[center][abbr=Octopath Travelers][img]https://i.ibb.co/88KWNj5/OTbanner.png[/img][/abbr]
[sup]____________________________________________________[/sup]
[color=FFC6C6][u]Level[/u]: [b]9[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 199/90[/color] [color=2e2c2c]------[/color] [color=BC8DBF][u]Level[/u]: [b]7[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 160/70[/color]
[color=gray]𝙱𝙿[/color] [color=gold]●[/color][color=gray]●●●●[/color] [color=2e2c2c]----------------------------[/color] [color=gray]𝙱𝙿[/color] [color=gold]●[/color][color=gray]●●●●[/color]
[color=lightgray]Word Count: 2123 (+3 exp)
[b]Location[/b]: The Under - Mercy Dreams Fourth Level[/color][/center]
There was too much going on at once, preventing the Seekers from regrouping to make a plan. At least, that was the impression that Primrose got from the other messages received, as well as the general commotion coming from the levels above her. Briefly the dancer considered ascending form the fourth floor to assist with whatever was going on, but mostly her thoughts were with Yusufa. She wanted to open that cell whether her friend was really in there or not. After a few moments of quiet Primrose slipped out of the alcove she'd taken shelter in and continued on deeper in the prison.

She had a bronze key that didn't fit the lock that she wanted. She needed a silver key, in addition to any clues leading to the "Dreamcatcher." She still thought that the lowest level would be the best bet.

She avoided the lantern carrying jailers as she went, finding that if she so much as glanced into that light for too long her vitality would start to fade. It was more than unpleasant, the feeling of her health draining had been scary - and though she was stronger than the illuminators, she didn't want to fight them if she could help it. She could only imagine how awful it would be to face off against more than one at a time, and any confrontation her would put her at risk of that.

Primrose was maybe halfway to where she judged the stairway leading down was when she felt a presence approaching. She stopped moving, pressing herself to the wall as she turned to awaited whoever it was to make their appearance. Since she didn't hear any of the illuminator's creepy giggling and she hadn't seen any other kinds of of guards on this floor, she thought (and hoped) it would be a friendly face.

Therion rounded the corner not a moment later, spotting his fellow Orsterran immediately - with his cat senses, his eyes were better in the dark than ever. Though still a little roughed up from his fight against the wraith, he was indeed a friendly face. At the moment that face was stony, fighting to keep his emotions under control. In his one wide, visible eye there was a question. Only then did Primrose realize how her report would have sounded to him. 

[color=D34C25]"Oh Therion,"[/color] she breathed, and beckoned him over. She prepared the Warmth spell, gently touching her hand to his shoulder to heal him. She had no idea how he would react when she explained; relieved that their friends weren't trapped here, or disappointed that they were yet to be reunited? 

[color=D34C25]"It's none of them,"[/color] she said, cutting off his voice and answering before he could ask. [color=D34C25]"It's... someone from my past. Before I met you."[/color]

Therion blinked, processing. Then he relaxed, letting the Warmth wash over him. He felt a mix of both relief and disappointment, truth be told. So the person Primrose found wasn't any of their fellow travelers. 

[color=BC8DBF]"...okay,"[/color], he said, going quiet as he sorted out his thoughts. It took another few moments, but eventually Therion spoke again. [color=BC8DBF]"And you're sure? That they're real."[/color]

[color=D34C25]"No,"[/color] Primrose answered honestly. [color=D34C25]"I couldn't see her, only hear her voice. But... it [i]was her[/i] voice."[/color]

Primrose didn't often speak about her past, so Therion had no idea who it was that his friend was hearing. But from the way she spoke, it sounded like someone she cared about, not one of her targets. That only made the thief more suspicious. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his eyebrows drawn together. 

[color=BC8DBF]"But it can't actually [i]be[/i] her. Right? Maybe it's some kind of mimic or-"[/color]

Primrose shook her head. [color=D34C25]"No. I would know Yusufa's voice."[/color]

[color=BC8DBF]"...alright, then it's some other kind of trick. A spell or something. You think so too, right?"[/color]

The dancer pursed her lips. Of course she considered the possibility that the "Yusufa" in the cell was a trap or trick. Therion didn't even have to bring up Minette - they both knew it was improbable. 

[color=D34C25]"...even so, it doesn't stop me from wanting to open the cell door and see for myself."[/color]

[i]Can't argue with that,[/i] Therion thought. Though to be fair if he ran into someone from his past before traveling with the other seven, he would much rather leave them behind bars. [color=BC8DBF]"Then let's see what we can do."[/color]

The two of them got moving, catching each other up in hushed whispers. Therion told Primrose about the "giant scholar" that Artorias had rescued and the mad prisoner they'd accidentally freed. Primrose told Therion about how dangerous the illuminators were, and what had happened after she found Yusufa's cell. She didn't go into much extra detail about the mystery women, mentioning only that she was a fellow dancer. He didn't ask for more.

Though their path was mostly clear, they nearly ran into trouble when a couple of illuminators appeared from the far end of the level, doing their patrol together. They were right where Primrose and Therion wanted to go, so it was either fight or retreat... or -

[color=BC8DBF]"Here,"[/color] Therion whispered, ducking down a hall that was tucked nearly out of sight from the main walk way. The dancer swiftly followed, and the two of them crept down the new path. They could just barely see the lamp lights passing the hallway's entrance as both jailers walked on by. 

The travelers gave it a little more time to make sure the coast was clear. While they waited, with nothing else to look at besides the space they were in, it became clear to them that this hall was in worse shape than the rest of the prison. The stone work of Mercy Dreams was far from pristine, but it wasn't like this - chipped, crumbling bricks, mortar so worn down that the stone was uneven and every step was a tripping hazard... it was an old, unused section, if Primrose had to guess.

[color=BC8DBF]"Looks like there's a room at the end,"[/color] Therion said, nodding to the far side of the hallway they were in. [color=BC8DBF]"Let's check it out while we're here."[/color]

Deeper in, there was indeed an area where the hall opened up. There was no door to speak of, just a threshold that lead to a dark, rectangular room. Closer to the far wall was a standing candelabra on raised portion of the ground. It was the only light in the room, casting flickering shadows against the columns, and the figure, next to it.

[color=D34C25]"A person...?"[/color] Primrose wondered. The travelers had stopped at the doorway to peer in first. Besides the candles' flames, there was no sign of movement within. The person beside the candelabra was slumped over in a chair, some contraption around his head. He was just as still as the rest of the room. He must have been a prisoner, at some point. 

Primrose took the first step inside. Nothing jumped out at her from the darkness. Judging from the way her footsteps hardly echoed, Therion guessed the room wasn't all that large. He caught up to Primrose and they approached the figure in the chair. 

[color=BC8DBF]"Dead,"[/color] Therion said. That much they could tell from this close. [i]Dead, but not a pile of ash. Still not really sure how that works.[/i] He eyed the cage around the man's head, unsettled the same way he'd been seeing Osvald's muzzle. This at least had a space large enough in the front for eating. It didn't seem to serve a purpose other than punishment, to unbalance the wearer and force them to carry the heavy iron on their shoulders. 

[i]Poor guy,[/i] Therion thought. Then he reached forward to rifle through the man's pockets.

[color=D34C25]"Therion,"[/color] Primrose intoned.

[color=BC8DBF]"What? Is this any different than killing someone and magically making their spirit into an item?"[/color] he responded. She didn't have a retort, and so left him to it while she inspected the columns. He turned back to the corpse. He wasn't normally a grave robber, if this even counted, but the situation was far from normal. The guy might have something important on him.

The first thing Therion spotted was a wooden figure clutched in the man's hand. Humanoid, with a horse's head and legs. He wiggled it out of the man's grasp, noting that it looked handmade before storing it away. When he actually touched the body, brushing against it when he reached into the scholarly clothes' pockets, a vision struck Therion.

It wasn't an out of body experience, more like a waking dream dropped right inside of his brain. He saw an alien looking landscape, twisted and strange. Chunks carved out of the earth, and unnatural features like piles of petrified blisters in place of trees. Much worse were the inhabitants of the place - gangling, pallid monstrosities with tentacles, wolf men with visible parasites whose jaws tore their faces when they opened vertically, women pierced through by harpoons, ghostly and wailing, and many legged insectoids with human faces. It was a glimpse into some bizarre, nightmarish other world - and then it was gone.

He jerked away from the corpse so hard that he knocked the candelabra over. It clattered to the ground, snuffing a few candles and leaving the room in almost pitch black darkness. 

[i]What the hell? How many times is this gonna happen?[/i] Therion thought, the fur of his tail fluffed up in fright. 

[color=D34C25]"What happened?"[/color]

[color=BC8DBF]"Some kind of... I don't know. Hallucination."[/color] He shook his head, getting his heart rate back under control fairly quickly. [color=BC8DBF]"Have I mentioned I hate all this underground stuff?"[/color]

[color=D34C25]"Not in the last five minutes, so I suppose you were overdue. Here, let me make some light."[/color] 

Primrose snapped her fingers, sending a puff of flames up at the lanterns she'd spotted and lighting them. The result was a much better illuminated area, but when given their first real look at the [url=https://i.imgur.com/iK5O9tj.jpg]room[/url], both travelers recoiled.

Stacked up in ascending rows along three walls were many, many more corpses like the one next to them. All of them were strapped into chairs with the same iron cage locked over their heads. Compared to the first body, these were in much worse shape - desiccated, some rotted to nearly bone, stripped of all clothes but ratty pants. They were so old that the stench of death had faded and been replaced by must, and because of that the two Seekers had no idea they were surrounded by such a macabre display until now. 

They were rendered speechless and tense, but several minutes went by and nothing happened. The corpses didn't reanimate, no ghosts appeared, and no hidden enemies jumped out. They were truly in a section of the prison left long abandoned, these prisoners abandoned with it.

[color=D34C25]"What on earth..."[/color] Primrose dared to get a little closer to the wall of bodies. Was this a dumping ground, or some kind of archaic group cell? The corpses appeared almost entirely uniform in appearance, save for some colorful bits of paper stuck to various cages.

[color=D34C25]"'Ritual'... 'Phase Shift'... 'Insomnia'... 'Summon... Tulpa?'"[/color] She read the words on the stickers aloud. The script was a deep purple-blue in color, though that wasn't the case for all of the words. There were even more in a blank light gray color: 'Self-assured', 'Shear Luck', 'Sleep Talk', and 'Sleep Walk.'

There were a few stickers scattered on the floor as well, one of which Therion knelt to pick up. He turned it over in his hand, finding it blank on one side. The other, in a metallic reddish gray color, read, [color=BC8DBF]"...'Fair Fight.'"[/color]

[color=D34C25]"I can't imagine these are causes of death,"[/color] Primrose said. She backed away from the wall, and the corpse on the raised ground area. [color=D34C25]"And I don't think I want to know what this room's purpose was anyway."[/color]

Therion agreed. For all he knew this could be some kind of fucked up experimentation chamber and they were lucky that it was no longer in use. The two of them quickly scanned the room, but found nothing else of note, least of all silver keys, mask fragments, or mystical dream weaponry.

As they retreated from the room and back into the main area of the level, Kamek's voice buzzed in their ear. This time Therion checked in, giving the traveler's own status report. 

[i][color=BC8DBF]"I'm on the fourth level with Primrose. We found a hidden room, but the only thing inside was a nightmare."[/color][/i] He and Primrose came out of the hallway after making sure no jailers were in immediate sight. Primrose led the way from there, keeping an eye out for the mechanism that would open the first gate in the stairwell leading down. [i][color=BC8DBF]"Going deeper now."[/color][/i]