Cassana PoV [https://i.imgur.com/wNn7riG.jpg]

Cassana dreamt that her mother was alive again. She was in her kitchen, helping prepare a meal for the waiting patrons outside. She stirred a pot and sprinkled down some basil leaves before moving aside and letting her mother take a sip of what she just made.

"So, how is it?" She asked her mother.

Canae took a sip of the ladle's contents and studied its taste in her mouth. She started coughing, and Cassana stepped away to take a glass of water. When she returned, she found her mother collapsed on the floor, suffering from seizure. She reached for her head to find her eyes white and her mouth bubbling with froth.

"Ma! Ma! Help us, please!" she shouted and she screamed, but no one seemed to be listening. "Ma!" She felt a hand over her shoulder and found Otheric standing behind her.

"Cassana, wake up!"

She opened her eyes and she was no longer in her mother's kitchen. She felt the cushions of a soft bed underneath her, and the restraints of iron cuffs on her wrists and ankles. She looked around to find the source of the voice but found Otheric at the other end of the room.

"Ric!" she called for him. She tried to go towards him but the short chain running from his ankle cuff to the bedpost prevented her from doing so. "Are you okay?"

Otheric looked up at her giving her a clear look at the bruises on his face. "Are you?" he replied. They exchanged looks and it would be hard to point out who was faring better than who. "What happened out there?"

Cassana collected her thoughts trying to figure out a real memory from a dream. She tried to remember the last time she was awake. "They killed Bonnie." She looked down on her belly and found the crude stitches done to close up her wounds. She pressed one and it oozed blood. They really wanted me alive. She thought.

"Did they really? What happened?"

She sat down at the edge of the bed. "They poisoned her. That bangs chick, she was crazy and she has poisoned daggers. She did this to me too," she said, pointing at her belly.

"They said it was just for paralysis, I heard them." Otheric explained. "When they were trying to fix you, they said the effect should wear off, eventually, and it was not, in any kind, fatal."

"Are you sure that's what you heard?"

"Was that all they did to Bonnie?"

"Yes, I think."

"Then she should be fine, as you are now."

"Ashvell. I'm scared for Ashvell."

"He was there too?"

"Yes, he was trying to help me gather my father's notes."

"He is a big enough man who can take care of himself. Do not fret."

Cassana looked back up at Otheric with a blank expression, but nodded in agreement.

Otheric gazed back, trying to close the fifteen feet of gap between them. "I am very sorry, Cassana. I have made a grievous error. The blame should fall to no one but me, and I apologize for how they have hurt you and your friends."

Cassana closed her eyes. She felt Otheric's sincerity, and she was willing to accept his apology but she was too tired to think of anything else. "We will talk about this later. Right now, let's focus on how to escape."

"I know you would want to fight back, but maybe consider the alternative. How about you give them what they want, and they will leave us be?"

"Do you really think they would do that? That they'll just leave us alone? I don't know what they want me to find in that bow, but I'm sure that they're up to no good. They will be putting so many lives in danger, and I don't want that to be on me. And then us, we'll be the loose ends to their nefarious plans. Once I translate those runes, they will have no use for us, and we're gonna end up dead."

Otheric looked away, towards the painted glass window that adorned this room. This used to be his parents' bedroom while his was right across the opposing wall. He peered outside and he could see a familiar view. He surveyed the gardens below, where his mother would tend to her plants. He could see the stable from here too, where they keep their family horses and where he and his father would talk before going out to ride.

"I remember the day my parents took me off the streets. I was weary, and scared. But they gave me a roof over my head, food to eat, they gave me security, and cared for me like their own son. I felt loved and valued.

"I remember the look on other people's faces when they saw me, the first time my parents introduced me to other people, to other humans. It was a mix of fear and disdain. No matter how my parents tried to make me feel like one of them, other people continued to make me feel like I am different.

"I remember playing with other children in the village. It was fun and exciting at the start. Then one child would be punched too hard, or be pushed too hard, and all the other parents would look at me, blame me. I am always the one at fault. Me. The troublemaker. The mischievous little drow.

"I knew then that I would never be truly accepted among humans. This will never be my home."

Otheric looked back at Cassana, tears welling up his eyes, choking at the words he was letting out, "After you gave them that map, they were excited to take on this trip. It was the first time they went on an expedition with me, they wanted me to see and experience what they saw and experienced during their heyday.

"And then... " Otheric paused to wipe the tears and snot from his face, "and then they were gone. I was alone again, hungry and tired. So when the drows from the Silver Moon Order found me, I felt relieved. They took me in, without question, without judgment. They made me feel like I belonged, like I was one of them. I felt welcomed and accepted.

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"Of course I noticed that they have a tendency to be violent. But I chalked it up to cultural differences. I thought I would get used to it, and that I am only misunderstanding their actions. I thought maybe there is a deeper meaning in what they do. I guess I was afraid and I thought that, if I judge them, I am judging myself."

"When I told them what I was doing, they promised to help me finish my parents' journey. They said that fae-people should look after one another. And when we found that weapon, they told me that it's the hope of the entire fae-kind. I believed them, Cassana. I trusted them, and now we are here. This is all my fault."

"No it's not," argued Cassana, "I don't blame you, no one will. They manipulated you, exploited your weakness. If there's someone to blame, it's them."

"I led them here. I led them to you. You may forgive me, but I would never forgive myself."

"Stop it. Look at me," Cassana always found it hard to express her thoughts in front of Otheric. That somehow she was scared that her words would hurt him, or make him feel bad. There were times when she wanted to ease his pain, or make him smile, but her mind drew blank. "Ric, don't worry about that. Don't ever think that you don't have a home, or that you won't be accepted. I promise, after this is over, I will... do my best to drive those thoughts from your head. You won't have to look for somewhere to belong, because you will always belong with me."

"What are you saying?"

"Let's get married." The words came out of Cassana without much thought. "After this, let's settle down and just live a quiet life. We'll move in together, and we'll hire more people to work at the inn, and we can just stay here for the rest of our lives."

"But you are meant for more."

"I don't want more. What I have is enough."

"Cassana..."

"What say you? If you turn me down now, I will never offer this again." She gave him a loving gaze, and for a moment, the pain she was feeling melted away. "Will you marry me, Otheric?"

"I love you more than anything, and I would want nothing else..."

Cassana could never be more frustrated for being restrained the way she was now. She wanted to reach for him, to touch him, to embrace him, to kiss him, but she couldn't. She yanked on her chain but it only made her ankle hurt so she bellowed in anger. "We should really, really find a way to get out of this," she told Otheric. "You got anything there?"

"Nothing... They removed everything from my pocket. How about magic, can't you use magic?"

"I will need to move my hands around if I were to cast a spell. Plus I don't have a nugget with me so it will drain me out too much."

"What can we do?"

"Whose room is this?"

"My mom and dad's"

"Is there anything here we can use?"

"I don't think so, my parents brought all their important stuff with them when we left for the expedition. The rest were cleared out when you were brought in. Seems like they know now well what you can do."

"Yeah, I did show them." Cassana stood up and hopped as much as the chains in her leg would allow her. Across from the bed, on top of a wooden cabinet, she saw a curved needle and some thread on a small bloody ceramic plate. The drows must have used this to clean and stitch her wounds. How nice of them. She figured she could use the needle to pick the lock on her cuffs, then she could break the ceramic plate and use it as a weapon.

She tried reaching for it but it was too far. She yanked the chain further but it reached its limit. She stretched her arms as far forward as she could, and she even bent her waist to give her an extra reach, but it was still not enough.

"Careful." Otheric warned.

Cassana took a step back and braced herself. She hopped towards the cabinet and let the momentum of her movement pushed her forward. The tip of her fingers almost reached an inch away from the plate before she lost her balance and dropped down on the carpeted floor. With her arm unable to break her fall, her chin took the brunt of it and her whole skull, from her jaws to her nape, rang like a bell on Temple Day.

"Cassana! Are you okay?"

"Yifhh, yiffh, Amokey. Mah chin hurts." She stretched her jaw and snapped her teeth a couple of times to relieve the pain, then stood up and faced the cabinet again, with added determination. She braced herself once more and was about to repeat the jump when the door to her right opened.

"My, my, what's going on?" It was the mage drow with her smoky drawl. She stepped in holding her staff with a red gem on top, "Oh you want those? What do you plan to do with them?" she asked, motioning at the things on top of the cabinet. The drow with axes appeared behind her, his face bandaged from the burn Cassana gave him earlier.

The male drow continued towards Otheric, pulled out one of his weapons and aimed it at the young drow's neck.

"You think you can escape with that? What, pick the lock on your cuffs?"

Cassana eyes simmered with rage.

"This could help." The mage produced a key from her palms and dangled it in front of the redhead. She then glanced at the bruises on her face and the stitched wound on her belly. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel like strangling you to death."

"Still the fiery soul, I see," she tossed the key towards Cassana and the latter caught it with her cuffed wrists. "But at least you look strong enough already to work. Now, one wrong move, your boyfriend dies. It's that simple."

"What a cliche." Cassana tried the key to her wrist-cuff but it wouldn't fit. She then tried it on her ankle-cuffs, and it gave way. She removed them and stretched her newly-freed feet left and right.

"Now then, get on it." The drow mage stepped aside and motioned for Cassana to exit the room.

Cassana took one last glance towards Otheric before stepping out. Barefooted, she walked a few paces before the mage drow exited and closed the door behind them. "Go on, you know how to get there, right?" she ordered her.

The young wizard continued ahead the corridor towards the staircase leading down. She ran different scenarios in her head. From that point on, she could attack the mage and no immediate harm would come to Otheric because they were out of sight of the other drow. She just needed to close the range. She could gamble on the staircase: if they both stumble down, it would be too chaotic for both of them, and she should be able to take charge of the situation. If she didn't get more injured herself, that is. It would be a risk, but taking a risk with a low chance of success was better than not doing anything at all.

She stopped at the top of the staircase and looked back at the drow mage. "Don't stop," she told her. Carefully, she took one step at a time, while the drow mage remained five feet behind her. Damn she's smart. She thought.

Reaching the bottom, she eyed the corridor that leads to the parlor. There will be several rooms to her left and right but she wouldn't be sure which of them were unlocked. She needed something to distract the mage, even for just a second or two, then she could jump away from her line of sight, then she would be free to consider her next steps.

She reached the end of the corridor. "Open it," ordered the mage behind her, still keeping an arms-length distance. Cassana opened the door and found herself back in the main hall.

She knew this room. This was where she and Otheric would hang out most. She also remembered playing hide and seek here once when they were kids. This room had tables and furniture that could keep her out of sight.

As soon as she stepped in, she kicked the door shut behind her, and ran under one of the divans. She crouched and held her breath and waited for the mage to enter. All she needed to do was find a way to get behind her, wrap her cuffed wrist around her neck and kick the staff out of her hand.

From the gap underneath, she watched as the drow mage enter the room. "Really?" she heard her say with a sigh. This worked earlier, back at the inn, when she was sneaking up to the drow with axes, there was no reason for it not to work again.

Except she was facing a magician just like her. Cassana heard the drow mage recite an incantation, and with a tap of her staff on the floor, the divans glowed a red hue, along with the other furnitures in the room. They all and started floating five feet above ground. She stared at Cassana who was then hiding behind empty air. "Nice try.