Jay's Journey

Chapter 22

A/N: Content Warning for Brief Suicidal Ideation

Every now and then in the prison, the prisoners were allowed into the courtyard above. It was a boring expanse of barren dirt, but at least the sky was above. Jay was finally reminded that the wind existed from something other than its echoing, distant howl.

This wouldn't last long, and there was a chance that the others would fancy beating Jay up. It was all about physical power in a place like this. It was who had the deepest, most commanding voice and who could physically overpower others. Jay had neither of those things. Thus, every insecure wretch felt the need to assert some kind of dominance above him. Everyone shouted louder than him too, so there was no point in crying out for the guards. It didn't help that Jay had a magemark covering his entire body, and thus everyone was inherently fearful and violent.

His lip was busted in several different places, both eyes blackened several times over. Miraculously, his nose hadn't been broken just yet. Beneath the filthy, rough spun prison clothes there were extensive bruises. Once upon a time, Jay had managed to stand up tall and with a little bit of grace, but now it hurt too much to do so. The others didn't like him behaving like a human being, rather a scared animal who hid in the shadows and merely breathed in fresh air and stared at the sky to pass the time.

It had never truly registered to Jay how colorful the sky was. He'd never noticed the way it faded to white near the horizons and became darker and darker further up. It was so many different shades of blue but that was the only color. There was the distant firelight of torches, the various browns of the prison garments, and the grays and blacks of the rock. That was it. Jay desperately missed purple, pink, and green. Every day, Jay became more and more doubtful he would ever see those colors again.

"You're going back to your cells! Line up!" A deep, commanding voice barked. Jay obediently lined up with the rest of the prisoners and returned to his cell. Then, it was waiting. Then there was dinner, a pathetically small morsel of food that tasted like nothing when it didn't taste awful. Then, the prisoners were supposed to go to sleep. Except, with the usual guard that came around to check that the prisoners weren't doing anything, there was another figure. Jay didn't recognize the man as the Mage Hunter until he stepped in.

Jay sat on the bench of the cell, as far as possible away from the pile of waste in the corner. He didn't move as the man came in.

"I've come to talk. I'm making one final offer. You got that?" He asked.

"Yes." Jay answered quietly, voice still feminine but having fallen to being more masculine. The others didn't like it when he spoke, so he didn't, and so puberty was allowed to mercilessly ravage his efforts.

"The others don't get magic. They think it's too dangerous to keep you here and they think killing you now would be a mercy." The Mage Hunter explained. Jay knew what they meant. The human body wasn't made to take so much punishment on so little fuel. Living more than a few years past adulthood would be surprising.

"And?" Jay prompted. The Mage Hunter sighed.

"They're planning on executing you. But, I made an offer to let you live and probably go free within the next year."

"What's the catch?" Jay asked immediately.

"I don't know how, but somehow this insane little fantasy of being a woman is linked to your magical power. My suggestion to you would be actually confessing to the crime and giving it up. It'll be hard when you get out, but you have a knack for living off little." The Mage Hunter answered.

"Why do you not want me having magic?" Jay wondered.

"You murdered someone with it." The Mage Hunter answered. Jay stood up, briefly facing the pain that came with standing up tall and the nervousness that now came with being assertive in any way.