Rise of Fire: Dragons Reborn [COMPLETED]

Chapter 29

"What happened after all that then?" Bromyr's lips quivered as tears leaked from his beady eyes. Talia rubbed away her own tears as her body shook. She shook her head, most of what happened after that was nothing but a blur.

"Nazir was pissed. Midnight managed to drug Talia into oblivion after a bit of a fight but by then Amber had... Passed on. When he got us home he set himself to task teaching us who was in charge. He put Talia into a machine made of a very rare metal. It was designed to hurt giants until their minds melted with the agony. It had hundreds of little needles he could screw into her skin over time. She spent two years in that thing. He starved her the entire time. Her mind broke about a year and a half in.

"He made me watch every time he'd dig those little needles in. She'd scream for hours and hours, her body would quiver. If she moved she'd blind herself again for a few days. If she twisted her bones would break again. So she'd just... Sit there and take it. Every so often Midnight would sneak in to hand feed her but if Nazir caught her he'd whip her until her skin was hanging off her bones... It was a really bad time for all of us." They both shuddered with glassy eyes.

She could remember some of the time she spent in the cage Nazir had built for her. She had tried so hard to keep Amber's name on her lips, to remember what it was like to be loved. To be held. To be treated like a child. But the more he would dig the metal needles into her skin the more her mind would swim with madness. Ever twist would melt her thoughts and fill her mind with the sounds of her own screams. And every time he would ask her who she served. Her answer had always been 'Hephatus' until the very last day. The last time he ever carved her apart, the last time he ever choked her until she passed out.

"Who do you serve?" He had asked as he tightened the collar on her throat. She was already gasping for air. She couldn't move unless she wanted to hurt herself more, unless she wanted to feel the sting of the metal in her bones. The sharp tips were already so close to piercing her bones. She choked as the darkness consumed her vision again. The roof of the caves were always so bland and brown but she didn't want to stop seeing them as he pushed her back into unconsciousness. She didn't want to live like this anymore. She didn't want to live anymore.

"You." She managed to croak after her eyelids could no longer stay open. In an instant the pressure released and she was free to gasp at the luxurious air. She kept her eyes closed as Nazir's laughter filled the cave.

"After everything he did you gave in?" Lotus sounded incredulous. Talia snapped back to reality with a snarl,

"What did you expect? Did you think I could win? I was fourteen. I barely even had a grasp on who I was, let alone my abilities. He knew just how to break me down. I couldn't last forever." She wanted to be angry at the girl for her obvious disbelief. But Lotus had never known the sort of torture that Talia had to survive. She didn't know what true agony was. What true suffering was.

"Quiet you incredulous girl. Have you ever been chained? Have you ever been so broken your soul could not recover? Unless you could survive two years in those conditions I'd stay silent." Floki snapped at Lotus. Talia had never been so thankful for the older dwarf.

"He's right. I doubt any of us could have lived, let alone survived. You're very well put together for having survived that." Bromyr remarked quietly. Talia had never seen him so subdued in his life. He hid his gaze from her as he watched the road ahead instead.

"I never lost faith in Hephatus... Even though I'm sure she couldn't have faulted me if I did. I always told myself she would save me, she would heal me, she would guide me. I don't know if she couldn't see what he was doing or if she couldn't stop it. In the end I realized I had to save myself if I wanted to live. Amber isn't here anymore but I still have Nico, I still have Jax, and I still have her name. We didn't find out until several years after we were granted our freedom that Amber left us everything in her will. Her servants have kept it running for us since that day we lost her." Talia visited on occasion just to make sure it was still standing, that it was still Amber's home. Just the way she loved it.