Ashera, again in her elven disguise, headed to the doc. She wanted to make sure Venthal was off the island before going any further with her plan. Shendra, Venthal and the army men who had come ashore were all on their way onto the dock. Seises was sure to make herself and other easily recognizable faces scarce when they came in. Leaving only those who had never been to the city around. Venthal looked around, he didn’t recognise any of the guards working here today. This surprised him; he had told Rivnear to make sure competent guards were here today. Continuing to scan the dock he noticed the dock was clean and orderly, and everything he had told Rivnear to make sure was done had been taken care of. Venthal began to think maybe Rivnear would have been fine on his own.
Shendra, noticing Venthal was lost in thought, nudged him and said, “don’t worry about it. This place will still be here when you're done. Might not be in one piece…”
Venthal nodded, not really paying attention to what she was saying. He was annoyed, the king had left him here because this place was where they kept all the secrets from the war. Now some stupid uprising that wasn’t even that big was taking him from his post. Of course, to anyone other than the king and himself this was just a place for enemies of the crown nothing more. Venthal sighed, nothing he could do about it now, not that he could do anything about it anyway. Looking to the ship he followed Shendra and the soldiers on and headed immediately for his cabin. Shendra not wanting to spend more time here than needed, gave the command to set sail and the ship was off.
Ashera standing in the shadows at the dock watched the ship sail off. She breathed a sigh of relief, now the real work could begin.
Seises came up behind her, placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “now what? want us to stay here in case they come back?”
“Unfortunately, you’re going to be stuck here a little longer than that. We can’t risk any of the other prisoners figuring out something is going on. We don’t need them turning us in for favours with the guards,” Ashera told her. “Keep this group going as long as you can. You won’t need to treat the new prisoners badly anymore. Recruit as many new arrivals as you can in the coming days, If I’m right we can be in control of this island within the next few days. The important thing is to replace the guard on the boat. We need to make sure we are in control of everything.”
Seises smiled at Ashera, nodded and went to distribute the new orders. Now it was Asheras turn. Ashera and Artemis needed to get thrown in the tower. Easiest way would be to attack a guard but if they could find Rivnear that would be best. Ashera continued to wander around the docks, thinking about how to get to Rivnear and getting nowhere she decided to head back to base.
***
Artemis was busy getting ready for his role, he wanted to be prepared at any time. From what he had been able to gather through rumour's and second hand counts it wouldn’t be pleasant. No one came out the same. They were all now guards or soldiers being sent to the frontlines. Those who couldn't be converted or wouldn’t break were left in solitary to be tortured. From what he had found out those who had magic potential were kept in a separate area. He wanted to get into that area, there might be some powerful allies down there. Artemis decided he would have to discuss it with Ashera.
Ashera walked into the room still lost in thought. Not paying attention to where she was, she walked right into the back of Artemis. Snapping back to reality Ashera looked up at Artemis, with a look that said where did you come from?
“I have something about us getting put in solitary I wanted to discuss with you,” Artemis began. “I think we should try to get thrown in with the normal prisoners. We free them to create a distraction and then head down to another floor. Apparently, there is another location in there where they keep those who can already use magic. There might be some powerful allies down there.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Ashera agreed. “Our only problem now is how we go about getting thrown into solitary. Rivnear would make the best target, but he won't be the easiest one.”
“That’s your issue?” Artemis said. “That’s easy, we just get people to spread the rumour that they’ve seen me wandering around. He really wants a piece of me. He thinks I was behind him and his late friend getting left out to die.”
Ashera stared at Artemis, blinking. She knew all about his past activities and how much Rivnear hated him. Ashera ran to the entrance of the base and waited for those they had out gathering information to return. As they returned, she informed them they would be spreading information about Artemis instead going forward. Not to use his name though as they shouldn’t know it just to talk about a wolfite they had seen. Ashera knew this new plan would take more time, but it gave them the best chance at achieving all their goals.
Rivnear was walking around the city like he owned the place. Now that Venthal was gone he was on top of the world, he owned everyone here. Everyone would smile and laugh as they saw him, he thought he was well loved by the men. Undenounced to him, they were laughing at him and smiling at how stupid he looked strutting his stuff around when it was clear Cyrth was the one in control. Of Course no one wanted to point this out to him, best not to start anything that might get messy after all.
Rivnear was feeling much better now that the Grace had healed his leg. At first when the elves sent one of their precious Graces to the island everyone thought it would be pointless. After all, an elf whose only purpose is to heal those who have been injured hardly seemed needed in this place. Rivnear counted himself lucky it had been here. As he walked up to the gate to see if there was any entertainment, the guards standing there became quiet and pensive.
“What’s going on here?” Rivnear bellowed.
The guards, clearly not wanting to answer him, pushed the prisoner that was standing in front of them towards Rivnear.
Rivnear looked down at the beastite and said, “Well what is it? Or should I throw you in solitary to loosen your tongue?”
“P..P..Please no,” the inmate stammered. “I’ll tell you. I was saying that there’s a wolfite out on the island. I’ve seen him taking water from others…”
“What?!” Rivnear screamed. “That whore son is supposed to be dead. He died in a cave-in a year ago.”
Rivnear began to pace back and forth, he was grateful that Venthal wasn’t here. Rivnear knew he would be finished if Venthal found out about this. Rivnear had a visceral need to catch this bastard and make him pay. Rivnear moved like he had never moved before, headed straight to the barracks. He wasn’t going to let Artemis get away again.
Artemis, not wanting to make it easy for Rivnear and his men to find him, had been hiding out in the base during the day and going out at night. This had been going on for days now. The guards would catch glimpses of Artemis running around but could never pin him down. Artemis decided today would be the day, he would take Ashera to the surface with him and they would get caught by the guards.
“You ready?” Artemis asked Ashera.
“Ready,” she replied. “Let's make this look good.”
Artemis and Ashera were wandering around the desolate island. They weren’t going out of their way to draw attention, but they weren’t trying to hide either. Naturally Rivnear had put out a bounty for information on Artemis so any prisoner who saw him went running towards the city to inform the guards. It wasn’t long before they saw Rivnear and a group of guards rushing towards them.
“Look who we have here,” Rivnear sneered. “I thought you lot were dead. I must say I was disappointed that I didn’t get to finish you off myself. Now though I can.”
Rivnear motioned for the guards to apprehend the pair. The guards moved in, unaware of what awaited them. As the first one went to grab Ashera. She struck with an elbow to the gut, the guard doubled over. In the blink of an eye she flipped him onto his back. With a final strike she crushed his throat. The guards all stepped back, they hadn’t been expecting a fight, let alone that they might get killed.
Artemis thought, “I think Ashera might be a little too into this. I hope she remembers we’re supposed to get caught.”
“Don’t just stand there,” Rivnear bellowed. “There are four times as many of you as there are them. Get them.”
The guards all drew their weapons and lunged at the pair. Artemis and Ashera both smiled slightly. As the guards attacked two at a time the pair easily countered them. Artemis had improved his martial skill significantly over the last year and Ashera’s skills were as sharp as they had been in the war. They easily dispatched the first few, making it look like it took a lot of effort was more effort than the actual fight. The guards got back to their feet and began to circle the pair trying to get between them, to stop their teamwork. Noticing this was their strategy, Ashera shot Artemis a glance, they would have to play along. Artemis turned his back to Ashera and started to move away from her, creating a gap for the guards to use. The guards almost missed the opportunity entirely until Rivnear yelled at them from the side line.
Ashera shook her head, this was pathetic. If she didn’t want to get into the tower without risking the elves inside destroying everything, they could have just stormed the city. After continuing like this for several minutes both Artemis and Ashera presented an opening to the guards. The guards took full advantage of this and rushed the pair from all sides, finally capturing the pair. Now that the pair was subdued and satisfactorily tied up. Rivnear approached them.
“You two thought you were something special, eh?” Rivnear gloated. “You bearly put up a fight. These are the best trained guards on the island.”
Rivnear kicked Artemis over from his kneeling position. He stated beating him mercilessly. Kicking, and stomping on his chest. Ashera was sure she heard some ribs break.
“And they choose to willingly follow you, a man who doesn’t even help in a fight?” Ashera said with a smirk.
This got a chuckle from the guards. Rivnear, now clearly enraged, struck Ashera upside the head knocking her to the ground.
“Shut up you useless prisoner. I don’t want to hear that from someone who lost the fight. I’m going to enjoy killing the two of you,” Rivnear said.
He drew his weapon. This wasn’t according to Asheras plan, she was quickly looking around for anything they could use to get out of this situation. Then she remembered Cyrth, this could work.
“You know Rivnear, before you kill us don’t you want to know some juicy gossip going around the island?” Ashera asked. “I mean unless you don’t care what your guards think of you…”
Ashera looked up at Rivnear with as innocent a look as she could. Rivnear just about ready to strike, looked conflicted. He wanted to know what the guards thought of him but at the sometimes he really wanted to kill these two and be done with it. That’s when one of the guards laughing caught his eye.
“Fine,” Rivnear said. “make it quick.”
Ashera smiled coyly. “Well, the word amongst the prisoners, at least from what we’ve overheard, is that Cyrth is really in control. He handles all the important business and leaves you to do the grunt work. He tells the other guards to show you some respect, so you think you're in charge. I mean haven’t you noticed how the guards snicker and laugh as you walk past? Should this be how they treat someone they respect?”
Rivnear looked at Ashera, he had noticed how the guards always seemed to be laughing when he was around. He had thought it was because they were happy. Was that not the case, he wondered. It did seem odd now that he thought about it, Cyrth being in charge of all the paperwork, duty schedules, personal changes and the finances of the island.
“No, you’re wrong Venthal told me he was putting Cyrth in charge of all that so I could focus on more important matters. Like managing the prisoners,” Rivnear said, with a shaky voice.
The guards were all stifling laughs trying to write them off as coughs. This did not escape Rivnear this time. Venthal had played him. He didn’t have any power at all. He would have to fix this.
Seeing an opportunity Ashera said, “Why don’t you take us into the city. Let Cyrth decide what to do with us. Maybe mention we should be thrown in solitary for a bit, but in a way that makes it seem like his idea. Then if we stir up some trouble, he looks bad and you can come in and fix everything up.”
Rivnear smiled at this, why not use them to get rid of Cryth then he would be in complete control of the island. It wouldn’t be hard Cyrth would think Rivnear was being nice in getting his opinion.
“Alright, we’re changing plans! Take them to the city, we’ll throw them in solitary,” Rivnear barked at the guards.
“Umm pardon me, Rivnear but aren’t they just playing you?” One of the guards asked.
“Silence!” Rivnear yelled. “No one plays me, I’m in charge here.”
“What about asking Cyrth?” another guard asked. “Shouldn’t you ask your co-leader about this?”
Rivnear spun around and struck the guard. “No more questions! Did I not make myself clear! I am in charge!”
The guards looked at one another and shrugged. They grabbed Artemis and Ashera, leading them back to the city. Ashera smiled, Rivnear had done exactly what she had wanted. To make it look good, the pair tried to escape a couple times but always fell just short.
Rivnear walked into the city with his chest puffed out, like a conquering hero returning from a successful raid. He pushed Artemis to prove it had been him who had captured the wolfite. Rivnear steered them towards the tower where to his surprise Cyrth was waiting for him.
***
Seises was standing on the dock waiting for the prison ship to make its way in. It was carrying a small batch of new inmates today. There would be only four but they were labelled by the elves as dangerous. Seises wanted to know what they were imprisoned for; they might make good allies. That wasn’t her primary concern though, she needed to swap guards on the ship. Then dispatch of the old guard. Xix was waiting in the little cabin for Seises to send the guard up.
The prisoners stepped off the ship, one was a rough looking elf, a wood elf to be exact. Seises looked at the papers she had been handed by the ship guard. His name was Barin, it looked like he had been found on the eastern side of the continent setting up explosives to take out elven caravans. That would be useful for taking out the city walls when the time came. They would have to see how well he could adapt to the old-world explosives but either way he would be useful. As she pushed Barin forward towards the search she nodded indicating he was to be recruited.
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Next was a female Lynxite. She was spitting and growling, like a crazed animal. It looked like she had been brought in for robbery to fuel a drug addiction. Seises didn’t like the look of this one; it would be best to process her as normal and then leave her be. Seises pushed her forward and pulled on her ear indicating to pass over her.
The next one was a soldier who had tried to desert the army. That had potential, Seises wanted to know more.
“Right a deserter huh, what didn’t the benefits cover you?” Seises asked in her most guard like tone.
The prisoner looked her over unsure if he should answer when he felt a crack on the back of his head. It knocked him to his knees.
“Answer the question filth!” The ship guard barked.
The prisoner rubbed his head, the best he could still shackled and responded, “Simple I didn’t want to put an entire town to death without proof they were enemies. I had an argument with the commander and one thing led to another and I killed him. Figured I would get promoted, turns out I ended up here. Satisfied?”
Seises looked over the ex-soldier he was a bearite. Obviously, he was a conscripted man otherwise he wouldn’t have cared what happened to that town. He could be useful if he had any animosity towards the elves for ending up here.
“What's your stance on the empire now? Answer carefully it will dictate what supplies you get,” Seises said.
“Fuck the empire! They burned women and children alive because there was a chance a rebel force had just passed through there,” Bjarne answered.
Seises laughed, “Right, no supplies for you then.”
She pushed him along and nodded. Seises turned around expecting to see another prisoner but there was no one.
“Where is the last prisoner? There are four here on the manifest,” Seises asked.
“He went overboard and decided he wanted to try and swim,” the guard laughed.
“Well, that makes things easier for us,” Seises said through a forced laugh. “Since we’re done ahead of schedule, why don’t you take a break in the cabin. We have a prisoner in there who is worth it.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” the guard said.
It took all Seises’s restraint not to knock his teeth out then and there. As he approached the cabin he heard music to his ears, a woman screaming. With his guard down he pushed open the door and was dragged in. So forcefully a slight scream escaped his lips. Xix had a knife to his throat and was looking for a reason to use it.
“Tell me how you control the ship, and you get out of this,” Xix said softly. “Or we can do this the fun way.”
Xix looked over her shoulder at the implements played out, then back at the guard and smiled. The guard swallowed hard, raised his hands and closed his eyes.
“I get out of this if I tell you right? You promise?” he asked.
“You have my word you will get out of this,” Xix said.
“Okay I have a control crystal; the crystal is inscribed with the path between the port and this island. Just place it in the helm and the ship takes you back and forth. I told you how to use it. I'll even give it to you now, let me go,” the guard said.
“I never said I would let you go. I said you would get out of this,” Xix smiled.
The guard didn’t even have time to scream as the dagger slit his throat. Xix emerged from the cabin as Biran and Bjarne were being pulled aside before being let go. Xix figured she should go introduce herself to the newbies.
“What's going on?” Biran asked.
“Yeah, why aren’t we being let go?” Bjarne asked.
“Simple,” Xix’s voice said, coming from behind them, “we want to recruit you for a project we’re working on.”
Xix explained most of everything that had happened and their plans. Making sure to leave out the part about Ashera and humans as it might be too much for them. Biran and Bjarne look moved from disbelief to amazement and every expression in between. It took Xix showing them the ancient armour she was wearing under her guard uniform to really make them believe her story. After a few moments they spoke.
“Alright, I believe you at the very least. What do you want us to do now?” Bjarne asked.
“Go with Seises, the pantherite who did your intake. She will take you to our base. From there one of our top three will get you trained and ready for the events to come,” Xix said.
With that she left them and returned to her duties. Seises led the men to the base where Suntiana was waiting. Suntiana was waiting for news on how things were going with Ashera and Artemis but was happy for the distraction.
“Suntinan,” Seises said with a smile and a wave.
Bjarne and Biran were both taken in by Suntiana’s beauty. Both looking her up and down. Bjarne thought he had seen feathers like hers used in high end clothing, but that they looked much better on her. Biran thought she looked like a picture he had seen back in his hometown of the legendary race of phoenix. Her feathers looked remarkably similar.
Nudging Biran Seises continued, “These are Bjarne and Biran. New recruits to the cause. Biran is an explosives expert but he’s going to need a crash course in ancient explosives. He only knows black powder. This is Bjarne, he’s a disenchanted soldier. He was unimpressed with the tactics by the elves in the alleged uprising in the east. Where do you want to put them?”
“Aypryl is the only one here who excels with explosives now. Ideally, I would like to have Xix train him but she has more important matters to take care of right now. As for Bjarne. send him down to Rothar and Lyna, he can train with them. It shouldn’t be too difficult as he’s an ex-soldier and all,” Suntiana said.
“If I may,” Bjarne interjected. “I have experience with mobilising military resources and, if I do say myself, I am rather good as a tactician. I would rather work with those in charge of planning.”
Suntiana looked him over, sizing him up. She took her time trying to get a read for him. He was a soldier at one point which meant, willingly or not, he fought on the enemy's side. It wouldn’t be the first soldier they had in their midst to be certain, but they had been here for years and had earned the trust of the group. Finally, after an uncomfortable amount of time, at least for Bjarne, she spoke.
“No, for now our plan is going accordingly. You can go to work with Rothar and Lyna or you can go to our cells. Now that you know we exist we can’t just let you leave,” Suntiana said.
“Then I’ll go train with Rothar and Lyna. Who knows, maybe I’ll surprise you,” Bjarne said, smiling at Suntiana and Seises.
With that Seises led them into the base. Suntiana looked at the sky wondering how Artemis and Ashera were making out. She hoped Rivnear wouldn’t do anything they hadn’t counted on. He was known for being stupid but also brutal when it pleased him.
***
Rivnear walked up to Cyrth and said, “what are you doing here?”
“A little birdy told me that you were bringing new prisoners for solitary. I wanted to see your work for myself.” Cyrth said with a patronising tone.
“Right,” Rivnear said, trying to remain calm, “you’re not getting credit for this. I found these two missing prisoners and I’m putting them in solitary. No one else will touch them.”
“That’s fine. Just make sure you put them in ward 3. We don’t want them getting mixed up with some of the less secure confines,” Cyrth said without so much as looking at Rivnear. “I’ll be down later tonight to issue your punishment myself. If I find you have already been punished before then I will have strong words for the one who did it.”
With that Cyrth looked at Rivnear, scoffed, and continued on to other matters. Rivnear couldn’t believe it, he had just been told not to torturer his own prisoners. Rivnear thought, that’s it this is going to change. Rivnear took Ashera and Artemis into the tower. The main entrance was just like Ashera remembered. The ceilings were high with lights hanging down from them. There was the main desk where an elf was seated who looked to be monitoring something. As they got closer Ashera noticed she wasn’t monitoring anything. Infront of her was a button. Ashera looked around for what it could possibly control. She noticed a gate at the front door, the button must be used to secure the entrance. They walked past her to the elevators. Ashera wanted to know how many floors in this building remained in use. Hopefully she would find some information there. As the doors opened, and they stepped inside Ashera had to cough to cover a laugh. Beside all the floors that were in use which seemed to be all the basement floors were labels of what each floor was.
There was the entrance/ exit, followed by the medic floor, then torture and security, ward 1, ward 2, ward 3, Magic suppression floor and finally magical research. Ashera’s targets were the two floors below their assigned ward. Rivnear muttering curses at Cryth under his breath pressed to go to ward 3. The ride down Ashera kept looking at Artemis, both were trying so hard not to laugh at Rivnear whose muttering was growing louder and more violent. Rivnear pushed them out of the elevator onto the ward floor. Ashera barely recognized this place. It was row after row of cages stacked one atop the other. This had been, their botany research floor, they were testing to make plants grow efficiently in artificial light. From that to this, Ashera could barely believe it.
“Right in you two this will be your cell at least until tomorrow,” Rivnear growled. “Cyrth will pay for this.”
Rivnear shoved them into the tiny cell, it was barely big enough for one of them. He shut the door and went on his way, still muttering about how he would make Cyrth pay.
Ashera pressed up against the front of the cage and looked around trying to see what she could see. There weren’t many cages on this floor that she could see. There was a spot in the middle of the room where the guards could make everyone watch the torture. There was no one again, that Ashera could see waiting around to torture anyone. Ashera was happy with this; it meant Cyrth kept his word.
“Hello, is anyone there?” Ashera asked.
“Stop squirming,” Artemis said.
Ashera ignored him, wanting to see if anyone else was there. After a short while no responses came. They were alone here, this infuriated Ashera. The least Rivnear could have done was put them in separate cages.
“get used to it,” Ashera said to Artemis. “We’re going to be here awhile.”
“Great, the least that damn jackal could have done was put us in different cages,” Atremis grumbled, shifting his weight further to the back of the cage.
Cyrth made his way through ward 3, looking for where Rivnear had put Ashera and Artemis. Cyrth walked through the empty floor getting closer to the back of the cages, still seeing no sign of the pair. At the very back, in one of the smallest cages he found them. They looked ready to kill each other after being stuck in the cage for hours.
“Do you guys want some more time alone?” Cyrth said, trying not to laugh.
“Get us out of here. Now,” Ashera demanded.
Cyrth shrugged and opened the cage. Ashera couldn’t get out of there quick enough. She went to stretch up forgetting she was still shackled from when she had been caught. Artemis hunched over from trying to stay at the back of the cage and struggled to get out as his legs had long been asleep. He too went to stretch only to be limited by his shackles. Cyrth couldn’t keep a straight face any longer and laughed at the pair of them. They both shot him a glare that read this is not funny.
“Alright let's get started,” Cyrth said though bouts of laughter.
Cyrth led the pair back through ward three towards the elevator. Once inside the elevator, Cyrth turned to the pair and pulled the keys from his belt. He began by unlocking Ashera’s shackles followed quickly by Artemis’s.
“Glad you made such a good impression on Venthal. We had only hoped you would make it into the tower. This is better than we could have hoped for,” Ashera said, giving Cyrth a hug.
“I know it couldn’t have worked out better,” Cyrth said with a smile. “Once I take you guys down to the magical research floor, I’ll head up to the security room and take care of the guards left in there. I can buy you guys time until shift change in the morning.”
“That should be enough time. Hopefully Sumal will be able to complete the tunnel by then,” Artemis said. “If not, we're counting on you to sow chaos within the guards.”
Cyrth smiled and said, “of course I’m looking forward to it. Though, we will need to sell your escape. Would one of you mind punching me in the face?”
Ashera, without needing to be asked a second time punched Cyrth square in the nose. She almost broke it Cyrth thought to himself. Blood began running down his face as the elevator came to a stop. The elevator was on the bottom floor, magical research. Ashera and Artemis stepped off. The elevator doors closed behind them and Cyrth was off to the security floor, still trying to stop the blood that was pouring from his nose.
Ashera looked around the room. It looked like a place out of time, everything was the same, minus one or two experiments having been moved around. This was good news, it meant either the elves hadn’t figured out the importance of some of the experiments or thought they wouldn’t be needed anymore. The room was the biggest yet, full of computers, chests, half cooked experiments and much more. The important thing, for Ashera, was to see if her login still worked. Ashera wondered if she would be able to access the research notes.
They looked around as they moved towards the computer terminals. Ashera was wary of the fact there was no one down here. It seemed like a waste not to have someone studying these things at the very least. As they got closer to the terminals, they were in the middle of the room. Something caught Asheras attention. She immediately changed directions towards a bunch of tubes standing erect on the far side of the room. Artemis, curious about what had caught Asheras attention, followed behind her.
Ashera finally upon the tubes, she counted them. There were 10 in total; it was only as she looked closer did something horrific inside them catch her attention further. There were elves growing inside them. The tubes all had labels on them 5 of them read “Venthal replacement body”. This was how he had prolonged his life, he had twisted the homunculus research her team had been working on. The others were labelled with other names, Y’thra, Ra’tarna and Morath. Curious if Artemis would recognise these names she turned to him.
“Hey Artemis, do you recognise these names here? They’re of no good to me,” Ashera asked.
Artemis leaned over Ashera and read the names, “Venthal, alright we know who that one is. Y’thra…”
This one startled Artemis; he couldn't believe what he had just read. The elven god had a new body being grown here.
“...Ra’tarna, and Morath,” Artemis finished reading the names.
He stood there blinking in disbelief. Ashera decided to give him a moment. Clearly Artemis had read something that was a shock to him. After several moments Ashera elbowed him in the stomach Bringing him back.
“Right, you wouldn’t know who those are would you?” Artemis began. “Y’thra is the elven god incarnate. He rules the church and controls all-important affairs that govern the elves. Ra’tarna is the king of the elves. He’s responsible for maintaining elven rule over the other races. Basically not people we want living forever. The last one, Morath, is the daughter of Y’thra. She’s the only Elve capable of casting healing magic in this time. She is in charge of a group of elves with no consciousness, or at least that's what I’ve heard, they're called Grace and they can act on her behalf. If you kill a grace it's said they just get resurrected by Morath when their body gets back to the capital.”
Ashera looked on in disbelief, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This structure the elves had created was infuriating. Making it so only one of them could use healing magic, making a king to subjugate the other races and making a deity to rule over everything. Artemis gave her a moment, then continued.
“Why would the three immortals of the elven race need new bodies? It makes sense for Venthal. He’s not immortal,” Artemis asked, with a very concerned look on his face.
“This is what they’ve been using to keep you all afraid of them. If no one knows that they aren’t immortal, then no one will question them. It’s disgusting. Brilliant, but completely insane. Now we know though, and it changes everything,” Ashera said.
With that she walked away back towards the terminal. Mulling around in her mind what could she do about their attempt at immortality. She could focus on that later, for right now she needed to complete her main objective. Ashera pulled up the login screen on the terminal and entered her credentials. Ashera held her breath as the login screen loaded. After what felt like an eternity waiting for the alarms to go off, which they never did, the terminal loaded into the main screen. She looked through folders and files searching. Finally buried under all the new nonsense the elves had uploaded and attempted to develop she found it. Her file for removing limiters from the magically adept prisoners.
The elves had always had ways to suppress the magical abilities of others. Some of their more favoured ways were to use tattooed ruins or implanting ruins into the person in question. Removing the runes was a difficult task; the crystal inscribed with the rune would commonly be trapped. This meant when you extracted it, the rune crystal would explode, maiming the extractor and killing the one with the rune inside them. The tattoo was a little easier to deal with, it wasn’t pleasant by any means. It involved carving the rune off the person. At least that's how it had been, with the spell Ashera had created, and never tested. The spell would remove the rune magic without the need to remove the crystal or the tattoo.
She grabbed her necklace and put it onto the terminal's magic transfer pad. She uploaded the spell to the necklace. She was hoping this would be useful when they went up to the magic suppression floor. That was assuming anyone would be held there. Next, she turned her attention to finding out what the elves had done to their homunculus experiments.
Ashera dug around more until she found the homunculus research notes. It was linked directly to the elven experiment program. Apparently, the elves didn’t think this would ever be found. Asheras expression shrunk, this wasn’t where the main facility was. It looked as though this was the place where Venthal would be reborn. The others were only here as backups in case something happened to the main facility. The file didn’t refer to where the main facility was either. It did however contain the program used to make the ones here.
Ashera read through the file:
Homunculus program, originally designated by the humans to grow artificial human soldiers, magic from existing targets required to bring them to life. Multiple homunculus could be brought to life from one existing person. Thought to be too dangerous as the ramifications on the soul could not be quantified.
She then came to the elven amendments:
Human use of homunculus was too narrow. By backing up the memories of the one being copied to the system, one could resurrect the copied at the point of death. Subject Venthal to be resurrected from preserved brain. Subjects’ memories and personality, such that we could quantify it, has been uploaded to the computer. DNA from subject has been entered into the homunculus program. Estimated growth rate 90 days.
30-day gestation period, all is going according to plan. Memories have been uploaded to the homunculus body. Brain activity is within expected norms. Deam like state has been detected. Monitoring for any abnormalities.
60-day gestation period, subject has opened his eyes and appears to be confused by his surroundings. Explanation of current circumstances appears to have been received well. Subject was put back into a chemically induced sleep.
80-day gestation period, subject was enraged and thrashing after preforming a physical examination on himself. He removed an eye, apparently the same one he lost in the war and attempted to remove his leg. After forcing him back into a comatose state, it was decided upon full gestation his leg would be removed to complete his transformation back to his war time state.
90-day gestation period, after removing subject from the chamber, his leg was amputated and replaced with a similar model artificial magical construct leg. His eye was replaced with similar technology. Upon waking he was uploaded with all information from between his wartime period and current time. This caused massive seizures almost causing the lost of the subject. After some healing from the onsite Grace he calmed down and resumed normal functioning.
Venthal was the first successful subject, next subjects to be backed up and preserved will be Y’thra, Ra’tarna, and Morath.
The file became corrupted after that and all information pertaining to them was lost.
Ashera decided it would be best to disable them at this point. She set to work; taking her time going over everything for growing new homunculi and disabled it in this base, she then activated the destruct program which would destroy the current homunculi. As soon as she entered the changes the alarms started.
“That’s our queue to get out of here Artemis,” Ashera said, heading for the elevator.
Cyrth sat there in the security office cleaning the blood from his sword and watching the alarms sounding and sighed. He went to the security console and turned off the external alarms, silenced the internal alarms and headed out of the building to run interference with the guards who would be coming in. As he left, he looked back and chuckled. The room was full of bodies. They never saw Cyrth coming.
Ahera and Artemis made their way onto the magic suppression floor. This room was like nothing Ashera had seen let alone imagined. It was horrific, but they had no time to stand there looking around. Ashera pointed over to the cages where they could see all different races caged up. Some looked worse than others. Some were motionless while others were writing in pain. Ashera motioned towards the first cage and Artemis nodded.
Artemis went over to the cage and looked at it. He pulled some tools out from up his pant leg; it was a lock picking kit. Artemis began to move his tools through the lock like a master artist painted. With a few elegant motions the lock popped open. Inside was a scared little person, it was a species Artemis wasn’t familiar with. If Artemis was being honest, he’d never seen anyone like this.
She was small in stature, she looked frail probably from all the abuse she had suffered in here. Her face was scarred up, but she still had an air of pride. She was young, at least her eyes looked young. In Ashera’s eyes her face looked like that of a mouse. Ashera thought her features were small and cute. Her big black eyes were expressive and very curious about these people who had broken into her cage. She was tiny and a beautiful grey colour. Ashera got closer to her and reached out a hand.
“It’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you, in fact we want to take you out of here,” Ashera said.
She looked warily at Ashera, looking her over as if expecting this to be some kind of trick. Cautiously, she grabbed Ashera’s hand. Ashera pulled her to her feet and brought her out of the cage.
“What’s your name?” Ashera asked.
“Seslyn,” she replied. “Thank you for rescuing me.”
“We’re not out of here yet,” Artemis said. “Keep your guard up. We still need to rescue as many of these other people as we can.”
With that Artemis moved on down the cages looking in each in turn. He was disgusted with what he saw in some of them. The poor people in them were mangled beyond recognition and had clearly left to die from their injuries. Still he opened their cages and most moved further away from them. So scarred from their experiences they trusted no one. Those they did let out were in no shape to fight. Ashera noticed how some had scars all over and wondered how long they had been down here. As they helped more out of their cages Ashera also saw most of them had the magic suppression tattoos. Ashera would do something about that once they got back to the base.
Artemis finally came up to the last two cages. In one there was only a blood smear where someone had once been. In the last cage was Hayami. She was hurting in a bad way. Fresh wounds carved over her body. Blood was still oozing from some. Hayami had a look of pure rage on her face as Ashera walked into her view.
“You’re letting people out right? Then get me out of here,” Hayami screamed at Ashera.
“Take it easy,” Ashera said calmly, as Artemis began on the cage door. “We’ll get you out of here. You’re in pretty bad shape though. You might not make it back to our base.”
“They have a grace here. Those stupid puppets will heal anyone their told to,” Hayami said. “I’ll never be complete again thanks to that elven bitch.”
Ashera was going to ask her about what had happened but figured now was not the time.
“Alright, we’ll take everyone up to the medical bay,” Ashera said. “We will need all of you in fighting shape.”
