Chapter 82 - Conspiracies (2)
After having his fill of bananas, Mohawk decided to call for a meeting so that they could plan their next course of action.
Before long, every important person was gathered into a rather large meeting room that Moses frequently used when discussing important matters with the council of Kraetor City.
Han, Moses, the representative of the Bolvar Tribe, the council of Kraetor City, and one of the stronger dominants from the Zelan pack, gathered in the room where they would have the meeting.
"Where is Mian?" Mohawk asked when he noticed that the young Gifted was missing.
"He and a couple of his friends went off to the underground labyrinth to explore." Moses sighed. Han turned his face away, as though distracted by something, while the dominant from the Zelan pack only chuckled lightly.
"Fine, let's start without them." Mohawk sighed and shook his head before closing the door to the meeting room.
.
.
"This path is supposed to lead to the cellars." Dion spoke out loud as he studied the map in his hands. Daniel stood to his side, holding up the lantern, while Mian poked around the spacious corridor that they had stopped at.
"Do you think there are prisoners down there?" Daniel asked.
Mian turned to give the gray haired Beastkin a deadpan look. "If there were prisoners down here, do you think Moses would allow us to snoop around?"
"Oh, yeah. That's true, hehe." Daniel rubbed his head with a chuckle when he thought about it.
After confirming their route again, Dion continued leading them through the winding corridors. Before long, the three came about a wide, long corridor that had small rooms on both sides of the wall. These rooms were closed off with thick iron bars that were just about smaller than the size of an average human head.
This is the place where they keep their prisoners. I guess it really is empty." Dion whispered and peered into one of the dark cells. From where he was, thanks to the lighting provided from the torch, he was able to see two pairs of metal cuffs that were fixed into the stone walls.
"Two people per cell. Reminds me of back then." He commented and Mian nodded. He didn't feel too comfortable down there, but decided to bear with it. He couldn't run from his demons forever.
They explored the cells for a while more before coming across something shocking. One of the cells was in use!
An injured Beastkin laid in the cell farthest from where they had come from, with his arms chained up and bruises scattered around his body.
"What the hell?" Daniel exclaimed.
"I thought there was no one down here? What is he doing here?" Dion stared in shock.
All three of them were surprised to see someone down here. They had thought that there would be no one down here, based on their previous conclusion that Moses would not allow them to snoop around if there was something fishy to be found down here.
"Let's get him out." Mian urged.
"But what if he's down here for a reason?" Daniel asked.
"Then you two can probably handle it. You are dominants, are you not?" Mian pinned Daniel with a hard look and the boy swallowed audibly.
They quickly got to work, slamming the bars over and over again, trying to force it open, but they were having little results.
"Dammit. We need the key to the cell. This thing won't be opening any time soon otherwise." Dion swore. The others soon came to realize that he was right. They would not be able to force the cell open with just brute force.
"You two stay here, I'll go get help." Dion handed the torch over to Mian and prepared to run all the way back to the ground floor. He would rely on his senses and instincts to trace the path that they had followed to get there.
When Dion took off, Mian turned back to the man that was chained up in the cell. An unnoticeable flash of light passed through his eyes as he appraised the man.
[Appraisal]
Name: Simon Bolvar
Age: Eighty-nine years.
Health: Poor
---
His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the name. The only ones who bore the same name as the name of their pack or tribe were the leaders of the packs, and their descendants.
'No way...' Mian thought to himself. He did not dare speak out loud, as he had not told anyone that he could appraise people and animals. 'No way... You have got to be kidding me.'
A string of thoughts and theories on the man's identity arranged themselves in Mian's mind, and the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
"Ugh..." A low groan slipped from the man's lips, and successfully snapped Mian out of his swirling whirlpool of thoughts.
"Crap." Mian stretched his arm forward and pointed it at the man before focusing on the lingering amount of energy that was in the underground space. For some reason unknown to Mian, the amount of energy here was in much greater abundance that what was present above the surface.
Tiny motes of golden light appeared around Simon Bolvar's body before drifting toward it and sticking on. The lights than slowly seeped into his fair skin, almost like how water was soaked up by a cloth.
"Mmm..." Another groan left his lips when the bruises had mostly faded from his skin. He was still unconscious, but at least, his health condition had gone up a bit.
-
Health: Fair(Injured).
-
Mian and Daniel remained there, watching the man to see if he would wake up, and roughly twenty minutes later, the sound of hurried footsteps reached their ears.
Through the light that just barely illuminated part of the corridor, they could see the silhouettes of numerous figures rushing down the hall. A few seconds later, the figures became clearer, revealing Dion, Mohawk, Han, and several other people, including Moses.. They had abandoned their meeting when Dion barged into the room and told them what the trio had discovered.