Thana Mourningjay

Wake up, get clean, exercise, stretch, meditate, pretend to pray to the Lady of Life, think, consider, plan. I had to get out, I had to escape, there was no other choice. Meals came when they did, normally painfully plain, but food was food, and I needed energy if I was to live. This was my day, watching, listening, trying to find some hole in the defenses of this blasted prison. I needed a chance, just a chance to get out, they'd denied me any hope, and so I'd have to find my own.

Day in, and day out, this was how things went. The guards, mostly priests and paladins, didn't like to gossip with us too much, they wanted us to reflect on ourselves, and come to the conclusion that they wanted by our assigned time. Of course, with the sword above the neck of every prisoner on this block there was good reason to.

The Life's Judgment they called it. You didn't get forever here, years perhaps, in a few cases decades, depending on your crime, and then you went before it. It was a spell, a massive, potent thing carved into the so-called Room of Judgment If you were good, truly good, repentant, truly, really repentant, or by some fluke innocent 'The Lady of Life' would see it, 'she would smile upon you' and your sentence would end, you'd be fully healed and released by the spell.

If you failed, well, I'd heard the screams more than once. The spell would burn you, waves of fire would fall one after another until you were no more. Your death would be recorded and the jailers of this prison would admonish the other prisoners to learn from your folly.

My day was fast approaching, and before it arrived I needed to get out of here, I needed to flee this place, this city, this country.

Today though, something new happened, something different. Different things were good, different things might give me a chance. The first large different thing had nearly gotten me free, its failure had sent me right to the top of The Tower, but it was a near thing.

A man was being introduced to some of the prisoners, a new guard, mid to late forties, maybe early fifties, and boy, was he different.

Milo Greyson

“You're no paladin, and certainly no priest,” the small voice said.

The girl stood in her cell, looking far more put together than those around her. There was a look in her eyes, a mix of intelligence and desperation, pain, anger, but not the disregard for others that so many around her showed. She wasn't broken or sad either, just.. like an orphan ripped off the street. Long black hair hung limply down over her eyes as she spoke.

She was young, very, very young, fifteen if a day, so much younger than the others on this level. It boggled the mind that she could have done something that would end her up here, between the worst of the worst criminals who'd ever been captured alive.

That was all striking, but the most striking bit was the shackles. A long chain of greenish metal, adamantine if I had to guess, inscribed in runes. Long enough for her to move freely, but that wasn't the point. Those were for mages, and not cheap at all.

“Mind your manners Mourningjay,” Supervisor Flint commanded, eyes flicking to the outer door in a clear threat. If he wanted he could shut her in, keeping her from hearing, or talking, to anyone.

“Just an observation sir,” she said lightly.

“Your time making such observations would be better spent in prayer.” The paladin who led my shift was a gruff man, but from what I'd seen fair, and when she stepped back into the main part of her cell, kneeling by the small alter there he didn't close her in as he'd threatened.

I waited until we were well away from her cell, and any of the others before I spoke. “Deaging magic? She looks like she's just a kid. Kinda reminds me of my niece.”

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“No, the girl's age is her own so far as we know. Doesn't make her any less dangerous though. She's twice cursed.”

I drew in a breath. “Damn, not lycanthropy or anything though?”

“Nothing contagious, I'm not in on all of the details but she when she manifested magic it came out as some nasty, nasty stuff. How much you know about mage-craft?” He asked.

“Not much,” I said, unfortunate, but true.

“Well, I'll spare you details that wouldn't make any sense then. Basics are don't let her touch you, particularly if she manages to get those manacles off. Truth is, she started as low-level, just another unfortunate whose magic got out of their control as a child. We see those a lot, but she killed, and you know the law. Expected her to go through her Judgment and go home, then she made an escape attempt last year with some others. We lost over a dozen men.”

My blood froze. “You're telling me that kid took lives like that?” She'd looked... not innocent, but nothing like that.

“Not her, but some of those she made the gambit with.” He sighed. “It pains me to say it, but we'd put a priestess in with them, she was just under investigation after an incident. Everyone thought she was innocent, but the law is the law. The hope was that she'd help minister to some of the girls there in that block. She didn't though, she led them in the attempt, heresy or something had taken her.”

“She's the only girl on this level, the others are somewhere else,” I observed.

“Warden's doing. Some of those girls have already faced their Judgment, some weren't involved in the killing and ended up in the medium levels. Between whatever she said to the warden after it and her magic though, he sent her straight up here,” the paladin explained.

“So what? Her Judgment can't be that far off if she's just here for accidental killing. We keep her locked down tight until we release her?” It was a bit odd, most of the people on her level were the worst monsters we had, not really expected to repent.

“Hate to say it, but the warden doesn't think she'll make it through. I've never seen him wrong, even if all of my senses tell me that she should, if he thinks she won't, she probably won't.”

I stopped, stunned. “She's... but she doesn't give off the kind of air at all does she? I mean, it wouldn't make sense...” The idea of a girl like that dying screaming in agony seared itself in my mind, and I pulled back.

“Like I said, never seen the warden wrong,” my superior told me. “Look, there's always a first, and I hope she does. You want to spend a bit of extra time trying to convince her repentance is the way, go ahead, part of the job anyway.”

Thana Mourningjay

“Afternoon Guard Greyson,” I said.

“Mourningjay,” he replied not unkindly. “Good sleep?”

“Good enough. You can call me Thana you know? I won't tell.”

“Policy Mourningjay, policy. Don't want one of the priests to see me doing that now would you?”

“Fair point,” I conceded, “Least you don't have a stick quite as far up as they do, if you catch my meaning.”

“I'm sure it escapes me,” he chuckled.

We'd been at this for a couple of weeks now. He'd spend more time near my cell, talking and trying to convince me that I needed to feel bad for the things I'd done, as if I didn't, and me trying to learn what I could about him. From what I'd seen there might be a chance here, if not for him to outright help me, perhaps I could get him to at least look the other way for a bit when I moved.

“Mind if I ask you a bit of a personal question?” I inquired.

“Depends on what it is, but ask.”

“Why in the world are you here? I mean, you seem like a decent guy and all, and I saw how you dropped Grimtooth the other day, so I know you can handle yourself, but normally they don't put anyone who isn't firmly a divine caster up this high.” It was something that'd been bugging me for a bit now.

“More of us mundane guards being brought in. They need the priests and paladins at the front,” he said, a bit grimly. “I'm the best qualified, seeing how I worked in one of the outlying jails for years.”

“I'd heard there was a war, with Coria right? Is it really going that bad?” I asked with real concern.

“It's not going great. They keep bringing in monsters and the like to bolster their lines. Terrors for regular soldiers, but something that those blessed can deal with.” He sounded regretful about it, like he wanted to help. “Mind if I ask one in return?”

“Go ahead,” I answered, I didn't mind, I was trying to get closer to him anyway.

“How'd you end up here?” That at least was one I could easily answer.

“It was an accident. My older brother... drank, a lot, and when he did, he got violent. I... I didn't mean to hurt him. Okay, I did, but not kill. My magic manifested and just... just lashed out when I did. It wasn't pretty. I still see it sometimes when I sleep, a nightmare I can't forget.”

“You sound like you do truly regret your actions,” he said gently.

“Of course. Look, I won't say I liked my brother, or the rest of my family for that matter, but I didn't want that. There's only a few people in the world who deserve that,” I said, a bit taken aback that he thought I wouldn't.

“You don't like your family?”

“Mom and dad made it pretty clear at the trial that I was no child of theirs. When I tried to apologize dad quite literally spit in my face. We haven't talked since,” I bitterly answered.

“I'm sorry, most people at least get a few visitors. Is that why you tried to escape?”

“I can't talk about that,” I quickly answered. “And I can't tell you why, please don't ask again.” If that conversation got overheard before I was ready to try again, I might well meet my end. “I will say though, that I'm sorry for the men who died. I... I am sorry for that.”

He left and I turned to the little altar that every cell had. I didn't actually pray much, the warden, and the other high clergy I'd met had seen to it that I really couldn't stand any of Vitala's most stringent followers. I wondered if she was like them, or different. I kind of hoped she was different, but those were the people she heaped gifts on, so maybe she wasn't.

I'd considered praying to some of the other gods, but honestly I didn't know enough about any of them. There were some real boons they could grant if they were inclined, but if you went against them... not so good for you. The dark gods were of course not something I wanted any part with, though if I was being honest, some of them might accept me. Their cost was just too high though, and I didn't have the kind of hate for most people that they seemed to embody.