Do’rhajul shook his head. “The shield forms an impenetrable wall against magical attacks, but there is little it can do against another ward.”

Inside Vile’s shield, Hircine had quickly regained his footing, lunging back with impossible speed. His great spear glowed with an intense violet light as he thrust it forward, but Vile simply held out his hand to project another ward that stopped the attack seemingly without difficulty. Clavicus Vile had once been among the weakest Daedric Princes, but now he bore stolen power that even Hircine could not approach. 

Ahnasha looked around frantically for anything they could use, any other options. Fendros was right, the Staff of Magnus had been their weapon. Mortals might not hope to challenge a Daedric Prince, but that Staff was a thing of the gods. It could have given them the strength, even if just for few moments, to do what they needed to do. Now, they had to find [i]some[/i] other way.

The unlocking spell was not enough to unseal the cage, and Barbas simply kept his eyes looking up at Sabine with his head laid down on the floor of the cage. “Well, that’s awful nice of you to try. You were closer with the first spell, you’d just have to be a lot stronger with it. The ward on the cage is really meant more to keep me in, than to keep anyone else out. I figure a mortal could…probably do it.”

“Strong dispel magic, then.” Ahnasha remarked. “I…don’t think I could do it. Meesei had learned some powerful forms of dispelling, I know. Did she ever teach you, Sabine? Do you think you can do it?”

Lorag looked to be growing more and more frustrated the longer he could find no way around the barrier. Despite that, though, he still heard enough to tell what Sabine was trying to do. “Why do you even want to let that thing out? You actually trust that mongrel? It’s one of Vile’s.” 

“Hmm, well Clavicus [i]is[/i] my master.” Barbas remarked, strangely in seeming agreement with Lorag. “I’d say not to be too hard on him. My master just tends to get too [i]focused[/i] on the wrong things without my helpful advice. I keep telling him this whole plan isn’t going to work out in the end. I mean, sure, he can defeat Hircine, take most of his power, and rebuild the Tower. [i]That[/i] part will work fine. But…like I said, I don’t think he’s thinkin’ the next part through after that. ‘Course, I could never fight my master. Why, that would be almost like fighting myself!” 

There was a brief pause as Barbas weakly stood up to his feet, which his cage barely even gave him the room to do. “If I did get out, I could get my half of our power back. I’m sure master would want me to help him, but...well, it would probably take me a few days to acclimate to my power again. Couldn’t really do much until then…”