-From the perspective of the King's Guard, James the Ranger.-

"There's no misunderstanding here, just you and us."

The woman stopped speaking; she raised her hand as if to gesture to something behind me.  As I turned around I noticed the corner of the room; the opposite corner she had come from.  The corner that had the moving shadows. The Shadows were gone now...

I started to panic.  It's right behind me she is going to kill me.  Whatever this thing is it's going to kill me. I finished turning around and saw it.  It wasn't a girl. It wasn't an elf. It was mere centimeters from my face. It had a dozen blue glowing eyes, and too many legs to count.  Its round bulbous body was black and gleaming, and was right at my head height. It would almost look frail if it wasn't so terrifying. It had four needle-like teeth that looked like the mandibles of an insect.  The teeth bristled together. I blacked out.

-From the point of view of Cray.-

"See, if anything I'm helping them to sleep."

"Cray, he blacked out from fear."

"What's the difference?"

Sarah hesitated at this.  "I have no idea. I'd say Show Steve, but he'd probably have the same result."

"See this is why I need test subjects."

"Speaking of which, do they all have mental implants now?"

"Yeah, I put one into both the guards and the XO pilot, but I had to use an alternate power source because I can't use crystals inside their head.  It would have to be at least the size of a thumbnail, and that's way too big to be inside of some of his brain. I ended up using wireless broadcast, the first time I tried.  It was absorbed by the atmosphere. But I figured out that if I pumped out all the air from the rooms and then replaced it with regular air from the ship stores, it would no longer have any form of magic and disables the HUD systems.  I can't even control any of the drones directly when they're inside those spaces. I have to use broadcast signals instead of the contracting ability."

I remembered another thing before continuing.  "Another side effect is that it gives them a bit of a headache from receiving the power, it produces a little bit of heat, so I don't want to keep them on for more than 15 minutes at a time."

Sarah sounded a little bit worried.  "What did you do to the other two?"

"I'm waking up the guy with the goatee next.  I will get his name from the recordings and hopefully I will learn something besides that they got in a vehicle before they left the capital."

"That's the one that tried to Taser you, right?"

I had just finished Re-summoning my infiltrator, and I smiled.  "Yep and one good turn deserves another."

-From the perspective of Roddick. The assassin.-

I woke up with the sweet pain of a well spent night only I didn't really remember what happened last night.  Whatever it was I got plastered. I opened my eyes and immediately looked down at my arm to see what exactly happened, but my arm didn't have the usual writing.  In fact, I was still in my padded clothes meant for plate mail. I never go out wearing this unless I'm on a mission and I never get drunk unless I'm off. Why do I have a hangover then?

I looked around, realizing this wasn't the usual kingdom jail cell I spent the night in.  I have been drugged and captured. The gray material of the walls was perfectly uniform. Even the bar spacing was perfect.  I got up to go look at the door to see if I could pick the lock or something but it was clearly far better made than anything I'd seen before.  Even the hinges look sturdy. I looked back at the bed. It was sticking out of the wall and had been bolted down. There's no way I can use that as a weapon and my HUD's disabled too.

I don't recognize the architecture, so it's not the mountain tribes.  The last thing I was doing was getting in an enchanted carriage right after Nola and James.  Nola was supposed to give us the details on the mission. I knew we were escorting the King's daughter, but I didn't know where and I didn't know why.

Well, they should be coming in here any minute.  The four corners of the room were producing continuous non-flickering light, enchantment.  Maybe, I don't know. And I don't think I'll be able to get out of here on my own.

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Suddenly a door on the opposite side of my cell opened, and an elf walked through.  He wasn't breathing. The elf stopped and stared at me. "I need to fix that." He said and walked up to the bars and stood holding a clipboard and a key on a long rod in his other hand.  "Why did you lock me up in here?"

The man was cold and didn't give off any emotions when he spoke.  "You're here because you attacked my people without provocation. My job is to figure out why you did, who you're working for, and what to do with you next."

Nola what did you do... Okay, admittedly I might have done something but still, Nola what did you do.  I'm alone in a room. I need to organize my priorities. Princess first. Everybody else is secondary. "There was a girl in a coma traveling with me, us, our caravan.  Is She okay?"

"She's a prisoner as well and is being taking care of by another.  There, I've answered one of your questions. Now, why don't you answer one of mine.  What do you know of the god of chaos?"

I blanched at hearing this.  I wasn't expecting this question at all. Why we attacked sure, but not that.  Admittedly, I don't know why we attacked. But why would he ask about the god of chaos.  "what you want to know exactly?"

"Nola was being controlled by him, at least that's what we think.  I want to know why you were working with him?"

This is bad.  The only time he can take control of somebody as if he makes a deal with them.  The only reason Nola whatever make it deal with him is if somebody she loved was in extreme danger, but that makes no sense.  Nothing like that happened in at least seven years. If he got a contract with her he would've used it by now. I need to figure out what Nola did, then get released.  This explains the memory loss; Nola was being controlled. I was being controlled to by proxy. It would've taken up some of his mana, but he would've been able to order us around like nothing was wrong.  Nobody would've noticed. Wait a minute how long was he controlling us?

"Look, we weren't working for him.  At least I don't think we were. He was controlling us and we would've had our minds wiped from the instant he started to control us to the end.  I'm just as much in the dark as you are."

The man smiled like he knew something.  I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me when he started talking.  I was surprised to hear what he said. "Well, I have an ability that lets me determine whether you're telling the truth or not. And so far you have been.  I'll bring you to the others. Oh, here's the keys."

The Man held the rod out towards me.  The keys were on the other end. I grabbed the rod and immediately I regretted it.  My hands started to hurt and go numb all at the same time. Within seconds it spread from my arm all the way to my chest.  I had a 90% resistance to poison as an assassin and yet whatever this is It caused me to blackout in seconds.

My body may have been unconscious, but I had another three seconds before I wouldn't be able to think anymore.  The man said. "Oh wow, that's interesting, and that means I have to test this on the others. I didn't know you had a 90% resistance to poison.  I wonder how that affects it." His voice slowly faded out as I lost consciousness.

-From the point of view of Anna, the warlord. Class: engineer.-

I let out a long grunt of pain.  "Aaaaaaaaawwwwwwwww." My head felt like I'd taken a wrench to the back of it.  I slowly got up, holding my head trying to figure out what had happened. Last time it felt this bad argon gas got into the warlord armor and I fell unconscious.  Dad freaked out for days about that. I was still holding my head with my right hand When I opened my eyes. "Why am I in a prison cell?" Slowly looking around with my head still pounding I noticed something wrong with my left arm.

"I have a left arm Now?"  I mean, I was born without one.  The elbow joint downwards was gone when I was born, so why do I have one now?  I tried lifting it. It moved just like my right hand moved. But I have two hands now.  I kept staring at it. "I don't know how to feel about this." On one hand, I don't like having things added to me without my permission.  On the other hand, I have another hand.

I was still debating whether I should scream with anger, fear or joy when a man suddenly walked into the room adjacent to mine.  He sat down in a chair next to the bars with a table in between the two of us. On my side of the table there was a large assortment of tools and mechanical devices I'd never seen before. The man finally spoke.  "All right let's get your arm calibrated for you. Oh, and my name is Cray. Yours is Anna, correct?"

"Um, yes.  What's going on?"

The man Cray spoke in a cheerful voice.  "Oh, of course, you are currently wearing a prosthetic arm meant for those who cannot have their arms regrown.  This particular model is meant for engineers. It can have a myriad of micro-tools attached for fine workmanship if needed.  I figured you would be more interested in this than the exercise version. Would you like for me to explain how it works?"

If there's an arm that's meant for engineers, was I born without one because there was a piece of me missing. I looked down at the equipment on the table. It was a myriad set of tools drills and everything else I could imagine using in my daily work. There is even a small arm meant for enchanting.  I kept staring at it, not knowing what to do when I finally answered his questions. "Yes, please. Thank you. "This is the longest time I've ever gone without cussing at somebody. I was far too distracted by all the new things.

-From the point of view of Cray-

I turned off the charger for her room, and her mental implant ran out of power within seconds, but I needed to keep her awake for the next few hours.  While she learned how to use her new arm. She might be a good asset if I can convince her to come to join us. That's not going to be a problem though if she gets into the workshop.  From what I can tell she's obsessed with building and upgrading things, combat is a close second though.