For the first time in five years, Rhunal was back in chains. Each arm chained to the wall with large iron cuffs. Her feet manacled to a large loop on the floor.
Her large golden eyes stared into the gloom of the room, easily adjusting to the sparse light. ‘Five years is a long time, I almost forgot I was still a slave. But today is my last day as one.’ Her decision from the day before returned to her at last.
She tried to guess how long she had been locked up. Something about her extended drowsiness after waking up seemed unnatural. As a mage, Carinus had certain abilities to extend sleep. She wasn't sure, but it could have been days since Carinus had knocked her out.
But the iron cuffs were the consequence of her previous resistance. She took stock of them. They were tough and sturdy, but they could not resist her fire. She channeled her power to her left hand. Flames twisted around her clenched fist.
The iron cuffs glowed bright red as the metal heated. The hot metal seared into her wrists. It would have been excruciating for anyone, but she gritted her teeth and carried on, trying the ignore the smell of scalded flesh. She channeled the flames into a condensed area next to the cuff and blasted it in half. She repeated the tortuous process with her right hand.
At any moment someone could return and discover her escape attempt. She had to be quick. Loud yelling erupted from upstairs.
'Am I already discovered?'
The sound of many people moving around echoed through the ceiling boards. There was a loud thud of something heavy hitting the ground followed by a scream! And finally, there was the sound of more stomping overhead. She expected to hear whoever it was coming down the stairs next. Her heart beat faster, and her actions grew more frantic.
“What the hell is happening upstairs!” she exclaimed. She channeled her firebolt and launched it at the iron chain holding her manacles to the floor. Its explosive radius was small enough that she didn’t blast her bare feet. She got up, ran towards the door, and grabbed the handle to get out, fully expecting it to be locked. The handle glowed brilliant blue, and the door flared with energy. Too late, she realized her mistake.
Before she could let go, the energy in the door blasted into her.
'Of course he left a magic barrier!' She thought, before she slamming into the wall. A loud crunch echoed in her ears before the world went black, again.
*
Rhunal awoke to a sharp headache. She reached behind her and felt a massive lump on the back of her head. The boards of the wall behind her had shattered from her impact. Her skull had proved stronger. And it was silent upstairs now, and that scared her more than the noise had.
'No! How long have I been out this time?' She stood up and carefully approached the door. The force of the barrier spell had warped it outward.
Perhaps with a little more force, it would collapse? Forgoing caution, she channeled a firebolt spell and hurled it at the door. The door glowed blue and absorbed the concentrated blast.
"Damn".
'Of course a master level magic barrier would blunt magic attacks. But what about physical ones?'
She looked around the room. There were broken pieces of chains, a pair of broken boards on the wall, the wooden bed, and a thick wooden headboard.
'I’m getting out of this room. No matter the cost.'
She slid the thick wooden headboard away from the bed. She shouldered it with some difficulty and lined up her target.
“That barrier won’t stop this!” she shouted.
She channeled a wind spell around her left arm. Wind whipped around her arm as she accelerated it to faster and faster speeds. It wasn’t easy to both channel the wind spell and support the weight of the headboard, but she was determined.
She charged forward, hurled the headboard towards the door, and boosted it forward with the wind spell. The headboard, going at a good clip for something so heavy, slammed into the barrier. The door flared blue once more. The sheer weight and speed of the wooden headboard pushed the barrier backwards into the door. The door combined with its own barrier in a blinding blue explosion. The door and headboard erupted into chunks, exploding backwards into her.
For the second time that day, she was hurled backwards towards the wall! It was even faster than the first time, but she learned from the first time and tucked her head.
She slammed shoulder first into the back wall of her room! The wood shattered and displaced her shoulder with an audible 'pop'. She rebounded off the wall and stopped her fall to the ground with her uninjured left hand.
“AAAH! Shit!” she shouted.
But she was too elated at the success of her plan to dwell on mere pain. Her sense of pain had been dulled years ago anyway.
“Well, anybody still in the house heard that,” she said, half expecting an answer.
She forced her shoulder back into joint with a second loud 'pop' and grimaced from the sudden spike in pain. She lifted her left hand towards her shoulder. Her left hand glowed with a bright green energy that she ran over the injured shoulder. It was here that she finally gasped from the pain, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes. The healing always hurt more than the injury. But in a couple seconds of paralyzing pain, it healed her shoulder.
She slowly rose to her feet and walked towards the now empty door-frame. She stepped through the shattered door with a firebolt spell primed, floating above her left hand as a dense ball of flame. It was for protection, but it also helped light her way.
'There is still no sound from upstairs. Did I imagine the sounds of fighting? Who knows how long I’ve been unconscious in this basement.'
Chunks of door and headboard scattered into the other room all the way to the basement stairs. She crept up the stairs, craning her head to look above for any threat.
From the top of the stairs, she gazed down the entire length of the manor, across the long dining hall, and all the way to the front door on the opposite wall. The large candles were still blazing away in their candle holders on either side of the front door. It was night and there was no other light in the room. The double doors were shut and barred.
She felt relief first. 'It seems maybe I was just going crazy. I might have been more forceful getting out the room than necessary.'
But then, in the corner of the dining hall near the bar counter, she saw an odd shape on the floor. With most of the room so dark, it was a very subtle change. She advanced forward, with the fire spell blazing above her hand. She knew something was wrong, and desperately held her breath.
The shadowy shapes became more clear, and the scent of blood was in the air. All her senses were keen, especially her sense of smell. She saw the bodies on the ground and her heart sank. She knew by the first silhouette that it was Gilbert. His wife Avise was nearby, propped up against the bar counter.
She passed her hand with the fire spell closer to their faces. Both were pale and had been dead for hours.
“No!” she cried out, “Gilbert! Avise!”
She scrambled to the pair. The shock of finding them was too much. The spell in her hand snuffed out as her focus shattered. It took her minutes to muster the resolve to bring the light back to their bodies, as she willed it not to be true.
Avise was leaned almost restfully against the counter, if it wasn’t for the arrow through her ribcage holding her against it. A second arrow had buried itself into the counter beside her, a little higher up. From the placement of the arrow, near her heart, she had not suffered long. Besides the arrow, it seemed like whoever had killed her had not disturbed the body. Her eyes were closed.
Gilbert, in contrast, had fought hard and died hard. He lay on his side with a broken kitchen knife in his hand. The broken blade lay on the ground close by. He stared forward with almost a resigned expression. He also had an arrow in his shoulder. But it had not been what had killed him.
'He was protecting her after the arrow hit her. I think the arrow in the desk was aimed at him, not her. Then they cut him down. His side was deeply gouged with two sword strokes. Who would have done this? Why did they do this?'
Her fist tightened, shaking so hard that her knuckles cracked.
She looked around the dark room. There were no sounds in the house but her own breathing. The inner door to her master’s chambers broken wide open. The most valuable items her master owned would have been in that room.
'Why wasn't he home! He was the most powerful mage in Greihold. He would have killed the thieves in seconds!' But then she recalled his conversation with the armed man at the door, his imminent trip. It confirmed to her that she had been unconscious for several days.
'If I hadn't opposed master Carinus, I would have been upstairs, at least I could have died here with my friends. Better that than finding them like this.' She thought, guilt stabbed at her heart.
Rhunal looked down and Gilbert and his wide-open eyes. The unblinking stare unsettled her. She leaned over him and closed them. She reached towards the knife in his hand. He had gone out fighting. He should keep it. She clasped his loose fist tighter on the weapon. His skin felt wrong to her touch, rubbery and heavy.
Tears began streaming down her eyes. It had been five years since she had allowed herself tears like that. She had a right to in that moment. Gilbert and Avise had been her only friends.
'No! More than friends. They were my family.'
She collapsed against the desk next to Avise and stayed there for hours, weeping.
Before the night was over, she felt the breeze on her face from the open window. The moonlight shining through that window was the only illumination in that room.
“Today is my last day as a slave.” she whispered, remembering her decision for the third time, "there is nothing left for me here."
She got up and walked over to the window. Below that window was a large tree, thick with leaves.
She looked back to her friends and whispered, “Goodbye.” She shoved herself off the edge of the window and plummeted into the top branches of the tree.
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