Somewhere Only We Know
What: Curiosity consumes Cecilia as a hooded figure makes yet another regular visit to a secret room in the dungeon
Where: The dungeon of the Stave castle
When: Friday night
Cecilia's unjust imprisonment, Christoph unaware of the false crimes tacked to her name, left her to rot in the dungeon of the Stave castle. She was transferred from the Arcane prison after the castle was deemed unfit to be lived in even for the incarcerated. Here in the Emporer's third son's home her only source of entertainment was watching people out in the yard from her tiny window, watching mice and cockroaches scurry about the dirt floor of her cell, or trying to strike up conversation with the guards that watched her day in and day out.
Occasionally, though, in the dead of night she was able to witness what had become a weekly ritual. A hooded figure would appear and make his or her way to (and then through) a hidden passageway in the dungeon. The hooded figure was never in there, whatever lied beyond the secret door, longer than an hour but Cecilia's curiosity about what was going on grew with each visit.
Cecilia watched as a black woman servant came down to deliver the guard a bite to eat and a drink as she always did every night. Cecilia never knew whether or not the servant was in on it but it was far too much of a coincidence that every night the hooded figure arrived it was shortly after the guard had eaten his dinner. Tonight was one of those nights Cecilia concluded as the guard, a few minutes after the servant left, fell off the side of his chair. With the guard dead asleep, the hooded figure appeared and made their way past Cecilia's cell to the entrance of the hidden passage.
"Hey!" she called before standing up from her bed, "what do you do down there?" The hooded figure stopped to look over at Cecilia for a quick moment before turning away and continuing on their way to the passage. "C'mon," she pleaded, "I won't tell anybody."
Ignoring Cecilia, the hooded figure pulled at a stone in the wall. A door opened in the wall and the hooded figure quickly slipped through into the passage. A long, dark corridor was through the opening and, at the other end, was another virtually unknown section to the dungeon.
Three things were in the dark, dank room that lied at the end of the corridor: a table, a box on the table, and a man chained to the wall in the corner. The hooded figure stepped over to the table and opened the box slowly. Near the latch to open the box was the name 'Seward' in faded, hand-written lettering. The box housed dirty and blunt or sharp tools and instruments.
The man in the corner of this hidden cell, locked up, looked ill from malnourishment. The man slowly looked up at the hooded figure as he heard the box being opened. Immediately the man began sobbing and pleading to be left alone. "Not again," he cried, "just leave me be, please."
The hooded figure, pulling a pair of pliers from the box, made his way over to the sobbing man. The dark figure paused for a moment as he stood before his prisoner. He then knelt down before the imprisoned man and pulled the hood off to reveal his identity to the shackled man. "Now what'd be the fun in that, big brother?" he asked devilishly.
It was obvious that the sickly looking man had never seen the figure with his hood off before as he looked at him in shock. "What? Why are you doing this, Kaspar?" he said, choking back the tears.
"Now, now this is no time for silly questions." He cleared his throat and held the pliers in front of the man's face as if it were a toy, "just give me your left hand; we're going to make those pretty fingernails match your right hand."
Erich looked down at his right hand, the fingernails missing, scabbed over, and still bleeding in spots. "Please," he whined, "not again."
Kaspar gritted his teeth and grabbed the man's left hand, "it wasn't a fucking request, Erich." 