Astrid watched as Taha and Eve pushed the iron door shut and engaged the lock. Eve then swept her palms together to free them from the dust. 

"You're going to question her?" Eve asked.

"Yeah," Taha replied.

Eve threw a final glance at Astrid and turned. "Just make sure you don't give more than you get." Her dismissive tone confirmed to Astrid that she truly had no interest in her.

With that, Eve disappeared up the stairs, taking Astrid's pack and the last feeble rays of light with her.

Now it was just Astrid, Taha, and the woman named Ahnkurra, all together in the dark, in the basement of the Northern Stronghold. There had been some unlit torches on the wall, but they stayed put out, strengthening Astrid's belief that they were all immortals.

As for herself, her hands were cuffed, and she was confined to a small, empty portion of the basement. Two walls of stone, two composed of vertical iron bars. She thought she had seen at least one more cell in the room.

She heard the scrape of a chair. Taha sitting down, or Ahnkurra standing up. Ahnkurra had stayed fairly silent throughout the ordeal of Astrid being brought in, which, she had to admit to herself, scared her. 

Astrid heard a clicking noise, and then Taha started speaking. "I've turned on a tape recorder so that our conversation may be held for posterity. Please state your name and position."

"Astrid Faizah. Ambassador of Hathorsha." She held her breath. She had tried to speak confidently, but her own voice sounded strange to her.

"Do you know where you are, Ambassador?"

"Inside Hathorsha's Northern Stronghold. In the basement, being held in an empty cell." Like a common thief.

"Why did you come here?"

"In search of the Zitaflora, in order to bring Queen Mawara back to life."

"Have you been harmed?"

"No."

"What is your condition?"

"A bit hungry."

"That will be resolved. Who is your party?"

"His Majesty The Prince. A knight. And a bodyguard." 

"Why did you break away from them?"

Astrid paused, mouth open. It was then that she realized she had never dreamt of really explaining this to someone. For how long was she going to have a reputation to protect? Did it matter?

"I reserve comment on that," she eventually said.

 The sounds of slight readjusted seating. "Will you answer if I turn off the tape recorder?"

"I suppose." The fate of the recording didn't matter to her. She figured it was better if they could all speak freely.

There was another click. "Look."

Ahnkurra laughed before Astrid could say anything. "You need a light."

"Oh yeah," Taha said, a little sheepish.

A moment later the sound of footsteps neared Astrid. A fire appeared in front of her and hovered below the tape recorder in Taha's hand. The machine was off. Astrid nodded and the lighter was closed.

"Why did you break away from your group?" Taha repeated.

Astrid breathed. The darkness pressed around her. "Who are you people?" she asked.

Taha said nothing.

"What's your objective? Where are all the Hathorshans who were here before?" Astrid tried.

Taha sighed at length. "Tell me, Ambassador. Do you think immortals are treated well in Hathorsha?"

So that's what this is about? 

Astrid considered the question. Ever since her impromptu promotion, she'd been too preoccupied with her own problems to consider the state of Hathorsha beyond the duties which were laden upon her. Was that wrong of her? And was it safe now to acknowledge the obvious truth?

Well, what did it matter. 

"No," Astrid replied eventually, tasting the word of dissent as it left her tongue. 

"I see…" Taha said. "But you didn't do anything about it, did you?" Astrid heard footsteps walking away. 

Taha changed the subject. "Before we give you food, I need to place a magic-sealing curse on you."

Astrid's eyes widened. "Must you?"

"Yes— you can crush any thought of escaping right now, since I built this enclosure myself… but just in case, we can't let you replenish magic energy with no restriction."

"I see… well then, I'll decline to eat, if that's alright by you." Astrid dropped her head. "All my magic forever is a lot to give up. And to my understanding the only way I could break the curse would be to kill you, which I don't want on my conscience."

"But we're—" Taha stopped. Astrid could almost hear his realization. She doesn't know...

"What?"

"I'll leave you be for now, but you can't starve yourself," Taha said abruptly. "Do you need anything else?"

The pitch-black darkness was all too unnerving. Astrid assumed they wouldn't mind putting some light in here if she asked. But she replied, "Nothing, thank you."

At that moment, the door at the top of the stairs opened, to reveal an unfamiliar silhouette backed by the halo of light from above. Astrid couldn't see the figure's eyes, but she felt their gaze reach her, and an inexplicable shudder ran down her spine. This was someone with power.

The moment passed as Eve's taller silhouette appeared and placed an easy hand on the figure's shoulder. Eve leaned forward and yelled, "Come on, Taha. It's time."

Taha looked up. "Oh, hello Ria," he said. "Yeah, I'll be right up."

~ * ~ *~ * ~

Frey woke up. She shivered and sat up. She quickly realized that her hands and knees were tied together, and that was when she remembered what had happened. She'd tried to capture the prince all on her own, in an attempt to redeem herself. But now she'd only gotten herself killed, and was further beyond redemption than ever.

She looked around. Her rifle was nowhere in sight. Maybe the enemy had taken it? That meant she couldn't use the knife attached to it to free herself.

Perhaps she should just stay here and waste away. But Eve would probably hunt her down, even more enraged about all the time wasted by having to come out here again.

Frey closed her eyes and brought her wrists up to her ear. 

She had a wide variety of different earrings. Some of them weren't so well-made, and in fact had sharp edges. She undid one of these steel earrings and put it between her teeth. Holding it there, she dragged the wire binding her wrists against the earring back and forth, repeatedly, until she was finally able to cut through it.

She released her wrists and considered her next move as she began to cut the wire around her knees.

Facing everyone seemed impossible now. Maybe she should run far away. Perhaps she wasn't cut out to be in a team after all. Much less a family.

But Molly didn't know what she'd done. The face of Frey's twin sister floated in her mind. Molly would probably worry about her if she disappeared. She had to admit that to herself.

Fine then. Frey would return and endure the shame and hatred, however painful it was. But she would never try to take action ever again.

~ * ~ *~ * ~

Dice, Taha, Eve, and Ria sat around a low table on the third floor of the stronghold. Like the basement, this floor was perpetually left dark. They were encased in the comforting smell of wood and the cups of tea in front of them.

The four of them were given the most responsibility in the group. It had been decided based on age, the oldest being Dice, then Ria, then Eve. The oldest after Eve was Ahnkurra, but she had passed up the decision-making responsibility, so Taha was there instead.

"Alright, final thing to discuss," Ria was saying. "Eve captured the ambassador earlier than expected. Did you learn anything useful from her, Taha?"

"Nope," he said. "But it seems like she hasn't realized we're immortals, which is good for us. She also refused to eat if it meant we'd seal her magic."

Ria tilted her head. "We'll try again with that when she's adjusted more to her situation. However—"

Ria paused and they all stopped to listen as a chorus of footsteps rang in from the stairwell. Moments later, Frey entered the room, pushed in by Molly.

Eve jumped up. "Why are you back?"

Frey averted her eyes and rubbed her arm, not saying anything.

"Go on, Frey," said Ria in a curious tone. "Why are you here? Did something happen?"

Frey looked up at her and looked away quickly. With what seemed like great effort, she said, "The prince killed me."

Taha gaped. "How did that happen?"

"I…" Frey's face crumpled. "I wanted to help, by capturing him..."

"Hey, it's okay—" Taha started.

"It's not okay!" Eve snapped, curling her hands into fists. "This throws a wrench into everything. The prince has his magic abilities back. The abilities that arose, remember, from the strongest magic bloodline in Hathorsha."

Taha's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, and that sucks, but it's not like we can't handle it. The prince is going down, whether he has fifteen specializations or not a drop of magic energy free to him at all."

Ria interjected. "We can't take the situation that lightly." She nodded at Eve. "This is certainly a disadvantage. But Taha's right that it's also not the end of the world. We'll just need to prepare to face Prince Jacob with his magic intact. What intel do we have about his abilities?"

"We only know one of his specializations, which is electrical magic," Eve said.

"Did you see him do anything else, Frey?" Ria asked.

"No…" Frey said, looking down. "He just shocked me through the wire in my hands."

"That's fine. Useful information. We should all prepare leather gloves to counteract that. Taha?"

"Yeah, sure, I can make some," Taha said.

"Eve, could you go around and take note of who needs the gloves? Taha will probably need hand outlines too."

"Sure thing," Eve said with a smile. The tension in the room had eased up considerably.

"Excellent. Dice, if you think it's worthwhile, you could also go and ask our captive further questions about the prince and his party."

Dice nodded. He figured Ria was asking him because he and Eve were the two most reliable lie detectors in the stronghold.

"Very well. Now I'd like to speak with Frey privately, but thank you, everyone." Ria smiled. "Let's do our best. So long as we capture the prince, we'll be able to destroy immortal weapons once and for all."

 ~ * ~ *~ * ~

Molly slid the platter of lizard meat kebabs over to Frey as she sat down at the table next to Oshto. Taha and Molly were sitting on the opposite side, and aside from Frey they'd all been having lunch. Frey picked up a kebab and nodded slightly.

"Did Ria give you a punishment?" Molly asked in Hathorshan Sign Language. 

"She told me to sit in the Deadlock Room later," Frey replied quietly.

"Hey, how is that a punishment?" Taha asked.

Taha and his Deadlock Room… Molly gave him her best attempt at an angry look. Taha smiled. Molly turned back to Frey and signed, "That's not so bad though! See, we'll finish up the ritual, you'll do your punishment, and everything will be fine."

"That's not all though," Oshto said. "The ritual's just the start, right? Even after we destroy the immortal objects, we still need to head inside Hathorsha and support Ria there."

Molly's eyes widened. "Oshto, watch out! Eve's coming down the stairs and she looks angry!" she signed.

Oshto gasped and whipped his head around to look behind him and see… no one. Taha's voice jolted him as he and Molly started laughing.

"Alright, alright," Oshto said, settling back down in his stool, only half-annoyed. 

"Back to what I said," Molly signed. "So do you see now that there's no reason to beat yourself up, Frey?"

Frey averted her eyes, and replied haltingly. "Even… even if we succeed… it won't change what I did. And it won't change… me."

"Come on, Frey," Taha said lightly. "You can change yourself if you really want to. I mean, look at me. Last month I was two inches shorter!"

"We don't all have magic wizards from Tempera who we can ask for help for our problems," Molly signed, grinning.

"Wow, says the one person in this building who can use magic," Taha remarked.

Frey laughed, and Molly was glad to see part of the tension leave her sister's shoulders.

Then Molly tapped the table. "Here comes Eve."

~ * ~ *~ * ~

Oshto raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Not falling for that twi— AGH!" he exclaimed as Eve appeared next to him.

"Falling for what? Actually never mind, my brain might melt if I hear whatever nonsense you all have been polluting the air with." Eve circled the table, slammed a pad of paper down in front of Molly, and uncapped the marker that had been behind her ear. "Hand on the paper. You don't own leather gloves, right?"

Molly shook her head and obeyed, and Eve started tracing the outline of Molly's hand.

"Hey, hey," Taha interjected. "That outline's too close to her actual hand— here, let me do it."

While this discussion was happening, Oshto turned his head to Frey and spoke in a low voice. "Gonna watch my back when the prince shows up today?"

Frey looked down. "That's my job. I think."

A weird response. Oshto tilted his head. What should he say? "Listen, I'm not as good as Taha and Molly with the… words thing. But I do trust you. I hope you know that and everything." Oh, he felt horribly awkward. He hoped it was worth it.

Frey met his eyes. "...Eve also trusted me," she said, almost inaudibly.

Oshto considered this and shrugged. "Well, what's a little broken trust between friends?"