INTERLUDE: Terra's Troubles

Both hands and feet are bound. Her mouth is gagged, and her eyes are covered.

Terra is currently laying on her side against some freezing stone. From what little Terra has experienced in this new place, she makes the assumption that she's currently in some sort of cell.

Not long ago, she was in some sort of mill. She had overheard her captors talking about it, but they decided to move for some reason.

Terra assumed it was because of the storm which they were caught in for a little bit. The cart she was in did have a cover, so she didn't get pelted with rain, hail or have her bones frozen by the wind.

What she did have though, is the immense feeling of dread whenever footsteps drew near.

Whenever that dread began, all she could ponder was...

What had happened that night?

She remembered laying in her bed, wondering if she should talk to Amilia about what had happened at the table that night. She remembered essentially embarrassing Amilia for being herself, and felt immediately awful when Amilia stormed out.

Terra spent so long actually debating on whether she should talk to Amilia or not, she unknowingly gave her kidnappers the time needed to sneak up to her window.

That's when they grabbed her.

Terra fought valiantly, she had actually managed to escape the man's grasp for barely a moment, but she couldn't even let out a scream since his hand covered her mouth almost immediately after wriggling free.

As she was being dragged towards the window, Terra felt like she was being retrained by more than just muscle. No, this.... was magic

Terra knows a few spells that can restrain people, but there was nothing that was anything physical like vines or chains. This was more akin to being pulled by an invisible weight.

Terra had no clue of any magic like that, but would be sure to ask Lani when she saw her again.

As for the kidnapping itself, Terra tried her best to try and get the attention of someone, but all she could manage was smashing a small vase she had made back in school.

Luckily it seemed to work as she saw John look out the window as she was being dragged away. She heard some shouting coming from her room, and just a moment later, she saw John leap down to the ground.

Hope came back to her in that moment. She had seen John fight and knew that he wasn't a slouch, but he wasn't exactly the great swordsman either. This time however, John wasn't even armed or armoured, hell, he wasn't even dressed. Terra still had hope though. She knew that no matter what, John would fight tooth and nail for her, just as he did in the cave.

Luckily for Terra and John, the kidnappers hadn't seen John yet, and that gave them an advantage.

As they got to the cart, John was at full velocity and barged into one of the men and took him out. Terra was then wrenched around, and she was facing John.

She could see the anger, adrenaline and fear in his eyes, but the one thing she didn't see was hesitation.

"Let her go you bastard! I won't ask again!" John said, with confidence that he had no right in possessing at that moment.

Unfortunately for both Terra and John, that confidence caused a blade to be pointed at Terra's throat.

A few rude words were exchanged, and the fight would ensue. John had the difficult task to continuously dodge the swinging axe of a man mountain whilst Terra was being dragged onto the cart. That doesn't mean that Terra wasn't going to put up a fight.

As the second man was going to grab her legs, Terra took the opportunity to try and escape. She kicked the second man in the face before twisting her body to flip the other man off of her.

As she got to her feet, Terra finally got the opening she needed.

Terra didn't want to abandon John, but she knew that they wouldn't last against those men without help. So Terra took off, attempting to get the help that they needed.

That opening was short-lived however, as the man she kicked had tackled her.

That was when she heard those fateful words, "You just couldn't come quietly, huh, Princess? Guess I have no choice."

Terra then remembers getting blasted by some sort of gas, and just remembering the experience makes her feel tired.

That wasn't the last thing she remembered though.

Terra remembered being in the cart as it was taking off, but that's when she saw John leaping toward said cart through squinted eyes. Unfortunately for John, he would receive a bolt for his efforts.

That was the last thing Terra remembered seeing before waking up in total darkness thanks to her blindfold. She just hopes that John isn't too injured from that bolt.

As for her current situation, there's not much she can really do.

The binds on both her hands and feet are tight enough that she can't really pull at them to loosen them. She also can't cast any spells since she is unable to speak due to the gag in her mouth, but also because of her bound hands.

She can't even dislocate her thumb to escape the bindings since her hands are crossed, so the training from her Mother can't be used either, leaving her completely out of options.

Terra doesn't have much more time to worry about that however, as she hears two sets of footsteps coming towards her position.

"Hey, did you hear?" A man asks.

A woman responds, "No? What is it?"

"Boss sent scouts to find the priest that he sent to get the location of the plant. Well, they found him alright, problem is, he was dead."

"Gods... what did the boss say?" The woman asks.

"Oh, he didn't say a thing. He just straight up killed one of the scouts out of anger and told the others to find the people responsible."

"Do we know who did it?"

The man replies, "They think it was her friends from the boat. I had even heard that one of them is the Hero of Reduna'z Gaze."

The woman quickly responds, "No way. Why would he be here? Gotta just be a rumour."

"No matter if it is a rumour or not. Apparently, it's the same guy that chased down the cart before Argil shot him."

"Sheesh. I was in the room when Argil came back, and he was shit scared of that guy. He said he fought them without a shirt, shoes or any sort of weapons," The woman recounts. "If it was enough to scare Argil, maybe we should be a little more worried."

"Nah, we've got enough guards around to stop anyone from storming this place, much less one guy without a damn shirt."

The two share a laugh at the joke, but not long after, the woman says, "So, what about the peyote? Did the priest have it on him?"

"Not that I know of. That's probably what pissed the boss off more. I don't even know what the thing is so damn important for, but if the priest needed it, it must be for the girl."

A peyote? Why would the person in charge need that? For some sort of ritual? Terra has heard them mention a priest quite a few times during this conversation of theirs, but why would they need a priest if not for some ritual?

That thought process just makes Terra worry even more. However, there was one thought that was keeping her going. That no matter what, her friends were coming to save her.

She just needed to hold on a little longer.