We carefully wandered the winding stone corridor. A strange, moldy smell filled the air here as we searched each cell for our captured mother. Lucas was shaky yet silent as he followed along with us. A quick look back toward him easily told me that he was afraid; perhaps he was regretting going on such a tense mission as we still had to keep our heads low to avoid attention from the guards.

After what felt like hours of searching, we found her, the captured mother if. She was sitting alone in a cell, looking down at the ground. Her cell had many cracks adorning the walls, as if she had tried to escape to no avail. "Mom...!" I called out in a low whisper. She looked up and her expression was... Almost scared. Back then I wondered what the look was about, but now I understand now that perhaps she was wondering why a bunch of kids, especially her own and a stranger, were singlehandedly trying to break her out, or perhaps it was something else. Regardless, we approached the cell slowly... but the three of us stopped when we heard a low voice call out to us.

"Stop right there."