Well, that whole unexpected computer issue was a very unwelcome unexpected hiatus. It was just some noisy fan issues, but it was enough that I seriously couldn't think enough to write. It just made work impossible. Oh well, fixed now.

So, that was a 3 week gap this time. That was ridiculous. Anyway, finally got the chapter written and ready. Here it is.

(Also, I finally got enough work with the artists over on Fiverr that I got an image for Aerien that works. I posted it on a separate special announcement chapter just recently, and that chapter will be moved to the intermission slot next week. Please take a look if you want to see what I think Aerien should look like.)

 

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Terlu’s POV

He had just been dragged into a room that looked like a torture chamber straight out of hell. He had seen artwork back on Earth of caverns filled with human bones and other remains, but here when he was seeing it in real life, each one still dressed in tattered rags of what must have once been clothing, it just represented something so much more horrific and real. His brain was almost refusing to process what he was seeing.

Sprouting from the center of the ceiling was a giant viny blood-red plant, and the vines that came down from it spidered their way around all the walls of the cavern. These vines almost obscured the sight of the bodies encased into the wall. In fact, the vines seemed particularly thick around any place there WAS a body.

He had entered the room behind what appeared to be a row of spectator seats, they were arranged with one prominent seat near the top and a series of lower seats below it. As for what they were overlooking, at the center of the room there was a raised dais, and as he entered there was an elf man being thrown up onto it, protesting loudly about how he was sent on a suicide mission that his matriarch was crazy to even consider, and how everyone else who was sent had died.

[Ahh, looks like we are on time to see the guy lined up before her.] The guy who dragged him here said. [Don’t worry, they ought to be done quickly. The guy deserted the mission his matriarch sent him on, he’ll be feed for the blood flower in no time.]

[No! You don’t understand!] The guy continued to beg. [The spirits in the roots! Nothing harms them! One touch will kill you!]

As the man was dragged to the edge of the dais by a pair of nogoth also wearing those red hats, the two suddenly raised their hands and the guy was levitated into the air by his wrists and ankles which appeared to be cuffed together. As soon as he was laying on it, the center of the cuffs broke, turning into bracelets around his wrists and ankles. These were then pulled to the edges of the dais and then stone raised up from the surface as though it had turned liquid and bound his hands and feet.

Once the man was bound, the man at the top of the stands Terlu was in tapped a cane on the ground. [Your begging is useless.] The man said. [Impossible enemies? We know. Several of our own have been up there already. But, we simply cannot have people ignoring the orders from the matriarchs. You should have faced your death in your mission. Now, you will become feed for the blood flower. Hmm?]

The man got distracted for a second and looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Terlu, and then a grin spread across his face. [Ahh! It’s about time!] He said, and then turned forward in his seat again. [The kid is finally here! We can start the main event after this. Go ahead and finish quickly!]

At the old man’s words, the two who had dragged the man onto the dais went over to a couple of the skeletons on the ground. One picked up an arm-bone and snapped it in half over his knee. The other jammed his foot through a skeleton’s rib cage and then picked up one of the rib fragments that had snapped off. Afterward, he ripped off some of the rags the the skeleton was dressed in which looked rather reminiscent of what the elf man on the dais was wearing. Then, he wrapped the rib bone in the cloth in order to serve as a handle. His companion shook his head when he saw this, and immediately demonstrated how the arm bone he’d snapped in the center needed no such preparation by holding it on the unbroken edge.

The two went back to the man who was strapped down, his cries of fear had degraded into a series of the words [No! Don’t do this!] over and over again, the two read-hat wearing nogoth stabbed their broken bone weapons into the flesh of the man’s upper arms, grinding the broken bits through his biceps and his shoulders. The man cried out in pain.

[Hey! What are you doing! Stop wasting time!] Someone in the crowd jeered.

[We came to see the stupid woman! The kid’s finally here! Finish this worthless elf off quickly!] Another shouted, this was backed by further boos and jeers from the crowd.

The crowd’s booing almost managed to drown out the screams of agony from the man on the dais. Almost. Those piercing and haunting screams as the man’s arms were torn apart by fragmented bone were like nothing Terlu had ever heard. Blood-curdling was absolutely the correct word. It made his whole body tense up like nails on a chalkboard, he could practically feel a phantom of the man’s pain as this scream like no other echoed off the rock walls of the room.

Suddenly, a hand smacked Terlu in the back. [Hey! What are you getting scared for kid!] The man who dragged him here shouted. [I heard them say you had rats wrapped in blankets and bashed to death back in your cell! This ain’t no different! It’s just some coward.]

Down at the dais, the two executioners looked at each other like they weren’t quite sure what to do. The guy with the arm-bone shrugged and decided to follow the will of the crowd, and his bone fragment was jammed cruelly into the man’s neck. The blood spray from this was so strong that it hit the executioner in the face and painted his arm red with the blood. The man strapped down screamed and struggled more. Somehow, he got one of his arms free in all his flailing. Everything from his wrist down was a mess of blood, and his pinky and thumb were hanging off at strange angles like they had been broken completely. He brought this hand up to his rapidly bleeding neck as he continued to scream in agony, before finally he seemed to settle down. No, he was growing weak. As his eyes closed, giving him a comparatively peaceful look, it was clear that he was loosing his life.

Terlu’s eyes filled with tears as he watched the man’s life slip away. He shook his head in denial.

[Hey! What’s wrong with you kid!?] The man who brought him here shouted. [Oh man, is THIS what they meant by how you were soft!? Don’t tell me, the reason you wrapped those rats in blankets was because you didn’t like blood!? Well, shit! Ain’t THIS a mess.] The man sighed. [Well, I guess we’re here to settle this today. Let’s bring you to the grand overseer]

The man grabbed Terlu’s shirt collar again and dragged him over to the highest chair in the stands. It was made of stone like all the others, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about it aside from the fact it was the only chair on the level higher than the rest of them. But that in and of itself suggested the bearded old nogoth sitting there, a certain visual confirmation of the fact that these people around him were a lot older than the 10 years of age their height might suggest, was fairly respected by the rest of the nogoth here.

[Sir, I brought the kid.] The man who brought him spoke to the old man roughly. It seemed they didn’t waste time with a lot of social graces, perhaps that “sir” was what counted for being polite in this crowd. [It seems like the rumor about him being soft was true, he looked like he was about to piss his pants over the execution down there just now.]

[Hah! Is that right?] The old man sighed. [Alright, whatever. He’s here. Just bring out the wench.] The man in the chair doesn’t even look at Terlu, or even the guy who brought him for that matter. It’s pretty clear that both of them don’t even matter to him right now, like they are nothing more than objects.

In response to the man’s orders, the familiar face of Úrdes is dragged into the center of the chamber. Meanwhile, the man who was just killed before her is having his lifeless corpse raised up into the air by his shackles once again. Because he had managed to break his thumb and pinky in order to escape from one of them, he is simply dangled upside-down by his ankles as his blood oozes out onto the ground. He is taken over to the wall, where his skin is encased in a thin layer of stone, enough to preserve the physical position of his body but not so much as to obscure his features, and then his body is half-embedded into the wall. The red vines on the wall seem to respond almost immediately as they are now growing toward the newly encased corpse.

[Now then, Úrdes!] The head overseer calls down. [You are on trial for cowardice! You ran away from this wimpy little kid you were supposed to toughen up. The same kid who just now shrieked at the sound of a few yells and a little blood. What do you have to say for yourself?]

Úrdes glances with fear in her eyes to the red hats on the heads of the two nogoth holding her by her arms on either side. She was not wearing the metal cuffs like the elf from before, probably because she could just easily get out of them. Instead, they’d resulted to good ol’ old school physical restraint by a pair of big guys. Or, rather, not so big. Maybe just magically powerful in this case.

[S. .. Sir!] She says, looking up the row of seats with the fear in her eyes obvious. [I did not run away, I merely saw the remarkable power and talent the boy possessed. I judged my skills to be inadequate to teach him, so I felt he should have a superior teacher from among the Nirodgir.]

[Hmm... talent, huh?] The head overseer brought a hand up to play with his beard and then turned to Terlu. [Alright kid, how about you show us this power of yours. You wanna go and do something for us?]

[Uhhh...] Terlu stood there, dumbfounded by the head overseer’s remark. Next thing he knew, he felt something hard hit him right in the center of the forehead with enough force to blow him off his feet. [Oww!] He screamed and clutched his forehead. When he pulled his hand away, it was smeared with fresh blood. His forehead was bleeding.

[Oooh! That’s impressive at least.] The head overseer scoffed. [He’s not crying. I guess maybe he’s not quite as soft as everyone says.] This was met with light chuckles all around. [Alright, well, we’ve got your attention now, huh kid? Stop looking at me with that stupid face and do something.]

[Just do what you did to that wall in front of me!] Úrdes yelled up from the ground floor.

As degrading as this whole situation was, it was clear enough what the steaks were. Úrdes was literally fighting for her life right now with him as the the only piece in play in her favor. If he didn’t display something impressive here, she would share the same fate as that guy from before. He didn’t have any reason to really like this woman, but he knew he would regret it for his entire life if he could have saved her but did nothing. So, he scraped himself up off the ground and walked over to the nearest wall and began to concentrate. A second later, there was the sound of an impact and a spiderweb of cracks instantly spread over the entire wall.

Terlu was stunned at the results of his own power. This was multitudes of orders of power greater than the small crack he produced in the wall only two days ago. No, even the little bit he’d been able to do to the wall on his own just this morning absolutely paled in comparison to this.

[That’s it?] The head overseer said with a chuckle. [All I saw there was a complete lack of control.]

[The kid’s also been training on his own.] The man who brought him added. [I heard about it when I spoke with the initiates, they were even kind enough to leave the mess he’d made as evidence of how diligent he’s been with his daily training.]

[You see what I mean!?] Úrdes pleads. [The kid is barely even a couple dozen cycles old! He can already utilize arcane energy to this level! He used it after only two days of me teaching him! The kid has amazing talent! Someone as lowly as me, I simply do not deserve to train someone so destined for greatness!]

[Well then,] the head overseer said threateningly. [You reported his power to the priestesses I take it. But then what? The other initiates say you never came back to follow up with his training.]

[I knew he was doing fine on his own.] Úrdes challenged. [Your enforcer just said it, right? He was training on his own. Why should I waste my energy when he’s doing just fine without my intervention?]

[So, you are saying you would rather be considered lazy over cowardly?] The head overseer sneered. [Fine then. I am not convinced of your story, but as a nogoth your value is higher than our usual targets anyway. So, I will give you a chance at your life. The kid will administer your punishment. If he can show he’s not as soft as we’ve been told, you can keep your life. If he overdoes it though, well, that will be a fairly happy occasion but I suppose it will be rather unfortunate for you.]

[tsk!] Úrdes let out an unpleasant sound and looked off to the side angrily. Meanwhile, Terlu was grabbed by the shirt collar again and dragged toward the stairs. When they were standing at the top, the guy holding him threw him off the top stair. Terlu struggled to catch himself on the wall, and then he panicked as he fell. He yelled and there was an explosion of cracking stone. Rather than tumbling down the stairs, he was sliding down a slide of loose rocks. He closed his eyes in his panick and disorientation of what was even going on.

[Well well.] The head overseer’s voice came from much farther away this time. [I guess you are right, that kind of talent really is rather impressive, the kid learns really fast.]

Terlu was disoriented and confused as he tried to push himself back to his feet. His arms and legs were covered in small cuts and he was laying in an avalanche of small stones. He looked behind himself and saw that the stairs he was just thrown down were now replaced with a pile of loose gravel.

He didn’t have long to think. The guy who just threw him jumped into the gravel slide and easily rode the rocks down, pushing a new gravel-slide down that threatened to bury him up to his knees if he didn’t immediately move to make way.

As soon as the guy got down, he immediately snagged the fibula from the leg of a nearby skeleton and easily broke it before handing a piece of it to Terlu.

[Well then, get to it.] The guy said.

This bastard! Alright, they want him to show he’s not soft? Well, here’s how he’ll show them. There’s no way he’s just going to take this kind of abuse lying down. He accepts the weapon from the man and then lets out a scream as he stabs the guy in the leg.

The man’s eyes go wide. It was clear he wasn’t expecting this, but he immediately back-hands Terlu in the face to get him off, throwing the small boy to the ground in the process. Terlu immediately pulls himself up and focuses on the ground beneath the man’s feet, which bursts into rubble. Unfortunately, the guy does not seem quite as distressed by this and simply allows himself to fall, and then he slips into the shattered floor as though it was so much water.

A second later, the ground Terly was lying on became gravel as well and he was sucked in. Next thing he knows, he’s being restrained by a one-armed bear-hug from behind. He tries to stab the guy’s arm, but his weapon is caught and taken away from him. Since he is denied his weapon, Terlu chooses to bite the guy instead, turning his head and biting the guy on the shoulder with everything he can muster in his jaw.

The guy lets out an irritated grunt and throws Terlu back to the ground, and then growls. He looks about as agitated as it gets.

There is some chuckling and a few murmurs from the crowd. As Terlu glares in their direction he can see that a lot of fingers are pointed in his direction as the bastards in the stands seem to be enjoying the spectacle.

Even the head overseer is chuckling at this. [Well, I’ve gotta say, that was unexpected. The kid is practically fearless. Kirek, were you telling me the truth when you said he was scared by the execution?]

The bloodied man Terlu had just been fighting lets out an irritated growl. [This boy is just a wild animal!] He says. [I bet he was just scared of the screaming!]

After those words, the man directs a rather savage kick at Terlu’s chest, sending him recoiling acros the floor and knocking the wind out of him. Terlu’s lungs feel heavy as he struggles to get his breath back. He can barely lift his head, but he does so anyway in order to glare at the guy who just kicked him with all the hostility he can muster.

[Alright then, I guess I am convinced by that.] The head overseer says. [Not of Úrdes’ innocence to the charge, but I am at least convinced the kid is not as soft as we have heard, as well as the fact that he is not the slightest bit interested in cooperating. Well then, I will have to come up with a new punishment. Both for Úrdes, and now also for the kid for showing such disrespect in this chamber. Úrdes, your punishment is that you will be denied the opportunity to pass on your duties to one of the Nirodgir. Even if they do come, you will just serve as the Nirodgir’s assistant as they train the kid. In the meantime, you’re going to have to teach this wild animal some respect for authority.]

[What!? That’s it!?] Someone in the crowd scoffed.

[I wanted to see some blood!] Someone else complained.

[Hey, the kid bled plenty, and he got a pretty good stab in on that enforcer too.]

[I wanted to see the woman’s blood!]

The crowd clearly did not like this verdict.

[That is all! Dismissed!] The head overseer barked, and then the grumbling crowd began slowly filing out of the room. Most went over to the walls, which simply opened up to admit them as they approached. Others sunk straight down into the floor. One thing common to all of them though was that their chairs would sink into the ground and vanish as though they were never there as they were leaving. Even the chair the head overseer had been siting in was erased with a wave of the old man’s hand as he got up to leave.

The enforcer spat on the ground and he looked over to Úrdes. [He’s all yours now.] He sneered before limping off with a hand held to his bloodied thigh.

Terlu allowed his head to flop back onto the stone floor. The rusty smell of iron from long dried bloodstains mixed with the pugnant fresh smell of the newly spilled blood from the man on the dais filled his nose as he kept struggling to fill his abused lungs with air.

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"Well, starting to care for the little boy"

                                                      -Asekhan