The Past Ahead - an Empires SMP AU

Chapter 24 - Hostage

           Xornoth watched his corruption snake up the sides of the community center. Animalia was the most corrupted empire in all the lands. The demon had to spread his corruption more than he had to a thousand years ago to box in the Fae. The more corruption he had growing, the more power he had, and the more power he had, the more he could stop all his enemies. 

           He closed his eyes and telepathically summoned his allies. Xornoth was getting better at using Hermes' telepathic power, but he couldn't figure out for the life of him whether or not Hermes could read minds. He probably couldn't, but it couldn't hurt to try sometime. Joey promptly arrived, soon followed by Lizzie, who had parrots riding her shoulder. They waited for False. She didn't come. Xornoth frowned. Not being entirely sure of False's loyalty, the demon had tried to be careful with how he used her, but she was unpredictable. Where could she be? 

           "Where's False?" Lizzie asked, looking around. "I don't know," Joey shrugged. "Xornoth, why'd you call us?" "What is the status of the other emperors?" "The parrots I sent to Sanctuary say that they've gone. Sausage is still there, though, frozen in place somehow. My wolves report no activity, so the emperors seem to be underground. Literally and figuratively." "Why is Sausage frozen up like that?" Joey wondered aloud, and Xornoth agreed. He couldn't tell what had happened to the defender of Sanctuary, but he was glad that this unusual stroke of providence meant that his foes were down a powerful member. "What of the Hareons?" "I thought they would respect me," Lizzie sniffed, "Because they're anthropomorphic animals like me and my citizens, but they're still loyal to Sausage and not doing a thing I say." 

           Just then False arrived with a strange look in her eyes. "False! Where've you been?" The architect ignored Joey and instead looked at Xornoth and Lizzie. "Lizzie, do you have a prison here?" "A prison?" Lizzie echoed, and she tapped her head, thinking. "Hm, not exactly. Animalia is a pretty peaceful, crimeless empire, and any lawbreakers are sent to Tumble Town, really." Lizzie started grinning like the Cheshire cat, though. "But I do have something that might work instead." False nodded. "False, what have you been up to?" Xornoth's eyes narrowed. False said nothing but beckoned for them to follow her. She lead them to the outermost edges of Animalia, where under a tree lay two unconscious figures, bound and bleeding. Lizzie and Joey whistled, and Xornoth grinned. "Thank you, False. Thank you very much." 

           False had captured the Scotts. She related to them how it had happened. The amnesiac tinkerer had gone to Chromia and had found them there, along with the Copper King. On a spur of the moment decision, she attacked, knocking out Scott of Chromia with the butt of her ax. Pix had drawn his sword and the other Scott created ice spires to try and trap her, but False wasn't one to be trapped anymore. She'd fought a 2v1 and had sliced up the emperors pretty badly while still leaving them alive. False finally took out the other Scott by stabbing him with one of his own icicles and then splashing him with a healing potion after he'd fallen unconscious so she didn't disobey the Crown rule of no killing. Then she locked up Pix in a shed so he couldn't reach the other emperors for help, and snapped his elytra for good measure. Then False had gotten the manacles that blocked magic from Scott's collection of magical artifacts and put them on the elf Scott so he couldn't use his ice powers when he awoke. 

           They brought the kidnapped Scotts to where Lizzie said she might have something for them. Apparently Lizzie meant a strange torture chamber. There was only one cell, with a bed and some unused chains hanging down from the walls ready to shackle the unfortunate prisoner, but there were other things around the cell. Soul lanterns dangled from the roof, guillotines prepared to be operated at the turn of a lever, gibbets hung from the ceiling, and stocks sat in the corner, but strangest of all were all the cats. Orange tabbies in the rafters, calico cats by the gibbets, ragdoll cats on the bed, and many more milling around. Everyone looked at Lizzie, who had an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry, I usually keep the weird cats down here; the ones who don't walk on two feet."