<~> Chapter 232Clibsp;The first door was unlocked. I drew my sword in case anyone iurned out to be hostile. Torien moved away and stood o Silva who was leaning against the door, listening for anyone ing nearby. I cautiously opehe door to reveal two beastfolk, a thin rabbitkin man and a rger demi-wolfkin man. The two of them eyed the sword I was holding warily. The room they were in was a small cell with two straw beds, a chamber pot, and nothing else.

  "What is this about?" The demi-wolfkin asked.

  I looked over them, both had pretty ral karma which was normal for people who had low-level csses. Both of them were much weaker than us, the differen maween us was obvious. I wasn't sure if they k as well, but the sword I was holding was deterrent enough.

  "The Order of Lilith is here to free as many sves as possible. May I approaove your colrs?" I asked.

  The two looked at each other in disbelief for a moment before the rabbitkin stood up and took a step toward us. "I'm not yet too broken to look for hope in your words. What do I have to do for this?"

  "Escape and flee to the Northern Greens. Don't hurt civilians but you protect yourselves from guards. Don't ru, we're going to free as many as we and flee all at once." I reached up and eled my mana through the bracelet before toug his colr. The colr popped open ao the floor in a racket making both sves stare at it in shock.

  I sheathed my sword and looked at the wolfkin. "May I free you as well?" I asked.

  He nodded and held his neck out without getting up from the bed he was sitting on. I reached over and touched his colr. Like the rabbitkin's his colr fell off the moment my fingers made tact. He immediately reached up to rub his sore neck. "None of you are actually dogkin, you smell wrong."

  I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Keep that to yourself."

  "It was a warning, your disguises aren't perfect." His ears went ba submission.

  I took a step back. "It's fihey're good enough. Do either of you have any skills that would help the rest of us escape?"

  "I help keep watch, I have keen hearing," the rabbitkin offered.

  The demi-wolfkin just shrugged. "I'm a baker..."

  "Go wait by the door with... them," I said gesturing to Silva. We hadn't e up with aliases or anything before ing in here. I hadn't sidered if it would be necessary or not. "No names," I said to everyohe two sves we had freed nodded as if I had been talking to them.

  Walking back to Torien I crouched by the door while she worked on the lock. After a bit more waiting the door clicked open revealing two more beastfolk men. A foxkin with tan fur and scabbing wounds marring his arms. The other was some kind of scaled beastfolk that was one of the rarer ones I had seen around the capital. "Are all these the cells for the beastfolk men?" I asked Torien.

  "Looks like it," she replied.

  "The Order of Lilith is here to free as many sves as possible. May I approaove your colrs?" I asked these two.

  Like the st two, they warily accepted and allowed me to remove their colrs. Oheir shock at being freed had e I turo the foxkin. "Go over to her for healing," I said pointing to Bel.

  Bel looked over the gashes in his arms before eling nature magic through them and healing his wounds the rest of the way. "I 't do anything about the scars but your fur should e ba over them," she told him.

  He rubbed his scarred arms before looking over roup. "If you have spare lockpicks I help you open the cells."

  I looked over at Torien who nodded and pulled out a spare set of lockpicks she carried. She unrolled the bundle and pointed one of the picks out. "This is the size I've been using."

  The fox nodded and took a couple of the tools from her before looking at his scaled cellmate. "They'll probably be less wary if the two of us are the oo open the cells."

  "Very well. We're colleg a crowd it seems." He looked over the other two sves we had freed waiting by the door.

  We spent a while opening cell doors when I suddenly felt the building shake, followed by the loud crash of an explosion. The walls echoed so much that I couldn't hear which dire it had e from. Our crowd of freed sves was starting to form a pretty rge group in the hallway, Man and Lorriene were anizing the group while Bel healed ah injuries and Mimi stood near her protectively. At one point some of the sves had started to ask about the Order of Lilith and Lorriene began to expin the group to them, this turned out to be quite popur information and the room filled with low whispering chatter.

  After I had finished opening one of the cells a taller demi man with horse ears approached me. "Sire, does yroup io free the womefolk as well?" he asked with some amount of hesitation.

  I took a step back as Torien tio work on one of the st doors. "The Order of Lilith intends to free everyone we . Is there something I should know?"

  "My wife was taken at the same time I was and I'm not sure if she is still here. Sire, may I e with you to look for her?"

  "That's fine, all of us will travel as a group. o call me sire though."

  I felt a sudden ripple rush through the bond. Feelings of danger and alertness flowed into me from Silva before she could even say anything aloud. I shushed everyone before ing up to her as quietly as I could.

  "Guards are ing... Four I think. I hear keys. I think they're ing to che the prisoners," Silva whispered.

  I drew my sword and spoke quietly to the people nearby. "Everyoand away from the doors. We'll hahis." I looked at my friends. "No magic yet, I'll put up a [Zone of Silence], get ready." I prepared the spell to envelop part of the hallway and the area he door. Since Silva is our only means of deteg guards without that new spell I developed, I've held off on casting this. But if we get into a fight I'd prefer the sound not carry. Casting magic at all is a risk but someone hearing us fight is more likely to get us caught than my silence spell.

  "Hey, the door is already unlocked," a voice said from the other side.

  "Be careful, someone might be in there," another voice replied to him.

  The moment the door started to push open I released the spell and Silva yahe door open, making the one opening it fall forward. Silva grabbed him and pulled him out of the way just as Lorrie through the door and gutted one of the others. I hesitated, the brutality of their as caught me off guard even though I khis was what we were ing here for. Mimi ran through the door , grabbing another of the guards by the ned taking him to the ground. During my hesitation, Silva must have killed the uard because she bolted through the door and tackled the st one before he mao make any distance running away. She stabbed the guard in the neck with a dagger and the ma limp.

  "I'll finish him off, step back," Lorrieold Mimi before killing the one she had pio the ground.

  My voice felt hoarse. "I..."

  Silva put her hand on my shoulder and whispered. "Don't worry about it. Let the two of us hahe dirty work."

  I swallowed. I didn't know what to say. I froze up. I thought I had been prepared for this after fighting the bandits but it was hard... I shook my head and posed myself. Even if I wasn't okay, I o show a fident face to the prisoners. I licked my dry lips.

  "Drag the corpses in and hide them in one of the cells. Man, bring their keys to Torien. We finish up these cells more quickly." I pulled out a cloth we prepared for this and mopped up the blood before dropping the silence spell and closing the door behind us again. When I finished I found Mimi. " I have some copper s?"

  Mimi nodded and handed me eight coppers and I pced them on the eyes of the corpses.

  "Is it wise to do that in here?" Silva asked. "They may receive proper burials ter."

  I shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if people hear about the Order of Lilith after this, if they already know it's us then what's one more sign? I'd rather not tempt my alliah him by not holding to my word." She nodded a back to the door as I closed the bodies in the first cell.

  I took stock of the prisoners we had rescued so far. Everyone here was low-leveled and none seemed to have any bat training. The be was that most of the people here had mostly ral karma meaning I didn't o worry about that moral quandary yet.

  Torien pulled me aside. "Where do we go with this many people? The guards would just sughter them if they tried to fight back."

  I nodded. "It would have beeer if we found some fighters first."

  "I know where they keep the bat csses and higher levels," a cougar beastfolk said, joining our quiet versation.

  The two of us turo him. "Are they close?"

  He nodded. "They split us up by race, the ones on this side of the building are all men and the ones closest to us are the beastfolk with fighting csses. That's your best bet if you're trying to get everyo of here at the same time."

  "Good, what's your name?" I asked him.

  "Quinn, Miss. You guys seem strong and know what you're doing, but it doesn't seem like you know your way around this pce. Let me help you."

  I sized up this guy. He was on the higher end of the levels in this room but the farther off from your own level, the harder it was to gauge accurately. Possibly around level ten, impressive for a vilger but not really on the same level as any of the adventurers we had run into, and that's only assuming his css is useful. He had the head of a mountain lion and bright blue eyes. He had lean muscles and looked kind of like a pretty boy. It was still hard for me to predict how attractive others found differefolk but I could guess that he would be sidered handsome based on my oraisal. Like all of the other sves, he wore a simple rough cloth shirt and trousers but didn't wear any shoes which was on for beastfolk that had paws instead of human-like feet.

  "You want to help?" Torien asked suspiciously.

  He smiled. "I wasn't looking forward to being a sve so I'm thankful you're here trying to rescue us. It's best for both of us if I tell you where things are. Then maybe I tag along with you guys whe out of here. I've lived in human nds all my life, I don't think leaving to the nd of the elves afolk would suit me."

  I frowned. "We talk about that st bit when we're leaving. Let's focus on what we're doing now."

  Quinn nodded and poioward one of the walls. "The male bat prisoners are down the hallway that way and to the left."

  "How do you know that?" Torien asked.

  "My css gives me access to an ability that allows me to see outside of my body and through walls. I've been looking for a way to escape since I got here. All I've really been able to do is look around though, there haven't been any ces to get free until now and my range is limited. But I probably be helpful if we're trying to sneak around."

  It sounds like some kind of... astral proje or something simir? I'm curious about the ability but it's rude to ask about that stuff and now really isn't the time. Maybe I vince him to tell me about it ter.

  "Alright, you help us. oal is to get everyohat we out of here. The rger the group ut together, the easier that'll be once we 't sneak anymore."

  Quinn smiled. "Great, lead the way then."

  We ahe group into rows of two to follow us with Lorriene leading and Silva in the back. We should have more time to react from the front and Silva is better than Lorrie fighting multiple people at once makihe better choice to watbushes from behind. We expihat trying to escape with us could be dangerous to the former sves but none of them here expressed any i in staying behind, it was harder to make them stay ahan it was ving them to leave with us. Lorriene, Quinn, and I led the group as we headed toward the bat sves. Quinn assured me that the keys we found would open their cells too, so it should be faster this time.

  Just as we were approag one of the ers, the entire building rocked again as another explosion could be heard. What is happening in the bazaar right now?

  Saine

  Hello! Time for a prison break! We've got a few new characters already and we definitely have more before the end of this arc. The characters are now fully in the mission and w on freeing everyone. I'm sure everything will go acc to pn. I hope you enjoyed reading!

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