This had to be the auction item storage. Treasures spread throughout the entire room, from statues to cases upon pedestals to chests. Multiple had been overturned. Chunks of broken stone and various gems spilled across the floor.

As Ash watched, Korri from the crew picked up a glass case and chucked it at an approaching Nimfelum guard. A quick surge of magic created a wind that caught the case and diverted its path. It shattered against the wall, and the shockingly durable mirror clattered to the floor.

The Nightwraths' primary force came from Lorica and Garman. The pirate captain had stolen a blade from someone, and if the leg injury remained, Ash couldn't tell. Lorica fought five different Nimfeli on her own without being overwhelmed.

Someone must have pried the collar off Garman because he charged around in his lysian form. He didn't share her qualms with injuring the Nimfeli doing their jobs. He slashed and snapped at any foe that came within reach.

Most of the other captive Nightwraths engaged in combat with their own stolen Nimfeli blades, though a couple of them, like Korri, were weaponless and had to improvise. The only Nightwraths separated from the others were Willow and Haylan. Willow fended off any Nimfeli that drew close while Haylan rushed through the various items.

A man with dark black hair and scruff inching toward a beard popped up from searching a chest near Haylan, and Ash's heart swelled.

"Callum," she breathed.

As if he'd heard her, his head swiveled, and their gazes locked. A mixture of emotions swept across his face, but the most prominent was a joyful relief. She felt that mirrored in herself.

A nearby grunt brought her back to her own situation. Caspian stood locked with a Nimfelum who was attempting to drive his sword into his chest. It required both of Caspian's hands to keep the strike from landing.

Cursing herself for thinking she could sneak a moment of relief, she rushed to Caspian's aid. She brought her dagger down on the Nimfelum's arm. He dodged, but her blade caught a portion of his feathers. Enraged shrieks and clicks erupted from his mouth. He spun, swinging his sword with the momentum.

It managed to tap Ash's dagger before Caspian yanked the Nimfelum back by the shoulder. He slammed his forehead straight into the being's face. Something cracked. The Nimfelum collapsed.

"Hard noses," Caspian grumbled, rubbing the new red spot on his forehead.

"Caspian! Ash!"

Lorica's voice hooked them both and dragged their heads in her direction. Nimfeli surrounded her, but the closest of them were unconscious or worse. She used her momentary reprieve to point her sword to the other side of the room.

Another secret door allowed more Nimfeli guards to spill in. They swarmed the others. Willow did her best to keep them back, but it was one against six.

Caspian scooped up the sword of the fallen Nimfelum. "Keep up," he said to her before sprinting to the others' aid.

She caught up only because Caspian veered to leap atop a couple of boxes. He threw himself off the top and into the middle of the Nimfeli. One went down beneath him, and another yelped as he slashed open a gash on her leg. The Nimfela lifted her leg and slammed it back down on his head.

Ash didn't see whatever happened next. She intercepted a Nimfela who was chasing Haylan. Their blades crossed, but the Nimfela overpowered her, pushing the icy blade too close. Its edge nicked her cheek. A frigid sting spread from the cut.

Wincing, she scrambled back. The Nimfela didn't chase, which somehow seemed worse. Ash couldn't shift her momentum quickly enough when she realized what the Nimfela was doing. The Nimfela held her hand to the side, and it glowed. She swiped her arm. The surrounding items trembled as the gust rushed forward.

A body appeared in front of her. Callum, his arms held in front of him, palms facing the oncoming blast. He hissed as it slammed into him, and he slid back an inch with its force, but it petered out as if a wall had ceased its momentum.

The Nimfela lunged as she stabbed for Callum's abdomen. He twisted out of the way, but the blade caught his side. He cried out and grabbed at the wound.

"Don't—" Ash started, too aware of the sharp blade where he was putting his hands. Except there wasn't one. The Nimfela shouted something in the Nimfeli language as her sword melted in her hand. Of course. They were magical creations. She wondered what else his touch could affect on Maewyll, but now was not the time to test that. While the Nimfela panicked about the sudden destruction of her weapon, Ash hopped onto a chest and then immediately back off, bringing the hilt down hard on the Nimfela's head.

She toppled over but caught herself from colliding with the ground. Ash muttered a curse. The strike hadn't been hard enough. Her stomach rolled as the dagger became as heavy as an anchor.

They needed to escape, and it was either the guards or them in the situation. But could she do it? Take someone's life when they were just doing their job?

Thankfully, she didn't have to find out. Haylan appeared from somewhere and crouched at the Nimfela's side. He placed his hand against her arm before she could react, and a golden energy flashed from the point of contact. The Nimfela threw her head back in a soundless noise. Wind whipped around her, and her form shimmered like mist. It only lasted a couple of seconds before she flattened on the ground, unconscious.

Ash took a moment to place what he'd done, but then she recalled how he'd knocked both her and Garman out once by overloading their magic. "Thank you," she said.

His eyes were gentle when they flicked her way, and she had a feeling he knew the extent of what she meant. "Tell the others we can retreat," he said to Ash, and then, to Callum, "You were right. The artefact was in that chest." He shifted, revealing a bag slung over his shoulder.

"That's an artefact?" Ash asked warily.

In answer, Haylan flipped the bag's flap open and shoved his hand in. Then his forearm. He didn't stop until he was nearly to his shoulder, far further than should fit in the bag. "The Endless Hold. I don't know why Wolfbane would want it, but it's all Callum could sense, and..." He shook his head. "No time. Caspian! Willow!

The two together had reduced their five Nimfeli to three, but at a cost. Both of them bore multiple cuts and a couple worse wounds. Blood from a gash blinded one of Willow's eyes, and Caspian preferred one leg over the other. He glanced over his shoulder at them, and he nodded at Haylan's furious gestures of retreat. Leaning over, Caspian whispered something to Willow. She darted to the side, Caspian covering her back.

Confusion and panic had Ash stepping forward, but Haylan grabbed her. "Not him," he said, then pointed. "Go help her."

Willow pressed her shoulder against a crate that helped stabilize the other crates. Realizing the plan, Ash darted over and wordlessly joined her friend in shoving against the box.

"Any time now!" Caspian called, followed by a yelp.

Ash wondered at the brilliance of Caspian's plan. A whole building of crates sat atop the lowest level, and he'd sent a single person over to dislodge part of its base. Had he simply hoped someone would run over to help? Even two of them found it a struggle.

Three, though, was the lucky number. Callum appeared next to her. She caught sight of his wrists as he pressed his palms against the wood. Strands of cloth dangled from his wrists, as if it had been ripped apart from another material.

With one final hard shove, the crate slid out from beneath the others. They scrambled back as the boxes tumbled over each other like an avalanche of wood. Caspian dove out of the way. The Nimfeli might have as well, but they went the opposite direction, leaving a pile of boxes between them. It wouldn't stop them, but it gave them the necessary time to turn their backs and flee.

"Do you need me to heal that quickly?" Haylan asked as Caspian sped-limped toward them.

"No, just go." Despite his refusal, Caspian's face was unusually pale.

The Nimfeli had run out of guards, or at least had stopped sending more. Less than ten remained. That small amount would have made them near even with the Nightwraths, but two of the captives were down, with one other tending to them. Haylan rushed to their sides and went to work.

"I have the artefact. We need to go now," he said.

Lorica spared a glance at the bag Haylan carried, and a crease formed between her brows. "First, we'll need a moment of peace to figure out where to go. Haylan, help them. Ash, Jhor, protect them and Callum."

Jhor was the man who had been protecting the others already. He nodded and adjusted his stance to better cover everyone. Ash went to mimic him, but Haylan grabbed her arm.

"I'm going to need to ask you to disobey Lorica's orders."

Ash froze in the middle of opening her mouth as she rolled his words around her head. No, there wasn't another way to interpret his words. "What?" she settled on asking.

He gestured to one of the fights. Caspian attempted to fend off two Nimfeli who had attempted to flank the group, and though his sword skills proved superior, they continued to put him off balance with hard wind gusts and manipulating the cloud-like floor.

"We're in their domain," Haylan said. "Callum, you've already shown you can negate their wind. This bag will absorb anything near its opening if you will it to, and then if you open the flap again, it should release it. None of our magics easily combat the Nimfeli's magic, but it should turn the fight's tide."

Callum bit his lip and shot Ash a worried glance. "And if you're wrong?" he asked. "That would put Ash directly in the magic's path."

She answered before Haylan could. "I can handle it. If this works out, it's worth the risk."

Although his concern remained, Callum didn't argue.

Haylan paused in healing a gut gash on one of the pirates to hand Ash the bag. It was a large messenger bag made of sleek leather material. She expected it to have a bit of heft given its endless bottom, but it was lighter than other bags of its size. If she had the time, she would stop to examine its inside, see if it by looking within, she'd find a chasm. A gust caught her hair and tossed it across her face, though, reminding her she didn't have such time.

Callum followed at her heels as she rushed to aid Caspian. The Nimfeli had to create enough distance to allow movement when they wanted to use their wind. Resisting her instincts, Ash slid her dagger into its sheath and charged a Nimfelum who was creating distance between himself and Caspian. He spotted her and, eyes narrowing, shifted to send a wave of crushing wind her way instead.

She planted her foot and pulled the bag in front of her. As she yanked aside the flap, she imagined the air funneling into the bag, drawn in as if the opening were a gaping maw, taking a large breath.

Her pounding heart leapt with victory when the gust condensed and rushed into the bag. The force sent her stumbling back a few steps. Once all the wind entered the artefact, the flap vanished from her grasp and closed over the top. Although contained, the wind continued to writhe like a living creature, creating fluctuating bulges in the bag's sides.

The Nimfelum gawked. Ash was almost shocked into a similar stunned state, because even though she'd chosen to take the risk, she hadn't expected it to work. She didn't have time to pause, though.

The Nimfelum didn't stand in a line, as convenient as that would be, but if she angled it right, she could potentially clip the one currently engaging with Caspian. She shifted as needed, then, once more holding the squirming back up, pulled the flap back, and sent a mental command at the bag to let go of its hold.

Released, the winds howled as they exploded forward with more force than before. She slid back a couple of inches, squinting as tendrils of the gust escaped in her direction. Despite her limited vision, she thought she saw something small and cylindrical fly from her. Had it been in the bag? It could have been an item caught in the gale.

The object left her thoughts as the gust slammed into the Nimfelum, throwing him back. He crashed into a glass case. The fragments rained down on him, drawing bits of blood. As she'd hoped, the rest of the gust charged onward like a frenzied beast and caught the Nimfela in the shoulder and her wings. She stumbled, nearly thrown to her knees by the hit.

Caspian used her position to shove down on her head at the same time he brought his knee up. Ash winced at the sound the collision produced. He turned back to her and grinned. "Look at you, Cinders. Being so useful. Think you can keep doing it?"

Words that would once be biting came out as a gentle tease, and it almost brought a smile to her face. "Callum and I will team up to combat as much of the magic as we can. Before you go help the others, could you..." She made a vague gesture to the Nimfelum.

He didn't ask any questions, simply went over and knocked the Nimfelum out as well.

"Can they get concussions?" Callum wondered aloud.

"If so, it's better than death," she said. When she turned to the rest of the chaos, she realized how lucky she was that Caspian indulged her distaste for killing the innocent Nimfeli. The other pirates didn't give the same mercy, but they also didn't have hits that packed the strength of a gauntleted strike.

Garman, being the most brutal threat, garnered the attention of most Nimfeli and their magical attacks. "There," Ash said to Callum. They ran over to assist.

The next few minutes moved in a slew of movement, powerful gusts, sudden protrusions or dips in the ground, and bodies dropping. The Nimfeli were powerful and well trained, but it was clear they didn't expect any serious threats or relied too much on their wind manipulation, because even her father could have taken them in a sword duel. This became more evident as, with Ash and Callum countering the wind, they went down faster. The biggest scare was when the Nimfeli Caspian and Willow had faced joined the fray, but none of the sustained injuries were life threatening.

Finally, it was the thirteen of them standing in a room filled with scattered treasures and downed Nimfeli. There must have been more guards somewhere, potentially stronger ones, but none had filtered in since Caspian and Ash arrived.

Lorica heaved as she took in the scene. "Alright. We need to check the corridors. There must be other exists from this forsaken island. Caspian, Willow, you two—"

A sudden smattering of applause cut her off. A Nimfelum stepped out from behind a mountain of crates furthest from the conflict. He clapped three more times before tucking his arms behind his back. Ash frowned. He was familiar, but why?

"Thank you, Nightwrath Pirates. This will be ample proof for me to show the current nobility just how comfortable we have become in our prosperity. To think, thirty guards defeated by your ragtag group of lower beings. Imagine their insult when they discover we have to rely on outside help to handle one of our own issues." His lips curled into a sinister smile. "Finally, they will listen to me. Now, comrades, if you will."

The Nimfelum stepped to the side. He spread his hand in an extravagant gesture.

One by one, a group of humans stepped out, a mountain of a man in the lead.

Wolfbane and his pirates.

*****

One set of enemies down just for more to show up v_v Their escape is not going to be easy. And, if you didn't notice, Caspian now has no way to avoid this confrontation >:D All shortly after he bared his wounds to Ash. Look, I love Caspian, but I show that through tormenting him VwV On the bright side, nobody's dead! .... yet....

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D Let me know if you want to join!