"Haha, very funny. You're joking, right? Please tell me you're joking," Leona asked nervously. "I wish I were," he replied solemnly. "Well, there go my plans for a double wedding," she said, throwing her hands into the air as if all had been lost. "What else is there to tell me, then? You might as well spill your guts out now before we have to leave this place," she asked with a heavy sigh.
"Well, he's reached the third stage and has put on a bit of muscle now that the seal on his core is gone," Bernar said, putting a finger on his chin. "Can't really think of much else at the moment," he continued with a nonchalant shrug.
It's probably best not to tell her about Ysevel's interest in him or about Taegin being my grandfather right now, he thought, not knowing how she would react to that piece of information.
"But it's your turn to explain things to me," he said, glancing at the others as well. "What the hell were you thinking when you came here? Was it your plan to get captured and put in a dungeon all along?" he asked, spreading his arms. "Well, we hadn't accounted for you mopping the floor with all the bodies you scattered across the palace floor," Gwili said with a shrug.
"This was your doing, wasn't it?" Bernar asked bluntly, getting a nervous chuckle out of his friend in response. Bernar sighed heavily and shook his head. "I should have known better. Alright then, what's the next step of your masterful plan?" he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose like Taegin did.
"Well, now that we've gotten what we originally came for, we can start the next stage of our plan: Escape and dissemination," Gwili said, taking a step forward. "You knew about the book before you even came here? How?" Bernar asked with genuine surprise.
"Every royal family has to keep a record of everything they do outside of the public eye. It helps the next rulers determine the best courses of action to take in the event of an untimely death," Leona began, taking some of the heat off Gwili.
"I knew she had one, but I didn't know where. Gwili saw to that when we pulled our little stunt in the Throne Hall. You already know the rest," she said with a shrug. "You could have gotten yourself killed, you know that, right?" Bernar asked, astonished at her nonchalant tone.
"She can't kill me without reason, or the public will turn on her faster than she could blink," Leona explained briefly. "I wouldn't be too sure about that," Jashad interjected. "She's been known to forge information and frame anyone who would go against her in any way," he continued awkwardly when everyone turned to look at him.
"We all know it, but there are more blind loyalists in the army than not, so no one has the guts to say anything about it. She's been siphoning funds away from the army for years, though where it has all gone, none except her closest subjects would know for sure," he continued, gesturing down the hall towards the entrance.
"Well, now that we have this book, I'm sure we could convince some people to stop looking the other way," Thorsen said, having finally collected his thoughts. "I know of a way, but if we want to turn this gods-forsaken country on its head, we need to leave now," Jashad said urgently.
"Say less, my brother in arms, but we're not going the same way we came in," Bernar said, drawing from the Ethereal. He walked over to the wall on the far side of the cell and pushed both earth and fire attribute mana into the stone wall, turning only a section large enough for Thorsen to fit through into glass and shattering it with another pulse of mana.
"Where would this lead?" he asked, obviously proud of his control. "To what we call The Underbelly, but it will still be close enough to where we need to go than if we tried to fight our way through the entire Royal Guard," Jashad said, opening the rusty gate for him and Gwili to walk through.
"What about this one?" Thorsen asked, gesturing to the unconscious Unni. "Bring her with us. You can interrogate her when she wakes up," Bernar said decisively, putting a hand on the giant's shoulder. "Thank you," Thorsen said quietly before scooping her up in his tree-trunk arms.
"Marte, Neko: You stay right next to Her Majesty at all times. Do you understand?" Bernar asked. "Yes, sir," the two replied, rendering crisp salutes. "D-don't. Just don't," he said with an amused chuckle. "Gwili said your name was Jashad, is that correct?" he asked, quickly turning to face the Harutian guardsman. "Yes, it is. How can I be of service?" he asked as he stood up straighter to address Bernar adequately. "Do you know your way through The Underbelly well?" Bernar asked bluntly. "More specifically, can you lead us to a place where the heralds get their information?" Leona chimed in.
"I-I can, but it will not be easy to get there, and they're not very welcoming of outsiders," Jashad began. "Although, I think they'd be willing to make an exception," he said awkwardly, glancing over at the old man's charred remains. "That's good enough for me," Bernar said.
Due to his enhanced senses, he could hear a bolt unlatching at the far end of the hallway, easily one of the best perks of being a fifth stage.
Shit, they're here already? They must have a mage nearby who told them something was wrong, he thought, immediately diminishing his aura as much as he could without abandoning the fifth stage.
"We need to leave. Now!" he hissed, rushing over to the entrance of the hole, feeling the air rushing by his face. He glanced downward only to find a seemingly bottomless pit before him. "I should have seen that one coming," he muttered under his breath. He commanded the mana within the foundational stones of the dungeon to form steps wide enough for them to climb down.
"I'll take the lead until we reach a safe spot. From there, we'll be counting on you, Jashad," he said quietly, getting a nod of approval from the others. "We're with you, Bernar," Leona said quietly with an encouraging smile.
"Alright, follow me. Just whatever you do, don't look down," he whispered as loudly as he dared, hearing the guardsmen rapidly approaching as their muffled conversations grew increasingly more apparent.
They made their way onto the steps as quickly as they could, though both Marte and Neko nearly fell due to the dizzying height. Step by step, Bernar conjured each stone platform as they continued into the abyss.
"There they are! After them!" one of the guards shouted from their impromptu exit. "Move!" Bernar said urgently, rapidly conjuring a few more steps ahead of him. When the few guards that chased them had moved out onto the platform, Bernar slammed his fist on the wall, pulsing mana directly back towards the entrance to repair it and turn the few platforms he had created by the entrance into sand.
The guards plummeted into the abyss, their screams of pure fear mixed with anger echoing throughout the vast nothingness as they fell. "There will be more. I can sense other mana signatures behind these walls, and given their strength, I'm sure they can feel mine as well," Bernar said with mild frustration. "But Harut doesn't have any Synners in Escea," Jashad said.
"I know, and that's what worries me," Bernar replied quickly before conjuring another set of steps to help their escape be complete.