Himari finds herself somewhere unfamiliar

Himari regained consciousness. Her eyes felt matted shut and her mouth was so dry it stuck to the roof of her mouth. Her whole body screamed at the uncomfortable position she was in. Her hands were chained behind her back and she lay on a cold hard floor. She looked around the room through half closed lids trying to feign still being unconscious. She spotted three girls huddled together in the corner. She studied them more closely and realized it was Lena, Karen, and Iris. The girls were tied up too. She didn’t see the soldiers that had been guarding them. She done a quick search with her magic and realized they were thousands of kilometers away confirming her earlier suspicion that they were in on it and seeing the two girls huddled with Iris she knew why they did it. Lena and Karen were John and Elis daughters. While she had been talking to the men who had kidnapped them she had wondered how they had snuck up on two soldiers whose job was to protect her and who were trained every day. It hadn’t made sense to her and it didn’t seem that a bunch of humans could just sneak into a demon town without inside help. She tried feeling for her and Duncan’s connection and came against the wall from earlier meaning that someone was blocking their connection. Himari wanted to remove the spell but felt like it was having to be continuously recast probably by multiple mages, since the spell felt like it used a lot of mana. She believed that if she undid the spell it would alert them and she didn’t want them running in here. It also didn’t seem like they knew about her powers and she wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible and forever preferably if at all possible. She decided to wait a little bit before breaking and instead focused on her surroundings and spells she could cast without anyone noticing, like the one she did to enhance her hearing. She heard a man’s voice she didn’t recognize saying “Whitedale you and your duke friends will not be getting the girl until you have paid. And if you do not pay we know where each and every one of you lives and who you care about along with all your dirty secrets. Your money can’t protect you from us. You will pay before the day is over are we clear Whitedale and you the mysterious benefactor paying for all this Duke of Urnsdale?” the man paused before continuing “Now Whitedale will stay here while you Urnsdale get and bring me the money that was promised me and my men with interest since you tried to scam me.” she heard two men splutter out responses one was the familiar voice of Whitedale and the other voice was unfamiliar. The man let the men plead and bed before saying “Duke of Urnsdale and Duke of Whitedale I know you both know that if I don’t get my money from you then you have to pay in other ways.” He paused for affect “We could torture you for fun, but I will still need my money. Or sale you as slaves. You both know I am a slave trader so I am sure I can sell you for a fine price and I might just start selling both your families until I am paid what I am owed.” Himari heard the other unfamiliar voice agree to get the money. She headed whimpering and the man chuckle and say “Don’t worry Whitedale. Your buddies will make sure I get paid. They are too scared you will squeal on them to not return and pay me. Besides they fear me and my crew as they should.” Whitedale only sobbed. She had worked herself through all the layers of spells on the chains around her wrist. She checked using magic to make sure no one was near them. She wanted to burn them off but decided making the locking mechanism faulty would be the smarter choice. She wiggled her wrist around getting the blood flowing through them again. Her body screamed in pain as she moved. She should have cast some healing spells on herself before she moved. She decided those could wait until she could check on the girls. She put an undetectable sound barrier that only let the sounds of their breathing and heartbeats out just in case someone was monitoring that. She bent down and asked the girls “Are you all okay?” She checked each child over. Lena and Karen were both dehydrated and not very lucid. They seemed to be slightly drugged. It seemed to be a sleeping drug, the same one they had used on Himari. To Himari’s relief that seemed to be the only things wrong with the girls. Iris was fine whatever drugs they had put in her had worked their way out of her system. Himari first undid the spells on the girls’ ropes before cutting the ropes off with a spell. She had been relieved to see they were tied up and not chained up like she had been, since four sets of faulty chains looked suspicious. Again she wanted to hide her abilities as long as possible. It seemed safer to not let anyone know about her abilities, especially the enemy. She then made sure none of the girls would be in pain after being tied up in such uncomfortable positions and she bet the pain for Lena and Karen would be worse since they had been here long enough to be dehydrated. It was a miracle that they were only dehydrated. She then healed Lena and Karen’s dehydration before finally moving onto the spells to remove all the effects of the drugs from their system. All three sets of eyes looked at Himari with alertness now. Lena and Karen fell into Himari’s arms sobbing telling her what had happened to them and how scared they were. Himari held and soothed them while she also tracked the movement of everyone in the building. Iris leaned against Himari’s side not crying or speaking. Himari dropped an affectionate kiss to the top of her head as she continued to hold and soothe the other two girls. Himari got up once the two girls had calmed down and looked out the window that had grates over it and saw they were a few stories in the air, so there was no escape that way since she didn’t feel like taking a chance and using magic she had only hypothesized about but hadn’t used yet, especially with three other girls so her spell for turning off their mass and flying home was out of the question. It was too risky to use since she hadn’t even practiced it yet. She looked at all three girls and checked to make sure both girls had calmed down. She needed them all calm so they could listen and follow directions. She looked at all three and said “I need you all to be brave girls for me and I need you all to listen well because we don’t have time for me to repeat myself. We are going to have to do this quickly too since anyone can come in at any moment. Do you all understand?” the three girls nodded their heads in agreement. Himari said “Good. I haven’t mastered teleportation yet, but I do have a spell that is similar. I have practiced this spell before but never this far and never while also needing to do multiple spells at once. I am going to make a door appear and you three girls are going to go into it. It will take you to the Demon Lords castle. I want all of you girls to stay inside the castle where you will be safe until me or Duncan tell you it is safe to leave. Do you girls understand?” All three girls nodded their head in understanding. Iris said “What about you? Why will you not come with us?” Himari hugged Iris tight and said “I don’t know if I can hold the door open to the castle for long enough especially since I will be working a few other spells at the same time. I want to make sure you girls get safely through.” She gave Iris what she hoped was a comforting smile “Besides I have to make sure all the bad guys get caught so they can face the consequences of their actions.” Lena leaned over and stage whispered “She means punished.” Iris eyes Filled with unshed tears and her grip around Himairs middle tightened. Iris said “I don’t want to leave you behind. I am scared I will lose you like I did my first mommy and daddy. Please mommy come with us. I promise I will be a good girl and behave don’t leave me mommy.” On the last words Iris voice broke and she started crying. Himari whispered comforting words as she rubbed Iris’s back trying to calm her. Himari was surprised the child had called her mommy since she never had before and the word had Himari tearing up. She shook the sentiments off. She didn’t have time to think about that when she had plans to execute. Once her cries had lessened Himari said soothingly “I promise I will do everything I can to get back home to you. I need you safe in our castle so I can concentrate on what needs to be done. I need your help to make sure everyone knows what happened and what I plan to do. Will you be my brave little soldier that has been training with Joan?” Iris straitened her chin and said “Yes I can mommy.” Himari explained to Iris what she needed her to tell everyone and had her repeat it back to her. She made all three girls memorize it just as precaution. Himari then concentrated on opening the door to the castle. She also double checked her magic detection barrier to make sure it was still working. She checked to make sure no one was close and was relieved no one was near. The door was now before them and Himari told them to go quickly and all three girls rushed into it with Iris throwing her a look over her shoulder and shouting “I love you mommy.” All three girls were through the door with it closing behind them before she could respond. She closed the door off completely to their castle. She checked the spells she had been working at feverishly since first waking and smiled. Now it was game time Himari thought.