I quickly darted my eyes around at the devastation around us. Parts of the building were still falling around the edges of the damage, and the fire was still spreading. Iona’s tornado of fire would have looked like a beacon in the dark, and people would soon be here to investigate. Even if the woman didn’t have any mana left, which I was sure she did, killing her in that little amount of time before someone came wouldn’t be easy. Then again, I didn’t actually want to kill her. Isabel would never have forgiven me if I did.

That left me with two options: run away and try to flee the city, or try to convince her to join me again. That said, the fact that they were tracking her made it difficult to get Isabel away, but an idea came to me in these few moments of pause. It would be risky and challenging for me, but it would give those I cared about the best chance of escape. However, the first hurdle to get past was getting Iona to agree to it.

"I’m stronger than Cromwell or you realise. I have no worries about protecting Isabel on the ground, but if you came with us, you could protect her yourself as well." I spoke as I raised my hands in the air as non-hostile as possible. The last thing I wanted was for this to turn into another fight.

"Not this again…" Iona sighed. "I already told you it’s impossible. The minute I divert from the mission, those tracking me will-"

"Yes, yes, yes, I know. They’ll take your sister into custody. But there is another way." I interrupted her. "I could still go willingly to meet Cromwell. If you put the cuffs on me and take me to him, afterwards you can meet up with your sister and ditch the tracking bracelet." 

"What about you? You don’t know what Cromwell will do to you?" 

"You said he wants the Crown of Lust, right? Then, I’ll lead him to it. I know where it is and how to get there." I explained as a cheeky, mischievous grin stretched across my lips. Although I fully intended to do what I said, I wouldn't tell that snake about the trap or the fact that the crown was a useless hunk of junk.

"Once Cromwell has me, he won’t care as much about the others anymore. If all goes according to plan, this will buy you all some more time to run away. There is a place for you and your sister among them if you want it. What do you say? You don’t have much time to decide before people come to see what caused all this destruction."

Iona was silent for more than a few seconds. The woman gritted her teeth as she stared off, deep in thought. Eventually, she came to a decision and said. "Fine, let's do this."

She took tentative steps closer to me as I held out my hands for her to cuff. Although she was scared this was some kind of trap, a wave of relief washed over her the moment she pulled out a pair of silver, enchanted handcuffs and locked them around my wrists. The moment they were locked tight, they pulsed with magic, stopping the wearer from performing magic. As I was expecting, this did nothing for my divine power. 

Neither Cromwell nor Iona knew I was no longer an arcanist and had no idea I could break out of this on a whim. Although considering Iona’s power level, she should have been able to sense something was off with my magic, just like Hannah had when I first performed miracles around her. Most likely, though, the duelist was just more concerned with trying to kill someone that was surprisingly resilient than uncovering the mysterious feeling of their magic.

The fact that she still wasn’t concerned with it now and didn’t know I could escape the cuffs at any time was one of the only reasons I was willing to trust the woman when she could so easily betray me. That said, I wasn’t going to let her know that so easily, and as such, I said to her. "I’m putting a lot of trust in you, Iona. Please don’t betray me."

"I won’t." She responded with a firm nod of her head. "Come on, we need to get going. We’ll have to take my car to the Starspire. It might arouse suspicions otherwise."

While Iona snuck me off the campus grounds, leaving the half-ruined, still-burning building behind, we continued to plan with each other. Deciding on what exactly we were going to do. To that end, I sent the horribly burned Hex, whose injuries were actually slowly healing on their own, back to the other one, so that she wouldn’t go tell my mother to leave early.

Instead, they were given Isabel and Iona’s home address, where they would go and wait for the older sister to return. Since Isabel had never met the golem maid before, they couldn’t just go up to her and explain what was happening, so they were just told to wait and obey Iona when she came back from delivering me to Cromwell. 

At that point, Iona would take her sister and meet up with my mother near Hannah’s apartment at a previously agreed-upon meeting place my mother and I had. Once together, Hex would inform my mother that I wanted them to leave ahead of me and that I would catch up later. Although the risks I was taking were quite drastic, I did have a couple of ideas on how to get myself out of the city, and sending them away first would give them all the best chance of safely escaping. After all, I was the only one that could get to the thing Cromwell wanted.

Once the plan was agreed upon, Iona put me in the back seat of her car and started to drive me towards the Starspire. Unlike my own car, which was much more expensive and state-of-the-art, there was no magical construct built into it and she actually had to drive the vehicle herself. Her driving was a bit more aggressive and faster than I would have liked, but since the roads were practically empty at this time of night, we got to our destination safe and sound.

Up close to the Starspire, the building's gold and obsidian illusionary facade looked even more impressive than ever. As the building towered high overhead, the monumental height of its construction was truly breathtaking. Although magic was involved in its construction, as it was for all the buildings in the city, it begged the question of just how much magic and wealth went into the making of the Starspire.

The answer to that question would have been known to only a handful over the years, as it was said that the founder himself designed this building. The reason for that was the meteorite engine, an incredibly powerful piece of arcane craftsmanship that kept the city flying and was housed beneath the Starspire in the heart of the city. Like most citizens of Caellas, I would have found the mind-boggling achievements of the founder and his meteorite engine truly awe-inspiring if not for one fact: it all came at the cost of the world below and the lives of the gods.

Because of that, the Starspire just reminded me of everything sick and twisted in the world. It reminded me of the countless people who died as a result of the Godsfall, as well as the countless more who are still suffering as a result of the horrors it caused. Oddly, these reminders only served to strengthen my resolve and calm my nerves. I knew what I needed to do and had a plan in mind. Cromwell wouldn’t know what hit him.

Iona slowed the car down as we turned into a small parking garage built into the base of the Starspire, the door of which was almost invisible until we got close enough to it that it revealed itself. Once inside the parking garage, Iona drove past several rows of completely empty parking spots until she came to a stop in front of a set of doors. Besides the doors stood two hulking golems, outfitted in clearly enchanted weapons and armour.

While still in the privacy of the car, the woman simply said. "Good luck." 

From there, she got out of the car, came around and opened up my door. After I crawled out of the back, she placed a hand on my back as she escorted me up to the two golems. "Delivery for the Warden Arcanum," she said to them.

The golems were completely silent, but it was obvious they were looking between me and Iona. After a few seconds of this, they stepped forwards and each clamped a hand on my shoulder. Like this, they turned around and began to escort me inside the building. Without any direction given to her, Iona decided it was time for her to make her leave and hurried to get back in her car. Just before the doors to the Starspire shut closed behind me, cutting off all outside noise, I heard the sound of her tyres screeching as she hurried back to her sister. She had done her part, and all I could do was hope everything else went as smoothly.

The two golems silently escorted me through bland, concrete hallways until we got to an elevator. The elevator didn’t actually have any buttons to designate which floor to get off of, but the golems were wirelessly connected to the system and were able to control it. From there, we went up several floors until the doors opened up into more nondescript corridors. 

One of the doors, the one which I was led through, opened up into a fairly typical office space. There were several stereotypical posters about the danger of forbidden knowledge and the need for the Warden Arcanum, and I could logically guess that these were the offices of the department under him. That said, it was completely empty and, save from the light of the golem’s enchantments, completely dark.

From the office, I was led into an interrogation room where they would have questioned those they suspected of possessing or using forbidden magic. The room was bland and undecorated. The only pieces of furniture here were a table and two chairs at opposite ends of the table. At the centre of the table was a chain, one end of which was magically affixed to the table. Once the golems had pushed me down onto the chair furthest from the door, they brought the chain over to my handcuffs, where it was now magically affixed as well.

As silent as they were this whole time, the golems then left me alone in this room. The seconds turned into minutes as I remained there all by myself. I knew for a fact that this was a purposeful tactic being used. By keeping me isolated and by myself, Cromwell was trying to make me afraid and more pliable when he came into question. What he didn’t know was that I was thankful for it, as all it was really doing was putting more distance between my loved ones and this godforsaken city.

After nearly an hour of waiting, Cromwell finally graced me with his presence, but instead of walking through the doors, his entry was much more flashy. And not just in the figurative sense either, as his teleportation into the room was accompanied by a literal flash.