The War of the Roil: The Knight and the Warlock

Chapter 3: Charon's Caravel

Edmund blinked himself awake, his vision blurry and head pounding.

He sat up from the wooden floor beneath him. All he could see was what a dim torch illuminated beyond a row of iron bars.

This place smelled of death.

He was in another prison cell, no longer in a garrison building. There were several other identical cells surrounding him.

"What in the Roil..." Edmund muttered as he noticed he was wearing nothing but rags in place of his old clothes. Admittedly, they weren't much better, but at least they were warm.

There was one other person in the cell with him. He was a middle aged man with scraggly hair and seemed as though he hadn't bathed all his life. Luckily, he was asleep.

Edmund moved to the bars and glanced as far as he could down a hallway which ran between two lines of cells.

He glanced into the cell across from his. A dark haired woman sat in the cell, her legs pulled into her chest. Her movement indicated she was awake.

"Psst." Edmund hissed to get her attention.

She glanced up for only a moment before breaking eye contact.

"Hey, where are we?" He asked.

The woman looked at him again. She hesitated before answering, "Prisoner transport ship."

"At sea, huh." Edmund paused, "Why do you look familiar?"

The woman inhaled a small gasp before hissing, "You're the one who stole from me!"

"I...what? Wait, are you that noblewoman?"

The woman nodded. Edmund's eyes shot wide. Nobles never got arrested. Never. A nobleman could grab a woman of the Pious class and rape her on his balcolny and could still get off scot-free.

"How'd you end up here?" Edmund whispered.

"What's it to you?" She rebuked with disdain.

Edmund sighed, "Nothing, I suppose. But by Bronduk, I've never seen a noblewoman get arrested."

Edmund leaned against the right wall of his cell. If he was on a prisoner transport, he'd have to devise an escape plan, preferably before they landed. They'd be headed for the nearest temple for trials, then start the executions.

"How long have we been here?" Edmund asked the woman.

"A day or two, I think." the woman muttered.

Two days at most. That would give them about half a week of travel before they landed at the nearest temple, Sudebron. There, they would be put on trial. Four days wasn't much, but it was something.

"It was flers." the woman said.

Edmund perked up.

"I was arrested because I used a fler I wasn't supposed to." She didn't make eye contact with him.

Edmund furrowed his brow, "I don't think there are any outlawed flers."

"There's more than the ones they teach us." she muttered, "I used my bare hands to burn someone."

"So you're a Flerfinger?" Edmund asked.

"Not the right kind apparently."

"If we can get our hands on some shards...that'll go smoother." Edmund said to himself, "Hey, noblewoman. You wanna escape?"

"Escape?" the woman blinked, bewildered, "And it's Lara, not 'noblewoman.'"

"Well, Lara, I don't really see many alternatives here." Edmund hissed.