Tya had no idea what knocked her unconscious on the ride, but something certainly had. She did not at all remember being tossed into the grungy cell she rose off the floor of, nor did she remember exactly why her chest ached terribly. She hoped it was only because of how jostled her core had been--- it didn’t feel like any long term damage had been done, but that wasn’t going to stop her from worrying about it.

Tya had to work to pull herself off the floor. Getting to her feet was met with a brief stumble forward, and she caught herself with a hand on her cell’s rusted bars. The other occupied itself by feeling tentatively around her chest, pressing, exploring, all for any sign of an irregularity in the pulsing of her core. For a moment, she bent forward, gripping with both hands to give a rough shake. They didn’t budge. All that gave was gathered dust overhead. Who would have guessed that, when someone was arrested, they were locked up in a cell.

She rolled her eyes at herself. For the time being, she released the bars to focus on the rattling in her chest. She could feel it beneath her fragile skin. The pulsing felt normal, at least in tempo, but it was a little harder than normal. The licks of her flames as they spread down her limbs felt weaker than usual. Her grip was harder to pull in, not that it was ever strong to begin with. As concerning as it was, she didn’t fret. Her breathing was something she had to think to do; to monitor endlessly. Too much air to the fire would break her skin and make her lose control of her body. Too little would make her limbs unusable, and having been unconscious her fire had been practically suffocated.

She closed her eyes, her palms flat over one another, both centered between her breast, right overtop her core. Slow, she drew in a deep breath, stopping abruptly as she felt the fire press more firm against her skin. If it weren’t for the heat, and the way it flickered, it would be easy to mistake for muscle or bone in a normal person.

With that, she was confident enough in her wellness to focus attention elsewhere. She’d need to check herself, keep an eye on her body to be sure it stayed stable, but she also needed to make sure she got out of there. For the moment, she was well enough to continue.

Holding both hands out, she proceeded to open and close them the best she could—her grasp was weak and her hands shook, but that was normal. She at least seemed dry enough to cast without pain.

She had a million questions running through her mind, mostly pertaining to what Lillia had done to provoke this situation. While many of them were followed with some not-so-kind things about the Princess, the Elemental was far too distracted to sort them; she was fuming.

Her breathing hitched once more and remained held as she struck the bars roughly with the palms of her hands. She quickly drew back, realizing such roughness on flesh often caused it to break. Fortunately, it seemed it had only been scraped and dirtied… But that didn’t mean her anger would not be taken out in a manner more natural to her.

Fire ignited in her hands, and she grabbed hold of the bars, letting the flames swirl around the metal as she shook it.

Her force did nothing, as did the hard kick that came after, and her own weakness proved to further piss her off. She stepped back as an angered growl left her. Ignited hands soon went for the bars again, but before she could start up, a voice echoed down the hallway.

Quietly, in a little girl’s voice: ”She says your heat is not enough to melt iron.”

Tya stopped, eyes widening as she looked around. Stone walls held her at three sides, only one allowed her to see, so she let the fire dim and moved to press herself against the bars.

The cell across from her held nothing, but looking down one more, she noticed a young girl behind bars as well.

“I didn’t ask.” Tya replied warily, studying the little girl the best she could. Needless to say, the dungeon didn’t hold much light aside from what peeked through slats at the top of each cell and the fire in her hands. But such things weren’t overly concerning to Tya. In her eyes, while it was dark, it seemed a blue film lay over the majority area. Before her, the bars she’d been defeated by, and the small figure of the girl, those were different hues of red.

“If you want to keep trying, go ahead. She says it’s useless though.” The little girl moved to step back, and Tya pressed more to the bars to not lose sight of her.

“Why do you say ‘she says’? Who is she?”

The little girl had disappeared from view at that point, and Tya stepped back, assuming she wasn’t going to get an answer.

But to her surprise, she heard “she is my sister” in response after just a few seconds.

Sisters. A female born from the same parents as another.

She would have thought about it more, but there were more important things to tend to at that moment, like getting out of that cell, for instance.

Again, she went for heating the bars but to no avail. Soon she turned her attention to the walls, casting fire at the stone at each side and putting her weight against it to see if anything was weakened. Unfortunately, she hadn’t much weight to use when trying to break down the walls—lacking internal organs and blood meant it was significantly reduced. Not that the weight of a normal person could have very well done anything against the structural integrity of an entire castle.

Finally she slowed, realizing brute force evidently wasn’t the answer to escape. She sunk to the floor, huffing quietly and looking at the burned up area around her.

It was conveniently set up to avoid burning down, as nothing was flammable. Had they done it on purpose? Was this cell meant for her? Or was she just being self-centered in thinking that a castle was built of stone just to keep her from interfering? The latter, without a doubt, but all she could do was think about how she was completely stuck. That was the purpose of imprisonment, was it not? At least humans did this well.

Her head fell back against the wall she’d flopped so childishly against. Despite having already looked over her surroundings numerous times, some more violently than others, all she could do was study them again. Her hands moved idly, trying to keep busy by first smoothing out her clothing, then toying at the pulled up hems of her skirt. The walls were impenetrable. It seemed not even vines had managed to break through the cracks of the stone, and they’d been conveniently sealed up by something. She wasn’t an architect. She didn’t know what, but maybe she should look into that if she could get herself--

She flinched as her eyes fell once more on the bars. This time, on the other side of them, stood the girl that had spoken to her from down the hall a moment prior.

Tya watched her for a moment, then looked away awkwardly. While she had the urge to get up and look at the cell the girl had been contained in, she didn’t exactly want to approach the freak-child. She was a little terrifying, just standing there.

Fortunately, the unsettling silence the girl brought by just staring at her was soon broken when she decided to speak up.

She had crossed her arms over her chest, and started looking from the bars to the woman behind them. Then she asked “are you done?”

Tya’s brow rose then fell, then her shoulders did the same. She was unsure of how to respond exactly, and ended up with a particularly aggressive “done?”

“Yeah,” the little girl replied, reciprocating with just as much hostility as she raised a hand to motion to the iron. “Abusing the entire cell.”

Tya glared, but as she didn’t move, her only response was to ask with some exaggerated inflection “is that a yes?”

It was clearer then that she was being mocked, and while it was obnoxious, Tya had no chance to think of anything good and witty in response. The child’s hands reached out, setting gently against the cell’s lock. After sweeping her fingers over it, she pulled it open with ease, saying “you know, if someone starts talking to you, trying to help, sometimes it is best to listen, isn’t it?”

At first, Tya had almost acted on her impulse to scramble out. But both her wariness of the girl, and her annoyance toward the cell kept her mostly in place. She had begun to act, raising some only to fall back onto her knees instead. She could have sworn she pushed against the door, even heated the lock, all to no avail. But she had done it so effortlessly, Tya was left wondering if… she had somehow managed to open a door wrong? It wasn’t exactly difficult. At least not usually. “What is the point in keeping it open if I am meant to be a prisoner?”

“It wasn’t open.” The girl spoke as if such should be obvious, and it was. But it also wasn’t.

Tya let out a frustrated huff and the little girl held her hands up, wiggling her fingers in a manner that can best be described by narration as ‘sarcastic jazz hands’.

“If you’re done being a child, can we go?” The girl stepped back toward the hall, casting one more look back to Tya before her attention turned to her own cell again. While she had started off, the elemental was froze in place with complete offense toward the accusation that she was being a child.

Absurd. She hadn’t even done anything. Besides, that little creep was literally a child. How could she possibly have been worse than that?

The sound of metal scraping finally got Tya moving. Though another huff left her, she did finally move herself out of the damned cell. Wary still, she approached the one the girl had been kept in. Much like her own, there were no signs of struggle in the least, and yet she was free. They, actually. As she neared, she noticed that, accompanying her, was a much smaller child.

Was that toddler sized? No- those were a touch shorter, weren’t they? Almost toddler sized.

She watched as the elder sister gathered up the younger, needlessly brushing some of her greasy strawberry blonde hair before taking her hand. “Who are you to call me childish?”

“I’m the one breaking you out of a dungeon. If you’re not grateful, you can always go back in there and work on getting out on your own.” That wasn’t at all an answer to the question, at least not how Tya had wanted them. But the little girl had hurried out, the smaller trailing behind her on little legs, kept up only by the grip on her hand. “If you would have listened instead of trying to burn up everything that came close, this would have gone a lot faster.”

“Listened to what? Your suspicious ‘she says’ lines? You sound like a cliché!” To that, the little girl motioned back to the other. She was dirty, as if they’d been down there for a while, and yet she held a bright smile up toward Tya.

“Sorry for talking for the mute. How dare I speak for the handicapped girl, right?”

“Can children her age even form sentences as it is?” Admittedly, Tya didn’t know a single thing about children, aside from the fact that they were small humans. Though her tone suggested she was being rude, it was actually a somewhat genuine question.

To this question though, the older girl just said “Who knows.”

This response left Tya to stand completely oblivious and confused. This conversation was making absolutely no sense to her. Nothing about the situation was.

“If your wish was to confuse me, then I’ll have you know, you succeeded.”

“As great as it is to watch you flounder for explanations, it wasn’t my “wish” to confuse you. Sorry.” A forced apology, even someone as poorly versed in conversation as Tya could tell. “It’s my ‘wish’ to get out of here. So can we get moving?”

Regardless of whether or not Tya was bitter about this entire situation, she decided the best course of action was to get answers. Given the girl’s attitude, it was safe to assume that she knew much more about what was happening than Tya.

“In that case, would you mind clearing up what confusion you caused?” ...She was by no means pleasant.

“Such as?”

“Who you are, to begin with.”

“Right. Names. Mine is Holly, hers is Lucy.”

Tya paused, wondering if there was more to that to be explained, but when nothing came she shook her head and made a gesture to continue.

Dark blue eyes rolled, and the older inhaled before continuing. “We’re prisoners too? Because humans are bad?”

“That was not at all the question I wanted answered.” And somehow, Tya was positive Holly knew that. “How did you manage to get out of the cell so easily?”

Again, hands rose with that similar gesture—fingers wiggling and an arrogant look on her face. “Magic,” Holly replied sarcastically.

Tya’s brow furrowed then. She’d read many books on magic in order to better hone her own abilities, but she couldn’t recall reading anything that would assist with a thing like this. That didn’t mean it didn’t exist though.

“Magic?” She asked finally.

“Yeah.”

Tya had hoped for some elaboration, but it didn’t seem any was going to come. She had begun to ask when the smaller girl tugged her sister’s arm and motioned down the hall to what Tya guessed would be the exit of this dungeon.

Holly nodded in response to the gestures, and started off without a word. Tya hesitated, but assumed she was indeed meant to follow.

Tya watched the two lead, noticing Lucy seemed to be the one in front. As stated, she wasn’t very knowledgeable when it came to children, but still, the two of them seemed exceptionally articulate for being so young. Was that natural? Perhaps nobility?

Even so, she couldn’t help but feel something was very off about the two of them. She was following but only paying partial attention to where she was going as her mind ran through an array of questions: How long had they been there? The grime on their clothing suggested some time. But if they were able to escape with ease, why had they stuck around to conveniently assist Tya when she arrived?

Perhaps this was indeed something orchestrated by Lillia. Arrest her and trap her. But if such was the case, why use children? Why tell her magic was being used to help her escape? Why not just drag her directly to Lillia when she was arrested? Why put on a show?

Perhaps the cell was to scare her. To show her what could happen should she refuse to lend help to Lillia’s rebellion…

The thought that this was some poorly made scheme by that princess boiled her metaphorical blood, a feeling only sated by the way she clenched her teeth. Her eyes set on the both of them again, and hostility pressed in her throat, stopped only by the reminder that she had no idea how to escape this apparent labyrinth of a dungeon without them.

Had she just paid attention, she would have noticed it wasn’t much of a labyrinth, but the point remained that she needed them to find her way out, and she would just need to make her escape before they led her off to be sternly scolded and threatened with treason again. She took a few quick steps forward to put herself closer to the two, then she looked around, checking the area to see if it was alright that she spoke. For a dungeon, it seemed there was an obscene lack of guards…

She opened her mouth to speak once again, preparing to inquire on exactly what was happening here, but before she could even begin, Lucy’s hand dropped from Holly’s grasp and she stopped in her tracks.

The younger looked around before looking up to her sister. There was nothing but silence between them, and they said nothing to the woman who followed, but somehow Tya still knew that it was best not to speak at that moment.

Holly’s hand extended outward toward one of the cells, and Tya watched as one of the bars seemed to turn to rubber. The way it wobbled and wiggled suggested it was completely softened.

A section broke free from the rest with a loud metallic snap. It shaped itself to be serrated and sharpened, all but a small portion at the end. Then it drew back, roughly meeting the palm of Holly’s hand.

Fingers closed tightly around the makeshift hilt…

Lucy stepped back, going as far to move behind Tya as well, and that was when the Elemental realized she’d thought too soon that there was a convenient lack of guards.

These girls had sensed a presence long before she did, though. She was correct that something with them was indeed off. Whatever abilities Holly had far surpassed her own.

Down the hall, a pale man revealed himself. He had rushed from the corner, indicating that he’d known of them the same way they knew of him.

Lips curled up, showing elongated fangs as a hiss escaped him, but no sign of fear could be seen on either of his apparent foes.

Tya straightened, realizing she needed to kick herself into gear just as the man started to charge at them.

Her hands went up in flames, and swirled up to take shape of a ball.

She hadn’t realized how unneeded her skills would be in the act of actually taking him down though.

He’d rushed forward, but Holly didn’t budge-- not until he neared her, spitting at the ground at her feet.

She dodged as if his actions were all too clear, and as if they were truly something threatening—something Tya didn’t understand at first, until she looked at the stone floor. It had quickly become burned and eroded, a crater in its once smooth surface.

She didn’t dwell.

Her attention pulled upward again, watching the armed girl move quickly to evade their enemy. She did so with ease, as if battle was second nature, despite her foe being surprisingly quick.

Their fight wasn’t at all long lasted. Her small size made it easy to slip behind him, and the makeshift blade she had pierced his lower back.

As a pained gasp left him, she released and hurried back.

He moved to pull the metal from his back, and managed to budge it just slightly before Tya realized why Holly had moved. She was waiting—

The fire she’d summoned was quickly cast forward just as he pulled the metal out. His clothes were taken up in flames first, but just like the last, he was soon reduced to ash with nothing left but the echoes of a pained screech.

Tya’s hands dropped to her sides and she looked to Holly. “He was foolish to not call for help.”

“That scream was enough to alert them something is wrong.” Holly held her free hand out to her sister. Lucy shuffled over to her, kicking at the dust and shaking her head as if such a thing was a shame.

The two hurried forward again, though this time with increased urgency. Tya couldn’t quite tell why… Her first assumption of course was just that they didn’t want to be found by more approaching guards—that the scream may have given up their position.

But watching them, she could see Lucy’s attention flickering from the path up to Holly multiple times, after which Holly would reply with simple, hushed statements like “I know” and “We are”.

Her questions were piling up at that point.

What was happening? Who were these girls? Why were they here? Why hadn’t they left earlier? Each question seemed to have a dozen sub questions and she was only stacking more on every time Holly opened her mouth. The worst part was that nothing was getting answered.

She let out yet another frustrated huff, looking around at the dungeon once more. It seemed they’d found their way to a main hall at some point—one which had doors to other sets of cells. Again though, there was a suspicious lack of guards aside from that one man.

She bit her bottom lip as she thought over possibilities to this again, coming up with nothing really coherent. The unfortunate part was that she couldn’t very well ask… They were apparently in quite a hurry, and along with that, Holly just seemed reluctant to answer anything despite seeming to know everything. Even if they would answer questions, Tya wasn’t sure she trusted what they’d say.

The rest of the dungeon was pretty much a straight shot from that point. They hurried out a thick wooden door, into another hall. This one was more well-lit by sconces along the walls. The left held stairs up, and the right, more doors, though to what, Tya didn’t know.

The girls continued to the left as if they knew the place well. How did they know it? Tya’s hands tensed, nails raking against the palms of her hands. Each step they took only furthered the idea that this was indeed a trap laid by Lillia…

Finally she stopped, her hands aching as flames pushed to ignite. She concealed the fire, but not her words.

“Might I ask where it is we are going exactly?” Her tone relayed her annoyance fully, causing both the girls to turn and look at her.

Lucy looked up at her sister, and for a second the older was silent.

She rolled her eyes before looking up to Tya. “Yeah, let’s just stop and have this conversation right in the middle of possible danger, right?”

“I am not going any further until my question is answered.” Tya stated firmly.

Holly sighed heavily, her weight shifting to one side. “We’re getting out of here. Is that not what you want?”

“And why had you conveniently sat in a cell until I showed up?” Her question came out in a manner that suggested she already knew what the response would be.

“Because we were told to.” Holly replied matter-of-factly, confirming what Tya had worked out for herself.

A quiet hum left Tya, and a smile spread across her lips—a bitter one that matched her angered expression. “I assume it was by Princess Lillia?” The title was exaggerated in such a way that made Tya’s spite entirely clear.

Lucy smiled then, nodding her head happily at that.

The readiness at which they both answered was lost on the infuriated elemental. If she hadn’t already been annoyed at the entire situation, she likely would have realized that they’d both know not to tell her such a thing if it was a trap. But instead, her mind disregarded that bit of information out of resentment.

It was Tya’s turn to roll her eyes, and she shoved past the girls. “I will find my way out, and I will not bow to your pathetic Princess’s wishes. You’re welcome to pass the message on and inform her that my answer is still no.”

With a wave of her hand, Tya haphazardly began up a curved staircase. Soon, she found herself upon a stone landing with archways on either side of her that seemed to lead outside.

She chose randomly with little more than a simple shrug, and started out the left.

It didn’t take long for the sound of steps to reach her again, and peeking back briefly she could see the two girls nervously shuffling up to her side. Nervously, meaning the small one seemed a little confused, and the older seemed irritated, though that didn’t seem unusual at this point.

“Are you always this stupid?” Holly asked in a shushed tone, dark blue gaze studying the area briefly to be sure no residents had spotted them. “You realize you’re walking directly through enemy territory, out in the open, with absolutely no idea where you’re going, right? I’ve literally never encountered a stupider human being.”

“I will find my way out, and I will set those that try to stop me aflame. They seem to die quickly with that plan, and I highly doubt they will be prepared. I don’t think they are expecting me, and I certainly don’t intend on going to speak to your whiny little princess.” Tya gave a nonchalant shrug in response, hands gesturing outward as she continued on, paying little mind to where she stepped.

They followed along what seemed to be an outdoor hallway on the borders of a courtyard. It didn’t seem to be much at that point. Tya could assume with the current inhabitants of the castle, it wasn’t being kept up with.

“Wow, great plan. Definitely well thought out—walk through and hope no one finds you, as opposed to my awful plan of sneaking out, with reassurance we won’t be found, a clean cut plan, supplies, and horses. You’re right, we should go with yours.”

“Oh, yes, because true finesse is certainly necessary in this poor little trap Lillia staged.”

“What are you even talking about? What trap?” Holly stopped in her tracks, hands moving to the sides of her head as she tried to comprehend just what was going through the absolute idiot of a woman before her.

“There’s no need to act as if you can still fool me with this, it was much too transparent. Tell her if she’s to trick someone, perhaps she shouldn’t make everything so convenient.” Tya turned back, shaking her head as she watched Holly.

“You’re literally delusional!” Holly’s hands splayed out before her, gesturing to Tya as if she just could not believe someone so stupid could ever cross her path. In response, the smaller girl held a hand up as if to signal them both to stop.

Tya tilted her head in bewilderment, but neither girl paid mind to it.

After the action was made, Lucy tugged at her sister once more and their eyes met for a moment.

Holly’s brow furrowed, and she looked back to Tya, shaking her head.

“What do you think we are doing?” She asked simply, then rolled her eyes and shook her head just a bit more. “Like, in a not aggressive way, tell me honestly, what is it you think is happening here?”

Tya’s brow arched once more before she shrugged and crossed her arms. “It’s obvious. Lillia told me I would be arrested for treason, so she poorly staged an arrest, had me tossed into a dungeon to give me a taste, realized she had no control over said dungeon, and sent the two of you to pretend we were in some grave danger, so I could be escorted to her and no doubt given a good talking to that would, in her mind, make me play along with her ‘save the country’ plan.”

Holly took a second to let that train of thought sink in, and when she finally managed, her expression twisted to one of utter confusion (mixed with minor annoyance). “Okay, I honestly don’t think I have time to point out all the things wrong with that statement, but that’s not the least bit true. It’s pretty elaborate though, gotta give you props for putting that together in the short time we’ve been here.” She paused, hands shaking as if they were ‘dusting away’ the current thoughts.

“So what’s happening here, in short, is you got captured by Valya’s guards.”

“Valya?”

An exasperated sigh left Holly, and she looked toward the open courtyard once again, then to her sister. Lucy shook her head, then Holly looked back to Tya.

“You know, the big Evil Sékan Queen everyone’s all up in arms about? High Queen Valya Caibre?”

Tya nodded in response to this. That was one of those things she felt she should have been able to put together on her own, but likely wouldn’t have regardless.

“Yeah, you killed one of her people and she hunted you down. You’re a threat and she wanted you imprisoned. I don’t know about it, we were going to find out when we got to Lillia, but you’ve stubbornly taken us in the complete opposite direction of where we are supposed to be going.” Holly motioned back toward the tower that contained the staircase they’d just come from.

Tya’s head tilted to the other side then, thinking over what exactly she was being told.

So her idea was wrong then? It certainly seemed like a poorly set up scheme, what with the lack of guards, convenience of the girl’s placement, and ease in which they escaped.

“We really can’t stand around here all day, so can you make up your mind on whether or not you’ll come with us or go on your own?” Holly’s gestures picked up, signaling that Tya needed to hurry her thoughts along so they could get going. “Things aren’t really going as planned, so we need to get out of plain view as quick as possible.”

Lips pursed then, and Tya exhaled heavily. As much as she didn’t want to give Lillia the satisfaction of her audience, Tya was too curious about the situation. If she was wrong then what exactly was happening?

Tya begrudgingly motioned forward as a sign that the girl’s should lead once again. With that, Holly hurried off in the opposite direction, grabbing Lucy’s hands and heading back to the stairs.

Tya followed behind, casting one last quick glance around the courtyard before they once again stepped through the arched doorways of the stairwells.