5 Break Out

"So you've awakened. I'm sure you're aware of what's going to happen next."

"Perhaps you'd like to give me a quick recap of what happened?"

The elf knight looks at me strangely and lets out a laugh.

"I see, I think I'm starting to like you now. Well we shall wait for the rest of your group before we head out. We shall check in again in a few hours." With that, the elf knight and bodyguards left me alone.

I just sat down and waited until one of us wakes up. I see Ravenna about to wake up, so I stood up and tried to go in closer. I hold on to the bars.

"Hey Ravenna, you there?"

Ravenna rubs her eyes a bit then glances towards me.

"Huh..? What happened? Where are we?" She asks

"We're back in Erudia, I think. Some evles came here a while ago to check on us. He needed all of us to be awake."

"All of us to be awake? For what?"

"I wasn't able to get that much information from him. But we'll find out sooner or later."

Soon later Razz wakes up, and eventually Domotraus and Seph wake up as well. The two of them were in the cell beside mine, not that far from each other. I explained to them what I know and told them about the elves.

"Alright so how long do we have to wait then?" Seph asks.

"How about let's think of a way out, Ravenna maybe you got some magic there?" I suggest

"I need my magic ring, it's my arcane focus apparently. Without it I can't cast any magic" She responds.

"Same here, I don't have my arcane focus right now, so we're pretty much regular prisoners." Seph says

Razz has some magic, but I've only seen him used it to support himself. Like during the time we fought that captain knight, he buffed himself with a haste spell to he could move faster than ever. This spell only lasts for 1 minute. If you think about it, it's like a last minute desperate buff to win in a match. I wish I could do magic, maybe I could do more than attacking behind their legs.

After some time, some guards came and got us out one by one. Soon we were in a room with that elf with the unique armor.

"Ah hello hello, this must the famous assassin group I heard about. I thought you'd be strong and fast enough to escape the forest from our knights. It seems I was wrong to think that." The elf knight says

"What do you want?" Ravenna scowls at him.

"You five destroyed a whole village, and killed all the people. What do you think?" He responds back

"We didn-"

"Enough! The queen shall decide what happens to you all. Though I doubt she'll let you free"

We just need one of us to escape and make it back to our hideout, once one of us reach there we can free the others. This should be easy, that's what I think at least. But we need to find a way on how to get these cuffs off us. Anyways, I can't think of a way out of this. I've heard of how the elf queen judges criminals, she doesn't let evildoers off the hook. Though we aren't evildoers, and we're only just doing our job. So I hope she would reconsider us, especially since we worked directly under her one time during the doppelganger case.

The guards had us blindfolded, and chained to one another. We were brought somewhere, most likely outside since I could hear a lot of noises. Like a huge crowd had gathered, only that I couldn't understand what they were saying, this is probably the language called Elvish. Unless they're speaking something else I have no clue. I know elves can speak more than the Common, and Elvish languages. If I remember correctly, some elves can speak Sylvan and Undercommon. We kept walking until we reached an area that was quiet, this area seemed to be less crowded or not crowded at all. Noise of a gate opened, this is probably the palace gates. Our blindfolds were taken off, the queen was so majestic looking. Her long light blonde hair, green eyes, and the typical elf ears. In fact, she's your typical elf, only that she's a queen. She makes a gesture and the guards leave except for what looks like to be the royal knights, like that knight with the unique equipment. 4 knights were standing behind us, blocking the palace doors. Are they thinking we can actually escape? Oh, this is probably precautions, we are the famed assassins of Erudia after all.

"Ravenna Eriobea, Domotraus Trijalle, Sephsevel, Razz Matash, and Athelstan the Cheater. You five have committed a grave crime. Imprisonment may not be enough for you have brutally and coldly killed everyone and spared no one in the village. Disrupted peace in a human village living within the elven country. I hereby sentence you to death!" The queen tells us casually.

"Your majesty! We did no such thing we have been framed! We-"

"SILENCE!" a really buffed knight appeared from the mezzanine on our right side, interrupting Ravenna.

"You criminals have no right to defend yourselves for there have been witnesses!" another knight says from the palace door.

Ravenna just looks down in frustration. As she was overpowered by a royal knight. Razz isn't good in convincing people, so I doubt he'd speak.

"Your highness!" Razz speaks. How bad can this get?

"Yes human? What do you wish to say?" The elf queen responds

"My comrades and I have been framed. It started as a journey to rescue those that have been gained. Corrupted humanoids, of greed and selfishness, were to be blamed. Evil intent within lest we have been deceived. The same has occurred yet again, but your people believed! Must your judgement be from misguidance? Is thy source of full reliance? Is Art thou unaware of the defiance? Of those that have fallen into the darkness. Those that have brought us this mess! The right things we do in our quest, that benefits our client and the society above. There are the strong and the weak and the successors that become the best, they the ones who foresees and rules with love. For a strong bond we have made, a favor I must ask. Spare us from the end, will you? Or shall you continue to fall in the plans of Cilan Mamoru?" Razz bravely says.

My god, what kind of nonsense are you saying Razz? You're seriously not trying to make a poem right now are you?! You're not a poet! On second thought this might work, if only Domotraus were the one to say this. Wait this might work, come to think of it what he's saying is true, but how will they know if what we're saying is true? Razz better come up with something good, otherwise we are so done for. I can't let single frame be the end of my life, usually it's us that does the framing.

"Foolish human! How dare you speak of nonsense! Cilan Mamoru is long gone! He existed during the great realms' war! The queen's judgement cannot be mistaken! For she makes the correct choices!" a royal knight speaks, but this one is a female royal knight.

"You dare mock the queen?! She is all knowing!" another royal knight speaks.

"SILENCE!" The knight from the mezzanine shouts. This guy must be of highest command.

"My order is final"

With that, I knew right away we were goners. Though by looking at her face when she said it, it was almost like she was doubting her choice. Maybe Razz got through to her, but being lawful she has to abide by the laws and regulations that keep the country as stable as it is. Especially since almost everyone knows about the incident, but what they know is obviously inaccurate. The gates doors opened and the guards entered. We were all dragged outside. I hate this feeling, knowing that they were fooled but no one would listen to us. We were brought to the streets, and we weren't blindfolded. They let everyone see our faces. Our hideout isn't that far from here. We were escorted by regular guards only, the royal knights stayed inside the palace with the queen. Once we reached a crowded area, smoke started to appear. It was as if a fog just appeared. We were still cuffed with the chains connecting us to each other. It happened so fast, sounds of screaming came from the crowd and the guards were shouting commands to each other. They didn't even finish their command, it was like something had happened to them while they were saying it. I didn't feel any movement from the chains so it couldn't have been from the group. No one in the group has any arcane focus, so magic isn't possible. I started feeling a force from the chains a few minutes after the fog started. The force from the chains were dragging me, so I went along with it. I followed wherever it went, and it was like an endless fog. I've been running for almost half an hour, and the fog is still here. No I am not running in circles. The caster of this spell must be the one leading us while bringing the fog along with us. After a good hour or so of running we finally stopped and the fog is gone. A girl appeared in front of us and unlocked the cuffs from our hands.

"You guys are the famous assassins? You don't seem much." She says

"Hey, I'll have you know! We've probably done more job requests than you ever have!" I respond back to her defending my group.

I looked around my surroundings and see that we're in a forest. There are other people watching us, as I can see some on trees and some standing behind the trees. The people started to slowly approach us as they take off their hoods showing their faces.

"We are the Thieves' Unity" a man with a big scar and black hair said. Still has the elf ears, so he's probably a half-elf. Most likely their leader.

"What do you want from us?" Ravenna asks.

"We know how big of a deal you guys are. I started the Thieves' Unity guild because of how much you have influenced us other rogues." their leader says

"Your point exactly?" Seph impatiently asks.

"We don't believe what really happened to that village, and besides. A fellow thief is a comrade to us, we'd break them out no matter what unless otherwise." He continues to say.

He gave us each a pouch of 50 gold coins and some daggers.

"The queen knew about your hideout, I don't recommend you go back there. We can bring you to our hideout. Until things have calmed down a bit."

I look at Ravenna waiting for her to make the decision whether we should be in their care for a little while, since we need a place to rest and discuss things before we continue moving. In all honesty I'm getting pretty discouraged since our enemy is a shadow person thing, how do we fight that while going against the country? This seemed too impossible for me to handle, good thing I have I'm a part of this group. We can all fall down together. Anyways, Ravenna looks like she's thinking this through. It seems like she's given in to the proposal of staying with them.

"Well, since we have no where to stay in for now. We accept your offer to stay in your hideout." Ravenna responds.

I guess I could mingle with some of them and learn a few tricks from them. Even though I'm pretty skilled, most of my techniques are effective against humanoids that aren't wearing heavy armor, I don't specialize in any other things aside from assassination. Probably they don't also, but they might have some sort of hidden skill or talent within them. It's worth the shot.

"Very well then Ravenna Eriobea. My name is Waver Frankenflores. Guildmaster of Thieves' Unity."

"Ravenna Eriobea, we don't have a name for ourselves yet." she responds back.

The other people started dispersing while the girl that freed us and Waver led us to their hideout. We took a path where most rogues take in the city, dark areas, isolated, and less crowded. Soon we reached their hideout located in the most sketchiest looking place in the capital, and their hideout seems almost pretty empty. Few people compared to how much we saw in the forest a while ago. But we acknowledge their strength since they were able to take out the guards and free us fast enough before any of the royal knights could free us. To think a base of thieves would exist here in the capital, then again we are assassins and we have a hideout here which is now exposed to the public.

"Welcome to the Thieves' Unity hideout. It may seem empty, but it's usually like this during the day. This place is most active during nighttime, and early morning. But make yourselves comfortable here." Waver informs us before he goes back to a room.

We followed Ravenna to a table and sat down with her. We all looked tired and we didn't say a word. I looked around once again and saw a lot of other people asleep on their tables, as if they don't care the risk of their things being stolen. I guess that's juts how much they trust their guild members. Actually come to think of it, these elves look different from the other elves we've seen. They kinda look similar to Seph in a way, but they're not family related. Kind of like same sub race. You know, dark elves. Dark elves are good for being rogues and assassins as they have unique abilities that allows them to be sneaky, and stealthy. I watched as Domotraus slowly fall asleep on the table, followed by Razz. To be fair we are all tired, so we deserve to rest and regain our energy again. This 'first quest' has been really hectic so far. Seph and Ravenna stays awake as since they are elves, they don't really require sleep to get their body functioning. More of they just meditate, and they call that resting already. While meditating, they are half awake. If that's so then that must mean the elves here aren't really asleep, but they're awake just 'meditating'. I slowly let out a big yawn.

"You should take a rest Athel." Seph tells me.

"We can't just slack off while we're in this situation" I responded back

"Seph and I will discuss things while you three take a rest. We'll find a way, don't worry about it." Ravenna assures me.

"Alright then, I guess I'll take a long rest." As I say this, everything goes dark and I fall asleep.