Under the cover of night, Mickey and I slipped through the city to the jail where my father was being held.
"A quick word with the prisoner?" Mickey asked the guard standing in front of the cell, a small sack of silver in his hand.
The guard looked around before he snatched it from Mickey's hand, "Alright. Be quick about it."
Mickey and I entered the cell. My father was huddled on the floor, his body thin and shaking from the cold.
"Father?" I asked the figure in the corner.
He stood up, his face lit up in joy.
"Rose!? I knew you'd survive," he said as we stood in a loving embrace.
"You look so thin. Have they mistreated you?" I asked him as he stepped back.
"Not yet. I think they're saving it all for my execution. Three days from now," he said grimly.
"It won't come to that! We're going to get you out of here!" I said.
"In a few days, the daughter of the Lord President will be wed. Most of the guards will be needed to control the crowds," Mickey piped up.
"Who is this Minister of Destruction?" father asked, turning to Mickey.
"That's Mickey, father. You remember? Jackson's son."
"Jackson? Your father was a great scholar and a dear friend of mine. He hoped you'd follow in his footsteps," father said.
"The chief jailer will be attending the wedding. And they've assigned a dimwitted guard to take his place…a man I know."
"You think you can bribe this man that you know?" father asked Mickey.
"Let's just say he and I have done business in the past," Mickey said grinning.
"That'd take a lot of silver," I piped up.
"I have it. For years I've been stealing from the palace, in hopes that I'd be able to get back to Pyrovillia again. But if I can send my king home-"
"We're all going home soon Mickey. Now, how are the docks going to be guarded?" father asked.
"By the Capitan's soldiers."
"So the odds are very slim. Can you use a sword boy?" father said, turning back to Mickey.
"Me?! Well, actually, I'm better at cheering from the sidelines," Mickey said sheepishly.
"A fight won't be necessary. They'll let us through," I said, pulling out Theta's medallion.
"Capitan Theta gave you that?" Mickey asked me.
"Who's this Capitan? A Gallifreyan?!" my father snapped.
"Yes. But he's not like the others father!" I said, seeing the look on his face.
"He leads the Lord President's armies, but he didn't leave our planet in ruins like the others?!" father asked.
"He regrets his past fa-"
"ROSE! Don't shame yourself and me with such worthless thoughts! Don't tell me this Gallifreyan sheds tears of grief for slaughtered Pyrovile men, the ravaged women and the children they took as slaves! Any soft look you've given this Capitan, betrays the innocent people that have suffered at his hands and the hands of every worthless soldier he commands. You will tear him out of your heart," father said, his face disgusted.
"Yes, father," I said softly, the medallion still in my hand.
"I wouldn't have imagined it possible that the Gallifreyans would give me another reason to hate them," father said before turning to Mickey to discuss the escape plans.
Rose:
This is the moment when the Osirans expect me
To beg for help but I won't even try
I want nothing in this world but myself to protect me
But I won't lie down, roll over and die
All I have to do is to forget how much I love him
All I have to do is put my longing to one side
Tell myself that love's an ever-changing situation
Passion would have cooled and all the magic would have died
It's easy, it's easy
All I have to do is to pretend I never knew him
On those very rare occasions when he steals into my heart
Better to have lost him when the ties were barely binding
Better the contempt of the familiar cannot start
It's easy, It's easy
Until I think about him as he was when I last touched him
And how he would have been were I to be with him today
Those very rare occasions don't let up they keep on coming
All I ever wanted and I'm throwing it away
It's easy, it's easy as life
But then I saw the faces of a worn , defeated people
A father and a nation who won't let a coward run
is this how the gods reward the faithful through the ages ?
Forcing us to prove the hardest thing we've done
Are easy
So easy
And though I'll think about him till the earth draws in around me
And though I choose to leave him for another kind of love
There is no denial, no betrayal but redemption
Redeemed in my own eyes and in the pantheon above
It's easy
It's easy as life