Isadora felt sick, her head thumping in pain. She didn’t assume she’d survive the next few weeks without some sort of aid. The smell of her own blood was becoming nauseating, yet somehow one of the better smells in such a hellish place.

  ‘Today’s just another day.’ She heard some Knight mumble before splashing each prisoner with fresh water and a rag, telling each one to wipe clean. The fabric was rough, like cut from a burlap sack. For whatever reason a bath was not a good sign, like dressing up pigs for the slaughter.

  Isadora dared open her eyes. Through weak vision a tall figure entered the hallway, his crimson robe brushing the floor behind him. Her eyelids grew heavier as pressure grew on her chest. She felt cold. Blood loss. Pushing herself up against the wall she tried to see who had entered. The felden had red hair and pale skin… could it be… the Red King?! The very man ruling the Red Empire- the maker of the Geoptic Genocide!? She should’ve felt petrified but she had lost that emotion in the second day of her head wound bleeding.

  She saw the blurred one shake his head and the geoptic he was looking at. She was unchained and taken away… then the next… then the next… All taken away and getting closer to her… An advisor hurried in an spoke words that slurred in her ears. With a frustrated ‘yes’ the robed one hurried out. Trying to breath in she let her eyes shut, the darkness far more favourable.

  ‘Isadora- Isadora!’

  A voice pulled her back to reality.

  Two white eyes began to come into focus as a familiar face etched into her vision. ‘El…?’ There was a tightening around her skull and slowly realized they were bandages.

  ‘It’s okay, we’re getting you out.’ She smiled and it somehow warmed her. Bane took the shackles and broke them off with a quick explosive spell. Given water filled with all manner of spells to aid with pain and blood loss she near water boarded herself in desperation to drink it. As she handed back the water-skin her mind was already being to clear. Veyra flung Isadora’s arm around her shoulder and pulled her to her feet.

  ‘How did you find me?’ She managed to say.

  ‘It was easier than one would think.’

  They hurried out as people began to demand to save them too.

  ‘Why aren’t we saving them?’ Isadora managed to step with Veyra, but Zane answered.

  ‘More room on the boat for us.’

  She frowned and looked to ‘… Veyra?’

  ‘It’s true, Isadora. The last few boats won’t come back this time, and they’re filling up fast.’

  ‘… But they’ll die…’

  ‘Yes. They will. Come on… and try not to think about it. Don’t look at me like that, we don’t have a choice.’

  They left the rows of the dead into a new corridor. The prisoner’s panicked demands had reached the ears of Knights who suddenly burst into sight throwing spears.

  ‘Flistos!’ Zane summoned an ice wall which the spears jammed into it! Bane broke through it with one explosion, throwing the shattered ice at the knights and then with another burst of fire he threw the Knights back.

  Rushing down another corridor Isadora was feeling stronger by each step, but more Knights rushed in their way. Isadora’s eyes widened on seeing the sharp blue eyes of one of the Knights. The one that took her! ‘Hurnwoe.’ With a flick of Veyra’s hand they kneeled in agony as psychic pain cut through them like daggers. Isadora smiled gleefully to see him groan in torment. She had to end the spell to keep moving, Isadora could hear her sharply breathe in to catch her breath.

  ‘I hear more guards.’ Zane warned.

  Veyra looked around ‘In the direction we have to leave!’

  Bane fumbled over his own words ‘sowe’retrapped?!’ His words would always fumble together if in a panic, or excited. It was hard to tell from the explosive-psycho he was.

  Isadora, standing on her own, looked down the corridor, ‘I… there’s a sewer- this way!’ Hurrying down another corridor she forced open a door to show an empty wash room. Isadora pulled the grate for the rushing water running through the room. ‘A way out?’

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  Veyra looked down it, ‘seems so- let’s go!’

  With a quick breath Isadora felt icy water rush past her as she pushed herself into the black!

  ‘That was too close!’ Zane paced the room.

  ‘It’s over, Zane.’ Veyra watched her beloved pull his hair out as she rung out a shirt.

  The four sat around the kitchen, living room and bedroom. They had found a small abandoned shack in the lower city and made it home over the years.

  Isadora didn’t bother speaking. She was too exhausted by the whole thing. Bane tried to help her with her bandages which was a strange decision for someone with only eight fingers…

  ‘A few more guards, a few more wrong steps and we would’ve been caught- what if we were followed?!’ Zane pressed on.

  ‘We weren’t! But it doesn’t matter. A few more coins, rings, whatever, and we all have enough for tickets out of here!’ Veyra gulped down a potion to help with her headaches. She often got them after spell casting. Zane had told her to do a reviewing spell to see if she had done any permanent spells which was still taking her energy. Yet she refused to do so. Always the worrier he was. It was someone she adored about the man but it could get on her nerves sometimes.

  Isadora zoned them out as she fiddled with a potion with fresh, white hand wrappings comforting her once more. She had tried to make an ice spike spell. Yet, it didn’t work if she was still watching the ingredients swirl around, not yet dissolved. Once more, she had made another dud. ‘What happened down there?’ Bane asked as he tried to tighten the fresh wrappings around her head wound.

  She was surprised by the fragility of her voice. She wasn’t entirely present from what Veyra said earlier. It was replaying in her mind like a broken record: . The words still made her gut clench. Of course, she agreed with the logic. But seeing their faces…

  ‘Isa?’ Bane pressed.

  ‘Down there? Where was I?’ She put her amulets chain in her mouth, the metallic staining her taste buds.

  ‘In the Red Castle. The dungeons.’

  ‘Oh…’ She talked with the chain in her mouth. ‘You saw it all didn’t you? The prisoners against the walls?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘That was all there was. Nothing happened. We were all just waiting…’ She spat out the chain. ‘The King came in once, shook his head a few times and whoever he rejected was forced out.’ Her insides knotted again at the thought of everyone they abandoned. There was no difference between her and them. Did she have a right to still be alive?

  He noticed her guilt-stricken look. ‘Hey, with what happened, you were there but, like, you weren’t in it. You were just following. Well, you were with Veyra so more like dragging along? But, point is, you weren’t in charge, we were, so don’t let all that get to you? You know?’

  ‘… Not really.’

  ‘Just don’t worry about everything that happened. It’s just a bad dream, don’t worry about it all.’

  ‘Ok…? I think I just need some time alone.’ She felt sick.

  ‘Ok.’ Bane gave her a single, strong hit on the back before stepping away and joined the other two’s conversation about their next steps. Her eyes glazed over the knickknacks they had gathered over the years. Bane had purchased a silly figurine once which cost him far too much to talk about.

  Veyra bought a book which ended up being a scam and cursed, which now remained locked up in chains under her bunk they were all too scared to touch.

  She lightened slightly at the empty creature container Zane had promised he could keep safe, yet still forgot to lock the cage and Bane woke up with it suffocating him.

  She herself had liked the look of a fake crystal figure of a mage on a broom, which ended up reflecting the sunlight and burning a hole through one of Zane’s date shoes. He was less than pleased when he found it, after Isadora tried to hide them from him. She was only ten at the time and fake crying softened his heart enough for her to escape punishment.

  Isadora lied down on her small bunk and caressed the smooth gem and amulet. The wood of the bed frame squeaked as she curled up, staring at the wall… it was just a bad dream… at least, hopefully, it’ll eventually feel like so…