Winter 4994, 17 Ginmoth

Lily leaned against the wall -across from the door- her temporary staff resting in the crook of her shoulder. She might have seemed calm, even bored, to anyone watching, but she was working hard, cycling her energy through her body, and doing her best not to think too closely about the lack of heat in the exercise.

She hadn't had her fire taken like this since her clearance exam over six years ago, and then it had only been a few minutes in an antimagic field. Before that, she'd had her magic snapped from her, along with her breath, by a magical collar anytime one of the Warlock Archmages felt she needed to be punished. And before that, when she was still a very young child, she'd worn another collar, like Raina's bracelet, that took all the magic all the time.

Her mind jumped back to that time despite her best efforts. They were going to do the same again. Wrap her throat in gold and rubies, sealing her magic without taking their own with something as all-encompassing as an antimagic field. Lily took a steadying breath and corrected her pessimistic worries. They're going to TRY to do the same again. They wouldn't succeed, not without a hell of a fight.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Lady Raina asked by the door. She held the discarded bed curtains spread in her hands, and though her back was straight and head high, she sounded nervous, "Are you sure she said the apprentices would handle your sealing? If it's Archmage Shaloon..."

Lily smirked, "Oh, I hope it's Shaloon..." She had a major bone to pick with the Archmage of her childhood. The one who'd tried to convince her partner, Archmage Morndancer, to seal Lily permanently. And had been complicit in the murder of her treasures...

Raina didn't know about any of that, though, and looked at Lily in shock, "You're insane. She's the one who orchestrated most of the recent kidnappings, and she won't hesitate to turn even those of us she supposedly values into cursed undead!" Raina looked down at the curtains and shook her head, her eyes seeing something far away, a memory most likely. "She may be a Warlock, but she's also an Archmage. She..."

"Won't have her magic either." Lily interrupted, "Which is why we have to do this now, even if she's the one that comes." Lily smiled at the noble, though if it was at all comforting, it didn't show in Raina's face. Lily continued, "You said you want to handle Yarna, who is also an Archmage. Well, I have a personal history with Shaloon, assuming it's the same woman. I've respected your desire for vengeance, don't insult me by trying to talk me out of mine."

Raina took a deep breath but nodded. Her familiar turned its ugly squashed head to Lily and yowled. Ryuuko twittered down at it, then flew from the bed to the door frame, waving its tail and hissing. "Someone's coming," Raina whispered, lifting the curtains like a net.

Lily took another steadying breath and locked slitted eyes on the door. The lock clicked, and it opened the smallest crack. A young man's voice sounded from beyond, "I've taken an antivenom. If your pseudodragon attempts to sting me, it won't work, and we will be forced to kill it. You've been warned."

The door swung the rest of the way open, and Raina ducked behind it as the flesh golem entered, an apprentice -only a few years younger than Tuth- following close behind. Ryuuko hissed and dove, pulling the Warlock's hair before winging towards the bed and hissing again. The young man waved his hands over his head in a mild panic, then pointed at Lily, ordering the golem, "Hold her."

Lily pushed off the wall and spun her staff before her, bringing it to a ready position just as Ryuuko whistled, Raina's familiar hissed, and Raina herself slammed the door shut again. For only a moment, Lily could see the flying fabric of the bed curtains from just beyond the hulking construct, and smiled.

The apprentice Warlock's yell was muffled as Raina wrapped her arms around him while her familiar clawed at his ankles. Ryuuko dove for him again, sinking sharp claws into the fabric around his face, but Lily didn't have any more time to watch.

The golem continued to follow its orders, reaching for Lily, who ducked low and jabbed her staff into its throat. The broken wood's jagged end cut into dead flesh, sending a wave of thick ichor to splash to the stone floor. The golem swiped at her, but the nimble woman rolled between its thick legs and came up in a twist, smacking it hard across the back of the head.

Between her speed, strength, and energy imbuing the weapon, the hit caused the golem's head to snap to the side. But also cracked the staff. "Shit..." Lily cursed, then kicked the back of the golem's knee, taking a moment to look back at the struggling Raina, "Find the box and close it!"

"I'm trying!" the noble shot back at her, twisting hard and slamming the apprentice into the closed door with all their combined weight. But it wouldn't be enough to knock him out.

The golem spun, its hands locked together to hammer into Lily, who rolled again under the swing and to its side. She slammed her staff across its chest, the wood cracking further. Lily growled, the poor thing wasn't going to make it as a true staff for much longer. Keeping the staff braced against the golem's torso, she twisted, bowing the stick, and kicked it. It snapped in the middle, and the golem stumbled a single step.

Once more, Lily rolled, coming up with one half of her stick in each hand. This was not her preferred fighting style, but Velona had insisted she learn it as part of her staff training. Lily wove the two sticks before her and came in with a roar, hammering down on the monster in a flurry of blows so fast they were nearly one constant strike.

"Any day now!" Lily called to Raina.

The golem fell to one knee and brought its arms together as if to hug her. Lily jumped -tucking her knees to her chest- and turned her broken sticks down, spearing the construct in each shoulder. She landed on the golem's arms and immediately jumped again. Keeping her weapons firmly planted, she twisted up, flipping over its head and sinking the sticks deeper in the monster's flesh with her weight before swinging down to plant her feet on its back.

Lily ripped the splintered wood free, kicking off the golem in a backflip and spraying the room with rotted clotted blood. Her feet had barely hit the ground before she was dashing forward to hammer it about the head again.

"Got it!" Raina called. Ryuuko whistled, and something metallic snapped shut. Lily's blood surged, and her sticks ignited as her fire rushed to follow her energy. The golem didn't even have time to bellow, let alone fight back. Lily brought her sticks down on its head and let the fire spread to its stitched flesh. It flailed for only a moment before falling forward, laying still and smoking, the tiny room filling with the smell of roasting meat.

Lily reviled in the return of her magic and laughed, bringing her sticks together to resemble a whole staff again and spinning them around in a show of light and power.

Raina coughed and waved at the smoke slowly filling the room. Her familiar hissed and clawed at the door, and Ryuuko few down to land on Lily's shoulder, chittering in her ear. "Sorry," Lily giggled, dropping the now useless sticks and sweeping the fire up. Pulling it to her palm and condensing it down before popping it into her mouth, returning at least some of the energy to her body.

"You really did it..." Raina whispered, backing away to avoid the black ichor slowly pooling from the golem.

Lily brushed her hands off on her pants and stepped on the monster's back and over it to reach the noble, "I told you I would." It was the physical blows more than the fire that had killed it in the end.

She knelt down to uncover the apprentice's face, "But we aren't done yet." The young man trembled, blood from a hundred minor scratches dripping down his face to stain his rumpled robes. She grinned at him, "Take the bracelet off the Lady, please."

His mouth worked wordlessly for a moment, his wide eyes jumping from Lily to the golem to Raina and back again before he managed to choke, "I... I can't... I don't know..."

"Then you're useless." Raina said, waving a dismissive hand at him and moving for the door, "Kill him, Lily."

What little color was left in the Warlock's face drained from it, and he started to shake all over, staring at Lily in abject terror. Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes at the ceiling, whispering to the apprentice, "Nobles..." before speaking to Raina, "Shon will want him alive. For a trial and questioning." Ryuuko whistled its approval.

But Raina scoffed, "I don't care what this Shon might want. He is a Warlock, and he is destined for execution anyway." Ryuuko hissed.

Lily rolled her eyes again and stood. The Warlock tried to crawl away but slipped in the tangle of curtains and fell on his belly. Lily stood on his neck, and he stopped trying to struggle and started to cry. She hummed. Raina had a point, and Lily didn't care one way or the other. But... "I care what Shon wants." reaching down, she pulled up one end of the curtain and ripped a strip off it.

Raina gasped in disbelief as Lily started to bind the Warlock's arms behind his back, "I said-" she began.

"I don't care," Lily interrupted, "I don't take orders from anyone, including you. You want him dead you can do it yourself." Ryuuko flew over to land on the Warlock's head and hissed at Raina as Lily pulled him up to stand on shaking legs. Lily giggled, "That being said, Ryuuko is Shon's familiar, and you don't have an antivenom..." The pseudodragon draped its spiked tail over the apprentice's shoulder and flicked it like an angry cat.

Raina's cat hissed and swiped at Lily's leg, but Raina bent to scoop it up -stroking its filthy patchy fur- and huffed, "Fools," but then tossed her hair over her shoulder and turned for the door again, swinging it open and exiting into the hall, "Let's go. We need to free the others."

***

Being the only one besides Tuth without noisy armor -and the Mage was by no means a front-line fighter- Shon led the way out of the room. It exited directly onto a set of tightly spiraling stairs. Shon kept his sword at the ready, hugging the walls and checking each door as they spiraled down the center of the tower. All the other rooms were empty, and the third-story floor turned to the ceiling of the second. The wall surrounding the stairs disappeared, showing a library with shelves shooting off the open stairs like the spokes of a wheel.

Tuth gasped as he followed behind Yua -who was behind Shon- and even passed them both at the landing to examine the shelves.

As the Mage wandered towards the outer wall -to a large book left open on a pedestal- Ragther hissed between clenched teeth and growled in a loud whisper, "What are you doing?!"

Yua ran to grab Tuth by the elbow, "Not now, let's go." The Ranger pulled, but Tuth pulled back, slipping out of her grip.

"We need more information." Tuth argued, "This group is obviously larger than this one tower. They held Lily all the way in Clearhelm and even had others in the plains of Lenare. Even if we stop them here, they'll pop up again unless we know more about them."

Ragther stepped closer, his hand tightening on his flail but his eyes on the shelves. Shon shook his head, stating only, "After," they needed to get Lily out of the dungeons and the Sorcerers clear of danger. He scanned the halls created by the bookshelves, turning in a slow circle while Yua pulled on Tuth again, and Ragther gestured impatiently for the stairs.

On the outer circle of the library, something crossed past a hall of books towards the Mage. Something big.

Shon dashed down the hall parallel to his companions, losing sight of them but rounding the last shelf to see the back of a truly massive golem of sewn flesh.

Yua pulled the Mage away, the pair of them stumbling back as the golem's fists crashed down where Tuth had been, toppling the pedestal and cracking stone. Shon brought his sword down across its back, and Ragther came forward to slam his flail on the monster's shoulder as it tried to stand again.

Dead skin split and bones crunched, splashing black blood across book spines. The golem swung at Ragther, and an arrow flew over the Paladin's shoulder, lodging itself in the construct's face and snapping its head back -but hardly slowing it. Ragther blocked the hammer-like strike of the golem's fist with his shield and swept his flail around to take it in the chest. Simultaneously, Shon slashed at the back of its legs and rolled around to stay behind it as it tried to turn to swing at him next.

Another arrow sprouted from its neck, and it roared, flailing wildly and knocking into the shelves. Shon sidestepped beside it, slicing across its side and up its chest as he dodged the falling books. Ragther had to dive out from under the shelf as it hit the one beside it, sending it tumbling as well.

"Get down!" Tuth shouted. Luckily, the Paladin obeyed, dropping back to the ground as a bolt of lightning flew over his head and arched into the golem. The monster's limbs locked and spasmed, its back arching like a bow as blue electricity danced across its sewn flesh.

From below, Ragther swung at the construct's knees, and Shon jumped, kicking off the wall and stabbing down into its spine as he fell. The golem crashed down in a heap of smoking flesh, and Shon pulled his sword free. Shelves continued to fall into one another, toppling like dominos, taking down a full quarter of the library and shaking the tower before they stopped.

A stranger's voice, young and female, sounded from the stairwell and the floor below, "Hurry!"

Then another, an older woman, "Get out of their way, foolish girl..." before the heads of two more flesh golems crested the landing to the library.

"Hide," Yua whispered, taking her own advice and ducking below a fallen bookshelf propped up to about waist height by the one beside it.

Shon looked to Ragther. There was no way he would be able to duck in time. Shon saw Yua meld into the shadows as easily as she might in the woods of her home, and Tuth was nowhere to be seen. At least those two might be able to get away.

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The two golems were followed by two women in robes. The older of the two held out her right hand, smoke billowing from her palm, taking the shape of a sword with a black blade. The younger lifted both hands, each one holding a ball of purple fire, though she looked nervous, "Where's Briman?"

The senior Warlock answered, "Dead most likely..." then to Shon and Ragther, she said, "Drop your weapons, and we may allow you to live a little longer."

Ragther flicked his flail and started it spinning at his side, lifting his shield with the symbol of Horsa, "You'll have to take it from me, Warlock. By the might of Horsa, I'll send you to his hall to pay for what you did to my people."

The golems took another unified step forward. The young woman arched one hand back -ready to throw- but addressed the older woman. "Archmage?"

The Archmage blocked the young woman with her sword, "Hold... That one..." she narrowed her eyes at Shon, then moved closer. Once between the two golems, her eyes went wide, and Shon could see them shifting in color from green to red then to gold settling on silver. Then she laughed, a mad maniacal sound that made Shon's skin crawl. She spoke in a language he couldn't understand, shouting something that sounded... exultant?

Ragther roared Horsa's name and lunged forward to swing down at the woman. Still laughing, she lifted her sword to catch the flail by the chain. She couldn't cut the god-blessed metal, and the flail head whipped down around her black blade. One of the golems lifted its arm to take the hit and prevent Ragther from pulling her sword out of her hand. Its bones crunched, and the stitching at its elbow tore, bending the limb backward with a sickening rip.

The Paladin snarled, and red light flowed from his hand up the weapon. The Warlock cursed in that strange language and dropped her sword before the light could reach her. It dissolved into smoke and a bolt of purple lightning shot from her fingers. Ragther lifted his shield in time to absorb the magic, but it still blasted him off his feet.

Shon sidestepped to put himself between the Paladin and Warlock, lifting his sword in both hands to a guard position across his chest, its pommel white and nearly transparent.

The Warlock laughed, though more calmly this time, and summoned her sword once more. Pointing it at Shon, she said, "You cannot take all of us without your magic, Sorcerer. If you truly wish to save the fool knight's life, you will drop your weapon and come with me. I swear by my master Ryuugen, I will not kill you."

Shon said nothing and did not lower his sword. Something about her strange eyes had allowed her to see his magic, but that was hardly reassuring. Ragther rolled to his side and stood once more, spitting on the ground and replying, "We saw your guard's Warlock. You expect us to believe you won't do the same to him because he's a Sorcerer?"

"My loyalty to my master is no less than yours to your god, Paladin." The Warlock snapped her fingers at him, then she smiled, the expression as disconcerting as her laugh, if not more so. "Besides, they were not nearly as valuable as this one... " they didn't move and she sighed, dropping her sword again and shrugging, "If I swear as well that I will not kill the Paladin either, will that help? No? What if I told you that I am aware that doing so will only allow the Temple to find us because I cannot turn him?" She waved her hand in the air as if shooing a fly, "I am not so far gone that I would risk our work to kill him. He will be held in as much comfort as the subjects here. Hells, I'll even give him the comfort of the noble he's here to find."

Ragther grabbed Shon by the shoulder, pulling him back as he surged forward, his flail spinning once more, "You will release m... the Lady Raina, and perhaps I will end you quickly."

But the Warlock had noticed his little slip and hummed a long "Mmmm... My? So you are close to the Lady? Her lover, perhaps? Or..." She looked Ragther over from his boots to his helmed head before settling on his glaring gray eyes. She laughed again, "You're her brother! The one she swore would come save her. Well, that is interesting. We will definitely be keeping you alive then." She rested a hand on her injured golem but didn't look away from Shon and Ragther, her eyes growing hard, "But if we must take you by force, then one or both of you will be hurt, perhaps beyond repair. I highly recommend you come quietly..."

Ragther growled, but Shon stepped forward and blocked the man with his sword -as the Warlock had done to her young companion. He'd seen a flash of an image, Lily standing in a hall with a rag-tag band of civilians. She was free, or at least not in a cell anymore. Shon dropped his sword. It clanged to the stone at Ragther's feet, and the Paladin's jaw dropped with it.

"Bide your time, Sir," Shon told him calmly, "At least until we know the Lady is safe..." He met the Paladin's disbelieving eyes and held them. Willing him to see, or even feel through the link to his god, that Shon already knew the Sorcerers were, at least partly, free.

The Paladin's lip twitched in a silent snarl, but he put away his flail, unable to drop it per his Oath.

"Take them," the Archmage ordered her golems, then added, "Gently," before turning her back on them and speaking to the young woman. "Bring the Sorcerer and his sword to my lab, the Paladin can go to Archmage Yarna in hers."

***

Tuth stood in the middle of the isle of bookshelves, not too far behind Ragther, and even had to dodge aside as the Paladin was thrown by the Warlock's twisted lighting. Invisible, he watched as Shon's hands were brought behind his back by the golem with only one working arm, while Ragther was taken by the other. The Archmage took the Paladin's flail from his belt and he spit in her face, but didn't struggle. The apprentice picked up Shon's sword, holding it carefully in white-knuckled hands as the band descended down the stairs.

Once they were gone, Tuth dipped, looking between the overturned shelves to find Yua in a low crouch, slowly picking her way over the spilled books towards the stairs. He tapped her back, and Yua jumped high enough to hit the shelf. She spun and got her short sword halfway out of its sheath before he fell back and hissed in a rushed whisper, "Easy woman, it's me." He rose his hands non-threateningly before remembering that she wouldn't be able to see him, "It's an invisibility spell."

"Damn it, Tuth." She whispered, glaring over his right shoulder, "We've got to get Lily. They've split those two up. We can't rescue one without risking the other group coming behind us."

Tuth nodded, then sighed at his own foolishness and said, "I'll go first. I think she's fine, probably even free. The way Shon spoke... He probably got some message from Ryuuko."

Yua nodded and pushed herself against the shelf to give him more room to pass, but Tuth just turned back the other way rather than continue to crouch below the collapsed shelves. It hurt to see the once fascinating library partly demolished. And even more so to leave it knowing that he might not get the chance to explore the tomes further. Especially if Lily responded at all here as she had the last time they ran into Warlocks...

He hesitated at the massive book that had grabbed his attention first, now laying face down on the ground... "Give me a few minutes to get ahead of you," Tuth said to Yua, then started down the stairs after the Warlocks and their captives.

His spell might block people from seeing him, but it didn't block sound. Every scrape of his robes and soft footfall of his boots had Tuth tensing or flinching, but he didn't run into anyone on the stairs. Once he reached the ground floor, Tuth peaked around the wall to find a wedge-shaped hall with four doors. One obviously led outside, another was just off the exit, and two more were directly across from each other at about the middle point.

The golems stood between the two middle doors. The Archmage knocked on one, swinging it open and calling in, "Hey Yarna, I've got a present for you." She grinned at Ragther and gestured for his golem to take him in, draping his flail over her shoulder. "I'll be keeping this, Sir Knight." then to the door again, "It's the noble bitch's brother. He came to save her after all. Try not to let him kill you."

Someone from beyond the door answered, though Tuth couldn't make out the words. The Archmage laughed again, closing the door and taking Shon and her apprentice into the room across the way.

"Shit," Tuth breathed, though it had been about what he expected. At least they hadn't continued down into the basement -where he was hoping Lily was already free.

He continued down the spiral stairs at least a story and a half -well below the tower so there wouldn't even be windows in the cells- and at the bottom found a locked door. The Mage examined the lock and started to mouth a spell to unlatch it when he heard the mumble of muffled voices. Not wanting to alert any more guards, Tuth pressed his invisible ear to the keyhole.

Lily's voice sounded from the other side, "I got it."

Then another woman, "You know I have a key..."

Tripping on his robes and falling on his backside, Tuth slapped a hand over his burned ear with a curse.

His invisibility spell fell away with the minor injury and he watched as the metal of the handle and lock glowed and dripped, the wood around it smoking until Lily pulled it open. She blinked down at him then exclaimed, "Oh! You're here. Good. Where are the others?" tilting her head at Tuth, she added, "What happened to your face?" Ryuuko whistled a happy greeting to him from her shoulder.

"Damn it, Lily, just use the blasted key next time!" Tuth snapped at her as he struggled to his feet, and she tilted her head to the other side curiously. Behind her was a gaggle of people and small animals, some of which he recognized from missing Sorcerers' files. Many of them were sickly pale from lack of light, and all but one of them looked frightened.

The Lady Raina turned her nose up at him and scoffed, a tiny, incredibly ugly, flat-faced, and filthy-looking, cat hissing from the crook of her elbow, "This is who you brought to save us? An apprentice Mage?"

Tuth bristled, but Lily answered, "Tuth is a Journeyman, one of the youngest ever to earn the rank." Then to him, she asked again, "Where are the others?"

He tried to answer, but Yua spoke over him from behind, making him bite his tongue, "They took Shon and Ragther. They've got them in the labs at ground level."

Lily and Ryuuko hissed in unison, and Lady Raina blinked at the two of them while her own cat yowled. Yua nodded in understanding and sighed, looking over the rag-tag band of freed prisoners. "I would like to say it should be easy to get them out now that we have a small army of Sorcerers, but..."

"Our magic is sealed," The Lady Raina stated, lifting her arm to show a band of brass and sapphires. She turned and gestured behind her to a young man in robes, "The apprentice says he doesn't know how to undo the bindings." The fire Sorcerer that was the most recent taken, wrenched the bound Warlock forward roughly. The apprentice -not much younger than Tuth- trembled.

One man and woman with copper and emerald armbands stepped forward as a pair. The woman pulled the fire Sorcerer off of the frightened apprentice, and the man rested a gentle hand under his arm to help hold him up. "The apprentices and journeymen have been gentle and as kind as they were permitted to be. Save your hate for the Archmages." The woman whispered.

"We don't know what choice they had in cooperating..." The man added, but the apprentice Warlock looked away in shame.

Lily huffed, "Oh, they had a choice. They just think that the world is worth more than a handful, or three, of lives." She crossed her arms and looked away from the apprentice before he could catch her eye.

Tuth remembered Lily's stories of her own Journeymen jailers... She'd always described them as kind and expressed regret in killing them... But it wouldn't be the first time that captives felt connected to their captors.

However, that was the least of their concerns. Amongst thirteen kidnapped Sorcerers -not counting Lily- were three children. The youngest was only a few months old, the next roughly two, and the oldest about five years, each hiding behind the legs of -presumably- their parents. Tuth swallowed at the sight but stepped toward Raina, and held out his hand, "I might be able to release the bindings, but..."

Lily waved his concern away, "We won't need them to fight. Just defend themselves on their way out."

"Some of us can fight," a water Sorcerer declared, a duck of all things, quacking its agreement at his feet. A woman -also a water Sorcerer with a snake around her neck- moved to stand beside him, slipping her hand into his and nodding in solidarity.

A few others also showed signs of agreement, but Yua shook her head, "You may have to. There are undead outside, and until we get Ragther free-"

"Sir Ragther," The noble corrected Yua as she held her arm out for Tuth to examine.

Lily rolled her eyes theatrically while Ryuuko chittered at the woman. "Don't even start, Raina. We have more to worry about than rank and title. Though the undead aren't one of them." she shrugged, "The kidnappers are staying on the ground floor, and they have a magic torch that keeps monsters away."

"It's true," the missing female fire Sorcerer confirmed, "I've never even heard of a magical device like that before, but they used it to get me through the swamp."

Tuth furrowed his brow. He'd never heard of such a thing either. He couldn't imagine the Mages Guild or Temples allowing such a possibility to go unexplored. Unless it was explicitly Warlock magic... The apprentice Warlock let slip a little whimper. Tuth chose to ignore him and focused on the magic bracelet sealing Lady Raina's earth power. This at least was magic he understood, from this plane of existence. As such, he had a good idea how to activate or deactivate it and started chanting possible command words.

After only a few moments of trying, the bracelet clicked open and fell to the floor. He bent to pick it up, but Raina kicked it away with a growl. Tuth looked up at her, and she turned her face away from him but said, "My apologies, good Mage, but I've been wanting to throw that for weeks."

"I'll do you one better," Lily said, picking it up and holding it in her palm before the metal started to sag and the sapphires fell back to the ground with soft clinks against the stone. Raina nodded in appreciation to Lily, then to Tuth before stepping aside for the others to crowd forward, presenting their own binding jewelry to the Mage for removal.

It took a while. Only the children were unbound, their magic not having manifested yet. Presuming they'd even inherited their parent's power. Yua stood aside with Lily, but Tuth could hear her whisper, "We ran into a Warlock upstairs. The same one that caught us in the Laughing Pony settlement. He told us what they were doing here..."

Tuth glanced over to see Lily nod, Ryuuko whistling sadly on her shoulder. "They wanted to partner me with the fire guy, but that was before they realized wha... who I am."

Tuth scowled at Lily's quick correction, and the last Sorcerer in line to be freed -the fire woman- looked at all three of her rescuers before saying, "Apparently, I wasn't good enough for him." She tried to smile as if the implied insult was funny. Dark humor in a dark situation. The other Sorcerers all exchanged looks with one another, focusing on their fellows of the same element as themselves. Those with children held them close, and some even took each other's hands as the water pair had done, while others shifted further away from their fellows.

Lily looked away, and that had Tuth even more concerned. She was usually the first to laugh at gallows humor... Instead, she started towards the stairs, explaining only, "You're not the same type of fire. Even if you could have kids with each other, they probably wouldn't be viable to have their own."

"Lily?" Yua reached for her tentatively.

But Lily just shook her head and pulled away, "I'm fine. Are you done, Tuth? We need to get the others out and end this."

"Yeah," Tuth mumbled, the firewoman's collar falling free, "What's the plan?"

Lady Raina followed Lily up two steps and turned to address the rest, her chin held naturally high, "I will get my brother. With my power restored, I should be able to free him, and together we can take care of one Warlock. Lily and her allies can take care of the other one and retrieve their companion. The rest of you should be able to handle those two brutes that took us. I know my students at least should be able to make use of their power, now that those two don't have the anti-magic field to keep them safe." She glared around at a few of them. Some nodded their agreement. Others looked away in shame.

Yua stepped up to the noble woman's stair and shook her head, "No, you shouldn't try to face even one alone."

Raina's brows shot into her hair, and she blinked at the Ranger, "You doubt my ability, Miss..."

"Ranger Yua," Yua provided, "And I have no idea what your ability is. But I know that the one who took your brother said she would be sending him to an Archmage."

Far from being intimidated by the news, the Lady smiled, the look as cold and cruel as the foul cat that yowled again from her arms, "Oh? And what did this woman who took my brother look like? Did she have eyes that changed color? Did she carry a black sword of solidified smoke?"

Yua shook her head, she hadn't seen them, but Tuth interjected, "Yes, and the apprentice with her claimed she was also an Archmage."

Raina nodded and looked over at Lily, "Shaloon. Meaning the other one is Yarna, and that one is mine."

Lily smirked, "Perfect," she told the noble, then looked down at the rest of them, "She and Ragther can handle the one, and if the other is who I think she is, then I will take her myself. Tuth and Yua, you two take the Sorcerers to the kidnappers and out. They're in the room just off the entrance. We'll meet you when we're done." She turned and started up the stairs without waiting for an answer.

"Lily!" Tuth pushed his way past the Sorcerers, Yua, and Raina and grabbed Lily by the arm but only for a moment before he had to pull back, his fingers already blistering. She wasn't holding back any of her heat, "Even with Shon there, you shouldn't go alone."

Lily stopped to tilt her head down at him and said, "There was an Archmage Shaloon in Clearhelm too. If this is the same one, then it would be better if no one else is there to get in my way."

Tuth swallowed, afraid, "Lily, you..."

"I'm in control, and I don't plan on losing it, but I'm also pissed, so unless one of the two fires..." She looked down at the crowd of Sorcerers and shrugged, "No, even then. This one is mine, and they will only get in my way."

Tuth didn't know what to say to that. He'd traveled with Lily for a full year, had seen her in combat, and that was before he'd witnessed her full strength as she went berserk. Finally, he nodded, but then added, "Be careful and be quick. You don't have your staff and if you don't come out fast enough we'll have to come get you."

Lily finally smiled, but the look didn't reach her eyes and she turned away from him, "Thanks Tuth, I knew I could count on you. That's why you'll always be one of my favorite treasures..." Ryuuko chirped and swayed as she continued up the stairs, the rest close behind.