The air in the underground chamber was damp, heavy with the stench of rusted iron and blood long dried into the cracks of the stone. A single lamp swung from the ceiling, its light sickly and unsteady, throwing the shadows of men across the walls like demons circling prey.
On a steel chair in the middle of the room sat a man, wrists bound so tightly that the rope had bitten into his skin. His head hung low, sweat dripping from his forehead, his lips trembling with desperate whispers. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, and his swollen face bore the marks of fists that had questioned him long before Ed's arrival.
The heavy iron door creaked, and silence blanketed the room instantly. Every guard stiffened. The echo of footsteps against stone filled the chamber, steady, deliberate, anno
