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[Unlurking Sentinel]

And so, Claus and Viverna left, to work out their well-laid plans.
Over an hour later, at the appointed time of four in the evening, Claus and Viverna arrived before the Office of Keys, adjacent to the staircase that led down to the dungeons. Already in front of the door was four elite-looking guards, with a prisoner in tow. The two recognized him as the wizard that carelessly left the door unlocked for them.
"Evening, delinquents. Officer Vinter wanted the two of you to know that Viverna's detention has been absolved, upon the discovery of evidence in your favor. Namely, the 'incomprehensible negligence' of someone who had 'been trusted with highly secure information and duties'. As the man himself was confirmed to have not been working with you two, the 'crime of breaking and entering into an unmarked room' has been reduced to 'entering through an unlocked door into an unmarked room'. His words. Not mine."

[RedMageCole]

Claus's plan had been all but laid out perfectly. It would take some quick thinking and significantly more stealth skills than he had previously, but it was certain to work...

...Of course, something quite interesting had happened.

"Ah, yes. As I expected might happen— it's just a shame Professor Vinter couldn't care to do his own research before jumping to conclusions. Perhaps then all of this could have been avoided." Claus simply shook his head very vaguely, turning to Viverna. "That should save you some boredom. I'll meet you back up by your room when I'm done, then?"

[cronos5010]

"...Your ancestors raised you poorly, then, if you accept dying in a cell as martyrdom."
"There is a fine line between risking your life for something, and throwing it away for nothing. The former is necessary, but the latter is meaningless. When there is not a single advantage to seize, not a one glimmer of hope, you do not scatter what time you have left to the four winds. The dying have no choice to accept all they've done as all they'll ever do, after all."
"If you have no reason to die, yet you throw yourselves onto the spears regardless, you are no warrior. You are a fool in a warrior's armor."

As the anger and spirit began to manifest in her voice, the old woman's own silhouette seemed... different. Somehow larger? Or perhaps just more imposing? Not much of it could be made out from the darkness, given her heavy rags and robes, but...

: "While I must admit that risking my life in order to allow the others to escape makes for a poor substitute of martyrdom. I still fail to see the purpose in clinging on to life, only to see it rot away in the months, or years our captors will allow us to live."
He slowly turns towards the gunman from before, as he continues with.
: "And unless you have a better plan on how to get yourself out of here, I don't quite understand how you intend to do as you wish Arnvidar, we are all trapped inside of this cell, until we perish, or find some means of escape."

[Chevaleresse]

"Yes. Don't do anything foolish in the meantime." After the faux-admonishment, she turned to leave, mentally reviewing their earlier discussions as she did.

[TricMagic]

With the knife forming neatly in front of him cat grew a sinister smirk, "Heh, nice. With this we may have a chance after all." Seeing an open spot in the floor in the middle of the group with no other cell mates in the way, he launches the dagger straight towards the spot. It slides right into the ground with a SHINK.

"Alright listen up, I have an idea of how we can all escape here but you're going to have to trust me. First of all, lets list off what we all know. Guards come in groups of four with only one key which is only active from anywhere to lets say half-an-hour to two hours. No one can come in or out without using that enchanted key without setting everything off. Sooooo, lets say if some prisoners were causing a commotion in their cells. When the four guards come in to stop it, only a max of three could come in while the fourth stays outside with the key. Lets say those prisoners were us, I'll hide above door and after all three come in and take out the guard staying outside. He'll probably feel safe enough up there to make a sneak attack easy to pull off. Afterwards I'll snag his key and toss his weapon down into cell along with his body and finally close the cell door to make sure the ticking doesn't set off the alarm. Depending on what weapon he has on him, whoever can use it will help me take out the other three. However, everyone else without a weapon will have to keep the third guard distracted long enough while take out the other two. Probably through a dog pile of sorts or some sort of restraining maneuver. Once all the guards are taken out we can distribute their weapons among ourselves. Finally, we can either unlock the cell once more with the key and all leave at once with only a few of us armed or I and maybe one or two others could put on a guard uniform and search for not only the armory but also where the little gem boy held. They'll grab the boy and also weapons for the rest of the people in the cell."

"This plan is nothing if not risky but if we want to make sure to escape before the boy is taken away the sooner the better. Either way, how does everyone feel about this?"

Arnvidar sighs.

"I would not mind hoping, but you are going to do it anyway."

Arnvidar takes his gun out to check something. Would imbuing fire let a light appear. As misdirection it could prove useful in making him seem a threat to the third guard.

He also takes the bullet out so it doesn't go off. That would be interesting if the heat can fire it.

May the Phoenix protect me in my travels. Alight.

[Unlurking Sentinel]

The leader of the guards noted Claus' exchange with Viverna.
"Alright, as you've already gathered, you're here to accompany us in providing for Chamber 53 over the course of this week. It would be irresponsible to send you alone, after all, regardless of the cell."

The guards then moved into the office, expecting Claus to follow."...Nothing I can say can dissuade you from your current course. So be it."

As Arnvidar enchanted his gun, the muzzle lighted up as usual. The gun itself, however, remained just as cold. Evidently, it still would not actually fire, but the effect was not nothing.

[cronos5010]

: "With what we know about this prison, and the enchantments binding us so far? No, there's nothing left but to wait, and see how it plays out."

: "Of course, if the enchantment preventing Arnvidar's weapon from firing also prevents that cat from even attempting to stab the guards coming inside of this cell, then there's really nothing we can do."

[RedMageCole]

Without responding, only looking over the area with a quiet and thoughtful gaze, Claus followed the guard.

[Unlurking Sentinel]

Inside of the office, Claus could see a wizard doing paperwork, his desk and waste basket littered with empty bottles of ether. On the wall behind him was a large quantity of unenchanted "keys," each sitting along a shared, single rack that twisted across the wall. Claus didn't know much about the keysmithing process, other than that each enchantment must be unique (different cells, different required numbers of occupants, and different grace periods, ranging from a few seconds to an hour), that they only worked once, and that the process for each key was exhausting on the enchanter.
"Welcome to the Office of Keys... more prisoners today, I presume?"
"Just one. Formerly a scholar until today, unfortunately. What do you suggest?"

The enchanter muttered something vulgar under his breath, before looking through his paperwork.
"The first of our anti-magic chambers aren't estimated to be finished until tomorrow, and given the number of high-priority prisoners, none might be available for weeks. We can give them another temporary assignment, but nearly every cell is already at ten or more prisoners, with exception o-"
"Additionally, a number of the today's new prisoners, the ones sent to Chamber 53, require interrogations, and will need to be fed. We are also requesting keys for Chamber 53."

The enchanter took a long, hard, pained sigh.
"...so is that two more keys? One to enter Chamber 53... ten occupants, grace period ten seconds? And one to exit, seven occupants, grace period five seconds?" Though required to offer a suggestion, it was clear that he really did not want to have to make so many keys in so short of a time.

[RedMageCole]

Just before the enchanter spoke, Claus cut in.

"Still a scholar, actually— not in the eyes of this Academy perhaps, but a certified scholar nonetheless in two different Academies."

He did, however, say no more as he patiently listened and waited.

[Unlurking Sentinel]

One of the other guards slapped Claus in the back of the head. "He means the wizard we arrested, not you!" At the same time, the enchanter gave a long sigh.
"So many prisoner relocations... my ether budget is running into the negatives. If it's only going to be temporary, I'd rather we consolidate the keys for this."Hours passed for the prisoners. The old woman did not move from her location, resting absolutely motionless against the wall. Not much could be heard from outside of the cell; sometimes a handful of thuds could be heard, likely from the renovation work being done, but it seemed to be at quite a distance. Perhaps they didn't have enough workers to make way on this side of the dungeon, or they had already completed that side and moved on... or perhaps they were avoiding something.

[rustytengo]

Having gotten bored of just sitting around and doing nothing Blodeuyn hopped up and stared at the door of the cell for a bit before smiling. She picked up a piece of the broken cage then moved to the door and started to bang on it while jumping up to look out the window a bit.



"Hey dummy guards. I think the old lady died she's starting to smell. You better come check cause if I die in here from the stench I'll hunt you and make it so you can't ever have a peaceful sleep in your life again." she yelled.

[Unlurking Sentinel]

Blodeuyn's little show got no response from outside the cell. None whatsoever.
"You aren't the first to have tried that either, you know.""Look, how about this? It won't be long before they're removed for interrogation, right? So for now, why don't we just throw the new prisoner in the same cell, and just hand out the food in the span of a single entry period?"
"We cannot accept a potential security risk of that size! Not at this time, nor with that cell!"
"Then just round up more students again. Strength by numbers. You already have for standard guard duty, yes?"
"Guard duty is one thing, but most of them already do all they can to avoid prison duty. And this is already in part a student's detention! You think they would make reliable enough guards for those numbers to be worth a damn?"

[Chevaleresse]

Viverna had slowed to a near-stop on leaving. Perhaps it was good sense, perhaps it was anxiety, but regardless of the cause, Claus putting himself at risk prematurely was far from impossible. She had planned to provide assistance from the opposite flank, taking their soon-to-be foes by surprise, but part of her was inexorably tugged back to the mage.

"Accursed enchantments..." She turned to head back toward Claus, with a long, purposeful stride. Much better to watch over him and counteract his hotheadedness from his side, rather than hoping from afar.

[RedMageCole]

Claus immediately whipped around, looking about ready to hit back at the guard that hit him before taking a moment to carefully study him...

"...Apologies. With your demeanor and appearance looking like a ruffian, I almost acted in self-defense. Of course, self-defense against a prisoner is fine, but against a guard I'm certain it'll get me in trouble. It must be truly nice to have such a position to allow you feelings of power when you don't really have much in the grand scheme of things." Claus tipped his hat to the guard. While his calm exterior didn't show it, his interior was committing the guard's appearance to memory— later on he'd pay him back in full. Hopefully with a nice Thunder spell.

Otherwise, Claus didn't really talk, just listening to the banter. He did turn to Viverna when she approached.

"Ah, good to see you, Viverna." He didn't sound as enthusiastic as he might have, but nonetheless he didn't seem dejected about it.