Englecon Mine, Desmond, 10416 P.C.

Stephanie panted, her throat burning, stumbling to her knees as her captor shoved her. Her knees scraped on the stone floor as she caught herself with bound hands, gasping, itching to yank off the blindfold that blocked her vision. She didn't know where she was, only that Annabella was back in the woods, dying. She trembled at the very thought. Oh, what an idiot she was! Running blind, promising to get help and instead running right into one of the traps Annabella had just warned her about! Instead of heeding her pleas for help for her companion, the man who found her tied her wrists, blindfolded her, and dragged her somewhere. The mine, more than likely. Stephanie fought to breathe.

"What is this?" a sharp voice demanded as footsteps came closer. They were in a tunnel — everything echoed.

"A Zusian soldier," her captor responded gruffly. "No papers on her. I suspect a runaway."

"A runaway this far from Zusia?" Was that a tone of respect she heard in the man's voice? "Not a common occurrence. Scan her."

Stephanie was dragged to her feet and pulled down the tunnel. She wanted to fight back, but the man was twice her size and incredibly strong. If she was going to escape, she'd have to time it just perfectly.

Her blindfold was pulled off. She grimaced, blinking several times at the screen before her, realizing it was similar to the scanners they had at the Trainee Campus. It scanned her face — her mark and eyes. She twisted away too late.

"We'll have results soon," the man holding her said. "Then we'll know whether she's a fugitive or not."

She gritted her teeth, trying to wrench out of his grasp. "Let me go!"

"Sure don't talk like one of them Majesty's soldiers," another man said. He was tall and thin with a crooked nose and an ugly scar along his right cheek. "They're all so stinkin' uppity and bossin' ya around like they're royalty. This one's jus' small and squirmy." He tapped her nose. Stephanie bit his finger, and he jerked back with a yelp.

"What are you three doing?" The cold voice that yelled down the tunnel made all of the men freeze. Stephanie looked around for the man who had spoken, finally sighting him. He was striding toward them with an air of power as if he were Motch in Human form. Dark hair and dark-eyed, tall, a face like icy stone. Stephanie understood why her three captors were suddenly so stiff. The man wore the uniform of an Overseer, the top-ranking slave master. And it was heavily stained with blood.

"We found a girl, sir." The man holding her thrust her forward like a shield, holding her arm tightly. "A soldier. We were just scanning her to see who she was."

"A soldier?" the man mused, coming even closer. Stephanie felt the men behind her shrink away as he walked right up to her. The other man's hand slipped off her arm. The Overseer stood over her, staring her down, and she forced herself to stay still and hold his gaze. She would not be intimidated by this man, she promised herself.

"Y-yes, sir. See, we have her results now."

Stephanie allowed herself to break the gaze, turning her head to see what the man meant. He was looking at the screen, reading its contents.

"Well?" the Overseer demanded.

"She's a runaway, sir, but we are not to kill her."

"Why not?" By the tone of the man's voice, Stephanie knew the Overseer would have had pleasure in bringing her death. It sent shivers down her spine.

"She... she's an Oddity, sir. There's a bounty on her. That's all it says." The man turned to look first at her and then the Overseer in confusion. "Oddity. What's that mean?"

Stephanie turned to the Overseer in time to catch the flicker of surprise in his eyes. It was gone in a blink, and he took Stephanie's arm. "It means, Allov, that you will send a runner to Zusia. Tell Motch we have the girl."

"Yes, sir." The man was off like a shot.

"Both of you, return to your duties," the Overseer ordered the last two men. "I will attend to our special guest." He tugged on Stephanie's arm. "Walk with me."

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Stephanie obeyed, lacking any other choice. She couldn't run, not with the men behind them blocking her escape. Her mouth was dry, her steps shaky. The ground swayed a bit.

"Tell me, Miss Oddity," the man began conversationally, his posture and tone relaxed. "What brings you to my humble mine?"

"Your men," she spat.

"Naturally. You picked the wrong place to traipse around." He pulled her off to the side, into a new tunnel. "Do you know what we do here?"

She didn't answer.

He hummed. "As I thought. Few do. They don't teach you much about my profession, do they?"

"You enslave people and force them to mine this mountain."

"Motch enslaves. I overseer. That is what they call me: the Overseer." He turned down a new tunnel. She struggled to memorize the pattern. "You may call me 'sir'."

She ground her teeth. The calm arrogance of this man was grating on her. Off in the distance, she heard the clang of metal on stone. It raised the hairs on her arms. The smell of the place was starting to get to her. Body odour, blood — it made her want to gag.

"Tell me, girl," the Overseer continued. "What makes you an Oddity?"

She fought to swallow past her dry throat. Why was he asking her that? Didn't it all mean the same thing? "I don't know."

"It means you're different," he replied all-knowingly. "What makes you different?"

"I don't know."

He pulled her out of the tunnel and into a large room. She stared, unsure of what she was seeing. It was a long room, posts set up along the walls and two rows of pits dug in the middle. The floor, stained with blood, sloped down to the pits. Horror took hold of her. The post nearest them was bloodied. Freshly dried.

"What is this?" she whispered.

"Welcome to the punishing room." The man looked at her, and she caught sight of his twisted, dark smile. It froze her, tripled the horror she felt, leaving her stunned. She had never before seen a smile like that. She hadn't even considered a smile capable of holding that much evil.

He pulled her forward and she stumbled, forcing her legs to move. "Oddity, Oddity," the man muttered, approaching the edge of the first pit. "You see, my child, you are not the only Oddity to happen into my care. Tell me, do you heal yourself as well?"

Stephanie had never been asked such a ludicrous-sounding question before. "What? No."

The Overseer pulled out a knife. "So you say." Before she could react, he grabbed her wrists in one hand and slid the blade across her arms. She jerked back, crying out in pain as blood blossomed from the wounds, staining her sleeves dark.

"Boy!" the man bellowed into the pit, startling Stephanie as much as his trick with the knife. "Get up! Oddity, meet Oddity."

The man grabbed her again, pulling her along the edge of the pit. She grimaced as her new wounds stung. It was dark, but she could make out a figure at its bottom. A boy. He was still, watching them silently, eyes reflective in the torchlight. She stared back.

"All recovered already?" the Overseer shot down at the boy. He turned to Stephanie and used the knife to cut her bindings. "I'll be back to see how true your word is, girl. For now, enjoy your stay."

He pushed her backwards, not into the pit with the boy, but into another pit beside, one she hadn't taken notice of before it was too late. She shrieked as she fell, instinctively flipping herself and landing on her feet before rolling on her shoulder. Her legs smacked the side of the pit hard. There was no level ground, she realized in a pained daze. The pit was dug straight down and then curved into a point.

Stephanie gasped for breath, craning her neck to see if the man was still standing above. He wasn't. Rolling onto her back, she struggled to catch her breath, letting the pain of her various injuries burn through her. Her arms stung terribly, the rest of her body battered and aching from the fall. Tears burned her eyes. She stifled them, groaning as she struggled to sit up.

That's when she remembered the boy.

She stood, her heart beating a frantic little chorus in her chest. Everything swayed around her, and she put her hand against the wall for balance. The walls of the pit were too high and too smooth to climb. She should've tried to run when she had the chance.

"Hello?" she whispered. She coughed. "Hello?"

There was no answer. She swallowed hard. "I know you're there."

Again, no answer. Stephanie knew she wasn't getting one. Sinking to the ground, she pushed up her sleeves to see the extent of the damage the Overseer had given her. The wounds were deep. She shed her jacket, tossing it to the side and ripping apart her sweater's sleeves, using the fabric to bind the wounds. They stung, and she trembled in pain and with the cold. She put her jacket back on.

There she was, caught and trapped at the bottom of a pit. Annabella was poisoned, out somewhere in the woods losing her mind. And no one was the wiser.

Todd had been right. This had ended up to be a terrible idea.