The cage was easily twenty feet across, packed shoulder-to-shoulder with at least forty abducted children.
Beyond the cage, the room stretched out into an enormous, cavernous expanse.
The architecture felt ancient, monolithic, and entirely devoid of human warmth.
Suddenly, a loud, echoing CLACK shattered the darkness.
It sounded like a massive, heavy lever being thrown into place.
Then came the light.
***
It did not turn on gradually.
A blinding, searing, pure-white magical luminescence exploded from dozens of massive, floating crystal chandeliers suspended high above the floor.
Seraphina squeezed her eyes shut with a sharp hiss of pain, throwing her hands up to shield her face as her retinas screamed in protest against the sudden transition from pitch-black to brilliant illumination.
All around her, the other children shrieked and wailed, burying their faces in their hands, the sudden light exacerbating their terror.
