<div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    Zdeska nudged Borth with an elbow and pointed up the path alongside the giant vine. Borth was shivering and had a wild look in his eyes, but his head snapped up to look where the bandit queen pointed. Zdeska brushed off her elbow. The man still smelled smokey from being bathed with lava. Zdeska didn’t feel sorry for him, he had slipped on ice, of all things.


    Borth tried to whisper, but had to quietly cough into the sleeve of his parka to clear his throat. He started again. “Wizard. Mid-level. Minor threat. Want me to approach with Stealth?”


    Zdeska nodded. “Yes, but capture alive.” Borth faded into the wind and snow. While he worked, Zdeska looked over the bandit group behind her. They all looked uncomfortable, but the bandit queen didn’t see anything she needed to address. Five minutes later, Zdeska heard a weak shout. She turned back forwards to see Borth, dragging the unconscious wizard through the snow. She motioned someone to join her and moved forward to meet Borth halfway. The wizard was wearing rich blue robes covered with disgustingly green hexagons scattered across it.


    “Put him down.” Zdeska ordered Borth. “Tie him up.” She turned to the other bandit. “Squints, cut some of these smaller branches and make something so we can drag the prisoner with us.” The bandit, now called ‘Squints’, drew a knife and started cutting branches. Zdeska sat on her heels and searched the wizard. She found two scrolls, a bag full of burning coals, and a ring. The bag with the coals was cold to the touch and the ring was clearly the wizard’s mana tool. The bandit queen kept all of it.


    The wizard woke up shortly after Borth finished tying the last knot. He yelled and struggled a bit, but Borth’s sharp knife against his throat convinced him to be still. Zdeska stood calmly in front of the wizard, waiting for his full attention. When she was sure she had it, she withdrew a small case from the pocket of her parka. Slowly, carefully, the bandit queen opened the case and pulled out a needle. She held the needle up and spoke. “You can lose access to your magic now and freeze to death, or you can swear not to resist and only lose access to your magic when we reach somewhere warm.”


    Borth eased up on the knife, allowing the wizard to speak. The wizard took immediate advantage of the opportunity. “Who are you? What’s that needle? How did you knock me out? Why-” The knife tightened up again, silencing the wizard.


    Borth snorted. “Asks a lot of questions but didn’t listen to a word you said, Z.” He chuckled until he noticed Zdeska’s glare. “uh, I mean, my queen.”This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Zdeska bent down and held the needle right in front of the wizard’s eye. “Second chance.” She said simply. The wizard vanished. Borth swore as he overbalanced and had to catch himself on the frozen ground. Zdeska stood and shouted orders at the bandits to spread out to find and capture the wizard. She crossed her arms and waited patiently. The wizard was at her feet within half an hour, bleeding and moaning. The bandit queen held the needle, point down, above the wizard’s face. “Last chance.” She said.


    <hr>


    The wizard’s name was Emonar and he would not stop talking. Squints and another bandit had ropes tied around their waist to pull the wizard along on the bundle of branches. Squints wasn’t sure how the bandit queen had known the wizard would have a broken leg and would need to be dragged like this. Squints marched forward through the snow and wished the wizard had chosen death instead.


    “Tell her I need my ring in order to be useful! A wizard is a powerful ally and a terrible enemy, tell her that. Plenty of people will notice my disappearance more quickly than you can imagine, you should really let me go. Who are you people? Why do you even want a wizard prisoner? This ride is terribly uncomfortable, can I have a blanket? I hope you can pick up the pace a bit, we should really leave before the next big blizzard. The big blizzards are much worse than the regular blizzards, but they occur with startling regularity. I’ve been developing a model of the mana and weather patterns in this space, it’s quite fascinating. The obvious initial assumption is that the mana and weather are tied together like they are in our world, but that isn’t the case here. The mana radiating from the vines is a…” The wizard spoke non-stop till the bandits fell asleep in a make-shift camp and was speaking again in the morning. As far as Squints could tell, the wizard had spoken all night long.


    When the bandits reached the portal out of the space, Zdeska had Squints and the other bandit pull the wizard to the front of the group. “What’s past here?” She asked the wizard.


    “Well, I’m not entirely sure. My briefing on the dungeon was more related to the environmental and magical hazards-” The wizard’s response was cut short by light slap from the bandit queen that rocked his entire body.


    “Five words.” The queen commanded in a flat voice. Squints had felt more loyal to the queen after that slap than he had ever felt before.


    The wizard took a breath, hesitated, then said, “You have to climb down.”


    “He can be taught!” Borth laughed as the wizard rubbed snow on the hand shaped mark on his face. Borth continued laughing while ordering other bandits to get out ropes and anything they have for climbing.


    <hr>


    Emonar glared at the bandit woman’s back as he continued to rub snow on his face. He could sense his ring, she had it in her pocket. He had made that ring to be his mana tool, his personal connection to greater power, and not having it was seriously debilitating. The wizard could make another one once he escaped the dungeon, but he was fairly certain he wouldn’t survive an escape attempt unless he got the ring back first. To pass the time while the bandits prepared for a decent, he began lecturing the squinty bandit on an obscure theory around color and its effects on mana.