[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ONd4lpK.png[/img][/center]
[color=00F8FE]Time: Night
Location: The Dungeon
Interactions: Ari[@Tpartywithzombi][/color][hr]

[color=9FA1A4]Callum didn’t like the basement floor of the palace. It had that old and damp creepy smell, shadows danced everywhere you looked, and rats scurried around the floors. Something about the air down there made the hair on the back of his neck rise with warnings. But after last night he doubted anything could compare with the amalgamation of horrid feelings he’d experienced in Wystan’s room. He shuddered even thinking about it, but it made the descent down those basement stairs easier. 

None of the guards stopped him, they watched, a couple of them followed and he guessed they were going to make sure he wasn’t trying to free Ari. He wasn’t, he just didn’t want her to suffer down her alone. And he didn’t want to be alone, or sleep. Every time he closed his eyes he saw [i]it[/i], the thing from last night. Every time it was too quiet, he heard it, all that screaming…

He tried to stop thinking about it. Instead, he focused on keeping an eye out for rats, the dungeon rats were known biters and it would be nice to get through one night this week without an injury. He stopped by the wine cellar first, grabbing a dusty bottle from the room he’d once spent hours psyching himself up to sneak into as a kid. This time he grabbed two bottles, it was going to be a long night. 

Once he found his way to Ari’s cell, and the redheaded curled up on a sad pile of straw was hard to miss, he tapped on the cell bars with the wine bottles. [color=00F8FE]“You look miserable! And I hear misery loves company.”[/color] He said as he sat the wine bottles down and removed his shoes for the second time that night. He stuffed the end of one bottle into a shoe and smacked it against the stone wall. 

[color=00F8FE]“You didn’t think,”[/color] he hit the bottle against the wall a few times. [color=00F8FE]“I’d let you suffer down here alone?”[/color] The bottle smacked against the wall a few more times. [color=00F8FE]“Didya?”[/color] He pulled the cork the rest of the way out with his teeth and spat the cork on the ground. He then did the same with the second bottle before offering a bottle to Ari between the bars of the cell. 

[color=00F8FE]“I’ve got wine, a deck of cards, and secrets to share. Ya know, if you’re bored.”[/color] He whispered. 

Callum spent a good portion of the night whispering the details of the previous night to Ari. He plans to search the castle for hidden rooms, how he found the hidden room in Wystan’s room, and what all was found there. How he’d almost put a strange crown on his head, how he’d felt that crown’s dark pull, but he’d left with a cursed scroll and magic compass. 

He mentioned he had help, but didn’t give up Riona’s name, not because he didn’t trust Ariella. Riona’s involvement and use of magic just weren’t his secrets to tell. He mentioned the weird intruder, maybe exaggerating his own usefulness in the fight between them, and the curse scroll that had been stolen, but not before he’d used it once. Not before he’d felt what it was like to burn. The weird plot twist; that the intruder might not have been an assassin but a potential ally, who at least gave him and his unnamed accomplice a healing potion before disappearing into the night. 

He left the dungeon in the morning, a few shared bottles of wine later, when guards fetched him to join in on a family meeting. 

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