ElnorseFall

Chapter Fifteen

*Suprise! Double chapters today! Hope you enjoy reading all the excitement that happens in this chapter. Remember to vote!*

         How they knew we were on the Cleopa was a mystery. We'd told no one of our plans. Aside from ourselves, no one should've been aware of our presence aboard the space city... and to find us in such a short amount of time? It was as if they'd followed us from Eurkxo.

We were forced to board the Elnorsefall ship and placed into separate isolation cells. On the bright side, we were near each other and could still speak to one another. They'd only separated us by individual cells. The guard that brought us here forced a neutralizer around my neck which kept my phantasm from flowing through me as quickly as I was used to. I felt drained and had to focus on breathing normally. My body wasn't used to the heaviness of having lower levels of phantasm. 

Xorion paced back and forth inside his isolation cell while I sat and watched him. I knew he was attempting to come up with some plan to escape, but it wouldn't be possible. I knew these ships. They were of V'rasórian warship design, specifically Elnorsefall warship design. According to usual protocol, our ship was likely already destroyed which meant we'd have to escape by taking over this ship, and in order to do that we'd have to capture and somehow bribe the pilot. 

Pilots of warships were implanted with chips directly into their brains which allowed them to activate the control systems of their ships. Most were loyal to the bitter end, and even if they were disloyal and by some miracle wanted to help us, the commander of the ship could have the chip explode, instantly killing them.

I relaxed into the transparent wall of my cell. It was obvious we weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

"What will they do to us?" Xorion asked suddenly, stopping his pacing. I sighed at his question. It wasn't exactly something I wanted to think about.

"You won't like it, and it doesn't really matter if you know or not." I said in hopes he got the hint not to ask about it further. Unfortunately, he didn't get the hint.

"Perhaps not, but I'd rather know." His eyes burned into me. I groaned, wanting to ignore him. I guess he did have a right to know. If I were in his position, I'd probably ask the same.

"He will most likely order them to torture us for any information we carry. Then he will probably use you as an example to the other Fehichen who are still in the Realms fighting with Eurkxo." That wasn't even the bare minimum of what he was capable of doing, but there wasn't a need to tell Xorion that.

"I'm going to guess it's not something quick then." He placed his hands on his hips with a quick huff. I shook my head. He sighed in defeat.

"And you?"

Now that was a question I really didn't want to answer, let alone think about. However, I knew the imagination could often be worse than reality, so I forced myself to think about it and give him an answer.

"I- I don't know for certain. I've heard rumors about the experiments he does. He's been attempting to pull phantasm directly from our cores. It won't surprise me if he tries to do that on me, it's never been tested on a royal after all." I said as bravely as I could even though it was torture just to think about.

"Pull phantasm directly from your core?" He asked both bewildered and horrified. "Is that even possible?"

"Unfortunately, yes. There's only been records of it being done a few times for scientific and medical reasons, and all of them ended in the death of the subjects. It was banned from practice, but he's brought it back. I'm not sure why other than for pure entertainment." I shuddered at the thought. I remembered when the Elders first made us aware of his disgusting practices. It took everything in me to not become sick at the images of the battered bodies of those his scientists tortured and thrown out.