Seth and the Prometheus Guild

Consequences

When Seth awoke the next time his head was mostly clear and the pain only a dull memory. Upon smelling and hearing that he was currently alone, he started stretching his stiff limbs and taking stock of his body. Some mild bruises, especially around his chest-area, but nothing that would keep him down. It was good to have elevated regeneration.

He noticed a thin needle sticking in the back of his hand, connected to a bag of clear fluid that continued dripping down. The foreign object caused a sliver of disgust to whisper through him and he quickly pulled the needle out, ignoring the blood that started dripping from the small puncture.

He was in the same room he'd been in all those weeks ago when these humans had first found him. The white curtain was still there, fencing the rest of the room off, but Elaine had apparently lost trust in her leather bindings. Instead of them clasping his body, metal cuffs connected his feet, first to each other and then to the bed.

Seth smiled. While he wouldn't be able to pull the thick, reinforced chain apart, moving the bed was quite firmly in the realm of possibilities.

But before that, he needed a course of action. He had broken the human's rules and probably spooked them. He needed to figure out the best way to continue staying here.

There were only two humans with any kind of motivation to keep him here. One was Francesca and the other was The Director, though their reasons differed greatly. His choice was obvious.

His stomach grumbled loudly, howling its displeasure with its current state for all to hear. Maybe Seth would grab something to eat on the way.

First, he had to get rid of the bed shackled to his feet though. Lifting it was not a problem strength-wise, but the bed was unwieldy, and Seth didn't find a good way to carry it without at least one leg scraping noisily across the ground.

In the end he risked it, at least until he passed the curtain and stumbled into the room beyond, unceremoniously dropping the bed. The room reminded him a little of his old Whitecloak's workroom. The walls were lined with white cabinets and a sink and a workstation with two rolling trolleys took up space next to the doors. Everything was cleaned up, but he spotted a pair of rubber gloves and the package for a syringe lying around. The room was otherwise dominated by exactly five beds, each one with a curtain just like the one he'd been lying on, though these were open. The windows on the other end of the room were presenting a view over the fields between the different buildings and the setting sun. Apparently it was early evening.

This had to be Elaine's 'infirmary'. Seth turned around to the bed he'd towed along. Nothing in here seemed useful for getting rid of it, so he'd have to do it the hard way. Kneeling beside the bottom end of the bed he looked at the rail his legs were chained to. It appeared to be some kind of soft metal, because when he braced against the floor and pulled on it, it twisted shape in his hands.

It took a few more minutes until the screws were loose enough and suddenly the rail popped off with a tortured screech. The metal chain tinkled down and pooled on the floor at his feet.

Seth discarded the twisted piece of aluminum and picked the slackened chain up so it wouldn't rattle with his every step.

And then he went in search of The Director.

The human had been in the infirmary recently, so it wasn't difficult to pick up his trail and follow it out of the room, through the winding corridors. After a few minutes Seth realized that he was in the building he'd spent his first few weeks in, the one with the green-walled room where he'd been chained to the wall. The trail led him where he already expected to go: The Director's office.

This time he stood alone before the huge double-doors, their lacquered surface shimmering almost black in the low light filtering through the arched windows to his side. He laid his ear against the thick wood, clearly hearing a lone heartbeat and something scratching across paper. Good enough. Deciding to mimic the human's usual behavior he raised his hand and tapped against the door.