least I had something marginally more interesting to watch than sleeping assassins. I watched assassins doing chores! Well, kinda. There wasn't much to do, and most of it seemed like busywork. Since they didn't seem to be getting ready to go anywhere I eventually decided they were waiting for someone. Good odds that person was whoever had hired them to kidnap me.

Despite how bored they all must have been, Gibbs ran a tight ship. He didn't forbid talking, but apparently he'd managed to convince them it was a good idea not to let any names or similarly sensitive information slip in front of the prisoner. Nor did they interrogate me, which would have let me infer what was going on based on the questions asked. Cheapskates.

I was booored. I'd already gone through all the plausible explanations I could think of, and that left me with only implausibly absurd ones. Like Yeager had heard of my awesome skills and wanted to recruit me. Yeaah, totally not it. But that was better than the other darker thoughts bubbling up from the corners of my mind where I'd suppressed them.

Thoughts like Does my family know I'm alive? Weeks without any contact (even given I didn't call home much, I hate phones) or even ransom notes. For all they knew my corpse was lying on the bottom of Lake Ontario. How long had I been on Terca Lumireis? Well, roughly two weeks with Ludwig... Three, no wait, four days with the others before we skipped continents, a night at sea, one in the harbor, Dhangrest and Keiv Moc trips took...three days? So nearly four weeks? This world must be considerably smaller than Earth. How the hell does it have enough gravity pull to keep us from falling off?

The short of it was it had been nearly a month since I'd left Earth. Unless the fairies were pulling some weird time and space continuum thing that would pop me back to the same time I'd left, my family would be frantic with worry. Another loss in the family, after a string of deaths and hospitalizations. Mom's heart would break.

That was my biggest regret. In truth, I didn't mind having been pulled out my world. I missed home, how couldn't I? But I enjoyed adventuring here. Other than the need to kill things and the whole part about being tied up and left on the floor of a shack of course. At this point I was ticked at Nevi mainly because I was being treated as a tool, and as long as he called the shots my freedom was an illusion. The tattoo probably had some other tricks I hadn't learned about, just in case I wasn't obedient to the cause.

By early afternoon I had lost all energy for even half hearted jokes to myself. What was the point? The fooling around was only a semiconscious act of mine. It's purposes were to one, keep my mind of bad shit. Though I could use that, I just couldn't find anything funny in my situation. Purpose two, appeal myself to others. For years I'd been accustomed to getting even strangers to smile at my light hearted banter. Lady at the bookstore even asked me if my parents called me Sunny because I was so happy... Purpose three, and had only come into effect once I'd been kidnapped by Nevi and dropped in another world, if people were used to me being mildly but harmlessly crazy, they might ignore any slip ups I made. Though that seemed to have had limited success with Ludwig and Yuri.

I was finally distracted from my boredom by some pressing needs. It served to further my humiliation, but I desperately needed to get their attention. My only option was to writhe around like a caterpillar and knock my feet against the floor. The present Red-eyes turned to stare at me, but eventually Gibbs seemed to figure it out.

"You." Pointed to a different Red-eyes. Not sure, but I thought it was a different one from the guy that fed me. Let no single person spend too much time with the prisoner, no risk of attachments. "Take her outside before she fouls herself." Humiliation! My face burned, and "fouls herself?" How old is this guy? Had I ever in my life met someone who would phrase it like that?

The Red-eyes untied my legs (thank GOD, return of circulation!) and dragged me up to my feet. I nearly fell down without his support. No way I could take the chance to run away. I was practically dragged outside and behind the nearest clump of trees. Then a horrible revelation. With my hands tied behind my back, I couldn't, um, take care of my business by myself.

The Red-eyes and I actually stood there for a few minutes staring at each other. My stare was either along the lines of "even think about it and I'll find a way to hurt you," or "for the love of all that's good, please don't do what I think you're about to do." Fortunately, I was spared this last humiliation. Maybe he was young and embarrassed, I dunno, but he actually untied my hands, and retied one of them to a branch. Then turned his back to me, while standing out of my reach.

Aaand, back into the boring shack. I spent three days in that place total, with nothing happening except for Birdman occasionally talking trash to me. Bastard liked pulling on my braid. Too bad for him, it takes a pretty strong yank for that to actually hurt me. Though when that failed to get a reaction from me, he began trying to push my limits. Apparently the others didn't care what he did as long as no bones were broken. He used me like a freakin' doormat, stepping on me and kicking me every time he passed by. Soon I was covered in bruises.

I kept trying to decide how far the story had progressed without me. Yuri would have fought Barbos on the tower, then got caught and locked up with Judith and some other random prisoners. (Maybe they were people forced to help build the tower for Barbos?) Judith being a woman would be revealed and they'd team up. Reunion with the others, who by that time must have figured out something was up with me disappearing. Though it wasn't like they could have dropped everything to come find me.

Barbos fight, Barbos badmouthing Yuri, "I'll see you again in hell," kinda thing, then Barbos falling to his death to keep the hero's hands clean and full of justice. Though not for long in Yuri's case. Blastia malfunction? I thought that happened in the tower, right, and Duke shows up with Dein Nomos to settle it down again. There's also the suspicious moment of brief interaction between Raven and Duke. Though this should all have happened during my first day prisoner.

After that...well, Flynn had hopefully stopped the war. Probably had, I couldn't help but think these Red-eyes would be busier if the war had actually happened. Ragou would be proven guilty, but get off with only a demotion for punishment. Had that happened yesterday? Or been more realistic and happened today after plenty of time for discussion and bribery? Well either way, once Yuri heard about it he'd turn vigilante and kill Ragou in the night.

Ah man. Part of me was glad I'd missed that, and another part wished I could have been there. To kill even someone like Ragou seemed morally wrong to me, but goddammit, I'd been in his basement a whole night. Though thinking about how cold Yuri was in that scene, and what that would be like in reality, my resentment and anger quieted to apprehension. Such a heavy scene...how would that change him? Even in the game he didn't brush it off lightly, though in typical Yuri fashion he didn't make a big deal out of it most of the time.

Come to think of it...where did the Ragou killing happen? Heliord? No, that wasn't it...they go to Heliord after that... But...what about after that? The group starts to split up, Raven was off with either the guilds or Alexei, Rita left because of her assignment and research, Estelle almost leaves with the knights to go back to Zaphias, while Yuri and Karol linger. It was Phaeroh's sudden attack that kickstarts the next chain of events, giving Estelle her excuse to put off going home. And Yuri finally decides to start that guild with Karol while simultaneously stealing the princess out from under the knights' noses. And Judith tags along.

Had that happened already? If not, then how much longer? I had to escape before they got too far away... Wait, would they leave me behind? After the issue with Barbos is-was-resolved, what if they started looking for me? It wouldn't be hard to figure out that the Red-eyes were responsible...what if they actually go looking for me at the Manor of the Wicked? Woah, this could fuck up the storyline...

That clinched it, I really needed to get out and let them know I was okay before I started a new series of events that didn't end in preventing the destruction of the world. But when would I get a chance?

x x x

Chance! Maybe? For some reason after I was fed the third evening, they didn't bother to gag me again. I kept quiet, just in case it was an oversight and speaking would draw Gibbs' attention to it. My luck held out even longer. Some of the Red-eyes were getting impatient, waiting for whatever we were waiting for.

"What are we doing minding this brat? This is not the work our guild does!" Thin man's voice.

"Orders are orders! And master Yeager's new client is paying an even higher fee than the usual jobs get." Big guy's voice.

"I don't care how much much money that green haired bitch has, this is insulting to our skills!" Green haired? Who's that? Is there even any side characters in this world with green hair?

"I think we should just kill her now." Wasn't sure which one that was...

"And what good would killing a pathetic wretch that can't fight do your skills? All you'd be doing is making a mockery of our guild for failing the job." Think that was the one who'd usually fed me.

"Not that he has any skills to speak of. What was that the other day, the little bird could have killed you easy with her knives. Pathetic worm." There was an angry shout and the sound of flesh on flesh. Birdman stumbled over my prone body, falling back and knocking over an unlit lantern. It shattered as it hit the ground, broken glass and oil spilling everywhere.

Birdman leaped up again and threw himself back at whoever had thrown him. Judging by the conversation it was the guy whose weapons I'd broken. I rolled away from them, appearing as if I were trying to avoid being stepped on again, but actually covering up a few pieces of broken glass with my body. Not long after the fight was broken up by Gibbs. I curled up, and started to push myself into an upright position. In doing so I managed to carefully pick up piece of glass with my teeth, and then carefully hid it in my mouth.

Just in time. On Gibbs' orders one of them quickly cleaned up all the pieces of broken glass, and even forced me to move to make sure I wasn't sitting on one. I kept my head bowed so my hair hung forward and it wasn't as obvious that my mouth wasn't gagged.

Now I wait some more. I curled up on my side to pretend I was sleeping, the piece of glass cradled carefully inside my cheek.

Only a few hours later they'd all settled in for sleep again. I had intentionally been fidgeting quite a bit. After initially watching me like a hawk, the guard eventually dismissed my antics and grew noticeably bored. And drowsy. A third night after three dull days, he was probably almost as mentally exhausted as I was.

Slowly he began to nod off.

And finally he began to snore.

I flipped onto my side and curled my knees up tightly to my chest. Hunching my body, I kept trying to twist and bend in various ways until I managed to work my bound hands under my legs, and finally up in front of me. Oh for the love of...my shoulders are killing me... Other than the brief trips outside with Mr. Shy, my arms had been locked into that position for far too long.

I couldn't take the time to appreciate the change. I carefully slipped the glass out from my cheek, clamping my teeth on it. I brought my hands up to it's jagged edge and slowly began to saw away at the rope. This would be easier if I could use aer, but even if I could do that without cutting my hands off, I'm just too mentally exhausted. No MP or whatever it's called in the Tales series.

Even if the guard was only lightly dozing the sounds of my maneuvering would be overlooked. He'd already gotten used to it after all. I'm not sure how long it took, probably not nearly as long as it felt since I was on edge listening for even the slightest sign that my attempts had been notice. The thin piece of glass also dulled a bit, so cutting gradually became more difficult.

But the last few strands of the rope frayed and snapped. I shook it from my wrists and tried to massage some feeling back into them. Moving onto my feet, I picked and clawed at the knots around my ankles and knees until I loosened them and could pull those ropes away. Once I had, I stopped for a moment to absorb one fact.

I'd done it. All that was left was to get the flip out.

Carefully, using my natural quietness and experience of sneaking through my house at two am., I tiptoed around the sleeping bodies. I'd seen Gibbs leave me bag...there! I fished it out of a crate, and was happy to find that yes, he had left my stuff that he'd won inside of it. A quick inventory by touch revealed that everything was still there. Next I grabbed some ration bars and a full canteen and dropped them in my bag.

Lastly was weapons. Dammit, I wanted my own weapons back, but it was too risky to try and figure out which dark body was which. Even if I could tell who had them, taking them back would probably wake someone up. The longer I stayed the more danger I was in already. I settled for snatching a regular sword out of one of the crates, one directly on top so the sounds of metal on metal wouldn't give me away.

Carefully tip toed towards the door. Quietly opened and shut the door with mercifully well oiled hinges. And then I booked it.

x x x

Very Letha-centric.

Gawd, such a trouble magnet. At least she solved the trouble herself this time, eh? Largely because of luck...

...Next chapter will be more fun. If it somehow gets filled with lots of filler, than the chapter after that should be awesomeness.