"Is this you showing off? You do know we can't see, right?" said Len.

"Right... no light," answered Alma.

There was the sound of stone on stone again, and light came into the room.

"What happened?" a new voice asked.

"They got careless," said Len.

"And I took care of it," completed Alma.

"I can see that..." said the man. "Setros, put the bodies in the cells, after taking their armor and weapons, be fast."

"Come on men, move! Let's do this right," said someone, probably Setros.

I could hear several footsteps as more people entered the place.

"Let's go on ahead, we have to get ready before they reach here," said the first man.

"Before that, there's someone else here, and I don't know for how long they have been listening," said Alma.

"What?! You were supposed to use those things of yours to check when you got here!"

"Not a problem, I'll take care of it." said Alma.

"Forget it arda, just go on already, Setros will—"

Suddenly, the noise from the chatting and bodies being moved and searched on stopped.

"I said, I'll take care of it. Don't underestimate me, human, don't talk down to me, I will kill you if you keep disrespecting me like this," said Alma.

"Showing your true nature, huh, arda?" he said, sniggering. "Killing me won't solve anything."

"It's a start," she said, the anger easily recognizable in her voice.

"Put the dagger away Alma, we only get one shot at this, let's not mess up now," said Rimni.

"I say kill him, one less dick to screw us over in the future," said Len.

"Shut up, Len, we have to do this right. Think, Alma, It's not worth it," continued Rimni.

A few seconds lingered in silence.

"Good," he said. "What are you all looking at, back to work, fast."

The noise started once again.

"You three, let's go ahead, as I said, it won't be long before they get here," he said.

"Are you okay?" asked Rimni.

"I'm fine, I just need to rest a little," answered Alma.

"Do you want me to stay?"

"Don't worry," answered Alma, "I'm fine."

"Em."

I heard footsteps going away.

There was some chatter, but I didn't hear the one called Alma again, after a couple of minutes the noise started to die out as the ones who remained finished what they were doing and left, including whoever was holding the light. Everything went dark again, and silent.

Did she leave?

They knew we were there, and from what I heard, that seemed to be a concern to them.

"How did you get inside here?"

She didn't.

"I know you are there, there's no point in staying silent."

But how did she know? It didn't matter now.

"There's a hole in this cell, it leads outside," I said.

"You're saying you came from the tunnels? Impossible, how did you survive there?"

"Barely, and I had some help."

Thinking about it, it really was quite unbelievable that I survived there for so long, I'd be dead a long time ago if it wasn't for Zanir, I wouldn't even be able to properly avoid the stronger sectioned, if not for my training and what he taught me.

"There"—I flinched at how close her voice suddenly was—"really is a hole."

"Oh, there's someone else with you. Hi," she stated.

"Hi," answered Mina.

"What's your name?" asked Alma, her tone completely different, less threatening.

"Mina,"

"That's a cute name, Mine's Alma."

"And you are?" she asked, instantly back to the harsh tone, like a switch she could easily flip.

"Michael," I said.

"Well, Mika"—Michael, I thought, but didn't correct her—"there's no point in me asking you what you heard or what you'll do with that information, because I wouldn't know if you were lying. So you have two options, you can either go back through that hole, which I will close soon after you leave, or... we'll have a problem."

"I can't go back, not before I find what I came here for," I said.

"And what's that?"

How could I answer that in way that didn't get me killed? If I said I wanted to find a way out of those caves, from what I learned about the people down there, she would probably think I was crazy.

I didn't get the chance to answer.

"What about you, Mina? Why are you with him?"

"I..."

"Is he forcing you?" Alma asked.

"No-I, I just... I wanted to see," she fumbled.

"See what?"

"Tamir..." she mumbled.

"Tamir?"

"He... Mika said he saw it, so I..." said Mina, sounding embarrassed.

"Is that so?" she said, sighing. "People lie, Mina, you shouldn't believe everything you're told. But perhaps I can try helping him get there. People say you go to Tamir when you die."

Since she killed those guys so easily, she could probably see in the dark, somehow; I literally couldn't see ten centimeters away from me, and what I could see were only dark shapes, but I could see, which meant there was some light source somewhere nearby, though very faint. I had to get there, and since she had the advantage here, I had to attack first. Catch her off guard.

"Mina," I said, my voice low, hoping Alma's hearing wasn't as good as her sight, "get ready to run as fast as you can, find the exit, I'll follow as soon as I can."

She might have nodded but I wasn't sure.

"So?" said Alma. "What will you do, Mika? I can arrange a place for Mina to stay, but you're a bigger risk, one that I can't take."

I sent Lu to my arm, using the brief light of the transforming process to try seeing where she was, but couldn't find her, I had to be fast. I swung the hammer upwards, hitting the door where I had felt something that might've been a lock, and the whole door violently flew open, and I instantly heard the metal hitting the wall to my left, or the ceiling.

I jumped out of the hole, and when I didn't drop dead, I assumed she was just as startled as I was by the power behind the blow. I could hear someone running, Mina. There was only her running, then a thud, for the eight time.

For a second, it felt like my heart stopped, I barely knew this girl, and yet, the thought that she might be dead scared me. I had to move, but I just couldn't, nothing came to mind, nothing except Asha's room, she was laying there, undressed, bruises all over her body, and a dark shadow in front of her. The silence coupled with the darkness reinforced the feeling that everything stopped along with me, I don't know for how long, maybe a minute or not even a second, but I just stood still, waiting for something to happen, for the world to move again.

A tap tap sound broke me out of my trance, the sound of feet kicking off the ground, small feet, running. Mina's.

I woke Moon up, the light faint, but enough to illuminate the whole room, it was as if the world slowly started to spin again. I saw only Mina, she was close to the exit, there were a number of cell-holes to either side of me, and blood on the walkway in the middle of the room. I didn't see anyone else, but I felt it, something that I'd experienced before, like someone was watching me, sometimes I was right, sometimes I wasn't. This time was different, it was many times stronger, like someone was pressing their body on my back, heavy, burning.

As the light started to die out, I turned as fast as I could, still too slow, instinctively swinging Moon, my eyes moving faster than my body, seeing the woman named Alma for the first time. She had marble white skin and milky hair, with two thick black dots where her eyebrows should be. But in the dim light, what caught my attention the most were her eyes, the white of it was pale blue, almost gray. Dagger in hand, she was less than one meter from stabbing me in the throat, I wouldn't reach in time.

Moon's spike shot from the handle, she managed to deflect with the dagger but Moon quickly wrapped herself around the her arm, pulling her towards the axe's blade as I swung towards her, but she still managed to dodge, using the momentum of the pull to punch me square in the stomach, all I could do was flex my abdomen and brace for it, but it didn't do much. She almost lifted me off of the ground with that hit, I fell, only really feeling the pain when my legs gave out and my knees hit the ground, and it was painful, a mixture of nausea and agony, I would probably have screamed if I could breath properly, instead I just coughed and wheezed, trying to bring air into my lungs and failing.

"You... that pendant, where did you get that?" she asked.

I could barely breath, speaking wasn't a priority, I focused on controlling my breathing. It didn't take long before the air flow got better, breathing was an important part of the Lu training, and I always did it when I had time, like had Zanir taught me.

"Where did you get that pendant?" she asked again, she had been waiting for my response.

"Zanir... gave... me," I said, taking deep breaths, trying to speak the minimum necessary.

"How... who are you?"