Jay's Journey

Chapter 20

The journey to prison progressed in agonizing slowness. It was moving, then stopping, then moving again. It dawned on Jay that he'd been doing the same thing before being captured, and yet it felt indescribably different. Until the prison came into view, he couldn't place why.

All of the motion and training and exhaustion had some form of agency tied to it. The path was there, but every step down it was a choice, and thus it had felt fine in spite of how dreary it must have looked to any outside observer. Now, in the absence of decision, its unpleasantness was laid bare, and Jay had no choice but to silently bear it.

The prison looked like an inverted fortress. Very few of the guards were looking off into the distance, while most of them instead faced inward towards whatever lay there. It was small, but heavily guarded. Jay wondered what kind of other people were kept there. What crimes had they commited? Probably murder or something legally adjacent, since that's what the Mage Hunter was convinced Jay was guilty of.

Then, as the two of them drew closer, Jay heard distant shouts. Some of them carried a clear authority that was immediately associated with the tidy armament of the guards. However, others were more desperate, disorganized, and even a hint feral. All of them were deep.

It suddenly hit Jay that everyone kept here was probably a man. The fact made his gut recoil with disgust. It wasn't a disgust at the occupants of the prison, but a repulsion from the fact that on that basis, Jay and them were the same. That couldn't be right. It was almost like trying to jam a fraying thread into the tiny hole of a sewing needle, or was it the ridiculousness of a single measly fiber being threaded through it and tied. The answer that Jay settled on was an impossible combination of the two.

It would be more dignifying to be stuck in a deep ditch in the middle of an embarrassingly public place. At the very least, he wouldn't be seen like this. At least the dirt would cover the ugly bump on his throat and the awkward sharpness of his jaw.

"What'd this one do?" A harsh voice asked, snapping Jay back into the moment. Usually, being grounded from such spirals would be a relief, but not this time.

"Probable murder." The Mage Hunter answered.

"Really?! A skeleton would pity how skinny that boy is!" The man joked. The Mage Hunter pulled a scroll from a satchel he wore and handed it to the harsh voiced man. His eyes progressively became more and more wide as he read along.

"Apologies. Are you sure he won't be a danger? Does throwing on chains even help with..." The man trailed off, twiddling his fingers as though conjuring something mystical. Jay was tempted to chuckle at the display.

"This one's power's too inconsistent to be an issue. This place'll ground him real quick." The Mage Hunter reassured.

"If you say so, you know magic bullshit better than I do. Go in then to the right." He replied. Just like that, Jay was taken into the prison. For a brief moment, a wide courtyard of barren dirt was visible, but it was quickly replaced by an even more barren stone corridor. The fresh scent of the wild was replaced by a vaguely sweaty stagnance. He quickly found himself in a room with the Mage Hunter and two other guards. It was lit only by two practically peephole sized windows far too high to climb to, even if someone could fit through them.

"New prisoner?"

"Yes."

"Little young, but alright. We gotta get that hair off, it'll be nothin' but a lice nest in this place." The guard said. Jay's eyes widened.

"No! I-I've been growing it out for months!" Jay protested. The guards seemed to be taken aback by Jay's sudden emotion as well as the unexpected femininity of the voice.