Toadsworth looked out his jail cell, hoping desperately to catch a glimpse of the light. He did not.

He had been in this cell for... years, some amount of years. He had mostly lost track of a sense of time, being trapped in here with no ability to speak to the outside world or even learn what was going on.

Such was the life of someone who had plotted a coup against the government.

The former Chancellor sat in the cell across from him. He was adamant about his innocence at first, but by this point he no longer spoke. He wandered through this tiny life like a ghost waiting to form. Toadsworth was close to doing the same.

A guard came up and handed him his second meal for the day. It was lukewarm Toad Soup, as it was five days out of the week. The only way Toadsworth could mark the weekends was when the food quality noticeably decreased because the cooks had left. It was almost always a Bland Meal for breakfast and a Mistake for dinner, on those days.

“Hey, did you hear the news?” the guard asked.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“What?”

The guard burst into laughter. “No, you didn’t!”

That was typical, too.

Toadsworth did wonder what was going to happen to the Mushroom Kingdom in the future. surely the feckless Princess Peach would be overthrown by the people soon enough. When that happened, surely he and the others would be freed from their illegal captivity. But it still hadn’t happened yet.

In fact, it seemed that they had caught Game Guy, or at least shut down his “legitimate business ventures.” A few months ago there was an influx of Shy Guy inmates entering this floor, and while none of them had talked, they were very often summoned upstairs for... erm, questioning.

Toadsworth never got questioned anymore. He almost missed it.

He held out hope. Hope that the great Toads that joined him and the Chancellor would rise up again against their disgusting Koopa-loving oppressor.s Hope that one day he would be able to see his granddaughters’ graduation and embrace them in his arms.

That would never happen.

Just a few weeks later, the government of Shroom City extradited him on charges of conspiracy to commit treason, and sentenced him to a life in permanent exile on Cool, Cool Mountain. Just like he had proposed about Bowser all those years ago.

It wasn't just cool. It was actually cold, cold.