A few expressions passed over Hidey’s face as they entered the room. The first was surprise, quickly followed by what Zalia swore was a frown in her direction and lastly a broad smile.
“You’re back!” Hidey exclaimed, standing from his seat.
“Hey!” Zalia greeted, blocking Boreal’s approach to the bookshelf towards the back of the room with her leg.
“Oh no you don’t,” she said to Boreal through their link.
“Please, sit, sit,” Hidey said, gesturing to a couple of chairs stacked in a corner.
They all pulled out a seat and placed themselves in front of his desk.
“I’m sure it must have been an arduous journey but as you know the situation is dire. Are you up for telling me what you have learnt?” Hidey asked.
Zalia’s heart skipped a beat. This was it.
“Of course,” Indis replied, face as neutral as ever.
Indis looked to them as if asking if one of them wanted to start but Ember quickly gestured for her to begin.
“Well, we met with the spy as planned and made our way to one of the military camps of the rebellion. Everything seemed fine at first and their General, Faian, told a compelling story that nearly convinced us of their side in the war outright. We asked to meet another of their generals, firstly to provide another version of the story for us to pick at but also to buy time to do a little looking around for ourselves. Whilst the General told a convincing tale, we wanted to be sure,” Indis started.
Ember quickly interjected,
“Soon, we found a building filled with madmen. Some were unresponsive, some muttering to themselves, others yet clawing at the walls. We couldn't help but draw a parallel between the men and the corrupted man Zalia found near to Ostoss. This was… the first of the red flags,” she added.
Ember looked to Zalia and she started speaking,
“They were having a supply issue, something was stealing and destroying supplies leading to increased costs for the army. We offered to help with the problem while we waited for the other general to arrive and they reluctantly agreed. We discovered the issue was a group of elementals that they couldn't quite track. I managed to do so and we resolved the issue for them, gaining a little trust. Something struck me as odd about it and after talking we realised that the only other times we had seen elementals causing so much trouble was around ritual sites. At this point the evidence was telling us that they definitely had something to do with the rituals,” she said, keeping to their planned story.
“The final straw was when they told us their plan. They want to invade the kingdom from the south with a large force, push through to the capital and destroy the king. They played it off as being the good guys, taking down the evil king who was using sacrificial rituals to destroy the lands but we didn't buy into it. We soon left, knowing we needed to get this information to you as soon as possible so that we can do something to help. We can't let this happen, we must at least warn him!” Zen finished, actually sounding the most convincing of them all. He managed to put emotion behind the words so that whilst the others sounded like they were giving a report, he sounded like he was genuinely worried.
Hidey looked them all over and gave an exhausted sigh,
“This is terrible news you bring, though it is good to know of this plan before it takes place. You are right, we must warn the king,” he said, looking troubled.
The story was mostly the work of Indis. Unsurprisingly, the woman knew the best way to spin a tale that you wanted someone to believe. The best way was to use as much truth as you could get away with, twisting it to suit your purpose. When they had been coming up with what to say and Indis had suggested this, they had all thought the same thing though none spoke it. It was exactly what Indis had done with them, spinning her story to suit the purpose she needed in the moment.
“Any news of what is happening here?” Zalia asked, changing the subject now that their task was done.
“Things are not good. Elemental awakenings have increased in number and we are struggling to keep up. Teams are still working on destroying the Gold ranked elementals that awaken near ritual sites but work is slow. It seems like they are slowly getting stronger and we even have had to deal with a single Emerald ranked elemental thus far. It took all of the Gold rank members to deal with that one. Even then it was a close call,” Hidey replied.
“Emerald?” she asked.
“The rank above Gold,” Indis told her.
“Just another thing I forgot to learn about,” she thought.
“What are the other ranks?” she asked.
“Diamond then Mythical. There are some who say there is another rank above that, Ascendant, but rumours of such occasions are few and far between. It's hard to confirm such things and no one of that rank has been kind enough to come tell us it is,” Indis replied.
“A little off topic guys,” Ember interrupted.
“Sorry,” Zalia said.
“No matter, I believe we should start gathering our people back in preparation to act. Thank you for a job well done team, the rest of the day is yours. I must discuss this with Mathias and Hildebrandt and we will make an announcement tomorrow morning,” Hidey finished, dismissing them.
They left the room, making their way down out of the building. They didn't speak of the conversation or their apparent success and they wouldn't until everything was over. The chance of being overheard was not worth the risk. They entered a hallway that should have led to an exit but ahead of them there was nothing but darkness.
“What is that?” Ember asked, trying to see through.
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“I don't know, I can't see in,” Indis replied.
Zen lifted his shield off of his back, hefting his mace in the other hand.
Zalia though, could see. Within the darkness was a figure, a humanoid, a shade. Within the darkness was the Hidden.
“He knows,” Zalia whispered.
‘What?” Indis asked.
Ember understood and drew her weapons too but it was too late.
The darkness spread through the corridor faster than they could react, sending them all into pitch black. Zalia could see as Indis started sparking, lightning trying to spark off her body but simply fizzling within the shade. Zen lifted his shield towards where the Hidden had been, trying to block any incoming attacks. Ember was spinning her head around, desperately trying to catch sound or sight of their enemy. Zalia summoned her weapon into it's sword form and waited.
“So that's why I couldn't detect the bow anymore,” the Hidden whispered from all around.
“Why are you doing this?” Zalia asked, still trying to feign innocence.
“I’m sorry child,” the disembodied voice replied, almost sounding sad.
Arms began reaching from the walls, floor and ceiling, each grabbing onto limbs, clothes and armour. Indis was immediately restrained against the wall and Zalia desperately slashed at the shadow limbs trying to cut them free. She managed to destroy two of the arms before she had to leave Indis and cut at the limbs grabbing her. Failing to destroy them all she tried to activate her Nature’s wrath and Protection of the wilds abilities but neither of them activated. Her magic felt dull and withdrawn, as if it was being crushed by another force. Despite all the training and effort Zalia had put into getting stronger, it wasn't enough. One by one they were each restrained and as they were smothered, the deep darkness of unconsciousness eventually overtook them.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
Zalia blinked her eyes,
“What happened?” she thought.
Then the memories came back in a rush and she jumped to her feet, summoning her weapon as adrenaline rushed through her body. She quickly inspected her surroundings, finding that she was in a dark cell along with Zen, Ember, Indis and Boreal. The others had been stripped of their armour and weapons, Zalia finding her own armour missing as well. Luckily, it didn't seem that the Hidden had been able to take her bonded weapon.
She was the first to awaken and tried cutting at the bars with her magically reinforced and sharpened blade but found it to be of no use. She considered trying to use some of the herbs she had stored within her stasis abilities spatial storage but thought better of it, deciding to keep it as a secret weapon. At least, she didn't think the Hidden knew about it.
She walked over and picked up Boreal's still unconscious form, hugging the feline close and sitting on one of the stone benches.
“We failed,” she thought.
She played back their conversation over and over in her head, trying to figure out what they had said, what they had given away that had ruined the carefully prepared lie. How had he known?
“So that’s why I couldn't detect the bow anymore.”
Maybe that was why?
Zalia shook her head and pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind. Right now they had to find a way out, find a way to warn the rebellion. They hadn’t cracked the stone that Faian had given them, would they now change their plans? Would the rebellion know they had failed?
Bringing herself back again, Zalia started focusing her healing aura onto Ember, hoping to wake the woman so she could help heal and wake the others quicker. Soon, Ember stirred and Zalia gently placed Boreal down, walked over and shook Ember.
“Wake up,” she said gently.
She didn't wake.
“Wake up,” Zalia said, shaking her a bit rougher.
Ember finally woke up, reacting in a similar way to Zalia and immediately trying to attack her. She jumped away quickly, holding her hands up in a peaceful gesture.
“Hey, hey, just me. Help me wake the others,” Zalia said, focusing her healing equally between the other three.
Ember walked over and began working her own healing spells on the other three.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
Soon enough they were all awake. They all stood or sat respectively, each of them trying to figure out what to do. It had been a few hours, all of them trying their separate ways of breaking down the bars that now held them. Outside the bars was a hallway that led both left and right, though all they could see was the bench opposite the cell and the torch glowing dimly above it. Boreal had even tried to slip between the bars but some shield had fizzled to life where Boreal had walked, blocking her exit.
“At least we aren't dead,” Zen said, trying to sound upbeat and not entirely succeeding.
“Yipee, now they can torture us for the information we didn't tell them,” Zalia said dryly.
Zen seemed to go pale at that.
“Oh don't worry about her, I’m sure it won’t come to that,” Ember said comfortingly, giving Zalia a glare.
“Sorry,” she said apologetically.
They heard footsteps coming down the hallway beyond and all stood, facing the bars defensively.
They all recognised the man that walked around the corner. The Hidden.
“I’m truly sorry for this,” he said, looking miserable for his part.
“Yet here we are,” Zalia replied.
“The choice was not mine to make, unfortunately,” the Hidden said.
“Yeah, we know,” Indis said sadly.
“No, I don't think you do,” the Hidden replied.
They heard another set of footsteps and Juniper came into view.
“Juniper?” Zalia asked, confused.
“I’m sorry dear, I couldn't let you interfere in what comes next,” Juniper said, sitting on the bench opposite their cell.
“I don't understand,” Zalia said numbly.
What part did Juniper have in this?
“Oh dear, you wouldn't. I’ve worked too many years to get him back and I won't be stopped because they brought in an interloper. It just won’t do,” Juniper said, almost looking through them and the walls behind.
“What are you talking about?” Ember asked angrily.
“Oh nothing for you to worry about now. Soon it will be over and you’ll be free, one way or the other,” Juniper replied, dropping two pieces of stone to the floor.
Zalia hadn't noticed the woman holding the object but now immediately recognised it. It was the stone that would send the message to the rebellion that their part of the plan was accomplished when broken.
“Oh no,” Zalia thought.
“Why are you even here?” Zalia asked in frustration.
Juniper frowned,
“I guess I felt bad for deceiving you. I am sorry for the way this had to go but years of preparation won’t be wasted for your comfort. I must be off now, the timing is very important and I must be ready. Goodbye, Zalia,” Juniper said as she stood and walked off.
The Hidden gave them a sad smile before he too, left.