Chapter 7

"What?!" Novius turned to General Caspian in shock. "Why would you do such a thing??" Novius continued in disbelief. "I would also like to know." Darius followed up. "It's the kings orders. In Aexetan, you have a bounty on both your heads" General Caspian replied as guards came into the room. Both Novius and Darius drew their weapons out. Darius turned to face the guards behind them, watching Novius' back. "It's no use, You're both in a fatal situation! Either sign the contract or drown in the dungeons" General Caspian said with a mocking tone. Novius went silent for a moment.. Darius looked at him in confusion.. "Hah! Even your friend would rather sign the contract and kill you in order to-" Before General Caspian could finish his sentence, an arrow came flying beside his face.. Water marks etched on the arrow.

Novius looked at General Caspian with pure fury in his eyes. "I would rather risk my life than let my best friend die." Novius said coldly. "Let us go before you regret it." Darius said. General Caspian looked at them with a hateful expression. "Guards. Take them to the dungeon." General Caspain said sternly. The guards then forcefully took both Novius and Darius out of the room, dragging them to the castle.

At the castle dungeon 

The guards stepped down the stairs leading to the dungeon. There were more guards in the hallway, they all looked exhausted. "Are you kidding me? More???" The guard on post spoke tiredly. "What? Why?" A guard, handling Novius and Darius, asked in confusion. "Please tell me they don't speak much.." Another guard spoke. "We got two other prisoners earlier.. One of them wont stop speaking." A guard replied. "Hah, I feel bad for the person meant to handle that prisoner.." Darius mumbled. The prisoner sounded quite familiar.. 

The guards threw them into a cell across a cell some guards were yelling at. The guards locked the cell before walking away. "The person in the cell across us must be scared.. That's probably why they won't stop talking" Darius said, feeling a little sympathy for the prisoners across them.

The guards yelling at the prisoners across them walked away. Turns out.. it was Aine and Veda in the cell across them. "Aine??? Veda??? How did you-" Novius was interrupted by Darius. "I take back everything I have said about them." Darius said sternly. "Ugh- Rude!" Aine exclaimed, offended. "Dear Kessem have mercy on my patience.." Veda mumbled, putting a hand on her forehead. "How did you guys end up in here??" Novius asked Veda and Aine across them. "A guard's mental broke when we asked him if he'd seen your parents. He spilled the truth about this place. The General knocked us out and the next thing we knew, we were in here." Veda replied. "Wait- That can't be" Darius turned to them in confusion. "What do you mean?" Aine asked. "Because we got into an argument with the General a few minutes ago to end up here..." Novius replied, putting a hand on his chin.

"Do you think the one me and Aine faced, was fake?" Veda asked. "Haha! That's preposterous! No one has ever pulled off an underwater illusion! That absolutely make's no sense!!" Darius said loudly, starting to write on the walls with chalk. "How does that even work?.." Veda asked in pure confusion about the chalk. "I learned to not ask about his actions a long time ago. He's a wizard." Novius replied.

Two hours passed 

Darius was sitting in the dark corner of the cell, mumbling nonsense with his eyes closed. Novius was thinking while Veda slept. Aine looked at Darius, stunned. "uhh.. Novius, I think your cellmate lost it.. I'm honestly surprised he cracked from only two hours in" Aine pointed out. Novius looked at Darius, surprised. "D-Darius?.. Are you okay?.." Novius asked, worried. "Shh! I'm listening.." Darius said. "Oh boy.. it's that bad.." Novius followed up. Darius sighed. "I didn't crack. When the guards were dragging us out of the room, I had stuck a sigil behind a bookshelf. The sigil allows me to listen in the room while I'm not there. Honestly- did you really think I would crack that easily??" Darius said, slightly offended. Novius looked at Darius as if a light bulb just went off in his head. "Honestly, yes" Aine replied, Nonchalantly, from her cell. "Darius you are a genius!" Novius exclaimed. "Hah! Well isn't it obvious?" Darius replied, his ego suddenly spiking up. "Nope, not really" Aine mocked from the other cell. 

Darius just glared at her before going back to his trance. Novius stayed quiet, letting Darius do his thing. Veda woke up from her sleep. "Nice to see you awake Veda" Aine said. "It was surprisingly a good sleep despite being underwater" Veda joked, sitting up. "Nice to see you're still lively despite the situation" Novius said. "So, any idea on how we're going to get out of here?" Veda asked. "Darius is currently spying on the Generals office, he's trying to see if there's anything we can use against them" Novius replied. Darius then snapped out of his trance, breathing heavily. Novius got worried so he quickly swam to Darius. "What's wrong? what did you hear?" Darius just sighed.. "Doing this spell is tiring.. I didn't hear anything but the entire castle will be empty tonight because of some festival. Only fifteen guards will be in charge of castle security" Darius said. "That's our chance!" Aine exclaimed. The three of them immediately shushed her.

"So it's decided then.. the four of us will escape during the festival." Darius said. "Wait- what? No!" Aine yelled. The three of them shushed her again, confused. "What do you mean no??" Veda asked. "We can't leave these poor tourists here, they originally came here for relaxation! They didn't know it was going to be this hell. It wasn't their fault they suffer now" Aine pointed out. "Aine, we have families to come back to" Darius said sternly. "But what about their family??" Aine pointed out. They all froze at the thought..

"It will be dangerous.." Veda said. "There are so many risks to freeing an entire kingdom.." Darius pointed out. "If things go south, I will take the blame. I just can't stand the thought of them losing their family.." Aine said. "Well, since Novius is the person leading this adventure, he should be the one to decide." Veda said. "What do you think Novius?" Darius asked, looking up at Novius.

Novius sighed.. "Guess we are saving an entire kingdom" Novius said with a smile.