Christopher’s mind was in turmoil as he was escorted roughly through the streets, apparently headed for the Lumen Dungeon. He was full of uncertainty on how to proceed. ‘Should I use Bookmark?’ ‘What is the risk of being killed now?’ ‘Or should I stay a little longer, try to get more information?’ ‘How much longer until the Blight attacks on this loop?’ such questions kept racing through his head, after his plan had turned into a complete failure.

He needed more information, there was still a lot that he could learn with every additional hour that he remained. He especially wanted to know how much longer it would take for the Blight to invade.

Christopher eventually reasoned that he should keep going, some risk would always be necessary and unavoidable if he wanted to succeed. Any battle against the monsters of the Blight could lead to his death as well, so this would hardly be the most dangerous situation he would have to deal with.

The sack pulled over his head only left Christopher with just a little bit of sight. He could only see a sliver of the wooden planks under his steps as they walked. The guards escorting him to his likely interrogation and imprisonment remained mostly silent on their march. Christopher could however hear the many people out in the streets where chaos was taking hold.

They must have been quite a strange sight to those panicked people heading for the shelters, him being escorted by numerous guards while the Alarms blared around them.

Those Soul Alarms eventually stopped whistling one by one. He could hear the emotions around him slowly turn from uncertainty and fear towards anger. That he himself had caused this chaos did not really quite sink in yet, but he was glad that this information was not known by the people around him. They might become an angry mob if they knew.

Christopher was still somewhat in shock due to the timing of the invasion having changed. Maybe he should have expected it. It certainly lent credence to the theory that the Blight had eyes and ears in Lumen, that they were more than an unthinking horde. Still, he did not dare make any assumptions on why it had changed. It might have simply been the flutter of a butterfly’s wing that had thrown off the timing of the attack after all. Christopher should have really accounted for this possibility.

One of the guards spoke.

“Prisoner bound for cell level three”

Christopher felt nervous as they entered what he assumed was the Lumen Dungeon. The temperature dropped as they moved through the colder interior. Christopher would have loved to lay eyes on what was yet another Stronghold against the Blight, but there was little he could learn with his vision obscured.

Christopher was first taken to a place for processing, the guards not bothering to clear his sight, leaving his head covered. The guards demanded that he imbue his Soul Force in what felt like a rough and square object that was pushed into his hands. Christopher very much expected that it was one of those items that allowed them to identify him from his signature. Christopher decided to comply with only some reluctance since he doubted that he would improve his situation by refusing. He also did not want to give them any reason to gather the information more forcefully, which they probably could.

They had already disarmed him of his steel dagger and other possessions, which included the forged documents that he had prepared. The only other stuff on him had been his scouting kit, and the clothing on his back. They of course did not know about his two new Soul Bound items and what was stored with [Soul Mark].

The guards commanded him to strip down naked, and nobody warned him when a torrent of water was unleashed in his direction, startling him with the coldness and the force put into the Art. The sack over his head made it difficult to breathe for a few moments. He cursed inwardly. ‘That was rather unnecessary.’ Christopher was not foolish enough to voice his thought. They finalized his processing by giving him some simple clothing and shoes to dress in while his vision was still obscured. The material did not even fit that well, chafing against his skin.

Soon they travelled deeper into the Dungeon. They walked through sections containing prisoners as well. He heard curses, pleading, and even wicked merriment as he was escorted through the hallways.

A shriek from somewhere deeper inside the building send a chill down his spine. Christopher did not know how Lumen treated their prisoner’s, but he decided that as soon as he saw any torture tools, he would [Bookmark] it the hell out of here. The restrictions on him that made him unable to talk about anything not from this world would give him serious trouble as well. He was not sure about their views on such matters, but he imagined that they did not treat suspected agents of the Blight all that well in their interrogations.

They appeared to move through multiple checkpoints, security clearly tight. The guards conversed in muffled tones as they moved through. At one point he was asked to stop after which he heard some magical constructs whir to life all around him.

“Clear, move him to his cell.”

Christopher heard a heavy door opening.

Christopher stumbled as he was pushed forward before colliding against a wall. Soon after someone clamped new manacles on his wrists, after which the sack over his head was finally removed. Christopher gazed at his dark cell, only illuminated by some blue light coming from beyond the still open door.

With the little light, Christopher could see that he was in a cell made completely out of some rough greenish stone. The only exceptions were the manacles and the door to his cell, which were made out of some strange purple material. The manacles were tied with a straight rod to a ring in the green stone.

Christopher did not doubt that he would have a hard time channeling Soul Force through the material of his bindings.

He gazed at the back of his wardens, who were already departing the cell. He did not bother with pleas as the purplish door was shut with a heavy scraping thud. This unfortunately also snuffed out the little light in his prison, leaving him in complete darkness. ‘Well, this is kind of terrifying’

At least nobody should be able to sneak up on him from this place. The door made a lot of noise so he would be alerted to any danger coming his way. After some time, Christopher strangely relaxed despite the dark.

Was he really a prisoner after all? His [Bookmark] ability could have him freed in moments, bringing him back to the relative safety of the caravan with his new [Bookmark] placement. He did not know if there were going to be more opportunities on this turn, but he would take any extra time he could get, even if it was just to rest in the dark and the silence for a while.

‘Could I escape?’ Christopher entertained for the first time. The logistics of keeping people locked up must be complex with the existence of Soul Arts. Christopher was no master escape artist, so this would require some thought. He had certainly never planned for a prison break. It was kind of obvious that there were measures against the existence of Soul Arts, making escape unlikely. The materials in his cell were almost certainly designed for magical occupants. The fact that the greenish stone and the purple material of his bindings were so exotic compared to what he had seen in the rest of Lumen suggested such a purpose as well.

‘Might as well put these materials to the test.’ If he could somehow alternate channeling Soul Frost and Soul Heat into his bindings, then that might compromise the integrity of the material with time. Him touching the material while infusing should keep himself from harm.

Christopher focused, creating the mental image of stilling the atoms. Christopher then tried to infuse just a tenth of his Soul Frost into the manacles, which was already touching the skin from his wrist. ‘Damn, nothing is happening as expected.’ The material would not even allow an infusion from Soul Frost, proving extremely resistant. ‘Not that surprising’ That plan seemed off the table.

Time to try something else. He still had his Soul Bound items from [Soul Mark] and the interface to summon. His Soul Bound items should be unknown to his wardens. Was he able to summon his weapons? Christopher quickly tried to summon the Adeline dagger into his right hand, manacled behind his back. He breathed out in relief when he felt the Adeline dagger materialize within his hand. [Soul Mark] was not affected by the cell and his bindings.

That was certainly a huge relief. That should mean that his [Bookmark] was also in the clear. He somewhat doubted that such a strong ability could be contained so easily. The fact that his other interface assisted ability worked without issue put his mind at ease.

For the next experiment, he decided to imbue some Soul Heat into the dagger. He figured that the very hot dagger blade might be able to cut through the links connecting him to the wall. More surprising to him this time, the infusion into the dagger also failed, the Soul Force was immediately dissipated away before entering the dagger. However, some of the blue soul mist clearly lit up the cell for a brief moment during his infusion; ‘What the hell happened there?’

Christopher activated [Soul Sense], and was relieved to find that it allowed him to sense his inner Soul circulation without issue. The skill still brought the accompanying nausea though.

‘Let’s try this again.’ He made sure to keep his [Soul Sense] active at a very weak pitch. He infused a tenth of his Soul Force as Soul Heat into the dagger blade once again, all the while keeping his [Soul Sense] focused on the process. He wanted to follow the path of his Soul Force, to find out where and when it dissipated.

This time he did not even manage to complete the process. Using [Soul Sense] while also infusing at the same time turned out to be rather tricky. Christopher realized that this might be a serious challenge, but he figured that it would at least occupy him and be a useful exercise to boot.

It took quite a few more tries, lowering his Soul Force reserve, but he eventually caught the tail end of the process. The culprit was the greenish stone that made up the walls of his cell. His [Soul Sense] caught what his eyes had not been able to see. The blue mist of His Soul Force was immediately dampened and then pulled towards the greenish stone instead of into his dagger.

It seemed that these cells had indeed been well designed for containment of Soul Mages. The shackles were extremely resistant to Soul Force, and the walls would suck up any efforts on anything else as well. This should make the Soul Arts completely useless for escape. Or at least useless at Christopher’s current level. He tried to cut through the rod connected with the manacles with his Adeline Dagger as well, but that did not even leave a scratch.

At least his inner circulation remained unaffected. Could he maybe use Soul Force to strengthen his muscles like the people at the arena and shatter the shackles that way? Christopher very much doubted that it would be that simple, but he could make a careful attempt when he had regenerated some of his Soul Force.

Breaking out of his bindings would only be the first of an endless number of challenges for getting out of the Lumen Dungeon, but it gave him something to think about. He did not really expect to break out though.

He realized he might be going slightly insane when he just enjoyed sitting there in the dark. There was nothing he could really do for his impossible mission right now. There were no White Crescent Spiders trying to tear him in half, and there was no pond of terror waiting for his submersion, no impossible thing to research. He did not have to push himself for once, it was literally impossible.

There was no way for him to monitor the passing of time, and he eventually drifted off into sleep. His exhaustion catching up with him.

Christopher startled out of his sleep when the door of his cell opened with a loud scraping noise, making light return after its temporary absence. Even that little bit of light managed to hurt Christopher’s eyes. He wondered how long he had slept. He did feel rather well rested.

Two male, and one female guard in the usual brown and green uniform entered his cell. They moved to unlatch him from the wall with a complicated contraption that gave a whole new meaning to the concept of a key.

“Be smart and cooperate” the female guard suggested.

“I can do that” Christopher responded calmly.

They left the manacles on his wrists connected behind his back. ‘So, what is it going to be? Torture chamber or interrogation room?’ Depending on the answer this might be the end of the loop for him.

They led him away from his cell. The hallway made from a more common type of stone, and illuminated by some regular Soul Light plates. It seemed as if the green stone was only used for the cells.

They reached a small room after only a single turn and less than a minute of walking. The purpose of the small room seemed immediately apparent to Christopher. Three chairs were placed around a table, all of them made out of the purplish material, but the walls were a more regular stone. One chair stood on the far side of the table, with two on the side closest to the door. Besides the strange colors, it looked exactly as he would have expected an interrogation room to look.

The furthest chair was clearly meant for binding a prisoner. This was soon confirmed when he was firmly pushed into that chair. They expertly clicked his manacles behind grooves into the seat itself. The lack of wiggle room to move his hands and feet unnerved him, but as long as they did not cover his head and mouth, then his ability to activate [Bookmark] would remain intact. There at least were no tools of torture in the room so Christopher hoped for a more peaceful interrogation to start with.

He only had to wait for a few minutes before his actual interrogator showed up, and his interrogators expression looked like stormclouds. It was the boss himself, Guard Captain Merrem walked in with a steely gaze. The hooded right-hand man shadowed his steps. The guard Captain must have spent the last few hours cleaning up the mess that Christopher had made so it was no wonder that the man looked all but pleased.

After the interrogation at the start of the loop, this would be Christopher’s second meeting with the leader of the Guards. The captain still wore the same white reflective armor, but the effect was less pronounced without the armor reflecting the sunlight. His braided hair and beard gave a distinguished look to the massive frame, while the crooked nose gave him a dangerous air. He could see the hilt of his famous battle-axe peeking out from over his shoulder. He knew all too well what power the man could bring to bear from the Arena fights.

Captain Merrem slammed the wooden door behind him.

“So, it really is you. You are going to regret the trouble you caused me!”

Christopher gulped. ‘I might not be able to talk my way out of this.’