Un-Chain

Looking straight ahead, the room he was in was fairly spacious. It held a few large boxes and the lighting was a bit dim here. There were two well lit hallways straight ahead and three doors to choose from.

Feeling for the thread, Uteu frowned when not even an echo of it could be felt. There were several pathways that he could take, and he exhaled before deciding to just follow his gut. He would search everywhere for her if he had to.

He approached the hallway on the right hand side and peered around. The hallway was made of stone just like the one that he had fallen through before finding himself in that bubble. This one however, was much larger. The pillars were much more elaborate and the lights were also much brighter. Rather than hedges, it was just walls with oil paintings or stone sculptures from what he could see.

He took a step forward and heard the sound of someone retching onto the floor. He froze and glanced around and sure enough, in the corner of the room he was in was a woman. He tensed further when he noticed that the person looked very familiar.

It was Harvet, even in this dim lighting, he could tell it was her. She had her dark blue hair in one hand and she was using the only potted plant in the hallway to vomit in.

She had changed out of her maid outfit and seemed to have bandaged herself up. Her eye, the one that was once swollen, still looked heavily bruised in black and blue. There were two lightly blood soaked patches taped to her skin around the bruises by her eye. It looked like she had gotten the blood out so that she could see with both of her eyes.

She was wearing something more subtle this time. It was a dark blue outfit with a single yellow symbol on the short sleeves, a little similar to the warden's but more simple and of lower quality. It looked sturdy and easy to move in.

Once Harvet was done throwing up, she seemed a bit relieved to see him. Not that he knew why.

She glanced at something behind him with a hint of fear. Uteu quickly turned around to look behind him, afraid there was someone there. Noticing Uteu's reaction she attempting to explain herself.

"... I've been into the isolation cells before, you know, those bubble platforms inside of that dome?"

She laughed dryly, "For the first time in my life I was actually looking for a way in... I thought I could handle it but being here and just seeing a glimpse of the inside again..." Harvet trailed off and swallowed thickly.

"I've been in there quite often actually. The warden... is not a nice man, especially to girls and women. God, I saw him behind you, twice." Harvet rubbed her stomach as if a phantom pain had resurfaced. She looked like she was on the verge of throwing up again. Her face tinging a bit green even in this lighting.

"The isolation cells are only the first layer of the jail, usually used to train people like us. To break us. Once the barriers are up the warden has complete control of what happens inside of the cells."

She shuddered and rubbed her arms. She gave quick looks at the place the door once was and back at Uteu.

"None of us have ever managed to escape his barriers. You were extremely lucky to have met that man. I forgot his name, but that guy from the Association is quite famous for his unique abilities. He's almost on the same level as Grello Mandleton."

Call him biased, but with someone like Grello to compare him to, Uteu felt like that barrier breaker guy was kind of impressive. He still didn't want to see him anytime soon though.

"I was planning on a much messier escape for you. It would have alerted everyone in this place. Really glad we got to skip that part."

Harvet pulled out two unopened bottles of water from her side bag and drank long and deep. She passed the other one to Uteu and he licked his lips, not realizing how truly thirsty he actually was. He thanked her and drank the still cool water, it soothed his throat and felt refreshing.

She pulled out a snack bar and tossed it at him. He caught it with two of his fingers, nearly dropping it.

"Keep your strength up, we are going to have a very long day ahead of us."

He stared at the silver package dubiously, but ate it anyways. It was a bit dry and tasteless. While it wasn't that bad to eat, he still had to wash it down with water.

Harvet waited patiently for him to finish the bottle of water and snack bar before motioning at him to follow her. With her back turned to him, she couldn't see his hesitation. It was still difficult to trust her, but for now, he once again didn't exactly have much of a choice. She seemed sincere so far, at least.

He looked at where she was waiting, it was the same hall, the one he had picked on the right hand side. He quickly caught up to her and followed a full two steps behind her. They made a few twists and turns down the hallway. They didn't encounter anyone along the way.

"Going to take you to my room to talk, it's not exactly safe out here and I'd rather not stay by the dome any longer."

Turning around another bend, she pulled Uteu into a room. It was a simple room with nothing personal in it. Both sides of the room looked identical. Two clean white beds and two small side tables with the same lamps. Luckily the roommate, if she had one, was not in.

"So... it seems the Association is having a battle with the Guild at this moment. We really lucked out. Well... you didn't, seeing as how you got caught up in the spell that they used to bring people from the Association to the cells-" She trailed off and coughed to clear her throat. It didn't seem like she wanted to bring up the dome again.

"Anyways, with the Association here, you can see it as us not having to fight off a lot of people to get to your sister." With those words, Uteu felt quite a bit relieved. With all this... interference, he wasn't able to access Grello's abilities and really, without the only protection he knows, not having to fight was a big plus.

"They're all being detained for now but with that... uh... that one Association person, they'll all be free soon. We can take advantage of the chaos during that time to find Uti Drelden. I've found a lead on her while you were in the dome. I don't believe that they took her to the place where they usually keep all the Psyches at all, but to the middle square."

He couldn't stop the warm feeling pooling at his gut when Harvet gave him her gentlest smile. It was a very slight, hopeful smile and it brought him a small bit of hope as well.