Prisoners

Guts, Luca and Isidro ready themselves to break into the Tower of Conviction and free Casca and Nina. Guts would rather go alone, but Isidro is set on making him owe a debt and Luca genuinely cares for the girls, so he relents and lets them come. They leave Luca's prostitutes with instructions to flee Albion if Luca dies. As they travel, dread seeps into Guts and he recalls the Skull Knight's warning that the coming festival cannot be escaped. From the tip of the statue crowning the tower, the mysterious being watches the three draw near.

Inside, Puck flits about hunting for the two women and nearly runs afoul of a pair of guards, who dismiss the unseen elf as a bat. That they notice him at all leaves Puck puzzled. Casca and Nina, meanwhile, are locked in a cramped, lightless, windowless cell where the only sound is the shrieking of prisoners being tortured elsewhere in the tower.

Nina is paralyzed with fear while Casca cannot even register their plight, though she still soothes Nina when the girl clings to her. Begging Casca to conjure some escape brings no reply, and in frustration Nina shoves her down and blames her for everything, only to regret the outburst and apologize at once. At that moment the Imp and the Bubblehead, two of Mozgus' underlings, enter and seize Casca to lead her off. Nina wavers over whether to volunteer in Casca's place, but the choice is stripped from her: repulsed that she never offered herself up, the Imp decides Nina will go first, leaving Casca behind in the cell.

Bound at the wrists and marched off, Nina stares at her hands in self-loathing for having even weighed abandoning Casca. The Imp reveals they were told the cult's leader is a woman and reasons that the witch must be either Nina or Casca, since they are the last two women among the heretics left to question. The temptation to name Casca as the witch, and perhaps delay her own end, gnaws at Nina, but she resolves to stay silent and be brave for Luca's sake. What nerve she has crumbles the instant she enters the torture chamber: at the sight of bodies strung from the ceiling she nearly collapses and wets herself, and as she is dragged past the instruments and their victims she silently begs Luca to come save her.