My Inner Demons S2 Continued

Prison

~With Ava, a couple hours earlier~
Time passed in a blur. Ava wasn't sure if days had passed, or weeks. Sometimes Ava woke up in what felt like a few minutes and received her breakfast, and other times it felt like an eternity before her pillow was delivered and she could fall into blissful sleep. Lady Bish did not visit often, and when she did it was usually with Lord Tramy, who had the unique ability to rip through your mind and see your thoughts, your memories, your being as a whole. Each second Lord Tramy spent in her head felt like he was taking a knife and stabbing her brain, over and over. Ava clawed and screamed at her head, but no matter how hard she tried, the pain did not relent.
         "What do you want from me?" Ava sobbed after her most recent torture session. Lord Tramy has been dismissed and only Lady Bish remained.
         "You useless girl!" Lady Bish snarled. Then her voice softened, "Just tell me how I can incriminate Asch. What has he done? He's killed the Last Soul, he's traveled to Earth, but he could deny all of that. He's back at court now, and he has that stupid old lady's protection. I bet Raul would side with him too. I need hard, solid evidence, that even the king couldn't save Asch from." Now Lady Bish was snarling to herself, venom dripping off each word.
         Ava, however, was drinking her words up. All of this could be information for the future. If you ever escape. Ava's traitorous brain had been whispering negatively recently, driving Ava crazy.
          "I don't know anything." Ava whispered, as she had been this whole time. "Please, just let me go. I don't know anything."
          Lady Bish looked at Ava and smiled sickeningly sweet, "But it's so fun to take my anger out on someone. I get to release my emotions upon you and you get to bask in the presence of a goddess. It's a win-win."
          Ava just rolled her eyes, but the effort was weak. She could feel herself thinning, her cheeks hollowing. Her food rations had been severely cut back due to the war, her once beautiful toga was filthy and full of grime, and she needed a shower plus a couple gallons of soap.
          And naturally, Ava responded to Lady Bish's argument with an insult, "Let me know when you find that goddess."

~With the boys, present time~
          All five of the boys were in a fighting stance of some variant: knees slightly bent, feet shoulder-length apart, weapon out in front of you. Eyes on your enemy.
Spoiler alert: all eyes were on Lady Camilla Bish.
Rhys glared at Lady Bish, "Prince Asch asked you a question. Where is Ava?"
Lady Bish smoothed her skirt and cleared her recovering throat. She did not bother with lies, "In my possession. And before you think of killing me, just know: if I die, Ava's jailer has orders to kill her painfully slow. If I die, Ava dies with me."
Nobody moved, and Lady Bish smiled, "That's what I thought. Now then. Here is what is going to happen."

~With Ava~

It hurt to bang her head against the wall, but that is how Ava dealt with Lord Tramp invading her head and robbing her of her privacy.
So imagine her surprise when through the banging, another voice cut through her miserable hobby.
"I wouldn't do that my dear. You have such a lovely head."
Ava turned her head in the direction of the voice, "Excuse me? I'm sorry, um, I didn't realize that any of the other cells were occupied."
The voice cackled, "Yes. That was the point. Lady Bish often forgets about me too."
"Who are you? What's your name? Why are you here?" Ava asked.
Ava did not get a reply. The voice did not speak again, but now Ava knew that she was not alone. Perhaps her fellow prisoner could help her escape.
The door to the prison opened somewhere out of Ava's sight, making her jump. But Lady Bish did not appear in front of her, nor did Lord Tramy. It was a handsome boy, about Ava's age. In fact, the boy was too perfect, in an otherworldly way. Sharp cheekbones, unnaturally raised, eyes that were too blue, skin that was too smooth.
"Let me guess. Lady Bish's most recent crook." Ava snapped.
The boy smirked, "Lady Bish did mention that you gave her lip. I supposed we will fix that as well. And for the record, I'm actually Lady Bish's friend Hugo."
His smile unnerved Ava.
"What do you mean?" she asked nervously.
Hugo held his hand out, and without thinking Ava took it, her eyes glazed over. She stared dreamily into his eyes, but that look quickly turned to one of pain.
          It started slowly at first, just a trickle of coldness, numbness, starting at her toes, but it crept up, until her legs were being stabbed with invisible pinpricks of ice. Then the pricks turned to stabs. Ava screamed. The pain was working it's way up, and when Ava looked down she saw that her pores were bleeding, small drops grouping together to run down her legs.
Ava couldn't stop screaming long enough to get words out, and the pain kept creeping up up up. It coiled in her stomach and expanded to her forearms. Her vision turned white and she had gone numb. Her brain was telling her that she should be dead, that she should feel pain, but Ava didn't. She couldn't.
"That's enough. Leave."
The pain blissfully subsided, but Ava was still huddled on the floor, her blood drying and caking her body.
"Get up." Ava's savior hissed, "Get up and GO."
Ava dared to look up, and saw Hugo crumpled on the floor. Blood trickled out from a wound in his head.
The prison cell door was slightly ajar, and Ava stumbled toward it.
"Wait, let me free you." Ava whispered to her prison mate.
The woman sighed in relief, "The key is by the door. It's gold. Hurry child, we don't have much time before Hugo wakes up."
Ava rushed to the door. Lining the wall were hundreds and hundreds of keys, still and cold. Ava was glad that they haven't been being used. She searched through the silver sea and victoriously held up a gold key.
"I've got it!" Ava crowed, sprinting back to the cells.
           She saw a huddled black lump in the cell two spaces over from her own, and wasted no time unlocking it.
          Sprinting, Ava and her partner in crime tried to quietly but quickly find the stairs. However, when they broke free from the rows of prison cells, they emerged to find nothing but a smooth, circular room. No grooves or indents in the walls, no door, nothing.
"Um..." Abs stared around the room and began running her hands all over the walls, hoping to find some sort of hidden door.
"That won't work, dear. Only a member of Kane's royal family can open it. Camilla bragged about that particular safety measure one too many times."
Ava turned around to the woman, who still had her hood up. "Who's Camilla? And are you saying we're trapped here?"
The woman slowly shook her head, chuckling quietly, "I'm saying, it's a good thing you saved me from my cell, or you would be stuck down here and at the mercy of Camilla Bish's mercy."
The woman tossed her head back in one smooth, elegant move. Large, curly blonde hair sprung up without the weight of the hood, scarred pale skin glittered in the light, and piercing black eyes stared Ava down. Eyes that Ava had seen before, in a fire prince.
"Hello, Ava. I am Queen Melodie of Kane, wife of the king of Kane, mother to Prince Asch and Prince Raul. I have been imprisoned here since both my boys were babies, and you now have my protection and gratitude."