Greyskin

Chapter 6. Prison.

The elven city was grand. It sprouted over the remains of the Highborne city, trees growing and turning into living spaces for elves. They were now masters of whatever was left of the previously great empire.

The architecture was a mesh between the style dedicated to symmetry, glorification of perfection and between the chaotic beauty of nature, growth of plants. It was a strange mix of the two, but it was no less impressive, even after the previously great power fell. Now the elves brought some of that greatness back.

Giant trees were now around, with stairs, doors and tunnels carved in them, giving elves plenty of living space. They loved nature, so there were a lot flowers around and plenty of smaller trees. Dedication put into growing all this was awe inspiring. Many of the humans and other adventurers traveled here to witness the beauty of these cities.

Below the trees and the massive canopy were stone temples, dedicated to the goddess Lux. They had her statues, statues of their leaders, forms of angels and other beautiful beings. Highborne were people of faith and they had many things  perpetrated to their faith and to their goddess. They loved her and they prayed to her.

The enchanting beauty of once great people inspired bards and pushed many adventurers towards the road in search of greatness. The sight was something to behold, goddess Lux was mesmerizing, her forms and her face were beautiful beyond mortal standards, her lips bewitched men, even if her image was only captured in stone. The scale of the temples was also awe inspiring; they were built by real masters, pushing the limits of the imagination. The city was simply amazing.

Sadly, Sel didn't get a chance to enjoy the view when he came in. He was still unconscious and weak, being dragged into a cell and left there under many wards and protective charms. He was placed in prison, barred with enchanted ironwood, unable to escape. Elves were curious of him and they wanted to observe him.

Sel was brought into the dungeons below the city. There were plenty of other prisoners, most of them already spending years in there, covered in simple rags and withering away. They looked painfully thin, as if they had nothing but thin broth and water for their whole lives. There was plenty of filth in the dungeon, prisoners were rarely given opportunity to wash themselves or clean their cells.

There were few somewhat presentable people, ones who were there the least. Sel was put in the cell next to one such man. To the right of Sel's cell there was a human, looking to be in his thirties and wearing good quality leather armor. The cell on the left was empty, ready to accept another prisoner.

He was still unconscious when he was carried into the cell and left there. Elves didn't want to chance waking him outside of the safety of his cell, inside which were plenty of rune-circles siphoning out the scourge to weaken the demons.

For the sake of the interrogation, a large bowl of blessed water was carried in to splash on the foul demon. Blessed water would purify him and cause him pain, at least in theory. Elves didn't know that Sel was constantly on fire from within, his pain replaced by the smoldering heat on the inside.

For now he was left to regain consciousness on his own, elves having other business to attend to, like making a report on their encounter with the greyskin.

The man in the nearby cell was eyeing the demon curiously. It wasn't every day that demons appeared in the elven territories. There were still some to the west of the pillars, but they were rare nowadays and rarely imprisoned, mostly executed on the spot. There were a number of demons in the prison, but those were rare few to have surrendered peacefully.

The demon looked weird; he had same long ears like elves had, perhaps even a little longer. His skin was darker grey, but his hair was silver, like that of the certain extinct race. If the man didn't see the whole race killed with his own eyes, he could have made a connection, but instead he just dismissed it as some weird coincidence.