Miina walked quietly behind Faolán, grateful for the silence. Her sparring mate would offer back glances that tested her quiet mood, but he didn’t pry her with questions she wouldn't want to answer. Talking at all seemed like an arduous task altogether. Her thoughts were noisy enough. She needed to fill her mind with things that didn’t include Leviathan or Mara's lasting words.

Of course, this thing with Leviathan went beyond innocent kissing or fooling around. Even Miina couldn’t deny the king’s special treatment of her. What it truly meant was perhaps what scared her the most. But had Miina any right to hold on to distrust and fear anymore? Leviathan’s morose eyes came to her from when she last saw him, yet again, after their ridiculous argument. She'd done nothing but pull and push him, yet he only responded in kind, following her lead.

She needed more time. Time to think on this new feeling. At the very least, until she lessened this feeling of having been a complete childish idiot. Her talk with Mara at least showed her that much.

As soon as Miina parted with Mara, she asked Faolán to take her to Anise. This was Miina’s first time in the dungeons. It was not a place for a soul to enter alone; not even if she was the captain of the king’s guard. And now Miina could see why.

Like horrors had built it, the underground prison was much how she imagined (or about as much as she allowed herself to). The black stone walls were rough-edged and layered with a thick viscous that reflected their torch light as they passed by. Unlike anywhere else in court, it was damp, with the humidity seeping the air and thickening the walls the deeper they went, giving Miina the feeling they were headed down a monstrous creature’s throat.

Further and further, they went, down the spiral stoned stairs, passing the cell gates embedded in the walls. Some were older and rustier than others, but all had thick bars within the small openings and Miina resisted the urge to ask how much further they had to go. Not even when the defeated moans and sobs coming from the cells invaded her ears. Some were close, others distant, all were in misery. Those were not the cries of demons she had ever expected to hear.

Some gates, she noted, the demons had completely sealed up with no openings at all. From the melted hinges and the fixed mold around the fissures, Miina could tell no one had opened these doors for at least a few years. Those were not cells. They were tombs. A slight tremor in her stomach nagged at her with the possibility of the evil things they kept inside.

Faolán was fairly new to Court, but the glimpses he gave her every time they passed such doors confirmed his concern for her. Despite how he looked, the wolf’s mild manner still made it easy to forget he was a demon. Places like this would be nothing new to him.

“It’s getting darker as we go. Can you see alright?” He asked, but Miina knew that was not what he really wanted to know.

“I’m fine.” She lied. Truthfully, the smell was worse than the syrupy darkness around her. She had been keeping a hand over her nose and mouth, wondering how the Stench Kow smell paled in comparison. 

“Make sure to step where I step. It can get slippery here.” The wolf said.

She wondered how many times Faolán had been here to be so mindful of the slippery spots on the ground. A stupid thought. Only other demons could stomach whatever horrors were here.

Miina could swear they had only just entered, yet it felt like they had spent hours in the place. They had to be over ten floors deep, and Faolán showed no signs of stopping. Miina looked up, but she could no longer see the light from the entrance, nor hear the chatter from the two guards at the gates. Only low groans and howls from the unseen inmates.

“The king specifically ordered Anise to be brought here?” Miina asked, failing to tone her frustration. “How far down did he need to put her?!”

“He ordered for her to be contained,” Faolán did not glance over this time. “This is where we contain… everybody.”

Miina knew the wolf chose his words carefully. 

“This place is for monsters. Anise did nothing wrong. He could have sent her to a thousand other places,” Miina said.

Faolán was silent for a moment, his steps never betraying his thinking. “Word is that the king himself has spent a great deal of time here. As a child.”

Miina paused long enough that the wolf’s light dimmed ahead of her.  When Faolán faced her, she found herself wanting to know more, but unsure of how to ask.

“They say it was because of his tail and the elders’ experiments. As a child, the king did not have control over it and it killed indiscriminately. Once it attacked his mother, Satan handed his son to the elders to find a solution. This was where they secured him when they weren’t… treating him.”

“That’s…” Miina faltered. She had heard different stories about Leviathan and his upbringing. Leviathan himself had told her that Kiruna had bitten his mother when he was young. The story had ended there, and Miina recalled now that she had never stopped long enough to ask more. The dour look in his face back then had made her uncomfortable. At the time, she thought it just didn’t belong…

The thought of a young Leviathan locked in this shadowless place tightened something in her chest.

“We don’t really know what she is,” Faolán said as they resumed their steady walk.

“…What do you mean?” Miina assumed he’d gone back to Anise.

Again,  Faolán held a second or two before replying. “Anise single-handedly put down a *gnoll and one of those false angels. All of it she did with little effort. Whatever she is, she is not like any transitioning soul many of us have ever seen. It may not be the most satisfying decision, but I can understand the king’s caution.”

The words stung, as the truth always did. It still hurt that after saving Miina's and many others' afterlives, this was the reward that Anise got. It hurt more that it seemed like no one was willing to look in between the lines. Still, Miina wasn't going to argue with Faolán. She couldn’t deny that his tone wasn’t accusatory. Faolán was the most truthful demon she had come across; even among the honourable and honest warrior wolves who, as Miina felt, still embraced several prejudices. The main one being weakness.

“We’re here.” Faolán said. He stood beside a thick door, and Miina was grateful that at least this one had the barred opening. She rushed to it. Faolán did not touch her, but he swayed his furred arm. “Miina, I would advise caution.”

“I’ll be fine, Faolán. Thank you for worrying for me.” She raised her chin to the door. “Now, let me through, please.”

Faolán hesitated for another moment before stepping back. Miina approached the door, realising that the small window that would give her view of Anise was higher than she could reach. She exhaled with mild frustration. Faolán would not let her in there, this was as far as she’d get. She looked around to find a small boulder right beside the wolf. It was small enough to give her the perfect height, but it looked quite heavy to move to where she needed it to be, in front of the door. Even if she had the use of both her arms, she would struggle.

“Do you need help?” Faolán followed her gaze to the boulder.

The difference in their strength was again painfully clear. Again, Miina wondered about her captaincy and her place among these demons.

“Captain?” Faolán called, and it startled her to find the wolf had moved the rock to where she needed it.

“Sorry, Faolán! Thank you.” She said awkwardly, unsure why she was apologising. For spacing out again, or for having him shift a small rock that to him, probably weighed about as much as a small bucket of water.

Miina stood on the rock and gripped the bars on the opening. Her eyes searched the dimness inside, but she could barely see. She asked Faolán to bring to torch closer and still could not see Anise. 

Just as she was about to hand the torch back to Faolán, Miina spotted the woman’s bare feet in the far corner. Anise was on the floor with hands wrapped around her legs and head low, burrowed between her knees. The soul's large bulk seemed odd. Miina wondered if it was the poor lighting, or whether the woman had grown even more since she’d last seen her at the arena.

Tbc.