The stairwell gave well as rushing thoughts met rushing legs. A rope, dangling from its tether above the circular staircase hung taught with anxiety, rung for all its stability. Now it's my head that's ringing. The rope is now rasping on the center pillar, it began to choke, rock clattering to the stone stairs. It had snapped with all the intensity to vice fingers. I looked over at the Imp, my once savior, and faced distraught. The Imp knew of the feats of knights, surely the boy had heard their tails too. Grinding the bones of dragons.

Blood more than there should have been was gushing out of my head, it clouded my eyes, and I lost track of the shape of the room I was in, suddenly clinging to the outer wall far away from the rasping center pillar. The imp was supposed to talk me through it, the way he had just the moment before when everything seemed so dark when he had clasped his arms over his eyes, the same way he was now. He had died in that alleyway the same way as the boy. Seriously what was his name, it seemed important.

I felt a grab from behind, if not the man that could strangle stone he surely was one that could carry someone from floor to ceiling without a breath, in a smooth jostle-less motion. He floated in his arms. Presented to the heaves, and a tall half-knight, with armor drizzling down his body. Platmail with loose leather tethers, a helmet was tied to his shoulder, and as the boy eyed him, he seemed to enter into reality following notice, his armor clattering onto his chest. A helmet chimed on his chest having been tied around his shoulder. He had two steel greaves hung down his arms, each with a matching sabaton, creating a juncture of protrusions. His shoulders were bare with their guards dangling from the neck of the knight like medallions. The remaining armor seemed to be put on at random and many of it clattered to the floor, straps having lost their hold, as the knight appeared.

The Imp stared at the boy from the stares, finding the safety of the perimeter much like the boy sought He didn’t move, didn’t blink, and shut up for once, hopping the man would simply think of him as a rodent caught in the crossfire, which he considered for a moment to be a half-truth.

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The knight with the boy in tow, dangling from his neck where the knight held him, descended the same stairs the boy climbed. The boy felt like he stretched under his own weight and he was surprised that his feet did not clamor onto the stares supposedly the knight had been quite tall. They reached the bottom of the stairs and walked past the guard where a sigled shield had found its way to the head of the house. No one had moved to help him or to move his dinner from his mouth which was now being competed over by local rodents.

They moved past holding cells and descended another stairwell. This time the walls cried and it became cold. The cells on this floor seemed to contain an unspeakable filth dammed with straw. From the lantern the knight now held, I could see sweeping the floor with their hands, pushing it back when it, advanced. There was not one inch of visible skin, he knew not if they were human. Still, they walked on, to the end of the hall, a door. The lantern was placed on the wall. He pointed me back at the cell, and from here I could see the faces of the shuffling men.

Their hands never left the floor, I saw a glitter from their eyes and felt them upon me. They studied me with what little light they had. I felt a cold breeze from behind me and knew it meant the opening of the door. I saw pity in their eyes.

The lantern was grabbed and the door entered. The knight meticulously closed the door behind us. He grabbed my throat, with my feet on a ledge, and extended hung me over. I was dragged a bit too far and felt my feet fall below the edge.

“You think that mark means freedom” the knight paused, “You claim it and offer nothing.” The knight paused. “You wish to be so weightless then fly.” I felt myself descend, a vacuum behind my head pulling me down.