I stop to take a brief look at the person on the ground as Hithe walks on, completely uncaring. Though a large amount of their skin is far more red than it looks like it should be, and some portions of it seem to have actually been burned through, I can still hear a faint breathing.

I look down at the manacles still binding me and my own magic, contemplating.

This is getting way out of control. If this guy murders somebody while I'm tagging along somehow I doubt they won't implicate me just because I'm still bound. Hell, at this point I might as well continue to tag along simply to make sure he doesn't kill somebody else. But these cuffs are getting in the way.

Taking a breath, I imagine the concept necessary to free myself. It's not a counter I like using, but damaging oneself is the simplest trade for superior attributes. It's also the simplest, which makes it optimal for situations like this, where there isn't enough time to sit around and construct a more optimal concept.

I just hope these things aren't made from anything stronger than iron, or this'll be pointless.

Infusing my being with the necessary mana, I feel my bones creak and muscles begin to tear themselves apart as a ferocious strength fills my body. A week ago I would have considered this excruciating, but after the horrific encounter with that man, the pain rings a bit hollow.

Blocking out the pain I use every muscle I can to try and break my restraints. At first they hold fast, but under the strain of inhuman might the latch on the left cuff finally snaps with a metallic ping. With my freed left hand I wiggle my fingers under the loop on the other hand and put all my newfound strength into pulling on it. With a second metallic ping, it too comes free.

As I sit panting from the intense exertion I can't help but wonder if that was even worth it. Around the outside of my wrists are bright red bands on my skin where the strain of the metal was strongest. It feels like if they had taken any more force the bone within would have snapped, and that's with constant reinforcement. The rest of my body feels feeble after the five seconds it took to break my bonds. Across my arms I see red marks under the skin where blood vessels burst, there's a faint taste of blood in my mouth, and even my breaths are pained as I can feel the agony of my ribs and chest extending out and in as my lungs distend and contract.

Still, I don't have time to sit and recuperate as Hithe barely spares a glance at my efforts before continuing on. The shouting from behind is also getting louder, and considering we're still practically next to an office full of guards, I don't like the prospect of sitting around.

Sparing one last look at the heavily injured form on the ground I mutter, "Sorry," before following Hithe. Now that I'm uncuffed I can subdue the unhinged tink if it comes to it.

"You do know you could have done that without almost killing the guy, right?" I ask as I catch up.

"Oh, they survived? Huh, I didn't notice," the tink responds with a flippant attitude.

"Could you refrain from going psycho on me here? It's bad enough being complicit in an escape attempt, I really don't want to be seen as someone who tags along with a murderhobo."

"Well that's a rude way to describe someone."

"Oh, I'm sorry, was it in any way inaccurate? Last I checked, upstanding citizens don't get themselves imprisoned for the hell of it."

"I have a home," He protests grumpily.

"Oh yeah? A real one or a hole in a wall somewhere?"

"Fuck off. You sure are complaining a lot for someone who isn't contributing. Now that you've lost your shackles, how about you actually help instead of sitting on the sidelines?"

"Oh, I'm just here to make sure you don't make a bigger mess than you already have. If you start going all psycho I'll be the one to take you down before the guards even get a chance."

"Oh?" He stops walking and turns to me, "You really think you can? Seems like you struggled to even remove those petty restraints." His flippant attitude is gone and he looks at me with a cold glare.

"Yeah, I do. Come on, you gonna try to assert some worthless authority or get a move on?"

"Hmph," Is all he says before continuing forward.

We continue forward until we reach the end of the hallway with branching paths on the left and right.

"So which way from here?" I ask.

"Not that way," Hithe says, pointing down the left passage as guards come spilling around a corner further down.

I give him a look, to which he replies with a sigh and, "I know, I know." Crouching down he places his hand on the wooden floor. About ten feet in front of us the floor seems to liquefy and shift, making both a pit into some unknown chamber below and a wall blocking off the passage.

Looking behind us I see a similar sight, with guards pouring through the doorway we came through just a minute ago. Hithe sighs and quickly does the same thing.

Somebody in the hallway we passed through puts up an Area, which Hithe and I both skirt away from.

"Hmph, how do they expect to catch us without magic? What fools," Hithe says with a cynical smile.

"They're probably on guard against you letting loose the flames again," I say as we jog down the last remaining hallway.

Once we're clear of the Area Hithe stops and places a hand against the wall while closing his eyes. Reinforcing my vision I can see he's doing something magical, but I'm not sure what exactly.

"This wall connects to the rest of the city," The tink says with his eyes still closed.

So it's like a magical sonar that goes through walls, huh? Neat, wonder if I could do that too. Something to try later, I suppose.

"I'm going to break out of this wall, watch behind us," He says, crouching down. I watch with interest as he starts to inscribe something on the wall, the lines invisible yet tangible.

Inscription magic is formidable yet rarely used offensively in war. Having inscriptions be a part of the casting ritual of a spell can drastically increase their effects, but the act of inscribing takes time. Once an inscription is laid it also induces a continuous drain on your reserves, which usually demands a substantial flow of mana, making it impractical to simply carry inscriptions around or leave for extended periods of time.

Twenty seconds pass as Hithe focuses on inscribing on the wall. The makeshift barrier the tink erected first is blown to smithereens and a figure in the garb of the shadow brigade comes bursting through.

"Time's up," I say to Hithe, backing away from him a bit.

"Aaaand… Done." Hithe says as he stands up, "Move back a bit more."

I do as the tink says, and Hithe runs behind me. "What exactly is that supposed to do?" I ask a little hesitantly.

"Boom," The words barely leave the tinks lips before the world turns white.

***

A deafening roar. Pain. Blinding light.

Thought is stripped away as my senses jumble together. I fade in and out of consciousness.

A voice sounds out through the shadowy haze of my mind, "See ya later, buddy."

After that, the world goes dark, and I fall out of thought and time.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

***

When I awake the first thing that I feel is an aching soreness present throughout my body. Then comes the blinding light after opening my eyes for what feels like an eternity.

Once my eyes adjust I look around to take stock of my current situation. I'm back in my room in Andora's manor, where it looks like nothing has changed. I could almost convince myself everything that happened was nothing but a bad dream if it wasn't for the memories that I can still picture clear as day.

Throwing the cover off myself I examine my body for wounds, and breathe a sigh of relief when I don't find anything missing or out of place. Getting up, I go to stand at the window, looking over the unchanged property to bask in the afternoon sunlight. Opening the window, I breathe in the clear air to clear my thoughts.

Alright, now what?

It doesn't take a genius to find my situation abnormal. For all intents and purposes, I should still be under lock and key, or at least intense supervision. The fact that I'm back at the manor and not even chained to my bed is strange.

My best guess is that having friends in high places comes with pretty large benefits.

Still, I'm far from being well enough off to grow complacent.

Footsteps outside my room forewarn the opening of the door. Turning from the window, I see Vanderburst with an unusually serious face.

"If you're well enough, the noble mistress has some questions she'd like to ask you."

With a sigh I respond, "You sure are punctual. Any chance I can speak with my comrades first?"

"No."

As I thought. They're isolating me as much as they can, in case I try to speak about what I saw down below. That and they're definitely watching me, though I can't tell how. There's simply no way to time this request as soon as I've awakened otherwise.

"Very well," I say before following Vanderburst through the hall.

Soon enough we arrive at Andora's office, which Vanderburst opens after a quick knock at the door. Walking in I'm met with Andora behind the desk and Annora off to the side, both looking at me.

Vanderburst closes the door behind me, leaving us alone.

"You've got some explaining to do," Andora says.

"Why don't you ask a more specific question so I know where I should begin," I say in response.

"Alright then, let's start with why the fuck more than 50 people are dead and 200 others injured," Her usual air of composure is gone, leaving her agitation to show through.

"I was attacked, I'm not sure what else you want me to say."

"Yes, I've gathered as much. Who were they to you?"

I briefly explain the events that brought us here and how I knew the man named Lleig.

"If you knew this man was after you then why did you purposefully venture out into areas that you knew could be dangerous?"

"I was… scouting out some info I needed. Morvin was helping me, that's why he got caught up in that mess too."

"Putting him aside, you do realize that going out there without any form of protection was insanely stupid, don't you? I mean really, what were you thinking?"

"There was something I needed to know, and I felt outside assistance would only get in the way of my querying."

"I sure hope it was worth it, considering how many people died because of your actions. I want you to let it sink in that the maniac that you attracted butchered 50 people. More than half of those were innocent people you dragged into your mess in your flight."

"I know. Trust me, I felt the pain of every one of those deaths. It's easy for you to know of the deaths of those people. I felt it. I won't be forgetting that anytime soon. Did you at least catch the fucker?"

"No."

"You're kidding, right?"

"He disappeared on the level 13. My forces were too distracted by the wake of carnage he left behind and he slipped away in the confusion. Let's move on to your escapade in the most secure facility in the city."

"Yeah, you really might want to reconsider that assessment. I mean we basically walked through almost the entire place before someone found us."

Ignoring my comment she continued, "Why don't you tell me that story next?"

Once again I briefly summarize my version of events.

"So what happened at the end?" I ask after stopping from the last thing I remember.

Looking up from a report she says, "You don't remember?"

"I was in the hallway and Hithe was behind me, that's it."

"I see. How would you describe your relationship with that man?"

"My relationship with the man I knew for the space of perhaps half an hour? Tenuous, at best. Dude is a psycho, so far as I can tell. You didn't answer, what happened?"

"Psycho is likely a good descriptor. He set off an explosion that was felt six levels up, completely compromising the integrity of both the prison and the surrounding structure. I will say, it's quite amazing how you managed to associate with two highly volatile people in the same day."

"Just my luck, I suppose."

"Mm. Well, I suppose I should also inform you that the explosion he set off came extremely close to killing you. That was two days ago. You've been in the care of our healers ever since."

I grimace at that. I figured something like that had happened, but hearing I've been out for two whole days is a shock.

"Now, I believe it's time for this," She pulls out a paper from a drawer and slides it across her desk towards me. The first few lines reveal its purpose, and Andora slides a quill next to the silencing contract.

"I don't even get an explanation?"

"No. You get to sign, and depending on how I'm feeling I'll either forcibly remove you from my city or confine you to places I can control."

I look to Annora, trying to discern her thoughts, but she won't meet my gaze. With a sigh, I got back to reading over the contract. One thing I know all too well from my previous life is that you should never sign anything you haven't fully read and understood.

Fortunately, the silencing contract is extremely simple in nature and execution. To summarize, if I ever tried to communicate information about the abyss or attempt to gain access to it or anything related to it in any way I would die. It's short, simple, and reasonable. In truth it may even be a weight off the shoulders of those who had no intention of finding that place like myself, considering it would alleviate the temptation of selling off state secrets.

"I won't sign this."

Both of the dwarven sisters glare at me with a steely gaze. "Why?" Andora asks through strained teeth.

"I'm already contractually bound to another, and I worry there may be unforeseen conflicts between the two contracts. That and I don't appreciate how many secrets you've got concentrated here."

"Unfortunately, I couldn't give a damn about your personal reservations. Sign it, or I'll throw you in a cell and toss the key into that pit."

"Oh, really? And what happens when Zeph comes asking around when his most important asset goes missing?"

"Do you seriously think I'm afraid of some mercenary?"

"No, I think you should be afraid of who you're locking away and who else would be your enemy when they learn who you've locked away. It's not in Zeph's interest for my blessing to be known by the church, but it's even less in his interest for me to rot in a cell. So if he's forced to make a choice, what do you think he'll do, attempt to break me out himself, or tell the church you're letting someone with a blessing rot in a cell?"

Andora's gaze is full of fury, "I would be within my legal authority to kill you right here. Would that be aligned with your precious interests?"

I pick up the quill before walking around the desk. Kneeling before the dwarven woman I grab her wrist. "What are you-" Before she can finish, I shove the quill into her hand and forcibly put it against my neck.

"Alright then, let's see you do it."

She snarls, "You've lost it."

"I'm perfectly sane, I assure you. I don't even consider this a gamble, you know why? Because you've got way too much shit on your plate right now. You've got two psychos who couldn't care less about the lives of your citizens in their pursuit of what they want, and a tourism crisis you can't do anything about. Your resources are already spread to the limit maintaining this city and its secret as is, am I wrong?"

I release her hand, letting her hold the quill against my neck. I tilt my head so it's even more flush against the point and lean into it. Feeling the pressure, Andora yells, "DAMN IT!" Before throwing the quill against the wall in a rage.

Stepping away, I return to my original position, "If you want to throw us out of the city that's fine, I'm not petty enough to threaten you to maintain our place here. But even doing that seems like it would be against your interests, as I highly doubt you're very inclined to simply let someone who knows about that place run around. Not that I'd say anything, but it's become incredibly obvious to me how insecure you people are when it comes to rule breakers."

Honestly, I didn't expect to have her exasperated enough to turn to Annora with a pleading look, but it feels damn good to jerk somebody with immense political power around with a few empty threats and basic logic.

Annora lets out a sigh seeing her sister so far on the ropes, "Stein, what do you want? We need to reach some kind of accord here, so just tell us what you want already."

With a wry smile, I respond, "You make it sound like I'm blackmailing you for everything you've got. All I'd want is a less stringent contract," I wave the piece of paper to put further emphasis on it.

"That's it? After all that?" Andora says, looking thoroughly annoyed.

"As I said, I simply can't accept the terms of this contract as they currently stand. That being said, it's not like I have a problem with keeping your secret. From the way I see it, we're working toward the same goals and I have absolutely no reason to get on your bad side. You've been good to us and I appreciate that. Let's compromise and make a contract we're both happy with and then we can get on to more important business."

Andora scrutinizes my expression, searching for any hint of deceit. While I'm more than willing to admit to myself that I lie way more than any upstanding person should, this is one of the few times I'm being genuine. After a couple moments she asks, "More important business such as?"

"Finding and killing the fucker that murdered my friend."