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~~((National Senior Citizens Day -- page 16 of 24))~~
With the third floor confirmed to be clear, Raul made his way all the way back down. The basement was his next destination, and it took him a little while to find. The entrance to it was squirreled away behind the kitchen, probably for ease of retrieving food from storage.

The stairs leading down into it were even creakier than the previous ones had been, and Raul again found himself moving at a snail's pace. His foot had to flirt with each step before actually taking it, testing out the wood with light taps, trying to discern if it was going to squeal. The favored tactic was to step near the corners of each step, where the wooden boards intersected and were therefore strongest, but he still wanted to be exceptionally careful here.

If his presence was discovered, there was no telling how many of the hostages might end up dead--either now or later.

The basement was dark but thankfully not pitch black.

Nor was it empty.

The hostages were gathered in the middle of the chamber, tied up and sitting together in apparent silence.

And Raul counted two Abolish guardsmen for them, both fairly close to his position. The basement only had the one entrance, so it made sense that they wouldn't want to stray too far from it.

Neither one of them was Croll, thank god. They weren't looking in his direction, so it was little difficult to tell if they genuinely couldn't see him or if they just hadn't seen him yet.

It was boding well, though. The staircase was rather well lit compared to the rest of the basement, so they most likely should have seen him as he'd descended it.

He moved directly into their lines of sight, just to be sure.

Yes.

They looked straight through him, unfazed.

The invisibility was working just as hoped.