Sofiane sprinted to Shuixing’s side. He slapped her cheek a couple times but couldn’t rouse her even as the pulse in her neck pounded against his finger. With no other option, he pulled the needle from her leg and slung her over his shoulders. Carrying Shuixing considerably reduced his mobility. Any use of Ball Lightning would drop Shuixing like a sack of potatoes and dodging a bottle swing with her on his shoulders would be a miracle. To make matters worse, he had no sword to parry with.
“Shit, shit, shit. If you can wake up, Shui, now would be a great time!” he said aloud.
While checking to see if he could jump from one of the windows, he heard a voice behind him.
“Excuse me, Mr. Hero, sir?”
Sofiane turned to find a member of the Mage’s College peering at him with wide eyes. She wore a less elaborate version of the blue robes Shuixing and the faculty wore, most likely a student, as she was forever condemned to be.
“Yeah?” Sofiane said, continuing to look for an unlocked window.
“I might be able to help you escape,” the student said.
“How?”
“Follow me, please.”
From the front of the building came the sound of stones cracking and melting under fire as the student guided him further in. Sofiane’s nerves were on edge, waiting for Baphomet to burst through the wall and force dimension-jump him at any moment.
“What’s your name?” the student asked.
“Sofiane. I’m a former teammate of Shuixing’s. You?”
“My name is Hilda. I’m one of Ms. He’s teaching assistants. I’ve been helping her with material procurement for her experiments,” Hilda replied.
“What experiments—” the sounds of a large, angry crowd echoed behind them. Sofiane dropped his voice. “What experiments was she doing?”
“Err… I’m not quite sure. I don’t think anyone in the college knows. The professors just said to help her with whatever she needs. Oh! Here we are.”
Hilda opened a door to reveal a tight circular staircase leading downwards.
“This will take you to the sewers. If you follow the tunnels you’ll eventually reach where it empties into the moat. From there you and Ms. He should be able to escape without the hooligans finding out,” Hilda said.
Sofiane nodded to her. “Thanks.”
Hilda shut the door behind them, leaving Sofiane in the dark with a claustrophobic staircase and an unresponsive Medico-Mage slung over his shoulder. He took the stairs one at a time, feeling for the edge. The rumbling from above had him afraid he might lose his footing and at the same time that Baphomet or one of his zealots would find them, the two fears forcing Sofiane into an anxious shuffle where he felt he was moving both too fast and too slow. The sensation of moist stone at the bottom of the stairs was a welcome relief.
Unable to see the sewer itself, he walked with his shoulder pressed to slimy cobblestone, his other arm aching from bearing Shuixing's weight, until the sewer corridor lightened as a metal grate came into view. By that point the sounds of Baphomet destroying the Mage’s College had dimmed to the occasional dull thud. With one forceful kick, Sofiane knocked out the grate. The moat below was around a 200 foot drop. He and Shuixing wouldn’t take fall damage—water negated that regardless of height—but it didn’t make falling any more pleasant. Nor did he want to think too heavily about what kind of water would be below a sewer grate.
Grasping Shuixing tightly, Sofiane jumped and was greeted by the stomach-turning feeling of downward acceleration followed by the icy cold water of the Vermögenburgh moat. With one hand keeping Shui's arms crossed in front of him, he paddled for shore, blind to everything but the need to get Shuixing to dry land. When he finally lugged her body up onto the grass, he flopped beside her, panting to catch his breath. They were shielded from view by the walls ringing Vermögenburgh, but he was anxious to keep moving and preferably find a stronger Hero to deal with Baphomet before things got worse. The trouble was that Shuixing wasn’t awake yet, and he had no idea when or if she would wake up. Once he had his breath back, he dragged her up to the tree line and sat her against a pine tree.
“What did you do to yourself, Shui?” he asked aloud, still thinking about the needle jammed in her thigh. He might have thought it foul play on Baphomet’s part except it was Shui’s hand curled around the needle.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A few minutes later, Shuixing gasped. “Where— what? No! Write— where? You…”
Her right hand curled into pencil-holding shape and shook violently. Her eyes flicked around, unable to settle in one place.
“Shui, it’s alright. It’s Sofiane. You’re safe,” he said.
His words didn’t seem to reach her as the shaking in her hand traveled up her arm and infected the rest of the body. Shuixing was wracked by spasms and any attempt at language turned into babbling half-screams. Sofiane pulled himself out of the way as she spewed gritty brown vomit on her lap. Her eyes shut tightly and she babbled about everything being too much. Unsure of what else to do, he grabbed hold of one of his ruffled cuffs and ripped it off to tie it around her eyes in a blindfold to reduce the number of sensations bombarding her. With that, Shuixing’s trembling and heavy breathing slowed and she slumped back against the tree.
“Shui?” Sofiane said.
“Sofi?”
Her head was vaguely turned in his direction, but her hearing didn’t seem to be any more focused than her sight.
“Yeah,” he replied. “It’s me.”
“Why— not lab. Why?”
“Sort of a long story. Might want to save the ins-and-outs for when your brain isn’t scrambled. Suffice it to say I had to get you out quickly and we can’t go back.”
“What!? No! I need— in the lab… there’s… in there—”
Her hands resumed fidgeting and spasming. He wanted answers as well, but those would have to wait.
“Can I take your blindfold off?” he asked.
She whimpered and shook her head vehemently not to.
“Can you walk?”
She reached out her arms and Sofiane helped her up and she took a couple of steps before stumbling. He caught her before she hit a tree.
“In my lab— we need— in my lab…”
Ignoring her mumbling, Sofiane hooked an arm around her waist and guided her through the forest. With Shuixing in such a poor state they were going nowhere fast. Baphomet had plenty of time to find them, and with enough, he eventually would. There was only one place he could think of where they might be able to hide: The anomalous Dungeon of Stars.
By the time Sofiane had helped Shuixing up the hill that overlooked the entrance to the Dungeon of Stars, dusk was darkening the waters of Lake Amber. If Baphomet knew about Nuwas’ research into Po-Lin’s anomalies, he would also know about the anomalous Dungeon of Stars, and they would be cornered. It was a gamble coming here. But if it could buy them a day or two for Shuixing to recover and to think up an escape plan, that would be enough. At the top of the cliff, Sofiane stopped both of them.
“You’re gonna need to take your blindfold off to make the jump,” Sofiane said.
Shuixing moaned and shook her head. “Can’t. Can’t! Too much! I can’t— too much.”
“We don’t have a choice! It’ll only be for a moment, Shui, just—”
“Push,” she said, making a shoving motion with her hands. “Push.”
“Push!? What happens if I miss?”
Her hands groped the open air before finding Sofiane’s arms and grasping them.
“Push,” she said again.
He swallowed and led her to the edge of the cliff. The gnarled patch of tree roots was in the same spot, but he didn’t remember it being so high, or the patch so small. It was easy enough to aim for when you were manipulating your own body, but aiming someone else was a different matter. An inch out of place and Shuixing would be waking up in the middle of an angry mob of Non-Heroes.
“Listen, Shui, you need to do this yourself. I can’t—”
“Push,” she said firmly. It was the most cogent she’d sounded since waking up.
Sensing it was the only way she would make the jump, he bit his cheek and spent a minute lining her up as best he could then finally, he pushed. Even knowing it was with her consent, he felt guilty, but his aim was on point and upon colliding with the convoluted geometry of tree roots, Shuixing turned into a spasming ball of polygons and was launched sideways through the wall. A moment later he jumped after her. Once they were both inside, Sofiane guided Shuixing down to the ice cavern on the bottom floor. Eerily, the cavern looked the exact same as it had during their run-in with Hemiola two years ago, with the exception of the blood streaks he and Team Harald had added when they dragged Margaret’s decapitated body back out to Po-Lin. Sofiane steered Shuixing away from that part of the chamber and sat her down with her back to an ice wall.
“Hungry?” he asked.
“No,” she croaked back.
“You should still eat, even if you don’t want to. You’re in pretty bad shape.”
Ignoring her protests, he forced her to eat some leftover pizza and some water. After an hour or so of sitting in silence, Shuixing took off the blindfold of her own accord. For a few minutes, it looked like she would have a repeat of her nervous breakdown, but the combination of the monotonous blue-white of the ice cavern and Sofiane’s patience stilled her.
“Going outside again will be challenging, but I-I think I’m alright. For now,” Shuixing said.
“That’s good,” Sofiane replied. “Are you feeling stable enough to tell me what in the world caused all that? I saw the needle in your leg, Shui.”
Her mouth hung open for a second and her eyes took on a strange vacancy. “I’ve been taking journeys, Sofiane. To the place people go when they’re dimension-jumped out of existence. Hemiola was right.”