The smell of damp musk drifted through the dark corridor; moss and many other greens covered the dark stone. The ground seemed worn by the walking of others, as ruts had formed that held small pools of water. Dim lights lit the area as flames flickered on and off, making the shadows of those around dance wildly.
The yelling of a man echoed through the corridor, “Useless barbarian, just speak, and this will be over!”
The man screamed and grunted as he cracked a whip, causing deep red liquid to flow out of the wounds on the child in front of him. The chains that bound the child were the only sound that came from them as the whipping continued.
“Bring in the next tool!” the man demanded with a loud and stern voice as he threw the broken whip away.
“Sir, that was the last one for the day,” said a young man from just outside the barred room.
“What!” The man blared; his head whirled, glaring at the young man, “TCH, another lucky day barbarian,” the man said, grabbing the boy by the face and throwing him far away from the metal door.
“Um, Sir, the item you requested is in the manor,”
"Great! Bring it here tomorrow," said the man, turning around with a smirk. He then addressed the child, "Did you hear that? We'll have something new to play with tomorrow." The child stayed quiet and tried to stand up by crawling along the wall but was hit by a rock thrown by the man, causing him to fall again.
The child weakly climbed back up from the ground as he noticed the sound of footsteps growing quieter.
"Looks like they let ya go again, little one. Ya must be pretty lucky." An old man with a hoarse voice spoke from behind a nearby stone wall.
“If I was lucky, would I even be here,”
The elderly man chuckled with a dry and raspy laugh. “Here, I know they ain’t feeding ya, so I’ll just give ya mine,” he said as he reached around the wall and revealed a piece of rotting fruit in his tanned hand.
“You're an old man; you need this much more than a young one like myself,”
“You’re more mature than ya sound, little one.”
“Yes, that is what I have been told,”
“Why don't ya just take it? This old man ain’t got long left before I see the Goddess of Life, so there’s no point in me keeping this thing,”
The boy ignored the old man and moved as far from that wall as his chains would let him, “I’m tired, let me rest for a bit, then we can continue this,”
The child and old man continued these actions for many days until it became a game to them.
“Hey, little one, do ya know the history of the Genisis Continent?” the old man suddenly asked one night.
“No, honestly, I am quite ignorant of most basic knowledge here. Why do you ask?”
“How old are ya, child?”
“I believe I have turned fourteen since my arrival here.”
“Ya had a birthday here and didn’t tell this old man. I thought we were close. Honestly, I’m a little upset.”
“Sorry, I did not see the significance of it.”
“That’s fine,” the old man grew silent for a long time before his voice was heard again, “Hey, child, do ya know the story of our Goddess of Life?”
“No, as I said, I am quite ignorant of most common knowledge here.”
“That’s fine… Well, it just depends on where ya go; there are a lot of stories about her… But all the stories end the same way.”
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“Unusual for that to be the case, considering the many different cultures here.”
“Right, well, they all go something like this. The Goddess of Life was the third god to be born on Genisis. Then the stories diverge, but basically, she loved everything that was created so much that she gave her life so that everything could continue to live with or without her.”
“Seems very basic to me.”
“Haha! That's because it's not the whole story, just an old man saving ya hours of listening to his ranting. Anyway, ironically, the only god to die is the Goddess of Life, so if even the gods can die… then what about us.”
“I do not know,”
“Right,”
“May I ask why you are telling me this,”
“Hey, child, do ya know why I am here?”
“Yes.”
“Haha! They said that you were smart. So how long have you known since the beginning, right? I was never good at lying.”
“This is not the first time something like this has happened.”
“So young and already living an interesting life.”
The sound of footsteps could be heard coming from somewhere in the corridor.
“Hey, child, what do you think happens when we die… I mean, I know that we are very different, but…”
“Feyrishians reincarnate. As for Seedlings, I have no clue; as I stated, I am quite ignorant.”
“That’d be nice… We never told each other our names, did we.”
“Carter…”
“Osiris…”
Just after the two finished, a man with dark skin, jet-black hair, and molten eyes stood at the door to Carter’s cell. But the only thing that Carter could see was the muzzle around their mouth that led to a leash that the man who looked after this place held in his hand.
"Hello, boy. Meet your new roommate," the man said. "He doesn't speak much and needs to be told what to do. Since you'll be the only one here soon, we need you to keep an eye on him for us."
Carter sat in silence as he stared at the pair outside the bars, “Oh, you two will get along so well; you are practically almost brothers already,” the man outside chuckled.
The door opened, and the muzzled man was thrown inside, but the man never finished closing the door.
“You're free to explore this place as much as you like, as no one will be here in a few moments,” the man said, walking away before suddenly stopping, “Oh right, you will need the key to leave your chains,” The man threw a key beside the muzzled man and then left in utter silence.
“Carter, be careful of that man; he is part of the Burning Ash Race. They are a race known for being unable to control their essence once they step on the path of essence arts.”
“Why are you still here? I thought everyone was leaving?” Carter said
“That was not what that man meant, Carter.”
“Then what did he mean, Osiris?”
“I think it’s best you just sleep for now…”
“Why…” Carter’s eyes slowly closed, “Osiris, why am I suddenly tired? What did you do?”
“Hey, Carter, it was fun, right? Yeah, it was a great way to end things.” The old man said with laughter, “Child, this old man is thankful that he could meet you at the end of his days,”
“Osi…” Carter couldn’t hold his eyes open anymore, and everything went black.
Carter woke up to the smell of smoke and extreme heat. The man that was muzzled now sat in the middle of the corridor, rocking back and forth with his arms around his knees.
“Master, did I do good, yes, I did very good. See, everything is just like Master wanted. Everyone is warm now, yes, very warm now.” the man mumbled, but Carter could make out the sounds.
He needed to escape, but the key was gone. He looked around but saw nothing until his eyes caught a glowing pool where the key initially was. Is it really hot enough to melt the key? Carter looked around, only now noticing that the bars to his cell were gone, and only molten metal pools were left.
“How am I fine? Why is the heat not reaching me? Wait, is Osiris safe?” Carter mumbled to himself before trying to jump up, only to be pulled back down by his chains.
“You! You're safe! My warmth didn’t reach you! NO! Master, I did not fail! This child is special! He has his own warmth, yes, this must be it. He does not need mine, so he has his own, yes, this must be it.”
“OSIRIS!” Carter screamed but did not hear the old man, “What did you do to Osiris?”
“I gave him warmth, yes, that is it.” the man said, his molten eyes staring at Carter.
“Warmth! You burned him alive! Why would you do this?” Carter screamed, pulling the chains wanting so badly to escape this and save Osiris.
“Master! Master said that everyone is so cold, and they needed my warmth, but you, yes, you do not need my warmth. You are already warm, yes, very warm.”
“You crazy…” Carter pulled as much as he could to get as close as possible to the man.
“NOOOO! Our warmths can not mix, yes, it would be very bad to mix warmths.” The man yelled as he retreated back.
“AHHHH! WHHHYYY!” Carter screamed before fainting.