Tyrial did not want to be on the wrong end of Victor’s machete again. Bringing the shard back up to his collar, he fit it to the notch on the right side experimentally. Wiggling it he was able to work it into the notch snugly. Bringing it up to the left side now he tried to repeat the move. His left fingers didn’t work great and using them was still intensely painful but he ignored both problems for now.

Seeing that the shard was at a point that it would work for both sides of the collar, he took a deep breath. “Alyssia,” Tyrial said, “you awake?”

“Yes,” Alyssia replied quietly.

“You ready to ditch this place?” Tyrial asked.

“I… Yes,” Alyssia said.

“Good,” Tyrial replied. “Once we get started, there'll be no turning back and no time for questions. I’ll need you to do whatever I say without hesitation. Understood?”

“... Ok,” Alyssia said with some hesitation.

“Outstanding,” Tyrial said almost to himself. He didn’t have time to make sure she was solid, or to talk about whatever misgivings she might have. Their time was severely limited. Ignoring her slight hesitation he spoke slightly louder, “Here we go!”

Looking around, Tyrial made sure he was still in one of the few blind spots from the single camera that watched over the room. Although he was fairly certain no one was even watching, he didn’t want to take any chances. Honestly, the security of this facility seemed laughable, particularly for a facility holding Mages.

Putting that thought out of his mind for now, Tyrial brought the metal shard up to the left side of his collar. Given that his right hand worked better he wanted to save that side for last. Once he had the shard firmly seated, he pried sharply at the notch in the collar. The metal shard popped out of the notch with no effect. Keeping himself calm was an effort, but Tyrial didn’t let his anxiety get to him this time.

Bringing the shard back to the collar, he had to try three more times before the small access panel on the collar finally popped free. Once the internals were exposed he quickly began tracing the exposed wires with his fingers. The circuitry and wires were not configured how he remembered from previous collars he'd escaped from.

There was more circuitry and quite a few more than the six hair-thin wires he remembered from before. That was not a good sign, it meant that although this collar looked the same from the outside, it was obviously an upgraded model. Knowing he only had one chance at this, he took the risk and gouged the metal shard underneath all the wires he could feel. Then with a quick rip, he tore them all at once.

A quick rippling jolt went through him for a split second and caused him to fling the metal shard he was holding across his cell. “Shit!” Tyrial exclaimed. Rushing over to where he thought the shard had gone he felt around trying to find it, completely ignoring the one lone camera whose field of view he was now in.

“What’s wrong?” Alyssia asked with concern in her voice.

Tyrial ignored her for the moment, the dim almost non-existent light in the room made looking for the shard all but impossible. Instead, he resorted to sweeping his hands and arms over the floor repeatedly, hoping to feel it. Even if no one had been watching the camera, now that his collar's tracking device was disabled someone was likely to notice.

As he was frantically trying to find the shard, he heard the one noise he had desperately hoped he would not. Just as the door banged open with a clang, Tyrial’s fingers landed on the cursed metal shard. Picking it up and tucking it into his palm, he stood and faced the two angry-looking guards who strode into the room. Tyrial did his best to keep the left side of his collar out of the guard’s line of sight.

“What tha ell ya doin scrap!?” the first guard screamed at Tyrial.

Tyrial wisely just kept his mouth shut, while his mind raced.

“I asked ya a question scrap!!” the guard yelled again. When Tyrial still refused to answer, the guard yanked a small control module from his belt and ruthlessly jammed his thumb on a button while looking expectantly at Tyrial.

Tyrial had braced himself. He recognized that controller. It was the same one Smith had used to shock the ever-living shit out of Tyrial before. However, for a few fractions of a second as the guard’s thumb dug into the module's button, Tyrial felt nothing. Then he remembered the wires he had just mutilated in his collar and an idea popped into his head.

Straining every muscle in his body he jerked violently and toppled to the floor. Once there he proceeded to flop around like a dying fish for a few seconds before stopping abruptly, not even breathing.

“Tet…,” the second guard said quietly, “I think ye killed em. Tet… Victa’s —”

“Shut up!,” the first guard interrupted. Tyrial heard the keys working in the lock to the cell, then hesitant footsteps walking up to him. The guard kicked him solidly with a booted foot, Tyrial endured the pain and didn’t respond.

A few seconds later, Tyrial could feel the fetid breath of the guard wash over him. Daring to ever so slightly crack open the one eye not in the guard's line of sight, he got a dim view of the guard’s lower half crouching over him. He also saw that the guard was armed with a plasma pistol.

Very carefully but without hesitation, Tyrial repositioned the metal shard still in his right hand so that he was gripping it with the sharpened end pointed out.

“Tet…” the second guard said in a warning tone, “I don’t think —”

Tyrial didn’t let him finish the thought. Pouring every ounce of stored up anxiety and tension he had been building up for days into his motions, he grabbed the guard's legs with his left hand and swept them out from under him. As the guard was coming down, Tyrial used the sweeping motion to turn the guard in mid-air as he fell.

As the guard came down on his ass facing away from him, Tyrial brought his right arm up in front of the guard's face. With a vicious jerk of his arm, he brought the sharpened edge of his metal shard across the guard's throat. The very surprised guards yell turned immediately into a gurgle as blood spurted out of the gaping wound in his neck.

Tyrial saw the second guard that was still standing by the door pulling a pistol out of his holster. He kept low and crouched behind the dying guard keeping him propped up while simultaneously dropping the metal shard and grabbing the plasma pistol from the unfortunate human shield in front of him.

As Tyrial brought his own newly acquired plasma pistol up to aim at the second guard, he felt the dying guard in front of him jerk as he helpfully blocked the second guard's poorly aimed first shot.

Despite the lack of rest and nutrition over the last few days, and all the torture his body had been through, Tyrial’s aim was not off in the slightest. He squeezed off two shots in rapid succession that both impacted the second guard in the torso. Like a poorly stacked sack of grain, the second guard fell to the floor and twitched once. An eerie silence fell over the room for a few seconds as Tyrial waited to make sure the guard was truly down.

Once he was certain both guards had been neutralized, Tyrial carefully laid down the pistol within easy reach and felt around for his previously discarded metal shard. Once he found it, he brought it up to the right side of his collar and tried to pry open the access panel covering the locking mechanism. The shard was covered in blood and kept slipping out of the notch every time he tried to pry with it.

Tyrial growled in frustration as the metal shard repeatedly slipped out of the notch. He knew he was low on time, even if those guards had been the only ones watching the video feed they would still be missed soon. After the second time he managed to gouge his own neck with the metal shard, he lowered his hand and closed his eyes for a moment. He needed to calm his badly shaking hand if he was going to stand any chance.

“Can I help?” Alyssia said very quietly from her cell.

Tyrial had all but forgotten about the young girl in the other cell he had promised to rescue. He had been entirely focused on getting his own collar off, the reality of his release so close he had lost focus on anything else. Mentally kicking himself for not keeping his head clear, he palmed the metal shard and began searching the dead guard in front of him. Finding the keys and the control module he was looking for, he examined the control module. As he had assumed, it did not contain any functions for releasing the collars.

Shrugging, Tyrial tossed the controller behind him and grabbed the plasma pistol from the floor, taking the keys he moved to Alyssia’s cell. He had to try several different keys before he found the correct one and opened her cell door. The girl, to her credit, did not shy away from him when he opened her door even though he was covered in blood. She simply stood in front of him and asked, “What can I do?”

For the first time, Tyrial got a good look at the girl he had been sharing a jail with. She was short, only coming up to about shoulder height. While she still looked extremely young, Tyrial revised his age estimate. Given the lines developing on her face and the look in her eyes, she had to be at least twenty years old, probably more. She had just longer than shoulder length red hair. Her eyes were bright green and looked just slightly too large for her face. Her bust was small but not entirely non-existent. Tyrial shook his head slightly, he needed to concentrate on the mission, not oogle a girl easily less than half his age.

The other thing that caught his eye was the bandages on her head and torso. They were both covered in blood and the one on her torso looked like it was covering something bad. Pointing at her bandage, Tyrial said, “Are you up for this?”

With a grimace, Alyssia said, “It hurts, but what choice do I have? It doesn’t seem to be bleeding anymore, so I think it's ok.”

Tyrial was going to say more, but he realized there really was nothing he could do about it now. The best he could do was get her out of this place as quickly as possible. Holding out the blood covered metal shard, Tyrial said, “There is a small access panel on my collar on the right side, I need you to use this to pry it off so I can get to the locking mechanism.”

Again to Alyssia’s credit, she didn’t even hesitate in taking hold of the metal shard, regardless of how much blood it was covered in. She looked at it briefly then wiped it off on her own dress as best she could. Standing on her toes she tried to peer at Tyrial’s neck.

Tyrial knelt down on his knees so the girl could see her objective better. Alyssia felt around the collar for a moment and then said, “I can’t find it.”

Taking the girl’s hand gently, Tyrial guided her fingers to the notch on the right side of his collar. “There,” he said.

Once she had been directed to the notch, it took her only a few tries to pry off the access panel. Once she had it off, she said, “It’s off, now what?”

Tyrial reached up and felt around the now open area. This side, fortunately, still seemed mostly the same as he remembered. Holding his hand out, he said, “The metal shard please.”

Alyssia handed him the shard and Tyrial probed with it inside the now exposed mechanics of the collar. Finding the mechanism he was looking for he twisted sharply and with a click the collar came apart. With great enthusiasm and perhaps more strength than was necessary, Tyrial ripped the collar from his neck and hurled it across the room.

As the collar left his hands, Tyrial felt the warm embrace of his Will Power flow into him. Closing his eyes he drew in his Will and breathed deeply. His first instinct, once he had his Will back, was to expand it over as far an area as he could. Overriding that instinct, he extended his Will only to the immediate room and just beyond to be certain they weren't in immediate danger. Satisfied that no one was about to burst into the room, he nodded to himself.

Turning to Alyssia, he said, “Excellent work, thank you. Now if you’d like, I’ll return the favor.”

For the first time, Tyrial saw Alyssia smile slightly. “Yes please,” she said.

“Left side first,” Tyrial said standing.

Turning, Alyssia swept her short hair over to her right side and tilted her neck to expose the left side of her collar. Tyrial took a deep breath and grasped the collar gently. As soon as he touched the device his Will Power blinked out of existence again, but Tyrial had been expecting that. Being careful not to gouge her in the neck like he had himself, he pried the access panel off. The process was far easier now that the metal shard was relatively clean and he could see what he was doing.

Inside the now exposed collar, Tyrial saw what they had changed from the last time he had been exposed to one of these collars. As he quickly examined the inside of the collar, he determined he had gotten very lucky with his own blind modifications. By all rights, he should have been electrocuted to death instead of the minor shock he had received.

Carefully, Tyrial brought the metal shard to the collar and broke only one of the exposed wires. Then, he used the shard to pry on one of the exposed circuit modules hard, causing it to crack. Looking over his handiwork he determined that was his best guess to disable the mechanism. He didn’t have time to make a more thorough analysis right now.

Wanting to be sure he didn’t end up killing the girl by accident, he wedged the metal shard under the entire group of remaining wires exposed by the panel. “If I didn’t get this just right,” Tyrial said warningly, “this could end up stinging a little.”

“It’s fine,” Alyssia said with no hesitation.

Impressed, Tyrial jerked the shard up, tearing through all the wires. Alyssia didn’t scream or even twitch so Tyrial assumed he must have guessed correctly. Releasing the collar, he said, “Other side.”

Turning, Alyssia swept her hair over the other side now, giving Tyrial access to the right side of her collar. Now that he had his own collar removed, Tyrial’s hands had steadied appreciably and he found it easy to remove the second panel. Once exposed he quickly found the appropriate mechanism and with a quick twist, the collar fell to the floor.

Breathing easier again now that he was no longer touching the cursed Ragnacite, Tyrial kicked the second collar to join the first across the room. Turning to Alyssia, he said, “Alright, now the real fun begins. Before we get started, I’d like to test your strength if you don’t mind. Just push against my Will as hard as you can.”

Alyssia’s lower lip suddenly began to tremble and she looked down at her feet while saying, “I… I can’t…”

Suddenly realizing the assumption he had made, Tyrial finished her sentence, “You can’t use your Will Power.”

Alyssia nodded and said, “I’m so sorry, I—”

Tyrial interrupted her saying, “It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s my fault for making the assumption. Plan B then.” He held the plasma pistol up and said, “Can you use one of these?”

“Yes,” she said simply, still looking at the floor.

Crouching down so Tyrial could see Alyssia’s downturned face, he waited a second until she was looking at him, then said, “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, many of us don’t get any formal training and some get none at all. It’s nearly impossible to teach yourself how to use your Will Power without help. I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. We can still get out of here and I still need your help, are you sure you can use one of these? Are you sure you can kill someone with it?”

Alyssia’s lip stiffened and with determination returning to her eyes, she took the offered pistol and said grimly, “If it’s me or them, I’d rather it was them.”

Nodding, Tyrial said, “Good. One more thing, if I tell you it’s over, drop the weapon and surrender, got it? This is your first time here, just tell them that I coerced you, there'll be other opportunities to escape if this goes sideways.”

For a few moments Alyssia was silent, then she asked, “What about you?”

“Me? I… Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,” Tyrial lied.

Tyrial made the mistake of looking Alyssia in the eyes as he finished speaking. She was looking at him with what Tyrial would best describe as compassion. She had a slight smile tugging at the corner of her lip. Tyrial suddenly found that he was nearly lost in her deep, slightly too large eyes.

Tyrial tore his eyes away from hers and mentally shook himself. What is wrong with you, Tyrial chided himself, she’s just a girl. Taking a deep breath, Tyrial realized that wasn’t really fair. With what she had obviously been through, she deserved more respect than that. He stood back up and was about to reiterate what he had said before when Alyssia spoke.

“No,” she said flatly. “Either we both make it or we die trying.”

Tyrial was about to protest, but the sudden conviction in her voice convinced him not to bother. That and he didn't want to sound like a hypocrite with his previous assertion that the only option he would accept was if they both lived. Instead, he said, “Fair enough, fresh air or bust. Let’s do it.”

As Tyrial walked up to the door he eyed the dead guard slouched on the ground next to it. He was about to grab the second plasma pistol when he saw that its powercell was cracked slightly. Deciding not to trust it, Tyrial left it where it was. Glancing at the corner of the room, he happened to notice a small rucksack with its contents spilled on the ground around it. Noticing what looked like a dress amongst the pile, he said to Alyssia, “Yours?”

As she glanced at the corner herself, the first genuine smile Tyrial had seen bloomed on her face. “Yes!” she said, as she rushed over to the pile. Quickly stuffing a few items into the rucksack, she threw it on her back. Tyrial noticed she left most of the clothing behind.

He was honestly surprised no one had come to investigate yet. Looking at Alyssia who was now standing beside him again, with the rucksack on her back and the working plasma pistol in her hand, he said, “Ready?”

Without hesitation this time, she nodded and said, “Yes.”

Taking a deep breath, Tyrial drew in his Will deeply and expanded it. He pushed it out in all directions, feeling the layout of the structure around him with his Will. He ran into the occasional Ragnacite bubble, but not nearly as many as he had expected. For a Conclave facility ostensibly designed to hold Mages, this place was very short on Ragnacite. Also suspiciously absent were other Mages. Tyrial felt the empty cavity created by Alyssia standing next to him, but had so far not felt any other Mages, unless they were inside one of the Ragnacite bubbles, which seemed very unlikely unless they were also prisoners.

Next to him, Alyssia shivered visibly and said, “I hate that feeling.”

“Sorry,” Tyrial muttered, still concentrating on expanding his Will through the facility, he pulled it back from around Alyssia.

“That was you?” Alyssia said with surprise.

Tyrial was once again reminded that she had no idea what being a Mage meant. Apparently, she couldn’t even recognize the feeling of another Mage’s Will being pressed up against her own. He didn’t really have time to explain it all right now, however, so he said, “Yes, we can talk about that when we get out of here if you want, but for now I need to concentrate.”

“Oh,” Alyssia said, no small amount of wonder creeping into her voice. Then quieter, she said, “Sorry,” and was quiet.

Tyrial found nothing but bedrock and stone below them, which he had expected. What he had not expected was the overall small size of the facility. At least, small in width. He ran into the outer walls of the current floor they were on fairly quickly. Disappointingly, he saw nothing but more stone and bedrock beyond them. He had fully expected they were underground, however, he had not anticipated how deep. As he felt up along the structure he saw nothing but more bedrock and stone.

Then, suddenly about twenty stories up, the structure ended and above it was… bedrock. No, they couldn’t be in some kind of enclosed tomb. They were getting food and supplies somehow, Tyrial was sure of it. His search began to take on a note of desperation, no one likes the idea of being buried alive. Finally, with tentative relief, Tyrial found what he had been looking for. Although certainly not what he had hoped for.

On the far side of the twentieth floor was a small elevator shaft leading up. Tyrial wasn’t sure how far up it went, he didn’t want to risk expanding his Will too far. While the elevator shaft didn’t extend to the bottom floor they were on, he did find a stairwell that did. So, the path was from here, to the other side of the floor, take the stairwell to the top, then the elevator from there. Somehow. If they were really lucky maybe they would find something Tyrial could use as a jump capsule, but he doubted it, and trying to Jump without any protection at all was literal suicide.

Pulling his concentration back he examined the hallways near him. Expanding his search to things beyond the structure itself he found many small bubbles of Ragnacite moving around, most likely guards. Glancing down at the two dead guards next to him, he remembered that not all guards had Ragnacite here. Expanding his search further, he found several unprotected humans. He realized with a start that a small group stood just down the hallway from where he now stood.

Taking another deep breath, he opened his eyes. Holding his hands out to either side of himself, he searched the room for projectiles. Several small pieces of stone and metal flew from various locations throughout the room to his hands where they began to orbit lazily. Tyrial saw from the corner of his eye that Alyssia’s mouth was hanging open staring at the objects floating above his open hands.

“Pretty,” she mouthed almost silently.

Tyrial had to remind himself that although she had the gift, she had never used it and apparently, never even seen it used. Although he had never heard anyone say a floating ring of loose debris was ‘pretty’. Once he had a sufficient stock of ammunition, Tyrial glanced at Alyssia and said, “Our destination is the other side of this floor, there we will find a stairwell and take it up twenty stories. At the top of this structure, we will find an elevator shaft which we will hopefully take to the surface from there.”

Alyssia mouthed the words elevator shaft, then asked, “How far down are we?”

“I don’t know for certain,” Tyrial replied. Looking down at Alyssia’s worried face, Tyrial softened his voice and said, “We’ll make it, don’t worry. I promise, both of us.”

At his words, Alyssia stood a little taller although she still looked a little uncertain. “Ok,” she said with more certainty than her face implied.

Turning back to the door, Tyrial continued, “There are several guards in the hallway outside this door. They don’t have any Ragnacite so I won’t have any problem taking care of them. I want you to follow close behind me, as close as you can without standing on my heels. If you see any shots, take them, even if it looks like I’m already taking care of them. Understood?”

“Yes,” she said, this time with determination.

“Alright, let’s get this party started,” Tyrial said. Gathering his Will, Tyrial used a gravity well to rip the door in front of him from its hinges. With a hideous shriek, the door came loose from its frame and with a deafening boom, impacted the far side of the hallway. Without even stepping into the hallway, Tyrial flung the door down said hallway in the direction of the small group of guards he had seen earlier.

Tyrial stepped slowly into the hallway and the growing chaos beyond. The guards he had leveled with the door were crumpled in a pile at the end of the hallway, the occasional low groan coming from the heap. Tyrial was about to crush their hearts with his Will, his habit of not leaving an enemy behind him trying to assert itself. A flash of Rella’s disapproving face, however, made him reconsider.

Turning in the other direction, Tyrial said, “This way.”

As they made their way down the hall, Tyrial was caught slightly off balance by the unsettling lack of alarms or claxons in the facility. He had grown used to the ever-present cacophony that usually accompanied his trek through any given Conclave facility. Without the noise, it just didn’t feel like a true escape.

As they came to the first intersection leading towards the center of the facility, Tyrial felt a small bubble of Ragnacite moving down an adjoining hallway to intercept them. He flattened himself against the wall at the corner of the intersecting hallway, indicating to Alyssia that she should take the other corner.

As Alyssia got into place, Tyrial heard a door down the hallway bang open and several sets of feet move quickly in their direction. He wished he had larger ammunition than the tiny pebbles and shards of metal he was currently holding. Not wasting any more time on wishes, he flung the debris around the corner and with a flick of his Will, sent it zipping down the hallway at the speed of a pistol’s projectile.

Surprised shouts echoed down the hallway quickly followed by yells and then groans. Tyrial carefully edged his face to the corner and risked a quick peek. Unfortunately for him, his projectiles had not been quite as effective as he had hoped. Confirmation of their inefficacy came in the form of a plasma bolt crackling through the air where his head had been a second before.

“Shit,” Tyrial muttered quietly. Searching quickly he found scant ammunition for a second round. Picking up what he could, he prepared to send another blind rain of projectiles down the hallway. Before he could, however, Alyssia crouched low against the wall she was on and quickly ducked partially around the corner. She fired her pistol several times then dove back behind the hallway as several plasma bolts came whizzing back in response.

Looking over at Alyssia, Tyrial raised an eyebrow. He certainly hadn’t expected that level of bravery from such a young girl. Then again, he had never asked her age, maybe she was even older than he had guessed. Either way, if she was willing to provide covering fire, he was fairly certain he could take out the remaining guards easily. Tyrial got Alyssia’s attention and whispered loudly, “On five?”

Alyssia nodded, there was fear in her eyes but not nearly as much as Tyrial would have expected given the circumstances. This girl was an interesting enigma. Holding his hand up, Tyrial ticked off one finger at a time. When he closed his fist, Alyssia dove out from cover again without hesitation, firing her pistol. Tyrial didn’t give the guards time to shoot back this time.

Stepping out from behind the corner as well, he let his projectiles fly. They were halfway down the hallway before he even had targets for them, but target them he did. As he now saw the guards he was fighting clearly he changed the trajectory of his projectiles mid-flight. Tyrial saw four guards in the hallway, two on each side. With deadly accuracy his projectiles impacted each guard squarely in the forehead, collectively snapping their heads back as they all went down at once.

Tyrial was about to move down the newly vacated hallway hoping to collect some of the guard’s weapons and ammunition. However before he could step into the hallway, he sensed two more Ragnacite bubbles headed down adjoining hallways towards his destination. Deciding the pistol’s weren't worth it, he motioned to Alyssia to follow him and continued down the original hallway they had been following.

Examining the structure of the facility as they moved, Tyrial saw that they could continue along the hallways on the outside edge for most of the way towards the stairwell. There was only one detour they would need to take at the end through a large room. Unfortunately, as Tyrial examined that room he felt several small Ragnacite bubbles and several other unprotected humans inside.

He could deal with the humans directly but he didn’t want to alert the rest to his intentions so he left them alone for now. As they moved down a deserted hallway Tyrial kept careful track of a pair of Ragnacite bubbles he suspected were headed in their direction. He was trying to determine if he could get past the doorway they were headed to before they got there when four guards popped into the hallway almost directly in front of him.

Only two things saved his life, first was the fact that the guards apparently weren't expecting Tyrial anymore than he had been expecting them. As the four of them emptied into the hallway they stopped with surprised expressions on their faces, wasting precious seconds they could have used to fire their weapons. The second thing that saved Tyrial’s life was the fact that the guards had no Ragnacite with them.

With a startled oath, Tyrial instinctively created a strong gravity well behind the guards. With yells and screams the guards flew through the air like rag dolls, impacting a wall almost ten meters further down the hall where it turned to the right. The sound of breaking bones distinctly echoed back down the hallway from where the guards now lay in a small pile.

“By the Void,” Tyrial swore, breathing heavily. He’d been concentrating so hard on the bubbles of Ragnacite floating around that he had completely lost track of the unprotected humans. It was a rookie mistake. Deciding not to waste the time berating himself, Tyrial motioned for Alyssia to follow and said, “Come on.”

Stopping briefly at the grisly pile of broken bodies at the end of the hallway, Tyrail rescued two working plasma pistols and several spare power cells. He had plans for the power cells and it wasn’t as ammunition for a pistol.

Fortunately for the two fugitives, the two Ragnacite bubbles Tyrial had been tracking did not intercept them as they continued down the last hallway before the large room. Unfortunately, the large room was still packed with moving Ragnacite bubbles and several unprotected humans. Further complicating matters, Tyrial saw that the doors and walls of the room were embedded with Ragnacite.

It seemed likely this was either the command center or a safe room, given that the doors didn’t look overly substantial, Tyrial was going with command center. Shaking his head, Tyrial carefully and quietly wedged two of the power cells into the handle mechanism of the door. The Conclave continued to show their ignorance by assuming that anything covered in Ragnacite was proof against a Mage.

Moving back down the hallway to a safe distance, he directed Alyssia to stand behind him. Taking one of the two rescued pistol’s he aimed it at one of the power cells. At the same moment that he fired the pistol, he also crushed the hearts of the three very unlucky unprotected humans in the room.

With a thunderous boom and a great deal of smoke the power cells lost containment spectacularly. Tyrial could hear yelling and screaming coming from the now breached room. “Give me thirty seconds,” Tyrial said to Alyssia. Seeing her nod, Tyrial moved for the now fractured doorway.

Half way back down the hallway, Tyrial came to a stunned halt as a fragmentation grenade came sailing through the doorway in his direction. Tyrial wasted several precious milliseconds staring in complete disbelief at the abject stupidity of such a move. Shaking his head, he contemptuously flicked the grenade with a small gravity well, sending it sailing back into the room it had come from.

Keeping a strong gravity well between him and the door for any stray shrapnel, Tyrial waited for the chaos to intensify. He didn’t have to wait long, the screaming from inside the room suddenly rose to a fever pitch and was then quickly followed by the thunderclap of the returned grenade announcing its presence.

Deciding the chaos was probably sufficient for his needs, Tyrial ran for the doorway again and its two doors now hanging precariously askew from their mountings. Creating another strong gravity well on the ceiling inside the room ahead of him, he flattened it out to cover a large portion of the ceiling.

As he reached the doorway, he jumped and flipped forward. Clearing the remains of the doorway he fell up towards the ceiling and his flattened gravity well. Completing the flip he landed on his feet facing the doorway he had just come through. Staying crouched, he quickly walked backward across the ceiling.

While he moved, he fired his two plasma pistols through the billowing smoke in the room towards the center of the seven Ragnacite bubbles he could sense with his Will. Not being able to see his targets directly, he fired multiple shots into each bubble, hoping to score a critical hit.

He was paying so much attention to the seven bubbles of Ragnacite he did not notice the light fixture on the ceiling behind him until he tripped over it. He fell flat against the ceiling just behind the light fixture just as several plasma bolts sizzled through the air where he had been crouching.

Seeing that the smoke was beginning to clear, Tyrial decided his position on the ceiling was likely insufficient cover now. Releasing his gravity well he dropped from the ceiling with a flip. Using another small gravity well just before he hit the floor he landed gracefully on his feet, still in a crouch but now back on the floor.

Several more plasma bolts singed through the air towards the ceiling he had been on. Attempting to hone in on the source of those bolts, Tyrial fired several of his own while moving in a low crouch back towards the destroyed doorway.

Knowing he was running out of time, Tyrial decided to try one more trick. Reaching the doorway, he ducked through it and stepped to one side. Glancing back down the hallway, he saw Alyssia moving in his direction.

Deciding he might need her covering fire if this didn’t work but not wanting her to get caught in the crossfire, he waved her over beside him. Concentrating, he created a strong gravity well in the center of the room behind him. If Tyrial accidentally caught one of the Ragnacite shards in his well, this would be a wasted effort.

He didn’t give the gravity well long, he didn’t need to. It quickly scooped up debris, chairs, tablets, papers and whatever else wasn’t nailed down in the room. Fortunately, it did not scoop up any of the Ragnacite wearing guards. After a few seconds, Tyrial explosively reversed the gravity well. With a hollow boom, the ball of debris Tyrial had collected exploded outward in all directions.

Tyrial waited for a few seconds after his makeshift grenade went off. When he heard nothing but groaning from inside the room he dared a quick glance in. The entire room was a complete wreck. Desks were overturned or torn apart, pieces of furniture and whatever had been on the desks littered the floor. Consoles and monitors flickered or buzzed and several exposed wires crackled with unrestrained electricity.

Tyrial saw several bodies strewn amongst the litter in the room, only two of them were moving. One of the survivors was near the door Tyrial was looking in from, that man was missing an arm and was losing blood quickly. The second moving form Tyrial spotted made his own blood run cold.

Against the far left wall, with the better half of the remains of a desk piled on top of him, lay Victor. Tyrial gritted his teeth and stepped into the room. A small hand grabbed his arm. “Tyrial,” Alyssia said with concern.

Stopping just inside the room, Tyrial brought his concentration back to the task at hand. Looking around the room again, Tyrial saw several places someone could be hiding. Scanning those locations, however, he saw no humans or Ragnacite bubbles. Seeing that all the Ragnacite bubbles were accounted for in the form of unmoving corpses or soon to be corpses, Tyrial said, “It’s alright.”

Stepping carefully over the debris and bodies littering the floor, Tyrial made his way over to the still groaning Victor. As Tyrial neared, Victor’s eyes snapped open and settled on Tyrial. “You,” Victor said flatly.

“Me,” Tyrial said, just as flatly. Holding up one of his two pistols in Victor’s direction, Tyrial prepared to put the dog out of its misery.

As Tyrial pointed the pistol at him, Victor began to laugh. It was short and shallow, but it sent chills up Tyrial’s spine. “You vill never leave,” Victor said. “No matter how clever you think you are.”

“I suppose we’ll just have to agree to disagree,” Tyrial replied, no emotion in his voice.

“Elevator shaft is covered in explosives,” Victor said spitefully, “You vill be buried alive with rest of us.”

“Thanks for the heads up. You’re right about one thing. This will be your grave,” Tyrial replied. As he was about to pull the trigger, he hesitated. Glancing at Alyssia standing just behind him, he lowered the gun. For some reason, he just couldn’t stomach killing anyone in cold blood anymore, regardless of who they were or what they’d done.

“You vont escape,” Victor began yelling as Tyrial turned for the door. “You are trapped —“

Tyrial cut off the tirade with a slam of the door leading to the next hallway. “Boring conversation anyway,” Tyrial said as he glanced briefly at Alyssia standing just beside him. She did not seem overly disturbed by the man’s threats, which in itself somewhat disturbed Tyrial. He thought he was the only one who had run out of shits to give. He realized what he had originally thought was bravery on her part, now seemed more likely to be just a complete disregard for her own well-being. He would have to watch her carefully.

Moving quickly, they made it down the next hallway and to the stairwell without incident. Once in the stairwell, Tyrial glanced up at the opening in the center. Twenty floors was a lot more stairs than he would have liked. Standing right next to him, Alyssia said, “They aren't going to climb themselves.”

Chuckling, Tyrial was about to reply when he noticed a Ragnacite bubble moving quickly towards the stairwell from the floor above them. Turning to Alyssia he was about to tell her to get back into the hallway when the Ragnacite bubble suddenly flew into the stairwell and dropped down to their floor with a clatter.

Tyrial didn’t waste any time staring at the cobbled Ragnacite fragmentation grenade that landed next to them. He made a snap decision, reaching out he roughly grabbed Alyssia and hugged her to himself. Creating a strong gravity well above them he jumped hard.

Easily clearing the effects of the small shard of Ragnacite attached to the grenade, Tyrial began to accelerate as his gravity well pulled him upwards. The well had no effect on Alyssia, meaning Tyrial had to carry her himself. Fortunately, she was far from heavy.

As they passed the fourth floor and picked up speed, Tyrial very briefly saw the bewildered face of a guard standing at the entrance to the fourth-floor stairwell. Tyrial would have liked to have dealt with him directly, especially since he was now unprotected, but he did not have the concentration to spare.

As they cleared the fifth floor and continued to accelerate, Tyrial heard the grenade at the bottom explode. Unfortunately, as fast as they were moving, the shrapnel from the grenade was moving faster. Tyrial curled into a ball to protect Alyssia as much as he could. Sparing what little of his concentration remained, he also created a gravity well below them to slow the shrapnel. A split second later, Tyrial felt several burning hot molten shards of metal strike him in the back.

Gritting his teeth, Tyrial maintained the gravity well as they continued to ascend. As they neared the top floor, Tyrial did his best to aim them for a soft landing. Tyrial had to admit to himself as they hit the wall of the stairwell, that he was not very good at flying.

Bouncing slightly off of the wall, they fell into a heap against the railing on the stairwell landing for the top floor. Groaning, Tyrial rolled onto his hands and knees and levered himself into a sitting position. Looking over at Alyssia who was likewise picking herself up off the floor, he asked, “You alright?”

“Ya,” she said as she got herself back on her feet. “How —” she stopped suddenly as she looked at Tyrial’s back. “You’re bleeding,” she said with far more concern in her voice than she used when referring to herself.

“It’s fine,” Tyrial said, waving her away from his back. His back burned like fire and he could tell from using his Will that there were several small shards of shrapnel embedded in his back. Thanks to his gravity well slowing them down, none of them appeared life-threatening, however, so for now he would just have to ignore them. He didn’t have the concentration or expertise to remove them with his Will without risking substantial damage.

Standing, Tyrial wobbled slightly. Perhaps that shrapnel had done more damage than he first thought. Alyssia grabbed his arm and tucked herself underneath it, carefully finding a place on his back that was not oozing blood she wrapped her arm around his waist and held on tight.

“I can walk,” Tyrial protested mildly.

“I’m sure you can,” Alyssia replied without taking her arm from around his waist.

In all honesty, Tyrial was not entirely certain he could walk at the moment. He was becoming very light-headed. He wasn’t sure if it was the lack of nutrition, blood loss, or something else that was causing the problem. But he knew he had to get Alyssia out of here soon before he lost the ability to do so.

Nodding in the direction of the stairwell doorway, he said, “The elevator entrance is about three meters down that hall to the left. Most of the guards I can see are still heading down to the bottom floor.”

“What about the explosives?” Alyssia asked, referring to what Victor had said earlier about the impossibility of their escape.

Tyrial turned his head towards the elevator shaft and pushed his Will along it. He found several sections about one meter in length each spaced twenty or so meters apart that were covered in Ragnacite. After counting six of these sections, he encountered no more as he felt his way up the elevator shaft. At almost four hundred meters by his estimate, he finally found the top of the shaft.

Tyrial didn’t dare explore the facility attached to the other end of that elevator shaft too extensively. The explosives, if that's what was in the Ragnacite bubbles, had not been detonated manually yet. Perhaps those above did not realize they were in any danger, and Tyrial didn’t want to disabuse them of that notion just yet.

Looking back at Alyssia, he said, “I have a plan. But I suspect you are very much not going to like it.”

“I think,” she replied, “if it gets us out of here, I’d go with anything.”

“Well,” Tyrial said as he started moving in the direction of the elevator, “what did you think of my flying?”

“Oh...” Alyssia said with a severe lack of enthusiasm.

“You can always stay here,” Tyrial said lightly as with a gesture of his hand he ripped the front doors off of the elevator and into the hallway.

“No,” Alyssia said, gripping his waist slightly harder.

Tyrial grunted from the strength of her grip. “Alright then,” Tyrial said as he stepped into the elevator. Several red flashing warning lights were lit up on the control console. Tyrial ignored them and looked up at the elevator's ceiling. In the center was a large securely locked access hatch. With another gesture and a surge of his Will, Tyrial tore the hatch off of the elevator exposing the long dark corridor above.

“You’re going to need to hold on extra tight for this one,” Tyrial said. “We’re going to be going very fast.”

Nodding, Alyssia stood in front of Tyrial and carefully put her arms around his neck, doing her best to avoid his wounds. Once she had a firm grip there she hopped up slightly and wrapped her legs around his waist. This brought her head almost level with his own and she put her chin on his shoulder.

Tyrial was more than a bit surprised by her move. She didn’t weigh much but his legs still almost buckled from the additional weight. His skin tried to flush slightly as his mind suddenly raced with inappropriate thoughts, caused mostly by her legs straddling his waist, and the two small soft orbs pressed against his chest. Just as quickly as the thoughts began, however, they were dampened considerably by the thought of what he was about to do.

“Is this ok?” Alyssia asked hesitantly.

“Ya,” Tyrial replied in a voice far more confident and calm than he had any right to.

Looking up through the large opening above them, Tyrial took a deep breath, and then wished he hadn’t. The pain in his back was distracting to be sure, but it didn’t hold a candle to the battle he was losing to his quickly hardening member. Closing his eyes for a moment, Tyrial did his best to bring his emotions back in-line. He almost reached for the Mental Void, but it seemed either Alyssia didn’t care or hadn't noticed his inner turmoil. Finally finding his center, he brought all his available concentration to bear. He didn’t really have any to spare given what he was about to try.

Opening his eyes again, he put his arms around Alyssia tightly and gave a slight jump from the floor. The few inches was all he needed as his gravity well took over. They floated up and out of the elevator car into the dark tunnel above. Tyrial closed his eyes as they were useless to him now and concentrated on his Will to keep them on course.

Tyrial quickly brought them up to a little over one-hundred kilometers per hour in as short a time as he could without losing his grip on Alyssia. With the stale air of the passage rushing past them in a howl, Alyssia tucked her head into the crook of Tyrial’s neck.

As Tyrial increased their speed to well over three hundred kilometers per hour he encased them in a shield of hardened air. Both to protect them from the air rushing past them and from the impending explosive shockwaves.

As they approached the first of the Ragnacite bubbles in the shaft, Tyrial gave them an extra push with his gravity well and clutched Alyssia harder. She in turn increased the strength of her own grip. A second later, they hit the bubble, and Tyrial’s gravity well disappeared along with the gravitons holding together the shield of air. Their combined momentum carried them easily and quickly past the one-meter length of Ragnacite protected elevator shaft. The shield of air had likewise only just barely started to dissipate as they cleared the Ragnacite.

Once they were on the other side, Tyrial re-established his gravity well and air shield as he continued pulling for the surface with all he dared. He held his breath, awaiting the expected explosion below him. When nothing happened, he almost felt disappointed. He had given a great deal of thought to how best to escape the entombing elevator shaft and it appeared that none of it would be —.

A bright flash of light emanated from directly below them followed by the deafening boom of an enclosed shockwave. If not for the shield Tyrial had been maintaining their eardrums would have been history. As it was, Tyrial could hear nothing but a loud ringing as he continued to push them skyward.

Now knowing what to expect, Tyrial increased their speed and put more effort into the air barrier. He knew they had five more explosions to survive and there was no going back now. He knew he was going too fast to easily stop at the top of the shaft now, but he would have to deal with that when he got there.

Traveling at nearly five hundred kilometers per hour they rushed past the next five Ragnacite bubbles in almost a blink. They were well into the next bubble by the time the previous one exploded. With a bright ball of explosive fire chasing them, Tyrial wasn’t able to slow down as they came towards the top of the elevator shaft. Quickly analyzing the area, he saw that the elevator shaft ended in what looked like a small hut inside a much larger dome.

As he pushed his Will out into the area to see what he had to work with he almost immediately came up against another's Mage’s Will. Then another and another. Knowing he was going to have a welcoming committee he was not prepared to deal with, Tyrial decided overshooting his target might not be a bad idea after all.

With less than a dozen meters to go, Tyrial concentrated his Will sharply. He dropped the gravity well that was pulling them upwards and put everything he had into strengthening the air shield around them. He’d tried this trick before when rescuing captain Gabriel. Tyrial hoped it worked better this time.

Squeezing Alyssia to himself with every ounce of his physical strength, Tyrial hit the roof of the elevator shaft at almost four hundred kilometers per hour. With a booming crash, Tyrial and Alyssia burst from the roof of the elevator shaft followed by a billowing gout of flame and debris. As they cleared the roof of the elevator hut, Tyrial had milliseconds to take in the scene around him.

They were inside an enormous dome filled with smaller buildings and open structures. The top of the dome sparkled as sunlight filtered through the crystal panes above. Around them, soldiers armed with rifles ran. Oddly, however, they didn’t seem to be running towards the elevator shaft.

As their momentum carried them up, Tyrial made another snap decision. They had to land somewhere, and back on top of the still rumbling elevator shaft didn’t seem like a good choice. With a small shove, Tyrial pushed them in the same direction the soldiers had been running before they all stopped to stare at the exploding elevator.

Tyrial figured that any place Conclave soldiers were running to was his best chance for backup. And he was going to need backup. He could already feel his Will weakening as the all too familiar pinpricks began to run up his spine towards the base of his skull.

He held desperately to both Alyssia and his bubble of air as they arced far over the landscape and began their descent towards the structures and smoke below. Smoke that Tyrial had not been the cause of. As they descended, Tyrial felt the Will of several other Mages push against his own. He knew without the bubble of air he held they were both dead on impact, so he ignored the other Mages and held onto that bubble with everything he had. Fortunately, the other Mages were either very weak or very far away as their attempts to override his own Will were easy to defend against.

Unfortunately, their interference made it impossible for Tyrial to form another gravity well to slow their descent. As they neared the ground, Tyrial saw smoke rising from several locations and what looked like a large unnatural opening in the dome. Tyrial didn’t have time to make a more thorough analysis as he was abruptly reunited with the ground.

With a hollow thud that sent up a plume of dust and dirt, Tyrial and Alyssia impacted the ground hard. Tyrial’s bubble gouged a shallow furrow in the dirt as it expended the energy of their momentum. Tyrial gritted his teeth and put everything he had into maintaining their shield. Even so, as his bubble hit the lip of a stretch of pavement it lost cohesion.

As the bubble dissipated, Tyrial hit the lip of the pavement hard. He distinctly heard a loud snap, followed by a searing pain in his arm. With his left arm suddenly going numb, he lost his grip on Alyssia. As they vaulted slightly out of the furrow and onto the pavement, Alyssia flew out of Tyrial’s arms and landed ungracefully a few meters away. Tyrial himself tumbled along the ground for another meter or two before finally coming to a stop face down.

Tyrial fought with everything he had now just to stay conscious. His Will had fled from him completely when he’d broken his arm, now his mind threatened to shut down from the abuse. Forcing his muscles to comply, he brought his still working right arm around and pushed himself up from the pavement.

Coughing weekly and still trying to get his breath back from the impact, he looked over to where Alyssia had landed. Seeing her move slightly, Tyrial felt a wave of relief. Grunting while stifling a yell, he pushed himself to his feet and staggered in Alyssia’s direction.

Reaching her, he fell to his knees involuntarily. “Alyssia,” he said roughly.

Alyssia groaned as she levered herself up and looked at Tyrial. “I’m alright, I think,” she said as she coughed. She was covered in scrapes and bleeding scratches, but nothing looked serious.

Pushing herself up to her feet, she looked around. “Where are we?” she asked.

Tyrial managed to get his legs under him, barely, and staggered to his feet again. “Don’t know,” he said weekly. “I saw fighting over there,” he said, indicating the smoke near the opening in the dome with his working right arm. “It could be Opposition, it’s our best chance I think.”

Looking at Tyrial and seeing his left arm hanging uselessly, Alyssia moved quickly to Tyrial’s side. “Broken?” she asked with concern, pointing at his dangling arm.

“Most likely,” Tyrial replied. “Just about past my limits too. It might be a good idea if you go on alone.”

Completely ignoring his suggestion, Alyssia insinuated herself under Tyrial’s good arm and gently held him around the waist. “Which way?” she asked.

Sighing, Tyrial indicated a few small nearby buildings in the direction of the rising smoke. “That way, it might offer some cover,” he said.

They moved slowly as Tyrial could barely keep his feet, eventually reaching the small buildings and their dubious cover. Just before reaching the first building, Tyrial heard yelling and the sound of pounding feet on the pavement headed in their direction.

Glancing around, Tyrial saw plenty of ammunition lying around, the question was whether he could bring enough Will to bear to actually use it. Stopping their shambling movement towards the buildings, Tyrial was about to tell Alyssia to get behind cover while he dealt with the incoming troops.

As Tyrial opened his mouth, he suddenly saw another danger. Far too late, he saw a mortar round heading for the ground near them, less than ten meters from impacting. Using his good right arm, Tyrial shoved Alyssia towards a narrow alley between two buildings with all his remaining strength. Alyssia yelled in surprise as her feet left the pavement. Tyrial turned towards the impacting mortar and with all the Will he could muster, threw up an air shield between them and the exploding ground.

A second later, the pavement behind them bursts into a spectacular display of fire and debris. The shockwave punched easily through Tyrial’s shield and threw him towards the buildings behind. With a bone-crunching crash, Tyrial impacted the wall of one of the buildings. As he slid to the ground and his vision faded, he congratulated himself on keeping the air shield in place long enough to deflect the pavement and shrapnel that could have threatened Alyssia.

As he slid into unconsciousness, Tyrial’s last thought was a wish that whoever was storming this facility would find them before the Conclave did. At the very least he wanted someone to give the poor girl he had tried to rescue a reason to value her own life. That had been a hard lesson for Tyrial to learn. Now that he had, however, he found that he very much did not want to die yet.