Bastien It’s dark when I wake – the pitch black of a windowless cell, the air cold and damp. I know I’m underground without being told, and even before I remember the events that led me to this place, I know something is horribly wrong. Slowly the details filter back into my mind, and before I can even process my turbulent feelings Axel bursts out of me. I circle the cell, smelling every corner of the space and trying to gain my bearings. It’s a cramped space lined with bars of pure silver, boasting nothing whatsoever to support human life. There are no objects present – no furniture, not a bucket for waste or vessel for water, nothing. I can see other cells through the dim light, and the shadows of other shifters lurking in the peripheries. I’ve never been in a cage like this, but it

