— Kaden —

“I found it,” said Jean-Philippe on the other side of the line.

The info we had found on Elaeya’s position had been partial, but Jean-Philippe called on an old contact of his father.

“Text the info,” I told him.

“Already did.”

“Thanks.” I hung up, then mindlinked it to the pilot and team.

“On our way, boss,” said Georges as he came in my cabin. “We’ll land soon. Should be there in a few hours at best.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded and left.

‘How are things at home?’ I asked Darren through the link.

‘Like clockwork,’ he said.

‘I’m heading to location. You got the message about the Brotherhood?’

‘Yes, we’re looking at it from our side too. We have the medics on standby and more rations ready to send.’

‘The moment I land I’ll send back the plane, send what you can just in case. We never know how things will go.’

‘Gotcha,’ he said. ‘Any casualty?’

‘Wounded, no dead from us. Boisclair’s plane is on the ways with the wounded.’

‘You want me to send everything through Boisclair’s plane instead?’

‘No, it’s bigger than mine, and has a cargo haul.’

‘You want the heavy artillery?’

‘Yes. You send both planes back with the reserve.’

‘Okay. Bring her back.’

‘I will.’

— Tamarak —

She swung the mass above her shoulder and looked at the door, waiting patiently.

I was about to ask ‘what the hell’, but the naga stopped me. She looked at her intently. Was it this sight thing?

She shouldn’t have destroyed that thing. They heard it for sure.

We heard someone fiddle with the lock. She put herself on the side of the door, clearing the space before it. A man came in and she swung with everything she had, her eyes darkening to a deep red-like shade. The mass hit him in the skull, crushing it to an unrecognizable mass of gore.

She didn’t bother to swing back up the heavy tool and let it fall. She raised her right hand instead, fingers spread wide aimed at the second man, and before he could pull his gun, she muttered a word and his head exploded in a blood-like rain, splattering on the walls, ceiling, and all the way to us.

We heard someone let out a cry of surprise and he ran.

She held her left hand to us, stopping us from moving, listening. After a few seconds, she signed for us to follow her and she stepped out.

She guided us through a few corridors, until we reached a room without any exit.

“We took a wrong turn,” I said.

“No, there are too many, we won’t make it, we need more strength, or we won’t escape,” she said.

“Sight?” asked Pavarti.

She titled her head. “Hard to say, the crystals are blocking me, but it’s a little clearer here.” She looked around. “We need to get the collar off.”

“That would be nice,” I said. “Can you do it again?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I think I managed to cover our tracks, they won’t look here first, it should give us a few hours.”

“Won’t it give them more time to gather their forces?” asked Pavarti.

“Yes,” she admitted. “But it will give us time to recover.”

Pavarti looked at us. “Not enough,” she said. “Little healing so to face more of them. Sound unwise.”

“All I know is that now is death.”

“Later?” I asked her.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

The mood darkened instantly.

“Regardless, it’s better than the cell. Here I could die on my feet,” I said.

We found food with which we stuffed our face, and water too. We had to be careful not to eat too much as eating large quantities after starvation can kill you faster than the starvation itself.

We barricaded the door, and eventually crashed for a few hours of sleep. We were all exhausted and could barely go on. Pavarti offered to take the first round of watch, and no one argued.

We were awakened by loud bangs. We signed at one another not to make a sound.

“Since when is this door locked?” asked a man from the corridor.

“I don’t know, I don’t think there’s anything there,” said another.

“We should check regardless.”

“Go get the key. I think Omar has it.”

“Right, man, this is a pain. That’s why we shouldn’t lock those.”

We heard steps going away.

The vitteraï got up quietly and rummaged everywhere. She found a few tools, and signed for me to come with her. She pointed at the lock on Pavarti’s collar and gave me the tools. She then placed her hands on the collar.

It was a little easier than with hers, and it finally broke open.

Pavarti slumped on the ground and didn’t move for a few minutes, but she didn’t lose consciousness.

We went to the man, he pointed at the child. She hadn’t been talking, and I was starting to worry she might not survive it.

We repeated the process, carefully not to hurt her.

It took us a little longer, but it worked. She lost consciousness instantly and we placed her carefully on the ground.

The human put himself down right away, expecting to lose consciousness too, which was not stupid.

We did it again, only this time, she struggled even more.

It broke free and his eyes closed.

She turned to Pavarti who got up to me. She took the tools from me and positioned herself like I had done. The girl tried again, and failed. Then she did it once more. The lock creaked but didn’t break. She gathered her wits, took a long slow breath, then tried again. It broke and everything went black.

— Elaeya —

I was feeling the strain.

I would not be able to use the ring again, not for a while, but at least everyone was free of the collars.

I sat down exhausted.

Tamarak regained consciousness nearly instantly.

The man and girl were still out.

Out position was not good. We needed to get out of here before they returned.

I signed at them both to help me move them out.

Once we took off our barricade, I nervously opened the door, only a crack. I could not hear anything on the other side, but I was worried they may have been as silent as us.

I made sure to use a spell to hide our track as we moved out.

We heard them coming before they came, and we managed to rush inside another room and close the door before they followed us.

They went pass our door, where we had been minutes before.

We heard them cry out when they figured we had been there.

I turned around.

The room we were in was dark, but I could smell flammables.