As they were about to go back onto the main road, an unexpected variable occurred. Yuki was about to fly around without her wings to look for their next destination, when she suddenly fell down immediately after leaving the ground. Irritated and disoriented she looked around, trying to understand what was going on. It was then when it happened. An arrow shot towards Yamato from behind, barely missing him after he dodged it last second. Or rather almost dodged, as the tip of the arrow still scratched his arm. Yuki, catching another arrow aimed at her mid air was about to respond accordingly, when a second and third one hit her, unable to deflect everything because of still being disoriented. The moment Yamato tried to locate the attackers, he felt his body go numb. He realized the arrows must have been poisoned, though Yuki still tried to force herself up to stand despite being hit in the leg and arm. Which was the last thing he saw before he felt his consciousness slowly fading away.
Hours must have passed, because once he woke up, it was already dark. He could tell since in the prison cell he was in, there was a small window locked by bars, much to high to reach. As he tried to stand up, the first thing he noticed were the chains around his ankles, however his hands were free. The cell was relatively small, around three cubic meters. There was a single candle lighting the enitre section outside the cell, which was his only source of light alongside the faint moonlight shining in through the window. Yuki was nowhere to be seen, which was a rather irritating to him. The next thing he noticed was the person standing infront of his cell. An old man with a serious expression, seemingly reading something, while leaning against a wall. Though he could not quite see his ears, he thought him to be an elf. He was probably waiting for Yamato to wake up. But Yamato was careful not to show any signs of having woken up, as he controlled his breathing and moved as little as possible to avoid making sounds. He had a few theories as to what this was about. Thinking to himself was the only thing he could do right now anyway.
"Well, this escalated quickly… Here I was thinking this could be resolved peacefully. I struggle to evaluate my situation right now… I don't think I made a mistake so far. All my actions were either necessary or careful… Yet I find myself at a disadvantage. Maybe even in danger? It sure feels less safe without Yuki around. But whatever. That guy is hard to read without starting a conversation. If I had to guess then I'd say Yuki not too far away... At least I hope so. If I break out, finding her should be my first priority. Though it is not that unlikely that she was brought somewhere different entirely. I don't know how big this thing is, so it is not even clear if I would be able to find her if I was free…Too many if's to risk just breaking out with brute force. I guess the best thing to do is talk to that guy and get more information."
And so he made himself noticeable and stood up. The man closed his book and looked over to him immediately, as he stood there expressionless in his usual calm. The man spoke in a normal tone, not what Yamato had expected of an elven guard, as he assumed to be looked down upon for being a human.
"Finally, you woke up. I am here to ask you a few questions that you'll have to answer if you wanna get out of here."
"I can get out of here?"
"Depends on your answers. The first question. Who are you and the woman with you?"
"My name is Yamato. Her name is Yuki."
"And? Can you tell me a bit more than your names? I'd like to know where you two came from, where you are headed and what your relationship is."
Yamato looked even more bored and laid flat on the ground now looking at the cealing of his cell. His voice was as bored as his expression.
"Why am I even here? I have done nothing wrong."
"Just answer the questions please."
"I just find it a bit unorthodox that I was brought here without any warning and got shot at without having done anything to provoke such hostility."
The man look slightly surprised by Yamato's responds. Though he remained professional.
"That's not what I've been told. But I'm just here to ask you questions, so please proceed with answering them."
"Right... Where we came from? A near by village that got destroyed recently. We were headed somewhere we could live, as sadly, we are the only survivors of said destroyed village. As for my relationship with Yuki, we're…"
"Was she questioned too? If so, they would be comparing my answers to hers… So, what would she respond to that? She wouldn't make up some relationship, right? Urgh, she might… That makes this so much more complicated… Whatever…"
"She and I are in a romantic relationship…"
"That checks out… That's all I needed then."
"It was?"
"That's a weird set of questions… If not followed up by more…"
"Yes."
"Then I have a few questions myself. When you brought Yuki here, were her wounds treated?"
"She had no injuries by the time she arrived."
"Ah. I'm so glad!"
"So she is here too. That's good to know."
"However I haven't heard of her being questioned yet."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe if you let me talk to her, we could try to settle this together?"
"I'm not authorized to allow that, but I will present it as an option."
"So I'm going to stay here for a while…"
"There's no way around that, yes."
Yamato looked away from the cealing, at the guard who packed the notes he took during their conversation into a paper folder. Remaining expressionless, even though he was incredibly annoyed right now. Now all by himself, he began to ponder about what to do next.
"I suppose that's a good thing. I guess she will just not say anything, that way we don't have to get our stories straight. However, we don't even know what they want from us. Maybe they know about what happened at the alley… I can't think of anything else, at least. In that case proving our innocence could be impossible… I wonder why I am not being tortured. In a medieval time like this, that should be rather common. But he just asks questions and answers mine too. Though, I suppose elves are usually depicted as graceful people. Getting too comfortable would still be naive, so I should think of a way to get out of here as quickly as possible."
Suddenly the candle in the room went out, The sudden darkness making him reach to grab a weapon from somewhere out of Yamato's sight. However before he reached anything to defend himself, he fell to the ground. Yamato was not seeing much due to the darkness, just looking at what he saw as an empty hallway. He got up from the ground and listened closely to any sounds he could hear. Slow, heavy steps approached his cell, but he was pretty sure they were not Yuki's.
Meanwhile Yuki, after Yamato was knocked out by the poison, analyzed it quickly to make sure he was not in any immediate danger because of it. After making sure it was only a tranquilizer, she used the little mana she had to heal his and her wounds. And decided to pretend that she was knocked out as well, to lure their attackers out. However she only did this since their intention did not seem to be to kill them. Shortly after, she heard multiple steps close in on them. After both were carried into a carriage, she decided to take a peek around, finding herself in a small metal box with Yamato next to her. For some reason however, she was unable to use any kind of magic, despite having a bit of mana left. She theorized if she could brute force their way out, but decided against it since she was not sure what Yamato would want. The next time she opened her eyes and stopped pretending to be asleep, she was already in a cell together with about 20 different people, all female non-evles. More importantly, Yamato was nowhere to be seen, which of course changed how she viewed this situation immensely. Since they seemed to be free to walk around the rectangular cell, she looked past the bars and found only one fuard outside.
"This is the first time master and I are separated, oh how I hate it already… I'm sure you miss me, so I should hurry and convince them of our immediate release, yes!"
She decided that it was imperative for her to stay calm and act reasonable, to assure their reunion as soon as possible.
Studying the cell for a moment, she noticed everyone else was starving and wore dirty clothes, which led her to conclude that people here were not treated nicely. As she pondered on whether or not to save any of the other inmates, her thoughts were rudely interrupted by the guard, who seemed to have noticed her waking up by now.
"Hey, you, come with me."
The guard walked up to the door and opened it, signaling for her to come along. However she payed him no attention, and instead went over to a scared woman in a the corner of the cell, crouching down next to her and asking in a friendly tone.
"Hey, you… Do you want to get out of here?"
"H-huh?"
"You heard me. I can help you, if you only do me a krill favor, pretty please?"
"W-what favor?"
"This prison thingy here, it's separated by gender, yes?"
"I-I've never seen a male inmate here…"
"I said come out!", said the guard in a much harsher tone than the first time, kicking the bars in with his heavy armor to get her attention. However Yuki continued to ignore him.
"I see… So would you happen to know where the male inmates are brought? It'd be a bother if I had to search through the entire thing…"
"I-… No, I don't know anything… I'm sorry, please jusg help me… I don't know anything… I promise…"
"Huh… But then you don't give me anything… That's no good… Does anyone else know where the male inmates are? No one?"
She asked into the room, though no one answered. The only response was the guard, now furious, entering the cell with a stick-like tool out of metal, she assumed was meant to be used on inmates that misbehave.
As he prepared to hit her in the back with it, her wings appeared out of nowhere and right in his chest, piercing through the heavy armor like it was nothing. As the body collapsed behind her, Yuki just calmly smiled at the now terrified woman.
"Shhh, don't worry, I will help you… But for our escape, I need you to go look for something for me. Do you think you can do that? If you do, you and I will get out of here together, I promise."