The Plan

Richter was busy dusting the furniture and paintings in the grand hall. He had spent the majority of the year maintaining the estate in a hope that Trixia would one day return.

All of a sudden they found themselves moving through a void, floating, weightless until their feet touched down on a tile floor. With the aid of their description of the Sweetbrier estate Tilamonka had teleported them into the main room. They had only teleported one other time and it was when they had fled the estate. This time they managed to hold themselves upright and not fall into each other. Richter dropped the duster he was holding as five beings appeared out of thin air. The duster clattered to the floor, tossing some dust into the air and onto his clothes

"Oh my." Richter reactively clutched his chest and coughed as the dust reached his lungs.

"Sorry Richter," Erigos noticed the surprised halfling, walked over and picked up the duster, and handed it back to him.

"It's all right, you just startled me is all…It is great to see some friendly faces." He forced a smile out. They could see the dark bags under his eyes. The last few months could not have been easy for him. "What brings you all here, the city isn't safe for anyone not to mention enemies of Ottothal.

"We know…we've come to rescue Trixia," Erigos said.

"Erigos…" Harim gave him a look. Richter noticed it and understood the meaning of the glare.

"I have worked for Trixia for two decades, she is family, and I want nothing more than to free her. I want to help. You can trust me…she is all I have."

Harim looked at everyone, they all gave him looks of agreement with Richter being a part of the plan. "Alright Richter, you can help."

"Thank you…Where are you staying while here?"

"We don't know, we weren't even sure this place wasn't seized," Erigos said.

"How is it possible the Brand didn't take it?" Harim asked.

"The Sweetbrier estate is a family estate, they have no right to it. Trixia being arrested doesn't allow them to take her home," Richter explained. "I have been allowed to live here and maintain it. The city is in turmoil and the military has bigger problems than to watch this house. They have left me be."

"Are you suggesting that we should stay here?" Harim asked.

"It might be the safest place for you all to stay. There is no reason to believe that they know you are here now."

Harim seemed reluctant but Erigos pushed him, "He is right, it makes the most sense to stay here."

"We appreciate the offer Richter, we would be happy to stay here." Harim nodded.

"Go washup, I will make us some food. We can discuss a plan afterwards," Richter patted his clothes, straightened up and walked into the kitchen.

Harim laid a map of Zarcum on the table for everyone to see. Richter had found it and a few other maps in Trixia's office. This one was a general layout of the city.

"How does this help us break into the prison?" Rothox asked not seeing the prison labeled on the map.

"See this building here…that is the Hall of Judgment and through it is the only way into the prison," Harim pointed.

"Okay…and where is the prison?" Erigos couldn't see it on the map.

"It's underground."

"So we use the sewers," Rothox said.

"The sewers won't work, they designed them to go around the prison, there is no way unless we dig our way through."

"How do you know that?" Erigos asked.

"The Sultan had his crew check in the event he had to break someone out."

"So, what does this prison look like? Do we have a map of it?" Rothox checked the small pile Richter had brought out.

"That's the problem…" Harim crossed his arms and sighed.

"What is?" Alissa said.

"No one knows what the prison actually looks like except that there is a rumour it utilizes the volcano in some way."

"How is that possible?" Erigos furrowed his brow, "Someone must know."

Harim shook his head, "Each guard is vetted and sworn to secrecy. The prisoners are given a forgetting potion upon their release, on the very rare occasion they get released alive. I only know of two people that have served their entire time without dying, they have no recollection of their time there. The fact that it uses the volcano comes from its name, The Ashen Ring. They say that the ash and heat from the volcano are used as a form of torture."

"Torture?" Alissa asked.

"So they say."

"A guard must have told someone?" Rothox asked. "Someone always talks."

"Nothing…There was at one time a rumor going around, a guard was telling people about the prison. The next day the guard and anyone he may have talked to vanished. Plus any guard that quits or retires is given the same mind-altering potion."

"So we are fucked," Erigos who was leaning over the table with his hands firmly planted pushed away angrily crumpling the edge of the map.

"Not exactly…We have one option." Harim smoothed the edges out.

"Yeah, what's that…one of us gets arrested?" Erigos scoffed.

Harim shrugged insinuating just that.

"Fuck that you can't be serious."

"Hold on Erigos, let's hear the plan," Rothox said.

Harim turned to Julius who had been standing off to the side silently. "Julius, how many people can you carry?"

"Alissa is the only one of you that I could carry but I can cast a spell that allows two of you to fly," Julius stepped closer to join the discussion. "Why, you aren't thinking of flying into the volcano?"

"Maybe...we need to know if we can access the prison that way."

Julius looked down at the map. "And what if there is no way in from there? I'm risking my life for a 'maybe'."

"I know, but we all will be flying with you if we can access it that way. You just have to go first to scout ahead."

"That still leaves the issue of finding out where Trixia is and the layout of the prison," Rothox said.

"That's where you come in, you've broken out of a prison before, think you can do it again?"

Rothox shook his head, 'I can't believe I'm going to agree to this.' "I'm in, what do you need me to do?"

Harim went over the plan, "Rothox is to get arrested so they take him to the Hall of Judgement and place him in a holding cell. From there he will use the cloak to disappear, escape and find the entrance to the prison. He will sneak into the prison and find where Trixia is kept. Then the rest of us shall fly into the volcano and find the supposed access to the prison and free her." Harim made it sound easy.

"How does Rothox tell us where Trixia is?" Julius asked.

"I was hoping you or Alissa would be able to figure that out, Aren't there some magical means of communicating?" Harim asked the birdman.

"There are, and I do know one, but I have to talk to him first."

"Okay, so we will have a time set for when you reach out to him. Rothox we will let you know when we will begin our descent into the volcano and then you will have thirty minutes after that to find her, think you can do that?"

"I sure hope so."

"What happens if Rothox gets caught?" Erigos asked.

"He won't, the cloak brings him to another dimension, he can't get caught so long as he stays in the limbo between the two dimensions so he can still travel through our world."

"What if though... humor me." Erigos was persistent.

Rothox answered for himself. "If I get caught, which I won't, I will get out, don't you worry."

"What is Rothox going to do to get arrested?" Alissa asked.

Harim thought a few seconds before speaking, "He's going to kill someone."

"What!?" Rothox held his hands up, "I ain't killing anyone for no reason."

"It's not like you haven't killed someone before." Harim glared at him.

"This is different. I'm no murderer."

"He could kill one of us," Alissa spoke. "We could fake a death, that way he gets arrested and no one has to actually die."

"That could work but I imagined him killing someone who deserves it," Harim countered.

"How do we find that person…It's not like we can go out and explore the city," Erigos said.

Harim looked at Alissa, "What do you have in mind?"

"We stage an argument and he then pretends to stab one of us and then we fake dying."

"How do we fake a death?" He asked.

"Umm...I can cast a spell that makes the target appear dead," Julius said.

"That could work, Harim." Erigos made eye contact with the monk.

"It definitely could. Alright here's the plan..."