120 Let us Out!

"Umbriel", Bertram called to which Umbriel looked back at him before he could even reach the door. "Before you go, please help me in return. I do not know what to do with this. High Priest Onias wanted me to defend this with my life until I find the rightful person to entrust this with", the priest showed Umbriel an iron coffer that he's been carrying around for some time now.

"That's the traveler's stone!", Umbriel dropped his jaw at the sight of the soul travelers' greatest possession. Never in his imaginations that he would ever see it in person.

"I don't know who to trust, and..", Bertram handed over the iron coffer to Umbriel. However, despite wanting to take the iron coffer from Bertram's hands, Umbriel had second thoughts and eventually, straightforwardly refused the challenging responsibility.

"I can't take it... I don't even know where to go if I escape here alive", Umbriel said as he pushed the iron coffer towards Bertram. "As much as I wanted to share this burden of yours, I just don't know what to do with it, especially now my life is still on the line", Umbriel said as he fear that such valuable relic that belong to the travelers would be endangered with him. Besides, he couldn't afford to add more enemies.

"What am I going to do?", Bertram clueslessly asked.

"Go to the King at least. And give him back the stone.", Umbriel believed that the King shall always be on their side.

"I guess that's what I should do", Bertram uttered softly as he put back the coffer under his cassock. However, he can't hide that certain feeling of being half hearted to send the stone back to the palace. The church has always been the keeper of the traveler's stone. Hence, Bertram is dreadful to pass the relic to anyone who isn't a man of the church.

"Of course. Nothing can go wrong with that", Umbriel said with a faint smile. He thought the King would probably reassign someone from the church who'll look after the stone.

"Okay, here's where they were taken", Bertram held Umbriel by the arm and pulled him out of the door. He showed the exact way where Haelan and the others where taken to. Umbriel tried so hard to remember the directions, with a hope that he won't get lost in the maze-like corridors. "Go now my friend and good luck on your journey", Bertram said.

"Best of luck to us, brother", Umbriel uttered as he walk away.

IN THE OUBLIETTES FOR PRISONERS

"Hey!!! Let us out!!", Ottis shouted through the small square openings of the rusting metal jail doors. They were all thrown together in a dark, small bottle dungeon with all the rats and cockroaches. "Heey!!!", Ottis shouted.

"Anyone with bright ideas?", Atrius asked as he remained standing in the middle of the cellar. He was too disgusted to neither sit on the floor, nor lean on the walls. They say that the prison in Beorg Mountains is known to be the most filthy jail there is in the kingdom.

"We're going to die here", Jac was all teary as he sit on the ground with his legs extended, leaning on the musty wall. "I can't believe I'm in jail. What would my Mama think of me now?", he pouted as he continued.

Ottis, who's losing some more thread of his forebearance, lets the dark and horrid smell of the oubliettes get into his nerve. Given that he was imprisoned before, he just wouldn't want to be locked up again. Hearing Jac losing hope made his ears steam in anger. He turned to Jacomus and knelt on his side. "Forget about your Mama! She'll forgive you!", Ottis waked Jac's senses as he grab the big guy's collar. "Now find a way to get us out of here, now", he anxiously said as he let go of his sobbing friend.

"Could you all keep it down, will ya?", a guard who was sitting on a wooden chair in the hallway shouted.

"Ottis, relax. That won't help", Atrius told Ottis. Knowing what Ottis have been through, Atrius didn't mind to sympathize towards the unnerved comrade. "Haelan, do you have anything in mind", he asked.

Haelan kept mum. At some point, she trusted the words of the prince that he would do everything to let her out. She isn't too familiar with the way of the archers, so she have decided to wait for a little bit more. Haelan wouldn't want to find a way to escape, only to be rained by arrows.

However, what bothers her is how Stellan looked at her. While being taken away, Stellan gazed at her long and hard as if he was betrayed because of her decision of concealing the truth. Haelan wanted to explain but it was too late, she's trapped in the oubliettes which has no easy way out.

Not minding her jail time, Haelan couldn't hide her astonishment to see how an oubliettes looked like in real life. It was far too incomparable in the books, and the malodorous smell of dead rats and its manure is a different story. "I have never been in a jail before", she said with an awe twinkling in her eyes. Atrius chuckled softly at Haelan's candidness, while Jac continued to feel bad for failing his Mama.

"I can't believe we have a big baby and a broken celestial", Ottis grunted as he went overboard on the jail door again. "Let us out!", Ottis returned to his habits of endless shouting.

Moments later, Haelan sensed someone she's accustomed with, a person of light whose safety she's been worried. "Someone's here", she uttered as she peek out.

"Hey!! Let us out of here!!", Ottis continued as he slam the prison gate.

The guard, who eventually got pissed off from all the yelling, stood up and approached the prison cell. "I said, you shut up or I will.. ugh!", he said as he drop on the floor at the same time someone slammed a chair on his head a couple of times more.

"Umbriel!", Haelan flashed her whites seeing the priest.

"Hello, Sir Haelan", Umbriel waved a little before he put back the wooden chair rhat he used to hit the guard.

"I never saw you as a violent person, Umbriel", Atrius said while Umbriel went back to the guard and check his pockets for a key. Soonafter, he was able to find a small, chunky skeleton key made of copper. Then he opened the jail gate to free Haelan and everyone else.

"Thank you, Umbriel!", Haelan wrapped her arms around Umbriel before walking out.

"Damn...This journey have changed you", Jac gave him a side hug, carried him and landed a kiss on Umbriel's cheek. He instantly became high in spirits as soon as he stepped out of the prison. "Come along, now. The air is fresher out here", cheery he was.

"Let's go, or else were all going to die here", Atrius said. "Well done, Umbriel", he tapped the priest's head as he went out. Umbriel was all proud to do something he thought he couldn't. Actually, he's been standing nearby unsure of how to get everyone out. Thinking twice, he was quite unsure if he can do it or not. With all the guts he earned, he decided to do what Bertram exactly did to save him earlier.

"You are all wrongfully accused, and I hold a certain truth that would free us all.", Umbriel said with a smile.

"Let's go before I puke", Ottis walked past the priest as they find their way out.