The shackles crashed against the brick floor, loud enough to wake a man lost in drunken stupor, but the sleeping guard did not rise. Elizabeth snored like a beast. Alek stepped out of his chains. He rubbed his wrists and stretched his back. It cracked loudly, multiple times in quick succession and he let out a deep sigh. He was free. The gate was open and with Elizabeth taken care of, no one could stand in his way.

  Charlotte, I will keep my promise.

  Alek made for the door, but the doctor said, ‘Don’t run off now.’ The old man was in his lab coat, hunched over Elizabeth with a golden-green light burning between them. It filled his thin, white hair. Alek was tempted to disregard what he said and make a run for it. His bare feet padding on the cold floor were itching to run, to warp, but he remained. If he was being honest, Alek did not know who was outside of the dungeon, or even around the next corner. Listening to someone who had unlocked his shackles did not sound like the worst idea. He just wished the doctor would leave her already.

  ‘Why did you do it?’ Alek asked.

  The doctor didn’t answer, he just kept healing.

  ‘Do you have a plan?’ Alek asked, to which he still received no response. ‘Because, I am not sure what you were thinking, but I doubt it will work for me. I am not planning to run out and escape this city then hide in a forest or swamp for the next sixty miserable years of my life. Most likely I will die tonight.’

  The doctor stood up with a groan. Elizabeth looked as good as new. ‘Why would you say that?’ The doctor asked. ‘Don’t you need to find your sister?’

  ‘There is a… plate inside this cathedral,’ Alek said, looking up at the black bricks that had kept him down here so long. ‘If I stand on the plate of Bael, I will know what I need to do next. If Charlotte is in Purgatory, then it will tell me where she is and I will find her. If the plate cannot find her, then the demon was telling the truth and she is in Hell.’ Alek left the last part unsaid. If she were in Hell, he would still go find her. He would have to go to Hell eventually anyway, to rescue his Mother who was definitely there.

  She is not your mother, Saleos growled in his ear.

  Alek smiled because if Saleos was upset, then he knew he was doing something correct. He was moving again. However, on the inside, he was still worried. What if she really was in Hell, like the demon said? Would I be able to defeat Saleos? Alek couldn't imagine it happening, at every turn he had pushed him down. At every meeting he had made Alek grovel.

  ‘There will be more guards by the apostle-plate - if that is what you are referring to.’

  ‘That won't be a problem now that the chains are off.’

  ‘They will be fully fledged knights. There are many of them and only one of you.’

  Alek reached down towards Elizabeth’s sword. ‘I can handle them.’

  ‘Wait,’ the doctor said and Alek stopped short of grabbing the hilt. ‘Are you serious about this? You have a chance to escape, wait, train, live.’

  Alek met his eyes and in them he saw a new man. The doctor was drunk, but he didn’t seem like his usual cowardice self. He looked like a man facing tomorrow.

  ‘Alright then,’ Christopher said and he sighed. He put a hand to his head and the golden-green light streamed into himself. ‘If that’s the case, then you won’t be alone.’

  ‘What will you be able to do? You’re just an old doctor.’

  Christopher smiled. ‘An old doctor who freed you while he’s piss drunk. Imagine what he can do now that he’s sobering up.’

  * * * *

  Christopher stopped Alek from taking Elizabeth’s sword. Alek thought it would be fine, it's not like she would need it anyway, but Christopher said it was wrong to take from someone who had shown you kindness. He also said he knew where a better weapon was. As they walked through the dungeon, Alek realised Christopher really was telling the truth about taking out the guards. Not a single one remained standing. Red bodies lined the floor.

  Soon they reached the first batch of prisoners. The majority of cells around where Alek was kept were empty as if he had a virus being quarantined. At first Alek thought this one was empty too, but when Christopher stopped by its gate and started fiddling with his ring of keys he looked deeper. Cowering in the shadows were creatures of fear and misery.

  ‘Hey, what are you doing? We have to go,’ Alek said.

  ‘Have some sympathy,’ Christopher said, still trying to unlock the gate. ‘Many of them have been down here for longer than you. Only God knows how long, I think even the jailers have forgotten.’

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  ‘They are in jail, you don’t even know what crimes they committed.’

  ‘And did the Church imprison you on fair charges?’ he asked, to which Alek could not answer. Christopher flicked over to a new key. There must have been a hundred of them. ‘I’m not leaving without every single person in the dungeon behind me. I’m tired of turning a blind eye. You can leave now, but I would advise you to stay, I have a plan to get you onto that plate.’

  Alek knew in his heart the doctor wasn’t wrong, but he was taking too long.

  ‘Stand back,’ Alek said.

  ‘I said-’ Christopher tried to protest, but Alek cut in.

  ‘Stand back!’

  The doctor with wide eyes stepped back and Alek felt his lifespan course through his veins. There was a faster way to open that gate. Boosting his legs, he launched into a fly kick. His bare foot collided with the metal lock and it cracked in half. He also felt his bone snap. FUCK. Alek’s face twisted in pain. Boosting his foot strengthens it from the inside, without it his foot would likely be nothing but paste yet kicking steel still hurts like a- I need to learn how to coat already. If he could coat his body, he bet he would hardly feel it.

  ‘Great work,’ Christopher said, rushing into the cell.

  * * * *

  By the time they reached the stairwell up to the first floor, there was an entire flock shuffling behind them. This dungeon looked so similar to underneath T’karamatu that Alek was surprised to find no barrier between the floors. Alek was glad to find this though as he had no idea how they would get through the half-hundred sheep behind. They were sullen with concave cheeks and bulging eyes that never stopped moving. In contrast their mouths were perfectly still. Alek hadn’t heard a peep from them. Not when he went into their cells, trying to encourage them out. Alek had to basically drag one of them, who was terribly light, before the others followed. After four different groups had been liberated and Alek took the first step up the stairs, one spoke up.

  ‘I don’t think we should go,’ he said in a meek voice. Before he could finish, a hundred shushing sounds whistled around him, urgently. Heads swivelled to the red guards lying on the floor, as if they could rise at any moment.

  ‘We have to go,’ Christopher said. ‘This is the only way to freedom.’

  The one prisoner who showed an ounce of bravery before, slinked back into the herd while shaking his head, hiding in anonymity.

  ‘If we are good,’ another voice piped up, this time a girl’s, ‘they are nice to us. We should just stay here and be good.’

  This was received with vigorous, short nods and just as many hushes.

  Alek pulled the doctor’s ear down to whisper where the prisoners wouldn’t be able to hear. ‘Maybe we should just leave them,’ he said, ‘if that is what they want.’

  Christopher scoffed. ‘It is not what they want. They have just been conditioned with fear until their minds stopped working correctly.’

  ‘Is that something you can fix with your healing magic?’

  ‘Ha. No.’

  ‘Then what are we going to do?’ Alek looked at them and they just stood there, watching them with their too large eyes and sunken cheeks. Wilting hair and sickly, yellow skin.

  Christopher frowned then stood up, facing them. He backed up onto the stairs so that he overlooked them and cleared his throat. ‘You would have all seen me,’ he said. They responded. “The doctor,” murmured over and over like a whispering tidal wave. ‘Right,’ Christopher said. ‘Well I have seen you too. Most of you have been here so long that whoever imprisoned you has likely forgotten you were ever here. The Crimson Clergy are mindless drones that do not remember faces. If you leave now, no one will miss you. If you don’t leave now, you will never have another chance.’

  ‘Where will we go?’ one asked.

  Christopher faltered. ‘I don’t know.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. If I am being honest, it is not much better above. People are dying in the streets and instead of helping them, others push them to the side. Lifespan is scarce and the poor age quickly. I am surprised to find many of you to be young, with your lifespan not stolen.’ Christopher drifted off, sounding less sure of himself with every word. The gaggle too, looked down at their feet. ‘But! But, above are two things you won’t find down here. The first is opportunity. Like I said, there is not much, it is grim, but there is a chance up there. If you work hard and pay forward this kindness you could still repent. The second is so simple it’s sweet. Fresh air – And sunshine too.’ Christopher took a long breath as if to emphasise his point. ‘This air is stale, nasty. Above is crisp. Can any of you even remember fresh air? The smell of it? The taste of it on your tongue?’

  ‘Air doesn’t taste of anything,’ one said.

  The doctor smiled. ‘Tell me that after you have had a breath. I think you will change your mind.’

  ‘I want to feel the sun again,’ another squeeked.

  This seemed to change the look of some. There was hope in their eyes. Christopher took his chance and turned his back on them, marching upstairs. Alek followed him and wondered if they would follow, but he didn’t have to wonder for long. First came hesitant footsteps, then many padding feet then someone sprinted straight past them. Alek was jostled side to side as they sprinted ahead for the surface, for freedom, for fresh air. The last to pass was an older man. Only he looked back with a weary smile and said, ‘thank you,’ before returning to his trot.

  Alek and Christopher continued through the dungeon until they came to its exit. By this point, not a single escapee was in view. Here was another red guard and a knight in steel armour laying on the floor.

  ‘Roll her over,’ Christopher said, pointing to the knight.

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘Just do it,’ he said. ‘You will find something interesting on her belt.’

  Alek did as he said and there he found a curved dagger with a green hilt.

  ‘I believe that belongs to you.’