Welcome to Hell {Prinxiety}

Chapter 6

Virgil's POV

I left Logan and Patton alone for a couple hours to work on a list of 'helpful' information I have about Hell or Ryan Castillo, starting with his name. From what I remember he has messy blonde hair, an Endrean accent, and walked with a permanent limp. I would make note of his eye color if I had ever been brave enough to look him in the eyes, it just seemed like a good way to p!ss him off so I tended to look down whenever he was around. Hell itself was close to the ocean, and it should be easy to tell which one since I couldn't have ran that far away that I would have been closer to another ocean. Or maybe I'm heavily underestimating the size of Narrakah, but that's Logan's job to figure out not mine.

When I decide that Pattons's probably released Logan from the hug, I go back out to the living room. I find that neither of them are there anymore, "Logan? Patton?"

"We're in here kiddo!" Patton calls, and I follow his voice to Logan's room. I swear if I walk in on them doing anything then the next time I see Roman, it'll be as a ghost. The latter is digging through some papers, while the former waves me in.

Logan lays out a single paper on his desk, "Would you mind trying to mark the location of the mines? It is in Narrakah, correct?" Nooooo, because an escaped slave and literal child would know so many merchants or fishermen willing to give them a ride. Yep, definitely. Makes perfect sense.

"Unless there's something between here and the ocean, yeah it should be in Narrakah," I confirm, seriously doubting that I had crossed an entire kingdom in a day.

He takes the sketchbook while I look over the detailed paper in front of me, presumably a map. At least most of Narrakah and Corinth shared a language so I could actually read it. A weird shape was drawn on the paper and colored in lightly with green. An entire third of the paper was blue and was labeled the Avangian Sea. Dozens of black dots littered the map with what I guessed was a town name next to each one, and I quickly found the one we were in. I looked between there and the water, hoping to find some kind of mapped landmark that I could use, even if I don't remember seeing any particularly interesting things in the forest that would be marked. I settle on the entirety of the Parsha Woods as the location, specifically highlighting the area right by the water.

"I believe I can give this information to a royal guard and from there they could set up a bounty for Castillo," Logan reasons. Great, we're involving even more people. If it helps Roman then I'm willing to do it, but that doesn't mean I like it.

"We could show Remy and Thomas?" Patton suggests, "We could get help from everyone else too!" I'm not sure I want to know who 'everyone else' is, but it sounds like a lot since he didn't actually name anyone.

"They would be optimal choices considering our close friendship with both of them, and they are both very influential in the King's court," Logan agrees. Remind me again why they aren't dating? They're both wusses that won't admit their feelings even though everyone else can tell? Yeah that seems about right, "So, we inform our close associates about this and have them gather, presumably here, to make a plan with the intention of arresting Ryan Castillo and his associates?" He summarizes, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"I guess, but wouldn't that take a while?" I ask.

I already left Roman there for an extra three months after god knows what they did to him for trying to escape. With the hope that someone will actually help, I'm not sure I can wait any longer to find him. And if members of the royal guard are going to help, wouldn't it be safer if I tried getting him and the other kids out before they showed up in case someone gets a little stab-happy?

"It would take a couple weeks to gather everyone and track down Castillo, along with his associates," Logan admits, "So by the end of the month we should be able to stage an attack on the site and free the enslaved children in 'Hell,'" I don't think he realizes how bad 'attack' sounds in that sentence, "Do you happen to know anyone of importance inside the trafficking ring?"

"Uh, no," I only saw those people once and even then, it's not like they went around introducing themselves to us like 'oh hey kid I'm Rick how would you like to spend your entire life working for ungrateful b@stards that barely feed you? Too bad you're doing it anyway!'

He just nods, "Alright, well I will set to work gathering information on Castillo."

"And I'll let everyone know to come over!" Patton declares, happy to find something he can do to help.

I nod, deciding to let Logan work in peace while Patton does whatever he wants. I knew the two of them could easily get the work done, but the time it'll take and the risk to everyone inside the mines just seems like too much. Of course, this single worry snowballs down the mountain of anxiety and paranoia, quickly turning into a snow boulder of panic that will absolutely overwhelm you once it reaches the bottom, when all logic ceases to exist.

Realistically, members of the royal guard would probably know not to attack children, so I don't have to be worried about that, but every other possible way it could go wrong still manages to play in my head like a picture book. Well, I don't think this picture book would be great to show your children at night, but I'm not a parent so what do I know?

The only real way to stop the snowball would be to somehow appease that worry, find something that makes it almost completely pointless to worry about. If my problem is with the safety of the kids, more specifically Roman, in Hell, then the best way to keep myself from spiralling down into full-blown panic would be to make sure he's already safe before the rescue attempt happens. And the only way to do that would be getting him out, but I can't know for sure if he's still there without...I couldn't even tell him about the plan unless...

I'd have to go back down there and tell him myself. 

A/N: Dun, dun, duuuunnn. I'm not 100% sure that the whole 'Virgil throwing caution to the wind to save Roman' part makes sense because it's Virgil but there wouldn't be a story otherwise.