"Queen Nerith Veyr."

Corey nodded his head as he heard Queen Nerith's words.

"Hahh. So it's the beautiful Queen Nerith."

Pamela's lips twitched, and so did the lips of every other person.

"Are you seriously flirting with the Queen right now? In our current situation?" Pamela whispered with a tone full of disbelief into Corey's ears.

"Exactly what the girl said. Are you seriously flirting with me?" Queen Nerith asked with raised brows, and Corey chuckled while raising his arms.

"I'm just stating the obvious."

Everybody's lips twitched once again, but Corey said nothing to their reactions.

"As I was saying. Your perception is extraordinary, Queen Nerith."

Queen Nerith smiled, "I could say the same thing about you."

Corey bowed slightly. "As I was telling your children." He gestured at Syrelle, Orynthia, and Thalor. "We're not going to prison-"

"Oh. But, you are going to jail."

Corey blinked as he was cut off by Queen Nerith.

"What?"

Queen Nerith gave a harmless smile. "Like I said. You are going to jail. My daughters were not wrong in wanting to take you to jail. You surely can't expect us to allow you to roam our city even when we know nothing about you. Not even your names?"

Corey sighed softly when he heard Queen Nerith's words.

"Where are my manners. My name is Ryan. Hers is..."

He gestured at Pamela. "Pamela."

Queen Nerith looked at Kiefer, Selene, and Willow, but Corey shook his head.

"I'm sure you don't really want to know what their names are. Your only concern is with the two of us."

Queen Nerith looked at Corey with a smile, and then her gaze landed on Kiefer. "You're not wrong. But I'm curious about that one."

She pointed at Kiefer.

"His extremely high affinity with plants and the wood element is something that is rarely seen even amongst the High Elves."

Corey raised a brow slightly, and then he glanced at Kiefer before looking back at Queen Nerith.

"Kiefer. That's his name."

Queen Nerith hummed softly. "A group with three strange and extremely talented individuals. What are the odds that such a group would have three... extremely talented individuals."

The expressions of Selene and Willow changed slightly, but they said nothing. Their thoughts were only known to them.

"Queen Nerith." Corey called out. "As I was saying, you don't need to throw us into prison. It's not like we mean you any harm. Besides, we don't need to explore your city. Just give us a warm, cozy room we can all stay in."

"Our jail cells are definitely warm and cozy." Queen Nerith's lips curled up even more, and Corey's lips twitched.

'Seems like lucky is really not on my side right now.'

"So? What are we doing now, smart guy?"

Pamela whispered into his ears, and Corey looked at her and gestured at Queen Nerith.

"Can you defeat four Immortals?"

Pamela rolled her eyes and folded her hands.

"Good. The Queen has spoken, so we have to obey... We're going to jail."

Queen Nerith smiled, and Pamela shook her head.

----

"This sucks."

Pamela kicked a little stool in the corner of the cell, and the sound echoed with a faint metallic clang.

If not for Pamela's consideration for the noise that would occur if she used a lot of force, the silver stool would have most likely broken into pieces if she did not control her strength.

Kiefer glanced up from where he sat cross-legged on the floor, and his eyes were closed as if he were meditating.

"It's not that bad. At least, it's clean."

"Clean?" Pamela shot him a sharp look, then swept her gaze across the chamber.

The "cell" was nothing like the prisons she had imagined. The walls were not made out of stones, but gleaming steel that was engraved with faint runes that pulsed every so often like a heartbeat.

There were wide silver benches lined against the walls, soft padding atop them, and the air carries a faint tang of ozone. It was like breathing the aftermath of a lightning strike.

The room was bright, airy even, with a tall window-barrier that overlooked part of the underground city.

Pamela crossed her arms. "Sure, it's clean. Comfortable even. But it's still a jail."

Selene, lounging on one of the padded benches with her legs crossed, smirked. "If this is jail, then I'd rather be arrested here than live in half the inns we've stayed at during our adventures."

Willow ran her fingers along the edge of the silver bench and gave a soft hum.

"Craftsmanship is impeccable. Look, there are no seams, no welds. The entire cell seems to have been forged from a single massive block of metal. It's less a prison and more of a... containment."

Pamela groaned. "Don't romanticize it."

Corey, who had been sitting silently near the back wall, finally opened his mouth.

"As you can see. It's not as bad as we thought it'll be."

Pamela scoffed.

Kiefer looked at Corey with a curious expression. "Do you think they're afraid of us?"

Corey chuckled. "Most likely. Her daughters might not have thought about it, but the queen is most likely wary of our backgrounds and the powers behind us."

Corey shifted his gaze to a particular set of runes on the ceiling.

"Since she knows just how... unique we are, she knows that we must have a background. A backer, an organization, a power that's making us to be this strong. And she's wary about that."

"A queen doesn't throw strangers into a cell unless she's worried about them. Fear isn't always about power. It's about uncertainty. They don't know what we are."

Pamela tilted her head toward him and narrowed her eyes. "And whose fault is that, Ryan?"

Corey's lips twitched at the false name. "Caution never killed anyone."

Pamela rolled her eyes, but a small smile tugged at her lips. "It sure makes life inconvenient though."

Corey chuckled softly, and then he heard a set of footsteps through his Ears of Omniscience.

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