Taken Captive

Chapter 2 Taken Captive After her continued struggle, Kailey resignedly admitted defeat and lay prone inside the tube, giving up. Eventually, the witch hat finished manipulating the runes and arrived in front of the tube, holding the now dejected Kailey. The hat tried to communicate through the opening in its jagged maw. However, only unintelligible noise came out. It decided the action of speaking through its mouth was pointless. Then, it decided to use the spell [Mind Speech] to speak directly into Kailey's mind. Using the spell, [Mind Speech], the hat spoke directly into Kailey's mind, "Why have you come to this place? Is it to take the research buried in this laboratory, or is it for me?" Kailey was startled, hearing the voice, causing her to stir. She began surveying the area to catch sight of the person who spoke. However, Kailey found no one other than the slime that previously held her captive and an ominous witch hat directly in front of her. In the middle of Kailey's confusion, she heard the voice again, "You brat, how long do I have to wait until you answer me?" the hat exclaimed in an exasperated tone. While the slime curiously prodded the tube holding Kailey, the words that Kailey had previously heard finally sunk into Kailey's mind, her imagination filling with hopes of finding a remarkable curse-curing technique hidden deep inside these ruins. The possibility that the previous owner could have entrusted the voice with long-forgotten knowledge and possibly a library's worth of information left Kailey believing she would find an ancient tome that held knowledge of ancient curses within. While imagining this, she started envisioning all the possible ways to force the voice to give her the information she needed. However, she soon realized she had no power and lacked the strength to fight, but she remained determined. A conspicuous creepy grin crept onto Kailey's face as an ominous aura of desperation, recklessness, and boldness exuded from her body. This aura caused the witch hat in front of her to have a bad premonition about this weird girl. Kailey then spoke strangely. "How do you do, Miss Voice? I accept your offer of the research! Might you lend me some of your research so that I might be able to cure the curse that has been plaguing me for some time?" The hat was chilled by how strangely the girl spoke and quickly backed away, catching the eye of Kailey.