[Spring, Year 312]
Two knights pushed Yuki into a prison cell, causing her to trip onto the cold, dirty ground.
"Don't even think about escaping. This prison is highly guarded, with security devices imbued with ivrent made from professionals." The knight holding the key hmphed, locking the door.
"It's impossible! Even the deadliest criminals imprisoned here for decades cannot escape. After all, we're in a dungeon beneath his majesty's castle. The security is immaculate." The other knight commented.
"Why would you tell her that??" The knight with the key smacked his partner's arm.
"Whattt? You think this little girl can escape from here when no one has ever done so before? What is she going to do, go cry to her mommy and daddy? Oh, right. They're probably skeletons by now, hahaha!" The knight laughed hysterically.
*BANG!
Yuki punched the iron bars with her right fist, hard enough for the bars to vibrate slightly. She glared at the knights, clenching her fists so hard nail marks could be seen on her palms.
"Hey, you better stop that. You do know she disfigured a knight's face and hospitalized four other knights when the team of 12 tried to capture two children, right?" The knight with the key nudged his knight buddy.
"Holy sh*t. This little girl's fierce." The knight shuddered.
The duo walked away, chattering, their voices getting quieter and quieter until only silence remained.
Yuki was stuck in a decently sized cell with nothing but a singular thin blanket and a toilet at the corner. The ceiling was high, and one of the only sources of light was the little sunlight that could be seen through a narrow, long rectangular gap, covered with iron bars spaced evenly together. The other sources of light were from the widely spaced lanterns on the walls outside.
Indeed, escaping through the window is impossible. The only way to escape, it seems, is to somehow open this door. The iron bars were spaced so close together Yuki could only stick her arm out till her elbows, which is still a very snug fit. The walls were thick and reinforced with what seemed like smooth steel. There's no way Yuki could climb the walls either even if she wanted to reach the window because of the material the walls and floor were made of. She tried using ivrent on a pebble, but failed.
'I can't use ivrent…? What the heck, it must be this neck collar's doing. What do I do now? Yuki sighed.
She did not know where they took Xavier, nor did she know where she was, other than the fact that she was in a high security prison underneath a castle??
"Hey, you there." A boy's voice called out to Yuki.
She looked through the gaps of the iron bars, seeing the figure of a boy who seemed a few years older than Yuki, sitting on the ground crisscrossed.
"You're awesome! I never met anyone who defeated five knights before. My name's Kai. You?" Kai said everything in one go, curious as to who this ferocious new girl was.
Yuki opened her mouth, but no voice came out. After a few seconds of silence, she replied, "I don't have a name."
"Hm. That's okay, a lot of young people imprisoned here are orphans without names. How old are you? I think you're the youngest one here. She's Kaitlyn, 14, and I'm 15." Kai gestured with his thumb, pointing at the girl to the right of his cell first, then at himself.
"12," Yuki replied hesitantly.
The cells were dark despite the little sunlight creeping in through the windows and the few dimly lit lanterns. Yuki could only make out that Kai had unusually colored hair. He had cornflower blue hair that was eyelength in a fringe down, his straight hair slightly parted in the middle.
Yuki shifted her gaze towards Kaitlyn who had long, slightly wavy black hair with bangs.
"Hmm… What should we call you?" Kai pondered, his right arm resting on his left wrist, scratching his chin with his thumb and pointer finger in a daze.
"Kai, can you shut your mouth? She literally just got here. And stop talking to strangers, my gosh." Kaitlyn voiced out, sighing while shaking her head in disapproval.
"I only talk to those who're our age, okay? Nobody else is worth our attention." Kai argued before adding, "Oh, I know! Let's call you Elaine, cuz your snow white hair's bright like the sun. Nice to meet you!!" Kai greeted happily.
"...Nice to meet you." Yuki nodded.
Lowering his voice, Kai asked, "Wanna join our escape plan?"
Kaitlyn's eyebrows furrowed in frustration. "Kai! You can't just—"
"One more is fine, no? I promise I won't invite anyone else." Kai interrupted as Kaitlyn sighed a second time.
In the dimly lit prison, Kaitlyn's grim expression could not be seen by anyone.
"...Fine. Hey, you tried to use ivrent on that pebble before, didn't you? You can't. The device on your neck is an advanced tech a scientist at Luminous Tower created recently. This neck collar is used to prevent you from using ivrent by attracting all your camay in a single spot."
'Camay??' Yuki had never heard of this term before.
'How does she know so much about this device?' She questioned what Kaitlyn's background was. She seemed highly educated, so why was she here?
Kai skipped to the bars of his cell, eyes sparkling.
"Smarty pants Kaitlyn." Kai teased, causing Kaitlyn to turn her head away from him.
"Well, Elaine? Join us!" Kai offered again.
"Mhm." Yuki nodded, shaking off these thoughts.
Who cares about their origins? So what if they're friend or foe? It doesn't matter, as long as she can get out of here. Instead of taking risks alone and figuring out the layout of the prison on her own, Yuki now has the help of two others to try and somehow escape this high security prison as quickly as possible.