As Celestial continued running, going every which way, he listened to the voices of various people, feeling as though he made a grave mistake. His suspicions were confirmed when one of the voices said, "We need to be quiet." He stopped running, panting heavily, which in an echoey tunnel, wasn't very quiet.

The sound of a splash made him flinch and he squinted to see in the dim light. Black claws reached around the cornor and a head was revealed. Its teeth were like a grown mans which for some reason, scared him more than fangs. Instinctively he tried to summon his spell book, but nothing happened. "Oh for fuck's sake," he muttered. The beast roared and Celestial turned tail and ran as fast as he could.

The magician sprinted from where he came but couldn't remember how to get back to the rest of the group, so he simply tried his best to lose the beast. He could hear its claws spark against the wall as it chased after him. Celestial could feel its rank breath on his back but even though his lungs screamed and muscles burned he kept running because his life depended on it. He could hear the voices of probably the poor people it had eaten come out of its mouth. "It hurts." "Stop it." "I want to go home." "Let me out!" "Save me." "Save me!" Voices chorused and he slapped his hands over his ears to drown out their cries. He took a left and found himself in a cell and turned around to see the thing standing, blocking the door. It was a dead end, Celestial backed up as far as he could and shut his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. But when he opened them, he saw that the monster had left. "It won't come in here, don't worry about it." Celestial turned to see a teenager sitting in the corner, the same cuffs around Celestial was wrapped around this person's body like a straitjacket. "Sorry for not getting up to shake your hand, but as you can see, I'm a bit out of sorts." Castro joked. "Though I advise you to stay away from me, despite the measures they took, I'm still a bit radioactive. What's your name? I'd ask what you're in here for but judging from your skin color I can guess."

"Servants...? Wait no, they're..." Lilith looked back at the rest of the group being disarmed and cuffed, but they were led away before she even had time to explain. "...Ah, forget it..."

As they were being led to the throne room, the woman remained quiet, watching her surroundings admiring certain parts of decoration. Once they were in the hall however, she leaned and whispered to Dino, but haven't looked at him while doing so. "Just...Try and behave in there, alright...? They all entered and her gaze moved towards the man on the throne, and...just the way he was sitting on it already brought disgust and bad memories, none of these visible on her face however. At king's gesture, Lilith made couple of steps forward, stopping few meters before the stairs. She already wondered how much of his size was the man himself, and how much of it was the armor. Putting right leg behind the left one, the woman held the flaps of her coat and curtsied gently.

"...King Arron, I presume...It's an honor..."

"...I guess..." She added in her thoughts, knowing that some people of high society simply cared not for such courtesy. She yet didn't know what to expect.

Celestial ran for his life. Despite his burning lungs and the stench of the monster's breath, he continued running. He had no idea how to get back, so he just ran around trying to lose the monster. He ended up making a final left turn and ended up at a dead end. He backed up as far as he could and closed his eyes, accepting death. But when death didn't come, he opened his eyes. The monster was gone and Celestial sighed in relief.

"It won't come in here, don't worry about it."

Celestial quickly spun around and saw a teenage boy, his arms as though he were in a straitjacket. He made a joke and Celestial chuckled awkwardly. "My name's Celestial, I'm from a different dimension. A demension where black people exist. And you are?" Celestial stood back a little from him, keeping the radioactive comment in the back of his mind.

"Black people exist here too, they're just not look as equals exactly." Casto sat up straighter. "I know it's primitive. But with a king like Arron, any word about it gets you sent here where you're fed to it." He nodded out of the cell. "Thing doesn't come in here because it's afraid of magic. Cept these cuffs make magicians pretty useless against him. Good thing mine is more innate than other people." Castro grinned. "Kept me alive so no complaints. Oh sorry, my name is Castro. I'm a grand arch magician, and was a close friend to Arron until me and him saw differently and he locked me up and sent me down here." He did his best attempt to shrug. "Ain't too bad, cept it's cold and damp and boring as all hell. But better than being dead. Which I would've been if I had tried to fight Arron, gave the man a gift that I kinda regret right now." Castro laughed.

As part of their group was taken away, Dino treated the events with nonchalance. He simply followed. From experience, it's better to talk only to the boss. And soon enough, he managed to get right in front of the big man around here. And although Lilith had warned him, he wanted to get information his way for once. As Lilith bowed to the king, Dino slipped his hand into the pocket and took out a cigarette and his matches. In a quick motion he lit up the tobacco stick and proceeded to square down the king.

"So what do you want?" he simply asked with an emotionless voice as he smoked his cigarette. He was ready to pull out anything from his arsenal if he was challenged.

Celestial rolled his eyes at not being treated equally because he's black. What kinda 1060's bullshit is that? he thought. He listened as the teenager explained himself. He was still curious about the whole radioactive part he mentioned earlier, but he'd let that go for now. "What gift did you give him?"

The man didn't seem visibly stirred by Dino's attitude but Logan spoke up. "How dare you? Do you know who you stand before? You stand before a king! You shall do best to treat him respect you!" The adviser was shushed by a wave of the king's hand as he stood up.

"Now Logan, they're our guests, we should treat them as such." The man's voice had a charming lilt to it. The adviser bowed and murmured his apologies.

"I was too hardheaded, my apologies."

"No reason to apologize, you were simply trying to prove your loyalty."

"Yes m'lord." Logan froze, realizing what he had just done. "Please lord mercy."

"Now now Logan, there's no reason to be scared." The man walked over to the adviser who cowered before the large man. "You are a respected and valued adviser who is nothing but loyal to the crown. And because you are, you would never refuse a order right?"

"Of course sir... I am yours to command." Logan whimpered and the king smiled.

"Good then this is what I want you to do." The king leaned in and whispered something into the man's ear. The man's expression devolved into fear but once the command was issued his face suddenly turned calm and eyes glassy.

"At once m'lord." Logan uttered and he left the throne room.

"Wonderful," King Arron smiled then turned to Dino and Lilith. "Now then," he sat back down on his throne. "Straight to business as you like it Mr. Clergy, I would like to hire you two."

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"Well my magic is special you see. I drain life force from anyone within my vicinity. These bands of course drain a lot of my magic and bottle up the rest but my power was never something that could be stopped exactly so I still leak out some. Not enough to really hurt anyone, but kills any insect that's unfortunate enough to come near me. Explains how I'm still breathing after being stuck here for god knows how many decades." He fidgeted in his spot. "Well anyways, can't go killing the king now can I? So I gave him a pendant that gives him magic resistance. Was a sign of my loyalty, but he used it to lock me up. Man's paranoid beyond belief. He thought I would eventually turn on him so used the opportunity to lock me up. Now he has every other magician under his thumb. So fucked up big time there." Castro laughed.

Lilith frowned and squinted a little, observing the whole event, confused. Not understanding what just occurred, she decided to let it go after a short moment, but realized that something's in the air.

"Hire us?...May I ask what for...?" Lilith allowed herself to drop the mask of courtesy as well...One thing it seemed unnecessary, the other...well, that would she have to confirm.

Dino glanced over to Lilith, somewhat disgusted in the respect she had for this...being. After all she was a noble herself, but Dino's respect was earned, not given. He took his cross off his shoulder and place it down next to him.

"Target and price, thank you." he simply stated, puffing his cigarette along.

"To help me conquer more land." The king stated simply. "You'll be paid handsomely and given proper benefits such as land and titles. And in return, you simply have to give me your loyalty."

Celestial sighed, "Yeah, that you did..." Celestial thought for a moment. He really wished he could use magic. He never realized how much he depended on it. Maybe this would be a good experience. For adapting, not in general. This experience sucked.

"Do you know how to get out of these tunnels? 'Cause if we can avoid that...whatever that thing was, we can get out. I need to find the others in my group."

"Well through where you guys got shoved in through would be an easy solution, but that door is reinforced metal. Not even the monster can bust through it. Need some powerful magic to get through." Castro wiggled in his spot. "Problem is these things can only be taken off by the person who made them, so one of the magicians Arron has in his pocket. Or by someone who is resistant to magic, the only one I know is Arron." Castro sighed. "I also can tell you it's not going to be easy to find your friends while avoiding that thing. That thing has been in this labryinth longer than I have, and unlike me, it has had the luxury of moving around, so it knows this place like the back of its hand. Compared to it, I don't know jack." He laughed. "If you want my opinion, your friends are as good as dead unless they can run fast and long. It's been a while since Arron sent down prisoners so that thing is hungry and getting desperate, won't be long until it tries to eat me, so looking forward to that day."

A yawn from the corner of the cell breaks the conversation between celestial and Castro. A young woman wearing a simple blue sundress shuffled around on the ground in the corner of the room. A circlet made of silver and decorated with an aquamarine sat upon her head. Long dark blonde hair wrecklessly draped over her face. She moaned and grunted a bit, struggling to get the hair out of her face. "Sorry, Castro, I was still asleep. What were you saying?" Yawning again, she gave up trying to situate her hair and just em stayed on ground.

"Oh almost forgot you were there Anna." Castro nodded over to Celestial. "Meet Celestial. He and his group of friends got chucked in here like you did. Unlucky for them, the monster is after them. Besides that, nothing important."