Exscalibur

It Started With A Heist

(Written by @Kodbro)

There’s always something that goes wrong in a heist. No matter how well you plan, there is a fifty/fifty percent chance of getting away undetected. Sawyer was soon to find herself in that exact situation a day before her whole life changed.

She had not expected her day to end with her hanging onto the walls of the old castle of Camelot, her back sticking against it, for dear life as she side stepped with tremendous care along the ledge that she could barely get a grip on. “Okay Sawyer,” she said, muttering to herself. “No matter what you do, do not look down."

What did she do next? She looked down. “Blast it,” she hissed. “And there goes that fifty percent."

This delayed the mission by five minutes longer. After carefully mapping out the ruins of the castle on her map back home, she figured that the best way to get in was by the windows. If she looked to her right, she could still see the rope hanging down from the balcony which had been her way up.

Coming to a set of glass doors that she couldn’t open, she was forced to walk the wall of the castle until she found an open window. This was her one chance. If she blew it, she may never be able to come back again. As she stood there, struggling to regain her balance and courage to keep moving, the wind continued to pull at her. This didn’t help.

Taking a deep breath, Sawyer cautiously resumed her path until she was close enough to take a leap through the open window without slipping. It was more of a surprise for her to just get inside even if she did almost fall over her feet in the process. She took a few seconds to applaud herself.

"Yes, I rule," she said, raising her hands in the air.

It didn't take her long to realise how echoic her voice sounded amidst the spacious marble room she found herself in. She figured she had stumbled her way into the great hall of the old castle of Camelot where a few steps ahead of her, she spotted the round table where King Arthur and his knights had once sat around all together.

Back home she had grown up with the prophecy of King Arthur of Avalon rising up again to take back the kingdom of Camelot as its rightful King. She was only here on behalf of her father to steal the stone of Avalon that is rumoured to grant its wielder powers unbeknown to man. "I'm probably in the wrong room," she said to herself.

Looking from left to right, she half walked, half ran around the table to the other end of the hall where the other set of doors were. If she was right, or if the map was right, the stone should be encased in a glass case held safely in the vault of the castle. She found herself enclosed on either side by a narrow, dark corridor that seemed to go on forever.

Besides the darkness and the cold stone walls that made her wrap her arms around herself, it was the many portraits of past kings and their families that made her feel as if she was not alone in this dark desolated place that if not had creeped her out earlier before, it certainly did now. She slowed her pace. Because of this it felt like forever until she came to a dead end which soon turned out to be just another old, wooden door.

The only way she knew it was there was until she put up her hand to feel its rough surface against her palm. Sawyer then felt for the doorknob that she knew would be there waiting for her to turn it in the dark. It felt cool to the touch.

There was a click. Gently, it opened and Sawyer couldn't be happier to see light ahead of her, much less another corridor which lay open on her left hold together by pillars. If she looked beyond them, a quad lay in ruins with stone and rubble surrounding it. In some places, half of the castle had collapsed.

The crumbling window on the next floor up lead her eyes down to a slab of stone which she soon realised was held solid and firm into the ground. Suddenly, it all made sense. What she was looking at. As her blue eyes moved up, they rested on the hilt of a sword which reflection pierced her vision through the sun's radiance.