You can let your head keep on swelling, I'll have to say that it's overall very good writing, just like in the previous submission.
It did have a plot-related issue, though. Near the end of the chapter, the prisoner fears that he might break. Why, then, doesn't he simply use his (apparently quite extensive) power to escape before that happens? It seemed quite nonsensical to have him state at the beginning of the chapter that his cell can't hold him, and then have him despair in the end.
A minor point was that the first time he fell unconscious could have been clearer (i.e. say that his vision blackens or something to that effect), simply having him wake up a second time was mildly confusing for an instant.
The change in pace worked quite well, I think, and you raised enough questions to make me want to find out what the answers are, but not as many as to completely confuse me and make me stop reading. And there's of course the constant dangling carrot of his still-unused magic as well.