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Description
Five travelers, considered to be traitors of the Crown, were caught trespassing into one of the four Districts owned by the King. Sent to the C District, a massive prison, they were to be held in custody until the King arrived and dealt with them himself. Meanwhile, a sixth traveler, who had broken away from the main group much earlier, caught wind of the capture and rushes to free his comrades.

Richard slipped through the opening gates of the prison, making his way toward the back where Jasmine and the others resided. He stopped at the main security room, invisible to the eyes and ears of the guards monitoring the screens. Since he was able to mask the indications of his presence, he passed by the security cameras unnoticed. He ran, or glided would be a more accurate word, to his destination beyond the main security regions into one of the sections beyond the center. He slowed down once he entered the room and began to walk to the middle of the area.

He stopped at the center and stretched his right arm towards the ceiling, fingers outstretched and palm facing upward. He mouthed a few words, tiny white and blue sparks beginning to flicker in the middle of his palm. The ceiling shimmered lightly, small pulsing waves rippling toward the area straight above his outstretched palm.

The ripples stopped as they congregated at the focal point, increasing in light and intensity. A mound began forming, pulling out of the ceiling to become a bright pulsing orb of white, blue, and green wafts of light straying from the main source every now and then – much like a sun with solar flares. The orb floated lower, following Richard’s right hand until the orb dropped to shoulder height and stopped. The wrinkles in the ceiling and the gusts of light from the orb also halted with his arm movement. The pulsing orb dimmed, slowed its throbbing, and began to beat at the same beats as the average, relaxed human heart.

With his left hand, he extended his fingers briefly and gently stroked the upper portion of the orb until the top of it slid open like a clam revealing its hidden pearl. Richard reached in slowly, pulling at seemingly random strands of light, and the orb began to thump even slower to the point where it hardly seemed to throb at all. Once it stopped pulsing completely, Richard pulled his hand out of the interior of the sphere, and the orb’s outer shell slid back into place. As Richard lifted his right hand back towards the ceiling so the orb could be re-absorbed again, a grin spread across his face.
“Wards down,” he whispered quietly aloud to no one but himself.

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Jasmine’s eyes opened suddenly as realization hit her. Moments earlier she had received a telepathic message of only two words from her eldest brother. These two little words made her smile in turn, but she quickly hid the grin so as not to draw attention to herself.

Well, it’s about time, Rich. What took you so long?

Her scarlet eyes flicked over to the only exit of the cell, watching for any movement on the outside. Moments that seemed like eternity repeatedly passed by as she continued to stare at the door.  Sure enough, she heard boots beginning to pass down the hall.
Chains clattering against the stone floor brought her attention back to the other occupants of the room. One of Rogan’s red eyes stared back at Jasmine while the other remained closed. “You hear it too?” he mumbled almost under his breath but still audible enough for Jasmine to hear.

His question was answered with a nod from Jasmine before Victoria asked, “Hear what?”

She earned a glare from Rogan, who had opened both eyes now, and a quick reprimand from Jasmine.

“Shh… You don’t want them to hear you, do you?” Jasmine asked in a quiet, ominous voice, her eyes were still trained on the door. The steps stopped which caused Jasmine to hold her breath and Rogan to stare sharply at the door. The pacing started up again, moving in the opposing direction, away from them.

A low growl, much like a wolf’s, emitted from Rogan’s throat, “So that wasn’t him?  He mentioned that he would be here soon. I assume he was lying?”

Averian, who had been feigning sleep in one of the other back corners of the prison cell, murmured aloud in a calm, unquestionable tone, “Not necessarily. That was most likely just a guard doing his rounds, just like he does every hour.”

Rogan just glared at him. “Oh, shut up,” he hissed.

Guinivere snarled, sounding much like a type of large cat. “Both of you shut up now. I’m sick and tired of hearing you two squabble all the time.  I know we need to get out of here but if you keep that up, you’ll bound to be heard, and we’ll get into a worse situation. We’ll most likely be separated, and that’ll decrease our chances of escape. Now, not another word from either of you unless it’s to say something productive,” she ordered in a condescending manner, similar to how she would have in the old days when she was still in the upper ranks of the Crown’s Army.

Rogan began to retort but was interrupted by a clanging noise at the door. Immediately, everyone’s eyes turned to the source and watched as their soon-to-be present fate would be revealed.
The enchanted wooden door swung open, nearly hitting Rogan in the face before he moved. Two figures stepped through the doorway, revealing a grinning Thomerson and his sulking brother Roddin. The former leaned against the door frame, glaring maliciously at Jasmine.

“Now, what’s all this talk about escaping? I don’t believe that little detail is part of our plan.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like your plan is working. That usually hints that reform is needed,” Averian casually retorted.

“Shut up!” Roddin demanded from his position by the door, clearly unnerved to be this close to the most wanted Renegades in Five Districts.

Thomerson’s gaze shifted toward his brother curiously, and then swung to Averian. “Really now? And what do you suppose we do? Let you go? Ha! I know all of you are up to something, and I’m not going to stand by and let it happen. I will be watching you…” With the last statement, he turned on his right foot, his cloak whishing outward, and he stepped through the exit, allowing Roddin to close the door behind him.

Silence claimed the room again, only to be interrupted by a hiss from Rogan several moments later. “I hate those guys.”

Jasmine snickered. “Of course you do. You hate all current Crown soldiers.”

Rogan grinned and retorted, “Hey, now, I don’t discriminate. I hate everyone. Including you.”

“I bet you’re going to hate me more pretty soon.” Jasmine then giggled.

As soon as Victoria was about to question why, the shadows in one corner of the cell pulsed, followed by the darkness stretching out past its natural boundaries created by the low lighting of the cell. The shadows began to solidify, splitting apart from one giant mass in order to create multiple, individual forms. Now, the darkness was not made of one, but many.  As though they were still connected as one being, the shadow figures slid across the stone floor to the exit and out underneath the door.

Rogan just stood there, shocked at what he had witnessed, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to ask what had happened; stubbornness stood in the way. He was soon to find out that he was not the only confused one.

“Well done, Jazzy. I certainly wasn’t expecting such a well done display made by you,” Averian remarked with a slight grin.

Jasmine twitched at the pet name, but she started her explanation of the shadow summoning. “Those were summon spirits, Victoria. I knew you were going to ask what those shadows were. Since the… uh…” she struggled to think of a different way to explain why they were possible without directly giving away that the wards had been pulled down. “The… well, since those two idiot guards opened the door, some of the barrier magic from outside seeped in, and I wanted to see if the magic was strong enough for me to summon them. Normally, it’d be much easier to summon them but–”

“Alright, alright, we get the point,” Rogan rudely interrupted Jasmine, rolling his eyes.

Victoria turned to Rogan and asked disbelievingly, “What is your deal? Do you ever stop complaining?”

“Excuse me? Were you, a pipsqueak, filthy half-breed, just talking to me?” Rogan hissed, narrowing his scarlet red eyes. Victoria rose up as much as her chains would allow her.

“What did you just call me? Well, at least I’m not some sort of pet,” she spat out, gesturing to Rogan’s collar. “I guess I answered my own question about what your problem is.”
Fingering his studded collar as she remarked about it, Rogan temporarily lost himself in thought. He still heard what Victoria’s comments were, but they didn’t register as anything more than random words strung together in a random pattern. He briefly shook his head before continuing lightly and devoid of all anger he previously showed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, so just shut your mouth now.” Guinivere and Jasmine stared at Rogan, not believing the sudden change in his demeanor.

Before anyone could say anything more, a click outside the cell’s exit sounded, and the wooden door slowly opened to reveal a black-hooded, dark figure standing in the doorway. It raised its gloved right hand, and the silver chains used to bind the prisoners fell away and dissolved into dust before touching the floor.

“Oye, whad d’ya doin’?” A thick British accent sounded from down the hall, belonging to a middle-aged, slightly overweight man who seemed to have woken up a few seconds ago.

The cloaked figure swung around, peering at the guard from under his hood before dashing down the hallway, leading to a dead end.

The guard’s eyes flicked from the running figure to the released prisoners, “I’ll get to you lot soon enough. Stay here!” He ran off after the cloaked figure, shouting all variations of “You, stop!”, “Get back here!”, and “Agh… stop…. running so fast….”

A dark chuckle rumbled from Rogan’s throat. “As if,” he remarked, now back to his regular self. He ran out of the cell, not bothering to wait for the rest of his cellmates. Jasmine huffed but quickly scrambled after him, grabbing Victoria’s wrist and dragging her along. The last two hesitantly strayed out.

“That was Lord Colgar, wasn’t it,” Averian stated rather than asked. Guinivere nodded in response before they too followed the others out the door, down the passageway, past the guards, and out to freedom.

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The British guard began to slow down as he and the cloaked figure came to a dead end. He was breathing hard from the sprinting he was not used to, but he began laughing nonetheless.

“Nowhere left to run, eh? Remove your hood, put yer hands above yer head, and come forward so I can cuff ya,” he panted.

“Fine then,” a deep reply came from the cloaked individual who removed his hood without hesitation.

The guard took a minute to recognize the figure, but once he did, his eyes widened. “Wha…? You’re supposed to be dead!” he exclaimed.

“Well, seeing isn’t always believing, I guess,” replied the other man, taking backward steps slowly before ending up right against the wall. “You already saw me ‘play dead’. Now you get to see another trick.” He cleared his throat before continuing and grinned broader. “Now you see me, now you don’t!” With that, he gave a bow and took a final step backward, going through and beyond the wall.

The guard continued to stand there, completely dumbfounded. He could not believe what had just happened. How was he supposed to tell Bramylvr that his archenemy Richard - otherwise known as Colgar - was back? Not only that, but Richard had also freed and escaped with the Renegade prisoners right in front of the guards who were supposed to be keeping them under extremely tight security? This was definitely not looking good for the poor guard.

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On the outside of the prison, Guinivere, disguised as a massive Siberian tiger; Averian, disguised as a giant grey wolf; Jasmine, disguised as a large white fox; and Rogan and Victoria, who were unable to disguise themselves at all, sprinted on the dry, dead grounds of the C-District toward a copse of trees that were definitely out of place, Guinivere leading the way. The tiger’s back haunches tightened as she prepared to spring into the air. She disappeared instantaneously and the space –where she had been moments before – rippled slightly. The fox leapt next, followed by Rogan who leapt awkwardly in his human-like form through the open barrier. Victoria and the giant wolf that carried her followed shortly through the temporary portal that led to one of the districts not operated by the Crown.  After all five former prisoners passed through the gateway, no evidence could be found of them having been there at all.

Description
Five travelers, considered to be traitors of the Crown, were caught trespassing into one of the four Districts owned by the King. Sent to the C District, a massive prison, they were to be held in custody until the King arrived and dealt with them himself. Meanwhile, a sixth traveler, who had broken away from the main group much earlier, caught wind of the capture and rushes to free his comrades.

Richard slipped through the opening gates of the prison, making his way toward the back where Jasmine and the others resided. He stopped at the main security room, invisible to the eyes and ears of the guards monitoring the screens. Since he was able to mask the indications of his presence, he passed by the security cameras unnoticed. He ran, or glided would be a more accurate word, to his destination beyond the main security regions into one of the sections beyond the center. He slowed down once he entered the room and began to walk to the middle of the area.

He stopped at the center and stretched his right arm towards the ceiling, fingers outstretched and palm facing upward. He mouthed a few words, tiny white and blue sparks beginning to flicker in the middle of his palm. The ceiling shimmered lightly, small pulsing waves rippling toward the area straight above his outstretched palm.

The ripples stopped as they congregated at the focal point, increasing in light and intensity. A mound began forming, pulling out of the ceiling to become a bright pulsing orb of white, blue, and green wafts of light straying from the main source every now and then – much like a sun with solar flares. The orb floated lower, following Richard’s right hand until the orb dropped to shoulder height and stopped. The wrinkles in the ceiling and the gusts of light from the orb also halted with his arm movement. The pulsing orb dimmed, slowed its throbbing, and began to beat at the same beats as the average, relaxed human heart.

With his left hand, he extended his fingers briefly and gently stroked the upper portion of the orb until the top of it slid open like a clam revealing its hidden pearl. Richard reached in slowly, pulling at seemingly random strands of light, and the orb began to thump even slower to the point where it hardly seemed to throb at all. Once it stopped pulsing completely, Richard pulled his hand out of the interior of the sphere, and the orb’s outer shell slid back into place. As Richard lifted his right hand back towards the ceiling so the orb could be re-absorbed again, a grin spread across his face.
“Wards down,” he whispered quietly aloud to no one but himself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jasmine’s eyes opened suddenly as realization hit her. Moments earlier she had received a telepathic message of only two words from her eldest brother. These two little words made her smile in turn, but she quickly hid the grin so as not to draw attention to herself.

Well, it’s about time, Rich. What took you so long?

Her scarlet eyes flicked over to the only exit of the cell, watching for any movement on the outside. Moments that seemed like eternity repeatedly passed by as she continued to stare at the door.  Sure enough, she heard boots beginning to pass down the hall.
Chains clattering against the stone floor brought her attention back to the other occupants of the room. One of Rogan’s red eyes stared back at Jasmine while the other remained closed. “You hear it too?” he mumbled almost under his breath but still audible enough for Jasmine to hear.

His question was answered with a nod from Jasmine before Victoria asked, “Hear what?”

She earned a glare from Rogan, who had opened both eyes now, and a quick reprimand from Jasmine.

“Shh… You don’t want them to hear you, do you?” Jasmine asked in a quiet, ominous voice, her eyes were still trained on the door. The steps stopped which caused Jasmine to hold her breath and Rogan to stare sharply at the door. The pacing started up again, moving in the opposing direction, away from them.

A low growl, much like a wolf’s, emitted from Rogan’s throat, “So that wasn’t him?  He mentioned that he would be here soon. I assume he was lying?”

Averian, who had been feigning sleep in one of the other back corners of the prison cell, murmured aloud in a calm, unquestionable tone, “Not necessarily. That was most likely just a guard doing his rounds, just like he does every hour.”

Rogan just glared at him. “Oh, shut up,” he hissed.

Guinivere snarled, sounding much like a type of large cat. “Both of you shut up now. I’m sick and tired of hearing you two squabble all the time.  I know we need to get out of here but if you keep that up, you’ll bound to be heard, and we’ll get into a worse situation. We’ll most likely be separated, and that’ll decrease our chances of escape. Now, not another word from either of you unless it’s to say something productive,” she ordered in a condescending manner, similar to how she would have in the old days when she was still in the upper ranks of the Crown’s Army.

Rogan began to retort but was interrupted by a clanging noise at the door. Immediately, everyone’s eyes turned to the source and watched as their soon-to-be present fate would be revealed.
The enchanted wooden door swung open, nearly hitting Rogan in the face before he moved. Two figures stepped through the doorway, revealing a grinning Thomerson and his sulking brother Roddin. The former leaned against the door frame, glaring maliciously at Jasmine.

“Now, what’s all this talk about escaping? I don’t believe that little detail is part of our plan.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like your plan is working. That usually hints that reform is needed,” Averian casually retorted.

“Shut up!” Roddin demanded from his position by the door, clearly unnerved to be this close to the most wanted Renegades in Five Districts.

Thomerson’s gaze shifted toward his brother curiously, and then swung to Averian. “Really now? And what do you suppose we do? Let you go? Ha! I know all of you are up to something, and I’m not going to stand by and let it happen. I will be watching you…” With the last statement, he turned on his right foot, his cloak whishing outward, and he stepped through the exit, allowing Roddin to close the door behind him.

Silence claimed the room again, only to be interrupted by a hiss from Rogan several moments later. “I hate those guys.”

Jasmine snickered. “Of course you do. You hate all current Crown soldiers.”

Rogan grinned and retorted, “Hey, now, I don’t discriminate. I hate everyone. Including you.”

“I bet you’re going to hate me more pretty soon.” Jasmine then giggled.

As soon as Victoria was about to question why, the shadows in one corner of the cell pulsed, followed by the darkness stretching out past its natural boundaries created by the low lighting of the cell. The shadows began to solidify, splitting apart from one giant mass in order to create multiple, individual forms. Now, the darkness was not made of one, but many.  As though they were still connected as one being, the shadow figures slid across the stone floor to the exit and out underneath the door.

Rogan just stood there, shocked at what he had witnessed, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to ask what had happened; stubbornness stood in the way. He was soon to find out that he was not the only confused one.

“Well done, Jazzy. I certainly wasn’t expecting such a well done display made by you,” Averian remarked with a slight grin.

Jasmine twitched at the pet name, but she started her explanation of the shadow summoning. “Those were summon spirits, Victoria. I knew you were going to ask what those shadows were. Since the… uh…” she struggled to think of a different way to explain why they were possible without directly giving away that the wards had been pulled down. “The… well, since those two idiot guards opened the door, some of the barrier magic from outside seeped in, and I wanted to see if the magic was strong enough for me to summon them. Normally, it’d be much easier to summon them but–”

“Alright, alright, we get the point,” Rogan rudely interrupted Jasmine, rolling his eyes.

Victoria turned to Rogan and asked disbelievingly, “What is your deal? Do you ever stop complaining?”

“Excuse me? Were you, a pipsqueak, filthy half-breed, just talking to me?” Rogan hissed, narrowing his scarlet red eyes. Victoria rose up as much as her chains would allow her.

“What did you just call me? Well, at least I’m not some sort of pet,” she spat out, gesturing to Rogan’s collar. “I guess I answered my own question about what your problem is.”
Fingering his studded collar as she remarked about it, Rogan temporarily lost himself in thought. He still heard what Victoria’s comments were, but they didn’t register as anything more than random words strung together in a random pattern. He briefly shook his head before continuing lightly and devoid of all anger he previously showed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, so just shut your mouth now.” Guinivere and Jasmine stared at Rogan, not believing the sudden change in his demeanor.

Before anyone could say anything more, a click outside the cell’s exit sounded, and the wooden door slowly opened to reveal a black-hooded, dark figure standing in the doorway. It raised its gloved right hand, and the silver chains used to bind the prisoners fell away and dissolved into dust before touching the floor.

“Oye, whad d’ya doin’?” A thick British accent sounded from down the hall, belonging to a middle-aged, slightly overweight man who seemed to have woken up a few seconds ago.

The cloaked figure swung around, peering at the guard from under his hood before dashing down the hallway, leading to a dead end.

The guard’s eyes flicked from the running figure to the released prisoners, “I’ll get to you lot soon enough. Stay here!” He ran off after the cloaked figure, shouting all variations of “You, stop!”, “Get back here!”, and “Agh… stop…. running so fast….”

A dark chuckle rumbled from Rogan’s throat. “As if,” he remarked, now back to his regular self. He ran out of the cell, not bothering to wait for the rest of his cellmates. Jasmine huffed but quickly scrambled after him, grabbing Victoria’s wrist and dragging her along. The last two hesitantly strayed out.

“That was Lord Colgar, wasn’t it,” Averian stated rather than asked. Guinivere nodded in response before they too followed the others out the door, down the passageway, past the guards, and out to freedom.

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The British guard began to slow down as he and the cloaked figure came to a dead end. He was breathing hard from the sprinting he was not used to, but he began laughing nonetheless.

“Nowhere left to run, eh? Remove your hood, put yer hands above yer head, and come forward so I can cuff ya,” he panted.

“Fine then,” a deep reply came from the cloaked individual who removed his hood without hesitation.

The guard took a minute to recognize the figure, but once he did, his eyes widened. “Wha…? You’re supposed to be dead!” he exclaimed.

“Well, seeing isn’t always believing, I guess,” replied the other man, taking backward steps slowly before ending up right against the wall. “You already saw me ‘play dead’. Now you get to see another trick.” He cleared his throat before continuing and grinned broader. “Now you see me, now you don’t!” With that, he gave a bow and took a final step backward, going through and beyond the wall.

The guard continued to stand there, completely dumbfounded. He could not believe what had just happened. How was he supposed to tell Bramylvr that his archenemy Richard - otherwise known as Colgar - was back? Not only that, but Richard had also freed and escaped with the Renegade prisoners right in front of the guards who were supposed to be keeping them under extremely tight security? This was definitely not looking good for the poor guard.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the outside of the prison, Guinivere, disguised as a massive Siberian tiger; Averian, disguised as a giant grey wolf; Jasmine, disguised as a large white fox; and Rogan and Victoria, who were unable to disguise themselves at all, sprinted on the dry, dead grounds of the C-District toward a copse of trees that were definitely out of place, Guinivere leading the way. The tiger’s back haunches tightened as she prepared to spring into the air. She disappeared instantaneously and the space –where she had been moments before – rippled slightly. The fox leapt next, followed by Rogan who leapt awkwardly in his human-like form through the open barrier. Victoria and the giant wolf that carried her followed shortly through the temporary portal that led to one of the districts not operated by the Crown.  After all five former prisoners passed through the gateway, no evidence could be found of them having been there at all.