Zahria and Rinoa had been watching as the fight unfolded. Zahria in particular kept her eyes peeled, looking for her chance to make her move. It would not be a safe thing to do, but all of the others were fighting. She had to help.

Her sister and the funny little creature Rinoa called Baji followed her as she began to move. She supposed they too could help in some way. Rinoa could assist her in anything she decided to do, but she still wasn't sure how little Baji could help. She would think of something.

They took advantage of the fighting to distract from their move, and skirted around the battle to where the prisoners were chained. They screamed desperately, each begging to be freed before any of the others. They all looked horrified, as any in their position would be.

She glanced this way and that, and gave an excited yelp when she spied a sword, and went to take it from the severed arm that still held it in its hand. She pried this off, and took the sword with her to where a man who looked to be in his early 20s with reddish brown hair and blue eyes, and was dressed like all the others in well worn gray and white prison stripes.

Zahria raised the sword above her head and struck the chain with all of her might. Twice, three times, all to no avail. The man was sobbing his thanks incoherently, but she had no idea how to get him free. “Think, Zahria. Think!” she screamed to herself in her mind.

It was then that she saw that Baji had begun to gnaw at the chains. At first Zahria shook her head, but then she looked closer and saw that the creature's powerful jaws were already deforming the metal chain links. It took him maybe three minutes to gnaw through the chain, which felt like longer to Zahria, who spent it as lookout in case the soldiers or commander saw what they were doing.

When he was free, the man was still shaking with sobs. Zahria tried to calm him down in every way she could, but still he was barely holding together. She wanted to shout at the man, and she did more than once, but that only made the man even more frightened.

Only moments after the man was freed, the call went up from one of the soldiers that someone was freeing the prisoners. Immediately the commander reacted, delivering a savage backhanded strike to Masona’s chest,Wounding her terribly, and pivoting in the same motion to advance on Zahria, Rinoa and Baji.

The girls screamed, but even as the man approached, a doorway appeared before them. Daedalus had summoned one for himself and them as soon as he saw Masona fall, and shouted for the others to do the same. It didn't matter where they fled to. They could regroup later. Right now they had to stay alive.

He went through his doorway and the girls went through theirs. These were the only two he knew led to the same place. When they arrived in the house he had lived in with Silas, he was surprised to see that Gerald and Rinoa's monstrous friends had also come to this place.

For several minutes they all stood in stunned silence. After all of that, they had managed to free exactly one prisoner. They had been soundly defeated, and scattered to the winds. Zahria wanted to have faith in her friends, but it honestly seemed hopeless.

“Just who the hell was that?” Daedalus asked no one in particular “He just went through us like nothing.” He was right. It was terrible, but all they could do now was find the others. Only together could they hope to strike back.

Daedalus

He was in shock after the battle, and could not seem to grasp all of what had happened. Masona was dead or soon would be, Anedi was badly injured, and they only managed to free one prisoner. It was a sound defeat, and this was beginning to become a familiar feeling.

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Gerald and Daedalus had both been through harrowing adventures since last they saw each other, and the friends exchanged stories. It was all they could do to pass the time. The sisters, sitting away from the boys, also exchanged stories, though Rinoa had difficulty putting it into words.

“We have to find the others,” said Daedalus. ”We have to keep fighting.”

“Keep losing, you mean. That's all we've been doing.” Gerald's voice grew angry. “We've lost control of the spire, they have killed or imprisoned our leaders, we tried to fight back, and we lost.” The man looked more drained and more lost than Daedalus had ever seen anyone look.

“ Even so, we keep going. We keep fighting, because this place is our home, and they can't have it,” Daedalus said. “I for one intend to keep fighting for it.”Gerald couldn't meet his friend's eyes.

After a silence that lasted entirely too long, Daedalus announced he would find them something to eat, and set to searching. It wasn't long before he found the pantry wherein there was hard cheese, smoked sausage, smoked fish, berry preserves, and some other things, all of which they brought back to the group. Everyone chose from what was available and made their own lunch.

Daedalus watched Zahria and her sister, though it seemed they were no longer in each other's company. Rinoa was seated among her monstrous friends, and Zahria, as it happened, was heading toward Daedalus at present. He knelt and opened his arms to embrace his student.

She was crying profusely. Daedalus held her and told her all would be well. It was then that he took real notice of the cowering man who had come with them through the door. The one and only prisoner they managed to free.

Dadealus did not recognize the man, but was able to get a name from him. Jeshiva. it was impossible to reconcile the image of the young, confident councilor the name summoned with the terrified and filthy creature before him.

“What did they do to you?” Daedalus asked the clearly shaken man. “Anything you can tell us at all may help us save the others.”

Jeshiva took a deep, steadying breath before answering. “They mostly asked us questions about books. Do you have a personal store of books? How many? Where? In their country, the state alone controls all books.”

His face contorted in pain, and he stopped for a moment to steady his nerves. “They...They hurt anyone who wouldn't answer. Took fingernails. Took teeth.” He winced again, and touched a hand to his cheek. Daedalus expected that there was more than one hollow in the man's mouth where once there were molars.

“Do we know where they take the books?” Daedalus asked. He felt awful pelting the man with questions after all that he'd been through, but they needed to know.

Jeshiva shook his head. “No, but it must be outside the cities. They move them through doorways,” he said, dejectedly. “They could be anywhere.”

“We should tackle one crisis at a time,” Daedalus said. “That sword was definitely spellforged. Probably the armor too. We need equipment to match it. Who managed to hold on to their weapons?”

As it turned out, the answer was one of Rinoa's friends and Gerald. That gave them a halberd and a short sword to work with. Daedalus started with the halberd, enchanting the shaft to resist breaking and being cut, and to grow longer or shorter according to the wielder's need. Staying out of range would be invaluable when next they faced Adrius. It would only work for one battle, and then they would need to read it again.

That left Gerald's short sword. He wrote spells to make it into a great sword, to make it nearly weightless, to make the wielder resistant to fire, and to freeze anything that touched the blade.

When he was done he was quite proud of his work, but he knew it would still not be enough.

After the spell work was done, Daedalus joined the others in their meal, grabbing a small piece of smoked sausage and a piece of soft cheese from off the table where he'd set the food. The sausage was spiced with crushed red pepper ground into the meat, but was a little tough for his liking. He ate it with gusto regardless.

He was still eating the cheese, which was starting to turn he thought, when the relative quiet of the house was shattered by the small creature he'd heard Zahria's sister call Baji yapping loudly like a frightened dog. In an instant Daedalus and the others were on their feet.A moment later a huge booming sound came from the entrance of the house, like a giant pounding on the door.

Without a second to waste, Daedalus ran to where he'd set his notebook. Where was that blasted pen?! Another impact shook the door in its frame, shook the whole house in fact. He searched frantically for the pen, and found it just before a third impact sounded, and he heard the sound of splitting wood. The door would not take another hit from whatever that was.

Daedalus wrote too fast the first time, and ripped the page in his panicked hurry, but on his second try wrote a doorway back to the sewers where they'd first met the resistance. He rushed through, the others following just as quickly as they could, Gerald grabbing his sword and Jeshiva the halberd. The creature who'd used it in the fight seemed not to mind this.

The group emerged into the darkness of the sewer and did not slow. They heard the doorway break into pieces behind them moments before the doorway closed and ceased to exist. The sewers were the first place he could think to go, and it would be easy to hide down here, but Daedalus knew there would be people searching them soon, if they weren't down here already.

Daedalus wrote a quick enchantment to the great sword to make it glow, and they moved forward with Gerald leading the way. They didn't know what they were looking for, or where they were going. All they knew was that staying still meant capture, and capture meant death.