"Of course, we would need to see how many prisoners there are so we know how much to bring. Is there any chance we could get a tour of the facility?"
The guardsman, who called himself Corporal Heik, sharply inhaled through his teeth, then said, "We have roughly forty prisoners in here right now, and unfortunately I'm not at liberty to give tours of the barracks, especially not to foreigners. No offense to you, Ms. Fern."
"Oh, no, I understand. You can't run the risk that you're showing a spy a tactically important location like this."
Galilahi's face crunched at the suggestion. "You're not a spy, though."
"I could be Gali, how is he supposed to know that?"
"Why would a spy start an outreach, Chamile?"
"I could think of a few reasons," said the Corporal.
Eira gave a single nod, "And I'm sure they'd all be plausible. So, no grand tour. Can we at least visit the cells?"
"Well..."
"Do you let families visit the prisoners?"
The Corporal nodded.
"And I assume you let their advocates see them too, right?"
"We do," he agreed.
"Then I don't see why we can't. We are here during visiting hours, right? It would just be to get a feel for the types of people we would be working with and maybe give us ideas on ways to help them without compromising security."
The Corporal bit his lip and crossed his arms. After a brief moment, the Corporal turned his head to one of the side hallways to the right of the courtyard doors and whistled loud enough to make both women wince. Five seconds later, two guards, one male, one female, and both much younger than the Corporal, came around the corner, spears in hand and gave a salute as they stood before the group.
"Highguard Shakai, take these women to the cells; they're looking to begin a prison outreach and want to see some of the prisoners."
"Yes, sir!" The guardsman nodded to the two women and turned back to the hall he had just come from, beckoning them to follow.
"Highguard Mieumi, find Commander Lions, he'll want to discuss the details with them."
"Yes, sir!"
Eira watched the guardswoman as she went down another side hall across from where she was going for as long as she could without drawing suspicion. When she could no longer see her, Eira took in her surroundings. The walls to her left had shuttered windows that were open from the bottom, each held by braces. They seemed well suited to prevent rain from coming in, even when open. They also looked as if they made a lot of noise if one were to carelessly crawl through one. A pair of guards argued in a nearby room, their voices muffled by the doors.
"I'm telling you, it's the ghost!"
"The ghost of Lehab Zhedan? No. No, it has to be someone else."
"Who else could it have been? The MO lines up near perfectly. Puddles all over areas that should have been bone dry, missing stock, sabatoged forges that should have had at bare minimum a few embers were cold to the touch."
"We've spent two years chasing him, he isn't sloppy that sloppy."
Eira slowed down a bit to try and hear more, hoping that neither Gali nor the guard would notice.
'This is some copycat. At best an accomplice."
"Just because she never did beforehand doesn't mean she didn't make a mistake this time!"
"How many times do I have to tell you that Lehab Zhedan was a man?"
"I know what I saw!"
"You were concussed, and it was a new moon. You could have easily misconstrued it."
"The witnesses also reported a woman's silhouette during the break-ins, I'm not the only one!"
"Conflicting reports from untrustworthy sources."
"Just because you don't like the refugees doesn't make their testimony any less valuable!"
"You didn't even believe he was real until four months ago."
"I told you, I saw her leaping the wall!
"And I told you Lehab was a man!"
The voices became too muffled to hear at this point, so Eira picked her pace back up. Gali raised an eyebrow, but the guard was none the wiser.
Was that me they were talking about?
They came to a reinforced door at the end of the hall, and went inside a room possessing a desk that was occupied by another guardsman filling out paperwork, an empty wooden table with matching chairs, and a number of bronze chests.
Highguard Shakai stopped them next to the chests and said, "No personal effects are allowed beyond this point, so please empty all your pockets. You may leave your things in this chest, and you may retrieve them once we leave. Once you have done that, you will be patted down to ensure you have no additional weapons or contraband. Do you understand?"
Both Eira and Galilahi agreed, though Galilahi requested that the patdown be done by a woman, which the Highguard granted.
Once they were cleared, the Highguard led them through another reinforced door and down a flight of steps into a stone-bricked hallway that reeked of urine and mildew. Lining the walls of the hallway were dozens of cells, each with thick bronze bars set into the stone and a well-crafted door made from the same. On each cell door was a complex-looking lock, far more complex than anything else in the city.
Crap, it had to be bronze too... It would take an hour just to figure out how that worked.
In the third nearest cell on the right stood Kish, shackled to the wall with a chain just long enough to get within a cubit of the door. His face seemed to morph as she looked at him, but across all variants, his temple was bruised and swollen almost to the point of shutting the left eye.
He quickly averted his gaze and pretended to be disinterested.
Eira looked at the guard and put on her curious voice, asking "What kind of ukitu is he? I've never seen one like him."
"Dunno, don't care. He's a thief, and that's all he'll ever be to me."
"Will you let me speak with him for a bit while you take her to see if others are interested?"
The guardsman hesitated and said, "You shouldn't be left alone in here; these people are all dangerous."
"I'll stay right here, away from the bars. Are you worried I somehow smuggled a lockpick in here? You already know I don't have anything I could give them. I'll be fine, this is too rare an opportunity to pass up."
The guardsman looked at Kish, who stared back grumpily.
Galilahi rolled her eyes, "Highguard, I'm warning you, she'll wear you out before we even make it to the end of the hall if you don't let her. Just saying, you should learn from my mistakes."
He scowled. "Fine. But be quick, we'll be right back."
Eira smiled innocently as they both turned around. After they were a few paces away, Eira whispered angrily, "A waterskin! Really!?"
He whispered back, "It was the fastest way in the city! You missed check in and Fusil was furious because of some magician, 'e was seconds from killing me!"
Magician?
"So you send yourself to prison to get to me!? How did you expect to get out!? You're lucky I was passing by when they were taking you in!"
"I didn't think 'e'd kn-"
"That's right, you didn't think. Idiot!"
Kish's face contorted with frustration as Eira turned herself to keep an eye on the retreating pair.
He must be talking about... no... no it's not the living ancestor... except nobody but the living ancestor could make Fusil upset enough to risk Kish. Crap...
Kish quickly shook his head and stared her down, his voice hissing as he tried to keep his emotions in check.
"We don't 'ave time for this. Eira, Fusil needs you to report back to the cave immediately, that magician or whatever 'e is freaked 'im out something fierce. Leave me 'ere, I'll figure my own way out."
"Not happening. I may not be able to make bronze cold enough to shatter, but that doesn't mean-"
"Eira-"
"-No! Fusil can eat sand if he thinks I'm gonna let you rot in here. I'll be-"
Galilahi and Highguard Shakai both turned back to face them as they'd reached the end of the hall. Eira immediately reassembled her composure and smiled at Kish before continuing.
"-be very interested in hearing more about your father, but sadly, I can't stay long. I've got a busy day planned."
Kish glanced towards the edge of the cell and sighed before leaning against the rough wall and sliding to the floor. He gave one last look to Eira and mouthed, "I'll be fine."
Eira put her hands behind her back, forcing an air of innocent formality about herself.
"Maybe if the guards are kind, I'll bring you a slice of pecan pie when I return. I promise, it's to die for."
She looked back to Galilahi and asked, "Any takers?"
"Most of them just made unsavory remarks."
The Highguard began herding the two women out as they continued their conversation.
I'll come up with something, Kish. Don't you worry.
When they exited the top of the stairs into the office area, Highguard Mieumi walked in the door opposite them, with her was a regal man with gray sideburns and piercing blue eyes.
