Time passed.
Step. Step. Another step.
The unknown man walked steadily, moving from one cell to another while a metal tray hovered at his side as if an invisible hand was holding it.
He was bringing the barely edible food for the sacrifices to keep them alive for the ritual.
Arriving at one of the many grey metallic doors, he opened it. Light began to fill the cell's darkness, revealing a malnourished, frail-looking young man, barely 15 years old. His ash colored hair hid his eyes, but the unknown man knew that, except for desperation or emptiness, there was nothing else in his eyes anymore, like all the other prisoners.
He picked up a bowl and lowered himself to put it on the ground in front of the young man.
While looking toward the ground, he suddenly noticed a movement on the edge of his vision. Raising his head to see what was happening, the unknown man had time to view only a white object, reflecting part of the light of the corridor, driven into his throat, and the hair of the young man falling to the side, showing deep, dark eyes staring at him while life exited his body.
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[You have slain a dormant human, name unknown.]
[You have received a Memory: Unseen Hand.]
The corpse was resting at the foot of Lysander, blood spilling from the wound inflicted by the bone and forming a pool on the ground of the cell.
With a shaking hand, not from the kill, for he was introduced to it in the slums, but from adrenaline at having succeeded in his plan, Lysander picked up the dead man and dragged it into his now accustomed coffin, closing the door, only leaving a small opening in case another one happened to wander the corridor.
'Shit, I wasn't sure I would be able to pull this off.'
Lysander had devised this plan the moment he had regurgitated the bone that almost suffocated him. Using it, he managed to break a link in the chains of his iron shackles and free his two hands from his restraints. Then, the young man waited patiently for the guard to come back. Lys had to fake being still shackled to the stone wall and to show no sign of activity to put the man at ease and make him lower to the ground. One chance. One strike or else, death or worse, because Lysander didn't think he would survive a fight with the state of his body against him.
'It seemed that my Attribute, [Lucky], brought me this chance.'
The odds that a random small bone sharp enough to pierce the neck of a grown man and sturdy enough to not break against iron would stumble into his bowl were small, but fortune favored him, because he managed to survive and take this chance.
All while calming his body and thinking about his next set of actions, Lysander noticed the notification about gaining a Memory that had popped up. He summoned the runes and concentrated on the words ''Unseen Hand''. An image of a small ethereal hand appeared in front of his eyes, with a short string of text below.
[Unseen Hand: a small hand invisible to the eyes of most, meant to carry insignificant tasks beneath the attention of many.]
'Mmm, it could be useful, depending on the situation.' Lysander thought while imagining different ways to use his First Memory.
He dismissed the runes and searched the body of the guard. Sadly for him, there was nothing really useful on him. After all, the only job of this man was to bring food to defenceless prisoners who were shackled; he didn't need armor or a weapon to do that, but at least Lysander tried. But he found the set of keys meant to open the iron shackles of the prisoners.
Opening the door slightly, Lysander peeked into the corridor. Nothing. Slowly, he exited the cell, his shadow flickering due to the lamps resting along the stone wall.
'What do I do now? Should I free the other prisoners and escape through the chaos? But what if they don't move from their cell? Or worse, they rat me out to try to buy their survival from the captors?'
While thinking, Lysander walked stealthily, his back pressing against the wall, holding in the grip of his hand the blood-stained bone, ready to strike the moment he saw anything in his view. Arriving at the end of the corridor, in front of him lay wooden stairs leading to the upper level of the ancient castle.
Slowly going to the door on top, but stopping midway, the young man summoned his Memory.
The Unseen Hand appeared as an ethereal small hand in front of Lysander. He willed it to move toward the door, toward the handle.
As the hand was moving, Lys realized the limitations of his Memory: only five meters away from him, and then, it would stop.
He used it to open the door, revealing what was behind.
Hiding himself from view, peeking above the last stair, Lysander saw a grand hall. Lamps illuminated the walls, showing paintings of what seemed to be nobles and violet drapes with a crest of a dragon.
Three paths were shown to him. The middle path, the bigger one, was leading toward an ominous sound of chants, and where the other two led, Lysander had no idea.
Fearing that the middle one led to the place of the ritual, Lysander picked the right one, leaving the left one for later. Strangely, the ancient castle was quite deserted, or at least, this part of it.
Time was ticking, but Lys still decided to walk with precaution, prioritising silence and control over recklessness and haste.
Suddenly, Lysander heard the sound of two people talking in the distance. He hurriedly hid himself in a corner, behind a violet drape, and he listened to what was happening. Strangely, he could understand the discussion, even though it was not English.
A male voice was resounding in the corridor.
''The master needs his priest clothes for tonight. He will attempt the ritual again, so they must be ready before the fall of the night. Understood?''
The one to answer was an old female voice.
''Yes, butler Qeius, I will make sure of that.''
The sound of footsteps approaching brought dread to Lysander, but luckily for him, it stops a few meters from where he was, and the sound of a door being opened resounded; then the footsteps entered this room.
Lysander looked down the corridor and saw nobody.
'They left.'
He also saw a window covered by a veil at the end of the corridor. Moving away from his spot, Lysander walked toward the window, but he also checked to make sure that whoever entered the room beside his spot hadn't left yet.
After reaching the end of the corridor, Lysander moved aside the veil and looked through the window to see what awaited him beyond the ancient castle.
He saw a vast expanse of flat green land, filled with life, reaching to the horizon.
Lysander shuddered at the sight, for he couldn't imagine a way out of this Nightmare.
'How the fuck am I supposed to escape from an explosion that will soon cover all that?!'