Severin was marched back to his cell and unceremoniously thrown into it. He picked himself up, and then after a few minutes of thought, he sat down and set his hands into a ritual position taught him by his master and set about exploring what he could make of his new progression.

  “The manacles have hampered the mana of greater Seidren than us, dear boy. You won’t get far trying to pass them.” Severin's friend in the next cell told him.

  Severin ignored him. He could feel it. A complete block that would not allow his mana out. However, he couldn’t express mana anyway. He had a mana well, and Jef had patiently explained to him:

  “Sense the mana at root, and touch the mana for grass, Stem Seidren have a mana well. Flower is the expression of mana, and with Tree, comes mana sight. Once you’ve formed your mana well, you will need to create a route for the mana to be expressed. Most Seidren create their first mana route to the pointer finger on their right hand.”

  Severin focused. His mana well was tiny indeed, with only a tiny drop of mana sitting at the bottom, the only mana he had taken in before he had been shackled.

  Using that drop of mana, Severin focused intensely. Jefromov had told him that stronger Seidren could wield psychic energy outside of themselves, but lower tier couldn’t sense it, and could only use it within themselves.

  Severin forced his drop of mana outside of the well, and pushed it roughly in a path that carved through his spirit. He set a path which avoided the spiritual area of his heart and doggedly began shoving his little drop of mana toward his finger. He was intensely focused, and realized he was sweating, but he would not let up.

  Forty- three minutes later, Severin opened his eyes, gasping at the pressure, he could feel his tiny drop just barely in his finger. He dragged the mana back into his well and lay back. The rest of the night until he fell asleep, Severin rejoicingly pushed the droplet of mana back and forth between his well and his finger, smoothing the pathway. When he fell asleep his smile was euphorically triumphant.

  The next day Severin awoke and for a second forgot about his predicament of imprisonment. He felt in his spirit and felt for his new mana path. It was amazing. After siting excitedly for several minutes, Severin realized that every Seidren in the compound likely had manifold mana pathways, and that his small success was small indeed.

  He began forging a path to his left fingertip. When that was done, he created one for each finger, then a branching pathway into the separate knuckles of each finger. Days passed and with nothing to do but chat with his fellow prisoners, he imagined that mana pathways could only help. He forged them to his feet and his knees, shoulder and every place with which he could imagine needing a mana exit. When his spirit was positively riddled with pathways, he ran his mana drop along them in a constant effort.

  This was his constant battle, often leaving the physical world for the complicated world of his spirit. He spent two months in the prison, working and reworking his mana oaths before the break-out occurred.

  Severin awoke to the sounds of metal jangling and hushed voices. He looked around in surprise and saw eight or nine shadowy figures in the dark around his cage. Corren was leaving his cage, and he noticed Severin's gaze.

  “You want out, Boy? Can you come with us?” It was Corren. Severin paced to the gate. ”How?”

  “Ssshhhhh” a couple of the shadowy figures quickly hissed.

  Severin thought quickly then nodded. One of Corren’s conspirators brought forward keys, and then Severin’s cage was open. He stumbled out, his legs numb from time spent immobile. Severin had tried to keep active, but the cage was difficult. Getting out was a huge relief.

  He was helped out of his mental plate. The group rushed along as he was handed keys to his manacles. He fumbled with them as they made their way along. As they did, the door exploded inwards, and Seidren spilled out attacking with weapons and fired attacks. Severin’s party immediately began to wield magic of their own.

  Explosions rocked the cavern, and there were screams from the remaining prisoners locked away, and from the attacking and defending parties. Chaos quickly overtook Severin and an explosion of crystal erupted in front of him, exploding up in a large outgrowth of quick growing crystal. One of the outgrowths struck Severin and sent him tumbling between two cages. He landed awkwardly, his manacles remaining on his hands.

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  The keys fumbled into the dark. Severin blindly searched for them. A Seidren prison guard ran past Severin, and he watched as the man stumbled, having seen him on the ground. Severin rolled back into the central passageway and ran. His Seidren pursuer would have quickly caught him, but chaos reigned. Severin dodged and fell over as a blade of fire sliced through the air.

  Severin ran.

  He arrived at the door, and glanced backwards. His pursuer had become entangled in a fight with an escaped prisoner. Severin pulled at the door, and it opened. He slipped in and closed the door behind him. It was dark, but he kept running. He reached another door, and let himself through.

  Once through, he closed the door behind him, and sat against it. The room was dark, and besides a few echoing booms from the battle, it was quiet. He raised his hand to his forehead and it came back sticky with blood. Suddenly a sound reached Severin’s questing ears. A hissing and the sound as if something were being dragged along the floor. It was coming towards Severin. He had not escaped, but had come deeper into the dungeon.

  Severin leapt forward and further into the room as the sound got uncomfortably close. The floor was scattered with small pieces of what felt like animal bones. Severin recognized the putrid smell of a reptile animal, mixed with scents that let him know it was not grass fed. In his mind, Severin imagined a giant snake looming in the dark. He quickly scampered through the dark. Many magical beasts hunted by manasense, and Severin knew that his manacles would function better than a veil, but the beast likely wasn’t deaf.

  He worked his way through the room getting further and further from the wall, as the sound came towards him. Severin senses couldn’t tell where it was and so he began to back his way back to the door from which he had come. Better in a cage, than in the monster’s stomach. Severin quietly made it back to the wall, and he followed it until he reached a door. He tried it and it was locked. The slithering sound sped up and got louder and he noticed that it now came right towards him. In a panic he continued along the wall until he found another door. He opened, and luckily found it unlocked. He bolted out of the room.

  He missed his second step, and the ground quickly disappeared from under him. Severin screamed, and didn’t get a chance to close the door as fell, then hit his knee, and then a shoulder and he fell hard. It wasn’t until he was at the bottom of the stairs that he realized what had happened to him.

  Severin knew that he needed to get up, but he felt as though he had received a beating at the hands of the staircase. Lying there, it took him a second to notice that he was seeing a line of light underneath another door, here at the bottom of the stairs. Severin dragged himself over to the door, and tried it. It was locked, but fumbling fingers soon realized that it was locked from Severin’s side. He released the bolt and peered outside.

  It was a cavern, lit dimly by the light of a setting sun at the entrance on the other side. At the opening on the far side of the cave, two enormous oxen, apparently made of ice and snow, and they stood tethered to a large metal carriage with a large door open. The oxen stamped their hooves impatiently as people loaded goods into the carriage.

  Severin was glancing around, looking for watchers, but he heard the terrifying sounds of scales on stone behind him. With a glance behind, he saw serpentine eyes glowing in the reflected light of the cavern. Severin leapt through the door, at the same time the serpent struck. Its mouth closed around his foot and began dragging him back to the stairway.

  Severin managed to grab hold of the door, and slammed it shut hard before he got back through the door frame. The door crashed into the neck of the snake. He leveraged his other foot onto the door and slammed it hard five times before the snake loosened its jaw and retreated, taking the front half of Severin’s shoe and most of the skin off his toes.

  Severin slammed the door shut and scrambled over to where a couple empty crates lay in a corner. He ripped a large piece of his shirt off and wrapped his foot as best he could. Hurt and scared with his hands still manacled, his life was in grave peril. Taking in the cavern, he saw the dark interior of the carriage through an open door. He saw that carriage and saw safety.

  Severing began making his way across the cavern, fleeing from one shadow to the next. He realized that he was leaving bloody footprints, but there was no help for it. When he arrived at the last gap between shadows, he pulled up, judging the distance. Quietly he tore another piece of his shirt off and wrapped his foot one more time. He waited until he thought no one was watching and stole in through the door and into the darkest recess where he wormed between two large crates.

  He lay there, calming his nerves, as the last crates were loaded into the carriage. Then Severin heard and recognized the chilling voice of Tyladriel, the leader of the Crystalline Frost Sect. He was coming into the carriage.

  “This ought to appease the fat bastard. We can get him to stop bothering us about the stupid bloodfold.” Tyladriel placed a package in the carriage himself, glanced around, then left. The door swung shut in a ponderous slow way, then landed closed. There were strange locking sounds followed by others. Severin realized with a start that he was locked in. The carriage began moving.