The Dreamfarer

29

Getting out of the club was no easy task. She had wounded her father, sure, and she still could not believe that she had managed it, but he was not the only person who had been keeping an eye on her. He had, apparently, assigned what seemed like half of the population of the place to keep her secured. It seemed a ridiculous notion, but after noting how impressive her father's reputation seemed to be over all of the creatures she had encountered during her stay, she found herself not doubting it.

Fortunately, after darting from her room, she had not run into anybody through the whole hall. She heard the sounds of the snake-man and the ogre still in a brawl from behind her, and thought that she might even have heard snatches of Dael's voice, which could only mean bad news for her.

She ran to the end of the hallway and tugged at all of the door handles she saw in search for the stairwell, which she assumed had to be there somewhere. After four tries, she got lucky, and launched herself down every set of staircases with a speed she had called upon only a few times in her life - all recently, of course, since her life had only erupted into chaos starting around a week ago.

She burst through the door at the lowest level and discovered that it was the main room of the club. There were creatures of all sorts drinking and dancing and gambling all around her; all of that seemed normal enough, but there was also spells being cast here and there, and some of the drinks seemed to be causing the creatures to float up into the air, or to melt into puddles on the floor, or even to dance so fast that Mae's eyes could barely keep track. 

Either the bartender was warned about her escape or just recognized her and heeded her flustered, guilty demeanor, because two ogres were sent after her just seconds after she entered the room. She cursed out loud and shoved dancers out of the way in her rush for the door. Her heart sunk in her chest when she heard a hissing sound close behind her; she hoped that it was not the one that her father had personally chosen to guard her. She put on an extra burst of speed fueled by desperation and aimed for the door, though she had little hope at this point of reaching it.

Just as the volume of the music was turned down and all of the clubgoers seemed to become aware that something more than just a night of evil-creature-dancing was going on, Mae ripped open the door and dove through. 

There were guards outside as well, two of them, but they did not seem to question her; maybe they were just tired, or maybe scared human girls ran from that horrible place often. It would not surprise her. However, once the snake-man and the ogres crashed through the entrance after her, the two guards lowered their blades towards her, as if expecting a fight.

"Jusssst come back, Maeve," the snake-man hissed, and she saw that it was, in fact, the one from her suite. He must have knocked Urkal out and ran after her at her father's orders. She hoped more than anything that her father had died at her hand, but she knew it was too good of a hope to be true. She had been lucky to distract him, but now, it was going to be for nothing. She was going to be captured again, and the thought made her eyes sting. After everything she had done, she was just going to be dragged right back to Dael.

She knew that she had told her magic it would be the last time she used it that day when it shoved the throwing star farther into his neck, but she didn't see any other option at the moment. Besides, the magic was there to serve her, ever since she was born-- created, she mentally corrected herself. Ever since she was created with it.

Mae planted her feet in the ground and pointed a single finger towards the group that had huddled together in front of the entrance. None of them looked anywhere but at her, and she certainly did not study her surroundings, besides noting the bright letters above the entrance that spelled out 'The Underworld.' She snorted at the irony of the name, but kept her eyes glued to her enemies after reading it in case they tried to pull some magical stunt that she would have to figure out how to stop.