I bit my lip and avoided his eyes, shaking my head. “It’s nothing.”

As expected, this only sent Idris even more on alert. He frowned and shifted so he could look at me head on. I focused on my plate, poking my egg yolks so they flooded all over the plate.

“Don’t lie to me. Tell me what’s wrong,” he insisted. I peeked at him from under my lashes for a moment then quickly looked away.

“I just…I’m really worried about my kids. After all, we don’t know if that deer was sent specifically after me. Peace and Wisdom were in the garden with me too. What if it was after one of them?”

I didn’t believe that at all, of course. The lichen deer had looked directly at me when it said ‘found you’ and of the three of us, I was by far the most annoying, so I was the most likely target. Peace and Wisdom didn’t really go around making enemies.

Me, on the other hand? All I really had to do was breathe and some fucker was upset about it.

But Idris hadn’t been there when the deer showed up, so he couldn’t possibly know that it came gunning straight for me.

…Unless Peace or Wisdom had told him that.

Well, I had to try either way.

Idris frowned contemplatively, and a seed of hope blossomed in my chest. He was thinking about it, which meant there was a possibility that –

“I find it hard to believe that Peace or Wisdom would have enemies with enough hatred to create such a monster and send it after them,” Idris said slowly, “And besides, Gabriel and Samir are watching them. They’re perfectly fine. Now, please, finish your breakfast. I’ll be gone for a bit longer today, but I’ll stop in around one to bring you some lunch.”

“…”

Fucking…

Okay. So onto attempt number three: getting a message outside. If I couldn’t manipulate Idris into letting me out, then I had no choice but to get help from someone else. The only question was how.

While Idris was gone that day, I carefully examined the barriers on the doors and window. I tried shouting as loud as I could, because my first day of being trapped, I’d called out to Idris and he came running, which meant the barrier didn’t soundproof this room. He might, however, have set up a soundproof barrier around the apartment as a whole, but people came in and out of our rooms all the time. On the off chance that someone had decided to loiter in our living room, I yelled for help, but there was no response.

Although, in hindsight, that was kind of silly. Why would Idris allow someone who could possibly save me into the apartment to hear me calling for help? No, he probably put another locking barrier around the whole apartment and gave them some excuse about me needing solitude to recover.

But that excuse wouldn’t work for him forever. Sooner or later, someone would become curious about my lengthy disappearance and would try to break in to find me. So, in the worst-case scenario, I probably just had to wait for help to come to me.

But I didn’t want to wait. Every nerve in my body screamed with the urge to escape. I’d only been in here a couple days, but I felt the way mental patients in an insane asylum must feel. Idris was probably going to have to get me a straitjacket if this went on much longer.

If yelling didn’t work, then my only other option to get help was to contact someone magically. The issue was, once again, the barrier. It dampened my magic, made it harder to access. And who would I contact that would be able to get in without arousing suspicion? Peace and Wisdom were both being closely watched. It would be difficult for them to get to me.

…There was one person who might be able to get around Idris.

I scrambled for some paper and a pen, finding some stationary in a box in the closet. I quickly scribbled out a note, folded it, and closed it in my palm, focusing all the energy I could muster into teleporting the note out of the barrier.

I could feel the barrier’s energy fighting me, pushing against my consciousness like steel bands wrapped around my brain, but I pushed back harder. All that extra power from the love god worshippers had to be worth something. Come on…

Finally, there was a small ‘pop’ and the note disappeared from my hand. At the same moment, there was a sharp pain behind my eyes, and something warm dripped from my nose. I touched it and my fingers came away red. It was annoying, but the relief I felt far outweighed any discomfort. A bloody nose was worth my freedom.

I quickly went to clean up before Idris could return, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Two days passed of just waiting, and I was getting antsy again. So much time had passed that I had no choice but to assume my note hadn’t made it out after all, or the recipient simply couldn’t get past Idris.

Which left me to take things into my own hands once again.

Gods, this was a headache.

And that was how I found myself crouching by the bathroom door, waiting for Idris to go in there to take his morning shit.

One thing that had always been consistent about Idris was his digestive system. The man took a shit at the same time every fucking day. But I’d figured out something interesting yesterday when I burst in to chew him out for the nth time while he was on the toilet.

When Idris woke up every morning, he first went out to the kitchen to start breakfast. Then, during that process, he would inevitably have to go number two, and would quietly come down the hallway, undo the spell on the bathroom door out there, do his business, and go back out the same way he’d come in.

Yesterday, I heard him go into the bathroom, and because I was more annoyed and more on edge with every moment I spent trapped in here, I decided to be a pain in his ass and yell at him while he was captive on the toilet.

He was used to me doing this, and often intruded on me while I was doing my business, so there wasn’t really any shame involved anymore. He just rolled his eyes as I scolded him, but out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the blue barrier on the outer bathroom door was gone.

And that’s how I learned that when Idris took his morning shit, because it didn’t take him very long to do so, he left the spell on the bathroom door undone.

So, my plan was obvious. Wait until he went to take a shit, race out the bathroom door while he was stuck on the toilet.

It was sad and pathetic that I’d been driven to this point, but I had no other options. I couldn’t wait to be rescued. Idris must have given everyone some other, better excuse that kept them from breaking in to get me.

So I waited. My legs were starting to cramp up from the awkward position, but I couldn’t risk missing him.

Finally, there was a small ‘schick’ as the outer bathroom door unlatched. Yes.

I waited two more minutes patiently, hearing the slight rustle of his clothes as he got situated and…now!

I burst up and threw the inner bathroom door open, not even pausing to taunt him as I scrambled for the other door which was, blissfully, without the barrier. I flung it open and dashed down the hallway, ignoring the outraged “Rook!” from behind me.

Haha, fucker!

I was going so fast that I couldn’t slow down properly once I got to the main door of the apartment, slamming into it at full force. I grunted, but didn’t hesitate to grab the knob and pull.

Except, the moment I touched the doorknob there was a low hissing sound, and then a sharp pop. I felt like I’d just thrust my hand into a basket of electric eels in one moment, and then next I was sent flying across the room, slamming into the wall by the balcony.

Fuck, he’d enchanted that door too. Desperate, I shook off the lingering electricity in my body and dove for the balcony. Please, please…

“Rook!”

Fuck.

I tugged on the balcony door desperately, insanely relieved when there was no shock, and the door swung open. I didn’t even stop to think before diving for the railing.

It would be fine. Sure, it was a seven-story drop, but I’d survive. As long as I could get out of the palace, I could teleport, no matter how injured I was.

But I was too late. Hands cinched tight around my waist before I could take a swan dive over the balcony, roughly pulling me to the ground. We both landed with a grunt, and I struggled immediately. Freedom was so close! I could taste it. The fresh air from the balcony washed over me, the sweet scent of flowers and fresh baked goods wafting up from Esen. Birds chirped in the trees. The wind rustled the leaves and whistled over the eaves.

But it didn’t matter.

Regardless of how much more worship I was getting, regardless of how much more powerful I was magically, the barrier restricting my magic was over the whole apartment, and so our fight was limited to physical strength only. And Idris, unfortunately, was stronger than me.

I scratched at him, I bit him. He took it all with a dark expression, not daring to hit me back, but still keeping me tightly restrained in his arms.

Something broke within me. Idris had wrangled us around so that he was on top, pressing me to the ground with his weight.

“Please,” I said desperately, and it almost sounded like a sob. Idris’s lips pursed. He was silent so long that I dared to hope, for just a moment, that I had gotten through to him.

I shouldn’t have.

He closed his eyes briefly, but when he opened them, the darkness was still there, slowly crushing the light piece by piece.

“I’m sorry, Rook.”