Grell sat in a cell beneath the meeting hall for three years before she spoke her first voluntary word.
The cell was small, clean, lit by a single lantern. Guards brought her food twice a day. No one tortured her. No one questioned her. She was simply... contained.
Elara visited once a month.
"The Deepening is still sleeping," she said.
Grell stared at the wall.
"The void is still changing."
Silence.
"The crops are good this year. The town is growing."
Nothing.
Elara left the same way she always did. Disappointed but not surprised.
---
On the third anniversary of the descent, Grell spoke.
"Why do you keep coming?"
Elara stopped at the door.
"Because you're still in there. The woman who served the Inquisition. The woman who wanted to end hunger. She's not gone. Just buried."
