Curses were launched at him when he forced the wounds to close rapidly, through a mix of Sundrop extract and various other ointments. It wasn’t close to enough to actually heal her, the wounds still severe enough by the end that she could very well die within a few days from internal bleeding, but it would be good enough for now,

‘Stabilize the other one, Dawn,’ Elijah sent to the duck. She wasn’t very happy about that, but his pleas and promises to find new plants for her won her over. With the urging of the Dreamweaver to put down the ‘effect,’ the roots grew within the redhead’s body and healed the worst of the wounds. “Now that we’re not actively trying to kill each other, I have to ask. What exactly is your Affinity?”

The young woman looked up at him with pure contempt and pain, not uttering a word. Maybe it was because of the branches still impaling her arms and legs, keeping her restrained in the name of their safety. Elijah didn’t really care, putting a foot in the left leg and letting his weight slowly push it into the branch.

A scream left her. It was awful to bear witness to, yet Elijah found himself empty of empathy for them. Remnants of his old life caused such a regression of personal growth, he supposed, or maybe it was the fact that she’d been relishing in his suffering a few minutes before.

“I’ll ask you again because I’m polite,” he began. “What’s your Affinity?”

…

“It’s Antimancy,” the redhead revealed the instant he raised his boot once again.

“Good to know,” Elijah replied, getting confirmation it wasn’t just some artifacts. “Understand that, if you try using this gift of yours again, I’ve got the duck ready to hollow out your skull.”

‘Can I really do that?’ Dawn asked.

‘No, just tighten the branches if she tries to do anything funny,’ he said, instantly shooting down that line of thought. ‘We need them both alive, to make all of this work.’

A few minutes after the initial discussion, they had been sent a reply from Vera about her coming over as fast as possible. It took an hour and a half for that to actually happen, the entire duration spent in relative silence as nobody wished to remember the presence of the others. Some noise did start up when Vera and Harper finally came, though.

“You took your time,” Elijah commented. “Running here can’t have taken more than forty minutes.”

“I invite you to try writing out two incredibly detailed contracts within such a short time frame,” Vera fired back, mildly out of breath and red in the face as she inspected the Dreamweaver and Antimancer from a distance. “Is the headless one their leader?”

“Seems like more of a shared position between him and her,” Aleksi replied, nodding his head towards the old woman. “She was the one to offer information, so she hopefully knows everything he did.”

“And more,” the Dreamweaver added from her place on the ground. The black eyes narrowed when she looked at the well-dressed Vera. “You’re no Mage.”

The Princess chuckled at the comment.

“She doesn’t seem to know everything,” she countered, before going down on one knee before the woman. “Elijah, could you free one of her arms? I need her to sign in some official manner if this is supposed to work.”

He sent the request along to Dawn, who immediately retracted the branch in the Dreamweaver’s forearm. A bit of Healing Paste stopped the bleeding that came from it, while also allowing enough muscle to regrow to allow her to move her fingers around.

“What am I signing?” she asked, accepting a pencil with her shaky hand. The paper was still held by Vera, however, as the princess was not ready for somebody to copy Elijah’s previous stunt. “This is… No, you can’t—”

“Ah, so you can recognize Leximancy,” Vera commented. “Then I guess I won’t need to explain how binding this truly is. When you sign this, which you will, you will be unable to lie to me, you will be unable to betray me, and you will follow my orders no matter what they might be. It only lasts for five years, since there’s no chance of that being permanent, but that hardly matters for somebody your age. Now, please get that hand moving. The ground is ruining the color of my pants.”

The Dreamweaver seemed ready to spit at the princess, but the edge of Aleksi’s axe convinced her to shakily sign the contract.

Both the old woman and Vera had a sharp intake of breath, Elijah briefly able to see a sizable chunk of Mana leaving the latter as the agreement became a binding one.

“Same goes for you, young one,” Vera said, walking over to the Antimancer. “Your trick won’t work on this contract when it’s signed, so you’re not leaving my side for a while, but think of the benefits. In five years’ time, you’ll be free again. Maybe. Depends on whether you’ll admit to wanting to kill me before the contract expires… Try not to think about it. Just sign and let me stand up again.”

Some rather rude words left the redhead in response, but a bit more convincing made her sign the contract regardless. While Elijah was still rather worried about them being able to break free of the binding, Vera didn't seem to share that fear.

“I might not have the ability to word the contracts as well as the Fae, but the power to bind them is the same,” she assured him. “Once they have been bound, even death has a hard time releasing you.”

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“That’s a horrifying thing to hear,” Elijah muttered, which the princess ignored without an inkling of shame. “Order them not to hurt any of us, and I’ll deal with the rest of their injuries.”

Vera did as much, making sure it was worded so no abilities would influence them either. While she was completely covered and protected by the contract, everybody else wasn't given that privilege. A way to simplify the writing process perhaps, but Elijah thought it more likely to be due to her lacking trust in them.

He didn’t blame her for it.

Since the Dreamweaver, who he learned was called Fade, had the same area of expertise as him, he only did the minimum amount of treatment for her. It was mostly focused around reversing the ruthless destruction Dawn had caused her in the right leg, the insides of the limb utterly ruined. It was only the fact that so little had been actually consumed, most of the physical matter merely stretched or ripped apart, that he was able to somewhat put it all back together and have it working. The rest of the injuries, the ones that could be dealt with through the healing paste alone, she was made to deal with herself.

Dawn had already helped considerably with the thief, roots traveling the body and stopping the bleeding that had come from Elijah’s failed attempt at putting a dagger into their heart. Thinking back on the fight, it was good that he had given up after hitting the rib. While he liked to think he’d improved somewhat, he wasn’t going to save somebody from a pierced heart just yet.

“There we go,” Vera commented, looking the two over and seeing no injuries that needed to be dealt with anymore. “I’d start out by ordering you to reveal everything you know about this whole headache of an operation, but it’s dangerously close to morning and I need all of you out here before others come around, so we’re going to do this quickly. Does anybody other than you know that the two are hidden on this floor and is there anything else you think is important that can help us win against whoever your boss is that I should know right now?”

A long-winded question, but one that made sense to get over with.

“We revealed to Rubeus Hayes that the last place we hadn’t looked yet was within the Dungeon. We’re meant to report to him in two days about what we’ve found, so until then it is unlikely that anybody will go down here and check for themselves,” Fade replied instantly. That wasn’t good, though the two days of relative safety weren't terrible to have. It meant they would have to move the young adults after that time, but until then their hiding spot would remain somewhat secure. “And what you need to know above everything else is that the Royal Mage isn’t the leader of it all.”

“Who is it then?” Vera asked.

“One of the Princes. Rubeus knows but he’s only referred to him as the ‘Bastard Prince’ in our presences so I can’t say which of them it is,” the Dreamweaver explained.

At that moment, it would’ve been possible to hear a single pin hit the floor.

“... Of course, it’s one of those two idiots,” Vera muttered, adding a few rude words under her breath before regaining her calm. “Something to think about after getting some Phoenix Drops to wake me up. Follow me.”

“Didn’t you hear? The Royals are involved in this,” Fade exclaimed, clearly not knowing who she was chewing out.

“I’m the Princess, so I knew that from the start.”

That shut the Dreamweaver up, the realization hitting her harder than the Radiant Wailweed could have dreamt of doing during the fight before.

Since the two criminals knowing the location didn't matter anymore, they were led to the hidden cave where Elijah was able to relay the news about the fight and the unknown message on the paper. There was a bit of frustration at that, though the knowledge the duo only had about two days inside the Dungeon before they would be moved over somewhere else did improve their moods a bit.

Not having the time to talk much, the cave was closed off again, and the group moved out of the Dungeon. No difficulties were had, and they went through the city without anybody noticing them. Moving as such a large group did hamper their speeds a bit, especially with the recently injured and Aleksi’s slowed movement as the main chunk of Elixir began to run out.

Elijah could see how it was taking a toll on the giant now, the man frowning every second that he thought nobody was looking at him. He was hiding the pains that came about, hiding the weakness that made his hands shake, and Elijah could see it wasn’t getting any better.

‘Can you handle going to the castle before we find medication?’ he signaled to the giant, getting a nod in reply. He wasn’t sure he believed it, yet Elijah decided against his better judgment to trust Aleksi in this.

Twenty more minutes passed them by, and they were able to enter the castle, through the small halls, and into one of the still-empty meeting rooms.

“The sun will be rising in an hour or two, so let’s get this over with quickly,” Vera said, looking at the time. It was nearing five in the morning, and everybody was starting to feel the effects of that fact. Elijah especially was starting to have doubts regarding his own ability to be here, only the tea handed to him keeping him awake. “Tell us everything we need to hear.”

Fade instantly began repeating what Elijah and Aleksi had already been told. So many years ago, she had been a part of the Death Squad sent into the country to disrupt the food production and fear and chaos amongst the smaller villages. Here, she had acted in a slightly higher-ranked position than Elijah, overseeing the production of the Elixir and other concoctions, only directly working on a few of the variants herself.

Fang had a similar story, being one of the lead berserkers who answered directly to her. A brute but one with enough mind to know his worth to his country, which allowed her to bring him along when she fled the Death Squad at the end of the war.

Together, they took up mercenary work, killing and looting for coins to afford to make more Elixir. During this time, they killed enough people to stumble upon Fox, a kid whose parents had been killed in the chaos that still wrecked the landscape years after the war. As she’d carried the gift of Antimagic, she’d been brought along to help kill any troublesome mages.

“Those idiots can be too trusting when it comes to barriers made with Mana,” Fox supplied with a grin, not bothered by anything explained about her past. There was no empathy in those young eyes either, which made Elijah shudder. They were just an empty husk. “One poke with my finger and it all broke down. Made it so easy to stab them.”

“Skip ahead a few years,” Vera ordered, the Princess having grown tired of the overly detailed past. “When did you start working with Rubeus Hayes?”

“We were approached by an associate around a year ago, regarding a long-term guarding job,” Fade continued. “Good incentives in gold, gave easier access to markets which sold the herbs I needed to brew, and the payout only became higher as the months progressed.”

“What were you guarding?”

“Mostly the hidden entrance to the dungeon, over in the slums. Every other week or so, however, we were down in the depths standing by, in case their roulette wheel of a summoning ritual decided to collapse on itself,” the Dreamweaver said, to which Vera immediately ordered more information. What did they mean? “That’s where the two humans have come from. The summoned creatures are then used as sacrifices to summon even more powerful creatures. Somewhere along the line, people had to start appearing, and we’ve reached that point now.”

A positive feedback loop.