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Pim

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The strange woman in the center of this mess is the one to break the awkward silence. “Who the hell are you?” Her eyes are narrowed, but her tone and posture are totally unconcerned. I stand up since I’ve already been caught… and my legs are aching. The woman continues to stare at me, waiting for an answer. I don’t even bother to write anything, and just shrug.

She shrugs in return. “Whatever, die quietly then. I’m busy.” She waves a hand at me, causing the nearest three cloaked figures to flinch. After a moment, they all begin to quickly stumble towards me.

The captain and Porter jump out from their hiding spaces, putting themselves between me and the approaching threat. Confused, the pale woman raises her eyebrow at the newcomers. Then her eyes drift over the emblem on the duo’s uniforms.

“Knights,” she snarls. Hobbling a half step backwards she begins muttering to herself. “Oh, no, no, no, no! I have made it this far without being caught by you dimwitted primitives, I will not be stopped now!” Her voice is shrill, almost a scream as she rants at the three of us.

The woman suddenly explodes into a cloud of red vapor. The gas rushes out from the center of the room, quickly approaching my little group. Porter doesn’t manage to respond in time to dodge the attack, barely managing to raise his weapon in front of him. The captain however jumps into the air, clearing the haze. In the end, his escape doesn’t amount to much, as the gas rapidly changes directions. Being midair, the knight can’t maneuver out of the way, and takes the full brunt of the gas’ expansion.

Porter slumps to the ground, quickly followed by the captain dropping out of the air next to him. As I watch in horror as my protectors are almost instantly taken out, the mist flows over me as well… Then, nothing happens. I stay standing, not even feeling a little bit off. I stare through the gas at the feminine silhouette still at the center of the room.

As the fog clears and the woman’s eyes go wide as she sees me still standing. I raise an eyebrow, unsure what I even did. Her eyes narrow in anger as she snarls at me. “Fine, girl, I’ll just have to kill you then.” She raises a hand with long red fingernails dramatically. “Rise, my knights!” She stares at me with a malicious smile.

At first I’m confused as to what she’s even doing, but I quickly put it together. Porter and the captain begin to stir jerking onto their feet, moving unnaturally like the cloaked people surrounding the dias. As the two of them finish getting themselves stable, the captain flickers out of existence.

Before I can even wonder where the man went, the air above me parts with a roar. I’m pushed backwards as something blocks the swing that would’ve certainly cut me cleanly down the middle. Glancing at my savior, I’m shocked to see the prisoner that was dragged along with us. The man’s right arm is replaced by a long silver sword, and is currently keeping Captain Jet’s spear at bay. Grabbing his elbow with his free arm, the prisoner pushes the captain’s spear backwards. Jet stumbles a few feet back, the dark metal spear gouging the stone floor as he goes.

Just as things seem to be turning around, two strong arms wrap around me. The person behind me pins my arms to my sides, stopping me from writing anything. Turning my head sideways, I see Porter’s expressionless face. Dammit! I can’t believe I forgot about him!

The prisoner, hearing the scuffle behind him, turns around. As he realizes what happened, blood explodes from his chest. The tip of Jet’s spear pushes through him, dripping in sticky black fluids. The man coughs as more of the dark goo fills his mouth. In only a few seconds he goes limp, and the light dies in his eyes.

Loud clapping comes from the center of the cave, slow, sarcastic clapping. “Very good, gentlemen! That’s enough for now, why not let the little lady watch before she dies?” She smiles down at me from her metal pedestal.

Obeying the woman, Jet drops his weapon to the ground, corpse included. Then Porter turns himself so that we can both have a clear view of the dangling Zenith. Tears start to run down my face as I notice how gaunt Zenith looks.

The wretched witch walks over to one of the many terminals connected to the middle platform, and moves something that makes a deep clunking sound. After the noise dies, the entire room begins to gently vibrate. Blue light runs through each of the many cables strewn throughout the cavern, each crackling with power. Once all of the cords are brightly lit, rings that run up the dias’ two arms light up one by one.

I watch through tears, unable to even move, as each ring lights up. After half of the rings are lit, Zenith starts to thrash around. His eyes don’t open, and he makes no sounds, but he moves like he’s in pain. The charging accelerates, and not long after that the last ring blinks on.

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The vibration becomes a violent shaking as the entire cave begins to rumble. Metal tools around the cave clatter to the floor as several stalactites fall from the ceiling. Even the massive dias itself rattles slightly. Then, slowly, a small black sphere begins to form in the center of Zenith’s chest. It rapidly grows, quickly consuming my sibling. Not long after that the black orb fills the space between the dias and its arms.

Without warning, the shaking stops. Sudden silence fills the room, only spoiled by the hum of energy running through the cables. The ominous black sphere ripples, revealing an unfamiliar forest. The woman rushes to the dias, almost falling off its edge.

“I did it!” she wheezes, her eyes filled with a crazed energy. “I fucking did it! I can go home!” Her head snaps towards her nearest minion. “Come up here.”

Jerkily, the cloaked person stumbles up next to her. She looks the person over for a moment before nodding. Seemingly satisfied, she shoves the figure through the portal. The sphere makes the sound of splashing water as the underling falls through. After a few seconds the orb’s surface settles, revealing the person standing on the other side, staring back at us glassy eyed.

“I… I can go home!” the woman screams ecstatically. “I can really go home to her!” Without waiting another second, she jumps into the sphere.

But, unlike the first person, she doesn’t pass through. Instead, her form freezes midair after touching the portal. Then her body begins to glow, brighter and brighter until I can’t look at her anymore. Once the bright light is gone, and I hear a splash, I open my eyes.

The woman is gone, in her place is a small orb of red light, similar to the gas she used earlier. Similar, but smaller, spheres of red light zip from the cloaked people around us, including the one on the other side of the orb. After collecting its smaller siblings, the red light shoots through the stone roof of the cavern.

Looking through the portal, I see the woman’s clothes laying on the forest floor, smoking. The person she pushed through earlier shakes their head and looks back through the portal at us. They make an extremely confused face just before the sphere collapses back into itself.

The cavern dims without the light from the other side of the portal, and the cables all go silent as the energy drains. Hanging from the arches of the dias, revealed by the vanished sphere, is an unharmed Zenith. Before I can go run to him, something flashes past me. The blur moves above my brother, cutting the chains holding him. Before he hits the floor, Captain Jet appears and catches him.

I hear a loud groan next to me, and I look to see the prisoner slowly get to his feet, spear and all. “That’s the last time I help others.” He reaches down and pulls the spear from his chest. The wound quickly seals itself, leaving no blood behind. The black eyed man glares at the captain as he returns with my brother.

The many other people in the cave with us start to let out groans and yawns, as if waking up for the first time today. The nearest one, a grey-haired elderly man, sees the knight’s uniform on my companions and starts to head towards us. The young knight jumps in front of me, holding out his axe in a defensive stance. I swear I can hear the man’s joints creak as he has to stop suddenly. He slowly raises shaking hands in a disarming manner.

“I-I don’ mean any harm lad, I was just gon’ ask where we are.” Fear lurks in the old man’s eyes, along with a good dose of confusion. Young knight doesn’t lower his weapon. If I could sigh, I would. I quickly scribble letters in the air, making the old man go wide-eyed.

“You can only tell us the truth,” I scrawl. I knew the man has read it once the letters explode in a golden flash. The knight looks at me, clearly unsure what to do. Is he alright in the head? “Ask him questions.” The knight nods.

“Do you know where we are?” is Porter’s first question. The old man shakes his head. Good so far. I notice the others in the cave approaching our group cautiously. They stop a good distance away, though, so I ignore them for now. “What were you just doing?”

The old man goes to immediately answer but then shuts his mouth. He thinks some more before trying again. “I don’ remember wha’ I was doin’ lad. The bes’ I can recall is eatin’ dinner and goin’ to bed.”

Porter scratches his chin, rubbing a beard he doesn’t have. “Captain Jet, what do you make of this?” I turn, unsure as to why young knight is asking the captain. At some point the captain started questioning people as well and has a semi-circle of the cloaked figures near him.

Jogging towards us, the captain replies. “I don’t have Lady Pim’s magic helping me, but they’ve all said similar things.” Jet was at least a dining hall’s worth of space away from us. How’d he hear anything we said? It’s not like Porter was screaming. As the captain comes to a stop near us, I notice that he left Zenith’s unconscious body in the prisoner’s arm. I want to question the wiseness of that decision but don’t get the chance.

“I figure these people were controlled by that woman like we were, but for a much longer period.” The captain strokes his actually existent beard before continuing, “I figure we should round them up and take them to the manor, we can have them put under guard and get checked over by the doc.” I tilt my head questioningly. He snorts at my lame attempt to communicate. “I figure a magic that mind-controls people will have some nasty withdrawal, at least after that length of time.” I nod at that, it makes sense. I point at the two knights, but the captain shakes his head dismissively. “We weren’t under it long, so we should be fine… But, I’ll have the doc check us anyways.” I smile at his prudence.

“Now the real question is how the hell are we gonna move all these people up through that tunnel and into town.” He snorts. “A group of twenty, all dressed in black cloaks, moving through the streets at night will kick the hornet’s nest.” He looks at me expectantly.

I really wish I could sigh.