Jaid’s armored fingers tapped anxiously against the door as she peered out of the helicopter’s window, staring at the blackness of the night and the southern sea beneath them.
“I’ll ask you this one final time,” General Breach grabbed her attention from the seat opposite her. “And then I’ll drop it. Are you absolutely certain that this is the path you want to take? Is there nothing I can say to get you to abandon this idiocy, to have us turn around and return home, to never speak of it again?”
That caused Jaid to waver, but only for a single second before her conviction took hold once more. “I’m sure.”
“Of course you are,” Breach slumped down a bit in his seat, exasperated by his subordinate. “It seems one of your favorite things these days is to spit in my face. First, you turn down your promotion to General, claiming that you wanted to stay in the field—the promotion that I personally put you in for. And now you go and do this. I’ll be the laughing stock of the entire military for sticking my neck out for you.”
“I am sorry, sir,” her words were laced with regret.
“I know you are,” the general couldn’t keep up the facade of being mad. “I know why you have to do this, and I support you. But I hope you’ve steeled yourself from what comes next.”
After several hours of flight, the helicopter finally touched down on the dedicated landing pad just outside the main entrance of Central Peace Prison SI-01. Jaid hopped out of the helicopter, and General Breach joined her. Over at the stairs heading down, a single guard was waiting—a much smaller reception than the last Fiends who had passed down those steps.
But before Jaid went with her, she and the general had some unfinished business. The man turned to her, clearly dreading the words he had to say. “Captain Jaid Luciri,” General Breach struggled to keep his emotions out of the official declaration. “For this act of treason, I hereby dishonorably discharge you from the Central Peace. You will be stripped of your rank, your position, and effective tomorrow, you will be unauthorized from entering any Central Peace facilities without prior approval.”
“Now please,” the man held out his hand. “Your pendant.”
Jaid dug the piece of metal up from her shirt, lifted the chain above her head, and handed it over to her now-former superior. Her neck suddenly felt bare, since the pendant had been practically fused to her skin for years, and she gripped briefly at the feeling of emptiness.
Breach clutched the pendant in his palm and his hand started to quiver, a few tears leaking from his face. He took a heavy step forward and pulled the woman into a hug. “Farewell, Jaid,” he wasn’t even trying to hold back anymore. “Wherever you end up next, I wish you luck and happiness.”
The man then pulled their heads ever slightly closer and whispered into her ear, making sure that the helicopter pilot couldn’t hear them—though it was unlikely anyways due to the still whirring blades. “Follow the guard and do as she says. Twenty minutes. That was all I could get you.”
General Breach then took a step back and hopped up into the helicopter. “I’ll do what I can to quell the storm back at headquarters,” the man assured her. “But from now on, you’re on your own.”
Jaid watched as the helicopter took off and flew away. Tomorrow, huh, she briefly reflected on the man’s words and checked the time: [971]. The day was almost over, so she didn’t have long to act.
The knight joined the guard, and after a brief greeting, they headed down the stairs into The Walk-In Freezer, the playful name for the prison. At first, her escort didn’t say much, not until they reached the scanner. The guard stopped her, walking through the scanner first on her own. But then she fiddled with the panel on the other side.
“I see you don’t have any metal or weapons, so you can pass through,” the woman directed her as one of the lights of the scanner, assumedly for metal detection, clicked off.
Jaid glanced at her armor and double-checked the sword on her back, confused by the woman’s words, but understood her intention. However, The Paladin’s attention was still drawn to the other light still illuminated on the sensor: the plant detector. She took a deep breath and passed through, exhaling with relief when nothing happened.
“You came at one of the most annoying times,” the guard’s words sounded annoyed, yet also fake and rehearsed as the two of them walked the long hall to the cell block. But as she continued her monologue, her rambling began to sound more natural, only wavering with specific information.
“Just had to pick New Year's Eve, huh? You Fiends always are eccentrics, I guess. We were in the middle of watching the Prosper live stream and I pulled the short straw when you came. I hope you don’t mind, but I’ll be leaving you alone during your visit—want to get back before the countdown.”
“Normally we wouldn’t allow such a thing, but someone of your privilege has been granted special permission. Once we’re done with the celebration, I’ll come to retrieve you and take you to the visitor quarters for the night. Just hope the others aren’t too distracted by the event and are watching the cameras properly. Here we are.”
Stolen novel; please report.
The guard unlocked the door to the cell block and was quick to scamper away, likely for more reason than one. Jaid didn’t know what relation she had to General Breach, but the amount of favors he’d likely had to call for this were unprecedented. She’d have to figure out some way to repay him in the future for all he’d done.
At first, the cell block was almost pitch-black, except for one glowing square on the far side. As to be expected since it was currently lights-out when the prisoners were supposed to be sleeping. But an automatic light turned on when Jaid entered the room.
The knight clasped her hand to her mouth when she saw them: the cells used to hold the Fiends. Each had been designed to specifically hold their prisoner and keep them from escaping. Jaid had heard rumors of their conditions, but she’d never properly understood what those limitations looked like—the torment they had to endure—the torture she’d condemned them to with her wish.
Drim’s cell was on the far left. His was the most normal, but it was also completely empty. The man in the question was huddled into a corner, his face buried into his arms and knees, likely asleep. But there was one thing that was off. The man had something unusual around his neck. Jaid couldn’t quite make it out, but it looked like a large collar.
Next to his cell on the right was Phon’s. Like Drim’s, the cell was completely empty. However, the walls were different. They were all panels of light, even the floor that she currently had her face resting against. The light was interesting, though. It was so bright that it practically consumed Phon’s body, yet it didn’t extend very far from the cell itself.
And for whatever reason, Phon’s arms were bound by giant cuffs that extended from her wrists up to her elbows. They weren’t Fiend-draining cuffs to negate her powers, just heavy slabs of metal to restrain her. And at the bottom of the cuffs was a short chain that was latched to one of the corners, so short that she couldn’t bend her body in order to use it as a cover for her eyes.
Third in line was Kada’s cell. Strangely, her cell door was actually wide open. But that was because of the other confinement that lay within. The woman was floating in a giant tank, more akin to a fishbowl than anything else. She was still sound asleep, truly looking like a mermaid with her long hair flowing behind her.
Jaid actually knew how her cell worked, or rather, how it had been intended to function. About a month after the tournament, she’d been invited to a debriefing meeting about the entire situation. A scientist complained how the cell he’d worked so hard on wasn’t going to use because of Kada’s perpetual sleep, which they believed had been induced by Drim to keep her from suffering.
This caused the knight to cut in, demanding to know how it worked—why Drim would desperately try to save her from that fate. Higher-ups then tried to intervene, saying she was out of line, but the scientist explained anyways, proud of their device. Essentially, the tank would always keep Kada floating in the middle, using her ability to breathe underwater against her. If she ever got too close to any edge of the tank, water would spin, forcing her back to the center.
Their original plan was to deliver food in disposable pods, one mouthful at a time that she could chew to break the seal. As for water, well it was all around her, constantly filtered. And for waste, just the same—the life of a pet fish. After hearing all that, it made sense why sleep was the preferable alternative.
Jaid never quite got the idea out of her mind either, and it had always been there, eating at her subconscious for the last year. The Paladin was never invited back to another meeting after that, and any attempts to inquire about the other three led to dead ends no matter the avenue. But she heard a rumor now and then, and it only fueled her decision.
But with Kada’s twisted captivity avoided, it left Xard as the clear frontrunner for the worst experience. The man was suspended in mid-air and had restraints clipped to almost every part of his body—on the upper and lower halves of each limb, and to every single finger and toe. It had been clearly made with the tattoo on his left arm in mind, with nothing blocking the counter for his stored energy.
The restraints were designed to keep any part of his body from touching anything else, to keep him from being able to generate and absorb new energy. It was all rigged to tension wire, which allowed him to flex for some relief. He could clench his fingers, or squat to relieve his legs, but the restraints never let him go too far. And the man spent most of his day unmoving, locked upright with just a slight lean for comfort.
Not even his face was free from restraint. There were blockers for both his mouth and eyelids. They let them close, but not all the way. It meant Xard couldn’t chew properly, and as such, had been fed only food that could be immediately swallowed. Additionally, he had to roll his eyes up to block out light for sleep, as he was currently doing. It was only partially effective but better than nothing.
“Well, well…” Phon’s face pried off the floor as she hoisted herself up onto her knees. “After all this time, our first visitor.”
Jaid recoiled for just a moment when the two of them locked their gaze. She never would have guessed that a Fiend’s eyes could appear so tarnished. Phon’s eyelids had been stitched open and were completely bloodshot. On top of that, they were so dried out it made it look like they were actually cracking.
“Wake up, Drim,” Phon called to her brother. “We wouldn’t want to be rude, now would we?”
The man’s face lifted slightly, just enough for Jaid to see how long and ragged his bangs had become as his green eyes peaked over his knees. That was another jab for the knight’s soul, seeing just how lifeless those eyes really were—the burning flames reduced to mere embers.
“If I’m not mistaken, it’s New Year’s Eve,” Phon swayed her head from side to side, as if she was literally racking her brain, clearly a little delirious. “Oh, don’t tell me you were so lonely with no one to celebrate with that you came all the way out here? Nah, that’d be too sad even for you.”
“So what is it then? Come to gloat after your victory? Want to make sure that we’re still locked up tight? Here to kick us even more while we’re down. So what is it, Jaid Luciri, why have you come to see us?”
“I…” Jaid paused, needing to confirm to herself one final time that this was the path she was going to take. She had already burned her bridges with the Central Peace, though those could possibly be rebuilt before it was too late. But once she spoke the words that had been consuming her mind, her guilt, her need for change—once they left her lips, there’d really be no turning back.
“I have a request for the Fiends For Hire.”