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"If anything," he continued, "it\'s an architectural feat."

"...Where did that girl go?" Kel asked, looking around.

"You mean Alaia? Her job is finished here, so she went back," Soren answered.

"Alaia. I see," Kel replied, straightening up. Turning to the man, she added, "So what is it you want from me?"

Soren smiled, reaching for a piece of her hair. Even in the faint scattered sun rays, it shimmered splendidly.

"I think this is our first meeting in which you didn\'t greet me with a stuttered \'you?!\'," he remarked, ignoring her question. "How refreshing."

"Enough," Kel responded coldly, brushing his hand away. "Answer me."

Chuckling, Soren retracted his hand. "Before that, what about you? What is it you want from me?"

Caught off guard by his question, Kel carefully studied the man\'s expression. His lips were tugged slightly to one side in his usual smirk, but his eyes weren\'t flashing the way they usually did.

What was he playing at this time?

"I don\'t want anything from you," she finally answered, turning her gaze back to the rows of tiny sprouts.

"Are you sure about that?" Soren responded in an amused tone. "You usually have piles of questions for me."

He wasn\'t wrong. Generally whenever they met, Kel was always wondering who he was and what he was doing. As of late, those two questions had also been joined by Kel wondering how he managed to find her.

This time, however, one of those questions was already answered for her.

Soren, or Lord Soren as Alaia had referred to him, seemed to be the leader of this underground settlement. If not that, then at least a person of importance. He wasn\'t just a magician from the street or a well-connected nobleman as she had once suspected.

As for the other questions, they were no longer important. She already had a pretty good idea of what he was doing. It seemed the whole goal of this community was to find Halrad\'s heir and take over the continent. Additionally, she didn\'t particularly care how he managed to find her anymore. Much bigger concerns had suffocated her interest in that topic to a mild curiosity.

Of the many new questions circling around her head, only one was speakable.

"Where is this place?" she asked quietly.

"Alaia didn\'t even answer that for you?" Soren shook his head in feigned disappointment. "Such a lousy tour guide."

"She did tell me. It\'s just…" Kel trailed off. Despite the girl\'s explanations and tour of the facilities, Kel\'s confusion had only grown. The more she learned about Subterra, the more she realized she didn\'t know.

"Why don\'t you come with me?" Soren grinned. "I\'m sure I can satisfy some amount of your curiosity."

"I would appreciate it if you did," Kel hesitated, "but I\'d prefer to talk here."

"You still don\'t trust me?" Soren teased. "I\'m hurt."

"Can you blame me?" Kel scoffed. "I don\'t have a tendency to trust kidnappers."

The smile fell from Soren\'s face. "Oh, but I think you do."

Kel took a step back, once again flustered by the man\'s sudden change. "What do you me-"

"Let me tell you something, Princess," Soren continued, stepping forward each time Kel tried to step away. "The only people still alive in this empire are those I need alive or those I can\'t be bothered to waste time killing, so the fact that you\'re still standing here means you have no threat from me."

"Which is it in my case, then?" Kel gulped. "You need me alive or you can\'t be bothered to kill me?"

Soren didn\'t respond immediately. Instead, he grabbed a piece of her hair again, this time pulling it tightly until Kel winced in pain.

"Either way, as long as you don\'t get on my nerves, you\'ll be safe," he murmured.

"... Alright," Kel conceded.

For a moment, she thought about running away or screaming for help. Surely, of the many who stopped to gape at her earlier, some would be willing to come to her rescue.

The only problem was that if it came down to choosing between their leader and the golden-haired newcomer, Kel had no idea which they\'d choose.

She may only make her situation worse if she opened her mouth here. Since this was Soren\'s terrain, she had no choice but to go along with him for now.

"Excellent decision," Soren smirked, dropping the lock of hair he\'d been holding hostage. "Now, please follow me."

The walk to the man\'s chambers was fast. Kel trailed behind the man obediently, keeping her eyes peeled for Lila, her final hope. Unsurprisingly, the librarian never crossed their path, and before long, Kel found herself seated on a sofa in Soren\'s room, flinching at the eerie click as he locked the door.

His room was similar to Kel\'s for the most part. The layout was a little different, but the finishes and furnishings were nearly identical. She even spied a silver cage near his bed with two beautifully colored birds chirping happily. Did all the rooms in Subterra look this way?

After making sure the door was securely fastened, the man slowly turned around. "Now then, shall we get started?"

Kel gulped as he stomped toward her.

"You still haven\'t answered my question," she insisted, sliding away from him until her elbow hit the arm of the sofa.

"I haven\'t," Soren agreed, flopping down directly next to her. "Where would you like me to start?"

"You\'ll actually tell me everything?" Kel replied doubtfully, raising an eyebrow.

Soren nodded. "More or less."

"Then.. this place.."

"As you\'ve been told, this is Subterra," Soren sighed. "It\'s considered a separate entity from the capital city, but I like to think of it as a mere extension."

"But nobody knows about it?" Kel tilted her head.

"Nobody?" Soren scoffed. "For hundreds of people, this is ALL they know."

All they know? Kel recalled what Alaia had mentioned in passing, that only a few were allowed to go to the surface regularly. Did that mean most of the people here lived their whole lives without ever seeing what the world looked like?

"Why do they all choose to hide down here?" she asked.

"Our ancestors chose to hide here and secretly prepare to place a dragon-blooded royal on the throne," Soren explained, a hint of bitterness in his voice. "The rest of us, we don\'t get to choose. Unless you\'re born with some kind of blood relation to the outside, there\'s nothing for you up there."

"Then I can assume you have a blood relation out there?" Kel speculated.

Soren paused at her question. His face didn\'t change, but Kel noticed the muscles twitch in his clenched fingers.

"Both of my parents were born here and died here," he finally answered. "I only go out because I\'ve been looking for something."

"Looking for something?" Kel repeated absently.

"Yes," Soren leaned closer, locking his eyes with hers. "But I\'ve found it now."

His mood had changed again. The eyes that lingered on Kel were hungry. She was afraid if she looked for too long, she\'d be devoured whole by his stare.

"A-anyway!" she stammered, dropping her gaze. "Is the reason nobody has found out about this place because hardly anybody leaves?"

"This \'place\' as you call it took lifetimes to build and has been maintained for just as long. It\'s not a secret that can be revealed to just anyone," Soren clicked his tongue.

"What about the emperor?" Kel suddenly blurted, "He doesn\'t even know?"

She thought back to the few conversations she\'d managed to draw out of the emperor about Soren and The Yellow Marguerite. He made it clear he hated Soren, even speaking his name, so obviously he knew of him.

By the same token, Soren seemed to be the one enemy he could never beat. Kel could still picture the emperor\'s expression as he admitted that Soren had escaped. Was it because he disappeared back to here? To a place the emperor couldn\'t even begin to imagine?

"No way," Soren chuckled. "You don\'t really believe that emperor of yours has no idea about this place, do you?"

"I don\'t have any reason to believe otherwise," Kel snorted. "Or else I doubt you\'d still be alive."

"Did he send his soldiers out to search for me that day?" Soren suddenly questioned. "The day I took care of that little Spencer Regan fellow for him?"

"I\'m sure you already know the answer to that," Kel replied. "For what reason would he let a criminal go free without a search?"

"Haven\'t you noticed?" the man continued, disregarding her provocation. "Most everyone here has a certain look--the genetics that evolved from so many centuries away from the sun."

It didn\'t have anything to do with whether the emperor knew about Subterra or not, but Soren was right. Kel had hardly noticed before, but nearly everyone she\'d passed in the main tunnel all looked a bit similar. She didn\'t get a close enough look to see their facial features, but they all seemed to have two prominent traits in common.

Pale white skin and midnight black hair.