Fireproof - Kenric and Oralie

Your own guilt

A/N: basically a flashback of kenric's time in the neverseen and what happened in the interogation stuff. this part will clear up what happened if you're confused! :)

Kenric's POV:

It was hard to breathe already in the cramped cave, but bringing fire and smoke into it wasn't a help either.

The cloaked figures locked him to a chair which was pinned against the wall. Kenric struggled to breathe through the smoke.

Come on Kenric- stay strong, 

There were 4 people in the room. The pyrokinetic, which he assumed was Fintan, a telepath, and two other Neverseen guards.

The telepath crouched next to Kenric, placeing his fingers on his temples. 

"Don't try to resist, Kenric." Fintan said with a smirk on his face. He let a little ball of fire dance around his fingers. 

The fire alone was enough to make him stop struggling. 

He took a deep breath and focused on hiding the chest. A skill his old telepathy mentor in Foxfire taught him to do. 

The chest was swallowed by darkness in the back of his mind. Other random and irrelevant memories shrouded the little area in the back.

He felt the telepath enter his mind, feeling him rummage through the memories he put in the front.

Those memories were mostly from the fire and when the Neverseen trapped him. All stuff they already knew.

The telepath surged deeper into his brain, now at the part of his younger life.

Kenric licking his locker in Foxfire, cringing from the horrible taste.

Kenric winning the Ultimate Splotching Championship, beating the legendary Alden Vacker.

When Kenric was a Level 4, he had recieved a bunch of gifts from friends at mid-terms.

His reaction when he found out he nearly failed his Elementalism class.

When he accidentally ripped his cape on a bush outside of Foxfire.

"Ugh-" The telepath groaned, "This is all useless."

"Keep probing, he's probably hiding things" Fintan said to the telepath, but he looked at Kenric while saying it.

With every passing second, he could feel sweat traveling down his forehead, the telepath was doing something to make his entire mind shake.

But Kenric was trained too well. When they gave up, Kenric grinned at their failure, but it faltered as soon as he looked at Fintan, who wore a look that they would come back.  

The second time it happened, they came a lot closer to the chest. Still, he replayed a bunch of useless memories and put up a lot more defenses than last time. 

The third time it happened, Kenric tricked the telepath by turning his mind into an entire maze, with noises so loud it made the telepath jump back when he went inside.

Quiet noises were loud, loud noises were quiet. Dark colors were bright, and bright colors were dull. Everything was the opposite. Memories washed around like it was floating in water. 

Kenric had just took whatever memories he had in his brain and shook it up like he was shaking up a salad bowl. 

Which was a big mistake.

A lot of those memories had Oralie in them, and he couldn't erase the feelings that came along with the memories. Kenric didn't think the Neverseen would be able to use them, but they did.

Even if it was the smallest memory, maybe one where Kenric locked eyes with Oralie across the room and smiled. 

Oralie putting her hand on Kenric's arm to defend him in a council arguement. 

Oralie helping Kenric style his hair, and they had gotten breathlessly close.

In all of those moments, you could feel the butterflies and how much of a hopeless romantic he was. 

He thought it was harmless, but that was a big, big, mistake. 

This will do, the telepath thought while he was still in Kenric's head.

When he was whispering to Fintan, Kenric could see his sneer behind the hood.

Fintan's smile progressively got more and more evil, and then they walked away.

The last interogation was the worst. He couldn't even explain it.

The memory probe was deeper than he imagined, somehow different. His head felt sore and tired, but he didn't know where.

There was a throbbing pain inside his head, and it followed wherever the telepath went.

Another way the last interogation was different, was because he felt-

He felt guilty even though he tried to fight it off. They brought in another person this time, and he grabbed his wrist when the telepath entered his mind. 

He couldn't stop thinking about Oralie the entire time. He felt scared and felt like every second in his head the Neverseen were getting closer and closer to Oralie.

He felt like exposing those memories would somehow hurt Oralie. He couldn't sleep all night because of that.

He felt like he failed at his job to protect her, the one and only thing that mattered to him. 

The memory probe was awful. Every memory they looked at brought them closer and closer to the little chest in the back of his mind. 

For some reason, his defenses weren't as strong as they usually are. 

After the interogation, his mind was a mess. His memories felt delicate, or about to shatter.

But, he was sane. He was talking and thinking and moving. He was in control.

Or was he?

What did the Neverseen do to him?

Fintan sneered at Kenric when they left.

"Don't worry little Councillor. You won't be broken by us." He chuckled and locked the cell behind him.

"You'll be broken by your own guilt."