Broken Spirit Book 2: Desperate Times

Chapter Eight: Serefina

                  

I open my eyes to darkness. My pupils dilate as wide as they can go, but there isn't a single drop of light anywhere. For a horrifying second, I fear I've gone blind. That would be the ultimate irony, wouldn't it? The girl born of fire and light, who never appreciated the beauty around her, unable to see as soon as she starts looking.

I open my mouth and exhale flames. The fire lights up the space, and I feel as if a heavy weight was lifted off my shoulders. Then, moments later, a far worse one takes its place as I face the reality of my situation. I'm in a low-ceilinged room that's much too large to be reasonably called a room. It's the size of an amphitheater, maybe even larger. The darkness extends out much farther than my small fire can reach.

Directly in front of me is many thin formations with flat surfaces made out of earth. They form a circle around me. On top of them is a metal contraption like a track that connects them all together.

My instincts tell me I'm underground. The air is cold and stale, and occasionally I can hear the drip of a small trickle of water. My arms and legs are bound together by metal shackles, and heavy iron completely covers my hands and feet. My kidnapper seems to have taken every precaution possible. Even if I could break free, I can tell that only an earthbender can get out of this room. There are no doors, just seamless rock all around me. Despite the enormity of the space I'm in, I start to feel claustrophobic.

There's no way to tell how much time has passed. I start to suspect that maybe whoever kidnapped me just wants to watch me slowly go insane. Finally, after an eternity of nothing, a small entryway is made in the rock. Light from a lantern spills through, and a body steps inside. The only exit closes up behind the newcomer.

"Hello," he says. He walks leisurely toward me, making sure to keep the lantern away from his face so that the shadows can conceal his identity.

"Who are you?" I demand. My voice is a little scratchy from thirst and lack of use. "Where am I? What do you want?"

"Who I am is not relevant," he says. He stops in front of me, outside the metal circle, and sets the lantern on the ground at his feet. "As to where you are, this used to be the Dai Li's secret headquarters, back when they still operated in the shadows."

He seems to be enjoying this, whatever this is. His calm demeanor and casual excitement unnerve me. "You didn't answer my last question. What do you want?"

He chuckles and then sighs, like he has two opposing personalities clashing for dominance inside him. "I want a lot of things, and only one thing."

"Thanks, that clears it up," I snap. "You can't keep me down here forever. And once I get out, mark my words, I will find you and rip that smirk off your face."

"Believe it or not, I'm not smiling. I didn't want to do this, Serefina. Trust me when I say that your suffering will bring me no joy. Neither will the suffering of the person I'm doing this for. But it is sadly necessary."

I recall the group that attacked me and my friends and the strange words they said. "Who is Hydra? Is that you?"

He steps out of the lantern's soft glow of light, and I hear the sound of metal scraping against itself, along with the creaking of ancient mechanisms jarring to life. A blue light sparks to life inside a glass sphere that sits on top of the metal circle.

"Hydra is nothing more than a pitiful group of mercenaries, loyal to no one but me. I came up with the name. It's an acronym for 'Honestly you don't know anything.' It fits very well in this instance, doesn't it?"

The stranger walks back in front of me. "Don't try to struggle. You'll have ample time later to release that pent-up anger inside you." There's a pause. "I've been studying you for several weeks now, and I might be the only one who realizes who you really are. How tired you are of fighting, and how scared you are that you might never stop. Because deep down, you don't want to stop." I can't see him, but I can hear the grin sneaking onto his face. "So I'm actually doing you a favor. Sooner or later that thirst for violence was going to come back to burn you . . . or someone you love."