Mira woke to a friendly tap symbolising unfriendly things. Metal clanged against metal, echoing just sharply enough to jar her sluggish mind out of its sleep. Cold stone blessed her first, starting her morning with a shiver and instantly reminding her were she was.
Prison.
...or a confinement cell rather. She hadn't really done anything worth of prison, except for existing near beings stronger and smarter than she was.
She blinked and allowed the nebulous shapes outside the bars to start making sense before she did anything.
Outside, were three hefty men, standing impatiently as if they didn't want to be there any longer. And in truth, if any actually did, she wouldn't have been surprised. She would have been baffled.
Their faces were unreadable, radiating with professionalism that even the secret service could not match.
Mira frowned, throwing another pebble, but this time with purpose.
"Wake up," she said as the pebble hit Thea.
Thea stirred groggily, unable to realise that she had not slept in the salon she made her hair again. Eventually she did, because "Andy's Salon" did not reek of blood and was plated with tiles and not rough stone.
The bars opened with a harsh scrape, almost advertising its rudimentary design.
"Come with us," said one of them, toning his voice to make it clear that it wasn't up for questioning or debate. Mira didn't intend to argue anyway, if she wanted to, she would have done that when they were surrounded in the cave. She stood without hesitation and urged Thea to do same.
The men did not exercise caution, they did not restrain them or throw threats either. They simply walked ahead, knowing that their prisoners would follow.
The path slanted downwards as they went further. Barely noticeable in its decline, but definitely in the air as it got cooler with time. Torches still burned along the walls, but fewer than before, giving shadows more dominion as the path winded down.
Mira kept her eyes sharp, memorising the turns and distance to anything landmark-ish. In the near future, they could find themselves with the opportunity to escape, and if they didn't know the route, then she wouldn't just feel foolish anymore. She'd feel mentally ill.
They kept going down until they reached a place that made remote environments look urban. And there, two people waited for them.
***
The first one was a guard, standing near the wall with the kind of stone cold expression that felt more bland than intimidating.
The other was the guarded, sitting on a piece of stone that seemed almost like a properly carved chair. His gruff aura was the first thing that stood out. He was the kind of person that always knew more than he said, even when he wasn't trying to hide anything.
He was weathered too, looking like he saw the ghost of his grandparents at every possible moment. But below that, was regality.
Authority was the second heart that beat in his chest. Mira caught the implications immediately. This was the head of the Chamber, or one of the heads.
He gestured towards a piece of rock laying opposite to him. "Sit," he said, his voice sounding like it had been partially dampened by echoing through his mustache.
Mira looked at the stone and what it meant. There was only one piece, and the man must have definitely known that there were two of them. So why would he not provide enough? After all, rocks were not expensive commodities. So the one piece wasn't furniture anymore, it was significance. She was the one who had been needed, warranting their capture. Thea had just been a victim of circumstance.
'And yet she was the one feeling guilty.'
She sat despite that.
The man leaned forward, making his guard adjust to keep proximity just as close.
"Mira right?"
She didn't answer, she didn't nod. She didn't need to confirm, because she was sure he was sure about her name. But who had told him about her? Had it been Pluto? Was he also locked up inside here?
" I have a few questions for you. Answer it well enough, and maybe you'll leave..."
"... otherwise, you might as well become one of us."
Mira gulped down hard, trying to swallow the tension that her momentarily blocked her throat.
The man waited a while, suppressing the violent cough that begged to roar out. He folded his arms once he regained his composure.
" What abilities do you possess?"
Mira thought about lying for a brief moment. "Sharpening of wood."
The man was caught of guard for a moment, surprised at how specific her ability was. Nevertheless, suspicion still lingered in his eyes.
"Is that all?"
"That I know of, yes."
He huffed disappointedly. "Let's cut to the chase then. Where were you recently?"
Mira thought hard. "With her," she pointed at Thea, " a few hundred metres away from the cave your people surrounded me at."
The man shook his head. "Before that," he asked more calmly.
Mira's eyes widened slightly. This question wasn't just meant to know her location, but a lot of other things that was intricately lined with it. Like the corridor, or even the Owl. She wasn't inclined to keep it a secret, but the fact that they had an idea about it was disturbing enough. So she would.
Her silence buzzed in the air, creating pressure that almost brought Thea to her knees. The man waited for a few seconds, pretending like he was actually awaiting an answer.
"I'm not in the mood to torture girls today. Even in the regular world, that was no fun. So I'll give you time, as much as you'd like," then he turned to the men that brought them in," but in that time, they'll receive neither food nor water."
Mira snickered silently. She had enough spirit to survive until the compression forced them to move. And if they were trying to relocate into the corridor, they would eventually have to start negotiating with her.
His eyes swept across her. "I'm sure you can accept that. But can she? How would she feel knowing that all her suffering can be ended with a few words? And how would she feel, knowing her supposed friend, was the one refusing to speak?"
Mira gritted her teeth with murderous force. This was yet another person trying to dictate what she was to do. But for the sake of sheer spite, she would die before that happened. She would let him know that she wasn't afraid. Or rather, she would not let him see her fear.
It had barely been a month since the trials had started, and yet this man had already amassed such power.
But such power wasn't impressive. It was impression. It was gotten when fear had not faded and when speaking without doubt was viewed as competence.
But eventually, it would fade and the cracks would reveal themselves. And someone more capable would take the position.
But that didn't matter now. The men stepped forward and took them back the way they came, leaving them in the prison once more.
Left to brood in silence.
***
Khalifa watched Ronan walk closer to the hill from a distance. Her face was full of apprehension, and so was Ronan's. But something about it intrigued him as much as it frightened him.
It could be a cage for something vile, for something too dangerous to have been left roaming the forest along with the other predators. Or it could also be shelter.
They had spent the night at the environs, preparing as best they could so he could brave the unknown. Now the new morning had arrived, so waiting any longer would be unwise.
The face of eastern slope was strangely polished, smooth enough to walk up instead of climbing. As he did so, morning sunlight glistening through the mist. Not enough to force a squint, but noticeable brighter than the rest of the forest, with the exception of the owl's domain.
As he walked up, he wondered what laid inside. Maybe some indigen lived inside. Maybe something intelligent. Maybe something else.
His father had told him stories of cannibalistic Indians slaughtering trespassers without care, so the idea of horror wasn't real lost on him.
Then he noticed the defenses. Crossbows the size of refrigerators, each with anywhere from three to six massive rods stacked to the side of it. Coupled with the flammable resin and a powdery substance that he was sure he had seen somewhere before.
As he ascended, he didn't just see defenses again, he saw evidence of war.
Thick trails of ash resembling the burnt bodies of humans, fragments of charred metal, bits of broken bones. This place hadn't been a shelter, it had been a war city.
And if it was abandoned, all the resources left would theirs for the taking. Ronan felt his anxiety weaken as prospective excitement filtered in.
The hill was barely taller than a two storey building, so it only took a bit of a climb to get to its pinnacle.
The entrance was unsurprisingly dark. But oddly, was neat. Too maintained to have been by nature. He shivered slightly, summoning his ink spear.
The weapon that had saved him multiple times suddenly felt lacking and weak. He looked down, observing the dot a distance away that was Khalifa. She didn't advance when he hesitated at the entrance, instead she hesitated to even be as close as she was.
His rolled his eyes with disappointment. If he had been asked what she would have done in this scenario a month ago, he would have sworn on his life that she would have taken the lead to enter first.
In the regular world, she had also projected herself as a fearless person. But still, he had to understand that walking into a dark room in a printing press was much different from walking into an eerie cave that was probably inhabited by things that would make the world send nukes if they encountered it.
He stepped in and why immediately baffled by the interior. Intricate carvings littered the stone walls, weapons hung on racks looking like they were on showcase for a commercial advertisement, wooden beds that seemed like luxury.
And best of all, food items.
Some had gone bad, but the preserved ones were enough to make a feast out of. No, two feasts!
There was a lot more to it, but Ronan did not have the time to dwell on the discovery yet. He needed to make sure that he was the only one in there as of now.
At the very extreme was a passage leading to stairs. It was more inviting than the first darkness had been, and almost seemed to whisper cryptic words.
The stairs spiralled downwards, drilling farther down into the earth than the hill had revealed from the onset. There had to be at least several more floors below ground level.
He kept going down, growing more tense the more steps he took. Suddenly –
He saw it.
A pair of dark eyes.
Hungry ones.