Intrigued

Before Delta even opened his eyes he was aware that the woman had been waiting for him to wake up. He could feel her sitting at the edge of the bond, watching him through it. He could almost visualize her too. A pale skinned wisp in his mind's eye.

Concerning. Entirely irregular. Even Aralissa, and her song of which he's possessed longest, was not open ended. Soul songs did not typically enable the enchanted to view the enchanter in such ways.

And yet he was intrigued.

"You're awake." She had a deeper voice for a woman. Husky with a little rasp. "They're planning to move me the day after tomorrow."

Delta wheezed as the fog of sleep cleared. The burning of the metals packed into cuts radiated excruciatingly. The intoxication of her song had almost completely dissipated. "What? No 'good morning', or 'how are you?'"

"O-oh. Um- how are you?" She sounded annoyed, voice growing even deeper, yet she still answered the question.

Delta choked out a pained laugh. "I'll be better when we get out of this hell… So they want to move you?"

"Yes. The illusionist-

"Illusionist?"

"The one who comes in to torture me. I do not know his name."

Oh, so that is what she calls the mad priest. Delta had heard plenty of his insane nonsense float down the little tunnel when he made his visits to her cell.

Korin continued, "Anyways, he said that they were waiting until they had made new restraints for me."

"New ones?"

"Mmhmm. Better ones."

Delta cursed under his breath.

"We'll just have to make our attempt before then."

"No."

"What?!" He enjoyed the way she snapped, a low bark coming from a void, flat toned yet filling his ears with her aggravated tune.

It was already problematic that they had derivatives of his magic. Even the runes of the old fae script were carved into their metal. Some of them were misspelled, the letters drawn wrong but it was fae scripture. "I need to get my hands on those new restraints."

"Aren't you dying?" Korin bit out. "We should leave, while we have a better chance. If they're that much more effective I might not be able to use magic at all."

Delta tapped his head against the wall while he thought. There was no doubt that Angus had made it to Kystra. The vypnyr traveled fast and it'd been more than a moon already. Yuen would be pissed but that was the least of their problems right now. "These men are a great threat to my people. They possess dangerous powers and we need to find out more about them."

"And we're both just about dead," she sighed. "I fought three of them and a creature called a mimic. I could only take out the mimic and one priest before they sedated me. I'm much weaker now and I'm sure there are a lot more priests and pets in this prison than the ones I faced."

He also fought a group of priests. It's how he'd ended up in the damn prison. When he exited the portal he found that the assassin had killed an Eenoan. His brothers were patrolling the area, searching for his murderer and Delta still wasn't sure if they had seen him come through the portal or not.

Quickly realizing how dangerous a group of them were, he managed to incinerate a few. It'd only escalated from there and an all out battle ensued. Delta was a bit of a sore loser about it. His defeat to the humans–even if he was far outnumbered– sat ugly in his chest.

"We should prioritize escaping. Get a layout of the prison on the way out, then come back for your information once we are healed."

The woman had a point. "You've been thinking about this." She was proving to be interesting so far.

"I haven't slept." He could feel her exhaustion, infected with a boiling rage. She suggested coming back, already crafting her own agenda. Probably to kill her illusionist if she didn't get the man during their escape. Perhaps more. He had a feeling that once her powers were free from suppression, she may take her revenge on the prison. A current in their connection warned him of impending danger.

"You're right, we're in no position to run the risk. We'll get out as fast as possible. But it is absolutely crucial we return." He stressed while chewing a cracked lip. His body was not sliced open and packed with iron, silver, mercury, and red clay, leaking green and rust, The little skin that remained untouched was cracked and flaking. He was withering from a lack of water.

"Obviously." Another snap. "Now how are we going to get out of here?"

Deltas lips curled at their ends. She was interesting indeed, thoughtful, potentially cunning, willing and dispassionately cooperative and she didn't even know his name yet. "I have a plan. And it starts with a crash course on cultivation."