I wasn't born at the bottom, but somehow, I fell there. I am actually the son of the Indigo Lord, only a step away from the top of the hierarchy, but my high ranking doesn't mean I am exempt from all problems. I don't have to be a part of the Crimson slaves to have to worry about diseases, like the sickness residing in my mother's lungs.

I can't stand to look at her, withering away more and more everyday, wasting her life away in bed. Especially when she does not have to. Although my father no longer has any room in his heart for her, already flirting with the first maiden of the Lilac Court, I will help her. I have traveled all over Esperia; finding a medicine man wasn't the problem, it was finding the ingredients to save her.

Still, my father's new relationship bothered me beyond words. Although on a political level, I could understand his decision, (the fact that if they should marry, it would raise my family's noble status into the Violet class) his actions almost dissed anytime I had seen him act in a loving manner towards my mother. No. I would not abandon her so easily. I would travel to the ends of the world and more for her. For three months now, I have been gathering the ingredients, and have found nearly all of them, all except one.

Most of them were herbs, like sorrel and heartswallow, which were easy to get. Even finding a hollow crystal wasn't too difficult, but it is the last ingredient that has been causing me strife, for the final component is a Catharsis stone. Coming from someplace beyond a mortal's ability to imagine, it is an actual stone fallen from the sky, burning orange and yellow, revealing the star inside. Only the Lilac Nobles are allowed to have those, and even then, they are kept under tight watch, leaving me with only one option: to steal one.

So now, scaling the outside of a purple painted tower, trying not to be spotted, is not one of my prouder moments, but when I spy the glowing rocks nesting inside, and slide in through the window, I know it's worth it. Feeling the warmth emitting from the one I slip in my pocket, I jump from the window and roll onto the ground, running away from the scene as I hear the sounds of alarms rising in the distance.

Following the medicine man's instructions carefully, I crush up the herbs with the Catharsis, putting the ground-up leaves into the hollow crystal, which I had already filled with spring water. The cure finished, I handed my mother, who had no idea what it was, the 'cup' and witnessed her drink it to her good health.

With the medicine completely swallowed, I watched her sit up, her sunken face plumping up again and her cheeks flushing. Her thanks to me came not in her usual whisper, ending with a cough, which I had heard ever since I was four-years-old, but in the voice of a headstrong woman whom I had never even had the chance to meet.

But although it seemed all of my problems had been solved, I still had to pay the price. For at that moment, the Lilac Officials came bursting through the door; they wanted my head, pulling me away from my mother and arresting me on the spot. I am now left to sit in the dungeons, surrounded by the only color worse than red: Grey.

I sit there for Myrial knows how long, my once dark periwinkle royal garments getting discolored and filthy on the floor as I await my sentence. Even though it's comforting, knowing that my mother is now safe, I can't help but feel superior to my surroundings. Feeling a rage flare up in my chest, I stood quickly and struck the wall in front of me once, twice, I lost count of how many times. I only stopped when the wall became spattered with the Crimson of my blood, the red liquid dripping down onto the stone floor.

Behind me, I could hear a laugh slightly tainted from insanity, poke fun at my outrage.

"You must be new," I heard the voice, a girl's, say, and I turned to face her. She was surprisingly my age, which I found strange, as there shouldn't be many adolescents in a place like this. Her hair was a flaming tangerine, matching the stained tunic she wore. In fact, the only thing that wasn't orange was her striking emerald eyes that pierced me all the way from across the hall. "What are you in here for?" she asked, breaking my attention away from her looks. "It's not every day you see a purple person in prison."

It's Indigo, my mind instantly corrected. "That is not any of your business," I snapped in reply. After all, it was not something someone of her rank deserved to know. However, my secret was somewhat revealed when my caretaker came in with a tray.

"Here ya go," the man thundered, pushing the tray under the bars. "It's yer last meal, so ya better enjoy it." Then, task completed, he sauntered off to care for another inmate.

"Woah," the girl breathed, and I immediately wished she would stop talking. "You're getting the death sentence? That's harsh."

"Was that supposed to be comforting?" I lashed out, picking at the stale loaf of bread that had been placed before me.

"No," the girl replied, "I was just trying to sympathize, but now I can see why they chose it. At least now I know I only have to deal with your crass self for an hour."

I stood up from my seated position of the floor. How dare a peasant from the Tangerine class speak to him like that! "You have no right to talk like that to me!" I yelled, grabbing the bars of the cell in frustration.

"Why? Cause you're from some fancy upper class? Hate to break it to ya, but colors don't matter here. We're all in for something and we're going to pay the consequences, and that includes you. So suck it up, because you've only got an hour until they come to take you away."

I stared at her, eyes wide in surprise. I had no words to reply to that, because while I hate to admit it, she was entirely correct.

"By the way, the name's Amber," the girl grinned, as though yelling at me one minute and introducing herself the next was a completely normal way to greet someone. Against my will, I felt a small smile grace my face. She was strange, but I found myself glad to have met her, and felt it only fair to share my name as well.

"I am known as Darion," I answered to her unspoken question, and she nodded, like she had known that from the minute she had met me.

"Alright, now how about we work together to bust out of this place?" she asked, her face going completely serious with the question.

"Excuse me?"

"Let's get out of here," Amber suggested again, as if repeating herself made her insane plan any clearer. "They are going to kill you soon anyway; what have you got to lose? Why not work together to escape?"

I raised my eyebrows, in both a look of surprise, and questioning. "You have a plan?" I inquired.

She laughed, the musical sound slipping out from between her lips, even in a place like this.

"Maybe..."