CW ableism

It has been four days since I last saw my daughter

The only way I was able to tell the time apart was the small window through which I saw the different colors of the sky.

The look on my daughter’s face every time she was it change made me happy. Was she watching the sky with someone else or all alone? Did someone else adopt her or was she in the streets frozen.

I yelled her name over and over. Begged to see her, for her to be in my arms again, for her to be safe.

Yet they ignored me.

When they inspected me they took away my cane. Even if I did use the seeds that they didn’t find, it’d be useless.

I didn’t want to be in prison for property damage too. To have kept her safe was enough.

When will Alice die again? In two, maybe three days?

It didn’t matter.

A set of footsteps was stuck to my ears. Someone came to bring me food. I knew I was no rebel, no fighter, no knight. I was just a father who failed to protect the one person that mattered.

Still, a shout grew within me. One that wanted to spit on the faces of the pathetic boot lickers. Who thought they had any resemblance to knights. To have stopped the emperor before he killed three people in front of my daughter. A shout that wanted to still believe in Alice.

Someone came to bring me food. Or so I thought.

The slow pair of footsteps had transformed into a giant mesh of noise. I heard various people falling, screaming and cheering all at once.

A woman opened my door.

“I’m Marina. This yours?”

I didn’t know how, but a young woman led an entire escape.

“It is.” Cass’s name was on it, “Thank you-” 

”Hop along.”

A giant wave turned into ice grabbed my thin waist.

Alongside many other prisoners, I saw several if not dozens of soldiers knocked out on the ground.

Did she do this all on her own?

Further away I found the main entrance stuck frozen. The ice melted and she noticed.

One by one were were dropped to the ground. She made sure none of us got hurt. She even approached me. Gave me a towel to dry my clothes.

With her foot she tapped the ground five times in a strange rhythm and stairs appeared below us.

“Anyone who can walk go ahead. I’ll help those who can’t.”

I seemed to be a part of a majority for once.

Several prisoners-well, ex-prisoners, were one way or the other disabled like me.

Were they arrested because of that or did the boot lickers do this to them.

It must have been both.

-

When we landed off the airship. I noticed various other women that tended over still injured escapees.

They were all wearing maid uniforms. Most of which was dirty or torn in different sections. Some more revealing than others.

Several of us cried and thanked these maids. They in return kept helping us. They informed us of our families and tended to recent injuries.

It didn’t matter who were or what we had done. We were still treated as living beings. Beings that mattered. She wasn’t one here.

I found a tree and sat down and one particular person decided to check on me.

She offered me various nuts.

I had to control my saliva inside my mouth when I grabbed them. Even in situations like these I knew I had to behave.

“You were the one who she stayed with, right?”

She wasn’t angry or scared, her body was as still as the tree behind me.

“Guilty as charged.” I let out my hands in the air

“Funny.” she didn’t laugh.

“So was the fact that you left her behind.” ”Was it that easy to notice?”

“We lived together for a while, it’d be weirder if it wasn’t”

“...Did you know-”

“That she murdered him. Yes. But far too late. You?”

“The day she did it?”

“So you helped her despite that?”

She grabbed a knife and started to peel and apple. Her eyes away from mine.

“I only realized it after I helped her.”

“Did she tell you...”

“No, you?”

We were silent. She gave me the apple and began to peel another one.

“I found out after the guards saw her use her magic. That was when I connected the dots. You?”

“I guessed the moment the first execution was announced.”

“You wish she told you instead?”

“How was someone supposed to say that. Hello person who helped me? Did you know I killed a man?”

A sad laugh left my mouth.

“I wonder what everyone here did to get there?” I told her, “Were they just in the way or did they commit crimes we cannot imagine?”

“I don’t know, but either way they don’t deserve this?”

“Prison time?”

“Tell me. If the concept of prisons were actually helpful. That keeping people who do wrong things trapped in terrible conditions. That for the rest of their lives they're nothing but punished. How come there’s still so much crime around us?”

“Good point,” I took a bite and swallowed, “And is Alice an exception to your mindset?”

She crossed her arms. Tugged away at her black clothing.

“She’s currently the most watched out for person within the cells. If I even tried I’d get dozens of them killed.”

Her eyes softened at the different ways the maids were able to help the escapees.

She turned around, “I just need to wait for the right time.”

“And what if that time never comes. What will you do then-?”

The earth destroyed whatever else we tried to say.

Gray vines made of some liquid that I’ve seen around beasts tied me to a tree.

Same went with everyone else.

No one was able to move a muscle.

“Here they are.”

A young woman in armor lead an entire league of mages who controlled this strange substance.

“Crap.” I spread out my seeds and my vines managed to grow just large enough to stop any damage.

I hoped Marina tried to do something similar, but she was shaking. Her hands weren’t able to hold her small knife. Several time it fell as she tried to grip it.

I grabbed my cane and reached out, “Hey-”

“Guards!”

A feminine voice crushed my ears. Soldiers came and spit out their swords against the mages.

 Many of which protected which I believed to be insane for they were all kingdom guards.

Marina came to her senses when a woman with strawberry blonde hair touched us.

“You’re welcome.” the future empress smiled.

-

ooooooh. Also big announcement! From this point on we'll have a weekly release schedule as a celebration for reaching the finale of volume 1! Is anyone excited? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! Thanks for reading and goodbye!