The room was practically pitch black.

If there was a complete, polar-opposite room to the one Hallez was holding, it would've been that room. Dark, dusty, small.

She felt around on the wall for a light switch, until she realized there wasn't one.

"Fiona," Hal said, turning to the daughter of Fortuna. "Do you have a flashlight or something?"

Lavi answered instead. "Oh I have one!" She took out a plastic, grey cube the size of a regular Rubix's cube. She shrugged. "Not a flashlight, forget what I said. It's a box of light!" She pressed a button on one of the sides, and the surface shone with a white light. She handed it to Hallez with a small flourish.

"Thanks." She accepted it, and held it up in the dark room. The light flooded the small space, and as she scanned it with her eyes, she was confused when she saw nothing in there. It was completely void of life, dust particles swirling around in the air in place of it. But even now, she felt the strong, powerful waves of energy that pulsed in the room. She squinted.

Wait. There was something. Or rather, someone. She walked closer, and the light reflected off a figure, lying flat on the floor against the wall. A man who looked around thirty, with blond hair, and tattered clothes of a mailman. His hands were tied behind his back, though he did look like he had the intention of even waking up anytime soon.

Hallez approached him slowly, studying him. A tag on his jacket showed his name: Mercury.

Fiona gasped. "Mercury— What's he doing here?"

"Who knows," Hallez replied. According to Faith, he had shown up unexpectedly on the front steps, unconscious. She didn't mention that he was beat up. Or maybe CEIRA did that to him. "Are we sure that's the real Mercury? God of thieves and messengers?"

They were all silent at that question, unable to answer. The aura surrounding him, and the energy she'd felt earlier, were all very...divine. It was different from everyone else, and was flooding with power, albeit it felt muffled, probably due to his weakened state. It was possible that this was Mercury, though there wasn't any solid proof.

"We should take him with us," Hallez said.

Travis stared at her. "What? No! Terrible idea! What if he isn't? Or what if he wakes up, panics, and just kills us all? Not to mention, he's a god! He can't be killed. And we'll be slowed down significantly if we—"

Lavi shushed him. "Travis, you're right, he may or may not be a god. Which is exactly why we shouldn't leave him here, lest some other god blames us for not rescuing him and curses us or something. Even if he isn't a god, surely you have some morality?"

"Lavi's right," Fiona agreed. "Though none of us here can really carry him..."

"I might be able to," Hallez said. She wondered if there was a limit to how many people she could take with her when she goes invisible. "But let's get the Sword and Shield first. That's why we're here."

She quickly backed out of the room, keeping an eye on Mercury, as if he was going to come alive at any moment. Then she walked to the door opposite, used the keycard and typed in the code. Hallez wondered why Faith had given her the keycard. She'd said something about escape horses—which made no sense at all—that needed the card, but then what was she supposed to do with it? Keep it? Given their technological status—at least, what she could see of it on the surface—there might be a tracker on the card, because that sounded like something they would do.

Speaking of which, Hallez had a sudden jolt of paranoia, and wondered for a brief second if she had any trackers on her clothes.

Meanwhile, Lavi was saying, "It does make sense. Mercury had been missing for weeks, right? The messages in his temple were not being delivered at all. It's because he's been here the whole time."

"Well, maybe," Travis admitted. "But...how?"

They didn't know.

Hal got the door open quickly, and saw a room similar to her own, except that there were no beds. Instead, on a large smooth tabletop was a golden shield, not unlike the Ancile, but a different shape, and also a gleaming sword in a rich, leather sheath, and a golden hilt. Suffice to say, it was very subtle. The shield was literally a blinding mirror, reflecting any and all light.

Hallez winced, shielding her eyes, stepping back. Fiona walked in, grabbing the sword, examining it with an amazed expression.

"Woah..." She had a hand on the hilt, and the other ran along the sheath. The brunette unsheathed it a little, revealing a few inches of the golden, rigid, crystal-like blade, its surface a perfect mirror like the shield. "This is...this is some master craftsmanship."

"Or magic," Travis pointed out.

Fiona stuck her tongue out at him. "Even if it was magic, it would take some serious skill to forge these! I mean, look at this!" She unsheathed the sword all the way, and twirled it around easily.

Lavi held out her hands. "Woah, Fiona! Don't go waving that around randomly. You got your own custom sword!"

She pouted, but sheathed it. "Fine. Anyways, let's get out of here. How are you going to carry Mercury, Hallez?"

"...Less of actually carrying him, more of dragging," Hallez admitted. "Are you able to handle yourselves and get to Sub Floor 8? I don't think I'll be able to bring all of you along."

"Wait what?" Travis demanded. "What do you mean? Is that a daughter of Letum thing or...?"

"There's really no way to explain it. But can you?"

Fiona nodded confidently. "We can! Alright guys, off we go!" She turned and marched purposefully out of the room, the sword still in hand.

Travis sighed, and grabbed the shield. "You forgot the other half of the set!"

"Whoops!"

He looked at Hallez. She forced herself not to flinch as his eyes glared at her. "Please don't nearly die or get kidnapped or any of that stuff again."

Hallez nodded, ashamed. "Sorry about that."

Lavi punched Travis in the shoulder, making the latter yelp, and hurry after Fiona when Lavi raised her hand again. "Nah, don't worry about it," she insisted, smiling brightly. "Travis is always overprotective about everything. Now, if you're going to do that thing where you just poof into thin air, good luck. There's a lot of people on the upper floors. We knocked a lot of them down, however."

"LAVI!" Fiona called. "A LITTLE HELP? BACKUP?"

The sound of something crashing to the floor just around the corner was accompanied by the shout. Lavi looked in that direction with alarm, unslinging her bow and grabbing an arrow from her quiver.

Hallez nodded. "Thank you. Good luck as well. Now go."

She nodded back, and ran after the Fortuna siblings to give them support. They truly were fortunate to have someone like Lavi along.

Hallez hurried to the other room again, holding up the cube of light. Mercury was still there, looking as terrible as two minutes ago, in the same position. As if he could've moved. She walked to his side, cautiously yet quickly, until her eyes caught on something in the far corner. She frowned, squinting. It was a familiar golden glint that she couldn't forget. Hallez strode over, and found, indeed, the Ancile copy that she had on her before she got captured. Why was it here, of all places?

She picked it up anyway, checking it over, and was relieved to see nothing had been damaged and there weren't extra spots with potential trackers. Since when was she this paranoid?

Also, was the Ancile copy supposed to not glow? She suddenly couldn't remember. Did it glow before? Even if it didn't, she had a strange feeling that it should've glowed.

Pushing away the thought, she turned, and grabbed Mercury's arm gingerly. She didn't want to wake him up, though she wasn't sure if the shifting would do it for her anyway. She concentrated, like she did with Faith, and the world was blurry again. Mercury and the Ancile copy were gone, but she could feel both as blobs of energy. Up close, Mercury's was as bright and blinding as the sun, and she was struggling to keep herself from changing back to her physical form as the aura practically scorched her invisible arm.

Still, she dragged him up, counting the floors. Just as Lavi said, there were a lot of guards. It seemed like they had noticed Hal's disappearance and the bodies of a dozen knocked-out guards. Agents armed with firearms, bulletproof vests and helmets patrolled the corridors.

Twenty-five floors up, Hallez was starting to feel a little dizzy. Perhaps it was due to the extra "weight". Finally, she stopped, and then slowly glided along until she found an empty room with the door closed. She quickly phased through the wall, and materialized into the space.

Panting heavily, she squinted in the dark room. She took out the cube of light again, and looked around. It looked like it might've once been a storage room for files. And a really old one at that. The walls were lined with cabinets, drawers and shelves covered with layers of dust. Three ginormous, old, blocky computers were on the table in the middle of the room. It was clearly where they stored files before computers and such. Just how old was CEIRA? Or this building, for that matter?

Hallez didn't intend to touch any of it. The room was covered with spider webs, crisscrossing the room, forming a maze of intertwining cobwebs. As she sat on the ground, catching her breath, she waved aside a few strands right before her eyes. It felt almost claustrophobic.

She wondered exactly where the 'horses' were, when the question answered itself. The door was suddenly kicked completely off its hinges, flying backwards and crashing against the opposite wall.

In the doorway, swathed with swirls of dark flames blazing from its hooves, with a dark exoskeleton, a white and blank whites for eyes, was a horse.

So this is the escape route?

What the heck.
It's—
?
It's been a year since I first published this and idk how I feel about that—
Um.
I don't even remember the anniversary date but I know it was June or July
W h a t.
Yeah idk how to feel about that.
Also 400 views yay
Even if it's just from the same few readers I don't care I'm happy don't burst my bubble
And also a long awaited apology for my terrible updating schedule. Sorry about that—
*looking at the Watty story contest eligibility thingy that popped up* What do you mean I had to publish 80% of the weeks up to submission date?? I— Math is failing me right now—
I don't think I've met that criteria—
Ah well. Sorry for the update ping if anyone has notifications (I don't.)
And sorry for rambling
Byeee
*am overthinking if I should even post this A/N or just delete it*

Also a short chapter but the next one is a bit longer. And weird. But anyways bye
-Lunya