Prison Break

"D-do we really have to do this?" Keiko asked nervously as she nervously climbed onto the back of a huge black wyvern, who regarded her with an ambivalent expression... please don't eat me, she thought repeatedly.

"Lady Minamoto will be doing most of the flying, you just have to hold on like last time. All you need to do is be able to cast and focus while she handles the animal. Don't worry, it's just like riding a horse," Kenji concluded, with hope.

"And that might mean something if I actually ever rode a horse," Keiko lamented.

Amberbrooke came up to Keiko and handed her a set of crystals. "These enchantments are among the more complex ones you've attempted to this point," she emphasized. "For the simulacrum, that's basically an advanced form of illusion; if you examine the crystals, you'll notice they're basically similar in structure. On the other hand, portal magic is much more complex. It's one of the few schools of magic that uses multiple crystals, both to open the gateway, then another for the destination. Both must be done properly, or the spell becomes quite dangerous."

"I'll bet," Keiko shrugged. "If the formula's off on either location, the final equation could send you to... well... anywhere... or nowhere."

"Don't improvise with this spell," Amberbrooke warned, "Your starting point is easy, but your destination is determined by your secondary crystals. These point to our camp back in Merwindolyn."

Hiroshige came up to the group. "OK, I've spoken to our allies in Vanet Barony to the east. They've arranged stopovers for you along your route in some remote hamlets where you can land and rest both yourselves and your mount. It's a long flight so you'll need to make sure to take care of your mount during your rest stop, so he'll be at full strength for the final leg. You'll be able to stay in communication with us with the sending spell on your friendship bracelets until you get into the mountains. Once you get there, that's when you'll want to cast your illusion and go silent."

Off to one side, Akiko and Masako stared at each other in silence for a moment before Masako spoke, "Listen, I know how much this mission means to you..."

"It's not just that," Akiko insisted. "You're putting your life at risk for someone else's family. I know you're the better kenshi and that magic sword is something else, but we're talking about invading one of the Empire's most dangerous prisons all by yourself."

Masako put her hands on Akiko's shoulders with reassurance. "How many times have we been with each other's family, at each other's houses? Your folks are family to me too, and I swear to you... on my life... I'll get them back..."

Akiko felt a momentary chill before putting it aside, "R-right... just open that portal and we'll be right there beside you."

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Isamu grimaced silently as the porridge was scooped onto the metal plate as he and Kyoko moved across the feeding line. A law-abiding man his whole life, prisons were a nebulous concept, something seen in crime movies and manga, at least until now. As with most things gleaned from fiction, most of what he thought he knew was wrong in terms of the realities of prison life, resulting in more than a few rough moments. Nonetheless, he did his best to stay near his wife, protecting her as best he could.

He had made one appeal a few days ago only to be turned down flat, telling him that his sentence was decided and final and that he would do himself a favor to just accept the reality of the situation. But why...? he continued to ask himself. What was this blood crime he and Kyoko were accused of? And this odd reference of raising his children to be more obedient... did it have something to do with Akiko? Clearly, she had been kidnapped months ago. Did she... commit some kind of crime and now we were paying for it? It seemed inconceivable to him as Akiko and for that matter Keiko and Masako were such well-behaved girls. The worst that any of the girls had ever done was occasionally running the pedestrian crosswalk.

Unfortunately, his captors provided no answers and seemed to take pleasure in watching them suffer, so it was all he could do but to endure for the sake of his wife. The only hope left for him was the sliver of a chance that somewhere out there, his daughter was still alive. So long as that was true, there was still the chance they would see each other one more time.

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Masako pulled the reins of the wyvern as the flying mount banked around the snowy peak ahead of them. Despite all the months of danger, personal doubts of her own identity, and stress of all the changes, getting the opportunity to ride was definitely one of the positives of this experience. Having fantasized about riding since a child, she had finally fulfilled that dream while serving under the Emperor as his heir and now having the opportunity that she couldn't have even imagined riding a flying wyvern was a dream come true. For just a moment, she almost forgot about the stress of the mission as just feeling the wyvern beneath her gave her a synergistic connection that almost made it all worth it. Then the black silhouette over the horizon had to go and ruin the moment.

"Getting close," Masako reported, seeing the steam of rising heat and unmistakable lights over the horizon against the night sky. "Do your thing," she ordered.

Keiko took a breath, focused and began to cast. As she did, both riders and the wyvern began to shimmer, then fade to nothingness against the night sky.

Looking at herself, Masako smiled with appreciation, Nice... before looking down. They still had to stay quiet, lest they give themselves away. Now, the hard part... obviously, they couldn't just knock on the front gate or land in the open courtyard. Invisible or not, they would be detected in moments and even she couldn't fight an entire battalion. They suspected that the Spire would be especially fortified with extra soldiers and mages. The Empire brought Akiko's parents here for a reason, knowing that she would have taken any risk to save them, even if it meant rushing in all by herself. They would be prepared for any kind of conventional attack; possibly even have the parents themselves as the trigger. She took her mount in a wide circle around the Spire's perimeter, keeping their distance beyond any artillery she knew while looking for a suitable landing spot.

Keiko scanned the walls and plateau surrounding the Spire through one of her crystals. "There's magical defenses alright, extending out to right about the edge of the plateau. We can't cast a portal anywhere on the grounds. We have to be past the drawbridge and off the Spire grounds entirely before we can portal anyone in or out."

"So, we have to get the Fujiwaras out of their cells, through the prison block, out of the courtyard and out past the exterior portcullis and drawbridge before we can portal out?" Masako sighed.

"You know, just like finding a place for University, you're getting ahead of ourselves. Find a way in first," Keiko reminded her.

"Get some heat going and take care of the wyvern and yourself first," Masako ordered. "I saw something on the way in that gave me an idea." 

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The teamster guided his horses up the trail along the Corellian mountain range pulling a loaded wagon up the narrow pass. The weather had a brief break for these few days, meaning it was an opportunity to get needed supplies to the Black Spire before the snows made these roads impassable. Still, the clear skies did nothing about the frigid night.

The rails of his wagon were lit with magical globes of illumination to provide him some measure of safety for driving these roads; the only known safe passage up to the Spire, with "safe" being a relative thing. The path offered only a small margin of safety compared to the width of the wagon; it would only take one careless slip and disaster would result, something that had happened to more than one supply run in the past. Compounding the challenge was the fact that the wagon was packed to the limit with supplies for the fort.

The teamster checked the night sky and the position of the moon... still on schedule. He urged the horses to pick it up a step. The sooner they made it into the fort, the sooner he would be inside the keep and in front of a warm fire while the soldiers offloaded the much-needed supplies. He would then be allowed to stay the night and be off at first light, taking back any needed messages and unused supplies. Looking up the trail, he saw the road curve around the familiar clump of trees. Having driven this route several times, he knew it wouldn't be long, another hour and he would reach the edge of the surrounding chasm and calling out to have the drawbridge lowered so he could drive on in. The one thing he wasn't worried about was being attacked; this far north and with winter setting in, most of the larger animals were already deep in their slumber state, so he relaxed his guard. It would be the last mistake he would ever make.