Pyres of Oxenfurt

Mikael could feel the heat of fire warming up his face and skin as he stood in front of a burning mage. He clenched his fist as he saw the mage, she was young, really young, probably younger than him, it's not for the fact that mages could change their appearance, but even Miquella said so.

"A student of the arcane arts." the boy said. "Her magic has barely developed."

"There's a school for mages?" Mikael asked calmly.

"Aretuza for women." answered Miquella. "And Ban Ard for men."

"So she must be an Aretuza student." Mikael hummed. "If the student's burning, where's the teacher?"

"Most likely locked up in the deepest dungeons," said Miquella. "She's our target, along with the rest of the still alive students."

Mikael nodded. "How do I get in? I know sewers, but where exactly?"

"Oxenfurt was made above elven ruins." informed Miquella. "There should be a way to enter the sewers through the ruins."

"What about the sewer from before?"

"Too dangerous, there's a beast prowling around, remember? We need to use the sewers for an escape path also, not to mention the poison scattered around the area."

Mikael hummed. "After we find them, where do we bring them?"

"That's your job to decide." Miquella said. "Scout outside the walls, find a cave, or an encampment, some place that is hidden from the guards that will be searching."

"Okay… means I have to go through the sewers again… don't have the permit…"

Mikael walked off from the crowd, away from the pyres that are continuously burning in the middle of the city. He took slow steps as he was thinking about how to get the mages out of the city. It's clear that he needed to do it from the sewers, towards the river, but after that? Where is a place that is safe…

"Mikael!" someone suddenly shouted as Mikael kept walking.

Mikael stopped in his place, and turned around, and saw Shani, running towards him with a bag of groceries on one hand, and a single scroll on the other.

Mikael smiled as he saw her. "Hello Shani, do you need anything?"

Shani stopped in front of him, catching her breath for a moment. "I got something for you."

Mikael raised his brow. "Something? Shani, I told you, you don't have–"

"Calm down Mikael, I'm not going to force you to sleep in my clinic again." she rolled her eyes. "Last night was… embarrassing…"

Mikael chuckled. "Okay… what do you have for me?"

Shani coughed to clear her throat as she gave him the scroll. "Here, I pulled a few strings for it, so use it well."

"What's this?" Mikael asked, and opened the scroll. It was a permit to pass the cities and towns inside Redania. "Wait what?" Mikael questioned, a bit baffled. "How much do you pay for this?"

"Didn't have to pay a coin." Shani shrugged. "Like I said, pull some strings."

"You didn't…"

"I did." She smiled.

"Hey, but why?" Mikael questioned. "Are you trying to make me indebted to you miss?" he teased.

"Maybe." she shrugged haughtily. "But in all seriousness, you don't have to pay me anything, just thought it'll be good for you to have a permit… I kept thinking that you need to go through the sewers everytime you want to enter and exit the town, so I decided to just get you a permit altogether."

Mikael smiled at him, "Thank you…" he said, then he went for a hug, which caught Shani off guard. After he released the hug, he grabbed her groceries.

"Here, let me bring it for you."

"Oh, you don't have to." she said softly.

"I insist."

Shani sighed. "Fine…"

The two then walked towards the clinic together, side by side.

"We should ask for her help." Miquella suddenly spoke, making Mikael raise his brow.

"Help?"

"The witch hunters are notorious for their torture." Miquella explained. "The condition of the mages must be critical, we need someone to tend to them for a while."

Mikael frowned. "No, I'm not dragging her into this, she helped me so much in these couple of days, I don't want to make her a fugitive. Besides, I could call Triss, she's a healer."

"Merigold is too far, we are constrained by time Mikael, every hour, one of those students' will be burned at the stake, if you want to search for Merigold again, it'll waste a lot of time, not to mention, you are wanted in Novigrad."

Mikael clicked his tongue. He looked at Shani beside him, who was walking casually with him, her face had a wide smile.

"We'll see Miquella, let me think about it a bit."