Mirror, Mirror

[DragonSong]

Kiara shrugged—she didn't disagree—then rose to her feet.

"Alright. Do they know how you two got in here?" she asked Grav with a slightly tilt of her head. "If they do, the tunnel's probably got a guard at the end. But if they don't, we can probably still make it out that way."

[MadEmperor]

"I can't discount the possibility he'll just cover every exit out of paranoia but, no, there's no way they could know," Grav answered as he led the way to the secret passage.

Pausing at an unremarkable section of wall, he took a moment to recall what Dan had said about the mechanism. "Hrm... how did I open this ag-" He snapped his fingers. "Right."

He counted as he moved his hand along the wall and pressed a brick. The section of wall sank back and slid open. "Ladies first."

[DragonSong]

Kiara rolled her eyes at him, then looked to the medium and noted, "You should keep to the middle."

The elven woman nodded, clearly not much inclined to argue in her current state. Both Kiara and Grav were in a much better place to defend themselves than she was. With a last glance over the two of them, Kiara headed into the dim tunnel--moving with much more confidence than her human counterpart had.

Grav! Kit's voice seemed to echo with the force of it. I've been calling you! Why isn't Kia answering? Are you two okay?

[MadEmperor]

Grav visibly started at the sudden, loud voice in his head. Not so loud! You startled me.

We're both fine. She had to switch to get us out of... well, the cells. We got caught. But we're fine! he answered. In fact, we're coming out now. Stay back a little, though; we rescued someone and I don't know how they'll react to a dragon.

Grav said, "Fair warning, our friend outside is a dragon. But don't worry, he won't hurt you."

[DragonSong]

The medium sighed heavily and shook her head. "Y'know what? At this point I'm not even surprised."

Kit's voice was accompanied by a small snort, but it was softer this time when he replied, Must be why I couldn't reach you easily--her being over there seems to mess with our connection. There was a pause as presumably the young dragon shifted to give them room at the mouth of the tunnel. And who the hells did you rescue now?

[MadEmperor]

Remember when we considered the idea of hunting down a spirit medium? Well, we sort of found one in my brother's dungeon. Grav's tone grew serious. And, thanks to her tip, we found out that he... he had my parents killed, Kit.

He stepped out, looking as grim as his revelation suggested. There wasn't any other way to look unless you were a sociopath. And the young man was far from that.

[DragonSong]

Waiting some few paces back from the entrance to the tunnel, Kit crooned in quiet sympathy and lowered his head slightly toward Grav.

...I'm sorry.

Kiara helped the medium climb out of the tunnel behind him--the older woman was clearly starting to flag, her days of imprisonment taking their toll.

[MadEmperor]

Thanks, big guy. Unfortunately, we have bigger things to worry about at this moment, Grav said, filling the dragon in on the crisis at hand.

He looked at the medium. "We need to get you somewhere safe before we can do anything else. Do you know of anywhere you can go?"

[DragonSong]

The elven woman nodded, clearly somewhat the worse for wear for her whole ordeal but trying to keep her head up. "I'll start making my way back home--we're camped at the fairgrounds outside Uthlyn for the moment. Should only take me a few days, if I'm lucky."

Kiara frowned a bit at that, but wasn't sure she should say anything. Not to mention she was now wondering if there was an equally tormented medium in the dungeon back in her world.

[MadEmperor]

Grav gave the weary elf a skeptical look. "You sure you're okay to travel alone? Though we can't go with you right now, we've got to stop Augustin and his mercenaries from killing a lot of people."

[DragonSong]

The medium nodded, clearly tired but resolute. "I'll be fine--you lot go take care of what needs doing."

Kiara was still frowning a bit, but she didn't argue with her; they were working with a rather tight timeline, and she had to assume this woman was cognizant enough of her own abilities to know if she really could make it to where she was going on her own.

[MadEmperor]

"Good luck," Grav told the woman as he watched her leave.

"So..." he said, turning to Kiara, "While I believe we can handle our own world's problem, "Having your help would definitely simplify things."

[DragonSong]

She sighed and ran her fingers back through her hair--a gesture that evidently crossed universes, and made Kit shuffle his front paws and glance away as that strange-familiarity of her swept over him yet again.

"Yeah, well." She shrugged. "I'm stuck until she decides to try using magic again, so... Guess I'm here to help."

[MadEmperor]

"Thanks," he said with a small smile.

"Okay, planning time. Should we try to warn the camp or set up some kind of ambush for the mercenaries? Though... I'm not yet sure how we can fight an entire mercenary squad with just the three of us, not one with their reputation."

[DragonSong]

Kiara's near-perpetual frown--it seemed to be her default when she was universe-hopping--deepened an inch. She glanced at Kit, then back to Grav.

"We don't have time, but we should at least try to start evacuating them," she muttered. "And I can...I can do things now. Things I couldn't before, with glamours. Maybe I can...hide us. Hide them."

[MadEmperor]

Grav nodded. "Right. We save as many as we can, however we can."

Heading towards the location of the camp, he said, "Let's go. We should go on foot. Flying would be faster but the mercenaries would notice that."

[DragonSong]

"Ah--" Kiara increased her pace slightly to catch up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. It was what she would have done with Dan, and the motion was almost instinctive at this point.

She glanced between Grav and Kit. "That's...sorta what I meant. About glamours. It'll be difficult, but...I think I can hide us. If we fly."

[MadEmperor]

Grav stopped and turned, momentarily perplexed as he followed her gaze. "Ohhh... You sure? I'd hate to find out mid-air that you can't keep it going."

He was surprised that he missed the implication. He and his Kiara were usually on the same wavelength, though he supposed he was just unused to factoring in Fae magics other than fire.

[DragonSong]

She shrugged. "I mean, sure? No. Pretty sure? Yeah, I think so. Besides, if it does fail early, hopefully we'll be close enough to the refugees that it won't make much difference."

Kit snorted quietly. "Whatever we're doing, we need to decide fast. We shouldn't linger here."

[MadEmperor]

Grav nodded. "Right. Time is the most important thing here. Let's get flying."

"Besides, rushing headlong into things is exactly my usual move. Why start being cautious now?" he smirked.