Day 1

Being locked up wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. Sure, the cell was kinda small, but it was obvious he was locked away in a high-quality cell. After all, he was led directly to the basement of the manor, instead of being led off to some dingy jail house elsewhere. His room was made entirely of stone, and it was a little cramped since there wasn’t even enough space for him to stand up straight nor stretch his arms and legs, and it didn’t have any windows, and it smelled a little musky, and the air was a bit too humid, and at night when he tried to sleep he swore he could hear someone scratching from inside the walls, but other than that he’d slept in worse places.

For example, that straw bed from the cabin was absolutely miserable since it had been so itchy, and he still remembered how horrible it felt to sleep on his friend’s couch – that couch gave him a neck crap that lasted for almost a week. The bed was an actual bed, and although it wasn’t anything great, it was usable. It was just barely large enough for him to sleep in though, if he had been just an inch or two taller, he wouldn’t fit in the bed. Even as it was now, he had to bend his knees a little for his feet not to be planted firmly against the wall.

Seldra left him with some books to read, but they were all dry magical textbooks. What kind of sister imprisons her brother (well, fake brother) and then assigns him reading? What, was this some kind of hint? Was he supposed to “Learn from his mistakes?” He didn’t make any mistakes in the first place!

Boredom compelled him to pick up the history book, since at least there would be stories there, but the first one was… a thing. The introductory chapter basically boiled down to this; some people had magic, some didn’t. The most popular theory was that humans had a non-human ancestor, and that ancestor had magic veins. So now, some humans have magic veins because of that mysterious non-human.

Neat. After reading that story, he couldn’t help but compare it to Earth’s history. Imagine if some important historical figure got freaky with a martian, and then some of their children inherited laser eyes. Ha. Lucas couldn’t help but giggle a little bit at the inane story. If it weren’t for the fact that the textbook was so dry and humorless, he would have read a bit more to see what other gems were in there.

In a sense, it almost felt like she was tormenting him with this new magical knowledge because she knew he couldn’t cast any magic right now. Well, technically he could – they removed the magical handcuffs after they locked him up. But, if he tried to blow open a hole in his cell, he was sure there would be about a half-dozen knights ready to rush in and murder him for attempting to escape. He could hear them outside, after all. Not very well, since they always talked out of earshot, but he occasionally heard some mumbled conversations.

No doubt they were talking about some super important stuff, and not at all slacking off and talking about the cutest girl in the town, or how underpaid they were, or how their feet hurt, or how they were looking forward to getting off work, etc etc etc. Lucas had worked before, he knew they wouldn’t be saying anything important down here.

“Food,” some knight said as they opened the heavy cell door. On the plate, there was a nice, hard loaf of bread, and a small bowl. The man immediately placed the food on the floor, closed the door, and locked it up tight. There were no greetings, no idle chit chat, just some food.

At least he was finally getting fed, though. His stomach was beginning to hurt. It had that punched-in sort of feeling that happens when it’s extremely empty. The rumblings it let out were also starting to sound like the howling of some sort of unknown beast. The beast of hunger. Yep. That was it. The beast of hunger was currently yowling and screaming in his stomach, and it wanted to be fed.

The bread was too hard to bite down on. Because of course they wouldn’t feed him something decent while he was in prison, why would they? Instead, he had to rip tiny pieces of it off and then let them soak in his mouth. The crumbs would get wet with his saliva, and then eventually they’d be soft enough to at least slightly chew. It tasted like sawdust and spoiled wheat, but it was food, so he ate it. The liquid in the bowl turned out to be just regular water, but for some sick reason they put it in a bow and not a cup. He wasn’t some sort of animal, he was human! What kind of terrible person gives another human a bowl to drink out of? Fine, whatever. As he held up the bowl to his mouth and drank, he had to be very careful not to spill any water. Yet despite his caution, some of the lukewarm water escaped the sides of his bowl and ran down the side of his cheek, then hit the floor.

For a second he thought the system would give him a quest telling him that he needed to lap up the water on the floor like the dog he was. After all, he didn’t believe that this world would let him just peacefully rest here in prison. Thankfully, the system stayed quiet. Despite everything that this world was putting him through, at least his useless system had been quiet about giving out crappy quests ever since he failed the first one.

He scratched the back of his head and frowned. Seriously, why was the system so useless. Did his summoning go wrong or something? Why was he even here, anyway?

Bah. Useless thoughts for a different time. He’d find out eventually.

Day 2

Seldra visited and wouldn’t shut up about how disappointed she was. She didn’t step into the cell to lecture him, of course, but instead opted to stand outside the door and talk through it. Loudly. He could’ve swore he heard the other knights and guards outside laugh as she talked about all her values and whatnot, but with how confidently she ignored their laughter, he doubted it existed in the first place. Lucas never would’ve been able to endure it if someone laughed at him like that. Anyone who laughed at him after he spilled his guts out would’ve got clocked in the face. Probably. Eh. At least, he’d like to think he’d punch them in the face.

After telling him that she was trying to get in contact with father via some magical orb, she left him alone for the rest of the day, which he spent reading more of the history textbook. Apparently, some dumb elf wizard thought it would be a smart idea to try and bring this planet’s sun closer to Earth, and create a paradise for plants or whatever. First of all, that was a terrible idea for obvious reasons. If this sun is comparable to Earth’s sun, then at the very least it was very, very, very heavy, and he doubted an elf wizard could make it move even an inch with their magic. Which he couldn’t – the story ended with his death, and it was supposed to be a lesson teaching something like “magic can’t do everything.”

Secondly, it was weird that this planet’s sun was also just called the sun. Lucas figured it would’ve had some neat fantasy name that he couldn’t even begin to pronounce correctly, but no, it didn’t. Although there was the chance that his translation magic was just translating their star’s name as “sun,” so maybe it really did have some fantastic name and he’d never know about it.

Once again his daily meal was nothing more than hard bread and water. It was amusing how he only needed to be fed once a day and not feel hungry. Were bodies here different? Did mages need to east less or something? Whatever the reason, he was both grateful and irked. Grateful, since he didn’t have to stuff himself with this crappy bread. Irked, because if there was good food on this planet, only being able to enjoy it once a day would be awful. Food is good! Everyone knows that, and to force someone to eat less of it is the one of the worst things you can do to them.

Day 3

Same old same old. More reading, more bread. Yay. The scratching in the walls had grown louder, and it was just loud enough to wake him up at night. Whenever he tried to investigate and find out exactly where the noise was coming from, however, it stopped.

“Hello?” he called out.

The darkness of his cell didn’t respond, and the scratching didn’t start up again.

Day 5

Seldra lectured him again, then told him that Father would be coming here in a week or so to talk to me personally. Talking over an orb seemed to impersonal for him, apparently. The lord himself would be here in a few days, and she advised him to “not do anything stupid.”

“What stupid thing could I even do in here?” Lucas asked her.

She didn’t answer him.

“Oh, also, what’s with the weird noises coming from the walls?” he asked her. Maybe she’d answer this question, at least.

“The what now?”

“Every night, I hear scratching noises coming from the walls. It keeps waking me up,” Lucas explained.

Seldra didn’t respond to him immediately. When she did eventually answer him, all she said was:

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

It was a very unhelpful response.

Day 7

“Wake up,” someone shouted at him while banging on the cell door. Lucas was already awake, he hadn’t been able to sleep all night because of the scratching. It had been very persistent last night. Before, it lasted maybe a few minutes a night, then stopped, not starting up again until tomorrow. But last night, it never stopped – it was there all night long and in the dark hours of the morning. That high pitched, scraping noise like nails on chalkboard.

When the cell door was eventually opened, a big giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His armored chest plate was similar to Seldra’s, except much larger to match his size. The dude must have been at least six and a half feet tall, and he was so wide, too. There was probably a lot of muscle under that armor. His hair was also cut in a military style, much like Seldra’s had been. Although, judging by the wrinkles on his face and his graying hair, he probably hadn’t seen any knightly action in quite some time. His face also looked similar to Seldra’s, too, except his eyebrows were bushier and his chin was wider. There was no way he could ever fit comfortably in Lucas’ cell, but he clearly wasn’t here as a prisoner.

“Get out,” he ordered Lucas in a tone that brooked no argument.

Lucas dragged himself off the bed and followed the big guy out. Once again, he was led up to the manor’s dingy excuse for a guest parlor, but this time the large man sat on the couch, while Lucas sat on the chair.

Much like Seldra before him, the man silently watched him and didn’t say a single thing. At this point, he could assumed that the man sitting in front of him was probably Xandrious’ father. There were just too many similarities between the two of them.

“So, you are…?” Lucas found himself asking anyway, since there was no harm in confirming his suspicions.

“You really don’t recognize me?” The man asked in a stern voice. Yep, this had to be Xandrious’ father. He had the same obnoxious tone of voice that Seldra had used with him. But Seldra said that her father wouldn’t be around for another week, and unless he’d gone insane during his brief stay in jail, it had only been two days since she told him that.

“Uh, no,” Lucas answered. “Maybe, since you look so much like Seldra, I’m guessing you’re, uh… my dad?” Lucas guessed.

“Ha. Your dad. Haha,” the man laughed a sad laugh as he shook his head. “No. If I were your Dad, I wouldn’t have ever let you grow up to be, well, you,” The man waved his arm in a broad arc in front of Lucas.

“I’m, Tyrabomonous Barolt, your grandfather. And I’m here to make you an offer.”