Awakening to the sound of heavy chains on stone, Adelaide thought she was in a nightmare. She was laying on the floor, most of her body on a cold hard floor while her head was slightly elevated as it lay on something warm.

She was surrounded by impenetrable darkness, and besides the sound that woke her up, nothing seemed to make any noise. 

It was like she was in a void.

"Adí?" A young woman's voice suddenly asked in the darkness above her head.

Adelaide lept up, catapulting herself from her prone position before her forehead slammed into something that had a little give to it. As she rolled on the ground, gripping where she was struck, the voice came out of the darkness again.

"Merde, Adí! It's only me!" Sable's voice rang with pain. It took a moment for Adelaide to respond, still stunned by the blow as she was. 

"S- Sorry, Sable... Horsemen that hurts! Ugh, where are we?" 

"I was wondering the same thing. I think we've been down here for a few hours, but there are no windows and nobody's come down to make sure we haven't died even once. Really poor at monitoring their product, si vous voulez mon avis." There was an obviously disappointed downturn at the end of Sable's statement. The bluntness of her words shook Adelaide from the last dregs of the pain.

"Really?" She asked, laying flat on the ground again.

"Qoui?"

"Not really helping, Sable."

"Sorry, I'm distracting myself. It is true though. Father always says that you should always confirm the quality of what you're selling with your own eyes whenever-" 

"Sable." 

"...désolé." 

Both of them were silent for a bit, processing where their outing had ended up. 

"You think that's what they want us for? Hard to imagine that they've been kidnapping folks and no one's noticed." Adelaide said when the quiet got too pressing.

"I can't imagine they'd kidnap a whole park's worth of people if they weren't going to sell them in some fashion, I have to say." Sable answered with an understandably glum undertone. 

"Is there anyone else in here with us?" 

"I thought I heard some breathing over yours, but I couldn't be sure. Every time I listened for it, it seemed to fade away." 

Adelaide thought about trying to figure it out, but thought Sable's evaluation was good enough for now. Instead, she resolved to take stock, if nothing else.

Rolling over and leveraging herself up onto her feet, she was glad to find that she could stand to her full, if slightly shorter than average, height without smashing her head on anything. Doing a quick check with her hands, all the clothing and jewelry she was wearing was still in place, if a bit disheveled. Even her roll of cash was still in place. Sable must have heard the rustling, and asked:

"What are you doing?" 

"Right now, trying to find the extent of our situation. They don't seem to have searched us at all. Curious..."

"Vraiment?" Sable asked, followed by her own rustling. "Oh, you're right!" 

There was a scratching noise, like metal on stone, once, twice, and on the third time, a little flame sprung to life in the dark, illuminating Sable's face from the bottom and throwing shadows over her eyes, giving her smile a sinister twist.

 Sable stood up and after a bit of waving the lighter around, found Adelaide. They both set about finding the extent of their confines. The lighter Sablina held didn't really provide enough to see by, especially behind Adelaide as she was, but it was a point of comfort in the dark. 

Walking with her hand out in front, Adelaide's fingers smashed into something cold, making an off-key ringing noise that made her jump. Shaking out her stinging fingers she felt for it again with more caution, wrapping her fingers around the cold metal of a prison cell's bars. Just like the ones she had seen when her father had taken the time to bail out a pair of workers that had gotten into a fistfight at the Nightengale. Sable held the lighter to it, running it up and down its length to fill out the picture. Disappointingly, it was solidly in there. with no sign of rusting. 

"Well, what now?" She questioned, still holding the lighter out. 

"We should... examine the rest of them?" Yeah, that sounds right. 

They made their way along the bars, giving them a once over for a sign of weakness. Even by the time they had passed a dozen bars, and the sturdy cell door, Adelaide was fairly certain that they weren't getting anywhere, but it occupied her mind. Eventually, they came to a corner, completing the mental image of their cage in her head. Sable still held the lighter to the metal as if it would bend before her eyes, and its light flickered desperately to keep the darkness away. 

"How long do you think that will last?" Adelaide asked jutting her chin towards it. 

"It should be mostly full, I don't use it much... a bit more than half an hour perhaps?" 

"I guess we should put it out for now, save that-" The little flame pulled again, stronger than it had so far. "Wait a moment."

"Hm?"

The flame guttered again but came back, another moment and it guttered again. 

"Look at the flame, it's moving like the wind is catchin it." Adelaide said, and Sable observed it before nodding.

"Do you think there's some sort of exit nearby? Does it matter if there is? It's not like it's within our abilities to make use of it."  

"Do we have anything better to do? Here, give me the lighter." 

Carefully, she extended her arms through the bars, hoping that maybe the far wall was close enough to be seen with the lighters little sphere of visiblity. She put her arm through up to the elbow and still didn't see anything, and was about to pull back when she thought she saw something, just a little farther into the darkness. Not enough to determin if it was a wall or a door, but she was certain it was there. She started to try and tretch herself further, arm straining for a little more length, face smashed against the bars. 

"Please, Adí, you're going to hurt yourself." 

"Just a little more, I think I'm almost there." 

Her shoulder slid just a little farther between the bars, uncomfortably tight, and the lighter's flame illuminated what she had seen. 

Not a wall or door, but a torso. 

Adelaide almost dropped the lighter, but just barely managed to keep it in her grip. Sable grabbed her shoulders, starting to pull her away, but they both must have come to the same realization simultaneously. The person that had to be attached to that torso hadn't reacted at all. 

Neither said a word and Adelaide slowly pushed her arm back through the bars, straining to find the figure once again. Its clothes were semi-formal, like the uniform of an official institution, and rather mussed up. It looked like the person had been rolling around in the dirt before standing like a child that had been caught in the act. 

Moving her hand up, Adelaide could just barely see the face of the person in question. It was young, and slightly familiar, though she couldn't really place it. The eyes were wide open but simply stared off into nothing, the purple irises gazing as sightlessly as a blind man.

"They've been there for hours." Said someone in the cage with them. 

Again Adelaide fumbled the lighter in surprise, this time losing it totally, and it hit the ground with a metallic tack and its flame went out.

"Who's there?" Sable asked the dark-again cell as Adelaide stepped in close and put a hand on her shoulder. No one answered. "Speak up, caché!" 

Now absolutely aware of someone else in the cell with them, Adelaide could hear small little movements and labored breathing from the corner opposite of them. 

"They took him away hours ago, then he just walked back in and stood there." Whoever was there said again, and made a half choked sob. "He hasn't moved since."

Adelaide didn't know what to say, and it was clear from the way Sable gripped her arm that she didn't know either. 

"Are... are you okay?" Adelaide ventured, still standing stock still next to Sable.

"None of us are."

"Is there anyone else with you?" 

"No, not anymore." 

"But there were?" 

"They dragged us all in here from the park and closed the door. Then they'd come in occasionally and pull two of us out." There was a shiver in the voice at the end. Adelaide thought it sounded like she might burst into tears. "A couple hours ago, I-... I think at least, he came back."

"Who is he?" Sable asked, suddenly. Her grip had relaxed somewhat, and an edge of sympathy tinged her voice. 

"My brother."

She didn't care to elaborate. Or couldn't find the words. Or both. 

"What did they do to him?" Sable insisted.

He didn't respond. Adelaide heard a heavy gulp from beside her.

"Well, we're trying to get out of here, so we could use all the help we can get." Adelaide ventured. 

Still no response. Adelaide waited a bit longer, then tapped Sable lightly on the shoulder.

"Come on Sable, let's get moving. I don't think we can help him right now..."

"Okay..."

They both shuffled their way through the dark, hoping to find the spot where Adelaide had been reaching through the bars. With some luck and a good amount of blind groping and shifting between gaps in the bars, Adelaide felt something other than the rough stone floor with the very tips of her fingers. 

"Oh, I think I got it!" She said, only remembering to keep her voice down halfway through her exclamation. Stretching farther she got her fingers around it, the metal already having gone cold, and pulled it back into the sell with them. She was worried she had broken it, and the flint's ineffectual spinning seemed to confirm her fear, before its tiny flame sprung to life once more and illuminated Sable's worried face from below, shadowing her eyes. "There we go." 

"What now?'' Asked Sable. "We can see again but we still don't have anywhere to go."

"I'm not sure..." Adelaide responded, closing the top of the lighter as she thought. "Honestly, I think our best option stands with our prison mates brother..." 

"I don't think either of us are convincing him to come in here. La décoration doesn't seem like he'd respond to being stabbed, let alone les ruses des femmes."

Adelaide felt her face scrunch up momentarily at Sable's response.

"What-? No, not that way!" She said with a slight shake of her head. "I mean that he might have a key or something on him."

"Oh. That might work too. Let's try that first."

A little more fumbling and slowly waving the lighter in the dark, trying to find the torso, and Adelaide found it much easier to reach it the second time. Seems all the stretching was good for something. 

"Try the belt." Sable said, and Adelaide complied.

"Nothing. On this side at least."

"Pockets?" 

She couldn't reach another arm out there but barely managed to run the knuckles holding the lighter over her approximation of the area the pockets occupied, finding each one flat.

"Not there either. What about..." Adelaide trailed off as she started looking higher up. Hooking her little finger inside the statuesque man's waistcoat. "Thank the East Wind it's already undone, I don't think I could manage the buttons with a lighter in hand."

Sable made a sound of agreement. 

After a bit of fumbling and a few singed patches with nothing to show for it, Adelaide started moving upwards, checking for breast pockets both inside and out. The last resort was to check to see if it was tied around his throat. As she looked, she noticed something had changed. 

Not his posture, or lack of movement from his chest, neither had shifted as far as Adelaide could tell. His eyes... his eyes no longer stared at nothing in particular, but straight at her. 

"Adi!" Sable cried out, grabbing her by the shoulders and trying to pull her backward. Too slow.

Before she could bring her arm in, one of his hands shot up with lightning speed and seized her wrist with a grip like an iron manacle.

She could only give a short cry in response to the pain before there was a sudden yank on her arm, backed by indomitable strength. Her face slammed into the bars and it felt like her arm was about to be pulled from it's socket. No matter how hard she pulled, the man's grip had no give, and it felt more likely that she's hurt herself than free herself. 

Just as suddenly as he had started his assault, the man let Adelaides hand go, sending her stumbling back and careening into Sable. They both crashed to the floor and the lighters flame went out with the impact. Desperately, she tried spin the flint and relight it.

In the dark she could hear the man start to fiddle with the lock. 

She still hadn't managed to light the damn thing when the sound of rusty hinges moving cut through the darkness. Footsteps followed into the cell, confident and driven despite the suffocating shadows all around.

The steps came close, and Adelaide attempted to kick out but only hit air. Then she heard a shriek laced with pain. 

"Sable, are you alright?" She asked, unable to keep the panic out of her voice. 

"Let go of my hair, putain!"

Adelaide could hear Sable continue to swear and the sound of fabric on stone as the footsteps started to exit the cell.

"Oh no, Sable, I'm coming!"

She pushed herself up and gave chase, trying to follow the man in the dark, only to slam into a form and step on something that elicited a shout of pain from Sable. 

Before Adelaide could even remove her foot from whatever part of her friend she was standing on that same iron-clad grip that had held her wrist slammed into her throat, and hoisted her from the ground. 

Now all she could do was choke and splutter, kicking blindly and trying to make contact with some part of her aggressor. She couldn't drag in a breath and she knew she had to act fast. 

"Put- put me... down!" She just managed to spit out before she grabbed the wrist of the hand holding her and swung her knee up to where she thought the elbow was.

She celebrated the cracking noise it made in response and felt the whole limb angle downwards slightly, before lamenting the fact that the grip around her throat hadn't slacked at all. She tried to swing her knee up again, but she was out of air and struggling to even keep her grip on the forearm. 

Distantly, she registered the noise and scuffle in the cell increasing, and a morbid thought crossed her rapidly darkening mind:

"If they kill me now, at least I won't live to see wherever they're dragging me."

Even as the thought crossed her, it felt as if the golem of a man gripping her throat had taken ahold of her hair now, like it was somehow his preferred method of dragging prisoners. Adelaide's scalp was overtaken with a sudden heat.

Her air-deprived mind related the feeling to when that poor girl, Ester Crawford, had poured an almost boiling soup on the crown of Adelaide's head in her bumbling ways during their last year of finishing school. Adelaide counted herself lucky she kept her hair after that day, but she wasn't so sure she was going to this time. 

The heat had started at an uncomfortable level but continued to grow moreso at a rapid pace. She wanted to scream, and would have if she could, and yet it never grew so bad that Adelaide would have called it painful.

She supposed it didn't matter. She wouldn't be feeling it for much longer with the hand still clamped around her windpipe. It almost seemed like the last thoguht that would go through her head would be the faint nagging from the annalytical section of her mind asking her why she thought the man was grabbing her hair, when his hand was still around her throught, and she could feel her hair cascading over her shoulders still? Then the sensation changed.

It was like a dam burst, all that uncomfortable heat Adelaide had been feeling suddenly sprouted outward, radiating off her scalp and followed by a light that filled the room with an eye-searing brightness that seemed to come from behind her, like someone had held a lantern directly behind her, heat and all.

Adelaide barely felt herself slump onto her back, but the thud brought her back to her senses and caused her to bring in a ragged breath. She coughed, before looking back to the man that held her by the throat a moment before, finding him lit up; spotlight bright.

The whole cell was swimming in daylight. She could see Sable on the ground, abandoned by the man and pushing herself away from him. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the figure of the girl they had been talking with just after waking up, but Adelaide didn't attempt to look closer as the man was still standing. 

His eyes still held no target, staring into nothing, and his face had no expression other than its impassive lines. He didn't even seem to react to the newfound brightness of the room.

Or the fact that one arm was reduced to nothing but a smoking stump.

Before Adelaide could even consider what had caused such a grievous wound, he was in motion again. Ignoring Sable completely, he rapidly closed the distance, stump and hand extended towards her. 

She was still too winded to get up or out of the way, only managing to leverage an arm under her back, and put the other up to try and ward him off. He just slapped the hand away so hard that the smacked the stone floor, and with his fingers formed into a claw shape, went for her throat again. It was like he was intending to tear her throat out instead of choke her.

His hand slammed home and it felt like it was going to keep on going right on through. Adelaide was certain it should have caused her to start choking again, but it only pushed her head backward and her hair to fly in front of her eyes, and she saw where the bright light was coming from.

The tips of her usually blonde hair had taken on an orange glow, like heated metal, and floated in the air like she was submerged underwater. Like the force of gravity had simply given up on keeping it down. 

She thought it looked angelic, in a way, and it moved beautifully with its soft movements. It continued to float in front of her, trailing behind as her head was violently pushed towards the ground. With that same grace, it wrapped and fell around the forearm attached to the hand smashing into her throat, and then she smelled the scent of searing meat. 

The strands didn't even come to rest on the limb. They just sank into it like warm water sinks into a mass of candy-floss, completely unabated by the material it was cutting through with ease. It only took an instant to sever the hand from the arm. 

Adelaide hadn't even fully registered what had happened, which was probably for the best and her continued functionality, when another figure slammed into the man standing over her and tumbled out of sight. 

"Adi, are you alright?" Sable stood above her now, hands held out in front and warding off something Adelaide couldn't see.

"I am, I think," she responded, just managing to push herself into a crouched position. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" 

"What's wrong? Adi, sweetheart, you're radiating enough heat to make my eyes water."

"What? How?" Adelaide grabbed a section of her hair and looked at the glowing tips standing out against her blond locks. "That's not possible." 

"I wish I knew, amoureuse. You seem to be cooling down a bit as we sit here, at least. Take a breath and try to calm yourself, maybe."

Adelaide tried to, at first only managing an agitated half breath that caused the glowing color to spike grow bright, and climb her hair like the mercury in a thermometer in a boiling pot. Succeeding on the second attempt, she exhaled slowly. Sable was finally able to come closer, kneeling next to Adelaide with caution.

"As much as I'd like to figure out why you've suddenly become an overfilled lantern, we need to focus on getting out first, and hoping that il cheveu doesn't bring too much attention to us." 

"Cheveu? What-"

"Your hair, amoureuse.' 

"Oh. It's...certainly a new addition..." Adelaide thought for a moment and opened her mouth to speak, but Sable said what she was thinking first.

"I think you're une déesse now," she caught herself and corrected, her accent forcing her to take dictation slow. "A goddess, I mean. They say it can happen to anyone?If that doesn't get us out of here, I don't know what will."

"But me? And goddess? Are you sure? I don't feel all that different."

Sable gestured to Adelaide's hair, pulling back her hand like she had stuck it too close to an oven.

"It's hard to argue with something like that, Adi."

"I suppose it is...Do you think that's why they took us? Maybe they somehow knew this would happen? I know they say that shouldn't be possible, but maybe-"

"Adi, please, keep yourself calm!" Sable interjected, wincing away from the spike of Adelaide's heat. 

"Oh! Sorry, sorry!" Adelaide stammered out as she broke away from the runaway train of thought and focused on her breathing again. The visible heat-shimmer died down again.

"I know it's strange to be asked to keep calm by me of all people, but I'd very much like to remain uningnited if I can." Her joke didn't quite land, but she laughed all the same. "I suppose it's better that you got the divine fire-poker hair, then, isn't it?"

Adelaide tried to smile, but it died on her lips, deep in thought as she was.

Goddess?

What would happen to her, even if she got out? 

What would happen to her family?

How would she even get out of the situation she was in? She had no resources, it's likely no one knew where they were, and goddesshood did her no good when she hadn't even the slightest idea of how to control it!

The initial shock of her apparent transformation wearing off, Adelaide snapped back to the danger she had been in only moments before. Looking towards where the man had fallen, she found a small form kneeling in front of the prone form of the man, which seemed to be staring up at the ceiling. 

Adelaide could only assume that this was the voice that they had been speaking to in the dark.

She was a slight little thing, made smaller by her crouching on the floor. The hair that hung down her back was more dirty than blonde, only having a few light strands throughout, and was mussed from the struggle despite the braid it was in.

Adelaide approached from behind and noticed she was crying, albeit softly. Putting a hand out, she touched the girl lightly on the shoulder. 

"Are you alrigh-?" Was all Adelaide got out before the girl wiped around like a startled cat, the tip of what looked like a boot knife, covered in blood, coming between them. Adelaide tried to summon every bit of calm she could. "Woah now, we're not here to hurt you!" 

A tense moment passed as tears silently streamed down the girl's face. A sidelong glance at the form on the floor  

"I just want to get out of this place." She said, her voice rough.

"I know, we do too." Adelaide responded, kneeling next to the girl but making sure to stay far enough away that she didn't burn her accidentally. "What's your name?"

"Emeline."

"I know you said this was your brother," The girl only made a choking sound in response."-but I don't think he's been your brother since they sent him back."

"My brother would never do this, I just- I didn't mean to-" 

"I know, I know. Whoever is keeping us here must have done something to him. What you did was to protect yourself and others, and no one can blame you for that." Adelaide could see in the girl's eyes that she wanted to break apart.

"But-" 

"And we need to get out of here before we do anything else, yeah? Who knows if they're going to come and check on him if he doesn't come back at the same time. Can you follow us?" Even Sable seemed a bit shocked at the hard-line in Adelaides voice.

"I think so..." 

"Yes or no." Adelaide wasn't going to allow her to be unsure, given the stakes. "Can you run, or will we have to carry you?" 

"Adi-!" Sable tried to interject. 

"Yes! I can run!" The girl stated, the wave in her voice gone.

" Then it's settled. No stopping, we get out, and we can have all the discussion we want when we're all out of here."

The trio gathered what was left of their nerves, and ascended the stairs with Adelaide in the lead and Sable close behind. 

It took them twice as long as Adelaide assumed it would to reach the top, where they found a wooden door and Adelaide tried the handle. It clicked open easily. 

Peeking her head out as quietly as she could, she took in the hallway beyond.

"What do you see?" Sable asked softly.

"It's all marble and gaslights up here. Fancy, but reserved." 

"Fancy? Like a manor? I always thought some of those branleur riche my father works with were weird. Can't say I'm terribly surprised they'd resort to something like this."

"No, it doesn't look like a house to me. It's more...clean than that. More put together."

"How do you mean?"

"I can't quite put my finger on it. It's like they took everything of value out of the hallway that wasn't attached to the wall.  It just doesn't feel like a home in any sense."

The floors were green and black marble, so dark that the low light of the hallway made it seem like an open void at first glance, with richly colored and equally dark carpets down the center. Lavish curtains moved silently under the power of wind blowing in through windows that were open to maintain the building's airflow in the worst of the summer heat. Mercifully, those temperatures seemed to be holding off for now.

In contrast to the high-end fixtures, there was nothing else in the hallway that Adelaide could see. No paintings or pictures, end tables, or potted plants of any size. The smaller touches that separated a well-maintained home and a place of employ were all gone.

"Nobody is up here, so it looks like they thought one guard was enough."

"It almost was...that's good for us, though!" Sable whispered and touched Adelaide on the back excitedly, eliciting a momentary hiss of pain and shaking of the hand. "Let's get out of here!"

"Let's not make any assumptions and do something foolish, but it looks like we've got a good chance." Adelaide said, still looking out the doorway. She pulled her head back into the stairwell and turned to look behind Sable. "Are you ready, Emiline?"

The only response was a noise akin to the sounds she was making before they climbed the stairs. Almost a whimper.

"Emiline? Are you okay?" Sable asked.

No response.

"Emiline?" Adelaide retreated farther into the stairwell and squeezed past Sable with care about the heat still roiling off of her to look at the small woman. "What's wrong?"

Emiline was looking back down the stairs into the dark room below, and the form of her brother standing in the doorway.

Adelaide instinctually grabbed Emiline's shoulders and pulled her along as Adelaide stumbled back into Sable. Each woman she made contact with either didn't notice or ignored the pain that the heated touch must have caused, especially as the stairwell was illuminated by the glow in her hair spiking higher.

"Out!" was the only word that Adelaide could muster as all three of them rushed to get away, from the man stepping onto the stairs with a heavy thud. 

As they funneled out of the stairs, Adelaide slammed the door close, hoping for even the smallest thing to slow their pursuer down.

"Where now?" Sable asked, looking rapidly down both ends of the hallway and then to Adelaide.

"The windows are open, go, go!" 

Just as they broke into a run towards the nearest window, the door to the stairwell slammed open with enough force to punch a hole in the wall it flew into. The man didn't hesitate for even a moment, instantly grasping at Emiline and Sable with hands that were no longer there.

Emiline just barely ducked out of the way, and Adelaide threw herself into the arm going for Sable with everything she had to knock it away. She could see the lines her heated hair had cut into the arm as she broke away, making her break for the window.

By the time she made it over, Sable was already on the ground outside, looking up, and Emiline was gripping the curtain, looking hesitant. One glance towards Adelaide was all it took to have the girl practically throw herself out, making Adelaide's heart clench for her safety, if only until it started thundering again when she felt the looming presence on her heels.

She nearly slammed into the windowsill and saw that it was higher up than she thought it was. Not a second-floor window, but somewhere partway to the idea. She took Emiline's cue, grabbing a handful of the now ruffled curtains and throwing her leg up to get it over the sill.

"Adelaide, look out!" 

She barely had time to register Sable's shout before a mass slammed into her back, nearly pushing her from the window, before wrapping itself around her shoulders and neck. 

Fueled on panicked instinct alone, and with blood thundering in her ears, she put her feet on the sill and pushed with all her might. Pressing into his torso like that threw him off balance, and she smelled burning fabric. His grip loosened, ever so slightly, but it was enough for Adelaide to twist herself around inside of the arms that caged her. 

Her father had taught Adelaide a trick once, in case she ever got caught on the bad side of the city or had to work the Nightengale at night for some reason without her brothers, for her protection. She didn't even realize that she was using it until the light whose presence she was just starting to get used to grew brighter and her closed palm slammed home into the center of his chest, right where the ribs ended.

The impact felt like she had tried to punch her palm through a brick wall and left her hand and wrist hurting. Even on a large man, it should have stunned him. Or make him take a step back at the very least.

Emiline's brother didn't even so much as make a sound at it. 

Yet he stopped moving. Standing stock-still, like he had been in the dark when they were down in the cell, still attempting to cage her with his maimed limbs but not tightening his grip.

Where her hand had impacted, she noticed curls of smoke twisting up from under her palm. Tentatively, she pulled it away and looked. Amongst the haphazard hash marks of browned and blackened cotton left by her hair, there was a perfect circle burned in his uniform jacket, his vest, the shirt beneath it, and farther. Given his height, Adelaide could see right into the circular mark. All the way through to the wall behind, where a circular fire smoldered around the point where whatever Adelaide had done passed through it.

She didn't take the time to examine the scene, worried Emiline's brother was going to shrug even that wound off and crush her.

"Adelaide!" She heard Sable shout, fear clear in her voice and all pretense of being quiet fleeing in its wake. "Adi, please, est-ce que ça va?!" 

Her voice caught in her throat, so she ducked under that statuesque form of Emiline's brother, grabbed hold of the curtain, and ignoring the cotton fibers curling and darkening around her fingers,  vaulted herself over the windowsill. A moment's vertigo later, she landed feet first on the ground, stumbled, and landed on her stomach.  

Her hand should have been rug burned from the curtains, her ankles and calves sore from the landing, and everything else in pain from being slammed around in the underground cell. 

"Adi!" Sable practically slammed into her, as she had earlier in the day, but with greater worry. "Plumes d'aigle, are you okay? I thought he got you! Are you hurt?" 

"I'm fine, Sable, really. I feel pretty normal, actually..." 

"Really? I would have thought I'd have to drag you-" 

"I know, I thought the same, but we have to get out of here. Where's Emeline?"

The woman was a little ways away, staring up at the window they had escaped from and clutching at her side. 

"She didn't land as gracefully as you." Sable explained. "She didn't bolt, however, so I'll give her that." 

"Emiline, we have to go!" Adelaide said with care to keep her voice down. "Come on!" 

Emiline shook herself from whatever was running through her head and stuck closely to Adelaide's side, at least as closely as she could with Adelaide's racing heart, as all three of them broke into a run. She did her best to keep up, but Adelaide and Sable remained aware of her injury and made sure she didn't fall too far behind. 

Now that they were out, Adelaide could see they were still in Stormspring's city limits, thank each and every Horseman, with the shadowed lines of buildings standing out against a night sky just starting to break out into dawn, and above a complicated web of shrubbery that looked well maintained even as they ran between the walls it naturally formed. 

A single glance back was all that was needed to make sure Adelaide never stopped running, never slowed. At the window they had escaped through tongues of flame licked up the length of curtain they had left trailing in the wind, and eating its way around the wood of the frame. She couldn't see the form of Emiline's brother any longer, and she didn't really want to consider all of the possibilities as to why. 

Far worse, in her mind, were the eyes. 

The building they had escaped from was more than half a dozen stories tall and as long as a city street, and on the top floor, every window had a silhouette and a pair of eyes watching the three women flee. 

It was like the eyes of coyotes reflecting the moonlight, staring some small mammal down with hunger so intense that they can't break away, but even a woman who'd spent most of her life in the city like Adelaide would never confuse what she was seeing for coyotes. 

The feeling those eyes inspired was something she had never felt before. The feeling of being small, and insignificant. Simply something to chew on as an afterthought. Not like a predator looks at its prey, or even a creature of this world, but something alien and strange. Even amongst the exertion of running in a skirt, and the panicked exhaustion the events of the night had brought on, Adelaide knew she never wanted to feel like this again, on pain of death.

They made it across whatever courtyard they had been traversing unopposed, each woman ducking through a tight gap between a row of trees that acted as a natural barrier. Adelaide was the last to go, ushering Emiline through with a wave of the hand. She was about to duck under herself when a noise caught her ear. Above the wind, and the now faint crackling of the fire on the side of the building, was a jingling. Like rattling silverware or a ring of keys on someone's belt.

"Adelaide, en vitesse!" Sable hissed, ducking her head back under. 

"Do you hear that?" 

"Quoi?" Her question was more out of exasperation than genuine curiosity. 

"That jingling noise. I swear it's getting louder..." 

"Louder or not, we don't have time to get distracted, Adi. Let's go." 

"Right, of course..."Adelaide assented, and moved to pass through the trees herself and complete the trios escape when her heated-metal-like hair suddenly pulsed brighter for a moment. Instinctively, she turned towards the light, still not fully used to the addition to her body. 

There she saw them. A dozen shadowed forms, their heads and shoulders the only thing visible to Adelaide, fanned out like they were combing the hedges and grass and coming towards the girls at an effortless run. One figure, taller than the rest, was in the lead and accompanied by the sound of jingling keys. 

She quickly squeezed through the gap in the trees, ramming her shoulder into the trunk hard enough to gouge a section of it out in the process, and stumbled out the other side. She found cobbles beneath her feet and deserted streets all around.

The other girls didn't need any explanation, understanding that something was happening from how Adelaide had come through. Sable took Emiline's hand and broke into a run, Adelaide close behind, and only with the hope they could find someone who could help them or something that looked familiar.