17: Dark Sorcerers

They watched a full scale mining and production operation in motion below.

People were carrying lagnea, raw, onto moving belts that other people constantly kept in motion via a crank handle.

Vo saw many others mining the ore from the cavern walls. The moving belt was sending the ore into an iron smelter, which had pipes feeding lolly-orange liquid into a glass tank. For some strange reason, when lagnea was distilled, it carried the orange tint in liquid form. Harmless on appearance but otherwise once ingested.

From the tank, the liquid was cooled and poured into vials.

The way the people moved, looked and performed their tasks were unified and lifeless.

"They have no ounce of will." Lyra's voice trembled as she recognized people from the village. "Sonia, Melaine..." She shuffled back and motioned to stand up.

Zen grabbed her arm to keep her put. "You rush in there without a plan, you can hurt them."

Vo drew their attention to the overseeing red-black armored bandits that were using staves to keep the populace enthralled. They wore large chunks of reglear as a necklace.

"They maintain the enthrallment via magic refresh. At any time, these people can turn against us. We need a way to break the enthrallment and get these people out safely."

"Let's find a secret way down." Zen suggested and added, "Hopefully come up with a winning plan along the way."

They retreated back to the tunnel and saw a small path winding down to the depths. As they carefully picked their way down, they saw at the end a series of narrow tunnels filled with cages.

Guarding them were the Nox Mortre mages in long black robes with painted white woman's hands on their shoulders as pauldrons. Like the others, they wore reglear at their necks.

Their staves were ringing with magic waves as they paraded the aisles. Magic was cast across the wrought iron cages to keep the prisoners enthralled and docile.

"Lyndal!" Lyra hissed, her body tense and desperate to spring into action. Unable to hold back her impulses, she grabbed her greatsword and rushed for a mage with a mighty roar. Her attack took the mage by surprise to knock him down.

"Damn it! Stupid brawn head!" Zen cursed and pulled out his staff to enter the fray.

Vo nodded as he stepped back and had Shane spinning with magic to cast a barrier around the cages. He grabbed the hilt and waved the sword in arc motion to cast a stimulant boost to Zen and Lyra's strength and spirit energy.

He stabbed the sword in the ground and released an orange oily residue across the ground that increased Zen and Lyra's agility and slowed the mages' casting. All that absorbed lagnea came in handy.

"Now you're talking. LET'S GO YOU MAGE PRICKS!" Zen wielded his black staff like a polearm, combining hand combat with magic to knock down and stab the black robes.

Lyra did a mad charge as she mowed down mages with her greatsword.

Vo picked off the stranglers to ensure none of the enemy survived.

But the prisoners were in a mindless and docile state.

"Stand back." Zen wielded his staff to cast a countering spell against the enthrallment upon the people. White mist descended to drench everyone and make the skin briefly tingle.

Vo rushed to catch the man before he collapsed with exhaustion. "Sorry about the drawback from having your spirit energy boosted." He fed the man an orange slice he had kept in his belt food pouch.

"Bit dry isn't it?" Zen screwed up his face as he chewed, but he was feeling more energized.

"Lyndal." Lyra said to one of the young women whose eyes fluttered as her mind was returning to her.

Vo looked about the mages for a key, and grabbed one off a belt. He unlocked the cages.

"Where... Lyra?" A gentle looking woman in a long plain dress and of short brown hair greeted Lyra.

Vo saw a lot of confused expressions among the freed locals. He twirled Shane casting a clarity spell. Silverish light was cast over the people to chase off the residual dark magic impacts.

"You may still have relapses as your mind recalls the dark magic taint, but your mind and body are yours," he coolly stated, starving off his own weakness.

"Vo, darling, you need to replenish your energy." Shane reminded him.

"I'm fine. The fight is over for now." Vo was reluctant to cause more energy disruption to Shane.

He approached one of the older men who bowed to him with gratitude. "Do you know how you got here?"

Everyone gathered around Vo, Lyra and Zen and told their chain of events. Three things were common to all their situations, they were taken by Black Crow Eye in the middle of the day, the younger and weaker ones were separated from them and everyone of those foul mages carried a swan symbol on their bodies of some kind.

"Like this one?" Vo removed some of his shirt so he could reveal his swan motif on the right side of his chest using magic. It momentarily flashed red before fading so only bare skin showed again.

"Yes!" A woman wagged a finger looking frightened.

"I'm here to rescue you." Vo reassured her when he fixed himself up.

Lyra backed up his words and told them about how they got there.

"Oh Lyra, our commander has done a bad thing." Lyndal cried.

"Commander?"

A few others explained that they were taken to either work the mines or be slaves for the empire. The Nox Mortre were used to ensure no one complained and everyone obeyed.

But the enthrallment spell could only last so long and there were moments it had weakened. During those moments, some of them were able to learn of some of their perpetrators' intentions.

"Some of us were able to escape between spell refreshers. Like Sneker."

Lyra's expression lapsed into remorse.

"He didn't make it did he?" Tears fell down Lyndal's eyes.

"No. With exposure to lagnea and enthrallment, having fought it so long. He held on just enough to pass us a message about the Nox Mortre." Lyra soberly updated the people.

"A strong mind." Zen added.

Vo felt his rage burning within him. Shane cast a spell to calm him.

"Vo, this is bigger than we imagine." Zen soberly commented and turned to the people. "Do you know why they wanted slaves?"

"For the war is all I heard between enthrallment refreshes."

"We have to get you out of here."

"There is a passage nearby that leads to an exit, we can take that if the way is cleared for us." One of the men suggested.

"I can do that." Lyra volunteered.

Vo patted her shoulder. "Zen and I will do what we can to stop the production and free the others."

Lyra was about to say something but Vo cut her off.

"Make sure they get out, but be careful of returning to Rogue. By now, the commander might be suspecting something."

"I'm a guard, I'll fight with you. Besides, even when we were enthralled we remembered stuff. I can help you get around." One of the victims stepped into view.

"I vouch for Morley. He's a damn good fighter with a two-hand weapon."

Vo sighed and searched the dead mages, removing their reglear necklaces. "There's lots of lagnea out there, make sure this is on you at all times. It'll keep your mind sane and resistant to enthrallment."

Morley placed the rock around his neck and caught a halberd Zen tossed at him.

The people gave him odd looks.

"Don't look at me. The guard at the door left it lying around when he decided living wasn't for him." Zen casually shrugged his shoulders, which stirred a chuckle from Vo and some others.

"Okay. We have our tasks." Vo faced Lyra and the others ready to flee. "Good luck."

Vo, Morley and Zen watched the group hurry down a side tunnel.

"The production line is toward the left, but the sorcerers parade the tunnels and have charms everywhere." Morley stated.

"We need to do something to save those people. Any suggestions."

Zen frowned, rubbing his chin then his eyes lit up with a beauty of an idea. He let out a chuckle. "Let's smoke bomb them and undo the enthrallment like we did here."

Vo nodded. "Back to the ledge."