"Nice to meet you Mira, Come on, let's leave this place, you'll be safe from now on, I promise you."
That's what I told Mira, one knee on the ground at her level. I gently extended my hand towards her, hoping she would take it.
Hesitant, wiping away her small tears, she finally made up her mind and her small, delicate scratched hand accepted mine.
"I'll protect you, everything will be alright."
That's what I told her before getting up and helping her stand up with my hand.
Together, we left her cell to join Leah, hand in hand. As I left, I could hear the relieved and happy voices of those poor, mistreated children echoing in the corridor. They already seem to like Leah, who, for her part, was quite overwhelmed by these little children. This situation contrasted quite sharply with the previous one, which quite relaxed me.
"Leah, let's go. Be careful, I'm going out first."
Leah nodded, and with that, I headed towards the door. But something prevented me from leaving, holding my hand. It was Mira. I almost forgot that she was holding my hand.
"Hey, I need to check that everything is alright outside, go to the girl with the others."
But my words did not convince her; her small, pouting face, nodding her head in refusal. I sighed, We couldn't waste anymore time so I had no choice.
"Fine, but if I say run, Run away to hide."
She accepted then rushed towards me to hold my hoodie tight. This girl trusted me, I can't deceive her.
With her, and Leah following, we headed towards the doors. Our many footsteps echoed in the room, making the situation even more tense given the number of lives that were at stake.
I finally reached the door, raised my sword, and with a sharp jerk, opened the door.
Nothing in sight, Just the courtyard of this "house of sequestration" surrounded by a forest. It seemed too easy, but there was only one way to know.
I stepped out with Mira of the house, the light breeze of the wind caressing my cheek and my exposed skin over the hole of my hoodie.
We moved a few steps away and I looked around; it was rather quiet. They must have gone on patrol or just deserted.
"Okay Leah, get out, just be careful."
I turned back to her, Mira still clinging on my hoodie. They headed out one by one, Leah first, there were four children, Which wouldn't be too much for Leah to handle and me who acts as a scout. They all eventually come out, two of them holding each Leah's hands on either side.
"Ready?" Leah said. Everything's been fine for a while now, so it's best not to delay and leave.
No... That's too easy...
Is there really nobody here?
Surely, they would have already attacked us if so. And this thought fled, followed by my eyes, which looked towards the flat roof of the house, drawn by a slight movement.
They had been there from the beginning, all ready to jump on Leah; there were five of them.
My teeth clenched, I knew this was my fault, I knew I could avoid that, I should have taken time to think of a safer plan. Everything felt slow as my mind tried Desperately a solution.
From where I am, I won't be able to do anything. I might be able to slow one down by throwing my sword at him, but that won't do anything that useful. Crap, I can only warn Leah and hope she manages to avoid it with the children.
Brrrrrr
That sound, as I watched Leah and the men up her about to jump, I heard the sound of a drill in the distance, shit, it's getting closer, I have to do something...
"LEAH, UP!" I shouted to hear, before instantly turn towards the noise, my sword covering me and Mira.
A loud bang of impact resonated on the sword's blade as soon as I turned around. I reacted just in time and positioned the sword perfectly to block some kind of stone drill propelled towards us, which was about to kill both of us.
Then, before I could even look at where this drill was from, I heard Leah scream.
My head instantly looked at where her scream was, She had managed to get away from the house with the children, but why was she looking at the door with such a horrified expression? Wait...
There are only 3 of the children with her.
As soon as I looked at the door, I saw it. One of the children was lying on the floor, dead.
The men were all heading towards Leah; I have to help her, she can't do it alone—
Wait, I feel something spinning on my shoulder, piercing it? It hurts; I have a bad feeling. No sooner had I turned to look than I saw a stake piercing and spinning into my flesh. In a fraction of a second, it swept me toward a wall, impaling me.
The impact was extremely strong and painful, but not lethal, just a little jet of blood came out of my mouth. But more importantly, I managed to cushion Mira's impact with my body; she was just a little shaken but not hurt.
Looking up to see what was before my eyes, one of the masked lunatics standing up in front of me. But he was different from the others.
The same cape, same color. But he had some kind of fancy magic scepter with a grey glowing gem on top of it. And he, wasn't masked. He must be in his fifties, despite his already white hair. And his face, pale and merciless, he looked more cold and smart than the guy who tortured me. In my condition, I have no chance on my own.
"Mira, flee." That's what I whispered to Mira. She was hesitant first, but when she looked at me, she saw how I looked at that man, she understood that she had to do it.
As soon as she began to run, the man pointed his Scepter towards her.
Just as he was about to cast a spell, I shouted something.
"Supreme Fireball"
Nothing happened, but that was part of what I wanted.
As I expected, he turned towards me, one eyebrow raised.
"You know that spell casting doesn't work like that."
His tone was arrogant, but he didn't realize it was just to distract him so Mira could escape.
Even though Mira managed to escape, I was still pinned to the wall by that stake in my shoulder.
"Anyway, our time has come, demon."
Shit, why am just staring at him? I immediately began trying to remove the stake that was impaling me, but unlike what I thought, it would be much more complicated because of my condition and the pain. It's like trying to amputate yourself.
My eyes slid slightly to the right, to at least make sure that Leah is doing well despite one of the losses.
But all I saw was a scene of horror and despair.
Leah was surrounded by these masked lunatics, She completely lost her mind; all the children were killed by those bastards. Their bodies lying on the ground.
And worst, Leah completely lost her mind, her beautiful blue eyes now just white blank. I didn't saw what exactly happened, but I'm sure she is in this state because of the children's death. But something was more standing out, above her, there was something that looked close to an eye of a storm. Yes, it was her anger that had caused that. This was from her, a nascent storm.
How could the situation go that wrong?
I'm impaled on a wall, all the children died, Mira is probably lost forever, and ultimately, Leah was about to kill everyone here, neither I nor those idiots can stop her because of that strange wind shield that formed around her to protect her.
What am I even supposed to do?
I'm no hero, and this is my fault. I came up with a bad plan, and now innocents children are paying the price, and I dragged Leah into it.
My hand that was trying to remove that stake on my shoulder, slowly had its grip weakening.
This situation was hopeless.
The man pointed his scepter towards me, his lips moving to cast something.
"lapide tere—." He was interrupted.
"ignis tenebrae!" A small sphere of black fire, struck his head, and the small voice that casted that spell...
I looked towards where the ball came from, I couldn't believe my eyes.
It was Mira, her two small raised hands casted that spell, and just that made her pant.
What is she doing here? Has she lost her mind? Is she going to die?
Wait, I'm so stupid! That small attack was enough to stop him, and to give me a chance.
I pulled myself together and yanked the stake off my shoulder with a swift, cold jerk. It hurt, it really hurt, but not enough to make me waste this opportunity.
I propelled myself towards him, sword in hand. Even though my speed was average, I managed to get close to him before he could recover.
But it was too late.
"Columna lapidea" He had time to cast a spell, which caused a stone line pillar to rise up beneath my head, striking my chin and knocking me to the ground.
But I smiled. Even if my body was tired. I smiled.
Why? My sword wasn't in any of my hands. I managed to plant it on his chest, right at his heart, just before his attack hit me. the blade of my sword passed through his chest, covered by his blood.
He fell to the ground, motionless.
That was the sound of my victory.
Then I heard a scream follow by a cold breeze brushed against my cheek.
"Mister! Your friend still needs our help!"
When Mira shouted that, I remembered that Leah was about to destroy everything.
The magnitude of the situation made me forget the pain; I instantly stood up and turned towards Leah. The Storm hasn't formed yet. But I couldn't approach, and none of those guys succeeded, they too understood that Leah was the real issue.
I had to find a solution... I looked around and saw a carriages with a large white wolf tied to it. My brain immediately came up with an improvised plan.
"Mira, get on that carriage. And this time wait for me in."
Mira nodded, began to run towards it. I quickly removed my sword from the man's corpse and headed towards Leah, passing between those lunatics. As I had hoped, they ignored me because I was dangerously close to her.
I don't know if it will work, and it will probably not. But it's the only option that came to mind.
I inhaled deeply and then shouted: "LEAH!"
...
Her eyes turned to me, and the shield weakened a bit, enough for me to approach her.
Using my sword to avoid being thrown, I managed to reach Leah, and without hesitation, I took her hand.
"Wake up!"
That was enough to make Leah's eyes turn blue again. Evaporating everything.
"Amos?"
She had regained her composure. But there was no time to lose; I pulled her straight towards me and the carriage before those lunatics realized we were vulnerable.
When we arrived at the carriage, I jumped in with Leah.
Leah and I landed in the carriage; Mira was already inside, sitting in a corner, her eyes filled with hope for us. But I knew we still had to leave immediately. As I got into the driver's seat, I saw that they wasn't even following us. They all gathered around their leader Corpse, hand joined. But that's all the better.
I took the driving reins and, I don't know if it's how I'm supposed to do it but shakes them and yelled "GO!" To the wolf. He directly move to the opposite direction of the men.
But when the carriage turned, Leah saw the children's corpse again. Tears coming back.
"It's all my fault..."
"No Leah, it's— uh..."
The silence between the three of us was heavy. No one knew what to say. Leah shouldn't feel bad for it, I'm the one who came with that shitty plan.
"We're alive, that's all that matters, right?"
Mira broke the silence, she didn't know how complexe what she said actually was.
But Leah stayed Silent
"Mira, don't say that." I tried to make things less awkward, but failed miserably.
"Where do we go now?"
"I have no idea..." Leah finally spoke, even if she didn't have an answer, that was better than her silence. But to my surprise, it was Mira who found an answer.
"We can go to my father's big house!"
"Where's that?" I asked. Her answer was quite childish, and I doubt it really helps since she wouldn't have the answer.
"Where? I don't know mister, sorry." You could hear just from her voice that she felt extremely guilty.
"No, don't apologize, it's not your fault."
"B-but my dad and the other call it the... Huh... Yes! Willner's domain!"
Willner's domain!? Is she the daughter of someone important?
Then Leah spoke, but with a confused, quite trembling voice.
"Your father? Mr. Willner is your father?"