-Callia-

  As the ground below started to become more and more distant, I started having second thoughts about using the platform for infiltration, but unless I wanted to enjoy a long fall, it was too late to get off. With few options to improve my approach, which now depended on the platform, I went with the most basic available. I laid out flat, using my cloak to cover myself. To the outside I looked like a strange lump on the platform, but someone looking from above or below might not see me. I continued to peek out from my cloak as it gradually drew closer and closer to the tower. It's strange that just a few short days ago I looked at this site with awe at the marvel of construction it was, but now it seemed far more imposing.

  As I got closer, a familiar feeling clung to the air as if declaring a domain. The evil presence abandoned all illusions of restraint, claiming the entirety of the building and its surroundings. I can feel the platform beneath me stutter ever so slightly and move noticeably slower. The faint light that the platform used to give slowly started fading as it struggled to push forward. I quickly compared the rate of fading to the distance from the central towers and found that whatever was powering the platform would give out well before arriving.

  I shimmied my way to the edge of the platform and waited as it started to lose both speed and lift. I focused on the landing bay for the nearest floor and patted the platform one last time.

  “Thanks for getting me this far." I thanked my ride before blinking the remaining distance to the tower itself. The world shifted, and in the next moment I was prone in the open alcove for aerial arrivals. I didn’t move a muscle, letting my cloak hide me while listening for any guards. I pushed myself up from the ground and let my eyes casually double-check for any guards even though I heard nothing in the immediate bay. Glancing back, I notice my platform plummeting as the last of its power is burned out. I moved alongside the wall while inspecting where I arrived. It looked like a dormitory similar to the one I had been assigned, just several floors lower. However, several of the doors were left open, and the sharp tang of blood reached my nose. The residents of the floor had been violently abducted.

  I moved over to the door to an internal stairwell and let myself get immersed in the sounds echoing throughout the tower. Most of the building was drenched in an eerie silence, but several floors up, the sound of struggling caught my attention. Carefully I started navigating my way through the unfamiliar halls and stairs, trying to find my way towards the sound, but the building was frustratingly designed in a non-intuitive manner. It was like a multi-level vertical maze that I had very little time to familiarize myself with. As I tried to navigate there, the sound of struggling stopped; heavy footsteps indicated that one of the parties that were fighting was being carried down the tower.

  The fact that they were coming down and not going up was almost something that brought physical relief to me. If faced against someone with familiarity with these hallways, I’m almost certain I wouldn’t have been able to keep up. I reposition myself into the shadows and wait along the path I presume to be the way down. The footsteps gradually get louder and closer until I finally make out my quarry. A team of six vault guards comes into view. The men in the front and back are unburdened, but the middle four are each carrying a person. I see a paladin trainee, two younger sisters of the order, and the fourth is someone I hadn’t been expecting—the old hag. None were severely hurt, with the paladin trainee bearing the worst with a face swollen from multiple bruises.

  The vault guards marched right past my hiding place, none the wiser. Quietly I trailed behind them. I had full confidence I could take the group, but it was more important to figure out where and why they were taking people. Well, I suppose the why has limited importance as long as I don’t let them succeed. Floor by floor we made our way down the tower. Five floors from the ground level, I gained enough confidence in the destination to decide to interfere.

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  I jumped on the rearguard, stuffing his mouth with a knife, and soundlessly laid him on the ground without a single guard noticing. I gave them no time to become aware, moving on soundlessly to the next. Carefully implanting my knife in his throat, I tried to lay him down soundlessly, but the captive in his hands flopped to the ground the moment the guard's life slipped away. The others turned around to check, not yet realizing what happened, and I abandoned my efforts to keep quiet. I summoned my spear and thrust forward through the chest of one guard and into the man behind him as well. I slammed my foot down, abandoning my spear and easily catching the throat of another. In the moments it took to mop up the others, the last guard drew his sword, taking a swing as I opened the previous guard's throat. Seeing no aura coating the blade, I reached out, clamping my hand onto the blade and pulling him in towards me. He tried to resist, but a knee to the gut knocked the wind out of him even through his armor. He crumpled to the ground, and I took the opening to stomp down, finishing the job.

  I dispose of the bodies into the void and pull out a cleaning wand to clear out any other traces of blood leftover from the fight. Looking at the unconscious bodies left over, I briefly consider storing them in the void sanctuary zone but decide against it. My gut whispered it was a bad idea to leave them with the relic unattended, and leaving them outside of the sanctuary in the void seems like an even worse idea. Eventually I decided it was an unnecessary effort; instead, I just grabbed the bodies and unceremoniously dragged them into a janitor closet.

  With no witnesses, I started trying to navigate my way further down towards the destination that made the most sense in this part of the citadel, The Vault. Which conveniently doesn’t have a space mage to mess my day up this time. I pause, realizing I might’ve just jinxed myself. After around half an hour trying to find the last set of stairs, I resort to using blade aura to cut out a portion of wall and scaling down the tower towards the gate into the vault.

  The defensive forces guarding the vault are the complete opposite of the floors above. I can tell the fortifications are teeming with paladins, guards, and even priests. I gently tapped my head to knock sense back into me as my brain defaulted to how best to eliminate the most enemies. More than anything else, this is a rescue/stealth mission. I don’t even need a moment to be certain that the number of guards active along the walls is far too many for me to handle.

  If my gut is right, and it almost always is, there are going to be more people locked in the vaults than I believe I can safely escort out. Which means evac plan B will have to be prepped. I reached out to Callen, catching him right in time as he was curling up in bed to get a night's rest.

  “Callen, mind standing by with Nightshade’s Void Gate for refugees? I need to borrow your void gate to save a lot of people.” I can feel the lethargic and tired Callen complain mentally, but he doesn’t refuse my request. With the escape route prepped, I suppose it’s time to revisit my cell in prison. After all the effort I went through to escape, now I need to go back in.

  Dark Shelter

  Lisie finished her morning prayers, asking God to look out for the nice big sister who had disappeared the day after she got in trouble. That was when the creepy men in black armor started escorting people to the vault. Lisie heard some say it was for protection or to root out traitors. Inevitably news of the outer city's rebellion reached those in the tower. Once the news broke, the men in black armor wasted no time abducting people en masse. Floor by floor, those chosen were led into the vault. Lisie noticed some people trying to hide, but when they came for her, she was dragged down into the dark evil place in the basement of the citadel.

  She cried her first night, but she wasn’t alone. In the small black cells, the sniffling and sobs of countless people could be heard echoing through the impenetrable darkness. Some complained of the cell's height, but that wasn’t an issue for her since she was still small. Others screamed to be let free of their positions and ranks. Sometimes it worked, and the men were taken away from the cells, but those that came back were different from the nice elders she had previously recognized. She endured it all, finding comfort in prayer, and it was in the middle of praying that the black armored men came to her cell, opening it and bidding her to follow. She gave them a wide smile and thanked them, eager to finally be free.

  He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.