As everyone noticed the light, rows and rows of thin arms reached out of the cells.
Their fingers wrapped weakly around the bars, in disbelief of what they saw.
And they looked at Sonder.
Not as a threat, or an enemy, but as something they had never seen before.
A bringer of light.
She looked like those they feared, but she wasn't afraid of the light they so cherished.
Suddenly, the smell made more sense to Sonder.
She didn't want to think about it, or how the people here lived.
There was so little room for them.
Her eyes moved slowly across them.
Not quickly, or only skimming.
There were more than she had first thought.
Far more.
Not one row of cells, but several, extending into the darkness in a pattern her light only partially revealed.
The room was larger than she had imagined when entering.
Built for this.
Intentionally and not just as an afterthought or temporary confinement.
It wasn't just a prison. That's what Sonder thought.
The man in the cell on the ship, he ate people, and if there were more of his kind on this island, this was their food.
A deep feeling of disgust and pity for the people here settled over her.
She had expected many things beneath this manor, this structure, but not this.
She'd expected monsters, or something worthy of all this secrecy of stone and metal.
One of the prisoners stepped closer.
Then another.
And another.
They gathered at the bars now, pale hands extending through them as far as they could, trembling slightly, as though even reaching required effort they were unaccustomed to.
But Sonder was too far away for her to be reached. The light was too far for them to reach. Toward the warmth.
Sonder lowered the sword slightly to make her seem less threatening, but she wasn't sure they truly saw her as such.
No one talked, no one even tried to.
She went to one of the cells, slowly.
When she approached, the people inside shrank back to the walls of their cell.
She didn't know what to say.
The best she could give was a simple "Hello?"
It didn't have much emotion in it. She tried to hide whatever she was feeling for the sake of the people here.
Pity, sadness, and anger. It could be dealt with later, until she could figure out what to do.
She listened for them to respond, but they said nothing.
Maybe they didn't understand her, or there was nothing for them to understand.
She must have looked frightening in the darkness, with the sword in her hand.
Anything like that must have looked like a monster, especially her.
If Sonder weren't herself, just a normal girl in a plain village, and she saw herself on a dark night, she would run away.
To the eyes of a young girl, and to their eyes, which were filled with so much fear.
Her gaze moved from face to face.
Men, women, children. There were no old people here, or the starvation and neglect made age harder to judge.