Smack.

  Abell groaned, shifting to his side.

  Smack.

  His eyes began to open, seeing a blurry figure standing over him.

  The An even harder smack came.

  Abell jolted upright, gasping. "What the—" He grabbed his face, blinking hard. The figure coming into focus.

  Gaius was crouched over him, hand still raised. "Finally."

  "Did you just slap me?" Abell asked.

  "Yes I did."

  "You could've taken it easy?" He said, grabbing his cheek.

  "I did that first. But you didn’t respond.." Gaius stood and looked down the corridor. "Can you walk?"

  Abell tested his legs, planting a hand against the wall to push himself up. He got upright and stayed there for a moment.

  "Yeah, I should be good."

  "Good." Gaius started moving.

  Abell stared at his back. "Where are we going?."

  "Deeper, I want to find that “Lab”."

  "Lab?" Abell asked.

  "After Raxus beat you some old guy came in, saying we’re going to be taken to a lab.”

  Abell looked at the darkness stretching ahead. "What’s a lab?"

  Gaius paused, shaking his head. “You really are an dumbass.”

  “I’m getting tired of you calling me that dammit… I’m from a small farming town.” Abell blushed. “I don’t know these city words.”

  “Hmph.” Gaius scoffed. “It’s a place where people run test on things.”

  “Okay, why are we going there? Isn’t it smarter to leave?”

  "There's something down here." Gaius kept walking. "I need to find."

  Abell didn't move. "What does that mean?"

  Gaius stopped. For a moment he just stood there with his back to Abell. Then he spoke.

  "I heard from one of Raxus's men about this “Lab”. "I want to see if I’m correct about what I’m thinking." he paused.

  Abell was quiet for a second.

  "You’re an odd guy, but I’ll go along."

  Gaius didn't answer. Which was an answer.

  “I hope we see Raxus again. I won’t be taken down so easily again.”

  Abell looked at the darkness ahead one more time. Then he followed.

  They moved in silence through the corridor, the torchlight thinning the deeper they went.

  Genevieve's blade… They took it.

  The thought hit him out of nowhere. His hand moved to his back instinctively — nothing was there.

  He forced himself to keep walking. But the absence of it sat wrong, That blade had become too important to him

  "Hey." Abell kept his voice low. "Do you know where our stuff is?"

  "No." Gaius didn't look back. "But it should be somewhere in this place."

  Abell said nothing, giving a somber face.

  “Don’t worry Raxus seemed busy, well get our stuff back.” Gaius said.

  "I hope so.”

  Abell closed his hand into a fist.

  I promise, I’ll never let that blade go again.

  The corridor bent left. Gaius slowed, checking ahead.

  "How long have you been doing this?" Abell asked.

  "Doing what?"

  "This thieving stuff.."

  "Since I was a child."

  "Why?"

  Gaius glanced back at him. "My family is poor and… as you seen the lower quarters isn’t a nice place.

  Abell only nodded.

  “Do you have siblings?” he asked.

  “Yes, five of them.”

  Five?" Abell glanced at him.

  "Three are younger and the rest are older. Gaius kept his eyes forward.

  "That's a lot of mouths to feed."

  "Yes."

  "And you've been handling that since you were what, young?"

  Gaius said nothing.

  Abell took that as a yes.

  No wonder why he’s so strong…

  "I have a sister," Abell said after a moment. "Just one. She's been gone for a while now."

  Gaius glanced back at him briefly. He didn't ask. But he didn't look away immediately either.

  "That blade I had was hers." Abell said it quietly. "It's my family have left of her."

  Gaius turned forward again. "Then we'll find it."

  The corridor narrowed as they went deeper, the ceiling dropping low enough that Abell had to watch his head. The torches were spaced further apart down here, leaving long stretches of near darkness between each one.

  Then Gaius stopped.

  Abell almost walked into him.

  Ahead, the corridor opened into a small landing. Stone steps cut downward into the floor, descending into darkness. The air rising from below was heavier.

  Gaius crouched at the top of the stairs, listening.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  He looked back at Abell and gestured down with two fingers.

  They descended slowly, Abell kept his hand on the wall, the stone cold and slick under his palm. The smell grew stronger the lower they went.

  At the bottom the stairs opened up.

  Abell stopped.

  The chamber stretched out before them, wider than he expected. Stone walls, rough and unfinished. Iron brackets mounted at intervals holding thick candles, most burned low. Wooden tables ran along one side, covered in clay vessels, copper tubing, parchment sheets covered in handwriting. Iron cages lined the opposite wall, bolted directly into the stone.

  Most were empty.

  Not all of them.

  Abell could only stare, wondering.

  What is this place.

  Gaius moved first, walking to the nearest table. He picked up one of the parchment sheets and scanned it, his expression unreadable as always.

  Abell stayed near the stairs, almost hesitant to move. His eyes slowing moving across the cages.

  The cages that weren't empty held people. Some were slumped against the bars, clothes torn with dark veins crawling up their necks and across their faces. Some were breathing. Barely and the rest just motionless.

  He moved closer to one of the cages. An older man had dark veins crawling up his arms and neck. His eyes were open but were motionless. He tried to speak but nothing came just empty gasps.

  Abell jumped back from the cage, fear crawling in his body.

  "The heck happened to you old man?"

  "I see it." Gaius said.

  "What did they do to them."

  Gaius set the paper down. "They are being injected with something." He moved to the next table, picking up a clay vessel and examining it. A dark liquid sloshed inside. "My guess is this."

  Abell looked at the liquid. Then back at the cages.

  "What's that? Some kind of drug?" he asked.

  Then a sound from the far end of the chamber. Both of them went still and tensed up.

  Someone moving between the tables on the other side of the room, hidden behind a row of shelving stacked with more vessels and equipment.

  Gaius grabbed Abell's arm and pulled him behind the nearest table, both dropping low.

  The footsteps got closer.

  A figure appeared — a robed man, candle in one hand, documents in the other, muttering to himself. He moved along the cages without looking up, stopping to scribble notes as he went.

  “I don’t get paid enough for this shit.”

  Abell held his breath but the suspense was getting to him.

  The man stopped for a moment. He Looked up from his notes. Turned his head slowly toward where they were crouched.

  Neither of them moved.

  The candle flame flickered.

  The man looked back down at his document, made another note, and walked up the stairs.

  Abell exhaled hard.

  "I never want to sneak around again." He looked at Gaius. "Next time we do it my way."

  Gaius was already moving, deeper into the chamber.

  "Who says there will be a next time." he said.

  The next room beyond was smaller. Only a single torch mounted on the wall.. The smell was worse in here.

  Several cages lined the walls. Most held wolf-type Grade-D's, dark matted fur and magenta orbs pulsing faintly in their chests. All asleep. But two cages at the far end were larger, reinforced with thicker bars. The creatures inside were bigger, white bone-like masks covering their faces. Their chests rose and fell slowly.

  Abell almost let out a scream.

  “What the heck a malignant!”

  The thing looked smaller than the ones he'd fought before. But this one was sluggish somehow. Like it's energy was being sapped.

  “What’s this doing under the city?”

  "They're using it for something, maybe that liquid has…" Gaius said quietly.

  Gaius looked at the copper tubing running from a vessel beside the cage, then at the dark liquid inside.

  They stood there for a moment.

  “Why would this lab be here?” Abell asked. “Is it some kind of training facility?”

  Gaius chuckled slightly, “I highly doubt that…”

  “Maybe their looking for someone strong enough to face malignants or something.”

  “Please stop talking.” Gaius said.

  They moved into the next chamber, eyes scanning the cages as they walked.

  More and more people were locked up. Unlike the main chamber, these people were hyper and aggressive, kicking at the bars with crazed expressions. Some screamed — words and some just raw sounds that bounced off the stone walls and filled the whole chamber. Others threw themselves repeatedly against the bars like they'd forgotten what pain was.

  One man lunged at Abell as he passed, fingers reaching through the gaps. Abell stepped back on instinct.

  He looked at the man's face. The veining had spread all the way up his forehead, dark lines branching across his skin like cracks in old wood. His eyes were unfocused, darting, all over the room.

  Abell held his gaze for a second.

  The man screamed directly at him.

  Abell just smirked.

  There are some interesting things in this world, huh.

  Abell followed Gaius, still glancing back at the door they'd just come through.

  "These people… I wonder what's making them like that?"

  One guy spat at Abell’s feet, growling incoherently. Abell’s eyebrow began to twitch as more spit came his way.

  Before he could react.

  Gaius stopped walking.

  Abell almost walked into him.

  He looked at the cage Gaius was standing in front of. It was smaller than the others, tucked into the far corner of the chamber where the torchlight barely reached.

  The boy inside looked young. He was slumped against the back wall, head down. The same dark veining marked his skin, crawling up his neck and across his jaw. His chest wasn't moving.

  Gaius was still. Completely still. His eyes hadn't moved from the boy's face.

  "You know this kid?" Abell asked quietly.

  A long pause came.

  "I said I had five siblings earlier... but it was six."

  He stood there a moment longer.

  Abell understood, nothing more had to be said. Or more like there was nothing to say.

  Gaius picked the lock, opening the cage. He Knelt down at the boy's body closing his eyes.

  “Sorry, I was too late.”

  Slight tears formed at his eyes but he shrugged them off quickly.

  “C’mon let’s go, I’ve seen enough.”

  Abell could only follow him.

  They moved back through the main chamber toward the corridor they'd come from.

  Abell kept his eyes forward. Gaius walked ahead of him with the same steady pace.

  The crazed prisoners rattled their cages as they passed.

  The chamber was longer than he'd first realized. More cages lined the walls further back, most of them empty, bars rusted and bent. Some had old chains still bolted to the stone inside, nothing attached to them anymore. Whatever had been in them was either moved or gone.

  He didn't want to think too hard about which one.

  On the wall beside one of the empty cages, someone had scratched letters into the stone. Probably with their fingernails or some blade.

  Help us. It said.

  Augustus will meet his end

  Don't forget us

  Luminaries won't save us.

  The four families are evil.

  Abell stared at the wall, wondering what could be taken place here and why.

  "Cmon let's get move." Gaius said from ahead without looking back.

  Abell pulled his eyes away and kept walking.

  Further along, more writing covered the walls. Names mostly, scratched at different heights, the stone still pale where it had been carved. Others older some worn smooth by damp air until they were barely readable. One section had tally marks running in long rows — days counted by someone who had nothing else to do.

  Abell counted them without meaning to.

  He stopped counting at forty.

  He looked away from the wall and back at the people still in the cages they passed. Most were throwing themselves at the bars, snarling. But one woman near the end sat completely still, back straight, staring at the opposite wall. No veining on her skin yet. She looked almost normal except for her eyes, which were hollow in a way that had nothing to do with the experiments.

  She turned her head slowly as Abell passed.

  He glanced at Gaius ahead of him.

  Gaius had stopped in front of one of the empty cages. Just for a second. His hand came up and gripped one of the bars, not pulling on it, just holding it. His knuckles went white.

  Then he let go and kept walking like it hadn't happened.

  "Gaius." Abell kept his voice low. "What do we do now?"

  "We should get out first."

  "And then?"

  Gaius was quiet for a moment. "Someone needs to know about this place."

  Abell looked back at the chamber. "And the people in here?"

  "We can't do anything for them right now," Gaius said it flatly, but something underneath it wasn't flat at all. "Not yet, at least."

  Abell didn't push it.

  They reached the corridor with the stairs in sight

  Gaius slowed and came to a halt.

  “You gotta stop doing that."

  Then he looked up.

  At the top of the staircase stood a man.

  He was enormous, the kind of size that didn't seem real until you were looking at it. He had Arms like stone pillars, a neck like a tree trunk and his face was flat and expressionless, no hair, thick beard, eyes small and dark beneath a heavy brow.

  He looked down at them the way a person looks at something they've already decided to step on.

  Neither Abell nor Gaius moved.

  The man said nothing at first.

  He just started descending the stairs. Each step slow and serious, the stone groaning faintly under his weight.

  Abell looked at Gaius.

  Gaius looked at Abell.

  Then the man spoke with an elegant tone.

  “So… you are the new guests Raxus told me about.”