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There was something about that echo. Scar wasn’t sure what exactly made it any different from anywhere else in the castle, but it still had his stomach churning whenever he walked through the specific corridor. After a while, he’d stopped going that way altogether. There were plenty of other guards to take care of that wing, he certainly didn’t need to be everywhere.
But here he was again, hurrying down the hallway trying not to focus on the sounds but rather just to get through without his heart rate doubling. He was successful, sure, the first time around, but there was still the whole process of going back to his original post. And this time, he knew he wasn't just being paranoid, imagining strange noises where all was normal. This time, he was positive that he'd heard, yes, voices, coming from below. From below a hallway that was at the very lowest floor of the castle. There was nothing under that floor, save for stone and dirt. There wasn't supposed to be, anyway. But Scar was sure that he hadn't imagined it. After years spent patrolling the corridors of the castle, high and low, he'd become very sure of what it sounded like, when there was conversation going on, separated by a wall or the ceiling, or like this time, the floor.
Scar glanced down the hallway, silent, but he heard no one approaching from either side, so he crouched down, pressing his ear to the floorboards. There was no more sound coming from below. That didn't deter him in the slightest, though. Of course whoever was down there would stop talking if they heard footsteps from above. They certainly couldn't be up to any good, hidden underneath the castle in secret as they were. So listening wouldn't do him any good which left him with... getting in.
He ran his fingers along the planks beside him, mostly smooth and well-worn. There were only the slightest imperfections, nothing like what he was looking for. He crawled further along, dragging his hand over the wood again, over every inch of the floor as he made his way across the hallway. And aha! He could barely suppress a triumphant noise as his nails caught on a crack between the planks. Scrutinizing it further, he could tell that it was almost perfectly square. He pulled a dagger from its sheath strapped to his thigh, digging it between the planks to force the square of wood up from between them. It gave with a slight creak, revealing a dim opening underneath, a rickety wooden staircase leading into the darkness, just barely visible with the light streaming in from above. Scar placed the dislodged planks onto the ground beside the hole, pulling a torch from the wall to light his way as he descended into the darkness.
Overgrown, purplish walls, pillars rising up every few feet. Floor eaten away by some kind of mushroom that now carpeted the entire place. Pulsing purple light that didn’t seem to come from any source. His brows furrowed further with every new feature his circle of light revealed. And then it fell onto a lone figure.
They were small, but their aura of danger made up for the fact. They wore scrappy robes cobbled together from all kinds of fabric, that realistically shouldn’t have looked good but somehow on them, it did. Their face was almost completely obscured by the large brim of a mushroom cap, only a smile, a dangerous, powerful smile peeking out from below. And most importantly, they were holding a crossbow aimed perfectly between Scar’s eyes.
“Don’t. Move. A muscle.”