We entered the same room as before, still dusty and mostly untouched. It turn to Lily and use Message.
~Same as last time, but it'll be a bit longer~
I reached into my Bag of Holding and pulled out two scrolls of Invisibility, while I was hoping to keep these a bit longer, this was infact the perfect moment. I held Lily's hand and cast the spells, turning me and Lily invisible.
~Just keep holding my hand, and everything will be ok~
Lily gave my hand a small squeeze in acknowledgement and I led her outside the room and started going down the halls just as before.
Just as I had feared, security was tighter, there was a patrol of guards down almost every single corridor. Were we not invisible this would be impossible. I made sure that we still stayed as stealthy as possible, last thing we needed was to get caught because we weren't quiet. It had been almost an hour of skulking and nearly all of my Invisibility scrolls before we got to the place we needed to be in, and unfortunately for these guards, I did not have the luxury of time. I quickly used Message to talk to Lily.
~Stay right here, I'll be right back~
I let go of her hand and moved forward. I walked up to the pair of guards in front of the door I needed to get through and used Dominate Person on them both. I dropped Invisibility afterwards. "Both of you leave and don't come back." They didn't spend a single moment to think about it and simply walked away from the door. Afterwards I waved Lily over "You can drop Invisibility for now, lets go ahead and get inside" Lily come into view right after that and got right next to me while we stepped into the room.
Unlike the room they had gone into yesterday, this room looked like a dungeon, a stark contrast to the colorful corridors with elegant tapestries. The drab room had implements of torture scattered around haphazardly on random tables and the floor. Along the back wall lay several closed cells, there doors set into the dull brickwork making this room the only thing that people could see from within the cells.
I hurriedly approached the cells and pulled some tools out of my. I quickly used Message started working on the door.
~Lily, please watch the door, if anyone approaches, let me know and get your magic ready.~
Lily gave a quick nod and I went to work on unlocking the cells with my tools. When I got the cell open I slowly opened the door and peered inside the dark room. In the very back I could see two people huddled in the back. "Hey, we're here to get you out, please go to the center of the room and wait quietly while I get the other cells open." I whispered into the cell. They gave weak nods and I moved out of their way so they could get past, they both looked sickly and in bad shape. Seeing what they can do to people in this place always just angers me, but for now, all I can do is rescue people.
I moved onto the other cells and did the same thing as the first, I opened up the cell and told whoever was inside to go and wait in the center of the room. When I opened the last cell I could see Barret inside. I reached out my hand and whispered softly "Hey Barret, Andraste sent us, we're gonna get you out of here ok, you're gonna be safe and out of this."
He seemed shaken, but didn't look hurt, but he came forward and took my hand, and I gave him a reassuring smile. I led him to the center where the other were waiting, all accounted for, there were nine people including myself and Lily, I sighed, this wasn't going to be easy at all.
I spoke quietly and low to everyone in the center. "Ok, I'm going to get you all out of here, I'm going to make everyone here invisible and you'll need to hold hands to make sure no one gets lost. Hold on tight, and if anything goes wrong, tap the person ahead of you and pass that along to me, ok."
They all nodded in acknowledgement. I reached into my pack an took out three scroll of Mass Invisibility, only ones that I had. everyone joined hands an I walked them to the door and I took Lily's hand aswell and gave her a reassuring smile. "We're almost done here."
She gave me a small nod and smiled back "Almost done."
I cast Mass Invisibility and we exited the room as a group. I kept the pace that we moved at as fast as possible so that we had as much time invisible as we could get, I also made sure to keep casting Silence as we moved so that guards we passed didn't hear the nine people nearly jogging past them, better they think their deaf than realize there were a bunch of people passing them.
When my last Mass Invisibility finally ran out, I told everyone to just keep following me. We were almost there and if we encountered any guards that I would take care of it. And we passed several, but we didn't have time to to effectively deal with anyone, so I just cast Dominate Person and told them to sit down, I hated using that spell, but it was the only way to make sure they were safe.
By the time we almost back to the storage room with the mirrors, everyone was exhausted from the constant pace, and I was on the verge off passing out from how much magic I've had to use, but we we're almost there and I had to get them all out. As we rounded the corner and I could see the door we needed to get to, Lily suddenly collapased onto the floor. I stopped immediately and got down next to her.
"Lily! Are you ok, I'm sorry we've been moving so fast but were almost there-" I stopped when I noticed the look in her eyes, she was horrified.
" 'Rim, I can't, I cant feel my legs." I was stunned, I looked up for a moment to the others that were with us, and they were all either falling over themselves, dazed an confused, or silently screaming in agony. Then I noticed something myself, I looked down the corridor and realized that simply couldn't see the color green anymore.
No
NO, Shit, he couldn't be here. And that's when I heard that pompous voice from behind me.
"Well, Well Limmy, I didn't expect to see you here at all, and you even brought a guest, but you're also trying to leave with guest of our Queen, and I can't exactly let you do that"
I quickly looked back to see, the Faerie, Reemus standing in front of the storage room door. I got up slowly and looked down at Lily, she was still stunned, and looked absolutely mortified, knowing exactly who standing before them. There was no way I'd be able to win a fight against him, or even be able to outwit him with my magic, that damn rule of his was to much to contend with, but...
"Well Lisserym, I guess I'm gonna have to take you in you know, you've been causing waay too much trouble for me to just ignore you anymore, besides I'm sure -"
I stopped listening to him and held out my hand to him and invoked my own Fey Rule, I have to get us out of here, I have to keep them from getting caught. I have to protect Lily.
A thunderous crack reverberated through the halls, and Reemus fell down knocked off his feet by a quake.
Reemus shook an annoyed fist at me while he sat on the ground "Hey, I was still talking"
The cracking continued, sounding like something massive was shattering, whatever my rule was doing, it was trying to overcome Reemus's, another quake rocked the corridor and parts of the walls started to fall away revealing huge landscapes, alien landscapes. The floor began to give way in some places, revealing sections of different planes crisscrossing across the whole floor. One whole leading into the Plane of Water, another The Plane of Fire. I took a quick look back and saw Barret and the other prisoners swallowed up by a hole that led somewhere cloaked in shadows and a deep darkness. "No!" I shouted, but it was far too late, my Rule was going to make sure I survived this encounter, no matter what.
The floor beneath my own hooves began to give way, and just as I started to fall I reached out for Lily, I couldn't lose her too. I was able to hold her hand, but I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing anymore, just a kalidescope of colors and worlds all flowing past, before one the worlds suddenly snapped into place all round, and I lost consciousness