Two lizard-like creatures took an arm hoisting him up as they both dragged him along a rough stone floor. A slew of cells ran down the darkened hall as they hauled him into a place that felt like a return to where this new life of his all began. At least this time around there were a couple of lit torches to keep the inside lit and in at least three of the cells, a person occupied them. One of them was a woman wearing a whitish robe and two others were young males. The older white-haired woman in one of the cells kept their head down making it hard to make out her face.
He eyed the young man in the cell to his left. The two dragging him in here stopped and began opening one of the cells next to the other occupied ones. “Just so you know, you could’ve just let me walk here and not have to drag me.”
“Shut up human,” the one on his right said.
Kiran found himself shoved into the cell forcefully. He lifted his arms to prevent his face from sliding along the grimy floor as his body fell over. And while it was far from ideal, he was in some way thankful the frontal part of his body took the brunt of the damage as he landed in the cell. It at least beat having his back end up taking it instead since it was still in pain from the earlier stabbing and cauterization. The last thing he needed was for that part of his body to get any further injured or worse, covered in the filth that lay within this cell.
The two lizard-like creatures stared at him as one of them locked the rusted cell door.
“Leave the key if you can,” Kiran said. “I might need to get some fresh air in a little while.”
Their lizard-like eyes squinted and he knew if he kept talking, they’d likely drag him out and beat him to death. They may even use their big tails to pummel his head until his eyes popped out of his skull.
Not long after they finished securing the door, they left and he found himself once again locked away. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a cell. I can’t say I miss it. At least this time around there were some people there with him. He didn’t immediately recognize the white-robed woman with long white hair, but as she looked up at him from across from his cell, he recognized her as the Arch Sorceress Junavel who he had encountered a few times at the black tower in Liall.
She had tired and weary eyes along with slumped shoulders as she kept her back against the wall of the cell opposing his. She truly looked completely defeated and hopeless.
Junavel made a sudden gesture with her wrinkly right hand rather than say anything directly to him.
“How’d you end up here?” he said to try to start a conversation.
“I didn’t run away fast enough.”
The young man in the right cell from his wrapped their hands around the bars that made up the cell walls. They clicked their tongue and gazed down at him as Kiran sat on the floor of his own cell.
“Say, I think I’ve seen you before. Where and when would that have been?” They thought for a moment trying to recall. “Oh geeze, I can’t remember. My bollocks memory failing me yet again. Name’s Henry by the way.”
Kiran shook their hand as they offered it to him through the cell wall. They had a bit of a wimpier grip than he had expected. The boy was probably not even eighteen quite yet if he was able to judge their age correctly. They also unluckily had one of their upper front teeth missing.
“You wouldn’t happen to know of a way out of here would you?”
Kiran looked around not seeing any obvious way to escape. If they had a key or some kind of tool to break their cell doors open, then maybe. Otherwise, without magic, they weren’t going anywhere as far as he could tell unless one of those banespawn decided to let them out.
From here, he could sense Lar a lot more than earlier. They dragged both him and Silvy further into this city until taking her someplace else and dropping him off here. He tried to communicate with Lar, but he still didn’t think they were close enough to form a proper link to speak telepathically. If I can sense her though, she can definitely sense me.
“I wish I knew of a way out of here,” Kiran said, “but I don’t. Sorry.”
The young man called Henry unwrapped their hands from around the metal bars and motioned around their tiny cell going back and forth in the limited space that they had. Their left hand went through their already messy short brown hair messing it up even further. “We’re going to die here aren’t we?” Rather than directly ask those questions to him or the two others, he merely spoke aloud. “Those things hate us and wish to see us dead. All for what? Because we’re human. What bollocks I say! I’ve never done anything to them or my family. What right do they have!”
The man in the cell to Kiran’s left sighed. “Can you please quieten down over there? How many more times do I have to tell you this boy? No one wants to hear your incoherent ramblings.”
“I’ll speak my mind if I see fit stranger. Do you not also worry over what may come of us? The last half a dozen or so of us once in these cells haven’t returned in the last day, have they? That means they’re going to take us next and do whatever it is that they did with them to us next unless we figure out a way to get out of here.”
“Perhaps that’s a good thing.”
“What could you ever mean?”
The eyes of the young ragged man in the left cell darkened. “Our species have done untold damage to this world and committed untold amounts of atrocities. If anything, we are deserving of whatever harm we may incur.”
“Deserving? What the heck makes you think that nonsense?”
“What does explaining it to you even matter? You’re but a boy who knows nothing of the world. You cannot begin to understand the way things are or how they work.”
Henry crossed their arms. “Older men like you piss me off. Shove that condescension into that butt of yours. It sure does belong there more than spewing it out of that mouth of yours. My ma and pa warned me about people like you!”
It appeared at least to him, that these two clearly didn’t like each other and that most likely they had gotten into some verbal arguments long before he ever came here. Now Kiran was sandwiched between them in his cell and would get to take joy in listening to them bicker.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
While their bickering continued for quite some time, Kiran tried to not fixate on it all that much. Eventually, their conversation died down and silence occupied all around them.
Someone’s footsteps began to motion down the hall. A big lizard-like creature began sliding bowls of food into each of their cells. The smell was quite foul.
He didn’t even think for a single moment whether he would partake of it. He’d rather keep on starving than consume whatever fleshy bits motioned around the brown liquid.
The young Henry however didn’t hesitate. They had the bowl in their hand and a wooden spoon in the other quickly downing it with each second. Some of the liquid dribbled down their chin and landed on the grimy ground.
When they got done, they eyed his bowl still sitting next to his cell door. “You’re not going to eat that?”
“No chance.”
“Can I have it?’
“Sure.”
Kiran scooted the bowl over into his cell and saw the young man appearing quite ecstatic. Who knew someone would be so eager to consume this filth. Though his stomach did in fact growl, the thought of munching on those bits and pieces swirling around the bowl Henry lifted up, gave him the feeling that he wanted to begin hurling.
Junavel and the stranger in the left cell ate at a more regular pace. Unlike them, he did not have to eat necessarily for whatever reason so he could afford to not be in their situation where he had to consume it.
With nothing else to do, he put his hands in his pockets. Those lizard-like creatures had searched him thoroughly so he doubted he’d find anything still on him. However, as he dug his left hand into his left trouser’s pocket, he could feel fabric wrapped around an object.
He pulled it out and unwrapped the fabric that hid away the dead arcane root. Still with me, I see. He didn’t really know why he kept it around. It had about as much use as keeping some random stone around in his pocket.
Perhaps he kept it around because a part of him wished it would grant him power if he just believed enough. That was rather silly though, wasn’t it? He knew it was ridiculous yet he kept it anyways knowing it was useless. Though a part of him feared arcane roots and the power that they gave those who wielded them. In a domain as dark and dire as this one, he thought he would have no choice but to use one if he had to.
“What’s that?” Henry asked while they had food in their mouth.
“It’s a rock.” He wrapped it up and stuffed it back into his left pocket.
“You know,” he said. Can you not talk while eating food, please? “I once had this fascinating rock. It was a big ol’ thing about this size.” He motioned his hands around to showcase the length of about a few inches while swallowing down the filthy food. “That thing was a real beauty. It had a bunch of colorful veins running through it. I never could find another one like it. Sadly I ended up losing it one day.”
“No one cares about your stupid rock.”
Kiran caught the darkened eyes of the man in the cell to his left. Their eyes were often fixated on him even when he wasn’t looking back at them.
In time, he slowly began to slip into an unconscious state out of boredom.
His mind went unconscious.
And then someone screamed forcing him to awaken.
With both eyes opened, he spotted one of the lizard-like banespawn dragging Junavel out of her cell. She fought back only to receive a fist straight into the face. A bit of blood ran down her cheek and rather than fight against them any longer, she allowed the two to drag her away much like they had done to him earlier.
Several more of those creatures stood near them opening the three cells including his.
“You three can cooperate or receive a beating like her. The choice is yours.”
He looked to the other two who did not appear eager to put up a struggle. Rather than having to drag them around either by their arms or legs, they allowed them to walk down the hall with at least six of these creatures in total with three of them walking ahead and another three behind them.
Their big bulky tails moved around a bit and pushed up the thin dark brown robe-like attire they all wore. I wonder what it’s like to have a tail. Sure would be useful I would imagine in certain instances.
Kiran had lost his cloak earlier that he had been wearing since he left Lady Meredith’s manor. He had gotten to like that cloak and felt strange without it. All he wore now was a simple black tunic, brown trousers, and a pair of black boots.
They left this hall full of cells heading up some stairs. They entered several different rooms within a jail-like location and found their hands clasped together with rope. After they did that to them, they all left to return once more to the outer streets of the city covered in overwhelming darkness.
Several of the banespawn carried around torches making it a little easier to walk along the street. He could also see how open things were and how many buildings surrounded them. They went by block after block only to stop at one location that had lots of light spilling out from it.
Inside the well-lit structure was a giant crowd. Many of them appeared like the other lizard folks but many other groups that sat or stood near each other were more feline in appearance. Other groups appeared more bird-like with wings and heads like a crow. Many appeared somewhat human-like and others not human-like whatsoever.
He found a harsh shove go against his back. His body motioned through the rather large crowd that gathered around for something. As they went further in, it became clear what it was everyone was gathering here for.
In a giant pit placed at the center of this place, the Arch Sorceress Junavel carried a spear in an untrained and pitiful way. She sent the tip of it towards a small and agile lizard-like creature.
The crowd roared as the lizard’s weapon sliced her spear in half causing the sorceress to flee. As she ran, a dagger went straight into her back. They pulled it down slicing through her back even more.
The many gathered before the moderately sized arena sent their arms up cheering.
So this is what they’ve been saving us for. Not just for mere food, but for amusement as well.
Kiran hadn’t gotten much of a chance to know Junavel. She was an important person at the Liall Sorcerer’s University and an immensely talented sorceress. Here in this domain, she was powerless and in the arena, fully unprepared to defend herself from this brutal assault as people jeered and laughed. To this gathered mass of banespawn, she was nothing more than a piece of meat to be slaughtered and tortured.
He watched the lizard-like creature approach her as she crawled along the dirt. They dug their heel into her back and pulled her long white hair back lifting her face to the crowd. They lowered themselves and held up a hand grasping onto a bloodied knife.
“Kill her slowly!” The crowd roared. “Kill her slowly!”
A sick unsettling feeling settled within him. He wanted to look away and not even bother to watch whatever they were planning on doing. The crowd did not merely wish for her to die a simple and relatively pain-free death.
No.
They were out for blood.
They wanted to revel in the misery and despair about to be inflicted upon her already broken and injured body.
More laughter erupted behind him in a low tone. “Don’t even think of looking away human filth. You’re going to watch and bear witness to what becomes of all your rotten kind.”