Silva laid in the bunks, staring at the shoddy wall in front of her. It was getting colder, the sign of the coming winter. In her homeland, Nacilia, the winters could be violent. The snow caked the ground to the point where most people couldn’t leave their houses. Her water attunement caused her to be dragged around villages and towns, opening clearings by shifting the ice.

Even in the throes of war, she held that role in the blizzards of her homeland. On the battlefield, she would be the one to clear a path for others. That was her role. That was her life.

After all, she had an attunement- The highest pride any citizen of Nacilia, Sol’s capital of magic, could have. Feeling the chills of winter like this was, in a way, oddly nostalgic for Silva. The memories were warped from years in the mines, but she could still feel the contours of it. The feeling of mana and connecting her flow was etched into her very being. On rare occasions, she would sometimes feel the same sensation pass through her every now and then like the phantom pain of a lost limb.

It hurt in a way that was hard to express. It didn’t help that the sensation was tied deeply to the memories of her mage squad. Thinking about attunements would inevitably cause her mind to drift towards their faces.

But that was a long time ago. The callouses on her hands and layered scars which ached each time a gust of wind passed through the cracks in the wood were reminders of that.

Although, one sensation felt unfamiliar. She was only half conscious, but she definitely felt as though there was something grabbing onto her ankle. She turned her head away from the wall to spot two faces staring at her.

One of them was a rather plain face, wide brown eyes and even browner scruffy hair. Facial hair looked like it refused to grow on him. And the other one, which looked like it was covered in rust was…

“Alex?”

***

I put a finger in front of my lips, trying to silence the red haired woman who Alex dragged me over to. I had been given no reason why, but it appeared that she recognized him.

“Hey Silva. I’m here to break everyone out.”

Don’t you mean we?

“My friend North over here has a key. Do you think you could help us wake everyone up quietly so we could unlock everyone?” He said in a hushed tone. I had no idea how, but Alex had figured out how to whisper correctly. Silva nodded at him, still in shock at the sight of someone she appeared to be very familiar with. I’d ask about the connection later, when we weren’t under pressure.

The woman took a cursory look at her surroundings before giving an orderly knock on the wood of her bunk. Almost in complete unison, the women of the bunks all raised their heads to see myself and Alex standing in the middle.

“Ladies, these two are helping us break free tonight. The smaller one is going to be unlocking your cuffs, so keep quiet.”

Did you really have to call me the smaller one? I have other features…

Insults to my height aside, I quickly moved from bunk to bunk as they extended their ankles out to me. It went faster than I had expected, and after only a few minutes, we had removed the cuffs from every single miner in the room. Now that we had finished that step of the plan, I finally spoke up.

“Hey. I need you all to stay in the bunk until we’re ready. We’re going to head over the male bunks and do the same thing for them. Once everything is in place, it’s your job to get out there and take out as many of those pieces of shit as you can.” I tapped the burner on my hip.

“And what’s our cue to start fighting?” Silva asked.

I took a look at all the bunks and smiled.

“You’ll know once you hear them screaming.”

I moved over to Alex and we both walked towards the door of the bunkroom, which had been left slightly ajar. Once we got close, Alex crouched down and leaned forward. I hopped onto his back, holding tightly onto his shoulders, and the two of us disappeared into thin air.

***

Ever since learning to extend my awareness and start connecting concepts, my invisibility had gotten noticeably better. Most importantly, I was able to maintain it for longer. I could only really use it for a minute or two, but I was confidently able to hold it for more than five as long as I put in enough focus. However, I’d also made another discovery during the trip towards the second camp.

I figured out how to use it on another person.

There were multiple limitations. The first was that it required me to put my complete focus on maintaining the invisibility. Now that the light mana was not only covering myself, but another person, I couldn’t do anything else with my attunement at the same time. The second limitation was that I had to be in direct contact with the person, and had to have more physical contact than just holding hands. That meant that if I wanted to walk around with the other person while hiding from sight, one of us would have to carry the other. Since I was smaller than Alex and a lot lighter, I was forced to hang off of his shoulders like a backpack.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It felt somewhat demeaning, but the ability to have two people completely hidden from vision made up for it.

***

After making the second invisible trip and unlocking all of the slave cuffs in the male bunks, a process which required a bit more work and quiet conversation, we were finally able to get onto the second part of the plan.

Wandering through this second camp was eerie, because it looked exactly like the camp which I had just escaped from. The camp was a place I never wanted to return to, yet I was now wandering through an exact mirror of it.

We were now heading towards the end of the camp, the side farthest from the mine. The guard captain’s quarters and the armory sat next to each other in the exact same locations. Simply staring at the guard captain’s building brought back horrible memories of Galen. While I couldn’t focus too much on others, I could still spot the guards that surrounded us. They were having casual conversations or hanging around fires. Fewer of them wanted to be outside now that winter was approaching, which was great for us.

In silence, Alex made his way around the captain’s office and took a quick look at the building. It was the exact same structure, although from the window in the back we could see there was a different assortment of items. The guard captain there looked different from Galen, with sparse white hair dotting his balding head.

He took a deep breath and pointed his left palm outwards, directly at the building. I couldn’t do anything more than keep the two of us hidden from sight, but that didn’t mean Alex couldn’t use his attunement.

The fire built up in his hand before being blasted out and covering the wall of the captain’s office, setting it aflame.

The raid had begun.

***

Almost immediately, I began hearing cries of panic and confusion throughout the camp as the guards came to look at the now burning building. I was happy knowing that I could actually use a part of my plan at the original camp in my raid of this one. Now that the yelling was going on and the attention had been gotten, Alex ran back from the building and into the woods so I could release the invisibility. The smoke of the fire began to grow into the air, and I knew that soon my allies would begin their attack.

After giving a few seconds for the chaos and information about the fire to spread throughout the camp, a beautiful cacophony of burner fire rang throughout the camp as the caravan targeted the guard towers. They had that moment of distraction to catch them off guard. The towers of any mining camp were designed not as much to deal with outside threats as they were to deal with the threat of runaway slaves. That meant that the focus of the guards wasn’t on the outside which made them easy targets.

Once the screaming began and the guards began to try and call for those who were asleep to wake up, the bunks burst open. A wave of unbound miners exited the building and began blasting off their attunements. Waves of fire, volleys of stone and blades of ice cut through and overwhelmed the guard.

Rage that had been built up over years was now on full display and free, and their targets had no idea that something like that was coming for them. It was like watching myself not too long ago.

The captain had already exited his room. At his hands, I could see some stones starting to form. Before I could make any motion, a stone from a third party whistled through the air and directly through his skull. Seeing the accuracy, I knew it was probably Elm.

Alex tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention.

“Wanna wake up the guard?” He coyly asked.

“Of course.”

I pulled out my igniter, wound and ready to fire while Alex lifted up both his flaming palms.

I don’t like that I’m enjoying this.

***

The panic of the guards was clear, as they had no idea which direction to focus on. Those who were already outside and had any vantage point were taken out by burner fire, and any inside the camp who had been lazing about were quickly overrun by the many slaves and their attunements. It also appeared they were having a lot of fun, judging from their cheers and smiles. Neither I nor Alex could spot Silva, but he seemed to be confident that she wouldn’t get hit in the crossfire. As we made our way, one guard appeared, fumbling with the burner in his hands. I quickly turned my igniter towards him and fired, completely tearing through his chest.

We had already made our way to the guard’s bunks, which appeared to also be in a panic from the shouting inside. Before I could make any move, Alex put a hand in front of me to stop my movement. Flames appeared in both his palms, and he began to torch the entire building. The cold air wasn’t able to stop the fire from quickly spreading. When one of the guards ran outside, Alex turned his flame to him. I watched silently as the skin started to melt away and the man fell to the floor in pain.

Fire attunements are scary.

Another guard appeared from the bunk on the other side, but his head was quickly removed from a burner. I turned to see the person who shot to find Elina. It was the first time I had seen her smile in a while, but it quickly disappeared when we made eye contact. Her views hadn’t changed, even if she was getting the battle she desired.

Quickly looking off in the direction away from the mine, I saw that a few guards were heading towards the armory. I tugged on Alex’s shirt and we began to run in their direction as the sounds of panicked guards and cheers of battle rang through the air like music.

***

The sounds of violence were starting to slow down as Alex and I exited the armory. Inside were two dead guard, one of them whose body had been so burnt it was almost unrecognizable as human. The last few guards were taken care of and the penal laborers had been gathered up. I couldn’t see a single slave on the ground.

Against all odds, I’d had a victory without death. The camps of Boralis were unprepared, and that was what let us take them down so easily. I wiped the sweat off my brow and began to head towards the center of the camp. Elm and Wanderer were standing around, patiently waiting for my arrival. I could see that there was blood dripping off of the sword Wanderer held in his hands.

“Everyone good?” I asked through shallow breaths.

Elm patted me on the shoulder. “Yeah. No one has major injuries other than a few cuts and bruises, but we managed. For only your second time, you didn’t do bad.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“That’s it. Now, let’s clean you the fu-” Elm stopped in the middle of his sentence.

A blue beam passed through the air and right next to me. I turned to see a guard, limping and half dead with a burner in his hands and a smirk on his face. He’d probably been faking being dead and used this as his time to attack.

I looked back to Elm, and found that the side of his stomach had been carved out by the shot.