“Do not play games with me,” he said. “I should let you rot.”

Tessanna’s eyes remained cast to the floor, her long black hair hiding her face.

“Yes,” she said. “I should rot down here, so leave me be. You don’t know why you came, so why should I feel glad you did?”

In answer, Qurrah slapped her across the face. The sharp sound stirred the lone occupant in an adjacent cell.

“Whatcha doin’ over there girl? Found yourself a buddy?” A tanned man with dirty hair pressed against the bars.

“Hold your tongue, or I will kill you,” Qurrah said. The other man laughed.

“You can’t even touch me. How about you let me free, or I start screaming for guards?”

Qurrah started to cast a spell, but stopped when hands grabbed his robes. He startled when he glanced back at Tessanna. Her face had changed. Life burned in her eyes. Angry life. Before he could respond, she released his robes, pointed her shackled hands at the nuisance, and whispered a word of magic in a dark tongue of old.

“ Relnka, ” Qurrah heard. The prisoner gargled and coughed. Blood spilled out his lips, as well as his nose, his eyes, his ears, and every other orifice. He collapsed. Dark liquid pooled underneath his body as he silently died.

“I should bleed you as well,” she snarled at Qurrah.

“Try and you will die,” he shot back, wishing he felt as confident as he sounded. “I come as your savior. I will leave as your murderer.”

Tessanna held up her constricted hands.

“Release me.”

He touched the metal shackles and pondered. Unsure, he tried the same spell he had used to enter the cell. The metal swarmed with shadow, nearly glowing with its darkness, and then slipped to the ground, the flesh like air to it. When he started to cast the spell on her legs, she waved him off.