The girls leaned in as Zain paused to sip his tea.
Savra tilted her head. "So that deep hole... was that really the trial?"
Zain nodded slowly. "If you can call hell a trial."
Velra raised a brow. "That bad?"
Zain gave a cold smirk. "Worse. Let me continue."
---
Mo Tianheng and the other children landed hard at the bottom of the pit.
Some hit the ground with a thud.
Others cried out. A few didn't move for a moment, winded and shaking.
The air was damp and cold. It smelled like blood, wet stone, and something rotten.
Groans and soft sobbing echoed off the walls.
As their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they looked around.
The pit was huge and deep, like a sunken prison.
All around them were rows and rows of small holes carved into the stone walls.
Not just a few.
Hundreds.
Each was barely the size of a crawl space.
A man in a dark robe stepped forward from above, standing on a ledge that overlooked the pit.
His face was shadowed, but his voice echoed clearly.
