The crossbow bolt slammed into Autumn’s shoulder. Dark steel shrieked as it sparked off of her chainmail shirt. While the bolt didn’t pierce her skin, the force of the blow still sent the young witch spinning away with a pained cry. Catching herself on the wall beside her, Autumn wildly fired back in the shooter’s direction with a retaliatory jinx.

Even with her atrocious aim, the targeted guard still hurled himself out of the way.

Distracted, Autumn didn’t see the other guard rushing towards her. He slammed into her from the side, driving the air from her lungs as he tackled her to the ground.

Autumn cried out as her elbow cracked against the hard floor.

Struggling under the drow guardsman’s armored bulk, Autumn sought to drive her dark blade into his side. However, she wasn’t fast enough and the guard easily caught her wrist in a harsh grip. He twisted her wrist painfully, forcing her already numb fingers to release her weapon. Once it’d clattered to the metal ground, the drow quickly seized it and tossed it out of Autumn’s reach.

In retaliation, Autumn drove a knee into his groin, receiving a grunt and an armored fist to the gut as her reward.

The sudden, harsh blow drove what little air Autumn had from her lungs. Gasping in pain, she instinctively curled in on herself. Vomit soured her tastebuds while down her cheeks ran a pair of black tears.

Rough hands seized Autumn’s wrists. Despite her resistance, the guard tore her wrists from the protective embrace of her chest and pinned them above her head. After leering down at her, the drow turned to shout at his companion.

“I’ve got the bitch pinned! Grab her legs, dammit!”

The aforementioned drow dropped his crossbow, rushing over to secure Autumn’s flailing legs.

Autumn’s heart pounded. Fueled by fright, she fought like a wild animal against the two guards. Bucking and writhing beneath the heavy bodies, her fear grew to untold heights. Grew until she could hold it no more.

And it turned to hate.

With a scream of desperate, inarticulate rage, Autumn tore her wrist free of the drow’s iron grasp with a sudden influx of wild strength and hammered a fist into his side, aiming for his kidney as Nethlia had taught her. A flash of light engulfed her blow just before it struck.

The drow let out a cry of surprise and pain as Autumn’s fist thundered into him, lifting him into the air to slam down beside her in a moaning heap.

Autumn stared at her fist in shock.

She wasn’t the only one. Swearing from the other drow broke Autumn from her trance. Letting go of her legs, he scrambled across the floor towards his discarded crossbow. Still laying on the floor, Autumn snatched up her wand and sent a forceful jinx sailing after the guard, catching him in the chest and sending him skidding along the metal floor.

A bloodied cough drew Autumn’s attention. Beside her, the wounded drow struggled to get to his knees, fumbling for the dagger on his hip as he did so. Murder lay within his eyes as they locked onto the witch’s dark orbs.

Frightened, she lunged for him.

The drow guardsman tried to dodge away, but in his haste and weakness, could only roll onto his back. He couldn’t escape the witch’s wrath. She seized him by the face with violet violence cascading along her palm. His screams took on a higher pitch when the blight finally took hold. Autumn gagged as her fingers sunk into necrotizing flesh.

Just as Autumn was frantically pulling her fingers out of decaying flesh, another bolt unexpectedly slammed into her back. While it did not pierce her armor, it still sent her sprawling with a squawk. Rolling over the dying guardsman, Autumn flipped him onto his side to use him as cover, just in time to escape a barrage of bolts that thudded into her impromptu shield.

Snarling, Autumn poked her wand over the grisly cover and sent her own barrage the crossbowman’s way. A wet gurgle and a thud resounded in her ears. Looking over, she saw she’d caught him in the throat with a lucky shot.

Tiredly, Autumn slumped against the body she was using as cover.

However, before she could even sigh in relief, another bolt scythed past her face, barely missing her eye. Crying out in pain, Autumn rolled onto her back, pointing her wand towards the doorway whence the bolt had come.

A drow guardsman stood silhouetted in the frame, crossbow leveled hatefully towards the prone witch.

Screaming wordlessly, Autumn fired a powerful blast towards him. Like a runaway bull, the jinx caught the drow in the chest and sent him flying backwards out into the hallway, knocking his compatriots over like bowling pins as he went. Staggering to her feet with a pained groan, Autumn lumbered her way across to the open door as quickly as she could and, with a grunt, slammed it shut. Another grunt of exertion saw a hefty deadbolt ratcheted into place, barring the door. Immediately, clanging thuds erupted as the guardsmen ineffectually pounded on the thick metal.

Panting, Autumn rested her burning forehead against the cool metal as her legs shook like a fawn’s. However, as soon as her head made contact, a line of fire ignited along the side of her face. Autumn’s stomach rolled as blood dripped down her cheek like a waterfall.

Reaching up, she tenderly touched the wound.

While the bolt had missed her eye, it’d not done so by much. Instead, it’d carved a line of flesh from her brow to her hairline, passing ultimately through the top of her ear. Only a small strip of flesh kept the tip from separating completely.

Autumn puked.

Looking down as she wiped her mouth on her tattered sleeve, the witch grimaced at the vomit splattered across her new boots.

“Oh, come on! Can’t I catch a break?!”

After taking a deep breath to calm her jittery nerves, Autumn pressed the tip of her ear back in place and, with clenched teeth, grit out the words, ‘f-flesh mending.”

Once more, she felt her flesh move unnaturally. Under Autumn’s continual, focused guidance, the wound closed, if agonizingly slowly. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, far from it. The necromantic based spell hadn’t dulled the pain. The necromancers hadn’t designed it to — obviously.

Finally, blessedly, the spell ended.

Autumn relaxed her white-knuckled grip from around her wand, massaging her aching joints. Feeling along the closed wound, she winced as her fingers ghosted over the long white scar running along the side of her face. Shaking off the desire to find a mirror, Autumn felt over the rest of her body for any more hidden wounds, but found naught but throbbing bruises.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

As the adrenaline faded from Autumn’s system, it did so with a whimper rather than a bang. All the aches and pains roared back into awareness. Autumn staggered at the sensation, almost falling to the floor as if her strings had been cut.

On wobbly knees, she stumbled out of her sick and started searching for her tossed knife. After a moment of fruitless searching, — shooting an angry glare the dead guard’s way for her troubles — Autumn finally found her black blade and slotted it into her vambrace sheathe.

Looking over said guard, Autumn muttered to herself, “I really need to find less gruesome ways to kill people. Or at least, less pungent ones,” as she covered her nose with her vomit-coated sleeve. Holding her breath, she looted the bodies. Into her belt disappeared a pair of repeater crossbows and their associated bolts alongside a liberated set of drow daggers.

Having looted all she could — or would — Autumn backed away from the cooling bodies, seeking fresher air. Glancing down, she grimaced at the state of her attire.

Her outfit was ruined!

The ill-fitting, skull-embroidered necromancer robes she’d clad herself in were little more than rags at this point. All the sharp bolts had carved long furrows through the black material, below which her chainmail-shirt glinted. That wasn’t even mentioning all the vomit now staining it. While she could use her repair charm to fix it, Autumn didn’t care enough about her disguise to muster even that inconsiderable amount of effort to do so.

Instead, she opted to cut herself free.

Throwing down the tattered rags, the dark-haired, dark-eyed witch adjusted her hat as she smoothed down her unveiled outfit. Only a few nicks decorated the black-iron chain-shirt. Autumn vowed to thank Nelva for making her wear it the next time she saw her.

The continued pounding upon the barred door interrupted Autumn’s thoughts.

“Oh right, that,” she blinked tiredly, fighting off a yawn. “Focus!”

Roused back to action, Autumn finally looked around the room.

Dull metal walls lit only by faint lantern light greeted her curious eyes. Aside from the hallway Autumn had entered from, the rest of the floor was taken up by the winch-house. A series of thin arrow-slits equidistantly dotted the walls, overlooking the surrounding city, river, and outskirts. In the center of the room sat the winch — a large, archaic-looking machine covered in strange levers and switches that Autumn had no clue what they did. Glancing further around, Autumn spied a metal rung ladder embedded into the far wall leading up to a hatch built into the ceiling, likely opening out on the roof, if she had to guess.

Hobbling over to the window facing the river, Autumn looked out towards the far tower and the chain strung between the two.

While it hadn’t looked small from a distance, Autumn hadn’t really appreciated the sheer scale of the chain until now. Each link was twice as wide as she was! If she wanted to, she could’ve walked across it to the other side. Not that she dared to.

While squinting at the tower opposite, Autumn felt the brain-worm spell — she still hated the name — that she left in Liddie’s mind within the opposing winch-house. Closing her eyes, she reached out, sending a message to her party’s swashbuckling rogue.

[Autumn here,] she sent. [Have you cleared your room? And, do you have eyes on your winch?]

There was a brief, tense pause before Liddie’s voice bloomed in Autumn’s mind.

[Geez, you frightened me. Here I was, minding my own business, then — wham — witch in the brain.]

[Focus.]

[Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your witch-panties in a bunch. I cleared out my room ages ago. Tower too. Might’ve left a bit of a mess. Anyway, I see the winch just fine. Big ol’ thing it is. How about you? Are you doing fine? You sound tired.]

[I’m fine,] Autumn snapped, not fine. [I just want to get this over with and get out of here. Do you know how to operate this thing?]

Liddie somehow snickered across the line. [Sure. While I don’t recognize the design, I recognize the function. They make these things pretty idiot-proof, you know? Ok, so, what you need to do is just flip the master switch towards the side facing the water at the same time as I do. Then the chain will lower. If we mess up the timing, the chain will stall. Think you can time us down?]

[…which one’s the master switch?]

[The big one in the center. You’ll see it.]

Sure enough, when Autumn eventually stumbled her way back to the machine, she saw a heavy switch, front and center. It looked like the ones from old movies, where someone would scream ‘it’s alive!’ after flipping it. She was half expecting sparks to fly when she did so.

Shaking off her meandering thoughts, Autumn grasped the handle of the master switch and sent another message down the link to Liddie.

[Alright, we go on three. One. Two. Three!]

Timing it just right, Autumn flipped the switch just as Liddie did hers. It chunked into place. After a beat of silence, in which Autumn thought she’d messed up, the winch rumbled to life and started lowering the river chain. Rushing over to the window, Autumn glanced out, scanning the river for her party. In the distance, she saw a bone-white craft making its way towards the city’s exit atop the crimson water. Despite the distance, she could just make out the sight of magic and arrows splashing about the craft. The sight made Autumn’s heart leap into her throat.

Autumn started when another message barged into her brain.

[Alright,] Liddie drawled, [I’m going to climb down the outside of the tower and make my way…upriver?…downriver?…Either way, I’ll take care of anyone who follows us.]

[Ok, I’ll start heading down as well. Good luck and see you on the other side.]

[May luck be with you as well.]

As the ‘call’ ended, Autumn slumped against the rumbling winch, feeling it rattle her bones. She was exhausted. Every time she closed her eyes, it took more and more effort to open them again. Even now, it took an age. Yet she couldn’t falter. Not yet.

Spurning slumber’s call, the dark-eyed witch made her way tiredly over to the deepest, darkest shadow she could find. There, she crouched down, groaning as her knees complained and rested a hand against the blackness.

Indistinct yelling grew beyond the door.

Sat before a shadow, Autumn sluggishly recalled her ritual. Blood beading on her fingertip.

While the black water would see her down the tower, she felt trepidatious about doing so. Not before she thought there was something lurking in the black — and wasn’t that a terrifying thought — but more in so that she might get lost in that lightless void. If she swam down deep enough, she didn’t know if she could find her way back up.

Shaking those dark thoughts away, Autumn readied to cast her ritual.

Suddenly, a bright flash of silvery light lit up the darksome room. Accompanying it came a deafening roar, rocking the tower as a thunderous force slammed into the barricaded door. Autumn cried out as she tumbled to the floor. Another ponderous blow collided with the door, causing the heavy deadbolt keeping it in place to let out a torturous scream as it bent.

For a moment, Autumn stared blankly at the door.

Her eyes snapped over to the rumbling winch. It’d not been enough time yet for it to lower completely, or for her friends to escape the city. If the door gave way now…

Autumn cursed her luck. Pushing through her exhaustion, she crawled on hands and knees over towards the rumbling winch even as the tower continued to shake around her. Behind her, the thunderous blows wrenched the door open inch by shrieking inch. Arriving at the medieval machine, Autumn stared blankly at it. Realizing she had no clue how to sabotage it with her meager strength, her eyes drifted over to the thick chain slowly exiting the tower.

Perhaps she only needed to sabotage a single link?

Crawling over towards the wall, Autumn stretched her hand through the grating there to lay her hand upon the chain as it drifted slowly by. Closing her eyes, the witch concentrated on the idea of banishment. She recalled the sensation of the time she’d banished the undead elemental — albeit with the aid of a banishment scroll.

Funnily enough, that time had been in a tower as well.

Slowly, Autumn breathed out and cried, “Begone!”

And the darkness took her.