Coalesce: The Escape

We follow him through the trees in silence. I still don’t know what to think about this whole thing but, at this point what do I have to lose? No harm in trying to get answers about whatever is going on. If he knows us, he may know more about my family. Around the time my mother died the people of Dallek thought we had magic in our blood. I never got the chance to find out for myself.

The empire hasn’t been too fond of magic lately, the Emperor was attacked by mages and barely survived. Magic has been outlawed for almost sixteen years now. I had always wanted to learn magic but the magic schools had been burned and the teachers imprisoned and accused of treason.

Kylon taps my shoulder and jerks his head to the side. Puzzled, I look in that direction and cover my mouth to suppress a gasp.

Soldiers.

Hundreds of Scholar’s Keep soldiers with Valley Forge prisoners. We slowly back up to keep from making too much noise.

“Filthy trees,” The captain of the group snarls and he surveys the area, pausing momentarily on the place where we are hiding. He holds up his hand and summons a few of the soldiers and says something to them that I can’t quite understand. They nod and move toward the thicker trees in all directions.

I feel the ferns at my feet moving and look down to see a group of nymph-flies. They were fighting over a piece of cloth they undoubtedly got from my bag. I cringe and hold my breath. We can’t be caught... Not now. We’ve gotten too far.

The soldiers’ footsteps get closer. “I found something over here!”

More footsteps.

“Where did it come from?”

“Don’t ask me, go look in those trees over there.”

They draw even closer. Kylon and Eraleth tense beside me. I clench my fists and close my eyes. We can’t escape from this, I’m sure of it. Unless someone has some trick up their sleeve.

I am dragged up by my hair and open my eyes to see the triumphant face of a soldier. Kylon and Eraleth are roughly grabbed by the arms.

“Trying to escape, were you, girly?” The soldier scoffs at me and the three of us are dragged to the prison wagons that had been hidden behind some trees. Our hands are bound with ropes and our possessions taken and thrown in chests on separate wagons.

“This is wonderful,” I muttered crossly and made a face as I tried to loosen the ropes on my wrists. Kylon sighs.

“We’ll figure this out. We may not be able to get our things back, but we do have a chance of escape. Eventually,” He grumbles, glancing around us.

“How are you so sure?” Eraleth glances at him then goes back to staring at the wagon behind us.

“I’m not. But right now, that’s the best we’ve got.”

“It could work, we just have to figure out the weak spot in their guard. Once we do that, we form a plan and escape,” I grin, then look back, hoping one of the soldiers heard me.

“Who knows where we’re going and how long we have, though.”

“Would you just look at the bright side for once, Sir Negative?” Kylon hisses at Eraleth and he shakes his head.

“Sorry, can’t help it. I do have all the Deus in my head after all.”

“What does that have to do with anything? And why are the Deus in your head?”

“Part of my negotiation is to serve all of them at once.”

“Oh,” I lower my head and close my eyes. What a strange companion we have… We fall silent, none of us knowing what fate awaits us.

I’m going to be discovered... I’m going to die here... I think in despair. It’s only a matter of time now.