Erratus squirmed and protested as the guards tried to force him into the wagon. After a few seconds, two of them simply lifted him off the ground and tossed him in unceremoniously. He landed on his stomach with an exclamation of pain. Defeated, he wiggled his way to the front end of the cart and sat dejectedly on the floor. Once everyone was on board, the wagon doors were shut behind them. The nomad's anxiety was building stuck in the small, confined space. He wrung his hands frantically.
He looked around for any means of escape, but gave up quickly. Nero asked him if his injury was alright, but he was no longer paying attention. He just sat on the floor, jittering, his unfocused eyes shifting about aimlessly. It was clear that he was entirely disoriented.

Glad to be taken away from the sub-human thing stuck in the stairwell, Lucia passively allowed the guards to lead her out of the room. In the foyer people were staring as if she had committed a crime, she looked about the hall to see if Alexander, the man who had gotten her into all this trouble in the first place, was anywhere to be seen so she could ask for help. Unfortunately she could not find him. However, rather than wishing something awful to befall the man who had inadvertently brought strife to her life, she simply hoped she never ran into such a man again. This was a lesson to remind her that nothing in life came easy, and for that she was now paying the price.

It was then that she saw the wagon when they walked out into the square. Her eyes watered and she began to tremble. Where were they taking her? What were they going to do? It was terrifying enough to be bound but to be trapped inside a cold lifeless box of steel, it was too much for Lucia to bear. She closed her eyes and walked with her head down as they led her into the wagon. She didn't speak to anyone, and walked to the far end of the wagon and sat in a corner with her legs pulled up to her chest; wrapping herself in the warmth and comfort of her heating cloak. She felt the wagon bump and shift as they moved, where they would end up, she had no idea.

Talaitha shook her head in disgust as they were marched through the main square and made examples of for a crime they did not even understand. Others were in shock or crying over the situation, but she resolved to stand firm and stoic while being escorted out. To show emotion at a time like this would show a lack of maturity and weakness. She did nothing wrong and would go to great lengths to defend her innocence in the matter, but if she acted weak at this time it could ruin her.

It had felt like hours since the caravan had started moving, perhaps even a full day was soon to pass as Nero looked up from his position on the floor through the barred windows of the wagon. He was able to see the stars of the late night hovering over head in full view and a small sliver of the moon was available to him aswell. It had become unbearable to just sit, the constant bumping and thumping destroyed every attempt to sleep Nero had taken and before long he was beginning to feel a tad sick as the rumbling of the wagon grew worst. It was obvious to him that they either had begun to ride on much harder rodes or were no longer on a rode at all.

"Damnable-" a voice rung out from within the deep black of the 'box' as the figure of Gaston's body rose from the floor and upon realizing it was in motion, fell down once again upon the floor. Nero watched for a few moments as the man laid on the floor coughing with a hand on his brow. He remained like this for sometime until Nero spoke up and asked.

"So, what was that creature doing in the Guild Hall?"

Gaston silenced his coughing and remained speechless for what felt like an eternity as Nero began once again.
"Well?" he asked in a more demanding tone, which in itself felt terribly odd for him to be doing.

"A group of researchers, and myself... We were experimenting on it. One of us had gone to the east to find one of those creatures and bring it back to the hall to study it- test on it!. We thought we understood that what they were but upon researching them further we discovered that they weren't just the walking dead." pausing for a moment he tried to find words to paint his situation "They were something els- I can't explain it!" he cried out in a desperate voice as he rose to his knees. "We tested on it for months, we kept it caged. We killed it, we did- but every time we murdered it- it- it would just... it would just get up again. We thought there was no threat, it seemed easily manageable until just yesterday it broke loose from it's cage. It smashed right through the iron bars as if they were made of paper. We had been keeping it in that cell for three months and at any time it could have broken out- no... we angered it- it was capable of such a feat due to anger-"his voice was now trembling as he had seemingly come to a realization "Oh god, they're going to lock me away... They're going to take us all somewhere into the east and lock us away." he seemed irrational at this point as he repeated the same phrase "They're going to lock us all away" over and over as he began to weep.

"So, is everyone alright?" Nero wanted to change the subject quickly, he felt as if he would have time to investigate later. He wanted most of all now to make sure all his fellow 'prisoners' were all in decent health.

Erratus had spent the duration of the journey in silence, trying to formulate potential escape plans. He knew it was futile, but it distracted him from the current circumstances. It was a curious thing. There was so much that people could take away. His freedom. His possessions. Even his life. However, nobody could ever steal his thoughts, and as far as he knew, nobody wanted to. This is why he became a bit flustered when his precious thinking was interrupted.
As it were, their good friend Gaston had finally awoken. Nero was quick to question him as to what that undead was doing in the city. Gaston gave his explanation, informing them that they had brought it in for research, though things went downhill when the thing escaped. His theory was that, while no great threat under regular circumstances, it could perform great feats of strength when angered. That was intriguing and all, but it wasn't really relevant at this point. Being cooped up was really taking a toll on the nomad, and he didn't have time to worry about details that didn't directly apply to him.
"So, is everyone alright?" Nero asked out of the blue, which only served to confuse Erratus. Now was a mighty fine time to be asking.
"If I were you, I'd be worried about what's his face over there." The traveler snapped, his eyes foggy and out of focus. "He was in direct contact with that thing! It's his fault we're here in the first place. Hell, maybe if we're lucky, he'll turn into a dead thing himself and bust us out of here!"
Erratus stopped himself, taking a few deep, calming breaths. He was more on edge than ever now. It wasn't often he raised his voice.

Lucia remained silent and watched passively as Gaston struggled on the ground. She felt nothing, as if every emotion in her soul had withered into dust. She did not get angry when she realized that Gaston and his associates chose to endanger the lives of all those around them by bring an abomination into their midst and experimenting on it no less. She did not pity the man as he wept realizing that they were all to be locked away.

The man who questioned Gaston asked if everyone was alright. Rather than reply, Lucia simply stared vacantly from beneath the hood of her cloak which she had pulled well up over her face, nearly hiding it in the shadows.

The older man however had much more to say than she. His thoughts seemed to overlap with her own, the man Gaston was probably also contaminated and would soon succumb to the state of being neither dead nor alive. His voice rose in a mixture of what Lucia assumed was panic, fear and anger before he stopped himself as he breathed heavily to steady himself. He did however pose an interesting development of later events, perhaps they would all try to escape? She glanced towards the gypsies to see how they were faring.

"Shaken up a bit, but I'm fine." Talaitha replied. "Not sure how I'm going to get out of this though. I knew I should have just passed through the city instead of entered that accursed guild hall."
Pausing before she dove off on a tangent about her feelings towards the enchanter's guild, she took a deep breath and turned her head to the elder gypsy woman. She probably was not going to talk around the group, so Taliatha whispered to her alone.

"Outside of us being arrested, are you alright?"

"I feel sick." the gypsy answered straightly as she lowered her head to her knees. "My name is Nadya." She added in an attempt to appear less harsh to Talaitha. "I was never given yours."

___

"Your behaviour is irrational." Nero scolded Erratus as he quickly turned to stare the man down. "You blame this man for everything, and in a way you have that right, but you can be given just as much blame. Had you just kept to yourself and not gone against his warning the guards would have never acted and everyone here would have been able to walk away." His words were defiant and piercing. Nero was not one for blaming, but he felt Erratus was being overly cruel given the situation and he felt he needed to make a point. Turning towards Gaston he continued to question the man once more. "What did you find out about the creature? You claim to have held on to it for months, was there ever any sign of infection or infectious changes?"

Gaston's weeping ceased as he searched his memory. "No. No, no nothing. There was never any sign of infection. The whole idea of how this 'plague' spreads is still a mystery. My fellow scholars were attempting to debunk the popular opinion held by labs in Ganaeg that the infection spread through air to air contact, we believed that it instead spread through physical contact. Biting, scratching that sort of work." Pausing quickly Gaston let out a series of sniffles as he wiped his eyes clean. "We never produced results in any tests though, an alternative theory is that the creature can control by choice its infectious nature. We also discovered that those who carry the infection need not be dead to turn to one of those monsters, during our expedition in the east we met a merchant who was" he stumbled upon his next words, he attempted to be scientifically correct but was unable to find any words to describe the exact situation he had come across. "transforming, yes.. he was transforming into one of those creatures. He had not yet finished his metamorphosis but he looked exactly like the one we had collected. He was able to speak like a normal person, he just didn't look the same!"

Nero attempted the best he could to find a way to prove that everyone in the group was not infected, but fell short of any real proof beyond Gaston's word that the researchers ruled out air to air contact as a form of contamination.

"If you wouldn't mind my asking, how long were you three in the hall?" Nero was now addressing all of the women in the wagon. "And, if you are willing, could you perhaps tell me why you were there?"

Nadya the elder gypsy women was the first to answer, and in a bit of a sneer she answered. "I was in the hall for eight hours, in the museum for two and I'm a Guild member, my business in museum beyond that is none of yours."

Lucia listened to Gaston without batting an eyelash. Although she had come to a similar conclusion regarding the transfer of infection not being through the air by listening to various rumours and theories in the different towns she had visited, she found herself a tiny bit relieved that it was now scientifically proven. However the idea that those creatures had the mental capacity to choose whom they wanted to infect or not was frightening to her. Even more the thought of one who could talk. She simply preferred to think of them as mindless shambling beasts, easy to pick off if she were to ever encounter one.

"I had been invited to the guildhall to present my wares to Master Wess" spoke Lucia as if remembering a time long ago when she responded to Nero"A man I met in the square had set up meeting for me, and while Master Wess prepared his office for the meeting I was waiting in the museum for maybe thirty minutes to an hour...Or at least I think so, it couldn't have been that long."

"My name is Talaitha, Nadya, and..." She paused to search for something to say. "Well, I just hope you feel better later." She finished her sentence with a smile to try to lighten the mood, even if it was against her personality she had to try to force one at least.

When Nero grilled them, Talaitha responded with a sharp glare.
"Why were you there? You didn't seem like you had guild matters to attend to. I was only there to see the Moonshire Covenant, nothing more, and I was there for a little more than thirty minutes. I certainly didn't want to be mixed up with you or this mess. If anything I should have never entered that cursed guild hall after I was run out of the enchanter's guild by the ignorant, but that's irrelevant. We're innocent; blame yourself, not us."

After his outburst, Erratus had settled into a state of half-consciousness. He closed his eyes, allowing his mind to wander and trying to forget about his predicament. The nomad became completely unresponsive to any outside influences, taking refuge in the crevices of his mind. While he heard Nero's impromptu chiding, he didn't register it. It was simply words floating inconsequentially by his ears, as was any discussion that may have followed. The violent jostling of the cart, the looming threat of imprisonment, and even the iron that now enclosed him all gave way to thoughts of wide, open fields and forests. As far as the traveler was concerned, he was wandering the wilderness in solitude, free from worries or fear. Not like rest of the suckers stuck in this crummy block of tin.

"My business in the hall was sight seeing, nothing more." Nero knew lying at this point and time was a petty act, but he was in no mood to explain his actual motives and felt that they were unimportant to everyone but himself. Nero sat silent for some time as he attempted to formulate ideas in his head, his situation seemed hopeless. There was no way to prove that any of them left the hall uninfected and to make things worst Gaston an his fellow researchers were unable to even gather a bit of helpful information from their work. It had felt like an eternity of silence had passed as Nero placed his forehead into his hands, still thinking deeply. His thought was interrupted promptly as the wagon came to sudden halt. Voices were now audible outside, and to Nero's ears the sound of birds was also existent. A whole day, possibly more of traveling had passed, the simple thought of it made him shoot to his feet as he peered out the window of the wagon. "A prison, but where are-" he kept himself from speaking as he felt the wagon moving once more. Watching helplessly from the window he balled his hands up tightly as the wagon eased its way through a great white gate and into a wide court yard like area. Once again the wagon stopped and after some time of waiting, its doors opened and a set of guards ducked their head through the door.

"One at a time exit, once you have exited line up against the wagon!" a voice from outside the wagon spoke loudly as a man motioned for Nero to exit. Calmly he turned and walked through the doors, as his eyes were quickly adjusting to the new morning's sun he was hastily pulled off to the side by a soldier and lined up against the wagon. Looking about he noticed that he was perhaps in some sort of court yard though the area seemed to be the entirety of this 'prison'. The large white walls wrapped around the frankly small open area of grass in a circular shape and along it there sat a few buildings that seemed to be storage areas, sleeping chambers and tower entrances, of which there were only four towers.

A door on the far side of the walls swung open as a man dressed in a red robe stepped out and drew a chart of sort from his sleeve. "Speak your full name, your age and occupation" he mumbled as he prepared to write.

"Nero Augustine, twenty-one years, free lancer." Nero's head dropped as he stared blankly at the dirt beneath his feet, he waited for each of his fellow prisoners to speak but was pulled out of his trance like state by the sight of Gaston being forced away from the group into a room with a set of four guards.

"Nadya Veltek-Medvh, thirty-four, Moonlight Covenant protectorate." Nadya watched as the man scribble her information down upon the chart, infuriated at the overall treatment of a guild member such as herself she spoke up. "So, where in the hell did you bring us?"

her words were ignored as the man in the robe continued on with the others.

Still in a state of trance when the wagon pulled to a stop, Erratus was the last person to leave the cart, and only did so when one of the guards shook him awake. He and the others were lined up against the wagon and asked their personal information. Gaston, however, was taken away from the rest. This wasn't entirely to be unexpected, seeing as how Gaston was instrumental in bringing the undead into the city. He didn't particularly want anything bad to happen to him though. The outburst in the cart had been the result of hysteria, not his actual feelings. He was indifferent more than anything else.
In any case, seeing their prison for the first time, the nomad was extremely relieved. The place they had been taken was very expansive. Open sky above, and plenty of space all around. This wouldn't be so terrible after all. His anxiety dissipated, and the traveler felt himself again, even if he was exhausted from the sleepless night. When the robed man approached him, his response was quick.
"Khast Vamall, forty give or take, unemployed." No point in giving them his actual name. His birth name should prove quite sufficient as a pseudonym.

As she spied the sparse grounds, they seemed to be more like a holding station for those about to be executed than a prison. While her indignant friend questioned the overseers and failed to elicit a response, Talaitha kept her cool and faced them with a calm face. She was not ready to face an eternity behind a cell wall or dead, but considering that she already lost everything there was not much for her to fight for. Nadya most likely had a home and compatriots, whereas Talaitha no longer knew where the people who cared for her lived.

"Talaitha, no surname but called Cigánov, twenty-seven, enchantress."

Eventually they stopped, and were all told to get out of the wagon. Lucia disliked how they were being treated as criminals despite doing no wrong, though she didn't voice this opinion and lined up alongside the others who had been ordered to stand beside the wagon. She watched without moving her head as Gaston was dragged away by four guards, even though the man had brought this suffering on himself, her heart could no longer bear being cold towards an individual for so long and she pitied Gaston's present circumstance. They were asked to state their name, age and occupation by one of the guards, when it was her time she stated:

"Lucia Seolforwefen, twenty years of age and I am a cloth merchant presently"