Unruly Summon Chapter 61: Captive (Patreon)

"Ventus Ferrum," chanted Wendy, pointing at the bars of our prison. "Huh?"

"There's no mana in our surroundings," I said. Thankfully, that did nothing to degrade the vision spells I'd already cast, but I wouldn't be able to renew them once they wore off. Nor could we cast new spells, including grey magic such as body strengthening. It was like being back on Earth. In fact, if not for the lack of memory fading, I'd have been concerned that I was.

"No mana?! Magus Visus! Ah, right. No mana... How in the hells is that possible?!"

"Doesn't matter how. First priority is escape," said Minoru. "No mana means no body strengthening... Thomas, your strength is well above normal, even without mana. Give me a hand and let's see if we can work these bars loose before anyone turns up."

"Too late for that," came a gruff, unfamiliar voice, echoing from the shadows on the other side of the bars. "I'd apologise for the belated reception, but I didn't know when you'd arrive. Also, I'm not sorry."

"Who the hell are you?" demanded Wendy as the figure approached our cage. He was short and stocky, his face covered by a thick, bristly beard that curled up so sharply on either side of his nose that it almost reached his eyes. "A dwarf?!"

At least there was only one of him, and presumably the lack of mana would hinder him as much as us. He wasn't even carrying any enchanted items. If we got the chance, I couldn't see our group failing to take him down. In a manaless environment, it would take someone rather special to stand up to me and Minoru working together. Nevertheless, I echoed Wendy's sentiment. What was a dwarf doing here? What had just happened? Was the entire poisoning thing a plot to get us to use a trapped teleporter?

"Do you really think you're in a position to ask questions here?" asked the dwarf, pulling a lever on the outer wall. Immediately, my poison detection flared, my invented poison sight spell showing clouds billowing up from tiny cracks in the floor. He turned around to stare in silence, presumably expecting the poison to do something. Thankfully for us, it was weaker than whatever had been in the candles, and had no effect whatsoever through my resistance magic.

The silence continued for five seconds. Then ten.

"So..." Eve started carefully. "Was that lever supposed to do something?"

"Yes, it released yet more poison into our cell."

Whatever the new poison was, it was short-lived; it was breaking down in seconds once released, with the result that despite there being no enchantments on the bars, the dwarf remained completely unexposed. Alas, the continuous streams of the stuff meant that we remained very much exposed.

"More?" responded the dwarf. "To be expected, I suppose. I don't know how you're protecting yourselves, but in the end, it doesn't matter. Spells will wear off, and unable to use ambient mana to recharge themselves, enchantments will degrade. I've waited this long. I can wait an hour longer."

"To be expected? You didn't know? So you aren't working together with our attackers in Vaynx." I commented, not really expecting to elicit an answer. Mostly it was to distract attention while Wendy subtly removed a ring from her finger, presumably preserving the enchantment while my resistance spell was still active.

Despite my expectations, that question elicited a furious response.

"Those traitors?!" spat the dwarf. "Those imbecilic, evil fools! Don't you dare count me among their number. They simply accidentally made themselves useful just this once."

"You have the gall to call others traitors?" asked Minoru. "You, who hijacked a teleportation to kidnap the hero, who's trying to save the whole world?"

"Oh? You say I have gall, you lazy good-for-nothings? You're trying to save the world, you say? You have a funny way of showing it. Your hero has the power to purify miasma, and what have you done with it? Practically nothing! An occasional cast of Miraculum as you pass through cities, when Maius Miraculum can purge almost ten-thousand square miles in a single cast! You could have purified the continent within a few seasons!"

"But I can't cast Maius Miraculum," I pointed out. "And I'm not even going to be able to cast Miraculum trapped in here."

"It's not that you can't, but you won't. Why did you return Vena's Grace?"

"Uh... It wasn't mine? Also, I was unconscious at the time."

"Wasn't yours? You're the bloody hero! You are literally divinely appointed! What right does the church have to tell you which of their resources you can or cannot have? You should have demanded it. If they refused, you should have taken it, from their dead hands if necessary! You are a pathetic excuse for a hero, relying on others to learn your spells instead of doing that which you were brought to do yourself. Well, no more. If you refuse to carry out your duty, I'll just need to carry it out in your stead."

"Oh, bloody hell. You're a Seeker," sighed Wendy. "Great, we've been caught by the crazies. Thomas, think you can bust out of those bars before your poison resistance spell wears off? Or if you can see the poison, think you can block the vents?"

"There are too many vents to block, so I guess we should try the bars."

The dwarf smirked as Minoru and I struggled to move the bars, which didn't seem to have even the slightest bit of give.

"Summoning circle?" suggested Eve.

"No way to charge it," replied Wendy.

"Even a hero isn't so tough without his mana," laughed the dwarf, who still had yet to give us his name.

"What are you even planning to do?" demanded Minoru. "Carry it out in our stead? If you want to learn Miraculum, you only needed to ask; we're deliberately spreading it."

"Too little, too slow. Miraculum requires too much mana, and purifies too little land in exchange. It's just not feasible, and yet no-one but the hero has the mana for Maius Miraculum. Even the biggest ritual cast could never pull it off. No, it has to be him. But he won't, so I'll just need to replace him."

"Replace him? How? No magic that affects the mind works on a hero, and it's not like you can steal his mana capacity."

"Can't I?" beamed the triumphant dwarf. "You lot revel in your ignorance, and so you've never taken a look at what the gods do to the soul of a hero to make them a 'hero'. We have, and I'm happy to say that yes, I can steal his mana capacity."

"Shit..." declared Wendy. "We really need to get out of here."

"Easy enough; all you need to do is wait. I have no interest in you. Once I've taken over the role of hero, you're all welcome to leave."

"We're welcome to leave? What will you do to Thomas?" demanded Eve.

"Oh? Don't you consider him part of 'all' of you? He can leave, too. Might even get one or two perks into the bargain."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Pah. Why did I let you fools draw me into conversation? I don't have time to chat. Goodbye, and I doubt we'll meet again. At least, not while you're awake to remember it."

And with those ominous last words, the dwarf turned and left.

"We've got... what, twenty minutes left on that resistance spell?" whispered Wendy.

"Something like that," I answered. "Given that he talked about waiting an hour, I'm guessing the supplies of his sleeping gas won't run out before our resistance does."

"Then we need to get out of here. Can you see what's blocking the mana?"

"Nope. I can't see any in range. Not in this cell, the other side of the bars, or even through the walls."

"Can you see miasma?"

"Yes... Just minor contamination laced around, like the background in Odimere."

"Then whatever he's done to expel mana doesn't work on miasma. Probably another one of their experiments that failed. It also means we aren't within Miraculum range of Vaynx. It's unlikely anyone will find us soon, assuming they've even started looking. No-one on the Vaynx side would have noticed anything wrong, and the Bonehill side will only realise something went wrong if they knew exactly when we were due to teleport."

"They'll notice soon," said Minoru. "We would have been under very close watch. Whatever traitors that dwarf was referring to were obviously known to the fangs. They used us as bait to draw them out."

"The heck?" demanded Wendy. "Bait? They wanted us to get attacked?"

Minoru shrugged. "I don't know exactly what went down, but I can't think of any other explanation for the way Claw Bryklynt got that missive telling him exactly what room we were in."

"Unless our dwarf friend sent it," I pointed out.

"It's possible. To fake the origin of the missive would require him to know our codewords and have infiltrated deeply into Vaynx, so I didn't consider it at first, but such infiltration would equally have been required for messing with the teleporter. Okay, so maybe our disappearance won't be noticed, but even if it is, I agree with Wendy that our location will be impossible to track down in time."

"So, anyone have any ideas for escape?" I asked.

No-one answered.

"What if someone's listening to us?" asked Eve.

"Not anything we can do about it, beyond keeping our voices down," answered Wendy. "It's not like we have a private room to step into, and with the lack of mana, I can't even cast Quies."

"I've got nothing better than continuing to attack the bars, and hope they give way before our resistance does," said Minoru.

"And you can't just... slice through them? Don't we have a bunch of magical weapons?" asked Eve.

"Not without mana," said Wendy. "Although that's a potential idea; even if we can't cut the bars, we should be able to cut through the rock. We just need to dig around them."

"With daggers, swords and spears?" asked Minoru dubiously. "Without body strengthening, I can't see how we could possibly dig our way out in time."

"Then best we get started," I declared, drawing my sword. "If anyone has any better ideas while we're digging, feel free to voice them."

No-one did, which, given the way striking rock with sword was only breaking off tiny chips, not to mention dulling the point of the sword, was unideal.

"Maybe we should try digging into wherever the poison is coming from?" suggested Eve.

"Good idea, but unfortunately impossible," I replied. Despite its non-magical nature blocking me from viewing it through the floor with mana sight, my poison sight let me trace the pipework, and the main pipe bifurcated repeatedly before it reached the bars. We wouldn't need to dig a single hole; we'd need a dozen.

Another few minutes of digging revealed another problem.

"Uh... My mana sight just wore off," I said.

"Damn. How long have we been digging? Ten minutes? Still got ten more on the poison resistance."

"That's... uh... kinda the problem. I'm not completely sure, but I don't think Maius Omnia Visus should have worn off yet. I think my spells are degrading quicker in this mana void."

"Oh..." said Mary, speaking for the first time since our capture. "That might explain why I... why... I..."

She failed to finish her sentence, crumpling to the floor, already asleep before she hit it. Stephanie followed her thirty seconds later.

It was interesting that Eve seemed to have greater resistance than the pair of them. I'd noticed the same thing in our earlier poisoning attempt. Alas, more resistant didn't mean immune, and she was the next to fall.

"Well, this sucks," said Wendy, yawning widely. "Sorry, but I can't stay awake, and I'm not waiting to keel over."

She lay down, right next to the bars, and someone would have needed to be watching very closely to spot the ring she slid onto her finger as she did so. Would have been nice if she'd offered it to me, but I could see the logic; passing it on would be harder to do unnoticed, if we were under watch, and our captor was likely to put more effort into confirming I was asleep than he was anyone else. Or maybe logic was irrelevant, and the ring was bound to her somehow. I'd never asked.

It took another couple of minutes for Minoru to succumb, by which point I was struggling to keep my eyes open myself. Nowhere near digging our way out, there didn't seem to be any options remaining but to trust in Wendy.

"You're right," I commented at her, hoping she was just feigning sleep, and that her ring hadn't broken already. "This sucks."

And with those final words, sleep overtook me, too.