Youth

#50 - Saviour

    After a long and treacherous journey past the lake and through pitch black tunnels, Nyais was greeted by a mess of staircases and old, unused cells.  Rusted metal was peeling off the bars and Nyais was careful not to touch them, not wanting to damage himself more than he already had been.  He came to the realisation that he was in the dungeons, though certainly not a part that he recognised.  This was likely what was the dungeons were before Ritou redesigned the entire kingdom and rebuilt it from scratch.

He half expected to run into some blood-starved notorious serial killer chained up in one of the cells, forgotten by everyone and left to rot, but no such thing occurred.  All criminals had been moved to the new dungeons, and these ones were truly deserted.  Bloodstained walls reminded Nyais of what had gone on here long ago.  He'd never worked in this section of the dungeons as Ritou had changed the whole layout of the kingdom before he was born, but he believed Rayne may be familiar with this area.  Had Rayne brought him here?  He was surprised that he hadn't awoken in Rayne's lab, though with Aytsa and Laion working so close to him it made sense — that was if Rayne had kept him alive in the first place.

Nyais started climbing stairs and such, using his hearing to pinpoint where the actual dungeons were (as he expected there'd be an entrance to this place through them).  It would appear they were directly above him, however he didn't see a staircase that would help that much, so he went with luck and picked the closest one to him, hoping it'd lead him in the right direction.

Which it didn't.  Dead end, so back to the staircases.  He chose one on the opposite side of the room, which went up past the dungeons and then stopped abruptly — it looked like it may have once led to the King's Quarters.  What would the king need a staircase to the dungeons for?  Sounds like a assassination hazard more than anything.  So he went back down the stairs and to a new staircase, and this time it was promising.  It led up, right to where the dungeons were.  Nyais felt around for a trapdoor or such.

A left turning.  He hadn't expected that.  Despite already figuring this was just as hopeless as the last staircases, he continued down the left turning in some strange hope that it may lead somewhere useful.  He went up the stairs, walked straight for a little bit, up again, right now, and then down?  Why down, he wondered?

He felt a strange board-type thing on the floor in front of him.  It felt like a plastic ceiling board.  He pushed on it a little with his arm before instead pushing on it with his foot.  One wasn't enough, so he used two.  Crack.  The board gave way underneath him and Nyais, rather epically, landed in the middle of a dark, unfamiliar room, using his arms to steady himself.  The lights flicked on.

A round of applause sounded from behind him.  He spun around.

"Quite the landing!  Though you did break my ceiling... Nyais, why did you take the left turn to the lake?  There was an immediate staircase to your right which led right to the dungeons, you know," Rayne sighed, shaking his head.  Nyais was frozen in shock.  The room wasn't unfamiliar.  The room was Rayne's office - the doctor's office, not his lab (thank god). 

"You... saved me?" Nyais questioned. 

"Don't make me sound too empathetic," Rayne laughed blandly.  "I still haven't paid you back from nearly killing me that one time, so I needed you alive.  Sounds fair?" Rayne hummed, though Nyais wasn't paying much attention to him now, despite having asked him a question only moments ago.  He walked over to the door but paused, looking back.  His lips parted as though he wanted to say something, but nothing left him.

"She's in your apartment," Rayne huffed, pulling the IV beside him like it was a dancing cane.  Nyais extended his hearing to check the man's statement, quickly taking note of [Y/n]'s voice.  And Mitzu's.