When Trenton awoke, the first thing he noticed was a dingy smell hanging in the air, a musk so thick he was almost choking on it. He rolled over, nearly falling off the small bunk he was lying on, and tried to come to his senses. The room was darkly lit, a single torch holder built into the stone walls being their only source of light. It wasn’t exactly easy to make out much detail of the room around him, but he got enough to know what was going on. Barred door, shabby beds built into the wall, cold, lifeless gray stone everywhere, this was a prison cell. As he reoriented himself, he got the strangest feeling he was being watched. It was unusual, supernatural, like there were a million godly eyes boring into him from every angle, their gaze physically pressing against his skin. But, there was nothing to substantiate this feeling.
“You finally awake? Come on, join us. This game of cards is riveting, trust me. More riveting than rotting in a corner anyway.”
Off to his right, Millie, Leo, and a boy he didn’t recognize sat around a deck of cards on the floor. The boy was looking at him, his eyes oddly warm and welcoming, his smile equally as charming. Intuitively, Trenton wanted to trust him, even though he’d only just woken up. The boy in general didn’t look anything special. He was around Trenton’s age, short brown hair, lean, founded facial features. All in all, just looking at him, one wouldn’t assume him to be anything special whatsoever. Trenton stood up, walked over, and took a seat next to the boy, who had scooted over and was patting the ground beside himself. Trenton wasn’t familiar with the game they were playing, but was content in simply watching as they talked.
“Lllllllllllleo?” the boy said, his eyebrows raised at Leo. Leo simply nodded in response. “Yes, I remembered! See, I’m learning. Leo here told me a bit about you lot, what’s been happening to you and so forth. Hard to believe so much has happened while I’ve just wasting away here in this little, and do pardon my language, shithole,” he extended a hand towards Trenton. “My name's Garrote. Yes, garrote as in the wire you use to cut things. I don’t know why my parents named me that, you’d have to ask them yourselves. And no, I do not use a garrote myself. It’s not really a practical weapon.”
“Trenton,” Trenton said, shaking Garrote’s hand. It was best he remained cautious for now. There was no telling what landed Garrote in here. “I’m surprised they put us all in a cell together. We’re all similar ages, mostly, but Millie’s not even the same gender as us. Aren't men and women supposed to be separated?” Trenton asked, looking over at Garrote.
“Yeah, well, they’re not really good at their job. They don’t even make it look like a real prison.”
“What do you mean?” Leo asked, suddenly piping in.
“Well, none of us are actually here on real charges. Typically there’s a whole system they have to follow, but they kind of just threw us all in here because they can. I’ve been here a while, so as far as I can tell, this is a mock penitentiary, a holding place for person’s of particular interest. You want my two cents,” Garrote leaned into the group and whispered, “whoevers chasing you is the reason you’re here. Shocking, I know. I don’t know why they’d want you alive all of a sudden, but the second their collector comes, you’ll all probably be shipped away to wherever they actually need you. I’m kind of in the same position myself.”
Trenton sat there dumbly, thinking about the absurdity of the situation. Walibeld would be able to break them out, but he probably had no clue they were even in this predicament. He did explicitly tell Trenton that he wouldn’t be able to help if anything went wrong, so any timely intervention was an unlikely option. The backup was simply breaking themselves out, but Trenton could already feel the sapping effect of the dampening runes all around them. He wouldn’t be able to cast any significant spell, nor use any of his innate brute strength. They had no means of getting out on their own either. Were they really stuck? Clever means to get out would have to be their last resort, but if Garrote had been here this long, he’d likely have already tried everything Trenton and Leo could think of to escape. Trenton’s hand shot to his neck, grasping at his collar. Of course they took his necklace. He probably could’ve used it to escape somehow. He did have quite a few implements in there after his and Leo’s shopping spree. So, even if they did manage to escape, Trenton would have to find their storeroom before he left. Prospects were bleak indeed.
“Say, I’ve got a proposition for you,” Garrote said, putting down his hand on the ground, “Full splay, that’s 20 more points.”
Millie pouted, scratching her head, “Man, you’re really good at this game.”
“I’ve been in here for the last month. I better be good at something by now,” Garrote said, drawing more cards to his hand. “Anyway, my proposition. I don’t really have high hopes, but I’d like to consider myself a dreamer. Say we escape here somehow, some divine miracle or something, mind if I join you guys? I don’t really have anywhere else to go, and your lives sound, frankly, a hell of a lot more interesting than mine.”
“Interesting is one way to put it. Miserable would be a more accurate way to put it,” Trenton said, raising his eyebrows at the boy. Millie was one thing, adventurous spirit, young, but this boy was another bag of worms entirely. Boredom? Hardly a good motivator to risk your life. Especially if he wasn’t willing to divulge what actually landed him in here.
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“Think about it from my perspective. I’ve got 3 options. One, I languish here until I’m collected and probably killed. Two, I escape and go off on my own, whereupon I’ll probably be caught again and killed. Three, I escape and go with you guys, whereupon I get to have some company when we’re all collectively killed. Option three sounds a hell of a lot more fun to me personally,” Garrote said.
“Who wants you dead so bad? We hardly need anymore enemies on our tail,” Trenton said, thinking of a polite way to turn the boy down.
“My own family, if you’d believe it,” Garrote said, suddenly sobering. He pulled up the hem of his shirt, revealing his chest to the small gathering. Embedded into his flesh was a small, card shaped crystalline structure, which upon closer inspection looked like a…tarot card? Yeah, Trenton recognized it. He used to have a deck of his own when he was younger. It was the fool, the first card in the major arcana deck. “Can you see it? Everyone in my family is born with one. It’s supposed to represent the person they are, what they’ll do, etcetera. The fool is supposed to be a good card, but my family sees it as nothing other than a curse. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure they’re just trying to kill me now, done with my antics and what not,” he pulled down his shirt, covering his malformed chest. “Listen, I get you guys have a lot going on, but I’ve been doing this a while. I don’t mean to pile my problems onto you, but I’d gladly help you with yours. Plus,” he held up his hand, “I’m a pretty good fighter in my own right–a graviturgy mage.”
“Gravitury!? That’s so cool! Aren't those super rare?” Millie shouted out, dropping all of her cards. It seemed like even the damp prison wasn’t quite dousing her energy, the runes neither.
“More or less. I think worldling magic: graviturgy, chronurgy, and spatial, makes up only about 1% of the population or so, and I fall right within that little slice of the chart. So,” Garrote turned back to Trenton, “it’s mostly hypothetical, but I’d still like your word.”
Trenton looked over at Leo, who had been pretty quiet this entire time, but he just shook his head and stared down at the ground. Trenton thought about it, weighing the possibilities, calculating their odds, searching for any empathy he might’ve had. In the end, the deciding factor really came down to the boy's history. He had struggled, suffered, and anguished, much like the rest of them. If anything, their little band of misfits was the perfect home for someone like him.
“Yeah, you can come with. I don’t see any reason to reject help right now. We really do need all that we can get,” Trenton said, resolute in his decision.
“Now we just gotta figure out how to get out of here. I’ve been trying for a while, but no luck. I can’t imagine either of you would fare much better, either,” Garrote said, shrugging and leaning back.
“Probably not, I’ll have to-” Trenton started, before a loud ringing from behind him startled him to silence.
“Light out in 10!” a guard yelled at them, quickly passing out of view.
“Oh yeah, you were passed out for most of the day. It’s already night time, around 7 or so,” Leo said, putting down his hand of cards and heading over to his bunk.
Trenton stood to get ready to sleep, but all of a sudden, the ground beneath them began to quake, their beds rattling in their poorly made supports. Outside the cell, Trenton could see the guards running around, everyone yelling or brandishing a weapon of some kind. It was a mad panic. Off in the distance he could hear thousands of faint wails, the sounds of pure terror. Was the city under attack again? Another quake, this one hundreds of times stronger, threw Trenton and others to the ground, the whole room shaking as if an earthquake had just struck them. Trenton staggered to his feet, running to the bars to see what was happening.
At first, it was just a small crack in the ceiling, a couple holes from something piercing through the stone, and an accompanying spiderwebs of cracks. But then, the cracks began to bloom, the entire ceiling peeling back like the lid of a tin can. A burst of fresh air invaded the building from outside, ruffling Trenton’s clothes and hair. Above them, beating its mighty wings, was a colossal red dragon, its face alone easily as large as a poor man's house. Its fiery eyes bored into the prison, locking onto Trenton after a moment. It opened its great jaw, a mass of orange hues collecting somewhere far back in its throat.
“MOVE!” Garrote cried, grabbing and pulling Trenton backwards.
A searing mass of fire bathed the hallway in orange light, the guards that were standing there not even getting a chance to scream before they were incinerated. The fire, a searing wave of intense heat, forced its way through the hallway, wreaking havoc and destruction to anything it touched. The fire pushes through the steel grate separating them from the rest of the world, the licks of flames dancing in the air before them, but they were not quite close enough to kill them. Garrote managed to pull Trenton out of the blast radius just in time, Millie dousing everyone in water to protect from the intense heat emanating from the hallway. After a full minute of blinding light and power, the fire’s ceased, and once again, the wind began to stir wildly around them. The dragon was leaving, or rather, attacking a different part of the city.
“Hey kids! Sorry it took me so long, but I’m here now, if that makes up for anything,” Standing right in front of the glowing red steel grate, was a man in a white hooded cloak. Trenton couldn’t see much of his face, but he did notice that something underneath the man’s hood was glowing a brilliant fiery orange, similar to the dragon. Had he been standing in the dragon's fire that whole time? He looked to be in pristine condition, the make of a man waking up to his second week of vacation. He grabbed the bars, his smile wide, and in one swift motion, pulled the entire grate out of the wall, the stone included. So much for the bars being red hot. He tossed the grate to the side, taking in each of their forms. “What do you say we get out of here?”