Kidnapped! The Empire of Malice!

The camp was located in the small town of Merwindolyn leagues from the Calidor Capital, far from prying eyes and ears, protected both by distance and magical wards. This town was one of the few in this faraway Barony had managed to quietly place magical wards that would protect them from the scrying eyes and ears of the palace. Over the years, several disenfranchised warriors, tradesmen, and other skilled mercenaries sought refuge from the Empire's ever-growing reach.

In the simple home, an elderly woman sat on a simple wooden chair and table draped with cloth and crystal charms. The oldest of her village, she was an experienced seer and mystic who had guided her townspeople for decades. While direct action wasn't one of her talents, her ability to forecast and read the signs of coming events had been instrumental in providing guidance and forewarning, so when she spoke, the townspeople listened.

The crystals had been arranged in a symmetrical form to match. Across from her, a group of men watched with fixed attention, waiting for her pronouncement until she nodded.

"He's here... the stars have shifted. "What was once promised has come to pass."

"It... it's not possible..." Kenji Takeda exclaimed.

"This is a world of the impossible," the seer corrected. "His soul is alive and returned. Furthermore, he is the key to the destiny of these lands, whether for good or ill, the next few days or months will tell the tale."

"If he is as you say..." Kenji considered.

"Then who he encounters next will determine which path will be chosen; the Emperor's or ours!"

Kenji nodded as he gathered his fellow troops and prepared a flight of wyvern. "It will be done!" And this time... I'll get it right old friend...!

____________________________________________

Darkness slowly gave way to the sight of flickering dim lights as consciousness slowly returned to the three girls as the coarse stone floor painfully forced them back to full awareness. The stench of mildew and human waste assailed their senses and they nearly gagged in shock and nausea. Helping each other up, all three girls did their best to try and take stock of their situation.

"OK... where are we? You said something about energy gadgets; did they look anything like that?" Keiko pressed.

"No, nothing like that... they were... like medieval warriors or something..." Akiko tried to recall groggily.

Keiko and Masako looked at their surroundings in more detail; bars and a locked door on one side, chains and manacles against the walls, skeletons and bones littering the stone floor, and an occasional mouse skittering past before Masako looked at Akiko with a deadpan expression, "Looks pretty medieval to me."

Just then, there was a loud clank of a metal door opening and the sound of heavy boots marching in formation. In the middle of a dozen soldiers was a robed man. The robe man looked the trio of girls over with dark expressions. He gestured and uttered guttural sounds but none of the girls understood a word. Holding an amulet, he continued gesturing and uttered a key phrase, which seemed to trigger an effect, causing the amulet to glow and pulse, bathing the girls in glowing light. They felt something tingling around them as the sounds in the air seemed to shift, twist, then take new more understandable forms.

"This spell of tongues will allow you to comprehend our languages. It should simplify what must be done, as it's important to us that you understand why you have been brought here. Despite how it appears, we are not uncivilized monsters," the robed seer explained. "What we are about to do here is done with a very specific and vital purpose for the safety and security of our Kingdom."

The girls looked at one another with the same dumbfounded reactions; did he say 'spell', as in magic spell? Keiko and Masako were dubious but after what she had experienced, Akiko was slowly coming around to accepting the concept, so she took the lead. "O-OK... let's say we buy that. What do you want from us? Why did bring us here?"

"All will be made clear once you come with us!" the lead soldier demanded, pointing a sword at the girls as another opened the cage. Seeing the futility of resistance, the girls shuffled single file towards the door and into the hallways leading into the rest of the citadel under the watchful eyes of the guards.

"You know, if they were going to just point swords at us, they shouldn't have bothered casting that 'tongues' thing, or whatever they called it," Masako muttered sotto voce.

"Look at the bright side," Keiko offered as she tried to hide her fear under a layer of light-hearted humor, "once we get out of this and make it back home, you should have no trouble passing the foreign language portion of your University entrance exam!"

Masako shot Keiko a dirty look as Akiko interrupted them both to be silent. She looked around as they were being brought through the corridors, particularly the guards. Even if whatever strange force that happened to me earlier wasn't a fluke, a dozen might be pushing it, not to mention this so-called magic this robed guy is talking about. We should hear them out... if they just wanted to kill us, they could have just done that in the cage.

The group finally came into a grand hall. Despite their circumstances, the girls were taken aback in awe at the size and scope of the room... no, they corrected themselves, more like a cathedral. They had no idea of the specifics but there were obvious religious implications in the decor and layout of the room suggesting worship of a higher power. Dampening their appreciation of the aesthetics was a vertical pole with hooks that bore unmistakable stains along its surfaces and around the floor surrounding it. Oh shit... please don't say this is some kind of human sacrifice cult...! all three girls cringed and concluded nearly at the same time, which Akiko in particular rethinking her earlier stance of hearing her captors out.

The guards all took positions surrounding the alter as the seer took the head position.  Masako and Keiko were held in place by two of the guards, while two other guards tied Akiko's hands and hung her up on one of the hooks, causing her to implore, "Wh-why are you doing this...?!"

The guards barely paid her any mind, having seen this all too many times before. The seer took a moment to prepare an esoteric blade, ceremoniously pulling it from its scabbard, causing Masako and Keiko to call out in fear as Akiko started shake her head in denial, this can't be happening... this had to be a nightmare...! As fear began to take hold, her eyes began to glaze as her breath grew heavy. Time seemed to slow to a crawl... something in the back of Akiko's mind shifted as the seer brought the blade down towards her chest...

Without warning, Akiko's legs lifted as her hands gripped the pole, and kicking the seer in the face, shattering the bridge of his nose and inflicting an orbital blowout fracture.  As everyone in the room stood in momentary shock, Akiko lifted her legs up and kipped off the pole.

The guards recovered from the shock and shouted, "Take her!"

Two guards surged forward with swords drawn. Akiko faded back, drifting left, allowing them to approach asymmetrically as the first one swung down, only to intercept the sword with the rope tying her hands, then snatching the weapon in one smooth motion. The second tried to get around his partner to attack but was caught out of position and paid the price with a lunge under his torso.

The rest of the room went into chaos as Akiko left the sword in the man's torso and instead helped herself to two of his spare daggers, then sprinted between the guards holding Masako and Keiko, slicing their throats open as she passed between them, much to the shock of her friends.

"What th...!" Keiko stood with a shocked expression as blood splattered on her cheek.

"Come on!" Masako ordered as she grabbed Keiko's wrist, following Akiko as she led the way out the exit, with the guards only seconds behind them. As soon as the girls were clear, Akiko slammed the door shut, then wedged the daggers into the door, one on the floor, one in latch, creating an improvised doorstop.

"What's going on?" Keiko despaired. "S-since when did you turn into Musashi Miyamoto?"

"Never mind that! W-we try and find another way out," Akiko determined. "If they have a way to bring us here, then someone must have a way to send us home! I don't care if they call it magic, science or some Yōkai tea ceremony as long as it gets us home!" as she led the girls away from the temple, looking for a way out.

____________________________________________

In the temple, the guards pounded at the jammed door, while the lead seer recovered from the assault. The other seer pointed to the guards, "Sound the alarms and have them found! We need them returned alive to complete the ceremony!"

Guards scattered and headed to the other exits as activity around the room escalated and word spread throughout the temple.

____________________________________________

Akiko, Keiko and Masako made their way down the corridors with as much speed and stealth as they could manage, trying to orient themselves based on the path they took from the dungeon, ducking back when the sounds of footsteps could be heard. Upon finally finding a window that faced the outdoors, they followed the wall in the hopes they would find an exit. Akiko took the lead, with Keiko following right behind and Masako keeping an eye out for pursuers. They finally made their way into the gatehouse and could see daylight ahead. Maybe once we get outside, we can find someone less crazy about human sacrifices and can send us home, Akiko thought as she led Keiko through the exit.

However, as soon as they passed the doorway, a latch clicked and a portcullis dropped. All three girls gasped in horror as the metal bars immediately came sliding down the mechanism, locking in place, effectively separating Masako from Akiko and Keiko. "No, no...!" Akiko cried out and pounded futilely at the bars while Keiko searched frantically for some kind of release lever. Behind Masako, the sounds of their pursuers drew ever closer.

Akiko reached helplessly through the bars and she and Masako's hands touched. "W-we can't just leave you...!" between tears.

"D-don't be stupid...!" Masako sighed, with more resolve than she felt. "It won't do us any good if we're all captured or killed... Find out what's going on... go find help... from wherever or whoever's out there. I-I'll do whatever I need to hold out... I'll be here for you... when you get back..."

Akiko's expression hardened, "We're coming back... I swear it...!"

Behind her, Keiko also nodded with resolve, reaching through the cage to take them by the hand, "One for all...?"

Masako whispered with hope, "... all for one..." before she pushed their hands back through the bars, and ran down another passage away from her friends.

"No..." Akiko watched, powerless to do anything as Masako faded from view.

"W-we have to go... or..." Keiko put her hand on Akiko's shoulder.

Swallowing her doubts, Akiko nodded, took Keiko by the hand and headed the opposite direction.