Honor Amongst Thieves

Chapter 7 – Jailbreak

“Where are they? Even if that gong wasn’t an alarm, they should have at least heard the trap, it was loud enough,” asked Rumple, concerned.
“Preparing an ambush,” stated Rane.
Jerrie sighed. “Probably. Nothing for it, though, we have to keep going. The first problem is, where in the name of Tahira are the stairs?”
They had put the Meat Tenderizer behind them a few minutes ago and had resumed their search for the stairs, as they still had to go down two more levels. After turning a few more, thankfully trapless, corners, and saw a long flight of stone steps leading down.
“Trap, it’s all yours,” said Jerrie. Every thief knew that stairs were the classic place for traps.
“Right, stand back.” Trap walked forward slowly. Slowly lowering herself onto her stomach, she reached the edge of the stairs and began a rigorous inspection.
“Any sign of guards?” asked Rane.
“Hmm? Oh, forgot to check. Guess not, or I’d be dead, huh? Such is life,” chuckled Trap. “Well, there’s definitely a trap here, but I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“What does it look like?”
“Nothing. I can’t actually see it, that’s the problem, but it’s there.”
“Say what?” asked Rumple, for all of them.
“There’s nothing visual to betray it. All I can describe it as is just a knowledge I have. There’s a trap here.” At Rumple’s disbelieving look, Trap said, “Trust me. Now, how do we disarm it?” Trap began to talk to herself. “Well, it’s not a Sliding Stairway, or there would be marks on the stairs. It’s not a Pit Stairway, or the jointing would be different. There aren’t even any pressure plates for Axe or Dart Stairways. What in the five hells could this…oh, no way.” She began to chuckle as she scanned the stairway with what could only be described as awe. “There’s no way it could be…oh, wow…if this is…wow…Guess I should be sure.” She picked up a small pebble and flicked it down the stairway. With a small “Ha!” she got up and faced the rest of the group, who returned her gaze quizzically. “My friends, we have encountered a trap of legendary proportions.”
“Veeeeery well…what is it?” asked Jerrie.
“These are Phasing Stairs.” Trap grinned triumphantly, then, seeing the looks of incomprehension on her friend’s faces, sighed. “I forgot, traps aren’t your thing. I’ve only heard of this kind of trap from one person, and he heard it from a friend of his. Most thieves consider it an urban legend.”
“That’s great, Trap, but what does it do?” asked Rumple.
“Well, you see, what we see before us are a completely normal set of stairs, because that really is what’s in front of us.” Now everyone was utterly lost. “The catch is, they’re only here sometimes!”
“Huh?” asked Rane. Trap smiled at him.
“See, gorgeous, that’s the devious part. These stairs also exist in another sense, I think wizards call them “planes”, and they spend their time flip-flopping, or “phasing,” between the two planes, so although we can see them, they aren’t actually there. So, when we try to walk down them, our feet don’t hit anything, and we fall through. Now, that in itself wouldn’t be so bad, unless the stairs were used in some variation of a pit trap. However, it is guaranteed that, while you are in the middle of falling through it, the stair will switch back to this plane. Now, as the stone is denser than skin and bone and has the added bonus of being designed with this phasing in mind, whatever was in its way simply ceases to exist. As you are falling through that space, it can be quite bad. One of the luckiest results you could have is an impromptu amputation. At worst, instant death.”
“So disarm it,” said Rane.
“Ah, ah ha, yes, you see, that’s the other reason these kinds of traps are legendary. No one as yet has figured out a way to disarm them. They’re purely magical in nature, and require quite a bit of magic at that. Since only mages can work the kind of magic needed to create one of these, thieves have no insider secrets to gather. Either our friends from the other guild have a mage working for them, or they inherited this place from a mage. My guess is the latter. Anyways, even if I knew how to deactivate it, chances are it’d only be possible from down at the bottom, as that makes strategic sense.”
“So you’re telling us you can’t disarm it,” said Jerrie.
“Um, yes.”
“So what do we do then? We can’t just stop.”
Trap reached behind her into her belt, pulling out some hook gloves, which she slipped over her hands. “Hope you brought some wall-climbing equipment.”


“Are they getting past the Phasing Stairs?” asked Granth, captain of the mercenaries hired by Lanthander, a very large man with black hair, a scar over his left eye, and a permanently pulsing vein on his forehead. Rumor had it he had overdosed on Yarnthanian spice when he was younger, but then fought off Namath Himself to come back to life. Raven pitied all his subordinates, including the one before him now, who had instinctively flinched.
“Yes, sir. They’re climbing on the wall down the passageway.” He had just come back from the observation post with the illusion of a brick wall in front of it.
“Damn them! I was hoping that would at least get one of them. They might actually almost make it a decent fight. Very well, here’s what we’ll do.”


“Well that was fun,” said Jerrie, taking off his shoe clamps.
“Do we know how much farther to Artemis?” asked Rane, looking into the large room they had found themselves in.
“Well, we know he’s down another level, at least, but I’d estimate that this building can’t go too much farther back into the mountain, so probably not much farther in that direction. Now we need to find the next set of stairs,” said Rumple.
“And another set of stairs to go up with, unless you think one of us can carry Arty on our backs while climbing on the wall,” pointed out Trap.
“Good point,” conceded Rumple. “There could be one down that way,” he said, pointing down a small side passage that led to someplace unknown. “Either way, we can’t waste time. I still don’t like how we haven’t seen anyone.”
“Neither do I,” said Jerrie, giving Rumple a quick kiss on the forehead. “But we’ll find Arty, and we’ll get out of here, you’ll see.” Rumple smiled at him.
“Ok, enough, you two, let’s get moving,” chuckled Trap.

The rescue party continued onward, although now they were passing doors instead of bare walls. Upon peaking into one, Jerrie learned that the second level was apparently the housing level, as he discovered a few unmade beds and a small table with half-eaten food.
“Well, I’d say it’s confirmed that it was an alarm. Someone got out of there in a hurry,” he told the others.
“We’ll work with it. The stairs appear to be up ahead,” pointed out Rane. Indeed, a spiral staircase had come into view at the end of the hallway.
“This is too easy. Are you sure there aren’t any traps, Trap?” asked Rumple.
“Well, not of the mechanical or magical variety. Ambushes, though, I’m much less able to tell.”
“I’ll check,” interjected Rane, walking up to the clockwards-spiraling staircase. Without a sound he leapt over the railing, somersaulted, turned, caught the edge of the staircase with his left hand as he drew his longsword with his right, and swung down to the next level. The others walked up to the edge to see Rane looking up at them. He gave them the all clear signal and they began to descend the staircase. Jerrie was chuckling and shaking his head.
“Rane?” he asked, “ Do you always have to do pointless acrobatics when you could have just walked down a few steps and peeked over?”
“It’s traditional,” replied Rane, completely straight-faced. This made Jerrie chuckle even more.
Before them now lay a corridor, probably about forty feet long, with doors at even intervals along its length. The doors looked to be made of solid oak, and there was nothing on them except a single wrought iron handle with a keyhole. Suddenly, they all heard a blood-curdling scream.
“I REALLY hope that’s not Arty,” said Trap, beginning to jog in the direction of the scream, off to the left. The others followed her as she turned the corner. They had it narrowed down to 5 possible doors when yet another horrible scream guided them to the right one. Rane once again knelt to work on the lock as the others stayed on guard, wary, as the guards that were supposed to be in this place still hadn’t shown up. After a few more screams, Rane had the door open. They rushed in, prepared to fight back the vile torturer who was harming their friend. What they saw surprised them, to say the least.

Artemis was convulsing constantly, seeming like he was in the possession of some horrid daemon. His blood lay pooled and drying on the floor, and every inch of his exposed skin was covered in it. What clothes he had been left with were pocked with holes and torn to shreds. As his friends took all of this in, a small pinprick of bright green light shot out of his stomach about an inch and disappeared. Artemis let out another scream.

“What in the name of Tahira is wrong with him?” yelled Rumple, to get over the sound of rattling chains.
“I don’t know, and we don’t have time to find out. Everyone, take a manacle amd pick it, we need to get him out of here so we can stop whatever’s doing this. Move, people!” shouted Jerrie.
They split up and worked on the manacles, the job made harder by occasionally having a manacle ripped out of their hands by a particularly strong convulsion. Jerrie got his done first, and was rewared as Artemis’ newly-freed right hand spasmed and caught Jerrie right in the jaw, sending him sprawling. He got up, a little dazed. “Watch out when you let him go.”
The other three soon had their manacles off, and Artemis fell forward. Rumple caught him, then gave a yelp and dropped him as her hand was hit by a green bolt. There, strapped to his back, lay a brightly glowing red gem.
“What in the Five Hells is that?” asked Rumple, shaking her hand to restore feeling to it.
“It’s probably what’s hurting Artemis!” said Trap, reaching down and wresting the gem free from the strap. Artemis immediately flipped over, his eyes bulging, and let out a scream more horrible than any he had done so far. Trap, frightened, immediately shoved the gem back on to Artemis, trying to hold it to him as he resumed convulsing, but at a more normal level. “So that’s not what’s doing it.” She rolled him over and stuck the gem back in the straps.
“We don’t have time to figure this out! We need to get him out of here before he dies and we get caught, and THEN we can figure it out.”
“Right,” said Rane, hoisting a shaking Artemis onto his shoulders. He jerked a little as a bolt shocked him, but remained standing easily. “Let’s move.”

Coming out of the room they heard a shout. Down at the end of the hallway five guards had spotted them and were running for them.
“Run!” shouted Jerrie. “Odds aren’t good and we don’t have time!” So saying he ducked a dagger thrown by one of the approaching mercenaries and ran down to the intersection with the first tunnel, the others close at his heels. Turning the corner, he saw a group of three come running down from the other end of the passageway, intent on blocking them before they could make it to the spiral staircase. With a yell, he charged at them. Parrying the leader’s blade with his own, he threw his shoulder into his enemy’s solar plexus, sending him reeling back into his companions, buying himself and his friends time to dash for the stairway to freedom. Rumple was the first to take to the stairs, with Rane right behind her, carrying Artemis still quivering on his shoulder. Next came Trap, as she wasn’t as practiced as the others at fighting, though she could hold her own. Jerrie came up last, holding off the guards behind them. As he reached the top and turned, he felt a sharp, fiery pain in his left calf. Glancing down, he saw that a dagger seemed to have grown out the back of his leg, and he was now bleeding from a deep wound. Shrugging it off, he kept running. All that mattered right now was getting away from their pursuers and out into the open air where it was easier to run and hide. Up ahead he saw the large room that was below the Phasing Stairs, and hoped that the small side passage that they had seen really would lead to another way out, and not to more…
“Guys! They’re herding us! We can’t defend ourselves out there!” It was too late. Rumple and Rane had already entered the wide open room, and by the looks on their faces, more guards had shown up out of the side passage. With a growl of defiance, Jerrie pushed Trap ahead of him into the room. Out of the side passage had appeared another five guards, including one particularly ugly one with black hair and a scar, and another one with fiery-red hair. The others in the group had put their backs to the Phasing Stairs, Rane having put Artemis down on the floor next to them. Rumple had drawn her longsword, Rane his longsword and a dagger, and as Jerrie joined them he turned his longsword to point at the now thirteen enemies facing them. As he spotted Trap drawing a shortsword, he shook his head.
“Be ready to disarm those stairs,” he whispered to her.
“But-” Jerrie’s look stopped Trap’s response right then. She nodded.

“Well done, my prisoners. You almost made it out. Wait, no you didn’t!” cried the leader of the mercenaries with a laugh. “You never made it close! So why don’t you just come along with us, and I promise you that…you’ll probably suffer a long and painful death.”

Rumple surveyed the situation. There were thirteen of the enemy, and the leader did not look like he could be taken down easily at any rate. Raven was in there, but she was looking at Artemis, who was still convulsing on the floor. Rumple glanced at him, and he cried out as another green bolt shot out of him. Rumple looked back at Raven to see a look of shock and pain cross her face, as well as…understanding? She knows what’s wrong! At that moment, Raven turned to look at her. Rumple cocked her head slightly, asking a question. Raven gave a miniscule nod. Rumple then looked at her companions. On their faces were looks of steely resolve. We aren’t going down without a fight. Jerrie turned to look at her, and his intent was clear. She tightened her grip on the sword handle. It was time to see if their sword training was worth anything. Jerrie let out a yell and charged, managing to land a downward slash on the nearest guard before he could react, spraying blood onto her lover. Clearly the guards were not expecting a fight. Rumple charge the group in front of her, and it sounded like Rane was doing the same to the middle of the group. Her first opponent blocked her upward crossing slash, but was not expecting for her to use her momentum to spin and land a hard kick to the back of his knee. She was not able to land a blow on him, however, before the two next to him slashed at her.

In the time it took all this to happen, the leader had stood there, stunned. They were supposed to give up. Regaining his wits, he shouted, “Kill them!” before charging towards his prey, and the battle began in earnest. Raven spotted Rumple fighting a group of three, the least amount of any of them. I have to get to her.

Rane had charged to the middle of the guards, and now had four attacking him. Luckily, it was clear they had not trained as a group. Rane drew on all his knowledge of swordfighting, which was considerably more than his companions, and all the training he had gained from learning how to avoid traps, and began to dodge. The one to his left thrust first, which he parried with the dagger in his left hand. A sword came slashing at his midsection from the right, which he parried with his sword. A downward slash was slipped with a quick duck to the right, and the jab that attacked him from that position was kicked down with a quick snap from his right leg. He switched grips on his dagger and spun his arm around, giving a quick slice to the person who had just tried to jab him. Nothing mortal, unfortunately, but hopefully enough to slow him down. A slash from behind and to the right was spun away from, but not quickly enough to avoid completely, and Rane felt a blade scrape across his ribs. He backed out of the way of another attack, and then he was back to standing off against four enemies, one of which was holding his left hand against a reddening spot on his right arm. In the back, he saw the leader running up to join the fray against him. He heard Trap cry out something, but at that moment the leader threw a dagger at his chest, which he just avoided. The dagger flew past, and then it was back to hand to hand combat.

Trap had run over to the wall to the left of the Phasing Stairs, knowing from experience that this was usually the side that mechanisms were usually put. She hoped that it was the same for this trap. Running her hands over the rough stones of the wall, she suddenly ran across one that vibrated. Pushing at it, it suddenly gave way, twisting to one side to let her hands pass. She cried out as one of her fingertips brushed something and was instantly scalded. Trying to not be distracted by the new pain in her finger and the sounds of battle behind her, Trap withdrew her hands quickly and looked inside. What she saw amazed her. Beams of magical energy crisscrossed inside the revealed space, some coming from the wall, others going into the wall, and in the center these beams wound around themselves, constantly changing shapes and colors. She thought as metal clashed against metal behind her, and then she yelled, “I need a dagger!” As if on cue, a dagger flew out of the air behind her, disturbing the air beside her head, then slammed, quivering, in a joint in the stones beside her. Unperturbed, she plucked the dagger from the wall and began to reexamine the intricate magic in front of her.

The first enemy Jerrie had attacked cried out as Jerrie plunged his sword into the man’s midsection, then kicked him off the sword into a guard off to the left. They both fell to the ground in a heap, but only one was moving. That meant temporarily Jerrie only had two to contend with. Two he could manage. One swung down with a chop to the head as the other swung in with a slash to the midsection, both of which Jerrie took care of with a sidestep, parrying the downward cut into the slash, entangling all three blades temporarily. Letting go of the hilt with his left, he delivered a vicious left hook to the guard nearest to him. As that man staggered back Jerrie felt a solid cut along the back of his left arm. Wincing in pain he spun around to find the guard he had knocked over earlier had stood up. Jerrie threw himself into a thrust, which the man easily parried downwards and gave Jerrie a kick to the stomach, inding him and making him double over.

Rumple threw herself into a backwards roll to avoid the pair of slashes, which passed over her harmlessly. As they ran after her, Rumple quickly switched direction, rolling forward and landing on her back, sticking both her legs out, with the satisfaction of feeling both of them trip over them. She threw herself to her feet, her sword coming down to cleave whoever was in front of her. It was stopped by a rapier as Raven looked at her. Raven shoved Rumple away and made a rather lazy stab at her. Rumple parried easily and wrapped her sword around until she and Raven were staring at each other across sword hilts.
“What’s wrong with Artemis?” growled Rumple so that no others would be able to interpret her.
“He has a Dryamlan stone in him.” Rumple’s eyes widened. SHE had heard of these stones. “You’ve got to get it OUT!” At this last, Raven shoved at the lock between them spinning Rumple to the right, seemingly coincidentally at the perfect time to parry an attack from one of the guards she had tripped attacked her from behind. Continuing the spin she caught the other one with a roundhouse left punch and parried the attack of the third guard, who had now managed to stagger to his feet. Because he was still off balance, Rumple reached out for a kick to his knee. To her satisfaction, she felt it lock, then snap under her heel. The guard cried out and fell, clutching his knee, which was know bending the wrong direction. Unfortunately, this attack had overextended Rumple, forcing her to her knees. Rolling left she barely avoided being stabbed from behind by three blades. From her crouch she launched herself at one of her attackers, driving him back against the wall hard enough to give the back of his a solid crack and knock him senseless. Turning, she saw Raven tell the remaining guard to go attack someone else, that she would take care of this one. With an inarticulate cry of false rage, Rumple charged Raven, only to have her slow attack parried and herself tripped to lie on her back, prone. Raven stood over her, about to plunge the rapier into her chest, when she lashed out with both legs, striking Raven’s knees in the back and causing her to fall to the ground. The rapier now useless, the two women held Rumple’s longsword between them.
Rumple grimaced, “How do we get it out?”
“He won’t be permanently harmed by a cut if he has the red gem with him. Does he?” At this last Raven threw a theatrical punch at Rumple’s face, which Rumple turned with to flip herself onto the top mount with Raven underneath, the swrod still between them.
“Yes, he does. Get me over to him.”
Nodding her understanding, Raven managed to squirm until she brought her legs underneath Rumple. Pushing out with all her strength, she made Rumple fly over to Artemis, who had convulsed over the wall and was now smacking up against it. Rumple landed nearby with a thud, but then quickly rolled Artemis over, cut a large slit in his stomach, and plunged her hand in, trying to ignore the new intensity of screams that this had elicited as a result. Finding something too hard to be an internal organ, she hoped, she pulled it out and flinched as a particularly large bolt of energy went into her hand from the dripping-red stone. As she was about to drop the rock she noticed the guard she was fighting earlier glace her way and then at Raven. He’s about to shout a warning! Stop him! This was what her brain said. What her body did was chuck the vile stone as hard as she could at the man, where it ldged solidly in his opening mouth. He let out a gurgle, then spasmed so hard that he flew off the ground three feet to land on his back, a bolt of green just dissipating in the air above his head. His body continued to shake, although it was clear he was already very dead. As she turned back to Artemis, she saw the wound finish healing, and Artemis collapsed, passed out from his finally-complete ordeal. Smiling grimly, she returned to the fray.

Rane staggered backward. He bled profusely from a myrad of cuts, fortunately none too serious, the worst being a gash on his forehead, for the simple reason that his blood now made it impossible to see out of his left eye. Luckily, his opponents had fared much worse. The one he had wounded on the arm earlier was now on the ground with a cut jugular. Another had dropped when he had slipped slightly on his companion’s lifeblood, which put him perfectly in position for one of the best punches Rane had ever landed with a pommel, right between the eyes. He had collapsed instantly. Unfortunately, this still left two guards and the ugly man, and Rane was starting to wear down. He couldn’t risk a glance to see how his companions were doing, but he hoped he’d get some reinforcements soon. The enemy charged again, and it was back to combat.
The enemy on his left began with a high slashing attack which Rane ducked under to the left, putting this first opponent between himself and the other two, and spun on his heel to deliver an incredibly strong roundhouse kick to the guards face as he turned to refocus on Rane. The combination of motions snapped the guard’s head around with a sickening crunch and he fell backwards slowly, his head at an unnatural angle. The ugly man and the remaining guard attacked over the body. Rane managed to parry both attacks with his sword and dagger, but the sheer force of them spun him around so that they were between him and the stairs. Recovering, he saw both of them going for high slashing attacks. Tucking himself and rolling forward, he felt both swings go harmlessly overhead. Halfway through the roll, he planted his hands behind his head and launched himself feet-first into the ugly man, sending him reeling backward. He hoped that would give him enough time to finish the other guard.

Trap had seen magical spells before, energy forming patterns in the air before doing whatever they were supposed to do, but never anything like this. If only it was part of a mechanism, I could get at it. I could take out the little cog that is always the keystone of mechanisms, and it’d fall to pieces along with the rest of it. Wait, that’s all I have to do, I just have to find the basis of the spell and stop it! So thinking, she resumed her inspection as Rumple suddenly landed next to Artemis. Is she cutting into him? Must be a trick of the light, she’d never do that. The colors were so bright, and the forms kept shifting around. She was about to give up, when…Is that what I think it is? Almost hidden in the exact center of the pattern lay a perfectly straight, thin white beam of energy. As she watched the patterns and colors shift around it, it remained constant. Hello there, little magical cog. Now, the tricky part. Inspecting the magical lines yet again, she saw a possibility. Trap gingerly began to put the dagger into the hole, approaching the weaving lines of force. The point passed a spot near the bottom left where no lines ever went, and then it was in the lines themselves. Trap dropped the tip to avoid a red line and tipped it on the side to avoid a blue one. She was certain if she touched anything besides her target, everything would be for naught. A green line shot in front of the dagger, brushing the tip, and Trap had to use all her skill to prevent the dagger flying across the wall cavity and hitting every line in between the stone and the dagger. Finally the green line dissipated, and Trap made a lunge to cover the distance between the dagger and the thin white line. The dagger cut through the line and, amid a bright flash and sparks, the other lines of force disappeared. The white line still tried to force its way up through the dagger to the ceiling, but the spell was gone, for now. Trap slammed the dagger down over the spot where the white line came from and left it there, vibrating from the force of magic it was holding back. Turning to her companions, she yelled, “Bloody thing’s off, let’s go!” She turned to the stairs and ran up, paying no heed to the man caught in them, only focusing on his black hair, shocked expression, and one visible eye, an eye with a scar over it, long enough to not trip on it.

Jerrie looked up at the man with the sword raised just in time to see Rumple’s blood-stained blade rip through from the other side. The guard looked questioningly at the steel that had sprouted from his chest, and then fell from it. Jerrie looked behind him and kicked out with his foot to catch the nearer of the two guards behind him in the chest, making him stagger back. Upon hearing Trap’s shout of success, Jerrie turned and, grabbing Rumple’s arm, ran for the stairway.
“Remind me to mark that you owe me another one on the board at home,” gasped Rumple. Jerrie smiled.
“Will do.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jerrie saw Rane jump over a low cut from his opponent, and, using his opponent as a strange pommel horse, flipped over him. Landing on the other side without breaking stride, he scooped up Artemis and ran up the stairs two at a time, Jerrie and Rumple right behind him. Jerrie turned back at the top of the stairs, watching as the three remaining guards gave chase, along with Raven behind them, back in the room. Jerrie knew that, although the odds were much better in their favor now, there was still a good probability that one of the rescuers would die if the guards caught up to them, as they were bleeding and exhausted from such a strenuous conflict. Still, it looked like there was going to be no escape, as the guards were gaining.

That’s when the dagger slipped from its position.

With a loud snap that could be heard by all, the spell reasserted itself. The stairs to suddenly lose all solidity beneath the guards as they all slipped into oblivion piece by piece. Then they were alone, the rescuers with their charge up at the top of the stairs, Raven down below, looking up at them.

Rumple turned back, wiping sweat from her brow. “That was all the guards here right now, wasn’t it?”
“I think so,” said Raven, resignedly.
“Then come with us. Your guildmaster will think you just got tricked by the Phasing Stairs like the others, or if he can’t figure that out, he’ll think we captured you. Raven, you’ve proven yourself. Join us.”
Raven shook her head. “I have achieved what I wanted to achieve. Artemis is free and safe. But you don’t understand, Lanthander has been like a father to me, I can’t give up on him so easily. Someday, if things get worse, I might take you up on your offer, but until then, I cannot.”
Rumple smiled sadly and nodded. “We understand. It is much the same with ourselves and Old Terni. Still if there is ever any way we can help you, just ask.”
“I would like it if you gave me the red gem off Artemis. This way I can avoid complete blame for what happened.” Rumple nodded, removed the gem from the strap on Artemis’ back, and tossed it down to Raven, careful to avoid the stairs. Raven caught it with ease. “Now go. I am going to heal those mercenaries that I can, and then we’ll be on your trail. I can give you ten minutes, but that is all. Cover your tracks and get Artemis home. Tell him I am sorry.”
“We will, and thank you again.” With that, the rescue party turned around and disappeared from view. Right as Rane turned around, Raven saw Artemis’ head lift up and his eyes look at her.
“Raven…” he croaked, and then passed out again. She felt a single tear of regret trickle down her face. Raven turned from the stairway and began to count out ten minutes.