There was a once a woman, a very strong woman, and all feared her. Two of the strongest men courted her, and the others of their race just sat back on their haunches and watched.

They were nothing to her, to them, and so they hated them with a vengeance. That is why they plotted, and even before she had made her decision, they destroyed her, and the two strong men in turn.

"Cowards!" Garin yelled as he rose, but he didn't know to him he spoke.

Was it to the cowardly people who'd turned against the strongest in their ranks and overwhelmed them in numbers, or the cowardly men who'd now locked him up in this cell and were no doubt thinking up a way to kill him that would bring relief to all the fear addled masses.

The cowardly men who'd turned against a guest they'd called here to help them with their work. A pang went through him at the memory of Fedrahn, and as it had always happened since the battle with Nordard, his energy waned.

Whatever had happened to him at the end, he wasn't recovering as fast as he normally did. He had been in and out of consciousness for a long time, perhaps a month, and he was still not totally back to his old self. He thought perhaps it had to do with how he was fed very rarely.

He had never been a big eater, and sometimes even after training for hours could survive on a single meal a day. The fact that he had never felt anything other than hungry since the first time he woke up here though…

As always the master dancer watching over his cell flinched when Garin turned his pale eyes on him. Garin grinned a little, then opened his mouth to request for food, but seeing the grin the master lifted a spear in warning and started to quake in his boots.

Garin sighed and let his head fall back to the floor with the rest of his body. What good would feeding his holey stomach do anyway. Fedrahn wasn't here anymore. He could even be dead for all he knew, and Garin couldn't so much as stand up to use the bathroom. He'd never been more bitter for his very keen, almost animal like, senses.

He let himself dose off again. And his small body cannibalised itself more the longer he stayed in that cave. He had been small before, but now he outright looked like a skeleton.

********

Maybe that was why they thought the fight would be a good idea. The mass hysteria of the islanders had to be assuaged, and what better way than to kill the daemon publicly, in a duel.

"Odo was promoted to an official apprentice, because even if he lost he was the warrior closest to felling you before. Now you shall fight him again, in an execution round before the whole island," the arch master Goesch spoke.

Garin was lying in his own filth, his eyes open and staring at the rocky ceiling of his new home. He didn't say anything, didn't so much as react to the arch master's words. Still, he knew this was the execution they'd chosen for him. They'd fedenough so he didn't die for about two months, and now they'd send him against their strongest.

Garin didn't know how he'd survived the battle with Nordard. Had the older boy refused to kill him? That didn't make a lot of sense. Not that he cared much.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Goesch kept on spewing some nonsense, but Garin tuned him out. It was not hard. He felt like he always wanted to sleep. There was a noise, as if the cell door was opening, and then someone was shaking him.

They might have been too rough, and his head might have impacted the concrete floor once or twice, but Garin only felt disgusted by the way he could feel his dry wastes crumbling under his head. His body was numb, and his mind was still drifting.

When he came to again, someone was screaming obscenities at Goesch. If Garin had not been mistaken, he would say he'd seen the friar as well. His old healer, Mordin, was berating them for their treatment of him.

"...he's sleeping in his own shit, by all the spheres! Don't tell me you drugged him as well? He looks worse than a skeleton."

"He is slated for execution. We couldn't spare too much foo..."

And off he drifted again, only coming to when he was doused with very cold water. It was cold, and he had no clothes on. He shook as another pail was emptied on top of him.

They scrubbed him, with rough leaves from the forest. He could smell the strong scented herbs taking over the feacal scent. His skin peeled off in some places, from the roughness of it.

They left him there, shivering and trying to find the darkness again, yet his brain remained alert, all the sensations of his skin jarring.

Then he was being carried, and there were voices. There were lots of voices, and when Garin lifted his head a little he saw they were on the door of a building he'd never seen before, but it was where he'd been staying the last two months. There were people surrounding the door.

Half the island population, if he had to guess, excluding most of the young apprentices. They seemed to be in the mood for a riot, but they also didn't want to come too near. When he lifted his head, there was a general flinch and a few retreats almost resulting in stampeding.

Garin didn't know how he and whoever his new guardian was were going to escape this encirclement, but he wished the guy good luck.

When he woke up again, they were in a carriage. One that moved very slowly, and one that was still besieged. He didn't know where they were heading, but he just wanted it to be over. The noise.

He was more aware now, every time he woke. It was going to be much harder to seek the release of darkness soon. The healer was there with him, and when he saw Garin was awake forced another of his weird medicinal water down his throat. Then he forced him to eat some mushed food.

He didn't know how, but every time he woke the crowd had thinned further. The last time, he woke and the pressure he'd been feeling was gone. There were no people surrounding the carriage anymore, and it ambled on at a first clip. That might have been his first clue as to where they were headed.

He didn't want that. He couldn't afford to. All the memories, their time together. He'd failed him, and now he would take over the cabin. He didn't have the energy to thrash, but he would have if he did. He would have thrashed violently. And the carriage would have overturned.

Maybe that was just wishful thinking. As it was, he had to open his mouth, to protest this. He didn't care if the crowd tore him limb from limb. Anything was better than going back in there.

"Nnnngh...Nghhh!" he tried, but could get no real word past the growling.

Tears streaked from all the angles of his eyes, but the healer could make no sense of what he was saying.

"Quiet, little Garin. You'll be back home in a little bit."

"Nnnghhh!"

But home wasn't a little shack on this stupid island. Home was wherever Fedrahn was. And Fedrahn wasn't here. Somehow, Garin was sure. He knew Fedrahn wasn't here with the certainty of the sun's rising. But he would find him. If he was in another sphere, then to another sphere Garin will have to go.

He got louder the closer they got. And he was even able to shake his body a little in protest when they made to carry him into the house. He achieved nothing in the end of it all.

And as he slept in his own bed for the first time in months, the tears wouldn't stop pouring. They had trashed the place, probably looking for acceptable reasons to break their hospitality vows to the scribe. They hadn't found anything, Garin was sure.

Fedrahn had been too careful. Too careful to be just a normal man. And as Garin thought, he believed he might have known the reason for that. Or at least he had some theories.

It was two days later when Garin had started to regain his mobility. He still wasn't doing anything though. He'd just wake up and sit and stare out at the upturned furniture and destroyed floor.

From the edge of his vision, he thought he saw the healer and the newest master they'd sent as a supervisor whisper something to each other.

Then the healer stepped in, and said words that would have, months earlier made Garin's heart leap with joy.

"Garin, arch master Daye wishes to take you off this blasted island."