Eira pulled her gloves tight and tied off the dark scarf she had aquired. It had taken her almost a week to find and gather all the components for a new disguise. She looked at herself in the candlelit mirror and admired the fur-lined padded leather armor she had been given after she was inducted into the huntsmen. Not a trace of her skin showed from the thick layer of charcoal on her face, her blue eyes were the only thing still showing.

Satisfied, she grabbed the bag she had stolen from under her bed and froze the tip of her candle to snuff it as she walked out of the door into the moonlight.

No night watch. Better move before that changes.

Eira ran down the road from shadow to shadow, her rag covered feet moving silently across the paving stones. As she got closer to the barracks, she saw torchlight on one of the side roads she had planned on taking. 

*@&!

She ducked into an ally and peeked towards the source. From around the corner two buildings away, a watchman came on horse back with a torch in hand. He stopped in the intersection. He turned his head, first away and then towards her. After what felt like a minute, though undoubtedly was less, the watchman continued down in the direction he had been heading, away from Eira's destination. When the torchlight had faded completely, she took a step forward.

"Hey!"

Eira pressed herself against the wall and looked towards the voice.

"You people shouldn't be here, it's cerfew."

Another voice, frail and distraught said back to the watchman, "I-I'm sorry sir, w-w-we don't have anywhere else t-to go!"

"Refugees or not, all of you need to clear out of here."

"He just said we don't have anywhere else to go, did you not hear him!?"

Humans. Not a single heart among them. 

Eira avoided all of the major intersections as she crept through the streets, the moon-cast shadows becoming more ever-present as the buildings themselves closed in on her.

Darting into another ally next to one of the taller buildings further into the city, she listened for any more oncoming watchmen.

Once she was sure the road was clear, she gazed up to the edge of the roof above her.

Eira shook her hands and bounced in place.

She backed up to one wall.

Her knees bent.

Her fingers twitched.

With a burst she pushed off from the wall and ran full speed ahead towards the one across, leaping up it and using her feet to maintain momentum. At the top of her arc, she stretched her hand and an outcrop of ice came to meet it. More appeared at her feet as she climbed up to the roof. She saw no watchmen at the top of this building or any near, though she could see some torches in the distance on top of the garrison.

Eira hoisted herself up and crawled onto the angled roof. A deep huff escaped her.

Haven't done that in a while. 

She took a moment to catch her breath before she started running from roof to roof, using more ice to bridge the gaps in between until she got close enough to the garrison to see the rooftop watchmen.

Only two? This what happens when you slack humans.

Both stood at separate corners of the large square building, she could see the torch light reflecting in the plates of bronze that made up their lamellar. Keeping low, she approached until was no longer confident. Her gaze shifted down the road to the west towards the town square and away from the river which was still many blocks away to the east. She visualized where the fountain was relative to the buildings, imagined the bubbling water, and secretly hoped no one was too close to it. She took a deep breath as she focused her power there.

Five seconds.

Ten.

Fifteen. The tip of an icy stalagmite came within her field of view.

Twenty seconds. The stalagmite grew significantly, and the tip of a second could be seen.

Twenty-five. A barely audible voice could be heard from the square, shouting in panic.

Thirty seconds. She shudders as she drops her focus and the ice stops expanding.

Thirty-five seconds. One of the rooftop watchmen notices, he too shouts, "THE GRIX IS BACK IN THE SQUARE!" before running downstairs. The second could only stare.

One minute. 

One minute, thirty seconds.

Two minutes.

Two minutes, thirty seconds. Bursting from the doors, a whole platoon of men armed with spears and full suits of lamellar. Behind them a furious looking and baggy eyed man with a chipped tooth in higher quality gear strode out.

"Alright men! Remember what Aingerua said! Only use the eminite if absolutely necessary! We're not getting any more! Now, let's go kill this monster and bring his head to the Jaunari!"

The men all cheered in unison before running through the streets towards the icy pillars.

Eira looked back at the roof of the garrison, the torch-holding watchman clearly occupied by her distraction just as she'd hoped.

She created another rooftop ice path, circling around behind his view and leading to the garrison roof. She crouched as she stepped over the stone banister and onto the flat wooden roof. Another banister marked the edge of a large internal courtyard. She crept across the roof, inching closer to the sentry. When she got within a couple cubits of the man, she snuffed his torch with ice and made his helmet freeze over.

"Huh? What- GAH! WHAT IN-"

He threw his helmet off of him to his right and it was caught silently by a snow bank. Eira leapt forward and struck the helmetless guard with her ice coated gauntlet, knocking him out before he realized what was happening. More snow appeared as she caught the heavy man and set him down with practiced grace.

Eira ruffled through the watchman bag to find manacles, as well as a large kerchief, and she used both to bind and gag the guard before freezing the chains to the roof beneath them.

That should keep him for a while.

She put the key in her sleeve and tossed the bag into the snow bank, then quietly made her way to the closed hatch that the other watchman went down. Carefully, she pried it open and peaked inside.

From her view, she saw the light of a single flickering oil lamp at each end of a long hallway, and she heard a muffled voice coming from one of the rooms. The solid framed ladder that led to the roof was held in place by a pair of hooks. She threw the hatch open and it too landed in a drift silently. She then pulled the ladder onto the roof and let herself down, landing quietly onto the floor. 

Now where are the stairs....

She hadn't been in this part of the building, so she carefully snuck down the hall away from the room with the voice she was hearing. She briefly considered turning around to freeze the lock of that room shut, but decided against it as soon as she saw the stairs around the corner.

When she took the first step down, a shadow appeared at the base of the steps. She immediately backtracked to the nearest door and snuck inside a room that was thankfully empty except for a shuttered window.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud. 

Thud.

Eira couldn't tell if she was hearing footsteps or her heartbeat.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

A muffled voice came through the door.

"Bah! Not again. Betu! Betu put the ladder back! Now is not the time for another one of your pranks!

Eira opened her door a sliver and peaked through to the guard, his lamellar sparkled in the lamplight as he shifted his weight to cross his arms.

"BETU! Gummit, where is he? DON'T MAKE ME GET CORPORAL HEIK! YOU KNOW HOW HE GETS WHEN IT'S THIS LATE!"

The door down the hall, a door opened, and a gravelly voice spoke.

"What's going on?" 

"Captain Shree, Betu pulled the ladder up again while I was telling Commander Phurin about the Ice pillars."

"Oh for the love of- we've been over this already! Ugh."

A woman's voice firmly said, "There's a ladder on the second floor near the infirmary. Go get it."

"Yes Corporal," said the watchman.

Eira moved out of the way of the door as the watchman turned around.

I can't let them up get up there! Think!

Eira quickly ran through a list of ideas in her head as the two officers continued to talk to eachother, their words meant nothing to her as her heartbeat nearly drowned them out.

Finally she crept back to peak through the door. Both officers were looking up at the ceiling. She focused her power to the snow pile she had thrown the hatch into, and after two seconds, the hatch slammed shut.

"What the- BETU!!! ARGH! I'm gonna flog him myself!"

"You won't get the chance Kitt, I'm the one who will see to his punishment."

"Why? You're not worried I'll kill him are you?"

"That knowledge is above your pay grade."

"Don't you pull rank on me."

"It's not my fault you denied the promotion, you could have been captain too."

Eira continued to focus, trying to make an ice block big enough to weigh down the hatch without being seen from below. She backed away from the doo-

"Huh?"

Uh oh.

"Captain?"

Eira was suddenly no longer thankful for how empty the room was.

Without warning, the door flew open and standing in it's frame was a middle aged man, bald, with some stubble on his face. A nasty scar came down from the top of his head to his eyebrow. He looked around the room, his eyes darting all around it. He grunted.

"...I thought I saw something."

"You're getting jumpy old man."

"That's captain old man to you, Kitt."

He turned around slowly after giving the room another glance and shut the door behind him.

Eira released her breath and slowly let herself down from where she'd frozen herself to the ceiling.

That was too close.

The light of the moon filtered in from the shuttered window. She quietly walked over to it, examined it, and found the latch at the base and the hinges at the top to be well oiled. 

Good, they're vigilant about upkeep.

She pushed the shutters open and set it's braces in place. Looking out of it, she saw that the courtyard was actually a moonlit training ground, complete with targets and an obstacle course. Directly beneath her was only dirt and grass. Nothing to break her fall or hide snow in. The shutters were closed on both the windows beneath, and from her angle she couldn't see any light coming from them.

She crawled out the window feet first and climbed down using the frames as her handholds, her muscles aching the entire way down the wall.

*&@^ I'm out of shape. Not enough places to practice climbing around here.

Focus. Kish needs you.

Eira stuck to the shadows as she walked to a door at the north side of the courtyard. She gave it a gentle tug. When that didn't work, she checked every window, hoping to no avail that someone forgot to latch one. She did the same to the other three walls with the same result at each. 

Perfect. Great job Eira, got myself stuck in an enemy headquarters. 

Eira saw some weapon racks near what looked to her like battle rings and was disappointed when she went to and found them empty. She felt around for any cabinets with no luck. The obstacle course had some ropes, but they were too thick and too long for her to carry practically, and she found nothing else that would be useful for breaking back into the building silently.

She went back to the window she thought was closest to the prison on the north wall and peaked through a small slit in the wood.

The room was lit, and the figures of three sitting guards were barely visible around some game. What little else of the room she saw was familliar.

Eira's head dropped as she sighed to herself.

She then pressed herself beside the window and knocked.

The seconds felt like minutes as she mentally prepared herself.

Click

The shutters swung upward.

Eira commanded ice to brace them open as she grabbed the confused guardsman by the head and smashed it into the side of the frame, knocking him unconscious. 

"Chief!?"

She dove inside the window and rolled to maintain momentum up to her feet.

"INTRUDER!!!"

One of the two remaining guards drew his sword and the other ran to the door as he shouted. With a flick of Eira's wrist, the running guard's weapon was frozen to its sheath and the door was sealed shut.

She dodged back as the first guard's weapon flashed past her chin. He swung again, she evaded with ease.

The second realized the futility in his efforts to escape and attempted to draw his blade.

She froze the first guard's foot to the ground as she stepped back to avoid another strike and slapped his back to freeze his gambeson while he was off balance. 

The second gave up trying his own blade and ran for the unconscious one. Eira quickly slicked the floor and he fell to his face. His torso was quickly cocooned in ice.

She grabbed one of the chairs they had been sitting in and swung it as hard as she could against the back of the first guardsman, knocking him unconscious as it broke into pieces. 

With the fighting over, she looked to the one still conscious guard and said, "Save me some time. Which of you had the keys?"

"&#*^ you *@(#%!"

"Uh-uh, we don't tolerate that kind of language."

She walked around the table as the grounded guard watched, allowing each footstep to linger long enough to leave a hint of frost behind. She slowly kneeled down when she stopped next to him, grabbed his face as he struggled and then slowly began to cool it well below what most people considered comfortable. 

"Let's try that again. Where. Are. The. Keys."

Frost began to develop on the surface of his skin.

His eyes practically bulged out of his head, but he made no sound as he continued to struggle.

Typical

"Fine. I would have shown mercy. But since you insist on being a pest, I hope you enjoy missing your cheek."

She grabbed at the edge of the frost. With one quick motion, she ripped off a piece of frozen flesh, sending out a soul-chilling scream as the chunk landed on the other side of the room.

She flash-froze his squirming feet to the ground while she ruffled through his bag. The human continued blubbering, his resistance wavering until his straining turned into more shouting. Eira felt a twisted sense of satisfaction seeing him slowly break. But something...

Her brother whimpered as he clutched his broken fingers. The form of a human walking away with the bread she knew would have been her dinner.

She grit her teeth.

"This wouldn't have happened if you'd only answered my question."

She ignored his pitiful attempts to beg for his life and searched the other two guards, finding the prison keys in the bag of the one by the window.

Keys in hand she ran down the steps and into the torch-lit cells. Other prisoners noticed her as she ran passed and tried to get her attention, but she ignored them.

"Eira!? I thought I told you to get back to Fusil!"

"And I told you, I'm not leaving you here."

"*@&% it woman! You just 'ave to make things complicated!"

"Shut the *^@& up before I change my mind!"

She tried four keys before finding the one to open his cell, and quickly unlocked his shackles. Kish rubbed his wrists and stood up.

"C'mon, we have to move quick they know I'm here."

Kish grabbed her arm as she started to move back to the stairs. "Eira, 'old on! Ny is 'ere too. If you're getting me, might as well get 'im."

"What? How!?"

Kish didn't answer. He ran down further into the prison block and stopped eight cells down.

"In 'ere!"

Eira looked in the cell. A luminite sat shackled inside with a bag over his head, his veins pulsed with power and dry golden blood stained his tattered shirt and translucent arms which were given no slack on the chain. He looked thinner than he had a week ago. Eira checked through the keys until the door unlocked, and undid his shackles as Kish untied the sack. He fell limply to the side as she unlocked his right arm. Kish caught him and pulled the sack of his head, revealing a blindfold was over his eyes. He pulled the blindfold off. When he did, they both saw him recoil at the sudden brightness of the hall torches. He blinked as he tried to focus on his rescuers.

"Ki... kish? Ei...ra?" His usually musical voice was raspy and his lips cracked as he spoke.

"They were under orders not to remove his blindfold for any reason. They haven't fed him since 'e's been 'ere."

"So.... thirsty..."

Eira summoned a chunk of the warmest ice she could make and put it in Ny's mouth. "Here. This should help until we can get you a proper drink. How the *@&% did they catch you?"

Ny didn't speak, choosing to focus on sucking the ice for water. Eira went back to unlocking his shackles when a bang resounded through the hall.

"'urry up! They're coming!"

"I'm going as fast as I can Kish!"

Bang

Eira got Ny free and the two of them brought him to his feet with concerning ease.

Bang

Eira was confident that the ice would hold against the onslaught from the guards, but she wasn't keen to be around when they made it through. The three began to run towards the exit.

Bang.

"Wait!" A stranger's voice came from one of the cells, "Don't leave us! Please!"

Eira groaned and then threw the keys to the cells and the shackles to the man who shouted at them. He frantically undid his own bindings as the three of them continued on.

"Distraction. Clever."

Eira's lip curled.

Bang

The three ran up the stairs and into the guard room. Kish's jaw dropped seeing the three guards strewn about.

"You did this?"

"Admire me later!"

Eira left Kish to carry Ny and leapt out of the window into the empty training grounds. The doors closest to her burst open as a horn sounded above her. 

Eira launched spikes towards the door to her left right as a shield came into view.

"Move it you two!"

She summond an ice wall around the doorway and fled towards the obstacle course, a soreness beginning to develop in a muscle with no name. Kish practically dragged the limping Ny back to his feet and followed as fast as they could.

When she saw one of the thick ropes, she ran and grabbed one end. She froze the tip solid for weight and gave herself some length.

Another set of doors opened at the east side of the courtyard and guards began pouring through it.

Eira wrapped herself into the rope.

"What are-"

"Do it!"

Kish closed his mouth and began to tie the rope around himself and Ny as well.

They were too slow however, as they were being completely surrounded by spears and swords.

Eira whispered, "Ny..."

He coughed, then whispered back, "Close your eyes..."

"Not yet, on my signal. Keep tying and hold on tight..."

The captain who had almost seen her earlier stepped forward, the torchlight revealing the scar on his eyebrow beneath his helmet.

"So, you're the stricken we've been searching for eh? Thank you for delivering yourself so nicely to us. Good play, getting Phurin and his men out of here with that little stunt at the square. It's too bad all your efforts were wasted."

"Wasted? *&@^ you have no idea who your talking to."

"Eira?" Kish looked at her worriedly. 

Eira hissed "Shut up."

The captain snarled, "I'm going to enjoy seeing Commander Phurin rip you to shreds you stricken monster."

"It takes a monster to know one, human. Mark my words, your days are numbered and they will end quickly. NOW!"

Eira closed her eyes and focused her power on the end of the rope. Simultaneously, a brilliant flash blasted through the night, almost blinding her, even through her eyelids.

Kish shouted as the three of them were lifted at an angle towards the top of the building, the rope tightened around her as the speed of the growing ice pillar and weight of her teammates pulled more than she'd expected. Making sure to stop the ice pillar comfortably close to the roof, the three of them untied themselves.

Ny grabbed another chunk of ice off the spike to suckle on and asked, "Where to now?"

"We'll be safe for a bit, I sealed the one way up here on my way in."

Kish said "We need a distraction, can you move on your own?"

"Yeah... yeah I can."

"What are you planning Kish?"

"Ny needs to make it look like we went the opposite direction of our escape route. Where are we headed?"

"We can't just-"

"I'll be fine Eira, I can-" He coughed heavily and spit off to the side, "ugh... I can manage on my own. You know I can."

"*&!^ it... alright. Kish, you and I are headed east to the river as soon as we get down somewhere safe. Ny, my home is along the Miser's Road, it's an old part of town that was damaged years ago north west of here and if you need directions, city dwellers call me Chamile. Find it when you're in the clear to get some food and clean up. Just don't gorge yourself, I know how tempting it can be, but you can hurt yourself since you haven't eaten in so long."

"I'll be careful."

"Alright you two, follow me and watch your step, the ice is slick and it's a long way down."