Cloaked in royal-red. Helmed. Armed. The guard struck the bars with the hilt of their sword to announce his presence. It was like dull music. Each length of iron had a slightly unique tone. This was a sign off shoddy craftsmanship, yet, these cells were for very-important-persons, nobles and soft political traitors. Suppose someone thought they could save a few silvers there.<br/><br/>The guard leaned against the bars and peered at the pair of prisoners. In the half-light, his helm concealed most of his face, save for his wolfish smile. “Mmm, shes not a sore sight for your last night on earth.” The guard mused, as if he had it in mind to rob Navarez of his company. Of course, the guard was not actually even looking at the girl. He was giving all his attention to Navarez, greedily awaiting his reaction.<br/><br/>See, he was not a random guard, he actually new Navarez...<br/><br/>See, he was not actually a guard at all, quite the opposite in fact...<br/><br/>See, he wasn’t actually a ‘he’ either... but she was only planning on revealing those first two facts.<br/><br/>But none of them yet. She wanted to play this game a bit longer.<br/><br/>“Why they lock you two up together anyway? Your wife or summin'? Or is this a final-request-granted?” She made her voice deep and gravelly. She worked for years to train her voice. She could imitate many different qualities and tones.<br/><br/>She was called ‘Mouse’ for a reason. Truly, she was small, very unlike how she appeared now. She wore boots that gave her the added height, and padded her shoulders and body to appear as a man of wide girth. She found such guises convenient, for what others mistook for the wide torso of a mucked man was actually extra storage space for her tools. Tools of escape.<br/><br/>That is what she planned for tonight after all.<br/><br/>The real guard was tucked away safe and sound down the hall, in the cell of Lead-Mad-Larry. Lead-Mad-Larry was already free-at-last. It would take a long time before the others realized that Lead-Mad-Larry was gone and the poor man in the cell was actually a fellow guard as he claimed.  The guards were quite accustomed to ignoring Larry. Poor thing. Mouse pitied him. He was an important spy-master before he was poisoned by lead. Unsure of what state-secrets he might reveal in his madness, they locked him away.<br/><br/>Mouse had met him the last time that she was here.<br/><br/>No one could claim to have caught The Mouse, they didn’t know what they had when they arrested who she was pretending to be. It was an unfortunate hiccup in that particular plan. But, they had not held Mouse for long.<br/><br/>She had paid good money to make sure that Navarez would be placed in this very cell, the one they had kept Mouse in all those years ago.<br/><br/>Navarez. He was unmistakable even in his ruined state. She savored the nostalgia of the moment. The first time they had met he had been a prisoner as well. Navarez had stowed away on a pirate ship and gotten caught. They were going to kill him… but a kindly old monk intervened. She has been in disguised as a holy-man, trying to save the souls of lost seafarers. Or so the pirates thought. In truth she was sent there by the Guild to keep an eye ebb their investments... The pirates were shipping illegal cargo on the Guild’s behalf… The stow-away situation was not part of her plan at all. It is something she should have ignored, and allowed to run it's course on it's own. But she didn't, she interfered...<br/><br/>And that was the first time she had saved his life. She often questioned herself as to why she had intervened that day, and of each day after she found herself following Navarez and getting him out of trouble time and time again.<br/><br/>She found herself facing a similar choice as her attention finally shifted toward the woman sharing his cell. Of course, mouse was surprised to discover that he was not alone.<br/><br/>Mouse had never seen the princess before, and even if she had certainly would not recognize the woman in her current state. Her clouded tearing eyes, torn muddy dress, long tangled hair… Her inherent beauty could not be erased even now. (Mouse envied women like that, who looked desirable no matter what they had been through, she had to work very hard to appear pretty herself). Mouse figured that the woman was a noble, a political prisoner caught in the crossfire of a power game beyond her control.<br/><br/>The plan had been for only<span style="font-style: italic">one</span>to escape (well, two if you count Larry). The woman would slow them down, or talk too loud, or be too weak to endure the journey. Yet, from the look on Navarez’s face, the way he reached out to her, the way he looked at her, Mouse figured that she was someone he knew, perhaps someone he cared for, and certainly someone he would not be willing to leave behind.<br/><br/>Well, there would be no changing his mind. Besides, Navarez had it in his head that Mouse was a good person. Best to keep him thinking that.<br/><br/>“Have you been praying with vigilance, boy? You will need his favor sooner or later.” This statement might have been out of character, it was actually something she had said to Navarez when they were on the pirate ship together and mouse had played the monk. She wondered if he would pick up on the clue and remember.<br/><br/>If not, there was time to spare. Time to tease him a bit longer...