Kiranrao and Hettie rescue Paedrin and escape Kenatos

Kiranrao and Hettie rescue Paedrin from the Arch-Rike’s custody and begin an escape from Kenatos, reversing a confinement designed to make him serve the city. The rescue is not a simple return to freedom: Paedrin remains under the ring’s influence, Hettie is still entangled in Kiranrao’s bargain, and the city’s guards pursue them. Their flight nevertheless gives Paedrin room to resist the Arch-Rike and ends with him choosing a new purpose: to find Hettie’s uncle and join him in the Scourgelands.

Causes and Stakes

The rescue follows Paedrin’s capture and binding by the Arch-Rike, who regards him as a political pawn in his conflict with Tyrus. The Arch-Rike argues that the Plague threatens every kingdom and that Kenatos must preserve knowledge and lives, even if that requires coercion. In his view, the serving spirits are not slaves but partners whose service will end when their commitment is fulfilled; Tyrus, by seeking to free them, is therefore undermining the city’s survival. Paedrin recognizes that the Arch-Rike believes his own justification, but disputes the ruler’s right to imprison and sentence him. The conflict makes the escape a contest over who has the authority to define service, duty, and freedom.

Hettie has reason to act beyond concern for Paedrin’s safety. She summoned Kiranrao to help free her friend after learning that Paedrin was held by the Arch-Rike rather than in the temple. She also knows that Paedrin was already wounded after trying to save her in Drosta’s trap, and that the Kishion’s fight against him might have gone differently if he had not been injured. By the time the rescue unfolds, Kiranrao has negotiated payment in the form of stones, which he intends to trade for the blade. Hettie dislikes deceiving Paedrin and objects that he is of no use to them without his own will, but Kiranrao insists that his service is complete and demands the stones.

The Rescue at the Palace

Hettie waits for hours in dense brush beside the wall of the Arch-Rike’s palace, on the island’s high ground. She wears close-fitting dark leather and carries a short bow, arrows, and blades secured so they will not shift or make noise. Her anxiety is sharpened by the need to wait without knowing whether Kiranrao’s plan has succeeded. When bells sound, she understands that he has been discovered, but does not yet know whether the alarm means failure. A group of guards and black hounds searches the rough ground behind the palace, where brush and dwarf pines replace the more cultivated parks on the other side.

The answer arrives abruptly: Kiranrao and Paedrin land behind Hettie, who nearly screams and turns with her bow before Kiranrao catches it. Paedrin looks exhausted, with bloodshot eyes and a haggard appearance, but he is alive. Kiranrao explains that the iron ring on Paedrin’s hand, marked with silver symbols, is a Kishion ring: it binds Paedrin to the Arch-Rike. Hettie had been so focused on Paedrin’s face that she had not noticed it. The reunion is therefore both a rescue and a reminder that escape from the palace has not yet removed the force acting upon him.

Breaking the Ring’s Control

When Hettie asks what the ring means, Kiranrao describes Paedrin as bound to the Arch-Rike and repeats his demand for the stones. Paedrin’s response initially appears constrained: he tells Hettie that speaking is difficult because the Arch-Rike is trying to control him. But he is not wholly unable to resist. Once Hettie recognizes the grease on his finger, Paedrin reveals that it is linseed oil and that it helps disrupt the connection. Kiranrao had the material with him, giving Paedrin a practical means to interrupt the ring’s influence.

The exchange restores their familiar rapport, though Paedrin remains aware of the danger. He jokes that he offered to kiss Kiranrao’s toes as payment, while noting that Hettie had made a separate arrangement with him. The brief return of humor marks a meaningful shift: Paedrin is no longer only the exhausted captive who cannot readily speak. Hettie asks whether he resents her for hiring Kiranrao to save him; Paedrin responds with a joke rather than anger. Their conversation also keeps the bargain in view. Hettie has agreed to give Kiranrao the stones, despite her discomfort at deceiving Paedrin, because the rescue and the exchange are bound together.

Pursuit and Escape

The escape continues under immediate pressure. Hettie tells Paedrin that the ports have closed after the bells sounded, but reminds him that the Romani do not need the ports to enter the city. She leads him away from the direction Kiranrao takes, keeping low and using the brush for cover. Their route brings them to the end of the palace wall and down a steep slope. They pause to listen for movement above, then descend with exposed roots as handholds. Before they can reach safety, a black hound rushes from the woods with soldiers behind it. Hettie warns Paedrin not to let the guards use their horn, which could summon further pursuit.

Paedrin moves quickly against the soldiers. Using the Vaettir ability to float and hover through control of the breath, he leaps past the hound and drops into a crouch before charging the advancing men. Hettie shoots the hound in the hind leg, stopping its advance without killing it. In the struggle, Paedrin disables the guards who threaten to sound the alarm. He prevents Hettie from shooting one of them, strikes the man, and crushes the horn underfoot. Six men are dispatched in moments. His choice not to kill the dog echoes Hettie’s own restraint and contrasts with the lethal authority the Arch-Rike claims over others.

A Changed Sense of Freedom

After the fight, Paedrin tells Hettie that he is only just recovering his sense of humor and that he has never felt so alive and free. The words do not mean that every constraint has vanished: the Kishion ring is still on his hand, and the Arch-Rike remains an active threat. Rather, freedom emerges here as the capacity to resist, improvise, and act with others despite an imposed bond. The linseed weakens the ring’s control; Hettie’s knowledge of the city offers a route beyond its closed ports; and Paedrin’s skill turns the pursuit into an opening for flight.

Paedrin’s next intention gives the escape a direction beyond mere survival. He wants to find Hettie’s uncle and go with him into the Scourgelands, believing he may be able to help. Hettie nearly tells him the truth, and his certainty makes her want to believe in him. But his wish to seek her uncle also suits Kiranrao’s plans, leaving the three companions’ aims not entirely aligned. Their escape thus ends with Paedrin’s agency reasserting itself, while the ring, the bargain, and the unresolved deception keep freedom precarious.