Author Note: Well, it's a lot shorter than I wanted and a little too awkward of an update hour. This is a bit more of a some pieces falling in place before the reveal in next chapter. But that is going to take until next week (I guess). There are a lot of things I still have to do with schoolwork, now that the semester is ending.

Seeing the amount of people following this story makes me feel more motivated to try to improve my writing. I'm really thankful for your support and to some of you of telling me where I made some mistakes.

Now, on to the reviews:

doom2099: Yeah, it does. Yeah, she does. And yeah, I'm too.

buterflypuss: I'm appointing you as a seal of approval from now on, I guess...

Chapter 13. Down in the Dungeon.

Siesta sighed as she felt her arms burning from being stretched above her head for more than half an hour. The shackles that were starting to chaff her wrists and her shortened breathing weren't helping matters either. Her thoughts were on the warning from Zeratul that he was going to be away for a while helping Louise with her challenge, not completely reassuring in her opinion, and fortunately due to her job having her scrubbing floors on an almost daily basis, she could endure a few hours in an uncomfortable position easily.

Despite her current state, she was more concerned by the other girls sitting in iron cages, she could see there were only three. For what it was worth, the cages had enough space for them to stand to full height and walk little more than a couple of feet. One of them sat in her corner, hugging her legs, in silence as she stared at nothing with an eerie lack of emotion. The other two were asleep.

The maid, or former maid? was a bit thankful that none of her current companions in the dungeon had any visible bruises and had similar uniforms to the one Siesta wore, albeit more worn and dirty, but it could also be attributed to the lack of lightning.

"Hey…" She called out to the closest one, who apparently didn't hear her. She tried once again, just a bit louder, "Hello? Um… Are you alright?"

The girl snapped out of her trance and looked at Siesta. "Oh…" Blinking a few times and shaking her head, she responded softly. "I didn't see you there…"

Siesta strained her hearing to listen to her fellow prisoner, "Yes, I'm fine. All things considered."

"What's your name? Mine's Siesta." She said, wishing to at least have something to distract her from the silence and the darkness of the dungeon.

She waited for a few seconds for her question to be registered by the girl. She uttered, "My name's Mary." She hugged herself closer. "Are you new?"

Siesta nodded, "I am, I got here just today." She shook her shackles, "Guess I'm not entirely welcome."

Mary sighed and looked down again. "Don't worry, if you're lucky he's going to let you go back out there with a warning."

"Really?" She tilted her head.

"Yeah… But if you don't behave, he'll send you down her with us." She pointed at the girl in the farthest cage. "Rose has been here the longest, she says that once he gets a certain number of girls, he disposes of them."

Siesta gasped, she knew the rumors surrounding the count were morbid about the lack of whereabouts of the girls he employed. But dissipating whatever security she had about her wellbeing of it being just a rumor, she couldn't help but feel fear grip her heart more than she had ever felt in her life. The next words of Mary didn't help either.

"She told me that he silences the girls in batches in order to lower the cost of it, transport, disposal and all that." She finished with a deadpan, with an indifference of knowing her fate was already sealed.

"Hey, don't say that." Said the chained girl, "Look, I know someone who is trying to get us out of here. I promise." She didn't know if she was saying it for herself or to comfort the other prisoners.

"Keep telling yourself that. It sounded like a lie the last time I said it to myself."

As Siesta tried to rebuke, the entrance to the dungeon opened and light came pouring in. The silhouette of a man was visible as he went down the stairs to where she was.

"How did you do it?!" Exclaimed Count Mott. His face red with anger and shortened breath, no doubt because of the recently healed ribs and the amount of willpower required to accomplish such a task in short amount of time.

Trembling in place, Siesta asked back. "What do you mean, Count?"

A slap set her face to the right, her left cheek stinging as she cried out. "Don't play coy with me, you witch! You know what you did. Now tell me!"

Reeling from the slap, she tried to answer. "I-I don't know! I swear!"

A few whimpers from the other girls he kept in a 'solitary confinement' and had woken up due to the sudden noise brought him to compose himself back to a calmer, if not less angry, state of mind. "Sorry, girls. It's not you whom I angry at." He addressed them. "But this one is dangerous to keep."

Glancing at the entirety of his personal prison, he said aloud. "But that can be resolved, though. It seems there are enough of you ladies to have a little, ahem, excursion."

One of them began to bawl and the count was quick to hush her. "Kassandra, don't cry. I can't bear to see you cry like that." He walked up to the cage she was in, "Once you get out of here, you will be free to meet your cousin again. Isn't that good?"

Siesta grit her teeth at his words. The lack of care in this man was almost ridiculous. She had to deal with nobles with for less than a year and she had thought she had seen everything when it came to lack of empathy of others, but no. This excuse of a noble was something else entirely. She could feel the links in her chains vibrating with her newly awakened power, yet it could also be confused with her shaking in an anger born of disbelief.

"Now that the matter is settled, let us go back to the only reason I wanted you here instead of having you executed on the spot." He cupped the girl's chin in his hand. "Tell me wha-"

"Master Mott! Master Mott!" Exclaimed one of his guards from the entrance of his dungeon. "There is someone who wants to see you."

"Ok, so let me get this straight." Said Kirche, pinching the bridge of her nose for the fourth time this minute. "You." She pointed downward. "Are the spirit of a sword trapped in an interdimensional being and neither of you are actually alive in the biological sense of the word and both of you are merged together as a familiar."

"Confusing." Said Tabitha, who was too with her self-proclaimed best friend. Not many things escaped her capacity to understand complex subjects and terms, but this one certainly was giving her a run for her money.

"Yeah… That's the gist of it, yeah."

"And came barging into my room because…" Kirche said as she rotated her hand, asking for her guest to continue.

"Pinky and Broody went to save that maid girl from this Count Mott. But then the runes started to feel all weird and now I want to go there and help."

"Tabitha, do you know what is he talking about? This is making less sense by the second."

"Yes, unfortunately." Was her short answer.

"Unfortunate, why?" Replied Kirche.

"We have to go. Now." The smaller girl began dragging Kirche by the hem of her nightgown, ignoring her protests to go to change herself.

Two short beeps and a whine made Derflinger grumble in defeat. "Well what do you want me to do?! It's your fault I'm stuck in your body, you disobedient tin can!"

A whistle and a boop answered him. "I know it sounds weird, but it doesn't makes it less true."