The Defenders of Sol were shackled by smirking guards. A few of them had scuffed armor and bruises that indicated that they were in the scrum in the alleyways. After they were bound, the defenders were slowly processed through the city streets. Many of the other guards and townsfolk stopped what they were doing to watch them walk past.
“Aren't those defenders they took down the spire?” one said.
“I have heard they help people. What happened to them? Why did they take down the spire?” another chimed in.
“Justice for the White Hand!”
“The freak hunters finally betrayed us!”
Desmond’s heart broke at the jeers. He stopped walking with his head hung low. He looked at the people with a solemn face as he said, “I know you were all hurting. I know this day is the most shocking thing to happen to Javailty in generations, but I ask you all to please reserve your judgment. We are not your enemies.”
A guard shoved the paladin in the back as the general shouted, “Quiet, keep moving.”
The group settled down as they watched them walk through the city. They had seen the destruction before, but in this slow walk, they were able to see pieces of the great white building everywhere. Fires still smoldered as smoke rose in columns high into the air.
“That general is a real piece of work,” Aiden whispered to Desmond.
“That captain does not seem to be a bad guy. He has a level head,” Desmond whispered back.
“We can only hope they listen to him,” Aiden said.
***
The group finally made it to the palace of Javailty. There, the gate that had the beautiful landscape that was forged from iron was open. The group walked through it into the courtyard. Inside, sculptures of various events in the history of the kingdom were all around. There were magnificently trimmed hedges and fountains. After they passed under the gates, Desmond looked back and saw a woman on the palace walls. She was looking out into the city. As the group made their way into the courtyard, the woman turned to look at them. Her face was laden with concern.
“Who is that?” Desmond asked.
“Elizabeth,” Nia said.
“She does not look happy,” Aiden whistled.
The woman continued to stare at them and shook her head. As they were led to the right of the courtyard, the woman looked back to her city.
“Follow me,” Harold growled. “ We will take you to a holding cell until the governor is ready for you.”
They came to a small stone building that had a black iron gate. A guard went to either side of the doors and opened them for the party. They slowly walked down a flight of stone stairs that plunged deep into the ground. Their steps echoed against the grey stone. For a long time, they walked downward until they came to a large room.
The room looked to be a barracks where a few soldiers were playing chespel and drinking tea. As soon as they saw the general, they sprang up and formed a crooked line.
“Sir,” one of the soldiers yelled. Their voice vibrated off the bare walls.
“Look alive, we have a few for the holding cells,” the governor shouted.
“Prisoners, sir?” one of the guards asked.
“No,” Marshal cut in. “We are holding them here until they can speak to the governor.”
The guards looked at each other curiously. Everyone could sense the tension between the general and the captain. There was an uneasy silence as everyone was quiet, waiting to either to speak.
The general grumbled, “You can take them to the right. There is a larger holding cell there that they can all stay in together, but first, we need to take their weapons and any armor.”
Cynthia gave up her warhammer but took a step back after one of the guards tried to take her armor. Likewise, the others also resisted.
“Do you have any idea where this armor was forged?” Desmond asked. “It is priceless to me. I will not hand it over. Besides, what am I going to do without my armor?”
“We are not the enemy,” Maeve protested. “Marshal, you said that we were just going to stay here until we see the governor. What do you mean we are being held now without our armor like a common prisoner?”
“You are any common prisoner if you're down here,” the guard from the prison block chimed in.
Cynthia stepped forward and pushed aside the two soldiers who held her arms. She went face-to-face with the prison guard. They both stared at each other as the other two grabbed her again. Marshal raised his hands and stepped between them.
“All right now, all right. General, can you at least let them keep their armor? Like Desmond said, it is not like they are going to use it to break out. Let them keep their armor and keep some of their dignity while they have an audience with the governor, will you?”
The general stared at Cynthia, who did not break a stare in return. After a tense moment, he said, “Fine, just get them in the cell.”
***
The defenders followed the guards down one of the hallways that had a long row of cells. Although there seemed to be a large number of cells, everything was empty and quiet. Torches and high slits in the ceiling lit their way as they moved onward.
“Over here,” the lead guard opened a cell door, and each of the Defenders of Sol followed one by one into the holding area. After they were all inside, the door was closed behind them with a heavy clang.
“Now, what?” Aiden asked as each of them placed their hands through the bars, and their bindings were taken off.
“Now, you stay here until we get word that the governor is ready to see you,” the governor responded.
“I am not holding my breath,” Aiden scoffed.
The general returned a scoff of his own as he held Cynthia’s warhammer and briefly admired it.
“You better put that with our other things,” Cynthia seethed.
The general only smiled as he led his guards away back to the barracks. Marshal remained and stared at the defenders.
“What do you want?” Desmond called to him.
Marshal remained quiet for a moment as he looked at each of them.
Then, he said, “I will go and speak with the governor now. I haven’t a clue what is going on with you all, but you do not deserve to wait here. I know you want what is best for this kingdom.”
“Thank you,” Maeve said with a weak smile. She did not mean it, but she only wanted him to leave them alone.
“Well, what do we do now?” Desmond said as the captain left.
“What can we do?” Nia said. “We just have to wait until the governor is ready to see us. Then, we explain our piece, and we get back on track, saving your leader and stopping Astrid.”
Cynthia shook her head as she slumped to the cold stone floor.
“What is it?” Nia said. “I know I have not known you all for very long, but we have to have a positive outlook on this.”
“You can tell they do not believe us,” Aiden said as he laid his head back against the wall.
Maeve looked at her companions, who all seemed to be defeated. Desmond was throwing stones against the bars, Cynthia was clenching her jaw as her mind stewed, and Aiden simply closed his eyes as he sat on a plain stone bench that was carved out of the wall.
“I know it does not look great, but there is hope. These are our people,” Maeve said. “You heard Marshal; he is on our side. I believe that once we get an audience with the governor, we will be able to explain ourselves and prove that we are on their side. That we are good.”
“They do not put people they think are good in prison cells," Cynthia said. “Look around, don’t you think that they have a place to keep guests who are going to see the governor? In the end, I suspect that the general has the most sway over the governor. He believes that we are enemies of their city, and that is why we are here. I would not be surprised if we never get that audience.”
Then, the group heard a commotion from down the hall. There was a shuffling of feet and a clang of armor. After, there was a thud and muffled groan.
Aiden peered out through the bars as he said, “Well, I hope we are not next up for that special treatment.
He peered down the hall and could hear someone or something being dragged. After a short time, two guards came into view; they were dragging a figure in a black cloak. He was not struggling, but they could hear soft whimpers coming from him.
One of the guards came to their door as he barked, “Stand back!”
The defenders all went to the wall of the cell, opened it, and threw the man inside. He fell over in a heap as he coughed and wheezed.
“There, now all you traitors can be in one place,” the other guard said as he kicked the man.
Aiden stepped forward, but the guard put his hand on his sword and lowered his stare.
“Don’t try it, boy,” the guard growled.
After staring into the guard's eyes for a moment, Aiden stepped back in line.
“That is what I thought. Now play nice, you six. I am sure the governor will be free anytime now.”
The guards closed the cell door with a clang as they all laughed.
After they were gone, Nia ran over to the figure.
“A member of the What Hand!” she said hopefully.
As she turned the figure over, she gasped and backed up.
“Markel! You traitor!” she yelled.
Cynthia shot to her feet and stepped over to the man, who cowered back when he saw the large woman.
“W-what are you all going in this cell?” he frantically asked.
This hood fell off, and they saw his face. His short, brown hair stuck up in every direction. One of his eyes was closed shut and bloody. He had a number of other scraps all over. After a while, he stared at them and smiled.
“They did not believe you, did they?” he laughed. “They think you are just as bad as I am.”
Cynthia picked him up and slammed him into the stone wall. The man grunted as she shook him. After she looked at him, she tossed him to the side.
“You should be ashamed of yourself. Why didn’t you just die back there,” Cynthia spat.
Markel pulled himself against the wall and threw his head back, he took in a deep breath and slowly let it out as he said, "Now I wish I had died. Being locked in here with you all is more punishment than I deserve.”
“When we see the governor, I will make sure that they know what you did,” Mia said. “You are not getting out of here.”
“I am not sure you're in much of a position to be threatening people,” Markel said with a smile. “It is as if we are in the same situation no matter what side we were on at the spire.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“You mean the side to take over the kingdom and throw it into chaos? The side to worship a dark God and to follow people who murder and destroy? We are not the same and never will be,” Cynthia said as she walked away from the dark mage.
“Well," Markel said. “We all better get used to one another because we are going be in this cell together for a long time.”
“Not if I just split you open right now,” Cynthia said as she made another move at him. Desmond and Aiden struggled to hold her back as she pushed forward.
“Woah, there,” Markel said, and he raised his hands. “What I meant was that we could be here for a long time, or we could all break out of this damned place together.”
Nia pointed at her old friend, “I would never help the likes of you. You are a traitor. You killed our people.”
Maeve put her hand on Nia’s shoulder as she broke down. The young mage turned around to compose herself.
Then, Maeve stepped forward and asked, “What do you mean break out of here? If we really wanted to break out, we could do it without your help. What would you offer that we could not do?”
"Is that so?” Markel said with a smile. “Hmm, what could I offer? I wonder. Anyway, how would you break out of here?”
“Trust me, between us four and now with Nia, I doubt there is not much that we cannot do,” Maeve said.
Markel nodded slowly with his head cocked, “ I am sure you are all very confident in yourselves, but you are not unstoppable. You were caught, just like me, after all.”
The traitorous mage stood up as he looked around the cell. He walked around slowly as he said, “The White Hand helped to design these jail cells.” He paused as he gripped one of the bars. “These were built to keep people like you and me in. They were built well. There is no way you could escape from here, not without my help.”
“How did you get caught if you were so smart,” Aiden asked.
Markel rubbed the back of his head, “Well when your friend over there hit me over the head with her hammer, everything went black. Then, apparently, someone dropped the spire on my head while I was still out. I woke up completely buried by the rubble. After a time, the guards were able to help me out of there.”
“I am confused,” Nia said, “You are, or where, a part of the White Hand. Why did they arrest you right after rescuing you? You were one of the council guards. Surely, they would know who you were and trust you."
“Well, I woke up and saw the ruins all around me. Guards were everywhere. I got nervous and decided to make a run for it. Evidently, that looks like guilt, and they brought me in. I tried to explain myself afterward, but this general that they brought me to was not too keen on mages. I think you all met him as well,” Markel said.
“General Harold,” Desmond said. “Oh yes, we met him. That still does not make sense, though. Why would they try to take you to jail? They have no reason to think you are anything other than a member of the White Hand, regardless if you ran.”
Markel shrugged and leaned back against the stone as he said, “The general is new around here. He was an old transplant from the front lines of the border war. As you know, mages in our kingdom are now a rare sight and are becoming more rare by the year. Your group is probably also aware that the Royal Army is not a big fan of mages who do not join their ranks and fall in line. This general has done his fair share of fighting magic welders on the front lines. He had difficulty understanding why we had our own order when he came here.”
“He should know there are many groups that do not fall under the army's thumb that do good work,” Cynthia said.
“That had not gotten through his thick skull yet,” Markel said dryly. “In my eyes, this whole incident is a way for him to put an end to our orders once and for all. I suspect that in time, he will try to recruit us for a chance at getting out of here.”
“This General Harold seems to have quite a few issues,” Maeve said. “I have heard that Governor Elizabeth is level-headed. Surely, she, with the help of Captain Marshal, will see the light. Once we explain, they will let us out.”
“That is a possibility,” Markel said. “Although people do say that Elizabeth is very trusting of Harold as an advisor. He is probably filling her head with doubts as we speak. I would not be so confident that you will get your audience anytime soon.”
As she stopped speaking, the mage shook his head with a smile as he scanned the room.
“What are you smiling for?” Aiden said. “If what you say is true, you are in the same situation as us. We might be here together for a long time. That is unless Cynthia squashes you first.”
“Well,” Markel responded. “Let us just say that I only have to wait here until my people come and release me.”
“Yeah, sure,” Aiden shook his head as he slumped down on one of the stone-carved benches.
Markel smiled again and closed his eyes, “You will see. By your glum attitude and the fact that you are here, I have already guessed that Astrid succeeded. She has the artifact and the staff and soon will have the power of Dyurkan. Her ruin will come to this kingdom, and it is only a matter of time until it comes to Javailty. When that happens, I will be released and take my place among the new leaders of this land.”
Desmond scoffed, and he shook his head. He was back to sitting down against the wall and throwing stones against the bars. One sent out a loud clang followed by a yell, quiet, from the guards down the hall.
“What is so funny, paladin? Your day of reckoning is coming due. The light of Areandel is fading. It is the dusk of your powers. Your false gods and their heretical divine order will fall once we bring Dyurkan into this world. A new order is rising,” Markel smiled.
“You know, you are very high and mighty right now, but it will not last. You are just another misguided soul, Desmond said.”
“How do you figure?” Markel asked curiously.
Desmond shook his head and turned away. It was clear that he was done treating with the dark mage.
Maeve stepped in and said, “Dyurkan does not care about you, he does not even care about Astrid. If he returns, you will be nothing more than a slave to him. He does not want to help your continent build a new order. He intends to destroy this world and control it with an iron fist. You might be higher than those goblins that Astrid commands, but in the end, you will never know real power.”
Markel laughed, “Yeah, yeah, that is what you think.”
Desmond looked over to the traitorous mage. He could see that there was a tinge of worry in his mind as he thought of Maeve’s words. Desmond gave a smile as he knew that Markel was pondering his future and what he had done.
“Alright, alright,” Aiden cut into the tension. “I am done with all this talk about light and dark magic or gods that you people worship. What is important is getting out of here. What I would like to do then is to go and hide, but I suppose we promised Gloria that we would stop Astrid and Graham. Now, Markel, you said something about getting out of here?”
“Well," Markel said slowly. “If you have a little fight left in you, I think we could use some of that to start.”
“What do you mean?” Aiden asked.
***
All was still quiet in the long halls of the palace jail. Suddenly, it was broken by shouting, followed by a loud clang.
Is that all you got? Sounded out, followed by another bang.
“Hey, I told you to keep it down back there!” a guard shouted.
Quickly after that, there was a blast of energy. The guards peered down the hall, and they could see sparks flying around. It was followed by another metallic clang.
“Come on, move, move, move,” the lead guard shouted.
The other guards left to their feet, and they grabbed their weapons and shields. In short order, fifteen fully armed soldiers were making their way down the prison hallway.
The company of soldiers finally made it to the large cell that held the defenders and Markel. There, they saw a fight breaking out. Markel had shot a blast of fire at Cynthia, which narrowly missed her and crashed into the wall. Nia shouted, thundi, and returned a blue shockwave to Markel, which threw him into the bars. After this, Cynthia advanced and picked up the mage. She looked to try and give a finishing blow.
“Put him down!” the guard ordered as he prodded a spear through the bars of the cell. “You put him down right now.”
“What are you going to do about it? Are you going to come in here and try to stop me?” Cynthia jeered. “The large woman smiled and threw Markel into the ground. This traitorous scum betrayed us. I am going to end his pathetic life.”
The guards all held up their spears as the lead one shouted, “You will do no such thing. If you ever want an audience with the governor, you will stand down now.”
Aiden walked up to Markel and flashed a smile as he said, “No, we are getting our revenge here and now. You cannot stop us.”
The guards all looked at each other; it was clear they were nervous to confront the group. Then, the lead guards stepped forward with a key. He clicked the lock open and grabbed the handle of the door.
“All of you, on me!” the guard yelled as he surged forward. “Break them up, and get that one into a new cell.”
The guards piled into the room, trying to separate the people, but the defenders were quick as Mia flashed them all with a blast of her magic. Then, a scrum ensued. Cynthia had grabbed a few soldiers and tossed them into the iron bars. Aiden was acrobatically dodging in between blows, landing small paralyzing hits with his fists. Maeve and Desmond were back to back, finding off four guards at once.
Markel stood up and summoned the fireball into his hand. Desmond shot him a look.
“No killing,’ he yelled.
The ball of fire disappeared in his hand as the mage began to fight hand-to-hand as well.
After another flash from Nia, followed by an incantation from Markel, the defenders had the upper hand. Most of the guards were knocked out and on the ground. The others began to back up and run away. Cynthia jumped into their way before they could leave the cell. She shoved three of them to the ground at once, using her incredible strength. The Defenders of Sol picked up some of the guard's weapons and armed themselves. Aiden was able to find a bow from one of the soldiers. They all then quickly filed out of the cell behind Cynthia, who stood blocking the door.
“Sorry about this, guys,” Cynthia said as she took a step back and closed the door with a clang. Then, Aiden locked it using the key he had pick-pocketed from the lead guard.
“You will pay for this,” one of the guards growled as they slammed their fists against the bars.
“I am sure someone will be along shortly to get you guys out,” Desmond said. “Just know that the only reason we are doing this is because it's necessary. We are trying to do the right thing for our kingdom.”
“Whatever you say, traitors,” another spat.
“Enough of this, we have to get going now,” Markel yelled after them as he ran in the opposite direction of the exit.
“Where are you off to? We should be going this way to get out and gather our things,” Maeve shouted back.
“No time,” Markel said as he shook his head. “Anyway, I doubt they have our items down here. Your type of weapons are highly valuable. They probably already brought them to the palace. The general probably has them locked away in some vault up there. Regardless, it would be a waste of time to go looking for them. We have to get going right now!"
“Just like it is a waste of time to run to the dead end of a prison,” Aiden said. “Where are we going?”
“You will see, it is all a part of the plan,” Markel said as he continued to run as fast as he could down the hall.
The stone hallway began to twist and go downwards into the ground the further they got away from the exit. There were no jail cells in this area, but only torches that dimly lit the way as they went on.
The further they went, the more Maeve was starting to get nervous that Markel was betraying them as she asked, "Where are we going?"
“Remember how I said the White Hand helped to design this place?” Markel called back. “Well, we designed a way out through the back of this place. Typically, this would be used as a last resort measure to escape the city.”
“Escape the city?” Aiden asked.
Markel continued through his heavy breaths, “If the palace was being besieged by an enemy, the leadership could take this path out of the city.”
“How does the exit work?” Maeve asked. “Couldn’t enemies use it to sneak into Javailty?”
Markel shook his head, “This leads to a small cave. The exit is enchanted. You would not see it from out there unless you were the enchantment’s creator.”
“Right," Aiden said. “It was really smart to have it in the prison where someone could break out and easily just run out of the city. Nice work, White Hand.”
“Well, it is the last place that the attackers would probably look, and let us face it. They are not keeping the most dangerous criminals in all the land here, at least not before today," Markel said as he flashed another smile at them.
At last, they made it to a dead-end wall that was not clean carved stone. It looked like the rough side of a cliff or cave. In the wall, there was a heavy, old door that was made of the same stone. They could faintly see it as it blended in with the wall.
Aiden stepped forward and tried to pull the door open, but it would not budge.
“It looks like it is locked,” Aide said. “Any chance the all-knowing mage knows how to open it?”
“Yes,” Markel said as he pushed past Aiden.
He grabbed the handle, closed his eyes, and whispered some words that the others did not hear. In a matter of moments, the handle glowed and sent a flash of light throughout the rest of the door. Then, the door shook open with a loud creak and blast of stale air and dust.
“Come on this way,” Markel said as he stood in the doorway and pointed into the darkness.
They all seemed reluctant to be the first to go in. In the distance, they could hear the guards calling and clanging on the jail cell door.
“I am not trying to trick you. I will be right behind you,” he said in a frustrated tone. “We do not have all the time in the world. Once they find the guards, we will have a whole army coming after us.”
“You first,” Cynthia said as she pushed Markel to the door.
“Fine,” he responded as he led the way once more.
The group filed in behind him into a tight cave-like corridor. The cave walls were jagged and dripping with moisture. It was so tight that at certain points, Cynthia had to walk sideways to be able to pass through.
“This is not going to get smaller, is it?” she asked with a grunt.
“No, it is only a little longer,” Markel assured her.
The group fumbled around in the dark for what seemed like quite a long time. The only light came from small openings high above that revealed the late-day sun. Then, they finally made it to an opening. It spread out to a large cavern that had the sun coming down from a wide window-like opening in the distance.
There was a large waterfall nearby. It sprayed out cold water that rushed underneath them to a dark underground river. They soon realized that they were on top of a naturally made bridge. They could feel the power of the water that crashed on the cave door beneath them and splashed droplets that misted all around them. Moss hung from the walls, completing a soothing, ambient setting.
“Wow,” Maeve said as she took in a deep breath. “Who would have thought that a place this beautiful would be in the dark underground and below a prison?”
“Much of this world is obscured by the darkness,” Markel said. “We can only know it truly when we take the time to explore it.”
Everyone stared off at the beautiful scene with the glittering sunlight for a while. After a short time, Aiden pushed past Markel and continued onward.
“You said yourself that we do not have much time. Enough of your attempt at deep analogies of the darkness. You are not going to entice us to join your side,” the ranger said.
They crossed over the bridge and came to a sudden steep hill. It climbed sharply upwards and opened up into daylight. After climbing up the path of loose dirt, they came out into the open. The group found themselves in a cluster of rocks that was surrounded by the grassy sea of Aeros.
Each of the defenders took a moment to close their eyes and to take deep breaths of the crisp, fresh air of the fields. Everything was calm and peaceful, no more running and no fighting. Desmond leaned up back against a rock and closed his eyes. He tried to make this moment last as long as he could, but it was broken by a voice.
“How did I know the six of you would end up here?” a rough voice called out.