Kenrich’s head jerked away from the door and back to the open road in front of them, which was quickly filled with armed guards. They all had gold jewelry with different gems encased in them, as well as heavy weapons and even heavier armor. There were more than twenty guards surrounding them, and out of the corner of their eyes, they saw that even more were placed further away. Violet immediately grabbed the tavern door and pushed with all of her might, but the door was barricaded from the inside, barring them from the only escape route they had. The soldiers had them dead to rights.
“God…damnit,” Violet said, gritting her teeth. “The Admian Special Corps. How the hell did they know we’d be here?”
“This isn’t looking good for us…What do we do?” Kenrich asked.
“All we can do…is surrender.” Violet put her hands up in the air.
The soldiers started slowly advancing on them before being split down the middle as a familiar face made their way to the front.
“Violet! It’s good to see you! Wish it were under better circumstances though,” the tall, armored man said. “I’m glad to see that you’re alive!”
“Wish I could say the same…Tinsel.”
“It’s Tinsen! Tinsen Entilin, commander of the fourth division of the Admian military. I know that you know my name, girl. And I also know that you know exactly why I’m here…”
Violet grunted. She knew that there was no way out of this as things stood. The only chance they might get would be if they managed to stay alive which made surrender the only viable option.
“We’ll come quietly.”
“I’m glad to see you’re still the reasonable sort, Violet. You were always good at knowing when to quit. Men…put them in shackles. We’ll detain them, gather their belongings, and plan an execution date promptly.”
“Execution…?” Kenrich said, sheepishly.
“Of course. You have been going against Great Emperor Thelden for weeks now. A quick death is more than you two deserve. Take them away.”
The armored guards took both Violet and Kenrich, put iron shackles around their hands and feet, then took all of their belongings, including the Ring of Life. The guard who took the ring, quickly gave it to Tinsen who held it above his head and stared intently at it.
“So, this is the Ring of Life, huh?” he said. “It could be a fake though…better test it out-”
Tinsen took out a long golden blade from the sheath on his side and stepped towards Violet, before slashing her throat wide open.
“VIOLET!!” Kenrich screamed with blood splattered on his face.
“Calm yourself, boy. Once she leaves this mortal coil…we’ll bring her right back!”
Violet gurgled as blood was pouring out of every opening in her face as well as the new one in her neck. She squirmed for around half a minute before finally drawing her last labored breath. Kenrich was absolutely disgusted and enraged by the brutality, but Tinsen had a perverted look of elation on his face as he watched her slowly die.
“So, now I put on the ring, and then touch her, right?” he said, humorously.
He violently stuck his finger in her slashed neck and the white light that Kenrich had seen as he revived her in Fril made its appearance again. After a few seconds, Violet started gasping for air with a horrified look on her face. She grit her teeth with tears in her eyes.
“Y-you fucking bastard…” she said in a raspy voice.
“Haha! It works after all! The emperor will be most pleased. Go ahead and stash them in the jail now. I feel like celebrating before we make our way back to Admian soil!”
Four guards took the shoulders of both Kenrich and Violet and started walking them down the road. Neither of them resisted and only stood there defeated as they were dragged towards a large, concrete building that looked exactly as drab as you would expect a prison to look. It had the opposite feel of the rest of the bright and cheery nation of Aquarium that they were used to seeing to this point. They entered the building and saw that even more impressively armed guards were gawking at them as they were dragged through the room. They were then led down a dark flight of stairs that was only lit by dim torches. As they reached the bottom, they saw many cells on both sides of a dark and depressing hallway. It was truly the job of this place to suck all of the hope out of those within its walls, and it seemed good at it. The cells were separated by large concrete walls between them and sturdy iron bars were tightly placed together at the front of each cell. They opened the first empty cell and threw Violet in it. She scraped her elbows and knees as she slid on the coarse concrete floor. She did not return to her feet. She only looked up towards Kenrich as theirs locked for a single moment before he was led further down the hallway. She saw his eyes filled with unfathomable rage. They found another empty cell near the end of the hallway and threw Kenrich in just as violently. He immediately got up and put his arms around the bars.
“You will all fucking pay…” he said.
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“Will we now?” the guard chuckled. “Keep giving us lip and we might have to teach you a lesson, boy.”
“Let him have his tantrum,” another guard said. “Let’s go get a drink.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The guards left the room up the same stairs they drug them through. They were now alone in their cells and far away from one another. They were not even close enough to communicate through yelling. Violet pulled her body up and sat with her legs crossed on the floor. She could not help but keep thinking about that look in Kenrich’s eyes. It was as if his eyes were glowing orange with the flames of rage. She had only seen that amount of blind rage once before. It was from her own reflection in the water during her first expedition in their war with Shangloo. A time when she was not able to save someone she really cared about.
Kenrich sat in his cell stewing on his intense emotions. Seeing Violet die in a brutal way for the second time was more than he could handle. Rather than feeling scared and depressed though, he could only feel a rage within himself that could only be quenched by the bloody bodies of those soldiers and their commander. He was pacing back and forth, thinking as hard as he could about a way to get out of this cell. He could not squeeze through the bars, and he had nothing around him he could use as a tool. He refused to think it was impossible though and continued thinking, pacing, and stewing.
After around thirty minutes had passed, Violet heard a shallow set of footsteps make their way towards the dungeon. She watched the staircase intently and saw a slight glint of green clothing sway in the darkness. The figure made their way to her cell and stood there staring right at her face, which was dirty and sad.
“F-Farrell…?” she said lightly.
“Hello, Violet. Quite the predicament you find yourselves in, huh?” There was a blank look in his eyes.
“Why are you here?”
“I just thought that I owed you an explanation is all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you two ever get a chance to look at the bounty on your heads? It was quite massive. Anyone would see finding you two as quite the lucrative business endeavor.”
“Y-you…! You sold us out!”
“I’ve been known to take a look at bounties every now and then, and I was quite surprised when I saw both of your faces plastered next to a life-changing number of gez. I was worried that I would never see you two again though, which had me kicking myself! Luckily though, you two came straight to me! How fortunate am I?”
“So you just came here to rub it in my face! You fucking bastard! Just wait until I get my hands on y-” Violet tried to get up but stumbled and fell back to the ground.
“I figured that I should at least tell you about it as a final act of kindness. You never did trust me after all. I just wanted to prove you right! Now, I’m going to go collect my reward. It’s been fun, Violet. Make sure to give Ken my regards. I hope your deaths are quick and painless.”
Farrell made his way back up the stairs ignoring Violet’s insults that she was throwing at him as he went. He was now gone, and so was Violet’s self-pity. She now had an uncontrollable rage within her as well. She started thinking long and hard about how to get out of the cell just as Kenrich was, and after a few moments, she had an idea. With her being close to the entrance, she knew that she had a chance to get the attention of the guards upstairs, even if it was a small one. She had no idea how soundproof these walls were, but she still had to try regardless. She would lead a guard down to her cell, grab them through the bars, and take them out. She would have to gamble on them having something she could use to escape like a key, or a powerful magic stone, but if there was a chance that it would work, she had to take it.
Kenrich continued pacing back and forth within his cell. He was too far away to see Farrell’s admission, but was still somehow becoming angrier and angrier every second he was in that cell. He had never felt something like this before. He could think of nothing but violence, blood, and gore. The more he paced, the angrier he got. The angrier he got, the more heat he started to feel rising within his body. Suddenly, he felt something in his chest that he had never felt before. It was painful. He gripped his chest and swayed back and forth losing his balance. He fell to his knees. His head suddenly shot up, and his eyes glowed a vibrant orange as he let out a deep scream. It was not a scream of fear, or a scream of pain, it was a scream of pure rage.
During the same moment, Violet started her plan. She screamed loudly and clearly for the guards to come down to her cell. After a minute of screaming, her voice was getting horse, but she knew that this was the only chance they had, so she kept going. After another minute of yelling, she heard the door at the top of the staircase slam open, as a heavy set of footsteps quickly made their way down the steps and right up to her cell.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch!” the inebriated guard said in anger. “We’re trying to…” *hiccup* “…enjoy ourselves up there!”
“Fuck you, shit-breath!” Violet said.
“You’ve done it now, you whore!”
The guard swayed back and forth as he fiddled with a keyring he grabbed from his pocket. He opened the cell with his sword drawn, but Violet knew that things could not be going any better. Not only did the guard have the key, but he unlocked the cell willingly and was drunk beyond belief. The guard took a slow swing at her which she easily dodged before slamming the guard's hand towards the floor with her elbow, breaking his arm, and making him drop the sword. The guard tried to cry out, but Violet held his mouth shut before grabbing the fallen sword and thrusting it through his exposed neck. The guard died instantly, and Violet was now free from her cell. She immediately took the set of keys that the guard had and ran towards Kenrich’s cell at the back of the hallway. She passed a few other prisoners on the way, who all yelled at her to let them out after seeing her grasping the set of keys. She urged them to be quiet but the noise they were making was too loud. She heard more sets of footsteps coming from the stairs and knew that she had company. Three more guards came from upstairs, and unfortunately, they seemed a lot less drunk than the first one. They also had rings on their fingers which meant that they most likely had some sort of projectile magic at their disposal. She had no way of defending against that in this open hallway with no cover, and she had no projectiles of her own to shoot back at them. She could see no outcome of this fight that ended well for her. She thought about surrendering, but it was clear that they were not going to take her as a prisoner again. The middle guard thrust his hand straight at her, shooting a massive fireball that took up too much space in the hallway to dodge cleanly. Violet braced herself the best she could and tried to position her body to get hit in a non-lethal place, but before the fireball could make impact, there was a massive crash from a cell in the back of the hallway, and in what felt like less than a second, a figure made their way in front of her before thrusting their hand right at the fireball which scattered it towards the walls, inadvertently killing a few of the rowdy prisoners. The figure looked back at her with glowing orange eyes, it was Kenrich.