Always by your side

Chapter 14 - Do you trust me?

The moon was high in the sky, Amity finally asleep, it was time for action. I collected all the remaining paper in the house and headed toward the door. I snuck outside, glancing one last time at my new friend, For the first time she seemed peaceful while asleep, I was happy for her, though I couldn't leave Eda behind. I left her a note that I will be back soon.

The night was chilly, with a full moon. I was wandering alone through the dark forest, there was still a long way to the conformatorium, but this time I couldn't simply use Owlbert. I reached my destination right before dawn, I had to act fast if I wanted to keep the cover of darkness. It was time for breathing exercises, my plan was based mostly on the usage of invisibility glyphs so I must be quick. I took a deep breath and used a first glyph. It allowed me to march through the main gate while remaining unspotted. Now it's time for the harder part, getting inside and finding Eda.

Luckily, back in the day, Eda gave me a quick lesson about the layout of the conformatorium so I had a rough idea of where to look for the highest security cells, worse thing was that they were on the very top of the main tower. I wish Amity's strength spell still worked, it would do wonders right now. I was stuck on the outside ring, behind the main walls, but there was no way I enter the building without security clearance... It looks like I will have to climb after all, good thing I had some practice recently.

Lurking in the shadow I was finally able to breathe and estimate the climb. The tower was shorter than the cliff in the cave, nevertheless, it looked like a daunting task. The worst part about all this was that the sun had already risen and lighted up most of the tower, leaving me with a narrow part to strap on. It's still a gamble since I can't use invisibility glyphs there, climbing is too exhausting for me to be able to hold my breath. Regardless, I have to try, for Eda.

I make myself two ice pickaxes and try to reinforce my shoes with spikes, at least the tower isn't smooth. If I was the one designing this prison I would say it's a flaw but well, it suits me so I can't complain. Keeping a slow-falling glyph in one of my hands, I proceed to start climbing the secondary wall, while at the same time listening if there are no guards around. I reach the top without breaking a sweat, maybe there are some remnants of the strength spell, or my climbing practice paid off.

Looks like during the morning hours the building isn't heavily guarded. I jump down off the wall and safely land on the ground, time for the main objective, climbing the building. I tighten my grip on my gear and start my journey upward. As I climb I hear the guards inside the building talking about the upcoming petrification ceremony of the Owl Lady. Now I'm sure I've got to act fast. The adrenalin boost helped me advance quicker and I reached the roof of the tower sooner than I expected.

Now I had to blast my way through the roof and find Eda, sounds simple enough. Using a fire glyph I get inside while previously making sure I'm invisible. Fortunately, I'm inside the high-security block, so most of the guards are outside of it guarding the entrance. The emperor's coven could use some tips on security, but who am I to judge? I exhale and quickly inhale once again using another glyph, now it's time to look through the cells.

Eda is in the last cell, but there are two guards standing in front. I re-establish my invisibility behind a corner and pull a huge ice glyph. I sneak up on the guards and freeze them, literally, in a giant block of ice. The rumbling obviously woke up Eda, but there was something wrong with her, she had feathers all over her body.

"Who is there? Show yourself!" She shouted into the darkness, I exhaled and replied;

"It's me Eda."

"Oh my Titan, Luz, what are you doing here? You really shouldn't be here."

"Not now Eda, what happened? How did you even get captured?"

Eda looked down regretfully. "There is something I should have told you a long time ago, but it never seemed like a good moment... I suppose better late than never. I've been cursed when I was a child and let's say my curse acted up while I was fighting Lilith. I kinda knew it was coming since the curse amplifies around my birthday and that's why I wanted our mission to be a more quiet one."