At my command, Riala moved behind me. The captain looked surprised as I jumped to my feet and pointed my palm at him. I added a last, bloody stroke to the script on the back of my hand, and a blast of mana erupted from my body, shooting in the direction of the captain. He didn’t have enough time to react and was pushed off his feet, crashing hard into the wall on the other side of the narrow hallway. His body was held in place there until I disabled the script by wiping away part of the blood I had drawn it with.

‘That was awesome...’

“Awesome...”

Miles and Riala said simultaneously.

“Not the time!” I said as I fixed up the script to activate it again.

While I had been fast asleep every night, Miles had figured out how to activate scripts without stones. They ran indefinitely and only produced mana, but it was our only chance, and it had worked. The captain was unconscious and no other guards had stormed into the cell yet.

The next problem was the chain that was attached to my cuffs. We adjusted the script and tried shooting mana at the metal, but it didn’t have any effect. Another shot, this time at the stone floor, didn’t yield any results either. We would have to crank up the script, but I was already starting to feel the pain. We had put a lot into incapacitating the captain, and these scripts were difficult to regulate, as they ran until you deactivate them.

I janked at the chain, but it just wouldn’t budge. Suddenly, Riala ran past me and out the cell, in the direction of the captain. She approached him carefully and grabbed a key chain from his belt.

“Ugh...” the captain groaned.

“Eek!” Riala quickly ran back to me and shuffled through the keys. “I think... it’s this one!” she said as she stuck the key into the holes in my cuffs and released me.

She must’ve memorized which key the captain had used to release her...

“Good girl!” I said as I patted her head and looked back at the captain. He was slowly coming to himself again, but wasn’t getting up yet. We had to get past him before he was back on his feet. I prepared the script once more and moved towards the door, looking into the hallway carefully. It was empty, but even if nobody had heard the commotion, we would inevitably meet another guard.

“Can you run?” I asked Riala, who answered with an emphatic nodd. We left the cell and sprinted down the hallway, leaving the captain behind.

***

The cell we were coming from had been on the ground floor in the back of the building. We moved quickly through the dimly lit hallways, until I saw a pair of guards walk in our direction around the next corner. They must’ve seen me peek around it, as I heard them shout “Hey!” and their steps quickened. We fell back a little and as soon as they moved around the corner I blasted both of them into a wall at once, just like I had the captain.

“Ahh!” I fell to one knee from the pain.

“Tomar!” Riala said worriedly.

The priest’s experiment had told us a little bit about our capabilities. Miles knew the approximate amounts of water and mana that water sources produced during normal operation. Combined with the knowledge that I apparently had a maximum capacity of one hundred and fifty liters, he had guessed that we could get away with about five of these attacks until the situation became critical. However, we were probably not back to full capacity yet, which the pain I felt made quite clear. If we encountered more guards, we would be in trouble. I stood back up and we went on.

Luckily, we made it all the way to the front door without any more issues. The guards were generally spread thin, and you wouldn’t need a lot of guards to watch a few prisoners. I take back everything I ever said, the lack of Fighters in town is great.

Through a window I peeked out the building into the main square. It was as busy as you would expect in the middle of the day, but at least there were no guards in sight.

“Okay,” I said to Riala, “we have to get going. I need you to run as fast as you can, okay? We need to get out and then off the streets.”

She looked a bit worried, but gave me a nod.

I took a deep breath, opened the door, and started running, while making sure that Riala could keep up. We immediately headed towards the office district in the east, where we would encounter fewer people. On the way there, most citizens quickly moved out of the way when we came close, but I felt bad when one woman just screamed and crouched down in fear.

From the eastern part of town we headed south, using small paths and running between houses, making sure to avoid other people. After a little while we arrived at a familiar shed, which we ducked into to catch our breath.

Riala promptly let herself fall to the ground, panting.

“We actually made it out...” I said with a huff.

I hadn’t noticed anyone chasing us yet. Everything was quiet. However, the captain had already been gaining back consciousness when we left. He would send guards after us as soon as he could. We didn’t have a lot of time. Unfortunately, we also didn’t have a lot of options.

Hiding in town would be difficult. We couldn’t trust anyone and most people wouldn’t want to get anywhere near us anyway. Even if Zara would’ve changed her mind, that’s probably where the guards would look first. We could try staying in sheds and abandoned houses, but how long could we keep that up without getting found?

‘I don’t see any other way... This town isn’t large enough to stay hidden for long,’ Miles said.

“I know, but... what about her?” I said in a whisper, looking at the young girl that was still breathing heavily on the ground.

‘Do we have any other choice?’

Unable to think of another way out of this, I reluctantly crouched down next to my partner in crime. “Riala,” I said, which made her look up at me. “We have a problem. The guards will keep looking for us, and I don’t know how long we can hide from them. I want to try to get out of town. This is a big decision, but I can’t make it for you. Do you want to come with me?”

“Out... of town?” she asked.

I nodded. “It will be dangerous out there, but I believe we’ll have a chance. They can’t drive us into a corner in the Wildlands.”

She thought for a moment before asking another question. “Can Sis come?”

This one I had been worried about. Naturally, she would want her sister with her. But I didn’t think that would be feasible. “It will be difficult to get to Zara. The guards are probably on the way to your house already, because they know you’d want to see her. And out there we’d have to protect her, it would be even more dangerous for her than for us.”

The girl sat up and looked at the ground, deep in thought.

What we were doing was irresponsible. Miles had suggested heading to the neighboring town, where we would hopefully have a few quiet days before they came looking for us. We would also have to find a way around the scaring-people-issue. In comparison to staying here, where they would inevitably find us sooner or later, however, it seemed like our only option. And even though I hated it, Riala was in just as much danger as we were. If she didn’t want to come, we would stay here and try our best to protect her.

“I’m sorry, Riala. This is all my fault... I wish I could just clear your name, but right now I don’t know how,” I said, letting my head hang to look at the ground as well. “I will come back here. I want to go back to my life. But before I can do that, I have to figure out a few things. For that I need time.”

A few more seconds passed before the silence was broken again. “I want to see the Wildlands!” Riala said.

I raised my head to look at her face and saw her usual bright smile. Even though I had tried to explain a few things to her, I didn’t know how much of our current situation she truly understood. In an ideal world I would’ve gone to Zara, to talk it over with her, but that was the last place in town we should be at the moment.

“Alright. We will make some quick preparations and then we’ll leave,” I said, before glancing out the shed. With nobody in sight, we went on the move again.

***

“Their abilities are remarkable, sir. I recommend that we take them into our custody as soon as possible,” the sigil priest, Oryn, said to the High Priest. “While the girl was ‘only’ able to produce about twenty-five liters, the boy has a volume that’s even higher than a small water source. And given both their age and volume difference, I’m hypothesizing that his volume might grow further with age. Not only that, their knowledge about previously unknown sigils, which allowed them to gain these abilities, is groundbreaking!”

Oryn was over the moon. For years he had studied scripture sigils and divine instruments. He had read everything anyone had ever written about them at least thrice while trying to learn more about the power the gods had granted them.

While the temple priests generally saw themselves as the only ones who were allowed to involve themselves with the scriptures, Oryn cared little where new knowledge came from. Especially if it was as revolutionary as what these children had to offer.

The High Priest grimaced at the report. He had already assumed that this find would be valuable and had tried to get the king to turn them over, but he had failed miserably. If he used all his power and authority, they would be able to get these two, but that could mean war between the temple and the king.

“What about their application as weapons?” the High Priest asked. If he was to go for this, he would have to come out the other side with more firepower than he had before. He would need to gain a significant advantage over the king.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do any tests in that regard yet. However, based on everything we know and what I learned from questioning eyewitnesses, I believe the boy to be worth multiple guards, as he’s been able to severely injure two beasts so far. Even the little girl managed to land an attack unbefitting her age on the eastern captain using the scripture.”

With a person he trusted confirming his assumptions, the High Priest came to the conclusion that they had to get their hands on the two by any means necessary. He was hopeful to finally stand above the king and the authorities if he gained not only this new knowledge and the potential to create living water sources, but also power rivaling that of the king’s army.

“Very well. Gather the agents, Oryn. We have an appointment with two blasphemers.”

Only ten minutes later, a group of four priests in white and eight agents in black made their way across the main square, led by the High Priest himself. Citizens stopped and watched the unusual display. Several of them were in high spirits at these repeated events, breaking up the monotony of their everyday life.

When the group got closer to the prison, however, they saw several guards running around on high alert. The High Priest knew something had happened. He approached Captain Lera, who was standing in front of the prison building. He was battered up, as if he had lost a fight.

“Captain, what happened?” the High Priest asked.

Unhappy about being questioned by the temple, and guessing what this group before him had come here for, the captain only spat “The prisoners have escaped, there’s nothing for you here,” before he left the fuming High Priest standing alone in front of the prison.

“Find them!” he shouted at his agents, before making his way back to the temple.