Opening his eyes, the bard saw the world around him through hazy slits. Light filtered in against the cold stone walls from underneath a metal door. The rest of the room was barren and empty, the walls carved from natural sandstone on all four sides. The man groaned, raising his knuckles to rub his eyes before slumping forward and stretching his stiff muscles.
Suddenly, the sound of metal slamming hard against metal resonated through the other side of the door startled him. Asceriel looked up, watching warily ahead of him, listening to a set of footsteps that came closer and closer until the door swung open, two armored asmodians standing under the stone archway.
"Get up, you're coming with us." A woman's voice barked at the disoriented daeva.
"M-me?" The bard clenched his teeth hard as he struggled to move but not before the guards stormed in and lifted him up from beneath his arms and dragged him back out with them.
Asceriel squinted his eyes as he tried to gather his bearings. He felt like he was being lead through a tunnel or a labyrinth. He wasn't sure if he was at the mercy of the shadow court or something worse. He couldn't even remember how he'd ended up there. He'd aided in a kidnapping? No, that couldn't be it. Even if he had, he were being treated as though he'd stolen the child of a nobleman or some other character of importance- But Keke couldn't have been that, could she?
Another iron door swung open. Torch after torch illuminated stone dungeon walls, flickering and blinding the daeva. The light sent sharp throbbing pains through the musician's head. Had he been drugged? His reality remained a blur until he was dragged into another room. It was a very familiar room.
Stone mosaic lined the walls along with shelves and tables. Various instruments constructed of wires and pipes and vials also decorated the walls. The room was dark with only subtle blue light that resonated from the heart of the room from thick glass-like holding cells.
Immediately, Asceriel's eyes shot wide. A sudden rush of adrenaline gave him the burst of clarity to realize these were not shadow court officials or archons. These were Lepharists. The man cried out before desperately trying to tear away from the guards when their grip on the man only tightened.
"Let go of me! Get your hands off of me!" The man's voice immediately exhausted itself when the pain of their metal fingers dug into his arms.
"So this is him? Is he the one?" Another man from the other side of the room stepped forward from the shadows of the room. The blue light softly illuminated his features. Short dark blue hair and cold steely eyes that eagerly scanned the daeva up and down.
"He is the one, sir." The male guard answers, squeezing the bard's arm again until the blonde whimpered again. "He's the Daevic Seal."
A crooked smile crept on the other man's face before waving a hand. "Put him away in the first holding chamber and be prepared to be apart of history. With his power we will be able to put up a battle that Pandaemonium will never forget."
"Ha!" Asceriel looked back at the other man, grinning wide. "I'd never do anything for the likes of you rebel wannabes. You're on your own. I fight for nobody."
"Oh, I didn't say you were going to have a choice, daeva. I don't need your cooperation to be able to do what you can do. I can just take it from you and after that, you won't be much use to me as a corpse. Put him away."
The bard's smug look quickly faded, broken resolve reflecting through the window of his gaze as the two comrades dragged the daeva to the first aetheric cell in the room before shoving him and locking him inside. Immediately, Asceriel pressed his hands against the glass-like walls that sealed him inside, pounding on them to break free but to no avail.
"No use in doing that, daeva. You're good as mine now."