The muscular warrior struggled away against her bonds as she watched her old enchanted armour begin to move on its own. There was nothing she could do as she kicked and bucked, mewling into her gag, unable to escape nor stop Jhana’s spell from taking hold.

“With a blinding flash of shining steel, give the cold new warmth to feel!”

The armour began assembling itself into a form, growing larger, and then started to stand on two armoured legs. Jhana continued with her spell, reading from her leather bound book and grinning wide.

“Where the clouds gather and the rivers flow, bid this creature now to grow!”

The thing stood higher and higher until its head almost reached the high ceiling of Jhana’s dungeon. Fa’rah, the tied up warrior in the cell, could only struggle against the ropes around her wrists, legs, and arms. The cloth gag covering the ball gag in her mouth rendered her silent and she couldn’t even speak to the horrendous creation she was witnessing.

With a deep breath, Jhana issued her final command from the spell to put the finishing touches on her new creation.

“Now go and hunt the noble band, become my will, the Iron Hand!”

The armour stood up straight, now taking on the appearance of a fifteen foot tall human in gleaming steel armour, and turned its back to the cell where Fa’rah was still tied. Jhana smiled as she watched the back of the creature open up.

“Now we just need someone to help it keep control. Someone to draw power from. Now, who do we have for that?”

“Mmmph! Nmmm, plmmmph! Dmmmt!”

“Oh! Fa’rah! Fancy meeting you here! You’ll do perfectly my dear!”

With a simple wave of her hand, the barred cell door opened and Fa’rah’s eyes opened wide as she struggled harder. “Nmmm! Nmmm! Plmmmph, lmmt mm gmmm! PLMMMPH! MMMMPH!”

Iron chains shot out from the back of the armour and wrapped around Fa’rah’s arms and pulled her quickly inside. From there, her old helmet was placed on her head, though the eye slits were missing to render her completely blind. A further, glowing chain was attached to that one and began drawing energy from Fa’rah’s mind. The armour stood up and, when it walked, it even mimicked Fa’rah’s exact gait.

“Perfect,” Jhana said. “Now go on. Put that meddling Guild in chains,” Jhana said to the giant creature.

Without a word, the creature turned away from Jhana and headed up the stairs and out of her tower. With Fa’rah still bound, gagged, and struggling inside, there was nothing she could do to stop herself from giving this creature a mind of its own. Now it was after every last member of the Princess Guild.

...

Humming away to herself, Celia worked on stringing the new bow she had gotten for Jonas as a gift. She was always harping on him to replace his old one and now she would simply make him get a new one by giving him one as a present. Besides, she knew he would love it and the thought of making her best friend happy was always a delight to the small Guardian of the Guild.

It took some effort to bend the bow and finally get the string in place but Celia managed it. She twanged it a few times to test it before plucking an arrow from the quiver at her feet and nocking one to the string. The arrow sailed straight and true to the centre of the target she had set up about twenty metres away. Nocking another arrow for a test shot, Celia hesitated to pull back the string when she felt a strong vibration in the ground beneath her.

“What the...”

She stopped to listen for a moment and heard a loud thud along with the vibration the second time. Followed by another. And then another. It was a steady rhythm almost like...

“Footsteps?” she said to herself. “Those are some big footsteps if that’s true.”

This proved true when Celia heard a loud clanking from somewhere behind her and watched a giant, autonomous suit of armour thunder steadily toward her with one outstretched hand. Celia could see heavy chains dangling from the thing’s fingers.

“What is that!?” she exclaimed, raising the bow she had made for Jonas and drawing back the string. She let the arrow fly and it hit its target square in the helmet but the arrow just bounced off and did nothing to stop the creature. Celia tried again, the creature getting closer, and the same thing happened.

“Well, that’s not working,” Celia said, drawing her sword. “Got no other choice then.”

It stood way taller than her and Celia had no chance of hitting it anywhere vulnerable with her sword. She could only try to attack its ankles or knees but, by then, it would probably be too close. She was faster than the creature, that much she could see, but there wasn’t much that looked weak on the towering armoured thing.

While Celia quickly plotted out her best course of action, the creature lunged forward and swung an arm downward toward her. A heavy chain lashed out and wrapped around the blade of her sword. With a mighty pull, the weapon was taken from her hands and flung aside.

“Um... that’s not good.”

More chains lashed out, this time wrapping themselves around her body. Her arms were tightly wrapped from just above her elbows to right below her shoulders, pinning her arms to her sides. Another wrapped her ankles and calves and both started dragging her toward the creature. The suit of armour bent down and its chest opened up into a sort of cage. Celia knew where she was headed but she could nothing but squrim and fight against the thick chains that now held her.

“Uuungh! Damn it! Get off of me!”

She felt the chains on her arms shift and something heavy fell about her wrists, clicking in place behind her back and keeping them a tiny distance apart. Somehow, the chains had sprouted shackles and restrained her wrists as well.

“Agghh! Jeez, what else could this thing possibly do?”

Without hesitation, the thing flicked its right arm and flung an object straight for her head. It moved too quick for her to move and soon something leather forced its way into her mouth, filling it with something soft, and covering it with a leather panel.

“Mmmph! Nmmm wmmm!” I just had to ask she thought to herself.

In no time Celia was pulled into the cage in the armour’s chest and shut away inside, plunged into instant darkness. She could feel the thing stand up and begin walking again and she could do nothing but writhe and squrim against the tight steel that held her captive.

Bound in chains and tightly gagged, Celia was hauled away inside the giant suit of armour. The only signs she had even been in the fortress courtyard were Jonas’ new bow laying on the ground and her stolen sword, flung away into the field somewhere now useless to her. She was thankful that no one else had been at the fortress when she was captured. Of course, the armour had its plan, still sapping Fa’rah’s power of mind, and stalked off toward its next target.

While still moving, Celia could feel the world fading around her and then coming back in like she had awoken from a dream. But now she was in a different place. She was no longer inside the armour’s chest but now in a dark dungeon. Still chained and gagged, Celia could not escape her tight bonds and had no idea where the creature had sent her. Perhaps Lanala could figure something out. Celia hoped so, anyway...

...

The Princess of Dosette did so love to wander the marketplace of her kingdom’s capital. In turn, the merchants loved to see Princess Lanala as she browsed through their wares, exchanged pleasant and polite conversation, and occasionally even buy something. Of course, the beloved princess of Dosette need not buy anything for the merchants to enjoy speaking to her. Indeed, Lanala and the merchants delighted in each other’s company more than anything. And Lanala would feel a great sense of pride in her kingdom and its people to have created such a peaceful and loving atmosphere on the streets of its biggest and most populous city.

Lanala waved at the merchants as she passed by their stalls, greeting them and taking in the fresh spring air. All in all it seemed to be a rather peaceful day. Of course, that all changed when Lanala saw something flash through her mind, making her stop dead in her tracks.

In Esterlin, Lanala realized that her old ability for prophetic dreams from Ikaatan had been amplified to the point where they were now visions, though it was always unclear if they were from the past, the present, or the future. All she did know was that they were absolutely real.

This vision showed Celia, the Guardian of the Guild, chained and gagged in a dark cell in a place she didn’t recognize. Another vision flashed through her mind and showed her a giant suit of armour lumbering through the streets of her kingdom’s capital. Something felt vaguely familiar about the creature’s mind but Lanala couldn’t place it before the vision faded away.

“Celia...” Lanala whispered, trying her best to work out where their small guardian had been taken. It looked to be a dark stone keep, though it was hard to discern what sort of specific architecture it might be. It would take some thinking and Lanala knew Artema would be able to help her. Before she could head off to the Royal Palace, however, people all over town started screaming and running for their lives. All of this was followed quickly by the sound of scraping metal and huge, lumbering footsteps getting louder and louder.

Lanala turned around and saw the giant armoured thing heading straight for her from the city gates. Its purposeful moves made it seem far less mindless than it appeared and, once again, something seemed familiar about it. But Lanala didn’t take the time to contemplate this, instead balling her hands into fists and trying to come up with a spell to deal with the creature.

“From the grey sky and darkened cloud, give me all that is allowed. Inside my hands let it spring forth, the lightning strikes out from the north!”

With her hands held out in front of her, Lanala let the sky above her darken. A roll of thunder accompanied the loud crack of lightning that shot out from her hands and struck the creature full in the chest. It stopped walking for a moment before continuing as the electricity dissipated all over its body and simply ran down to the ground at its feet. It seemed the armour made for an excellent conductor straight through to the ground in a complete circuit that did nothing to the creature inside or out.

“Damn... um...” Lanala thought quickly of another spell, hoping to somehow summon her magnetic ability. She started chanting the spell, hoping to tear the creature apart, when it tossed something her way. It sailed quickly through the air and was aimed straight at her head.

“The-mmph!?” A tight leather panel with mouth stuffing forced itself into her mouth and tightly covered it to keep her completely silent. A thick strap went around her head and locked in place. She tried to undo the leather gag but something cold and steel snapped onto her right wrist and pulled it behind her back, locking another around her left wrist to hold them in place.

“Shmmklmmph!?” she said behind her gag, now unable to escape the grip of the heavy shackles on her wrists.

Then the creature lumbered closer and heavy chains shot out from its arms toward her, wrapping themselves around her arms and legs, chaining her in the same way as Celia, and then rapidly pulling her into the cage in its open chest.

When Lanala was pulled inside, the thing closed up its chest and stalked away from the town, its next target already in mind. While struggling against her chains, Lanala thought she heard a familiar voice somewhere nearby. It was a muffled woman’s voice and it sounded like she, too, was struggling with something. But that all quickly faded as her vision went black for a moment and then the grey, stone walls of a dungeon appeared in her vision. She heard another woman grunt and sit up, shifting against heavy chains.

“Hmmmph?”

Lanala definitely recognized Celia’s voice this time and knew then that she had been transported to the same prison that Celia was being held within. There was also no doubt in her mind that this was Jhana’s doing but, unfortunately, she could do nothing about it. Without the ability to speak, her magic was useless and there were no Dragon Spells to summon in Esterlin like back home in Ikaatan. For now all she could do was struggle and watch Celia, imprisoned in the cell across from her, do the same. All she could hope for was that at least one of the Guild could put a stop to the armoured creature.

...

She heard it before she saw it. The keen senses of the Holy Sunlight were always on alert and there were very few who could sneak up on her. This lumbering, armoured beast was not among those few.

Wearing her mask, Meryn had been listening in to a group of smugglers about some meeting place when they had been interrupted by the loud scraping metal sound of the walking suit of armour that strolled into the capital of the Seven Islands.

It was still dripping with water, meaning it had simply stepped into the water and walked into the ocean to get to her. And it was clear that Meryn herself was the target as it made its way straight for her. But now she had it confused. It couldn’t find her.

She waited on the rooftop of the local chapel; a one story building with a sort of tower at the front where Meryn could hide behind tall crenellations at the top and keep an ear out for the creature.

It wasn’t far and certainly seemed to have keen senses of its own. But Meryn would outsmart this thing. She had a short crossbow on her belt and several bolts imbued with her own power. She didn’t have much when she was transported to Esterlin along with the rest of them but her ability did come in handy.

Meryn could blind her opponents with a sort of magical energy blast like sunlight, hence how she got her nickname. She experimented and found a way to craft a sort of stun bolt for her crossbow. Of course, with a creature made of steel, it would be an experiment in and of itself to see if it even worked.

Loading one stun bolt into her crossbow, Meryn leaned around the corner of one crenellation and whistled to the creature on the streets below her. It turned slowly and Meryn waited for the right moment. It raised its arms and the chains hanging from them began to shoot straight toward her.

With its head raised, Meryn took careful aim at the helmet’s eye slits and let the bolt loose. It moved faster than the chains and slid straight in to the back of the helmet, slamming into the back of it and exploding into bright, golden light.

The light emanated from the eye slits in the helmet and the chains went limp, falling to the ground with a loud clatter. The armour fell to its knees and its head slumped forward before it went completely still. Meryn eyed it carefully and waited a few minutes to see if it would get up again. When it didn’t, she climbed down to the ground below and watched as its back opened and revealed a familiar, squirming passenger inside.

She couldn’t help the smile on her face when she met the eyes of the missing rogue warrior within. Fa’rah was less than pleased to see her old rival again but, still, made a muffled plea for release from her captivity. Meryn stepped forward and looked inside the suit of armour. She spotted her bolt stuck in the back of the helmet and noticed the scorched metal on the inside. It had obviously severed some kind of link between it and Fa’rah but Meryn didn’t have the time or the patience to work out Jhana’s vile magic.

“So,” she said. “Look what the armour dragged in.”

“Mmmmph! Plmmmph mmmtmm mm!”

Meryn sighed. “Let’s get that thing off of you,” she said, reaching up and removing both gags that kept Fa’rah silent.

“Thank you,” she said. “I need help! Please, I’ve been trapped in this thing for two days! I don’t know what Jhana has done this time but I can’t take it anymore!”

“How am I to know you weren’t the one controlling that thing?” Meryn asked.

“Are you serious!? Look at me! Do you think I tied myself up like this? You know how much I hate it!”

Meryn shrugged. “Could be a ruse. You’ve always been good at those.”

“Come on, Meryn! You know Jhana did this! I don’t have that kind of power! Please, just untie me!”

“I’ve got questions first,” Meryn said. “First off, where have you been? Did you really get captured? Again?”

“Damn it... yes. All right? And it was Jhana again, too. I went after her on my own, again, and she was ready for me.”

“Like always,” Meryn said, still unable to hide the pleased smirk on her face.

Fa’rah sighed. “Yes... like always... but I had a plan this time! I thought the enchanted armour would work!”

“And now she’s trapped you inside it.”

“Yeah... sort of... Look, are you going to untie me or what?”

Meryn folded her arms and looked Fa’rah in the eyes. “Where are the others?”

“What others?” Meryn raised an eyebrow. Fa’rah sighed again. “You mean the ones this thing captured, right?”

“Who else could I mean? So how many did it, or you, get?”

Fa’rah, still a bit weary from the mental connection, tried to remember what the creature remembered. She saw two faces, Celia and Lanala, but the rest was all a blur.

“Celia and Lanala and... that’s it. Nobody else.”

“And where are they?” Meryn asked.

“Umm.... a dungeon. Underneath... Fort Demena. You know, the old fort in Onellia? The one that used to be the prison?”

“I know it,” Meryn said. “It’s supposed to be abandoned.”

“That’s where she sent them,” Fa’rah said. “Something in her magic must have just teleported them there. Listen, these are my memories as much as its. I’m not lying to you.”

Meryn chuckled slightly. “We’ll see.”

“So... does that mean you’re going to untie me?”

Meryn shook her head. “I’m not stupid. No way a two-timer like you can be trusted. But you’re smart. Sometimes. Figure your own way out of this mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”

Fa’rah strained against her tight bonds, thrashing and writhing to no avail. “Come on, Meryn! Let me out! Please!”

“I think it’s time to shut you up again,” Meryn said.

“No! Don’t you dare gag me again! You’ll pay for this, Meryn! You’ll all pa-mmmmph!”

Meryn strapped the ball gag tightly back into Fa’rah’s mouth and covered it over with the cloth again. Fa’rah growled behind her gag and kicked and bucked against her restraints but she still couldn’t get free.

“Till next time, Fa’rah.”

“Mmmph! Cmm bmmk hmmmr! Mmmrymmnn! MMMMMPPPPHHH!”

Meryn walked away into the streets again, leaving the still bound and gagged Fa’rah to fend for herself. With the armoured creature collapsing under its own weight, the rogue warrior disappeared in a flash and was transported away by some strange magic. Now with nothing but iron dust, the creature had been defeated and Meryn made her way to Fort Demena in hopes of finding her captured friends.

...

Artema scowled at Meryn when she recounted the story to her. Sitting at the head of the table within the council room of the Guild Fortress, the leader eyed the three women who had seen the armoured creature roaming Esterlin’s landscape.

“Not sure I like that you left Fa’rah,” Artema said. “We’ve all had problems with her but I don’t think even she deserves to be Jhana’s prisoner. I know she can’t be trusted but... you should have freed her.”

“I made the right choice,” Meryn said. “She would have stabbed me in the back, like she always does. Besides, Jhana won’t do anything but keep her tied up in a cell. And she’ll get out of it. Somehow she always finds a way, stupid as she is.”

“We still have a duty here, Meryn. We’re a Guild of protectors. Vengeance is not a word in our vocabulary. Freeing Fa’rah was the only right thing to do.”

“I don’t need to justify my choice. You say you would have done different but don’t lie to yourself, Artema. You would’ve done the same as me.”

Artema shrugged. “Maybe... still seems wrong to me.”

“I think what’s important is that I got Lanala and Celia back.”

“I tend to agree,” Celia said. “I didn’t like that dungeon. And who knows what would have happened if Meryn had taken any longer to get to us?”

“But you don’t think she should have freed Fa’rah?” Artema asked.

“Well... I won’t pretend to be able to think like Meryn. But I would have had a hard time choosing. It does feel wrong to leave her like that but... she’s really stabbed us in the back before. You know?”

Artema sighed. “I guess it’s more complicated than I thought. All right. Let’s just make sure we’re ready for the next one. Jhana is sure to try something again. Aurora, too. We should stick together as much as we can and, if we can help it, make sure we're not alone in our own kingdoms.

“Good idea, Artema,” Meryn said. “Better to avoid being alone in times like these. Especially with so much potential for capture.”

“That’ll be easy,” Lanala said. “I’m already practically glued to your side anyway, Artema. But it’ll be so tough to have to keep my eyes on a gorgeous woman like you...”

Artema smirked. “I think my job might be a little tougher. You can’t expect me to tear my eyes off a form like that, Lanala.”

“Oh jeez. Get a room, you two,” Meryn said, rolling her eyes.

Lanala chuckled. “We’ve got one. Speaking of...”

“Well... you heard her. We’re done here,” Artema said. “And thanks for the suggestion, Meryn. I think we’ll go do that.” Artema crossed the room and scooped up her wife in her arms. Lanala let out a delighted squeal and the two of them left the room quickly. Meryn rolled her eyes again and slowly followed them out. She stopped when Celia didn’t follow.

“You coming?”

“Yeah. I’m just... thinking. Much as she’s been kind of pain to us, I don’t want anything bad to happen to Fa’rah. You know?”

“She’ll be fine, Celia. If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll start looking for Jhana’s stupid hidden tower in the morning so we can find out where she’s being held. All right?”

Celia nodded. “Okay. Maybe I can help you.”

“If Elyn doesn’t keep you too busy, sure.”

Celia blushed a bit as she followed Meryn out the door, closing it behind her.

...

Jhana walked back and forth, rusty sword in hand, running it against the bars of Fa’rah’s cell. Her prisoner mewled and struggled but could do nothing to stop the awful noise of the sword rattling against the bars.

“That was some trick she pulled,” Jhana said, suddenly stopping. “Damn that Meryn. Well, looks like its back to the old drawing board for me. But I’ve had better plans up my sleeve anyway. That iron hand was far from foolproof. Especially when drawing its mind from a fool.”

“Hmmmph! Shmmt mmmp!”

Jhana chuckled. “Ah, Fa’rah. So easy to wind up. I do love having you here. You will stay a bit longer, won’t you?”

“Mmmph! Nmmm! Lmmt mmm gmmm! Mmmtmmm mm ymm wmmmcmph!”

“Wonderful! I’ll be delighted to have you as my guest! Well, I’ve got to run. My next plan needs a bit more work. Refinement and testing and whatnot. You understand. Have fun down here!”

Jhana walked to the stairs, shutting the heavy gate behind her, and ignoring the pleas from Fa’rah, her muffled cries for help, and her angry grunts and growls as she helplessly struggled against her tight bonds. Perhaps Fa’rah would come in useful again someday. For now, she would stay bound and gagged within Jhana’s dungeon. It was the only place Jhana wanted her to be, after all.