The halls of the cell block had fallen into disarray. Once meticulously crafted stone bricks designed to weather a hurricane, now chipped and cracked. Seams of dirt were ripped into the walls and stone dust poured into piles in the corridors. The steel bars holding the cell doors now laid across the floor, a pitiful fate for their former resilience.
The ventilation inside was caved in, you couldn’t even find the space where they were in the walls. It made the air inside less plentiful than it should have been. The scent of ash, dust and battle filled the air. Bodies of my allies and subjects littered the ground. Some pooled with blood, others unconscious, the immaculate prison, torn asunder. I walked the halls alongside my subordinate reading over the list of names of all those held here, assessing the damage.
“Leasiro…?” I muttered, still eyeing the paper.
“Y-Yes?” she answered shakily.
“What happened to invite such a situation on my leave…?” I inquired.
“I’m… I’m unsure…” she said.
“Well, It had to have been something. The prison block was designed to prevent an incident such as this.” I noted the obvious.
“Yes sir…” she replied. “The survivors say that they heard an explosion, and then there was a Keraxi man in armor and a navy cape breaking people out of their cells on the main floor. It was then followed by those two you had undergo the procedure. It then got out of hand very quickly.”
“Hmph…” I looked over the list of names before me reading through to try and figure out who could have caused this, until it clicked. “Ah… That makes sense…”
“Sorry? What makes sense?” she asked.
“Magnusson.” I stated.
“Magnusson?” she asked again. “What about him?”
“He is a… peculiar man, let's say.” I told her. “I’m not properly acquainted with him myself, but let's just say he’s built a reputation throughout the War Seas.”
“A reputation?” she asked, still not quite getting it.
“Yes, He believes himself to be better than the people and land he came from.” I stated. “He searches the sea bettering wherever he goes, admittedly for a noble cause. It only made sense he’d find a way to ‘help’ those held here.”
“Ah, I see.” she said.
“This incident is not a concern to me however. We’ve already gotten what we desired.” I said as we turned the corner to the alchemy workshop. I walked inside towards the shelves, browsing for what I was looking for.
“I’m confused though, nobody is left?” she asked.
“You don’t quite understand,” I told her, admittedly somewhat condescendingly, as I took a phial from one of the shelves. The phial held a white essence inside, radiating cold through the glass.
“Isn’t it magnificent?” I asked rhetorically. “The chilling aura of it, the power pulsing from it, hardly able to be contained. The refinement of it, fine tuned like an art to be the perfect tool of war. The violent nature of it, the magic has seen plenty of battles. It is the perfect instrument to become the vision of my aspirations.”
“...I don’t believe I follow…”
“I don’t expect you to, Leasiro. Just know that this is only just the beginning…”