The Hero's Sidekick

Terror flooded over me the moment I was over the threshold of the tower's door, the icy slick sensation manifesting on my skin like frostbite.

The demon had played it cautious with Sheena when she entered. Now it saw us as intruders and prey. Luckily I had anticipated that the demon would strike the moment I became vulnerable, so I entered the room ready to defend myself. As the feeling of cold spread over me, I ran through the short incantation to conjure my shielding spell.

On my left, the glasslike surface of my spell flickered as it repelled an attack. Something hit the shield like a whip, leaving icky blue slime hanging seemingly in the middle of the air as it ran down the side of my spell's protective bubble. What I wasn't prepared for was the psychic scream that sounded in my head.

It was sudden and piercing and felt like the biggest migraine I'd ever experienced. It threatened to engulf me, a sound like fingernails clawing at a chalkboard, peeling away at my mind as I fought to push it out of my thoughts. My forward momentum blunted, I stumbled off to the right while clutching my head with my left hand. Leaning against the interior wall to steady myself, I was fighting a losing battle to drown it out.

I was only vaguely aware of what was going on around me, my vision swimming as if I were looking through clouded water. Alverd was next into the room and had gone left while I had gone right. He held the Sword of Evros high, pointing upward as if waiting to bring it down on our attacker, but the demon made no effort to attack him. Instead, my magical senses tracked movement along the walls above, like a woodland predator in the treetops waiting to drop down on its prey.

Alicia was sweeping her maul ahead of her like a gigantic dowsing rod. There was a field of magical numbness around the head of the maul where the runes were now glowing brightly. In all this time I've never thought to look at those with magical senses. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it looks like that. Colors seemed muted and light distorted in that field, as if the runes were capable of affecting more than just magic.

She was quick to step over to me, shielding me with her body as she swiveled her head around frantically in search of our enemy. "Above us," I mumbled. "Stop relying on your eyes. Looking at it is just as dangerous as listening to it." I grit my teeth as another wave of psychic pressure battered at me.

"Where is it, then?" She said to me as she waved her maul upward.

"I don't know, I can't pinpoint it. In such a tight space, it's like echoes in a tunnel. I can't find the origin point. Give me a second," I growled, forcing the demon's mental attack back with some difficulty. "Sheena! Aim upward!"

I was too busy talking to Alicia to notice whether Sheena had come in next or after Monaco, but now all of us were in the room. She called out to me over the noise. "Where am I aiming?" Another burst of fiery needlelike pressure in my head almost cut my reply short, but by now I was more prepared for such assaults. I batted it aside.

"Anywhere! Just up! Shoot up for Eternity's sake!"

A moment later a dazzling blast of frigid air shot out of the bladed end of her staff coating the walls above the crystal and lowering the temperature in the room by at least ten degrees. For three seconds there was no response from the demon, but then a massive wave of pressure slammed down on us, flattening all but Alverd and Alicia against the floor. I could see him struggling against the torrent of unseen force, his legs braced and his head bowed but feet firmly planted. Alicia's runes were somehow negating some of the attack as she was having far less trouble, though she was clutching her maul with both hands and using it to brace herself, keeping it close to her body.

I found myself propelled downward, my face slamming into the floor nearly breaking my nose. The metal walkway creaked under the weight of three people smacking into it, and I saw stars for a second.

At least, I thought I saw stars. As my vision cleared, I could see through the perforated walkway the many shelves upon which the Repository's artifacts rested. The lights underneath the shelves, which indicated the power being drawn from those artifacts to fuel the cage that insulated the tower from the outside world, were flickering. If my eyes don't deceive me, that looks like Margloomian technology. But that doesn't make sen-

Someone grabbed the back of my robe and lifted me. Alicia grabbed me the way a dog would grab her pup by the scruff of his neck. She lurched forward, still resisting the pressure of the demon, carrying me along with her. Godsdammit, I'm being treated like luggage again. But, if I'm going to be carried, might as well make the most of it. Not having to worry about moving meant that I could focus my attention on the curious means in which the Repository shielded itself from outside influence. If what Sheena proposed is accurate, there must be a way to switch the polarity of the artifacts to empower some countermeasure against the demon. I just have to find the means to do so, and preferably before it kills us all.

A high-pitched whistle was the only thing I heard before Alicia threw herself down on her stomach and taking me with her so I plowed me into the walkway face first. Something streaked over my head and impacted the wall with a wet thud, splattering luminescent blue slime against it. "I can barely see it, it's up on the wall! Near one of the support beams for the crystal!" Alicia snarled as she did some weird little push-up that got her back on her feet in one swift motion.

No longer concerned with aiming, Sheena was spraying her cone of cold air haphazardly at the upper walls to spread a layer of frost across them at a fast pace. She must be trying to limit the demon's mobility. Once the walls are too slippery to cling to, it'll have to come down and face us on the ground. She had knelt down on one knee and was using her right leg to keep herself upright as she aimed her staff like a hose, her teeth set in silent snarl and her eyes practically glowing in the dimness of the room, the mismatched blue and green standing out against her red and black clothes.

As I blinked my eyes, Monaco knelt down beside me, grabbing my arm. "No sleeping on the job, Kuro. You and I are gonna have to put our heads together." She slipped her arm under and around my body, looping some thick wire around my waist and over my shoulder. A yank of her arm tightened it in place, and when she stood up I was pulled against her back. "How are you with heights?"

Realizing too late what she was about to do, I stammered. "Wait, wait, wait, I hate heiigggghhhhhttttttsssssss!" Strapped to her back, I was unable to do anything as she moved to the center of the room, hooked her grapple onto the walkway's railing, and rolled over the rail taking me with her. Despite the slow descent, I screamed the whole way down, my legs flailing as she lowered us forty feet below the massive crystal still looming over us all.

When we ceased descending, we dangled in the center of the Repository, surrounded on all sides by shelves with antiques and relics. "Dammit, Monaco! You can't just drag people off ledges!"

She clucked her tongue at me condescendingly. "What? You did fine when the Swords were chasing us across those rooftops. You act like you've never been dropped off a building before." I could almost imagine the smug look on her face. "Don't be such a baby."

I let out a short tirade of excessively foul language. Her response was less than what I expected. "Oooh, ouch. Try harder next time and you might actually hurt my feelings a little. Now stop wasting time. What are we looking for?"

I turned my head left and right, taking in the entirety of what I had to work with. We were still fifty feet above the floor, which was a circular space with a truly massive reinforced metal gate in one section that had to lead outside to the guard-infested courtyard we'd see after leaving the sewer. Other than that, the only furniture in that area was a heavy tome sitting on an intricate copper stand in the dead center of the floor.

Ten feet up from the floor the shelves began with four sets of shelves covering four cardinal directions. The objects on each shelf ranged from battered suits of armor, dusty mage staves, swords and shields, and finally a set of clay pots with black ink markings on them. Copper wiring attached to each shelf pulsed with little blue bolts of electricity, which fed into crystals embedded in the walls at fixed intervals. The crystals glowed with a dim white light, not entirely in tune with each other, which cast weird flickering shadows across the walls.

"I don't know. We're working off Sheena's theory here. She thinks there's some kind of switch or something that will change the Repository's containment field to work on that demon." Frantically, I looked for an object that would stand out as that solution, but there was no lever or switch or conveniently located button labeled "press to contain demon" anywhere to be seen. "Given how much magic factors into the way the tower defenses were built, she'd be right but I don't know…"

Above, the sounds of screaming, gnashing, and metal creaking reminded me we were on borrowed time. "But there's also evidence of technological involvement too. Electrical wiring and stuff like that. Copper plating on some of the shelves. Stuff that wouldn't be invented in Margloom until hundreds of years after this tower was supposedly built. It's like I'm trying to solve a puzzle that has pieces mixed in that don't belong."

I'm missing some important piece of information here. But thankfully I know how to get it. I just hope Drache is in a good mood.

Just thinking her name caused something to shift in the air of the room. My perception of time ground down to a halt and the oppressive aura of the demon faded away. A sudden flash of heated air announced the arrival of Drache who floated up into my field of vision from below like a ghost rising up from her grave. "Things must be dire indeed for you to willingly call upon my aid, boy. But now that I can see for myself, I know you didn't reach out in jest."

Her voluminous golden hair shimmered like the crystal above, which made the pit of my stomach fall through a little. Her crimson eyes also seemed just a little too bright for my taste, as if they were staring through me rather than at me. "We're inside the Repository. Sheena thinks there must be a way to contain some kind of demonic being sealed in here, but if there is I'm not seeing it. Is there anything that stands out to you?" I said spreading my arms wide to indicate our surroundings.

The ancient sorceress casually cast her gaze left and right observing the mechanisms before shaking her head. "I'm sorry. This cage was designed with elements that I don't understand. Not all the pieces are magical. Magic forms the source of power that the cage draws upon but nothing about the process by which the field is generated is within my comprehension."

Because Margloomian technology didn't come about until after she was put to sleep. Of course she wouldn't understand. Science has made so many advancements since then. "But then again that seems to be the point of this unusual contraption," she said. Her brow furrowed. "A lock that has a key the prisoner could never hope to use. An ingenious creation, if I do say so myself."

I'm gonna have to put aside the implications that the devices in this tower were made long before Margloom existed for now. Focus on solving the more immediate problem, like the demon trying to eat our faces right now. Drache continued, her incorporeal body floating over to one of the glowing crystals. "So many relics from my age. I'm not surprised. The only way you'd contain the Encroacher would be to siphon power off several Ishratan artifacts. If you didn't have those, it would be impossible."

A spark of recognition lit in the back corner of my mind. "Wait. What did you call the demon?" A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck.

She flippantly turned her head in my direction, as if she didn't share my distress. "The Encroacher. Defiler of the Earth. Render of Minds. Wallower in Filth. When the Imbalancer corrupted the Five Kings, it is what Burundus became." Her tone turned wistful as she looked up, where my friends were still fighting for their lives. "I didn't realize you had no idea what you were up against."

My jaw dropped. "That's one of the Five Kings?!" I wanted to flail about, but whatever magic She had used to seemingly stop time was apparently affecting my body as well. Well, shit. Everything suddenly got way more complicated.

The eerie red sheen in her eyes returned. "Indeed. Perhaps not all was as you surmised. You thought the Hand of the Usurper was housed here. Instead, the Repository serves as a prison for a monster straight out of your worst nightmares. What led you to believe the Hand was here?" Her gaze pierced through me again.

"I… I thought…" Wait. We never actually asked anyone if the Hand actually was in the Repository. We assumed it. Why? Why did we? My mind raced backwards through my memories to find the crucial moment where I'd misstepped.

Mingsheng never said the Hand of the Usurper was in Blossom City. He only wanted us to come here because he needed us to talk the Emperor out of an alliance with Ishmar. It was Monaco who put us on that track. I fixated on an assumption and never stopped to question its validity.

Around me, things were starting to move again albeit slowly. "My powers weaken. Surrounded by this unfamiliar cage, I too am subject to its effects." Drache growled. "I must be quick. You can't destroy the Encroacher without the Hand of the Usurper. Nor must you allow it to be free of this prison. Close your mind to its manipulations. Should it gain a foothold in your consciousness, it can use you as a gateway to escape this prison."

"Hold on! Why is it here to begin with? What the hell is going on?" I screamed at her as feeling returned to my extremities. The pressure from above was starting to reassert itself on me, and soon whatever Drache had done would be fully undone.

She hissed at me. "There is no time! Find the Hand. Slay the Encroacher. But first, flee!" As the last of her spell collapsed and the golden-haired sorceress faded like a summer heat mirage.

Then I was dangling again with Monaco as she twisted her body frantically. "Kuro, come on! Stop spacing out on me." She elbowed me in the ribs, which was enough to bring me firmly back to the moment. "What's the play? Gimme something here."

Mind racing, I glanced from one side of the room to the other. "I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Don't crowd me." The key lies in the technology. If Drache spent hundreds of years trapped as the world moved on, then so did Burundus. Or the Encroacher, whatever he is now. If the science that existed hundreds of years ago was enough to restrain him, what could it do with some upgrades?

"Monaco, can you get me closer to those crystals?" Instinctively I pointed at the milky white crystal wall fixtures, then realized she couldn't see them as she was facing the opposite direction. "Yes, I can. All over the walls. Any one in particular you need?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Not yet. We need to strip the copper wiring off the walls and shelves. I need as much of that stuff as you can get. We're going to create a direct circuit from each of those fixtures to each other and then to the crystal above." She swore under her breath. "Alright. Hold on, we're gonna move."

A moment later there was a clicking sound followed by the familiar noise of a grappling hook being fired. Gods above, how many of those things does she have? More importantly, where is she keeping them all? As the hook snagged on one of the shelves, I reminded myself that I shouldn't ask myself questions I probably wouldn't like the answers to. She pulled us over to the wall, grabbing hold of the edge of the shelf. "Okay, so I just yank the wires off the wall, right?"

"Yes, but wait until I-" The beastwoman let out a yelp. "Damn it all, don't touch live electrical wires! Don't you know how electricity works?!" I bellowed at her. She elbowed me again much harder this time.

"To hell with you, Kuro! Do I look like I went to one of those fancy engineer schools back home?! I'm a thief, not an artificer!"

Lucky for you, wizard education intersects with that to some degree. Unluckily for you, not understanding how electricity works means you're gonna hold this against me later. "You got any gloves? Put them on. Make sure they're thick and not made of wool. And give me a pair if you can spare them. Also, I'll need one of your grappling hooks." I could imagine the look of disbelief on her face. "I'm waiting on you now! Get to it!"

Grumbling, the thief rummaged around in her various hip pouches for the needed equipment. It was a hassle and a half for her to hand them all back to me but we managed. "That's my last hook. I don't know what you're planning, Kuro, but it better be good."

Fastening the gloves tight over my fingers, I took the hook in hand. The spring loaded mechanism wasn't necessary for my plan, but the winching feature would make sure it would lock tight on my intended target. I aimed the hook at the floor below before squeezing its trigger, and the contraption fired the steel head down to the ground, hitting the floor next to the tome stand. Eternity, if you're up there, I could use a little help on this one.

I pressed the trigger back into its normal firing position and the mechanism started to wind the rope back. As it lifted off the ground, the hook locked on the edge of one of the tome stand's legs anchoring it and us in place. Tucking the hook's launcher under my arm, I turned back to Monaco. "Okay. Carefully now, with the gloves, start pulling the copper wire out. Give it a hard yank and disconnect it from the crystal's wall anchoring."

Nervously, Monaco did as she was told. Her gloves were mercifully up to the task, protecting her hands from the charge running through the wire. With a quick but decisive pull, she removed the wire from the base of the crystal's mount. "Okay. Very carefully, pass me the wire. Feed it gently. I need to get it down to where the hook is."

She gave me the wire and just as I suspected tiny blue sparks were shooting out of the loose end. It was extraordinarily difficult to grab the wire without letting the live end touch my body but by this point I was so high on my adrenaline that I didn't waste time thinking about what the electricity would do to my body. Holding the end away from my feet, I started lowering the wire down to the tome stand.

Once the wire was touching the grappling hook, I closed my eyes. Now comes the really tricky part. The Staff of Farewells was tucked over my back and being held in place by the rope Monaco had used to tie us together. Using my left hand, I had to pry it out slowly taking care not to drop it. The battle above sounded like it was getting more and more intense as the rattling of the metal walkway sent vibrations down the grapple rope that bounced Monaco and I around like stones tied to the end of a string.

A loud creaking sound was the only warning I had before the two of us lurched violently. Alicia and Sheena were shouting far above me, their voices echoing off the walls and over each other so that I couldn't make out anything they were saying. The creaking then became screeching, the familiar sound of metal valiantly trying not to bend under intense pressure. Explosions and more screams rattled down along the tower interior.

I almost dropped the Staff of Farewells, but a quick, Farewells, but a quick, frenzied grab stopped that tragedy from occurring. Aiming downward, I concentrated on the copper wire flopping around. Minute air currents drifted the wire's end over to the metal hook, and when the still-sparking end touched said hook, I used an errant spark to superheat the air around the wire to flash-melt the wire.

A simple spark didn't have nearly enough power to completely melt the wire, but it was enough to fuse the copper to the steel of the hook, which was still fastened securely under the bronze leg of the stand. We're grounded now. I really wish I had better insulation but I don't have rubber boots on hand. I pat Monaco with my now free left hand. "Alright, now comes the tricky part. Disconnect the hook you used to get us to the shelf, but don't let go of it. We need to stay here in this position, or close to it." I checked to make sure the rest of the wire was still circling the room, and it was; each crystal mount was attached to each other, pulsing with dim light. "Now when I say go, we're going to push off and swing all the way to the opposite side of the room. I need to grab more wire."

"This plan of yours better be good, Kuro. I won't be shocked if it turns out to be some colossal failure after all this buildup." In the deep recess of my mind, I chuckled in an unhinged way. Oh it'll be shocking alright, just not in the way you expect. Not that you'll live long enough to give me shit over it. With a forceful kick, Monaco propelled us away from the wall towards the far end of the room.

Several shards of razor-sharp ice flew past me and smashed against the ground floor and wall. Looking up, I could barely make out my companions against what looked like a growing cloud of billowing black smoke, except the smoke had a reflective sheen to it that mimicked the starry glitter of the crystal still visible even in the center of the walkway. Whatever the Encroacher is, the others aren't going to last against something that even angels couldn't destroy. If that monster wasn't in a weakened state, we'd be dead already.

I reached out my gloved hand to seize hold of the shelf as it came into reach. With a great deal of effort I removed some of the copper wire from the base of the crystal mount. Up close the wall mount resembled a coil with several rings of connected copper encased in some kind of ceramic radiated power. The wire ran the length of the interior of the coil several times, which was more than enough for my needs.

I was right. The crystals are using wireless transmission to feed electrical power upwards and downwards. Each of them resonates with each other to create a full field that affects the entire inside of the Tower suppressing the Encroacher and the artifacts' full power while still harnessing the artifacts themselves. Somehow, some mad genius created a functional feedback loop almost three hundred years before the first scientific academy in Margloom recreated a flawed version of the same system.

"The situation is getting really spicy up there, Kuro. I don't know how much more your friends can take." Despite her attempt to stay calm, I detected concern in her tone. We wobbled again as another impact on the metal walkway jostled the rope keeping us suspended.

"I'm almost done here. Give me a hand with this wire. Wrap it around the rope securely. Make sure to tie it to the hook and make sure the copper is touching the metal." She did as she was told, and as she circled the wire around and around I took some of the wire and intertwined it with the wire leading down to the ground.

I took a second to go over everything in my head. Okay. So we're connected to two different sides of the room via copper wires that feed down to a grounding object about fifty feet below us, and I'm about to have Monaco fire another hook up with an attached wire to connect us to that ring that's keeping the crystal up above the walkway. If my hypothesis is correct, the metal will carry the electrical current directly to the crystal above. Direct application of the power generated by the crystal will amplify the containment effect. If we're really lucky and my scientific understanding is right, it'll drain the Encroacher's power and suck it right back into the crystal it emerged from.

Of course, I just turned Monaco and I into part of that direct transmission system. Which is unfortunately going to make the next part of this seem stupid beyond all belief. Craning my head back, I leaned my face against the back of her shoulder. "Hey, Monaco. Quick question. You wouldn't happen to have any lubricant, would you?"

There was an awkward pause that was followed by an incredulous scream. "Are you seriously asking me that now, of all times?! What is going through that idiot head of yours?!" It was my turn to elbow her. "Ugh, stupid wolf! I don't need it for any of your sick thoughts! Do you have any oil or not?"

Grumbling, she ripped open one of her pouches. "For maintenance on my gear, yes, pervert. My blades, hooks, and tools need constant attention." I snatched the small bottle of oil from her indignantly. "Gods above, can you get your mind out of the gutter for five minutes?" I muttered uncorking the bottle and holding it up. Here goes nothing.

I poured the contents of the bottle onto myself and Monaco. Naturally, she was less than enthused about what I was doing and for the sake of decency I'll omit what she chose to say about me. The oil soaked our clothes. As the irate beastwoman strapped to my back continued her vitriolic rant, I did my final measurements and prep.

It was just over fifty feet up to where the crystal's mooring secured it to the ceiling of the Repository. Monaco would need a perfect shot to get the hook stuck on the ring of beams holding it up, and she wouldn't have time to take another if she missed. I was putting my life, and the lives of everyone here, in her hands. "If you're done, now would be a good time to shoot that hook!"

After one last crack about my stamina as it pertained to certain nighttime activities, she held up the launcher with both hands. "Where am I aiming?" She yelled as the sounds of battle intensified above.

"The ring! The beams over the crystal. It's got to latch on. Let me know when it does."

The familiar sound of the hook firing up and into the air was accompanied by the grinding sound of the rope passing through the mechanism while covered in the copper wire. I watched the hook sail upward and my heart stopped as I tracked the tiny metal head against the cloud of darkness.

The immense relief I felt when the hook caught on one of the beams was the first time in this entire fiasco that I had felt like we might be able to pull this off after all. Nothing for it now but to put our luck to the test. Either we come out of this alive or as charred pieces of meat. No pressure. With all the wires connected and a direct link for the power to flow to the containment crystal above, all the pieces for my latest potential disaster were in place. I took a deep breath, tightened my grip on my staff, and put my plan into effect.

Redirecting the flow of electricity was easy enough. Just like with the manipulation of elemental energy for the use of elemancy the electricity in the wiring responded to my call. Slowly, the apparatus that was half magic and half science shifted the course of its current, directing it through the wires wrapped around Monaco and I. As I sensed the energy passing through, I did my best to reshape my focus to create a layer of shielding over the two of us. Normally it wouldn't be enough, seeing as how that shield spell barely manages to protect one person, but that's what my other two countermeasures were for.

The lubricant doesn't conduct that electricity. The metal stand below will act as a grounding rod. The shield spell will try to limit our exposure to as much of the electricity as it can. Alone, these wouldn't be enough, but all together, it might keep us alive long enough for the Encroacher to go back into its cage.

Then, the current hit us both and the sudden shock (no pun intended) of the full power coursing through us hit me. A truly unpleasant tingling across my skin accompanied a jolt of power that made my teeth chatter uncontrollably. My knees jerked and my legs flailed, sparks flying off of the wires wrapped around us as an audible hiss engulfed my ears. Behind me Monaco screamed through her own grit teeth, spasming as I was from exposure to the current.

Any awareness of what else was going on faded into the periphery as I dedicated myself to stopping my own plan from killing me. The only constant outside stimuli I could perceive as I squeezed my eyes shut was the steady pulse of power from the ruby on the Staff of Farewells. Its energy washed over Monaco and I, preventing the worst even as I fought to mitigate everything else.

The unholy shriek that filled the tower when the direct transmission linked into the crystal nearly knocked me out of my concentration. It was a cry that wasn't heard with the ears so much as felt by the mind. Unnerved by the psychic assault, I almost lost my grip on my staff, but I had come this far. I'm not ready to lose just because some interdimensional monstrosity was throwing a hissy fit about being put back in time out, I thought to myself.

Light scythed through the cloud of darkness, piercing through it like rays of sunshine cutting through morning fog. The entity raged and thrashed, throwing off more waves of psychic pressure in every direction, reverberating off the walls of a cage that was now closing in around it. Around me, the crystals lit up so bright I could see them through my shut eyelids, almost bright enough to hurt my eyes.

Pain struck my body in multiple places as my fragile shielding spell failed to hold up. Come on, damn you! Go back to your cage! The Encroacher gave one last shrill mind-numbing howl before it could resist no longer, and the pressure lifted as the cloud dissipated instantly. The crystals around me exploded, showering me in fragments and sparks. The wires on my body felt hotter than a blade pulled from a forge.

When the shaking stopped, I dared to open my eyes. The interior of the tower was dark now, as the crystals on the walls were completely broken. Many of the artifacts that I could see were now slag and melted from the process. Absentmindedly I yanked at the wires, and they practically melted away at the touch of my gloved hand. Monaco groaned, but that was a good sign as far as I was concerned. Sad to say but pain means you're alive. So far, so good.

"Alverd! Alicia! Sheena! Anybody alive up there?" I called to my friends in the gloom. A few moments later, Alverd yelled down, his voice wracked with pain. "We're alive. But the battle took a toll on the ladies. We should get out of here before anyone tries to find out what happened." A tug on the rope still connecting us to the walkway signalled that he was about to start hauling us up.

As he began the slow process of lifting two people, I looked up. The crystal was now glowing with a pale blue light, and within it was a chaotic image that I didn't really have words to describe. There was something innately wrong about the way the Encroacher raged within its prison, as if it were offended that the natural laws of this world were capable of binding it. It sent a shiver down my spine.

The reunion on the walkway was a grim one. Alverd had a smear on his cheek that I guessed came from him trying to wipe the blue slime off with only his gauntlet, leaving behind a dull blue mark that hopefully wasn't going to scar. Alicia was leaning against the wall, nursing bruises, cuts, blue psychic burn marks, and even a bloody gash on her arms. A hastily applied bandage around her forehead was already soaking through with crimson. Her face was twisted into a grimace, but she managed to smirk confidently at me as Alverd lifted me up over the railing.

Sheena had the worst of it by far. Slumped down by the door, she was shakily holding her spectacles in her hand as she tried to wipe blood off of her face. The fact that there weren't any cuts or lacerations made me think that it wasn't hers. She too had blue burns on her shoulders but not as severe as the wounds on Alicia. She was breathing heavily, every third or fourth breath interrupted by a cough as she tried to regain control of herself.

Before I could say anything, the crystal vibrated as the Encroacher thrashed against the inside of it, rattling it in its metal anchoring. I exchanged glances with Alverd who nodded at me. We beat a hasty retreat out of the room with Alverd and Alicia picking Sheena up and supporting her. The three limped out with Monaco just behind them. When all of us were outside, I slammed the heavy door shut behind us.

All five of us sank to our knees outside the door, taking in the fresh night air that felt infinitely cleaner than the stagnant atmosphere inside the Repository. For five long minutes, we laid there breathing and thanking Eternity, luck, or fate that we were still alive. I never want to do that again. I felt like a chicken trapped in a henhouse with a hungry fox.

The sensation of a tail curling around my neck nearly made me jump out of my skin. "What was that about a fox, Kuro?" Deotra's voice sounded in my head, sweet and innocent. "I'll tell you about it later. I'm glad to hear your voice though." A warm feeling suffused me, a rush of joy and appreciation pushing away my exhaustion.

"Tell me everything when you get back to the hideout. I wasn't able to see or hear you inside the Repository. Once the Encroacher started moving around, we lost our ability to communicate with you. We'll be waiting, Kuro." With the feeling of feet pushing off my shoulder, Deotra left me.

Monaco had procured a crossbow from her bag of equipment and was already aiming at a nearby building that was quite a bit shorter than the Repository. Her bolt sailed into the night, embedding itself squarely in a wooden post set up on top of the roof. There were piles of futons and cushions set up around the post, and even an old mattress that had been salvaged gods knew where. "Everyone take a hanger. This is our way out. Alverd, that line's not going to hold your weight so put your parachute on. You remember how it works, right?"

He struggled to put it on, but she came over and fastened it around his broad shoulders, making sure the redundant belts and fasteners she'd added to the design to account for his weight were secure. "I jump, count to two, then pull the cord, right?" He asked.

"Yes, then you use the other two cords I showed you to guide your path. When you hit the ground, take it off and get moving. Don't get tangled in it."

She put one of the hangers in my hands. It was little more than a bent piece of wood with leather wrapped around the edges where my hands would go. "Hang on, don't let go and try not to rock side to side. When you get near the bottom, tuck your legs and knees up towards your chest and get ready to roll when you hit the ground. Do not let yourself hit the post! If you knock it over we have no way off this roof." Her tone was impatient and to the point, but I knew better than to argue with someone who knew their craft.

Placing the hanger over the rope, I tried not to look down at the street. Gods, this whole night has been nothing but one close shave after another. It probably scared years off my life, and my expectancy was never great to begin with. Breathing in deep, I closed my eyes, steeled myself, and jumped.

At least I didn't hit the pole. Silver linings, I guess.