"The Cindari denied this."
Rindo said that according to the city’s official response, that caravan was only transporting local criminals, and no Human was present in it.
They had claimed Marcus had been mistaken due to the darkness and distance.
But Marcus was sure. Ethan had also believed him.
Cassian had initially opposed direct entry, but after checking the caravan’s route and the city’s public documents, he had realized there was no official record of prisoner transfers on that night.
"So Cassian helped to find the path and forge the Sigil." Lian asked.
"Yes, they were only supposed to enter the underground section, check it out, and return without conflict." Rindo answered.
"It wasn’t a good plan." Seris said mockingly.
"I told them the same thing myself."
"But you didn’t stop them."
Rindo said nothing. This silence was enough to show that he had not known all the details before the incident.
If he had known, he would have stopped them by any means, even if he had to beat them until they listened.
"Where are they being held now?" Lian asked.
"The prison beneath the Rootspire."
"Then we’ll go get them out." Liana said without hesitation.
"No." Rindo immediately answered.
"No?"
"Why?" Seraphina also asked.
The student council president was silent for a few seconds.
Lian realized that saying the next part was harder for him than explaining the accusations.
"Because I handed them over myself."
The room fell into silence.
Even the sounds of Ashfall Ward coming from behind the window seemed more distant for a moment.
Liana stared at Rindo.
"What?"
Seraphina stood up. The chair’s legs scraped on the floor, making a harsh sound.
"You handed them over?" Anger was clear in her voice.
Rindo did not stand up, did not step back, and only sighed.
"Yes."
"You are the student council president, not a guard or informant for the Cindari." Seraphina said with clear anger in her voice.
She herself never thought she would shout at her superior like this... but so what?
Now the situation was not such that it mattered!
"Exactly because I was responsible for the others, I did this." Rindo’s voice became firmer this time.
"By handing over three of our own members?"
"By preventing more than forty people from being killed."
Seraphina fell silent, but did not sit down.
"After the conflict, Vhalaris’s forces surrounded all of Ashfall Ward." Rindo pointed at the window.
"Hundreds of soldiers. Archers on the rooftops, armored forces at all entrances, and two Ballistas on the main bridge."
Lian reconstructed the district’s image in his mind. Ashfall Ward had defensive barriers.
The humans were also armed. But against Vhalaris’s organized army, inside the Cindari’s territory, long-term resistance was not possible.
Besides, this is the Cindari’s territory, so logically, it was logical to hand over those three to save the rest.
Escape was also not possible because the enemies knew this forest like their own home, while the awakened ones had no knowledge of this place.
"The news of their arrest spread. Several groups decided to attack the soldiers to free them." Rindo said.
"How many?" Liana asked.
"More than twenty people were ready to fight." The awakened ones also have their pride. They cannot accept that their own kind are handed over to a bunch of outsiders.
Besides, they don’t care at all if the Cindari are killed. What is it to them?
"And the rest?"
"They were scared." Rindo placed his hand on the table.
"That night, more than forty Humans were inside Ashfall Ward. Half of them weren’t even Level 18."
"You could have escaped the city." Seraphina said.
"All paths were blocked."
"You could have fought."
"And we would have lost." His tone was neither scared nor apologetic, only stating the truth.
"Maybe we would have killed ten or twenty soldiers. Maybe even more. Then the city’s main forces would have entered, and everyone here would have been killed or arrested."
"What did Maelor offer?" Lian asked.
"Two choices." He raised his first finger.
"Marcus, Ethan, and Cassian would be handed over and tried in the city court."
His second finger.
"Or all of Ashfall Ward would be disarmed and arrested as a hostile group."
"So there was no real choice." Lian nodded. Both options were surrender, one voluntary and one forced.
Rindo lowered his gaze for a moment.
"Marcus himself agreed to surrender. Cassian did too." The student council president gave a bitter and very short laugh.
"Cassian understood what would happen if we resisted sooner than anyone. He even asked me to stop the others."
Seraphina slowly sat down. Her anger had not faded, but it was no longer directed directly at Rindo.
"But Ethan didn’t agree." His voice lowered slightly.
"He said he would rather fight there than surrender himself to the Cindari."
"Then what happened?"
"We had to restrain him."
"Who do you mean by ’we’?" Liana asked.
"Me, Marcus, and three others."
Rindo closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again.
"Ethan has considered me a traitor since then."
No one immediately answered. Lian examined the situation in his mind. Handing over three people to save more than forty was a ruthless decision.
But being ruthless did not mean being wrong.
If Rindo had resisted, Ashfall Ward would probably have been destroyed that same night. If the three had escaped, the Cindari would have accused all humans of helping them escape.
And even if the group had managed to leave the city, dozens of weaker humans would have been left behind.
Unfortunately, the power of the Cindari and the awakened ones was in the same range, but the natives of this world also had their own advantages.
Rindo had chosen between loyalty to three people and responsibility for the lives of dozens.
There was no good choice, only a choice that sacrificed fewer people. He couldn’t really be blamed.
If Lian himself were in that position, he would definitely fight the Cindari, but he is different. The reason is that he has the power to force his way through.
And now that he is here, there is no need to worry.
"When is the trial?" He then asked.
"In three days." Rindo said.
"The possible sentence?"
"For Marcus, long-term imprisonment or forced labor at the borders."
"For Cassian?"
Rindo paused briefly.
"If the murder of the archivist is proven, execution."
Seraphina frowned again.
"Ethan?" Lian asked.
"Execution is almost certain."
"For the soldier he killed." Liana sighed quietly.
Rindo nodded.
"The city guard says Ethan struck directly into his heart while escaping."
"What does Ethan himself say?"
"He says the soldier was about to kill Marcus."
"He might be telling the truth."
"Maybe... there is something you need to see. Marcus found it and said it shows they really did arrest a human."
Rindo leaned forward from his chair and went to the small table by the wall. He opened its drawer.
Before taking anything out, he checked the door to make sure it was completely closed, then brought out a piece of black metal from inside a cloth.
He placed it on the main table. The metal was roughly the size of a palm.
It looked like part of a plate or the body of a larger object. The Cindari’s flaming root emblem was carved on one side.
But beneath the emblem, letters had been scratched into the metal with a sharp tool.
The letters were unknown, at least to them. Lian recognized them upon seeing them.
Liana leaned forward slightly.
"Who wrote this?"
"We don’t know." Rindo said.
Lian picked up the piece. The metal was not cold; natural heat was still flowing inside it.
But the grooves of the writing were not fresh. The edges of the scratches had smoothed out, and in some sections, they were covered with a thin layer of oxidation and grime.
This message had not been written in the past few days. Perhaps not even in the past few years. It could be much older.
"Where did Marcus find this?" Lian asked.
"Near one of the service entrances beneath the Rootspire."
Rindo explained that on the night after seeing the caravan, Marcus had examined its path. By backtracking and checking that route, he had been able to find this beside a tree.
It was unclear where the writing belonged, and they didn’t recognize it, but translating it could help.
"Maybe a newly found Human wrote it, in a coded language so no one would understand." Lian said.
"Cassian examined this possibility."
"The result?"
"He said the writing is old."
"That’s right." Lian turned the piece under the room’s orange light.
"How old?"
"Without tools, I can’t say exactly." Lian moved his finger over one of the grooves.
"But it’s not a few months old. Probably a few years or more."
"But we just entered this Special Area." Liana stared at the scratched letters.
"Exactly. This writing does not belong to our world or someone from our world at all."
Rindo pulled his chair forward.
"Marcus and Ethan didn’t enter the Rootspire to steal something."
"They were looking for a prisoner who wrote this message." Seraphina continued.
"Yes."
Lian placed the piece on the table. This writing was not part of any language from their world, but he was almost sure it belonged to a human.
How? Because he recognized the script. It was the same writing used on the map.
This script is one of the native languages of the Ruined Realm... its shape and form are very similar to the writing he had seen on the pillars of the Divine Of Light temple ruins.
That means whoever wrote this distress call was a native of the Ruined Realm who had probably been trapped here for years.
But the Cindari had eventually found and arrested him.
But many questions arise... what exactly did he do to get arrested? If his guess is correct, he had been in hiding all this time, but why? What reason could there be?
"I know where this writing belongs." He then said quietly.