The Atheil Chronicles: A Call to Fire

Chapter 32

    ****TRIGGER WARNING: SA****
Ariana wasn't sure how many days it had been since she had come to this place. After that second night, Morgrean had continued his pattern of leaving her untied when he left. This meant that she was left completely untethered from that day on, "free" to wander the room of her own volition. This seemed less like a freedom and more like another point to be made; with every violation of her soul, a little part of her fire, as he had once put it, was dying out. His actions showed more of a confidence in the impact of his torture than trust that she wouldn't get away.
    This sentiment was mute, however, because on the second night when she lay alone for some time on the cold floor she eventually mustered up the strength to crawl to the window. When she had pulled herself up to the ledge, she immediately let out a disappointed breath. The room she was in was at least 4 stories up, the lush landscape below seeming like miles away. She had slumped against the wall in anguish, pulling her knees to her chin and sobbing into the dirty, bloodstained skin of her hands.
    On the third day of her imprisonment, Ariana had watched in growing anxiety and horror as the sun inched closer and closer to the horizon. Though she had no accurate concept of time there, she knew that Morgrean came once it got dark outside. With this knowledge, Ariana thought that she could try barricading the door to keep him out that night. While the room she was locked in was fairly bare, there were scattered chunks of rock that seemed to have chipped off the walls. She gathered these together and tried wedging them under the crack of the door, creating a sort of makeshift door stopper. She then took the small, broken wooden table that lay toppled in one corner and dragged it to the door. For such a small table it was surprisingly heavy and Ariana thought wildly that her desperate plan just might have a chance of succeeding.
    By the time he came that night, Ariana had a dozen or so rocks wedged under the door and the table was pressed as close as it could get to the wood. She figured that the combination of the rocks, the table, and her own body weight on top of the table might do the trick. At the sound of his distant footsteps, Ariana felt the familiar heaviness begin to weigh on her chest. She gripped the tabletop desperately, her knuckles whitening with the effort.
    When the lock sounded, she held her breath, her heart racing. There was a jolt as the door attempted to swing open but it could only go about ⅛ of an inch before jamming. Hope momentarily filled her heart, though she didn't dare move as she listened in silence for any sound of movement outside.
    Barking laughter rang out, muffled by the door but still sounding incredibly loud in her ears. Confusion and fear battled each other inside of her. He thought this was funny? "Nice try, Princess." He said, finally, after he had stopped laughing. "If you want to play, I'm always up for a game."
    This sent a new wave of terror through her as his words washed over her. Just as she was wondering what that could possibly mean, she found out. Out of nowhere, the door shuddered on its hinges as some force slammed into it from the other side. The table that Ariana was sitting on skittered a few inches away from the door and a handful of rocks either dislodged or simply shattered. The door had moved about an inch and half more than before.
    In a panic, Ariana stood up and braced herself against the door. When the next wave hit, she felt the shock of it shoot through her shoulder and down her hip. More rocks shattered and the door was now open enough so that when Morgreans hand shot through the gap, she let out a startled scream. She tried to slam it shut again between waves but he seemed to anticipate her move and he let out another short burst of force, finally breaking the last of the rocks.
    Ariana was flung backwards as the door burst open and a breathless Morgrean stood smiling in the doorway. She locked eyes with him, both of them unmoving, watching the other closely. Almost simultaneously, Ariana began running to the window as Morgrean made a beeline straight for her. She had no idea what her end game was but she didn't really have any other options. In the heat of the moment, she decided that she'd rather jump out the window and find out what happened than endure the coming pain.
    As soon as her fingers brushed the windows ledge, she was ripped backwards by Morgrean's strong grip on her waist. She screamed in anger and frustration, kicking violently as he lifted her into the air and brought her tightly against his chest. She could feel the rumbling of his laughter against her back as he made his way back to the center of the room.
    After dropping her unceremoniously on the floor, he strode across the room to slam the door shut. He stared amusingly at the remains of the rocks and the broken table. Then he turned to her, wicked joy lighting up his face. "I never considered you'd try barricading yourself in." He said thoughtfully. He let out a sigh. "I suppose we'll have to take away everything in here, now, won't we?"
    Ariana stared at him defiantly but the adrenaline was starting to wear off. She could feel every cut and bruise on her body begin to throb and ache. Additionally, she felt new scrapes forming on the back of her thighs from her fall. Had her rush of renewed courage even been worth it? Now that she had been unsuccessful, she feared the retribution her attempt would incur.
    Morgrean surveyed her, one fang dimpling his lower lip as he stood thinking. "You still refuse water?" He asked.
    Ariana didn't answer. At his words, her mouth seemed to dry, whether from fear or actual thirst, she couldn't be sure. The dryness had now spread to her throat and she dared not talk.
    He shook his head, a grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. "You can't withhold forever," he stated. "You'll have to eat and drink sometime."
    She knew that this was true but she wasn't going to beg. She would have rather spent every night alone in this room than have to suffer through Morgreans sick tortures. She had been using the bucket provided for going to the bathroom but her skin was now so covered in blood that water sounded nice, if only just to clean herself with.
    Almost as if he could read her mind, Morgrean looked at her. "If you can behave, you'll be given certain privileges." He said, letting these words sink in before continuing. "No more trying to leap to your death and no more trying to keep me out. You won't win either way, you need to learn to accept what your life is now."
    Ariana recoiled at his words. She felt physically sick to hear her suffering thrown back at her so casually, as if she were simply being an unreasonable child who was throwing a tantrum because she was told that she can't have candy before dinner.
    "Fine." He said, after what felt like an eternity of silence had spread between them. "Fine. I tried to be nice but you obviously need a few more lessons to teach you your manners. Not to mention," He said, narrowing his eyes at her, "you seem to have a bit more fight left in you. I can take care of that." He said, advancing forward, his talons glittering in the moonlight as he passed through the rays.
    Ariana had suffered terribly that night, perhaps her worst so far. He left her hours later, sobbing silently on the floor, a new array of cuts covering her already beaten and broken body. Shortly after leaving, he came with what appeared to be a large horned Troll to fix some iron bars to the window. This time, when he she heard him approaching, she huddled feebly in the corner of the room, shivering uncontrollably and taking shuddering breaths as he opened the door.
    The sight of her there seemed to please him, his top lip curling upward with what she now recognized as pleasure at her response. "Good." She heard him mutter to himself, turning then to give the Troll instructions on what to do with the window.
    After they finished, Ariana sat still as a statue, anticipating their departure so that she could try to calm herself back down. However, Morgrean sent the Troll away, hanging back and shutting the door behind him as soon as it crossed over the threshold and disappeared.
    Ariana felt her heart begin to race and she pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them as if she could shield herself from his gaze. Once again, this pleased him. He took in her ragged appearance and his eyes darkened with renewed desire.
    This was the first night that she had suffered twice at his hands in one day. She hadn't even slept that night after he left her, simply letting the sobs rack through her bruised and blood-stained body as she writhed on the ground in agony. She screamed into her arm, her eyes shut firmly against the world. She didn't want to see, she didn't want to feel, she didn't want to exist anymore. If this was living, she was done.
    It was obvious after some time that Morgrean was right in his assumptions about her; it pained her to admit it but she was slowly losing her will to live. The little hope that she had had those first few days of being rescued seemed to be ebbing away, her will to fight diminishing even more as days went by and no one came for her. Most nights she wouldn't even bother getting up off the ground, just staring out the window into the dark sky as she heard the familiar slamming of the door followed by the click of the lock and his receding footsteps. She would stay like that for hours, just watching the moon. In this world, the moon didn't go through the same process of waxing and waning as it did on Earth. Here, it simply stayed put in the sky, a shining beacon that stood resolute every single night until the sun rose over the horizon the next morning. In this way, the moon became her own personal focal point, it's steady presence getting her through those nights of torture and the countless hours afterward where all she had left were her thoughts and the never ending silence.
    Morgrean was the sadistic type, taking a particular pleasure in inflicting pain. His favorite method of this was with his talons, which he used often on her. At some point, she had begun drinking the water and eating the food, though she did so grudgingly. The combination of simply not drinking anything and her almost constant tears meant that she had begun to feel the effects of dehydration. Her head was constantly throbbing in pain and she couldn't even get up anymore, dizziness making her come close to passing out when she tried. She could feel her body giving up on her, just as her mind already had. She simply couldn't take it anymore, greedily drinking up the water he brought with him around day 6 when he offered it to her. Though it was warm, and probably not very clean, it felt like heaven's ambrosia to her aching throat.
    Likewise, the food wasn't exactly up to a 5 star restaurant's standards. Most days it consisted of some type of mystery meat and a lump of hard bread. She had thrown the meat out the window for a few meals but relented at some point when she realized that the bread wasn't going to cut it. It had made her stomach churn the first few days of eating meat after going so long without it and she had thrown up numerous times before her body eventually accepted it again. This new apparent forfeit to his will had made Morgrean seem particularly pleased with himself. She had been given a dirty nightgown to wear in her cold, dark cell, though it did little to stifle the frigid chill that had seemingly sunk into her bones.
    After he was done with his business for the night, he would sometimes stay to "talk to her". By this, she meant that he spent the entire time taunting her into anger or trying to emotionally cripple her even further than she already was. Like rubbing salt in a wound, Morgrean would remind her that there had been no sightings of her Prince, though he didn't seem to know about Tyrynion yet. This always tore a hole in her heart to hear about Ryonen; maybe their last fight had finally broken things between them and he no longer cared for her at all. Or perhaps, she told herself, he had simply gone home and chosen to pretend like he had never met her in the first place. Morgrean knew that these comments about Ryonen hurt her and he seemed to relish the sight of her lifeless eyes as she stared out of the window in silence.
    His words just seemed to worsen her own insecurities about Ryonen, which she suspected he knew. He had this innate ability to find her weak spots, digging and digging away at them until she was left completely bare to them. The truth was, she believed that no one was ever going to come for her. There were some days where she tried to keep up her hope, telling herself that maybe they didn't know where she was or who had taken her. She tried to justify why they were taking so long and to rationalize why she had to suffer for this period of time on her own but, no matter what she came up with, she was always left feeling simply numb and without any real hope.
*        *        *        *        *
    She was walking through a garden maze, the hedges rising up on either side of her like great towering walls of fluttering green. She was looking desperately for someone, though she couldn't remember who it was. Up ahead, a rose bush twisted up wildly in the middle of the path, blocking it with its thorny branches that reached out in all directions. Suddenly, she could hear some noise in the distance and she turned to it, her eyes searching. She heard it again and it almost reminded her of the clattering of metal. She tried to run toward it but her legs wouldn't respond to the command, moving slowly as if she were wading through quick sand. She struggled, trying to run but to no avail. She somehow managed to drag her feet along the path's edge, gripping the woody branches to help propel her forward. By the time Ariana reached the next turn in the hedges, the sound had gone again.
    "Hello?" She called out, straining her ears for a response. Not a sound could be heard in the maze except for the rustling of the wind through the leaves.
    Ariana turned right onto the new path and, suddenly, she saw a black cloak whipping around the corner up ahead. "Hey!" She yelled, trying once again to run. Her feet shuffled stubbornly, causing her to lose distance between herself and the figure.
    "Please!" She begged. " Please don't leave me here!"
    A stronger wind began to blow through the hedges, leaving Ariana to attempt to brace herself against one side of it as it whipped past. She could hear a voice in the wind, very faintly, saying something that she couldn't quite discern. She tried to move forward toward where the figure had disappeared but the wind was unrelenting, pinning her where she stood.
    More voices sounded around her, seeming to wrap her up in their words. "Help!" She screamed, hoping the figure would turn back. She was overwhelmed with the noise of it all, her heart pounding wildly in her chest as the cacophony of voices rose even louder around her. As she looked desperately ahead, the figure finally came back into view. As soon as realization hit her, Ariana's heart stopped, the fear rising up into her throat so that she was unable to swallow past the lump forming there.
    "No." She whispered, trying helplessly to move backwards, to retreat further into the maze and put as much space between them as possible. "No, please."
    The familiar pointed smile rose to his lips, his purple eyes focused entirely on her as she struggled to run away. "You're mine." Morgrean growled, advancing forward.
    "No." She sobbed, still struggling to get away as he moved ever closer.
    Somewhere in the chaos of the wind and voices, Ariana could make out a faint word. Her name. She whipped her head around, trying to see who it was. It sounded somewhat familiar, though she couldn't place it.
    "Ariana." It said again, but all of her attention was fixed on Morgrean. In the time that it took for her to look for the source of her name, he had advanced enough so that he now stood only a foot away from her. He had blood, her blood, she now realized in some horror as she looked down at her own crimson soaked arm, dripping from his talons. He brought his hand up to his mouth and licked the blood off of them, his eyes meeting hers and cutting her deeper than any talon ever could.
    "Ariana."
    She fell to the ground in sobs that couldn't be heard above the ringing of noise surrounding her. Morgrean stood towering above her, his dark talons flashing in the light as he reached down for her.
    "Ariana."
    She opened her eyes, the dark room suddenly coming into focus around her. The panic of her dream stayed with her, her heart racing wildly in her chest as the fear mounted inside of her. She was vaguely aware that there was someone else in the room and her instinct was to throw herself backward toward the corner of the room. Morgrean was back, he was coming back to hurt her again.
    Ariana tucked her head into the corner, slamming her eyes shut and beginning to shake uncontrollably. "No, please, no." She cried, her hands reaching up to further shield her face.
    The padding of footsteps sounded as they made their way over to her in the corner. Someone kneeled down beside her. "Ariana." A gentle voice said, sadness emanating from it. "It's me."
    She shook her head, not believing his trick. "No it's not." She said, a sob escaping her lips. "You aren't real. You're trying to trick me."
    The person took in a sharp breath. Silence ensued. The only noise to be heard was her own heartbeat in her ears. "What have they done to you?" He said, his gravelly voice breaking slightly at the words.
    Ariana lifted her head a fraction, taking a shuddering breath. This voice sounded surprisingly real, she thought. He sounded like she remembered. Tentatively, she lowered her hands from her face and, opening her eyes, turned her dirt and blood covered face to look at him.
    Tyrynion kneeled beside her now, his tousled ash hair grimy with what appeared to be fresh blood. His deep umber eyes surveyed her silently and she could see a deep hurt there. She raked her eyes over him, taking in his dirty clothes, his torn cloak, and the bloodied sword at his feet.
    The silence between them seemed to stretch on forever. She couldn't meet his eyes but simply closed them against her own hope. Surely her mind was fooling her or maybe this was another sick attempt from Morgrean to torture her. Finally, with a final push of courage, she opened her eyes and met his gaze. Slowly, she raised her left hand up to rest on his cheek. She could feel the rough skin beneath her palm as she traced her finger over the jagged scar along his jawline.
    Hope flooded through her and she dropped her hand. "Tyrynion?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper.
    He smiled and the radiance of it washed over her. "It's me, Ariana."
    Her lower lip began to quiver, tears springing to her eyes. "I didn't think you'd come." She said, and her voice broke at the last word.
    She saw him swallow and pain seemed to flit across his scarred face. "I'm here." He said simply. "I'm taking you out of here." He tentatively reached out his hands, not touching her, but waiting for her to come to him.
    She threw herself into his arms, clearly startling him. As his arms reached around to wrap around her shoulders, she collapsed onto her knees and began sobbing uncontrollably. They wracked through her thin frame and she felt the power from all of her pain rising up inside of her with them. He held her for what felt like forever before he pulled back to look at her. There was incredible control in his features but she could see the barely concealed rage lying just below the surface there.
    "We have to go." He said, furrowing his brows as he took in her condition. She felt some self consciousness at her ragged appearance but she had neither the energy nor the will to even acknowledge it; she had lost whatever dignity she once had and so she simply stood in silence. She had been ravaged beyond repair, a shell of who she once was; why should this small thing matter to her now. "My God." He said, finally. His eyes were moving over the numerous cuts and wounds that covered the visible skin on her body. She was filthy with dried blood and she knew that she probably looked as broken as she felt. Reaching behind him, Tyrynion pulled off his own cloak and gingerly wrapped it around her. In one fluid movement, he scooped her up and carried her in one arm, keeping his sword upright in his other hand, which was helping to support her behind her knees. "We have to hurry." He said, rounding the corner and taking her outside of that dreaded room for the first time in God-knows-how-long.    
      Ariana took in her surroundings, seeing the horned Troll, from however many days before, laying in a bloodied heap just feet from the door. She felt numb to it, not even batting an eye as they passed by its lifeless corpse. She tucked her head into Tyrynions shoulder, taking shuddering breaths as he progressed quietly through the fortress. Every once in a while they passed by more bodies, an array of Goblins and other dark creatures that had once guarded this place for Morgrean, which now lay dead on the stone floor.
    After about 15 minutes and a handful of stairways later, they finally hit the ground floor. At their increasingly close proximity to the exit, Tyrynion became more tense, his arm wrapping even tighter around her as they crossed through the unguarded threshold and out into the open air.
    Ariana turned her face up to the moon, the gentle breeze running through her limp hair and seeming to caress her as it passed. She looked around, expecting to see Ryonen waiting outside, but no one else was there. Except, actually, there was. She gasped as her eyes fell on the large figure of the Veluke standing several yards away in the border of the forest, pawing the ground anxiously as they approached.
    Tyrynion looked from the Veluke to Ariana and, seeing her confused expression, said, "It just appeared one day as I was searching for you. It started to follow me and I didn't want to provoke it, so I let it be. One night while I was sleeping, it snuck up on me. It started rooting through my satchel and pulled this out." He reached into his satchel and brought out a piece of her blue velvet cloak, the same piece that had ripped off of her cloak back in Balthorn during her struggle with Morgrean.
    She looked up quickly at the Veluke, narrowing her eyes as she took in its appearance under the little bit of visible light at the forest's edge. She trailed her eyes from its golden body with silver stripes and spots, to the large paws, and to the shining golden whiskers that trailed down its neck. Then she brought her eyes up to its face, her hazel ones meeting its familiar cerulean blue ones with flecks of scattered gold in them.
    "It's you." She whispered in awe.
    The Veluke pawed the ground again, this time with a sort of jittery happiness in its movements. It threw back its giant wolf-like head and made the same chirping sound that it had the first time that she had encountered it.
    "You know it?" Tyrynion asked her, shocked.
    "Yes." She said, reaching out a hand to stroke the silky fur of its face. "He saved me once before when I was close to death." She turned her eyes back to the Veluke, tears welling in them. "And now you've done it again."
    The Veluke held her gaze, quite serious, before dipping low into a bow.
    Tyrynion let out a soft gasp before sheathing his sword. He adjusted Ariana in his grip. "This really is amazing but perhaps," he said, looking around cautiously, "we should move on. I don't know where everyone else went but this clearly wasn't the whole lot of them."
    At his words, the Veluke dropped its heavy body to the ground, its eyes beckoning them forward. Ariana was familiar with what this meant but Tyrynion stood still, watching it with quiet curiosity.
    "It's offering us its back." She said, weakly. Now that the thrill of her rescue was wearing off, she realized her body was not okay at all. She had begun shaking, her teeth chattering quietly as shock took her over.
    Tyrynion seemed to sense this change in her and he hurriedly placed her on the Velukes silky back. A moment later, he slid on behind her. Being about the same size as a horse, the Veluke easily took their combined weight, effortlessly rising into a standing position. It bent its neck backward, looking at Tyrynion as if waiting for instruction.
    Upon being placed on his back, Ariana had melted into the Veluke, entwining her fingers into the soft fur of its neck for support while she felt herself becoming weaker and weaker. She was leaning heavily on it now, Tyrynion supporting her from behind and keeping his arms caged around her as he, too, gripped some fur.
    "Can you take us to Mysole?" Tyrynion asked, hesitation in his voice. Perhaps he felt ridiculous at the notion that the Veluke could understand him, let alone know where a specific destination was.
    However, quick as a bullet, the Veluke shot off into the thick of the trees, its large paws surprisingly quiet as it ran. Tyrynion hadn't expected such a prompt response and he clutched the fur tightly, his chest bumping into her back as the Veluke jumped and maneuvered its way through the darkened forest.
    Ariana closed her eyes, the motion of the Veluke running lulling her into a sleep that she couldn't resist, though she did try. Something about it felt wrong; her body was getting suspiciously warm and heavy and her mind was feeling farther and farther away.
    She could distantly hear Tyrynion calling her name, asking her if she was alright. She opened her mouth to respond but her lips wouldn't move. The pain in her body was fading away and she was glad for it. She let go, then, giving in to the sweet oblivion of sleep.