The first thing Jadon noticed as he was dragged deep into the darkness, rock walls pushing in on all sides, was that it was no longer cold. Not in the blistering sense of the surface. Being as far underground as he was meant the chilled winds and snow couldn’t reach him. For that, he was grateful.

He sat in his cell waiting for his first interrogation, or interview or simply to be told that he was never seeing daylight ever again. None of these happened. If anything, Jadon was given the impression that he was just going to be forgotten about, to rot in the dark.

He squinted into the dark, resting his arms on the bars of his cell to give his leg some support. He could make out the barest reflections of light on other bits of metal to show that there were other cells. They were not occupied at the moment. It was just him in this portion of the underground prison, his cell bars driven deep into the rock behind him.

Even at full health it would be near impossible escaping a prison like this. Too many tight, well-guarded areas. Dark. One way out. He had gotten lucky with the guards the night before, playing into his strengths of running away from a fight instead of actually trying to confront any of them for longer than was necessary. With a leg that wasn’t working properly, he would be cut down in an instant.

He heard footsteps from somewhere down the corridor, the hard clap of boots on stone. A flickering light, barely enough to read by, but to Jadon it may as well have been the sun.

Two guards were escorting a new prisoner. Jadon watched intently but said nothing. Better to not be a trouble to the guards, right up until you break out. Which he wasn’t capable of.

They threw the new guy in the cell neighboring Jadon’s. Jadon could hear the stifled breathing of someone trying hard not to cry.

The guards walked off, exchanged no words with each other or the new prisoner. Just like they had done with him.

Jadon didn’t try talking to the man. He wanted to talk but thought he would give the man a chance to get used to the surroundings. In truth, he didn’t care about the man, he was just bored and didn’t know how long he had till he got an update about his own situation.

“No way.” The whispered voice sounded much louder to Jadon after his long day. He turned to the man.

“You are kidding me,” Jadon said, staring right into the eyes of the snitch that sold him out.

“I have so much to tell you,” the man said.

“How about you keep it to yourself. Give yourself some practice in shutting up.”

“I know you’re innocent.”

Jadon rolled his eyes, before remembering this jerk couldn’t see his expressions in the dark.

“Bit late now,” Jadon said.

“Well, I don’t know, but it’s very likely in my opinion.”

“Wow, you couldn’t even last five seconds without jumping right back into the hole.”

“Hey, you can’t blame me for thinking what I did.” The man had the nerve to get irritated at Jadon, as if Jadon was the one that had gotten him to snitch and not his own loudmouth.

“I can,” Jadon said, pushing himself to the other side of his cell. “I do.”

“Well, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need your pity. I don’t accept your apology. It’s easy to play pious when you’re brought down to the level you just stepped on.”

“I don’t understand that phrase.”

“It means don’t be a jackass and then claim to be nice once it’s too late.”

“Oh.”

The conversation, as quickly as it had flared up, died back into silence. Jadon could hear the other guy muttering to himself. Likely praying to one of his dumb gods. Jadon thought, didn’t keep him from getting locked down here.

“Why are you down here anyway. We both know why I’m here, so it’s only fair you share too.”

“I tried to break you out.”

“I’m going to call bull on that one,” Jadon laughed, his voice carrying down the corridor and echoing slightly.

“It’s true.”

“Why would you do something that dumb? Even if you did want to? Come on, what’s the actual reason?”

Jadon waited to hear the answer, his chuckles quietening.

“You aren’t actually serious, right?” He said, sliding closer to the other cell.

“There have been other sinkholes.”

“And what if I had an accomplice to set off the sinkholes if I got caught? You were willing to take that risk to get me out?”

“I… didn’t think of that possibility.”

“Well, that’s clear enough.”

“Do you know what is setting them off?” The man asked. Jadon shook his head, remembered the lack of light and answered back verbally.

“Nope. I have an idea who. Or at least a face of who did it, but I need to get out of here to speak to the right people who can find him.”

“Some random girl was found underneath one of the sinkholes today. Dressed as if she wasn’t from this half of the continent, let alone High Morr.”

“Frozen to death? Buried to death?”

“Neither, but close on both accounts.”

“Weird.”

“There is something going on with these sinkholes,” Ephin said.

“No shit.”

“I mean weirder than whatever the first guess would be. One was started by something like an explosion, but another just fell in on itself.”

“I’m gonna be honest, buddy. I don’t care. I just want to find this guy because he has something of mine,” Jadon said with an exasperated sigh. The last thing he wanted was to discuss nature-based events with a nature priest.

“Not going to-”

“Don’t you dare say it.”

“-Happen from in here.”

“Dick.”

Ephin tried to reignite the conversation with theories a couple of times before taking the hint and falling silent.

The two of them sat in the dark, listening out for any hints that anybody was coming. A few hours pass until a recognizable rumble begins. Jadon grips onto the bars and he hears Ephin do the same as small chunks of rock sprinkle down from above, falling through the metal grate of the cell.

Jadon, without his working leg, did not think he could avoid anything of a dangerous size should it fall through the metal.

The vibrations grew in intensity, rocking the helpless pair until a loud thud from above and Jadon threw himself to the side, a boulder twice his size crashing to the ground next to him, having burst through the grate. I guess I still have it, Jadon thought wryly.

He hadn’t heard any of the dull, loud impacts coming from the other guy’s cell and he could still hear the man’s panicked yelps. He was fine for now.

The shaking stopped after another minute. Jadon waited a further minute to make sure before levering himself on top of the boulder by putting his back against the rock wall of the cell and hopping up. Standing on his left leg, he reached up and pulled himself through the top of the cell and crawled over to let himself down in the corridor, free of the cage.

“Did you get out?” Ephin asked the darkness, hearing Jadon land slightly unbalanced. No answer. “Come on man, can you help me out of here too?” No answer. Only limping footsteps hopping down the corridor.

Ephin was busy admonishing his decisions over the past day when, barely two minutes after the injured man had left, a light appeared down the hallway. Jadon returned, limping ahead of a guard with a light.

“See?” Jadon said, indicating to his cell, “we can’t exist in those conditions.”

“You got out. I don’t care about your comfort,” the guard snapped, opening an empty cell opposite Ephin’s. Jadon stumbled, his injured leg giving out. With little else to steady him he fell against the guard. The guard pushed him off and into the empty cell before slamming the cell door closed, the latch locking with a click.

“Sorry,” Jadon said raising his hands to the guard from inside his cell. The guard just kicked the metal grate and walked off, shaking his head and muttering to himself about scum.

“How did that go then?” Ephin asked.

“No need for the sarcasm,” Jadon said, “I wasn’t apologizing to him.”

There was a pause.

“You can’t see what I’m holding can you?” Jadon asked, something metal within his cell clinking.

“You didn’t.”

“I did.”

“If I didn’t severely dislike you, and if I wasn’t stuck in this cage, I would hug you.”

“Two seconds.”

A louder sound of metal against metal, a creaking and then Ephin could hear the limp come closer.

“Now for your turn,” Jadon said, turning the key in the lock and swinging open the gate to Ephin’s cell. “Like taking candy from a very, very stupid baby.”

Ephin tried to hug Jadon but got a palm to the face before he could connect.

“What’s the plan now?” Ephin asked.

“There is only one way out, so we need a distraction to get through without being noticed.”

“Where do we get a distraction?”

Jadon jangled the keys in his hand.

“We are not letting out criminals.”

“We are criminals.”

Ephin sighed and let Jadon limp ahead down the corridor, following along as quietly as he could.

The corridor wound through the rock a short distance before three sharp twists, turning back on each other led to a wooden door, with light spilling underneath it. Jadon held a finger to his lips and crouched down to look through the keyhole.

There were two guards, sitting at a small wooden table chatting. The room had multiple doors like the one they were hidden behind, likely leading to other cells. Hopefully those had more prisoners in.

“When I give the signal, knock twice on this door and run back down the corridor to where I’ll be. Okay?” Jadon said in a whisper Ephin could barely hear, even with the oppressive silence around them. He then limped back to where the corridor bent back on itself.

Ephin tried to steady his breathing.

Ting. Ting.

Jadon rapped the keys against the rock.

Ephin reached out and lightly knocked on the door. Once. The voices stopped. Twice. He heard a chair scrape the ground as he ran back behind Jadon.

“Forgive me,” Jadon said to himself as the door opened, spilling the first section of corridor with light, but the turns making sure it didn’t reach to where the two prisoners were hiding.

Jadon listened intently as the first pair of footsteps inched closer. Closer still. The guard rounded the corner as Jadon slammed his fist into the man’s knee, the metal ring of keys around his knuckles. As the man fell, yelping in pain, Jadon spun a key out and went to attempt to plunge it into the man’s throat, however the man grabbed his wrist and began pushing back from the ground with a fierceness that proved to Ephin that the other prisoner really wasn’t a fighter. They just didn’t have any other options.

Jadon couldn’t get a good leverage over the man with his leg and the guard had already begun to stand from his kneeling position, so Ephin barreled into him with all his diminutive strength, knocking the man completely to the ground and knocking his helmet off in the process. Jadon took the initiative and threw his fist at the man’s temple, knocking him out cold.

As the clattering of the helmet rung into the corridor, the door slammed open and the other guard came running. He had likely thought his friend would deal with either of the two smaller prisoners. He rounded the corner, sword drawn. Jadon stood in front of Ephin, his hands gripping the unconscious guard’s sword.

“You realize you’re holding that wrong,” the guard said sternly, “you really think you can-”

Ephin threw the chunk of rock he had picked up from the ground, which was still strewn with debris from earlier. The guard raised his sword arm to try and protect his face as Jadon slashed out, cutting at the man’s hand and slicing off a couple fingers in the process. The guard’s sword dropped as he grabbed his hand and moaned out. Jadon stepped in and punched the guard square on the nose with the hilt of his sword, knocking him out also.

“Okay, we can’t wait to see if others noticed the loud noises,” Jadon said, “we just have to assume they did.” They dragged the two bodies down the corridor, or rather Ephin did as Jadon held the swords, and put them in a cell.

“Wait, we can use these,” Ephin said.

“They’re out cold what do you mean?”

He held up one of the helmets and smiled, putting it on.

“Oh, now you’re starting to get on my good side,” Jadon said, beginning to pull the uniform off the guard closest to him.

A few minutes later and both the men were dressed up as guards, and the guards were nearly naked, lying in a locked cell.

Jadon gave one of the swords to Ephin and they made their way through each doorway, one leading to a spiral staircase that led both up and down. The others led to cell blocks similar to the one they had been held in, and contained a few more prisoners in each one. Jadon got to work unlocked every cell door he could find, Ephin handing the swords to the escaping prisoners. Jadon then gave the keys to one of the prisoners, too.

“Get as many out as you can and I’ll put a good word in for you with Shademantle,” he said.

Ephin could see the other man’s eyes light up as he heard the name, but he had no idea who Jadon was talking about.

The prisoners split up and down the spiral staircase to release more people and to escape. Jadon and Ephin followed them up the stairs. They could hear the sound of fighting as they neared the top but it was quickly being snuffed out as the prisoners were funneled through the tight passages and their advantage in numbers made no difference.

They could both hear the growing sound of shouts and laughter coming from below, however, as the many layers of the prison became overrun by worse and worse odds. If there are more guards below, the prisoners will have killed them by now and taken their weapons, Ephin thought, in their escape, they might cut us down for looking like guards too, even though we freed them. He urged Jadon to hurry as much as the injured man could.

They passed up a few levels, each one with dead or dying bodies, mainly prisoners but a couple guards too. Eventually they found the level at which the guards had made a stand. Jadon and Ephin ran up to meet them, arms raised.

“Please, help,” Jadon called out, “they took our weapons and maimed my leg. They’re right on our tails.” He fell to the ground to emphasize how bad his leg was. Ephin reached down to help him up.

“We are in need of healing,” Ephin said forcefully, “let us pass.”

At that, the guards split, hearing the oncoming wave of prisoners rise up the staircase. Ephin could hear screams of pain below as they left them behind, making it to out to entrance building a short moment later. There were more guards already waiting for the prisoners, but they allowed Jadon and Ephin to limp by, one of them moving to help Jadon to their infirmary, however Ephin waved him off.

“You’re needed more here,” he said, “I’ve got him, don’t worry.” The other man nodded and let them leave the building.

As soon as they were free, they bolted across the courtyard and out of the garrison, with the majority of the guards in the immediate area in the prison fighting the riot, nobody stopped them as Ephin essentially dragged Jadon to keep up the speed.

They carried on running, Jadon’s leg on fire as he directed Ephin where to go.

“I know a place,” was all he said.

As they were travelling so quickly, most of the residents of the city still huddled in to avoid the snow, they weren’t expecting to run into anyone else, much less a girl taller than both of them and a rabbit in a waistcoat. A rabbit that began shouting insults at them and their lack of awareness.

They didn’t wait to see if the girl or the rabbit were okay. Ephin just scrambled to his feet, helped Jadon to his, and they were off again.

More running through the city, weaving down streets and ducking into alleyways to avoid patrols, Jadon pulled Ephin into one final alleyway. Ephin helped him to a beaten-up metal door. Jadon then turned, crouched down and knocked on the grate Ephin was standing next to.

“Who do you hate?” A voice from the ground grumbled out.

“The candlestick maker,” said Jadon.

“And why is that?”

“For I covet the darkness.” Jadon said these final words and the grate slid back, revealing a stone staircase leading below the ground. He nodded to Ephin.

“Really,” Ephin said, “underground again.”

Jadon shrugged and started down the stairs. Ephin clutched his amulet again and stepped down after him.