He was strange, but calling him strange was the least I could say. But other words I could come up with still didn't fit exactly right. Words like 'eccentric', 'odd', or 'bizarre', did not do his manner justice.

"What are you waiting for, Asher? I witnessed you tear steel with your bare hands. Why are you still in this miserable cell? Let us go out, free, and liberate our fellow man." I demanded of him, but first, there was just one query: "How did they even manage to capture you?"

I braced myself for once again another flood of gibberish from him as he started, "Well, I let myself get captured on purpose," he said.

I said "Why?" in disbelief, not just to him, but in general. "Gods forbid, why would you ever do that? What's wrong with you? Who or what gave you the notion that it would be wise to allow oneself to be taken captive?"

"It doesn't matter," I said after a little period of silence, during which I let the shock pass. "You wouldn't get very far even with that wondrous might of yours. It would be impossible for anyone to escape since there are too many guards engaged in this disgusting trade."

"You're right, it truly is hopeless. Who was I kidding? Helping the weak and releasing slaves? What a terrible idea," his eyes were nearly filled with tears.

“Just kidding,” he transitioned from despair to delight to confidence in the span of a second, “fear not, Aini. Tomorrow we’re both gonna be free,” he promised, “everyone here will be.”

Then he took a seat on the wet ground, and I sat down next to him.

There was something in his face I couldn't make out.

"Whatever it is you planned, you best give up. The guards are not like other people; they may not be cunning but they are powerful and their leaders are truly devious," I made an attempt to convince him that they wouldn't hesitate to kill him, but I knew it was futile.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Even if it was ridiculous, he didn't seem like the type of man to back down from a decision.

"Faye, are you there?" The air was his medium for the question.

I had to inquire, "To whom are you speaking?" because he wasn't paying attention to me or any other specifics in the cell. He just looked around. "Who is Faye?"

Was he in touch with anyone else, perhaps someone he could come in contact with inside the holdings?

Outside this jail we were being kept in, was there backup?

I was in thought and didn't realize that just in the next moment a girl materialized next to Asher, out of nowhere. I lurched back into the cell wall.

She was short and her feet didn't touch the ground, hovering just an iota above it.

Her aura was ethereal, and I couldn't stand to look at her directly, as my eyes began watering in an instant when I tried, but when I managed to, it was like looking through a warped piece of glass.

I could make out that, just like Asher, she was a member of one of the beast-races, unspecified, of course, but I saw the animal ears and a tail, but that was all.

“Could you un-mute the system for just a second?” Asher said to her. I didn't know how he managed to be so undisturbed by her presence.

As he uttered the words, he began to shake and fall to the ground while gripping his head. He actually clawed so hard into the side of his head that he began to bleed.

I saw the beads of sweat emerge on his forehead, as if he were standing in a rainstorm and his face was twisted into the expression of great pain.

I could have sworn that there was a faint buzzing noise coming from him.

I had no idea what to do. The pain didn't stem from a bodily wound, but from the inside of his mind.

He fought to say, "Okay Faye, that's enough."

And then it seemed that all the pain faded away.

He stood up and took the fallen slave-collar which he had ripped off previously and mended it to his neck again.

But seeing a behemoth fall and rise by the whims of a girl, standing on wobbly legs, made me wonder what she had done to him.

She must have had some sort of power and that power worked so well on someone as strong as Asher, then...

I gained something akin to hope.

These two, however strange they might be, combined, they could actually stand up for themselves and have somewhat of a chance against the guards, if planned well beforehand and playing their cards just right.