Cerberus Rex, Nameless

Wizard Dungeon, 28

Asinis ran so hard every step jarred through his entire body. The wind he made in his haste blew back his hair. He skidded at a crossroad, looked left then right. Gunilla's coat fluttered around a corner to the right. He dashed after her. Not a person was in sight. He'd been clumsy running through Waywin away from Isenvel. He couldn't afford to be now. Asinis would prove his and Feri's innocence, and Gunilla was the only way! Asinis shut his eyes and released some of the spell he held on to. His orange hair grew a shade darker, his blue eyes also, and he getured outward. A light blast sped toward Gunilla's back but caught the wall. He swallowed, but the movement caught his dry throat in an awkward halfway point. He cleared it, tried again, and hoped the others were behind him.

"Enora!" he shouted.

Her shoulders jerked and, panting, she came to a stop. Her teeth ground as she glared at him, and then she held out her hand toward him. He gasped when he felt the heat of a swarm of dark insects approaching. His arms flew up, and they ran into an icy fog. The insects dropped at his feet but revealed a lancehead dripping in green flying at him. He shouted and cast his net. The spear hissed in contact, but it caught and clunked to the floor before disappearing along with the net he had dropped.

Asinis looked up. Gunilla stood in the same place, her fingers splayed and blue and orange arcane light streaming between them. Asinis's eyes narrowed. She'd not had such power the last time they'd met. He swallowed and stepped backward. The energy between her hands pulsed. He didn't know what she intended to cast, but he had to do something to stop it because that amount of energy meant death. He shut his eyes and then, when they opened, he drew a series of sigils through the air. A cloud from which several missiles appeared shot out. Gunilla gasped and broke the spell she'd begun to cast in order to deflect the darts zooming toward her. She managed to set the ones heading for vital areas off course as he intended. But several others pinned into her arms and legs with a few in her chest and side.

She whimpered as the sleeping effect he'd drawn into them took effect. Then she fell to her knees. Asinis walked to her, breathing hard. Gunilla looked up as he approached. Tears burned her eyes, she shook under his shadow, afraid. Asinis knelt before her as she lulled and then, as she fell, he caught her head and eased her down to rest on the ground. The missiles in her body and on the ground dissolved. Finally, Asinis could swallow. He held his hand over her, uttering a quiet spell. It weaved into her and then faded. He hung his head, his eyes flickering to Gunilla's resting face as he waited for someone to come help. His hair and eyes lightened back to normal, and his companion's footsteps surrounded him, but he couldn't bring himself to look up.

"Asinis. You did it!" Feri cried.

Asinis sniffed and looked away. "Y-yes. She's sleeping."

"So." Sefu stopped to stand over Asinis and Gunilla. "This is the cult member helping to siphon magic from the gods' vessels."

"How do you know about that?" Silas asked.

"Noarwin, of course. Why do you think I followed you all when I saw you down here? I don't chase him for no reason," Sefu said.

"Stop lying, Sefu. Everyone knows you're in love with me. Isn't that right, Dar," Mr. Noarwin said, smiling at his golem friend as they caught up. Dar's eyes crinkled in a smile, and he nodded.

"Tch." Sefu crossed his arms. "Anyway, I will take her into custody. Captain Fairwind will want to interrogate her."

"Shouldn't we take her to the queen?" Asinis jumped up in alarm as Sefu drew Gunilla over his shoulder. Sefu curled a hand over her ankle, and luminous, gold and white crystal-like shackles appeared on her ankles and wrists.

"We're not bringing a potentially dangerous criminal before Her Majesty without first ensuring she can neither hurt her nor herself. Besides. Noarwin will be there to make sure the captain doesn't go too far. Right, Noarwin?" Sefu asked.

"Of course. I would never leave such a lovely flower in the rough hands of the captain." Mr. Noarwin brushed the backs of his fingers over Gunilla's cheek. "Don't worry, Asinis. No harm will come to her, and the queen will have a chance of seeing her." He turned to Silas. "And we will restore the magic that has been lost."

Silas nodded his thanks, but Asinis's anxiety renewed. "What if she escapes you? What if you can't get the information we need to exonerate Feri and me?"

"Have a little faith in your friends, wizard," Sefu said over the shoulder Gunilla didn't lay on. "If the stag believes you then there's a chance. Especially if this woman truly is what you say. Now. I have some guards waiting for me at my entrance. Best you lot go home and get some rest. You'll be called in for interviews soon. Think of a good speech to defend yourselves with, because if you fail, you'll be joining this one in a cell." Sefu left them standing in the alley, no one in the streets of the festival beyond questioning him. Asinis swallowed as he disappeared, hoping that everything they'd gone through would be enough.

"Let's get you home, Dar." Mr. Noarwin pat Dar on the shoulder. "And uh... don't tell Waverly what happened tonight, alright?"

Dar nodded.

"What about his cloak?" Feri asked. She picked up the threads left around Dar's broad form.

Mr. Noarwin winced. "Ah..." He pulled the shredded pieces off. "We'll say it got burned by one of the fire breathers. Come on." He poked his head into the street and then, after signaling with a jerk of his head, stepped into the festival.

They thread through the crowd still at its peak. Dogs sniffed at them. Asinis gulped as their noses dug into his pants. He remembered Silas turning them into puppies and credited that the reason for their attention, but it unsettled him all the same. He weaved out of one's way in time to avoid its interest, but he almost bumped into Mr. Noarwin, who had stopped to hold Dar's cape aloft. A stream of fire from an entertainer's lips caught its ends, igniting it in a beautiful flare of fire before Mr. Noarwin pat it out.

"Oops," he said with a cheeky smile and tied it back onto Dar.

They made their way to the tunnel and trekked through it in silence. Asinis winced at the sound of dripping moisture and the scurry of rat claws on the stone. Everything sounded like one of Gunilla's attacks now. When had she learned to cast such terrible spells? Then, at the end of the tunnel, they paused below the hatch.

"Do you think it's dawn yet?" Asinis asked. He didn't want to stay there, but he wasn't in the mood for Waverly's anger should they come too soon.

"Not quite," Silas said.

"Should we rest here for now?" Mr. Noarwin asked.

"Alright," Feri said. She went to Asinis, who slid down the side of the wall. He felt it grind on his coat but didn't care about the grime and mud it left on his clothes.

He looked at where the others found a place to rest then at Feri. She put a hand on his knee. "Are you alright?" she whispered.

Asinis smiled sideways at her. She frowned. There was a lot of forced smiling going on tonight, and he was the last one who could make it look convincing. "Fine," he said.

"Hm." She leaned toward him. "It's okay if you're not, you know. After all. You just turned in a friend. I hope everything will end up alright."

"Yes," Asinis whispered, eyes lifted toward the trap door he couldn't see. "Me too." But he didn't think it would.