Chapter 30: Just As Planned
"Master... Master... Master..."
The voice was soft and shaky, carrying both panic and fear.
Vlad opened his eyes as his senses returned. His blurred vision slowly cleared, and he found himself hanging upside down in a dimly lit place.
A heavy chain was clamped tightly around his ankle, suspending him upside down, and even both his arms were pulled behind his back, bound by the same iron chain.
He twisted slightly, the metal creaking with the motion.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Vlad realized he was in a giant abandoned mine.
The ceiling arched high above, wrapped in darkness and drifting mist. Old pulley systems dangled from above, some still bearing giant, rust-covered wagon buckets, their chains groaning with every slight sway.
On the stone floor far below, broken carts lay shattered and split open, their wooden frames eaten away by time.
A few scattered piles of forgotten tools and dull, glinting minerals could still be seen, remnants of the labor that once took place here. Narrow stone bridges crossed over, connecting sections of the mine, some broken, some still intact.
The air was cold, and mist filled the chamber.
’It must be the Deceiver,’ Vlad thought, and despite the iron cutting into his limbs, a thin grin formed on his face.