The abruptness and source of the attack took Sathera off guard. And it was an attack. That was the only word worthy of describing a strand of shadow taking physical form to throw her instructor out of the cage as the bars moved aside and returned back in place before anyone could react.

No, that wasn't right. Everyone in the cage had time to react when the shadows first coalesced around Instructor Green, but Sathera was so surprised when the shadow tendrils suddenly appeared that the thought of intervening never occurred to her. Then that bitch of a beastkin dragged him like some dog out onto the center of the stone plate, offering him up as a sacrifice.

The worst part was that no one even spoke up at the suggestion of him being sacrificed. Even Sathera felt a momentary sense of relief that Instructor Green was offered to them and not her, to her shame. But that was only the smallest of traitorous thoughts that briefly passed through her mind.

When Sathera saw Celeste's blotchy, plain face twisted with a smile of pleasure and anticipation, she felt a trill of rage and revulsion run through her. How could the woman be so morally broken that she would be happy for — if the beast-woman was to be believed — another's soul to be ripped out of their body. Subjective as it might be, Sathera's impression of the other woman was only made worse as Celeste met her gaze, and her lips stretched to a point where Sathera was surprised that the unlined flesh wasn't tearing apart from the demand placed on them.

By the time people were moving to rush at the already closed door, Instructor Green was getting up. He only made it to his arms and knees when the stone beneath him blossomed with a pale blue light, and he froze. Though the light filled the entire carved slab, the area around the center portion, which Green was in, had formed a wall of light shooting far up into the air. A pillar that grew brighter and pulsed like a heart, each time growing darker and more defined as strange patterns and symbols appeared around four of the robed beastkins controlling the casting.

Not all of the figures around the circle looked to be — the only word Sathera could think of was feeding — the blue light… spell? Spell was the correct term; Sathera knew that, but she really had no idea what the word actually implied. Four of the thirteen had their hands out and were muttering something she could not fully make out or understand, while the others were a step or more back from the edge of the outermost glowing ring.

Even though they weren't currently participating in whatever was happening, their faces were that of concentration and focus, and their bodies were tensed as if waiting to jump forward into action. Seconds passed, and a breath in Sathera's throat was caught halfway down, forming a lump when Instructor Green started screaming.

The darker blue core in the center of the spell had intensified, and she suddenly remembered what the shadow from the night before told them. If the beastkin could be trusted, which she was doubting at the moment, having one's soul sucked out was a fate worse than death. In between his throat-tearing screams, Green collapsed to the stone, and the light in the smooth center area started to dim like a dying fire.

In response, the old beastkin shouted, "Two more enter the array!" Without hesitation, two of the robed figures on opposite sides stepped forward. In a fraction of a second, the ground at their feet flared to life in intricate geometric patterns with the same blue glow that comprised the rest of the array.

The lines of light around the beastkin's feet steadily increased like tongues of flickering flames that grew until they reached their waists over the course of a few seconds. All at once, the glow around the new casters dropped to the same illumination level as the rest of the array.

At the same time, the ring that trapped Instructor Green, which had been steadily lessening, surged with new life. All at once, the engraved lines on the inner portion of the plate more than doubled in brilliance, signaling a new peak in Instructor Green's screams.

The spectacle drew Sathera in, and before she knew what was happening, her body was less than an inch from the bars facing the square. With every increasingly throat-rending scream, her breathing hastened, becoming shallower as her chest and neck tightened in sympathy.

Then, the horror playing out before her took on a new, sickening turn. Instructor Green's skin began turning crimson. Once his skin had shifted to a shade deeper than blood, the light started pouring out from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. Along with the red light, blobs of golden radiance began seeping from his body, like blobs of water falling off a ledge.

When the new energies exited Green's body, they would rise above him and collect into a mass with a tube of crimson power running between it and the center of Green's head. The whole time, his screams echoed off the walls of the fort, and as his mouth opened, his jaw looked as if it was forced slightly wider as yet another blob of tainted energy ripped itself free from his body.

"Another two join the circle!" Shouted the old beastkin, prompting two more to step forward. Sathera's fists were clenched at her sides. She wanted to reach forward and pull the bars apart.

"Be patient," whispered a voice into her ear, "or his sacrifice will be worthless." Looking to the side in surprise, Sathera saw nothing. At least, she didn't see someone standing next to her close enough to whisper to her, though the rest of the cage's occupants were also gathered on this side of the bar.

As she studied the other scouts, what sparked a sense of surprise in her was that Celeste's smile had diminished until it was nearly nonexistent. Celeste might be a racist bitch who enjoyed hurting elves, but even she could tell something was profane about this situation. The entire process the beastkins were using to strip the golden energy from Green seemed sacrilegious to Sathera. Deep inside of herself, the young woman knew the golden light was sacred. And these beasts were desecrating it.

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"No one is paying attention to the prisoners," the voice whispered again, "gather everyone into your mental linking." Feeling confident that this voice was coming from the direction she was looking, Sathera glanced farther away than the cage. Past the bars and leaning against the fort's stone walls was the female beastkin who had thrown Instructor Green to the wolves. The beastkin's lips curled in a secretive smile, then her mouth moved ever so slightly.

Sathera heard nothing, and she began to scowl as her face reddened in rage. Then, the voice appeared in her ear seconds after the beastkin woman spoke. "Yes, it's me who's talking. And don't get your tail in a twist. Someone was going to be thrown in there. Green is the only one among you who has a chance of occupying all of them for your escape."

"You sentenced him to death!" Sathera hissed at the beastkin, anger burning inside of her.

"Maybe, maybe not. It's up to his willpower for how long he can last and if you act fast enough to save him. What I never said last night, 'cause it wasn't relevant, was that if the person inside the Soul Harvest Spell outlasts the casters or if they are disrupted, the spell will be broken, with the casters dying as their life essence are sucked into the spell along with their mana. It has to do with the law of balance, which doesn't matter at the moment. What does matter is that most of the energy pulled out of the target of the spell will return to its owner, and the reports I read said that about half of the subjects lived after experiencing a broken spell. So, if you believe in him, gather everyone up and prepare to break the cage. Wait for all the mages to join the casting because once they join the array, they cannot get out." Before her words reached Sathera through whatever relay she was using, the beastkin had already turned and started walking along the wall, her two guards following on her heels.

Sathera waited for long seconds, watching the beastkins walk down the river's shoreline past the bridge to the other side of the half-circle walls. A scream from Instructor Green, louder than before, caused her to spin around, facing the spectacle in the square.

Interspersed between the screams that can only indicate someone experiencing an unimaginable pain was a constant drone of voices. Initially, the voices were quiet, hardly noticeable, and were overshadowed whenever another scream tore out of the instructor's throat. But now, the droning gradually grew louder and more forceful as the voices resonated with power.

The voices had combined, and Sathera couldn't tell where one started and another ended. But she could feel the power the beasts were wielding as it beat against her skin. It was like the mythical gods of old had appeared before them and began speaking. The beastkin's actions demanded attention, and what they were speaking was being brought into reality by sheer force of will.

She could feel her attention being drawn to the event playing out before her like a lodestone to metal. It was so enthralling that it took a long moment for her to gather enough will to wrench her eyes away and step back from the bars.

Sathera found the situation weird, as the compulsion to watch was different from a mental working meant to draw others' attention. It was as if, purely by its sheer existence, all the energy geared towards its terrible purpose needed to be witnessed by someone. The noble had never felt something so… real. Significant might be a better word, but regardless, it called to her on a fundamental level.

No, that was wrong. It wasn't the spell but something else that was hidden among all the congregating energies that drew her focus. It was born from neither the beastkins nor the Olimpians, yet was part of each of them. Something Sathera had always yearned for but could never find, but even as she yearned for whatever it was, she knew deep down that she did not deserve it.

Blinking again, Sathera took a deep breath, resisting the compulsion to be drawn back into watching the casting. It was a trap everyone else had also fallen into, a fact she discovered when she turned to look at the other cages. Everyone was watching the events with looks of longing, horror, or burning rage in their eyes.

Sathera threw a few quick glances over her shoulder and found that two more of the reserves had joined the casting, leaving only three more robed beastkin who hadn't entered the array. Combine that with the fact that the warrior beastkins in the courtyard were fixated on the spell with looks of reverence and awe, not paying attention to anything else; it was nearly as good of an opportunity they were likely to get.

Centering herself and gathering her psy, Sathera sent out two tendrils, slamming them into the minds of two of her fellow prisoners. It was rather rude, but she needed to get their attention and force them out of their stooper.

Celeste and a man looked at her in surprise and annoyance, but as she gestured around the square to everyone not paying attention to them with her chin, their eyes lit up in realization. After that, they quickly accepted the links and set about sending out links to everyone in the cage.

Sathera's stomach growled as if they had not been fed, and she felt the hunger underpinning the rest of the union, but she and everyone else ignored the feeling. "We break open the cage, then free the others." She said, "That female beastkin said they can't stop once they start this casting, so this is our best chance to get free."

"How can we trust her," Celeste replied, her suspicion coming through with the mental message, "What is she getting out of this?"

"Does it matter? Overwhelming the cage makes sense, and Instructor Green is dying in a… horrific way. What they are doing is wrong. More than that, I can feel everyone's fear of experiencing the process." No one could reply to her mental message. "We wait for the last pair." She ordered, getting a feeling of acceptance in return from everyone else.

They did not have to wait long, as the old beastkin called them forward within a minute of the union being formed before he also stepped into the spell formation. They waited a few more seconds just to be sure, and then Sathera gathered the collective psy of the union under her control and aimed it at the back of the cage.

Her body tensed as she drove the collective working into the bars, ripping them from the floor and roof of the cage and sending them clattering over the stone ground. As Sathera was expecting more resistance, the large barrel thick tendril plowed into the cage behind them, busting it open as well. Overall, there was a slight resistance as some of their energy was ripped away, but nothing that would stop them.

A smile spread across Sathera's face after a moment of surprise, and then she stepped forward and began reforming the psy to rip apart the other cages as she thought, we're coming, Instructor.

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