The strange black haired tink does a series of limbering stretches now that he's no longer bound by the restricting metal bangles.

"What do you plan on doing, fighting your way out?" I ask with a wry smile.

"Please. Do I look like some kind of barbarian? The real question is whether you're coming or not."

"Hm, good question." Hithe made an interesting point, would it really be worth it to attempt an escape? A silencing contract isn't exactly the worst thing in the world, but diverting the law by force would likely stir up far more trouble.

And besides that…

I look down at my own manacles, wondering if it'd even be worth trying to break them. I try channeling mana to create a small flame at my fingertip, but the spell breaks before the mana can form.

Figures that a city with oricite as its main export wouldn't lack for proper anti-mage equipment.

One of the things I'd learned during my time on the road was that there's a way to suppress mages, for when they needed to be captured during battle and the like. Restraints like these are made with a specific oricite alloy that blocks off mana from leaving the body. Thinking back to a conversation with the smiths, I'd hazard a guess that the composite metal has some unique ratio of oricite that messes with the formation of external mana.

Still, the things are far from perfect. For starters, since they only block off external mana, they can't suppress reinforcement. And more importantly, they're almost completely useless against even first tier sorcerers.

"Well, make up your mind soon, 'cause I'm outta here," I move out of the way as Hithe walks up to the door and presses a hand against the crack. I hear a snap and he pulls the door open, the metal bolt completely snapped.

"That entirely depends on how you intend on escaping. I'm not going to implicate myself in something that'll cause more problems than this is worth."

With a sigh, Hithe says, "Oh come now, you need to learn to live a little., preferably before you're out of time. Either way, I don't intend on making too much of a mess. Wouldn't want to overshadow your little topside stint, now would I?"

Hmmm… I guess there's no inherent harm in following along for now. Worst comes to worst, I can surrender and deny culpability.

With that end in mind, I decide to leave my cuffs intact. If it ends up coming to that and they find I've forcibly broken my restraints then they'll be much less amenable when it comes to questioning and punishment. I also don't want to find out what kind of contraption they may have for keeping a sorcerer bound.

Hithe walks through the door like he owns the place, his confident attitude and smile never leaving. After some trepidation I follow behind.

"Do you even know how to get out?" I ask dubiously.

"I think so."

"Great."

The wooden passageway is devoid of any noteworthy features, belying the fact that we stood in a prison. My general idealization of such a place was cells lined up next to each other, but I suppose breakthroughs into the Abyss aren't that common, so they only had the one cell for that purpose. Any auxiliary cells would only facilitate rumors among the imprisoned, which would mean a much bigger headache for those in charge.

Eventually, we reach a fork in the path, and Hithe looks down both directions thoughtfully.

"Are we lost already? We've barely gone anywhere."

Hithe waves my comment off, "When they brought me for questioning we went that way to the left, but I'm wondering what's over the other way."

"This isn't really the place to be exploring, you know? Isn't this place built into the outer wall of the city?"

"Yeah, it is. Why?"

"Well, if only one side of the structure has exits, wouldn't it make sense to head for more administrative facilities since they're probably closer to the exit?"

Hithe nods thoughtfully, "I suppose that makes sense." He eyes me suspiciously, "You're not really a plant are you? Trying to lure me to a more heavily guarded area to get caught easier?"

With a sigh I say, "I thought we were past this point already. Frankly, I couldn't care less whether this succeeds or not."

"Then why are you even following behind?"

"It's more interesting than sitting in a lonely cell in silence," I say with a shrug.

"Fair enough."

Something inside tells me we're probably a perfect pair of weirdos, and this is the biggest joke of a prison escape probably anyone's ever gone through. I do my best to ignore that voice as we press on.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

As we advance I take the chance to inspect the state of the wood we walked through. Much of the city's architecture had some kind of imperfection. Most of the wood used in the upper levels was warped through humidity and the lower levels bore the strain of a thousand thousand tons, so they too likely never would have passed code in my old world. This isolated area is likely the only place in the city with mostly perfect wooden construction.

"So what're you planning to do when you get out?" I ask, trying to fill the silence.

"Probably hang around, cause mischief or the like."

"I thought you had some grand legacy planned out? And 'hanging around' after breaking out of prison isn't exactly something you'd do unless you want to get tossed back in."

"Legacies aren't built overnight, you know. And this one comes with a considerable amount of preparation and luck. Most everything is in place, but I need a spark. If the timer runs low then I'll have to do it myself, but I'd rather avoid that if at all possible."

"A spark?"

"Since we're buddies now I'll tell you, when you see it it'd be in your best interests to leave."

Uh, I think buddies is a bit of a stretch, but whatever.

"What the hell are you planning?"

"If I said I'm trying to become a hero would you believe me?"

"No. You're way too shady for something like that."

"Perhaps you're right, but nevertheless I will stay the course." He gives a wry smile, "I suppose it doesn't matter what side of history you end up on, so long as you're there."

"Can you stop being so vaguely ominous and spill it already?"

"Let's just say I've found a mighty weapon to use against a great calamity, but without that spark I won't be able to use it."

I slap the backside of his head, "When I said stop being vaguely ominous I meant stop being vague. I didn't mean swap over to being vaguely heroic."

The tink ignores my comment and says, "There's movement up ahead."

We sneak forward and peek out through a doorway into a wide open area. The space is a massive cylinder, with stairways crossing and leading to various doors around the entire zone. We're near the top, with a walkway stretching across the length of the cavernous space before us.

The movement we'd seen is a pair of guards, eyes forward seemingly on patrol. They take a stairway down and exit into a doorway on our right.

"So what's your plan here," I ask, "Gonna fight everyone you see on the way out?" But before I even finish asking the question Hithe has gotten down onto his stomach and is crawling his way to the other side.

I wait a while, watching as he crawls his way across. After about five minutes he finally reaches the other side. Surprisingly, his tactic actually works. There had been two other groups passing beneath him that hadn't noticed his figure flush to the floorboards.

He crouches in the doorway at the end of the passage, waving for me to follow him. I acquiesce and start walking across the wooden planks, without any urgency or speed.

As I approach him he gives me an irritated look and a, "Really?"

"Don't expect me to embarrass myself just because you did it before me."

He gives a sigh and simply says, "Fine. We're close to where they took me now. Hopefully it's close to the exit as well."

"Yeah, but I'm still curious how exactly you plan to break through that. It's not exactly like they'll leave it unguarded."

"Well, you know." He makes a motion of his hand, spreading a poof of flame that instantly dies out.

"If you try to burn this place I'll kill you before you have a chance to expire," If it had been any old prison I wouldn't care about its well being after I'd left, but razing this place would likely break any willingness Andora had to harbor us. Hell, I'd likely already put an immense amount of stress on that relationship already with the events of earlier and would add even more if I manage to get out of here.

"I'm telling you, buddy, you gotta learn to liven up," His words are jovial but the smile doesn't reach his eyes. I'm guessing the bit I said about his expiry had struck a nerve.

Soon we made it to a series of doors. Looking in one revealed a hallway with more doors. "Those are the questioning rooms," Hithe said.

Another door leads to what looks like an office space, with several guards milling about, some talking among each other. I can't hear what's being said, but I get the distinct feeling the air is filled with a sharp tension.

Behind the final door is more hallway, but even as I watch I see a guard pass by an intersection further down. The guard is dressed more like a standard worker, so I almost mistake them for that, but the rough scarred features and burly muscles tell a different story.

"Seems like this should be the management area. Any idea where to go from here?" I ask, not hoping for much.

"Nope, this was as far as I went. The workroom seems like a deathtrap so let's check out that hallway."

"After you," I say with a fake smile.

Shouts echo down the corridor from the cylindrical area we came from. "Seems like our little stroll has been discovered," Hithe says with a disinterested look as he pushes past the door into the next hallway.

Almost immediately we bump into a guard. Unlike the one we had seen before, this one is decked in full uniform, though it's strikingly different from what the other guards we had seen were wearing.

The primary outfit consists of a worn dark cloak that parts at the middle and speeds near the bottom to allow freedom of movement. The head of the soldier is obscured by a pointed hat, similar to what I could only think of as pirate hats from the Caribbean. The man pulls twin shortswords from beneath the cloak, clearly not intending to give us any leeway.

"Oh hey, one of the shadow brigade. Not often you see them in regular places like this," Hithe's attitude remains completely unfazed by the hostile figure before us.

"Surrender," Is all the figure says as they stare us down.

"No thanks," Hithe says with a decent amount of mirth in his voice. All I do is stand to the side and raise my cuffed hands, wiggling my fingers to try and indicate I'm not a threat.

The soldier of the shadow brigade streams forward, straight toward Hithe.

Hithe simply points their finger forward and in the space of an instant, the corridor goes from somewhat dim to blinding. When I'm able to see again I look upon the previously pristine corridor now covered in a layer of black soot. The warrior is facedown on the ground, their clothing reduced to singed scraps.

I grab Hithe's arm, "Hey, I said no fire! Are you trying to burn the building down around us?"

"Relax. It was just a flash fire, look, nothing's burning. Come one," He walks forward, past the smoking immobile figure, and picks up one of the blades that they dropped. Weighing it, he walks along, unconcerned about the small path of carnage he leaves behind.