"You two..." Seamus grumbled with his arms folded behind himself. His eyes shot down at the men laying on the floor of the dungeon cell before him, writhing around to find a way to free themselves to no avail. "You are to stay here until a fit punishment is found for you by the king."
The thief and his friend kicked and yelled as they rolled over onto their knees, but could not argue validly. Their chains wrattled ferociously around their wrists and ankles. Seamus and the guards had turned and left before he could say one word.
"God dammit, Eddie. We fucked up." He mumbled as his movements steadied, dropping his head. Eddie grunted and threw his weight against the cold stone wall behind him. His eyes slowly shut as a sharp breath was let into his system.
"There's nothing we can do. We tried."
"Eddie!" Aleks turned around, a horrified look on his face. "I'm about to fucking die! You know I have a past with Jordan, and now he has me in the palm of his hand, and I'm screwed." His breath was shaking and hard and his chest was heaving up and down in a rough pattern. "If he doesn't order someone to kill me right then and there, I don't know what kinds of horrible punishments I'll get."
"I was the one that stabbed the guard guy and knocked a few of 'em up. You don't think I'll be goin' the same way as you?"
"No, I don't, Sly."
An eerie silence of despair set in between them as they accepted their fate, until broken by an "...I'm sorry." from Eddie. Aleks looked up into his friend's eyes to see him smiling lightly as a tear slowly rolled down his cheek. "But, no matter what happens to us, I'll be glad that I got to spend so much time with you." He cracked out.
Aleks returned to his former state, unable to deal with the feelings his friend was giving him right now.
"Eddie, tha... Thank you." He choked out in a raspy voice, his eyes locked onto the floor.
"We'll make it through this, I promise. We'll find a way. We always do. For now, don't be such a little bitch." Eddie snapped out of his sappy state, furrowing his eyebrows. "Let's get down to business and come up with a plan."
Aleks nodded and sat up as he heard guards begin to move in, but ignored it completely.
He could not recall what had happened in the next few moments.
-
Seamus' footsteps echoed down the dreary hallway. No noises emanated from the castle ever since the events at the ceremony. The kingdom was left in a haze of grey despair. Even the villagers had fled to their homes, shutting their windows and curling up to avoid the outside world. Although the culprits were caught, they couldn't trust anyone, or anything.
A low groan rose from one of the rooms to the left of Seamus. His footsteps slowed down, until he finally brought himself to a stop in the middle of the hall. The silence set in once again, making Seamus almost even more uncomfortable than he was before. Moments later, the groan sounded once again, accompanied by the creaking of a wooden bed frame.
Seamus bit into the side of his mouth as he contemplated over his decision to enter the room. What was going on in there?
He put his thoughts away and approached the door, raising his fist to knock. He stayed there for a moment, waiting to see if anything else would occur. After finding no results out of this, he clutched the doorknob and gently twisted it. As he pushed the door open, a quiet creak piercing into the silence, a man came into view. He was laying down on the bed in the room right next to the stained glass window, the covers pulled over his frail looking body. He wheezed softly and sharply, sounding like a pathetic attempt at a cough.
"Hello?" Seamus whispered, staring down at the weak figure on the bed.
"Seamus..?" The man rolled back over, grunting quietly in pain as he jolted back onto his other side to face him. Seamus' grip tightened on his staff as he realized who he had stumbled upon.
"James."
"Seamus, I'm-..." James groaned again as his body shifted underneath the dirty white covers. Seamus began to examine him more closely, noticing a couple of small blotches of red on the covers.
"Are you okay?" He asked, a sharp ping of worry shooting through his system. James pressed his head down against his pillow, inhaling slowly.
"I don't know..."
Seamus walked over to him agilely, propping his staff against the wall next to the bed. He gripped the covers and threw them off of James' body, his expression immediately changing to shock as he eyed the pool of blood beneath the man before him.
"James..." Seamus whispered, dropping the blanket on the foot of the bed. He laid his gloved hand down onto James' arm, gripping it gently and reassuringly. "Come on, sit up."
He whined in protest, but did so, a moan of pain escaping his lips. Seamus gazed down in dismay, realizing that there was even more blood than he had suspected.
"How long has this been going on?" Seamus breathed out in a low tone, giving James a bit of comfort.
"I'm not sure... I just woke up, and... Oh god, I feel sick..." James swayed to the side, clutching at his scalp with his free hand. Seamus shot his arm out and placed his hand on his shoulder, catching him before he could fall over.
"Stay with me." He said, putting his other hand other hand down to James' side, earning a reply of a loud hiss of pain and a sharp cringing motion. James grit his teeth and dropped his head down, trying to keep himself together.
"Take your shirt off, James." Seamus ordered, moving to the bedside drawer to open it up. He snatched the bandages and medicine from it before shutting it.
James nodded and slowly tugged his shirt over his head, revealing his bloodstained chest. On the front-left side of his body, where he had been stabbed, the gash has opened back up, spilling more blood from it than before.
"Oh, god." Seamus only grabbed the medicine and began twisting the cap off. He was used to seeing wounds like this, and hell, he'd seen lots worse. He pulled his glove roughly off of his hand, dabbing some of the medicine onto his fingertips. "Okay. This is going to hurt a little bit."
"Well, don't tell me tha-aah, shit!" James yelled out as he felt the sting of the medicine against his cut. He hissed and twitched, but the wizard stayed perfectly still. Seamus held his hand there for a moment before pulling away to grab the bandages.
"Was that so hard?" Seamus asked, unravelling the cloth. James pouted and looked out the window, leaning back against the wall next to his bed. "Oh, don't be such a baby." Seamus growled, placing the end of the cloth on James' right side of his body. He began wrapping it around the front of his stomach towards the left. Seamus repeated this until the cut was covered completely.
"There you go."
James rested his hand on his side and let in a deep breath, sitting up. "Seamus, why do you hate me so much?"
Seamus snapped his head to the side, looking at him in a bit of confusion, until he remembered the events that had lead up to now. Jordan. The ceremony. James and Ze...
"Did I do something wrong..?"
He looked down, guilt seeping into the pit of his stomach, sensing that James wasn't such a bad guy. Why did he let his jealousy consume him?
...Jordan. That's why. He had to keep his place and show everyone who was the boss around here. He wasn't going to let anyone step in and take over.
"Just stay out of my way." Seamus growled, shaking his head as his staff flew back into his hand. He stamped out of the room, shutting the door with a loud thud.
James swallowed the knot of worry down, staring at the closed door blankly, bewildered by the wizard's sudden change of personality.
-
Aleks' head pounded, the blood rushing through his body and feeling as if it were spilling out of his ears. He groaned quietly and cringed, his face tightening in pain. He didn't remember falling asleep. And why was he on the floor? What happened?
When he opened his eyes, he looked up to see Eddie being tugged up by two armored men. He widened his eyes jolted back into reality, wriggling around to sit up against his bindings of cold metal.
"What are you doing to him?!" He tried to yell, but his voice cracked and burned at his dry throat. Eddie shot a look down at him as he stumbled up onto his feet.
"Aleks, don't." He hissed through his teeth as he was jerked to the side and towards the door. Aleks examined his friend for a split second, immediately noticing a gash underneath his eye spilling blood.
Out of nowhere, Aleks felt a set of hands on his arms that tugged him up as well. The chains that held his hands together rattled as he seized up.
"Let go of me!" He protested. The guards only replied with a tighter hold on his weak body. A sharp pain shot through his temple and he tensed up as the guards shoved him through the door.
"Eddie, what happened?" Aleks cried out. His friend stayed silent, hanging his head and obeying the guards directions. Aleks still flailed about helplessly, trying to escape.
"Quiet." One of the men demanded as they rounded a corner, roughly forcing his body to the side.
Daylight poured into his eyes as he neared an opening to the outside. Before he could react, however, he was turned around another corner in the opposite direction of Eddie. They were being seperated.
"Wait, what are you doing? Where are you taking him?!" Eddie suddenly spoke up, breaking out of his shell.
"Eddie?!" Aleks cried out, drawing backwards as well.
Eddie was strong enough to put up a fight, and the guards were force to fight back. Eddie's heels were pressed into the ground, trying to bring himself to a stop, but, being outnumbered, he was defeated. One of the guards hit him over the head with the hilt of his sword, making sure he wouldn't make any more outbursts.
"Sly!" The thief was shoved outside, the doors slamming shut behind him. Aleks was left to watch the dark halls as he weaved in and out of the never ending castle. He was tired. It was almost impossible to focus, but the thoughts and questions he had kept ringing in his head. Visions of the gash that Eddie had on his face were carved into his mind.
"Why did you separate us?"
"Do you think we're stupid enough to leave you two together after what you tried to pull?"
"Yes. Yes I do." Aleks chuckled to himself as he felt himself thrust forward roughly. He was lead downstairs to a dark corridor with a heavy steel door lurking within the shadows at the far end.
"Get in there." One guard yanked the door open with a bit of a struggle at its weight, while the other discarded Aleks into the room. He stumbled down onto the floor and grunted at the impact. The dirty floor puffed dust up into his face, making him sputter and wheeze lightly. Black was all he saw around him once he raised his head. There was no light source whatsoever in the room, and whatever visibility he had began to fade as the door was shut.
"N-no! Wait!" Dirt was kicked up into the air as he attempted to scramble up onto his feet, but rammed straight into the cold steel that shut in front of him. He pressed him palms against the door, panting lightly as he searched for some sort of assistance to him in the darkness. But, of course, he found nothing.
Bracing his back against the wall, he groaned and dropped his weight, slowly sliding back down onto the floor. He propped his elbows up onto his knees and shoved his hands into his face. "N... Shit..."
Sitting in the dark room, he sighed at what felt like hours passing. Petrifying thoughts returned to his mind; Eddie was gone. Would he be okay? What would they do to his friend that they wouldn't do to himself? He knew whether or not it could be better or worse. What lied ahead of them in their future was now out of their hands, and he could tell it was over.
Small tears formed in the corner of his eyes, but he held himself together tightly, remembering that even when things seemed as hopeless as this, they got out of it.
But he didn't have Eddie when he needed him most.
"...Hello, Aleks."
The voice, startling him, caught his full attention. He removed himself from his curled up position and swallowed, adding toughness to his hoarse voice. He swiped his arm across his face to conceal his look of fear and sadness.
"Who's there?" He croaked out
His eyes scanned the wall of darkness before him for any movements, but whoever he was talking to knew to stay stone-still.
"You don't remember me? Aww, what a shame."
He could tell he recognized the voice, but it had a small sense of calm rage in it that threw him off a bit. Not to mention that he hadn't come back to Zyrille in years. Forgetting a voice or face was the least of his problems, but now it mattered most.
"Take a guess." It whispered, seeming closer than before.
"You asshole... Just tell me."
"You're no fun. You were more fun when we were kids, you know."
Lights flared up suddenly, blinding Aleks. He scrunched his eyes shut, the brightness burning at his face. He heard the crackling of a small fire, which was most likely where it came from.
He lowered his head and loosened his eyes, but still did not look up.
"Aleks."
The voice sounded even more familiar to him in that demanding tone. He had to know who it was, but couldn't bring himself to look up.
A sharp, cold sensation prodded lightly at his chin. He grit his teeth and furrowed his eyebrows defyingly, but the object beneath his face began to sting as it was pushed further down onto his pale skin.
The person holding the object, which he could now tell was a blade, stayed deathly silent. He inhaled sharply and kept resisting, but was falling out of it. The blade against his chin moved up, bringing his face with it. Silence fell as the holder waited for Aleks to respond.
He slowly pried his eyes open to take in the sight before him. He bared his teeth and held his head back as the blade dug deeper into his skin. As his eyes traced up the blade and up to the strong hand that gripped the handle, he flinched.
"What's wrong? Are you afraid?"
He hissed and sat up as the confidence intertwined with his rage. Smirking to himself devilishly, he glared straight into the eyes of the man and chuckled darkly.
"Fuck you, Jordan."