It was cold. Dark. Damp. Amory could feel this room draining him slowly.
He groaned. All of his body ached. His muscles were sore as if he had just run a marathon. He could smell something sweet, and feel something warm being spread over an injury on the right side of his rib cage.
Opening his eyes slowly, he tried to lift his head, but found himself almost too weak.
His arms were dangling above his head, wrists chained sloppily, to a hook in the ceiling. His ankles were also chained, with metal balls attached to the chains. He wasn't going to be going anywhere, even if he did have the strength.
"Hold still, or I will never get your wounds taken care of." Someone murmured. A voice Amory recognized.
He saw, through blurry eyes, his own legs, as his head hung. He saw his clothes, torn and burnt in places, barely clinging to him.
In front of his own legs, he saw another pair of legs. Armored in white-glowing armor, with almost blue skin.
Immediately he knew who it was. He jerked angrily, finding a new strength, and tried to kick the man.
"Get off of me!" He yelled, bellowing with all his might. An angry blast of heat came from him and smacked the other man right in his chest.
He flew backward, and hit the opposing wall, gasping with pain. His front was burned something awful, even through the armor.
A defiant gaze was pointed Amory's way.
"Cousin, I know we have our differences." He murmured. "But I am trying to hel-"
"You betrayed me, Asher!" Amory screamed, jerking, writhing in his chain. He tried to manage more radiation, off of his skin, but he didn't have enough energy. "You turned me in! How could you! I spent millennia running because of you!"
Asher frowned. He took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. A cool breeze passed over him, slowly healing the skin on his chest. Armor re-formed.
Asher stood, dusting himself off. His hair was wind-blown and silky blonde. It was about at his shoulders, cut in choppy style. His eyes were as blue as the blue, blue sky.
"Amory, that was, as you said, a millennia ago." He sighed, rubbing a leather-gloved hand through his hair. "Please, just let me help you. You do not understand what is about to happen."
"I understand damn well!" Amory panted, his burst of angry energy beginning to fade. "You are trapping him! Io will come looking for me and it is all your fault! They will kill him!"
"Yes." Asher nodded. "They will. But you must save your strength. Worse things are going to happen."
Amory didn't bother to wonder how things could possibly get any worse.
He stared into Asher's eyes, his own blazing with the hate of seven suns. He wanted to know one thing.
"Why did you do it?" He snapped. "Why did you turn me in, those years ago?"
"Because you needed to see your place, not frolic around like a human and fall in love unnaturally." Asher snapped.
"I never wanted to be one of the Host." Amory retorted. "I never wanted to be a Greater."
"But that is what you were born, and that is what you shall stay." Asher shot back, picking up his can of ointment, dipping his gloved finger into it. It must have fallen out of his hand when Amory burned him. "With Io, or without, our fight is not on this earth. Our fight is bigger than this small realm. Pretending to be a human, living along humans with a handicapped moon-boyfriend, is useless."
"You were my friend." Amory's eyebrows drew. "You could have helped me find a way. But you turned your back to me. That is the way of the clouds, is it not? Cowardly by nature? Running at even the slightest push?" He rattled his chains one more time, gritting his teeth.
Asher sighed and looked down at the ointment on his glove.
"Fine then." He murmured. "Deal with this yourself. But do not scream for my help, when they set the prongs on you."
He scraped the ointment back into the jar and screwed the cap on. A little hole in Reality opened up, and he stuck his hand through, putting the ointment back into UnReality. The hole closed seconds later, as he removed his hand.
"They plan to torture you for information. Even though I think there is nothing to discover, they think you to be a spy."
Asher glanced over his shoulder, at Amory.
"Have fun with that, Amory. Io is almost to the Pool of the Sky. I wonder what he shall do when he remembers what you truly are?"
Amory glared. But Asher opened a door in the dank, cold, monolithic stone room, and stepped out, shutting Amory into the darkness to rot.
Io... please, forgive me...
YOU ARE READING
The God and His Moon
Spiritual"Is the journey a difficult one?" Amory whispered, his voice a dull ghost in Io's soft, snowy hair. The breath that brushed over his skin made goosebumps rise on his neck. "That is yet to be seen." Io replied, reluctant with his words. His head lay...
