The next day very much followed the same pattern as the one prior. Despite the Askstocks' insistence on Bethany basically becoming an indentured servant the village didn't actually have the infrastructure to support such a decision. As such Bethany spent most of her time locked in her cell, unsupervised and working on her half-staff kata. Occasionally, she would receive a visitor, but it was always either Mandy bringing food who wasn't exactly up for conversation at the moment or Lewis who remained distracted and only spoke to her long enough to give her instructions or make a half-arsed cruel remark. Primarily he seemed to be focused on practising with his sword alone. Every once in a while, when Bethany was collecting water for somebody or weeding the path, she would see somebody come up to Lewis to chat, but he would be fairly wooden to them until they left of their own volition. When back in the cell they left the cell key out in the neighbouring office, clearly confident nobody cared enough to break her out.

In the end that evening Bethany changed her plan to look at Trial Taking again. The sessions she'd had there easily stretched into taking a full day and she couldn't afford to stay that long. Nor could she afford to rush, give the consequences. Instead, she decided to leave it completely. Obviously, she wanted to get as powerful as quickly as possible to be better prepared to help her mum, but all these small improvements were only relevant in the long term. Further she was extremely doubtful that a busking skill was going to be useful to her in the short or the long term. Instead saving her Credits for more relevant skills seemed wise.

However, given her nap pattern she didn't want to waste the night just because she wasn't going to take a Trail. She needed to get out of the cell, for the night. That way she could do the rest of the work out the lieutenant had introduced her to. Working on the kata steps was all well and good, but in general she hadn't gotten much actual exercise, and her stamina certainly needed working on. In fact, if she was planning a breakout, maybe it was time to leave the village permanently, that way she could ensure she was taken to a Trial of her choosing. The more she thought about it the more certain she was that it was time to leave. Staying wasn't pleasant anyway and every day her mother got further away. Having made the decision to leave she started to cook up a vague plan.

That evening she had her bag packed and weapon out ready for her breakout attempt, she was slumped near the door as though asleep and waited there for Mandy to arrive with her evening meal. Mandy arrived and wordlessly approached the cell, heading towards the slot through which she passed the food. Bethany shot up and grabbed her by both wrists causing the tray Mandy was holding to clatter to the floor. Mandy barely reacted to such a violent gesture, even when Bethany shook her aggressively by the wrists, this left Bethany at a little bit of a loss, after all she needed Mandy to go grab her cell key from the office and she couldn't let her go unless she was confident Mandy wouldn't go running to Lewis.

She pulled Mandy closer while still considering what to do. Pulling her close, caused the necklace Mandy was wearing to fall out of her shirt. It was a simple woven piece of cord from which hung an unadorned gold band, something that didn't seem like Mandy's fashion sense at all. This was new, at least Bethany couldn't remember seeing it previously. At a loss for what else to do Bethany grabbed the necklace and yanked it, pulling it off Mandy's neck.

This had an explosive effect on Mandy and instantly she burst into a mixture of fury and tears. She leapt at Bethany, causing her to need to step away from the bars, she hadn’t expected such a result, and was cursing herself for causing Mandy to create such a nosie. Mandy reached through clawing at the air trying to reach Bethany and the necklace she had stolen. This was far from the result Bethany expected. Mandy continued to reach through the bars towards Bethany although her anger was rapidly fading and being replaced with tears and more tears. She slumped down to the jail floor, head drooped and continued to cry unendingly. Bethany didn't know what to do but she knew she needed Mandy to be quiet and that she still needed to escape. She also knew regardless she needed to give Mandy the ring back, she never intended to hurt Mandy so aggressively. She slowly crawled towards Mandy, leaving the ring behind her as she did so. Getting closer she heard Mandy was whispering the same phrase over and over.

"I need it back, please give it back, I need it back-"

Bethany reached through and pushed the hair away from Mandy's eyes and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"Hi Mandy, it’s been a while, I need you to get the keys to the cell. I promise if you do I’ll give you back the necklace, okay?"

Mandy didn't seem to have heard and was still just repeating the same phrase on loop. Bethany needed to use some tough love, as cruel as it may be and gave Mandy a little shake, she also spoke sharpy at her,

"Mandy, I need you to listen to me now. In the office over there is a key, you give me the key and I'll give you back the necklace, it's that simple."

While Mandy didn’t say anything in response, she did nod her head and stand up, which was enough for Bethany. In the worst case where she went to go get Lewis, Bethany would have to try to overpower them. Fortunately, she headed towards the office and reappeared a short while later carrying a set of keys. She handed them over to Bethany who quickly unlocked her cell. While Mandy was away, she had placed the necklace in the corner of the cell and when Mandy ran in to grab it Bethany locked her in apologising as she did so. Bethany felt awful about the whole exchange, this wasn't the actions of somebody who was doing okay.

Bethany took out several silver coins from her bag and left them just inside the cell in an attempt to say sorry, she felt awful. Mandy showed no acknowledgement of this action and she stayed in the corner where the necklace had fell mumbling inaudibly and stroking the necklace. So, Bethany left her there and fled into the night leaving behind the broken girl who had once been her best friend.