Songs of War: The 5th Song... Is A Person?!

Intrusion and Capture

The crystal around her neck began to glow again. She heard voices headed toward her and the dragging of bodies. The shuffle of feet and the slice of a weapon, probably a sword.

"Ugh, just how big is this labyrinth? How are we going to find her?" one member of the party asked.

"Follow the device. She's close," responded another.

"Meanwhile, you over there, find a place to dispose of these bodies. And prepare to fight. When the absence of these scouts are discovered, more will come." This was obviously the voice of the person in charge. It sounded familiar...

"My lord, I found her!" exclaimed a fourth voice.

Ha, she thought. They found the decoy.

She had put an illusion of a body sitting in a chair next to her fireplace. Little would they know she is behind the fireplace, one layer of stone separating them.

"No, that's not her," the one in charge said. "Just an illusion."

Wait. If he can see through illusions, then...

A knock on the wall elicted a small gasp from her. How did he know?

"The device points right here and I just heard a noise," said the leader. "Hand me that diamond pickaxe."

Oh no. This is bad. I left my weapons in that room, thinking they would leave soon.

She raced down the long hallway she had prepared in advance, twisting and turning until she found herself close to the end, her pursuers about a dozen blocks behind her. She pushed the exit, a door disguised as a dead end, and pushed it back into place. She was now on the other side of the mountain. The harsh winds billowing her black cloak, she ran towards the end of the clearing she was in, only to come face-to-face with a Voltaris. She gasped and slipped on her heel in surprise and fell backwards scrambling backwards into the clearing again. Here she stood up, preparing her magic in defense, for this Voltaris was holding a mace. She dodged his first attack, blocking his second attack with her magic and breaking the mace into pieces. The Voltaris kicked her in the stomach, sending her backwards a few feet. She touched her hand to the ground, causing the broken pieces of the mace to form a blade pointed at her opponent's throat. He put his hands up and she hesitated, not wanting to kill him.

She heard slow clapping from behind her. She looked behind her and saw that her exit door lay open, and her pursuers we now in the same clearing as her.

"Well done! I have to admit, if it had been a normal group of Ardoni, they never would have found you," he noticed her confused expression. "Ah yes, let me introduce myself. My name is Lucidius Voltaris. We are in great need of you."

"Not interested," she mumbled.

"Well, I figured you would say that," he sighed. "I suppose you would like to know how we found you. You see, we saw some scouts uncover a secret entrance into the mountain. We have been looking for you for a long time, you see, and we developed a device that tracks that gem of yours around your neck. We figured you were inside the mountain, so we killed the scouts that discovered the entrance - can't have word getting out, you see - and from then on it was easy to track you through the labyrinth. Oh, and due to scientific experimentation done on me, I have the ability to see through all illusions. That decoy of yours was clever, a skeleton so we would think you died? You forgot to include the details. You're not so bad at fighting either, given that you haven't done so for nearly a century and a half now."

She heard sounds of fighting from the other side of the mountain. Swords clashing. Songs being used.

"Anyway, you're probably wondering why I'm talking so much. Well, it was actually to prepare for this. Zinaida!"

She felt the mind control sweep over her and her powers being deactivated. The makeshift blade pointed against the Voltaris' throat coming apart, back to being broken pieces of a mace. She tried to move, tried to speak, anything, but the effects were too strong.

The Voltaris called Zinaida stepped in front of her and removed the hood of her cloak. He tucked her wavy hair behind her ear and whispered, "You're a pretty little thing, aren't you?" He ran a finger over her lips and caressed her face. She glared at him, trying to convey a very colorful message through her eyes and thoughts. Sparks came from her hands. "A bit feisty though. As much as I love those eyes of yours, we're going to have to shut them for a bit." He waved his hands over her face and she dropped into his waiting arms, unconscious.

The group walked over to where Tygren was, watching as Thalleous Sendaris used his short-range Mobilium Song to dart from the middle of a canyon to the other side.

"Tygren," Lucidius called. "We got her."

Tygren smirked and walked back up the mountain, leaving Thalleous on the other side, who was wondering who the unconscious person was and what they wanted with her.