Corrupted - A Hermitcraft (and Empires) Fanfiction

16: Grian

Tw: Imprisonment, torture (worse than before) 

I wake up. 

For a moment I think I'm in the void. Everything is dark, shimmering with pinpricks of light. But it's not. It's skulk. Every direction I look there's just skulk, twisting and tangling. The same skulk tying my wrists tight together and connecting to the wall.

I'm trapped. 

I barely manage to stand, memories of the fight returning as the pain behind me grows. Of course. My broken wings. But they haven't possessed me. Why haven't they possessed me? A tug at the skulk shackles. They don't give, just as I expected... I can barely reach the other side of the room, not that it would make any difference. There's no more landscapes there than there are here. 

'Let me go.' I demand. A ripple of light through the skulk at the sound. 'Let me go or I'll break my way out!'

'I don't think you will.'

I freeze, the voice behind sending a prickle down my spine. 

'Why?' I turn. Cub's there, grinning. Whatever entrance he entered from disappeared back into the skulk. 

'You are powerless. You cannot break free of the skulk and even if you do you've got a solid wall of skulk to fight through that'll strangle and possess you the moment you try. And then you'll need to find your way to the surface without being caught.'

'Thanks for giving away your whole security system, Skulky.' I spit. A laugh back.

'It's not like you'll get far with broken wings and no magic.'

'I have magic.' I tug against the skulk again. 'And surely it would be a waste if I'm possessed before I can answer any of your questions. Xisuma doesn't want you to make any more mistakes.'

'Then we will start asking questions now.' 

Another voice. One I haven't heard for ages and I never expected to bring me as much terror as it does.

Xisuma. 

He steps into view through the skulk as if it wasn't even there, glowing eyes piercing through the blackness of his helmet. 

'Cubfan, hold him back.'

'Why? I'm tied up anyway. Why do you need-'

I'm dragged backwards by the skulk around my wrists, forced to turn away. Cub holds me back with skulk, uncomfortable around my wings and neck. Xisuma walks around to face me again with a terrifying emotionless calm.

'How many hermits have magic?'

'What? Including me and Cub or...'

'How many hermits that aren't here have magic?'

I glare up, technicalities and ways to keep annoying the skulk coming to mind and answer  incorrectly.

'None.'

Pain.

A crack from my good wing. Blood fills my mouth as I bite my tongue, not letting them get the benefit of a scream.

'Don't lie to me again. How many are there?'

'4 hermits have magic that aren't here.' I amend, technically correct and still saving someone. My wings are still agony, but I'm not letting them know that.

'Good. Give me names.'

'Well... you know Scar has magic, so there's no point trying to hide that. And you probably know about Pearl. But the other 2? You'll have to guess.'