Leo couldn’t stop his hands shaking. He hadn’t ever killed anyone, hadn’t even considered doing so before. Not even when his friends were taken by the Seekers, never to return. Not even when he had faced the abuse of his jailers, the blows and the jibes. He’d never been a violent person, withstanding the long years by sinking into his own head, letting the horrors of the world wash over him.

He’d given into the newcomer’s insistent words, let himself be coerced into the madness of strangling the man. The feeling of his struggles, how his body slowly went limp. Then, how it crumbled into nothingness, leaving only an empty pile of clothes. It made him want to throw up.

“Hey Leo, are you okay?” Aleida says, squeezing his shoulder.

Leo looks up at her, forcing a weak smile onto his face. They’d become like siblings in the long years of their incarceration, the shared loss of almost every other arrival bringing them closer and closer together.

“It’s okay, you know.” She says. “You only did what he asked. You weren’t to know-”

Suddenly, the building around them shakes as an almighty crash reverberates through the walls. The young twins, Marla and Vorlo, scream out, clinging to one another.

His worries forgotten, Leo springs to his feet, peering around. “What the-”

Another crash shakes the building, sending him stumbling. Spinning to face Jessabelle, Leo strides over to her.

“Tell me! What’s going on!” He shouts at her. Ever since she and her mage friend had arrived, chaos had followed in their wake.

Jessabelle looks up at him, concern on her face. “I-I don’t know.” She flinches as another crash shatters the silence.

Leo glances around, wishing that he had the access to his accursed mana. Though the hated affinity had ruined his life, bringing the Seekers attentions down upon him, it would have helped him right now. When he had been permitted to experiment with it, he’d been able to see and hear at distance, to perceive his surroundings in a far more detailed fashion than his eyes would ever have been able to. Unlike the affinity of the others, his was harmless. Weak. Useless enough that he had not been taken away like his friends.

A shout from Aleida draws his attention. “Hamo, what are you…!”

Turning, he follows her gaze to the young boy standing in the corner of the room, ready to reprimand him again. Hamo and he had butted heads constantly over the couple of years since he’d arrived. The boy was eager to prove himself, hotheaded and reckless, and he resented Leo’s leadership fiercely. The words die on Leo’s lips, however, when he sees just what Hamo is doing.

Above Hamo’s hand spins an orb of… something. It’s transparent, but everything seen through it is warped, shimmering like a heat haze. Hamo looks up, his face ecstatic, his eyes blazing with purple light. “I can feel it, I can call it. The mana, it’s back!”

Shock blows away Leo’s thoughts. That wasn’t possible, not in here. Only the Seekers could touch the mana in here, that’s the way it had been for the half a decade he’d been in this room. Leo reaches for his magic, readying himself to reprimand Hamo. It must be some trick, some deception to show off once again. There’s no way-

The mana rushes into Leo at his call, flooding him with power. He shivers as tingles run down his spine, feeling more alive than he had done in years. The feeling of the mana rampaging within him was heady, as intoxicating as the spirits he’d sneakily drunk during the midsummer celebrations in his village almost a decade ago. The magic called to him, begging to be used.

Another crash echoes through the building, this time followed by a series of rumbling booms that get closer and closer to the large door of their little compound. Something was approaching.

“G-get up!” Leo shouts, waving his arms to the others in the room. “Back up, there’s something coming.”

Slowly, he backs away from the door, Jessabelle a few paces behind him. On the other side of the room Aleida is ushering the twins along behind her, and over there Hamo is-

“Hamo, move it!” Leo shouts, spotting the boy. He was striding in the other direction, towards the door, the strange orb held out before him.

“Shut up Leo, I’m not going to hide. I said I’d get us out!” The boy shouts in return.

“Hamo, listen to Leo.” Aleida calls. “Come over here.”

Hamo shakes his head, his face determined. “No! I’m not going to cower. I’m-”

The door to the room caves in, collapsing inwards to reveal a monstrosity of flesh and bone. Hamo lets out a scream, and the orb blasts out of his palm. To roars across the room to tear through the creature, sending chunks of gore splattering all around. The thing recoils, retreating from the doorway.

Hamo’s eyes flare again and the air in the room rushes towards him, forming another of the spinning orbs. With a yell, he flings it out through the doorway again, towards the retreating form of the abomination.

Just as he begins to form another, a pale figure peeks around the doorway, hands raised. “Would you please stop doing that!” He shouts.

“Lord Reud?” Jessabelle asks. Leo snaps his eyes to the figure at her words. She’s right, it’s definitely the man that had crumbled to dust, killed by Leo’s own hands. How had he…?

It is Aleida who breaks the silence. “How are you… What is going on?”

“There’s no time to explain, we need to get out of here.” Reud says, waving for them to follow him. “If we move quickly, we can get you to safety before anyone is the wiser.”

Leo looks over at Aleida, unsure about what to do with the news. Going out, escaping? It had only ever been a fantasy, a dream to be discussed and joked over. Not something real.

“Come on, we need to go.” Reud says again.

Jessabelle steps forward. “If Lord Reud says it’s safe, then we can trust him. Come on, let’s go.”

That’s enough for Hamo. With a cry of exaltation, he bursts into a run, sprinting out of the room, only to stumble back in a moment later, a shaking hand gesturing at something outside. “Th-there’s… What is…” He stammers, his face twisted in fear.

Reud smiles. “That’s one of my minions, it helped me break you out. You don’t need to be scared, it won’t harm you. Now come, we need to leave before people investigate this place.”

Steeling himself, Leo steps forward. He needed to be strong, for everyone else. He had to show them that the leader of the group wasn’t afraid.

“That’s the spirit.” Reud says.

Leo walks out of the room he’d spent the majority of the past half a decade in, willing his nerves to stay under control. He was committed now, and the only option was to keep moving forward. The abomination stands to the side in the corridor outside the crushed door, pressing itself against the wall. It seems to be a horrific amalgamation of bodies all fused together into a massive hunk of muscle and bone. Quickly, Leo averts his eyes, breathing heavily to quell his queasiness.

The wall beyond is destroyed, the smoothstone scattered across the floor as if some massive fist had punched its way in. A quick glance at the abomination, at its dust covered arm, suggests that is actually exactly what happened. Then, beyond that destroyed wall, is the sky.

Leo walk speeds up, first a jog, then into a run. Then he’s outside. The sky, the wind! It was cold and dark, the stars and moon hidden by clouds, but it did not matter to him. He’d barely seen anything beyond the four walls of his room in years.

A break in the cloud cover illuminates the compound, stopping Leo in his tracks. The place was a mess. The complex of buildings to the far side had been entirely destroyed, the end of what was once the barracks was just gone as if a giant hand had come down and scooped it away. Dark stains cover the ground, and the air is full of the metallic smell of blood.

At the centre of the compound stands a set of four wooden carriages, nothing more than huge boxes with wheels, with no harness for horses. Leo looks them over, a seed of concern sprouting within him. He’d heard mention over the years of Lightires horseless carriages, tales from home that some soldiers told. From how they’d been described, he’d thought them to be made from metal, and with sleek curves, not this blocky shape before him. Nonetheless, it was Lightire technology. Hadn’t Reud said he was opposed to the Seekers?

Reud strides out of the building behind him, gesturing to the open door of the frontmost carriage. “Go on, get inside. The sooner we get mounted up, the sooner we can be away. We don’t want to be here when anyone from the city comes to investigate!”

Aleida passes him, ushering the twins along. She flashes him a small smile, before going back to whispering calming words to the children. Leo shakes his head, clearing his thoughts. They were committed now, there was no turning back. Following her, he climbs up into the carriage, sitting himself down on one of the hard wood benches. Hamo enters soon after, followed by Jessabelle. Leo shuffles over to the window, letting the young woman squeeze in beside him.

Peering out the window, Leo sees figures moving through the dark. He opens his mouth to shout a warning, but the words fade as someone steps into his vision right beside the carriage.

A flash of recognition surges through Leo. That hunched stance, it must be Povan! Happiness swells within him at the sight. So Povan had been helping this Reud, finally helping them escape as he always said he would. The soldier had been good to them, bringing them extra food and medicine, and intervening on their behalf when the other soldiers got too rough with their treatment.

The cloud cover breaks for a moment, and Leo’s happiness turns to horror. It was Povan, but wrong. His neck was bent at a sickening angle, bones sticking out through ruined flesh. His once blue and silver armour was stained with dark red streaks, all radiating from that ruined throat.

Leo recoils from the window, trying to look anywhere but at the ruined figure of one of the only people he’d ever called a friend. The figures around the compound all move with the same jerkiness, horrific wounds just barely visible on each. Leo knows he should look away but can’t, the nightmarish sight holding him transfixed.

The figures seem to be moving with a purpose, entering various buildings around the compound and leaving with armfuls of paper, before bringing them over to be stuffed into the other carriages. With a start, Leo realizes that the buildings are those used by the mana researchers in the compound. Looking over, he spots Reud standing in the centre of the compound, his small gestures seeming to direct the shambling figures. What was this man really here for? What did he want with them?

The figures emerge with fewer and fewer items, until finally they emerge with none. Reud turns and strides towards the carriage, and behind him the figures collapse to the ground, still as corpses.

Leo shrinks back into the corner of the carriage as Reud climbs in, the pale man smiling widely at them all. “Finally, let’s get moving.” He says.

With that, the carriages jerkily shudder into motion, rolling out of the compound gate. Leo stares out the window at the passing trees, trying to put the sight of Povan’s ruined body out of his mind. What had he got himself into?

Had he finally escaped the frying pan, only to fall straight into the fire?