I growl in frustration, causing Dormouse to
scurry up my clothes and nuzzle my neck. He has a way of calming my emotions. If I hadn’t found him in my apartment back on Earth, I would swear this mouse had an intelligence more fitting of a fae creature.
I run my fingers over the stone walls, carefully this time, as I search for the hidden doorway again. Leave it to the asshole king to make his prison cells into isolation chambers.
“Do you know where your hidden door is?” I ask my neighbor.
“Yes, I remember from when I was thrown in here. It was long ago, but I’m certain,” she replies in a confident voice.
“Stand back, I’m going to try and break this wall enough to climb through.” My voice is steely with determination. If I can get the poison away from her, we might have enough combined magic to make it out alive.
She doesn’t say anything, but I hear her chains shift. When it falls silent, she finally responds.
“I'm as safe as I can be in this room,” she says. I brace myself before Dormouse starts to squeak.
“What?” I pull him away from my shoulder and hold him in front of my face so I can see why he’s freaking out. He moves his head pointedly to the other cell and I sigh.
“Can you hold my pet for a moment? He wants to visit. Are you scared of mice?” I ask, not wanting to scare the woman.
“I’m comfortable with all animals. It’s my affinity, I would love to hold him.” She sounds so excited that a smile falls into place, the first in a long while.
A delicate and extremely bony hand slides through the small hole in the wall. I gently place Dormouse in her palm and she slowly draws her hand back in. This time I can tell she walked away because her coos fall quieter. Her tenderness toward my little mouse has me appreciating her even more.
Refocusing, I gather my magic until the essence swirls through my entire body, itching to be set free. It’s heady to have it back at full force like this but I make myself calm down so I don’t have a repeat of the hollow, magical blackout I’d just experienced.
Letting the magic leak into my hands, I form a ball. I don’t bother to concentrate on one affinity letting them all intertwine into a volatile mix. Just like before, I launch it forcefully at the wall.
A crack resounds in the cell, a shower of debris and dust falling to the floor as the magic fizzles out. The hole isn’t big enough to crawl through, but it’s now the size of a dinner plate. And that I can work with.
“It’s safe, I don’t want to deplete my magic any further. Do you have anything in your room that’s not iron, but hard enough I can chip away at this?” I peek into the hole as I speak but it’s still useless, my glow not enough to show anything inside. I can hear the clinking of something and a thick chain is pushed through the hole.
“That’s all I have. He chained me for the first few days, but they left it after that as a warning.”
This could work.
Before I get started, I push my hand through the hole and form a ball of light, tossing it to the ceiling where it sticks. I’d kept it low since she’d be even more blinded by it than I was.
“Thank you,” she sobs again. Now that it’s illuminated, I look up as she speaks hoping to get a glimpse of her. She’s still close, and eyes as blue as mine stare back at me. My heart starts beating as the familiarity of the eyes crashes over me.
Why does she have my eyes?
Could it be her?
NO! That’s crazy!
“Who are you?” I choke out. Her sob is answer enough, and my heart fractures at the stone cold reality of it. My mom has been imprisoned in these conditions for thirteen years. I lost my mind after weeks until I found this resolve. How is she even coherent?
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she chokes out and I wait for a better answer, barely breathing. I need to hear her say it. “It was for your safety. I knew when you said your name and heard your voice. It reminds me of your fathers. I just didn’t want to get your hopes up, they can be dashed so easily in this place.”
My heart thuds in my chest at her revelation. My mother is alive? She’s this close to me? I’m crying softly now, but the news doesn’t break me, it makes my determination to get out of this cell even stronger.
“We can hug and catch up when I break free!” I yell like a war cry as I pull off a strip of cloth from my tunic and wrap it around my knuckles, before winding the chain around my hand. I use my anger at losing out on having a mother because of this asshole king, to put as much power as I can into my punches.
My underfed muscles grow tired, but each chunk of stone that rains down, urges me on. The warm wetness of blood coating the cloth and dripping down my hand, doesn’t deter me either. I briefly think of what Emrick’s reaction would be at the sight of my blood. Though I think he would be proud of my determination. A tear slips down my cheek again at the thought of my Em but it’s only more fuel for the raging inferno in my chest.
I refuse to stop until I hear a thump coming from one of the other walls in my room. I would have missed it if not for the fact I paused to catch my breath.
A large door bursts from the wall and the asshole king himself stomps in, like an angry child during a tantrum. My grip on the chain tightens at the sight.