50 Deb (1/2)

Daneel was roused by an ominous sound that made him snap his eyes open and find nothing but darkness.

It was that of a knife or a sword being sharpened. The whetstone traveled across the length of the blade smoothly and without pause, as if the user had done it a million times. Even though it wasn't loud, it echoed all around as if the room they were in was very small, and the more he heard it, the more he was able to imagine it at his neck.

A hood had been placed over his head, preventing him from seeing anything. It was unwashed and rank, smelling of sweat and blood, and for a moment, he wondered if it was his.

It soon became clear that he was wrong when the only difference between that moment before he had fainted and now was a dull ache at the back of his head. He tried to raise his hands and touch it to see if it had swelled… and that was when he found out that his hands and legs were bound to the chair he was sitting on.

”Hello? Who's there?”

The sound stopped as he asked this, and it was followed by that of footsteps trudging away. Finding himself alone, he turned to the one who could tell him what the hell had happened and asked the question in his mind.

[Responding to host. A male child, estimated to be 14 years old, used a metal rod to induce unconsciousness. A sack was then placed on host's head, before he was transported to host's present location. No conversations were held near host. Long-range auditory analysis skill is locked. Please continue finishing missions to generate criteria for the unlocking of this specific skill.]

For once, he didn't find the answers he had been looking for from the system. He already knew everything it had told him, and for some reason, that prompt at the end made him feel a sudden surge of frustration that he was sure he had experienced many times before, even though he didn't remember it, at all.

His thoughts came to a halt when the pitter-patter of many people walking at once came to his ears. A few moments later, the hood was ripped off, and Daneel had to squint in the darkness to see the ones responsible for his present state.

He hadn't really registered it before when the system had told him that a child had knocked him out… but that information came back to him, now, as he came upon a gaggle of teens who were all definitely younger than him.

They were all dressed in torn rags they barely served as clothes. One of them was tall and lanky, and from the way the others crowded around him, it was obvious that he was the leader.

The sound of footsteps heavier than those he had just heard made all of them turn. He saw, then, that he had been right about the size of the room; it was so small that five people wouldn't even be able to stand inside it, so with at least ten stuffed into the thing, it would be hard for anyone else to enter.

He was soon proved wrong, though, when a middle-aged man appeared in the doorway. The kids all moved to the side, and he walked to the spot right in front of Daneel. He was so close that even the slightest movement would result in the two of them touching, and Daneel had to look up to meet his face.

In the process… he came upon the hilt sticking up from the man's back, and right away, he knew that this was who had been sharpening the blade while he had been unconscious.

He opened his mouth to ask what the hell was going on here, but the words died in his throat when the man raised one finger to his lips. Understanding the extremely precarious situation he was in, he decided to obey instead of tempt danger, but the first sentence that came out of the man's mouth made him gape.

”Why did you save that kid in the refinery?”

All around, he could see inquisitive eyes looking at him in the darkness, watching for the slightest hint of dishonesty. He didn't understand many things. He didn't understand why this topic was relevant when they were so far away from the second layer. He didn't understand who these people were, and how the even knew about his actions that he had hidden to the best of his ability.

He did understand that his very life hung on his answer, so he said the first thing that came to his mind.

”Because I felt guilty.”