Red Glass

25. Bloods roll Change Tbm

"King Dolkan at your service. You look terrible, but you are still bigger than I expected.
You know, it's customary to bow before a king."

"Not for me."
Faris says with absolute conviction.

Dolkan smirks, takes the watchman's stool and sits upon it crossing his arm over the back rest.

"I am here to get you out but first I would like to chat."
Dolkan says, scratching his brow with a pointed thumb nail.

Faris raises his head as sounds of terror continue to echo through the night.

"I never came alone."
Dolkan smiles.

Faris looks at his visitor, and glances at the corpse lay in its own blood. Reaching out between the bars, Dolkan hands Faris his pocket watch and nods.

"You may see me as a monster, having witnessed my abilities, but I assure you, they were the real monsters. How long had they had this lady lay here freezing cold without a blanket? I heard them laughing at how they threw cold water on her frequently just to see your pain. They are not dogs, not animals, they are far worse."

"They were monsters but what are you?"

"I'm just a man, like you."

"We are not the same."
Faris rejects, looking as the crimson flows into his cell.

"Are we so different, you and I? We are both foreigners here but call this place home, we are both targeted because we are not the same as everyone else, we have both seen the ugly side of man and both fallen prey to it's cruelty. Those men, they are not like us.
Everyday people are targeted because they are different. In Vatala, the Nakhflay are treated like outsiders, denied the rights and everyday freedoms that the rest of the city take for granted. Most have lived there their entire lives and yet they have still never been able to cross the city without ridicule or the safety of everyone else.
My people have been hunted for hundreds of years for no reason other than we are different. Pulled from our slumber into the flaming sun to be burned to ashes. We live in constant fear of sunlight engulfing us. Between daylight, mortals and wolf-weres, we ourselves have barely survived."

"Wolf-weres, you mean werewolves?"
Faris questions "only ever heard folk tales in the Nakhflay camp but never truly taken notice."

"No."
Dolkan shakes.
"Werewolves are people who transform into monsters, these are monsters that disguise themselves as human.
Five nights ago, four of them attacked west Vatala and slaughtered half the kings guard, hundreds of others. It is not sure how many were massacred but there were piles of body parts. Many families have lost husbands, fathers, brothers and sons and daughters."

Faris's eyes widen with worry as his fingers crush the rusted paint on the bars.

"Your daughter is safe, but your wife, she was not so lucky. They managed to get to her last full moon. I'm sorry." Dolan says with a quiet tone.

"How could you possibly know such a thing?" Demands Faris.

"Where do you think your dream came from? I wanted to tell you but you would not have listened to me."

"I saw a book, I never saw any wolves."
Faris says with his eyes full of water.

"I can not control how the dream conveys the message, only what the message is; that it was your wife whose life had been taken."