17th of Cobre, 9:10 am, 1659 (168 days before Starflower's trial)

It took a couple of days, but the plan was finally in motion.

All Thomas had to do was to somehow arrange a meeting between Horseface and Starflower. The inmates were once again picking up trash by one of the main roads, and Thomas was lucky enough to be assigned to an area Horseface and his crew were working in. Starflower feigned an illness, allowing him to stay in his cell to plot the jail break.

I'll look weak if I go to him and request a meeting. It's better if you find one of his lackeys and have him pass on the message!

"Weak, my ass! That would make me your lackey!"

Thomas thought of things he could have said back to Starflower, but hindsight wasn't going to help him. What helped him push through was the thought of Lenoria spending the rest of her life with him, and Starflower was somehow going to arrange that.

"Maybe once we grab her, we can both do an undead ritual so we can spend eternity together! My own corpse bride!" Thomas chuckled. "You know what they say, 'When in Rome-' Gah!"

Not paying attention, Thomas had bumped into another equinefolk. This one had a black coat pf fur and a white mane, and looked just as angry as when Horseface pummeled Starflower and knocked him out cold.

"S-sorry! Are you one of Horseface's boys, by chance?"

"Who's askin'?"

***

7pm

Once back at the cell, Thomas reported what happened during his encounter with Horseface's crew.

"You actually pulled it off?" Starflower asked, surprised Thomas actually accomplished his task.

"What can I say? You put a carrot in front of me and I'll do as you ask."

Starflower grimaced. "Just no horse analogies when we're in his presence. This is our chance to strengthen our alliance. What did he say, anyway?"

"He said he'll agree to the jail break if we pay him a thousand gold once we get out."

Starflower shifted on his bed. "Surely you weren't dumb enough to accept that offer from the start."

"Of course not!" Thomas looked around nervously. "I, uh, told him we'd double it if he pulled some strings now."

Starflower, angrily, quickly rose from his bed. "YOU WHAT?"

"I thought it would be funny!"

"You idiot!" Starflower watched his voice, which he brought down to hushed whispers. "Don't you realize what you've done? You put us in debt with the mob!"

"Correction, put you in debt with the mob. My hands are clean!"

Starflower immediately regretted sending Thomas in his place. He should have gone instead. "You don't even wash your hands!"

"Metaphorically, Jean!"

Both heard a loud bang against the cell, followed by a pipe being thrown at Thomas's head. They turned in the direction of the hall, where they spotted Horseface being escorted back to his cell by one of the guards. Horseface didn't take his eyes off the duo until his line of sight was finally blocked by the cement wall.

Starflower picked up the pipe and inspected it. To his surprise, it was a scroll case. He opened the lid and pulled the parchment out. "I don't believe it." He scanned through the parchment some more. "This is a map of the jail. And what's this? Guard rotations, lunch menu, a building where they hold giants and other large people..." A crazed grin appeared on Starflower's face. "Yes, I can work with this!"

He found a note inside the scroll case which had been labeled "To Starflower." He opened it up, letting Thomas look at the map to distract him as he read the note.

Let's talk this out like gentlemen.

I like men like you. Men with a spine.

Do right by me, and you'll make more money than ever before.

If you screw me over, we'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth.

Let's discuss this plan of yours tomorrow.

P.S.: I don't like that toad of yours. You're coming alone.

"I see." Starflower pocketed the note away. It looked like he and Horseface were on the same page about one thing. But regardless of feelings, Starflower still needed Thomas, and doing so much as showing the note to him could jeopardize the mission.

He had to find out what Horseface wanted to say.

***

18th of Cobre, 9:05am, 1659 (167 days before Starflower's trial)

Trash duty was different today.

It was customary to be paired up with your cell mate, but someone in the adjacent cell voiced a complaint and requested for Thomas to be dragged out of his and force him to bathe, so he was excused from trash duty for the day.

This didn't seem strange to Starflower until he arrived at the cleanup site.

He was assigned to work...at a landfill. Several horsefolk were already on site with shovels in their hands, while a lone guard acted as the overseer. Once Starflower got off the transport vehicle, the guard escorted him inside where he met Horseface relaxing under the morning sun.

Once the transport vehicle took off, Horseface made a hand gesture to dismiss the guard, who happily left them alone. "It's good to meet you again, elf. I hope there are no hard feelings for the beatdown I gave you."

Starflower sat down. "The fault lies on me," he lied. "Had I known I was pressing your buttons, I wouldn't have said anything." He looked back at the guard, who was already back at his post. "Won't you get in trouble for this?"

"You're not familiar with the work I do, it seems." Horseface lit up a cigar with a snap of his fingers and offered one to Starflower. When Starflower refused, he pocketed it away and continued. "I have my connections. I'm a rich man; I didn't get here by scrubbing toilets, washing dishes, or by looking for copper coins on the road. I got here because I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. It was a racetrack, you see. When I was a young boy, I was in the stands selling drinks when this fat man pulled me aside and asked me which horse I would bet on. You know what I told him?"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Starflower locked eyes with the mob boss attentively, waiting for an answer.

"'Bet on Horseface,' I said. And what do you know? This man won millions. Turns out he was the don of the Greco family, and he won a bet he made with other crime bosses. I became his 'lucky horse' and gave me a place in his family. He may have been a racist bastard, calling me Horseface and all, but he was good to his men." He took a puff of his cigar. "Ever since that day, he taught me to look for the dirt in people's hands. You never know what people are willing to pay for your silence if you manage to find the dirt on them. You could say I own a third of Helix City because of my connections."

Horseface pointed at the overseer.

"You see that guy? My boys caught him fooling around with someone other than his wife. You know how the Hammer is Helix's patron deity, right? And the whole capital is a theocracy. When you let religion rule over the land, things such as infidelity become major crimes. Needless to say, he works for me now."

"And this is what you do? Weasel yourself out of trash duty by blackmailing a guard?"

"More than that. You saw the map. I can get what I want, whenever I want. Ordinarily, I could be out of here by later this afternoon, whack the sucker who snitched on me, and be back home in time for a nice, relaxing bubble bath."

"Whatever you want, you say?"

"Yeah. For example, I can get the files of any inmate I want." Horseface scoffed. "You wanna know what your toad friend tried to do? He introduced himself as you, and said you were Thomas Carpathia. So, we checked the files on both of you after he left."

A chill went down Starflower's spine. "Thomas, you idiot! What are you scheming?"

"According to the files, Thomas Carpathia is here on inappropriate behavior, violation of his restraining order, and property damage to a local business. There's a lot to unpack here, but the most important thing here is why would that toad say he was you?"

Horseface stood up and paced around Starflower.

"Everyone here knows who you are. Jean Starflower, disgraced headmaster of the Artificers Guild. Were you trying to hide your own identity from us by adopting the name of someone who's done worse than you?"

"Horseface, you got it all wrong." Starflower rose from his seat. "I didn't tell Thomas to switch names with me, I simply sent him to request a meeting with you! Why in the hell would I assume the identity of another person, when I am completely proud of who I am?"

"So, you have no problem admitting your identity, Starflower?"

"Of course not!"

"Hmph. That means that son of a bitch lied to me."

"That's right! I'm Jean Starflower, not him!"

"Is that so?" Horseface snapped his fingers. "That's a relief."

A bludgeoning force collided with Starflower's head, knocking him to the ground. The elf felt an agonizing pain on the back of his skull, and all he could do was writhe on the ground. Another equinefolk stood behind him with a shovel in hand.

"Jean Starflower. You tormented a foreign girl during her stay here in Helix. Carpathia's harassment is admittedly worse, but all I see is red whenever I hear about abusive men. Bullies, rapists, wife beaters, gaslighting schemers, the whole lot. That foreign girl was placed under your care, ready to learn what she came here to learn. And despite that and the hefty payment of her tuition fee, you reward her with a terrible time."

The mob boss nodded to his henchman, who struck Starflower's back with the shovel. Starflower cried out, but no one came to his rescue.

"I was thinking about enrolling my sweet baby girl in your school, but now I'm having second thoughts. Every day, I'd be scared and worried for my little Natalia. But if I don't enroll her, I'd be breaking her heart. I can already hear her; 'Papà, don't you love me? You promised me I'd get to go to the Artificers Guild if I got good grades in school.' Do you think she deserves nothing after the hard work she's done? I like to reward hard work, especially my children. But how does a father tell his daughter how perverted and uncaring the real world is, hmm?"

With another nod, the henchman kicked Starflower on the ribcage. Once again, the elf cried in agony but none dared to approach him. "You'll pay for this, Thomas!"

"People like you don't seem to realize that Helix is the hub of the world. Immigrants come here all the time. I'd like to hear what your excuse is for this unacceptable behavior, but I'm more inclined to bury you alive."

"W-wait!" Holding the back of his head with one hand, Starflower used his free hand to stand back up. "I can still break you out, but we need to work together!"

"I doubt that."

"In three days, you'll be a free man! But I need your help!"

Horseface raised a hand, prompting his henchman to step away from Starflower. "Three days, huh? Do you take me for a sucker?"

"Look, Horseface. I have no reason to betray you. I know how the mob works; I hurt one of you, I hurt all of you. I'm in no position to challenge the Greco family." Starflower had enough energy to elicit a grin. "But I do know how corrupt the police are. Constable Richards may be an honorable man, but that doesn't mean the rest of the police force are. You could easily get out of here on your own by buying the right people. You said so yourself. Question is, why aren't you out of here already?"

The look of terror on Horseface was priceless, but Starflower knew he couldn't push his luck. He was playing with fire, and there was only one way that story ends unless he stopped prematurely.

"You are a ruthless man, Horseface. But killing me here won't get you out of jail any sooner. You can bribe your way out of a murder charge, but not tax evasion."

Horseface wasted no time in lifting Starflower up by the collar of his prison shirt. "How did you know?"

"There was more than one reason as to why I sent Thomas to you. While he was away, I faked an illness so I could stay in my cell. I used that time to do a little digging, and I found out about your little tax problems. Looks like you'll be doing big boy time at the penitentiary once you're sentenced."

"You're shackled with Silence Manacles! There is no way you can cast magic as you are!"

"You are correct in that assessment. If you kill me now, it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel. So, I had a little help from my informant on the outside. And that's not all; she discovered that the Amphibonacci family is already seizing each day by expanding into your territory."

"The frog men?" Horseface's eyes turned completely red. His lone henchman, understandably, backed away out of fear. "How do you know this? How do you know any of this? It should be impossible, even with contacts on the outside!"

"My contact on the outside is just that good. She found out a lot of info within a limited amount of time. She even brought a tribute, at my request."

Starflower dug through his pocket, pulling out a bloody piece of paper that had been wrapped around something. When Horseface grabbed and opened it, he was surprised to see two webbed fingers.

"I came not as your adversary, Horseface. With my brains and your resources, we can all break out of here. But this is our only chance to solidify our alliance. Are you in, or are you out?"

"Refusing speak until I agree?" Horseface snorted. He released his grasp, allowing Starflower to get back on the ground on his own two feet. "Smart man. I'm afraid I'll have to take you at your word. Those frogs have been a thorn on my side for as long as I can remember. They must have emboldened themselves once they realized my tax trouble could get me locked away for good."

"Excellent. Then we have a deal?"

Horseface raised his hand. "There is still the matter of the two thousand gold pieces once we break out. Or was that a lie?"

Fearing another shovel smack to the head, Starflower shook his head. "You have nothing to fear. I didn't agree to it, but I'll get you your money. The map was enough to convince me that the price is worth it."

Horseface sat back down. "Didn't agree to it? Then why did your friend say it was fine?"

"Couldn't you tell based on your earlier discovery? He lied to you."

"Then it's best to keep him out of the loop. You'll go down with him if you keep associating yourself with him."

Starflower knew this. Thomas was already in trouble for lying to the mob and would likely pile more problems if he was left unchecked. Even so, Starflower had another idea. "As much as it pains me to say this, he's vital to our escape plan. I understand he's not the type that would survive in prison, but he was at the top of his class. He'll be able to spot things we miss and offer some valuable insight."

Horseface snorted. "Very well. I have better things to worry about, anyway. He's your problem, not mine. With that said, what do you need from me?"

Starflower grinned. He got a couple of bruises for his trouble, but he was finally making progress with this meeting. "I'll need whatever dirt you have on the guards back at the jailhouse. I will also need you to arrange a getaway vehicle."

"Three days from now, you say?"

"Yes. Lastly, I'll need the schedule of the jail's nurses. They'll prove vital to our escape."