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Olruggio peeks around the corner into the cell where the prisoner is staying. The boy is messing with the pillow he’s been provided with. It looked like he was trying to fluff it but ended up beating it up instead. The boy smacks the pillow a couple more times before he appears to give up and sits on the bed with a sigh. The prisoner is looking around bored and he accidentally locks eyes with Olruggio.
Olruggio startles and throws himself behind the wall he was just peeking out from behind. He’s been caught! He wasn’t even supposed to be down here. He should be upstairs waiting with the other apprentices while their teacher meets with the sages, but no! He just had to accept that stupid dare.
“Hey.” Olruggio hears the boy call out to him but remains silent. “I know you’re still there. Come here.” His voice is calm and surprisingly soft. Olruggio would probably call it curious. He peeks around the wall into the cell again.
The prisoner is standing in the middle of the cell looking over at where Olruggio had just been hiding. He tilts his head and waves shyly when Olruggio leans out.
He’s dressed in similar garb to Olruggio, a white dress, and leggings, but without the characteristic hat and cloak of an apprentice. His hair is white, though he can’t be much older than Olruggio, and falls over his right eye. Olruggio wonders how he can see.
Not sensing any danger, Olruggio steps fully out from behind the wall and in front of the cell door. “Hello…” He waves back. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Qifrey.” Qifrey steps up to the cell door, places his hands on two bars, and leans his head against one of them. “What’s yours?”
Olruggio swallows his nerves. Qifrey didn’t seem too bad. “My name’s Olruggio.” As an afterthought, he adds, “It’s nice to meet you.”
“And you, as well.” Qifrey looks around Olruggio down the hall for a moment before meeting his eyes again. “What are you doing here?”
Olruggio is suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that he isn’t supposed to be down here and stutters for a moment. He looks around too, but there’s no one around aside from the two of them. “I uh- I got separated from the other apprentices.” He won’t tell Qifrey he was dared to come down here by some other apprentices. It’d be rude.
Qifrey hums. His gaze flicks down to Olruggio’s uniform. “How’s your cloak connected?”
“Huh?” Olruggio looks down at it, perplexed. “It’s got snaps where the cord connects, see?” He undoes the clasp and redoes it to show Qifrey. “Pretty much all apprentices wear something like this. The hat too.”
Qifrey nods along as he explains. He starts to say, “I see,” but is interrupted by a yawn. He must be tired.
Olruggio takes a step closer, and just as he does, quick as lightning, Qifrey sticks his hand out, undoes Olruggio’s cloak, and rips it off his shoulders. Olruggio tries to take it back, but Qifrey skips back out of reach, clutching Olruggio’s cloak to his chest. His hand only just brushes Qifrey’s sleeve.
“Hey!” Olruggio’s the one holding the bars now, shouting at Qifrey. “Give that back!”
“I’m sorry-”
Olruggio cuts him off. “If you’re sorry, then give it back to me!” He crosses his arms and pouts, casting a cautious look around. No one has reacted to the commotion.
Qifrey frowns. “I’m sorry, but there’s something I need, and this is the only way I can get it.”
“Are you kidding? I’m gonna be in so much trouble if I help you.” Olruggio clutches at his hair. This can’t be happening.
“We’ll sneak around. It’ll be fine.”
“Not happening.”
Qifrey shrugs and gets on top of his bed. He holds Olruggio’s cloak up to the window and says, “I guess you’ll have to explain how your cloak got lost in the lake then.” The window in the cell overlooked the lake the castle was built next to.
Olruggio glares for a moment before he finally relents. “What do you want?”
Qifrey smiles and jumps down from his bed. “On the wall behind you is the key.” Olruggio looks, and sure enough, there it is. “My pillow sucks, so I want one of Beldaruit’s.”
“Sage Beldaruit!?” Oh, he’s so dead. “He’s one of the three people who basically run the country!”
“I didn’t know that.” Qifrey grabs his pillow and approaches the door being sure to stay out of arm’s reach. Olruggio’s cloak is folded over his arm. “He comes down and bothers me sometimes, so I want one of his pillows.”
Olruggio could faint. What has he gotten himself into? He turns around, grabs the key off its hook, and unlocks the door. He’ll be in trouble no matter what. He might as well preserve his cloak. “How will we know where to go?”
“I’ve been to his room before.” Qifrey leaves his cell and hands the cloak back over. Olruggio grumpily puts it back on.
“Why have you been to his room? Aren’t you a prisoner?” Olruggio asks and follows after Qifrey, who sets off confidently.
“I’m a political prisoner, so I guess I get treated nicer than a regular prisoner.” Qifrey looks around as they leave the prison block. There’s no one else about to catch them, and they continue on their way.
“Oh. I guess that makes sense.” They walk in silence for a little while before Olruggio works up the courage to ask, “What’s it like with the brim hats?”
“I don’t know. They wiped my memory just before I was taken by you guys as leverage. I guess they didn’t want their secrets spilled.” Qifrey looks a little down now. “I think Beldaruit pities me. He wants to teach me magic but says he’s still waiting for approval to formally take me on as an apprentice.”
“Oh.” Olruggio is starting to get a better picture of what Qifrey is like. No longer the image of an intimidating figure cloaked in shadows, the prince of the brim hats, but now Qifrey, someone who doesn’t want to be looked down upon, even if he’s a prisoner with amnesia. “Well, if you get to be an apprentice, I can help you study.”
“What?” Qifrey stops in his tracks and turns around to face Olruggio.
“Yeah. I mean, if you want to. I’d have to get permission, but I’d be happy to help you…” Olruggio trails off at the end, blushing with embarrassment. He fiddles with the tassels on his cloak.
Qifrey blushes too. “Um. If you’re sure… That sounds nice.” He smiles shyly, and Olruggio returns it.
They make it to Beldaruit’s room with only a couple of close calls. Qifrey is really good at sneaking around. Olruggio wonders if he tricks people into letting him out of his cell often.
Qifrey grabs a couple of pillows from the bed and replaces them with his subpar pillow. There are a lot of pillows on the bed, and Olruggio isn’t sure anyone would notice that two were missing. It is curious, though, “Why bring your pillow if you were just going to leave it here?”
“As a statement.” Qifrey tucks a pillow under each arm and puts a hand on each hip. He’s not particularly intimidating like that, but Olruggio can’t bring himself to question it. He shrugs, and they head out again.
They make it back down intact, chatting all the way, and Qifrey begins making his bed with his newly acquired pillows. Olruggio hesitates at the door.
“I guess I should get going.” He’d taken the key from its hook again, and he fiddles with it now. Olruggio yawns. All that sneaking was exhausting.
Qifrey looks at him from where he’s sitting on the edge of the bed. He smoothes over the blanket with one hand. “Do you… want to take a nap with me?”
Olruggio startles. “Wh-what? I’ll be in so much trouble!”
Qifrey shrugs. “You’re probably already in trouble for getting lost and staying lost for so long. Being found with me will hardly make it worse.”
“I guess…” Still, Olruggio is uncertain.
“I’ll ask Beldaruit to ensure you don’t get in too much trouble. You can tell them I threatened to throw your cloak out.”
“You did.” Olruggio points out wryly.
“I apologized…” Qifrey pouts. “Come on. Don’t you want to take a nap on our loot?” He pats the pillows.
Olruggio sighs. There wasn’t a point in arguing. Besides, he was starting to like hanging out with Qifrey. “Alright.”
Qifrey smiles and claps a couple times. “Hooray! I’ll set up the bed.” Qifrey busies himself with getting comfortable under the blankets and folds over the corner closest to Olruggio so he can get in.
Olruggio balances the key on the door’s lock and slides into the bed next to Qifrey. It’s surprisingly comfortable. Although, given what he knows of the other boy, he wouldn’t be surprised if this mattress also used to belong to Beldaruit or someone else in the castle.
“Thanks for coming with me today. It was fun.”
“Yeah. It was.” Olruggio nods, and they exchange smiles. “Next time, we’ll have to steal something else.”
“Yeah…” Qifrey yawns again. “Goodnight, Olruggio.”
“Goodnight, Qifrey.” He mumbles, and they drift off to sleep.