Being imprisoned wasn’t how she originally intended spending her Friday night, if it was still even Friday she had no idea, getting knocked out cold always messed with your sense of time. She would rather be relaxing at home after a long week of exams, but here she was bruised, bloody and extremely thirsty.

“Should have listened to him. God, I hate it when he’s right” she grumbled.

Her body ached as she repositioned herself to a comfier position, which despite her efforts was still very uncomfortable. Her hair a dark brown colour, now mixed with blood and dirt, had fallen in her face but she could still just about see her surroundings. Chains anchored her down to the stone tiled floor, only visible due to the dim blue glow of the sigils carved into the tiles around her. ‘Mana suppressers, damn’ she thought. They were going to be a pain to deal with, her brother had taught her how, but it wasn’t easy, and she also wasn’t very good at it. Her eyes finally began to adjust to the darkness, and she examined the room. It was dull and dingy, the surfaces a crumbling grey stone, across from her were a small set of stone steps leading up to a wooden door. She lay back against the wall contemplating her situation only to have her thoughts interrupted by shuffling to her right. Her heart jumped and she quickly spun her head. Beside her sat a girl, her body dirty and bruised.

“Hello” she said, her heart thumping against her chest. How did she not notice her. The girl didn’t respond, didn’t even move, she only stared at her with dead, hopeless eyes coloured a ruby red. The girl had pure white hair smothered in dust and dirt and was dressed in blood-stained rags. After calming down she relaxed again laying back against the cold

wall, the girls eyes following her. ‘White hair, Ruby eyes, she looks to be around the right age’ she thought to herself, a small smile then grew on her face. She’d found her.

“My names Lucina Athra, do you speak Elysian?” Lucina asked, the child remained silent for a while before finally nodding.

“Do you have a name?”

“……. Eri” a meek voice eventually left the girl.

“It’s going to be alright Eri, I’m going to get us out of here” Lucina stated with the gentle smile. The girl’s eyes remained hopeless, her gaze lowering to the chains restraining Lucina’s body.

“Alright, I didn’t say it would be easy” Lucina defended herself “Plus if I’m lucky people will be looking for us. Although they’re going to be very pissed off at me”. Eri just stared at her, slight confusion in her eyes.

“My brother will come find us”.

“……Your brother?”.

“Yeah, he’ll come to save us we just need to wait a little longer” Lucina stated confidently.

“………”

“Well to bide the time why don’t we talk a little?” Lucina asked the girl, who just looked up and nodded.

“Do you know how old you are?” Lucina asked while shuffling closer to her.

“…. 9”.

“9 really you look a lot younger”.

“…. Birthday” Eri said quietly.

“What sorry?”

“…. My birthday …. Today”.

Lucina’s eyes widened. “Well then, Happy Birthday Eri” she exclaimed to the girl with a broad smile, to which was met with confused eyes.

“…Happy Birthday?”

“Yeah, it’s what you say to someone on their birthday”.

“…Why?”

“Why … to be honest I don’t really know, you sort of just say it to people on their birthday”.

“… thanks” Eri stated quietly a slight smile on her face.

“You’re welcome” Lucina smiled and then leaned back against the wall again, Eri copying her. She closed her eyes and began concentrating on her mana suppression prison seeing if it was possible to overpower the sigils. It felt as if her mana core was being chained up and not a single bit of mana could escape and flow around her body. Sweat began rolling down her face as she continued to attempt to force mana from her core and circulate it around her body, it felt like trying to run through a brick wall. She suddenly snapped from her trance when she felt a tap on her leg. She opened her eyes to see Eri staring up her, with worry filled eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Lucina asked.

“… are you okay?”.

“Yeah, I’m fine I was just seeing if I could break the sigils” Lucina informed her but was just met with a baffled expression.

“See these glowing things around me well there they are stopping me from using magic, but it’s possible to overpower them” Lucina informed her. Eri remaining confused leaned over and touched the sigil closest to her, upon contact a translucent dome of pure energy surrounding Lucina shown itself, glowing the same blue as the sigil. Eri pulled away her hand and the dome vanished; it was only then that Lucina noticed Eri wasn’t restrained in any way.

“.. can I help?” Eri asked meekly.

“… Erm maybe if you can destroy one of the sigils somehow” Lucina stated, “it’ll weaken the barrier. But don’t worry about it you look hurt, so I don’t want you moving around much”. Despite Lucina’s worries Eri grabbed onto the wall and stood up straight. She then wandered around the room scanning the floor, eventually picking up a rock off the floor in the far corner. She returned to Lucina’s side and started scraping and striking away at the sigil her eyes filled with determination, which Lucina strangely found inspiring. Lucina began attempting to overpower the barrier by trying to gather and circulate any mana she could. This continued for about three minutes however their efforts were cut short, as the door creaked open.

“Quickly get behind me” Lucina whispered to Eri while shuffling to guard her as much as she could. The door to the basement slammed into the wall and a huge figure began walking down the steps. As it got closer, she could see it was a tall man cladded in familiar black armour, she gave a loathful glare at the man who had imprisoned her. In his hands was a plate of food and cup of water. He approached them and crouched down placing the items down in front of Lucina.

“You are awake good” His voice was gruff, and he had an accent she didn’t recognise “who you are?”.

“Lucina” she responded. She could feel Eri tightly grip her shirt, the girls hand trembling.

“How old are you?” he asked.

“14”.

“I have got to say you are quite skilled for a teenager, taking out 13 mercenaries by yourself”.

“I don’t want to be the breaker of bad news, but they weren’t very good” She stated glaring.

“They were only hired because they know the area, if they were my soldiers, you would not still be breathing” he provoked.

“How about once I break out of these chains, we go a second round then? See if I really can’t handle your men” she challenged.

“If you get out sure” he scoffed while looking at her condition. Standing up he looked behind her seeing Eri cling to her back.

“Do not worry girl you will not be harmed any longer now I am here. Besides you will not be here much longer” he informed her.

“Where are you taking her?” Lucina asked.

“None of your concern” he responded while walking away.

“Why am I still alive?” Lucina asked as he reached the top of the stairs.

“Someone is willing to pay a lot of money for you” he stated calmly while exiting the basement. ‘Someone wants to buy me’ she thought baffled. After the door closed Eri’s grip loosened and eventually she let go of Lucina’s shirt, she shuffled to Lucina’s side at sat next to her in silence. Without saying a word, she went back to attacking the sigil.

A couple minutes past and the rooms silence were disturbed by the loud growl of a stomach, Lucina stared at Eri who had stopped working was staring at the ground with red cheeks.

“Have some food” Lucina stated chuckling at the girl’s reaction. Observing the girl, Lucina only just noticed how skinny she was, completely skin and bone. Eri looked up at her with the rock in her hand, but Lucina just gestured to the food and water. She sat down in front of Lucina by the food and began eating some of the meat off the plate and drinking some water, however she then stopped and faced Lucina.

“.. Do you want any?” she asked.

“Could I have some water please?” Lucina asked with a smile, only then remembering how dry her throat was. Eri raised the cup to Lucina’s mouth allowing her to drink some water.

“Thanks” Lucina thanked Eri who responded with a small smile before placing the cup back down and going back to eating. Feeling restored, Lucina once again attempted to once break the sigil, she closed her eyes and controlled her breathing. She concentrated on her supressed core attempting to circulate mana from her core and around her body. She began to feel something, it was faint, but she could feel her mana leaking from her core, ‘must be due to the barrier being weakened’ she thought.

“Eri, could you keep trying to destroy that sigil?” Lucina asked, her eyes still closed as she maintained her concentration. She could hear Eri return to her side and begin attempting to destroy the sigil. Lucina could feel the suppression on her mana core growing slightly weaker each time Eri struck the sigil. She kept trying to circulate her mana however it still seemed to be till no avail. She’d always been terrible at this no matter how hard she trained, but her brother always told her if the time came, he believed she’d be able to do it. That belief is the only that kept her going. Time passed and sweat accumulated on both of their faces; Lucina was just about to tell Eri to take a break before she faints but then she felt a change. Small amounts of mana began to circulate around her. A grin formed on her face and heart began to race.

“Eri it’s alright now, you can stop” she stated, her grin not fading. Eri instantly dropped the rock, grabbed the cup of water, and lay back in exhaustion. Lucina began to circulate her mana and as the seconds past the amount of mana flowing around her body increased. A minute passed and the barrier began trembling, Lucina ignored everything around her, from the grinding of her teeth to the sound of their breathing, to the musty smell surrounding them, focusing only on the amount of mana escaping her imprisoned core. The amount of mana leaking from her core continued to increase as the restraints weakened like a damn cracking due to the water overflowing. Suddenly the spell broke and her core was released, the sigils turned dull, and barrier shattered, the sound of glass shattering echoed around the room.

“I hope they didn’t hear that” Lucina grinned at Eri, they remained quiet for a few moments and after there was no indication someone was coming down into the basement they both relaxed against the wall.

“Alright, now I’ve got my mana back let me recover for a bit and we’ll get out of here” Lucina told Eri cheerfully.

“.. We’re going to leave?” Eri asked hope in her eyes for the first time.

“Yeah”.