“So what’s your plan then, Jaid?” Phon asked abruptly. “To get us out of here, I mean. Can’t expect us to take over the world locked in these cells. Just gonna fight our way out?”

“If that’s what it takes, then yes,” the knight had no reservation. “Though I don’t know if I’ll be strong enough to cut through these doors. However, I brought something along.”

Jaid rifled through her clothes for a moment and then pulled out a small object, cupping it in both hands. It was a single acorn. “I know it’s not much, but I hope it will be useful. And… please don’t ask how I snuck it in here.”

The acorn vanished out of her hands, and the lock on Drim’s cell door lit up green. A second later, the lock clicked, and the door slid itself open automatically.

“Did that make you feel good, Jaid?” The girl in the next cell over suddenly pried. “Providing Drim what he needed in order to break free. Do you feel accomplished?”

“Uhh, yeah, I guess?” The Paladin was beyond confused.

“Good, good, I didn’t want to rob you of your accolades and effort after all,” the woman was oddly considerate, still not making much sense. “You are now our client, and I’m also now your boss, so it leads to a weird relationship. But I’ve spent a lot of time in here reflecting on how I can better present myself as second in command of a large and reputable organization. So I’m trying to take my employees’ needs into account, especially since the other boss has gone non-verbal..”

“And with all that said, I believe a more succinct tactic is in order. I’m guessing the guards are rather distracted right now watching the New Year’s stream, but opening that cell must have set off some sort of alarm. So let’s get out of here!”

Everything shifted and the air turned cold. The next thing Jaid knew, they were outside, all five Fiends. She glanced around and found they were standing on the giant horizontal tree about a lage away from the prison. It had barely been visible from the helicopter, and was still pretty dark, the black sea water rippling around them.

“Wait, you can teleport with your eyes open now?!” The knight glanced over at Phon, awed and bewildered, watching the woman stretch since she’d been freed from her restraints.

“Pfft, that’s nothing,” Phon stuck up her nose with pride. “I had basically nothing to do for over a year, so I spent a large majority working on my Curse. Got sick of those comments about how that mawhger Valen was more useful than me with her portals made with my blood. So I did something about it and trained my mind.”

“Not only am I no longer limited by my eyes, I’m pretty sure crowds will have no effect either. And once I’d mastered that, I began working on my other limiting aspect: the range. Now… well… I can see the whole world!”

“Impressive, I know, but maybe not quite as it sounds. I can still only see about a town’s worth at once, but I can focus wherever I want. Think of it like a satellite zooming in. Takes me a bit if it’s really far away, and I kind of have to know where something is to begin with. But now I can see anything, everything. No where in the world is safe from my prying eyes! And of course, I can also teleport anyone anywhere.”

“Then… does that mean you could have escaped at any time?!” Jaid was suddenly annoyed by the implication, distraught by everything she’d now said and done.

“Yeah, pretty easily,” Phonly merely shrugged. “What was it, Drim? 53 ways we figured out we could escape. Guess it’d be 54 now with the acorn you brought, Jaid. So thanks. Pretty solid number to end on, I’d say.”

“So why the hell did you wait so long?!” A bit of rage and still-lingering contempt for the siblings leaked out of her mouth before the knight could catch it.

“Well, Jaid…” Phon looked her straight in the eyes. “We were waiting for you.”

“Uhh… huh?” Jaid was genuinely taken aback, unsure of how to process that. She started mumbling a few responses, failing to put together anything coherent, but never got the chance to make a complete sentence.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” Phon interrupted. “So work through what you want to ask and we’ll come back to it. The four of us have a few small things to attend to real quick. As in my case…” the woman began trying to squeeze her eyes shut. With enough force, her eyelids started to tear, ripping through the stitching that kept them pried open. Blood began trickling down her face, though it was a bit of relief to her overdried eyes as Phon groaned through the pain.

Meanwhile, Drim headed over to Xard who was still on the ground. The man had woken up at some point while everything was happening but had yet to actually speak. He also hadn’t tried to stand yet, too busy clenching his hands together, working through the sensation of being able to close them properly again.

Drim helped lift him to his feet, and Xard immediately started to wobble, his legs having to support his weight for the first time since their incarceration. “Hello, Jaid,” the man finally said something once he was upright. His words were slightly slurred, likely due to his previous restraints, but he pushed through and added, “You kept us waiting long enough,” which only added to her confusion.

After making sure Xard was stable, Drim moved over to Kada who was sprawled out on the wood, still asleep, her body and clothes soaking from her time in the tank. It immediately drew Jaid’s attention. If he truly couldn’t speak, how was he supposed to wake her?

Drim crouched down and paused a moment, pressing his pointer finger against his heart. Not long after, the tip started to glow, and he moved his hand towards Kada’s head, leaving a streak of light behind. But instead of gently nudging her as Jaid predicted, Drim viciously flicked her in the forehead and stepped back.

“Hnngh,” Kada grumbled, slowly starting to wake. She sat up and stretched her arms, like waking from a long nap. But as she started to blink her eyes open, she took a look at her hands—the first thing she noticed in her still groggy state. She then screamed, “Eh?! Why am I so pruny?!”

Stolen novel; please report.

“And why is it so damn cold!” The Mermaid started to shiver. “Oh, we’re outside, and I’m wet. That’d do it. Ah, and hey, Jaid! Good to see you. Guess you didn’t keep us waiting long. Or, maybe you did…” her tone changed when she saw how ragged the others were. “Just how long has it been?”

“It’s New Year’s Eve,” Xard answered.

“Oh, that’s not too bad then. Only like a month and change.”

“The next New Year's Eve.”

“Ah, that’s much longer. Slowpoke,” she now teased the knight.

Drim helped Kada up off the ground as well and helped her get her balance. But unlike Xard, he didn’t let go of her hand. Instead, he pulled it up near his head and placed it on the collar.

“Uhh, you want me to melt it?” Kada figured it out after a second or two. Drim nodded with the limited range of motion he had. She did as asked and then reforged the device, holding it up to her face as she inspected it. “What is this thing anyways?”

“Bomb collar,” Phon answered bluntly.

“Wuhwuhwuhreally?!” the woman immediately panicked and started fumbling the thing. It slipped out of her hands and into the water, sinking down to the dark depths. “Ohp, well there it goes.”

“That’s fine, we didn’t need it anyways,” Phon didn’t seem to care. “But since Jaid’s already curious and you weren’t conscious, I guess I’ll go ahead and tell you both. A few months back, our mother got fed up with us rotting in prison, so she tried to escape while we were sleeping by taking over Drim’s body. She made a guard open the cell and then kill himself, and then she almost made it out before Drim realized and took back over.”

“After that, they performed surgery on Drim and removed his vocal cords entirely, so that neither he nor our mother could ever give another command again. Sick zjik I know, but it still wasn’t time to play our hand, so Drim let them do it.”

“But here’s the kicker. After about two weeks, they grew back entirely. Still not sure if it’s a Fiend thing or if something to do with his life energy powers. But once the guards realized after a new scan to check his recovery, they did another surgery. This time, they placed a device that keeps his cords perpetually severed. And they put that bomb collar on his neck. If he tries to make too much noise with his throat, it beeps a bit then explodes I guess. Never got more than a few beeps from coughing.”

“They insisted that there was no manual detonator for the collar. Don’t know if that’s true either. But if it is, I guess they decided that having a killswitch from their prisoners was too unethical. Funny if that’s where they draw the line.”

“But still, thank you Kada for actually being useful after your yearlong nap. However, the problem isn't fixed yet entirely, so we’ll need more help.” Ahvra suddenly appeared in front of the group. She looked half asleep, lightly breathing into the party blower in her mouth with a matching hat atop her massive hair bun.

“Oh, you guys are out finally,” Ahvra woke up a bit and did a spin around to see everyone. “Guess that’s cause for celebration.” The petite scientist blew into her blower with a bit more enthusiasm. “Are you aware your eyes are drenched in blood, Annoying Convenience?”

“Yes.”

“You shouldn’t waste that, it’s a valuable resource. Oh, and I see you didn’t bring my pet psychopath along with me,” the woman very briefly stared at the bracelet on her wrist. “Hope that doesn’t become a problem later.”

Phon then grabbed The Witch’s head and pointed it at Drim. “He has a special device embedded into his neck that needs to be removed. Do you have a scalpel with you?”

“Always,” Ahvra dug into her coat. “But let me get this straight. You dragged me away from our New Year’s party to this frozen wasteland to perform an impromptu dissection? Cosmos, thank you! I was forced to step away from the lab against my will. Now let’s get to this. Wet Dog, I’ll need your assistance.”

“Well while they’re performing the hopefully quick operation… Jaid!” Phon snatched the knight’s attention away from the gruesome and unsanitary surgery happening just off to the side. “If you’ve come up with any questions, now would be a good time to ask them. Since you’re part of the group now, we’ll try to answer as honestly as we can.”

“I guess to start,” Jaid made the mistake of glancing over at what was happening, after her eyes jumped away at the sight, she gave her full attention to Phon. “It seems like you all knew I was coming. Were you watching me with your new vision? Or am I just so predictable that you believed I’d eventually feel guilty and come here?”

“Hmm, closer to the second, I suppose,” Phon wasn’t sure how to answer. “We certainly didn’t know it’d be today. Hell, we were all sleeping soundly, or to the best of our ability before you came. But you had good timing. If you’d waited a few more days, we would have needed to adjust our plans—not hugely, but still it would have been a pain.”

“I have been keeping an eye on you in the grand scheme of things to see if you’d act according to our predictions, however. Though I’ve also been monitoring a lot of people, and just the general state of the world, so don’t feel too special. But, we did always believe that someday you’d come. We had faith in you.”

“You mean I was your pawn…” The Paladin refuted with a bit of venom. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be angry. You’re right, same side now. I just didn’t expect it to be so predetermined… It took me a long time to be at peace with this.”

“Yes, definitely longer than our expectations. Drim won the bet. We other three all had guesses under a year. Only he said it would be longer. And don’t degrade yourself too much. You weren’t a pawn. I’d say you’re at least worthy of the ‘knight’ piece, heh.”

Jaid ignored the bad joke and continued. “I guess next I’d ask… was this your plan all along? To be thrown in prison? Did you know this prison existed from the start? Hell, I didn’t even know until you were already here.”

“Well we knew they were building something up here, at least,” Phon admitted. “As for what we wanted, eh… that’s complicated. We weren’t exactly sure what your wish was going to be, but we imagined it was something to restrain us in some way or remove us from the playing field. Whether that was imprisoning us, forcing us into servitude, or killing us outright.”

“For that last possibility, we even had cadavers made and ready to go. I guess now they’re literally rotting in cold-storage somewhere, a shame. But a situation where we were restrained, handicapped, or removed from the public eye; yes, that’s what we wanted. If your wish actually had been just for Fiendish to join the Central Peace, then that would have hampered some of our plans. But we had faith in the CP’s greed.”

“Wait, then does that mean that the tournament was rigged from the start?!” The Paladin came to the sudden realization. “Don’t tell me that Tize lost to me on purpose!”

“I wouldn’t call it rigged…” Phon denied. “More heinously manipulated in the direction we wanted. Whether it was altering the matchups to try and push certain people forward, or giving you little tips on how to defeat your opponents. We had contingencies in place in case you didn’t win, but you were always our star player from the start. And thankfully, you didn’t let us down.”

“As for Tize, well I doubt he let you win outright. But he was encouraged to let the fight drag out for a bit of spectacle, to not outwardly pounce on any flagrant vulnerabilities to end it quicker. And he really did want to fight you in an honorable match, so I doubt he would have gone for cheapshots anyways.”

“Wouldn’t really call that match honorable,” Jaid grumbled but let it go. “I think I only have one more question. Why—”