Shadow yelled in frustration. he had been attacked by that man he though saved him and then he got left behind by the group. he was just unlucky with everything today. he knew when they were leaving but he had still missed them. he walked the streets and then saw a large group of soldiers and guards. he drew his sword and charged them. he stabbed one in the neck and then fought the others by the time he was done he had at least 20 cuts from the guards but he had killed them all in his rage. he walked to the building that he had been sleeping in recently. he saw that someone had been in here since he left. he kept his sword ready and called out " is anyone still here?"

Aery vaguely heard someone calling from outside the building. She couldn't move, immobilized by pain and weakness. "Help, please... Help." She called as loudly as she could, though it was not much more than a cracking whisper. Celaena and Rowan had left her there, dying, because she'd broken under the pain and told their captors everything. So when the chance to escape came, of course, Celaena and Rowan had just left her.
She was fairly sure it was the end, for her. Everything was getting very fuzzy and she was seeing through a tint of red... Maybe that was just the blood that had dried on her face. Still... She was pretty sure she wasn't ever going to see the sun again. That thought made her cry, though she didn't have enough water left in her body to actually make tears. "Please... please... Someone help me." The words came out, barely even a whisper now.

Shadow heard a voice but couldn't make it out. he could tell from the way it sounded the person was in pain. he tossed his sword into the house and grabbed his necklace. he checked how much of the healing potion he had left. he had enough to heal one person no matter the wounds. he entered the house and searched each room. when he found Aery he could see just how bad her wounds were. he shook his head and then walked over to her. " look i need you to try and drink this. its a fast acting healing potion. its the last of it that i have but it will help you." he opened the vial containing the healing potion and then put it to her lips. he was careful with the liquid inside because she would need all of it. he slowly poured it into her mouth while supporting her with his arm. he wouldn't just let her die like this not when he could help her. she had helped him before when he was injured and being chased by guards so he owed her anyways. he also set his water aside for her because when the potion finished she would still need water or she would die from dehydration.

Why was there a person helping her...? This must be death, an angel come to guide her to the afterlife. But as her vision cleared and the pain faded and the strength came back to her limbs, she realized it was a real boy. A battered, bleeding boy, but one of her fellow trainees... Shadow. That was his name. She'd rescued him at the docks from the guards who were chasing him.
"Thank you." She whispered, her voice still cracking painfully. On impulse she reached up and hugged him, only to realize that he was bleeding fairly badly too. "Oh, dear. All... All my medicines were in Rowan's compartment... But we'll get you fixed up, somehow. You saved me... I should try to repay the favor."

" you don't have to this is me repaying you for helping me when i was being chased by the guards. its okay i have some bandages around here and i can patch myself up. don't push yourself to hard or you might injure your self more. we need to leave the city but not until we both get a bit better." Shadow said as he left her side to find the bandages that he left around. he found them near the bed and started to patch up his wounds. when he was done he walked back to Aery and sat down. he handed her his water and said " here you should drink this its just water"

Aery fumbled with the lid of the flask, finally got it open, and drank some of the water, just enough to the point where she didn't feel like she was going to die anytime immediately in the future. Her hands were shaking and she spilled some of it before she got the flask closed again, but she did, and handed it back to Shadow. She sat up slowly, gingerly, trying not to disturb any of the bones that were mending.
"I can't believe... Rowan and Celaena just left me here to die." She shook her head, shook off the dark thoughts. "We... We need to come up with a plan." She met the boy's eyes to see a mirror of her own sorrow there. "Why weren't you with them, anyway? Everyone was supposed to be ready at the complex to move out as soon as they came back."

"i was to late getting there before everyone left. but now i think its better that i stay behind. if they were just going to leave you here to die i don't want to be with them right now. i don't care what you did to end up like that you didn't earn death just yet." Shadow says as he puts the water flask away and then takes out some of his food and hands her some " here you should eat to build up your strength. we need to leave here sometime soon since the guards are now looking for me. i did just flip out and kill a whole group of them."

Aery shook her head, trying to chew on the piece of bread he'd given her. "I betrayed them, though. You should have left me. I couldn't bear a little pain, and I told my captors everything about us. They know... They know who we are and what we do, and they have names to put with our faces now. I compromised the whole operation for all of us." She gave up on chewing the bread and started to cry. But hearing him mention the guards, she forced the emotions away and pushed herself to her feet, stumbling a little because of her weakness. "As soon as we get outside and a ways from here, I can find some of my urchin friends, and they can help us figure out where we can go from here. Not out across the desert, of course. But maybe we could get on a boat to Adarlan, or even maybe all the way to the Western Wastes."

Shadow stood up and then said " lay down and rest. you need it. we have at least two days before the guards even bother coming to this area and find this house. as for your betrayal i don't give a damn who comes after us. we are all trained and they won't kill us. you were in pain and you weren't trained to bypass the pain like some of us. i can teach you how to deal with pain but not now. you need to rest or you won't even make it seven feet out of the front door before you fall to the ground. we will be okay." he walked over to her and then put his hand on her shoulder " i know you feel like you may have failed them but in the end they failed you. they said they would train and protect you but they let you get hurt and then they left you behind. i still trust you. i know that you wouldn't do anything to get us all killed just for the hell of it. pain can make you do almost anything. i know because the one i thought was the best man in the world is the one who killed my parents and then tried to kill me" he smiled at her and pointed back to the bed. " i will keep watch for the next few hours that should be enough time for you to get enough strength for us to leave."

Aery would have fought him over keeping watch, but her knees buckled from exhaustion and she laid down quickly.
"Thank you, Shadow. For believing in me." She smiled a tiny, shaky smile, and then went out like a lightbulb.
The darkness was pressing in on her, suffocating her. Strangely the pain was keeping her from drowning in it. But oh, she wished she could. Just let the darkness fill her and quit clinging on with her mind and let herself go. To insanity, or death, or whatever awaited her, just so that she wouldn't have to endure the agony.
"What is your purpose here little one? Whose pawn are you?"
She gasped as the white-hot knife touched her shoulder, screamed, jerked away from it. The man chuckled and pressed it there tighter.
"Who do you serve?"
Another voice, keening, wailing. "No! No, Aery, Aery."
"Shut up, Ae--Celaena!"
Aery wanted to reassure them, but the damage was done. The man smiled cruelly, pressed the knife flat against her back, burning through the flesh and down to the bone. "Who do you serve?"
"Just black out, Aery, just black out and you won't have to endure this, just let yourself go." Over and over in her head, but if anything she just clung tighter as she repeated it, until finally...
"Stop, stop. Please, please, stop hurting me, I'll tell you everything! Just don't hurt me!"
The man froze. "Oh, really? Tell me, little girl, who is your master, or mistress?"
"Ae...Aelin Galanythius." She choked the words out. And then more, she couldn't stop the flood of them. "We're assassins, we've killed the King's Guards, no, no don't burn me again PLEASE please, we're trying to overthrow the Adarlan monarchy so that Aelin can--can take the throne herself, only, I'm a princess too, and maybe this has been their plan all along." Tears, sobs, temporarily swamping out all else.
From further away, Celaena, calling, "Aery, how could you, how could you betray us?"
And Rowan, a knife in her heart, "She's not one of "Us." She's too broken to ever be one of us."
And the guard laughed, and laughed, and let Celaena and Rowan go, and kept her there, and kept hurting her.
She woke up, hands clamped tightly over her own mouth, biting down on her own wrist hard enough to draw blood so that she wouldn't scream and disturb Shadow. She was physically fine by now, just... no falling back asleep. She glanced at the shadows on the wall, realizing they'd not moved very much from the time she fell asleep. But she couldn't get any more rest with her mind in this condition.
She forced herself to her feet, stumbled over to the doorway where Shadow was sitting, on watch. She just needed human company at that moment, and prayed he'd understand that she wasn't trying to make him uncomfortable. So she slid down the wall to sit next to him, her shoulder pressing up against his. And then she let herself cry. Not when she was alone, or she'd never be able to put the pieces back. But when sitting next to him, for the sun on her face and the presence of a friend gave her strength to face the darkness.

Shadow had been sitting for around 20 minutes before she came out and sat next to him. then she started to cry. his heart was torn between yelling at her for being a little kid but then the other hall of his mind told him that he was no better than her. so in the end he put his hand on her shoulder and said " if you want to talk just do so. i won't judge you. you may think your self weak sometimes but your stronger than most people. most people would have died by now but you had the strength to make it till help could come to you. i'm here if you ever need me." he smiled at her and then let his hand fall back to his side. he would help her in any way that he could for now. he hope that someday she would be able to teach him something he didn't know yet.

Aery flinched from the touch of his hand, but forced herself to relax. "I... I... Those p-people, t-t-they took j-just about e-everything from me. My mother and mentor. My little siblings." For she'd seen Ame and Silly being dragged away dead. They'd gotten the girls and tortured them to death, and that was part of what had broken Aery so utterly. "And more than that. My modesty, my... It's terribly cliche to say, but, they took my innocence, too."
She sighed. "I'm not usually this emotional, Shadow. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just can't... Cope with everything right now. It's all too much, and I still feel like any second now Silly is going to come bouncing in here playing hide and seek with Celaena and--" She choked off, covering her face with her hands to literally hold the sob inside of her. Once she'd gotten herself back under control, she looked up at the sun. They had probably three hours until nightfall, which was when they could most likely move the most freely.

Shadow sat in silence for a little while after she had told him about what they did. his face slowly turned from the calm that he normally had to one of anger. his breathing became more ragged and then it returned to normal as he calmed himself back down. he stood up and then said " lets get out of here. we need to go and get some supplies before we leave. the group left but they didn't take everything with them. i know a way that we can get there with out being seen." as he finished talking he heard the sound he had hoped not to hear for a while. the sound of armored men coming up the stairs. his eyes flicked to Aery and he made up his mind. he helped her to her feet and then lightly pushed her towards the window. " jump out and aim for the ladder. its about 10 feet from the window. i will be right behind you. i didn't think they would get here this fast." he flicked his wrist and two daggers showed up in his hands. he backed up so that when she was out the window he could follow her. " when you reach the ground turn left and run down that ally." a guard's head showed at the top of the stairs. Shadow flicked his wrist and launched his dagger at the mans head. it hit him in-between the eyes and the man fell back down the stairs and took several others with him. shadow would buy them time for as long as he had to. but even here he would be overtaken in about 3 minutes.

Aery winced at the sound of the guards falling like dominoes. She sprinted for the window, hurled herself out of it. She hadn't gotten quite enough propulsion out of the window and just barely managed to snag onto the ladder, just a couple of rungs before the ground. It felt like her shoulders got wrenched out of their sockets, but... She was alive, wasn't she?
She headed down the alleyway, all the way down to the end where they'd have to either turn or scale another building. She crouched behind a pile of garbage, waiting for Shadow to make an appearance. And then she had an idea. A broken piece of curved glass to focus the light of the sun on a greasy paper. A small, rather smoky fire lit on the paper, which she twisted into a long thin torch-like thing. She had numerous balls of greasy parchment ready, and once Shadow got out... She'd throw the burning bits of paper into their refuge. Make the guards work through smoke and fire in order to get to them.

Shadow threw his last dagger from the wrist compartments. he turned and then jumped out the window. he missed the ladder all together and landed hard on the ground. he grunted put his armor took most of the force and he was able to stand up and grab the small rocks near him and light a small log. he threw it into the window he had jumped from and then ran down the ally. when he saw Aery he pointed down the next turn. he ran past her and went to the end of the next turn which lead him to the street so he could watch what the guards were doing. he saw the building on fire and all the guards running around it to get to the back allies.

Aery, having thrown the burning paper into the window as well as Shadow's log, turned and ran as fast as she dared to catch up to shadow. She almost fell, but regained her footing. By now all the pain was gone, and so was the darkness that had been trying to break into her mind.
She looked sidelong at Shadow. "Well, what do you know? Running away in a panic always does the mind good." She was sucking air though, gasping a little more than she should have been, all things considered. "So, what now? I think we need to start veering west in order to get back to the compound, unless you left some kind of weapons cache hidden around here somewhere. I would have done, only... I didn't have that many weapons to spare. And, Celaena always kept a very close count on where all my weapons were and she was suspicious when even one dagger went missing. I wonder if she did that so that... Nevermind. I don't want to think about it." She grinned at Shadow. The adrenaline had pushed all the other emotions back, and now all that was left was happiness and excitement.

Shadow watched as the guards started to fall as they caught fire. he smiled and then said " i have a item and weapons cache just a bit away from the old church in the center of the city. the compound is on the way to it from here. so we should head that way." he turned and then said " good idea with the fire. you had it better than i did. that should draw all the attention of every one in the city giving us the time we need to get some gear and items and then leave the city." he drew one of his swords and handed it to her. the blade was longer that a dagger but weighed no more that a dagger. " you might need this soon just be careful the blade is infused with a powerful quick acting poison." he smiles after telling her about the sword.

She smiled in return, appreciative of the design of the sword. "Oh, that church. I've got some of my stuff back at the compound. Nothing major, but I'd feel better to have my poisoned needles and...My longbow. I don't know if I can actually get in. Oh, wait. I left through a window last time. Unless Rowan shut it, I can get in that way." She giggled rather insanely.
"This is quite fun. I've really never had to run for my life before." Sucking in a breath, she looked to the sun to re-orient herself. "Okay, the compound should be that way." She pointed. "I'd say we zig-zag, always headed more or less in that direction. Avoid main streets at all cost. Actually, no." She slid the sword back into it's sheath and handed it back to Shadow. She indicated the humiliating city-folk clothing, the floofy ankle-length skirts and the button-up blouse which was the only thing she had had to wear other than her spidersilk armor. "You look cityfolk-ish enough. Just..." She flipped the hood of Shadow's cloak up so that it shaded his eyes. "I can't do anything about my looks or my size, though the last time any of the guards saw me I was caked in blood and half-mad for revenge. Should be enough of a difference. Just... Don't look suspicious. Act like we have every right to be here and we'll be fine."

Shadow reached down and grabbed some of the mud that was around. he spread it over his shoulder's so that the bulge of his sword hilts would look like a broken bone. he then moved that arm so that it looked like he had been injured and was in pain. " lets go then. they will think i look crazy if i have random bumps near my shoulder." he made his ware carefully through the crowds of people. he remembered the streets that he would want to take. he made sure that he was close to Aery all the time just in case anyone tried anything. before long they were standing outside the compound. shadow looked it over and saw that everything was closed and locked. he reached into his gold pouch and pulled out a paper thin piece of metal and handed it to Aery. " this can slip under any window and let you break what ever is holding it closed."

Aery whistled at the blade appreciatively. "We'll see how it works."
She slipped it under the seal of the bedroom window (found by the trampled flower bushes) and in seconds was inside. "I'm going to change clothes because these city girl skirts are getting in my way and I'm mad at them.
Spidersilk tunic and leggings. Silver sash. Shortsword, longish dagger on the belt, then thigh daggers, dagger amulet necklace. Sewing needles in the top of the armguards. More flat blades in them, too. Longbow and full quiver. Extra healing potions from Rowan's secret stash. Throwing stars. Extra clothes, water, food. medium-length swords crossed over her back (she couldn't wear anything too long on her belt or she'd trip over it.) Silver cloak. Some of her allowance of gold in her belt-purse. A few extra vials of poison.
Armed to the teeth, she hopped lightly out the window again and rose to her feet right next to Shadow.
"Well, shall we?" She smiled, in a way that wasn't very friendly at all. A gleam of madness hovered in her too-bright eyes.