Chapter 209.

PART 1.

A new prisoner is brought to the Black Water Prison. Unlike the previous new prison, his arrival did not get much attention, and the warden never came out of his room to see the transfer.

Once the guards put him in a cell, he quickly befriends his cellmate, as well as other prisoners who are in the neighboring cells. “So, essentially, you are just like us.”

“What do you mean?” asked the young man.

“You wrote music against the new regime, and you were put here. we also dared to go against the powerful people, and then most of us were put here as the punishment.” Explained his cellmate.

“Yeah, most of us would be closer to political prisoners rather than criminals.” Said one prisoner from the neighboring cell. “Though I must say, it is unusual to see two young prisoners back-to-back. Things must be quite bad outside for this to happen.”

“Yeah, I suppose we might see a lot of young blood here.” agreed his cellmate.

“By the way, where is the warden? I haven’t seen him for the entire day.” asked the new prisoner.

“Oh him.” said the cellmate with distaste clear in his tone. “He is still terrified, probably hiding under his bed.”

A roar of laughter ripples across the cells. The new prisoner looks confused, so his cellmate decides to explain. “You see, last month, they brought up this new guy, about your age. He was blind, I suspect he lost his eyes in some accidents because he did not have any eyeballs. The warden seemed to have a grudge against this guy, and he whipped him with flames. But the man went mad, and somehow broke through the chains, and savaged the warden.”

“I suspect the bastard would have died if the man wasn’t weakened with those whips.” Said another prisoner across from their cell.

“I don’t believe in gods,” said their neighbor, “But the day this bastard dies, I’ll start worshiping one.”

“Here! Here!” agreed the other prisoners.

In their cheering, they did not notice the pale look of the young prisoner, which slowly shifts into an expression of absolute rage, before smoothing down to his normal calm smile.

PART 2.

“General,” reports Bajrang. “The prisoners have agreed to serve under you.”

“Excellent.” Said Sundar. “Put them in the front.”

Bajrang hesitated. “Think of it like this: they would have done the same with us,” said Sundar. “At least we are not enslaving them or beating them.”

“Yes sir, at once.” Said Bajrang before leaving.

After the leadership slaughtered itself to oblivion, the soldiers were routed easily. Some of them tried to resist by forming their own groups, but they were no match for the organized forces of the general Sundar. It also did not help in their case that the citizens of the City of Throne did not want them anywhere near them, so they refused to help them in any manner.

So now, he is using the soldiers who surrendered as his own, breaking them apart, putting them in the units where his own forces outnumber them, and sending them on the most dangerous operations. The latter are not many, since Sundar is just consolidating his position currently.

He has seen his second apprentice in the company of his schoolmates, often scheming together. It all screams to him “Here be trouble.” But as long as they do not sabotage his operations, he left them to their own devices, because he cannot keep an eye on Raven all the time.

Shin, the strange boy who often entertained the soldiers with his music, and put bells on his hair for some reason has gone missing recently. Sundar suspects it is part of their scheme, but he does not inquire about it either, since again, he has a lot of things on his plate.

For example, worrying about which foreign power might decide to take a shot at them, after sensing their weakness.

Judging by the chaos going on in Europa with Albion’s aggressive actions against Gallia, this entire thing could devolve into another world war, something for which the general feels too old and weary.

PART 3.

Hatori is retelling his experiences of fighting the dead, as well as his conflicts with Manoj Sharma. “Oh, that prick is still alive?”

“Not anymore,” said Hatori. “He was in this ghostly condition, but he died later.” Hatori did not mention that Munshi was the one who killed him.

He has realized that the mention of Munshi or Zeko is for some reason not liked by Kalicharan. “Anyway, this guy caused a lot of trouble. Resurrecting a battle mage, who almost fully returned and killed everyone; and causing havoc with the dead, terrorizing a lot of people.”

“Ha! That’s nothing. I defeated entire armies. I used to animate the fallen corpses, and when enemy soldiers died, they were added to my undead army. I literally buried them with the dead. Hahahahahahaha!” laughed Kalicharan, he is always happy to remember the destruction and chaos he caused.

“Why though?” asked Hatori. “If you were so talented, then why did you do such things?”

“Well, when I graduated,” said Kalicharan, “I worked as a mercenary since unlike Munshi, no one was willing to hire me to handle any sensitive matters. After a while, I got fed up with it. so, I became a rogue mage, creating a lab in the desert of the western Subcontinent, killed whoever got in my way, and cracked many secrets of the souls and spirits.”

“I assume your lab was filled with the sounds of screams?” asked Hatori in sarcasm.

“Not really.” He spoke. “You see, souls are quite willing to perform experiments if you give them what they want. often, they want revenge.”

Hatori shutters, while remembering dealing with some vengeful souls. “Don’t remind me. anyway, that’s why you were put here, for causing chaos, and unethical experiments?”

“There is no such thing as ethics.” Said Kalicharan. “Besides, the people who enforce such ideas have no right to speak about it, because they created their family fortunes by doing experiments of the same kind, and built their family fortunes on the pain of others. at least in my case, I didn’t cause any additional pain to someone.”

“Then why were you put here?” asked Hatori.

“Because some idiot fool with a complex landed me here on the false murder charges! At least punish me for the murders I did, but I am suffering here because someone thought I killed a person, while in reality, I did no such thing!”

Hatori decides that he has had enough of digging into Kalicharan’s past.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

PART 4.

Shin wakes up in the night and observes his cellmate being asleep despite the heat in their cell. All around him, he hears the noises of snores and sleep talk, something which he never expected in a prison. Come to think of it, the guards should have interrupted their conversation, shouldn’t they?

‘Looks like they are uninterested in the job.’ He thinks.

He managed to channel enough magic to unseal a sheet of paper with some runes written on it. he activates them by putting his finger on these symbols, and his magic is unsealed, and he basks in the moment. Just one day has been torture for him to live with sealed magic, and Hatori has been doing that for weeks! Not to mention, the torture, and no medical treatment.

‘Let’s just hope he will be sane when I find him.’ thinks Shin, knowing that such experiences can break people.

He sensed the magic in the bar. He does not find anything, so he twists them around and makes enough room for himself to leave. He returns the bars of the cell to normal after he reaches outside of the cell. No alarm sounds, and Shin senses for more magical traps.

Hatori taught him how to sense magic in the first year of their Academy. in a sense, he prepared him for this task. Well, sensing or not, Shin would still have come to save his friend. Besides, given how freely he shared his knowledge with them, it probably didn’t occur to Hatori that the sensing skill could be used to save his life in the future.

Walking in the complete silence of the prison, Shin finds that there are no guards who are patrolling. They are all asleep, just like the prisoners in their cells. ‘Looks like this place destroys whatever spirit people have.’ Thinks Shin.

It took a while, and a lot of fear that he might be caught, but Shin found the isolated section. Opening the door softly, he peers inside. There are only two cells that are occupied. The rest have skeletons of prisoners long dead. Both prisoners are asleep, and Shin confirms that one of them is Hatori.

‘He does not look good.’ he observes, as Hatori is sleeping on his stomach, due to the burns on his back, which are visible to Shin due to his tattered uniform. ‘Why have they kept the cuffs on him?’

He looks at the other prisoner, and he is also chained. Judging by his bony structure and rather unhealthy-looking skin, he has been here for a long time. ‘Don’t worry buddy, I’ll get you out of this.’

Shin closes the door behind him. For a moment, the eyes of Kalicharan flutter open. He thought there was someone in the isolated section outside of their cell, looking at him. dismissing it as another nightmare conjured by his mind, he goes back to sleep.

Finding the office of the warden was easy for Shin. The entire door is so gaudy, that no one could miss it in this drab place. Opening it as silently as possible, Shin puts an illusion on the warden to keep him asleep. ‘This ought to teach you a lesson or two.’ he could not stop his snickering.

The illusion locks the body of the warden, while repeatedly showing him what he fears the most. Currently, he is watching and experiencing the same terror that he experienced a few weeks ago at the hands of Hatori while being unable to move at all.

Shin finds a paper, and after writing a short note, he teleports it to Raven. He waited for alarms to sound, but again, nothing happened. Sneering at the warden for the last time, he sneaks back into his cell and shifts into the young man who was brought here yesterday and falls asleep.

Now that his magic is no longer sealed, he can keep himself cool, and rest until the moment of action arrives.

PART 5.

Hatori and Kalicharan are discussing body modifications, the kinds they have seen, and the ones that they would like to try. Of course, they never revealed their own modifications, no mage would reveal that kind of info, not even when the king asks for it.

“I would like to add some way to heal me faster when my magic is sealed.” Said Hatori. “Because I suspect it is the sort of thing which would come in handy sooner or later.”

“True. Just take a look at your current condition.” Said Kalicharan.

He wanted to talk to Hatori about the feeling he got yesterday, but he did not do so. He still thinks he is dreaming, and he rather not lose respect in the boy’s eyes by talking about his nightmares.

He is grateful to him though, for letting him know when there is a day and when there is a night. It can do wonders for the health just to know those two little things.

“Well, it is not like your magic is outside of your reach.” Said Kalicharan. “You just need to reach for it. though I warn you, be ready to struggle. It is like getting barely a trickle, whereas it was a roaring river previously.”

“Or an ocean.” Said Hatori.

For a moment, Kalicharan is shocked, but he quickly composes himself. “That too. Still, that struggle has helped me in preserving my sanity. Even a little touch of magic is enough to make sure that I won’t kill myself in my madness.”

Hatori assumes a cross-legged position, despite his back protesting loudly. if he could get some magic out of his reserves, then he might be able to heal those burns quicker. Not that his runes have done a bad job. Given the amount of magic available to them, they have healed him enough that he could at least sit, and stop bleeding.

He cannot sleep on his back though, because his burns have not healed completely.

PART 6.

‘I should have seen this coming.’ Thinks Zuo Chi.

A rebellion against him started, shortly after the Subcontinental team left. The worst part was that his own people turned on him, and after declaring that he lost the mandate of heaven, the emperor was imprisoned. His adviser Feng Lei was executed, and today is his turn.

“As you requested,” said the leader of the Rebels, “I have gathered everyone. Now, drink poison, and die with honor, or die while cowering under the blade of a sword.”

Zuo Chi smiled. “Thank you for fulfilling my request.” He picked up the glass of the poisoned wine and drank it all in one breath. “But you won’t get to see the fruits of your labor.”

“What?”

The magic starts to build up within the emperor. ‘I got too old and reactionary, that is why I failed to see this rebellion coming. But I knew I would end up like this since most of my predecessors have ended up with the same fate.’ He thinks for the last time. ‘But I won’t let them take over after my death. They will die with me.’

And then he exploded, destroying the surrounding area, killing the leaders of this rebellion, and their soldiers outside. they tried to run, but before he drank the wine, he activated the wards, so none of them could escape.

‘Damn you Porus, you outlived me.’ Was the last thought of Zuo Chi, the former emperor of Zhongguo.