When I open my eyes, the three sections of the castle's dungeon are perfectly sketched out. I go over it with my eyes, making sure I didn't miss any little detail and nod to myself when I realize I drew it as I had first saw it.
"The castle," Blasius murmured, almost making me jump. In my state of complete focus, for a second I had forgotten he was there. "How did you know?"
"I saw it in a vision. When I fell," I said, my heart beating fast. This time, it wasn't due to the exertion of having to use my clairvoyant abilities, but because I was nervous. I needed to guard this paper with my life. If someone saw this, especially any of the guards, I couldn't be sure what would happen to me but I knew it wouldn't be good.
"Wow, Amicia, this could," Blasius paused, studying the intricate details in the floor plans, "this could get us out of here."
He was leaning in close, breath hot on my ear, so that no one else would hear. Without looking up so that he wouldn't be able to see the rising levels of colour in my cheeks, I whispered back, "I know."
✯ ✯ ✯
Although the jumpsuits we were suited in had no real pockets, I managed to have the carefully folded drawing hidden within it anyway.
Currently, it was dinner time and I was sat with my newfound friends, Silva, Menas, and Blasius, eating whatever slop that they considered to be food this time. I wanted to tell Silva and Menas about the drawing — I would eventually — but there was something on my mind that I needed to ask before I did that. I would need to get Blasius alone in order for that to happen, so this definitely wasn't the right moment. I wouldn't want anyone to be suspicious if I snuck him away for a little bit. Perhaps my friends would think we were keeping secrets from them. I wanted Silva and Menas to trust me though, that was essential if we were to escape together.
As for Blasius, somehow I felt like I didn't need to even worry about whether trust was in the equation or not. In my mind I knew it was weird and crazy to feel the way I did about someone that I basically just met, but here I was with these feelings anyway. Absentmindedly, I glanced over at him to see his eyes already on me.
I wondered if he felt what I was feeling. An inevitable, undeniable connection.
The dinner went by kind of quickly. I spent most of it listening to Silva who was her usual, bubbly self. The food hadn't improved since I had been here and as I pushed it around my plate, I just hoped I could be able to eat one of my mother's meals at least one more time.
I excused myself from the table after a few minutes and not long after I went to the bunk room, Blasius walked in after me.
"Are you alright?" He asked
"Yes, why do you ask?"
He shrugged, "You didn't seem that hungry."
"Well," I muse, "hard to have much of an appetite with this food. But while we're alone, I have a question, if you'll answer it?"
"Ask away."
"I was wondering about you and Menas? I don't know if I'm imagining things or if there was tension when you first arrived or ..." I trailed off, not sure how to form the question, hoping he understood my point.
"Was there? I didn't really notice. We're not on bad terms, as far as I'm aware of. Why do you ask?"
"It just made me curious. I want to make sure I'm not giving information to the wrong people. Not that I don't trust him, or you," I bit my lip.
Menas seemed like such a kind person and his unease when Blasius had first arrived confused me. Although they had been warming up to each other, I thought that if I knew what happened between them that I could understand them better. I returned to one of tables in the main room and chalked it up to the fact that Menas was still on edge due to their greeting. I recalled Menas has been confused when Blasius approached him, saying he barely knew him at all yet he was acting as if they were long time friends.
I waited a few hours until the guards told everyone it was time to go to bed. In the meantime, I spent time planning what I was going to say to Silva and Menas about the map.
When the time came around, I was still panicking. I had thought of a few ideas of how to use the maps, but all of the plans seemed difficult even with four of us. I was unaware of how heavily guarded the entrances would be and I doubted escaping would be as easy as I had originally hoped.
We were huddled on my bed, circled around the map. Blasius had already seen it so he kept distant, but the other two were eyeing it up closely.
"Oh! My gosh, how did you get this, Amicia?" Silva jolted up. Blasius turned towards her in record time, looking like he was ready to say something but I put a finger to my lips, making sure to keep her quiet. She made an 'O' with her mouth and nodded.
"I saw it in a vision," I answered quietly, "I figured we'd have a better chance at escaping with a map of where we're escaping from."
"It's incredible," Menas chimed in.
"Thanks, this was actually accidental. I was just bored and ..." I shrugged, "visions usually happen naturally and this one of those times."
Ever since I had drawn the map there was this nagging feeling in the back of my head. If we all escaped, what would happen next? Where would we go? How would we get the others out? Surely we couldn't live on just the four of us, what would have been the point of escaping anyway? So many challenges faced us. It made me hesitant to think about escaping, but I'm sure with Blasius, Menas, and Silva we could think something up. I was just glad I wasn't alone in all of this.
After the others were finished admiring and studying the map, I folded it up and slipped it back underneath my jumpsuit. I felt a rush of adrenaline as I did so. Now that I had told them about it, there was no going back, there was no pretending it didn't exist. We had to use the small amount of resources we had and move forward.
"So now the big question is, how will we do this?"