Captive

Agravaine was thrust roughly to the ground in a cell with a grunt of pain. He'd been blindfolded and gagged, so he honestly had no idea where he was right now. He felt the gag being removed and the ropes being cut. The blindfold was taken off and he shook his head, scowling up at the men who had captured him. Turquine and Caradoc. Behind them stood six knights of theirs in a neat row with wicked, unretricting light armor that looked like it had some barbarian influence. "Your betrayal of us has cost you. Your friends were slaughtered, every last one, along with all those who came to help them. Dead," Turquine said.

"Yeah? Show me their heads," Agravaine sneered. He wouldn't believe it until he had proof! But… but his heart had dropped into the pit of his stomach at the words…

"They wept like cowards. The children squealed so prettily," Caradoc stated.

"Show. Me. Their. Heads!" Agravaine shot, feeling rage but also fear bubbling up. "Give me proof they're dead, or this little mind game you're playing isn't going to work!" For his defiance he was struck a blow that knocked him to the ground. Caradoc grabbed him, picking him up, and threw him across the cell and against the wall. He crashed into it with a bang, crying out in pain and falling to the ground. His body protested the rough treatment, and he was seeing stars, his head having connected with the sharp stone painfully. It was now bleeding. He felt the blood coming warm and fast. He whimpered a bit, trying to get to hands and knees, but was dragged up and shoved against the stone once more. Manacles were closed over his wrists, locking him in place. He began to try and struggle against them, pointless as it was.

Caradoc pushed a knee against his back, pinnng him, then took hold of his tunic, ripping it apart and exposing his back. He pulled the tattered remains off Agravaine, tossing them to the side. Agravaine's squirming intensified. Right up until he heard a whip cracking in the air… He froze solid, the sound echoing in his ears. Oh shi… He screamed in pain as an agonizing jolt tore through his whole body, the whip Turquine branished connecting solidly and powerfully, rending flesh. They didn't drag it out slowly, this was a thrashing after all, and struck steadily and methodically at a pace just slow enough he wouldn't go mercifully numb anytime soon.

He writhed and screamed under the whip. They flogged him until he could no longer stand on his own, only the manacles holding him up. They continued even after, until he began to waver on the brink of consciousness. Finally, they stopped, leaving him gasping and panting for breath, bleeding badly and in agony. Every movement hurt. He whimpered slightly and bit his tongue to try and keep from crying. It didn't work, and tears began to slip from his eyes.

"You're a prisoner now, little boy. You have no room for defiance," Turquine darkly said. Agravaine coughed painfully, struggling to breathe. He almost said 'bite me' before he thought the better of it. The manacles were release and he dropped to the ground like a sack, laying there still and shuddering. He gave a pained cry as he was kicked in the stomach, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes tight. The cell door was shut behind him. Weakly Agravaine opened his eyes, looking after them. "We will be back," Turquine stated.

"To pass judgement?" Agravaine bit.

"Judgement has already been passed. You will die here. Evenually. When we've had our fun with you," Turquine answered.

"Damn you," Agravaine hissed.

They chuckled darkly at his words. Turquine turned to a guardsman. "Find Selices and send him to me. I have a task for him." The knight bowed to Turquine. Four followed their masters out in procession while two remained behind to guard Agravaine's cell. Agravaine shuddered, closing his eyes. As soon as he could think and move and breathe again, he needed to start looking for a way out.

KAK

"That coward! I can't believe Lancelot abandoned us like that," Kay said.

"His rivalry with Arthur has always clouded his judgement," Caradoc Briefbas remarked.

"That's no excuse for that jerk's behavior!" Kay said. "He should be put to death for his insolence."

Hector's jaw twitched, and he spun on Kay. "Back off! Lancelot is ten times the man you'll ever be, Kay! Or any of us for that matter! You don't know anything about him or what he's willing to do for the people he cares about!"

"Take off when the going gets tough, that's what," a boy from Green Knight Accomodations, Ozanna le Cure Hardy, said with a scoff.

"That's not true!" Bohort snapped. "He'll do anything and everything for them!"

"Right! He did for Hector," Lionel insisted.

"My cuz ain't no coward," Bleoberis defended just as coldly as his other cousins. "Yous don't know nothin' 'bout Lancelot."

"Then inform us. What redeeming quality does that jerk have?" Kay said with a sharp laugh.

"Lancelot is a good man. Rough around the edges? Yes. Very. But in his heart, he's a good and honorable man. If one more person says otherwise or keeps speaking ill of him, you'll face me," Gawain spoke up, tone hard. "He makes stupid decisions in the heat of the moment, but he always comes back. He has to. It's his heart's inclination. He would never be able to live with himself if he didn't this time and something bad happened."

"Never should have let you get to know me so well," a voice said bitterly from behind. They all turned.

"Lancelot!" Calogrevance, aka Calogrenant, exclaimed in shock. "You came back!"

"You heard Gawain. It was in my heart to return and all that sappy crap," Lancelot muttered.

"But-but why?" Arthur asked.

"You think I was going to miss this party?" Lancelot questioned with a dry smirk. It fell shortly after, though. "I came because Carados is right. My rivalry with you clouds my judgement. But this isn't about you and me. This is about Agravaine, and… and I need to work on putting grudges behind me anyway… I have a bad habit of keeping and nursing them. Going to get me killed one day."

"Been there," Arthur dryly said, grimacing.

"Now that we're all together again, let's keep going," Bagdemagus said. "There isn't any more time to waste. Every second that passes is another second Agravaine doesn't have. Considering there's still an Agravaine to save…"

KAK

A guardsman strode down the dark dungeon corridor, tall and finely-built with lengthy hair cascading down his back. He held no conventional weapon. Instead he wore, on his fingers, makeshift claws, long and deadly and wicked. Each fellow guard that saw him moved out of the way with gasps or whispers, granting him room to pass. His movements were grace, his step sure, and his ears… They were pointed… Bands were strapped around his arms, located on the biceps, forearms, and wrists. They were made of ebony mixed with some sort of red material. Jagged spikes protruded from them. A collar was about his neck, as jagged and deadly looking as the bands on his arms. His torso, bare, was covered in scars that formed an intricate pattern over the whole of his body. A sash was about his waist, black and long, holding up black greaves that looked like they were made from the scales of some beast, possibly a dragon. He was an altogether terrifying sight. The black war paint around his eyes that traced his blood vessels didn't help him look any less intimidating. Whispers of 'Selices' rippled through the men, all of which swiftly moved out of the way, glaring dakly at this thing among them. He had been told to pay a visit to the new prisoner, so there he went.

Agravaine woke to the sound of something dragging leisurely and menacingly across the bars of his cell. He frowned and looked up warily and tiredly. He caught his breath, eyes widening in shock, on seeing the figure standing there. He gave a cry, scrambling away from the door and staring in horror. An elf. It was an elf! With claws! And apparently a thing for racy armor. Like wow. That was some really, really… unsettling and unnecessarily sexualized stuff going on. Did he seriously fight in that getup? The figure, the elf, stared at him, tilting its head from side to side as it summed him up, eyes red as blood and canine teeth filed to abnormal points as well as a few others. Agravaine sat slowly up, lips parting in disbelief as light caught the figure. Holy crap… this elf was just a kid

"Oh my gods…" Agravaine said. He'd thought this whole scenario was messed up as it was, but realizing just how young this thing must be—dammit, it couldn't be more than the elven equivalent of eighteen, if that—just made it like a thousand times worse! It continued to stare at him, apparently not accustomed to seeing a kid so young in this nightmarish dungeon. The elf's makeshift claws tapped and played against the bars before reaching down. It took the lock between two of those claws, felt it up for a moment, then applied a little pressure, cracking it open. He took the lock and casually dropped it to the side. Agravaine sat still, rooted to the spot with eyes wide and lips parted in fear, heart speeding up nervously. Nothing he was seeing implied this visit would be in any way good. The elf opened the door, walking inside in no rush. "Wh-who are you?" Agravaine managed to make himself say. "Wh-why are you here?!" No answer. It just kept coming. Agravaine shook his head, scrambling to his feet and pressing himself against the wall. "No," he pled, voice breaking. "Please… Please! Don't!" He shook his head as he said those words, pressing against the stone as much as he possibly could. He didn't know what to expect, what this elf was playing at, he just knew he wanted no part of it. It stopped near him, claws reaching out and creeping across Agravaine's throat, pressing against the walls. The boy probably would have sobbed if he hadn't been so scared. All he could do was stare pleadingly up at the tall elf. "Please," he pled once more in a whisper, tears burning his eyes.

The elf continued staring at him quietly, reading him. Finally, it withdrew its hand and stepped a little way away. Agravaine let out a shaky breath of relief, but he knew better than to assume this was going to be the end of it. He swallowed nervously. "How old are you?" the elf asked after a moment. His voice only confirmed, to Agravaine, how young this thing really was…

"I-I'm almost fifteen," Agravaine replied numbly. It was still, staring at him. There was a twitch in its jaw, though, which told Agravaine it associated something with that age. "Who are you?" Agravaine asked again in a whisper.

It stared, eyes boring into him. "My name is Selices," he finally replied. "Of the Dolorous Tower."

"You-you're an elf," Agravaine said.

Selices' jaw twitched again and Agravaine saw a barely perceptible swallow as it looked away from him a moment, closing its, his, eyes. Soon he looked back at him. "I… was not expecting a child."

"You're one to talk!" Agravaine said before he could bite his tongue. He inwardly cursed himself for the slip. A dark anger had crossed the elf's eyes before seeming to be neutralized once more.

"I haven't been a child for a very long time," he answered. "This… complicates things."

"What were you sent down to do to me?!" Agravaine demanded. "Because I'm sorry, but that getup you're wearing? It's really, really making me feel like you came down here to play at more types of torture than just the conventional physical sort." Selices stared at him as if puzzled as to what he meant. Soon, though, he caught on. The fact the guy didn't seem surprised at the insinuation really, really didn't make Agravaine feel comfortable. "Oh my god, did you?!" he exclaimed in horror.

Selices was quiet. "They sent me to visit you. What 'visit' means depends on the one they've sent me to."

"What does that even mean?!" Agravaine demanded. Selices looked visibly uncomfortable now, the menacing façade starting to fade as he was put more and more on the spot. He stepped back a little more. "Wait! Wait, just-just can we start over?" Selices stayed quiet. "Okay… What the hell man?!" Selices looked unimpressed with the failed attempt to 'start over'. "Sorry, sorry, just-just I'm kind of really, really not okay right now, okay?" Agravaine said, feeling more and more desperate and more and more like he was edging towards panic. "Why… what did you expect, when you came down to 'visit' me? Can we start there? What did you expect?"

Selices was quiet. "I expected a man," he finally answered. "A man with… ideals. Imaginings… Fantasies…" Agravaine blinked, trying to process the words, then looked utterly appalled at the insinuation. Selices looked away, then back. "The next thing I expected was a genuine prisoner. One they wanted punished severely. Fatally…"

"An executioner," Agravaine said, eyes wide.

"Hmm… Generally the men I'm sent to execute thank me for killing them… Caradoc and Turquine are far from kind wardens… And after that, I expected a genuine prisoner they wanted tortured."

"You're their torturer too?" Agravaine asked a bit meekly.

"Not a good one," he answered.

"What does that mean?" Agravaine asked.

"It means I don't… relish in inflicting pain," Selices said. "So instead they die or faint very, very quickly."

"So they sent you to kill me, then," Agravaine said.

"They want that honor for themselves," he replied.

"So torture! They wanted you to torture me!" Agravaine said.

Selices stared at him steadiliy. Agravaine began to shift uncomfortably, looking a bit fearful. "They sent me to... sorely harm you," Selices finally replied. He looked him over again. "I didn't expect a child…"

"I don't understand what that means! I don't!" Agravaine said. Why did he keep saying that?

Selices met his eyes again. Finally he turned, walking out of the cell and shutting the door behind him, retrieving the lock and putting it back on. Then he sat on a perch, cross legged, and just stared like a creepy mother… never mind. Agravaine would go out on a limb and guess that the idea of torturing or… sorely hurting a kid only a few years younger than himself was kind of unsettling for this guy. Good. It meant he had a little more time before pain. The elf was probably psyching himself up to go through with it, so he had kind of a limited window to think his way out of this. He hated that he was drawing a blank this time around, because he could really, really use an idea about now.

"How did you come to be here?" Selices suddenly asked.

Agravaine looked over at him, a bit startled by the question. He blinked at the elf and winced, looking away. "I… made a mistake… I needed to fix it…"

"What mistake?" Selices asked.

Wasn't this guy just full of questions, now? Of course, he probably didn't get much of a chance to speak to anyone on this level very often. Or at all. When was the last time he'd spoken to someone on a more casual note, Agravaine wondered? "There… was a boy that Caradoc and Turquine wanted. An escaped slave. They hunted him down. Me and my… schoolmates had run into this boy and taken him under our wing. So they started stalking us. And getting closer… And I heard them mutter to one another about a sneak attack and a massacre one night, and I… I felt like if we didn't get rid of the escaped slave, it would cost us all our lives… So I went to them… I made a deal. I told them I'd hand him over on a silver platter to them and… and I did…" he said.

Silence. "Why are you here and he isn't?" Selices finally asked.

Agravaine was quiet, looking down. "Because I went back for him. I saved him… But while we were trying to get away, they caught me… He tried to come back, but I told him not to because then they'd just catch us both, and he needed to get help so maybe there'd be a chance. For me, for him, for everyone… He didn't want to go, but he knew it was the only way, so he ran to find the others… And they took me instead…"

"Why did you go back for him?" Selices asked. Agravaine looked up at the elf and was silent. Why did you go back…? He… he didn't know how to answer that question… Instead he looked down. Selices stared, waiting. No answer. "Please… I need to know…" Selices finally said.

Agravaine looked back at him. Need? Why need? On second thought, he probably didn't want to know. "Because I felt regret. And guilt. And shame… Because he was a better person than me… Because he tried to save me when he thought I was in danger from the two giants, even though I'd only antagonized him… He didn't deserve to suffer whatever they had planned for him…"

"Are you a good person?" Selices asked.

"I'm the last guy who's going to claim that," Agravaine replied, grimacing.

"Then why did he try to save you? Especially when you'd only tormented him?" Selices asked.

"Because he was a good person," Agravaine said quietly, arms folded across his chest now, officially thoroughly shamed.

Selices was quiet. "I don't understand," he finally said, head hung slightly. He looked conflicted. He looked sad… He looked confused and lost…

"I don't either. But I guess sometimes you don't have to. It just comes, maybe? I don't know," Agravaine said.

Selices nodded. After a while he looked up. "You went back for him… Doesn't that make you a good person?"

Agravaine was quiet, shifting uncomfortably. He wasn't sure how to answer that. "I mean, I guess it means I'm not totally evil."

Selices took in the answer quietly, pondering on it. "Your schoolmates will come for you," he finally said.

Agravaine was quiet. "I hope they do," he finally replied. He wasn't sure they would, though. Selices nodded then slid off the perch he'd been sitting on and walked away. Agravaine watched after him. He wanted to call him back, he was really missing conversation about now, but he didn't. Just observed. The elf was unexpected…

KAK

The dorm houses slunk up to the crest of a hill and peered over it. In the distance stood a massive and solitary tower. "Creepy much?" Lionel deadpanned.

"The Dolorous Tower," Pellinore gravely said. "It is a horrible place."

"What must be done must be done. No soldier left behind," Degore militaristically stated.

"How do we get in?" Lionel asked.

"Therein lies the problem," Galehaut said.

"Storm it," Menaduke stated.

"And get cut down? No thanks," Arthur replied.

"We could send the sneakiest ones ahead to get rid of the guards on the outside. If we can disguise ourselves as them, we'll have a way into the tower and we'll be able to move relatively freely until they discover the bodies," Accolon offered.

"It could work," Meleagant agreed. "Of course I think we're doomed either way, but whatever. Not like anyone cares what I think."

"I'm right there with you," Balan dryly replied.

"Ditto," Gareth stated.

"You're bringing down morale, boys. Eyes on the prize. We will succeed, we will succeed, we will succeed," Bedivere said.

"So who's going down?" little Loholt asked. There was no response from the teachers. Frowning curiously, the boys turned to the faculty. "Sirs?" Loholt pressed.

The fifteen men were all silently communicating with one another. They seemed to come to a mutual agreement and looked back at the students. "Sit, boys," Pellinore said. "We need to talk." The students looked puzzled, exchanging looks, but nevertheless obeyed, curious as to what was suddenly so impotant. The teachers knelt in front of them all. Pellinore rested his hands on his knees, examining each face. "We need you to understand very, very clearly what's about to happen here."

"We're going to bust in and get our brother back?" Gareth flatly replied.

"You're going into battle," Galehaut said simply. "Not a fake one, not a game, it will be real, and it will be bloody."

"Hate to break it to you, Galehaut, but some of us have already fought in a real battle. The rebel kings, remember?" Arthur said.

Carados shot Arthur an ugly scowl. Galehaut gave the boy king a condescending look. "This is going to be nothing like the fight against the rebel kings. You negotiated you way out the first time. The second time it was the knights that defected from them who did the fighting, and that was after Balin and Balan got them all high. The bloodshed that happened during that time was virtually nonexistent. There were casualties, but not like there will be here."

Ector, sighed, looking down, then faced the boys again. "You never saw clearly the faces of the men who died on that battlefield, when the rebel kings came… But you'll see them plainly now… You'll look into their eyes as your blades enter their bodies, and you'll watch the life in them fade. You'll feel them slip away… And there'll be no telling yourselves that you didn't do it this time… You will go down there, and you will kill, and you will be covered in blood that isn't your own and there'll be no coming back from it, do you understand me? Once you kill, there's no coming back. That sight will haunt you the rest of your lives… And this isn't how we wanted you to end up. Not now. Not this soon." He said it to all of them, but his eyes were fixed painfully on Kay and Arthur. Kay bowed his head, closing his eyes. He understood. Arthur looked confused. Most of the younger students looked a bit puzzled. Like they didn't wholly understand what was being said. Like they got the permanence of death, yeah, but just… didn't understand it; didn't understand what this meant. Not like the older students did.

Finally, though, Aglovale said, "I'd rather have the blood of a stranger on my hands than the blood of a friend… Send me and those in my peer group down to them, father. Only us, along with you and the other faculty. It was just a matter of time before we would have seen true battle anyway… We're ready. We have been for a while… Besids, at our ages we're probably overdue." Pellinore's heart twisted inside of him to hear his oldest speak like that. He grimaced, closing his eyes and looking away for a moment. Aglovale was pushing his twenties, at this point. It was sometimes hard to remember that. He still saw a child of nine, not a youth of nineteen just on the cusp of becoming a man…"

"Those of you eighteen and older will join us on the front lines," Morholt said finally. "The rest will stay back until the guards outside are dealt with. When we give the signal, the rest of you may follow, but not a moment before. For now, we go back into the forest and prepare. The blades need to be sharpened, bows need to be restrung, the arrows maintained… Tomorrow we'll make our move." The students nodded in agreement, the younger ones suddenly looking a whole lot more uncomfortable with what was happening.

From the underbrush a figure listened and observed…