Maria and Jacob waited patiently for the kings turn to watch over them. One fateful day, he finally arrived. When he entered the dungeon, he immediately took the seat of the guard and sent him on his way.

Leo moved the chair right up against the cell Jacob was in and crossed his legs. He was twiddling his thumbs as if waiting for Jacob to say something.

"What do you want? You’re blocking the torch light."

Leo smiled.

"Can I not say hi to my own nephew? I’m hurt!"

"Yah, some uncle you are. Why don’t you let me out so I can give you a grand hug? I promise I’ll only try to snap your entire torso in half."

"Ouch. I’m flattered by the offer, but I must decline this time."

"Why are you so close to my cell?"

"I simply want to talk. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Yes. Now get away. I don’t want to talk with you."

"Where did you get that mark of yours?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Oh? Now you’re curious."

"Not really, I’m just saying whatever I think will get you away faster."

"You know, you really are just like your father sometimes. I can see where you get your attitude from for sure. So, are you going to tell me?"

"I just happened to stumble upon it."

The king laughed.

"You’re telling me you and your friend just happened to stumble upon such a mark?"

"Yes."

"You really expect me to believe that?"

"I don’t care if you believe it or not."

"How were you marked with it?"

"I don’t know. It just appeared out of nowhere.

"Who marked you?"

"I don’t know."

"What do those symbols mean that I saw?"

Jacob paused for a moment.

"They’re a timer."

Leo looked a little surprised.

"A timer? What is it counting down to?"

"When it reaches zero, I’m going to have my foot shoved up your ass."

Leo let out a small laugh.

"Man. You are impossible."

"You never answered my question. Why do you want to know about my mark?"

"Hm. I guess you could say your father wasn’t the only one obsessed with attaining strength."

"You think this mark will make you strong?"

"I don’t think so, I know so. After what I felt looking at it, there’s no doubt that great power lies beyond whoever is marked or whoever gave you that mark."

"If this mark was supposed to give me power of any sort, I’m still waiting for my turn to receive it. Besides, if it did, I would’ve broken out of this stupid cell by now."

"Fair point."

Leo slowly got up and moved his chair back to the middle of the room before sitting back down.

"Aren’t you at least curious what the outside world is like right now?"

"That depends, is everyone still alive?"

Leo smiled.

"How much of a monster do you think I am? Everyone is still alive and well... for the most part. I’ve been subjecting them to rather gruesome labor since you’ve been trapped here. They all seem very upset to see the king gone for some reason. I thought they never liked the guy! I keep surprising myself each and every day, I guess."

"You’re lying. If you really were making people do hard labor, they would have rebelled by now for sure. You are just trying to mess with me to get in my head."

"Ah, it seems you’ve learned your lesson the first time. That’s a good thing! I would get used to that since you’re going to be here quite a while."

"Not forever?"

"Unfortunately not. The general is going to be coming back and transporting you all back home. Something that has to do with your stupid tattoo. That’s part of why I wanted to get some answers out of you."

Jacob grinned.

"Hey, I heard that if you stare at it long enough, you’ll gain super vision."

"If you’re going to lie, at least try to make it believable."

A few more days passed of Leo watching them before he finally switched out with the guard. This time, it was Jacob laying on Maria’s stomach when he woke up. He wiped off his drool and apologized to her, but she didn’t seem to mind. Throughout every night, Jacob could hear Lidia gently hurting herself more and more against her cell wall. The day had finally come for them to take action.

They all waited a few hours after they switched places to give the king time to leave and do whatever he needed to do. After that, Jacob situated himself in a good line of sight of the root sticking out of his old cell. He looked at Maria. She gave him a confirmative nod. Maria somehow looked even more thin than she had. She seemed to be on the edge of starvation. Once they escaped, the first thing he would do was try and get her some food.

Once the guard was distracted with his book, Jacob whispered his first command to test the waters.

"Very slowly grow along the wall."

The root started growing along the floor against the wall.

"Stop."

The root had grown far enough past the guard without him noticing. Jacob thought he would try something and test the understanding of his connection with the root.

"Okay. Try and get around this guard’s neck and continue growing until he passes out. If you can, constrain-"

"What the hell are you whispering over there?"

The guard put his book down and started walking towards Jacob.

’Shit...’

"Why do you care?"

"I don’t like it. You’re acting suspicious. Especially that girl behind you. She’s looking at me like a viper with those green eyes of hers."

"Probably because you’re plump like a mouse."

"I’m not taking any risks. I’m getting the king to investigate this at once-"

Right as he turned around, the roots from the wall jumped at him with incredible speed and wrapped around his mouth immediately. Then, it grew around his neck at an incredible pace. The guard started thrashing and struggling to try and breathe, but it was useless. The root never seemed satisfied enough with just making the man pass out. Soon, it started going up the man’s nose, deeper into his brain canal, taking over the body as its new home. Even Jacob started getting freaked out.

"S-Stop growing!"

The man’s eyes were wide open, with small roots poking out of one of his eyelids. He was completely unresponsive. He had dark roots seeping into his body and wrapped all around him. Without even trying, Jacob had accidently killed a man. He looked at his hands for a moment. However, before he could reflect his actions, Maria darted past him and ripped apart the iron bars. They bent like clay under her grasp, allowing her to easily pass through them.

She ran over to Lidias cell and just as easily ripped those bars apart. Lidia looked at Maria tearfully.

"My baby... what did they do to you?"

"I’m okay mom. Let’s just worry about getting out of here."

Jacob felt nauseous, but he forced himself to walk out of the cell. Walking felt incredibly new to him. He had been stuck in the cell for so long that exploring something as simple as the room outside his cell brought him great joy. His hesitation didn’t last for long.

"Let’s get the hell out of here."