The Border City Ord 8

Calliope follows after Win. He moves quickly with his destination known. As she tries to follow after him, she scribbles incoherently in her notebook. Win slows down for just a moment and faces her.

“The files indicated that earlier today one Clara was imprisoned on the sixth floor of the tower. No reason for her arrest was given. I’m as certain as I can be that this is where she is.”

Win returns to his previous pace and dashes up a flight of stairs. The only guards present are on the other side of the hall. They see him and begin to approach. Win waves an arm in their direction and a wall of stone rises between them and Win. Win and Calliope continue on to the next floor.

On the third floor is a similar set of circumstances, and Win resolves it in much the same way. The same occurs on the fourth and fifth floors. Win thanks his luck that he didn’t need to waste time fighting. On the sixth floor, however, his luck runs out, and he emerges onto the floor and comes face to face with several guards. In the moment it takes for them to realize he has come, a sharp bolt of electricity has passed through them and brought them to the ground.

Win and Calliope step over them and begin to search the floor for Clara. The cells are narrow, only holding a single person each. In them are gaunt men with dark faces. When they realize that Win and Calliope aren’t guards, they grab at the bars and beg for their freedom. Win pays them no heed. He renounced the life that cares for their situation; he only needs to care about one person’s innocence.

Eventually they find her. A little girl sits in the small cell, her knees to her chest. She’s just barely too big to simply pass through the bars. Her fear is silent, completely unlike the desperation of the other prisoners. She doesn’t even look at them as they approach. When Win looks at her he can only see Odila. And when he thinks of his sister he only feels unqualified.

“You’re Clara, correct?” The little girl looks up when she hears her name. “I’m sorry that you got involved in this matter. You’ll be with your father again soon.”

Win grabs two of the bars of the cell. With a small pulse of magic, he begins to reshape the metal, pushing the bars apart to create an opening big enough for her. He helps her through then turns back towards the stairs.

“Calliope, if it’s alright, will you hold her hand? I need you to follow me closely.” Guards begin to spill out from the stairwell, a group far larger than if the floor guards had escaped and made their way here. Win calls out to them. “Soldiers of Ord, I have in my care a young girl, one of your own citizens, imprisoned for foolish and cruel reasons! Do you not feel ashamed using such cowardly tactics to track down a single man? Taking such a young girl from her father in hopes that a supposed criminal will show mercy and allow his own capture? Are you not ashamed! I intend to return her to her proper place! If still you believe in justice and a proper world, you will stand down and allow me passage! If you have truly forgotten your morals in your fealty to a lord who does not deserve you, then prepare to fight! In either case, I will not allow you to keep her here any longer!”

The force of Win’s speech seems to have shook some of the guards. They shy back slightly, perhaps intending not to fight after all. However, they are the minority. Rather than lower their weapons, the guards around them urge them to fight, and the mood remains combative. Win sighs, clearly disappointed once more, and reaches over to the misshapen bars.

The bars break off from the cell and begin to float around Win’s arm. He waves his arm forward, and the bars shoot off like spears. The bars slam into the ground near the entrance to the sixth floor, impeding the path of the guards. Win begins to walk forward. Calliope takes hold of Clara gently and follows after him.

“Soldiers of Ord, stand down. You cannot defeat me.”

The soldiers, slightly frightened by his show of force, regain their courage at this, and begin to push forward. Win dashes forward with the wind, sliding across the ground. He sweeps the leg of the nearest guard, then throws him back into the mob with a gust of wind.

The bars stuck in the ground begin to twist around. They split apart and melt into each other as Win reshapes them entirely. In mere seconds the bars have become a single steel net. He throws it into the air, then claps. Wind blows strongly to hold all the guards together, keeping them from escaping the stairs. He slams the net down to trap them inside completely. The guards become too tightly packed at the front to do anything to the net entrapping them.

Win snaps his fingers and begins to mold the stone stairs themself with magic. The stairs quickly become a single slope. Although the guards lose their footing and some begin to fall, the slope is not dramatic enough to force them to a lower floor. However, without the threat of the ascension, Win moves the net to hold the soldiers. As it wraps over the frontline, Win jumps down and kicks it, propelled by the wind. He pushes the guards down in a single mass. As he passes by the slope, he returns it to its previous form, making them stairs once more.

On the fifth floor, with the soldiers gathered up and not yet recovered, Win pushes them into a small group away from the stairs. He creates a powerful ring of fire around them.

“I’ll welcome any challenges once you no longer have a little girl to put in the line of fire. Calliope, Clara, come!”

Calliope and Clara join Win on the fifth floor. The three of them walk down the flights of stairs. When Win begins to walk the final flight to the lobby, he sees Rolant Guiscard, armed and prepared for a fight, standing at the bottom of the stairs.