On the first day alone together in the dungeon cell, the Kolotian had talked animatedly about being shat on by a bird. Edda hadn't indulged him in conversation, instead she'd sat still in one of the chairs and watched him pace around and declare vengeance on a freaking bird! He'd been furious, kicking at the chamber pot and pounding on the wall because of an atrocity committed by a bird. It was then that she'd started to believe that the young man might actually be insane.

"I can feel it, you know?" Ishar had said. "It's out there, circling in the horizon. Bidding its time till the day it shall see my head once more."

Edda concluded that his behavioral oddities were as a result of suppressed trauma. She decided that there must have been something that had happened to him to bring about his odd behavior. Her conclusion regarding him wavered on the first night. It was difficult to tell night from day within the dungeons where the sun was nothing but an abstract concept, but her sleep cycle that she carefully maintained by avoiding sleep during what she assumed was the day judging from the position she'd last seen the sun at, enabled her to tell night from day. On the first night with a cell mate she'd woken up to Ishar laughing and giggling in his sleep.

The Kolotian slept with his back flat on the floor and nose facing the ceiling. Edda on the other hand slept while sitting on the chair and leaning on the table. She'd been woken up by giggling that transcended into a laugh and back to giggling. It was a constant cycle of laughs and giggles that seemed to have no end. Suppressed trauma? She'd tried to make sense of how suppressed trauma could make one's subconscious mind to cause laughter in one's sleep. There is something terribly wrong with him. She'd thought as she watched the Kolotian giggle in his sleep in the light provided by the torches lining the cell.

Now she sat in the same chair while observing the Kolotian who'd introduced himself to her as Ishar. He lowered the robes he wore to his waist, exposing his upper half. He then approached Edda who clenched the fingers of her right hand into a fist, ready to implement a Form of Pride and take out the Kolotian with a well timed punch to the temple. She'd been cranky due to the lack of sleep brought about by the Kolotian's laughs and giggles all through the night and wasn't in any mood to entertain further nonsense from him.

"Do you see anything here?" Ishar asked while pointing to the left of his sepia colored chest. Right over where his heart was. Edda unclenched her fist and peered at his chest, the reddish brown skin over his chest that was slightly darker than her own skin looked just as normal as the skin all over his body save the blue on the tips of his fingers. "Do you see a black handprint on my chest?" Ishar asked.

Hallucinations. Edda thought. It was at that point that she broke down, bending her head and shedding tears as the Kolotian stood before her while pointing at his chest. She'd been so tough for so long, trying so hard to keep it together but it was all pointless. She was to die soon and the only hope she'd had, regardless of how minute it was, had been that the second for the Nula Anyl they would choose for her might be able to help her during the trial. But instead they'd chosen a young Kolotian who was mentally lacking, who obsessed about birds and their droppings, who laughed in his sleep and hallucinated while awake. Gods I'm doomed! She thought as she wept.

"Don't cry.. Don't cry." Ishar said and hovered around her while waving his hands frantically in front of her, unsure whether to touch her or let her be but seeking to comfort her either way. "Don't cry, you don't have to answer that question about my chest, it's okay. Gods! I Didn't know I was putting so much pressure on you, it was just a simple question."

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"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU MAD MAN!" Edda screamed. Ishar complied and went to stand at the furthest corner of the dungeon cell from her. Edda wiped her tears on the short sleeve of her yellow dress after she'd grown tired of crying. She fixed her tear stained eyes on one spot of the dungeon wall and just stared at it, willing time to fly by and bring her moment of death closer.

"You have really large brown eyes, they are pretty and creepy at the same time." Ishar said, forcing Edda to turn her head to where he stood at the dungeon wall. He leaned on the wall with one leg propped on it and his hands folded before him. His violet eyes were on her. "Your skin is like mine, but lighter, it still has the reddish hue of my own but the brown of it isn't as dark. Your hair is the color of sand though it looks unkempt and isn't as light of color as those of the Talisi. You're Remu, you're the first Remu I've ever seen."

"What did you do that led to you being here?" Edda asked. If she was to pass time she decided to pass it while learning more of the imbecile who was to share the same fate as her.

Ishar pushed himself off the wall. "I beat the living crap out of Prince Desan of Binoria."

"Desan? Eldest son of Vayin Vigon?" Edda asked with shock evident in her voice, Ishar nodded. From Remu she'd been briefed on the children of Vayin but hadn't been provided with their portraits. From what she knew of Desan he was one of the greatest Rage Form fighters and led his own Legion. "You beat him as he slept? When he was out of reach of his sword?" It was the only way to beat a Rage Form fighter as they were more effective with a blade.

"What?" Ishar asked. "No! He had armor on and a sword. I wore the same robes I wear now and I didn't even have a weapon. I have to admit though, breaking his bones and hearing his cries was oddly satisfying. It was like I created a melody nobody knew existed but I played it in tune, using his body like a lute." Delusional. Edda thought as she watched Ishar smile at her, he looked pleased with the delusions his mind formed. He looked untrained in all Forms and yet he claimed to have taken down a Rage Form fighter who wielded a sword while he was bare handed. Truly delusional with false thoughts of grandeur.

"So that's what led to you being here, breaking Desan's bones?" She asked, seeking to humor herself with meaningless conversation in a ploy to kill time.

"Yeah, I also killed a guy they referred to as an Inquisitor and bit off the nose of another Inquisitor." Ishar said. His delusions must be truly severe. Edda thought.

"Inquisitors? They wore white?" Edda asked.

"Yeah, and they were bald and had no eyebrows." Ishar said. Edda finally pieced it together, the young man had in fact met Inquisitors by his description but he'd been tortured by them as it was their job to do so to the point where he had lost lucidity.

"I also faced the King." Ishar said.

Edda's bushy eyebrows shot up. "You fought the King? King Vayin Vigon? He who holds the Jojoh Meena? He who is unbeatable and untouchable in all forms of combat?" It's worse than I thought, this guy has completely lost it. Edda thought. Nobody fights a Binorian King and lives to tell.

"Psht, untouchable my arse!" Ishar said and raised a hand to his throat. "He tricked me, he tricked me and knocked me down so fast but not before I'd gotten a good punch into his smug face. Last memory that I have before I woke up here was of him strangling me by the neck as his nose bled from my punch." Ishar let go of his neck and let out a puff of breath. "If he hadn't distracted me I'm sure I'd have gotten in more than a punch."

Edda started laughing, she couldn't help it. It was all too ridiculous, very ridiculous! She couldn't keep a straight face any longer. "You... You.. You made him.. Bleed?" She asked between laughs. Ishar started laughing too while nodding vigorously which made her even laugh more. Gods! A Kolotian who was probably the most psychotic person in the entire realm had been chosen as her second in the *Nula Anyl.

She was doomed, they were doomed and yet she couldn't help laughing at the irony of it all.