Bloodsword: War of the Leaf

The Cabinet

Shivering at the cold water that still dripped from his naked body, Tev looked fearfully at the knot of elves gathered around the strange device that dominated the small room he now stood within.

Even though it was an incredible relief to finally be truly clean after all those moons at Troska, the upright coffin shape of the device and the strange, almost painful tingling it evoked in his birthmark left him tottering on the edge of blind panic.  A panic that had been growing ever since strong hands had dragged him from the wagon to brutally wash him with stiff bristled brushes and cold, soapy water after tearing away the last tattered remnants of his clothing.

Thank the Maker they had dragged him into the shelter of a porch before washing him.  Or it would've been done out in the rain and muck and would've gone for naught as the first step through the mud would've restored a good measure of the filth so recently removed.

The washing had been followed by a grim-faced Mardish shaving Tev bald before several buckets of freezing water were thrown on him to rinse away both the soap from his scrubbing and his dirty, shorn hair.  The hard hands had returned at that point to frog march him to the jump portal.  A snap of dislocation later and he found himself in a damp, heat-filled room, surrounded by a phalanx of tight-lipped soldiers.

The soldiers took custody of him and dragged the battered human from the room, out of the building and across a cobble stone street to a covered wagon before throwing him bodily inside.  There he crouched, alone and still bound hand and foot as the wagon careened and jounced through the streets of this strange and warm place.

Tev had been afraid then.  That fear swiftly grew to panic when the wagon suddenly halted and he was dragged out by yet more soldiers and into a small room where he was again scrubbed with brushes and soapy water until his skin, already rubbed raw, began to bleed.  He was once more rinsed off then dragged into this room with the strange cabinet and left to stare at it.  The tingling in his birthmark had started in the hallway leading to this room, growing to painfulness once he was brought inside.  Shackled as he was, Tev couldn't even reach up and scratch it.

So the gaunt and battered human waited while the elves from several different races labored around the coffin, talking in low voices to each other, the fear growing worse by the minute.

"You can't seriously think the artifact will put that back together."  A slender Ajanti asked, his long brown hair pulled back into a tail.  His green eyes were doubtful as they took in Tev's broken form with his mashed, featureless face, crooked fingers and twisted limbs looking as if they dangled by sinew alone from his thin and wasted body.  The Ajanti frowned as he watched the human shiver uncontrollably as Tev's sunken eyes gazed back at him filled with animal fear.

"I not only think it will, Nos, I'm going to watch it happen."  A handsome Mardish in soft blue silk answered with a smile.  He then turned to nod in acknowledgement to the blocky Geras'El as he stepped into the room and quickly crossed over to the elf in blue.

"Geras!  Good to have you back from outer darkness.  And with such an excellent test for the artifact in hand as well.  I am impressed."

"My thanks, nar Agustavas."  The Dolomin replied with a smile of his own.  He glanced over at the shivering human.  "If the artifact can put this human together despite moons of starvation, brutality and retched conditions, then truly its magic is powerful!"

"Indeed it would be, my friend."  Agustavas agreed, his smile perfect on his flawless face.  He nodded his dark haired head, not a strand out of place, towards the Ajanti who was also dressed in a tunic and breeches of the same blue as the Mardish elf's silks.

"It seems that Noslakanos, despite putting Meran's arm back on yesterday, thinks the artifact cannot restore our human friend here."

"That's because the artifact was drawing on Meran's considerable reserves of energy as a pit fighter, my Lord Agustavas."  Noslakanos quickly pointed out.  "That seems to be the source of its power: the strength in the patient's body."  He gestured at Tev.  "This human has nothing left for it to draw on."