Surprisingly, talking with his powers had always been challenging to Alex. The specific manipulations of tone and cadence were difficult to fake convincingly. But that hadn't stopped him from learning how to do it. So, after years of practice, he was relatively proficient in the art.

Still, it was easier to steal the sounds from the many ongoing conversations in the camp and then manipulate them.

"So, were you the one who set the monster hoard on the village?" The amalgam of voices whispered into his fellow prisoner's ear.

The girl shot ramrod straight and looked around wildly. It even drew the attention of the few guards stationed around the circle. Alex could see how they tensed up with her movement. Finally, her eyes settled on him, and Alex lifted his eyebrow as if to ask a question.

"Yep, over here." The girl calmed down and looked at him searchingly. As if asking how she could communicate with him. "Just try to subvocalize at the back of your throat. I should be able to hear."

"Who are you?" She mumbled into her gag. It was challenging but not impossible for Alex to interpret what she was saying. "How are you doing this?" She looked at him in suspicion.

Alex thought for a second before answering. "I'm good at a particular type of magic, but I'm afraid I can't tell you who I am while there is still a possibility you were the one to lead those monsters to the village." He chose to lie; it wasn't worth making the distinction right now.

"How dare you suggest I played a part in this massacre!" Her overreaction got the guard's attention, and they started threatening us with their spears to quiet down. "This is a well-known tactic of the Inquisition forces. Lead a group of monsters to a village and force those within to reveal their magic to survive." She finished with a huff, much calmer now.

That was certainly a hefty accusation. "It doesn't seem to be well known among the villagers they saved." He pointed out. The clerics were still going around healing all those injured from the raid. However, what she said did make some sense if they were trying to ingratiate themselves with the villagers while rooting out any magic users.

"Well known to those of us who still practice magic." She countered, now looking even more suspicious. "Who are you?" She asked, looking more resolute this time. Alex doubted she would answer any more questions if he didn't give her an answer.

Alex considered his answer once again. "The names Echo, and as you can probably tell by the look of me, I'm not from around here." He decided to go with his code name; it had little value to him. It was just the name he was given while working for the Chicago rebel cell he joined.

"That is not your real name." She stated with certainty.

Alex looked at her consideringly. Could she tell when people lied? "It's what I'm called. I don't see you offering your name to a supposed criminal you just met."

"I am Okabe Mai, a student of Lady Kiyoshi, the first shadow of Laponia." She said, proving him wrong. Her speech was muffled, but Alex could still recognize the pride in her tone. "To show no reaction to either name marks your words about being a foreigner true." At least, she believed that. "But it still does nothing to prove your trustworthiness."

That was true. "So we can conclude we're both untrustworthy 'criminals' stuck in a cell together." Once again, Alex considered his circumstances; there would almost certainly be an investigation after the portal incident. He didn't have much hope his identity would survive a run-through with an Empire investigation team. "The names Alex Bishop, and I'll believe you about not being an evil sorcerer if you believe I don't have any malicious intentions. How does a Temporary alliance sound?"

Only the shuffling of the guards filled the silence that followed. The breakout would be much easier with one more person on his side. Alex already basically believed her about the Inquisition's actions; he was predisposed to hate religious zealots, after all. Plus, the soldiers kept making veiled allusions to this all happening because the village allowed worshippers of other gods to pray at their temple.

Mai studied him and thought over his offer before eventually nodding.

"It's probably best to start with what we can both do. I specialize in… sound magic." They needed to know what they were working with before a plan could be made.

"Magic that you can use while under the effects of the isolation circle and without speaking?" Mai asked with apparent skepticism in her voice.

Ah, was that not normal? "Yes, I'm guessing our magic is different because I'm from so far away."

"Very well," She clearly wasn't convinced but continued anyway. "I am a practitioner of shadow magic."

Clearly, that was supposed to mean something to Alex, but he had no idea how the magic of this world worked. He asked for clarification, and they exchanged information for the next couple of minutes. Mai's shadow magic was clearly more diverse in application than most powers Alex had encountered, and she even admitted her relative inexperience with the craft.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He shoved the thought of learning magic aside for now and began planning the escape.

As always, start with the obstacles.

Apparently, this magic circle was isolating this area from outside mana, making Mai's ability to cast spells almost useless. It also had a more traditional barrier that made stepping outside impossible without first disrupting the circle. Outside the circle stood four guards, whom Mai called Knights of the Inquisition. From what she told him, they possessed enhanced physical attributes, and some could call upon supplications, or what just amounted to magic spells, by calling on their deities.

That wasn't even taking into account their own physical conditions. Mai said she was uninjured, but Alex could tell that was a lie. Apparently, she had stayed in the village and saved as many people as possible before being captured. Her apparently being able to teleport added some credence to that story.

Alex himself wasn't confident in his physical condition. He doubted his ability to run very far on his injured leg, and being tied up wasn't helping with the broken arm. But if he could buy the time Mai needed to teleport them out of there, that shouldn't matter.

The final thing was their cellmate. Mai knew of him, though all she could tell Alex about his abilities was that the young boy could use magic. Alex argued they should take him with them, but surprisingly, she said he was probably better off staying here.

The boy was obviously untaught and probably just awakened to his abilities during the monster raid. He also prayed to the same pantheon of gods as the Inquisition so they would likely give him the chance to repent. Whatever that meant. Also, Mai could only take two people with her shadow travel at one time.

Taking all that into account… "I've got a plan," Alex explained what he had in mind while carefully weakening the rope and gag that bound him in place. It took much less power than the metal door earlier.

"You ready." He asked after he finished explaining. Mai nodded, still uncertain but having no choice in trusting him.

Alex ripped the weakened rope apart with his good arm and reached up to do the same with his gag. At the same time, Mai reached into her boot and cut her binding with a small knife she had hidden there. Both were now free; the guards were reacting, but they were too late.

Alex slammed his hand into the ground, transferring a good deal of his stored-up sound into boosting the vibrations it caused. He directed most of the power toward the guard closest to the rest of the camp.

*Boom* The earth rumbled, and a spider web of cracks followed the force of the strike. Disrupting the magic circle and throwing the armored figure to the ground.

Before the circle even broke, Mai was running toward the largest of the guards. Some man wielding a mace that had helped bring her in. The man, probably expecting her to be stopped by the circle's barrier, was blindsided as it failed to react to her passing. Sliding forward with superhuman speed, Mai jabbed her knife into the joint of his right leg, bypassing his armor and cutting to the bone.

Now behind the distracted man, Mai touched his shadow and reached out to her magic. "Encircle and Affix." She commanded, pushing the magic she was now taking from the surroundings into the immaterial blackness.

She didn't bother watching as the immaterial became material and dragged the Inquisitor to the ground. Already, she was focusing on her shadow travel. Gathering the magic necessary to travel far enough would take more than a few seconds.

Only two knights remained, but they were now prepared and on guard. One had unsheathed their sword and was running toward Alex, while the other had started to chant something while looking at Mai.

"Hark! I beseech the goddess-" Alex stole the sound from her words, boosted their frequency, and shoved them at the charging knight. The keening noise distracted the knight and allowed Alex to carefully sidestep his cut, carefully noting not to strain his injured leg and reaching out to the off-balance guard.

*Snap* Alex directed the amplified sound waves to reverberate inside the man's helm.

"Ahhh!" he screamed and passed out, probably because of some kind of internal damage. Alex didn't have time to contemplate that because the final knight was recovering from the shock of whatever goddess she tried to pray to not answering her prayers. He could tell she was outraged at whatever he did to the other knight.

Alex took a deep breath and dug into the last of his stored sound. "Stop!" The directed sound launched from his mouth, but the knight was already dodging out of the way. The wave clipped her, and judging by how she stumbled as she tried to get up, it had burst at least one eardrum.

Grabbing the sword from the fallen man beneath him, Alex started towards Mai, hoping she was done with her preparations. Unfortunately, when he finally limped over to her.

"Buy me a few more seconds." She insisted. Already, Alex could see her own shadow growing and roiling beneath her. He nodded because he didn't have a choice.

A quick check of the sounds in the area showed that reinforcements were already coming. Mai couldn't just restart this after helping him. He also noticed the knight trying to whisper something under her breath. Another prayer to the goddess? He made sure to steal whatever it was to add to his empty reserves.

"Fine." Alex had used knives before but never a sword. It felt surprisingly heavy in his single hand, but he didn't know if that was from his weakness or the knights taking advantage of their superhuman endurance.

It didn't matter, even if his enemy was obviously injured, as she stumbled up to him. Alex wouldn't stand a chance in a fair fight against her physical abilities and experience. Luckily, he didn't have to.

"Wait, you're the one who brought me in." Alex feigned surprise, though he had already recognized the voice. Mostly, he was just trying to buy time; slowly, he absorbed some of the ambient sound in the area.

They were five feet from each other now, and Alex had to act fast. The knight opened her mouth to say something, but Alex didn't let it get past her lips. He saw her eyes narrow through the slits in her helm and took the opportunity to lunge forward with a battle cry.

Reaching into his cataloged sounds, Alex brought out one recently recorded. The scream of this sword's owner.

"AHHHH!" Alex's battlecry and the ambient sound he had been absorbing were redirected into recreating the scream even louder than it had been. He also made it sound like it had come from her comrade's body.

The Inquisitor turned towards her comrade's scream.

The distraction worked. Allowing Alex to jam the tip of his sword into her already weakened right shoulder. He couldn't cut past the armor, but it shoved the knight onto her back. The force plus the surprise made her lose balance.

Jumping back, Alex landed near Mai. "Now or never!" he called out.

The black of Mai's shadow engulfed them both, and they disappeared.