Michael tore his sword from its scabbard as he turned on her, shouting as he lifted the blade above his shoulder. Ellis threw himself at the girl, tackling her back down into the hole, her scream turning into a gargled grunt. He grabbed the string in mid air and slammed the trap door shut behind them. She landed on her back with a thud and he landed on his feet next to her, his eyes scanning the long, dark corridor he found himself in as the trapdoor locked into place.

  Grabbing her shirt, he hauled her further into the passage and threw her into one of the small rooms and shut the door behind them. He could reach the ceiling from where he stood, and it was about as wide as he was tall. There was some hay thrown about with a small cot in the corner, but that was it.

  Vanya kept grunting and trying to loosen his grip on her shirt. Ellis clamped a hand over her mouth and whispered, “Shhhhh! Be quiet! He’ll hear us!”

  She bit Ellis’s hand, but he gritted his teeth through the pain as he heard Michael tear the trapdoor off its hinges, a loud thump echoing down the corridor as he roared. “Ellis! Bring me that fucking girl right now if you know whats good for you!”

  He kept listening, but Ameena did not follow. Thanking the gods for small mercies, he realized Vanya had stopped struggling as well. He let her go and stepped past her, still shushing her as he put his ear against the door.

  Michael was still shouting, the doors splintering as he banged them open. But the sound drifted away from them, and Ellis let out a sigh of relief.

  He whispered back at the girl, “You really know how to—”

  The blade slid under his throat like a snake, Vanya’s voice like ice dripping into his ear. “For my people!”

  Ellis poured mana into his ring as the blade slid across his skin. The skin parted like an animal, rough and uneven as she tried to end Ellis’s life. Blood leaked down from the new cut, staining the top of his shirt.

  But the blood only dripped. He had activated the ring in time.

  Ellis grabbed her wrist and spun around to her back, bringing her arm all the way up behind her shoulder blades as his hand clamped over her mouth once again. He shoved her face into the wall as gently as he could, trying his best to keep her kicking legs away from his knees as he leaned forward.

  “Please,” he whispered into her ear. “Let me save you.”

  He let go and took a wide step back, holding both hands up above his head to show that he meant it. She pressed herself against the wall he had slammed her into, pointing the knife at him like he was a wild animal. He made no move toward her, even as her eyes darted from him to the door.

  “How are you alive!?” she whisper shouted, glancing at the door like there wasn’t a monster outside.

  “Does it matter?” Ellis whispered back.

  Vanya started shimming along the wall to get away from Ellis, and he tried to maintain the same distance from her to make her calm down. Michael’s perception stat wasn’t as high as Ellis’s, but that doesn’t mean the man was deaf. Vanya’s every act of rebelling was too loud, and a single hint of where they were could get them both killed.

  His eyes watched the knife in her shaky hands as she moved, and it looked familiar. Putting his one arm down, he patted his hip and found that she had stolen his Mother’s knife. He cursed under his breath before marching up to her as she tried to shrink back into the wall. She pressed the point of the knife into his chest, which he ignored. He took out the other dagger still in its scabbard, and held it toward her pommel first.

  “Give. Me. My. Mothers. Knife,” he ordered.

  She scrunched her eyebrows at him, and with a tentative hand wrenched the dagger out of his hand. Armed with two daggers, she looked up at him and seemed to consider attacking him for a moment. Then her hands lowered and her shoulders relaxed. As her hand started lowering, he snatched his mother’s knife back.

  The new dagger was aimed at his chest once again the moment he got the knife back. He locked eyes with her as he put the knife away, and brought his hands back up above his head as he took another step back.

  She remained tense, but lowered the dagger to her side once again. Walking back to the door, Ellis pressed his ear against the hard wood and tried to listen out for his companions. He couldn’t hear Michael, which he hoped was a good thing. Thinking back on the girl's little stunt, he could not believe someone would take such a risk when dealing with him.

  “Why did you do that? Why lead us here!?”

  Her angry whisper sounded a lot closer when his eyes weren’t on her. “I heard you! You wanted to go around the entrance and attack my people you bastard! Well now you're outside the city! And you’ll never find your way back!”

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  Ellis shook his head slightly, a smile spreading across his lips. “Smart. I wish I had done the same as you.”

  He turned back to her, unhooked Ameena’s cloak from his shoulders and tried to put it around hers. She smacked him through the face, the sound making Ellis worry as he grabbed her, and forced the cloak onto her.

  “Don’t touch me!” she seethed, trying to squirm out from under his grip.

  “This cloak will hide you in shadows and crowds for 6 minutes! When you escape from the tunnel, find your people, and please make sure none of them come here! Those idiots just wanna kill the Archduke, and I think Ameena can talk Michael out of attacking you! But that means none of your people can be! Here! Alright!?”

  The hair on the back of Ellis’s neck stood up, since Michael’s voice returned, sharper than ever. He shook his head, grabbing the hem of the cloak as he locked eyes with her. “Do you know how to activate mana!?”

  She was staring wide eyed at the door. She too could hear Michael now, banging down doors one at a time, each one growing closer and closer in the seconds of silence. And despite her panic, she still wasn’t activating the cloak.

  “Fuck it, I’ll do it,” he grumbled, pushing mana into the cloth in his hand, hoping a different user can activate an item for a different wearer. The silence crept from his chest down his arm, and into the cloth in confirmation.

  He dragged her out of the way of the door, receiving a punch through the face for his efforts. The ring took the sting out of the blow, as he shoved her against the wall right next to the door. He walked backwards and pressed his shoulder against the wall opposite of where she stood, as he hoisted the crossbow off his shoulder and loaded it silently. With that done, he brought his dagger out in his other hand… and waited for Michael to break down the door.

  A small part of Ellis was screaming at him to just give her up, to continue with the plan of getting closer to those monsters. But one look at her eyes, the sheer panic coursing through her body that made her knees shake as she pointed the knife at the door, was all he needed to know she wasn’t going to die.

  Because he would make damn sure of it.

  “When he breaks the door down… run,” he ordered, knowing he wasn’t going to live through this.

  Michael’s heavy footsteps stomped right up to their door, and a loud slam echoed through the room.

  “Where are you!? Come out Ellis! I’m getting angry!” he screamed.

  He had broken in the door opposite to theirs, his cursing still furious. Ellis could hear his breathing through the door now. His luck had run out. It was time to face him.

  Ellis closed his eyes, nodded to Vanya’s confused expression as the footsteps marched towards his door. He reopened them with a snarl, and waited for that idiot to walk right into his knife.

  Ameena’s shrill voice cut through the moment, the panic in it setting Ellis’s hair on end. “Michael! Help me!”

  The footsteps went from an angry walk to a desperate sprint before the words had even finished echoing. Within two seconds they were gone, like he had jumped out of the corridor. Ellis crept forward, and opened the door with a soft click. He peaked down the corridor, and there was not a soul in sight.

  The sound of steel clashing against steel followed soon after. The grunts and fighting let Ellis know something had happened above, like the gods themselves had made sure Ellis would live to see another day. He breathed out a sigh of relief, and turned back to Vanya, who had joined him in peeking down the corridor.

  If the gods wanted him to live another day, he’d need a good excuse. Or a good lie. Lucky for him, that was his specialty.

  “Vanya!” He whispered frantically, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the room and then down the corridor. “Punch me in the face! Wait, no, the nose! Punch me in the nose!”

  “What!?” she grunted, stumbling after him.

  He stopped pulling her once they were past the trapdoor. “Just do it! I need it to convince that bastard!”

  “You're going back to them, just after you prepared to kill them!?”

  “It’s hard to explain! And it doesn’t matter! Just punch me in the face already!” he shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her like she was the mad one.

  His attempt at annoying her worked like a charm. She cocked back her wrist and punched him square across the jaw…

  And it felt like he had been struck by a very dedicated pillow. The ring was still active.

  “Screw it!” Ellis shouted.

  He grabbed her by the head with both hands and smashed her skull into his face as hard as he could. Ellis felt his nose explode with blood as he staggered back. Shaking off the stars, he looked back to find her rubbing her forehead, scowling at him with a disgusted curl on her lip.

  “Why did you do that!?”

  “To convince him, I told you! Now run away! And remember what I told you! Seal this place off, and do not attack us again! Please!” he begged, pushing himself against the wall to allow her to go past.

  She stood still for a moment, uncertainty rolling off her as she took a hesitant step toward him. Noticing Ellis nodding furiously in encouragement, she took more steps, each growing more confident once she passed him.

  Her eyes never left him though. “If this is a trick—”

  “It is! Just not against you! Now fucking run!” He whisper shouted, the veins of his neck standing on end.

  She didn’t need to be told twice. She started sprinting down the corridor, her new cloak flapping behind her as she kept taking glances over her shoulder. Ellis watched as the shadows seemed to coalesce around her, making her entire body disappear even to his sharp eyes. Once he couldn’t hear her footsteps slapping against the stone floor, he turned back toward the trap door.

  Taking a deep breath, he hefted his crossbow and ran to save the people who had killed his family.