Children of Chaos

Chapter 31

I can't tell how many days pass until we arrive at our destination, but eventually I hear and feel the ship come to a stop, and it's many agonizing minutes later until one of the officers comes to get me. They keep my hands in their crystal box, and they don't give me a translator stone to try to communicate either, instead resorting to pushing and pulling me around. They don't bring Janab out, or at least not where I can see him.

We exit the ship into a large hanger, this one darker yet more spacious than the one in the Noxian capital. They take me out to a bridge covered in the same crystal glass of the Almnerixian city leading to a large bubble city, but it's not the capital. The sky is dark with clouds and I wonder if my storm has reached even where we're at now. With a second look, the clouds are more of a permanent, hazy smog than storm clouds, and they're all tinged green. The land surrounding the city is rolling plains like Almnerixi, but with none of the green grandeur. Instead the vegetation is patchy with sharp rock protruding all across the landscape. We might not even be on Almnerixi anymore.

The city bubble is enormous, larger than the Noxian capital, but it looks more like an American city, full of tall, straight skyscrapers and square capital buildings. There's no sparkling white stone streets, no fountain displays, no towering transit lines, and certainly no castles.

We come to the edge of the bridge leading into the city and the Forces stop, pulling me away from my observations. The members bringing me into the city are mostly Deyjenese, with a few leftover Tybarans that captured us in the forest. I consider asking questions, but I remember Janab's warning that I can stay silent before receiving counsel. Should I ask for it now?

I catch sight of another group of Forces officers walking towards us from a balcony along the ridge of the crystal barrier, and they're rolling a gurney. Before I realize what it means, one of the officers next to me presses a needle into my arm and all fades to black.

When I wake up, it's in a bright, white room that's barely the size of an average walk-in closet. When I try to move, my whole body tingles and cramps, like when your leg falls asleep. Whatever I was knocked out with, I was knocked out hard. After my body stops tingling, I'm able to lift my head and look around.

Three of the walls surrounding me are an opaque, shimmery white, while the fourth wall at the front of the room is transparent. The wall is reinforced with multiple layers of glass or crystal, plus thick metal bars on the farthest layer. So, prison it is. I don't know why I doubted him, but Janab was right.

I slowly make my way to the front of my cage on my still sore hands and knees, trying to see if I can find Janab in another cell, but all I can see is a blank white wall across from me, and my view is too shallow to see cells on either side. I do catch sight of a Deyjenese Forces guard outside my cell, and when he sees I'm up, he makes his way towards me and my door.

"Human," he says in thickly accented English. I nod, not sure what else to do.

"Here." He points to a section of my wall with two small buttons I didn't notice before. I nod.

"Bathroom," he points to the button on my left, and then points to one of the inner side walls. I press the button, and the door opens to reveal a smaller room that must be the bathroom. The door shuts just seconds after.

"Food." The officer points to the button on my right, and then to a box below it. I press the button, and a door lifts, revealing a small tray with different food rations that remind me of what we ate on the ship coming to Almnerixi. I nod at the officer and wait for more information - why I'm here, who will counsel me, and what's going to happen next. None of that explanation comes, and the officer falls back into place outside my cell.