“Shut up” Liaena muttered as she walked quickly down the narrow corridor, checking frequently behind her for the sound of any pursuers. She wasn’t overly bothered by Donalds words however, as all appearances indicated that none of the Night Elves had even bothered to pursue her. This part of the house – aside from the distant crashes and screams that could still be heard faintly from the direction of the living room – was as silent as the grave. 

[i]“That was suspiciously easy. They’re either a lot cleverer than I give them credit for…. or a lot stupider” [/i]

Climbing out of a door into the main part of the house once again, Liaena took a flight of stairs leading downwards, the air becoming noticeably cooler and damper as they progressed down into the cellars. Still, no noise could be heard from behind them. [i]“….I’m going to go with ‘stupider’”[/i]

This part of the house was devoted to Sharons cellars and storage rooms, something that Frederick cherished and the Night Elves had taken great pains to empty. To that end when Liaena eased the door of one open to enter, the wine cellar looked notably depleted, with many racks standing empty which would otherwise have held bottles dating from decades ago, with many exotic labels. Far more importantly from Liaena’s perspective, the room was also empty of elves, drunk or otherwise. 

Walking up to one of the wine barrels, instead of turning the tap to turn it on, Liaena took hold of the metal tap and twisted and pulled on it gently until it popped right out of the barrel itself. Reaching into the hole that it had left, she carefully fiddled with the mechanisms inside until she was rewarded with a faint creak and the front of the barrel swung out, allowing entry into a dark hole that was easily large enough for a high elf, or a human. 

[i]“I wonder if Frederick has got around to trapping these passages yet”[/i]

Liaena thought to herself as she unhooked a lantern from the wall, before giving a ‘meh’ shrug of her shoulders as she climbed into the hole, swinging the front of the barrel shut behind her. [i]“Only one way to find out, I guess”[/i]

*

[i]“hm…I think this one says ‘antidote’ on it”[/i]

Kathlin considered the label of one vial that looked promising, before letting out a sigh as she turned it upside down to study it again. [i]“Or possibly ‘arsenic’”[/i]

*CRASH*

“Yaaargh!”

Spontaneously and entirely unexpectedly, the chair she was hiding under got ripped away to reveal two struggling Night Elves, entangled in and flailing at each other as one of them tripped over the aforementioned armchair. Kathlin stood rooted to the spot as they loomed over her, as a flashback to Janessas recent fate appeared very vividly in her mind. 

Flinging out a hand, a faintly glowing sphere appeared around the tiny human just as a large purple foot crashed into her, shattering the shield with the force of the blow and also punting the girl across the room like a football, narrowly missing other struggling combatants before she finally collided with something soft. 

“Sorry” Kathlin told the comatose elf she was sitting on, once she had got over checking her arms and legs to ensure that they were not pulverised. It was clearly not the safest place for either of them however, as the war Shani had inadvertently created raged around them. The elf that had become her refuge was herself in great risk of being picked up to be used as a battering ram or slung across the room as the girl scampered across her body, stopping just behind her ear to look out at the room around her. 

“LI! WHERE ARE YOU!? LI!”

[b]“Here! Over here!”[/b] Kathlin cried out immediately in response. Leaning out of the purple waterfall that was the sleeping elfs hair, she waved frantically to try and catch the attention of Rithrynn, who was still crawling around on the floor in a slightly different part of the room. “I’m here!!”