I do not own Dungeons and Dragons or any of the characters.
Breaking Out
Jasper glared at the mercenaries around Mia. "I'm only going to warn you one time. The first person to touch her loses their hand. The second dies. The third gets everyone in the room killed. Then we'll just go from there."
"Yeah, right," one of the mercenaries snorted, grabbing Mia by the throat and lifting her.
Except, just as he did, her shadow moved, the living shadow that usually travelled with Jasper separating from hers before a massive set of jaws shot up from the shadow. The Mercenary had just long enough to release Mia before the jaws slammed shut, biting off the man's arm just below the elbow, the jaws wide enough to reach from there past his hand, swallowing the entire arm before dropping back into the shadow. The mercenary shrieked in fear and pain, staggering away, and another snarled in rage, stepping forward, drawing a knife. He also grabbed Mia by the throat, though intending to kill her, unlike his last companion, who had had much less pleasant intentions. However, as soon as he'd grabbed her, the shadow moved again. This time, a massive, horned, serpentine head burst up out of it, stretching high into the air before bending down and snapping its jaw closed around the man. Like the one before, the arm he'd grabbed Mia with was bitten off above the elbow, except that this time, it spun into the air as the dragon head reached up, swallowing the man's entire body, save for the arm and his legs just below his knees. Then, the head dropped into the shadows again. The man who had lost his arm first shrieked in defiance, grabbing a sword and lunging.
"NO!"
Several men tackled him to the ground, one of them swiftly knocking him out as another finished bandaging his arm. As they did, everyone stared fearfully at Mia's shadow.
"We'll come quietly and cooperatively so long as nothing...unbecoming happens to my companion," Jasper intoned seriously. "It can be a very easy payday. All you have to do is behave like gentlemen."
Several of the mercenaries nodded hurriedly and everyone rushed from the room, one of them locking Mia's cell door on the way out. Mia sighed in relief, sitting back against the wall.
"Thank you," Mia smiled over at him, then down at the shadow, once again concealed in her own. "And especially thank you."
Her shadow seemed to shiver for a moment before falling still. They both settled in, and time passed slowly, the mercenaries bringing them three meals a day. Finally, the mercenaries returned, much more politely asking Mia and Jasper to accompany them to their prison. Both accepted, willingly heading for the transport cart. They'd had to wait three days for their bounties to spread, but finally, the mercenaries were ready to turn them in. So, about three hours later, they'd finally arrived. Revel's End. One of the highest security prisons in the world, where some of the most heinous criminals were held. Jasper smirked. So they were serious about trying to keep them locked up this time. Well, they'd be more serious if they knew who they actually had, but this was a step in the right direction.
The trip to the prison was different than most places they'd been incarcerated. They were transferred from their transport cart to a sleigh, and the mercenaries received their payment and left. Then, the sleigh was driven to the prison's entrance, where guards held crossbows to the windows of the sleigh as heavy chains pulled it back to the door. A heavy chain was hooked to belts wrapped around them and attached to their shackles, and from there, they were led to a cell where they were locked in together. Then, the guards left. Jasper looked around the surprisingly warm prison. It was magically heated to keep people from freezing to death, though it was still cold enough that they had to chip their waste out of the one bucket they had to share in order to toss it out of the cell every day, and torches burned along the corridors and walkways, providing light for the guards and prisoners. The prison was arranged into a tower, walkways and cells lining the spiraling path up the interior wall, then a smaller tower inside of it with still more cells. A dozen or so bridges connected the interior tower's walkway with the outer walkway every few levels, and guards patrolled the walkways constantly. the prison housed over a thousand prisoners, and had a guard population of over a hundred. However, the doors were magically sealed, and each cell had its own key, each guard having only a handful of keys at any given time. It was a secure prison. Very impressive. But it wasn't enough to hold them. Still, it would take a few days to work out a plan, so they settled in to wait. Every day, they were taken to the ice fields to break up blocks of ice for no apparent reason, and every night, they were shut in their cell. Food was scarce, and torture for bad behavior was frequent, though Jasper and Mia were always careful to avoid that treatment.
They quickly settled into a routine. During the day, they wiled away their time breaking apart ice, the groups of prisoners, a couple dozen at a time, guarded by a dozen guards. As the guards were armed and the prisoners only had rickety, worn-down tools, as well as shackles, there was little chance of the prisoners trying to escape during that, besides the fact that there was nowhere to go, and they'd freeze to death before they'd die of starvation or dehydration. At night, they would rest and fine-tune their plan, or sometimes they'd simply enjoy the fact that they had a cell together to its fullest extent, usually to the loud and angry complaints of those in the cells to either side, and once in a while the guards would decide to tell them to stop, though mostly the guards let them have their fun, since they were always cooperative. Before they knew it, a year had passed, and they were scheduled to speak to the Absolution Council with the chance of earning a pardon. Granted, neither particularly cared about the pardon. They could break out when they got around to it, and they would disappear once they left the prison, one way or the other.
"By the order of Lords' Alliance, this Absolution Council will now come to order," one of the chancellors of the Council spoke out when they were finally granted their hearing, "in the case of Jasper and Mia, no family names given. This is the first year of incarceration for the crimes of theft, burglary, extortion, conspiracy to commit murder, and the mass murder of a group of Hobgoblin mercenaries. It is the task of this council to determine your eligibility for pardon. What say you?"
"I say that we were justified," Jasper shrugged, looking around at the council, a Human, a Halfling, and a Dragonborn, the Aarakocra member not currently present.
The chancellors all bristled.
"Ignoring the first crimes, the mass murder was not because we wanted to kill," Jasper explained. "Mia had been kidnapped by the mercenaries, so I went to rescue her. They were going to rape her to death, as they had done to numerous other women before her, so when I went to rescue her, and when they attacked us both, we defended ourselves and slaughtered them. Yes, we murdered them, but they intended to do far worse than that to Mia. As for the earlier crimes, the theft was a loaf of bread because we were sickly and dying from living off of rats. The burglary was a misunderstanding when we were caught stealing that same loaf of bread. The extortion came about because a group of men were beating me bloody, and Mia used a knife to fight them off, then made them pay us money and food as an apology for it. And the conspiracy to commit murder was us drunk at a bar with the money we got from those men talking about how our lives would improve if we assassinated the lord of whichever country we were in and forged a last will and testament saying that we should inherit his title and wealth. We were never actually going to do it, we were just drunk."
The chancellors all looked around at each other before the human spoke up again. "Is that all you have to say in your defense?"
"It is," Mia nodded.
"Very well," the Halfling chancellor nodded. "We will deliberate."
Jasper nodded, and after a few minutes of hushed discussion, the chancellors turned back to them.
"At this time, we are denying your pardon," the Dragonborn chancellor informed them. "However, if, in the span of the next year, you maintain acceptable behavior and cause no problems, as you have for the last year, you will have your pardon."
"Thank you," Jasper bowed.
They were led from the room and back to their cell where they found a cold, partially-frozen supper waiting.
"Are we really going to wait for another year?" Mia asked.
"Well, they bought my bullshit sob story, so one more year to get those crimes expunged isn't a bad payoff," Jasper shrugged, then snorted. "Extortion because they were beating me up."
"Sick from living off of rats," Mia grinned. "They're more gullible than I expected."
"Agreed," Jasper nodded. "But, oh well. One more year."
Mia nodded, then moved over, straddling his lap. "So, now that we're alone again, feel like helping me pass the time?"
"I'd love to," Jasper grinned, greeting her lips with his own.
"I'm telling you, Holga, this is your last day chopping ice," one of the other prisoners, a former Harper and bard by craft, Edgin Darvis, assured his Barbarian friend.
Holga laughed.
"You have so much faith," Jasper smirked, splitting a block of ice. "You're that sure Jarnathan will side with you?"
"Jarnathan will get us out," Edgin said confidently.
Jasper shrugged. "Well, I wish you luck. We won't be around to see you cry after, but hey, if you're right, maybe we can all catch a ride to civilization together."
Edgin snorted. "They're not letting a mass murderer like you go."
Jasper's ice axe stabbed into the block of ice Edgin was picking at with his pole. "Don't ever think that you know me or Mia. You don't have the slightest idea who we are. You're broken up about your wife being dead, but there are fates worse than death. Yes, I slaughtered those Hobgoblins, and I'd do it a thousand times over to stop them from raping Mia. And you know full well you'd do the same to protect Kira."
"At least she'd be alive," Edgin said.
"No," Jasper said. "Those Hobgoblins would have killed her. And even despite that, I've seen what becomes of women who are raped. I've seen the way a part of them dies and they're haunted by what happened. There are fates worse than death, Edgin, and that is one of them. They are never the same after it happens."
Edgin was silent, remaining that way as Jasper ripped his ice axe out of Edgin's block, and returned to chopping his own. Several hours later, it was time for the Absolution Council to convene, and Edgin and Holga were called in first, Jasper and Mia waiting in the hallway outside. For nearly an hour, they waited, Edgin's voice just barely carrying through the thick, iron door as he told the council, once again not including Jarnathan, as he'd been delayed by a storm, his backstory.
"Can we leave yet?" Mia asked.
"Not yet," Jasper smiled. "We just have to wait for the idiot and Holga to finish their hearing and we'll be on our way."
Mia nodded as Jarnathan finally arrived, allowing himself into the council chamber. Except, just as he did, someone suddenly shouted in surprise and pain.
"She's throwing potatoes!" someone yelped.
"Oh Jarnathan!" the Halfling chancellor shrieked.
"But we approved your pardon!" the Dragonborn shouted.
Jasper sighed, walking forward and knocking on the door.
"Not now!" the human said. "We've just had a breakout! And just when we were about to pardon them!"
"Edgin," Jasper sighed. "What of our pardon?"
"Right now, we've got bigger concerns!" the Human chancellor snapped. "We'll reconvene to discuss your pardon in a month!"
"That wasn't the deal," Jasper said.
"Let's just go," Mia suggested. "We've wasted enough of their time."
"Yeah," Jasper nodded. "You're right. We'll see ourselves out."
"Good," the Human nodded, only to then yelp in surprise and fear as Jasper and Mia leapt from the window.
All three chancellors ran to the window, only to see a Roc flying away from the tower with Mia on its back, waving back at them.
"He's...a Wild Shape?" the Dragonborn asked. "All this time?"
"He could have left at any time he wished," the Halfling realized.
"And now they'll have a bounty for having escaped this prison," the Human said.
Jasper landed lightly, allowing Mia to slide to the ground before transforming back. He smirked, accepting his weapons from his shadow before turning to her and kissing her. After a moment, he pulled back, looking around. He'd flown a long way, past where the snow had given way to lush fields and soft grass.
"So, now that we're free, should we go and tie up loose ends?" Mia asked.
"Yeah," Jasper nodded. "Let's go and find our old friend. We can repay him for everything he put us through."
Mia nodded, and they turned south west, heading in the general direction of the Sword Coast. Of course, without knowing where exactly they were, they'd need to find a town to get their bearings, as well as to buy food and get Mia some clean clothes. Two years without being able to change and only able to bathe once a week tended to ruin clothing.
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