Gabrielle awakened with her body still resenting the pain from the broken-down spire. Her right arm was still bleeding from the rune she had carved on its skin, but at least it seemed to be healing nicely. As soon as the pain started to subside, the girl pulled from the restraints keeping her in place… with no results whatsoever. Frustrated, she decided to simply pull the needles from her body first, or at least those she could reach.

Then, using those, she stabbed the leather restraints until they were thin enough to break through.

“There! Finally free…” Gabi celebrated under her breath for a moment, getting right up and looking around herself. Everyone had passed out, apparently! Sister Marina lay down on the floor, close to the cages on one side of the room; Baraqiel was quietly sitting on the chair behind her; the Demiurge had left a lit candle by her side, and a shiny little ring… but there were no signs of the man himself. Only burnt rubbish.

Small, shiny objects really had a big effect on Gabrielle, she immediately grabbed the little ring before her memory called her attention to a very important detail.

“...Wait. Baraqiel!”

As if reality had slapped her awake, the girl ran over to the unconscious child… fear started to mount on her, the image of a lifeless Kimberly still very fresh in her mind. But thankfully the child reacted as soon as they were shaken by Gabrielle.

“U-Urgh… Gabi…? What just happened…?”

“Oh thanks to the Saints you are all right!” Gabrielle sighed with relief, before starting to pull the needles from her friend’s body. “Don’t worry Bari, don’t worry about anything. I will take you out and away from here, Bari!”

“W-Wait, ouch! Not so strongly!” The little kid winced and shivered with each needle pulled.

“Oh, sorry Bari.” Gabi started to pull more carefully from each needle, making sure not to hurt the young child.

“The others… are they all right?”

“I’ll get them out in a second. I just need to find the keys! Those cages need keys, right?”

“Yes… yes, they do.” Baraqiel’s voice sounded airy and tired, their body clearly clinging to the edge of consciousness. “Just… take it from the nun… she has them…”

“On it!”

Once the child was free, Gabrielle immediately carried them on her back. Only once she felt their weight she was confident enough to approach the unconscious nun, checking on her hands to find a rusty key ring.

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It took some trial and error, but a few moments later the cages were open… none of the children would wake up, however.

“They are too tired, leave them… they will know what to do when they wake up.” Baraqiel wasn’t really sure, but they were also way too tired to give too much thought to their words. “What do we do now…?”

“I will take us out of here… you should sleep as well, Bari.” The girl turned around to look at her charge, making her best to smile. “This time, next time you wake up, you’ll be safe. I promise.”

“You can’t just promise me that…” The not-angel was not really convinced, but they didn’t have the energy to fight. “But all right… I trust you.”

“Just promise me one thing.”

“Another thing for the Covenant?”

“Yes.”

“All right then… what do you want me to promise…?”

“Please… don’t die.”

—

Running through the forest was way harder now that rain was falling. Maybe it was all the pain she had gone through, the fading emotions and the growing hunger, she wasn’t sure! All she knew was that her thighs felt like they weighed a million kilos all of a sudden, and even if she was able to sprint at times, the girl always ended up trudging slowly on the mud.

This gave her time to think.

To look again at the little ring on her hand… so similar to the Ring of the Church that the Father usually wore. Rings were a symbol of belonging, a way to show everyone your allegiance to a Church, a Club or a Guild. That’s why people wore rings! The design on it was a sun being bit by a massive lion head— the images of that dream of hers immediately pushed back into her mind.

It was all too fitting, too obvious. If this ring belonged to the Demiurge, that could only mean one thing:

There’s more than one…

Gabrielle stopped completely at that moment, looking down at the floor and feeling the kid sleeping placidly on her back. Somewhere, in some terrible dungeon or a forgotten building, there could be more children like them, being tortured by another insane Demiurge wanting to become an angel.

Would there be anyone that could help them…?

“Gabi!”

A voice broke the silence of the night woods. Gabrielle turned around and saw lights approaching, along with the voice beckoning her. She wished it to be one of the Sisters, or maybe one of the other girls, but no: the beckoning lights were little lanterns hanging from the sides of a beautiful wooden cart moving by the power of two lazy-looking donkeys. A caravan she knew too well.

“Gabiiiii!” From the front of the cart, sitting beside the rider, Bohllin the elf smiled and waved enthusiastically. “We came for you Gabi!”

“For me…?”

As the donkeys were forced to stop, and the little elf immediately wandered over to her friend, Gabrielle blinked a few times.

“I thought you were already in a better place.”

“We caught up with the others in no time thanks to you, but they are camping right now! So we took the time to pick you up.” Bohllin announced, nodding quickly and patting his own chest. “Get in! We are getting out of Jericho in the next Half Moon!”

Gabrielle felt the spirits returning to her chest.

“Can we please bring Baraqiel as well? They are a friend of mine too, and they have nowhere to go!”

“For sure, get in! Get in!”

A few more elves came out of the cart and, without warning, picked both children up to get them in the cart. Gabrielle felt a little uneasy at first, but once inside the cart and safe from the rain, the girl would finally lay back and rest. The cart was full of shiny-looking trinkets, but none of the sleepy elves the girl had seen back in the day she helped repair it.

“They are all waiting at Maëra.” Bohllin nodded, sitting on the opposite wall as Gabrielle did. “You will love it, they are all very nice, and there’s so many of us! They all said they wanted to meet you after Adella told them what you did for us. And– oh, what’s wrong Gabi? Are you okay…?”

Gabrielle sighed, shaking her head slowly while putting Baraqiel on the floor and sitting beside them. On her hands, the ring of the Demiurge still shined with an evil glimmer.

“Nothing… I just need to sleep Bohllin. Can we speak in the morning?”

“Ah…” The elf’s ears lowered, clearly disappointed, but he nodded. “Sure. I wanted to ask you many things but, sure.”

With a pout, the elf quieted down and looked to the side, trying to sleep… meanwhile, Gabrielle looked back into the ring.

There are more of them, she thought to herself. More Demiurges here… and also the Sisters… and the other girls! I …

Is this really correct? For me to just leave…?

As the cart made a u-turn, and Gabrielle started her trip back to oh-so-coveted safety, that uncertainty only continued to grow… just like the burning pain on the rune engraved in her right arm.