Xix and Seises with their group of newly trained assassins headed out to the dock. It was dark and made it easy for the group to travel. The group was outfitted with old world tech armour they had been given by Ashera. It was light weight and far more flexible than their old leather armour. With its sound dampening properties the group moved more silently than they had ever expected. It helped that a new boat had just come and gone. The other prisoners were busy trying to get supplies from their corpses.

  It had always been a set group of guards at the dock. They were usually the most depraved that ended up there. Venthal wanted to give the new arrivals the best welcome he could think of. Xix hoped that they hadn’t changed the way things worked in the last year. She was glad that she had brought Lyra. Lyra was one of the last people to get into the group before they collapsed the cave. No one would recognize her around the docks, and she could run a little reconnaissance before the group made their move.

  The group spread out around the entrance to the docks waiting for the guards to begin their nightly patrol. Xix took three members with her down the right-side fence and Seies took the other four with her. Lyra went into the docks to scope things out.

  Lyra made her way silently down towards the docks scoping out how many guards there were as she slunk from shadow to shadow. Lyna had counted a total of six guards so far. More than when she had arrived on the island but still within what Xix had prepared them for. Lyra heard this panting coming from the path. She moved herself further into the shadows. As a very out of shape guard ran past a figure emerged from the guard house to meet him. It was Rivnear. This changed everything, still Lyra wanted to know what the messenger had brought him.

  “Took you long enough, you new recruits are as useless as the prisoners,” Rivnear said, scolding the out of shape guard. “I’ve been waiting for my orders to return from this posting for six months. I would have hoped Venthal would have forgiven me by now. I mean it’s not my fault the group of no-good shit disturbers buried themselves in the cave in.”

  “Yes… very… very good sir…” The guard wheezed. “Here are your new orders. I was told to tell you they start immediately.”

  Rivnear grabbed the scroll from the guard and motioned for him to go get some water. Rivvnear unrolled the scroll and started reading.

  “Rivnear, your time at the docks is up. About damn time you fucking elf,” Rivnear said, clearly displeased with how long this order had taken to reach him. “Return to the city, there is a special inspection coming up. I need to make sure all missing prisoners look accounted for in solitary.”

  “Of course,” Rivnear thought, “another menial task. I wish he would give someone else the shit jobs for one.”

  Rivnear deciding it wasn’t worth getting in more trouble decided to hurry his way back into the city. At least there he could get a drink and a decent meal, unlike the rations at the dock. He casually walked past the still wheezing guard.

  “I guess this is your post now,” Rivnear said to the guard. “Try not to fuck it up.”

  Lyra hurried back to Xix running just a bit slower than Rivnear to not draw attention to herself. Xix, ready to pounce on whomever came out of the gate, caught a glimpse of the signal light Lyra was told to use if things were going to go to hell. Xix stopped dead in her tracks and watched Rivnear run past. This made Xix furious; this was a golden opportunity to get rid of him. Xix wondered why Lyra had stopped her. Once Lyra was sure Rivnear was gone she explained everything to Xix.

  Xix pursed her lips, she was thinking hard about the situation. The group had three weeks to put all their plans into action if they were going to succeed.

  “Now we take the docks,” Xix whispered. “We leave nonalive.”

  Xix motioned to Seises who was still holding by the other side of the gate to move in. The group went through the docks stealthily taking out all guards. The problem came when they made it to the guard cabin and heard the guard Lyra had told them about talking with someone.

  “You’ll be my eyes and ears out there now,” he began, “When new arrivals come in you are to bring me the best women who are aboard. I will offer them protection from this harsh land…”

  This set Xix and Seises off. They burst through the doors. Xix sliced the throat of the would-be guard leader. Seises grabbed the other as they tried to escape out the loose boards in the back of the cabin. Seises smiled as she brought him into the light. It was one of the members who had left with the group to get the water.

  “Not your lucky day,” Xix said, as she quickly and skilfully put him down.

  Xix, Seises and the group gathered up the guards and stripped them of their armour. They noticed the glowing red runes inscribed on the inner of the armour. Xix had, through her training, learned how to dispel wards like this that locked items to their wearer. She pulled a small chisel and hammer from her pack. She pulled a small glass lens used to enlarge objects from the pack as well. She put the lens in her eye and began to look at the ruins.

  Loosely translated the ruins said, “to the wearer of this armour shall I forever be bound.”

  Xix took the chisel and hammered away at the ruins changing their meaning to be, “anyone who wears this armour shall have its full protection.”

  Of course, this armour was nowhere near as good as the gear they currently had on. They had to look the part which meant wearing the clothes. Fortunately, the armour they were currently wearing fit under the guard uniforms giving them extra protection. Once they were dressed, they turned their attention to disposing of the bodies. The easiest way would be to weigh them down and put them out to sea. Xix grabbed a few others to get some rope and some things to weigh them down with. Seises and her group put the guards in prisoners' clothes. That way if they did pop up no one would be suspicious. With Xix, Seises and the group now in charge of the docks it would be easy for them to funnel new recruits to the hideout. It also meant they would be able to take care of any problem people coming to the island as well.

  “Lyra, I need you to go and report to Ashera what we have found out here tonight,” Xix ordered. “Be safe, be quick and make sure you’re not followed.”

  ***

  Rothar and Lyna’s group made their way along the coast to the body dumping area. They needed some pieces to lure the rantoru to the city. Once their packs were filled with the half-eaten remains the scraves had left behind. They headed out across the island to where the Dragolisk had been. Carefully not to draw attention to themselves whenever they saw others heading towards them, they simply pretended to be taking armbands. This allowed them to make it to the other side of the island without any issues. Which was advantageous for their plan to come. Once there Lyna looked over the edge for where the entrance to the rantoru nest might be. Nestled between two outcroppings was an almost imperceptible shadow of a cave entrance.

  “Over here,” Lyna whispered.

  She waved over the group and began to string some corpse parts together on a long piece of rope and lowered them over the edge. They left them dangling in front of the cave entrance and started heading back towards the city leaving parts as they went. As they walked along, they began to hear growling and chattering coming from behind them. Lyna motioned for the group to pick up the pace, so they didn’t end up on the menu.

  As they ran along back towards the city, they were drawing the attention of others who were out gathering arm bands. This was good, they would go running from the rantoru adding to the confusion. The growling was getting louder and closer and now the other prisoners could see them coming. It wasn’t just one rantoru that was following the group, it was a pack.

  One stood out to the horrified onlookers. It was larger than the others and was a sickly green colour. It was leading the pack, the pack which was now spreading out eating those prisoners they could catch. Some of the rantoru were taking prisoners back to their nest to store for a later time. The remaining portion of the pack, including the mutant numbered four, was heading directly to the city.

  Lyna, Rothar and the group ran past the city giving it a wide berth. They headed back to the ruin, double checking no one was following them. They were not surprised to see that no one was paying attention to them as the rantoru caused an uproar.

  ***

  Venthal was awoken by bells ringing and orders being screamed by the guards on watch.

  “rantoru! The rantoru are headed for the city!” He could hear the guards screaming.

  Venthal jumped from his bed muttering under his breath, “fuck why now.”

  Venthal rushed to get ready. He put on his elven armour under his normal guard uniform. It was his prized possession from the war. He grabbed his runic blade and headed out from the guard tower to see what was going on. Guards stopped dead in their tracks to salute him as he ran past.

  “Morons the lot of them,” he thought, “if they had time to stop and salute, they should have had time to be fighting. I'll have to give them extra duties again they're clearly not doing their jobs right.”

  He continued his way out the front gate only to be greeted by chaos. The prisoners were running every which way, tripping each other, Stabbing each other, in some cases maiming each other just to make a distraction for the rantoru. In the chaos the rantoru were thriving. Eating as many prisoners as they could get their grubby little paws on and Venthal saw it was quite a few.

  Venthal grabbed a passing guard and ordered, “Get that fucking moron Rivnear up and out here at once.”

  Without a second thought the guard ran off to get Rivnear. Venthal now turned his attention to the closest of the rantoru. It was chowing down on some prisoners, Venthal dashed towards it. He was moving so fast it was unnatural. He moved skilfully around fleeing prisoners, around guards trying to organize a counterattack and up to the rantoru. He swung his sword with precision at the creature, cutting its tail clean off. The rantoru screamed out in pain, throwing corpses around in surprise and in anger. It continued to scream out calling the other rantoru to it.

  Not the outcome Venthal wanted, he was hoping to take them out one at a time. Now this is going to be a much tougher fight. Venthal hoped the guards could keep up with the fight. They didn’t have enough new recruits to refill the ranks. Not wanting to give the creature more time to call out for help, he moved quickly to a new position to strike the creature in the stomach. As he ran around the rantoru he placed his blade into the creature's side and spun forwards gutting the creature and nearly cutting it in half.

  Rivnear ran out of the city still fastening his armour to hear, “Get these guards in shape the rest are coming!”

  Venthal spun around to see the group of rantoru heading towards him. He could see the large green one leading the pack. As it got closer in His peripheral vision, he could see the guards organizing under Rivnears command. Rivnear had split them into three groups, each group ten guards strong. This was good, if it worked out right two of the groups could take on the normal rantoru busy while Rivnear and his group helped Venthal with the mutated one. Venthal wasn’t looking forward to this, the mutated ones were always so unpredictable. Their mutation always depended on what they ate to get that way. He hoped this one hadn’t found an old weapons cache.

  As the mutated rantoru got closer he could see saliva dripping from its maw. As the saliva hit the ground it hissed and exploded. Great, this one had gotten into an old-world weapons cache. Venthal assumed it had been munching on the old explosives and nitro-glycerine stores. He would have to tell the guards he had gotten into the explosive magic weapons, what a pain he hated having to explain things away.

  Not wanting to let them get any closer to the city, Venthal took off running full speed at the rantoru. Yelling the whole way signalling the charge of the guard. Rivnear, not wanting to get involved with the mutated rantoru if he could avoid it, signalled for one of the other groups to go help Venthal. Rivnear hoped that Venthal would dispatch the creature before he finished up with the other two.

  Rivnear took off towards the furthest rantoru and let the second group handle the one that was along the way. By the time he had reached his target he could hear Venthal screaming orders at his group and could see when he looked back at the other group they were engaging with their target. Rivnear looked back just in time to dodge a paw coming straight for his head.

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  “Go for the back legs! I’ll keep its attention,” Rivnear ordered.

  The other guards circled around it; they were all stabbing at its legs piercing the rantoru knocking it off balance. The rantoru fell onto its side shrieking in pain, calling for help from the others. Rivnears' group all circled around the back of the creature and hacked at the creature. Rivnear curled around its head, barely avoiding its snapping jaws to go for the kill. Rivnear drove his sword into the creature's neck severing its spine. One final gasp and the rantoru fell limp. They didn’t have time to celebrate as another was quickly approaching.

  At the sometime Venthal was struggling to keep his guards alive. They weren’t as nimble as he was and were constantly being knocked over by the explosions. One guard had already taken a direct hit. His remains were scattered all around, making the ground slick with blood.

  “The damn coward Rivnear. I’m putting him on shit cleaning duty for a month for this,” Venthal steamed.

  He roared order after order trying to keep the guards one step ahead of the flailing rantoru. The rantoru would turn and twist, roaring at anyone who he could see spraying explosive spit at them. Another guard took a hit, screaming as he tried to remove his armour. He was too slow, though he would never have been fast enough, and with a bang his head and shoulders exploded leaving his lower body to fall limp to the ground. That was it, the guards could take no more. With one chorus of screams the guards all rushed the rantoru. Despite Venthals protest, the guards all stabbed the rantoru. Yells and cheers rang out, the guards all pulled their swords from the creature only to see their blades had been eaten away. As blood gushed from the rantoru it sprayed all over the faces of the guards. All but Venthal who danced around the spray as if it were nothing.

  The guards who had been hit by the blood screamed in pain as the flesh melted down to the bone. Those who didn’t pass out from the pain screamed until their brains had been eaten away by the blood. All the guards who had been helping Venthal were dead, fortunately the other rantoru were being dealt with and the other guards were attempting to move towards him.

  ***

  Rivnear looked around as he ran towards Venthal and saw all the guards who had been helping Venthal were melting away on the ground. Rivnear looked at the remaining guards around him and noticed how they were slowing down. They whispered about how this was suicide and none of them wanted to go near it. Rivnear stopped running alongside them. The guards looked at him pleadingly.

  “I don’t give a shit if you want to do this or not. If I have to go over there so do you fucking lot. Anyone who doesn’t will be put in the tower for retraining,” Rivnear said, intimidatingly.

  The guards looked around, no one wanted to face Venthals wrath but none wanted to run to their deaths either. Rivnear signed and headed off towards Venthal who was dancing around the rantoru avoiding the blood and spit. Rivnear looked over his shoulder as he ran to see all the other guards making their way, slowly towards him.

  “Rivnear, use the guards to grab its attention. Don’t stab at it, its blood is acidic. Make sure to avoid the spit, it explodes when it hits,” Venthal roared. “Use ranged weapons and aim for the eyes. If we blind it, maybe we can kill it.”

  Venthal moved in for a quick jab at its stomach with his blade he cut the beast. With the runes active on his blade, he cauterized the wound making it so no blood splattered anywhere. He danced out just as quickly avoiding the creature's attacks. Rivnear wondered why Venthal even needed their help.

  “Use your long-range weapons and aim for the head. We need to keep its attention off of Venthal,” Rivnear yelled at the guards.

  The guards all drew their crossbows and muskets, took aim at the rantoru and fired as rapidly as they could. The rantoru swivelled around looking straight at the group of guards.

  “Run!” Venthal yelled.

  The rantoru let out a roar louder and longer than any before spraying blood and spit farther than the guards were standing from it. The guards began to roll in all directions trying to get out of the way. Rivnear dodged to the left just a little slower than the rest and some spit hit his boot. Rivnears eyes widened he knew what was coming and with every fibre of his being fought the erg to reach down and take off his boot lessening the risk of losing more than his foot. With a boom his leg was severed from his body. Rivnear let out a scream rivalling that of the Rantoru and passed out. Venthal Rushed up the back of the Rantoru who quickly lashed out at him. It knocked him off with a swipe of its claws. On the ground Venthal rolled to his feet, yelling orders at the other guards to keep firing.

  The rantoru wasn’t as easily distracted this time. Keeping its eyes on Venthal occasionally looking the direction of the archers.

  “What the hell are you shooting at,” Venthal yelled. “Go for the fucking eyes.”

  “Morons,” he thought, they would need retraining.

  Pushing that aside for now, he was brought back to his focus when the rantoru shrieked in pain as an arrow made its way into one eye. This drew the attention of the rantoru to the group of guards. It let out another blood curdling roar. Spraying more blood and spit in their direction. The fools, for the most part, were celebrating early and didn’t notice. Two of them moved away from the incoming spray. The others didn’t stand a chance and were hit with the full yield. Leaving them melting, screaming in pain until they exploded.

  Not wanting to mis out on the opportunity presented to him, Venthal ran up to the rantoru from behind. He ran up it’s back again, this time the creature was too distracted to notice him. Activating the runes in his blade he swung into the creature’s neck. Severing the head from the body. The head rolled over to the now dead group of guards and the body fell from under Varnthel. He pushed off and lept to the ground.

  Taking stalk of who was left alive and unwounded he counted twelve guards who were still up and able. He yelled at them, “You two take Rivnear into the tower and down to the infirmary. The rest of you grab some explosives we’re going to set a trap for when those other Rantoru come back.”

  ***

  Sumal and his men were positioned at the rear of the city. They were waiting for the chaos to begin out front so they could begin digging their tunnel. They knew it would take some time for Lyna and Rothars group to get the rantoru to the city. They didn’t mind it gave them a chance to plan. They wanted to dig one end out to the sea cliff and one end under the city. Sumal and his men would tackle the one out to sea first. It was a shorter distance, and it meant they could work during the day if they got it completed before going under the city. Sumals group consisted of around five Bagerites, and ten Bearites and Boarites. They had all undergone training in engineering to further their skills. This team was ready to build an underground city if need be. Unlike their time in the cave not a single second would be misused here.

  “This is taking too long! We need to get sta…” one of the Badgerites began, as they heard a commotion coming from the front of the city.

  “As if on cue,” Sumal said, laughing a little. “Alright boys, let's get down to work and make it fast we’re burning precious time now.”

  The Bearites began picking away at the ground. It was hard, full of rocks, stones and clay. As quickly as they could loosen it up the Badgerites were clearing it out. The Boarites took what was being cleared and piled it up alongside the city so those not digging right now could put it into bags for disposal.

  The battle raging in the front of the city was covering up the constant digging against the wall. Sumals team kept moving faster and faster as the night wore on. By the time the sun had started to rise they had already gotten two sets of supports in the tunnel towards the sea. Sumal could still hear the battle going and sent one of the other Badgerites, Nule, to investigate. Nule returned moments later with a report. He reported that the fight was still going. There was one giant green Rantoru keeping all the guards busy and killing some in the process.

  Sumal decided they would keep working and sent Nule back to the base to report in. Sumal had some of the workers start taking the dirt to the edge and dumping it. While others worked on securing a false roof over where they were digging. Sumal thought they were far enough under that they could make a single person tunnel to the sea, and they could start to dig out a larger path.

  ***

  Suntiana was waiting at the base for word from any of the groups. As the night wore on Suntiana began to worry, this was their first and only attempt to get a drop on the guards. Asheras plan seemed. Suntiana started making notes from some of the books on Druidic magic to pass the time. Ashera came up to meet Suntiana in the hopes of finding out good news.

  There was a noise from the top of the stairwell that Suntiana was waiting in. It was Lyra, one of the members from Xix and Seises group. Suntiana hoped she was going to report good news.

  “What’s the situation at the docks?” Suntiana blurted out.

  Lyra started reporting, “the docks are now under our control. There is a slight problem though, there is a special inspection from the mainland coming in. We can’t make our move until after the inspection, Xix feels. If we do, we risk tipping off the elves that there is something going on here.”

  “Damn!” Suntiana exclaimed. “I forgot about the yearly inspection. We just missed the one last year because we were locked away. This changes everything, they send a small army here once a year to gather promising recruits from the guard and to inspect solitary confinement.”

  Ashera hadn’t counted on the elves coming to this place, let alone to do an inspection. This meant she would need to leave Venthal in charge of the guard until after. Unless he died during the exchange with the Rantoru. That didn’t seem likely though he was as tough as they came during the war. If there was a yearly inspection that meant they would need to somehow leave Venthals likeness on the island or take down the elves in one year. She didn’t like either of these options.

  “Alright, we are still on schedule, the tunnel is going to take longer than three days to build. All we have to do is lay low, and everything will go perfectly. Hopefully they don’t notice anything going on at the docks. Lyra, I need you to go back to the docks and to tell Xix and Seises not to recruit any new members until after the inspection. Also, they need to keep the same level of barbarism that the normal guards would inflict to new arrivals on the day of the inspection. Take a break first, you've earned it.”

  Lyra sat down on the steps and closed her eyes for a few moments. Suntiana, more concerned than ever about the plan that looked like it was going to fall apart, sat down and began writing again. Ashera Began pacing back and forth as she lost herself in thought. Ashera wondered if they should pause digging on the tunnel until after the inspection. She didn’t want the elves to be inspecting the tower to suddenly see Sumal and his group. On the other hand, the inspection would keep the guards busy so it would be a good time to dig. It was too late to stop the dock plan now as it had already succeeded. She hoped Xix and them were up to acting accordingly in front of the elves. As Ashera paced back and forth the door opened again. This time it was Rothar and Lynas group returning. They were roaring with laughter; Ashera took this to mean good news was coming.

  “We got them, the guards will be fighting that battle until at least sunup,” Rothar bellowed. “There was a mutant in the group so with any luck it will take out more than its fair share of guards. We laid a trail of bate right to the city, now the rantoru should consider it a hunting ground.”

  This was simultaneously good and bad news to Ashera. Unless the elves had changed much in the time Ashera had been gone it was likely they would hold Venthal accountable for the attack and loss of the guards involved. Which meant to Ashera that Venthal would likely investigate the events, hopefully the rantoru would have carried off all of the body parts leaving little to no evidence for him to find.

  Seeing the growing look of concern on both Ashera and Suntiana’s faces Rothar asked, “This is a good thing, right? The guards will be busy cleaning this up for days.”

  Suntiana let out a sigh and answered, “that’s the problem Rothar. We all forgot about the annual inspection. The plan going off now puts us all in jeopardy.”

  Rothars eyes widened as he looked at them. His nose went pale and he had to sit down. Looking up at them both, now a sickly green colour, he said, “so are we going back into hiding or are we pushing forward?”

  Ashera didn’t know how to answer that. They could potentially push it through and get the job done in three days but it would mean the elves would know of their escape.

  Ashera looked at Rothar, “No we will wait until after the inspection to get us inside the tower, but we will be continuing with preparations. Once we hear from…”

  Almost as if on cue Nule came bursting into the base. He was out of breath as if something, or someone had been chasing him. Nule was always one of the smaller, weaker badgerites. Suntiana knew he must have run the whole way here. She motioned for him to sit down and conjured him some water to drink in his hands.

  After drinking two big gulps of water Nule began. “Sumal is going to keep digging. The fighting is still going on. The guards are having a hard time keeping up with one of them. Well, all except Venthal. He’s busy trying to keep the other guards alive so he can’t go all out on it. Sumal thinks it’s a good idea to keep digging out to the sea, seeing as the guards are still distracted and will be for a long time even after the rantoru are dead.”

  “Absolutely not!” Suntiana exclaimed. “With the news from the group at the docs about the inspection we can’t risk you being found out.”

  “Not so fast Suntiana,’ Ashera said, running her hand through her hair. As she did when thinking hard. “If we get the tunnel up and running now, perhaps we dig deeper and get in without alerting anyone. If we can do that it doesn’t matter that we have an inspection in three days.”

  “How do you propose we do that?” Suntiana snapped. “With three dig teams it took us months to get down to where you were in this building. How deep do you think they would need to go? 20 floors? More? It’s not happening.”

  Ashera knew that Suntiana was right. Ashera just wanted to take advantage of the chaos and keep going. If Sumal kept digging until the guards recovered, then that would give them a big advantage in the coming days. If they sent Nule back with food and water Sumal could hold up over there rather than returning keeping the danger to a minimum.

  “Okay, Suntiana okay,” Ashera said, not wanting to fight Suntiana on this matter. “Why don’t we send Nule back with food and water. Enough to get them through a day or two, it will reduce the risk to them and allow us to keep ahead of schedule.”

  “I can live with that,” Suntiana said.

  With that Ashera disappeared back down into the base. She reappeared a few minutes later with a sac containing rations and water. Enough to keep them going for a couple days. Ashera handed the bag to Nule and Nule without missing a beat made for the door and headed back to Sumal. Suntiana grabbed his arm to stop him from heading out just yet.

  “I’m sending Lyra with you; in case you need to send a message to us quickly.” Suntiana said.

  With that Lyra stood up and left with Nule. This left Ashera, Suntiana, Rothar and Lyna to figure out what to do. First things first, Ashera called for another of the scout group to come up. Pyn was up to them almost as soon as Ashera had finished asking for him. They gave Pyn the rundown of what was going on and how the docks needed to keep up appearances. They then sent him to the docks to report in with Xix.

  Rothar, having an idea, spoke up, “What if we don’t relent on the attack?”

  Ashera and Suntiana looked at him like he had two heads.

  “Hear me out,” Rothar continued, “we keep the rantoru attacking the city and wear down the guards. Make it so Venthal doesn’t have any men to give. Instead, he has to ask for new recruits. If the Elves give him some, he won’t know their faces well. We take them out and infiltrate the city using them as cover. I mean we only need to keep them busy for another few hours to make them completely worn out. Plus, it might get Venthal removed from the island at best. At worst he was already going to investigate what was happening.”

  This was an intriguing plan to be sure. Ashera was sure that Suntiana would object but she felt this had some merit. It was true that making Venthal and the guards look inept wouldn’t hurt their plan, however having trained soldiers stationed here would make matters worse. She turned to look at Suntiana who was wearing her concern on her face. It didn’t take much to figure Suntiana out, Ashera thought. Suntiana’s concern for her people was admirable. It was misguided in war you can’t protect everyone.

  “We could use this to our advantage. Assuming the elves still react the same to failures like this Venthal would be reassigned. That would mean soldiers who don’t know the island and its creatures would be assigned here. It might make them easier to take out.” Ashera stated.

  Suntiana didn’t like that plan, it would be easier to just wait it all out. “No, I won’t risk my people like this. He’s difficult to deal with but a hell of a lot better than the unknown”

  “Alright, I think it’s a wasted opportunity, but we’ll play this your way,” Ashera said. “I do want to send out a scout to keep an eye on the guards to see how things play out with the inspection. We need a face the guards don’t know.”

  Ashera made another call down to the barracks and had Jorthan up. He was Rothar's right hand man. Jorthan, from what Ashera had heard, had never made his way up to the city. Jorthan was more suited to gathering armbands and protecting new arrivals. Jorthan was a large lionite, as the elves had named them. His thick black mane framed his heroic looking face, with his pronounced muzzle and his awkward toothy smile. He looked far more menacing than he was. Jorthan wouldn’t hurt a fly, unless it was trying to eat his food then all bets were off. At least according to Rothar, Ashera had never seen such behaviour from him.

  “Jorthan,” Ashera began, “I need you to do something for us. The guards are still fighting the ratoru that Rothar led to the city. I want you to go up and make sure they don’t try and trace it back to us. Secondly, I would like you to stay up there and look as though you're collecting bands tonight and tomorrow. There is an inspection coming sometime in the next few days and we need to get as many prisoners as we can into hiding so they don’t get recruited into the army or guards. At least from what Suntiana has explained to me about this situation. I’m still not all that clear on it.”

  Jorthan nodded and without a word headed past the group and up the stairs. Ashera and the group headed back down to their main base, there was nothing more they could do at this point; everything was in the hands of their comrades.

  It’s true Suntiana had explained to Ashera how the inspections worked. Firstly, they were there to make sure the books were not being cooked by too large a gap, so prison guards couldn't skim too much from the system after all. Secondly, they were there to check on Venthal. To make sure he was still capable of leading the prison guards and wasn’t losing his ability to keep the prisoners in line. If he was, they would either leave someone new or appoint someone from the ranks. Suntiana hoped no one would be left or appointed, making it easier to continue with their plan. Thirdly, they were there to recruit promising new guardsmen into the army and to take any new recruits that were coming from the tower with them. Lastly, they were there to find promising prisoners to send to the tower for reprogramming as Venthal called it.

  Ashera wasn’t sure how they had turned the research tower into a brainwashing centre, but she was sure it wasn’t going to be pretty, once she got in there. Ashera was certain the elves hadn’t made it to the lower levels of the tower, to the underground research stations. Had they made their way there Ashera was sure things would be much different as that was where all the catastrophic class spells were housed. These were spells the humans had decided were too cruel or would commit too much collateral damage Either to the inhabitants of the area or the environment itself. They wouldn’t need a prison island then they could just take care of it all. All at once.