The office was old, which matched the theme of the tower. Old, dusty and forgotten about. However, as Beth noticed, the office was far less dusty than the stacked rooms of bookcases outside of the office. Neither did it appear to be forgotten about. The walls had shelves lined with various artifacts. They all appeared to be from a similar region, or point in time, judging from the consistent style of decoration they all had. Some had the decorations carved on, others were painted. They looked at least as old as A.D.A.M. or the objects recovered from the ruins near her home.

“I wonder how old some of these are,” Beth mused out loud.

“Don’t touch anything,” Ephin warned, “we can’t risk anything extra happening. We don’t have a lot of time. I’m concerned that they will get more guards to cut off the ground floor entrance once they realize they aren’t still following us.”

“How bad could it be?” Beth said, “I seriously doubt one old relic is going to cause much trouble.”

“And who owns it?”

“Some dusty librarian probably,” Beth laughed. “See, I’ll get it over with so you don’t have to worry.”

Beth reached out and plucked one of the smaller cracked vases from its stand.

Immediately, both Beth and Ephin heard what would be an ear-splitting screeching sound, if it weren’t for the fact, it was in their minds instead. Beth dropped the vase as she grabbed her head and fell to her knees. Ephin clutched at his ear with one hand and grappled with the doorknob with the other.

A single giant eye appeared in the room and spun around in the air rapidly, landing on first Beth and then Ephin. The eye then looked up and popped, quickly replaced by a hand, just as massive as the eye. It started grasping around the room blindly, attempting to apprehend whoever had broken in.

Ephin managed to pull the door open, even through his immense pain and held it open for Beth to crawl out, still trying to avoid the hand swinging wildly with clutching fingers larger than her whole body.

As soon as they passed the threshold of the office door, they were bathed in near silence once more. The quiet room almost overwhelmed the two of them after whatever sort of alarm they had set off. The door was left ajar and Ephin went to close it so that nobody would notice they had been hiding in there.

As his hand was almost touching the handle, a blue flash burst from within the office and Ephin could hear rapid footsteps, followed by loud cursing.

“Go,” he whispered to Beth and they both bolted towards the stairs as the footsteps approached the door. Beth was already a few steps down, with Ephin lingering as the door opened. He saw a woman, deep green robes flowing to just barely brushing the floor. She had human features, if not for patches of dragon-like scales crawling in patches over her face. She did not call out a customary ‘stop’, she simply threw up a small cloud of blue dust from her hand and punched through it, sending another huge fist flying towards Ephin, who was already gone, hurtling down the stairs after Beth.

“Keep up,” Beth called, “don’t stop to watch the people trying to chase you, dummy.”

The speed the two of them were running down the stairs, barely breaking stride and taking the steps by twos or threes as they descended, threatened their balance. Any faster and either Ephin or Beth, or both, would likely trip and descend even faster.

Beth skidded to a halt on one floor and Ephin collided into her.

“Hey, Hunter,” Beth shouted, “time to go.”

“Of course,” came the reply and Beth didn’t wait to see if Hunter was following as she began running once more. Ephin could hear the footsteps above, as well as flashes of blue from time to time. This person, and possibly the guards again, was not giving up her pursuit.

Beth was trying to pull her glove on as she ran, taking her hands off of the banisters. She fell and Ephin lurched to grab hold of her to keep her balance. He missed, but went tumbling from the effort. Beth clapped and sent a shock wave to right herself in the air, landing and continuing to run, only to have Ephin barrel into her lower legs has he rolled painfully down the stairs. Thankfully, they were close enough to the foyer that they both landed in a heap at the bottom after some scrappy rolling. Hunter followed down a couple steps behind the two of them and helped them to their feet. In one arm, he held a stack of large tomes.

The room did indeed have a couple guards in it, but no serious display of force as they were simply disruptive library attendees.

“Stop them!” Came a shrill cry from up the stairs, followed by more blue flashes. Hunter was hit in the back by a cluster of small bouncing hands, each one slapping him with enough force to knock a person over.

As Hunter sailed over Ephin and Beth’s heads and landed roughly between them and the guards, Beth ran into actions before the guards could properly comprehend what was happening.

“Sorry,” she said as she jumped over Hunter’s prone body and clapped, sending both guards falling backwards and skidding across the floor. A couple of the doors leading out of the foyer started to open and Ephin grabbed Beth’s hand and they ran, ignoring the indignant cries of the small receptionist.

Beth looked back and saw Hunter picking up the dropped books and following them out, at a slight distance.

“We can’t head for the main gate out of the upper district,” Ephin said hurriedly.

“Go the same way back,” Beth said, “we can take this to the Brixith Order and figure it out there.”

They turned and charged right, across the open streets separating the large mansion-like buildings. From the commotion and Beth’s shock waves, they could both hear the local guards beginning to amass in the chase.

They reached the small door leading through the city wall and hurtled through it, Hunter already catching up and closing it behind them.

“We need to shake them before we are allowed to return to the den,” Ephin said.

“Makes sense,” Beth agreed, “why am I getting used to this?”

“Blame Jadon.”

“Who was that magic lady?” Beth asked as they opened the opposite door and began to sneak towards the closest alleyway, trying to not raise suspicion.

“No idea,” Ephin said, “but definitely not just some dusty librarian.”

They started to walk with the flow of the crowds, still prominent with it being the middle of the day. Beth pointed out a patrol of guards ahead, just as Ephin looked back to see more guards pouring out of the small underpass of the city wall. They reached a side street, turning towards buildings that housed crops and slipped in between a couple of them. It was a much smaller gap than an average alleyway, but hopefully no guards would see them from any angle.

A handful of guards did run past as they cautiously watched the entrance to their mediocre hiding spot.

“Okay,” Ephin whispered, “I know the way back to the hideout entrance from here.”

“Let’s take it slow,” Beth said, “avoid any and all guards. Heck, maybe they don’t all know what we look like though.”

They side shuffled back out into the street and started to walk towards the hideout once again.

“I think you might be wrong about that,” Ephin said, pointing out a couple posters nailed to one of the crop growth building’s walls. The first poster was a notice informing people of the deaths of the Severed Redemption members. The second was a wanted poster for Iarkspur.

Now that they were looking, they could see more as they continued to walk, more than one for each member of the group.

“Great,” Beth said quietly, “it’s a wonder nobody has recognized us yet.”

“Are you really so eager to curse everything we do?” Ephin asked. “Stop tempting fate.”

“That stuff really doesn’t exist,” Beth scoffed.

“Of course, it does,” Ephin said, “wait, this turning.”

Ephin was becoming more relaxed the more he spent on the cobbled streets he knew so well. Even with the death threats and chases and kidnappings, it was still a comforting feeling to be home. The cold air was warmer than the sting of Vernox, but still brutally cold enough for him to know that he was home.

“What’s that?” Beth asked.

“Smoke,” Hunter answered, snapping Ephin out of his little reverie.

The grate that the three had left out of earlier had the thinnest stream of smoke rising out of it. Thick, black smoke.

“Damn,” Ephin said, hurrying over to the grate and trying to pull it open.

“It’s an opening to a hideout,” Beth said, “it won’t be so easy to just swing open.”

She cracked her knuckles and aimed her hand at the grate, sending blast after blast at it, first bending the metal and then snapping it off its hinges, forcing the grate in and open.

“Hurry up,” she said, looking at the entrance to the alleyway, “we don’t know who could have heard that.”

The stairs into the sewer system were filled with smoke near the ceiling, forcing Beth and Ephin to crouch as they descended slowly. Both held their shirts up above their mouths to try and protect from the smoke, but it still bit into their eyes, forcing tears.

Ephin would never have remembered the route back to the main portion of the hideout past the sewers, but Beth pushed ahead, following the smoke.

As the sewer transitioned into the dirt covered floor of the hideout, they could see the carnage immediately. Dead bodies lay strewn around the main corridor and within every passage they peered down.

“I didn’t think smoke would kill this many people,” Ephin said, “surely someone survived?”

“It wasn’t smoke that did this,” Beth muttered. Almost every body they passed had open throats, pools of blood collecting around where they lay. The few that didn’t, had knife wounds dotting their torsos. “What the hell did this?”

“Is it a bad time to mention I might have had a run in with the chyringa in the library?” Ephin whispered.

“Later. Yes, it’s a bad time, idiot. If that is the cause of this,” Beth said, “well… later.”

Beth shook her head incredulously, following the main corridor down to where she remembered Darroreck’s study to be. The smoke was thick, but in an area this enclosed, it should have been overwhelming, however Ephin and Beth were okay with simply crouching as they moved through the den, without the need to crawl just yet.

Beth pushed on Darroreck’s door, but it wasn’t budging, so she set her feet and sent off her most powerful shock wave yet. Ephin could hear the echo come rattling back to them through the corridors, even with the sound of crackling, burning wood. Darroreck’s door splintered open, A bar was placed behind it to brace from intruders and it held fast. However, the rest of the door did not and the top half above the bar snapped off, flying across the room and crashing to the side of Darroreck’s desk.

Beth looked in. The man was there, sitting like usual.

“Darroreck!” She shouted, trying to get his attention after he didn’t flinch from the door.

Does anything make this guy break a sweat? Ephin thought, astounded at how calm the man was. Working at his desk even while everything else burnt down around him. Impressive, or stupid, he thought.

Beth hurdled the bar and ran over to shake the man, who flopped back in his chair, his throat cleanly cut from below one ear, all the way to the other.

“Dead,” Beth said.

Or that, Ephin thought. Now that he could see the man’s face, Ephin thought Darroreck looked more gaunt than usual. He squinted more, blinking and wiping off the tears to get a better look.

“That’s not Darroreck,” Ephin said, “must be a decoy.”

“We need to get the other two. Now.” Beth said, striding back to the door and pulling the bar out of the way.

“How was a man killed behind a barred door?” Ephin asked, “and where is Darroreck?”

“Where are our friends, you mean,” Beth said, forcefully making Ephin face her. “Priorities.”

“You’re right,” Ephin said, nodding. The smoke from the fire, that they had yet to see, was increasing. Must be a recent fire, Ephin thought, it was probably lit after all these people were killed then.

Ephin and Beth scoured the hideout for the next ten minutes before a coughing fit from Beth convinced Ephin that it was time to leave the area and collect their energy. Beth struggled to continue looking, but gave up quickly as common sense prevailed.

As Ephin and Beth reached the sewers, which had more ventilation to release the smoke, Beth turned to Hunter, still dutifully holding the collected books.

“Drop those,” she said, “search for Jadon and Iarkspur. Any sign of these people having captives. When you find them or signs of them, come back here to get us.”

“Of course,” Hunter said, putting the books on the slightly damp ground, Beth cringed despite herself, watching the cover of the bottom-most book become slick with sewage water. Hunter then turned and strode back into the smoke.

Ephin and Beth waited until they had regained their breath, and then they waited some more.

“Screw this,” Beth said, standing and walking back towards the smoke.

“No, wait,” Ephin said, grabbing at her arm as he stood too. “You’re going to choke out in there.”

“Better I do that looking for my friends, than not know what happened to them.”

She strode back into the smoke, Ephin reluctantly following her in case she fell unconscious. He had a slightly better resistance to these kinds of things, with the healing aid of his worship, but it was still torture for Ephin to try and breathe as they pushed through the smoke, using the dirt walls to guide them.

They found the dinner hall to be the cause of the smoke, all the wooden tables and benches pushed together and set alight.

Hunter returned to them during the search, having found nothing.

Jadon and Iarkspur were nowhere to be found.