Neither Jadon nor Iarkspur knew how long had passed when the smoke first began to seep into their cell. Whilst all the walls were airtight in their seams and connections to the floor and ceiling, the double door could not be completely sealed up, or the occupants of the cell would asphyxiate. That was not a concern of Jadon or Iarkspur’s when they first smelt burning.

Almost as soon as they noticed the smoke, they heard the first shouts.

People were rushing around outside their door and, no matter how hard Iarkspur slammed on the door, nobody paid them any attention.

Most of the footsteps sounded to Iarkspur as if they were travelling from the left to the right. They could hear minor explosions, possibly from firearms or magic. There was a significant fight breaking out down the corridor and they couldn’t make out any of the words anyone was shouting, only that they were shouting.

The shouts then turned to screams. Only one or two at first, but soon everyone was screaming and the footsteps rushed from right to left. There were less of them than earlier.

“What the heck is going on?” Jadon asked Iarkspur, trying to drag himself towards the door to get a better chance at listening. By this point, Iarkspur had given up banging on the door and was simply pressing her ear to the metal to try and work out what was happening.

“Here, take off your cloak and press it up against the bottom of the door,” Jadon said, “we need to stop any more of this smoke getting in or we’ll have no chance of getting out.”

“Wait,” Iarkspur said, holding a finger up to Jadon, that he couldn’t see.

“No, the whole point is we can’t wait,” Jadon replied, trying to push her leg out of the way to press his own coat by the lip of the door.

“Someone’s shouting something.”

Iarkspur was right, Jadon strained to hear as much as he could and, somewhere in the chaos occurring outside, somebody was calling for something. Someone.

“Jadon?” Came the shout from down the corridor. “Jadon?”

“We’re here,” Iarkspur shouted, reinvigorating her banging on the door.

A solitary set of footsteps rushed up to the other side of the door.

“Stand back.”

Iarkspur and Jadon both moved out of the way. Iarkspur standing at the back of the cell and Jadon shuffling across to shield himself from the door. They heard a slight fizzing sound before an explosion ripped light into the room. The metal door swung open; a hole torn out of it.

Jadon peered around to see who it was looking for him.

Darroreck stood in the doorway. The light of the everflames in the corridor only lit up the smoke in an eerie shade of blue. The smoke itself, now allowed through the two doors, began to flood the room.

“Come on,” he said, pulling Iarkspur out of the room a little more roughly than she would have liked. “We need to get out of here right now.” He started to stride off, hesitating as Iarkspur went back into the room to help Jadon.

“Little help?” Iarkspur said irritably at the man that had them locked up.

“I need to be ready in case it returns,” Darroreck said, his eyes darting all around.

“In case what returns?” Jadon asked.

“Look around,” Darroreck said, waving his hand towards the floor.

The ground was littered with bodies. Everyone that Jadon recognized as something approximating a friend was lying dead or dying. People were bleeding out from cuts to their throats, or stabs to their stomachs. Darroreck knelt down by one person who was still alive but obviously not going to survive in the long run. He had a nasty gash all the way down his side, just below his ribs. As Darroreck attempted to soothe the man, the man tried painfully to back up and away from him, weakly trying to fend him off. Darroreck pulled out a blade from a similar spot that Jadon kept his and plunged it into the man’s throat, putting him out of his misery.

“It’s a mercy,” Darroreck said, eyeing Iarkspur’s appalled look. “Now get a move on.”

“What are we facing?” Jadon asked again.

“You are facing nothing. Heck, you look like you’ve already faced it with those legs.”

“Then get me my chair.”

“Chair? You think it’s a good time to joke around?”

“He wasn’t joking,” Iarkspur said, “why are you?”

“Because it doesn’t know,” Jadon said slowly. He nodded to the dead by their feet. “Did you enjoy it?”

“I have no idea what you’re… yes. Very much,” Darroreck said, standing up straight and looking at them both, ignoring the stinging smoke in the air. “How long have you known?”

“Chyringa?” Iarkspur said.

“Chryinga,” Jadon nodded.

“Well, that’s good enough news for me. I can get this disgusting image off of me.”

The being that looked like Darroreck stood still for a moment, closed his eyes and then vibrated. When the shaking stopped, both Iarkspur and Jadon could see a definite diamond-like lattice etched all across his body, like neat scales. These scales then lifted off the body, flipping over and returning to the being. What remained was tall and thin with deep yellow skin. It had four eyes. Two in the normal place, and another, smaller set embedded in the cheekbones. It was bald and smiling a row of pitch black, sharp teeth.

“Any chance of a formal introduction?” Jadon asked, before whispering to Iarkspur, “get ready to run. It’ll kill us without breaking a sweat.”

Iarkspur went to dig her hand into her pouch to get some seeds ready to throw between them however, as she did, the chyringa lifted up the pouch and shook it teasingly.

“Looking for this?” It said, laughing quietly, “I might know a few tricks even your light-fingered friend here doesn’t.”

“What do you want?” Jadon asked.

“I had hoped for a nice chat, but I can see you were busy being locked up and I can’t exactly have people knowing about me me. So, here’s a deal. You tell me where your friends are and I’ll kill you quickly.” The chyringa took a step towards the two of them and Iarkspur stumbled slightly as she tried to back up, still propping up Jadon. “Don’t drag this out. I beat all of you. Now there’s barely one and a h-” a dagger sunk into its chest, causing it to shout out and backpedal slightly. It stared into the smoke, which was much worse behind Iarkspur and Jadon.

“Nice throw,” Iarkspur whispered.

“Wasn’t me. Now, in the fine words of not Darroreck. We need to get out of here.”

Iarkspur agreed with her friend’s suggestion and started to turn around.

“You’re not going anywhere,” the chyringa yelled, recovering from the shock of the injury and running at them.

Iarkspur tried to hurry up but bumped into someone, the smoke originally hiding their form. Both she and Jadon hit the dirt. She turned to see the chyringa bearing down on them with the still bloody blade outdrawn. The figure she had collided with, struck with the same speed as A.D.A.M., knocking the chyringa to the ground. It turned its focus to the new fighter and Jadon patted Iarkspur’s arm, already beginning to drag himself away, using the smoke as cover. Iarkspur crawled off also, hearing the sounds of fighting behind them get cut short very quickly.

She continued to crawl, waiting for the moment that the chyringa would pounce on the two of them, but it never came. After they turned the corner, passing the large mess hall with the table burning away, causing the smoke, she dragged herself to her feet, coughing in the smoke. She helped pull Jadon up and they both limped to the exit, Jadon helping guide her to the exit.

Iarkspur lets Jadon down just outside the den, where the smoke had not yet collected due to the sewer ventilation.

“What the heck is going on,” Jadon muttered again, “does this mean Darroreck is dead?”

“Not necessarily,” Iarkspur said quietly, looking down at him, “the chyringa impersonated you at one point, remember?”

“I guess.” Jadon took a couple more deep breaths in, trying to clear out his lungs. “I wonder what it wants this time? Why it’s here looking for us?”

“No idea, but I’m willing to bet it’s about those stupid relics again,” Iarkspur said, spitting into a corner. “What sort of creature would want to put the lives of every person in the realm in danger like that.”

Jadon considered the question and lifted his head to answer when Iarkspur slammed into him. He pushed her off as gently as he could, looking at her. She had been hit in the head and he could already see the blood seeping across her hairline. He snapped his head up to the aggressor and held his fists up to fight from the floor. Then he saw who it was and lowered his arms in shock.

“That’s pathetic,” the man with green eyes said, “honestly, did you think you could take me on without any weapons and without any legs?” He nudged one of Jadon’s legs for emphasis, dropping the unconscious body of the chyringa next to Iarkspur. “She’ll be alright, probably. Minor concussion maybe?”

“What are you doing here?” Jadon asked.

“I bumped into your nerd friends at the archives, figured I’d drop in and say hi to you too.”

“Tell the truth,” Jadon said.

“Please, you offend me,” the man held a hand to his chest as if he had been shot with an arrow, “to think I would lie to a friend such as you?”

“We aren’t friends.”

“But we’re so alike, besides the not being able to walk thing. You know nobody has ever been able to keep up with me before? You’re a pretty talented individual.”

“Like I said, what are you doing here?”

“Straight to the point, yet again. You aren’t much fun, you know?” The man sighed and shook his head. “I’ll explain once we’re there.”

“Once we’re wh-”

Jadon’s question was cut short by the handle of the dagger in the man’s hand cracking across his temple. Jadon’s world faded to black and he slumped to the ground beside Iarkspur. He heard the man complain just before he blacked out completely.

“Great, how am I meant to carry three bodies?”

The next thing Jadon noticed was that he couldn’t move. He was tied to a wooden board. He looked to his left and saw Iarkspur trussed up similarly, still unconscious. The chyringa was tied up also, however the knots used on it were different. Jadon figured that it could possibly change into a smaller body to escape, which likely explained the different set up of ropes.

Jadon looked around. They were still underground, however there was light coming from wherever they were being taken. The man was pulling the three of them on some sort of sled and was grumbling to himself as he did, however even pulling three people was an impressive feat. Jadon watched as the sewers around them transitioned into fresh air. The man was dragging them out of one of the disused sewer pipe exits. A large metal grate that was usually fixed to make it difficult for anyone to use the pipe to invade the city secretly had been sawed off.

Jadon knew that the Brixith Order made a habit of checking these pipes out as they provided direct access to their base as well, but Jadon thought it was likely that this man killed the lookout, if there was one.

The sled started to be levered into a small rowing boat, but was dropped quickly.

“Oh,” the man said, “I’m sorry but I can’t be having that.” He was looking down and, as Jadon looked to see what the issue was, he locked eyes with the man. “Sorry young man, nobody can know the way to our destination.”

Jadon braced for the impact and, sure enough, the man struck him in the center of his forehead, the impact of the back of his head against the wood hurting just as much, but not knocking him out.

“Ah,” the man said, pulling out his dagger and flipping it around in his hand. “I really thought I would be able to knock you out with one punch. Guess I’m losing my touch.”

“You know what?” Jadon spat, “go f-”

The second impact flooded Jadon’s world with black once more. He did not dream.