When he saw Maria laying on top of him, he decided it was in his best interest to stay as still as possible. He was afraid to find out what would happen to himself if he accidentally woke her up. However, he was in a really uncomfortable position. Slowly, he tried moving his hand under her to lift her up. The moment his hand touched her, her arm flung sideways and smacked him right in the face.

Jacob stifled a grunt and moved his head so her hand could lay on the floor instead. He tried whispering to her.

"Maria. Maria! You’re crushing me a bit!"

Maria stayed perfectly still, slowly inhaling and exhaling.

’Shit. How the hell am I supposed to get out of this unscathed?!’

Jacob slowly lifted her up with his right hand and tried moving himself out from under her. He just about to finally make it when Maria started moving again. This time, she seemed to try and use his stomach as a pillow. Drool was coming out of her mouth and on to his shirt.

"You can’t be serious."

It took a moment for Jacob to register what her face looked like. It was completely squished with her mouth wide open. Her emerald eyes were slightly peeking out from under her closed eyelids. He felt a giggle starting to form itself in his gut. He tried his best to close his mouth so a laugh wouldn’t come out.

However, his stomach couldn’t take it. He started chuckling, which caused his stomach to rise and fall really fast, shaking Maria awake. When her eyes seemed to adjust to what was in front of her, she saw that she was sleeping on Jacob and he was laughing at her. At first, her face turned pink from being caught in such a weird position. However, it slowly evolved into anger. She didn’t know why, but he was laughing at her. So, he had to die. Maria sat up and threw a punch into Jacob’s stomach. The ground quaked underneath the force.

"Stop laughing at me! What’s so funny?!"

"Ahh! I’m sorry! Stop hitting me!"

"Come back here! I’m not done yet!"

The guard looked at them with a confused expression.

"Infighting already? They’ve hardly been in a cell together for that long."

"Lidia! Tell Maria to back off! Help!"

"What did you do to her?!"

"He was laughing at me, mom!"

"Whaaaat?! You were laughing at my daughter?! Get him Maria! Teach him a lesson!"

"I’m trying!"

Maria finally corned him in the cell. Her eyes looked like a serpent about to strike.

"I’m innocent! I just tried to escape from under you, that’s all!"

Lidia overheard Jacob’s comment and pushed her face against the bars.

"What?! What were you doing under my daughter, you pervert!! Hey, guard! Get him out of that cell and bring him over here!"

Maria started to panic.

"No, mom! It’s not what you think! I just... accidently slept with him. That’s all!"

Jacob heard a loud thud in the other cell. He was fairly certain Lidia passed out.

"Why would you word it like that?! She’s going to kill me now!"

"I was just telling her the truth! I didn’t mean to!"

"It wasn’t even my fault! Why are you still trying to hit me?!"

"Because I feel like it! Now stay still!"

Jacob couldn’t take it anymore, so he accepted his punishment willingly. Even without Maria using her curse, a punch on the shoulder still really hurt him from the earrings she was wearing that increased her strength. He started rubbing it as she backed away.

"Feel better?"

"Not really, but I’ll save my energy for now. Maria walked to the other side of the cell and looked away."

Jacob walked over and sat next to her.

"I had a strange dream last night. Do you want to hear it?"

"Sure."

"My mark was talking to me. I think I may know a bit more about their origins. I was able to get a few questions answered, but not nearly the amount I wanted."

Maria gave him a worried look.

"Did you find out how to get rid of them?"

Jacob refused to meet her gaze for a moment.

"In a way. Do you see the strange symbols inside your skull that are changing? That’s acting as a timer. Once it reaches zero, that’s when the end times will arrive."

Maria paled looking at her mark.

"And when will that be?"

"I wasn’t able to figure that out. However, it’s apparently destined to happen within our lifetime."

Maria seemed very upset by this news. Jacob reached out and grabbed her hand. Their eyes met for a moment. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"We’ll be ready. I’ll make sure of it."

Jacob whispered in Maria’s ear.

"Is it okay if I can sit against the bars? I think I need to be able to see the roots to use my power for now. I want to try and do some practice."

Maria nodded and whispered back.

"Just don’t overdo it again. It might take some time to get used to."

Jacob sat up, walked close to the bars, and laid his head on them. The guard looked at him with curiosity.

"What’s wrong? You and the girlfriend got into a fight and now you’re in timeout."

"Something like that. Just read your book."

The guard laughed and looked back down at his story. Jacob could feel the roots desires once again. It wasn’t nearly satisfied with the growth it showed before, it wanted more. Jacob tried to send a mental command to it.

’Grow very slowly.’

However, it didn’t seem to respond to it. Jacob tried whispering it very quietly.

"Grow extremely slow."

The root sticking out of the cell seemed to start moving and reaching out of the cell. It was moving a bit fast for Jacob. He whispered another command.

"Stop."

Jacob looked at the charm around the guard’s neck. It was still lit up, suppressing his power.

’Geez. If it’s moving that fast from being suppressed, I have a lot of work ahead of me. Is it just the way I’m commanding it?’

Jacob mumbled to himself once more.

"Grow so slow that it’s hard for the asshole watching us to notice."

To Jacob’s utter surprise, the root seemed to completely understand the command and start growing at a perfectly slow pace.

’What the hell?! How does that even work?!’

"Stop."

The root stopped abruptly. Jacob looked over at Maria who was just playing with her fingers. It seemed like they were going to be getting out of this situation a lot faster than they had anticipated. However, before walking back over to keep Maria company, he commanded the root to stick out of the cell enough to stay in his line of sight, even far back in the cell. He had it pressed up against the stone wall, so it blended in much easier and looked like it was supposed to be there from the wall falling out.

He walked over to Maria and sat next to her again. She looked at him confused.

"Done training already?"

Jacob simply shrugged.

"It’s weird. My ability seems to be a rend ability, but I hardly have any mastery over it, so I have to verbally command the roots to do anything I want."

"Then why don’t you keep practicing?"

"Because I believe it’s enough. The only thing we have to do is try and predict leaving when the king won’t be waiting for us. When do you think will be best?"

Maria thought to herself for a few moments.

"We should wait for the next time the king switches with this guard and then switches back. That way, we know he won’t be back for a while."

Jacob smiled slightly.

"That’s a good idea. For now, I’d rather you eat just a small little something, just so you have enough energy to run when the time comes. Okay?"

Maria punched him lightly on the shoulder while smiling.

"Don’t tell me what to do... but I will listen just this once."