It took Orena by surprise when one of the staff questioned Sax about what was going on. His answer that she was trespassing was less surprising. It was only because she had traversed an entire three storeys designed to hide his experiments she had assumed he had a good amount of authority within the house. Perhaps she had been wrong.
Though, since his guard continued to escort her after him once that minor nuisance had been dealt with, she wasn't sure how she could use that to her advantage.
And she was running out of time if she was going to avoid whatever horrors awaited her this time. By her own estimations if she didn't engineer some kind of escape or delay before they got to the stairs, she was done for.
Unfortunately, she couldn't think of a single thing she could do.
"I don't suppose I get to request a bathroom stop?" She asked.
The guard hesitated, but Sax simply rolled his eyes and beckoned to continue. "Such matters won't concern you soon enough."
"I suppose whatever you have planned will be messy anyway," Orena muttered as she weighed up the pros and cons of getting specific.
"Exactly, and I'm not giving you another chance to escape."
Orena took a breath to try and calm herself as she felt a wave of panic start to bubble inside of her. She knew that wouldn't help, no matter how desperate the situation.
She had an arm free now. After she'd clearly capitulated because the guard was much, much stronger than herself said guard had felt it easiest to only hold onto one arm as they walked after Sax. But there was no point trying to hit him, his armour covered too much for her to get a strike to - even if she could get to her dagger without him realising it - and just thumping him wouldn't do much damage. And trying to hold onto something to delay would just end with him overpowering her anyway.
She glanced up as the shadows flickered under the firelight of the sconces lining the walls. Maybe it had to be just long enough?
When the next torch came within reach she threw her free arm out to snag her fingers around it, and held on as tightly as she could. Thankful she was able to grab far enough away from the fire that even though it was hot, it wasn't scalding. When the guard realised what she was doing he shouted at her, and let go of her arm to grab her other, so she took hold with that hand too and dropped her weight to put as much force onto it as possible.
It screeched as it tilted and Sax shouted at them. Orena winced as the guard wrapped a hand around her bad elbow, her grip loosening. But as he yanked at her good arm, his strength simply aided her in ripping the thing from the wall, and she twisted to try and swing it towards him. He automatically dodged out of the way, letting go of her to do so.
She dropped the torch onto the rug lining the corridor and turned to run.
She didn't want to burn the place down - not with people still inside - she just wanted it to catch enough that they were distracted long enough to give her a chance.
Without looking behind her she charged down the corridors, trying to dodge past the other occupants as best she could, ignoring the throbbing in her elbow where the guard had squeezed tight and the cut that flared with pain every time she put a little too much weight on that leg.
She had just reached the staircase down when she heard a scream behind her.
Orena didn't look back and only slowed enough so that she didn't fall down the stairs for an ignominious end.
Maybe it was the stress of the ordeal of her night so far, but there was something oddly comforting about knowing she was back on the ground floor. Even though she was still in a dim, mostly empty corridor. She didn't linger, however, and soon she was back within corridors she sort of recognised. She almost scoffed, who would have thought that sneaking away from formal parties would give her any kind of advantage.
Though she wouldn't need it if sneaking away hadn't resulted in this whole nightmare.
She slowed further as she heard the music and voices coming from the still occupied ballroom. She was astounded that the whole ordeal had happened within enough time that most guests were still here, socialising and dancing their evening away.
She smoothed down her hair again just before she turned the corner to slip back into the rabble, smiling politely at those who turned to her with a well placed excuse about looking for someone to keep moving with minimal to zero offence. This was a battleground she was very familiar with, able to deploy strategy almost effortlessly after years of training and practise. Soon she was deep within the ballroom as she sought out those she had arrived with.
"Orena!"
She couldn't help but turn sharply as she heard Cirro shout her name amidst a chorus of gasps at the way he had barrelled into the room. The reason for that became patently clear when Sax followed him in with a foul expression on his face.
"I shouldn't have put up with your scheming this long," Sax said and Orena thought it sounded like it was more to himself than to Cirro.
Whatever retort Cirro might have tossed back to Sax was cut short as he realised the mage was reaching out with zerac. His eyes widened in shock as he turned to try and bolt away, but found himself hampered by the party-goers and, as Sax flicked his wrist, Cirro blinked out of existence and Orena clamped her hands over her mouth to muffle her scream.
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The people who Cirro had just bumped into shouted in horror themselves. "Dark magic!" One screamed, brandishing a finger at Sax who was still retracting his arm.
Rallied by the shout, one of the other guests grabbed at Sax to try and restrain him. He resisted at first, but the visitor ignored his commands to unhand him. Soon he was joined by a mob of people joining in to apprehend the man who had just magicked someone out of existence in front of their very eyes. In the jostling of the crowd Sax lost a hold of zerac and the compact tumbled to the floor.
Orena watched in curious horror as the pocket mirror smashed into pieces on impact. A swirling vapour started to arise from the remnants, slowly forming shapes which were quickly solidifying. She had heard Sax shout and a glance showed his hands glowing - she hoped in an effort to undo whatever was happening - but it only served to enrage the mob. Just as the first of the creatures solidified they ran Sax to the ground, and Orena suspected the impact alone would've been enough to finish him, but they wanted to extract more than that as they kicked and stomped.
The rest of the dusty swirls dispersed at the same time, leaving them with just the bulky monster that had been freed.
Orena silently cursed that it wasn't a case of last one in first one out. Cirro would have been a lot less dangerous than... whatever that was. A series of screams echoed through the crowd as the hulking beast roared over them and swung it's giant club in a wide arc. Orena found herself shoved backwards as people started running from the ogre, she decided they were right and tried to turn and sprint towards the doors herself.
Only to be knocked off her feet along with the rest of the crowd when the beast swung it's club at them. She was cushioned from the hit, but now had to try and scramble back up amongst even more panicked people. In the end she curled up to protect herself from being buffeted from every angle and watched through her hands as one of the guards launched himself at the ogre and dug his sword deep into it's gut, only for it to wrap a giant hand around him and toss him into the far wall. The squelch on impact nearly made Orena throw up.
She frantically searched around and her eyes fell on the large windows. She crawled out of the sea of legs and towards them, climbing up on one of the long tables bordering the dance floor to try and reach it. Only for the creature's club to come smashing down on the adjacent table. Orena whirled around and threw her knife at it, giving a surprised laugh when it sliced through the monster's cheek as it only narrowly missed embedding in it's head.
That feeling instantly vanished as it roared at her. She darted away as it raised it's club for another attack, ducking under a table to try and confuse it as she crawled around a bit. Only for the attack to never come. She chanced a glance out and found it dumbly wrestling with one of the chandeliers, it's club trapped in the chains holding it aloft.
She had a chance, but as she eyed up the bottlenecks at the exits, no escape to make. Then a glint on the floor caught her eye as she spotted the shards of zerac. The sharp shards of zerac. She grabbed at her already torn skirts and yanked hard to rend a piece off completely, wrapping her hand up as best she could before tearing off another piece. Then she sprang from her hiding place and at the shattered mirror, carefully picking up the largest fragment she could.
She turned the ogre who had spotted her and was pulling harder on it's club, and dashed towards it's leg. She carved the sharp edge through it's flesh on her way past, but she didn't hit anything vital. Before she could turn for another attack, one of it's massive hands collided with her and sent her skidding across the floor. She considered herself lucky to only hit the wall hard enough to bruise and knock her already sore elbow rather than anything worse.
She looked up just in time to see the ogre let go of it's club and instead jump to grab hold of the chandelier's cage and drop it's whole weight down. The fitting gave way and came down with the creature, thumping into it's head and they both collided hard with the floor. Orena launched herself up and went to attack again whilst it was stunned, swiping her piece of zerac at it's head.
It turned to her just as she struck, and her blade sliced clean through one of it's ears. It shrieked from the pain and shoved it's head towards her, catching her stomach in a headbutt that winded her as it knocked her back. She staggered another step back, dropping her piece of zerac to clutch her stomach as she tried to regain her breath.
As she retreated the ogre stumbled to its feet, almost looking drunk. Once stood it snorted and grabbed the remains of the chandelier and tossed it at her, Orena tried to dodge but tripped over her torn skirts and stumbled to the floor in the most undignified fashion. She heard a smashing nearby and turned to see the bent frame fall after it's impact with the wall, suddenly grateful she was at floor level.
The beast reached for it's club again and she made another rush on the now clear door. It charged after her and brought down it's club just ahead of her. She twisted to try and dodge the attack, screaming as one of the club's spikes cut into her hip as she evaded. She forced herself to keep moving, more hobbling than running now, but with the way it was swaying she didn't think it was much better than her. But how? It didn't look that injured for the size of it.
She ripped the fabric from her hand to press against her new wound, trying to staunch the blood flow. Then she remembered why she had covered her hand. Was it zerac? Was there still some magic left in it that was affecting the creature?
If so, she just had to stay alive. She could do that. She hoped.
After all, hope had been the only thing to keep her alive this whole evening.
She half jumped half tripped out of the way of another swing of it's club, this one slower than the previous ones. It landed heavily where she'd been stood, too close for comfort as she backed up, trying to get back to her feet despite her limbs protesting when she put weight on them.
She swayed as she watched the ogre try to pick up the club again. That was when Orena saw it's hand go straight through the handle, as if one of the two wasn't real. It roared in frustration, before trying again, this time getting enough of a grip to yank backwards, only for the non-corporeal aspect to reappear and the sudden lack of resistance caused it to tumble backwards. It made a few pained and confused snorts as it tried to get back to it's feet, before it seemed to just give up. It's breathing sluggish and difficult as it wheezed where it lay.
Orena skirted around it, staggering towards the door as far out of reach of the monster as she could. Not wanting to wait, but not wanting to take a risk she didn't need to. By the time she reached the door she couldn't hear anything, but rather than risk everything at the threshold she didn't turn around. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other until she reached the end of the corridor, the main entrance. She stepped into the cool night air, holding tightly to her makeshift compress as she tried to make sense of the chaos left in the courtyard after the stampede of guests.
Every step was difficult and draining. Her body bruised and aching in places she didn't know she could be. But that wasn't important. Only one thing was.
She was still alive.