“We could try digging our way out.”

“With what? Our hands? On stone?”

“The ground is dirt. Depending on how deep the wall goes, we could dig under it.”

“And how are you gonna hide all the dirt you’re diggin’ up, huh?”

“Dude, there’s fucking straw everywhere. Hiding dirt and a hole would be hella easy.”

“How fast can you dig a hole? Can you do it ‘fore we starve?”

“Fuckin’…” Pierce glared across Liask’s cell right at Obra as he replied irately, “alright, you come up with a solution, then!”

“My solution would’ve been ‘never get caught in the first place’,” Obra shot back.

“And yet, you did. Unless you’re trying to say you got caught on purpose?” Pierce challenged.

“Guys,” Liask finally interjected, holding up her hands to look warily at each of Pierce and Obra. “…Our situation is bad enough already without the two of y’all arguin’ with each other.”

“What else is there to do?” Obra questioned, “we’re all stuck in fucking jail cells, here. They’ve given us water, but no food, yet. Wouldn’t be surprised if Rokres wants to starve us out, and if so, we don’t got much time to do anythin’.”

“Which is why I’m over here, proposing solutions,” Pierce countered.

“Come up with a good one an’ I won’t shoot it down,” Obra snapped.

“There has to be a more productive way of doin’ this…” Liask muttered, and then passed Pierce a glance. “What about your friend? Do you think there’s a chance he’d be able to help?”

“His friend’s useless,” Obra declared.

“Conrad may act like he’s useless, but if you spent time with him, you’d find that he’s surprisingly dependable,” Pierce insisted. “If there’s a way for him to help, he’ll find it, eventually. The only question is if there really is a way to help.”

“That’s a lotta faith in a guy who complained the whole time we were travellin’ here.”

“So? Conrad complains all the time. What matters is that, when it comes down to the wire, he pulls through. You just watch, if we don’t get ourselves out of here on our own, it’ll be because Conrad found a way to save our asses.”

“I hope so…” Liask commented, and then shifted her attention to the jail door as a loud thunk reverberated through the open space. “…But let’s stop talkin’ about this for now.”

The trio fell silent, all of their attentions falling on the door just in time for it to open up. On the other side of the door appeared the same broad-shouldered jailer that had spoken to the group the previous day, as well as supplied them with water that evening. After opening the door, the man slowly surveyed the entire jail, before taking a step forward.

“…I knew outsiders always lie,” the man muttered. “We found your fourth. Have fun gettin’ your stories straight now, ‘cause the real questions begin tomorrow.”

“What? Seriously?!” Pierce reflexively exclaimed, and then turned to glare at the man as he gestured for someone to step into the jail. “Fuckin’ hell, Conrad, you had one jo—!”

Halfway through Pierce’s condemnation, a second individual stepped through the door, with their hands and feet manacled together. White robing swathed them head-to-toe, including an over-sized hood that obscured her eyes — allowing her to pass a slight smirk toward the three captives.

“Oops. Apologies for getting captured,” she commented, deadpan, as the jailer shut the door behind her.

“You—!” Pierce immediately leaped to his feet, “you’re not Conrad, you’re—!”

“Shade…” Liask muttered.

“One of the Bleeders who betrayed Tresnon!” Obra growled as the jailer opened up an empty jail cell and guided Shade into it. “What the hell are you doin’ here?”

“So Compound Tresnon really is workin’ with Bleeders now, is that it?” the jailer questioned, passing Obra a glance.

“What?! No!”

“More importantly, she ain’t with us!” Liask insisted, watching as the jailer relieved Shade of her manacles before locking the cell door. “She’s a Bleeder!”

“Oh, how cruel, abandoning one of your cherished friends like that,” Shade cooed.

“All you outsiders talk too dirt-damned much,” the jailer retorted, first looking at Shade before turning back to the initial trio. “Don’t think you can fool us again. Rokres is on to you outsiders. So I’d suggest you ask your friend here what the hell she was doin’, tryin’ to take the life of Chief Kores — and do it fast. ‘Cause it looks like some executions are in order real soon.”

“You can’t be—?!” Pierce started, but the jailer had already left the jail and slammed the door shut after him. “The hell is going on?” he questioned to no one in particular, and then shifted his frustrated glare to Shade. “And what the hell are you doing here?”

“You don’t recognize a fellow citizen of Compound Tresnon?” Shade responded innocently.

“Bullshit!” Obra retorted, “I know damn well that you helped the Bleeders during the Hunger’s Bane attack! Don’t you fucking weasel out of this one!”

“My, you certainly are riled up. Touched a nerve, have I?”

“More importantly, what about Minilas?” Liask pressed. “I know the Bleeders took her! And I heard from Davídrius that the one who did had to’ve been you, a Visitechnic! So where is she?”

“Minilas…?” Shade passed Liask a glance; though her eyes were hidden, her mouth was enough to convey her cluelessness — followed quickly by a grin of recognition. “Oh, you must mean that girl that I captured from the WCU campus? I really must say, for a school so full of Chaotics, you’re woefully lacking in any kind of anti-Chaotic countermeasures.”

“Answer the damn question,” Obra growled.

“My, so impatient. We’re all in jail now, aren’t we? We have all the time in the world!”

“Until that guy comes back to execute us all for somethin’ that you did!”

“What did you do?” Pierce questioned, “and who the hell is Chief Kores?”

“Chief Kores is the leader of all of Rokres…” Liask answered warily, and then shifted her attention back to Shade. “But what you’re doin’ here can wait, just tell us about Minilas! At least tell us she’s okay!”

“Youth these days…” Shade hung her head and offered a weary shrug before turning towards Liask again. “But if you insist, I can at least tell you that — the last I heard, at least — your friend is doing fine.” The Bleeder then broke into an unnerving grin. “And if she continues to behave herself, then I’m sure that Strén and Feral might just leave her that way.”

“You…!” Obra snarled, his lip curling in utter disgust, “you backstabbing, dirt-damned bitch!”

“Why did you take her?!” Liask demanded, “why? What did Minilas ever do to you?!”

“It’s what she didn’t do that made her easy pickings: fight back,” Shade replied. “In this wasteland of yours, the weak get eaten. That is Strén’s entire philosophy, after all. I’m merely facilitating it.”

“And what does that have to do with Rokres?” Pierce questioned. “Why are you here?”

Shade offered a coy smile in response. “You would like so dearly to know, wouldn’t you?”

“Why act all cagey? You’re stuck in here, just like us, now. You can’t use your Chaotic ability to escape. Your plan clearly failed, so why not just tell us what happened?”

The Bleeder continued smiling, but offered no further reply.

“Fucking Bleeders…” Obra growled.

“It sounded like you’re after this Chief Kores person,” Pierce continued, still looking at Shade as he attempted to get any kind of response out of her. “Why? Do Bleeders do assassinations, now? After what happened a few days ago, I thought you guys were a lot less subtle than that.”

Shade remained silent.

“You got anything to say for yourself?” Obra prompted impatiently.

“Guys…” Liask doubtfully glanced between Pierce and Obra. “…I don’t think talkin’ to her is gonna be helpful, at this point.”

“How else are we gonna figure out what she’s doin’ here?” Obra questioned.

“How cold,” Shade replied. “Am I really of no conversational value, aside from what I know?”

“Yes,” Pierce snapped, and then passed Obra and Liask a glance. “…Seems like Liask is right, Obra. I doubt we’re going to get anything else out of her.”

“I could share some wonderful stories about other people I’ve kidnapped,” Shade replied.

“Fuck you,” Obra snapped, and then turned his back on the rest of the jail in a huff. “Fucking… great. And now Rokres thinks we’re with the fucking Bleeders! What do we do now?”

“It is lookin’ pretty bad for us…” Liask admitted. “Pierce, I hope your friend really can pull through, like you think.”

“If it’s possible, he’ll find a way. I’m sure of it,” Pierce insisted, only to return to sitting down upon the straw-covered dirt as he muttered under his breath, “c’mon, you lazy bastard, don’t let me down…”

---

*

“Alright… what now…?”

With his hands in his pockets and his body covered by a recently acquired set of robes and desert cloak, Conrad casually strolled down the main street of Fort Rokres. Having found a set of clothes to steal the previous night, Conrad now perfectly blended in with the locals; all he needed to do to avoid rousing suspicion was to not talk to other people. And with his new ability to blend in came greater latitude in exploring the Fort — after all, even when he was invisible, he was still physical, meaning that he had to avoid busy areas where he could bump into people. Now that the entire town was open to him, he was busy trying to get a lay of the land, and think up some manner of plan for freeing Pierce, Liask, and Obra.

“Ugh…” Conrad found himself sighing in exasperation. Damn it… what the hell do I do, now? I know where Pierce and the others are being kept, but it’s covered in CENT fields. Maybe if I sabotaged the power system, or something…? What the hell are you talking about, Conrad, like you even know how to do that. Where do they even generate power, around here?

He idly began looking around himself, at the surrounding buildings and the city walls beyond. There was no obvious power-generating structure as far as he could see, though as he looked, he was soon overcome by a yawn. The previous night had been rough — Fort Rokres didn’t have much in the way of hostels or taverns, and even if it did, Conrad didn’t have any local currency on him. As a result, he had been forced to take refuge in an empty stable stall, where he eeked out a starkly uncomfortably night’s sleep.

Good thing I’ve honed my ability to sleep anywhere, Conrad thought bitterly, but damn if that hay bed wasn’t uncomfortable. At least I was able to sneak into one of the public baths to clean up this morning, but… aw, man, I really just want a warm shower and a nice bed…

As he mentally complained about his conditions, he found himself looking to the sky. Bright midday sun shone down on the streets of Rokres, blocked occasionally by billowing, fluffy white clouds. A soft, cool breeze swept through the city, helping to mitigate the stark sunlight; even the crowded main street wasn’t too dense, such that Conrad easily had enough space to himself to stretch his arms. …Alright, I need to stop complaining, he mentally berated himself, Pierce, Liask, and Obra have it so much worse right now. Come on, Conrad. There’s gotta be SOMETHING you can do. Right…?

Upon drawing a blank for nearly a minute, Conrad released another sigh and began to casually observe his surroundings, hoping to find something to offer a solution — or even just to distract him. A painful rumbling in his stomach then prompted him to focus on finding something to eat, as he hadn’t eaten at all since before the group had their fateful run-in with Rokres’s security. As soon as he began looking, however, he realized that he didn’t have any money to buy food, nor even a way of communicating with the Rokresians in their own language. With another dejected sigh, he attempted to put his own hunger out of mind and focus on the issue at hand… at least, until a peculiar set of robes caught his eye. A set of beige desert robes, not unlike those of many of the Rokres citizens, albeit with subtle purple and black designs interwoven into the fabric.

As soon as he noted the clothes, Conrad surreptitiously looked to the person’s face — finding a short young woman with naturally tan skin, dark fluffy hair, and steely eyes. Is that—? Conrad began to wonder, only to reflexively avert his gaze when the woman made eye-contact with him. He still watched her out the corner of his eye, however, noting that her attention seemed to linger on him for a second before she ducked into a nearby tavern. Was that… Relia? Conrad wondered to himself, that was her name, right? But I thought she was in Tresnon. What’s she doing here? He stopped at the side of the street, uneasily looking both ways over the surrounding crowd before shrugging in resignation. Well, she’s at least a familiar face. That’s as close to an ‘out’ as I’m going to find wandering these streets. Let’s just hope she remembers me, and doesn’t mind talking…

With that, Conrad casually made his way to the other side of the street before tentatively stepping into the tavern that Relia had disappeared into. A small ding rang through the empty space as the door opened, but none of the patrons sitting at any of the tables paid Conrad any mind. The tavern interior was only dimly lit, besides; the walls had no windows — a common trait of Rokresian buildings — and instead featured periodic small vertical slits that let outside light in. A couple of dim lights rounded out the tavern’s lighting, giving the place an oddly dusky feel despite it currently being midday.

As the entrance door closed behind him, Conrad swept his eyes across the open area, eventually finding Relia sitting at a small table in the back with her back to the door. Trying his best to appear as casual as he could, Conrad slowly walked over to her table. “…Uh…” he started, his voice low as he stepped up next to her, “are you—?”

“Sit down,” Relia stated, nodding toward the seat next to her as she did. “And be careful how loudly you talk.”

“Uh… right,” Conrad muttered as he carefully sat down in the seat next to Relia. He then glanced her way. “If you’re worried about people hearing me, though, then I can just make it so they, uh… can’t.”

“So you’re an Audiotechnic, too… that’s good. But still. Be careful; you’ve been foolish enough already.”

“Ah ha ha…” Conrad nervously laughed. “So you know what happened…?”

“It’s what I expected to happen,” Relia replied, matter-of-factly.

“You expected this? What…? I don’t even know what you’re doing here. Did you follow us?”

“I did.”

“What? Why? When? And why didn’t they capture you?”

“I overheard your conversation on Market Street back in Compound Tresnon,” Relia explained. “I haven’t talked much with that hotheaded friend of yours, but I knew y’all would get into trouble by comin’ here.”

“Oh…” Conrad smiled sheepishly. “Well… you sure aren’t wrong. Why did you—?”

Relia held up her hand in front of Conrad, as if gesturing for him to be quiet, just as a tan-skinned man with dark hair approached the table with two bowls in hand. Wordlessly, he set the steaming bowls down on the table in front of Relia and Conrad before leaving to return to the kitchen.

Conrad watched the waiter leave before turning to look down at the bowl in front of him, and the thick, golden stew contained within. He then glanced toward Relia as she grabbed the spoon in her own bowl and began eating. “…You expected me to follow you, huh?” he questioned.

“You didn’t have a choice, did you?” Relia replied.

“…Guess not,” Conrad admitted as he grabbed his own spoon and readily began eating the stew. “Thanks for the food, I’m starving.”

“You’ll need it. We have a lot to do.”

“Yeah… but you still haven’t explained how you weren’t captured.”

“For one, I didn’t try to sneak into Fort Rokres, of all places,” Relia commented, passing Conrad an aside glance before returning to her food. “If you had approached normally, they would’ve just turned you away at the gates, rather than capture you.”

“Good point… still, Pierce was pretty dead-set on making it into the city…”

“And that’s why he’s a fool. And you are, too, for following him into this mess.”

“Yeah, yeah. So why did they let you in, then?”

“A couple years ago, I helped out a small travelin’ party of Rokresian shepherds. They were bein’ threatened by the Bleeders, and I chased ‘em off. To thank me, Rokres gave me ‘visitor’ status, allowing me to enter their cities… as long as I don’t stick around for too long.”

“Cities? There’s more than one?”

“Of course. The nation of Rokres is a federation of city-states throughout the Rokres peninsula. They’re not too unlike the Compounds, really, but Rokres as a whole is much more isolated, and they have a tighter central government.”

“Let me guess… is one of their leaders someone named ‘Chief Kores’?”

“I see you’ve been doin’ some lookin’ around of your own. Kores is the head of the entire federation, yeah, and Fort Rokres is effectively the seat of government.”

“A whole nation, huh… for some reason, I thought all of Treséd was just a bunch of cities and unclaimed land…”

“It might as well be. Rokres claims the entire peninsula, but the truth is they can barely enforce their borders beyond a few dozen kilometers outside of each city. Bleeders are more of a problem here than they like to admit.”

“Really…”

“Yeah. Though I didn’t actually expect to see one, here…”

“Wait, what?” Conrad glanced toward Relia in alarm. “The Bleeders are here? Since when?!”

“So you didn’t hear?” Relia side-eyed him as she took another spoonful of her stew. “This morning, they caught a Bleeder tryin’ to kill Chief Kores. And it wasn’t just any Bleeder… it was Shade, one of the two who my idiot mom and Davídrius let into Tresnon.”

“Shit… Shade was the one with the robes and everything, right?”

“And invisibility, from what Davídrius told me.”

“Huh… well, they caught her, right? So she shouldn’t be a problem any more.”

“She might not be a problem to Rokres, but she’s definitely a problem to you and your friends. You understand? Since she was caught around the same time as your friends, Rokres thinks your friends are Bleeders, now.”

Conrad stared at Relia in disbelief. “…Aw, fuck…”

“Yeah. So we’re on the clock,” Relia replied.

“You helped Rokres before, right? Maybe if you tell them this is all just a misunderstanding, then—“

“I tried talkin’ to Olres. He wouldn’t listen. He even threatened to lock me up… remember, I’m still an outsider, to them. This kind of mix-up ain’t somethin’ they’d listen to me on.”

“Then… what’s your plan? Didn’t you follow us to help us?”

“Oh, so you’re expectin’ me to do all the work, huh?”

“That’s…” Conrad trailed off uneasily. “I… …well…”

“You Earthians… why do y’all seem to think you can always choose whether or not to get involved with somethin’?” Relia passed Conrad a frustrated glance. “Sometimes, when you get sucked into somethin’, you have to deal with it yourself. Especially if it’s a situation you got yourself into.”

“…Can’t really argue with that, I guess.”

“But don’t think I’m goin’ to just leave you to deal with this all by yourself. I expect you to pull your weight, of course, but I’m a little to blame, here, too…”

“What? How?”

Relia glanced at Conrad again, only to sigh and lean back in her chair. “…When I first heard your friend talkin’ about goin’ to Rokres, I figured I’d just let y’all get that far on your own, so you can finally see for yourselves how things are in Treséd — without havin’ someone to cushion your fall. After all, if even gettin’ yourselves involved in a Bleeder attack on Compound Tresnon wasn’t enough to knock some sense into y’all, then I’d hoped that spendin’ a couple nights in Rokres’s shitty jail, wonderin’ if you would ever actually be free again, would set you straight.”

“That’s… uh, really… something.”

“If that was all that had happened, you would’ve been fine. I would’ve had to burn a bridge or two to get y’all out of jail, but I’m not super attached to Rokres, anyways. But then, Shade showed up.”

“And now Rokres thinks we’re Bleeders…”

“Right. And if I had just stopped y’all from even leavin’…” Relia took a deep breath. “…Well, at least you escaped capture. We can work with that.”

“Invisibility, sound muting, and Chaos abilities, huh? I guess we could make that work. Shouldn’t be too hard for me to mute your call-outs, so no one actually hears your attacks.”

“…Huh. You catch on quick. Quicker than I expected.”

“Well… it’s pretty simple, really.” Conrad then set his spoon down in his now-empty bowl; Relia still had over half of her stew to work through, but Conrad had sped through his to satiate his hunger. With no more food, he briefly surveyed the tavern, finding few other patrons before turning his attention back to Relia. “So… what now? Rokres is probably on high alert now, right? You know, if they think there are Bleeders around. So maybe we should lay low, for a bit…”

“You underestimate Rokresian pride,” Relia countered. “To them, their defenses worked. They stopped the Bleeders. I have no doubt their leaders think there’s nothing else that needs to be done. I bet they haven’t even increased security around the jail; Rokres is really proud of that anti-Chaotic jail they have.”

“Oh… well, at least it’ll be easier to survey the place.”

“We don’t have that time. Remember what I said? Rokres caught Shade tryin’ to kill Chief Kores — the leader of Rokres — and they think your friends are with Shade.”

“Oh.”

“And Rokres deals swift and harsh punishments to who they see as hostile outsiders. If we don’t do anythin’, they’ll execute your friends along with Shade by Isdia’s end.”

“Oh…” Conrad muttered wearily. Today’s Windia… that means Isdia is in two days. Shit, we only have two days?! “What do we do, then?” he questioned, his voice taking on a frantic tone.

“We work quick,” Relia replied. “Escapin’ the city will be the hard part, but once we’ve broken your friends out, they’ll be able to help…”

“Are you… really willing to help us break out, though? It sounds like you’re about to put your reputation on the line, all just to save some people you barely know…”

“As I said… I didn’t warn y’all of the dangers of comin’ here, even though I could’ve. So part of this is on me. But even if it wasn’t, keepin’ good standing with Rokres ain’t worth three innocent lives — foolish lives, but innocent all the same. Regardless, we can talk more about this after your friends are free.”

“Right, right, sorry. Okay. So, a break-out plan, hmm…”

With that, Conrad and Relia continued quietly plotting in the back of the tavern, attempting to work out some kind of plan to free Pierce, Liask, and Obra from Rokres’s proud grip.