I looked at the kids and back at Viktor, then to the edge of the seal. It was only about a hundred feet to the edge of the seal. Once outside, I could use magic and we could make a very speedy getaway. Unfortunately, because of the chains surrounding them, they would make a lot of noise, no matter how slow we went. That only left one option.

I turned to Viktor and mimed picking someone up and then waved my arms at my sides like I was running before pointing to the bounds of the seal behind us. He seemed a bit confused at first, but then seemed to realize my plan. I then mimed the same actions to the kids and they seemed to understand so I motioned to the girl who was on the left. I nodded to the boy and he gave me a trusting look.

I gave Viktor a countdown from three and, on one, we both picked up one of the kids, turned around, and sprinted out of the seal, the chains clattering as we did so. About halfway to the edge of the circle, I heard a voice from behind us.

“Get back here, you filthy thieves!”

We ignored her and just kept running, not paying any attention. We only had a few feet to go and we were almost out, but just as soon as that thought crossed my mind, there was a shooting pain in my back. I nearly collapsed to the ground, dropping the boy to the ground as I hobbled forward, my vision going a bit wonky. I saw Viktor step outside of the seal before looking back.

I could see the concern and anger on his voice as he set the girl down and raced back. I saw he was heading for me, but I shook my head. “Get… the kid…”

He frowned and quickly grabbed the boy, carrying him out of the circle and encasing the two in stone before running right back to me. I felt a rumbling behind me as he dragged me out of the circle as well, followed by more rumbling. When I turned around, the carts were both completely gone and the ground was a massive circular sheet of stone. I could make a guess at what Viktor had done, but I didn’t know how long it would work for.

He placed me face down on the ground and all I heard was, “I won’t lie, this is going to hurt, but you’ll feel a lot better afterwards,” before a sharp pain shot through my back. After a few seconds, my vision returned almost completely. Viktor tossed aside a glowing purple shard which quickly fizzled in to dust.

“What… was that…?” I asked as my body began to regain its energy.

“Darkness magic. It’s nasty. Most even slightly skilled darkness apprentices can disrupt you essence flow if not more. They’re not very fun to fight against. I can assure you of that.”

Once I had finally, pulled myself back together and managed to return to standing, I walked over to the two kids. “Alright, we’re going to bring you back to a cave we’ve been hiding out in, okay?”

They nodded and I motioned for Viktor to take the girl again. I conjured up a sleigh from clouds and placed the boy in it before boarding it myself. Once we were all on, we took off, flying back to the cave. Behind us, I heard an explosions followed by several projectiles being thrown in our direction. I turned back to Viktor.

“I think we should probably head underground if we’re wanting to keep these two safe.”

“I agree. Those two are already out and will probably be able to find us pretty easily. If we stay above ground, obviously.”

I nodded and we continued on until we reached the cave and quickly made our way back to the opening. We headed down, Viktor covering it back up behind us as we descended. After making our way through the tunnels and the sliding portion, we had arrived at the underground bunker. We quickly placed the kids down against one of the walls.

“Okay, so how do we get those chains off of them?”

“Well, to do that, we’d either have to kill the apprentice who created them, assuming they aren’t done with permanent seals, break the chains with some form of powerful offensive magic that isn’t heavily cancelled by darkness magic, or we can destroy the cuffs and just leave the chains as they are. That one will be the most plausible, but also the hardest,” Viktor answered, giving me a bit of a concerned look.

“Alright, can you do it?” I asked.

He shook his head as he examined the chains. “Most likely, but I’ve never really had to deal with darkness magic quite this strong before. It’s going to take some time.”

As he got to work on dismantling the cuffs, I took to pacing the room anxiously. My mind began to wander and I drew my thoughts to Lilith, not knowing if she was safe or not. The arrow on the compass was still in the same place it had been for the last day and Julian seemed to hopefully be with her, but that was hard to tell. I knew Julian was fine and Lilith was almost definitely fine as well, but I was still worried about her.

I was broken from my pacing as I heard a set of chains clatter to the ground. I spun on my heel and saw that the girl was now completely free of her chains. She got up and stretched herself. She seemed happy, but she didn’t smile and only found herself worried about the other boy. Neither of them had said anything so far, so all the information I had on them was just things that I could try and guess about them from observations.

“What’s your name?”

She looked up at me and just shook her head. She opened her mouth and pointed inside where I saw a faint purple glow. When I examined it more closely, I found that there was a glowing purple shard deep inside her throat near her larynx. I sighed.

“Viktor, you’ve got more work with her and probably him too, they have shards in their throats to stop them from speaking.”

“What is wrong with those people!” he growled as the boy’s chains clattered to the ground. He gave the girl a concerned look that I’d seen many times before from my mother and even the members of the group. It was a concern that only came from love.

“Are you siblings?” I asked the girl.

She nodded. Before moving her hands in a variety of different shapes directed towards the boy. They weren’t random and I felt like I recognized them. The boy responded with his own set of hand motions. I tried to focus on the movements and different shapes. I knew them somehow.

After a few more exchanges, I realized that they were using this world’s version of sign language. Even in a world full of magic, I found it a little crazy that they still had deaf and mute people. I began to actually read what they were saying to each other.

I turned to the boy with concern probably very visible on my face. “You don’t need a shard on your larynx, do you?” I could feel sparks begin to jump across my skin as he shook his head. “Did they do that to you? I’m assuming you’re deaf?”

“I have been deaf for a long time. They did not do it too me,” he signed.

I nodded and signed back. “I’m very sorry to hear that. I can only imagine how tough it is.”

“Your concern is appreciated, but I have learned to live with it. Someday, I may be able to get help, so I try not to worry.”

I smiled as he reached out a hand. I extended mine to shake his. The second I came in to contact with him, my vision began to go dark. I felt consciousness slip away as golden light engulfed the world around me.