Nyx rolls to the side, sighing in relief as her numerous slashing wounds close. She was lying on the river bank of the central cavern that they managed to return to thanks to Julian’s memory. Lucas was working himself to the bone trying to heal everyone’s wounds using the river’s water to form dozens of tendrils, his skin turning paler by the second.

  - “Oh, that’s not good.” Nyx comments as she tries to sit upright. She immediately falls back down, her body unable to move. Beatrice manages to catch her head with her hands before it hits the rock.

  - “...I know.” Julian replies. He was nearby, sitting on the bank with his feet submerged in the water. “But… we don’t have a choice. I’ll take responsibility and carry him out of here if that’s the last thing I do.”

  - “I’ve seen a lot of humans die due to running out of lig- magical energy though! We can’t have that!”

  - “He’ll know when to stop.” Julian turns to look at her. “Besides, you’re one to talk. I don’t even know how you’re staying conscious right now.”

  - “I don’t want to pass out, or I’d miss a lot of stuff!”

  - “Whatever trick you’re using to prevent yourself from clocking out due to magical energy exhaustion, you should stop. You really need some rest, look at your fingers.”

  - “What?” Nyx looks down at her hands.

  She sees that her fingertips are a deep, dark purple, and are very slowly turning black. The strange color was slowly gaining ground, threatening to cover her entire fingers.

  - “Well that’s weird!” She observes. “What’s happening to me?”

  - “Magic-induced necrosis.” Julian replies. “That happens when you overwork your magic canals by expending more energy than you should. Normally, once or twice is fine, but this clearly isn’t your first time abusing your magic.”

  - “Magic canals?... Oh right, I remember Solomon saying something about that! They’re like veins that transport light in your body and let you use magic right?”

  - “I don’t know why you’re so dead set on referring to magical energy as light, but you’re right. In that case you should already know what’s happening to you.”

  - “Nope! I’ve never actually had them, it’s a very new thing to me. I never really looked too much into that stuff! Normally, I’m just… made of light.”

  - “Basically, first your fingers are going to fall off, then your limbs, and then you’ll die.”

  - “What?! I can’t die! Vanessa is going to pull my ear again if that happens…”

  - “Then stop dishing out insanely powerful spells like candy. I’m seeing that you’re somehow using your own energy to stay awake, which is preventing you from recovering.”

  - “I’ll go to sleep after everyone is out! I said I would take them outside, I can’t do that if I’m napping!”

  - “...Alright, but promise you’ll do so. I don’t want you dying on me after all that you’ve done.”

  - “Sure, I promise then! Ah, those are so convenient! Promises always seem to solve everything.”

  - “So long as you keep them.” Julian comments, slightly squinting at her.

  - “Is she gonna be okay?...” Beatrice asks, squeezing Nyx’s hand.

  - “Erm…” Julian glances at Nyx, who was still smiling like usual with her eyes sparkling. “I’m sure she’ll be fine, yeah.”

  Beatrice nods, and sits next to Nyx for the next few minutes. During that time, the gray haired boy with white irises who was summoning the giant wolves earlier walks over to Julian. The white wolf from earlier was following him, having shrunk down to the size of a regular wolf. The gray one was nowhere to be seen.

  - “...Hello. I wanted to personally thank you for freeing us earlier. If you wish, I am sure my family would be more than happy to compensate yo-” He starts.

  - “No thanks.” Julian replies, raising his hand in front of his face. “You sound like you’re from some noble background. I don’t want to deal with that right now. Plus, I didn’t just do that for the sake of it, I only needed some extra firepower to take down the warden. Just leave it at that.”

  - “You freed them?” Nyx asks.

  - “Yeah, they certainly weren’t gonna free themselves given that their cages were made of white gold.”

  - “White gold? What’s that?”

  - “It’s a rare metal sourced from the ancient Elven lands. It’s black in its ground state, but when exposed to pure magical energy it turns white. In that state, it starts absorbing all the energy in its vicinity, preventing people from casting spells or even regenerating magical energy." He turns to look at the escapees from the special containment unit, who were talking with the rest of the group. "I just destroyed the device feeding energy to the gold, and let these guys do the rest.”

  - “That’s how they kept us leashed!” Matilda shouts from the other side of the river. She was half encased in a bubble of water, and her arm was almost fully healed. “Not that regenerating energy’s a problem for me!”

  - “Yeah that’s strange.” Julian observes. “Almost everyone dropped after a few spells, but you stayed up until the end. Are you doing something like Nyx? If that’s the case, what I told her applies to you.”

  - “Oh nah, nothing that fancy.” She reaches her arm out of the water bubble, and sparks start coursing through her fingers before violently spreading across her arm. “Ouch!”

  - “Water is a conductor.”

  - “I know! I just… forgot. Anyways, my magic lets me use my cells to create a bunch of electricity! So if I don’t have energy, I can just overclock my cells to compensate!”

  - “Alright, forget what I said earlier. You’re worse than Nyx.”

  - “Damn! What gives?”

  - “From the look of it you were actually just burning yourself up to attack. If that dragged on any longer, you probably wouldn’t have made it to the river. Hell, if we didn’t have a healer you’d just be dead!”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  - “Eh, it’s not that big of a deal! No need to be so uptight!” Matilda laughs, and Julian sighs before looking down to stare at his reflection in the water.

  - “Ahem.” The gray haired boy clears his throat, slightly frowning. “As I was saying before being interrupted, the Lupus family will most likely be in your debt for the years to come. Do not hesitate to call upon our assistance, should you need any.”

  - “...Yeah sure. Also you don’t need to force yourself to talk that fancy. You’re a kid, just be like that. It sucks to be made to act like an adult when you’re not.”

  - “...Isn’t that right? I hate it!” The boy suddenly exclaims after a short silence. “Mom and dad always nag at me when I don’t talk like them or the other noble kids, it’s so annoying!”

  - “There it is.” Julian has a light smile. “I don’t mind listening to you, I know you probably didn’t have that many people you could talk to normally.”

  The kid spends a few minutes chatting with Julian, complaining about a variety of things while the latter seemed to be holding in his laugh. After that, the group is mostly capable of walking, and Lucas collapses, almost falling in the river. Julian catches him, and places him on his back.

  - “Good work Lucas.” He says before turning to the rest of the escapees. “Alright this is the last stretch! Let’s go, mercenary you show us the way!”

  The mercenary silently nods and directs them to a different door in the carven’s wall. They follow her, and begin their ascent as their path through the tunnels quickly turns into a slope. Nyx was still unable to walk, and people from the original group of escapees took turns supporting her, sometimes telling her words of encouragement. They run into a few bandits here and there, but Matilda along with the rest of the escapees from the special containment unit take care of them before they can even call for help. At some point, Matilda places her palm on the face of one of the bandits, discharging so much electricity that his head bursts open, drenching her arm in blood. Julian does his best to cover the eyes of the younger children in the group, and Beatrice hides behind Nyx to avoid the splatter.

  - “Whoops.” Matilda turns towards Nyx. “Sorry boss, thought he was a little tougher!”

  - “Hmm? What are you sorry about?” Nyx replies, tilting her head to the side, a drop of blood from the mercenary running down her cheek.

  - “I know you don’t mess with killing people and all, so… y'know."

  - “Oh that’s just me! Don’t worry, I know you humans love killing each other, so feel free to pick fights! I wouldn’t want to make your story less entertaining, or hold you back! Granted if you ask me, it’s better if they survive the fight in question. It always makes for very fun stories!”

  - “Huh. You’re not right in the head, boss! But I like that about you!” She laughs.

  - “People tell me that often! Also why do you call me boss? My name is Nyx!”

  - “I saw you fight, and you were out there brawling with the warden one on one to free us! Most people here would’ve gotten their ass handed to them in ten seconds!” She pauses, and whispers “Not me though.” before continuing. “So I’ve decided I’m fighting for you, for the time being!”

  - “To free you? Oh that’s what it looked like to you!”

  - “Oh you weren’t? So you were just itching for a good fight?” Matilda loudly laughs, preventing her from hearing Nyx’s answer. “I think I like you even more now!”

  The group suddenly comes to a halt, as they are faced with a small door made of stone. The mercenary turns towards them.

  - “It’s here.” She says in a low voice.

  - “I’ll open the door this time, I don’t feel like getting kicked in the gut again.” Julian says as he steps forward.

  He reaches forward and pushes the door. The group is immediately blinded by a light much more powerful than that of the torches, as the sun’s rays fill the corridor. A gentle breeze washes over them, and some people begin tearing up, having forgotten the smell of fresh air. They all quickly exit the constricting tunnel, and find themselves in the middle of a forest. Birds were chirping, and leaves were flying around them, carried by the wind. A small stream was flowing nearby.

  - “I missed the outside!” Nyx exclaims. “I don’t like the underground, I can’t see my stars from there.”

  - “You know what, me too.” Julian adds.

  - “I’m free!...” Beatrice says, looking up at the canopy.

  - “Can you… y’know… please heal my hands now?...” The mercenary desperately asks. She was looking at the ground, her frostbitten hands shaking.

  - “Yeah.” Julian taps Lucas on the shoulder, and the latter wakes up. “Hey Lucas, you think you could fix her up? I know that I’m asking a lot, but don’t worry it’s only her hands. I’ll make it up to you when I can.”

  - “...mhmmm?” Lucas replies, still groggy. “Sure… Bring me to the water…”

  Julian carries Lucas to the stream before carefully placing him on the bank. Lucas lazily dips his right hand in the water, and a tendril forms before stretching and surrounding the mercenary’s hands in two bubbles. She looks up, utterly shocked as her fingers quickly start healing.

  - “What’s the matter?” Julian asks.

  - “You… I thought y’were just gonna kill me!” She replies, the faint pink glow returning to her eyes.

  - “Why would we do that? Unlike you, I don’t play mindgames to betray people. If I wanted you dead, I would’ve just said that.”

  The mercenary grits her teeth, and without a word jumps back and runs into the forest. She quickly disappears in the bushes.

  - “I couldn’t even finish healing her…” Lucas comments.

  - “Well, that solves that.” Julian calmly says as he watches her run.

  - “Well damn. There goes my guide.” Matilda complains. “I ain’t fast enough to catch up to her.”

  - “Your guide?” Julian asks. “We’re out though.”

  - “I was just making sure y’all made it out. I’m going back in to finish the job and free the rest of the prisoners in there before the real heavy hitters hit the field. I heard em call for reinforcements earlier.”

  - “That’s… surprisingly noble. Especially for someone from Polemys.”

  - “What do they even teach you about us?... Also nah, I just really wanna get back at them. Hate these guys.”

  - “That… sounds about right.” Julian turns to the rest of the group. “We need to figure out what to do from now on! Do any of you know how to get back to your homes?”

  A confused chatter starts running among the crowd. Nyx could hear things like “I’m from Utopia, I don’t even know where we are right now…”, “My home was burned, where do I even go back to ?...”, or “I don’t even have money, how can I make it back?...”

  - “You could always go to Oakvale!” Nyx shouts to the crowd, who falls silent.

  - “Oakvale?...” Lucas asks.

  - “That’s my village! There’s a guy named Cassius there, he’s in my eternal debt or something. Just go there and ask him to help you get back home! I’m sure he’ll figure out something!”

  The crowd starts to whisper, uncertain of what to say, but Lucas quickly makes his choice.

  - “Well, I trust you Nyx. So I’ll do that.”

  After that, most escapees end up nodding along, and siding with him. A tall man with red hair and green eyes speaks up.

  - “I have some family in Oakvale, so I know where the village is. I could lead everyone there.”

  - “That’d be a big help.” Julian says, reassured. “Are any of you capable of hunting food and securing shelter for everyone?” He gets a couple nods from a few escapees boasting practical survival skills, and he nods back. “Alright then, I don’t think I have to worry.”

  A few of the escapees actually join forces with Matilda, particularly most of the ones from the special containment unit, and they head back towards the tunnel.

  - “See ya around!” Matilda shouts as she waves towards Nyx and Julian. “I’ll come by to pay a visit and ask for a fair fight when I got the time!”

  - “Bye, take care!” Nyx happily waves back.

  Matilda grins before closing the door behind her. Said door rapidly disappears, and is replaced by an inconspicuous boulder as sparks of rainbow colored light flicker around it for a few seconds.

  - “They’re hiding the entrance with an illusion huh.” Julian comments. “Standard, but pretty effective.”

  - “Alright, bye Julian!” Nyx says as she attempts to walk away, but simply falls over. Beatrice tries to support her weight with all her might, but ends up falling with her anyways.

  - “And where do you think you’re going in your state?”

  - “To the capital ! That’s where I was headed originally!”

  - “Alone?...”

  - “What’s the problem with that?”

  - “Alright…” Julian sighs. “First, what you promised.”

  - “Right, everyone escaped! Time for a nap!”

  Nyx’s vision almost instantly fades to black, the last thing she sees being Julian giving her a worried look and Beatrice trying to make sure she doesn't hit her head on a rock as she falls.