The Arcana

The Fool

I waited in that dank cellar for what seemed like an eternity until a creak in the door and boot footfalls alerted me to my visiter. While I had waited for Lockewood it gave me time to really think about what Lockewood was saying and even though he had answered many of my questions, I still had even more to ask him and not enough time to figure them out.

I looked up with relief when Lockewood appeared and rushed to my side to quickly unbind me again and I noticed his small bag upon his shoulders and wondered at how long he had stayed with this allied group of Archanians.

After helping me up  rubbed at my wrists. Damn these were painful even though he had obviously loosened them for my sake. Lockewood motioned back to the underground route we used to go to that room and I wondered if their were many exits that we could have taken instead of coming back to the cellar. Gods none of this made sense and I was beginning to get a headache again

"Quickly! Follow me through here and we can meet some of my comrades at the end of the tunnel." Looking around I felt like i was missing something when I realized that I had left all of my belonging at Death's camp and brought nothing with me to the cellar.

"Lockewood why didn't we escape sooner rather than later?" I asked timidly feeling like there was an obvious reason that I was missing.

Whispering hurriedly back at me while he walked in front and pulling out a small candle to light for our way through he explained to me

"There were some people counting on me to get a few perspectives to chronicle for the future and I could not miss the opportunity." Lockewood sounded very cryptic and I knew I would't get much out of him about what he was trying to chronicle so I didn't push it further.

"Besides, if we had left earlier then we would have been caught and could not try to escape twice. You must remember Annabelle that these people are ruthless, they have accepted their fate and fixed their eyes upon the prize."

I almost objected to his comment about not accepting my fate but then I realized that I don't accept my fate as an Archanian and that was enough to silence me for the remainder of the trip through the tunnels."

Lockewood seemed to know exactly where we were going and with a trained eye he would turn into side tunnels left or right. In the beginning I feared that they were just walls and almost yelped the first time I saw him walk into what appeared to me as just another wall.

Finally he stopped in front of a large metal door that looked to be very solid and immovable. "Here hold the candle and my bag as I open this door." I took it from him and watched as he rolled up his white billowy sleeves and I noticed how muscular he was for the first time.

I blushed and hoped he could't see me in the dark but it didm't matter as he had focused all of his attention at opening the door. And indeed as I thought it would be, the door took much force to open before it gave way.

While I handed Lockewood his things back he blew out the candle and I stepped past him through the door and noticed that it had changed from day to night and I wondered at how long I must have spent as a hostage. I looked around to see where we were and I noticed that the door protruded out of a small enclave of moss and grass that had grown over it for years. There was a Forrest all around us and I had hoped we had made it quite a distance from the place I was being held so that we could put some more distance in between us and them.

"Follow me this way I believe our horse and a friend of mine are waiting for us just through that Forrest over yonder."

I obliged him by following him but I needed to ask him one more question before we left the camp.