Jailbreak

My curiosity led me to the Kingdom of Great Leyth, where magic users run society. Often, for their entertainment, the elites like to pick a commoner to fight against a mage noble in the Colosseum. Obviously, no swordsman can defend against a fireball.

When I learned about this barbaric tradition, I desperately volunteered to take the place of an unfortunate local who had been selected by the lottery to perform in the arena and fight instead. The mage in the arena smirked. As if a scrawny woman could beat him!

When I used my new invention to shoot a hole through the mage, however, suddenly the nobility were both very surprised and very displeased.

The reward for my unexpected victory was permanent accommodation in the Great Leyth Dungeon, usually reserved for the most dangerous of prisoners. And so, a once great inventor and adventurer (that's me, by the way) was forced to languish in a dark cell for the rest of her days.

Of course, I had no intention of remaining there.

I looked around the dungeon cell. There was a small bed made of straw, a stool to sit on, and a bucket. Good to know we get an en-suite bathroom, at least.

I was no stranger to adventure stories, so my first thought was to look at the cell's window. It looked far too high up to reach, and it was unlikely to be a realistic route of escape. I breathed a deep sigh. Those mages must have been really mad at me!

Gunpowder hadn't really made its appearance in Great Leyth, despite cannons being common in the Eastern Lands. During my adventures, I devised a special miniature version of a cannon that could fit in my hand, which I initially called the handcannon.

I suppose you could consider I'm somewhat smart for my inventions, although I can be pretty dull as well. After all, I was also stupid enough to think that the mages of the Colosseum would ever let a commoner win. But I didn't want to watch someone else become a plaything of those crooks. What if he was a father? What if he had a family? As much as I hated my current situation, I didn't regret stepping in to defend him for a second.

I began looking more carefully at the dungeon, feeling a bit like a zoo animal. The most strange thing of all was how they hardly inspected my belongings. They took away my gun, of course, but thinking nothing of the powder I brought with me, I noticed it was still attached to my belt. The people of Leyth must be pretty arrogant to be so confident that their guards and magic will protect them.

Just then, I heard a whimper.

"Hello?"

I paused for a moment. Was there another person in the dungeon? My eyes were hardly adjusted to the dark. I squinted, and was able to make out a short girl with round glasses and bright green hair. Her face had a strange sort of elegance to it, being far cleaner than the murky dungeon we were kept in. Despite being a prisoner, her cell looked much fancier than mine, and she was dressed quite nicely.

She spoke again.

"It's been a while since I've had someone down here with me. I get so lonely in this dungeon…"

"How long have you been here?", I asked.

"Eleven years."

I raised an eyebrow. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Well. That doesn't exactly fill me with hope," I replied.

She smiled.

"Well, you'll be let out of here a lot sooner than that. They usually let people out of your cell after a month"

"Oh, great! How come?"

"You're in the execution cell"

"Oh. Wonderful."

I paused for a moment, considering my options.

"The bars are too thick to move, so you can't climb out the window. The door mechanism is too advanced to lock pick. And you can't tunnel out of there. I've seen it all before."

She said it with a deep regret in her voice, and I saw a melancholy light reflect from her eyes. I felt so sorry for her.

Then again, I was in the execution cell, so I suppose we both had our fair share of issues.

"Why did they arrest you?", I asked. "And why is your cell so fancy?"

"Well, " she explained. "Great Leyth used to be the Kingdom of Great Leyth. Only, when the king died, the heir to the kingdom was too young to rule."

She continued.

"The most powerful advisers, the Archmages, formed a council to govern in the name of the 5-year-old queen until she was of age."

"I suppose the princess is you, and that they're not going to let you out despite the fact you're already sixteen?"

She nodded. "They said they're keeping me here for my own safety. I get a proper bed, and they send down a tutor to give me lessons."

I paused for a moment, hearing out her explanation.

"How come they put you next to the execution cell?"

"My tutor likes seeing the faces on the prisoners when he tells them that they're in the execution cell."

I paused. "Ah."

The girl continued. "As much as it's unpleasant to live in a dungeon, I've definitely got used to it. They even bring me nice food on weekends, and I get more luxuries than the other prisoners."

"You've been here for eleven years! Don't you want to escape?!"

She shook her head, but I could see she wasn't convinced by her own excuses. "I don't know anything about the outside world. And besides, there's no way out."

"Sure there is," I said with a smile.

"How?"

I patted my belt. "The lock!"

"I already told you, we've had infamous thieves thrown in your cell, and they couldn't pick the lock. It was too difficult."

"I have a plan, you'll need to tell me something. Are these prison windows facing east or west?"

"East," the princess said, with a confused look on her face.

"Well, give me your glasses tomorrow morning, and I'll show you how we can both get out of here."

"You haven't even told me your name, and now you want me to give my glasses to some scheming thief?"

"I'm not a thief! My name is Seraphine Clay, and I'll have you know I am charged for attempted murder, not theft."

The princess trembled a bit. "I don't think that makes me feel much safer."

"Yeah, I realise that doesn't sound very good on my part."

There was an awkward pause, as her emerald eyes gazed into my soul. Despite her words, I knew her eyes were begging me to save her.

"Princess, before I go to bed, could I have the honour of knowing your name?"

She looked me up and down, and then sighed. "Princess Cordelia."

It wasn't long before the evening guard walked down the prison halls and blew out all of the candles. It was dark, terrifyingly dark. The moonless night felt like it was consuming me, and I could only think about my impending doom.

I needed to get out of here. But I had a plan. Everything was going to be okay.

What wasn't okay was how the guard woke us up at 5am. Apparently they're not satisfied with caging us up, and they have to ruin our sleep schedules as well.

I was given a wooden bowl of gruel to eat, which made me wonder if the rats scurrying around the room might have at least had more flavour and protein. I looked at Cordelia, whose meal looked far more nutritious and appetising.

"Would you consider sharing some of your food?"

Cordelia glared at me.

"Look, even if you won't share your food with me, would you give me your glasses?"

I looked at the window before waiting for a response. The morning sun was going to be peeking out the window soon.

"I need those to see! What are you going to do with them?"

"I'm going to break us out of here," I explained.

"How?"

I smiled. "It's basically magic."

She looked at me suspiciously, before wrapping her glasses in a cloth, putting them in her breakfast bowl, and reaching out her bars to push it across the floor.

The bowl hit against the bars of my cell, and I reached in for the glasses. I looked up at the sun, which was starting to rise and gleam brightly through the window. I reached for some of the gunpowder attached to my belt, and poured it carefully into the lock.

I picked up the glasses, and reflected the light of the sun towards the gunpowder in the lock. The concentrated force of the light began to heat up the gunpowder…

A small bang! The door slowly slid open, and I carefully pushed it, looking left and right to see if there were any guards in the corridor.

Cordelia jumped in surprise. "What was that?!"

"If you liked that, you're going to love my other invention. Quick, I'm going to bust your lock too!"

Pouring in some more gunpowder, I reflected the sunlight from the glasses into the keyhole, until there was a small bang, and the door opened.

"Wait! I said I was fine being here! If they catch us, they'll-"

I grabbed her hand, and started to run down the corridor. "We'll be fine."

"But the guards have metal armour and swords! We have nothing!"

"We'll be fine," I repeated, reaching the end of the corridor, and rushing down the stairs. It seems there weren't many guards about early in the morning. Ignoring the exit on the ground level, I rushed further down into the basement.

"Wait, why aren't we escaping?!"

"They confiscated my weapon in the basement, obviously," I said, gripping her more tightly

"We're never going to make it now! You've ruined everything! Any minute, the guards who heard the bang are going to run up the stairs and find us!"

I smiled, turning back to her as we approached the basement door. It didn't seem guarded on this side. I gripped the handle, and turned to Cordelia.

"You've gone and done it now. We had a chance to escape, and now you've wasted it! We'll have some fully-armoured guards on us any minute because of you!"

I smiled. "A fully-armoured guard? That's excellent!"

I opened the basement door, which was surprisingly unlocked. I suppose they didn't expect any prisoners to actually have escaped and found their way in here. There were large chests full of confiscated weapons, but it wasn't hard to find the handgun in a sea of knives and swords.

As I inspected my handgun and smiled upon feeling it in my hands again, I heard footsteps in the distance. Had a guard heard the commotion?

"You've really gone and done it now…", Cordelia grumbled, as the footsteps got louder, louder, louder. Soon, barrelling down the stairs came a guard, who raised his spear at the sight of us. His armour was gleaming in the candlelight.

I pointed my pistol at the guard, and turned to Cordelia.

"Tell me, princess, would you like to see how a handgun works?"