I was taken back to the ground floor, through the spiral stairs once again.
I'd walked up those stairs like a guest and returned like a prisoner.
Life's on a mission to teach me not to gamble.
We went beyond the stairs this time, past the kitchen and guard rooms.
At the end of the ground floor lay a groove camouflaged by the stone wall. It blended so well with the rest of the wall that unless you had Intermediate aura mastery, by that I meant heightened perception, you wouldn't even notice the hollowness behind it.
The guards, following Kael as she maintained her iron grip on my hands folded behind my back, walked past us and hit the chains connecting this part of the wall to a chandelier with their swords.
CLANG.
The sound echoed loudly through the corridor. In the next instant, the wall fell to the other side, into the underground, revealing a dark maw... the entrance to the underground prison.
"You wouldn't have to be here if you'd behaved," Kael murmured from behind me.
