Inside the prison room Gabriel was clueless on what to do, while Kupi behind him quickly looked around the room, trying to find anything of use. The man gave them a challenge, which meant that there was a possible way out. It may – it probably was difficult, but they would manage. But he didn’t see anything…

- Hey Gabriel, any tool or something of the kind which you see on your side? I can’t see anything here – Kupi requested Gabriel, both still sat on the wooden chairs.

Gabriel started looking around, but there wasn’t anything they could see that would help them. With no tools at hand, how were they expected to escape? Wait… hand. They were tied to each other, and they were sitting on chairs! Those could be used to escape! Gabriel realized and quickly commented this to Kupi.

- I knew you’d learn fast. Even I didn’t realize that. Quick, let’s get closer to a wall and try breaking the chairs. – They could move very quickly, as their hands were tied to each other and the backs of the chairs, while their legs were strapped to the sitting part of the chairs. Finally, their legs were tied to the chairs’ legs, rendering them difficult to move.

After a while they reached the wall and crashed the chairs against it time and time again, slowly chipping parts of the chair, but they weren’t doing any significant damage, while time was ticking, leading to whatever happened after twelve hours. They had to try something else to work faster.

They tried jumping at certain angles twice, trying to break the legs of the chairs, but they themselves got hurt instead. Then they kicked the legs with as much force as they could, which worked until their feet always touched the ground, when the movements they were doing became harder to pull off.

But their legs were close to being freed from the chairs and Kupi, more flexible and with smaller feet than Gabriel managed to squeeze one and then the other feet, letting him stretch his legs and gained more mobility.

But Gabriel was still as stuck as before and Kupi wasn’t really available to help him, but with his legs he managed to bend them all the way to his head and with his mouth he cut a part of his nail, spitting it towards his hands and trying to use it to cut the rope. But it didn’t work.

- Wasn’t that to be expected? – Gabriel questioned, thinking that it was obvious that a nail wouldn’t manage to cut a rope.

- But some special types of rope exist, some which are strong against live things and others and some magical ropes can be made to be cut only with specific tools or materials. – Kupi responded, while thinking of other ways to free themselves. – And I thought that nails could work because he challenged us, so we have a way to escape with what we have here. And we have nails here. Easy conclusion, is it not?

- But you were wrong. And that probably isn’t cheap, why would he waste so much money on us?

- I don’t know, I’m not a philanthropist… But he could’ve… - Kupi

- Let’s stop thinking on hypotheticals and stay on the situation we’re experiencing right now.

While Kupi had been trying to cut the rope, Gabriel was working on trying to get his legs off the chair. He tried to move his feet in a way that’d make the rope loosen up a bit, letting him slip one of his feet through the rope and as a consequence the other as well.

Now, with their conversation having died out already, he managed to concentrate enough for him to pull his plan through. Now they had gained a lot of mobility and the first thing they did was to turn 360° so that both of them could see the whole room. Both confirmed that the only way out was the door, so they walked sideways, like crabs, towards it.

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When they got onto it, Kupi managed to open the simple lock only using his feet and now they had a good surface to try to break free. The idea was simple, they’d hit the connection of the chairs with the thin side of the door until they broke it. Or too much time passed.

They did manage to significantly damage it, but their hands and butts remained tied to the rests of the chair. Alas now they could turn around independently, although still quite uncomfortably, but they managed to climb up the stairs, only to be met up with a locked door and a hand-written note.

“The key to this door lies at your hands” it read. The man really tried to make things fun with a riddle and all, but because they had no idea what exactly was on the line, they didn’t exactly like having a riddle on their hands.

- Maybe the solution is the door itself? When we try to open it, it will be in our hands… - Gabriel started thinking.

- You fool! If that were the case, then the door would’ve opened when I tried when we came here. And it wouldn’t even be a hard riddle! You think that man would make something “fun” easy? Hah! Don’t kid yourself – said the smaller “kid”.

After thinking for a while, climbing the ladders back down, checking details on the room and things they had left there Kupi saw the ropes they left on the ground.

- At your hands… ropes… tied… of course! Come on Gabriel, help me take these ropes back up, they will open the door! – After climbing back up they tried these ropes on the door, but however they attempted to open it – but I was wrong… again… ugh I guess that you’re disappointed in me now – Kupi slumped.

- Hmmm – but as Kupi felt discontent at himself, Gabriel kept thinking, because it was a good idea – What if we use the ropes that tie our hands? – he asked.

And so, they did. As the rope came into contact with the door the rope dissolved and the door opened itself, leaving the final room they had to escape. At least this was what they thought because there were some windows, blocked with metal bars, but that let them see outside and they were on ground-level.

Alas this room was emptier than the last one, there was nothing here and the walls were flat as a board. The roof was inaccessible and was made of the same whitish tiles that made it impossible to climb. And well, their backs were still tied together, and they couldn’t slip through them, because they had been enchanted not to let loose until they left the building, something which they had read on the floor of the room.

Talking about the floor, it was the most interesting thing of this room, they were the same tiles, but some had text, mostly about random things and others were of different colors. Kupi and Gabriel spent some time reading but they realized that most of it was useless. Nothing even talked about colors, so they would just be wasting their time. Instead, they started searching for patterns that could help them escape. The final door was, after all, made to be unlocked externally.

But this also turned unconclusive, so they turned to trying different things at random and at some point, the ropes binding them together fell. By then ten hours had passed, beating by an hour their captors’ prediction. They could have stayed to see what happened after twelve hours, but they weren’t really eager to find out.

They might not have escaped how everything had been prepared, but some people say luck is a skill as well and Gabriel may be quite talented in that aspect. While walking back to the convent Gabriel was thinking of this experience and whether or not he should visit the man who had captured them both.

Even though he had done that he had given them a challenge, and this may be his way of teaching them. Gabriel had already similar experiences while he was with Grum; that was how he taught mostly, actually.

Still, he felt that the best of this experience was his looking at the skills of Kupi and realizing that he was much closer to him than what he expected. In his eyes he wasn’t the god of stealing anymore, just more skilled than him and someone he’d have to pass to become the best. Now – Gabriel wasn’t sure whether he wanted to be the best, but a five-year-old mind can imagine.

When they got back to the church and he was seen by the other kids these ran inside in a hurry, screaming things that he couldn’t listen to as they were too far away, but it must’ve been something bad about him, because Father Thomas came out and looked at him with a derisive look and called for him.

He had never had a look this bad before. Whatever would happen it would be horrendous.