Hey everyone, sorry for the wait.
So, this was originally going to be the Emmeryn chapter, but I decided to put that and the escape from Plegia in the same chapter. Also, I've started to use a bit of swearing. It won't be often, but there will be some.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 7: He Stumbles
Torii kept his eyes on the man, the Hierarch, in front of him. The young man would have to wait for his chance; it shouldn't be too much longer before he can expose the Hierarch.
'I don't understand why you would wait when you can deal with the problem now, fool.' Hyde spoke up.
Torii let out a small chuckle. 'Because it would be suspicious.'
'They already know you're from the future fool, you could just tell them.'
'If my reason for accusing someone is just the fact that I'm from the future then my accusations become less credible than if I had evidence, and I shouldn't overuse the 'I'm from the future' thing. Otherwise they won't believe me when I need them to.' Torii explained.
'It seems a fool can think things through.' Hyde joked.
Torii sighed before deciding to change the subject. 'What can you tell me about that power from last night?'
Hyde cleared its non-existent throat. 'That power is known as the Dragons Blessing-' Torii cut Hyde off.
'Dragons Blessing?! As in the dragon gods, like Naga?' The Prince asked.
'Yes, now be quiet fool.' Hyde snapped. 'Dragons Blessing gives you knowledge of all spells and allows you to use them, it also allows you to perform feats that only dragons or Manaketes could.'
'And here comes the 'but''
'But the energy consumption for the spells is increased and using spells of a higher level than you are capable of will be detrimental to your health, and the dragon abilities will only manifest if you possess a dragonstone.' Hyde explained.
'Dragon abilities... am I like Corrin then? That would be cool and... terrifying.' Torii thought to himself. 'Why do I have these abilities? What makes me so special?'
'The dragon blood running through your veins.' Hyde stated in response to Torii's questions. The answer made the Prince stop walking as he processed the information.
'Dragon blood... but both my parents were human.'
'Apparently not.'
Torii took a second to think. 'Just who are you Hyde?'
'I wish I knew.' Was the voices response.
"Torii! Are you okay?!" Chrom asked. Torii snapped out of his thoughts and jogged up to his brother.
"I'm fine Chrom, just got lost in my thoughts for a bit." Torii answered.
"And here I thought I would have to carry you." Chrom joked with a chuckle.
"You can carry me!" Both Lissa and Robin yelled. The brothers laughed and continued with the march.
It wasn't too much longer before they reached a location similar to the map where the fight in chapter seven happened, Torii placed his hand on his rapiers handle. He knew what he was waiting for, he just had to be patient for a little while longer.
The shepherds and Emmeryn's guards, Phila's Pegasus Knights, stopped to take a break, they had been marching non-stop since they left the capital. Torii threw his hoodie and beanie into the convoy and found a shaded area to rest in, he sat down and leaned against the mountain behind him. It wasn't long before he heard someone approach him, he turned his head to see Panne looking down at him.
"Hello Panne, do you need me for something?"
"What are your thoughts on the Taguel, manspawn?" Panne asked bluntly.
"Well I'll be perfectly honest, I know very little about the Taguel other than the fact that humans almost drove them to extinction and that you are last of them. And while I know it means nothing from me, I am sorry for what happened. But to answer your question, I see no reason why the Taguel shouldn't be treated as equals." Torii responded.
Panne nodded before speaking. "I see, you are similar to your sister." And with that, Panne walked off.
Torii was about to go back to enjoying the shade, but Ricken walked up to him with a look that said he wanted to talk.
"Hi, Torii. I know we haven't talked much, but I had a question about magic."
"Then ask Miriel, she's an expert on magic." The brunette felt guilty about how harsh that sounded.
"I would, but she always explains things in a way I can't understand."
Torii sighed. "All right, what's your question?" He asked as he crossed his legs, Ricken sat down next to him and opened the Elwind tome he was carrying.
"How did you write all of this on your arms?" Ricken asked as he pointed at different sentences and diagrams.
"I didn't." Torii answered. "I just felt some kind of power build up in my arms and then... the writing and diagrams just appeared." He added. "Sorry, I know that's not the answer you wanted."
"No, it's okay." Ricken smiled sadly.
Then Torii had an idea. "But, you know. Just 'cause we don't know how something works, doesn't mean we can't try to get it to work."
"What do you mean?" Ricken questioned.
"I mean, we could try and find a way to get magic to work by writing out the formulas on a person's arms." The Prince explained.
"You'd really help me with that? Aren't you busy?"
"I get more free time than you think." Torii smiled.
"Thank you." Ricken thanked as he picked the tome up and stood up.
"Anything for a friend."
After some resting in the shade, Torii walked around the camp aimlessly. He kept an eye on the Hierarch whenever the old man was nearby. The Prince eventually found himself next to a sleeping Robin, she seemed to be having a nice dream if the smile on her face was any sign. Torii leaned in close and whispered into her ear.
"Risen riding wolves."
And all throughout the camp, the next sounds heard were a fearful scream, a slap and pained screamed mixed with laughter.
"Why would you do that?!" Robin yelled at Torii, who was rolling about on the ground whilst laughing.
"Be-becau-cause... it was f-funny." Torii managed responded before he broke out into more laughter.
"No it wasn't!" Robin argued.
"Y-yes it was." Torii responded as he stopped laughing and caught his breath, his smile barely fit on his face.
"I hate you." Robin sighed.
"You love me." Torii countered. "If it makes you feel better, I'm sorry... And your slap really hurt." He apologised, missing the small blush on Robins face. "I'll leave you alone now."
Torii wandered around carelessly for a bit longer, until the Hierarch passed by him and he went on full alert. He tailed the Hierarch until it was time to resume the march. They marched for five minutes, then Frederick said what Torii was waiting to hear.
"Is something troubling you Hierarch?" The great knight asked. "You seem to be keeping an eye on the peaks."
Torii rushed forwards, drew his rapier and held the blade to the Hierarchs neck.
"W-wha-" The Hierarch stammered before Torii cut him off.
"How many are there?" The second Prince asked.
"W-what do you mean?"
Torii brought his blade closer to the Hierarchs neck. "I'll rephrase. How many Plegians are waiting to ambush us?" He asked as he placed the flat of his blade on the old man's neck, right above the throat.
"I-I don't know exactly. T-there should mostly be wyvern riders and- Ack!" The Hierarch was cut off as an axe was thrown into his head. Torii quickly backed away, but he did end up with some blood splashing on his face. Torii looked forward to see Vasto on his wyvern.
"I don't know how you sniffed us out, but it doesn't matter. You'll be dead before long." The wyvern rider claimed.
"Phila, take Emmeryn to the back of the column, we'll take care of these dastards." Chrom commanded. "Robin, we need a strategy."
"Everyone! Stick close to someone else at all times, work together to take down anyone who gets close to you. I know this isn't the best strategy, but we don't have much time. Be careful." Robin ordered hastily.
Everyone rushed forwards while making sure to keep close to at least one other person. Torii stuck close to Donnel and Maribelle.
A pair of wyvern riders headed straight for the trio, one aimed for Maribelle while the other went for Donnel. Torii dashed towards Maribelle and blocked and incoming axe swing. The Prince caught his rapier under the axes blade and performed a disarming technique, he then proceeded to blast the rider with an elthunder bolt. Before he could have even a moments respite he heard a clanging sound, Torii turned to see that Donnel had been disarmed and was about to meet the blade of an axe. Torii sent off an elwind followed quickly by an elthunder, then he dashed in and stabbed through the wyvern. The wyvern let out a pained howl and fell to the ground, Torii quickly finished off the rider and took a quick breather.
"Thank you yer majesty." Donnel thanked.
"Just call me Torii, honorific's make my skin crawl." The Prince sighed. He kept his eyes on the sky, he knew who would be arriving soon. Sure enough, Torii soon saw a Pegasus coming up from where the shepherds had marched, he ran back to meet her.
"No, there are Plegians here too?!" Cordelia panted as her Pegasus landed.
"Sadly, yes. The Hierarch sold us out." Torii quickly explained.
"Who are you?"
"Torii. I recently joined the Shepherds." He hastily introduced himself. "Let me guess, enemy reinforcements are approaching?"
"Yes, but how did you-"
"That doesn't matter right now. Go and inform Chrom, I'll hold them off as best I can." Torii ordered.
"But-" Cordelia began to protest.
"Please. We'll have a better chance with more people." Torii pleaded as he walked past her to get ready to deal with the reinforcements, he took in a deep breath when he heard the pegasus's wings flap. Though he was shocked at what he heard next.
"Then we'll fight them together." The Pegasus rider stated as she readied her lance.
Torii ran the last word of the statement through his head a few times, it sounded foreign to him.
"When was the last time that word was directed at me?" He mumbled with a smile before readjusting his stance.
The wyvern rider reinforcements came into view. Torii had expected more than what appeared in the game, but apparently he had underestimated just how many there would be. He looked at the markings on his arms. He could use any magic, something like Mjolnir could wipe them out easily. Then Hyde's words ran through his head.
'Using spells of a higher level than you are capable of will be detrimental to your health.'
Was it worth the risk? He didn't know how detrimental it would be. Surely it wouldn't kill him, but what if he went comatose? An axe just barely missing him snapped him back to reality. Now wasn't the time to get lost in thought and definitely wasn't the time to worry. Torii decided not to take the risk as he used his rapier to swat away another axe. He ran towards the rider that kept throwing axes at him and dodged beneath an axe swipe, Torii thrust his rapier upwards and it went through the rider's throat. Torii quickly pulled the rapier out and dodged the rider's final attack; the rider fell off the wyvern and laid still. Torii turned and saw Cordelia pulling her lance out from one of the riders. They had taken down two riders out of two dozen. The odds weren't favourable. Torii dodged backwards to avoid a set of wyvern claws and sidestepped to dodge an axe swing. He hit the wyvern with an Elwind spell and stabbed the rider in the chest.
'This is impossible with just two people.' The Prince thought.
'If you could get your allies attention then this might become easier.' Hyde pointed out.
'True, but with so much going on I doubt they'll be able to tell my spell's a distress beacon.' Torii reminded.
'Then try making a lot of noise.' Hyde argued.
'There's a battle going on! How am I going to make more noise than there already is?!' Torii snapped. 'It's not like I have any fireworks.' Then Torii had an idea. He didn't have any fireworks, but what if he could improvise one.
"Cordelia, cover me!" Torii yelled as he began thinking his idea through. He would need light, sound and a way to get it in the air. He had nothing he could use to do any of those things.
"Wait a second..." Torii mumbled. He did have a way to create light and sound and get it in the air; he had fire, thunder and wind magic. But how could he get it to work? He would have to use three spells at once. It would probably take a lot out of him, then again, what was exhaustion compared to imminent death?
Torii began with the Thunder spell, he shaped it into a ball and kept it floating above his left hand. He jammed his rapier into the ground so he could use his right hand for the next part. Torii summoned a ball of fire and willed it to envelop the ball of thunder without destroying it, he found it strenuous to control two spells at the same time.
"And now... for the... third..." Torii panted out as he aimed for the sky. "Wind!" He yelled as the makeshift firework was propelled into the air. "This better... work." Torii said as he balled his hand into a fist as if he was crushing something. The fire exploded outwards along with the thunder spell which luckily produced enough noise to grab everyone's attention. As an added bonus, the wyverns freaked out from the noise. Sadly, so did the pegasi.
Luckily, the pegasus riders were able to calm down their mounts quickly. Apparently, wyverns were incredibly sensitive to loud noises since they kept thrashing about. Some even began rolling about, crushing their riders in the process. This gave the Shepherds the upper hand as they began to quickly dispatch the remaining Plegian forces.
As the battle started to come to a close, Torii took a quick breather.
"Die!" Someone screamed.
Torii turned around in time to backstep away from an axe swing, it seemed one of the Plegians had been smart enough to dismount their wyvern. Torii kept blocking the man's attacks, but he was getting pushed back. The man managed to knock the rapier out of Torii's hand. Torii followed the rapier with his eyes and watched it fall into the ravine, he hadn't realised he had been pushed this far back.
"We may have lost, but at least I get to kill one Ylissean today." The man grinned evilly as he raised his axe. Torii looked down into the ravine; he wouldn't survive if he jumped. The Prince looked between the ravine and the Plegian, then his spiteful side kicked in.
"I won't give you the satisfaction." Torii smiled as he stepped backwards. He let his body fall as his weight dragged him down. He had considered using wind spells to launch himself back up, but he didn't have the energy left to use spells that consecutively.
"Twenty-one... Thought I'd live a bit longer than that." Torii joked as he closed his eyes and awaited his impact with the ground.
Suddenly, he felt a something yank him upwards. Torii opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was the sky getting closer, he looked ahead and saw someone familiar.
"Phila?" The prince questioned. "What..."
"Her Grace was worried about the turnout of the battle and sent me ahead from where we were hiding. As soon as I arrived I saw you fall so I rushed to catch you, Milord." Phila explained.
"Thank you." Torii thanked as he wrapped his arms around Phila's waist so he wouldn't fall. "Thank you." He repeated as he tightened his grip.
Phila directed her Pegasus to land, Torii let go of her and they both dismounted the Pegasus. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Torii collapsed to his knees. His entire body was shaking, and he knew why. It was all the fear that had built up over the past month, it had caught up with him. The Prince tried to calm himself down, but the shaking refused to cease. As soon as he heard footsteps approaching him he forced himself to his feet, ignoring his body's cries to rest.
'What are you doing, you fool!? Don't push yourself so far.' Hyde chastised.
'Hyde, I'm a Prince. I can't let something like fear stop me from getting back up.' Torii responded, gasping down air as soon as he stood up straight.
'But you are not solely a Prince!' Hyde screamed. 'You are still human, you have your limits.' She reminded her host, Torii stayed silent as he let her words sink in. He smiled and nodded his head.
'Awww, you really do care.' The young man joked with a grin adorning his face.
'Fool.' Hyde stated before going silent.
"Torii!" Lissa yelled as ran up to her older brother, she hugged him with enough force to make him stagger backwards a few steps.
"Hey now, easy there Lissa." Torii cautioned, he wasn't in a state where he could take being pushed about.
"Don't 'easy there' me!" Lissa shouted at the older royal. "You almost died! Do you know how worried we all were when we saw you fall?" She asked. Torii couldn't answer that question. He didn't know how they had felt when he let himself fall, he had only been thinking about himself.
"Don't be too hard on him, Lissa. He didn't have many options." Chrom pointed out as he approached his brother and sister. "Though I can't say I'm happy with you almost killing yourself." The first prince addressed his brother, the disapproval in his voice as clear as glass.
"I agree, though I am glad you are safe Torii." Emmeryn joined in the conversation as she approached her siblings.
"Look, I get it, I made a stupid decision." Torii admitted. "But I'm still alive, okay?"
"That you are, and we could not be more grateful. But you must remember the value your life has to others." The Exalt chastised her younger brother.
"Alright..." Torii resigned with a sigh, he broke away from the hold Lissa still had on him and started to walk away. "I'm going to check on the others, let me know when we've decided on our next move." He stated as Cordelia ran past him.
Torii passed by most of the other Shepherds, he would check on them later. For now there was one person he was looking for, Juliet. Torii found the maid checking the convoy's inventory.
"Juliet." Torii called out to get her attention, the maid turned around and bowed.
"Milord. Is there anything you need my assistance with?" She asked. Torii rubbed the back of his neck, he felt guilty about what he was about to say.
"Well... kind of... You see, I plan on returning to Ylisse with Emm." Torii started, he was trying to work out what to say as he went along.
"Ah, do you wish for me pack anything before we leave?" Juliet asked.
"Ah... well... um... no." The Prince hastily replied. Upon seeing his maid's confused look, Torii quickly continued his explanation. "I want you to continue on with Chrom and the Shepherds."
"I see." Juliet paused, she looked like she was deep in thought.
"Very well, milord. I will continue to travel with the Shepherds." She eventually responded, her face as emotionless as usual. Torii assumed she had excellent control over her emotions, but even with that justification, he still found himself occasionally getting thrown off by her attitude.
"Thank you, I promise I'll explain why later." The brown haired Prince thanked, the feeling of guilt refusing to leave his body.
"You do not have to explain anything, milord. I trust you." Juliet assured.
"Thank you." Torii smiled, the guilty feeling continuing to grow. "Well, I'm going to go check on the others, be sure to rest at some point." The Prince grabbed his hoodie and beanie and threw them on before making his way to where most of the Shepherds had congregated.
Torii looked around at the people running about, so many of them seemed busy right now, and after a tiring fight nonetheless. He remembered that these were still only a handful of the people that would prevent Grima from destroying the world, the young man sighed. They still had a long road ahead. The Ylisse-Plegia war was close to ending, then they had a two year break, after that was the campaign against Valm, then they would stop Grima.
Yeah, a long road.
"You alright?" A familiar voice asked. Torii jumped forward out of shock, he whipped his body around to see Gaius.
"Gaius? You almost gave me a heart attack." Torii sighed, he had been too engrossed in his thoughts and hadn't realised the thief had walked up behind him.
"Really now, Twitch? Well with you just standing there, I thought something might have been wrong." Gaius explained.
"Really? Well I was just thinking about..." Torii started before he realised something. "Wait. Twitch? Is that you're nickname for me?" He questioned.
"Well considering the jump me asking a simple question gave you... yes." The orange haired thief responded with a smirk.
"Ugh, fine. I've been called worse." The brown haired Prince relented, he wasn't going argue over something he couldn't change. Unfortunately for him, the end of his sentence had caught the thief's attention.
"Oh really now? Care to give a few examples?" Gaius asked.
"No." Torii immediately replied, a cold tone taking to his voice. He walked off before Gaius could continue to ask about his previous nicknames.
Torii wandered about for a while before stumbling across Sully, who was tending to her horse. Torii remembered one thing about this horse, it would kill him if he ever tried something even remotely perverse. The horse looked over at Torii and he could have sworn it was glaring at him. He chalked it up him just being paranoid, but part of him continued to doubt that.
"Oh! Hey there, Torii." Sully apparently noticed the young man while he was being intimidated by her horse. "Why are you having a stare down with my horse?" She questioned after noticing that Torii and her horse were looking directly at each other.
"Because he wanted one." Torii made an excuse. He, technically, wasn't lying, the horse stared at him first.
"I see..." Sully trailed off.
"I sound like a loon, don't I?" The Prince asked with a defeated sigh.
"Yes." The cavalier answered bluntly. Torii nodded a few times before turning around.
"I'm going to go now." He stated as he walked off.
Torii decided that it was probably about time to return to where the rest of the royals were, as he got closer he overheard the end of the conversation.
"I love you, Chrom. My family is my everything. As for the peace I seek..." Emmeryn trailed off towards the end.
"This is a terrible plan." Chrom pointed out.
"Which is why I'm going too." Torii butted into the conversation.
"No, Torii, you will continue to travel with the Shepherds." The Exalt argued.
"And leave you to your foolishness?" The second Prince asked incredulously. "Pardon my rudeness Emm, but going off with only the Pegasus Knights is a fool's errand."
"And you believe that one man will make a difference?" Emmeryn questioned, not backing down from her side of the argument.
"Not just 'one man', a foreseer." Torii reminded.
The argument came to a halt at Torii's words, the royals and Phila realising what he meant.
"This has something to do with the future?" Chrom asked for clarification.
"Yes, and I believe it is something that can be prevented without causing any drastic changes." The brunette answered, determination clear in his voice.
Everyone looked over to Emmeryn, curious as to what her response would be.
"Very well." The Exalt resigned. "We will leave at once." She ordered as she began to leave
Torii smiled as he followed his sister.
"Your Grace, the border is in sight!" Phila called out over the onslaught of rain.
Torii was glad it was just a regular downpour, if it had been a thunderstorm... Well, it was a long way to the ground. The prince scanned the ground below them, keeping an eye out for any Plegian forces. Surprisingly, he hadn't spotted any yet. Suffice to say, he was keeping his guard up.
Although he apparently wasn't doing a good enough job since a blast of dark magic flew past Phila's Pegasus, Torii focused on the direction of the attack. He gulped upon seeing a familiar Dark Flier.
Aversa.
"Phila, dive!" Torii commanded.
Thankfully, the leader of the Pegasus Knights didn't argue and made her Pegasus fly towards the ground, the other Pegasus knights following suit.
Torii looked back at the Dark Flier, she was following them. The brunette began thinking of ways to deal with her. He could easily blast her out of the sky and kill her, but the spell he would have to use would take a lot of energy. Torii kept thinking, he could try and fight her head on. Though Aversa had the aerial advantage she was still riding a Pegasus, an Elthunder could clip its wings. Although that would be a dangerous plan while riding a Pegasus and with other Pegasi in the way. The Prince looked towards the ground, the drop was safer than earlier and a correctly timed Elwind would stop him from breaking anything important.
"I must be insane." Torii mumbled as he let go of Phila's waist and let his body fall backwards.
"Prince Torii?" Phila asked as she glanced back just in time to see the Prince fall of the Pegasus. "Prince Torii!" She yelled.
The young man rolled his body around so that he could see the quickly approaching ground. This freefall was either going to end well, or with Torii splattered on the ground.
"Elwind!" Torii shouted as he stretched out his arm, the wind spell shot out from his hand and slowed his descent before he hit the ground. Though he still landed face first in the mud. "Right, need to angle my body next time."
The Prince rose to his feet and looked for Aversa, he could just about make out the darker spot in the sky amongst the dark clouds.
"Elthunder!" The brunette yelled, the bolt of electricity shot from his hand. It soared towards the black Pegasus.
And missed by a significant margin.
"Crap." The Prince deadpanned as he saw what was likely a ruin spell heading for him. Even if he tried to avoid it, he knew how big the blast radius would be. Torii stood there and took the spell head on. It was the last thing he saw before everything went black.
Shuffling, there was a lot of shuffling about happening nearby.
Torii struggled to open one eye to peek at what was going on. Through his blurred vision, he could make out a green blob. It seemed to constantly move erratically, stopping whenever it appeared to run out of energy.
The Prince rolled onto his stomach and leisurely rose into a sitting position, he rubbed his eyes and blinked rapidly. His vision slowly cleared and he was greeted by the sight of cobblestone, he glanced to his left and spotted a set of iron bars and a door.
He was in a cell.
"Hey! Are you awake now?" A childish voice asked.
Torii looked in the direction the blob had been earlier, he cracked a small smile upon realising who it was.
"Yeah." He answered simply, his voice coming out softer than usual.
"Great, now I have someone who will actually talk to me." The Manakete beamed. Torii wondered how she could look so happy when they were both locked up in a cell, especially since she was chained to the wall.
"Well, I suppose we have more than enough time." Torii joked. Then he remembered what was going to happen to his cellmate, he grimaced and cast his gaze to the floor. The young man was broken from his stupor by another familiar voice.
"Oi! you awake now, yes?"
Torii looked over at the cell door, there stood a mountain of a man. An idea formed in Torii's head instantly.
"Gregor, I need you to do me a favour." The Prince told the man as he stumbled over to the cell door.
"How you know Gregor's name?" Gregor questioned.
"'Cause I know everything." Torii hurriedly stated. "Anyway, I need you to get Nowi out of here. Try and find a group called the 'Shepherds', they can help." He explained, a worried expression plastered on his face.
"Why should Gregor believe little man?" The mercenary asked.
"Because if you don't get her out of here, she's going to be sacrificed as an offering to Grima." The foreseer answered truthfully. "And if you still refuse to believe me, then do it because I'll pay you." He begged, a desperate edge in his tone.
"How much you pay Gregor?" The burly man inquired, likely intrigued by the prospect of earning more money.
"I could give you a treasury." The only response to that exaggeration, was a fit of laughter.
"Little man is funny." Gregor stated between laughs before walking off.
Torii slumped onto his knees, aimlessly staring at the ground. Then he slammed his fist into the cobblestone.
"Shit..." He muttered. If Nowi and Gregor didn't meet up with the Shepherds then that would be detrimental in the long run, and a life lost for a horrendous reason. The young man slammed his fist down into the cobblestone with an ever increasing intensity. The cobble cracking slightly before he stopped. Torii looked at the back of his hand, he had managed to tear the skin off and was now bleeding.
"Are you okay?" Nowi called out in concern, likely worried by her cellmate's prior behaviour. "And why are you concerned with getting me out of here?" The Manakete inquired, tilting her head to the side.
Torii looked over to her, but quickly cast his gaze back to the floor. "Because the Grimleal plan on sacrificing you to Grima, they believe the life force of one so closely related to dragons will hasten their Gods resurrection." He explained, biting his lip as his anger flared again. 'They'll probably sacrifice me too if they see this mark... then again, Gangrel might want to execute me to set an example. That would give some immunity... until I lose my head.' The brunette winced and instinctively rubbed the back of his neck. 'Though maybe... Yeah, that could work. Let's just pray that Gangrel's head is so far up his arse that he can be tricked.'
The rest of the day passed as Torii and Nowi conversed and got to know each other. The next few days passed the same way with Torii trying to convince Gregor to take Nowi to the Shepherds, to no avail.
Then one day.
Torii was pacing about the cell, thinking up another way to try and convince Gregor to save Nowi. The young man was broken from his musings when the cell door opened and the very man he had been thinking of walked in. Gregor approached the Manakete that was chained to the wall and produced a key from his pocket. He put the key in the first lock and unlocked it, doing the same with the second one. Nowi immediately rubbed her wrists now that they were free. Then she stood up, seemingly understanding the current situation as she followed Gregor out of the cell.
"Is crazy man coming too?" The mountain of a man asked the stunned Torii.
The Prince shook his head. Both to snap himself out of his confusion, and to answer the question. "No, I'll stay here. I have a plan." He assured the man.
Gregor nodded as he closed and locked the cell door, escorting Nowi out of the dungeon afterward.
"Now, I wonder... how long until I get into trouble?" Torii smiled devilishly as he sat down and leant against the stone wall.
"Where is the Manakete?" Aversa demanded, glaring furiously at an innocent looking Torii.
"Why, whatever do you mean? I've been alone in this cell since I was captured." The brown eyed man responded in mock innocence. This only furthered the heat behind the Dark Flier's gaze, but then she did something that sent a chill down the young man's spine.
She smiled.
"Take him to the torture room." She ordered.
"Gaahh!" Torii screamed in pain as the whip struck his bare skin yet again, his head falling to stare at the ground. Then he chuckled. "You'll have to do better than that." He screamed when the whip struck him yet again, his scream once again turning into laughter. "Come on! Once more! With feeling this time!" The brunette roared hysterically at Aversa.
"You're more resilient than you look. Most men break by this point." The white haired witch praised. "Though that means that breaking you will feel so much sweeter." She purred as she held Torii's head up by his chin, the man giving her a defiant smirk. She pushed him back against the rack he was chained to, the chains rattling as his back collided with the wood.
"Ma'am, King Gangrel requires your presence in the throne room." A guard informed the Dark Flier as she admired the lashes that know adorned her victim's body.
"Very well, I suppose a break is order anyway." Aversa turned to leave the room, only just catching Torii's last words as she exited into the corridor.
"You can't break what's already broken."
And so ends another chapter. I wonder how things will progress from here :)
