Chương 61: Breakout

The corridor was narrow and cold. The door in front of her looked the same as the others. Heavy iron, no handle, the lock pulsing faint at eye level. She let go of her glamour and pulled a new thread from her core. The enchantment had a different shape than the rocks she'd been training with. The warming charms had a sense of uniformity, their magic emitting heat in all directions. This wasn't how the lock worked. The gears in her mind turned. What was the point of a magical lock? Making it harder to pick.

With no hole, no pins to push, it was impossible to do without mana control. A skill people in Esmera didn't practice much. She spread the thread thin against the surface of the lock and began working it around the edges. Where she pressed too hard, it pushed back. It wasn't the pull of ambient mana. Maybe some safeguard on the enchantment. She eased off. The trick with spellcraft was never force. Above her, footsteps crossed the courtyard. She could hear them through the vents. She ignored them.

She was already standing still, only her mana moving around the lock. Something passed in front of an aeration vent, blocking the light for a second. She kept weaving the thread until half the surface was covered in her mana. Then, she spread it like a blanket, covering the rest in one go. She counted the seconds. The enchantment was grasping for mana, applying suction on her spell while simultaneously pushing outward in other places. She tensed as she prayed for her spell to hold. It did.

The enchantment died, suffocated. Without releasing her thread, she grabbed the lock in her hands and pulled it open with a clang. She froze. Silence. Then she pushed the door open. The smell came first. Stale air, old food. The cell was dark, with only a hole the size of her fist in the ceiling letting in almost nothing.

"Louis," she whispered. Something moved in the corner. He was lying on the floor against the far wall. He pushed himself up on one arm, slow. His face was covered in grime, his shirt torn at the shoulder. A dark stain ran from his collar down to his ribs. He sat up and looked at her.

"Alexandra?" His voice was raspy.

"What are you doing here?" She put a finger on her lips.

"Saving you. Get out of here." Louis looked at her in a daze. He blinked.

"How?"

"You figure it out. I need to move."

"How did you get here?" She grimaced.

"Not now." Something banged on the door across from Louis' cell. She looked back. The corridor was still empty. She turned to Louis.

"Move." He nodded slowly and stood up.

"You," a weak voice came from behind the closed door.

"Alex—Alexandra? Is that you?" This voice…

"It's me," it continued.

"Marick." She met Louis' gaze. What was he doing here?

"You know him?" Louis whispered. She stepped closer to the door. Dispelled the lock. It was getting easier. Opened the door. Marick was standing right behind it. She looked up at him.

"You're alive." He opened his mouth.

"Lanterne?" She flinched. Looked down. He exhaled.

"I didn't want to believe it."

"I'm sorry." He put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not your fault." She shook. Bit her tongue. John… He doesn't need to know. Marick looked at Louis behind her.

"You two know each other?"

"Let's talk later. We have to leave," she whispered. Marick and Louis turned to her.

"We're not leaving," Louis said.

"We're running out of time. This is our best chance to stop them." Alexandra frowned.

"With what army? One Gold, one Silver, and one Iron are far from enough."

"Two Golds," Louis said.

"What? Being locked up is surprisingly good experience for a thief." You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"More like seven Gold ranks," Marick said, gesturing at the other cells.

"I'm not the only village chief rotting here. If our homes and people are gone…"

"They are. All of them."

"Then we want revenge." Alexandra looked at the next door on the right. It was locked, like all of them. She moved. The lock came apart faster than Louis' and Marick's. Practice. She pulled it open and stepped back. The woman inside was on her feet already, standing in the middle of the cell like she'd been waiting. Older than Marick, grey threading through dark hair, a cut above her eyebrow that had healed badly. She looked at Alexandra, then past her at the corridor.

"Marick," she said.

"Dena." He moved forward and gripped her arm.

"I heard." Her eyes went back to Alexandra.

"And I'm in. Keep going." As she worked on the locks, freeing the prisoners one by one, Louis explained what he knew.

"Lucius Merinus is preparing a bloodline ritual. He wants to feed Esmera to the Yshant, raise it to Platinum, and use the beast as a sacrifice."

"A Warden, compromised this deeply," Dena said.

"It's unheard of.

""A failed Warden," Marick argued.

"But if he wishes for the mark of Augustus…" Louis shook his head.

"He already has one. A bloodline. The entire family does. It's old." The lock came apart.

"The fuck is a bloodline?" Alexandra asked, sweat beading down her forehead. She was already moving for the next door, leaving the others to greet the man inside the cell.

"The best way to see it is as a hereditary perk," Louis explained.

"Though they're generally on the stronger side."

"A city for a perk…" Alexandra said.

"Seems excessive."

"You don't realize how valuable a bloodline is. Being able to pass down a perk is how the most powerful clans are made."

"And the Seven are fine with that?" Louis grimaced.

"Forgiving the sins of a distant ancestor is easier than destroying a noble clan. The orders may not like the source of bloodlines, but they sure do like the power they grant."

"Enough with the blasphemy," Dena cut in.

"Do you know what the Merinus family's does?" The next lock opened.

"I don't. I was captured right as I found out about it." The next lock opened. The man inside was older, grey at the temples, a deep bruise running jaw to cheekbone. He stepped out without a word and stood with Marick, one hand pressed flat against the wall. The one after that was a woman, maybe forty, with short hair and a split lip that had closed badly. She looked at the open door, then at Alexandra.

"Saved by an Iron," she said.

"How far we have fallen…" Marick said.

"You're with us?" She looked at him.

"I'll kill Lucius myself." The last cell was at the start of the corridor. One of the doors she passed when making for Louis' cell. She was tired. The mana threads had been small, precise work, and that was its own kind of drain. She could feel it behind her eyes, a dull pressure that radiated to her forehead and shoulders. She found the edge of the lock and began working anyway. The lock resisted more than the others. Or maybe it was her mind that was fumbling it.

"Take your time," Louis said from behind her.

"We don't have time," she said.

"I'm trying." She spread the thread thinner than she had before, and she felt the enchantment push back, insistent. She held it. Counted. The pressure built and then, like the others, collapsed. She pulled the lock open. The man inside was large. Broad shoulders, sitting with his back against the wall and his legs stretched out in front of him. He looked up at her without surprise, like he'd been waiting for his turn.

"About time," he said. He stood, ducked through the doorframe and joined the others.

"Dustin," Marick greeted.

"Glad to see you here." Dustin grunted.

"Only us five got captured alive. That's nothing to be proud about."

"At least we can fuck Merinus over." Alexandra turned around. Eight people in a narrow corridor. One weapon, her sickle.

"So what's the plan?" Dustin asked.

"We got our asses kicked before. We can't just climb up the stairs and fight."

"We go step by step," Louis said.

"The longer they take to realize we're free, the better. What do we have?" Silence. Then Dena spoke.

"I'm an archer. Don't have a bow, though."

"Axe," the middle-aged woman said. She hadn't given her name.

"With no actual axe. So yeah…"

"Same," said the older man.

"We need to find weapons."

"I hit things," Dustin said.

"He hits things very hard," Marick added.

"I'm also an axeman, and I agree we need weapons." Louis nodded.

"I'm a rogue. No weapons, but I can make use of shadows to some extent." Everyone looked at Alexandra.

"Look guys, I got you out of here. I'm Iron rank, don't look at me like that." She paused.

"But I can deal with verdant beasts. Maybe not the Yshant, but most of them."

"Not gonna be that useful here," Dustin said. A voice came from the courtyard through a vent in the ceiling. The corridor went silent. Footsteps. Something moving in front of the light for a second. Then the footsteps faded in the distance. Nobody spoke. Alexandra summoned her journal. A Face Among Many 2 -> 3 Mana Manipulation 2 -> 3 She flipped the page to Adventuring Party, and handed the book to Louis.

"Place your palm on the page." He grabbed the journal, and looked at it.

"I can read—" He looked up.

"Did you?"

"A class perk." He let out a silent whistle, and pressed his palm on the page. Then, he handed it back to her.

"Thank you. I mean it." She watched the words appear. Adventuring Party Members (2/3): Alexandra Ward Louis Ombre Ombre. So that was his name.

"Anyone under level eighteen?" The others shook their heads.

"Then I'm sorry. I can't add you to my perk."

"Not a huge loss," the middle-aged woman said.

"No offence, but you're only Iron." She shrugged. A sound from the top of the stairs. A voice. One word, muffled by the door. Then another voice answering. The sound of the door opening. Then footsteps in the staircase. Louis gestured at the others. They all hid in the last cell, furthest from the stairs, out of view. Alexandra pulled out her sickle from under her shirt. The voices continued. A conversation, unhurried. The footsteps reached the bottom. Silence for a moment.

"The hell—" Then the sound of a door swinging on its hinges. Footsteps again, faster now. The second door. Then the third.

"Someone's been through here," the first guard said. His voice was clear now.

"Check the rest." Alexandra tightened her grip on the sickle. Fourth door. Louis held up two fingers. Pointed them at Dustin and Marick. Then he looked at the others. They all knew what to do. Fifth door. Dustin and Marick were already moving.