The silence in our dank prison cell stretched like a taut wire, broken only by the steady drip, drip of moisture somewhere in the darkness and the occasional pthoo of my cellmate's persistent spitting.
With nothing else to occupy my mind and the mounting boredom making the stone walls feel like they were closing in, I found myself studying the chained woman more closely.
"So," I said finally, my voice echoing in the confined space, "how did you become a slave?"
Her one visible yellow eye shifted toward me, studying my face with that same guarded expression I'd grown familiar with over the past few hours.
"My mother died," she said simply, her voice carrying that same matter-of-fact tone. "I needed to earn money."
I tilted my head, considering her words. Poor families often fell victim to labor scams—promised good work in distant cities, only to find themselves sold into bondage. It was unfortunately common in the outer territories.
"Ah, so you fell for some job trap—"
"So I killed my neighbor and robbed his money."
My mouth twitched involuntarily.
The casual way she delivered that confession, like discussing the weather, made something in my chest deflate with disappointment.
Sigh.
"So you're not going to tell me the truth," I said, letting my head fall back against the cold stone wall.
The woman's lips curved into what might have been a smirk. "First you tell me your story, then I'll think about it."
The deflection was so obvious it was almost insulting. But looking at her—bound, beaten, trapped in this hellhole with a stranger—I supposed I couldn't blame her for being cautious.
I shook my head and closed my eyes, settling back against the wall. If she wanted a story, fine. What did it matter now anyway?
"Nothing much," I began, my voice hollow in the darkness. "I was handling a territory, doing my husband's job while he was having an affair with my sister."
The words came easier than I expected, like poison finally being drained from a wound.
"When I heard the territory was about to fall to barbarian raids, I started collecting information—evidence I could use as a bargaining chip to survive."
My fingers absently traced the rough stone beside me. "But I underestimated how low my sister could fall."
A bitter laugh escaped my lips. "She fed me an aphrodisiac. My mind went completely numb, and given my already fractured past... losing what little sanity I had left..."
I paused, remembering that moment of complete breakdown. The overwhelming despair, the way everything had felt so pointless.
"I hugged that beast—Javrian—and told him to stab me to death."
'!'
"J-Javrian—" Even though it was the first time that a woman had uttered a word without spitting, as if she had swallowed it back upon hearing that name, which came from her mouth like a trembling ghost.
But instead of caring or even looking at her sock, which subsided soon enough, I was focused, for some reason, on letting the words keep flowing from my mouth.
"Only for him to be gentle. From within his heart, he was actually gentle." The memory sent an unexpected warmth through my chest. "Initially, I thought he was just some sadist—making me feel hopeful only to hurt me later. But when I got my sanity back and saw his genuine actions..."
I opened my eyes, staring at the moldy ceiling.
"I thought maybe I should just follow along. After all, there's nothing left for me in this life anyway."
My voice hardened. "But that punk abandoned me, and here I am now, sitting in prison—"
'Wait—!?!'
My eyes snapped open, every muscle in my body going rigid.
'What the hell did I just do?'
"What did you do to me?!" I lurched forward, my bound legs making me hop awkwardly like a rabbit as I grabbed the woman's collar with both hands.
My heart was racing, breath coming in sharp gasps as the realization crashed over me like a tidal wave.
I just told her everything.
EVERYTHING.
Secrets I should never have spoken aloud.
Information that could be used against Javrian, against me, against anyone connected to this mess.
"I—how did—" I stared into her yellow eye, searching for answers while my mind reeled. "You made me talk! Somehow you—"
The woman just looked back at me with that same patient expression, waiting silently as if this was exactly what she'd expected.
My breathing was ragged, panic making my vision blur at the edges.
What kind of sorcery was this?
How had she manipulated me into spilling my deepest secrets to a complete stranger?
I felt exposed, violated in a way that had nothing to do with physical harm and everything to do with having my mental defenses stripped away without my consent.
Especially given my mind had too many things deeply buried that what I uttered was just surface-level things, that I didn't care much, but the issue was what if those things of the past would have been uttered.
The past buried in the ground becomes a ghost that haunts, so it's better to just become numb to all that... but this woman.
She did something that just sent a chill through me, not out of fear but possibility.
I wasn't going to recall those meaningless portions back at any cost.
Making me direct my anger towards the woman as I started to utter.
"Don't you dare—" I started to yell, my grip tightening on her collar.
She tilted her head back, preparing to spit again, and something inside me snapped.
My hand shot up, clamping over her mouth before she could release another disgusting pthoo into our shared space.
"Don't make me more irritated and utter—"
BAM!
The entire prison shook as if struck by lightning.
Stone dust rained from the ceiling, and both of us froze mid-struggle, our heads turning in unison toward the source of the thunderous crash.
The wall—the thick stone barrier that had seemed so impenetrable—now sported a massive crack running from floor to ceiling, with chunks of masonry scattered across the floor.
And through that crack, I could see moonlight streaming in.
What in the—
"I checked that guy, he got his own balls in his mouth, haha."
"Shut up Kael, don't you know how to read the room?"
"Vera, stop the guards."
One after another, as if the sound earlier of the bowl crashing buried faded behind my eyes, I looked at the front where a man stood with those familiar silver eyes, behind whom were a bunch of other cloaked ones who were chatting, clearly making me slowly lose my hand from the collar of that woman.
And that man in the front, in a hushed voice, said something I didn't expect... no, I wasn't even expecting for him to return.
Let alone what he said.
"Here you are, my Luna."
'Why are you looking at me like that?' I could just ask as I saw his relieved expression, smile, and calm eyes with head tilted approaching me before, without my permission, he clasped my cheeks.
Nor could I reject a strong big beast like him, especially not when my hands were handcuffed.
As he closed his face, I pursed my lips, guessing he might do something indecent but... he did what made me hate him.
He placed his forehead on mine, leaning, uncaring of everyone looking at our direction, and said at a distance close enough for me to feel his warm breath.
"Listen wife, I felt relieved when you did that, but from now on, don't endanger yourself, or else... I don't know how many people I will kill."