The dungeon was a place where variety of criminals within the kingdom were kept and confined, these criminals were of the same type, hardened criminals such as rapists, murderers and individuals who partook in financial scams that effected the lives of a majority of the people within the kingdom, there were other criminals as well, such as spies from other countries , fallen nobles and knights caught taking bribes from criminal organizations such as eight fingers. The Re-Estize Kingdom had two locations with which criminals were held, there was the southern prison [king's cage] a place where low nonpriority criminals were held and kept for as long as they are needed, and the dungeon, which was located directly under the castle itself, of course the dungeon was not large and was kept small so to not collapse the castle.

Renner having stepped foot onto the dungeon, and her nose caught the smell of urine and blood. The walls were dirty with some parts of it painted with dried blood. The princess had changed the attire that she usually wears and wore a plain one-piece dress that was coloured dirt brown, the dress was seemingly made from rags, she also wore low heeled shoes made from cow skin and had her lustrous blonde hair neatly tied into a nice, neat bun. She was accompanied by both her brother with ten guards, five in front and five in the back.

The dungeon was dark with no light from the sun reaching to its halls, creating a situation where torches were necessary to see. As she walked the halls moving towards the cell of her target, she could not help but note that the dungeon had a less dreary and hopeless feel to it, of course it was still very much like that, but she had expected the atmosphere to be much worse, something fitting of a true dungeon rather than just a prison imitating a dungeon.

"I smell perfume!!" 

"Oh, shit it's a woman."

"Yeah right, I bet it's the guards messing with us."

"Nah I'm sure it's a woman, I used to work for a nobleman, I know what noble women's perfume smells like."

"Finally, something to touch myself for."

The prisoners sounded, as they began to converse without even being able to see each other, each cell was made with no window and had Iron doors with only a single closed slit at the middle of the door that opens from the outside to slide in food. Renner could not help but feel disgusted with such a place and not only that, but she was disappointed to know that the captives were livelier than they should, clearly whoever oversaw this place could not do their job well.

"I say brother, you seem to be treating the captives better than I expected."

She voiced, although her words were not meant as a compliment, among her siblings Zanac was the one with most responsibilities, it should be Barbro who is the crown prince but he was too concerned with getting the throne and doing whatever to care about anything that wasn't appealing to him. Despite being a candidate for being king, Zanac was too soft, it was obvious he would end up like her father, a good king but weak and too fearful of retaliation from the nobles not to mention keeping an opportunist like Raevan by his side would not bode well, as such she thought that she herself was the only option, a half decent option like Zanac was someone she was willing to let be king as long as they had an agreement about the things concerning her marriage however that was before she had Arthur.

"I believe that is a good thing, after all these are people, just because we must torture them to get information doesn't mean they deserve to be treated terribly and besides a few of them easily confessed the moment we mention torture."

Zanac explained, having understood what her words meant; he had always figured that she was a bit off, but he never thought she was a sadist as well. 

"Is that so? I suppose I misjudged you."

That was all that was spoken as they traversed deeper into the dungeon. Renner for the most part has always held the idea that being a ruler was more trouble than it was worth, despite how it may look she was quite selfish and compromising on her desire just to placate the nobles seemed very unappealing, in fact throughout her life she has lived without an ounce of power or control, the only thing she could ever do was compromise. She didn't like how people seemed to force the image of the golden princess upon her, but she had to compromise and use it to her advantage, she didn't like how she had no choice on who to marry, there she couldn't even compromise just delay it as long as she can, but now with Arthur she didn't need to compromise. Her research into the religion of the Slane theocracy has led her to find out some interesting things. As such, she needs someone like Khajit to tell her what she needs to hear.

After a long walk of silence with the sounds of the captives talking and joking about as the background noise, Renner and Zanac finally made it to where Khajit was kept, the guards entered first to ensure that the prisoner was bound to the chains properly, after that was done the two royals entered.

"Is it time for another session? Try as you might you'll get nothing from me."

Khajit spoke first, his entire body was bound to the wall by chains that held him in place, his hands and feet were locked in iron glove like cages, as a necromancer and mage his hands were dangerous but also his eyes were covered to make sure he can't see, the guards had taken out his gag to allow him to speak.

"Afraid not, that scheduled for a later date, but my sister is here to ask you some things."

The cell smelt of blood and burnt flesh mixed with urine body Oder, it was a horrid smell that had assaulted the princess' nose quite unexpectedly forcing her to have to put her handkerchief to her nose, it was unpleasant. She could tell that the one who tortured the captives had utilized high-grade healing potions in order to be able to repeat the torture endlessly, and that was the reason Khajit looked unharmed

"Good afternoon, Khajit Dale Badantel, it's a pleasure to meet you, I just have some questions concerning the doctrine of the Slane theocracy. You wouldn't mind answering my questions, would you?"

"Humph! if you thought a woman was enough to get me to talk, then you're even more foolish than I thought. Get on with the torture already."

Khajit answered with annoyance in his voice, hearing the gentle voice of a woman after a month of torture had reminded him of his mother but he still wont say anything, of course Zurrenorn was an organization that only helped in his research, he held no loyalty to it at all however if he gives up the information about the organization then his death was guaranteed, of course he was not afraid of death or rather he doesn't want to die here as that meant he wont return as an undead, his ultimate goal was to become a lich and spread death across the continent.

"Is that so…"

Renner smiled as she heard those words. It was a good thing she was wearing disposable clothes.

....

A/N: did you like the chapter? Thoughts?