10
Chamber of Sins.
The Southern Range
City of Biringan
60,000 Ft. above sea level
A few months ago.
"Balasik, show me the way,'' the woman in the grey trench coat said as she waved her hands. The torches fixed on the walls suddenly caught fire, lighting the deserted hall made of cobblestones. The eyes of the huge owl on her shoulders suddenly dilated, then stabilized, staring into the emptiness in front of them. Her eyes also dilated, then turned from white to black.
She walked across the hall, as the torches ignited one by one the moment she was just about a step away from them. As she walked further and further into the hall, a pungent odor similar to that of rotting flesh grew stronger and stronger, but she was used to it. On her hand is a bag, or no, a package wrapped in bloody cloth.
She stopped. She extended her right hand and touched the wall of bricks in front of her. Dust suddenly started falling everywhere as the bricks started to move, removing themselves one after another from the wall, floating like bubbles in the air.
She took a step beyond where the wall used to be. The stench of rotting flesh almost made her throw up, but she was used to it. Centuries of visiting the Chamber of Sins will certainly be a good practice for a guard.
The chamber was filled with darkness. Even if she borrows the sight of her owl, Balasik, the circular room was still void of vision and light. The bricks behind her assembled themselves again, forming the wall that closes the chamber out of the world.
She took a moment to breathe. She could already hear the rattling of chains from all around her, some were slow and calculated, others were loud and violent.
She snapped her fingers and suddenly a bright red fire came out of her hands, like a ghost or a genie freed from the lamp after years of imprisonment. The fire travelled across the room, touching and lighting every torch mounted on the walls. After all the torches were lit, the fire stopped moving, then it suddenly flew up into a glass globe above the chamber, lighting it and filling the entire room with bright light.
The rattling of the chains became louder and more violent as the women, around a thousand, bound by them suddenly cowered at the blinding light, trying to cover their eyes. The women were clearly left in full neglect, as they have wounds untreated and are filled with maggots, their bones visible against their skin as if there's no more flesh in between them. Their hair was a mess, some of them were even showing signs of massive hair loss, as their heads were barely covered with it.
"Dinner's here," the woman in trench coat said, throwing the package into the women. The cloth that covered the package gave in, exposing a huge chunk of meat for the women to feast. The women lunged at the meat at the same time, doing their best to get the best cut of the kill. They hungrily feasted on the meat, but it wasn't enough to feed them all. They started fighting, using what's left of their strength to try and steal each other's food.
"You seem to enjoy seeing us try and kill each other for food," said a pale woman who was at the corner, not joining the feast. "It has been a decade since you last fed us, and to be fair, tonight's food was relatively... bountiful. Do you really have to do this? Are you doing this because you are under orders, or are you doing this because you enjoy this yourself?"
Silence.
"So you cannot say anything? Does that affirm the former or the latter? Maybe both? Why don't you just kill us all, like what Mayari did with the rest of our tribe?" the woman continued.
