Under The Divine Veil 【bxb】

CHAPTER XII

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TWELVE

                          Luckily, the patrols rarely directly interacted with any of the prisoners in the dungeon.

It had been a day and a half, but I still couldn't figure out a plan to get Atlas and I out. With no windows at all and a stone wall blocking out any possible escape route, there was no logical way to escape, and neither was I able to brute force it.

The only time anything in my cell was opened was when the patrols came to give us food. The small windows at the top of the door could be slid down to serve a small portion of food, but were shut tightly after the patrols left.

The food served consisted of hard, dry bread and a glass of water. The first time I attempted to take a bite of the bread, I had nearly broken a tooth.

For such a "benevolent" goddess, the Saintess really couldn't afford anything better?

Luckily, the shackles on our wrists had been removed after the first night, so I didn't have to worry about awkwardly eating or drinking anything with my hands constrained.

Meal time came once again, and the patrol lifted the window to push another piece of cold, hard bread in. It was so hard, it could rival the properties of the stone walls.

I listened carefully for the patrol's footsteps, and only when they completely faded away did I push myself off the ground, walking towards the small window on my door.

People from outside the cell could not hear inside, but the people inside could hear whatever happened outside. It was a rather strange and contradictory set-up, but I had no time to question it.

Pushing my eye against the glass, I leaned in to try and see into Atlas' cell. I could only slightly see the shadow of a figure through the door window, but he seemed to still be fine.

Despite my initial wariness of him when I had first arrived in Lunaris, he had begun to grow on me. We were both spies infiltrating the nobility, and, technically speaking, on each other's side. He was really the only person who I could rely on in this entire world, at least right now.

My sister, Celeste, and my friends Lucien and Xu Hua were hundreds of miles away from me at the moment. I could no longer rely on them, and I couldn't even contact them— my terminal had been removed the moment my wrists were shackled. I doubted they would return it until I was released from the cell. If I was ever released.

Atlas was my last hope. If I got out of this prison, I had to bring him with me, too. He was Master Saer's spy, and was probably more loyal to him than I could ever possibly imagine— but I couldn't bear the thought of abandoning him in a place so frigid and cold.

As I was thinking, the patrols began to come down the path again. My ears instantly perked up, listening for their movements.

Why did they come back? They never come down here aside from meal time.

There's no use for them to return, so why would they? I doubt we're getting released this early, so the only other option is—

My door slammed open, and a man dressed in all black was heavily thrown onto the floor of the cell.

— a new prisoner.