The Medoran Chronicles~ A Fanfiction

Part 9

  Pain.

  It is so much. It is everything. 

  It isn't mere love that pushes people to do terrible or wonderful things; it is hating the pain of love or the lack of, it is pain of grief that drives people into spite and anger, it is pain that brings fear. Existence is painful; it is agony. It must be suffered through.

  Pain, mental or physical, is absolutely everything.

ALEX'S PERSPECTIVE:

                                                                 ~~~One Year Later~~~

Alex let out a rattly breath. The air that travelled down her throat felt like boiling liquid; she only wished it was warm food. Agonizing hunger was a living creature; crawling through her skin and gnawing on her organs. Her hair was knotted thickly and her skin sagged over her brittle bones. The suffering that shot like daggers from her shoulder made her dizzy. The rotting, infected flesh complained not by shouting but by days of anguish that tore through her. Screams ripped from her mouth on the bad days. She felt like she was at war with her own body, begging it to stop. When she plucked up the courage, she felt her shoulder blade and felt fractured bone pierce her palm. Peeling away from the splintered bone was dried flesh, which, when she pulled away, was black-grey.

  The only liquid in the cell was lumpy and filled with small stones, with the food being even more revolting. A  moist, pink-grey paste lay on the floor nearby. Alex was convinced it was poison, which, right now, might have been a relief. But she refused...Not that it took much because she could barely walk half the way.

  For months of this unfamiliar physical delicacy, she had been slipping in and out of consciousness, with much of her conscious time being spent being beaten by Meyarin warriors. A few blurred months ago, when she'd felt alive, she'd had the mental capacity to plan how to get Kaiden out. Alex knew that she was useless here. She remembered the thrill of sweeping her leg through the guards' ankles as the door slid open, jabbing her foot down on their hand and relishing the crack, then dashing toward the palace to get to Kaiden. Her head had ached with the dissonance of thoughts being yelled in her mind. Her thoughts had been screaming, legs flying and heart pounding— before a young Zeltora warrior had struck a dagger through her thigh, laced with Hyroa blood. She had fallen to the ground in the next second.

  Now, when they beat her, she was only able to scream with the long-forgotten hope that somebody would help her. The one person who had promised her they would, Forael, had been killed before her eyes as he slipped through the door after the guards. The guards had humoured her by leaving the body near but little did they know, Forael's pockets had been overrun with food, water and soft material. But her victory hadn't lasted long, because the very next day they realised what she had and took it all away. Nor did they shy away from giving her an extra night of whipping. Or an extra week of being what the warriors-in-training trained on. Or, worse, having to obey Aven's sons' orders, whatever they were. In other punishments, she was stripped of blood. When in the presence of the princes, she was stripped of dignity. Alex knew that, if she survived this, she would never tell anybody about the things they did to and with her.

  Besides them, the traeos's cold had been her only company for months, and she felt her mind slowly slipping away from sanity. She screamed into the silence, wrenching at her hair and shaking her head. Sometimes, she would laugh slightly at nothing as she stared out a window in the corner of the room. But fighting against the evil force that trickled through her mind, against the beautiful, impossible hallucinations... It was a battle against all she had, with all she had.

   She had a new understanding of what Niyx had gone through to keep her safe; what everyone had gone through. Granted, it had also been to defeat Aven, but that didn't lessen the fact that people had died for her. And now, I've thrown it away. With a loud noise of frustration, she thought, I was so stupid! If I had just talked to someone before coming in here, or just thought, for light's sake! Anything would have been better than what I did. Anything would have been better. The words scraped against her mind like an assessment she had re-read for hours. They ran through her head, losing more and more meaning until they became a hopeless chant. As she slumped against the traesos bedframe, she tried to cry, but her body's small supply of water was too precious to waste on mere tears. So she shook as she felt her eyes close, and her body limp. I'm going to die here, Alex thought emotionlessly. At this point, she found she didn't really care either way. She had only kept living in the slight hope she would see Kaiden and the rest of the people she loved again, but that hope had turned a corner she couldn't follow. 

    With a rattly sigh, she felt her fingertips numb; after everything she had been through, she could almost not believe she was giving up. But the person who had defeated Aven Dalmarta, saved Medora and saved countless lives was not the person who slumped against the traesos wall. That person would have been courageous enough to deny Aven's sons, she was sure. That person would be out of here right now. Because that person was good. The person Alex was now...She was nothing; she was a disease nobody would ever want to look at, least of all love. 

   She didn't know how long she had been her, but the grey light fading and brightening in the all-but-useless window gave her an idea. Because of this, she estimated she had been here for almost a year. Almost a year, Alex had been changing into the ugly, shrivelled creature she was now. 

  A sound had her scrambling up— or trying to, all she managed was opening her mind and groaning hoarsely. There was a dull pang of irritation. Couldn't the world just let her die in peace? 'Prisoner!' a voice snapped. The smoothness of a natural voice seemed to interest her senses and she sat up groggily. 'Come!' announced the looming figure at the door.

  Light flooded the room, and she scrambled a few uncoordinated metres before her legs gave way and she groaned. The Meyarin at the door— the woman Alex recognised as Leasia— scoffed impatiently, murmuring something along the lines of, 'Lazy kregon!' She strode over, winced as she reached for Alex's bony hand, and whisked her away on the Valispath.

  Alex, again, was brought on the verge of tears as she wondered what Aven's sons had in stall for her today. Too soon, they were flung into the palace lobby. An elaborate chandelier cast glowing flecks onto Leasia's intricate black outfit that hugged her figure with precision; the diamond-like specks filled even the shadows. Too soon, Alex was whisked out of the room. She stumbled up an impossible amount of stairs. Not long later, Alex was very close to asking why Leasia couldn't just use the Eternal Path, because right now the death penalty she would most likely suffer for doing so would be a relief.

  Occasionally, they would come across one of the many tough-looking Zeltora guards, and they would bow with flapping mouths to Leasia. Why does everyone bow to her? They never even did that this much to Roka! Alex questioned. And how does she know where to go so well? I presumed she was just a maid in the Palace or something, but...

  Eventually, when Alex's mind was in a haze from physical fatigue, they arrived at a door with golden spirals etched into it. Alex acted on reflex and slumped onto its frame, which seemed to be a good decision because Leasia promptly flung it open, gratefully wrenched her hand from Alex's and strode up to Aven. He smiled, but it wasn't the wicked sneer she was used to— it was a warm, adoring, natural smile. Well, maybe 'natural' is a bit of a stretch. It looked strange on his face. She hadn't seen it since she had been in the past years ago— in her time, only 5 years, but technically, it was thousands. But, before she had much more time to puzzle over this, something happened that she would never have guessed— Leasia traced a finger up his cheek and kissed him deeply. Their lips sucked on the others' and she saw their tongues travelling in and out as they moaned in synchrony.
 
  Alex groaned.

   Aven pulled back at the sound and Alex almost thought she saw him blush. 

  'Oh, yes, her...' said Leasia, practically spitting at Alex's feet. 'She's about as close to death as you could desire right now, dear, so I'd suggest either eating her now, giving her to our sons to use, or letting her die in the next few days so the slaves can test the serum on her. I must hand it to her, she's extremely...' Leasia trailed off when she saw Aven's face, which was transforming from a gaping fish with his mouth flapping, to a malicious sneer, and back again.

  'Leasia!' he cried eventually. He swept her up in his arms again and crushed his mouth down on her neck. Alex fought the urge to roll her eyes. 'I will not eat her! Do you know who this is?'

   She shook her head.

  Alex outright rolled her eyes and looked away.

  'This is Alexandra Jennings.'

'Genius, aren't you?' she mocked him sarcastically.

'You surely don't look it, do you, dearest Alex? But nonetheless, it is.'

  Leasia's eyes widened and she clutched at her dress. She's probably wondering how someone so small managed to defeat Aven...thought Alex. But, apparently, that was not what she was thinking. 'I touched her!' she exclaimed, horrified.

  Aven strode up to Alex, who didn't have the energy to more than flinch when he stroked her arm. 'No, I cannot eat her...I have a much better punishment for Alexandra Jennings and her boyfriend.'