Woven

Therin: Chapter 9

Despite the fact that they were in plain view, the lizards continued looking for them. The weirdness was accentuated by the fact that Kyo was holding her hand with his own. How strange he would use his strong hands to wrap hers delicately - ugh, now she sounded like one of those love poems. Blech. She repeated "I have no feelings" to herself under her breath until she believed it. What a wonderful and enriching exercise.

Kyo pulled her slowly to a wall, out of the way of the lizards. While watching them carefully, he used telepathy to talk to Therin, Don't talk out loud; we're invisible, but not inaudible. And I'm surprised they haven't smelled us yet.

Well, they are pretty stupid. Can we talk to the others?

He shook his head, I don't know if the demons would be able to sense traces of telepathy for whatever reason, so it's probably safer just to keep them in suspense.

Do you have a plan?

It's pretty simple, just walk around to the cages and disintegrate them all at once.

Therin smiled to herself, Then it's an all-out brawl. I like it.

Without another word, Kyo started to move. Not wanting to risk a break in physical content for fear of the magic losing its potency, Therin followed close behind, careful not to make any sound, which was made easy by her bare feet. It was agonizing, treading slowly around the edge of the room, not disturbing any of the lizards.

When they were about halfway there, one of the demons walked right up to them, not showing any signs of stopping. Therin froze holding her breath. She knew she had to move, but she couldn't; if she were caught, their plan would be spoiled, but she couldn't will her legs to take another few steps to refuge. Someone pulled her arm sharply, and she remembered Kyo. He pulled her into a sheltering embrace, arms cradling her, letting her face outward.

She watched the lizard attach itself to the wall and begin to climb, eventually disappearing through a hole in the ceiling. Safe for the moment, Therin took a second to breathe. She squeezed Kyo's hand, not wanting to leave or get up or anything.

Eventually, he unwrapped his arms from around her, only holding her hand now, and they continued to creep in the direction of the nearest cage. He was blushing a little bit.

They finally reached the cage. Up close, it looked really fragile, but, based on the occupant, a creature with the body and horns of a cow and the tail and head of a mouse, it was probably a lot stronger than it looked. Kyo made eye contact with her, Do you think you can get rid of all of them at once? And the bindings, too?

No, problem.

Resisting the urge to pop her knuckles, Therin reached out a hand and touched one bar of the wooden cage. She imagined giving a team specific instructions for destroying the cages and bindings without touching the prisoners and she initialized the program of sorts with her Essence.

The first cage started to burn away, and when it was gone, the cages adjacent to it began to disintegrate as well. It was a beautiful chain reaction.

Not needing the cover anymore, Kyo let go of Therin's hand and they jogged past the extremely surprised lizards until they reached where the others had been tied up.

Standing up, Sira brushed herself off, "Took ya long enough."

Shyly, Therin recalled their brief rest, "We had a little run-in."

"Uh-huh."

Once Dom's bindings crumbled to ashes, he leaped up, ready to fight, "I've been waiting for this."