“We'll leave you to get… Used to the room, then.”

  Arthur offered a smile at Jacob, before leaving the room alongside Irene. That was nothing more than a polite way of saying they didn't want him to come along, and of course, he noticed that. Arthur could hear multiple tongue-clicking noises as they exited.

  At the moment, they were in the underground part of Sigel's Prison. The room placement was similar to the cells aboveground, on the sides of corridors and hallways. He looked to his left and to his right, towards the two opposite ends.

  Irene pulled on his sleeve, starting to walk and bringing him along, towards the northern end of the hallway.

  “I'll show ya some cool things! There's actually a second, er, break room down here, kind of like the mess hall upstairs. Ah, but it's smaller, and more, er, reserved!”

  Arthur stopped for a second, before letting himself be dragged.

  “Have you been here before?”

  She stayed silent before nodding. He couldn't see her face, but he felt like something was off. He already supposed that Irene, too, was a prisoner, but he didn't know much about the reason for her imprisonment, or her sentence.

  In fact, her situation seemed almost abnormal. She had become an honorary cadet not too earlier than Arthur, but she was much closer to Sol.

  ‘Ah, but that other guy didn't really treat him like a stranger, either…’

  Maybe he was the outlier in that specific context, and not the other two. Still, it was true that Irene seemed odd compared to the few other prisoners he had met, from her behaviour in general.

  She knew her way around the prison, but didn't talk of herself as a prisoner. Not to mention, she often wore hooded garments to hide her face, and as he just found out, she knew the layout of the underground part. Or, at least, part of it.

  “I, uh… Didn't know they held prisoners down here, too.”

  He tried to push the topic of the conversation, to squeeze information out of her. It wasn't particularly important, but he was curious about it.

  Irene let go of his sleeve, crossing her arms tightly, as if she was hugging herself.

  “Yeah. It's, er, it's kind of a situation.”

  Arthur sped up his footsteps to match her pace, walking side by side with her. She was averting his gaze, staring off into space.

  “…Alright. I'm guessing it's a long story?”

  She tightened the grip around her own arms and lightly bit her lip. This was weird. She was usually happy-go-lucky and positive, but a question like that was enough to make her act gloomy.

  Arthur sneaked a smirk. She was probably just acting this way because she didn't want to talk about it. He didn't think there could be a serious reason behind it, considering she was just a child, after all.

  Irene shifted her eyes to meet Arthur's, and furrowed her brows. Hesitantly, she spoke.

  “That, and… Well, it's not that I don't want to talk with ya… It's just that I can't say everything.”

  ‘Information above my pay grade? Now I'm really interested…’

  He put on a smile, lightly tapping her on the shoulder with his hand. Her expression quickly softened as she raised her brows. She let out a breath of relief, thinking he had understood, and wouldn't ask anything else.

  Sadly, she was mistaken.

  “That's fine with me. Nothing says you have to tell me everything, right? Only what you can.”

  He flashed a soft smile at her, and her brows once again furrowed. Her arms shivered, held together, and she cast her gaze towards the floor once again.

  They kept walking in silence for a few minutes, without any more words from either. Once in a while they turned a corner or crossed small rooms, passing by workers. There were far less guards down there, and more nurses and doctors.

  Although he was probably just imagining it, Arthur felt like those doctors were glaring at the two of them. Even through the surgical masks hiding their faces, he could see hints of scorn and hatred pointed at them.

  ‘Is it because of the Moirai? Do they have something against Sol?’

  He pondered internally, while stroking his chin. At times like those, he wished the Archive could give him insight into people's inner workings and minds. Although, that was probably asking too much of the Gift.

  This line of thought quickly branched off into various other topics Arthur had forgotten to revise, through that time. Finding out more about the prison's layout and Irene's time there wasn't that important, all things considered.

  Accepting Sol's offer, and obtaining a way of being trained by the man was a step forward. He needed to figure out how to use Ark, and fully fix the problem with his Ley Lines. His hand touched the pockets of his pants, the tin container resting inside.

  He wanted to find out more about the Apothecary from the book, too. Not to mention, he wanted to look through all those recipes again, as soon as he found some free time. With any luck, he could find more miraculous medicines to help him with his Ark.

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  There was also the matter of his body's memories, and its true identity. Most likely, Ayn held the answers to those two questions, but he had no way of meeting up with the other elf. He could try his luck at meeting him at the Moonstone Refinement Facility, but it wasn't guaranteed he would see him there.

  ‘I got myself quite the busy schedule, huh…’

  He flicked his wrist, prompting the Archive to manifest a text window. As if it was a to-do list, he wrote down all of those questions and matters he needed to look into. His memory may not have been the best at times, but the Archive surely helped.

  “Arthur, we're here!”

  Irene pulled on the sleeve of his shirt, snapping him back to reality. They had reached a small, comfortable looking room, similar in aesthetic to the library. It hosted four one-seater couches, surrounding a low table.

  Against the wall opposite of the entrance was a sink connected to a counter, as if they had entered a kitchen. Arthur blinked twice.

  Surely, he had seen wrong. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, and approached the kitchen counter with his jaw slowly slacking open.

  “Holy shit.”

  He picked up the item which rested atop the counter. He couldn't believe his eyes, but all of his senses proved it to be reality. The sleek, elegantly carved metal, still warm to the touch, from a recent usage.

  The bitter but flavorful flagrance, a blissful smell to take in. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, a smile slowly spreading on his face. A warm, relaxed smile.

  And lastly, the dark coloured powder laying under the instrument, probably from someone's messy handling.

  “Is this… What I think it is?”

  Irene tilted her head slightly, before chuckling with a smile. She covered her mouth with her hand, before moving closer towards Arthur.

  “That's a wine boiler. Why, do ya know how to use it? Guess you only kept important memories, huh?”

  She laughed some more, before sitting down on one of the couches. Arthur furrowed his brows, confused. He lifted the top of the instrument, and surely, he could spot the dark, slightly thick liquid resting inside.

  That was coffee, to be sure. Coffee, in another world, made in a metal pot just like the ones in his world. It was a surprise, but a welcomed one. It had been so long since he last tasted coffee, since he found himself in Irminsul.

  Coffee was one of his guilty pleasures, alongside cigarettes. He drank it multiple times a day, sometimes multiple times during single shifts, to stay awake during night shifts. But, he had no idea that the Teiwesians knew what coffee was, much less did he know that they had coffee pots.

  His previous thoughts about his goals and matters to figure out were cast aside, with coffee now being Arthur's number one priority. He loosened the two parts of the coffee pot, quickly unscrewing them.

  With Irene's aid in opening the sink's faucet, he washed the pot and refilled the compartments with water and coffee powder respectively. On top of the counter was a contact stove, powered by Gemstones, which once again was turned on by Irene.

  In the cabinet beneath the counter, he found various cups, cup holders, spoons and teaspoons. Surprisingly, he even found containers for sugar, both brown and white. This was a proper break room, there were even bottles of honey and tea leaves in the cabinet.

  ‘With magic on the table, my notions of 'rich people stuff' can be thrown out of the window…’

  If he remembered correctly, similar to salt, in his world sugar was highly sought after in the medieval ages. Even more than salt, due to the scarcity and difficulty of the refinement process, only rich families and nobles could afford it.

  The water started boiling after a few minutes, producing the dark coloured drink. Arthur poured two cups of coffee, for himself and Irene, and placed them on the low table, alongside two teaspoons and a container of sugar.

  “Oh, um, thank you… But, er, it's too bitter for me…”

  Irene looked downwards with an embarrassed gaze. Arthur scratched his cheek with an awkward expression, while sitting down on one of the couches and muttering something to himself.

  ‘Right, I didn't like coffee as a child… Either.’

  “That's fine. You could try sweetening it with sugar, even I do that.”

  He poured two teaspoons worth of sugar into his coffee, and after stirring for a few moments, brought it up to his lips. The flavour wasn't as refined or as strong as the coffee he was used to, but tasting it after so long felt blissful.

  He put down the half-finished cup, taking in a deep breath and sighing in relief. Then, he raised his gaze, looking at Irene. She was hesitantly putting sugar in her own cup of coffee, clearly not looking forward to drinking it.

  “By the way…”

  She jumped from suddenly hearing Arthur's voice, breaking her concentration. She started stirring the coffee.

  “About your time here, think you can tell me a bit about it?”

  She stopped stirring the hot drink, staring at the ripples in the dark liquid. Arthur furrowed his brows slightly, hoping she would talk in an environment where she could feel more at ease. She picked up the cup, and took a sip from it.

  “Oh, it's not too bad…”

  At first, she ignored Arthur's question, but after taking a few more sips and putting down the cup, she nodded.

  “Um… Since it's you, it's alright… But, er, again, I can't tell you everything.”

  She bowed her head apologetically, interlocking her fingers in front of her abdomen. She once again raised the cup to her lips, the bitter ‘wine’ was slowly growing on her.

  “That would be fine.” He smiled at her.

  “Alright then, let me think…”

  Of course, she needed some time to organize her words. She thought in-between sips of coffee, before nodding to herself.

  “Um, so, we saw some nurses and doctors, right?”

  Arthur nodded, recollecting those people glaring at them each time they passed them by.

  “The underground facility is also a holding facility. But, er, it's not exactly for prisoners. Ah, well, sometimes prisoners end up here too… Ah, but what I mean is, you can think of it as an… Er, as an extension of the medical bay. It's like a big hospital!”

  She was unsure of her own words. This was a roundabout way to describe it, probably to avoid leaking any important information.

  “And, um, I was a patient here. Ah, well, was and still am… But, it's getting better! Oh, um, I can't say too much about this…”

  She looked around the room, to check whether anyone was about to enter. Then, she nodded to herself, leaning closer to Arthur, and shielding her mouth with her hands.

  “It's because of my Gift. It's a… Um, it's pretty special, so I need regular check-ups, and I even take medicine sometimes… Oh, by the way, that's why I asked you to go on a walk today.”

  She returned to her original position. Arthur raised a brow, interested in her words. Curiously, she finished the rest of the coffee in a single gulp, before standing up and thanking Arthur for the drink.

  “I actually have a check-up today, but I didn't want to walk alone… Ah, but, it's fine, a nurse should come pick me up here! Um, if you have to go, you can go, Arthur!”

  Arthur's expression changed to a baffled one initially, before being replaced by a smile. In the end, she was really just a child. She wanted some company before arriving at her point of rendezvous with the nurse that would bring her to some medical room, he assumed.

  The chat, and the warm coffee, were just bonuses for her. He smiled at her, crossing his legs and taking another sip.

  “It’s fine, I don't mind staying here some more.”