Harry slowly awoke from slumber. His muscle were sore, having slept on hard stone floor, not to mention strenuous activity he had gone through. Ever so slowly, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, ignoring the feeling of cold metal on his cheek. He looked around his surroundings. It seemed most people were still sleeping. Some were up and about, others engaged in some sort of activity. He could here soft moans from different cells, some seemed to be from pleasure, other from pain. Ignoring the noise, his eyes fell on the red head that he had met the other night.

"You are up early." Harry greeted with a big yawn.

The red haired woman stared at him, before replying. "More like you didn't sleep much. It's only been three hours since the guards called it a night and shut the lights off."

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, tilting his head sideways and watching on as woman stood up and squatted down in fast rhythm.

"Just go back to sleep kid." She grunted, her face marred with frown.

"Doesn't that hurt your legs?" Harry asked, imitating the motion. He could already feel the burning sensation on his thighs, and he was only on his twentieth squat.

"Wait… you can see?" She asked in surprised tone. The cells were nearly pitch black, only few holes in the wall brought in any form of light, but that wasn't nearly enough to illuminate anything but that small area.

"Yea, can't you?" Harry asked, coming to a stop. His legs hurt too much to continue, so he decided to sit down and stretch the sore muscle.

The red head nodded, she could see perfectly in the dark. Her eyes were magically modified with dark vision. She stared at the child, he seemed human. And she highly doubted he could afford such expansive procedure as magical infusion. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Both of his legs before him, keeping his legs straight, he bend foreward. Touching his toes with his hand. Taking care not to bounce, he held on. Ignoring the pulling pain and held for ten seconds before relaxing and repeating. "You aren't holding any fingers up." The boy replied in-between breaths. Pulling one of his legs back behind him, he leaned forward once more. Then he repeated the action with the other leg, keeping one leg straight at all times.

"It seems like you are doing something similar to what I am doing." She replied, also lying down.

"I figure if I'm going to be at this place for while, I may as well make it easier for myself and get healthy." Harry replied with a grunt. He was already out of breath and he haven't even gotten to third item that was recommended on his book. "It seems like they will be putting me through physical labor, so it might be easier if I'm strong."

The red haired woman stared at the child for brief moment, hiding her surprise. "You are right, it does get easier. But, not many prisoners think in such a way. I'm surprised that someone so young can figure that out."

"It wasn't really my idea. I read it in a book. It said physical labor becomes easier if it is not so physically demanding to begin with. Which mean I need to get strong. Doesn't that hurt?" Harry asked once more, this time pointing at her wound.

"A little, but there isn't much I can do." She replied. "I can't afford to waste time sitting around letting it heal."

"Hmm….. I think I got something that may help you." Harry replied, walking over to the woman. "Two drop of this should fix you up."

Red head stared at the strange vial the boy was offering her before taking it. The vial didn't feel like glass, more like some sort of crystal. "What is it?"

"Don't really know. But, I do know it can make you better."

The boy didn't seem to be lying, but she had her doubts. She stared at the boy, his bright green eyes watching her with his warm smile. He seemed so honest and happy to be helping. She shook her head, why not? It couldn't really hurt. She thought to herself. Opening the cork, she was surprised to find a droplet. She carefully tilted back and let three drop onto her tongue.

The effects were instantaneous. She dropped the vial in surprise which Harry promptly caught with reflex he didn't know he had. She couldn't believe it, she felt better all of sudden. All of her pain simply vanished. Making sure that it wasn't just temporary pain reliever, she checked her wounds. To find none, all of her wounds were healed, even the past wounds and scars disappeared. "That is… it can't be… how?"

"Erm, can I have the cap back?" Harry asked hesitantly, the red haired lady seemed to be in some sort of shock.

"Ah, sorry." She replied, snapping out of her dazed state, handing the cap back to Harry. "How did you sneak that through? Didn't they take all your stuff?"

"Um, no. They didn't take anything important actually." Harry replied with a shrug. "I still got my book, bracer, and this vial."

"Where did you get that?" she asked, pointing at the vial.

"I got it from some strange old guy." Harry replied with a shrug, putting the vial away into bracer.

"You … is that bracer, something like bag of holding?"

"A what?"

"A bag of holding, you can use it to store objects into. And no matter how many object you store, it doesn't affect the overall weight."

"I guess so, So far the weight haven't changed and I've put few things in there. Um, are you ok now?"

"I… yes. I'm fine now. Thank you." She replied.

"Good." Harry replied with a smile. "How did you tell the time?"

"What?"

"How did you know what time it was?"

"Oh, that. I knew roughly how long we had based on that fire. From what I understand, each fire burns for three hours. Guard just re lit that one, so it's been three hours."

"Oh." Harry nodded, staring at the fire far far away. "Do we have to work every day?"

"No, only every third day. They have enough prisoners here to take turns working."

"So basically they don't want you to be free too soon." Harry said with a sigh.

"That's one way of looking at it." She replied, taking another look at the child before her. "You have weird way of looking at things. It's strangely accurate in a way and horribly inaccurate in a sense..."

"How long have you been here?"

"I don't know, I lost track of time."

"Oh, it must have been very long time then." Harry replied, sitting down on the hard uneven floor. "Hey, I was wondering, what's that moaning sound?"

"What?"

"That sound, it sounds like someone is moaning in pain."

"Err… that is… um…. How old are you kid?"

"I'm almost eleven."

"That's something you are slightly too young to know ok? Ask me in few years."

"Hmmm, ok." Harry replied, he didn't really care about the noise, he was just curious as to what was making it or why they were making such sound.

She continued to train in silence, guessing that the boy had fallen asleep once more. She couldn't help but be mesmerized by his brilliant green eyes that almost seemed to glow. She unconsciously shivered, and sought his sleeping figure to see that he was missing. She masked her surprise and looked around the cell, the boy wasn't anywhere to be found, along with resident trouble maker.

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"Did you see how it was done?" a male voice whispered to smaller child that stood beside him.

"Yea, it was pretty neat." Harry replied. "Hey Tom, can you teach me how you do that?"

"Heh heh, sure I can. But, you have to follow my lead ok? And I also want some of your food."

"Hmm… alright. That's fine. So come on, show me how to do that."

"Well first you need to use this as place holder and…"

Harry paid rapt attention. It seemed that there were people who could see in the dark and preferred to act only during the night. Tom was one of such crew. When he saw another teenager walking towards the cell gate, Harry had followed. It was then that he learned that most of people couldn't actually see in the dark. Tom was good head taller than Harry, about same size as the red haired woman he had met.

"I still can't believe you can see in the dark, you look like normal human to me." Tom replied, shaking his head.

"What do you mean normal human?" Harry asked.

"I'm only half human you know, I'm half elf. Hence why I can see in the dark. Now be quiet, or we might get caught."

"Ok, where are we going anyways?" Harry whispered, slowly creeping along with Tom.

"To the guard shack, I'm trying to snatch some food to barter with."

"Won't we get in trouble for stealing?" Harry asked.

"Yes, that's why I keep telling you to shut up. Now shut up and just follow me. I swear I'm going to run without you if we get spotted."

"Whose there!" a voice suddenly shouted.

"Oh no, run!" Tom whispered and took off down the hall towards the cell. Harry stood there staring at the retreating boy, then at the guard that was already standing next to him. Harry looked up to see the guard staring at him, but the guard didn't take any hostile action towards him. He was just staring at him.

"May I help you?" Harry asked.

"Er… No." guard stammered, he seemed quite confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Just looking around." Harry replied.

"No, I mean, in this prison."

"Oh, that. I'm not sure actually." Harry replied with a shrug. "Right now, I'm just inspecting things."

"Ah, ok. That explains that then. I'm surprised they would send a child to inspect things thought… even if you are…. I beg your pardon sir, I have been terribly rude. I am Sergeant Brock of the fourth battalion."

"Are all guards this friendly to prisoners?"

"Errr no, but I doubt anyone would treat you like a normal prisoner. You are a high noble aren't you?"

Harry frowned thoughtfully, taking the book out of his wrist band. He willed the book into another book that would tell him what high noble meant in this world. After quickly reading, he looked up at the guard who was fidgeting nervously. "You don't have to answer if you do not wish to sir." The guard replied with a nervous laugh, thinking that Harry was ignoring his question on purpose. He didn't want to offend the young lord that was inspecting the prison after all.

"How did you know rather I am high noble or not?" Harry asked, as far as he knew, he had told no one of his special talents. In fact, he had forgotten all about them.

"As you know we Arthorians share a link with our lords sir. Every member of Arthorians knows when one of their lord is near. And stronger the bond means higher the lord is in ranking. I don't know how you hid your presence until you were in the prison, but I can assure you every Arthorians knew where you were moment you stopped hiding your presence yesterday."

"I see." Harry replied.

"Yes sir, may I ask your name sir?"

"I'm Harry Potter."

"I don't think I have ever heard of clan Potter, but… It is not my place question you sir. With your leave." The guard smartly saluted before walking off. Harry frowned thoughtfully as he stared at the retreating figures back. He had much reading to do, and if his book was anything to judge by, the history of this world would take long time to read. But the guard had said something about Arthorians. That gave him a focal point. He willed his book to become a modern need to know book about arthorian high nobles. What he got was nine hundred page book of structure of monarchy and summary of each noble house known.

"Did you get caught?" Tom asked when he saw Harry walking into the prison cell.

"Are you alright? Did they torture you?" The red haired woman also asked with worried frown at same time as Tom.

Harry didn't expect such greeting when he returned to the cell, closing the door behind him he smiled at the red haired woman. "I'm fine, he didn't even touch me."

"So you weren't caught then?" Tom asked

"No, I guess not." Harry replied with a nod.

"I thought they were going to hang you by your leg and whip you in public later on today." Tom replied with a relieved sigh. "Good thing you weren't caught… what's that in your hand?"

"Oh this? Some sort of book about Arthorians."

"Why do you have a book about emperor's man?" The red haired woman asked with a frown.

"I'm just curious that's all. I'm interested in high nobles."

"The ruling class?" Tom asked, "There isn't much to say about them, they are just like any other rich nobles. They take from the poor calling it tax or levy or something and live like they are better then everyone while poor people starve."

"Hmm, so how do you become nobles?"

"You can become noble by being able to use magic, or earning the position from the emperor's council. There haven't been new noble house in seven hundred years thought."

"You mean there haven't been any person with power to use magic born in seven hundred years?"

"No… sorry I never got your name." Red head asked, trailing off.

"Harry."

"Sorry about that Harry, I was so surprised I forgot all my manners, I'm Ellen, Ellen Von Greywolf. And as to your question, there are plenty of people born that can use magic, but they are born from noble household."

"Ah, ok, that explains a lot. Then how do you become high noble?"

"Again by gaining emperors favor, but you have to be magician yourself to gain that title and it's not heredity like noble positions are. Only other way I know you can gain that title is by being exceptionally strong magically."

"And I take it only Arthorians can feel another Arthorians?"

"Yes, from what I understand, they have some sort of link that Arthorians can feel when another Arthorians of greater magical power exists. But, from what I can understand, stronger Arthorians can't automatically feel weaker Arthorians unless they try to feel them."

"…. How do you know all this?" Tom asked, with a frown.

"I… I used to be one of the nobles until the new king striped me of my power." Ellen replied, hesitantly.

Harry frowned slightly, something was telling him that Ellen wasn't telling the truth. Ignoring the feeling, he asked his next question. "Is there a difference between kings and emperor?"

"You don't know?!" Tom exclaimed. "Arthoria is made of twelve kingdoms, and emperor is the person that rules over all twelve of the kingdoms. Kings only control their own kingdom."

"So, why did the new king strip you of power? For that matter, how do you strip someone of their magic?"

"…the new king didn't like my family. And as to how you strip someone of their magic… it can be done by cutting the connection to the core or by putting some sort of block or barrier on it."

There it was again, that sensation. Her words simply felt wrong somehow. "Core?"

"All magicians have magical core, it's what allows them to use magic. Once the connection has been cut or blocked, you can't use magic anymore."

"Oh, can't you remove the block?"

"Only someone stronger then the person that blocked the connection can remove. The block can only be placed by person who is stronger in magic then yourself."

"You must have been pretty strong if it was new king himself who put the block on you." Tom replied.

"You could say that." Ellen replied with a sigh. "lets not talk about this alright?"

"That's fine, you've answered most of my questions anyhow." Harry replied. He knew he was special, the librarian said so himself. But, he didn't think he was strong enough to be considered high noble, some of strongest magicians in the empire. With a deep sigh, Harry crack opened his book. Now only if he knew how to use such powers.

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It has been few month since he came to this strange place. He knew enough from his research that this place was a different world from where he came from. The guards mostly left him alone, and Harry rather preferred that himself. He only had other prisoners to worry about. Some of the prisoners stared at him queerly, wondering what a noble was doing living like a prisoner. But, they didn't dare approach him.

Most of the prisoners that weren't Arthorians left him alone. After all, he was nothing more than a mere kid. Some pedophiliac tried to take advantage of him, but they were harshly discouraged by the guards and other prisoners.

For most part, the stay was somewhat pleasant for Harry. He didn't have to worry about being locked up and starved, or getting yelled at by not doing chore or his freakiness. He simply worked every three days in the mines and for his free time he read or worked out with Ellen and other prisoners and stayed out of turf war and trouble. He even ended up getting his own private cell to sleep in.

Currently, he was trading kicks with another prisoner. It was a sports the prisoners liked to play. Due to the shackles, it made it hard to swing fist around, unless you where aiming to swing both at same time, but that was only good in short range. At first, the prisoners were weary of fighting with him. They knew he had somehow gained guards favor, and many of the prisoners seemed to respect him, weary of him, or outright hate him. But, once they got into the fight, it didn't matter anymore.

Ducking under a kick, Harry jumped in the air, kneeing the prisoner in the face. While air born, he turned his body and brought his back leg up into a kick. Kicking the man in the chest. Loud cheer rang through the circle of onlookers. Some happy at having won a bet, while others grumbling about their loss. The point of the game wasn't to win the fight. It was to gathered set amount of points first, usually first to ten, but sometimes it went up to twenty. Each clean kick was considered one point, a kick hard enough to knock the opponent down was considered two points, a knockout was automatic win. Harry couldn't help but smile as he stepped off of the ring. He didn't know why he got into the ring, to begin with, but it somehow it seemed fun. He had watched the fights whenever he could, he would memorize their patterns and moves and imitate them during the night, after his work out with Ellen. Harry was surprised one night when Ellen gave him some pointers on proper kicking technique.

That pointer sparked a training session between the two. So every other night after their workout, they would spend few hours kicking each other silly. Rest the next day, to let wounds heal and muscles rest. Combined with working in the mines lifting heavy barrels of stones and sometimes adamantine, combined with training he did with Ellen, Harry was much stronger than typical eleven year old.