It was a moonlit night and a thick cloud of fog rolled across the ground, rising into the air in a thin curtain. Valerina looked outward, her gaze searching, but apart from the darkness of the night, she found nothing. She glanced at Gabriel and found him muttering silently under his breath, his lips barely moving. What was he doing?

An unwelcome thought reared its head and she pondered over the possibility that he was trying to sell them out in some manner. There was no basis for the thought, but if there was one thing Ramla had taught her it was to anticipate betrayal when there was a possibility of interests clashing - especially so when the stakes were high. And as far as she knew, the things at risk were their very lives. Stakes could not get higher than that.

To compound the thought, Gabriel was weird. The type of weird that was as likely to plunge a knife in you as it was to lend a helping hand. While they had all gotten closer recently and had a better understanding of how they all ticked, they did not pry much into each other. And in particular how Gabriel was able to know things he had no business knowing. Were he an air or sound manipulator, it was possible to play it off as him being particularly gifted - albeit to an absurd degree - but Gabriel was a wood manipulator. He very much should not be able to do the things he did.

Valerina balled her fist and stared out into the night once more. Ramla had made her into something of a paranoid personage, but it had both kept her alive four years ago and served her through the hellfest Sealarios had become hence she wasn't going to act like it wasn't a good thing.

"I see nothing," Ellen murmured, squinting at the darkness. "By the gods, Gabriel, if this is a twisted joke of -"

"It is not," Gabriel replied immediately, frustration evident in his tone. "Something is here. Where, I don't know, but it very certainly is."

"Look for the shadows," Valerina blurted suddenly, remembering what Lynica had told her about shadows being better cues of presence when conventional indicators fail. They had been on the roof the day before and the aide had been ranting about how their stealthy stalkers defied logic.

The three stood at the window for almost a full minute, their eyes straining to make out what was outside. Gabriel, under Vit's guidance, caught sight of it first.

"I've seen it," the prince said, swallowing drily. "Look toward the barrel seven paces from the abandoned cart."

Valerina followed his instructions, squinting at the barrel. All at once she realised that there was a full, radiant moon in the sky but the barrel was covered underneath something's shadow.

At that moment, it seemed as though her eyes were peeled opened, and she caught sight of the figure standing in plain view behind the barrel. He - for it was most definitely a male - was clad in silken fineries of a peculiar purple hue and gazed calmly at the house. The fog rolled about him, obscuring the finer details of his features from view, but three vivid blue lines stood out prominently on his forehead.

Valerina's mouth went dry and she felt Ellen beside her tense, no doubt having caught sight of the figure too. It was a razatche. One fully in control of his faculties too it would seem.

The razatche's head turned, as another figure approached, snivelling and bowing, and murmured something into his ears. The finely clad murderwork nodded and turned back to survey the house. Then his gaze snapped suddenly to the upper floor and he grinned, his eyes glinting eerily in the moonlight as his gaze clashed with that of the trio.

They fell back as one, their hearts beating in fear and anxiety as they distanced themselves from the window.

"Is that all?" Ellen asked, running a shaking palm through her hair. "It's only two of those things out there. We can kill them even if they have regained their sanity."

"I wish it were only them," Gabriel said grimly. "The house is surrounded - both exits have been blockaded by legions of razatche."

"Window," Ellen said immediately. "The windows are always an option."

Gabriel gave her a solemn look. "Legions, Ellen. We would never outpace them."

The trio exchanged glances, their minds turning relentlessly to conjure a way out of their predicament. There was none.

Stolen novel; please report.

"So we fight our last here?" Ellen asked, pulling at her silver tresses. The razatche outside seemed to have targeted them specifically, somehow knowing that they were within the house. They would not be surviving an assault.

Valerina thought furiously, her mind whirling as she sought out the solution she knew was there. She was forgetting something, she was certain of it.

A loud bang echoed throughout the building as the murderworks outside tried to break down the door and gain entry. Fortunately they'd had the presence of mind to barricade both entrances with piles of furniture the night before so it would take the essencesuckers some time to get in.

Valerina's thoughts turned to her satchel and she scrutinized every memory she had of it in search of what she forgot. When she came up empty, she turned her mind to the book and letters inside. The affairs of two nights ago jumped into her mind and she snapped her fingers in delighted surprise.

"We don't have to fight," she announced. "There is a secret passageway in the study." She paused.

"A passageway?" Gabriel asked. "To where?"

"I don't know, and it doesn't matter," Valerina said excitedly. "Let's go get Voscov and scram before the situation gets truly dire."

The others agreed readily, and they ran back to the room. Valerina snatched up her satchel and turned to find Gabriel hoisting Voscov onto his back and using a bedsheet to secure him.

A crash echoed from the floor below, and their stomachs sank as they made out hurried footfalls intruding into the building.

"Let's get going," Ellen prompted. "Val take point, Gabriel after her. I'll bring up the rear."

A flurry of sharp nods later, Valerina led the way, bursting out of the room and dashing down the hallway. The windows sped past her in a blur, the strips of moonlight phasing into one and barely registering in her senses.

The boards over one of the windows burst open and a razatche reached for Gabriel, its face scrunched in anger, a growl rumbling in its throat.

Ellen lunged forward jerkily, slamming the crystal lamp into the creature's face and sending it tumbling off the window.

"Speed up!" The silverhead yelled, regaining her footing and continuing dashing after Gabriel while the clamour of tens of razatches filled the air around them.

Valerina sped up, her legs all but blurring beneath her, propelling her forward faster, her speed ramping up as adrenaline sluiced through her system. The floor two paces before her exploded outward, bathing her in shrapnel as a razatche rocketed into the second floor from below.

It said much about her experience in Sealarios that Valerina reacted instantaneously and with nary a blink, taking two quick steps up the wall on her right, launched over to the one on her left, and with a decisive stomp sent herself vaulting over the razatche before it could regain its bearing.

Said razatche let her go, opting to throw itself at Gabriel who was encumbered. The prince ducked beneath its grasping arms and dodged quickly to the side, avoiding the grotesque arm reaching for him from its stomach. He danced around it, his footwork fleeting and quick and gave it a harsh kick from behind, sending it stumbling forward, only for Ellen to meet it with a slap to the face, a hastily done air pellet attached to her hand exploding outward and knocking it insensate.

Vaulting over its limp body, she chased after Gabriel. She skidded as she turned a corner, caught herself on the door frame of the open study room, and dove inside. Valerina was by the bookshelves, her fingers running feverishly over the books while she muttered curses under her breath. A moment later the brunette grasped one and pulled and a section of the shelves slid out behind the city lord's seat.

"Sheer drop immediately beyond!" Valerina yelled as Gabriel sprinted for the opening. "There are metal rungs affixed to the walls!" At least there ought to be.

Gabriel gave an imperceptible nod and jumped in. Valerina followed after him, glancing down cautiously, and only stepping in when she had made certain that there were indeed metal rungs and Gabriel was already clambering down them.

"Ellen, come on!" She called as she descended.

Ellen darted to the shelve holding the trigger first, pushing the book back in place before sprinting for the opening, using Lord Kimmel's corpse as a springboard to leap into the secret compartment just before the opening slammed shut. She hit the opposite wall roughly, stunning her, and she began to fall. Someone caught her wrist, yanking her closer, and she felt the metal rungs dig into her chest as she crashed against them.

Looking up, she found it was Valerina who had grabbed her, and quickly held onto the rungs, allowing the other girl to let go.

For a moment they were silent, the crystal lamp bathing them in its warm glow while they just breathed. Then Ellen began to laugh - a low, stuttering thing that only barely managed to escape her lips. The other two were silent, listening to the princess laugh, only for Valerina to join her a moment later, snorting with mirth. Gabriel joined them not long after and for a good long while, they were three fools snorting and jittering with laughter while confined within a cylindrical hole with no end.

They didn't know why they laughed exactly but it felt fitting. Yes, dozens of razatches awaited beyond the confines of their immediate area to rip them limb from limb. Yes, perhaps wherever this passageway led to would reveal a more brutal death than being drained by razatches. But it was alright. It was alright because they were alive for the moment and that mattered.

"There's an exit," Ellen stated when their laughter waned.

"How do you know?" Valerina queried.

"There is a slight current in the air."

Gabriel sighed and looked beneath him. The hole didn't seem to have an end.

"Let's get moving," he said, jostling Voscov into a more comfortable position as he began to climb down the rungs.