“Give me your hand, I’ll help you up.”

Rainen pulls his sister onto the wagon as the rest of us spread out around it. She throws her hood on and curls up next to a box. Iris and Rainen do the same, all of them pretending to sleep. Istruan looks at the scene and nods.

“It looks good. They probably won’t notice anything wrong.”

At first, we thought about covering the back of the wagon with a sheet but Iris denied it. She said the guards might find it suspicious. The official story is we’re a group of adventurers protecting a wagon and its owner. I wasn’t so sure about it at first but the driver assured us it was normal for young adventurers to take on the job.

This morning, Iris’ dad told her to go with the Yurfrays. Of course, Elis and I came along as well. Rainen’s aunt and cousin went their own way with the help of Iris’ dad. They already had a plan on where to go next.

Why we weren’t told to go with Rainen’s aunt. Does Iris’ dad think it’s safer if we go with Rainen and his group of friends? Speaking of which, I look around, I don’t see Axel… Maybe they parted ways at the academy.

“Are you all ready back there,” the driver asks.

“All good,” Istruan replies. He jogs to the front where he chats with some guards meant to make our story seem more legitimate. They’ll act as the first line of defense if we’re caught and will hold off any pursuers.

I choose to stand near the back by Elis. As we walk along, we chat about things that come to mind.

I can’t tell if Elis feels the same way I am. It looks like none of this is affecting her in the slightest. If only I be as confident about this plan, and myself. What if I do something stupid and end up revealing all of us on accident? What if I call out Aisha’s name by mistake and the city guards realize the name? I wonder if all my worries are showing on my face right now...

Going through the streets of the city proves no issue. The patrols and people we pass by pay no heed to us. To them, we’re an everyday occurrence, just another wagon hauling things through the streets. Please let it be the same for the guards.

Once we reach the gate, my lips grow numb. I press my fingers against them but nothing there feels out of the ordinary. There’s no blood and they’re not that cold. Black spots appear in my vision so I rub my eyes but it doesn’t help. It takes a moment for me to snap out of my trance and realize Elis calling my name.

“El! El, calm down,” she holds onto my sleeve, “You’re freaking out. Just take a deep breath. Breathe slowly now. If you still can’t handle it, you can put your hood on you know? It might make you feel a bit better.”

With a hood now covering the top of my head, I take those deep and slow breaths. They’re shaky at first and my heart beats like I just ran a mile but I eventually calm enough to see clearly again. I move my shaking hands away from my mouth and rest them on my chest.

I can do this.

The city guards stop us at the gate and ask the driver a few questions. He answers them quickly gesturing to us. The guard questioning him nods but then asks a question that makes my racing heart stop dead.

“Can we check what it is you are carrying sir?”

The driver nods.

How can he be so calm?

Three men are sent back. Two look inside the wagon while the other keeps his eyes on the group. When his gaze falls on me, I shy away, opting to look at the snow instead. It’s new, fluffy, and as powdery as flour.

The other two city guards look inside. “You three, get out.”

“Hey!” the driver shouts, “Stop messing with my people back there.”

“We assure you we are not, Sir. However, they must get out if we are to do the inspection. Otherwise, we cannot let you out of the city.”

“What? That’s ridiculous. Do you want me to start complaining to your superiors? And what is it with all this searching business? I came into this city and had my goods violated already and now you want to do it again?”

The guards assure him that they’ll do a quick check. They order everyone out again. Iris slowly stands and moves out of the wagon but Rainen and his sister stay put.

“This is the last time I’m going to tell you. Get out of the wagon or else we’ll have to turn this into a more physical matter.”

Rainen stands and helps his sister out. The guards watch them carefully. Aisha keeps her head down and Rainen pretends as if he’s helping an injured person.

Suddenly, someone pulls back my hood. I panic and, without thinking, reach for it. I try to pull it over but a force stops me. I start struggling and acting as if I’d die without it on. The person holding it lets go and I stagger forward.

“A Roluk, I knew there was something this group was hiding,” he walks toward the wagon, “You three should take off your hoods as well.”

“Don’t touch her like that,” Elis growls.

He shrugs, “Isn’t it weird that the first person who lost their hood turned out to be a nonhuman? There aren’t any rules against them entering the city but it’s pretty suspicious if they’re the only ones who are wearing hoods, right? It’s like you have something to hide.”

I shiver as eyes turn to Rainen and his sister. Did I cause this? Did he sense my nerves and come to check?

“Go on,” the older guard at the front says, “Take off your hoods.”

Iris signals us to stay calm. She takes off her hood and shakes her hair free. The rising wind picks it up and drops it back down. Rainen is the second to follow and as he reveals his black hair, the young guard’s face drops. He seems to lose his interest.

“You there, go on,” one of the two wagon checkers say.

Aisha reaches for her hood.

Rainen coughs. The guards’ attention fall on him for a moment and he coughs more. Soon, it turns into a full on fit.

“Stop faking it,” the young guard says.

Rainen coughs grow more violent. His face turns a shade of pink. He loses his strength and uses the wagon as support. His sister rushes to his side, easing him back on the edge where he rests. His coughs come like rain in a storm, hard and seemingly endless.

The two guards back away as if they’d be held responsible for the outburst.

“Enough,” the young guard takes a step toward Rainen’s sister who’s too distracted to notice. He reaches for her hood.

Shouts echo from atop the gate.

Men, fully geared, rush to get into positions. The ones inspecting our wagon turn their attention to their anxious companions. Torn between finishing the inspection and helping their friends, they fall into a state of stasis.

The young guard shakes his head, groaning in annoyance. “Who cares,” He pulls Aisha’s hood down. Her strong and violent hair color leaves him dumbstruck. The other guards have no words for the surprise. None of them suspected red.

We’re caught.

The most senior guard, the one by the driver yells, “You with the red hair! Give me your name.”

The ones inspecting the wagon, as if reanimated by their leader’s voice, move to apprehend us. Istruan and his party are surrounded in a second. Our guards push Istruan and his group behind them as they face off with the guards.

Elis yanks me back just as a hand reaches to grab me.

“What do you think you’re doing,” Iris shouts, slapping away a hand. “I want you to state your reason for this right away!”

One of the guards atop the wall sees the action and leans over the edge, “What are you doing? Monsters are coming. Now isn’t the time to be messing with travelers no matter what they’re doing!”

They ignore him. The senior guard once again orders Rainen’s sister to give her name. She doesn’t comply. His face twists from a tired stoicness to one of anger. He tells the others to capture us.

Another hand reaches for me and Elis doesn’t save me this time. The young guard pulls me close to him before throwing me to the ground. He unsheathes his sword, pointing it at Elis. She looks between me and him wondering what to do.

“Fight,” Rainen screams as he takes down a guard, “Focus on getting out of the city!”

Elis’ eyes light up and fire emerges at her fingertips. The young guard flinches at her display of magic. I run to Elis as she spews fire at the young guard, zoning him out and turning the snow beneath his feet into puddles.

Eventually, he bats away the weak flames with his sword. As he inches closer to us, I step behind Elis.

An unpleasant grin flashes across his face, “Afraid of me? You should be-” he suddenly locks up, falling face first into the puffy snow.

Elis lowers her hand, “Shut up,” she leads me to Iris and the others.

“So do we fight our way out now,” Istruan asks, looking around every three seconds. “I-I had hoped it’d go better than this you know. I’m not so sure about fighting city guards… I’ve never killed anyone yet.”

A wave of fear rolls over me. I’ve thought about what might happen when we were caught trying to sneak out. I thought of a few scenarios where we escape and ones where we’re captured. But it never crossed my mind what might happen in between or what might lead to our capture.

Rainen straps his sword to his back, “You won’t have to. I’d also prefer it if we could get out of here without killing anyone.”

I sigh. Thank goodness.

The guards Iris’ dad assigned to help us, throw the senior city guard off to the side. The driver impatiently kicks the wagon telling us to get on.

A mass of bodies appear, approaching the wagon at a quick pace. “It’s the Yurfray. We’ve found her,” one of the men we thought we knocked out says.

Rainen stuns him but it’s too late, they heard him.

A fireball, large enough to engulf the entire wagon, barrels at us. Rainen erects multiple barriers. The fireball eats through all of them before dissipating into nothing. Rainen tells us to run. Elis and I shake ourselves awake. Both of us still processing the fireball that no longer existed.

“Get on,” the driver shouts. Elis and I attempt to get on the wagon, however, the gate drops before the horses can even start pulling. It falls which such force that the iron bars rattle and the ground shakes, “Shit.”

Another fireball flies from the crowd of guards. Rainen stops it once again but the effort takes its toll. He falls to one knee coughing. The guards spread out, a lone man stepping forward. He draws his sword.

“I am Knight Kayle. Surrender yourselves and the Yurfray. You are surrounded.”

Rainen arches forward only able to cough in response. Kayle draws closer to Rainen, taking care in his steps and watching the distance.

A blur in the crowd catches my attention and begin searching for it. I lose my breath upon spotting Axel with the city guards. He watches, shocked at the scene before him.

“We need help,” a bloody guard cries as he tumbles through some that are surrounding us. “The west side, the west side is breaking!”

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“Gah!”

Rainen tosses a handful of fresh snow into the air, startling the knight. He bolts away from him and leaps into the wagon grabbing ahold of his sister’s hand. “We’re going to the west side.”

Istruan and his party catch on quickly. They break away from the wagon following after Rainen. I gather strength in my legs and run. Knowing Iris and Elis are right behind me, I don’t slow down. The wagon driver and the guards assigned to us stay behind.

Iris makes a failed attempt to call out to them. Curiosity overtakes me for a moment and I peek over my shoulder. The city guards descend on them five to one. I turn away before the guilt can eat more of me. It’s too late to help them. If I went back, then Iris or Elis might go back too.

We run along the wall taking painful breaths, stumbling over snow as we throw quick glances over our shoulders. We ignore the throbbing in our chests screaming for rest and force our way through the fluffy white sheets.

More guards appear before us. They fight various beasts and monsters, stabbing and cutting into their flesh unaware of our presence.

I slow down. How are we going to get through there?

Rainen creates a stone pillar in hopes of going over. In less than a moment, a lightning bolt strikes it down. The lower half of the destroyed pillar crumbles as Rainen stops feeding mana into the spell.

“C-C, Do we have to go through all those monsters,” Istraun falters, “I-I don’t think we can take them on.”

A girl, Kat, stands breathless, watching as the guards hold back the unending horde of monsters. “A-Agreed,” she stammers.

“There has to be,” I add in. “I-I don’t want to go that way e-either…”

Rainen looks at the guards desperately trying to fight back the monsters and nods. “Let’s keep going this way then. The ones chasing us might have to stop and help them hold here. We can use that to our advantage.”

“Wait,” Emile says. He’s a member of Istraun’s party. “Isn’t it wrong to leave the guards here by themselves? They’re struggling as it is.”

Rainen shakes his head and turns around, “That’s why we’re running this way. Their reinforcements will come,” he takes off.

“It’s better that we don’t lose anyone else Emile.” their mage, Sio, says.

I look to Iris who solemnly nods, “We have to put ourselves first.”

Our pursuers arrive and we bolt away. The monsters and other guards defending the wall breach pull their attention away.

We run and run until Aisha has to stop. She’s out of breath like the rest of us. Even Istraun’s group has a hard time standing. Kat and Fia fall to the ground, while Emile and Sio lean against a wall. Only Rainen, despite his panting, seems to be able to go on.

“Just a little longer,” Aisha says as Rainen tries to convince her to continue. “I just need a little more time to rest.”

Right, we can afford a little time. I don’t know how fast the guards are but they can’t catch up to us that easily if they’re in armor. The snow will also slow them down lots. This is good. I can just sit here for a bit.

Iris pulls out her bright yellow hairpin and readjusts her hair, “Where do we go from here,” Iris asks as she sits next to me. “I know this city fairly well and I can’t think up of any other escape routes. We can try other breaches in the wall but they’re filled with guards and monsters.”

Rainen paces around looking to the sky while leaving a trail in the snow. He’s just as clueless about where to go as Iris is.

Is there anything I can think of…?

No. Iris and Rainen have lived here for most of their lives. If they can’t come up with a way out then what can I hope to do? It’s my second day and all these streets are new to me. It didn’t take me long to memorize the major streets in Aurora but we don’t have the time for that here.

I slouch forward, finally grasping our predicament. Nowhere to go, no place to stay, all the while stuck in a cage.

Rainen stops pacing. He pulls out a knife from thin air and retraces our steps in the snow. We rise to our feet, realizing he’s sensed someone. No one says a word as Rainen nears the corner.

“Whoa, don’t be trying to kill me now.”

“Axel?”

“Hey guys, I overheard a few things and might know a way out. It’s not the nicest of places to leave through. Follow me guys.”

With Axel leading the way, we head deeper into the city where some streets are still populated. The people outside go about their lives but less as people and more like soulless husks, tired of the constant monster attacks. Either they haven’t heard of the newest one yet, or don’t care anymore.

Axel leads us down a less populated street and into a decent sized building filled with stairs. I ask both Iris and Elis about the place but they shake their heads. Apparently, they haven’t been here before. Rainen, on the other hand, stares into the darkness below.

“I had a feeling,” he mutters.

“You had a feeling we’d go down the waterways,” asks Axel a little impressed.

“It was just a thought.”

“Still, those feelings of yours are pretty spot on if they predicted this,” Axel gingerly descends, “Let’s go then. I’ll keep leading the way. I haven’t been through the whole thing but I know it leads a little bit out of the city. Oh, and I’d have to say, it was pretty rude to try to leave the city without telling me first.”

Rainen nods, “My bad.”

So they did come here together. How come Axel wasn’t with Rainen and his sister then?

“So did you tell your family you were leaving?”

Axel allows the silence to spread.

“Ever thought that they get worried about you if you don’t come back tonight?”

Despite the lead Axel and Rainen have on the rest of us, at least an eight step lead, their voices echo throughout the enclosed space.

“As long as they don’t find my body lying dead near one of the breaches in the walls then they won’t worry too much. My mom and dad know I’m someone who likes to go off on his own. Anyway, when I return someday and tell them I was helping out a friend, they won’t be able to be mad at me.”

“...”

As we near the bottom, I accidentally bump into Rainen.

“S-Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I was just lost in thought. Let’s keep going, Blue Hair.”

So that’s going to be how he calls me from now on? I sigh. I hoped things would change once we met again after the break from the academy… I wonder how long things will stay this way. Maybe it’ll never change.

At the bottom of the steps, we’re greeted by dozens of paths. Axel who led the group seems baffled by the amount of choices all leading to the same darkness. He asks Istruan for help but he shrugs, citing a bad sense of direction.

“I think going straight from where we left the steps or the opposite way is best,” Iris states. “We tried leaving through the east gate because that was the closest to my house, however, now we can go through another way.”

Meaning the west. Who’s going to decide? Iris’ dad was the one who told us where we would be leaving last time.

Istruan points at Rainen, “We came this far because we wanted to follow you, so I think it would put me and my party at ease if you chose.”

Iris agrees, “I’m not one to just follow someone around randomly but at least you had a destination.”

“So, where will it be,” Axel asks. “East, or West?”

Rainen thinks on the question, pulling out a coin and tossing into the air. He does it three times before choosing. “Let’s go East,” he says, “I don’t know where any of these lead but this exit will probably take us closer to where I wanted to go.”

“Go where?”

We turn on the voice. A man hides in the dark showing only the lower portion of his face. Tall, slim, but different from an average person.

Elis lights a fire in her hands and shines the light at the man. Blinded, he covers his eyes.

“What are a couple of kids like you doing down here?”

“Leaving,” Rainen answers, “And who are you?”

“I’m Garret-”

Elis perks up, “Garret? Hey, hey guys! Isn’t he the one Anne told us about?”’

“I mean, it could be,” Iris replies skeptically. “I’m not sure how common the name Garret is among non-nobles.”

“Anne?” the man steps out of the shadows, “You two know Anne?”

“Three,” Elis points to me, “We visited the place she worked at lots of times.”

“Place she works at… I knew she got a job somewhere else.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know where that wing leads to do you,” Istruan asks.

“I don’t.”

Rainen moves past him.

“Hey, kid,” Garret reaches to grab him but he dodges.

Rainen calls out to his sister, “Aisha, let’s get going.”

Again, he tells them to wait, this time grabbing ahold of Rainen’s sister. “You, you’re a Yurfray aren’t you?”

“Yes…” she answers.

“What do you know about the people who attacked Aurora City? I know that one of them was from here. Tell me!”

Rainen grips his arm, “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t grab my sister like that.”

Garret stares at him for a moment and reluctantly lets go. “Well,” he rubs the part of his arm where Rainen grabbed him, “I need to ask your sister about a few things. You should know what I’m talking about.”

“Considering you mentioned it earlier and I attended the academy, I do. She knows nothing,” Rainen beckons her to follow.

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I know. She’s not associated with those people in the slightest… Wait, is this why we’re being chased?”

Garret nods, “Yes, so can I ask her a few things?”

“No, because she knows nothing about those,” Rainen answers bluntly.

“I can try,” Aisha says, glaring at her brother.

“And it’ll lead nowhere.”

“I lost someone I knew at the city, I just need to ask a few questions.”

Rainen sighs, “Tell me, were you even in the city?”

He doesn’t answer.

“I was, and I lost someone I knew too,” he turns away, “If there’s something you want to ask her, go ahead. Just don’t try to do anything to her. I know Anne too.”

Garret sighs and asks Aisha a question so quiet, even my strained ears can’t catch a word. She shakes her head and he nods. “Sorry,” he says.

Rainen shrugs and walks down the tunnel.

Iris curtsies, “I apologize for my companion’s behavior. Anne told us to give her greetings. It was nice meeting you for now but we must leave.”

The rest of the group goes on. I’m the last one to follow. Burying my face into my scarf, I run past him.

“Wait,” he calls out.

Unlike Rainen, I stop. “Y-Yes?”

“When you saw Anne last time… how was she doing?”

“I-I think she's fine. She was doing alright the last time... I-I don’t really know how she is now, though…”

“That’s fine. On the off chance you kids somehow see her again, tell her that I won’t be coming back for a while. I’m looking for something.”