Chapter 457
Iskatti
Iskatti finished gathering himself as he evaluated what surrounded him. He didn’t have much time to make his flight from this massive prison complete, and if he delayed too long, the narrow window for escape to his comrades would escape him as well. Spreading his awareness further, he could feel the approach of another keelish and took three deep, calming breaths. Then, with his lungs still burning in recovery from his last shift, he melded with the shadows around himself.
Under the door he darted, the painful burn from fire threatening him as his enemies approached. The strain of maintaining his magic would climb exponentially the more light that shone nearby, and as the ancient prey continued their search, the more light there would be that filled the night. What a frustration that they’d learned this weakness of his people, but he was strong, strong enough to make his escape even so. Iskatti fled faster and farther, looking for any escape window that presented itself. There was no guarantee of safety, no matter where he went, but where he encountered deeper shadows, he went.
In stuttering steps, some only a couple dozen feet, others several hundred feet, he made his approach to the walls. Twice, he came out in a room where a keelish stood. Fortunately, they were alone, and he ripped their throats out in quick, smooth movements. Each dive into the shadows he made brought him closer to escape. On the other hand, every foot closer he drew to the walls also inundated the surroundings with more light. For a clan elder, this would be no problem, dealing with the light as it grew more omnipresent. Even for himself from when he hadn’t been imprisoned and kept from using his magic for nearly a year, he wouldn’t have felt the burn as he was now.
With a firm warning to himself to refocus on the here and now, he reached his final destination before he confronted the final, most dangerous blockade. For now, he hunched within a warehouse of sorts that currently was entirely devoid of life. Since it was less than 100 feet from the outer wall of the city, it was the perfect staging location for his escape. Inside, stockpiles of what seemed to be ant chitin all piled relatively neatly alongside primitive spears.
“Spears,” Iskatti muttered to himself as he grabbed fistfuls of ant corpse and stuffed them in his mouth. He knew to hold himself back somewhat, that if he stuffed himself too much he’d be sick, but he’d been starved for so long. The sensation of a truly full belly was glorious. “I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised they have more weapons in here, considering they have the stone chains they’ve been holding us in.”
He pulled his attention back to his current situation. The net of searching enemies continued to spread, and Iskatti knew that he needed to move quickly or else be found. Outside and between himself and freedom lay walls full of torches, a barrier effectively impassible to him while maintaining his magic. His magical stores, long since unable to be stretched to their fullest, were already nearing the brink of total exhaustion. With a grunt, he decided on a plan of approach and escape.
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