April 4, 2005 – 03:10 (Winnipeg Time)
"Yes, we knew it was a risk and kept him in a warded cage so he couldn't be tracked and wouldn't be able to tell the others where he was. We wanted to know who was behind these weapons, and that's why we went for that plan. Ultimately, we found where their compound was," said Jourmol.
"How did you know that only one djinn made these weapons and not the workers you killed at the weapon factory in December?" said High mage Finnas.
"We found vials of essence and blueprints there. If we had killed the djinn whose imprints were in the weapons, someone from the same bloodline would have been sent for them. Right after we freed our members and the others who were kept prisoners with them, one of our members killed the djinn we captured," said Coralis.
"Your new prisoner will probably mind-link them too," said Panjik.
"It's what we are hoping will happen and why we took him to a compound they knew. We want the people he works for to find out where he is and lure them. Note that I'm only telling you this because General Tobly isn't here. I do not trust him to keep this information to himself and not blab it to the wrong people, even if unintentionally," said Coralis.
"Blue Thunder, thank you for freeing Agent Jourmol Pinq and for letting us watch tonight's events. We want to know, how did you and Alejandro Salinz escape?" said High Elf Ellya.
"They held us captive without our binds, thinking they're what gave us our powers. The entire time we were there, we denied being witches and we knew they would watch and analyze footage from the cameras afterwards. Our jailbreak had to appear to have been done by humans."
"Was the information sent by your posse useful?" said Sonylla.
"Very. We knew the cuffs were all using the same universal key and that the cell doors within a block were using the same ones, but there wasn't a universal one to unlock all doors within the jail. We also knew the cell doors in our block didn't use the same key as the ones where their other witchy prisoners were held."
"The other prisoners they had captured, were they all witches?" said High Elf Yalor.
"No, four of them were humans. Over the past few days, using the Styrofoam from the bowl of our food ration, we crafted what looked like universal keys and hid them in our underwear. We had our back against the camera when crafting them and we shredded the rest of the bowl so they wouldn't suspect anything."
"That explains the additional beatings you got," said Sonylla.
"Yes, but it was worth it. When we enacted the plan, I coated the silver around the cell door locking mechanism with polished iron using a small amount of elemental magic so we wouldn't burn ourselves opening it. I didn't want the people who would analyze the footage afterwards to be able to detect any change of colour tone on the bars, so I also matched the colour."
"That's smart. Coating doesn't require the same amount of energy as fully transforming the metal," said Panjik.
"To unlock our cuffs and the cell doors, we used crafted keys and made it seem like we knew how to pick locks. We weren't sure if they kept our stuff in their subbasement storage room, but we had to check. The quickest route to the storage room was through the ventilation system above the ceiling. There was a trap in our block, so we climbed in it, shifted to our animal form, and I spelled my paws so I wouldn't make a sound. Alejandro rode on my back so we could move quicker."
"Seems you did find all of your stuff in there," said Frank, noticing she wore her wedding ring.
"Almost. We never found our binds. We also found blood samples and reports from us. Alejandro falsified them to make them look like human blood before they found someone who could interpret the blood reports. He also falsified those taken from the coven there."
"They took blood from you?" said High Mage Finnas.
"It seems so. Probably when we arrived there, while still unconscious. We warned the others that we had our sticks but would have to leave our binds behind because we couldn't risk getting to another storage room: it would take too long and we couldn't get caught. We returned to the ventilation conduit and headed to where the coven was held. I removed the silent step spell before jumping down to wake them up, hoping the cameras had sound."
"Did they also torture them?" said Sonylla.
"Yes. We gave them the keys we used for our cuffs and unlocked their cells the same way we did for ours, but using a different one. When done, I returned to the ventilation conduit and exited across the door. We wanted to be seen using several keys and made it look like I had to try more than one to unlock the deadlock and the lock on the handle, to make it believable, so we made more than needed. We crafted them all differently, so they would look different on camera."
"If they saw you using the same foam key on all locks, they could then use the camera footage to claim you aren't human and that magic must have been involved," said Sebastian.
"Precisely. We also intentionally broke a few keys in some locks. Their cell block was next to the hallway leading to the stairway giving on a back emergency exit, so from that point, we went straight for it. I stood guard while Alejandro unscrewed the alarm sensors on the outside door and he made sure the magnets would stay stuck together. Once outside, we told the coven to run to the road and which direction to go. We walked in the opposite direction and once out of camera range, we took off."
"Your plan was efficient, but thankfully they didn't move forward the execution time without warning,," said High Mage Finnas.
"It took us 45 minutes to get out of there, which was longer than we were aiming for. We hoped the information we had on the night guards' routine was still valid and that they didn't have a different one that night. We knew the jail administration would review and analyze all cameras footage when they noticed we escaped, so in front of every camera we stopped by along the way, we took a few seconds to wave and smile at it."
Sebastian and Frank chuckled, but Emery and Sonylla couldn't stop laughing.
"Had they come to our cells with a gun before we executed our plan," continued Coralis, glancing at Frank, "trust, they would have ended up fighting among themselves over an empty one."
"Your plan was well thought-out and keeping you isolated in their subbasement made it easier for you to escape. What would you have done if your sticks wouldn't have been in that storage room?" said Panjik.