"Hello again," I spoke behind Vask.
"Aiyeee!!!" Vask screamed, his face turning ghostly pale as he turned around to face me.
"Y-Y-You!" He sputtered out, I pushed him forward to get his back pressed against his desk; he looked like he was about to throw up.
"Call for help and I'll break your neck," I warned him, I felt fury pump through my hand as I held him by the collar.
I looked at Ashari, she didn't look any worse for wear minus the swelling bruise on her cheek from the slap from earlier. She looked happy to see me, but her eyes drooped.
"Ignis, I'm glad that you're here." She spoke softly.
"But, please-- go and leave with the children. We had lost the minute this wretched insect had caught wind of our village." She clenched her fists hard enough to cause them to bleed.
I had managed to catch most of their conversation when I had slipped in and from what I know; this is definitely something between a rock and a hard place.
I stared hard at Vask's face, he was sweating like a pig under the candleglow.
"Y-You heard her, there is no key." He choked out, the more he spoke the harder my chest hummed.
"No key, huh?" I mused.
I let his collar go and he let out a sigh of relief. Ashari looked at me startled over what I was doing.
"T-Thank you, good sir. I knew we could discuss like gentle-"
A resounding slap shook the foundation of the tent, its fabric rippled as my hand connected with Vask's cheek; he fell to the floor with a pathetic whimper.
"Did I say you could speak?" I knelt to where he was on the ground. And as the tent didn't have a set floor his face was half buried in the desert's sand; the cheek I had slapped looked like raw meat.
"H-hu-" He wheezed. The pain of the slap I had given him had likely knocked the wind out of him. I still didn't know the limits of my strength in this body yet, but I made sure that I wasn't going to kill him with the slap I had given him.
"That was a warning, Vask. In no less than a day, you've managed to completely sour my perception of the world." I sighed as I watched him writhe in pain.
I pulled him out of the sand by the hem of his coat and brought him up to eye-level.
"Now you may speak." I asked him.
"K-Key, there is no k-key." He repeated in a half-daze.
"That's a lie, there's always a key for a cage-- how else is it a cage?" I countered.
"B-Because..." He spoke in a barely audible tone.
"Because?..." I got closer, trying to hear him speak.
"Look out!" Ashari screamed as Vask unhooked his shortsword and drove it into my side.
*Thunk*
*Thunk* *Thunk*
The shortsword repeatedly stabbed me, but it couldn't manage to break my skin any more than a scratch. Vask kept trying, his wailing more frantic as with every stab attempt; but it wasn't working.
"Die, die you filthy freak!" He hissed in a murderous crazed state.
All I felt was pressure as the shortsword pricked my skin; enough was enough.
I thought back to what he had said earlier to Ashari, when he was talking about the key. He mentioned something peculiar; something about him in particular.
"So that must be it." I muttered to myself.
I grabbed my Vask's arm, and with a simple squeeze, I broke his wrist. He dropped his shortsword to the ground from the loss of control.
"Augh-- Augh.." Vask let out a strange animal-like cry of pain.
"The cage that you had left in the village, I saw that you were easily able to lean against it no problem." I began to explain.
Ashari's ears perked up as she listened to me, her eyes trailing up to mine.
"But when I had tried to open or break the cage open, there was this invisible force that surrounded the bars." I smiled, I had figured it out.
"There is no key because you don't need one, you are the key." I said as I looked over to Ashari; hope rekindling in her eyes.
"A-And?" Vask said as he spat out blood and sand.
"Kill me and the Magic will become unbreakable." He sneered victoriously.
"And my men, my men will hunt you and those miserable desert roaches under the glory of Solus and Solaster." He laughed.
"Who said anything about killing you?" I knocked him over the table, sending him tumbling over to Ashari's feet.
"Ashari, I have a plan. But before we do it, please make it so that he can't run away." I motioned to her.
Ashari looked down at Vask--
"Will do." She said as she cracked the knuckles in her hands; the muscles in her arms were bulging with vengeful power.
As I ignored the muffled howls of pain escape from Vask as Ashari handled him, I began to look around his tent.
There is one absolute thing in the world, no matter what world, that can sway hearts and move nations--
Greed.
---
Vask lay unconscious battered in bruises, both of his legs had been viciously broken in at their kneecaps; thanks to Ashari.
We had managed to sneak out from behind the tent and had circled around the outcrop leading back to the village from the west.
As we entered the village, there was Ratusk with his men still standing idly by the cage; they all had long lost hope.
"Papa!" Ashari cried out into the air, stirring Ratusk and his men back to life.
"A-Ashari!? How is this possible!" Ratusk raced over to us in half-disbelief.
"The Outsider, he had saved me." She explained as she also showed him the unconscious Vask in tow.
Wordlessly, Ratusk fell to his knees and bowed before me; he planted his forehead into the sand.
"Thank you." He said, I felt his gratitude envelop me like the moonlight.
"Don't thank me yet, as this isn't over yet." I crouched down to him and faced him eye to eye.
"There are more up there." I point to the outcrop and his eyes trail over to it.
"More children, not of your tribe, but children nonetheless," I said.
"I will need the help of the Zepar people to save them." I bowed to him, mimicking the stance he had given to me.
Ratusk laughed as he sat himself down onto the sand.
"Never did I imagine that an Outsider would prove such kindness to me and my people." He mused.
"But here you are, a savior to my daughter and to the children of my tribe." He got up and removed dusted himself off.
He offered a hand to me and I took it.
"We will help you, but, before we do, please--" He motioned to the cage still sitting in the middle of the village.
"Will do," I said with a smile as I began to drag Vask's unconscious body over to where the cage was.
As I arrived at it, I lifted up Vask and leaned him against the cage.
He easily sat against it, there was no resistance against him and the bars itself.
I let out a sigh of relief. Even though I had a pretty good hunch this was the case, it was a hunch nonetheless; an educated gamble.
"What are you doing? Where is the key?" One of the warriors asked, puzzled over what I was doing.
"You're looking right at it," I said as I shifted Vask's body over to the front of the cage, and puppetted his hands to open the lock.
With his hands held by mine, the cage door easily swung wide open.
The children inside were in disbelief, they didn't move yet from the shock of it all.
"Bira!" One of the warriors cried as he raced into the opened cage and hugged a young girl, she wailed in his arms.
And like an open floodgate, the rest of the men ran into the cage and reunited with their children. It was a moving sight, I felt my body un-tense itself from the sight and my chest's humming had returned to a calm state; this must be what true relief must feel for me in this new body.
Ashari walked over to me, she had something to say.
"Ignis, what is that plan that you had spoken of?" She asked.
"My plan?"
"It's nothing but a simple trade," I replied with a smirk.