The prison stood alone in the dark night, a fortress of dark and drab stone against a background a barren plot, lit by the full moon.

From the not too distant tree line that lined the small road leading to the prison, they watched. From what could be seen, as far as security went the place seemed hardly manned, deserted even, from the outside.

The harsh sound of sapping twigs and crushed leaves rushed up behind Kalo in his hiding place at the edge of the clearing, Kit stumbled to a halt and crouched beside Kalo.

“How do you plan to get us in?” Kit asked in a rush of breath.

“Quietly.” He answered with a sneer. Taking a moment to ensure that Kit’s entrance to the scene had not brought any attention to their presence, Kalo slipped silently around the bush, his footsteps somehow silent on the leaf strewn ground and made his way along the tree line, until he could view the far side of the building and the guards that were patrolling the fortress’ perimeter.

 Kalo paused under a large oak tree, the nearest guards were too busy to notice the shadowy movement a long the tree line as they stood at the far corner laughing and smoking. Luck was on their side. Kalo had worried how he was going to get Kit safely into then out of the prison but if this was the level of security they were up against the odds would be better in their favor. The guards’ joyous voices would mask any noise that they made breeching the wall.

Making sure that he was well hidden with in the shadows provided by the great oak, Kalo signaled back to Kit that it was clear for him to follow. Lycia preceded the young boy to the spot where Kalo waited and took only a moment to pause by Kalo’s feet before cutting across the clearing towards the building.

The feline’s sudden dash across the yard surprised Kalo but he forced himself to remain where he was.

“Damned feline.” Kalo spoke as Kit reached him.

“Where is Lycia going?” the young boy asked in a rush of air, he took a deep breath before speaking again. “Aren’t we going to follow? What if she gets hurt?” Kit took a step forward to follow the feline but was stopped by a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t even think about.”

“She might get hurt, Kalo.”

“Damned feline.” He cursed softly under his breath as he took a quick glance around ensuring himself that the guards were still occupied at the far end of the wall. “Wait here.” He grunted to Kit before dashing out from under the shelter of the tree-- in the direction the feline had taken.

 Moonlight spilled over the prison and cast shadows along the northern side of the building, providing Kalo with sufficient coverage from those who might peer out of the few windows that dotted the wall. The shadows also made it hard for Kalo to make out Lycia’s location.

Making it to the prison’s wall he turned back, to the tree line and the place where Kit remained hidden and whistled as a night lark, signaling the young boy it was safe to follow. He waited, listening to the speedy footfalls of the boy’s boots on the parched ground and watched as he made his way over to the wall.

“Did you find her?”

“Not yet. For now, keep to my footsteps, stay alert and be quiet.” The last- he commanded in a harsh whisper to the boy.

“Keep quiet, got it.” He whispered in reply.

Even as he spoke those words, Kalo kept his senses trained and alert on their surroundings. The wind rushed through the leaves of the tress and kicked up dust from the grounds, making it hard for him to see.

 Stealth was necessary.

Kalo questioned again the wisdom in allowing the boy to accompany him here, his gangly and thin body didn’t inspire confidence that he could accomplish the stealth needed to enter the prison undetected. As the thought tried to take root in his mind he quickly dismissed it. There was no time now for doubts or reconsiderations. The boy was with him and he would just have to make sure that they all made it out alive.

 They crept slowly along the wall, of the prison; Kalo with his eyes focused low to ground hoped to make out the feline’s form in the darkness; before someone else found them first.

It was Kit who located the feline first as Lycia off in the distance before them, cried out. Her feline eyes eerie glow in the darkness drew their footsteps to where she waited by a small-barred window well hidden behind weeds and moss that grew out of the building’s foundation. The window didn’t appear large enough for person on Kalo’s breadth to comfortably make his way through but he was familiar with getting into and out of tight spaces and he would just have to make do.

Kalo had to admit he was marginally impressed by the feline’s usefulness. On his own it the window would not have been such a quick find as it was so well obscured from casual view. Feeling as though luck might just be on their side Kalo glanced down at the feline and conveyed what he hoped was a look of approval that he felt safe to show her only in the dim light. The light evidently was not as dim as he had thought. Seeing his approval, Lycia replied with a soft cry and proceeded to rub her lithe body along his legs as she purred.

Kalo cursed softly, just when I begun to think you might not be so bad, he nudged the feline away with his boot-clad foot. The sound of her purring and Kit’s stiffled glee, at the pair’s exchange, permeated the night air.

Ignoring the boy’s laughter, Kalo crouched down before the small window trying to see through the spaces created by the bars, to where the window led.

 Cloaked in shadows the room beyond the window was dark and quiet. Kalo could make out the shape of large stacks along the far wall, towering sheaths of paper uneven and leaning as well as a few equally haphazard shelves. Although they would not the sturdiest place to land, as trespassers they were unlikely to find a more viable entry point. Kalo quickly refocused his efforts to the window’s frame and began testing its hinges.         

 The old hinges squealed their release under the strain of his brute force, swinging out towards him. The opening was barely large for a full-grown man.

“Looks like I will be going in first then.” Kit decided having seen the tiny opening. He moved around Kalo’s crouched form, preparing himself to drop through.

“No, I will go.”

“How could you-“

“Never you mind that- I will manage. Wait here. I give you a signal that it is safe.”

“Kalo, I can do it, you’re too large.”

Kalo nudged the slight boy aside and studied the opening; having taken the mental measurements of the window he braced himself for an attempt. The fit was indeed tight. It had taken no small measure of tugging, shoving, squeezing and a few choice curses to pass through the window.

 Dropping down into the dark room feet first, with some of his usual grace, Kalo quickly took in the room and the shelves that lined the walls. Kalo reached into one of his many pockets and withdrew a match, which he lit on the stone floor beneath his feet.

The brief glow of the match revealed the contents of the shelves that occupied the room; rations of food, bedding and cloth. The supplies were haphazardly laid along the shelves in uneven piles along the stone walls.

Stone walls, Kalo’s mind conjured thoughts of another stone walled room, not occupied as this one was with supplies and perishable wares but of a dark haired woman with purple eyes. Dragging his mind back to the current stone room Kalo turned back to the window and signaled for Kit to follow.

Sticking his head in through the window, the boy took in the room and Kalo standing therein amongst the shelves. The question he had intended to ask, stuck in his throat as he watched Kalo, who seemed lost in his thoughts, a common occurrence these days it seemed.

A spark of devilry caught in Kit, as he adjusted his crouch to better spring into the room and hopefully surprise Kalo. The loose earth stirred and shifted beneath his feet throwing off his balance and making his spring off of the ledge, less than sure. In a fashion true to only himself, Kit tumbled in narrowly missing Lycia who had preceded the boy into the cellar, as he landed on the stone ground on his back.

 After the initial rush of air from his body upon impact, Kit let out a long groan.

“I think I am dead.”

Finding a kerosene lamp that hung from the wall near the door, Kalo struck the wick and a glow filled the room. Kalo moved to stand over the young boy and looked

“Are you sure?” he asked as his voice cracked.

 Lycia, tired of being ignored took that moment to jump onto Kit’s heaving stomach eliciting another groan from the boy, as she walked over his chest to rub her furred face along the side of his. “I don’t feel it.”

 “Take this as lesson then.”

“Aww Kalo, I was only having a bit of fun.” Kit whined as he made his way off of the floor and onto his feet.

Kalo turned back to where the boy stood, from the cellar door where he had been listening to hear any activity that might be occurring outside of the room, before he spoke with a hard voice and stern regard upon his face. “Make no mistake boy. This is no time for fun.”

Without another word, Kalo turned his back on the boy who gaped at him in mild shock and crouched by the door and eased it open. Hearing no movement in the hallway, he ducked out into the hall. The feline moved towards the doorway and threw a look of her own at the boy and to the lit lamp on the wall before following Kalo out of the room.

Kit followed behind more slowly, his back still sore from his fall from the window. He paused only briefly to extinguish the lamp, as he was instructed, before slipping out of the safety of the cellar and with a soft click he closed the door.

 It had been by luck that they had found the hallway outside of the cellar empty and blissfully low lit. The gas lamps that lined the passageway lit their way through the twists and turns of the prison’s lower level. 

Kit was sure that the steady pounding of his heart would alert others to their presence. With every brush of fabric against the walls, and each step they took along the stone floors resounded like cannons in his mind and convinced him of their discovery. This is a fool’s errand, Kit thought to himself, and he had to have been the number one fool for insisting he accompany Kalo here.

Left, then right and another left. One turn after another, they made their way in a series of pauses and rushes down the corridors. For a while, the only sound to be heard was the muted thuds of their footsteps on the stones as they searched for their quarry. As the spaces between the sconces along the wall had grown and the shadows stretched across the floor new sounds; shuffled footsteps and voices, began to reach them and slowed their pace.    

They continued onwards the sounds looming closer and closer until they were right upon it. Discovery was no longer a distant possibility but a moment’s very real threat.

Kalo, with silent gestures signaled to Kit and the feline to take within an alcove, they had passed before, as he stalked silently down the hall. With his lithe body pressed firmly along the wall, Kalo peered around the corner as a door opened across the hall and two men poured out of the light beyond.

“Damn right nasty business this is.” Spoke the first man to enter the hall, diminishing the paltry light in the hall and obscuring his face from Kalo’s sight with his massive muscular frame. The second man, smaller than the first, stepped out of the doorway and moved down the hall, his steps measured, away from the door and into the light before turning back towards the first.

“We have orders. That is all that we need to know.” He responded around a dry hacking cough.

“Ah come on Charlie,” the first man whined. “Don’t pretend this doesn’t seem unusual to you. He’s a priest for goodness sake! It just doesn’t make sense to me, putting him down there.”

“He might not even be a real priest for all you know. It is no business of ours why he is down there.” Charlie said as he turned his back on the man and continued down the hall, away from where Kalo hid, his words echoed down the hall behind him. “Now come along, he won’t be going anywhere for the night and from what I hear he won’t be with much passed the morning.” He said with a light chuckle as he walked.

“All I know is that this whole thing just doesn’t sit right with me” the burly man replied with his head downcast and his steps slow as he followed Charlie away from the door.     

Their conversation continued as the two men walked down the short hall and turned the corner out of sight, their voices fading as the distance lengthened.  Kalo waited quietly, fearing to move even a single muscle, as listened to their retreating footsteps even into silence.

Waiting only long enough to be sure that the men had not returned to the hall nor any others exit the door. Kalo turned back to the alcove where Kit and Lycia waited and waved them forward. Once they joined him at the corner, Kalo succinctly made them aware of the door and the men’s revelation of the location of the priest.

The strong light of a lamp momentarily blinded Kalo as he stepped onto the small landing beyond the door and caused shadows to dance in his vision as his eyes adjusted from the dimness of the hall.  Kalo felt along the wall to for the lamp’s switch and quickly muted the light, hoping not to alert others of his presence. Kit and the feline stepped onto the landing and firmly closed the door behind them.

“So what is the plan?” Kit asked in a whisper.

“I will go find the priest. You stay here.” Kalo answered distractedly as he looked around the landing and peered over the ledge to the stairs that lead below. “No arguments, Kit.” He continued, seeing Kit warming up for an argument. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Kit grumbled low under his breath and kicked his feet at the ground in response as Kalo quickly turned away and slowly descended the stairs and into the darkness.

Down the slippery spiral, he descended. Keeping to wall, Kalo followed the stone tresses down into the belly of the prison. The dripping of water as it hit the stone surface of the stairs echoed through the dark cavernous space as he made his way deeper.

Darkness enveloped Kalo, the light from the landing where he had left the boy no longer reached to him, so thick that he no longer could distinguish his own hands or what lay before him. With his left hand trailing along the surface of the wall to guide him, he continued. The moist and thick qualities of the air, made it hard for Kalo to draw breathe and weighed down his chest, an oppressive weight.

 Panic, set into Kalo’s mind and quickened his breath. No longer was he on the stairs but back in that dark and cold stone room. Kalo fought to fill his lungs with air as disjointed images of war and disembodied voices screaming out in pain and in anger flitted through his mind.

The hard impact of his head against the wall snapped Kalo’s mind back into the present. For once he was glad for the damp stone rolling his forehead on along its coolness. The rough crevices of the stone pressed into his heated skin, grounding him and settling.

Kalo did not dare to even take the time to consider the reason for the episode. It had been so unlike the others in that instead of seeing the woman, he himself had been in the room. The feeling of desolation and confinement had stolen the very breath from his body. Kalo forced the thoughts to the back of his mind. Now was not the time to fixate on what he was coming to believe more and more with each episode, was madness.

Kalo took in a few deep breaths, before lifting his head away from the wall and on shaking legs, stepped off of the tress and set off once again down the stairs.

 Rounding another bend, his mind half convinced that this was a suicide mission and filled with worry for the young boy on the landing above while other half certain that all of his questions would be answered if he just get going. It was an argument he had with himself before but it was as if there was a force, outside of himself deciding his steps forward towards some unknown end.

So he continued on the downward spiral, Kalo espied a faint glow he had not noticed before grew. The sight of the light quickened his steps, until he stood before a door. At the bottom of the stairs Kalo had expected to find the light source that led him here but he could detect no such source. The darkness of landing was only broken by a few strands of moonlight that fought its way down into the pit from slots cut into the stone walls.

Kalo reached out and tried the handle of the door before him. The touch of the cold metal against his skin was biting, the handle equally unforgiving as he pulled.

A low groan broke out in the silence from behind the door and Kalo froze, his hand gripping the handle, listening.     

The sound came again this time a louder. Kalo quickly inspected the door taking in the intricate lock below the handle. Kneeling before the door, Kalo rummaged in one of the many pockets of his coat; withdrawing a bundle of wire pins. Securing three of the pins between his lips, Kalo returned the others into the pocket.

What little light was available on the landing would make working on the lock difficult but Kalo braced two of the pins in the lock and with the third into the mechanism. With one ear listening for footsteps on the stairs and the other focused on sounds from beyond the door, Kalo worked.

  The cold air was biting, causing Kalo to drop the pins several times and curse under his breath in frustration. Refocusing from the last dropping incident, Kalo blew out a rush of air as he attempted the lock once again. The soft scrape of the pins within the lock’s mechanism was barely noticeable above the dull thudding of Kalo’s heart in his ears.

And then, finally.

Click.

 He heard it.           

 Kalo stifled the exclamation of relief making its way out of his mouth and pulled slightly at the handle. Kalo was assaulted by the foul stench of blood and waste wafted out of the crack in the doorway and was closing the door when a voice reached to him from the dark stink.

“No more” the slurred voice spoke little more than a whisper but in the silence Kalo jerked back the door and peered in. A deep darkness met his gaze and a deafening roar met his ears. Kalo rushed into the dark room stumbling over the debris littering the floor and scrambled his way towards the voice and slammed his hand over the noisemaker’s mouth. The voice escalated at the feel of his hand. Feeling the masculine shape and torn skin of the man’s mouth, Kalo understood the reason for his increase in volume. Are you trying to get us both killed? Kalo made a quick decision and braced his free hand behind the man’s head keeping his other firmly over his mouth and sharply shook the man.

“Priest!” Kalo spoke in a harsh whisper breaking through the muffled moans of the man. “I mean you no harm.” At this the Priest quieted, Kalo quickly continued, “I have to speak with you and that would be better accomplished if you didn’t scream; maybe we could be a help to one another. Nod if you understand me Priest.”

Once Kalo was satisfied that they had reached some sort of agreement marked by the nod of the Priest’s head, he lifted his hands away from the Priest’s head and turned away to search the floors for something to use for light.

“Who are you?” the Priest asked Kalo’s back.

Ignoring the Priest’s question, Kalo continued to rummage along the floor. His efforts were rewarded when his hand brushed against the smooth surface of what he believe was a torch handle, tearing a bit of the fabric hanging off of his body. Kalo wrapped the torn fabric around the handle. With a soft click of his lighter Kalo touched the flame to the cloth, igniting the fabric and basking the cell with the warm glow of the light, before answering the Priest. “Who I am does not matter and yet, I believe you have answers for me.”

Holding the lit torch before him, Kalo turned to face the Priest.  

“It is you.” The Priest whispered after a gasp of air, barely audible in the silence of the cell. “I recognized you at once when I saw you in the square earlier.” He continued sounding oddly smug for an old man in chains.

“So you were expecting me?” Kalo asked.

“No, not expecting but waiting, watching, and praying.”

“They mean to put you to death, Priest.”

A low chuckle escaped the Priest followed by coughing and finished with a sigh, Kalo watched as the light of the flames danced over the old man. “Is your faith so great then, you do not even fear dying?”

“Those who wish for my death believe that by silencing me they can change their future, forestall the inevitable.”

“What is this inevitable?”

“It is the end of the reign of terror that has ruled over Mirthza. Ancient powers have been awoken and retribution will have to be paid.”

“What does any of that mean? There is no time for your riddles and prophetic ramblings—‘

“They are not ramblings, Kalo--”

“I never told you my name.” Kalo interrupted suddenly on alert. The Priest continued his tirade as though he had never spoken.

“The free world is at stake and more than my life will be sacrificed before this fight is over. The reign of the silver queen must come to its end if there is to be any hope for any of us. You my young warrior, have your part to play in this as well.”

“Part? I want no part in this fight that you speak of. Do not mistake my presence here as any more than a mere curiosity. I have my own mission, if you would, and I will not fight against a face-less enemy again.”

“There is no avoiding it, I fear. It was more than curiosity that brought you here and will take more than your brawn to see you through to the end.” The Priest paused for a moment his attention drawn to a faint taping outside of the cell. “Our time it seems has come to an end. Go now.”

Kalo turned towards the door as the sound drew nearer before turning back to the priest. “I still have questions.”

“No time for questions now.” The Priest responded as he reached his hand behind his neck and slipped a leather band with a medallion threaded through over his head and presented it to Kalo. “Take this to the Hermit of Amsley, he will be able to help you on your journey.”

“I want no part in this.”

“You never had a choice. Go now and may the good grace of Izeha guide you.”             

 Kalo quickly took the medallion from the Priest’s outstretched hand and looped it around his neck. The feel of the Priest’s frail hand on his cheek, stopped Kalo’s breath. He turned up his face to look up at the Priest and his searching gaze.

“You have seen her.”

“Who?”

“She has been waiting. You must find her; she is the only one who can save us.”

 A faint meow sounded outside of the door and the distant sound of boots on the stairs could be heard. Time was really up. Kalo quickly snuffed the light of the torch and silently eased out of the door. Through the fading light within the cell the Priest eyes connected with Kalo’s before the door solidly shut between them. A gentle tug at the door’s handle ensured that the lock had re-engaged before Kalo turned his back on the priest for the final time.

He knew, with a certainty, that he would never see the priest again and that he would take the image of the broken man with him for the rest of his life; as he carried the images of his fallen comrades, from the war, and his home burnt to the ground and the ashes that remained of all that he loved.

With one foot on the bottom tread of the stone stairs that had lead him to the cell; Kalo forced the images to the back of his mind along with his conversation with the priest, for safe keeping until he had an opportunity to understand what it all meant.

 All that mattered, now, was getting out of the prison before they were discovered. After that there would be time to consider the rest.