Cold stone bricks lined the escape tunnel, every so often leaking a bead of water from the ceiling. Marie was carrying a torch we liberated from a wall sconce. Our shadows continued to morph as the flame danced atop the stick, traveling with us down the narrow and unsettling corridor.

  All was silent, save for the splashing water and clack of our boots.

  Agnes craned her head in my direction.

  “So... Leonn. Do you think you’d heal if you touched the walls?”

  “I’d literally rather bleed out.”

  She frowned, “you’re impossible.”

  “And bleeding.”

  Marie covered her mouth, exhaling sharply through her nose in a bid to maintain her composure.

  “What are you laughing at...?”

  Agnes promptly responded to Marie’s reaction as an attack. I swear to the gods, if they start arguing again...

  “Hey, Marie... why are you so suspicious of Agnes? Did she do something to you?”

  Agnes opened her mouth almost as soon as Marie did, but I put my palm up to halt her.

  “It all started with the evening-shade, that plant’s killed a couple of ignorant hunters back home.”

  She glanced behind us momentarily.

  “I learned early to stay away from it — something my father taught me.”

  Oh. If a medic is carrying around a deadly poison, I could see why.

  “Then... Agnes, why’d you have it?”

  Her eyes bounced across the corridor, as if one bad word would place a hunting knife at her throat again.

  “I’m sure you could have guessed by now, but I was a medic for the resistance.”

  She cleared her throat.

  “I carried evening-shade around as a mercy. There are so many people you just can’t save, especially if you work off natural remedies, not magic.”

  Back to the freezing silence, I suppose. She set her gaze forward. Bags sat under her eyes from a lack of sleep and likely painful memories. Marie thought she was trying to poison me, and probably assumed my wound was a part of that plot.

  Speaking of my injury, it started aching again, causing me to wince audibly.

  “Hey, Marie-”

  “On it.”

  Marie grabbed my other shoulder, helping to set me down against the wall.

  “I’m fine, both of you. Let’s just-”

  Another wave of pain shot through my chest. Had my wound somehow reopened? I didn’t want to know.

  “I think that pain reliever is starting to wear off. Are you gonna stab me if I try and give him something?”

  Marie shook her head, “but you better let me look at what you’re using.”

  For the first time today, they exchanged facial expressions other than the promise of violence.

  Agnes checked through her collection of small herbs, before handing a bottle to Marie.

  “Not poison?”

  “No. Go ahead.”

  It put a smile on my face, seeing them giving each other scraps of trust.

  Whatever she had given me, it smelled repulsive and tasted worse. I did my best to choke down the vile elixir.

  “Now we have to wait a little bit. I’ll check your bandages too.” She set her bag aside, top flipped open to reveal a familiar book.

  “You held onto that thing?” Questioned Marie.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I guess I did. Heat of the moment and all.”

  Agnes looked around, “...but it is Kastvassen research. Maybe I should take a peek.”

  Her hand moved, urged on by her justification.

  “Wait, the bandages, right.”

  “Might as well, not like we can return it.” I commented.

  Marie scoffed, “you scholars and your books...”

  We spent a while longer under nothing but this torchlight. Flames in an enclosed space tend to fill the air with poison, but this tunnel had built in air channels.

  We were finally back on the move, walking through the cramped hallway. That break — short as it was — really did wonders for the pain. It no longer seared into my consciousness, no longer interrupted every thought I had.

  “Agnes, since you’re with the rebellion, do you plan to go back?” I asked, draining the air of warmth.

  Her mouth opened, but then pressed her lips back together. Good going, silver tongue.

  When I thought all hope of an answer was lost, she finally responded.

  “I’ve had enough of the fighting for one life. I was hoping...” she ran her hands through her long hair, as if she had to be presentable to ask.

  “Maybe I could travel with you two? I’d still like to figure out your mystery.”

  Marie grumbled, passing a glare before shrugging it off, “if Leonn’s fine with it.”

  Agnes would be handy if Marie ever got injured, and I can keep helping her make her miracle cure.

  “Just try to get along. I can handle pain, but the arguing reminds me too much of home.”

  Light emanated from the end of the tunnel in rays, the evening sun partially visible through a metal grate. We stopped just before it, “just like last time. Back up, both of you.”

  I closed my eyes, praying the flame-beast would heed my command. I placed my palm at the center of the grate, uttering “break it.”

  Explosive force projected outward from my hand, blowing the grate to pieces as it soared into the river beyond. The ball of power expanded into a fiery bubble, before burning itself out.

  “Gods!” Agnes exclaimed, hands cupped over her ears.

  Marie lowered her arm from her eye-line, “Impressive...”

  A wide grin appears on my face, beaming with pride. Water dripped off the bricks, and a bead landed on my outstretched arm, sizzling away immediately.

  Blood washed away from my wound as we waded through the river. I could feel the water repairing me, but it also left me drained. At a point it stopped entirely, assumedly the rest was up to me.

  We reached the other side of the river without incident. The city continued to burn on the other side of the towering walls, though it sounded like people were banding together to remedy that. My wound had closed, leaving a “massive” horizontal scar on my back, according to our resident doctor.

  A company of man-at-arms marched in the distance. A banner displayed the Vuudweyen emblem as it flowed in the wind.

  “Hey, Leonn is that-”

  “Yes, it is...” Thinking on it for a minute, I started to wonder how they got here so quickly.

  No, there’s no way they could arrive so quickly unless they knew about the revolt. Father spoke their name like a curse, undoubtedly he was not here to help.

  “We should avoid the roads.”

  Agnes looked at me in horror, “you said... avoid, right? You don’t mean wandering through the woods, do you?”

  Oh, right. She’s been in the city for who knows how long.

  Rain started to crash down from the heavens. I’d once heard the prince of clouds, Teh-En, would weep on days like this — death and destruction, the loss of many lives. At the very least, the torrent would wash away the flames in Argos.

  For us, though, it was a nuisance. Marie’s cloak gathered droplets like sticks for the winter. Both her and Agnes were starting to shiver, though I didn’t feel it.

  “We need to shelter somewhere. This storm isn’t letting up” half-spoke, half-shouted Marie. “Any ideas?”

  Agnes pointed to an old ruin of a building through the mist. A watchtower, abandoned by time, and any semblance of care. It’ll do. We exchanged not another word before rushing to the place.

  The bottom floor was completely covered from the rain, though some of the upper floors collapsed into it, leaving rubble scattered about. I’m no builder, but even I’m surprised this place is standing. It had to do no more than protect us from wind and rain, so it better stay standing.

  We created a relatively safe firepit in the center of the room, using old, ruined paper and broken chairs for fuel. It’s too bad we ended up leaving everything we had in Argos, but what choice did we have? We’ll figure it out, we always do.

  Marie make shifted a coat rack, much to my surprise. It stood a modest distance from the flame, holding both her cloak and Agnes’ greatcoat. I didn’t even have a shirt to my name, likely it was destroyed one way or another. At least we could take a moment to breathe.

  Beside a sizable portion of rubble sat a lone longsword, the handguard beside it shattered in two. I inspected it closer. It reminded me of that old rapier with its blanket of rust. A sword like this would be usable, if not for the handguard.

  I then turned to the pile of rubble itself, sitting in front of a curiously missing portion of the wall. My curiosity got the better of me, and I moved a couple pieces aside. Wait, a hand? A person’s in there! I continue to tear at the debris wildly, shouting “Agnes! Get over here. Bring your bag.”

  The hand started to twitch, sluggishly reaching out. Thank the gods this person’s alive. My hand catches their forearm. “Wait, Leonn don’t move them. You could make it worse.” She scrambled over, medicine bag at the ready. “Try to clear the rubble around their face first. They can barely breathe in there.”

  We managed to free the poor soul from the ruins. He was protected — whatever that’s worth when a building falls on you. His cuirass was heavily dented, and the gambeson below was torn and tattered. His gauntlet had the emblem of the Kastvassen house, crossed out with a knife.