"I had hoped you would be able to narrow the possibilities. Some protective spirit, certainly, but..."
The room Claus peered into was filled with rows and rows of large glass tubes all across, each atop a black stone pedestal. Though it was hard to gather details at a quick glance (the fortress was as reliant on personal torch spells as ever), around a third of them seemed to contain what looked to be arcane lights of some sort, all vastly different sizes, but none of them emanating any ambient light.
"...if old, old rumors serve well, many spirits, perhaps even gods, have been taken here, from all over Corothis. At this point, from Surth as well. All to be bound, and sent out throughout Coris. To power the Empire, to power the war engine."
"I would not be surprised if even these cells were watched over by one or more of these defiled spirits."
"Not that this matters to any of us. Even if the rumors are true, it would all be a closely held Empire secret. No one willing or able to tell has been able to find a single room where they're held."
"I was simply curious if they had stolen another local spirit, nothing more."
Claus and Viverna struggled to make out much at first, but in the back of the room, beyond all the glass, they could see a small figure, magically bound against a chair and surrounded by a handful of wizards.
"...possibly think we can- huh?"Upon the students' entry, at least two of them seemed to notice something unexpected entering, and began to turn around to look!