“Wake up sleepyhead, we have to get to work.” Blaze shook Nora gently. Her eyes opened and she stared at Blaze for a while, obviously still waking up. She started closing them again, but Blaze just shook her again.

Nova’s eyes flew open and she sat up knocking into Blaze. “Argh!” Blaze grabbed his head at the same time as Nova. Blaze rubbed it gently knowing it was going to leave a bruise.

“Sorry.” Nova said in a hushed voice. Her cheeks were red which made Blaze grin.

“It’s fine, and it’s definitely not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. Come on now, we need to get started.”

“No breakfast?” Nova groaned.

“Not here. There’s barely even lunch.”

The two walked out of the cell and Nova glanced around and saw more Overseers there than in her entire life. “Umm…How many Overseers are here?”

Blaze chuckled. “Twelve. Two for each of the six prisoners.” He glanced at Nova. “Well you make seven.”

Nova followed Blaze who showed her to a room. “This is my work cell. Today you work with me. I need to teach you some things.”

They entered the room which had a small table in the middle. On the side there was iron. On the other was a bag of Dacite, a mineral discovered a few years before that was very rare. It made armor almost impenetrable and very powerful weapons.

Nova walked over to it. “I’ve never seen Dacite.” She picked the shiny blue stone.

“Well you’ll be seeing a lot of it.” Blaze laughed. “Are you ready to work harder than ever before?” Blaze grabbed iron and Dacite and placed them in a sort of melting machine.

“What are we gonna do?”

“We make armor for the Dark Forces.”

Nova’s eyes widened. “What? I came here because I rebelled against them, not to help them out.”

“We have no choice. It’s do this or die.”

“And why armor and not guns?” Nova asked. “Don’t they need more guns?”

“We could rig the guns.”

“We could make the armor unstable too.”

Blaze laughed. “Well the day after we make the armor they whip us while we’re wearing it. If the armor breaks we have to remake the armor and we get a nasty scar. They call it whipping day.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Nova sighed. “What do I need to do?”

Nova had been working for a few hours when Blaze decided to ask her the question. “What are you in for?”

“I tried attacking one of the Dark forces.” Nova said absently. She set down her tools. “And then they put me in prison. But I escaped. And they continued placing me in other prisons, but I still escaped those.” It seemed like Nova was going to continue, but that one of the overseers had heard them.

“Shut Up!” He yelled into the door.

Nova growled at him and scooched closer to Blaze to where they were touching shoulders. She waited for the overseer to leave before she started whispering, “Then one day I went to a prison with sixteen prisoners. It was one of the best guarded prisons ever.” Nova smiled at the memory. “I helped all the prisoners escape in just two weeks.”

Blaze laughed. “That’s crazy! Are-” The rest of his sentence was cut off as the overseer returned and flew into the room.

“I said Shut UP!” Before Blaze or Nova could react, vine-like tentacles emerged from the man’s back. The vines slashed up and came down on Nova’s back with a loud crack.

Nova yelled out in pain as she fell to the floor. Blaze kneeled down and grabbed her arm asking if she was okay. Blaze glared at the Overseer wishing he could do something. He watched the overseer leave the room and then looked back at Nova.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

Nova nodded and stood back up with a lot of difficulty. “Let’s get back to work before he comes back.”

The work grew more tiring for Nova and Blaze until they were finally called for the ten minute lunch break. This was the only time the prisoners got to eat. The food was disgusting but Blaze could live with that.

His only fear was that Nova couldn’t.

Blaze and Nova sat down at a small table where seven bowls of disgusting gloop had been served. Blaze immediately dug into his food. He watched as the other prisoners joined them. Lily and Axel, the only siblings in the prison sat across from him and Greg beside him.

They all ate their food without a word like they did every single day. Nova, though, didn’t touch her food. She just stood up and started to leave.

Blaze reached out and grabbed her arm. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Nova shrugged. “I just need to use the bathroom.” She walked away and Blaze stared after her, noticing that her limp was worse. There was something Nova wasn’t telling him.

“Going to the bathroom are you?” Blaze grinned at Nova who was sitting with her back against the wall, in a place nowhere near the toilets.

Nova jumped. “Just taking a rest.” She said.

Blaze shook his head. “Nova, I know somethings up.” He sat on his bunk and patted the mattress. “Come On, my parents were doctors. I can check your injury.”

“No.” Nova flinched. “I’m fine.”

Blaze raised an eyebrow. “Come on Nova, if it hurts that much you need help.”

Nova growled but submitted and lay on the bunk her back to Blaze. “But I’m warning you, there’s more there than just one whipping.”

Blaze nodded and slowly lifted up her shirt immediately regretting it. Her back had two holes like a vine had ripped through her back. Dried and sticky blood surrounded them, making Blaze want to throw up.

“What happened?” He asked.

“After I escaped the other prison, the overseers tortured me before I was sent here.” Nova sighed. “Not a pretty sight is it?”

“Stay here, I’ll go get some water.” Blaze rushed to the bathroom soaked a towel in water and ran back to the bunk. He cleaned the wound as best as he could then lowered Nova’s shirt back down. “Tonight, I can do better. When the others are asleep come to the bunk and I’ll be able to help you.”