Thank You, Frey

"FHELDIN!" Arla yells while stamping her foot on the ground, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT!?"

Despite knowing that his wife isn't happy right now, Fheldin can't help but look down at her and think that her angry face is very cute.

"Stop grinning!" Arla rolls her eyes, "Are you even taking this seriously!?" She rolls her eyes and points to the Spirit Stone bottle on her husband's shelf. "That bottle isn't a trophy! There's a girl trapped in there!"

Fheldin scratches his head and laughs while his wife punches his chest. He's a dragon, so her strikes don't hurt or anything. Instead, he gets a little excited that his wife is touching him, and his tail sprouts out.

He's normally very good at holding back his dragon transformation, but his control always slips up when he feels strong emotions… like now.

Seeing that his wife is growing so agitated over this, Fheldin does feel he should at least address her concerns. So, he reaches up and grabs the bottle from its shelf. "I just thought it would be kind of cool to have a spirit in a bottle, except this spirit is a live person. It's just so unique… you know?"

Arla shakes her head and steps forward again – her hand outstretched. "Give it here."

Looking up and laughing, Fheldin isn't actually concerned about losing the little Frey trapped in the bottle; he's just happy his wife asked for a gift. So, he drops the bottle into her hand.

Instead of giving him a "thank you kiss" (or something along those lines), Arla curls her fingers over the bottle and stomps away without another world.

Disappointed, Fheldin's tail disappears again, and he slinks off into his den to have a disappointed nap all alone.

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Since Arla isn't a dragon, she can't run at supersonic speeds. Since she's also a lazy person who only likes to exercise her brain, she doesn't turn into her phoenix form and fly down to her destination either.

Instead, she calls one of her sons and has HIM carry her down… down into the dungeon where the humans are still being kept. Being the mistress of the palace, none of the guards dare to bar her way as she alights off her son's back and descends into the damp, cold prison.

Once she's inside, Arla orders all of the guards to leave for exactly half an hour. 'That should be enough time, right?'

After the guards are gone, she crouches down and delicately places a spirit stone bottle on the floor before uncorking it.

A black mist flows out of the bottle, and it materializes into a black-haired girl.

Frey immediately gets on her knees and bows to Mistress Arla. "Thank you. If it weren't for you… I don't know how long I'd have wasted away on the lord's shelf."

Arla looks Frey over for a bit, leans in, and abruptly says, "Which clan are you from?"

"P-p-pardon me?"

"I meant…," Arla explains, "you're definitely not human; you're Rehkin. I can see your eyes glow blue when you used your powers. So… which Clan?"

Frey looks around skittishly, which makes Arla give a mirthful laugh. "Oh, don't be silly. In case you're worried about it, nobody is watching us. Feel free to speak."

The young girl grips her skirt tightly and twists it in agitation. "I'm a Crow."

Wordlessly, Arla makes a twirling motion with her finger, as if to say, "Turn around."

Frey does so, and Arla steps forward and says, "Lift the back of your shirt up. I want to take a look." Blushing, Frey bends over a little and does as she's told.

As soon as her back is revealed, Arla sees 2 long, vertical scars running up the sides of her spine – each scar being about a foot long.

"Aw, you poor thing," Arla mutters while running her finger along the scars.

Instead of hurting, Frey can feel some sort of comforting warmth spread through the phoenix's finger – as if the Felkin could heal people through mere touch.

"Do you want me to grow your wings back for you?" Mistress Arla asks.

Frey glances down the dungeon hallway, where she knows Haalfrin is, and she shakes her head. "No thank you. I'm OK without my wings."

"Hmm…," Arla hums, "Suit yourself." She steps away and adds, "Anyway, it's up to you and your friends if you're able to escape. Best of luck, young girl."

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Haalfrin is just about to nod off to sleep when he feels a pocket of warmth in front of his body. He opens his eyes and nearly yelps in surprise when he sees Frey standing right in front of him. "Frey!?" he hisses, "what are you doing down here?"

Frey looks around, and she sees the other 4 humans Haalfrin was with, and they're all staring at her.

Feeling self-conscious, the girl holds up the spirit stone bottle and says, "I've come to return this." She coughs. "Er, I meant, I've come to help you escape."

Haalfrin shakes his head, "It's too dangerous here. Just turn ethereal and escape from here. I can use my Aura to provide a path for you."

Frey smiles proudly and proclaims, "Advancing my Yiir Name means I can carry other things with me into the Aura – not just myself. That means I can take you with me."

A tired smile creeps up Haalfrin's face, and he bobs his head over to his companions. "Take them first, please."

"Hmph!" she snorts, "You're my friend. You're going first. If we get caught, at least you can escape."

Haalfrin shakes his head. "I have to provide a Death Aura trail to the outside."

Realizing that he's actually making sense, the girl relents.

"Haalfrin," Jay asks, "who is this?" He shakes his head and turns to Frey. "Or rather, who are you?"

A second passes, and Jay's eyes go wide. "It's you!" He turns to Haalfrin. "Seriously! Who is she!?"

He never did get a satisfactory answer from Haalfrin last time, so he brings it up again

Frey looks away and refuses to answer. Instead, Haalfrin speaks up, "She's my friend. Forgive her for being rude. She's shy."

"Just do it, Haalfrin," Frey mutters.

Without another word, Haalfrin extends all his Aura, and with practiced precision, he shapes it all into an absurdly long strand.

Factoring in the Aura he already had, the Aura he got during and after his duel with Dakka, his many years' journey in the Otherworld, AND his 20-year stay in the Threshold...

... Factoring all of this, his Death Aura can reach about 2 miles away – about the same depth as the Pit.

So, as Haalfrin slowly extends the arm of dark Aura, he tries to be careful as he feels around for the outside. Just to be sure, he has a few Wills hop inside the Aura to direct the Aura strand well – just to be sure none of the Rehkin servants catch them.

"Haalfrin?" Myra asks, "what's going on?"

Frey glares at the woman and hisses, "Shut up! He's concentrating!"

After a few minutes, Haalfrin opens his eyes and nods at Frey. "Take them out, please."

Frey taps her foot and says softly, "Give it to me, Haalfrin."

"Give what?"

"An Aura strand," she adds before rolling her eyes. "You need to be touching the Aura for me to pull you inside. Your friends are chained up, and I don't have the keys. So, give me an Aura strand."

A dark hand reaches out from Haalfrin's soul, and Frey takes hold of it – gently guiding it toward Resburn, who happens to be the closest to Haalfrin. Once she holds the dark Aura against Resburn, she says quietly, "The Wills say that there's water down there, so you should hold your breath and prepare a spell for that, or…something."

Then, in an instant, Resburn and Frey both disappear.

Less than a minute later, Frey appears again, and she repeats the process with Jay, then Myra, then Faylin. Once all the "nonessentials" (according to Frey) are gone, she finally picks up Haalfrin.

Since the center of the Aura is always Haalfrin, it's a bit of a strange experience for the man himself to enter his own Aura strand.

As for what it actually feels like… it reminds the man of how it felt to be floating in the red water, back in the Spirit Realm.

Feeling his spirit float down to its death was certainly one of the most memorable moments of his life, so despite happening nearly 1,000 years ago, he still remembers it vividly.

And so, just like that, the 5 humans all mysteriously disappear from Lord Fheldin's dungeon, not even a day after they were imprisoned.

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In the end, Lord Fheldin is unable to even begin tracking down the escaped humans; because they all turned ethereal with Frey's help, there was no scent trail to follow. As far as he can tell, they literally just vanished.

Because of his wife's order to vacate the guards for half an hour, he definitely knows she was behind it.

The thing is… he just can't bring himself to care.

Yeah, they got away; he was expecting that. Since they managed to escape from him, then it would be morally wrong to pursue them anymore.

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Once Jay and his crew arrive back at the Threshold, a report about the whole endeavor slips its way into Commander Fisco's documents. Seeing as how the report isn't urgent, it takes him several weeks to actually get to it, though.

However, when Fisco finally cracks open Jay's report, he nods his head in relief; he wasn't sure if Haalfrin was going to be a reliable subordinate, but it appears that he is.

When the report details how they helped the dragon children escape, and how they got Lord Fheldin to kill their target for them, Fisco finally cracks a smile.

Finally, at the end of the report, is the answer to a question Fisco had posed to Jay before they set out on their journey.

For some time now, the Emperor of Brancotte has been wanting to enter into a marriage alliance with the Drakin; after all, Lord Fheldin is the Lord of the most powerful and respected faction in the Otherworld. The Emperor has always been ambitious.

Fisco, on the other hand, was always wary of such a thought process; there's just far too much that's unknown about the Drakin, other than that they're strong and that they have volatile tempers. Is it really worth it trying to meddle with them?

And so, the Clan Meeting being a valuable opportunity to actually meet Lord Fheldin and get to know more about the Drakin, Commander Fisco was sure to have Jay offer up his opinion when they got back.

To be extra thorough, he has Jay pose this same question to all of his comrades.

Now, as Fisco reads the bottom of the mission report, it says in Jay's messy handwriting, "Having one of the Emperor's daughters marry a Drakin is a stupid idea. Unless the imperial princess is a red-haired brute like Faylin, then you can forget about a Drakin doing anything more than chewing her up and spitting her out. Also, if you want one of Fheldin's Felkin daughters to marry one of our imperial princes… then that's equally stupid…"

Jay then goes on to explain, in detail, the Drakin's ridiculous Marital Kidnapping ritual, and how any imperial prince trying to marry a phoenix would end up getting murdered by Lord Fheldin without question.

Frankly, Commander Fisco can't think of a single imperial prince who is brave enough to even try robbing a princess from a 5-horned dragon's home. Commander Fisco rubs his eyes and actually bursts out laughing.

'Aha!' he thinks disdainfully, 'Your majesty, it appears that money and connections won't get you what you want!' He always knew that the Drakin only care about strength, but he didn't know they took it so far.

Jay – being the captain – has the most detailed answer, so his account goes on for several more pages. After scanning it all, Fisco goes on to the other 4 answers, which are comparatively much shorter.

Haalfrin's answer was next, and it reads, "Drakin respect individuals, not kingdoms. If an individual prince or princess can earn their respect, then marriage would work. However, if your emperor thinks his empire's clout can entice Lord Fheldin, then forget about it."

Resburn's read, "I'm not really sure. They seem too rich and powerful to care about us humans and what we have to offer."

Myra: "Isn't it up to the individuals? I mean, if one of our royalty and one of theirs loves each other, it'll work out eventually, right? If it comes to it, we can complete the Kidnapping Ritual, right? We got some practice in, so we might be able to help out again."

Faylin: "Drakin and Felkin are cute. I want one. Still. Something is a little off about them."

Suppressing another fit of laughter, Commander Fisco packs up the report and hands it to his secretary, who is busy working at another desk next to his. "Send that report to the Emperor."

"Yes, sir."