The first cell is empty apart from a rat. The second one contains a vibrant blue lizard, collared, in torn and tattered clothes.

"Get out of here," she hisses, "Before you're caught and get us all in trouble!"

"We're escaping. There won't be any trouble."

"Ohhh no, I've heard that one before. Tried it myself, and thank the Gods I made it back. It's worse out there than in here, take my word for it."

She's not particularly inclined to, at least not without elaboration. "Why, what's out there? We'll be killed or worse if we stay."

"Undead cannibals! I hadn't gotten twenty feet out of the tunnel before they caught me and tried to drag me into the swamp. I could hear the screaming of some other victims the whole time, it was horrible."

Lizards are strange, this one is paranoid, and undead don't eat. Still - "...tunnel?"

"The sewer tunnels drain on the other side of the fort but I already told you, it's no good."

"So you did. Are you sure you're not coming?"

"Damn sure, now get out of here before you get caught."

The first person Imene comes across is slumped insensate on the ground. She prods him for a while, gets nowhere, tries a healing potion, gets nowhere with that, and gives up and moves on. Outside the next cell there are two Magisters, arguing not all that quietly about something.

       " - it's your funeral."
"I'm just saying it's better to get it over with."
      "Get what over with, life?"
"Talis said they just wanted them to go as far as the armory. Enad's group was told to find a way into the armory. If you sign up now, you have half a chance of coming back. Wait another month and they're going to be ordering people to storm the cursed tower."
       "Or they'll give up on the whole bloody mission because it's stupid and they're down to a skeleton crew here."
"Keep telling yourself that."

She does not really want to pop out from the shadows and kill them both but it's probably the best way to proceed if the intent is to break some prisoners out. She stands there a while even as their conversation moves on to complaining about the food, hoping Alaherren will turn something up that decides her.

Alaherren sees Spear, sees the magisters, and does her best to gesture "So what are we going to do about them? Retreat or attack?" without making a sound or coming into the light.

They're sitting and chatting like they're on duty; they'll probably eventually be replaced by someone else on duty. There's no plausible scenario where they search the dungeons and rescue the prisoners without encountering any guards. And if their excursion upstairs is noticed, the guards will be on higher alert; there'll be more of them to fight. 

She hates killing people.

She signals to Alaherren that she thinks they should attack.

Does that mean 'attack'? It probably means attack? Ugh. She'll start readying a spell and be ready to stop if Spear meant to indicate retreat.

They need to work out an actual signed combat language in common, but that's a tomorrow problem. Imene has a smuggled magic bow that ignores armor. She lines up a shot, fires.