"Come on, they're here," Leahe grabbed her dress and armor off the floor and they both stood up, waiting for the rescue team to meet them.
Roy looked up in disbelief, and quickly stood up to pound on the door with his hip, as his limbs were tied. "We're in here!" he yelled.
Instead of an answer, a scream and explosions came from the door.
"Oh no," Leahe flinched as more explosions from outside rattled the door. "This room has been magic-proofed, so I can't do anything. Can you bang on the door again?"
"Hello?" Roy did as he was told, and the sound of small footsteps suddenly appeared.
"I'm here!" a small feminine voice came from the other side of the door.
"Emilie!" Leahe exclaimed.
"Okay, I'm gonna get you guys out. Ummm, where's the key?"
"Just blast it open! Hurry!"
"Okay... stand back."
The door exploded in a plume of black smoke, and Emilie rushed in, looking both of them over. She frowned at Roy's bandages, and in response he shrugged and explained that he had tripped over.
"Hey guys! Suri and the rest of the search party are fighting them off, and I was instructed to bring you guys to safety. They aren't going peacefully with us, and they have some Dark weapons with them. I'm worried for Suri- oh! I'm so sorry you guys," Emilie produced a knife from her back pocket of her dress and cut the bonds that were tied around their wrists, feet, and wings.
A small black, smoking chunk of what looked like rock on the floor caught Leahe's eye, the bomb that Emilie had thrown at the door. "Where did you get that?"
"Suri let me borrow it from her collection," she explained.
"Huh, I didn't know she had those,"
The four of them left the room to survey the bar, and the scene was disastrous. Outside, the fight seemed more intense than it sounded from the room. The bar table had been obliterated into dust, and the dim lamps that hung from the ceiling were bouncing up and down from the impact of the battle. In the room across from what had been the bar table, a man and a young girl were throwing small black rock shaped objects at Suri and the rest of the search party, similar to what Emilie had thrown to get them out of the room. Loud explosions boomed through the room as they landed. The man had weapons that flashed with light, which proved Emilie's statement that yes, they did have more Dark weapons.
Knives that aimed black light at the opponents flashed as the girl skillfully defended herself. Raven was limping, and through closer observation, a small dart was embedded in fabric and skin. The scream must have come from her, as the wound wasn't bleeding, but it looked like it was sucking out her life. Her face was pale as she adjusted her glasses and limped towards a bundle of thin green twine, almost similar to what bonds had held Leahe back at the field. Valkyries were falling every second, more reinforcements approaching behind them. The green twine held back some Valkyries on the ground, but the reinforcements slashed through them, and the battle raged on.
A small black shape flitted in and out of the man's legs, and after a while, Leahe realized it was a small silver cat, with amber eyes that swiveled to look towards them.
The Puzzle Master, Leahe thought.
The cat mewed, and kept staring at them. It pointed with its tail to the exit, and wove through the man's legs, trying to knock him over.
"She's saying hurry up and leave!" Emilie said. "But we can't-"
"Do as she says." Leahe commanded. "We will just get in the way, and we don't want more Valkyries to get hurt because of us,"
Reluctantly, Emilie tore her gaze from the conflict and nodded. "It's time to go."
As Roy, Leahe, and Emilie started to leave the scene, a man's bellow came from the bar, and hurriedly, without looking back to see who it was, the three flew higher until they reached the safety of the clouds. The sounds got quieter and quieter, until they couldn't hear anything anymore.
"I wonder why no one has noticed the battle and explosions?" Roy asked.
"There's a ring of enchantment," Leahe observed. "It must be keeping in the noise and destruction. That's why we can't hear anything from here."
"Yeah." Emilie suddenly went silent.
"What is it?" Leahe frowned, staring at her.
"Well, it's just—remember that boy I took from the field?"
"Yeah, I heard he had a camera on him,"
"So I found it and destroyed it. We took him to the base blindfolded and interrogated him for answers, and he confessed that he had a partner in our base,"
"Impossible! There are no humans except for the staff that work for the Puzzle Master, and they are her most trusted staff. They would never dream of betraying her." Roy added.
Leahe narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to interrogate this boy myself, and then we'll see the truth about who has been betraying us."
"Answer me now! Who are you working with?" she slammed her hands onto the table.
"I can't tell you," the boy said, calmly as he could. He had been frustrating Leahe for the past half hour, the exact same answer and tone with a hint of fear and anger. "I know you have her, she's here somewhere. Or did you already kill her? Bury her body in a trench? Leave her to rot in a field? I know all of the horrors that happen here." he spat.
Surprised, Leahe answered. "We don't do that here. So tell me her name, and I can help you reach her. I won't touch her, I promise."
He hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Sage Arello."
Sage, Leahe thought. The girl that she had kidnapped from the alley!
"She's here, and she's safe." she didn't dare tell him any more details.
She watched as his shoulders sag in relief, then tense up again. "I demand to see her." He tried to stand up, but to no avail. The bonds around his hands and legs strained as he tried to break them.
"Tell me your name child, so I can give word to her."
"Travis,"
"Last name?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Don't have one," he strained some more.
She smacked her hand overtop his wrestling fingers. "We have been informed you have kept Dark weapons in your custody along with the other girl, Raven. Know of her?"
"Dark weapons? his eyes widened. "No, I didn't-"
"She has a Dark weapon, and as you know, it is banned in every land. You will be taken into custody for now,"
"Sage?" he asked hopefully, as she reached the door.
She looked back once at him before responding,"You will meet her when we're ready."
His crestfallen face was the last thing she saw before entering the hallway.
Sage bent down to sit on the grass, weary. She had been trying to keep up with him using the orb, but soon realized that running was probably faster. They were in front of the small supermarket in the base, and her head hurt from all the new information about all the locations.
If I'm going to escape from this place, I might as well get used to my surroundings, she had thought.
"So how are you doing with all this new information?" Reese asked, appearing behind her from the supermarket doors holding two water bottles. "Aren't you terrified? Scared? Going crazy?"
Sage gratefully accepted a water bottle. "Hah, no. I'm doing just fine. I'm used to adaptations, and this was just another one of them." she took a small sip of her water.
"You must have been through some hardships on the streets,"
"Yeah."
"Are you really worried about the situation, or not really?"
She sighed. "Truly, I am worried. It's a lot of information, and I just don't know why I'm suddenly thrown into all of this."
His expression grew dark. "You were involved in some...conflict when you were little. We had just found you now, after tracking you down for ten years. I can't tell you much, but it was some dark times back then."
Sage stood up and brushed herself off. "Okay, I'm ready to go to the next location."
Halfway to the next site, the large field next to the lake, an elegant woman with a monocle glided up to them.
"Ophelia. What news have you brought us today?" Reese asked.
No wings, Sage noted. Is she a prisoner here like me too?
The woman too, was holding an orb almost identical to hers. Her face was grim as she spoke. "The new prisoner has asked for the girl."
Reese matched Ophelia's expression. "I will escort her there."
The woman nodded, held up her glowing orb to the sun, and disappeared in a flash of light.
I wonder who that prisoner could be, Sage thought as she followed Reese towards the puzzle shaped building. Who would want to see me?