[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/URvwQEj.png[/img][/center][indent][indent][hr][color=gray]When Mortika had envisioned a tomb that would finally hold her, it was small and cozy. There’d be some candles around illuminating the marble mausoleum, mourners saddened by her passing, and maybe even some dull chanting. This would all be perfected by just hordes of skeletons. No one would be able to rob her jewel and metal-encrusted body. Of course, she’d hope to be buried at the end of the world. Who would be there to steal in the uninhabited scorched wastes? Eh. Humans were like rats. They somehow managed to survive despite living off panic and garbage. Yet, here she was sharing her tomb with countless others, and not a dirge choir to be found.

She chased a lone piece of solid substance in her soup as Titus spoke. Her spoon created a savory whirlpool.  The goblin had an opinion on their plan. So did the diminutive elf girl. Even the annoying louse of a human with dark hair and odd mannerisms. He questioned what would happen [i]after[/i] they were freed from their shackles. Mort just chuckled, her pale shoulders—once peachy from having seen the sunlight—bobbed with it. Her hair tumbled forward like a waterfall. One that had once been serene and sweet but had turned quite tumultuous without proper care. 

She looked at Titus, his impassioned urge to be free of this place burned brightly enough for the rest of them. Mort had toiled here for ten long years. She’d carved away enough gold from stone that she’d be able to identify it in her sleep. She’d also spit on some of the pieces she’d dug up. A small amount of spite to be sure, but it got her through the days. But the thing was, she’d given up on ever getting free. It was a dream and not even one she had in the pitch of the night. Most of hers involved long, haunted corridors and the thrumming of something coming—she loved it.

The big human chimed in that he would help. Good. Surveying the group around her, there was little upper body strength to be had. One would think that mining their days away would build muscle. That wasn’t the case at all. With how little they ate, and how hard they worked—they were practically eating themselves from the inside. Mort had survived by—honestly, she didn’t know. She kicked her leg out underneath the table, catching a glimpse at the band around her ankle. Her magic wasn’t sustaining her. Maybe it had to do with being an elf. A question for another day.

About that time a feyling popped his head up, and Mort’s eyes went wide in surprise. That would make two small creatures, a possibly useful elf, two useful humans, and a sentient sack of potatoes. 

[color=#7fbbba]“When we get the cuffs off, human,”[/color]  Mort said looking straight at Kristo, [color=#7fbbba]“I am more than happy to provide a distraction big enough to escape. This is not a prison people leave from. It is built upon the bones of the innocent and the maligned, and from those bones, I will raise an army that will be thirsty for revenge.”[/color]  She let her words peter off before shrugging. [color=#7fbbba]“Maybe. I’m actually unsure where the corpses go after they fall. I haven’t been one—yet—so I haven’t gotten the honor. So, if you happen to kill a few guards, or maybe a few people around here you don’t like, then I’ll raise them.”[/color]  

She finally caught up to whatever solid chunk had been floating around in her soup only to discover it was gristle. Eh. Gristle was still food. [color=#7fbbba]“But the goblin is right, we have precious little time, and we need to use it wisely. I’m assuming the rest of you lot have useful skills. Maxim’s is obvious. Unless all that strength has been honed into knitting sweaters. Titus’s are also evident,”[/color]  she said as she smiled at him, [color=#7fbbba]“as we would be nowhere without his expertise. And you know mine. Well… you know the basics.”[/color] The way she said that last sentence was less like she didn’t want to explain the ins and outs of her powers, but that she wasn’t going to tell all in case she had to use it on them. And she looked at every single one of them to really bring that home.[/color][hr][/indent][/indent]