Jere held his body against the door of the cells. He didn’t know what the guards were doing outside. The screaming was now so loud that Jere couldn't hear himself think. All he knew was that he had yet to be attacked. They were still in their cages. By whatever luck he had mustered, he had escaped certain death.

“Maybe I just did their job for them.” Jere suppressed a chuckle.

The cells were completely shrouded in darkness. This heightened the noise surrounding Jere, focusing his attention on the screaming and rattling of the cage bars. The screamers knew someone was in there with them. Their slams echoed off the walls, as if they were throwing their bodies against the cage doors. Jere was glad the doors had held for as long as they did.

With his body against the door, Jere was confident he could hold off anyone trying to force their way in. But he was also aware of the hinge on the other side that locked it. Jere wouldn’t be able to get through if he wanted out. At this point, he didn’t care to. An escape plan could come later.

Still, the idea of being in the same room as these beasts for who knows how long left him feeling uneasy. Especially if it was possible that they could still escape from their cages.

Jere decided to give the door a light tug. It didn’t budge. “Good for me,” he thought. The irony of the cells being his salvation didn’t escape him. He moved his bound hands past the wooden door, feeling his way to the smooth clay walls. They were tougher than they looked. He recalled not dealing with any escapees when he was on watch duty in the past. He tried to reach for a torch, anything to light up the room a bit. But he had no luck. Even if he could find a torch, he’d still need flint to light it.

The screaming was getting louder as Jere approached the entryway to the cells. He wondered if they could see him in this darkness. He knew that a few of them had clawed their eyes out, but could they still hear him? Appo hadn’t given him enough insight into their vision enough for him to make a conclusion.

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Thinking of the healer made his stomach drop. The guards still had to bring him here after Juddken completed Shaddon Law. They could still unlock the door, come in, and “punish him” however they saw fit.

Jere felt his way down the wall and found a barrel. He pushed it briefly, feeling its weight. It was heavy for him, which meant that it was far too heavy for the guards. It could’ve been filled with anything from coal to armor. Things that could be useful. But right now he needed to keep the door shut.

As Jere pushed the barrel against the door with his feet, he sighed. The healer had slipped his mind up until now. The punishment would kill him. The Corps was always quick to credit unintended death to providence. “‘Okkan wanted them dead’” he recalled them saying. “‘It is the will of Ati, or they would have survived.’” For as ‘holy’ as Ash was, people seemed to die here all the time. He had just barely survived their ‘mercy’, after all.

“HEY!”

A call came from the cells. Jere didn’t imagine that. The screaming hadn’t stopped, but he was sure that he heard a shout through the noise. A very human shout.

“Who's there?” Jere replied. No answer. Just more screaming.

“HEY!!” There it was again. Jere realized it now. Through a hurricane of screaming he heard the yells of a lone person. Whoever was here with him likely couldn’t hear him either.

“WHO GOES THERE?” Jere yelled. He had a booming voice when he wanted, but he wasn’t sure how well it could travel in these conditions.

“-ERE?” Jere could barely make it out, but it sounded like his name. Or maybe the person was yelling “there?” Besides, who would be in here that would know who he was? Jere could only think of one person.

“PENZER?”

The responses were two claps. They cut through the screams much better than the voices. Jere was shocked. “How is that old bastard alive?” he thought. “Is he trapped with them? Does he have his own cell?”

His musings were cut short with a few prompt commands. It sounded like Penzer was yelling something complicated. “CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Jere yelled back.

Penzer’s response was direct. “DOORS LOOSE! HURRY!!”

Jere could make that one out, even over the rattling of the cages.