I was sitting in a dark, cold stone room, chained to the floor. The only light came from small slits in the wall that were too high to reach. The only exit was a heavy wooden door. I had seen the building I was in many times in the south-eastern corner of the main square, but my mother had told me to stay away from it and I had done as she asked.

They had paraded us through the main street like they usually showed off criminals on the way to the prison. At first, people had looked curious when they saw the guards, but their looks changed when their eyes fell on Riala and me. They looked at us with contempt and fear.

My attempts at explaining myself and the situation had fallen on deaf ears. All that my repeated pleas got me was a guard punching me in the gut, which brought on cheers from the crowd.

Crimes in Alarna generally fell into one of three categories. The first were minor offenses, where the guards would usually let you go with a warning or a fine. Examples of this included Charmers overdoing it, not showing up to work, or the guards finding you outside after curfew. The second category would get you jail time. These would typically be repeat offenders, who didn’t learn the first time and were incarcerated for a few days, to teach them a lesson. The last category was for the type of crimes that endangered the citizens. This included robbery, murder, attacking people, and whatever else the authorities deemed too dangerous. And this last one was what the authorities made a show out of.

I had wanted to come forth and admit to my category one and two offenses. Depending on how much they believed me, I had hoped I wouldn’t have to go to jail for long, if at all. Looking back, I had been naive, and it certainly hadn’t helped that I snapped when a guard attacked Riala. The way they had brought us here, separated us, put us in cells, and interrogated me, blew away any hope of leniency. We were treated like dangerous criminals.

It was difficult to judge time in this cell, but it was already dark out, so it had been at least the entire afternoon. The guard captain who arrested us had questioned me for a while, and I had jumped at the chance to explain everything at first. I told him about being able to read the sigils, that I had researched the water sources, and that I never meant anyone any harm. I told him how I wanted to make people’s lives better, and that I had only fled because I was scared. And I especially emphasized how Riala was just a kid, who had only followed and later tried to protect me. It hadn’t felt like he believed me.

Miles and I had been sitting on the cold stone floor for hours, thinking our situation over. Maybe it hadn’t been the greatest plan in the world, but I had wholeheartedly believed that there was a chance. Now it felt like we would walk to the gallows in the backyard come morning.

“This time I messed up...” I said with a sad expression.

‘The plan wasn’t bad on paper... the execution just didn’t go smoothly.’

“I shouldn’t have told him everything...”

‘Keeping quiet would’ve just made you look even more guilty. You didn’t do anything wrong.’

“Yet we are in here.”

‘But we are still alive. This isn’t the worst outcome.’

At that moment, the cell door opened and two guards and a priest came in. The guards positioned themselves on either side of me, while the priest put down a bucket and squatted down to look me in the face.

“Mr. Remor! It’s good to meet you. My name is Oryn Tilia,” the priest said. “I’ve heard you were the one who modified the water source two weeks ago. I’m very excited to be able to talk to you.”

The priest’s eyes immediately fell on the now blurred Omega script on my hand. “Oh! May I take a look at that?” he said before taking my hand and looking it over, without waiting for a response. “Fascinating! I can’t make out all of it, but this is the same scripture as on the girl’s hand, right?” he asked me as he compared the script to his notes.

My eyes went wide. “You saw Riala? How is she?”

“Riala! What a nice name. She was well when I arrived. Unfortunately she wasn’t willing to talk to me.”

“What do you mean by that? How is she now!?”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Remor, she is resting. Now, let’s talk about the scripture. I’d really like to know how the two of you became able to produce water.”

“I already told the captain, I really don’t know. We were hit by the water source’s blast, but I don’t know exactly what that did to us.”

“Yes, I’ve read the report. But, Mr. Remor, surely you must have an inkling.”

Just like the captain before him, the priest was very focused on this one part. That seemed to be all they were interested in anymore. Only this ability, not the sigils, that I would’ve seen as more interesting.

“Let me put it like this, would you be able to reproduce this effect?” the priest asked.

“Well...” I began, but Miles stopped me.

‘Wait, Tomar. I have a bad feeling.’

Miles’ thoughts boiled down to one question, what would they do with that information? We would have to destroy more water sources, but maybe it would give people the same ability. What would happen afterwards though? There were five more water sources in town, and they were vital to the citizens. The one in the south-east also saw too much use already. If you blew up another one, something or someone would need to take its place. Maybe they could make a job out of that, assuming it would be safe, but what would happen once that person became unable to do that job? What would they do once there are no more water sources? Would they... try to blow up a person?

“Mr. Remor?” the priest prompted, still waiting for an answer.

“Well,” I started again a few seconds later, “that happened by mistake. I messed up the scripture and I don’t know the exact sigils anymore.”

Maybe our worries were unfounded, but the thought of what they might do was horrifying.

The priest looked at me inquiritavily before he said “You’re lying, Mr. Remor. We’ll come back to that. For now I’d like to measure your volume.”

“My... what?”

“Don’t worry, I just want to know how much water you can produce.”

The priest took my hand again, washed away the script, and drew a new one afterwards. The standard water source script. Then he held my hand over the bucket he had brought and placed a blue stone on the back of my hand, producing a water stream.

“No matter how often I see it, this is truly marvelous,” the priest said.

Once the bucket was filled, he had a guard dispose of the water and then started anew, filling it again. Then a guard disposed of the water, and he started again. Again. Again. And Again. After about fifteen buckets the pain started to become worse and my body tensed up every time he activated the script. After twenty buckets, I started screaming and stopped counting. I didn’t know how much time had passed when he finally stopped, as I fell limbly to the ground.

“My! Over one hundred and fifty liters! Mr. Remor, I’m impressed! Ms. Riala only made it to five buckets!”

I couldn’t think clearly and I wasn't able to move or speak anymore. My body was completely drained. I had only heard his last words with half a mind, but I locked onto that one detail. They did this to Riala... I thought before I fell unconscious.

***

Light was streaming into the cell when I woke up. I must’ve slept for hours if it was day now, but I still felt exhausted. With a slight struggle I was able to sit myself up. “Ugh...” I looked around the cell, but the guards and the priest had left. I was alone. “Hey, Miles... Can you tell me what happened?” I asked, but there was no reaction.

“Miles...?” The silence was unnerving. He hadn’t completely ignored me in days, and I didn’t think he would do that in this situation. “... are you there?”

I thought I felt alone and helpless after my mother had died, but in this moment, in this cell, I learned what it truly meant to feel all alone. I sat in the dimly lit room, looking at the stone floor, when the door opened and a guard brought in a piece of bread and a cup of water. He put them down on the floor a few meters before me and left wordlessly.

“Wait, please! You—” I said, but he closed the door. I crawled over to the food and started eating.

More time passed before I finally heard Miles’ voice again. “Tomar?”

“Miles! Where were you!?”

‘I’m not sure... I became drowsy when the priest kept drawing water from us. It was kind of like a dream.’

My eyes became watery. “I’m glad you’re not gone...”

‘Me too... Did anything happen?’

“No... I—”

As if on cue, the door opened again and the captain who had arrested us walked in. “Good morning, Mr. Remor. I’d like to continue our conversation from yesterday,” Captain Lera said.

“Continue? But... I’ve told you everything!” I said worriedly.

“So you claim, but we both know you’re lying, don’t we? I’d like to give you a final chance to come clean.”

The captain looked sure of himself. The problem was that I had told him the truth. The only thing I had kept from him was Miles. Should I risk telling him everything? Even if I did that, would it change anything about the situation? Would it not just add another problem on top of a growing pile? They would probably brand me a Mad One, in addition to all the other crimes I had committed. But what would happen if I didn’t talk?

“Captain...” I said, “will I be executed?”

The captain’s eyes sharpened. “It depends. That would certainly be standard procedure, but we can’t deny that you have a certain value. If you give us what we want to know, your fate might still change.”

“What is it that you want?” I asked.

“Everything you know about the scripture sigils, the water sources, and your ability to produce water.”

Everything...

‘If we give them everything... they don’t need us anymore... and they’ll stay in control...’

They didn’t intend to release me. They just wanted what Miles and I had and then they would dispose of us. If they were to let me go, I would just be a liability. And not only me... Riala as well. She had refused to talk and didn’t actually know a lot, but they had seen her use an unknown script. We’ll die if we stay here... I thought. But whether we could leave wasn’t our decision to make, was it? Miles kept giving me his thoughts.

“‘Captain, I know you’re lying as well,’” we said. “‘I can accept my fate... but I want you to spare Riala. Promise me that, and I’ll tell you everything I know.’”

The captain looked at me appraisingly, thinking over what I had said.

“Very well, I promise the girl will walk free,” the captain said as expected.

“‘One more thing... I’d like to say goodbye to her. Will you please let me see her one last time? I just want a few minutes, so I can explain everything to her. She’s just a kid... and she thinks this whole thing is her fault.’”

“That can be arranged,” the captain said and walked over to the door. He glanced back at me for a moment, but finally left, closing the heavy door behind him.

“Will this work?” I asked Miles while we were preparing for the captain’s return.

‘I have no idea... I also don’t like the time of day, but we don’t know what they will do next. We don’t have much of a choice, right?’

“No, I guess not...”

A few minutes later the door opened again and the captain entered the cell. At his side was Riala. She stared down at the floor with a blank expression. Her eyes were puffy and red. “Riala!” I said and she finally looked up.

“Tomar!” Tears started flowing down her face as she ran towards me from the door. The captain stood in the open doorway while Riala hugged me.

A few drops of blood fell from my hands, which were still chained to the ground. I leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. “I will try to get us out of here. When I say ‘now,’ get behind me, okay?”

She let go of me, brushed away some of her tears, and nodded. As she looked at me, she tilted her head. “Tomar, you’re smiling kind of evil.”

I looked away from Riala and fixed my eyes on the captain. “Now.”