Vell looked around for a moment.

He stood on open ground, not far from the palace.

There was no one around, so watch him here, and that was what he hoped for.

He could feel no magic in the air here, and the absence upset him.

Before, when he 'pursuaded' an irath mage to tell him what he wanted to know, he asked where their more unsightly experiments were held, and that place was supposed to be here, though far below the earth.

His guarantee that the mage wouldn't tell the councilor of the irath nor anyone else what Vell had done was a simple threat. If Vell found out that he had spilled their little secret, he would kill the mage or tell the rest of Irath that he was helped by one of their own, which was a version of the truth.

They would take it as a betrayal of the highest order and make him one of their test subjects, which would result in a horrific death, slow or fast.

He didn't want the mage to die, but what other choice did he have?

He couldn't just outright kill him, as the mage would be missed for his regular duties, and Vell didn't actively try to kill anyone he didn't have to.

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So, he shrugged. A threat from the Dread Mage should be taken seriously, and he was sure that any irath would try to save their own hide.

He could only hope that the mage wouldn't rat him out for the 'great good' of the Irath Empire.

Breathing, he prepared himself. The next few moments were going to be nauseating.

He cast "Des Por" and phased through the solid ground until he found himself in what looked to be the halls of a dungeon.

To gain solidity again, he said, "Mos."

His feet lightly touched the floor, and his eyes needed a moment to get used to the dark, as the only light source was a faraway torch.

Hireath had said before that he was a master of stealth, but in places covered in heavy shadows and darkness like these, Vell almost blended in with them.

His dark cloak shielded him from prying eyes in the darkness.

As he crept further into the dungeon, Vell could hear faint noises echoing off the stone walls.

The air felt heavy and oppressive, as if it were weighed down by the darkness that surrounded him.

Vell pressed on, his senses alert for any sign of danger. He knew that he was treading on dangerous ground, but of course, that didn't deter him.

As he turned a corner, he came face-to-face with a barred door. Intrigued, he approached it and peered through the iron bars, only to be met with something he couldn't make out fully at first.

Inside the dimly lit chamber, he thought he could see moving shapes.

Then he relaized; cages lined the walls, each containing a different creature that twisted and writhed in their confines.

Disgust warred within him as he processed what he was seeing.

They were failed experiments.