Korlac held the device, as Liarra lit the elongated fuse. Using a spark stick she kept as part of her alchemical supplies, she lit the bomb and patted the orc on the shoulder. Putting his hips and shoulder into the throw, Korlac heaved the device far, further than anyone really expected him to. It landed hard on the ground, plopping down as some of the meat Liarra had attached to it flung off.

"Crap..."

The group watched for a tense moment, waiting to see the grasping, blackened hands rise from the earth, but nothing happened.

"Maybe they left..." Drez said hopefully.

Suddenly, hands emerged, patting the ground frantically looking for the cause of the disturbance. First the meat was found and dragged under, followed by the device itself.

Ezekiel snapped his head to the waiting spark paws on the patio.

"Oruffallor!" One of the wolves nodded to him, then howled before racing off, followed by the other three. They moved impossibly fast, their paws only barely touching the ground as they raced back the way the group had come.

The ground shook at their quick departure, rippling more like water than dirt. A wave of rocks, dirt, and mud formed and followed the wolves down the road.

Ezekiel looked to the team, his eyes hopeful.

"Part two, get ready. Once I cast the spell, you'll feel a little weird, as if time has slowed down, but that's because you're just moving that much faster."

The group nodded, and Ezekiel began casting the quickened spell.

"Yorfal Tormon Hilute!"

Air swirled around all of them, starting at their legs and working its way up their torsos before slamming into their chests.

Liarra blinked, feeling a moment of disorientation as the spell swept through her. She waved her hand, feeling it move impossibly fast through the air while leaving a blur of motion. The speed made her feel the air resistance for the first time, like she was running through fog that wasn’t there The alchemist noticed both Korlac and Drez were equally amazed at the sensation, both trying to get used to it.

"Hands on my shoulder, now!" Ezekiel called out, his voice the only thing that appeared to move at a normal speed to the others.

Everyone touched his shoulder as he invoked the final spell while looking off in the distance, opposite the direction the spark paws had run. It took longer for him to cast the spell this time, with the inclusion of four others in the casting, but after a handful of seconds Ezekiel spoke the final words.

"Yone Dorl Ren!"

The group collectively folded, as Ezekiel had done the day previously. Liarra's eyes went wide at the sensation as Drez screamed in a panic. Korlac merely grunted, feeling his stomach had gone upside down. Only Onyx weathered the feeling without issue, having experienced it previously with the summoner.

Hundreds of feet away, the group unfolded back into existence, landing on the ground. Drez dropped to the dirt, emptying the evening's meal into the grass. Liarra steadied herself on Korlac's shoulder as the orc took a staggered stance to steady himself.

"Run... now!" Ezekiel yelled, not allowing the group time to fully recover.

Shaking off their disorientation, everyone took off, sprinting with unnatural speed. Drez was the fastest of them all, quickly taking the lead as his short legs moved in a blur, with Onyx trailing close behind him. Korlac took the middle, his larger more powerful legs taking long strides, stomping the ground with purpose. Ezekiel and Liarra were in the rear, both moving swiftly under the effects of the spell.

Risking a look behind, Ezekiel noticed another smaller wave chasing them down the road out of town headed north.

"How long on the bomb?" Ezekiel yelled at Liarra.

"Six seconds!" She yelled back, also seeing the wave chasing them.

The group moved faster, the spell working its magic on their legs. Ezekiel, keeping to the rear of the group, looked back every few seconds, until he finally felt the shockwave of the underground explosion from Liarra's bomb. The mob following them ceased, obviously stunned or confused by the effects of the explosion.

"Keep running!" Ezekiel yelled, doubling his efforts as the group continued fleeing down the road out of town, heading north as fast as their legs could carry them.

**********

The first night in his dark empty cell, Davis cried the entire time, his wails echoing through the stone halls of the underground jail. He only stopped when an annoyed guard burst in and threatened to beat him if he didn't cease immediately.

The next few days were spent with priests visiting him sporadically, each bringing a platter of bread and moldy cheese to keep him fed.

The first one just asked him a series of questions, starting with his family history, specifically his father. Davis tried to remember as much as possible, but he honestly couldn't recall much of his family tree, only going so far as his grandfather, whom he had never met. Then they asked about his mother, her parents, all his cousins, and anyone else he could recount in his ancestry.

After that, the priest asked a series of weird questions focused on any strange events that might have happened in Davis's life.

"Has your hair ever stood on end for no reason? Have candles lit aflame in your presence? Have you ever buried a pet, only to see it back in your home the next day?"

All the questions were very strange, and he was worried he was frustrating the priest with all the no answers he was providing, until the priest asked one final question.

"Have you ever stayed under water in the tub for a very long time?" The priest asked in a dull tone.

"No, but I didn't have to come up for air once while swimming with Drez." Davis said.

The priest looked up, his interest finally sparked.

"Drez, he's the water goblin you spoke of? They're known for being amphibious, but what's this about you not needing to come up for air?"

"Mom always warned me about swimming with Drez, to not try and dive down as far as he can. Well, we were at the pier once, and he told me at the bottom of the water were some really shiny shells. He offered to show me, so we both dove in. I swam extra hard, because I wanted to see what he was talking about, but as I got to the bottom, I knew I wasn't going to have enough breath to get back up."

The priest wrote furiously in a notebook he kept, detailing every word Davis spoke.

"Then what happened?"

"Well, Drez could tell something was wrong, and he tried to help me get up. My eyes started fluttering, and I was sort of falling asleep, until I suddenly wasn't."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You weren't?"

"No, I was just sort of... swimming. I don't know if I was breathing, or what. I just remember the last thing I was thinking, before I started falling asleep, was something my dad used to say often before bed."

"And what's that?"

"Uphine, keep me safe. Well, dad would say 'Uphine, keep him safe.' But I thought, "Uphine, keep me safe."

The Priest stopped writing, his hand shaking slightly as he looked up at Davis.

"Are... are you sure?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought as I started falling asleep under water, ‘Uphine, keep me safe.’ Why?"

"Nothing... that'll end our session for the day."

Davis was confused by the Priest's reaction but was happy to at least have some food. He had to soak the bread in the water in order to eat it due to how stale it was, and he broke off the moldy parts of the cheese, but there was still enough left over for him to eat.

The next day he was visited by another priest, but this one didn't ask him any questions. Instead, he waved various items in front of him as he ordered Davis to sit still. Davis had never seen the items before. Some were odd looking symbols on necklaces or scepters, made of bone, copper, or silver. They were intricately designed, one a swirling circle, another with sharper angles, and yet another depicting a sword crossing a hammer. He wasn't sure what the priest was doing as he kept just waving the items in front of Davis in a small circle without asking him a single question. Davis tried to interject a few times, but the priest just hushed him, going so far as to threaten Davis with calling the guards to come and keep him quiet.

An hour went by as the priest kept pulling more and more of the symbols out of a chest he had brought, and Davis felt himself nodding off on his bed until a gasp from the priest snapped him awake.

The priest held a simple symbol that Davis had seen a few times previously on other items from the chest. It appeared to be a semicircle encased in a larger circle attached by a bars in the middle. It looked like some kind of sun cresting over a horizon. Davis thought the item might have been made out of gold, though he wasn't sure. He found it hard to discern in the priest's hands as he held it in front of Davis.

"Are you familiar with this?" The priest asked him harshly.

"No, I..." Davis trailed off innocently, until the shape of the symbol reminded him of something. He was young, very young, watching his father lean down to kiss him on his forehead as he was going to bed. His shirt was loose from a hard day working in the tavern, and he could see a necklace fall out of his father's shirt. It wasn't as detailed or expensive as the symbol the priest held, his father's simply made of wood, but it had the same symbol on it as he leaned down to kiss Davis's forehead.

"Are you familiar with it!?" the priest demanded angrily.

"My father, he had one like it long ago, but that's the only other time I've ever seen it. Mom never had it around the house, I just remember seeing my dad with it once," Davis admitted, not wanting to agitate the Priest anymore.

Snapping the necklace away from Davis, the priest shoved it back into the chest with the others and slammed it shut, running out of Davis's cell without another word and leaving him with another platter of stale food for the evening.

Davis ate the meal slowly, fighting back more tears as the harshness of the place was starting to wear on him. He could hear wailing from other cells, but he had yet to see another prisoner anywhere outside the confines of his cell. The bars and the flickering torches beyond them provided dim illumination, but every other cell within Davis's vision was empty. He fell asleep that evening crying softly to himself, finding it hard to rest while little insects from his ragged covers nipped at his feet.

The next morning as he awoke, Davis jolted in bed when he realized he wasn't alone in his cell. The blonde woman with the scarred face was there, the one who had kidnapped him back at Greencoast and brought him here. He wasn't sure why she wore the mask before, as the scar on her face wasn't that bad, but he thought it might be something more ceremonial in nature instead, remembering several others referring to her as the grand inquisitor.

"Trouble sleeping? Not unusual, all the cells down here have a problem with bed bugs. Have they been feeding you?" the woman asked with a neutral expression.

Davis just nodded, fear running up his back.

"What have you learned from the tests thus far?" She asked, her voice slick with contempt.

"I don't know. Something to do with my father?" Davis asked softly.

The blonde woman stared daggers at Davis, her eyes scanning his face for any twitch, any deceit. "A heretic. Like yourself, I imagine," she mused.

A tense, silent moment passed between them as Kora held his gaze, revealing nothing of her intentions before she continued.

"The moon elf, Ezekiel. What do you know about him?"

"Uhhh, he arrived in town a day or two before you did. He... he's looking for his brother. I saw him do some magic, I think."

"What magic?"

"I'm not sure, it all happened so fast when I first met him. I went too far into the woods, and some creatures attacked me. He... he saved me, him and Onyx. I... I think he used magic to create some flying wolves or something that helped defeat the creatures."

Kora raised an eyebrow at that part of Davis's story. "Flying wolves, are you sure? Was there anything else you remember about them?"

"Yeah, they had lightning in their teeth, and their fur was yellow. They were really fast, just flying all around in a pack."

"Do you remember anything else? Did he cast any other magic?"

"Just some kind of sphere of light. He said it was a simple spell though, but that's all I remember, honestly."

Kora suddenly stood and started pacing Davis's cell, her hand playing against the bars.

"What did he say about his brother?"

"I don't know, something about not seeing him in a long time. I swear, I don't know anything else!"

Tears rolled down Davis's face, the intensity of the situation overwhelming him once more. Kora simply watched him weep, his weakness making her sick. She had been here once before, in the Facilities, when she was near Davis's age. She learned early that crying did little good, and proving your worth was the only way to survive. If you proved useful to the Church, you could go far.

"Are you done?" Kora asked as Davis's weeping slowed.

"Why am I here?" He begged.

"Testing."

"Testing for what?"

"For the impossible," Kora replied cryptically. "In the meantime, you can prove yourself useful by answering my questions about your friend. Are you sure he didn't mention something about where he might go next?"

"I think.... I think my mom said something about him having a conversation with Liarra."

"Who's that?"

"She travels with Korlac, the orc who..." Davis trailed off, not sure how to describe the warrior without mentioning all the priests he killed.

"The one with the sword that cut my men in half?"

"Yeah, that's him. She travels with him. She's an alchemist and one of the smartest people I know, though Ezekiel seems pretty smart, too."

"Okay, so now we're getting somewhere. What did Liarra tell him?"

"I don't know exactly. Mom just said something about Mr. Graystone going off to Ashland Port to find his brother. Mom mentioned that Liarra teased him about being a colonel, but that's all she told me."

Kora stopped her pacing in the cell, her mind racing as she started putting pieces together, the boy’s words sparking some distant memory she had from her studies.

"So, his full name and title was Colonel Ezekiel Graystone? Do you know what army he was a colonel in?"

"No, I... I don't. He... he never said."

Kora moved to the cell door, opening it firmly as Davis rose from his bed with hope in his eyes.

"I told you everything I know. I did your tests. Can I go home now?"

"No boy, you cannot. And if you hope to survive any longer, you should start praying to our god, King Tal'Dar, like every other citizen does, else you'll find yourself in even more trouble. If you remember anything else about your friend, notify a guard and give them the details to deliver to me."

Davis slumped back in his bed, curling into a ball without touching the platter of food Kora had left him.

Storming off and up to her office, Kora threw open the door then closed it firmly behind her, locking it for privacy. Walking up to her bookshelf which held the official history of Terrial, she pressed a button, causing the bookshelf to swing open, revealing a second hidden shelf of books behind it. These books looked much older, with tattered spines and more wear and tear, having actually been read several times over a hundred years. It was the unofficial history of Terrial, containing information outside of the Church approved records that citizens were not allowed to read.

Kora's position in the Church allowed her access to such information, but even then, handling such material required great discretion. Being caught with these tomes without good reason could bring added attention from the bishop, and Kora wanted to keep her thoughts to herself for now. Instead, she pulled out a few books she knew were relevant to the Fall, and took them to her desk, paging through them as she consulted her notes closely.

**********

In his cell, Davis tucked his knees to his chest as he focused on trying to control his breathing. He allowed himself to cry for a while after the grand inquisitor left, but he knew that too much longer would risk a painful visit from one the guards.

Curled up in the silence of his cell, Davis thought of the woman's final words before she left, going through them over and over again in his head.

“If you hope to survive any longer, you should start praying to our god, King Tal'Dar...”

The words were stuck in Davis's head as he ran through the tests the other priests had performed on him, trying to make sense of everything he'd seen thus far.

Hearing his father's prayers in his head, the words the first priest seemed to be focused on when Davis told him the story of nearly drowning, he thought loudly “Uphine, keep me safe.”

He repeated the words in his head several times, over and over again, until eventually he whispered them softly into this chest.

"Uphine, please keep me safe..."

Suddenly, Davis felt warm for the first time in his cell and the feeling of soft arms hugging him tightly as he lay in his bed. Keeping his eyes squeezed shut, Davis could feel all the sores on his legs from the critters nibbling at him at night suddenly stop itching, the bites scabbing over. A fresh smell wafted over his bed, his clothing and body feeling clean and soft. Closing his eyes, Davis fell asleep for the first time in the last few days feeling safe, protected, and not alone.