There was blood. So much blood.

He ran down the hallways, rubbing his eyes furiously as he did so, wondering if droplets around them were tears of fear or merely blood. His eyes were stained crimson, blinking away the red twinges in order to see clearly in his escape. A brief thought entered his mind if blood could really seep into his eyes and replicate such evil he had witnessed. Bullshit. But, that's what fear induced: irrationality mixed with brutality.

He finally recognized the walls as he turned numerous corners, finding them now to be pristine, crystal white. He was almost there. He could sense it. The echoed screams from the corridors below quieted and the man could finally hear his own scared, fractured thoughts that read aloud in his own head like a stutter. Finally, he reached the large metal door, pounding on it with his fists as loudly as he could, hoping someone on the other side would hear his desperation.

"Who is it!?" a voice questioned immediately, as if awaiting for someone this entire time.

"I-" he replied, frozen in his own fear. Since he had stopped running, the memories of the atrocities he witnessed were entering his mind in an endless loop. He couldn't recall his own name, his purpose, nor the place he resided. It felt like Hell. That's what Caladin was meant to be, anyways.

"WHO. IS. IT!?" The voice shouted more firmly, as if ready to lock those doors forever and seal the man to his fate.

"Let me in! Goddammit!" he cried, feeling the tears surge like a wave as he repeatedly pounded, as if hoping to make a dent to claw his way in.

"That's Gunderson, shit, let him in now!" a voice whispered and the door suddenly latched open. Gunderson was grabbed immediately by other fellow Guards, pulled into the control center before the door slammed shut behind him.

Sanctuary. The last place of light amongst this darkness. Gunderson continued to cry of relief, his legs buckling and he slammed to the ground of his own volition, wanting nothing more than to curl up into a ball and wither away.

"Who is this? Do you know this man, Captain?" The Control Chief walked over, curiosity yet fear in his own eyes.

"One of my own, Private Daveed Gunderson. Private, can you hear me?" The Captain asked, seeing Gunderson entering a severe state of shock. He was becoming catatonic, and forcing any answer out of him would prove dangerous.

"We need to know what the hell is going on out there," The Chief clenched his jaw, his eyes scanning over the monitor systems. Alarms blared as the entire prison was on lockdown. Luckily, there were no prisoners that were not accounted for and everyone was locked up tightly.

Whatever, whomever, they were facing was deadly. The Chief estimated a full blown, coordinated attack, possibly fifty soldiers with someone who had knowledge of Caladin's layout. Whatever drove them to such madness did not matter, the Guards of Caladin were not equipped for a full blown battle. Hell, how did someone even manage to infiltrate this place? A portalist must have been here before.

"Everyone we sent out hasn't returned. We must assume our guards are outnumbered or underpowered, perhaps both. Is there any word back from Emperor Bashir?" the man in charge glanced over at his Sender, who shook his head.

"I believe he's waiting for a more intelligent report before sending men in blind. Clearly whomever is here has something in mind, a target, or perhaps destabilization. If we can stall, that might buy the Emperor some time to bring a full blown force in here," the Captain suggested, kneeling down to try and comfort his shellshocked guard, whispering, "what did you see, Private?"

"For fucks sake, the Emperor needs to just send troops in now! We're not soldiers, we are guards. I have a family to get back to. All of us here were told this job was secure, that the pay was good, that there was limited danger. And now look? We're being torn apart by an unforeseen army and we don't know why, and we don't have any back up! The Emperor doesn't give a shit about us. I say, we find the closest portalist and get the fuck out of here."

"We don't know what is out there, we're safer here," another voice beckoned.

"Our orders remain as our job demands, we control the prisoners. We are responsible for them and their safety," Chief interrupted, knowing that his pride couldn't allow the cowardice of running away, "this army will not get inside here, I guarantee it. They will have no way to breach this door."

"It is no army," Gunderson shivered on the floor, his voice squeaking like a mouse but it was enough for the room of men to grow silent.

"No army? Private, explain," his captain begged softly, "Help us, what did you see?"

"A man. Just one. I...I've never seen a man with such hatred and passion. He kills without thought, without hesitation. It's just him. He knows our every move. I watched him counter six men at a time, as if he struck them all at once, knowing when they'd be at their weakest points. A blink later and they were all sliced across the chest. I've never seen anything like it."

"Impossible. If it's one man, open that door, we can take him all at once," a guard scoffed, "He's delusional, shell shocked. There is no way in fuck we sent a dozen men out there and none have returned if it is just one man."

"What did he look like?"

"Retribution. A god punishing for sins we didn't even know we committed..." Gunderson stuttered, "I..."

"Gunderson," his Captain yanked him by the collar harshly, "I need you to focus. What did he look like? Hair, skin, eyes, is he someone you recognize?"

"N-no, I've never seen such evil," the young man shook his head, closing his eyes to try and squeeze the memory of the man's face, "Dark curls, darker than his skin although it was tainted red with blood. He...had these dark eyes, as if entering Oblivion constantly, with a scar underneath one. I...his blade, it could fold. That's all I can remember. I...god, I can't think over the screams. The sounds of the screams!"

"Write this down, send it to the Emperor, it's all we have," The Chief demanded his scribe, who's hand shook violently as he wrote the almost ineligible letter to be sent. The scribe had to withhold scared tears, soon passing it along to the Sender to clench into his hand. The Chief paced back and forth, finding it just as unbelievable it was just one man. It couldn't be. Gunderson was confused, he was scared and perhaps his fear blinded him.

"What about the Warden? He-"

"He's never here. Why would he be? Ever since the incident with Kaid Al-Yami..." the Chief grew silent, as if his own words answered the question they were all wondering. It couldn't be.

The orphaned prisoner. The one that on paper was deemed highly dangerous to national security and Caladin itself. The one every Guard knew merely to be a bookworm, more focused on his quiet cell than escaping. No Guard had ever sensed him to be a danger, yet his escape had caused an almost complete removal and punishment of Caladin leadership. The Chief was only Chief now given he was the Guard with the most experience here: a mere three years after the rest had been dismissed. The Chief knew little of Kaid, other than the Guard rumors and bets of how long their thirty year prisoner would continue to last. Kaid was rather a legend in this prison, but never one derived from danger.

The Sender tensed, as if receiving notice. Everyone except Gunderson, who still wallowed on the floor ran over, gazed at the Sender's open palm for a receiving message. Finally the letter formed, enclosed by an emerald green seal. The letter was from the Emperor himself, bestowing orders or perhaps guidance on the situation. The Sender handed it to the Chief to tear apart the seal, which was still burning hot wax as he pried the letter apart. His eyes gazed upon what he hoped was a long list of directives and orders. Instead, it was merely two sentences. He merely handed it to the other curious Guards, who couldn't believe the words either.

"No! This is fucking bullshit. Open this fucking door. If the Emperor thinks he can control my destiny, fuck him," the rebellious guard left his station, heading into the door to input his code to unlock. Nobody stopped him. How could they? It felt entirely rigged from the start. The Chief dropped the letter, watching it fall to the floor in a swinging, elegant motion, before he returned to his main desk, focusing on the continuous blinking red alarms. One man vomited. Another began to bawl, whispering prayers to whatever Divines he believed in.

Gunderson glanced at the letter, sniffling his coagulated tears away as he reached forward to grab it. He whimpered at the words, crumbling the letter in his hands before dowsing it with more tears as if the words would change if the ink became blotched. Emperor Bashir wrote these words with selfish blood, just another stain to his throne.

Help will not be sent. Kill yourselves so that he may not enter that room.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaid leaned against the wall to catch his breath. The ringing in his ears was pitched higher than the obnoxious lockdown alarms, sounding almost as if someone was deliberately tapping the leftist end of a piano key at eight infuriating octaves. He thought maybe he'd lose his nerve, that the second he was back in this place that he'd feel like that lost and scared eight year old boy upon his first arrival. Instead, he arrived at how he should have left Caladin in the first place: impassioned.

"You should feel angry, Kaid, angry you were thrown in here against your will, against justice, and most of all treated like an animal. Does it not boil your blood the way it boils mine for you, like a volcano raging against a hurricane?"

"Men have injected her with poison all her life yet are still surprised to find her venomous."

"You're a nobody, Kaid. Your parents were nobody of value, probably war vagabonds, refugees who sold you for a penny. When they didn't know who to give you to, they threw you in the best orphanage they knew. Caladin saved your life, Kaid, prevented the calamity of an unknown childhood. Look at the place as a miracle, not damnation."

"Out of the hundreds, no, thousands of cells in Caladin, how in the Divines did she manage to get thrown into yours?"

Kaid shook the thoughts of doubt away, reaching down to his belt line to grab the latest batch of Cadize's elixir. They weren't fully fermented like the one he had given him in Uhkhtar, but they certainly did just enough to replenish any tiredness. He was still saving that one, believing Cadize when he said he would know when the time was right. It didn't remove the ache in his hand from clenching his blade, nor the taste of blood in his mouth. He almost liked the taste, like it was greeting an old, embittered friend after parting ways harshly.

For far too long, the Caladin Guards had let prisoners erupt into chaos against each other. They watched the show from above as animals tore at each other to establish dominance. It wasn't true dominance though. Such power was only derived from the Warden himself, and most importantly, Doctor Vyper. Kaid hoped to leave here with the Dreamer slaughtered, but even any amount of evidence to his condition would do something.

Kaid awaited outside the control room doors. He had seen it multiple times in his travel through time, wandering the halls of Caladin to grow familiar with the place. He figured if anyone could know where his information was kept, it was someone in there. The Warden's room was locked via a code and Kaid had the feeling inputting the wrong code would cause problems. Having never met the Warden, it wasn't exactly a priority at the moment.

Kaid knew exactly where he was going, who he was hunting, yet he was still that lost little boy craving answers in his tearful sleep. Kaid was never meant to be a predator in a world where knowledge made him prey. Honesty and truths were death sentences in a world exploited by deceit. To fall into that deceitful nature, Kaid was becoming the very person he once hated.

The door opened surprisingly, Kaid not having expected it but a Guard immediately bolted out from the door arch, only to stop and freeze upon seeing Kaid. Kaid almost smirked at seeing the fear in the man's eyes, knowing it was the same fear any prisoner in here could have when a Guard entered their cell unannounced. Kaid was merely returning the favor.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Before the guard could say anything, Kaid bridged the distance between them, thrusting his blade through the man's stomach, impaling the coward's corpse. When he yanked his blade out, the body fell with a thud loud enough to wake up the rest of the Guards within the control room. Instinct filled them all, their fight or flight responses kicking in. The closest guard to the door as Kaid entered the room reached for the closest thing to him, which was nothing but a stapler on top of the desk. With his own time intervention, Kaid dodged the meek throw before using time to fold his blade back into its hilt.

He then used the hilt to assault that Guard, finding five good solid punches with the blunt weapon enough to break the man's face, the blood splatter creating a beautiful display on the canvas that was Kaid's face. The action alone made everyone else deny their instinct, standing frozen in fear rather than engaging in their survival. Perhaps if all the rest of the eight men, minus the one that seemed to be sobbing on the floor, had attacked all at once. They might have had a chance.

A chance at merely slowing him down, of course.

Kaid stood up from his arched position due to the punches, glancing around the silent room minus the alarms. The man at the top of the console had his back turned, as if his fate was already predestined. It made Kaid hesitate, his hands resting at his sides before noticing a letter on the floor. He didn't recognize the seal which was now a conglomerated mess, but upon glancing at the words was quick to decipher who this was sent from.

"Looks like you men aren't good at following orders. Isn't that excuse you usually give?" Kaid asked, his tone laced with venom, "I was only following orders. And now, the oh so powerful Emperor of Lungor gives one last order...and you fail."

"You will kill us anyways, Kaid. You may strip us of our lives, but it was our emperor who stripped us from our pride, our humanity. You are mercy in a world of pain, regardless of what my sobbing Guards may think," the Chief finally turned around, no amount of fear or sorrow in his eyes. Only acceptance resided there.

"Mercy is not what you deserve," Kaid scoffed. If Kaid was mercy, then he couldn't succumb to the blood lust to give them what they wanted. No. He'd keep these men alive, he'd want them to fail and he wanted the entire Lungorian Empire to know about it.

"What do you want, Kaid?"

"Doctor Vyper, where is he?" Kaid demanded.

"Lockdown procedures will always put the Dreamer into the Warden's office. And before you ask, no, we don't know the code. Only the Warden and the Dreamer do. An incorrect code will alert the Warden and initiate a lockdown sequence, not like it matters, you've set off all the other alarms regardless."

"And the Warden?"

"Haven't seen him in weeks. He's paid for what he knows, not what he does. It's a bad day clocking into Caladin when you know the Warden is here. Be grateful he isn't here today. He would have made quite the mockery of you," the Chief smiled slightly, "is there anything else you'd like, or can we just get on with it?"

"Release the prisoners."

"You know I can't do that..."

"And so I will kill you all and do it myself!" Kaid shouted, "Release them all and your destiny is in your own hands, not mine, not the Emperor's. If it's mercy you want, give to the people that might have the capacity to hand it over to you."

"Chief...he's giving us a chance..." the Captain spoke, glancing over at his superior.

"We release the prisoners, and say we live...our entire vanity is at stake, our morales, our honor, our virtues-"

"How dare you speak about virtues in front of me. I've been here for thirty years. Thirty. Fucking. Years. I watched as new recruits rolled in, young nobodies in an empire with nowhere else to go but to blindly give their service for a fucking prison. I watched as these recruits went from immature men into fucking dogs. I watched them pin men against each other, make a grown male kill a child all for entertainment. I watched them rape and pillage bodies as if they were monuments meant to be toppled. They were humans. They are humans.

"How many of them actually committed a crime? How many of them received true, honorable justice? This isn't a prison for justice, for the greater good. This was meant as a cleansing, a removal of magical Oblivion so that only the powerful can possess it, that only families born into royalty can control."

"Thirty years, it's been right in front of you and yet you still don't see it," the Chief walked closer to Kaid, only to stop at a console to glance at the white glowing button with specks of blood, "All of you were animals pretending to be humans. When a gardener prunes a rosebush, do they rip out the entire bush and replace it? Or is the pain designed?"

The Chief pressed the button which ended the alarms instantly. The modules nearby indicating cell doors were turned off, indicating unlocked doors. He had let go of every single one of them to pick their fate now. Kaid relaxed in his state, indicating if anyone wished to leave this room, he would not stop them.

"Think you'll walk amongst them like a hero, their savior? Go, lead them away from this place like a fucking prophet but don't be surprised when they eventually turn on you. You may have given us a chance to live, Kaid. But...nobody else is going to give you the same. You're crumbling and nobody will be there to save you when you become nothing more than a speck of dust due to your own rot."

Everyone took their leave at that moment, everyone except Gunderson who still wasn't going to take his chances. Kaid would leave the rest to the fate of the prisoners. Instead, Kaid took the moment to relish in the silence before the screams would begin. One of the prisoners had to be a portalist, maybe they could get everyone to escape into safety. Wishful thinking from a man who believed the cornerstone of humanity was love. Humanity was a mere soliloquy for selfishness.

Love was the preposterous idea that humanity could change.

"I know there's decisions she's made that she can't take back that will haunt her for the rest of her life."

Kaid found himself in a new layer of hell from the result of his ambition, in his own foolishness. How highly optimistic of him to assume that the prisoners would band together, ruin their oppressors, and work together to escape. Instead, the entire prison of Caladin turned into a free for all, every man for himself. Vengeance was pursued but not against the true evil, merely against their own fellow inmates who had wronged them in the past. Kaid walked amongst the chaos, witnessing murder he could not stop. He watched men tear at each other's throats, either with Oblivion or any object they could find. One inmate came at him with a pipe presumably from the showers, in which Kaid had to react and end his madness with his blade. He did not deliberately search for prey amidst this chaos as he had with the Guards, he only acted to protect. And the only thing he could protect at this moment was his own interests.

Was it humanity who failed him, or did he fail humanity with this decision?

Kaid heard the shrieks of a woman down the hall, Kaid moving into a sprint to see three men on top of a defenseless woman. The sight of it infuriated Kaid, shouting the men to get off and leave her alone. But the men were deaf amidst their evil ambitions. Kaid yanked the first one off and threw him against the wall, seeing the other two glance up wondering who was intervening. An astounded, surprised grunt left Kaid's lips as he recognized one of the men.

The young man he had saved from Phillip, resulting in a broken nose, just mere hours before meeting Jessamine. A man he had told to avoid such pleasures in blood, to keep his head down and not let the nature of Caladin corrupt him. It seemed to have corrupted them both. Kaid couldn't believe the man's first instinct upon freedom was torment against an innocent woman.

"Off her, now!" Kaid shouted, pointing his blood drenched blade towards the man. It seemed to get him to stop momentarily, recognizing Kaid to be the prison mentor who must have been the cause of the spontaneous release of prisoners. They knew Kaid was not bluffing, given the sight of entrails and guts still dripping from his blade.

"We're free now, nobody can tell us what to do. Not even you," one of the prisoners laughed, "it's a lawless world you created. Deal with it. The weak will suffer but the strong will survive."

"Eat your own fucking words, then," Kaid scowled, slowing time down just enough to walk behind the man, knowing from this angle there was no way he'd predict the attack. Kaid's own eyes closed as he could now begin to feel the weight of his nauseating actions, that his lust for freedom created a lust in others for control and power. Kaid wanted only the power to save his own skin, to control himself without puppetry or fake ideas of autonomy. And this unplanned chaotic attack was going to have consequences.

Kaid pulled the blade out within a blink, the other two remaining men shocked by the sudden murder of their compatriot. The action alone made them run, realizing that the transition of power was changing. And if they wanted to escape the punishment of the newly designated warden, feeling was their only choice.

"Are you alright?" Kaid asked the woman, reaching forward to touch her backside. Her clothes were torn from the claws of those men alone, their desperation a frenzy attack to get her clothes off. Luckily, they hadn't succeeded with Kaid's intervention. The woman didn't feel so lucky, nor did she trust the man trying to help her up. In order to control a population, all belief in trust had to be eradicated. The only truth that could exist was mere survival. The woman spat poison at Kaid, not figuratively either. Her saliva was like an acidic cloud, hitting Kaid's face with toxic wet fumes that made him cough furiously.

His vision went blurry, his joints and muscles growing stiff and confused as he fell to his knees. Despite the blurriness, he saw the woman scramble up and take off, not even glancing back. Kaid couldn't blame her, perhaps he'd done the same if in her circumstance. There was nobody he could trust, nobody that could save him.

Kaid breathed heavily, almost feeling on the verge of being deprived of precious oxygen. By the time he started to recover, he noticed bloodied and slightly torn leather boots, followed by numerous barefoot prisoners behind him. Caladin needed a new warden, if they truly couldn't escape this hell. And one man really wanted to make this hell his dominion.

"Wilson," Kaid meekly coughed, glancing up at the man. He looked worse than he had last seen him, more scars across his balding face. Everyone criticizes the actions of a roach, yet despite even the most destructive circumstances, roaches always withstood. They'd always be a plague with no cure. Kaid reached for his blade, only to feel the boot step on his fingers, preventing him from grabbing it and crushing the bones underneath.

"Well well well...you know how long I've waited for this day? The day where the gracious, good, genial Kaid falls to his knees. Kindness is a fraud, an illusion with ulterior motives. Nobody is good for the mere sake of it, and I knew yours was too good to be true. Look at you," he scowled with a smile, slowly bending down to grab Kaid's hair, forcing their eyes to meet, "look how helpless and pretty you look, drenched in blood. Monsters are always made with good intent, and how they made a monster from you. You escaped my clutches for quite some time. Not this time."

Kaid could feel the other men who had followed Wilson begin to secure him down, Wilson reached for Kaid's own blade, almost surprised at how slippery the hilt was from the blood.

"Where did your kindness leave you, Kaid? Did you really think you could change a soul, purify it while tarnishing your own? Nobody here is going to remember you," he held the blade to Kaid's throat, which quivered in confusion and fear while Wilson's free hand reached for his own waistband, "but I'll make damn sure you remember me. You made all our lives a living hell with your escape. You damned us. And I'm only here to repay the favor. Don't struggle, mincemeat, that will only make this worse."

Kaid felt a sudden whoosh above his head, an object moving at full force before he heard the sound of skin and flesh being penetrated. Wilson let out a surprised, breathless gasp as he glanced down to find a javelin deeply impaling his stomach. The pain and shock made him lurch back, still alive just enough to glance at his own death and suffering. It wasn't until Wilson glanced up, did his true defeat show.

"You...you...you warned me I'd be scared of you," Wilson wheezed. The javelin still remained lodged, and upon the revelation of their new warden on the verge of death, his loyal subjects immediately ran at the sight of their new enemy. Kaid collapsed to the ground, slowly feeling his strength come to and his mind back in the right place.

"You wanted to fuck a piece of royal ass, so get fucked. I warned you what would happen, warned you if you ever laid your hands on him, that I knew your thoughts, your deepest desires and I would rip them out of you. And so, I have. You're wrong, Wilson, and you always have been," Jessamine scowled, grabbing the edge of her spear, twisting it into his wound before yanking it out entirely. Wilson collapsed in front of Kaid, not dead, not yet anyways. He wheezed there like the pig he was, the blood pooling on the ground from his open wounds, beginning to suffocate his lungs.

Gentle hands turned Kaid around on his backside, his eyes glancing up at Jessamine, seeing nothing but relief in her eyes. The warm hand moved to his hair, moving the curls away from his eyes before cupping his cheek. There was no ounce of betrayal in her eyes, no amount of pain or anger towards Kaid. He saw nothing but mere understanding, acceptance to the circumstances, to the pain and the sense of loneliness. Kaid had been proven wrong, same as the others today. Someone had come to save him, the same person who had saved him from the very beginning of it all.

Jessamine pulled him up to his feet, saying nothing before wrapping her arms tightly around him. Kaid melted into the embrace, almost feeling that same breaking temptation he had at the funeral, wanting nothing more than to break down right now and apologize. He was scared. He finally admitted to himself that he was scared because he lacked control. He didn't know who he was, what he was meant to be, where his destiny led him. The only thing he could do was see himself from the reflection Jessamine casted upon him, the same she had done when she was this point as well.

"Jessamine...I thought, I thought they'd want to fight with me," he whispered, clenching his eyes shut.

"I know. I know. That's the good you see in everyone, that's the Kaid I know," she hushed him, squeezing him tightly, "we can't help them now. But, I can help you."

"Jess, you can't be here. If anyone-"

"Forget about that," she pulled back, cupping his face to look into his eyes, "forget about all of that. What are you here for? I promised you I would take down this place with you and I'm here to fulfill that promise. Whatever you need, I'm here."

Her words made him realize just how wrong Kaid had been. Kaid thought that Jessamine had been a mere collateral damage upon being thrown into his cell, that she was being thrown into a storm neither of them could control. She was the storm, and he was the eye of it all, the centerpiece, the cornerstone. Kaid couldn't reply at the moment, only make sure the nearby hallways were clear of any enemies, both guards or inmates alike. And with nobody nearby, he pressed his lips firmly against hers, both of them tasting the residue of blood. He thought maybe she'd pull back, but she only let her free hand grip the collar of his kaftan, pulling him closer with endless relief. Together. They could do this together.

Portalists, one of the most sought after Oblivions, are both powerful but also benign in terms of the portalist themselves. The most useful portalist is a well traveled one. A portalist can only open a path to a place they've been before...

Handbook of Oblivions: The Basics of Power and Potential of Magic