Up and up and up I went, as high as I could physically go. My head began to spin, the magic was taking its toll, I’d been using my portals all night and now I was trying to rapidly gain altitude. Visions began to pour in, Katherine, Krimsun, and Reggie being tortured for information, and then…
CAW! CAW!
The sound of nearly flying right into a crow woke me up. I immediately noticed that I had gone even higher than I intended to, I’d probably have to circle around the back to avoid looking like I’m diving right at the tower.
I locked my glider into place and let gravity and wind do the rest of the work for me, giving my poor mind a bit of a break. Though, even without the strain of magic, I couldn’t help worrying.
Eventually, I was close enough to the prison to see that the windows were all barred. The anti-magic zone prevented anyone from squeezing through with magic.
But I didn’t need magic to get through those bars.
I got in close and grabbed the bars for support as I folded up my glider. Thanks to Wisebeak’s designs, it was compact enough to not need to store in my portal.
Unfortunately, that was the easy part. I still needed to get everyone, including myself, back out.
I reviewed the map, the interrogation room was in the bowels of the prison, meaning several floors of guards cells between me and Krimsun.
“I’ll break Reggie and Katherine out first, they can clear an escape route while I get Krimsun,” I decided.
But first I had to find them.
Without the ability to sense or sneak with magic, I’d be just as vulnerable as any regular rodent. However, the guards also had this restriction. And this place already had a rat problem. Though they saw it as another way to worsen conditions for the prisoners. Fortunately for me, most of the prisoners would be asleep by now, and even if one did notice me I doubt they’d be eager to help the guards.
I kept myself close to the walls as I descended deeper into the prison. Even without magic, I could move around extremely quietly and hear the guards approach before they could notice me. The rats had made plenty of places for me to hide in along the way, from crevices, holes in crates, and so on. It was a tight squeeze, even for me, but I was undetected.
Eventually, I heard the sound I was hoping for.
The sound of armour being tapped on.
“Psst, Katherine!” I whispered once I had confirmed the guards were a safe distance away.
“Mak?” She replied, just barely quietly enough, “You cheese brain! What are you doing here?”
“Getting you out, iron head,” I said as I quickly began work on the lock, “Where’s Reggie?”
I felt a hand on my shoulder and span around with my claws.
“Come on, you really thought I wouldn’t escape before you got here?” Reggie replied.
“You’re still in this prison, aren’t you?” I reminded him, “Either way, I’ll go get Krimsun, you two-”
“Escape plan?” Reggie interrupted, “Got it covered, you just get our captain on the sea-side shore in 30 minutes,”
“And if you’re not there,” Katherine added, “I’ll bust a hole in the wall and come after you, magic or no magic,”
I nodded, gave Katherine a hug, and took off.
As tense as I felt at the time, it was not especially exciting for the proceeding ten minutes. I heard guards coming, I hid and waited before proceeding, repeat. This continued until I had nearly reached the bottom.
I looked down the last set of stairs and found two heavily equipped guards in front of a thick iron door. They were practically motionless and were so thoroughly covered in armour that they seemed like identical statues.
Getting past them would be substantially tougher.
I reached into my bag and pulled out some of the tools. I looked through them and eventually grabbed some thread and a screwdriver. I then made my way over to a cell with a prisoner a little ways away and began quietly loosening the hinges. They squeaked a little, but he was either a heavy sleeper or a good actor as he didn’t move much as I had the door on the precipice of falling over. I quickly tied the thread around the door and unwound it as I moved as close as I could to the interrogation room without being seen.
Then I pulled the thread.220Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLX9uXP7g5T
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CLANK CLANK CLANK!
“GAHH! WHAT’S THAT!” the prisoner screamed to consciousness.
And just as planned, the guards bolted up the stairs and around the corner to investigate. As they passed me, I quickly snatched the keys off one of their belts and ran down the stairs. I didn’t have a moment to spare, I unlocked the door and opened it to find calm and quiet Krimsun.
Chained, bruised, bloodied, a swollen eye, no fingernails on her left hand, and yet she sat up with perfect posture and poise. “Ah, Mak, thank you for coming. Would you mind freeing me from these chains, they are quite uncomfortable,”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said as I began getting her out, “I’m sorry I took so long,”
“Faster than I expected to be honest,” she said as if she had graded a paper on some obscure art piece, “I assume you at least told someone about what we found before risking it all to get us out?”
“Yes, I told Wisebeak,”
“Thorton? Not much of a fighter or diplomat, but as trustworthy as they come,” she brushed off some dirt and dried blood off her clothes as she stood up, “Now, let’s get out of here,”
She casually approached the door and swung it open, much to the surprise of one of the guards who had just returned.
“Sorry about this,” she said as she grabbed the mace from his hands and clobbered him in the head with it, “Where are we escaping from?” she asked as the guard slumped to the ground.
“Seaside shore, follow me!” I replied as I dashed up the stairs.
Hiding wasn’t really going to work quite as well now that Krimsun was with me. But as I quickly discovered when we turned a corner and she knocked out the other guard who was just returning. We may not need to be stealthy after all.
“One should never solely rely on magic, you should heighten your physical abilities as well,” she said as she grabbed the guard’s weapon, “But I suppose you are well aware of this, seeing as how you got this far on your own,”
“Thank you, ma’am,” I said, a bit taken aback by the compliment.
She took out no less than ten guards before we made it to the shore, where Reggie and Katherine have set up a small rowboat.
“Hop in guys,” Katherine yelled as she finished getting the boat ready to take off.
We bolted in the boat, just as the guards began raining arrows down on us. Katherine blocked them with a massive kite shield.
“Found this in the room where they had the rest of our gear, thought it’d come in handy!” She beamed proudly.
Krimsun and Reggie rowed as fast as they could to the edge of the anti-magic field, but it was slow going. The guards were in pursuit, setting off on boats of their own and firing on us. They were approaching fast, and they had harpoons.
“Faster!” Krimsun yelled.
“I. am. Not. Built. For. This!” Reggie shouted between breaths.
It felt horrible, not being able to do anything here. But I supposed that it was my turn to wait and trust in them.
Katherine stalwartly deflected each attack that came our way as Reggie and Krimsun rowed for dear life. But it would only be a matter of time before…
THUNK!
A harpoon tore right through the hull of the small boat and sprung a fast leak.
“Don’t stop! Keep moving!” Krimsun yelled, “Mak, slow it as best you can! We’re nearly there!”
I dug through my backpack and tried covering the opening as best I could with whatever I could find. But just as I began to slow it down.
THUNK! THUNK!
Two more harpoons.
We were just about to exit the anti-magic zone, but we’d be caught anyway at this rate. If we didn’t drown. It was hard to decide which would be worse at this point.
But before I had a chance to give further thought to our grim fate, Krimsun yelled.
“Brace yourselves!”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
An enormous whirlpool was beginning to form just outside the boundary, and it was sucking us in.
ns 15.158.61.13da2
