"The children..!"
Seraphine looked at Armand and nodded.
"Looks like the kidnappers took the same path as the search party, but they must have a way to avoid the Deathstalker."
"Is that even possible?"
She shook her head. "I don't know... more importantly, it seems they actually built this rock wall to trap them inside, and the magic was to prevent noise and hide them. With my Watcher's Eye, I saw that the space is quite tight on the other side....I can use magic to break it, but I'm afraid it might hurt the children."
"Hm..."
"Or I could try to disassemble the rock formation... but there's still a danger of them falling onto the children...maybe the 'liquify' spell? But that would allow only me to pass through, there won't be enough space on the other side. And teleportation can only be cast if I can touch them..." Seraphine was weighing her options in a dilemma.
Armand placed his hand on the jagged surface and tried to push slightly. While it felt solid, he could feel some of the rocks moving under his pressure.
"If I could have a slightly bigger gap, I could reach my hand inside and cast a holy barrier between the children and the rock wall. But it's difficult to cast it without knowing the size of the room." He muttered, mostly to himself.
"Ah, I can show it to you." Seraphine unexpectedly chimed in.
"..what? How?"
Wordlessly, she placed her hand on his chest.
Immediately, a strange sensation came over him - it was similar to being forced to see through a looking glass from a bird's eye view. He saw a tiny room with around six children huddled together, shivering and sniffing. Under their feet was a large magic circle. Some traces of food and water were scattered on the floor, but all of the children looked malnourished.
Feeling extremely nauseous, he jerked and instinctively took a step back. The vision disappeared the moment her hand was not in contact with him.
Seraphine gasped a little, retrieving her hand. "I'm sorry, I forgot how uncomfortable it is for other people to share the vision. Are you okay?" Her voice sounded very apologetic.
"I'm... I'm fine." Armand took a deep breath, his hand holding his head. "It's fine, just...a warning would be good next time." He staggered slightly as he tried to straighten up his bearing.
"Ah...sorry, Armand." Seraphine quickly moved forward to support him.
Unintentionally, they were now standing very close to each other, with Seraphine's hands on his arms to help him steady himself. Amidst the nausea, Armand felt a little awkward. Her hands, resting on his arms, seemed to radiate heat.
He took a couple of deep breaths and circulated holy power throughout his body, which quickly lessened his nausea and restored stamina. Realising he was using holy power to recover, Seraphine awkwardly withdrew her hands as Armand regained balance.
Armand cleared his throat. "Right. I know how much space roughly there is. The only thing now is to let the children know we're here to save them, and to back away as far as they can."
"We can hear them, so surely they can hear us?"
"I don't know, there might be another soundproof magic inside. Also, Seraphine, if you're thinking of shouting, I'd advise against it." The part of the cave they were in did not seem particularly stable, not to mention the Deathstalker might be around.
"Hm... I might know a way." Seraphine's face lit up.
"What is it?"
Neither of them realised that they were speaking quite casually with each other. Seraphine reached inside her dress's pocket, pulling out a small piece of ornamental paper.
Under Armand's quizzing eye, she nimbly and expertly folded the paper. Before long, a tiny, neatly folded crane took shape. Holding it on her index finger, she injected mana into the crane. and blew it gently towards a small gap in the rock wall.
The crane lifted into the air and slipped through the gaps and cracks until it emerged on the other side. Trailing behind it was a thin, almost invisible thread, still connected to Seraphine's index finger.
"Impressive," Armand observed the magical display with admiration. "You created a medium, filled it with mana temporarily, and placed upon it a spell to maintain a connection so you can supply more mana and control it." It sounded simple in theory, but for anyone else it would be nearly impossible to pull off, given the extreme level of delicate control it demanded. Just a little bit of extra mana, and the thin paper crane would have been ripped to shreds.
Seraphine did not answer, her face tense as she focused on maintaining the connection. Once she felt there was a stable connection, she took a deep breath and cast a sound-amplifying spell through the delicate link.
"Tovabbit."
She looked at Armand. He nodded. Clearing her throat, she imagined a volume level she desired in her head and spoke.
"Children."
The faint snivelling noise immediately stopped as her voice echoed beyond the rock wall.
"Don't panic, we're here to save you. Please stay quiet." Seraphine said hurriedly, afraid some children might start screaming.
The silence from the other side was encouraging.
"Do you see the paper crane? Can you move as far away from the wall it came from?"
There was no answer, but Armand could faintly hear some hesitant shuffling noise.
"Remember, move as far away as possible! Duck and cover your head as best as you can!"
Seraphine looked at Armand again. He nodded. They had done all they could to prepare them and could only hope the children would follow the instructions.
He reached through the largest gap he could find, picturing the confined space and the children being enveloped by a holy barrier as he channelled holy power into his hand.
Feeling his power being drained, he extracted his hand from the gap. "... Alright, that should do it."
Seraphine nodded. She then placed her hand lightly on the jagged surface of the rock wall.
"Szétszed."
The rock wall crumbled apart - pieces of stone loosening and falling as they disassembled in slow motion. Dust spilt into the already stale cave air. The rocks that were previously tightly locked in place slowly broke down into scattered rubble, revealing the space behind the wall.