When night time fell I stood leaning against the bars in anticipation. There had been one guard or jailor, I wasn’t sure what to call him, doing their rounds but I had not seen them for a while.
I was eagerly waiting for Galahad to give the signal that now was the time, instead he was sat motionless against the cell wall, his visor down and a snoring noise escaping the gaps of his helmet.
I contemplated kicking him to wake him but a short sharp snort of air seemed to do that for me, he looked around confused for a moment before raising his visor.
“How long have I been asleep for? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Because I thought you could do with the rest and I knew we couldn’t do anything until knight fall anyway.”
“When was the jailor last here?”
“Erm, he has been gone a while now.” I said.
“Righto,” he said, in a chipper manner, he seemed to be in good spirits, like we were going out on a day trip and not about to attempt a jail break.”
“Now if I remember correctly, if we head straight down that corridor and through the door that will take us up another corridor then a flight of stairs.” he started muttering to himself, “Was it a left or a right from the second floor?”
“Galahad,” I said, startling him from his thoughts, “We kind of need to get going?” I didn’t want to wait around longer than was necessary and it was certainly dark enough now. The edge of the cell was only lit by the single torchlight around five metres away from our cell. It was enough to illuminate a section of the corridor away from us but it did leave to a blackened void filled with shadows. This certainly wasn’t going to be easy.
Galahad passed me the keys and I reluctantly accepted them, knowing full well where they had been stored all this time, it was a miracle the keys hadn’t gotten up and walked off themselves to get away from being stored in Galahad’s crotch any longer.
I fumbled around with the keys until I found the one that fit, leaning my arm through the bars and pressing my face against the iron. When the lock clicked I felt a wave of relief as I pushed the iron grid forward, it was heavier than I thought it would be, and it squeaked louder than I would like, reminding me of Galahad’s suit of armour that still needed oiling.
“Try to keep the noise down with your suit?” I said. “they will hear you coming a mile off,”
“Don’t worry,” Galahad said, “These things have a habit of working themselves out.” he said, almost dismissively of me, again leaving me wondering if it was confidence or arrogance that he was showing.
We made our way down the dark corridor, the limited light shimmered on the walls from the water that was seeping through cracks and the ceiling, revealing a thin coating of moss that had started to form in patches. The air smelt damp and musty, leaving a bitter taste in the back of my throat, I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of here.
Galahad led us both, given that he seemingly knew where we were going, that made sense. I could here him constantly muttering to himself as he looked around, going through the directions that we needed to take. Aside from us, there wasn’t much other noise coming from the dungeon, which gave it an eerie feel, one that sent a cold shiver down my spine. Cell’s were bedded into the walls of the corridor either side of us, but I couldn’t see anyone inside of them, that as until we passed the final one, when I noticed a shadow in the corner.
I stopped, Galahad barely noticed. “Psst I said,” drawing his attention.
“What is it old boy,”
“There’s another person here.”
“Well it is a dungeon so likely they have committed an offense,”
“Like us?” I said, “We could help them too.”
“We haven’t got time for this Sean.” Galahad said.
I agreed that we didn’t have time but something didn’t sit well with leaving someone here, especially when we knew that the guards were corrupt.
“Hello,” I said, keeping my voice as low as I could. There was no movement, “Hello.” I repeated again.
A crackled groan and a rasping breath told me that they were not in good shape.
“Who’s there?” the voice said, they sounded like they were in pain and struggling for air. It was a voice that I recognised.
“Luca?” I said as he shifted forward slightly, the moonlight casting through a similar small opening in our cell, casting bright light on his face. He was battered and bruised, one of his eyes were swollen shut and he had a trail of blood, coming from the top of his head. He also had a fat lip and the scruff of his shirt was torn.
“You, you stole from me,” his tone was more of disappointment rather than anger, it made me feel even worse.
“What happened to you?”
“The guards are what happened, seems the captain didn’t like me blaming them after what happened in the town square. I saw the fight you both had, I made a comment about my bakery being targeted and that their patrols should stop this, they didn’t like that.”
“I am so sorry that this has happened to you,” I said, the guilt was unbearable, he was in such a bad state.
“As much as I could blame you, this is on me.” he said, “I knew what would happen, yet I still ran my mouth off, truth be told I was looking for a fight.”
“We can help you,” I said, still clutching the keys. I started trying them on the cell. “We are going to stop all of this, we want to stop the guards, we want to stop the Gods Father.”
“Then you must have banged your head a lot harder than you thought, because that right there is suicide.”
After trying a few of the keys, I finally found the one that worked as the lock clicked open and I pulled the cell door open.
“Sean, we cannot afford to dilly dally.”
“Sean? Luca said, I thought your name was Silas?” He groaned in pain as I helped him to his feet, the sooner we could get some health potions down him, the better.
“It is, Silas,” I said, “It’s a long story, I am sorry for all this.” my determination to make things right, to make things better was unbearable, the weight of the guilt was suffocating. This was on me, this was my fault, I needed to make up for that, I needed to learn from this.
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“Sean!” Galahad’s voice was raised, “We do really need to get moving,”
I hooked Luca’s arm over my head and wrapped my own arm around him to give him some support, he was heavy and I moved much slower now.
“Come on, lets go.”
We continued behind Galahad as he led the way towards the Dungeon exit, when we moved up the first flight of stairs a welcome rush of air from outside greeted us which felt like the equivalent of chewing some menthol gum. Air had never tasted any sweeter, replacing the damp taste that had been lingering in my moth for longer than I would have liked.
My instinct was to head towards the right, where the cold breeze was drifting from, Galahad however continued to mutter to himself and started right but changed his mind and turned left.
“Galahad,” I said, still trying to keep my voice low. “Didn’t you say the exit was to the right?”
“It is,” he said, walking away from us as I looked on in disbelief.
“Then why are you heading that way?”
“Because,” he replied, “If you want to head out, go ahead there is just something I need to do.”
“I can’t exactly leave you.”
“Go with him, I will push towards the exit, saving that I will try and find a place to hide.” Luca said, wincing and placing a hand to his ribs. Judging by the crackle I could hear every time he took a breath I had figured he had a punctured lung, probably multiple broken ribs. Either way we needed to get him healed up sooner, rather than later.
I watched as Galahads armour made rusted grating sound as he continued further ahead and let out an audible sigh.
“I wish he would tell me these things before we were neck deep in a situation.”
Luca didn’t respond as I let go of him and followed Galahad, leaving Luca behind to continue as I caught up with him.
He had already moved up another flight of stairs, picking up the pace, he was creating a lot more noise than I would have liked given the situation, but I was surprised by the lack of guards given that this was a dungeon. Saying that there was seemingly only three of us down there so maybe I was over thinking things.
Galahad was still ahead of me and reached the top of the stairs, he stepped left, then right before deciding on a left turn.
“Where is it we are going?” I asked.
“I don’t have time to explain now,” he said as he continued to mutter directions to himself. “Ah, here.” he said, stopping outside of an old wooden door.
Galahad pressed his ear against the door lightly before saying, “You really do need to try and keep the noise down Sean, you will have the guards descending on us in no time.” His lack of self awareness was astounding and I was about to challenge him when he grabbed hold of the handle and gently pushed the door open.
He disappeared inside and I quickly followed behind. The room wasn’t huge but it was like a untidy office. There was a table on the far side, rolled up scrolls were in a pile on one side, open parchment spread across the rest with metal weights used to pin some of them down. There was another desk to the side, this one with a series of wooden draws fixed into the bottom. Above it was. A series of shelves, with glass vials,, some empty, some with different coloured liquids in.
I quickly examined them.
1x small health potion
1x mana potion
1x stamina potion
Without hesitation I added them to my inventory but glugged down the small health potion as fast as I could, the taste was sweet, like strawberries and the lingering pain from my own cracked rib faded away and my breathing got that little bit easier. My health bar wasn’t quite filled but it was sat at around eighty five percent which was better than it was previously.
“Why are we here?” I said, while I was busy collecting the potions, Galahad was busy rifling through the parchments on the table. He had a determined look in his eye, he had purpose in his actions.
“What are you looking for.”
“Something that will bring the captain down as well as every corrupted guard in Willowshire.” he said. “There is no way he can run an operation like this without writing anything down, I know he will have something. We just need to find something incriminating on him, then we may just have a chance of helping those guards with good intentions take back control.
“By raising his notoriety?” I said.
“Exactly old boy.” He pointed to the draws beside me, “Now be a good chap and search through those, we need something that has his handwriting, that will tie him to all of this, to the Gods Father.”
“How about that?” I pointed to a safe that was sat in the corner of the room behind Galahad. It was medium sized, with a small keyhole to the right of it.
“Aha,” he said as he spun on his heels and dropped to his knees. “Don’t suppose one of those keys will fit,” he said hopefully. I passed him the keys and he began trying the smaller ones on the safe, cursing every time one of them didn’t fit.
“Never mind,” I will have to do this the old fashioned way. He pulled at the metal ring, that housed all of the keys until it snapped and stretched the thin metal loop outwards. The keys all fell from it, jingling on the floor like a wind chime as Galahad bent and twisted the piece of metal until it broke in. Two. “Haven’t done this for a while he said,” as he inserted both the pieces of metal into the lock and started wiggling them about, with a determined look on his face.
After a few moment’s there was a loud clunk and Galahad’s eyes widened. “There we go,” before shuffling back and pulling the safe door open.
Inside there was a pile of parchment at the bottom with what looked like a bag of coins sat on top.
Galahad lifted the bag of coins before hastily grabbing hold of the parchment and placed them down on the papers.
“Come on, come on,’ he said before starting to mutter under his breath as he skimmed over the parchment.
“there you go, you slimy little bastard,” he said.
“What is it?”
“Everything we need, a list of guards names and payments he is making, from the coin he is being given.”
“Will it be enough,”
“It has to be.”
“Well, well well.” The captains deep voice reverberated through the room, startling both of us. “What have we got here.”
“Shit,” I said, bracing myself for a fight.
“You will pay for your dishonour.” Galahad said, rolling the parchment up and gripping it as his eyes fixed onto the captain who was now stood blocking the door. “You bring shame to this town and it is high tide that someone stopped you.”
“And that is going to be you?” he sneered. “Galahad, I run this town. Who do you think the townsfolk are going to believe, their Guard captain or the local drunk?”
“Well they say there are always two types of people you can count on to tell the truth, children and a drunkard.”
“Still,” He sneered, lowering his hand to a sword, my sword. “I can’t have you leaving her with that piece of parchment.”
“Sean keep hold of this, don’t let it go no matter what?” Galahad tossed the rolled up parchment to me and I quickly added this to my inventory.
“You will be brought to justice captain,” Galahad said, lowering the visor on his helmet.
“Perhaps one day, just not today and certainly not today.” He started to draw his sword, when Galahad let out a frustrated roar and charged at him, I didn’t have time to ready myself for a fight as Galahad, speared the captain into the wall and started pummelling him over and over again. Catching the captain off guard.
Galahad had the captain overpowered, when something hit him from the side, it was a flash of blue, like a big puff of pulsating energy with cracks of lightning flickering in it. A sulphur like smell hung in the air and I rushed out of the room onto the corridor to help Galahad.
It singed the back of my nose, forcing me into a cough. “What the hell was that?” I said as I wafted my hands around to wade through the plumes of thick smoke, it was like a smoke grenade had been set off, the air suddenly thick and claggy joined with an increase in air pressure. Galahad was coughing and spluttering himself as he stood back up, a section of his armour had a black scorched mark where he had hit.
I rushed over to him, “What happened?”
“Storm magic he said,”
“Magic?” The words shouldn’t have caught me by surprise but it did.
Galahad shook his head, “Yes magic, surely you are familiar with it? “You do have a companion that is a Reaver.”
“What now?” I said as we watched the plume of smoke thin as it faded away.
The captain was already on his feet and pushing through the guards that had arrived, at the front of them, was a young man, with a short black pointed beard, he was wearing a dark blue robe with the hood pulled over his head.
I locked in on him.
Apprentice Temporal Wizard
Level 6
“A wizard,” I said to myself.
“What did you expect a bloody unicorn?” Galahad said. “He’s an apprentice so he should be easy enough to take down, we need to stop the captain, he needs to face justice for his part in all of this.
I stretched out my shoulders and readied myself, things were going to get even more intense now.