"Get up, I don't have time," she said, "but you'll tell me everything later."

My breathing was better and the nauseating feeling was passing, it was still very uncomfortable, to say the least, but I could manage it.

"And don't even try anything, or next time you won't get the chance to talk," she continued.

I wasn't about to try anything, even if I could beat her—which I clearly couldn't—I would still probably have to deal with the other ones, and I was also worried about Mina.

I flinched as she reached for the necklace.

"Don't let them see it, it might be problematic."

"My... my weapons," I said.

"Hm, yes, quite the special axe you have there...and arm." she said, "You can take it, but you'll probably have to part with it for a while, if everything goes right."

I heard her picking up the weapons and giving them to me, I was surprised that Moon didn't attack her, so I tried talking to her, but she didn't answer. I also decided to stop the flow on my left arm, Zanir advised it was better to not let people see it transformed, and so far things matched with what he told me.

The room was dark, so she led me with her hand on my back.

"Turn left," she said.

I did, using my hands to guide me, we walked up a passageway and I could see light at the end of it.

"Trust me and just play along with it, if they suspect you might be a threat to the mission, they will kill you," she said.

There were ten people in the room we arrived in, eleven, counting Mina, she was being held down on the ground by a man, she stopped struggling when she saw me. The place was the closest I'd seen so far with actual furniture, a more concrete sign of civilization, that there were people living there.

It wasn't a very big place, around thirty square meters. There were two floor lamps in the room, wooden sticks of around my size with a plate at the top, they gave off a bluish light that barely managed to illuminate the place properly, it was just enough so you could walk around without bumping into anything. There were also some stools and tables, all very crude, with function being the priority over decoration, and the door was just a rectangular piece of wood bolted to the wall.

They were almost all using matching clothes, similar to mine in some ways, a brownish shirt that extended in a skirt that went a little above knee in length, with arm protection, helmet, breastplate and shin guard, all made out of wood. Three of them didn't haven armor, and Mina.

What got my attention the most were the windows, there were two of them, one of them was open and there was light outside, it was still dark, but no different from a moonlit night aboveground.

Are we outside? The thought was enough to make me forget about the whole situation, my heart pounding in my chest.

No, that's impossible, we walked up for a couple of minutes from that room to here, there's no way we are outside. Right?

It was possible, a very slim possibility, given the fact that these weird people were here, if we were outside, they wouldn't go about undetected. I really wanted to just run past them and see it, but it was too dangerous, they might really kill me, I had to wait.

"There were two of them?" said one of the man. I recognized the voice as the one who was discussing with Alma back in the cell. He was a little shorter than me, white, squared jaw, trimmed beard and his hair was cut short.

"You not only let that one"—he pointed to Mina—"get past you, but you also didn't kill the other one yet."

Off to a bad start, uh?

"He's an... acquaintance of a friend, he wants to join the mission," said Alma.

"What? You can't just bring someone in the last moment, does he know the plan? What role would he get? One of the guards? We don't have more uniforms. And the acquaintance of a friend? Please, I have never seen you with anyone besides those three criminals," he said, scornful.

"You know nothing about me. It's the acquaintance of an old friend with whom I have a debt, and he will be joining the mission, whether you want it or not."

Bluffing? Not good...

"What is this about, Alma? Isn't a bit too late to bring someone else? They'll be here soon," said the man standing by the open window, he was taller than me, black, muscular, bald and with a thick beard.

"I know what I'm doing Setros," said Alma, turning to the man.

"You didn't answer my questions, you might be a key piece in all of this, but I won't let this fail because of your whims," said the other man.

"I don't want this to be a problem," she said, touching the dagger at her waist.

"Try it"—he pointed the spear that was standing vertically by his side towards her—"I'll tie you up like the animal you are, make the act more believable," he said.

"Enough!" said Rimni, she was as tall as me, had curly long hair and light brown skin "I want to trust you know what you're doing—"

"Then do."

"—but, we can't just go along without any information, we need more than 'he is a friend of a friend', and who is the girl? Explain it properly."

Long seconds passed, the tension in the air was almost palpable, I had to get ready in case things took a turn for the worse.

"Em," she said, "the truth is... I don't know who the girl is, but he's connected to the Cleave."

"Hah! That's a funny one," said Len, he was easily the shortest person in the room, besides Mina. He was white, hair reaching his shoulders and had very feminine features overall, If I hadn't heard his voice I'd have mistaken him for a girl, and even then, I wasn't sure.

"What kind of joke is this?" asked the man.

"I believe her," said Rimni, looking at Alma.

"Of course you do. And?" he said, his tone impatient.

"You know her kind doesn't lie, Drak, it's the truth."

Except she's shamelessly lying right now, I thought

"As she said, I know nothing about her, I need proof. Or I'll kill him right now and get this over with," said Drak.

"I don—" she started.

"Can't your 'acquaintance' speak for himself?"

Shit.

"I can," I said, impulsively, keeping quiet would just make them doubt me more.

"Then? Can you prove it?" he asked again.

It was impossible to prove anything only with words, and he knew that, no matter what I said, he could just dismiss it as a lie. No one would believe the stranger, but I had a way to prove it, maybe it was a bad idea, given Zanir's warning, but there would be no better timing, not doing it then would probably mean my death.

I pulled the pendant out and showed it to them.

"Is this proof enough?" I said, having no idea if it was.

If the tension was almost palpable before, now I was holding it with my hand.