Vessel

Chapter 1: A Challenge Ahead

Marina Kazavin "King's Titan". Treason of the highest order for attempted murder on the king, Tristan of Osalde. Three cases of murder, Edgar Kazavin, Alice Kazavin, and one of the eight, Collen Eden "Reo". Finally, attempted murder on one of the eight, Anastasia Davan "Valkyrie". The screen displays the prisoner's details as Tristan reads to the three others accompanying him. Two guards, and one medical doctor.

"Seven Years is a very long time for the body. She may not be fully rehabilitated." The doctor said to Tristan, questioning his choice.

"She is strong, she will join the other three with Galatea" Tristan replied in a confident voice.

"You are the King. But I am not sure how a cripple will be able to help us against the Queen."

"Get her ready, we only have half a year." Tristan says, turning and walking away at the same time.

"Yes Sir." The doctor replies loudly.

The doctor signals to the two guards, and they move towards a gate. They each place the palm of their hand on their respective sides of the gate and several neon blue circles of light begin tracing on the wall, surrounding each of their digits. Once the blue circles finish, a bigger circle begins tracing itself around their entire hand.

A few seconds pass and the gate makes a clicking noise and moves itself aside, making way to a deep hallway narrow enough to fit the two guards and doctor passing through it. The hallway seems made of concrete but slight blue markings can be seen traveling all throughout the walls. Each few meters a metal gate is placed, with a metal gate ending the hallway at the very end. Each gate is labeled with a roman numeral from I to XX.

Each gate is different but as your eyes veer away from them they seem to morph, only to change back as your eyes refocus back. Different sounds can be heard coming from the gates themselves. Each having their own noise. Some are high pitched, while others fluctuate. Anyone could go mad by simply staying there too long.

They arrive at the end of the hallway and the same procedure happens to open this gate, except there are a few extra steps. After the initial phase the doctor takes out three small and fragile looking silver keys, no longer than a single inch. She carefully fits each of these keys at three circles that had appeared after the guards had finished their part of the procedure and after fitting the last key, the gate clicks once, moves backwards half a meter, and slides to the left, all within a few seconds.

An intense heat rushes out of the room within The guards and the doctor cover their face and as soon as the pressure on both rooms stabilize, they walk in. Inside is a metal machine in the shape of a X, metal cables coming out from the back, and on the front a woman. Her body is covered in metal, as if the X itself is swallowing her whole. The only visible parts of her body are her head, the inner parts of her arms, her knees and feet. Long black hair with glimpses of green streaks cover her face.

The room itself is empty space in the shape of a standing cylinder, approximately ten meters in diameter, and another fifteen in height. Several strips of red hot metal surround the cell, heating it to over to sixty five degrees Celsius. The guards quickly move each to opposite sides of the cell and trigger the mechanism within the walls, turning the heating pads off. The doctor then walks in front of the metal X and from the floor, pulls out a pillar with a console inside of it.

A nurse walks in with a stretcher and the two guards get in position in front of the prisoner. With a single press of a button the X suddenly turns into liquid, though keeping its shape but letting go of the woman trapped inside. The guards catch her before she touches the floor, and place her on the stretcher. After tying her up, the doctor looks down at her and whispers to herself "You are one lucky bitch" then signals the nurse. The nurse then takes the prisoner away.