Alisen
Gray stone walls. Grey stone walls. Everywhere she looked there were gray stone walls. Gray stone walls. Gray stone walls. Everywhere she looked there were gray stone walls. Gray stone walls. Gray stone walls. Everywhere she looked there were gray stone walls.
Well, unless she looked to her left. Then there were iron bars. That didn't fit into her song though. Well maybe it did. Let's try it!
Gray stone walls. Gray stone walls. Everywhere she looked there were gray stone walls. Unless she looked left. Then there were black iron bars.
No, that didn't sound right. The bars weren't really black. But they weren't really gray. They were a sort of in between color. She wondered if there was a word for it. Like blurple. Or did she make up blurple?
Shambles? Did she make up Blurple? Shambles!? Oh, right. It was nap time. It had been nap time for, uh, well, a while. She turned toward one of the gray walls and started at the white lines marked on it. She'd doodled a frowny face next to one of them. She counted from there.
Twenty-Seven marks. It had been nap time for twenty seven marks.
Shambles was lazy.
She peered past the blurple bars that weren't blurple. Behind them were more blurple bars. And behind them there were more gray stone walls!
They were everywhere. It was a problem. And one she hadn't been able to find a solution to. Shambles was supposed to burrow through them so she could get out. But, well, Shambles was lazy. So he hadn't gotten far on that. And didn't show much ambition to get back to it. Which was obnoxious. But that was Shambles.
She paced around the cell until she reached his body. She kicked him. He didn't move. She kicked him again. He didn't move. She paced around the cell one more time only to kick him again. It still wasn't very effective. She sighed and sat in the corner.
There wasn't much left to do but ponder her life. Which, frankly, she'd done rather a lot of late. She knew the marks on the walls weren't days. They weren't long enough. And sometimes she forgot to add them. She'd started it less as an interest in tracking how long she'd been there and more interest in seeing how much time passed between meals.
More than she'd have liked.
Her stomach rumbled. She glared down at it, as if that would stop it from being a problem. It protested by rumbling more. She turned her attention to it and back to the only thing of any interest in the dungeon: Gray stone walls.
She knew the humans had a saying they liked to use. She'd heard it a bunch during her exploration of historic sights in Calabar and Lorak. "If these walls could talk!" She didn't get it.
It made no sense to her. Nothing about it was logical. But humans were stupid. Really, really stupid. If a Volkar babe showed as little aptitude as the average human they'd be given to The Scar. Humans didn't seem to have the same expectations.
So she guessed that she should have expected their idioms were on par with creatures of their intelligence. It only made sense that their sayings would be as stupid as they were. There was only so much a non-Volkar society could accomplish. Really, she thought, they did quite well considering their general ineptitude.
Still, the saying was stupid. 'If' the walls could talk? What kind of nonsense was that? They couldn't be that sublimely ignorant. Could they? Maybe they could be. There were still ones that thought the Scar was intentional and that the Volkar should be punished for it. Despite the fact that it affected the Volkar more than the Calabarians. And it encompassed more of their land.
So what if the Calabarians spent more resources defending it? They should. They caused it by invading!
But anyway, their saying was so stupid. It relied on stupid assumption that only a stupid Calabarian moron would make. 'If' the walls could talk? Of course they could talk. And it wasn't even that difficult to make them talk. It barely even took any magic.
The problem was that they never had anything worthwhile to say.
The idiot humans must have thought there was something deep and thoughtful about the walls. That they could impart some great wisdom that their short life spans were otherwise missing. But the fact was that they didn't recall grand historical moments, and she doubted they were even capable of telling one human from another. They were, amazingly, somehow dumber than the average human.
Their cares bordered on the inane like, why was a fly landing on me? What is that creature with all the legs crawling all over me? Is that crack getting bigger? Why do you keep carving marks into me?
It was always, and she meant always, a boring conversation. And one not worth having. In general, it was better to not bother listening to the walls. As such, she couldn't understand why humans lamented not hearing them. Even now, it hadn't provided any cure to her boredom. And they hadn't been able to even offer an answer as to the feeding schedule in the prison.
Her stomach rumbled again. She wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to stay functional. She could always eat Shambles. But that would probably only hasten her demise. Which, in certain situations, might not be a bad thing. Maybe she'd try a finger first.
As she debated which finger she could afford to eat, which she decided was her right ring finger, obviously, as it served no real purpose for cantrips or spells and only served as a holder for decorative jewels, she heard yelling from above.
She turned to face it, as if looking would make it easier to understand the words. But the gray stone walls muffled the sound too well. Still, she could hear the pounding footsteps that seemed to grow louder with each moment. Could they have finally remembered they needed to feed her?
She heard the large wooden door, the one she vaguely remembered stood atop the gray stone staircase, creak open and soon thunderingly inconsistent steps pounded onto the stairs.
A Kin girl stumbled into view. She was pretty, Alisen thought, for one of the Beasts. Her first instinct was that she wanted to play with the fluffy pink tail. She knew the Kin frowned upon that, but whatever she was already in prison. Blood covered part of the Kin girl's face. One hand was holding onto her fluffy pink ear, which also looked fun to play with, while the other was trying to hold onto her clothing.
The guards used their spears to push her down the hallway, past Alisen's cell and into the adjoining one. She could see the small cuts on her back where the spears pierced her skin as they spurred her forward. Alisen leaned against the bars to try to get a better view. One of the guards jumped away from her.
"Gods the witch is still alive?" the man exclaimed. Alisen smiled at him.
"From the stench down here I'm surprised," another guard said. Alisen glared at him. That wasn't fair. It wasn't like she hadn't bathed by choice. And the smell was probably Shambles anyway. And he couldn't help it.
He slammed the door shut on the cell as more guards emerged. This pair pushed a Lorakian man into the cell across from hers. They weren't evenly aligned so she didn't get a very good look at him. But as a whole he seemed far less bothered than she would have expected of someone who was getting locked up.
That pair turned to help the next pair as a final man was pushed into the prison. He landed on his knees and was pulled back up to his feet, his torn shirt ripping off as his captors forced him forward. Despite the shackled hands he was still trying to fight them, and doing a surprisingly good job of it.
"Lookie here, Abruzzi," the first guard said. "This one is already branded."
Alisen's eyes shot to the new man's back. He was tanned and well muscled and seemed to have little regard for the spears attempting to force him into the same cell as the Lorakian.
Sure enough, a sun sigil was burnt into the flesh on his left shoulder. She'd never seen such a brand before, but she knew the Calabarians often branded criminals in such a way. It felt barbaric to her. Something that only the moronic Calabarians could come up with. Nothing more than a tortuous way to try to exude control.
Time had dulled her opinion, though. She doubted that a thieves' brand had any positive effect on society, but, and she spared a glance to Shambles as she thought it, every culture had its own barbarisms.
"Poorly," a young man said. She turned her gaze back to the scene unfolding before her. The Warden that captured her stood at the foot of the stairs, his green sigils glowing softly in the dim light.
They'd had a disagreement about the best use of some infirm Calabarians and he'd won. She'd been in the cell ever since.
"Looks well done to me," one of the guards chuckled. Alisen assumed he was making a joke about burning food. Which was stupid, as Calabarian tasted awful, but it drew a chuckle from another guard as the man stopped fighting. He tried to turn around but one of the guards swept the spear at his knees and he fell to the ground once more.
"The sigil is wrong," the Warden shrugged, as if annoyed at the quality of the craftsmanship. An older guard leaned over and peered at the man's back. His response was to shrug his shoulders and grunt.
"Looks like the Calabarian sun to me," he added.
"Three quarters of it," Warden Abruzzi agreed. "The rest is fading. It looks almost like the setting–"
"Wounds heal," a third man shrugged, seeming indifferent that he'd interrupted the Warden. Abruzzi reached out to touch the brand but the prisoner was pushed away from him as soon as he regained his feet. In moments he was in the cell.
The prisoner spun around and spat at the guards. It earned him a volley of spears through the bars but none of them hit him. Alisen leaned against her own bars and watched, not doing anything to hide her smile. The antics amused her, even if they were rather fruitless.
"Warden Abruzzi?" the prisoner laughed, emphasizing the last name. The Warden merely raised his brows.
"Yes?" he answered, keeping himself out of spitting range, assuming the prisoner wasn't particularly good at expectorating.
"Daddy couldn't find you some fifth daughter of a no-name noble to settle down with?" the prisoner teased. The Warden raised his brows but didn't do anything more than shrug his shoulders at the insult.
"I'm sure he could have, had I allowed him to try. Some of us have more ambition than that," Warden Abruzzi responded.
"Yet you're serving some middling lord in the middle of nowhere and not anywhere near the Gates. Seems more cowardice than ambition, Warden," the prisoner spat back.
"I'm where I'm meant to be. My father respects that," the Warden said with another shrug of his shoulders. As if there was nothing more to it than that simple sentence. He paused for a brief moment before adding. "Can you say the same?"
"Sure," the prisoner shrugged. The response was enough to get a brief rise out of the Warden, but nothing more noticeable than a twitch of his eyebrows.
"Really now? Your father would be happy with your decision to shack up with some false Siren Kin girl and con good hard working Calabarian citizens out of their livelihoods leading to you in a prison?" the Warden asked.
"He'd be thrilled," the prisoner responded with a sarcastic sneer. Alisen giggled. He said it in such a way that she almost believed it was exactly the life his father had wanted for him.
"You're a strange one," The Warden said. "It's a shame I'll have to take your head in the morning."
"We'll see," the prisoner shrugged. The warden spun on his heels and saw her eavesdropping on the conversation. He looked surprised and turned toward the other guards.
"You told me she died," he accused.
"Well we stopped feeding her a week ago," one of the guards smirked. "Figured it was only a matter of time."
"You. Did. What?" the Warden spat.
"Why waste food on a witch?" the man shrugged. Whatever he'd expected, it hadn't been the Warden's gauntleted hand impacting on his jaw. He crumpled to the ground. The Warden turned to the other prisoners.
"Meals. All of them. Now!" he ordered.
"Why?" one of the guards grumbled. He looked like he was going to say more but the Warden shouted.
"Now!"
And the guards obeyed, fleeing from the scene as quickly as their feet would take them. The warden lingered for a moment. He spared one glance at the prisoner, his brows furrowing, before he turned his glance to her.
He looked almost apologetic. He opened his mouth but no words came. Instead he stalked back up the stairs and left them. Silence fell over the prison. She could hear the Kin girl sniffling from her cell and hushed conversation between the Lorakian and the Calabarian. But they were talking too quietly for her to make out the words.
She asked Shambles if he could hear but he was still napping. So she resorted to desperate measures.
"Hi," she said loudly. The conversation from across the way stopped as soon as she spoke. It annoyed her that they didn't respond but she wasn't going to let a little thing like that dissuade her from making new friends. "I'm Alisen."
There were some hushed whispering followed by silence. It lasted for a couple of minutes. Long enough that all parties involved knew whoever spoke would be losing. It was the girl who finally gave up.
"I'm Seralyse," she said. She still sniffled every few minutes.
"Hi Seralyse!" Alisen responded cheerily. "Nice to meet you. How are you?"
"Bleeding," the girl added.
"Keep pressure on it," The Calabarian interjected.
"I'm not pressing my back up against a dirty wall. I'd rather just bleed out. It's not that bad, anyway. You look worse, Kaden," she scoffed his name. Alisen couldn't help but smirk. The girl had to have done it intentionally. While she could just be annoyed at the situation in general, she seemed to be even more so at her companions.
"Hi Kaden," Alisen said cheerily. "And who's the Lorakian?"
"Arestes," Kaden said with an overly dramatic sigh.
"What?" a third voice added. Must have been the Lorakian.
"We're making introductions," Kaden said.
"Oh, hi," Arestes said.
"Hi," Alisen answered. "How are you?"
"Busy," he said.
"You're in prison, you can't be that busy," she retorted.
"Working on something," he said.
"Care to share?" she asked. He didn't respond. Another minute or two passed before Kaden spoke up.
"Don't feel bad. Short of a nude female not much can distract him from his work. And that doesn't always work," Kaden quipped.
"I can strip but I haven't had a bath in a while," Alisen tried to joke, it came out flat.
"I don't think that will be necessary but I appreciate the offer," Kaden responded. His tone was dry and disinterested. She wondered if he'd even looked at her on his way down to the jail cell. He was rather preoccupied the entire time.
Still, she knew more or less what she looked like, and she'd seen the Kin girl. She assumed most humans would have gone for Seralyse rather than herself. But she also assumed most humans were idiots. It was an interesting dichotomy she wasn't quite sure how to properly quantify as of yet. And Shambles was no help. Then again, he was mostly human. She thought.
"Well, what's he doing?" she asked, interested in keeping any sort of conversation going with something that actually responded to her. It was a rare thing of late.
"Tinkering with something," Kaden said. "They didn't do a very thorough job of searching us."
"They didn't search us at all," Seralyse added. "At least not me."
"They cut half of your costume off," Kaden countered.
"So?"
"What's there to inspect?"
"Are you insulting me?"
"Do you have pockets in your skin I am unaware of?"
"Oh, uhm, no. I guess not. Sorry," Seralyse's voice grew quiet as she spoke, clearly embarrassed by her outburst.
"It's fine," Kaden said. He let out a drawn out sigh before continuing. "He's tinkering on something. I can't tell what. I'd get closer but he might stab me."
"He has a knife?" Alisen asked.
"Sorry no, bad joke," Kaden said.
"Oh."
"I still have a couple of earrings," Seralyse said. "Could you pick the lock?"
"I could try," Kaden shrugged. "But I've never done that before without the proper tools."
"You're a pirate," the Kin girl scoffed.
"So?"
"So don't you break into things? Does a locked chest prevent you from acquiring booty?" she teased, but annoyance was evident in her tone. These other prisoners seemed familiar with each other, Alisen thought, but they clearly didn't have the same relationship as say, she and Shambles. They probably hadn't traveled together for that long. She assumed it had to be some type of deal of convenience. Assuming they weren't sleeping with her.
"Of course it doesn't. We just use a large rock or something most of the time," Kaden said. "It's easier, quicker, and works on pretty much everything."
"Efficient," Alisen said.
"Did you say earrings?" Arestes asked. "Give me them."
"Can you pick locks?"
"No. Need something small and pointy. Toss them over."
"Well, okay," Seralyse said. A few moments later Alisen heard a grunt from Arestes and assumed they must have cleared the small gap. They lapsed into silence again. Alisen spent the time pacing around her cell.
"So what are you in for?" Kaden asked. He sounded bored already. Prison wouldn't be easy for him if he couldn't keep himself entertained. Then again, from the sound of it they wouldn't have to wait for much.
"Murder apparently," she answered. "You?"
"Punching the lord. Warrants execution apparently. Who'd you kill?" Kaden asked. She could sense anger in his tone but he kept it reigned in. Alisen frowned.
"I don't know. I was trying to open an apothecary in town. Two sick elderly Calabarians came to me and asked for my help easing their pain so I gave them dreamroot," she said.
"That's a poison," Kaden answered. "Not a painkiller."
"Yes. But they wanted to ease the pain of passing. That's what they said. It's what we do in Volkar," Alisen explained. She didn't quite understand why the Warden had found it so distasteful and now a pirate seemed to feel the same way.
"Ah," he answered.
"What would you have done?" she asked, finding herself annoyed at the judgment for a perfectly acceptable remedy.
"Turmeric or peppermint probably," he shrugged.
"What good does that do? They'll just be in pain again in an hour," she scoffed. There was no reply from the Calabarian. It shouldn't have been so difficult, she thought. Shambles was good at finding specific herbs if he had solid instructions. And she just wanted to help the Calabarians after what she'd done. And it all seemed so simple and easy. Basic potions, basic remedies, a little hut not too far from the town. It was her own way to atone. It had taken her nearly a decade to get everything set up. And yet it had lasted less than three weeks.
She blinked back the tears, brought on by frustration more than anything, and joined them in silence. It took her a few minutes to calm herself. But she did so. And when she finally felt like she could speak again she decided to make them talk more.
"Do you have an escape plan yet or are you just going to let him take off your head?" she asked.
"How long have you been down here?" Kaden asked.
"I don't know," she shrugged. "A month or two. The warden arrested me at the fall Harvest festival."
"It's almost summer," Kaden answered.
"Oh," she replied. She glared at the markings on the wall, as if they'd utterly betrayed her. "I lost track of time."
"So you killed two people and they've just left you here to rot," Kaden said.
"They took the herbs themselves, I just gave them to them," Alisen countered.
"And I punch one lord and they're going to make an example of me in the square?" Kaden answered.
"Lords have large egos that matter far more than their elderly population," Alisen answered.
"It's wrong," Kaden said. Annoyance evident in his tone. But, despite that, he seemed less upset than she would have expected. Like it didn't matter that it had happened to him. What mattered was that it had happened at all. When it shouldn't have. She wasn't sure what to do with that. So she snorted.
"Sure, but they're Calabarian nobles. The whole lot of them are worthless," she answered. It didn't draw any response from him. "You could always offer the Kin girl to him,"
"That's what he wants, I think," Kaden said. "Getting rid of us will leave her with fewer options. And that might make his advances seem more appealing."
"Humans smell," Seralyse said in a small voice in the corner.
"They do, don't they," Alisen giggled. She paused for a moment before repeating her question from earlier. "So do you have an escape plan yet?"
"Hoping something comes to me," Kaden answered. "Do you have an idea?"
"Yes," she said. "But I can't do it myself."
"Why not?"
"They don't let me near them. They're not stupid. Calabarian's understand what Volkar can do. Even if I've been starved and ran out of power a while ago," Alisen said.
"I assumed if you had any talent you'd have broken out a while ago," Kaden answered.
"They were very careful to start."
"So what's your idea?" Kaden asked.
"If they come back with food try to startle one toward my cell so I can grab him," Alisen said.
"What good will that do?" Kaden asked. "If they're dumb enough to not come in pairs it's not like you can restrain him indefinitely and if you go for a key they'll stab you until you stop moving."
"It'll work, trust me," Alisen said. "As long as I can get a hand on them it'll be fine."
"If you insist," Kaden said. "I'll give it a shot but I'm not sure exactly how any of it would work."
"It's fine just get them within arms reach of me," she said.
"I'll try," Kaden agreed. "Assuming they bring back food. It feels like it's been long enough that they should."
"Assuming that," she said. "Same thing goes for if they come back to try to kill you though. Just get one of them that I can grab."
"Do I even want to know what you're going to do?" Kaden asked.
"Well if they come back with food I'm going to eat I'm really hungry," Alisen admitted.
"I have some salted beef I think," Arestes said absently.
"Really?" Alisen asked. Arestes didn't respond. She half wondered if she'd even heard him the first time or if she'd just hallucinated it. Kaden chuckled though so she figured it must have just been something he did.
Again, silence reigned. The Kin girl started humming to herself. The tune felt oddly familiar and Alisen lost herself listening to the soft notes. As the tune drifted into her mind she found herself feeling calmed. A sort of warmth spread through her. Her wants and her worries faded away. She could still sense her hunger, and feel the emptiness in her stomach. But it was lessened, pushed toward the back of her mind.
She felt oddly content, oddly energized, and ready to take on any challenge. The notes filled the dungeon and she thought that if she could listen to them every night then maybe, just maybe, life in the cell wouldn't be all that bad.
She shook that thought from her head and brought her focus back to herself. She didn't sense much magic from the new prisoners. But there was obviously some in the song. She'd heard that Sirens were trained from a young age to infuse their voice and instrument with minor magics. She'd never witnessed it, though.
And hadn't the Warden called her fake? She must have just been so desperate for some type of amusement, some music, some anything, that even the simple sound of quiet hummed notes could fill her with joy. That was a sad thought.
She sat in the center of her cell and pondered. The energy flowing through her felt almost like her magic. But it was thinner, weaker. She held up a hand and tried to summon a simple spell but the power only fizzled against her skin.
It had been so long since she'd cast a proper spell. Years, really since her power had burned out of her. She'd used the last bits of it for Shambles in a desperate attempt for companionship. So long since that fateful night in the thunderstorms. She could still see the eyes flickering in the flames as they melted away.
She'd been nothing more than a minor cog in the machine. The smallest of the cogs, as it were. And she'd done what she'd been told. All for the benefit of her people. That was what they'd all said. But it still made her sick. They'd celebrated in the rain, miles off from the target after it was over. And, when they'd slept, she left. And years later all she had to show for it was a tiny prison cell in the basement of some minor Calabarian lord.
"Someone's coming," Seralyse said. She didn't hear anything. But it broke her out of her reverie and she focused for any unwanted noise. The Kin were, afterall, known for their ears and noses.
"You sure?" Kaden asked.
"Yes," Seralyse said. "Should be opening the door in about ten steps. Assuming they don't stop to chat with anyone."
"Your hearing can't be that good," Kaden laughed.
"It's just tracking footsteps. No one has come this way since they left so now that someone is it stands to reason that," she was cut off by the sound of the door opening. Alisen giggled at her luck and leaned against the bars of her cell, letting her arms slide through them.
Two guards stepped down the stairs and approached. They paused when they saw her leaning into the narrow hallway.
"Into your cell, witch," one said. "Or no food."
"Fine," Alisen frowned, trying to sound normal. Could one single word betray her intent? She stared at the bowls of gray gruel they provided as if it was something actually worth eating. She moved away from the bars and saw as they placed the small bowl on the floor. They slid it into the cell, spilling most of the contents onto the floor. She has to resist most of her urges to dive toward it.
The guards only spared her a brief look. Once she started toward the food they moved away from the cell, toward the others. She stepped right over the gruel and waited.
Kaden grabbed one of the guards as soon as he approached. He pulled the man against the bars. The guard's iron helmet hit the bars and he bounced backwards. His partner shoved his spear into the cell, but Kaden dodged away from it.
The guard stumbled backwards and hit the bars of the adjoining cell. He glowered at Kaden until Seralyse pounced against the bars.
"Rawr!" she yelled in what had to be the worst attempt of an intimidating roar Alisen had ever heard.
But it worked. The man rolled away from the not-so-terribly frightening kin girl and wound up with his back pressed against the bars of Alisen's cell. She reached out and wrapped her hand around his face. He tried to scream. But if he got the words out she didn't notice.
Her hand covered his mouth and she let the long dormant power come to the surface. She felt his life in her hand. She could feel his pulse, his everything, every single inch of him. And she took it all. His essence drained from him, she could feel his skin crack and decay around her hand until he was little more than a husk.
Her mind exploded around her as the familiar sense of magic, of pure power, flowed through her veins. She took more and more from him, even after he was clearly empty she tried to pull more out of him. She felt the gem form in her hand. The last remnants of his soul, the last little bit of him.
She let his body drop. His companion was still stabbing his spear toward Kaden and Arestes. She felt her lips curl up into a smile as her fist closed hard around the gem. They were weak things, soul gems, and it took little more than the flexing of her hand to shatter it and more power rushed through her.
Her tongue flashed over her lips as she savored it. But she wasn't a fool. Even she knew that they were on a time limit from the moment the guards disappeared down the stairs. Eventually, they would be missed. And their goal was to be out of the keep before that happened. She held up her hand toward the remaining guard and let the magic flow from her.
Green tendrils shot from her fingers. They pierced into his back, his neck, his head. He tried to scream but the words died in his throat as she siphoned the life from him as well. It took perhaps fifteen seconds before another small gem ripped from him and flew toward her hand. She twirled it around her fingers before tucking it into her pocket.
With the guards gone she knew they had to get out of the cells. She knelt down by the first corpse and pushed it over. The keyring on his belt was the obvious target. Seven keys stood between her and her freedom, she had little choice but to guess. The lock clicked open on her sixth try and she failed at suppressing her squeal of delight. She hopped out of the cell.
Her instincts told her to abandon the others. She had a better chance without them. And if they were still there, perhaps staging their executions would make up for her loss. Perhaps they wouldn't bother to follow her. Perhaps it would all be over. She could return home for the first time in a decade and put this stupid country behind her. By now, her countrymen may not remember her, or still think of her as something special.
But her time in Calabar had taught her one thing. People were better when they worked together. And they had helped her. Not returning the favor would be a grievous insult. She stepped from the cell and turned her attention to the Kin girl a few steps down.
The girl's pink eyes focused on the human husk laying next to her. She was startled by it. She was shaking slightly, sending ripples through her entire body. Her clothing was torn and falling off of her. Alisen unlocked the door and opened it. The Kin girl paused for a moment before diving toward the husk.
Whatever disgust she had for his manner of death vanished quickly as she stripped him. It took until his undershirt for her to make makeshift clothing. But she succeeded and regained her modesty. Alisen turned and found herself face to face with Kaden.
"You," the Calabarian hissed. His eyes were filled with vitriol. She'd heard the expression 'if looks could kill' before and never understood it. In that moment it all clicked for her. She ignored it. She didn't recognize him, and she wouldn't have to see him ever again once they made it outside. So there seemed to be no real reason to dwell on it. She reached out toward the lock on the cell.
"Stop," Arestes ordered as the key approached the lock. She hesitated and turned her attention to the Lorakian. He approached the cell and held up a strange looking gadget. It was composed of bits of earring, cloth, the spoon that arrived with their gruel and what appeared to be two silver coins. It made no sense to her.
Arestes approached the door and reached outward with the object. He twisted his hand around and pressed it into the lock. He turned it and nothing happened. He tried again and nothing happened. He sighed, took a deep breath, and then put all his weight into trying again. The object snapped off in the lock.
But, after a moment, the lock clicked and the door creaked open.
"Ha!" Arestes laughed.
"I'll be damned," Kaden joined him in his surprise, the momentary vitriol forgotten.
"You knew he could do that and didn't tell me?" Alisen said, feeling like her violent achievement was now wholly unnecessary.
"Well, I knew he was trying to do that. I figured it was fifty-fifty at best," Kaden answered, watching Arestes. He picked up the guard's spear and handed it to Seralyse. She looked uncomfortable holding the weapon but nodded. He took the second one for himself, it seemed more at home in his hands.
"Hey," Arestes complained with a glare at Kaden. He pulled a knife from the sheath of the guard and offered it to his companion.
"Sixty-Forty?" Kaden amended. Arestes grunted, still clearly annoyed at the assessment but letting the argument die. Instead, he examined the body then looked at Alisen.
"You're a necromancer," he said. There was no accusation in his tone. Which was the usual way someone would acknowledge her school of magical study. Instead he said it as if he was stating a fact.
"Yes," she admitted, seeing little reason to deny it. She pulled the shard from her pocket and spun it around her fingers, finding the glassy stone felt comfortable in her hand. At least until another thought struck her and she ran back to her cell.
"How did they keep a Volkar Witch in a cage for a year?" Kaden asked.
"By locking the door?" Alisen answered, feeling confused by the entire question. How else do you keep something anywhere? You limit the amount of available exits.
Speaking of the door reminded her that she had something to do, though. She ducked back into the cell and walked toward the heap of flesh in the corner. She pressed the pink crystal into its forehead and waited a moment until the eyes slowly started to open. They blinked slowly as they looked at her.
It took a moment but he managed to rise to his feet. Most of the flesh on his left leg was gone. As was most of his middle bits. But she'd put him together with what she'd had at the time. He groaned as she turned and left the cell.
The alleged pirate was rifling through the clothing of the first guard she'd killed. He'd taken the man's shirt and donned it. His eyes flashed up when she entered the hall and he let out a panicked scream and hopped to his feet, the dagger held defensively before him.
"What the hell is that?" he shifted around her, she caught a faint whiff of something primal. A scent that reminded her of leaves burning on a fall afternoon. She leaned toward him to catch more of it but he backed away. She turned her attention over her shoulder.
"Oh, that's Shambles," she said as the ghoul, well, shambled out of the cell and stared at her. She nodded and he leaned down and ripped the arm off of the corpse of the first guard and started to eat it. "He's harmless."
"It's a ghoul," Arestes said. He was leaning against the cell, peering at it with an academic curiosity. "I've never seen a living one before."
"You still haven't," Alisen said. "They're not actually alive."
"Fair point," Arestes agreed. He leaned away from the wall and walked over to inspect the ghoul. Alisen stepped around him as Seralyse emerged from her own cell. She looked at the ghoul and made a disgusted face.
"So that's what that smell is," she said.
"It's pretty bad," Kaden agreed. At first, Alisen thought they must have been speaking about her. But they were both looking at the ghoul. It was rather rude of them, she thought, as Shambles couldn't control it.
She made room for the Kin girl to walk toward the stairs leading out of the dungeon, largely because she was rather concerned about the way she held the spear. She clearly had never used such a weapon and Alisen figured she was safer behind the girl than infront of her.
As she slipped next to Kaden she smelled the faint burning scent once more. She turned toward him and sniffed a few more times, drawing a look from the pirate.
"What are you doing?" he asked, stepping away from her.
"You smell like magic," she said.
"You're crazy," Kaden responded. He moved closer to Seralyse. She looked at him for a moment then leaned closer and sniffed a few times as well.
"I don't smell anything," she said.
"Can you smell magic?" Alisen asked.
"Can you?" Seralyse countered. Alisen didn't comment. It was a fair question, she thought. She wasn't sure she'd ever smelled magic before. And given that about half of her mental capacity was currently focusing on not crawling back into her cell and licking the gruel off of the floor, she wasn't sure if she should trust the other half of herself. Especially when the arm Shambles was snacking on was starting to look appetizing.
"We need to get moving," Kaden said. He peeled the shirt off of one of the guards and donned it. The others nodded to him but Alisen had a better idea.
"Did you really have salted beef?" she asked the Lorakian. He nodded on instinct but then turned to look at Kaden. The other man met his gaze for a moment before he nodded.
"Here," Arestes said, digging a few strips of it out of his pocket. She took it, ignoring the begging look from Shambles, and ate them down in a few bites each, moaning at the gratification of food on her tongue.
"What's the plan?" Seralyse asked.
"Go upstairs, try to sneak out. Hopefully we can find the caravan and the horses and hit the road. Ride hard for a few days and hope for the best?"
"That's a terrible plan," Arestes said. "We're murderers, they'll give chase."
"She's a murderer," Kaden said, pointing to her. Alisen frowned at him. She resented the accusation and found it baseless, but her mouth was too full of beef to defend herself. "We're just opportunists that they were threatening to execute."
"Well it beats standing around here," Arestes said. He spared one look around the dungeon, as if surveying for anything useful, before starting up the stairs. Kaden followed and she and Seralyse followed him. Shambles brought up the rear. She scoffed at him to keep up but he more or less ignored the command.
"Do you remember the layout?" Kaden asked as they reached the top of the stairs. Arestes tried the door. It opened and he let it slowly shift, peering through the small gap and examining the surroundings.
"Yes, but they brought us in the front, and the stables were clearly in the back. We should look for a back exit. We'll need horses," Arestes answered. He spent a moment blocking them all at the door but decided it was clear and they slipped as a group onto the main level.
Alisen remembered nothing of her last time upstairs. Everything seemed shiny and new to her. Which felt a little off as she distinctly remembered shabby the previous time. But her perspective was skewed. She nodded toward a large silver candlestick and Shambles grabbed it, hefting it up like a club. The two men exchanged a look but didn't comment further.
"Let's try that way," Kaden said, nodding toward a far hallway. Arestes pressed his lips together and looked toward a closer hallway. She could sense the internal debate between the two of them. Both thinking the other picked the wrong path. But Arestes acquiesced and they walked as one toward the far hallway.
It wasn't until they reached it that she realized Seralyse was humming. It was very quiet, but noticeable. She meant to snap at the girl for making excess noise, wondering why the men hadn't. At least until she realized she couldn't hear Shambles move. And Shambles, for all of his positive qualities, was not known for stealth.
She watched the Kin's movements from there on. The girl was precise. She wasted no motion even in the simple task of walking. All the while she focused almost entirely on the soft tune she was humming. Alisen always thought Sirens were an overblown concept, but this was now twice in mere minutes where she'd felt some of the enchantment.
She immediately wanted to know far more about the Kin. And just what she was doing traveling with two humans.
They moved silently through the keep. Only once did they even hear another person. And that was a human servant rushing to handle another task. But they still didn't find a back exit. She was starting to doubt the keep even had one.
They approached another series of hallways when the screaming started. Seralyse's ears twitched first.
"Oh no," she said.
"What?" Kaden asked as Shambles's heavy footsteps thudded into the hallway.
"They're raising the alarm," she said. "They found the bodies."
"We have to go," Arestes said. He reached for a nearby door, seemingly at random and threw it open. He stared inside for a moment. Blinked twice. And slammed it shut.
"What was it?" Alisen asked.
"Uh, run," Arestes said. He looked down a side hallway, hesitating for only the briefest of moments, before he took off. The rest of the companions followed. As she was turning the corner Alisen heard the lord of the manor yell behind them.
"Guards! Guards! They're by the library heading toward the larder! Cut them off!"
She ignored the words, wishing he'd have said how they were just left of the emergency exit, or something useful. Instead she struggled to keep up with the other trio. Shambles failed, falling down a set of stairs as they made a sharper turn. She felt bad, but she couldn't help him. And breathing was becoming more difficult with each extra step. Her stomach was furious with her for the expended effort and her brain didn't seem to be functioning as well as she'd have hoped. She focused on keeping up with the others.
She wasn't sure how long they managed to evade capture. With each moment it seemed like they had to be close to escaping. But every hall was cut off by a guard. She wanted to scream at them to just fight through. But Arestes never engaged. He'd turn and pick a different path, and the other two would follow him, giving her no choice but to do the same.
It continued until she was panting. The hopped down some stairs. Alisen nearly stumbled to the ground as they reached the bottom. The room was gorgeous, filled to the brim with meats and cheese and walls of wine. She could have spent the rest of her life there without a second thought.
Which was ironic, she thought, as she was going to.
Kaden's eyes flashed around the room and he was the first to realize they were trapped. He spun around, throwing Alisen behind him, causing her to nearly tumble ino Seralyse as he made for the stairs. But four guards with spears met him, they fanned around the group, holding them in place with their weapons as Lord Millwood stopped two steps from the bottom.
"I was just going to have the Warden hang you in the morning," the Lord said, an obnoxious smirk on his fat face. "But now I think I'll give you to my son when he returns tomorrow evening."
"Even odds right now," Kaden retorted, spinning the dagger in his hand. It earned him a jab with one of the spears. He caught it under his arm and snapped it with an alacrity that surprised Alisen. The guard jumped backwards and pulled out a short sword.
"Hold!" Lord Millwood ordered and the guards stopped. Alisen heard the sound of heavy plate boots on the staircase and felt her lips curl into a frown. "We'll wait for the Warden. It will make any fight far less even. None of them can stand against a Warden of the Gates."
"High opinion of someone else," Kaden laughed. He twirled the dagger once more. "But I still think I can win."
"Maybe you can," Lord Millwood shrugged. "But it will cost you your companions. And I don't think you're willing to throw away their lives."
"What's the point if you're going to kill us anyway?" Kaden retorted.
"I don't have to hurt the girl. She could be useful," Lord Millwood responded. Alisen looked behind the posturing lord. A faint glowing green light descended the stairs, matching the sound of the heavy plate boots. The Warden had negated her magic once. He could do it again. If they were going to fight, she'd be useless in a few short moments but she wasn't sure how to tell Kaden that without telling everyone in the room.
"You're not going to see tomorrow," Kaden said. He flipped the dagger around in his fingers. For a moment, she thought he might throw it at the Lord. But his grip held firm. He clearly wasn't foolish enough to give up his only weapon.
"Oh I think I'll be fine. I'm not sure I can say the same for you though," he answered. He gave them an almost sympathetic smile before he added. "Warden? Kill the men, try to save the girls."
As he finished speaking, Kaden charged.
Author's note: The front half of this story is a bit campaign heavy. Next up is another campaign chapter that gets the group together and then starts their adventure.
As always thanks for reading. I do appreciate all of the support I receive. If you'd like to support me further I am available on PAT RE ON at TE7writes. There are an additional nine chapters of this story live over there as well as four of my other WiP, Cleansing the Sins of the Past