2nd day hour
Central Tower
Aernir city centre
4th Year of Lord Tante's rule
The streets are empty as the Scoria clan marches me through Aernir to the Towers. It may be early morning, but merchants and some stores should already be open in order to prepare their goods for sale during the day. However, just as there were no people in the streets or looking out of windows, there were also no merchants moving their wares nor where there any stores open. It was as if we were walking through a ghost city.
Twister's shop, what remained of it, wasn't exactly near the Towers, though it was by no means on the outskirts of the Aernir city centre. This meant that the Scoria clan marched me for not quite an hour before we were in sight of the Towers. Outside, two more clans of Scoria with their Fellan clan leaders waited for our arrival. The Scoria guards standing at my shoulders stepped aside in order for the other Fellan to take their place. One of these Fellan I recognised as the one who had drunk Lacey Armra's blood on Mount Api. I wanted to fight him, but couldn't move very far in the manacles that still encircled my wrists and ankles. I settled for glaring venomously at him, but this seemed to have no effect.
"This is the Fellan Killer? The one the Wraith obeyed?" The other new Fellan asked. Her voice was quiet, but her hand that soon clamped down on my shoulder was hard and I could have sworn that I felt the bones there crunching as if about to break. I winced but kept my face turned towards the ground, not wanting them to think I was weak. The Fellan who had brought me this far nodded, and all three turned to stare at me with hatred in their eyes.
"Lord Tante is dealing with matters down in the barracks at the moment, so she is to be put into the cells until he returns." The Fellan who killed Lacey stated. The three Scoria clans that were now hovering around us four began to move restlessly, and the Fellan who had brought me here stepped away from me to deal with them. The other two took me by the shoulders, hands clenching hard enough to almost break a bone, and led me into the Central Tower, Tante's personal Tower. The other four Towers were used for administrative purposes, most of which I didn't know anything about.
The Central Tower was built of impressive red stone, mined from the Badlands near the Other-World Portals. The other Towers were built of pale yellow stone from beneath Mount Air. All had been built in the months after Tante's first arrival in the city and announcement that he was taking over as sole ruler of Merasa. They had been built by the Scoria and conscripted Merasans as the Fellan sought to establish themselves as the soldiers of the city. Most of the city's soldiers had been dismissed, only keeping the very best as an elite force that was forced to live and work in the barracks with the Fellan and Scoria.
The stone for the Central Tower was not mined during those months, however, as the yellow stone for the other Tower was. No, the red stone came from a temple that was pulled down to make room for the construction of the Towers. This was the first sign that Tante was not going to be the Lord that Merasa needed to survive and regain its previous glory. The temple had been the main place where the bodies of the deceased were stored for five days after death in order for their souls to leave their bodies and become Wraiths before the bodies were cremated according to Merasan burial practices.
With the temple gone and the Towers built in its place, the smaller temples dedicated to the same purpose that had stood for hundreds of years on each of the mountains were put to far more use than they were ever designed to. The question of how to respectfully deal with our dead and ensure that their souls have time to leave their bodies and become Wraiths is one that has not yet been answered in the years since Tante came to the city. The best that can be done is holding the bodies for three days instead of the five that they should be held for. With no Wraith Lords or Masters in the city besides Tante, there is no way to tell if three days is enough time for the souls to become Wraiths. However, it is the best that we can do. Tante has forbidden the construction of other temples to serve that purpose, so we do our best.
Inside the Central Tower, torches sit in cradles on the walls and light a path to a staircase that spirals deep below the surface. The Fellan at my shoulders led me to the staircase and on down it, circling in never-ending spirals as we descended far beneath the ground. Finally, just as I was sure that I could not bear to walk another step without tripping over the manacles around my ankles and fall headfirst down the stairs, we reached the bottom.
Down here, the torches did not light the way as well as they had above, and I had to squint to see where I was walking. I didn't want to show the Fellan my faer eyes, so I stumbled along in the dark until I was pulled to a stop in front of a cell with an open door. I was shoved inside, and before I could even hope to make a break for it, the Fellan locked me inside, and with creepy grins on their faces, they walked away, soon out of my line of sight in the darkness.
I could just make out that my cell was one in a long line, and that there was another long line directly opposite me that presumably stretched far beyond what I could see. It was bitterly cold down here, deep within the earth, and the torches were too far away for me to be able to draw on them for warmth. To control our element, most Merasans needed to be in physical contact with a source in order to be able to manipulate it, though there were, of course, a few exceptions.
Those who had particularly strong control over their element could sometimes manipulate it fro a distance; however, this was very rare, and no-one I knew had that much control, though rumours around Mount Api suggested that Twister had once held that much control but had lost it after his affair with Rin's mother. Other exceptions included everyone with control over the air, since it was all around us, though statistically speaking, air manipulators usually had less control than the other elements. Those who could manipulate fire, like me, didn't actually have to touch a source of fire to control it, as we could still get burnt, however, we needed to be very close to it in order to manipulate it.
The final exception is those who can manipulate an element for other purposes, which I suppose doesn't really make much sense. Examples of this kind of manipulation include faer eyes, which isn't literal fire, but a manifestation of it from within. Another example is Tanah healers, who can push their powers into certain plants which speed up the healing process when applied to wounds. Given the nature of my stomach wound and the fact that it still didn't hurt, it was very likely that the thing that Blaze had given me to eat had been manipulated by a Tanah healer to either speed healing or numb pain. I wasn't quite game enough to take a peek underneath the bandage and see which it was.
As I turned around in circles, trying to see beyond the weak torchlight, I could see that there was nothing in this cell beside me. No bed, no window, not even a bucket to do my business in. Either this was not designed to hold people for extended periods of time or Tante just really didn't care what conditions people rotted in down here. Knowing Tante, it could be either reason, which was not a particularly cheerful thought.
With no windows, and only the flickering of the weak torchlight to see by, I had no way to mark the time that passed while I waited in the cell. As minutes passed, I leaned against the back wall of the cell, and eventually, I slowly moved to sit on the floor. Even though I couldn't feel the wound on my stomach, I didn't want to risk injuring myself any further by moving in ways that could rip it open again. Being forced to walk here by the Scoria clan was bad enough for it.
After an indeterminable amount of time, I heard the heavy clump of feet begin to make their way down the stairs. I watched from where I was sitting, but couldn't actually see anything until whoever it was moved into the light of the torch closest to my cell. Four Scoria and one Fellan, the female who had brought me down here, led a short girl into the cell directly across from me. In the weak light, I could see that her skin was discoloured, presumably with bruises, and she was favouring her right leg. Despite this, she walked straight and proud into the cell she was directed to.
Before the Fellan had a chance to lock the door behind the girl, she burst into movement. With a powerful kick from her right leg, she knocked the door wide open, hitting one of the Scoria who was standing behind it in the face. That Scoria went down with a thud, out cold. In a blur of movement, she carried the kick through to land on her right leg and jump into the air with another kick, this time from her left leg, both feet leaving the floor as the momentum of her movement propelled her forward out of the cell. This kick landed square in the chest of the Fellan, knocking her back and onto the floor, though she remained conscious.
The girl landed squarely on both feet, tucked down in a crouch, and swung upwards with her right elbow extended in a sharp point in front of her face into the chin of another Scoria who happened to be standing in from of her. Her elbow connected and the Scoria'a head snapped backward. Before it could retaliate, the girl brought her knee up into its groin, then her fist down onto the back of its neck when it involuntarily jerked down at the groin hit. That brought the Scoria down, and it thudded to her feet, groaning but otherwise not moving.
In the moments that it took her to down those two Scoria and the Fellan, the other two Scoria moved forward ready to fight. The girl no longer had the advantage of surprise, but that didn't slow her down at all. She stood in a battle-ready stance, and as the remaining Scoria moved to take her down, she struck again. I stood up slowly from my seated position, and in the moments that I looked away from the fight going on outside my cell, the girl took the remaining Scoria down, leaving only the female Fellan still conscious. The girl stepped towards the Fellan menacingly, and the Fellan involuntarily stepped backward, her back knocking against the bars of my cell.
Neither were paying any attention to me, too preoccupied with staring each other down, which left me open to step forward and place my left arm around her neck, pinning her against the bars of my cell. I pulled tight, strangling her, and she could do little but fumble at my arm in a vain attempt to make me let go. The girl watched me with curious eyes, stepped forward, and kneed the Fellan in the stomach, causing her to fall forward, pressing further into my arm. She fell unconscious moments later, and I held onto her until I was certain that she wasn't faking it before I let her flop forwards onto the floor.
The girl and I locked eyes after we had each individually surveyed the bodies of the four unconscious Scoria and one unconscious Fellan. She slowly grinned at me, which lit up her whole face and made her look so much younger than what I had previously thought her to be. I grinned back, somewhat dubiously, and extended my hand for her to shake. "That was seriously amazing. I'm Vivien by the way."
The girl took my hand in hers and shook it. "Nice to finally meet you, Vivien. I'm Scar. I'm a member of the Storm like Will. I hear they're calling you Fellan Killer now. I'm impressed." Of course, she knew Will. Of course. Seems like everyone in this city knew Will and what he was up to. Except for me.
"Word got around that the Scoria took out Twister's shop in order to arrest someone who had been meddling with Wraiths. We got Twister and Rowan out of the house; they're fine by the way. Blaze used his Tanah abilities to protect them. He had gotten himself out by the time we got there. They're all on Udarah now. I got myself arrested so that I could relay a message to you and pass some things on that you'll need. I can't let you out of the cell, unfortunately. You're in a valuable position here, and it would be too obvious if I broke you out. Sorry about that." Scar blurted out this reel of information slower than Rael would have, but fast none the less.
"Right..." I mumbled, too shocked and overloaded with information to get anything else out. Scar's grin faded a bit, and she withdrew her hand from mine. From within her shirt, she pulled out a glass vial and a small lump of something which I eventually realised was the same as the thing Blaze had given me earlier.
"Twister said that this will dampen whatever it is that has been connecting you to the Wraiths in the last couple of days." She stated as she handed me the vial. It appeared to contain a bright orange liquid that didn't look at all appetizing. "You have to drink it. Also, here's a bit of Moore Root for your stomach. Blaze said he gave you some earlier but it won't hurt you to have a bit more now. It'll numb you and speed up the healing process a bit, cause I don't know how much longer you'll be in here." I took both items, one in each hand.
"Might as well have them now I guess.." I muttered, before downing the liquid and the root. Look, it may seem to you that I have no reason to trust this girl, and really, I didn't. I only had her words that what she said was true and the things that she gave me would actually do what she said they would do. But I was locked in a cell at the bottom of the Central Tower, had been sure up until a few minutes ago that I was going to die, and really didn't have a whole lot to lose at this point. Trust me, I would not normally be this trusting during the first encounter with someone.
The potion in the vial tasted sweet going down, and thankfully muffled some of the taste of the Moore Root, which tasted just as revolting as it had when Blaze had given it to me. I handed the empty vial back to Scar, who stuck it back inside her shirt somewhere. "Everyone wants you to get out of here safely, but if you can, find out as much about Tante as you can. Anything about the Fellan too. It would be really helpful because you're in a unique position here. If any of us were here instead, we would just be killed rather than spoken to personally by Tante."
I nodded, beginning to feel a bit odd, and Scar continued. "Paddy also thinks there's something up with the Scoria, cause Rowan said that they're appearing out of nowhere in the barracks all the time. Keep an ear out for stuff about that too." She looked as if she was going to say something else, but the sound of voices and feet coming down the stairs stopped her. She held a hand up to her lips in a signal of silence, mouthed 'good luck' at me, and slipped silently past the unconscious Scoria and Fellan on the floor in the opposite direction to the stairs.
By this point, I was beginning to feel very odd, and as I watched Scar slip completely out of sight, I slumped over onto the floor toward the back wall of my cell. Shouts of alarm echoed through the hall as the fallen Scoria and Fellan were discovered by whoever it was that had come down here. The shouts melded into one long continuous ream of noise, and my eyes slipped closed. The last thing I noticed was the sharp edge of a small blade that Scar must have slipped into my pants without my knowledge. Happy that I wasn't completely defenseless, I slipped into unconsciousness.