Her head felt like a drum.

That was Nela's first thought on waking up. She had a pounding headache that made it hard to focus on anything else. It was so bad, she felt slightly ill, sitting there with her eyes closed.

Wait...why was she sitting?

Nela tried to rise to her feet, but something held her back. Losing her balance, she fell to the ground, tumbling sideways to land shoulder-first.

Shit, that hurt...but the pain woke her up. Flexing her arms, Nela realized that they were tied behind the back of a wood chair. Each of her ankles were also bound to one of the chair's legs. It was no wonder she had dropped to the floor.

Not this again. It wasn't Nela's first time being tied to a chair, as strange as it was to admit. Back then, she had worked her way free, and immediately punched the one responsible in the face. She could probably do the same here.

At least, that's what she told herself, but as she tried to test her bonds, Nela quickly realized that whoever had tied the ropes knew what they were doing, They'd wrapped some sort of rag around her wrists, then tied the rope around that. With that there, she could not get her fingers up high enough to begin untying herself.

"You...awake?" Edeline's voice, groggy, came from above and behind her.

As if the sound of her falling over hadn't been a clue. From her awkward position on her side, Nela couldn't really turn to check on Edeline, but from the sound of it, she wasn't all there. Not that Nela could blame her, if she had a similar or worse headache.

Even now that she had a look around, it was hard to see. They were in some kind of shed, with a dirt floor under her. The only light was through thin cracks between the wooden boards. At least that told her it was daytime. Probably the next day, although it was impossible to know what time it was or how long it had been.

What had happened? Trying to remember only gave her a big blurred nothing. They'd found their way through that village to the local tavern, gone in, and...that was it. Trying to push through only made Nela's head hurt worse.

"Ronny? Hamond?" Nela asked, hoping one of them could give her a hint, a reassurance. Her voice sounded thick, even to her own ears.

"Not here," Edeline answered.

Nela could think of a hex of reasons why they'd been separated from Hamond and Ronny, and all of them were terrifying. And now she was stuck, laying helpless and bound on the floor.

But Nela wasn't alone. "Can you free yourself?" she asked Edeline.

"I tried." Edeline sounded subdued...well, they had been. "I could not focus, I could barely speak-"

"Well, you can speak now," Nela interrupted, annoyed. Whatever had happened at that tavern, it was nothing they couldn't get out of. "Nothing stopping you from trying again. Or are you going to give up?"

A long moment of silence passed. Nela started to wonder if she'd said the wrong thing, pushed Edeline too far.

Then Edeline spoke the words.

"Corpus volt!"

A flare of light filled the room. Even though Nela was facing the other way, she closed her eyes out of reflex. There was a cracking sound, followed by Edeline suddenly grunting. The light faded, and Nela opened her eyes again.

"You alright?" she asked, worried. If that sound had been bone, then...well, Edeline was about to be crippled for life.

"I'm fine. I broke the chair...but I manged to free my arms."

Nela let out a sigh of relief. "The chair deserved it. Now can you untie me?"

"Just a bit." There was a rustling sound. A moment later, Nela felt Edeline touch her arms. "Sorry, one of the chair legs was still tied to me."

Nela held in a laugh at the image of that. As funny as it was, it was fitting their situation. Whoever had tied them up in here had no idea who they were. Even if they knew they'd taken Edeline Hallowscroft captive, it would not tell them that one of the strongest and most talented thaumaturges in all of Hyarch was right there. And with the ancient spells she had, there was no chance that rope alone could just hold Edeline back.

And that was not even getting into the other secret Edeline held - her royal blood.

Not that Nela was about to bring that up. Even now, it remained a sore point for Edeline that her family had hidden it her entire life. Not just from her, but from her brother too. And Ronny was just as unhappy about it as Edeline was.

"Got it," Edeline said with a grunt, as the ropes holding Nela's arms loosened. Pulling them free, Nela reached over to try to untie one of her legs, while Edeline started working on the other leg.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Finally, Nela was able to stand up. She stretched, feeling somewhat better now. Although her head still ached, it wasn't so bad that she couldn't push the pain aside.

"Now what?" she muttered, looking around the room. They had the clothes on their backs and not anything else. Not having the crossbow Ronny had given her made Nela feel uncomfortable. After her time serving in the armies of Hyarch, and the whole series of events in Hallowscroft, she'd become used to carrying it around. It felt less safe, somehow.

Getting a good look around, she could make out the door's outline along one of the walls. Walking over to test it confirmed what Nela suspected. The door was latched shut from the outside, sealing the two of them in here.

"Do you want me to break it down?" Edeline asked.

It didn't seem like a very sturdy door, and Nela had seen Edeline move far heavier things with the aid of her spells. A wooden door was nothing compared to a gigant, after all. Still, there was one other worry Nela had.

Nela paused, considering the possibility that someone was standing guard. If there was, they'd have definitely been heard by now. Either they were waiting to see what would happen next, or they'd gone to get backup.

But between the two of them, they could handle one man. Waiting for more to show up was foolish.

"Do it."

Edeline nodded, and reared back as best as her dress would let her, aiming a kick straight at the door. Probably intending to test it first. It was then no surprise to Nela that the door held against the kick, though the wood creaked in protest. Moving up, Edeline inspected the door.

"I think it is barred," Edeline said, "They were prepared for us to try to escape, it would seem."

"That, or this shed was supposed to hold animals in or something." Of course, that wasn't encouraging in regards to how they were being treated. However, Nela still felt that they were being underestimated here.

Edeline nodded, then suddenly half-fell, half-sat down on the floor. Nela was by her side in an instant. "Something wrong?"

"Just...dizzy." Edeline looked up at Nela. "What...what did they do to us?"

Nela started to answer, only for an old memory of her grandfather coming to mind. "The sleeping herbs had all sorts of effects, not all of them pleasant. Memory loss, illness, vomiting...and some I don't even want to mention, no, no. That's why I changed to using a spell to put people to sleep."

"Shit..." Nela said, realizing what had to have happened. "The drinks at the tavern. Or the food. It had some kind of drug put into it, to knock us out." Her head throbbed, helping to confirm that. No wonder Edeline had not been able to use her spells on waking up. Given her appetite, she'd probably ended up with a lot more of it in her body than Nela had.

That changed things. Edeline was not in any shape to get into a fight. Asking her to break free of the chair with that spell was pushing the limit as it was. Nela would have to take the lead. She was no warrior, and without even a weapon, she did not have a lot of options.

They'd have to be sneaky then.

At least Nela could be reasonably confident now that no one was nearby. They had not been quiet so far, and they probably could afford to make a little noise while breaking out. With that in mind, Nela moved over to the door and laid down on her back.

"What are you doing?" Edeline asked.

Rather than respond, Nela pulled both of her legs back, then kicked at the leftmost board that made up the door. If she was seeing it correctly, the door was only held together by a pair of planks. If she struck it at just the right spot...

The first kick failed, but Nela launched another, and then another. A couple more after that, there was a cracking sound, and light poured in through a hole as the bottom part of the board fell away.

Shifting slightly, she moved to kick at the next board, and once that was broken loose, the next. Please don't have anyone come along and see, Nela hoped as she worked at it.

At last, the final piece of wood was knocked loose. Nela let her legs fall down, laying spread out on the floor and trying to catch her breath. She wasn't that unhealthy, she had thought. Or maybe that was also the herbs still affecting her in some way.

"You should have let me do it." Edeline went over to Nela's side, sitting beside her. "Take a moment."

"Can't," Nela managed to say between heavy breaths. While she would love nothing more than to just lay there and recover, they couldn't risk someone discovering how close they were to escaping.

Rolling over, she crawled up to the opening she had made, and peered out. Beyond was an overgrown field, farmland that by her best guess had been abandoned. Of course, she was no farmer, so there was no way to be sure, especially from her vantage. More importantly than that, the gap in the door was wide enough for Nela to fit through, if she kept low and crawled. She wasn't sure Edeline could manage it though.

Keeping that in mind, she began to work her way through the opening. She managed to get partway through before she felt the back of her tunic snag. Wiggling a little to try to free it did Nela no good. Frustrated, she gave up on subtlety, and pushed forward as hard as she could.

With a sound of cloth tearing, Nela found herself on the other side the door. She could tell, through the feeling of the breeze on her back, that her tunic was ruined. At least the wood's edge hadn't cut or stabbed into her back.

Rising to her feet, Nela got a good look at where they were. It seemed to be the outskirts of that village. Verdan, was it? Whatever it was, it was apparently paying her no heed. No one was in the fields nearby, and the next nearest building was a good distance away.

Right, well, that meant they had some time. Turning, Nela could see it was a fairly simple plank barring the half-broken door. Lifting it up, she tossed it aside into the grass, then pulled the door open.

Leaning on the door's frame, Edeline stumbled through, blinking in the sunlight. "Thank you," she said, still unsteady on her feet.

"No problem." Nela took a moment to check again, to make sure no one had seen. She could make out a few people out and about in the village, but nobody was looking in their direction.

"Sorry. I...I don't think I can fight." Edeline's voice made that clear.

"Already figured that out. Let's keep low and try and find where the other two ended up."

"Will they be alright?" Edeline asked, hesitant.

"They'd better be." If they weren't, by tomorrow someone in Verdan was going to learn the hard way just what kind of spells Edeline had, ones handed down from the legendary Stormsage.

Not that any of them really knew all that much about the Stormsage. That was part of why they were headed to Kelshir to begin with, to track down any record of who she had been and what she had done. Along with information about any other thaumaturges who had shared her unfortunate fate.

At least, until this happened.

With Edeline following behind, Nela took cover among the thicker brush nearby. She just hoped they could get this over with and reunite with Ronny and Hamond. The sooner, the better.