ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 13

Prin and I spent hours playing my guitar. I taught her how to play it and soon she was even better than I was, which I wouldn't usually admit. Sarphi seemed to show signs of raging jealousy as she stayed right beside Prin the entire time we were playing. Sarphi could play quite well herself, so she was gently helping Prin by showing her how to position her hands properly. If I didn't know the context, I'd say that Sarphi was trying to charm Prin.

Aknon, on the other hand, had been pacing around the room and inspecting every little thing for the past few hours. Whilst I was content on waiting out a little while for our sentences, or taking the time to resting a place which was actually somewhat safe, he was frantic. He checked the hatch around ten times to make sure that the guard was still there, but I had told him that the hatch was probably locked with several different mechanisms, maybe even magic, if Prin hadn't managed to get out of here over the past fifteen years.

Senka had found her way out of my bag and was walking around, picking things up and asking Prin about them. Prin didn't need to write anything down for Senka to understand her, something I was sure Prin was very surprised by and grateful for.

That was how Prin told us her past, speaking through Senka. Apparently, the king had always hated noise and fuss, wanting to be the ruler of the most peaceful land that had ever existed, which meant that he had to get rid of everything which made noise, outlawing music and games at first, but then it got more and more serious. If someone so much as laughed too loudly, they would be publicly humiliated.

He had been somewhat lenient with his family, however. Which meant that Prin grew up around soft music such as the harp, alongside the tweeting of birds which she'd kept as pets. But the difference in noise between her section of the house and the rest of the kingdom drove her father mad, declaring that she was breaking the law, even though she'd been assured that the law didn't apply to her. And so, he treated her just like anyone else who broke the law in this way. She was the first and only one to actually be punished in this way, because everyone else was too scared to go against the law after he imprisoned and punished his own child.

Her father showed sympathy and remorse after he'd done this, but he couldn't go back and undo what he had done. He refused to consult with any healers or sorcerers in order to restore her talking abilities, and he felt like he would lose credit as the ruler of the city if he removed her from her cell. As the result of this, she lived in one of the most impressive prisons to exist.

"I want to kill him," Sarphi said as soon as Senka had stopped talking. "Please? The way he treated you was unfair, horrible, barbaric, awful." She continued to list negative words, her voice beginning to become less understandable as she rambled.

"We all do," Aknon replied bitterly, but I assumed that it had little to do with Prin's past. Aknon wasn't a fan of enclosed spaces, and he was beginning to panic quite a bit, His movements became more sudden and clumsier, and he hummed whenever he was anxious. "We need to get out of here, we need to continue on our quest."

"Our quest can wait," Sarphi said in a level tone.

"No, it can't." Aknon shook his head, walking in front of us. "We have someone else relying on us now. This is different from the last four years which we had gone through."

I snorted. "I highly doubt that Genesis is emotionally invested in us becoming proper people." I rolled my eyes as I said the words 'proper people', finding it insulting even when I said it.

Prin looked at us with confused eyes, before reaching out and tugging on Sarphi's arm.

Sarphi looked back at her, before giving a small smile and relaxing. "What Acer means is that we're on a mission to find a person who can tell us why we were born like this." Sarphi raised her tail and waved it towards Prin.

Prin let out a small laugh before reaching out to Sarphi's tail curiously, tilting her head as Sarphi moved her tail closer.

"She's curious about what you know about your family," Senka informed us. "And what you are, because she's never heard of or seen anyone like you."

"Yeah, we know." I shrugged before standing and putting my guitar down behind a table, just in case anyone comes down and confiscates it. "We haven't seen anyone like us either, it's really annoying."

"Our mother looks just like everyone else," Sarphi informed with the same level voice she'd been using, compensating for my slightly frustrated response. "We've been travelling for years to find the reason why we're not like others, or to find our father."

"Which is proving extremely troublesome. We don't even know if he's alive or not." Aknon waved his hand, shrinking my guitar down to the size of a coin. "So, this could be a complete and utter failure, but now we have a lead."

"And the lead will continue to be where it is," I told him and picked up my guitar again with an exasperated sigh, putting it in my pocket. "Genesis didn't seem to mention any kind of time limit."

"Yes, but we know there are people coming after us." Aknon waved his arms for emphasis. "We don't know if that meant the patrollers or something else."

"Something invisible with glowing eyes," Sarphi added unhelpfully.

Prin looked absolutely horrified, glancing between the three of us as though we were insane.

"Senka saw it too." I raised my hands, as though claiming that a sentient doll had seen the entity that I was automatically deemed reliable. "She knows something about it which we don't, but she won't tell us."

"Too right I won't," Senka commented with a nod of her head. "My mouth is stitched shut."

"That could be arranged," Aknon mumbled, but I didn't feel the need to bring attention to that, as it might be considered a little too close to home for Prin.

"What we need to figure out is if we're trying to escape or if we should wait for our sentences." I then gestured to Prin. "Because I highly doubt that other prisoners would be allowed at this sentence thing."

"How descriptive. I say that we try to escape as soon as we can, because we can't guarantee that we'd actually be allowed to leave this place whilst we're benign judged, or even if we get judged at all."

"Prin tried to escape a few times," Senka informed us. "But that was a long time ago."

"So, things could've changed since you last tried?" Sarphi asked hopefully. "Please tell me things might've changed. I'm not staying down here for years."

Prin shrugged her shoulders and sighed before standing and moving to the archway, looking up at the hatch again.

"There's a guard up there right now," Senka spoke for Prin. "You can tell when they're gone because it's lighter."

I nodded my head. That made sense considering the guards usually stayed in front of a small window. There would be more light which got through the cracks if the guard wasn't there.

"The guard's schedules are unpredictable, and there's no real way of knowing time. That's why Prin never got the chance to prepare to escape properly."

"Then, we'll just have to be ready," Aknon said in a gruff yet determined voice. "We have to get out of here. All of us. We'll be ready the next time the guard moves."