Origins of the Fates

9: Aires Ozias

The moment Aires wakes up, he finds himself in the very dungeons he swore he'd never be in again. He sits up and rubs the back of his neck, which throbs with a stinging pain he has come to associate with being knocked out.

Groaning, Aires sits up. His mouth is dry, a metallic taste fills it to the back of his throat. He searches the room he's in. The walls are plain, a dull gray color. The floor is dark blue concrete, as is the ceiling.

Aires turns his head, listening close as he hears a light scrape against the wall. He focuses, trying to determine the direct location of the sound. Then, it happens once more.

He crawls over to the right hand wall, pressing his head against the wall, listening close. He hears the soft mumbling of a woman, her voice raspy. She is saying something in another language, her breathy sounding voice anxious.

It takes a moment for Aires to discern the exact words that are coming from his mouth. He hears, "I am begging you, Old Ones. Please do not let them use me, as they used my sisters. I cannot... I will not do what they tell me to, as I will not be a tool. Never again. I will never again be a thing."

Aires tenses. The girl... how are they using her as a tool? He thinks back to all the times that Mercury has flaunted that she is his. That she belongs to him. Well, that many of the girls here are in such positions.

He frowns. "Hey, uh .... my name is Aires Ozias, and I am here if you... you know."

Silence greets his words. He sighs. Of course. How could he expect her to just jump for joy? She does not know him, and vice versa. But he thinks back to what Mercury has made Eris do before. How he used to assault her in many awful ways. How he broke her spirit so he could manipulate her to do as he said, and be his dark mirror.

"Aires?"

The sound is wispy, and Aires turns, listening close to the woman's raspy breaths. She scratches the walls, hissing softly and crying. "Aires? .... Aires?"

"Yes," he says. "Uh, I'm here. What is your name?"

She hisses once more. "I was once a girl, with innocence and pride. I was once a lioness, but a leader of my life. Now.... I am no more, nothing but a thing. Trapped here, in this hell, not even living."

Aires cocks his head. "You write poetry?"

"Used to," she whispers. "Oh, I loved to do so. Long ago, I would have been praised as a Goddess. Long ago, back home, I.... I would be thought of as a celebrity, I think. Think that's the word those mortals covet. But ... Aires, I... " She starts to cough violently.

He winces. "You okay? I mean, uh, physically?"

She snorts once she stops coughing. "No. I am broken. That monster, he broke something in me. Something my body truly needed. My body is dying. I will die, and if I... if I do not get what I need, I will die."

"What did he break? What ... what can I do to help?"

The girl laughs. "I am not sure, but maybe you ..." She shrieks in pain. Aires flinches and looks at the wall, even though he cannot see her, he hears her anguish in her raspy voice. "Fuck, that sucks!"

"What happened?" Aires asks her.

"Ah, well ... no sense in hiding my truths any longer. It will just add more pain to me," she says.  "They used to call me Ramsey, when I had a name, a true name. I am a dragon. And they want to kill me or use me. But they will kill me regardless if I do not get the elixir I need."

"What is the elixir called?" Aires asks her. She sighs loudly and hisses again, undoubtedly in pain again. He feels a pang of sympathy for her, for the pain she must feel. He thinks back to Eris, all those nights where she would come home and sit in a hot shower, exhausted and broken by Mercury.

"Roseblooded elixir."

He tilts his head. Roseblooded is a very rare thing, but it is indeed something that Mercury would have. Aires looks up as the door to his cell creaks open, and Tarquin Rist walks in with Willa Riverrish behind him.

The mind fae looks up at the ceiling, curling her lips and wrinkling her nose. She looks over to Aires, that disgusted look still visible on her pale face. She glances up at Tarquin. But he does not even look her way.

"Well," says Tarquin, chuckling as he rubs his hands together eagerly.  "This is going to be challenging for you, Aires. Challenging indeed."

Aires grins at them. "I'd be disappointed if it wasn't."