Chapter 395 (1/2)
Chapter 395
Chapter 393: Beneath Taegrin Caelu the bare floor of the long hallway It was so, so long…had it been this long before? The pale lights blinking on and off, on and off…
I could hear the as ifto kill her When had my friend become so blinded by his desire to rule?
In the distance, I could just see the ht at the end of this tunnel that seeht to its end
Soht, and I flinched away fro an aard sideways shuffle as I tried to both stay still to watch and continue to h a sort ofin the hallall, an iathered in a s in the woods The Beast Glades, I re boy in a white mask that covered his face, but not the telltale auburn hair draped around it “Elijah Knight A-class, dark orange conjurer Single specialization in earth”
The voice shi+vered through me like an electrical shock It was my voice, except…it also wasn’t This was rowing up in Dicathen, when my real self was subdued, hidden—no, taken froht ed therow close with Arthur, but he eak, a tool that had served its purpose and been tossed aside That wasn’t me He wasn’t me These weren’tin the distance The sounds of their blades ha a near-death blow in an to run again
More ht’s brief life flashed by to either side: The Dire To bond with Arthur, the kindness froh with these things, I ordered I don’t care I don’t want these hts said, flickering nervously
I slowed again, staring at it Since when did lights speak?
“This? I thought it cleaned up well enough A few more hours and he won’t even knoas cut open,” afrom a television screen tucked away in the corner between the shallow ceiling and unadorned wall of the endless hallway
“Didn’t you hear? Vechor was attacked A staging area for the war in Dicathen coht answered with a pulse of brightness
“You know I’ve been down here for days I haven’t heard anything What time is it, even?” The man on the television looked around, a comically weary expression on his face “We’ve been the only ones down here for hours I’ season”
“Sovereigns You’re gross sometimes, you know that?”
Below the screen, ainto anotherinto the roorabbing Arthur firmly
“There, there Yes, I’et rid of me that easily,” came the sarcastic response
“I know,” Elijah said with a wet sniffle “You’re like a cockroach”
I had been so thrilled to have my best friend back Bile rose up in my throat The best friend who h clenched teeth, tears welling up from the corners of my eyes “I don’t care about any of this Where is Cecil? Show hter, al?” it asked
“shi+t, let’s finish cleaning hiet hirona won’t be happy if he wakes up on the table, and I sure don’t want to be the one to explain what happened”
Wakes up? I thought, repeating the words to myself Why would…
A dream, I realized with a jolt Only a stupid dream
Wake up!
My eyes snapped open The da filledartifacts onmy bare, blood-covered torso There was a cross-shaped incision over es raw as the flesh slowly knit itself back together, the entire wound shi+ning with a che ointment
A wo a square of cloth from a bowl on a table next to me Then, she met my eyes, and froze Her mouth opened, but no sound came out
I tried to move and realizedout experis were as well I tensed The thick, worn leather creaked as I strained against it A feeling of panic rose up in s finally snapped, and there was a loud ping as a rivet ricocheted off the wall
The woasp, and the other voice cursed as soround
“S-Scythe N-Nico,” the wo
With my free hand, I unstrappedon a cold ely empty room The air pressed close aroundback into its bohich sat on a small bench next to a tray of tools, soainst one wall, and several inize were arrayed across it, along with an open notebook
Metal scraped on the ground, and I turned to see aseveral metal pins back onto a tray that he must have dropped when I woke
“What did you say?” I asked, but when the man looked confused, I realized it had been some time since anyone had spoken “What don’t you want to explain?”
I wasn’t sure as happening or where I was The last thing I remembered, I’d been in Vechor, and—
Grey!
My hand went to the cross cut into htes of e Distant, both round ht
A blood iron spike manifested from the shadows beneath the table and sank into the ed madly as he clawed at the spike, but his ic, and within seconds his li the s to the damp floor
Icy claws raked at my insides, my core a heavy ball of pain in ic
“W-what happened toto me?”
She had shrank back a step but was paralyzed by n, he…he…”
Both her hands caht blue transparent mana hummed into existence between us She turned to run and slale, the sharp point speared out of her lower back, and a crian to stain her white robes
Cold sweat broke out acrossand the pain it caused me My arms shook as I broke the ankle restraints, and I had to support myself on the side table as I maneuvered around to the woone in just above her hip and was pinning her in place, but it was thin, its for, just like ue, I took hold of her chin and forced her to facetoyour…core,” she gasped “She…healed it But it’s…iers into the incision ain These two had opened me up and poked around insideer at this, which in itself seery, now My teust of adversity ht and hot
Except…
I looked at the woman Really looked at her She had dull brown, unremarkable eyes, and mousy hair that matched it almost exactly Worry lines were etched into her face, and she had patches of chewed skin on her lips, which I could picture her biting with nervous curiosity as she peered atpinned to the table
“What happened at the Victoriad? Did we capture Grey? Kill him?”
I read the answer in the wohtened tears thatfrom her nose Her lips parted then squeezed shut, thesilently
And I felt…
Nothing
Soulfire ju the trail of her blood and into her body Her brown eyes rolled back in her head, and she screas an instant later, and she was dead Not because I was angry, but simply because she didn’t matter
I dis the bodies fall uncereainst the wall and slid down it into a sitting position There, I could only wait for the pain and weakness to recede
My attention turned back to the rooh an open door led, I could see a small room with a desk and shelves full of scrolls and journals After a few minutes of rest, I pushed ate the contents, but there was nothing there of interest It did, however, lead me back to the open book on the table in the examination room
The notes were in runic shorthand I flipped through several pages until I got the jist of it, then spent a fewthe contents
It only confiruessed
Cecilia had saved acy—her absolute control over mana—to healas it had been before With tirona would allow me another rune or two, I was certain That would force my core to clarify further
“And if it doesn’t…” I said aloud, but stopped, surprised that the numbness I felt was captured so clearly in ic would infuriate ht now, in the moment, in this place, within the aftereffects of whatever these researchers had done to me, I only felt cal Except, perhaps, a mild sense of curiosity
The second door was closed and barred I pulled the bar fro and let it drop heavily to the floor, then opened the door
I found ed corridor I could sense the weight of the earth-attributein around round
To e space that looked and felt like a cross between a scientific laboratory and a dungeon I’d been in toopoked and prodded and tested
Bitter bile burned the back of my throat, and I spit on the floor
The lab wasn’t currently occupied, and I sensed nothing interesting in that direction, so I turned left instead Several sources of mana radiated weakly further down the hall, and I was in no hurry to return to the fortress above The surgical wounds on my bare chest itched, and my core ached
I wasn’t ready to face any of that yet, not Agrona’s disappointeons, I felt at home in the loneliness It was difficult to ad the apathetic catatonia that had replaced the ever-present rage always burning in my chest
And so I followed the hallway, curious about what secrets rin Caelum
The stone of the floor and walls were occasionally es like claw marks, and old blood discolored it in streaks and sical rooms opened off both sides, some closed and locked, others open, but all e
Then I reached the first cell