The four wardens surreptitiously slunk from their base camp, leaving the fortress in place. Valerie reasoned that if any hostile wardens or mercenaries came along they'd spend no small amount of time trying to break in. She estimated it'd take her hours or days to break it down, though conceded that a more specialised magic user would get in much sooner.

  The night was quiet and still, becoming humid as heavy clouds drifted lazily across the sky. Unlike Gavin’s homeworld, the moon and starlight was easily adequate to see by at night, even through the forest and looming clouds. With Judy taking point and picking a path they had an easy time of it.

  Gavin, not one to just waste his time only sneaking from the forest without doing something else, began work on his newest project. Fabricating individual rings and imbuing them with enchantments and energies every few minutes, waiting for his mana to fully replenish between each ring.

  “What are you doing?” Val whispered.

  Gavin passed the ring he'd just finished over carefully so as not to drop it in the dark.

  [Item: Gavin's enchanted jump ring]

  [Type: armour, crafting material]

  [Rank: Level 1, epic]

  [Description: one of many thousands, to come together to be greater than the sum of its parts]

  [Effect: Self repairing]

  [Effect: Absorb and store ambient mana from the surrounding environment. Mana can be charged or absorbed by the user]

  [Effect: Mana shield, damage is absorbed at the expense of stored mana]

  [Can be souldbound.]

  “We need to get you to rank your crafting stats up so you can start making me gear.” Val whispered.

  They walked for three hours before needing to cut in towards the road, Judy found signs of troll footprints, wanting to avoid that confrontation they made a sharp turn and hit the road a minutea later. They walked in silence, each straining their ears and eyes for any sign of life.

  It was around midnight when Sam suggested they pick up their pace, any enemy wanting to track them would surely not start their journey from Wildenesse in the dead of night.

  They broke into a brisk jog, relying solely on Judy's eyesight to keep them out of danger. Between Sam's recovery aura, the magical rings, and their magically boosted endurance and strength they were able to set a solid pace. A run that would have nearly killed Gavin two months ago was now easy. He might not be able to keep it up on the level of Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn, but a marathon level distance should be doable before he needed a break.

  When Wildenesse was in sight, they slowed their pace back to a walk and cut back off the road, finding one of the many rivers that flowed through the valleys around the area. Gavin fabricated a makeshift raft that the four could fit on without sinking, then, using long poles, they pushed themselves down stream.

  A few hours before dawn they were close to the city, and with Valerie and Judy's guidance, they successfully navigated the trees and farmland to find the Great West Road. From there they walked for a time letting their resources build back up again, then ran, reasonably confident they were in the clear.

  Right as the sun was cresting the horizon Gavin stumbled a step. Sam shot him a concerned look, they were all wary with exhaustion but none of them were in dire need of rest. What had made him stumble was he sensed someone trying to force a window on his fortress.

  “Someone's trying to break into the house. They just tried to lift a window, now they're trying to scratch it with a tool.” Gavin whispered.

  “You can tell that?” Sam asked surprised.

  “Yeah, I think I can sense anyone trying to break in or damage the place, I haven't felt when you guys come and go, it must feel intent, a lot of powers distinguish between allies and enemies.”

  “That's probably right.” Val said.

  “Now they're trying to break in, there's a few people blasting the windows with spells and weapons. No level two powers it looks like, someone’s climbing the building. I bet I could make him look a right cock if I dismissed it now.”

  “Don't. We want to make them think we’re inside as long as possible.” Sam said.

  “Right. Hey, I think I can make the windows opaque so they can't see inside.”

  “Do it, they'll think we’re holding up in there, they might try to starve us out.”

  “You do realise that most of our food is in there right? I only have like four days of food in my inventory.”

  “I'm sure we’ll manage.”

  They pressed on until they couldn't go further, cutting off into the forest to continue their flight. They found a rocky face that'd sheared off the side of a hill, Gavin deconstructed chunks of it, then they all piled into the newly formed cave, he sealed it behind them with some crude stone shaping.

  Gavin slept restlessly, plagued by dreams of people attacking his house, battering the walls, digging underneath, using explosives, piling a bonfire over part of it and setting it alight. Then, finally, a soul tearing boom as part of the house disintegrated in a cacophonous blast. He woke with a start, feeling dozens of people pour into his home like scurrying cockroaches. As they reached the bedrooms Gavin dismissed the building, feeling his connection to the area vanish. He lay there, cold sweat on his brow. Having no idea how long he'd slept, only that it was ink black and that his companions slumbered on peacefully. He was still tired, but his heart was racing. He felt his private domain violated, it was an odd visceral feeling, like those people had been prying their way into his soul.

  Seeking the relaxing medium of his craft, he resumed his fabrication of rings, one after another, every few seconds. He didn't feel like sleeping, instead falling into a meditative trance as he produced hundreds of rings in the darkness surrounded by his friends.

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  Gavin tore down the blocked entrance to the cave, fresh air drifting in to clear out the stale smell of sweaty humans packed too tightly into a confined area. The sun was still up, though it was late afternoon. They ate, and drank their fill and rested under the cover of the trees while their meals settled. Judys predator's focus had hit level two over their nightime journey, as did Sam's aura of rejuvenation.

  Dusk fell again and the party resumed their trek. With Gavins fortress destroyed they were operating under the asumption the roads would all be watched. There was one way out of Wildenesse and they were on it, all they could hope for was that they were still ahead of their hunters.

  They kept off the road, moving slowly. When the path got difficult they risked delving deeper into the forest rather than making for the road. They did come across monsters, but Valerie made quiet, efficient work of them without the rest of the party needing to join her, which would certainly make light and noise detectable to anyone looking. When day broke they camped up in another hole in the ground.

  It was on the third day they stumbled into Arrowton at dawn, a bustling city much larger than Wildenesse built originally as a mining town, then trade hub for the various neighbouring towns and cities. Arrowton was the crossroads from both Wildenesse and Slolk and the only way out into the wider world. It then branched out further inland with a series of spider web roads that crossed the country.

  Valerie left them to try to contact a portal user to send them far from there while Gavin rented a few rooms at an inn for the day. He resisted the temptation to go out shopping or find street food to stock up on, instead choosing to sleep and craft his time away.

  Valerie returned hours later, after a brief nap for herself she took them to the portal specialist, a mage of the magic users guild.

  “How's it going mate? Names Gavin” Gavin said, introducing himself to the man.

  “Thromok.” said the fine featured man shaking Gavin's hand.

  “Val tell you where we need to go?”

  “She did, Edomont, correct?”

  “That's the one. Val, you feel like ponying up the cash for this one.”

  Hiring a portal user was prohibitively expensive, only a veteran like Valerie would be able to afford the service without hardship. The knights’ coffers were dead empty after spending it all on crystals and Gavin’s various projects.

  She handed over a thick pouch of coins that Thromok painstakingly counted before summoning a ritual circle on the ground that appeared as a ring of stone flags with runes carved like creeping tree vines. The four wardens stood in the circle as he activated the portal, swirling branch-like growths of ether wrapped around them as the teleportation magic enveloped them.

  Gavin gave the man a cheery wave as light engulfed him, in an instant transporting them further than he’d ever gone in one jump.

  They reappeared into a dank dark room. The portal shut off the instant they were through leaving them alone in a stone cell barely big enough for standing room.

  Valerie acted first, slamming a fist into the wall, yelping in pain. Gavin felt his various magical effects wink out. Judy looked around in confusion as her vision suddenly returned to normal human eyesight.

  “Anti magic field. It's strong” Valerie stated matter of factly.

  “Thromok set us up?” Sam asked.

  “Looks like, yeah.” Gavin agreed.

  “We need to work together, we need to get out of here, now. Look around for something, anything” Sam said, her resolve making her sound more confident than she felt.

  “We’re in a stone box. Can anyone feel a door?” Judy asked.

  “No.”

  “Nadda.”

  “I bet old mate has us in an underground bunker where the only way in or out is through the portal.”

  “That'd be my guess too.” Sam said.

  “Shit. I'm sorry, this is my fault” Val groaned.

  “No, this isn't something you can blame yourself for, none of us got bad vibes from that guy” Sam said, reassuring her.

  “Someone could have bought off every portal user in the city if they wanted us bad enough.”

  “Okay, I think we should plan for what we do when they portal us back” Gavin said.

  “What makes you think they won't just leave us here for a month, then portal our corpses out?” Val asked.

  “Two reasons, first, anyone willing to pay to have a portal user do this for them is going to want to monologue to us. Second, this place doesn't smell like shit or death”

  “Meaning?”

  “If they've used this place before, the captives haven't been here long enough to piss or shit themselves, or die in here. The smell of death you can't get out”

  “There are any number of spells and potions that can get that smell out”

  “Yeah, ok, sure, but are they going to use them to clean out the death pit a kilometre under a mountain? I wouldn't.”

  “Okay, so, we’re assuming we’ll be out of here in an hour or three. Let's come up with some ideas about how they might set up a room on the other side to subdue us instantly and make up contingencies from there.” Sam said.

  The four discussed various methods for their possible containment and how they should react. They made plans for if they weren't able to speak, move or see, if they were transported to a room full of third, second or first tier fighters ready to give them a beat down or just force them to go somewhere. Gavin found himself enjoying this game, managing to compartmentalise the horror of immanent death or torture. His attitude rubbed off on the party who faced their challenge, Judy especially coming up with creative ways to refine Gavins big picture ideas ehile Sam and Val gamed out the specific tactics they should use.

  Three hours later the room flared to life nearly blinding them. The same ethereal branches wrapped up around them and, with a flash of light, they were gone.