Klaus stood motionless in the corridor.
After several seconds of silence, he withdrew his gaze from the stone wall.
"Leike is interrogating Kame."
He glanced at Lu Yuan.
"Go take a look."
Lu Yuan nodded and turned toward the other side of the corridor.
The Detention Room was divided into two sections. Q and J were at the far end of the left side, while Kame was held alone in a room deeper down the right side. Klaus's arrangement was clear: members of the Grey Covenant and people from the Tower of Erudition could not be held together, not even with several iron doors between them.
The farther in he went, the darker the corridor became. The inscriptions embedded in the walls shifted from verdigris to dark silver, their sheen heavier and their suppressive force somewhat weaker. After all, Kame was only a Third Order Knowledge Transcendent. The air was thick with a cold, damp mildew smell mixed with the pungent odor of inscribed metal.
After turning the final corner, he found the iron door ajar.
Leike's voice came from inside. The soundproofing was excellent; the words within came only in broken fragments, impossible to make out clearly.
Lu Yuan pushed the door open.
The lighting was even dimmer than on Q's side. There was only a single oil lamp in the corner, its flame turned down to the lowest point, leaving most of the room submerged in shadow.
Kame sat in an iron chair.
Dark silver shackles locked his wrists and ankles, their inscription patterns glowing faintly and pulsing in sync with the suppressive inscriptions on the stone wall. His body was firmly pinned to the chair, unable to move.
His face was still swollen beyond recognition.
The left side of his face bulged grotesquely, his eye socket nearly