Author's Notes: Four more chapters on this. The reckoning is coming.

"Hurry up you lazy oafs, he's freaking me out."

"He's cracked his nut. I've never seen the Archmage so pissed."

Kalibose had stayed up as long as possible: it wasn't hard, with how much his hands ached. The tattoos had hurt even worse this time. He didn't know if that was because he was prepared for the deep sense of violation that he felt after the fact, or if it was because the archmage seemed to press the needle so hard he scraped the bone. All he knew was that he could barely close his hands to grasp anything, and had tossed and turned miserably all night. He must have fallen asleep at some point though, because he had started awake at the sound of the bunk room door being scraped open, and the most bizarre sound to follow it, along with the trio of older apprentices.

Kalibose stayed rolled over on his side, forgetting about his hands for the first time as he listened. The Archmage had returned him in the middle of the night, who was he bringing back now? He thought wildly of Merrick, then dismissed it out of hand. Merrick had been gone when he got back. It wasn't the first time he had disappeared the entire night, and he had a good reason to be hiding this time.

"By Elune will you just shut up? Shut him up, Tiranen."

"Fuck no, I'm not touching him. Not after what happened to his face."

To Kalibose's increasing trepidation, the voices got closer until they stopped right beside his bunk. And the strange sound, although he had never heard it before, suddenly became clear to him.

The person they were carrying was Merrick. And he was giggling.

"Just fucking leave him here." Tiranen dumped Merrick unceremoniously on the ground next to Kalibose's bunk. He cringed at the sound of him hitting the floor, but the worst part was that it didn't seem to have affect on the low chuckle that kept an eerie dissonance to the normal quiet of the bunks.

Merrick waited for the other apprentices to fully rush out of the room, then pulled himself up until he was sitting, leaning against the bunk. The noise he was making wasn't a true laugh, which is why it was hard to place at first. It was groans, mixed with harsh breaths, and in between them an almost monotonous mirthless giggle in short bursts, as if he was reliving a hilarious memory in his head and every few moments remembered another funny part.

This knowledge did not make Kalibose feel any more comfortable.

The hood was drawn over Merrick's face. Kalibose reached for it at the same time that he spoke.

"Merrick?"

"That stupid..old...bastard."

More of the half-chuckles, grimaces of pain. Kalibose pulled his hand back from Merrick's hood. His hand was smeared with blood. Feeling the panic rise sharply in him, he grabbed the hood and yanked it back from Merrick's face.

He wasn't sure how long he had been screaming when Merrick finally got him to stop. The other boy flattened himself against him, one hand covering his mouth, the other wrapped around his neck, saying things to him in a harsh whisper that didn't even register in his brain.

"Stop it Kalibose, stop it you great idiot."

"No, no, this is better, don't you see? This is so much better than before."

"By Elune you are so fucking LOUD."

"Stop it Kalibose, I did this. I did this, not him."

It was the final one that got him to stop, to actually listen to him. Kalibose stared into the eyes of his friend, of the silver ringed with red around the edges from the blood that had run into them. He thought wildly of trying to wipe it away, then remembered that his entire face was covered with blood, and it would just run in again. He swallowed hard, and did the only thing that he knew how to do when bombarded with emotions. His eyes filled up with tears and his voice cracked as he whispered.

"What happened?"

Merrick stared at him for one minute, then shook his head, seemingly oblivious to the horror show that was his face. "Why are you so hopeless?" He released him, and sat down cross legged on the bed, casual as could be. There was red smeared on his hands, and he absent-mindedly wiped it off on Kalibose's threadbare comforter.

"Can, can I at least clean your face?"

It was hard to see the patronizing look on Merrick's face, but his tone came through loud and clear.

"If it will make you feel better."

Kalibose was out of bed and moving before he even finished his sentence. He dashed to the communal bathrooms, grabbed a rag that looked less dirty than the others, and wet it under the sink. His heart was pounding and his brain was a mess: all he could do was focus on one thing, and that was to take care of his friend first, and let the details fall into place later.

Merrick was in the exact same position as Kalibose left him, and he let him sit right in front of him and gently start to wipe the blood off of his face. For some reason, it was that calm complacence of his, the fact that he was actually letting Kalibose do something for him instead of getting angry or shoving him away, that calmed his outright panic and hone it into a worry that something horribly profound had happened, and he didn't like what it inferred. He cleared his throat, and steeled his stomach.

"What cut your face, Merrick?"

Merrick hadn't been looking at him the entire time Kalibose had been washing his face, but it seemed his eyes were even farther away as he spoke.

"I think we all come to a point where we realize that nothing good can come of the current situation, and it's time to stand up or lay down forever."

His blank tone of voice frightened Kalibose, but when he turned looked directly at him, the look in his eyes was worse.

"He had me pinned, in that red room of his. Not with magic even, he was so arrogant he just held me with his hands. And I realized that this was never going to change. We were going to go round and round and nothing would happen with the way things were. So I changed it."

Merrick reached up and gingerly touched the angry red mark that went from above his right eyebrow, across the bridge of his nose, below his left eye, and staggered off into nothing on his left cheek. He had a vague sense of surprise in his eyes, as if he had just realized the extent of the damage on his face.

"I had slipped a piece of broken pottery in my pocket when I broke the shelves in the storage room today. I brought it out too slowly, he saw that I had it. He laughed at me, laughed in my face, and asked if I thought I could hurt him with that. He already had every part of me. I looked him dead in the eyes and told him no, but I will hurt myself, so that you can't use me. And I did it, Kalibose. I made him stop."

That trace of madness, that blankness that had always scared Kalibose and now seemed more refined, rose up in Merrick's voice and he gripped Kalibose by the shoulders, focusing that strain of lunacy right on him.

"Do you see this? This is the face of victory."

Kalibose reached up and carefully ran his finger over the ice blue lines that were tattooed around Merrick's left eye. They were raised, and the skin around them was swollen and hot. It was a magic infused tattoo, but different than his.

"What about this?"

Merrick laughed, and it sent a shudder down Kalibose's spine.

"This? This is the best part."

Merrick tapped the tattoo, and a thin spark ran around the edges of of it, highlighting it on his face. Kalibose flinched, his own brand new tattoos aching in the activity that morning. Didn't it hurt?

"When the archmage realized what I had done, he tried to half-ass fix my face. There are magical ways to stop bleeding, cauterization, and others, but none of them really work well and he knew that he couldn't erase what I had done. So he told me that he would still use me, that I wouldn't be free from him. And then he made me into an amplifier. An amplifier, Kalibose!"

He laughed again, winced in pain, and Kalibose tried not to back up until he wasn't touching him anymore. No matter what Merrick claimed happened in the upper rooms, he could see that there was more going on than physical appearance.

"Don't you see? This amplifier isn't bound to him. I am bound to no one."

Merrick stood up on the bed, balancing precariously and Kalibose shrank back from him, finally free from his grip.

"I AM BOUND TO NO ONE."

Merrick giggled maniacally until he lost his balance and fell down into a seated position, rocking back and forth with wheezing laughter. Kalibose took another step away from him.

"I have a bargaining chip now. I am getting out of here. I am getting out of here, and all you fuckers can burn."

Kalibose swallowed hard against the hot spark that seemed to have lodged himself into the middle of his chest. For the first time since he had been dumped into this nightmare, he felt like he was truly alone. He knew in his heart the answer, but it didn't stop the whisper that escaped from his mouth.

"What about me?"

That seemed to derail Merrick's rapid descent into madness. He paused, and when he looked him in the eye, Kalibose could see both the sanity return and a veil come down over his face. He leaned over and put a hand on Kalibose's shoulder.

"Of course you too. We'll get you out too."

Merrick closed his eyes and wobbled in place before catching himself.

"I am going back up top. I am drained of everything. We will talk about this tomorrow."

Kalibose sat on the bottom bunk, shivering, wide awake for a very long time.

Much later than the call usually came, Kalibose was startled awake by shouting in the bunkroom.

"Wake up! Wake up you lazy scrubs! You get the day off, get out of bed."

Kalibose had only been half-listening, but now he sat up and rubbed his eyes vigorously. All around him, other apprentices did the same, and a few of the older ones gave a cheer. Lorenath had a smug look on his face, but there was more happiness there than usual.

"The Archmage has over extended himself and requires a day of rest. You are all free to visit the common areas of Eldre'thelas today. You will all leave through the approved doorway that will mark and count you. You must return by nightfall. So don't wander off, idiots."

Lorenath looked like he had just delivered everyone a birthday present. "Now get out of here, I'm not going to wait on you."

He turned and walked away, and there was a mad scramble as everyone jumped out of bed at once. Momentarily forgetting the events of the night before, Kalibose climbed up the bunk to shake Merrick awake.

"Get up! We get to leave!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Merrick apparently slept with his hood drawn and was sitting up in bed, letting it fall to conceal his face. He sounded, if nothing else, nothing more than wrung out from the lack of sleep, and the madness that had been his companion last night was not there. He started to rub his face, winced, and instead yanked the covers off.

"You haven't been in the common areas yet, have you?"

Kalibose shook his head excitedly. In his constant misery of simply existing, he hadn't even wondered what was in the rest of the compound that the Archmage had his facilities in. It was almost funny, now that he thought about it. The stonework outside seemed to stretch forever, it was stupid to think there was nothing else there. Merrick pushed himself to the edge of the bed and waved him down in front of him.

"Wait for me, I'm going to do something with my face."

Kalibose shivered as he remembered fully what had taken place last night. He watched Merrick's back as he disappeared into the communal bathrooms. When he emerged, his hood was still up but he looked more full of energy. It unnerved him to not see his friend's eyes as he spoke, but he shrugged it off in his eagerness to get on their way.

"There are certain things you have to remember in Eldre'thelas. First of all, there are a lot of easy ways to circumvent the marking process. Do not do them. On a day like today, you want the Archmage to know that you went out with everyone else like normal. Later, I will show you a few of the back doors to get into the commons in secret."

Merrick kept up a steady stream of low chatter as they followed a few other stragglers down the stone hallway to a glowing doorway ahead. Kalibose was pretty sure that doorway had never existed before this day.

"The commons is going to have a lot of different apprentices and different archmages. Alliances between the archmages vary every single day. If someone of power tries to get you to go with them, even if they invoke Mannerel's name, do not go with them. Trust no one. Archmages will often trade and steal powerful apprentices between each other, and with your hands, and what Mannerel has undoubtedly talked about you to his peers, you are a target. I will also now be a target. We stick together, we don't go with anyone, we'll be fine."

They paused before the glowing doorway. Kalibose could see at the very corner a purple rune on the wall that emitted a light through a set of mirrors to surround the doorway. Merrick caught him looking at it and pointed to it.

"That's the marking system. It's easy to avoid or block, but like I said, we're not going to do that this time."

Merrick made an obscene gesture at it as they walked through, and Kalibose felt a tingle of energy go through his entire body as he was counted and marked. On the other side, he noticed a purple design on Merrick's hand that looked like a fancy M. He lifted his own hand and saw the same.

"That's Mannerel's mark. It won't protect us, but it would make tracking us down very easy. But we aren't going to worry about that today."

On the other side of the doorway, there was another long, twisty hallway. Kalibose did his level best to remember how it went and the turns they made. This was a way out, and he was not discounting it.

"There are shops and vendors and such out in the commons. Mannerel's mark will get you one meal outside, but nothing else. If you want something, you'll be expected to trade or have coin. So looking only."

Despite Merrick's constant sobering instructions, Kalibose was beside himself with anticipation. This was freedom, even if it was only for a day. He could hear a low rumble of activity in the hallway ahead of him, and he pressed forward faster, leaving Merrick to sigh in exasperation and follow him. Ahead of him was a light. No, that was wrong: ahead of them was sunlight.

Kalibose broke into a run the final few steps and stepped brazenly out into the fresh air. The sunlight hurt his eyes, and the air was the frigid chill of late winter, But the hallways opened out into a courtyard that was open to the air above and Kalibose thought he might cry, he was so happy. It wasn't the breathtaking beauty of the terraces of home, the trees and grass were mostly dead, but there were people, and there was laughter and there was talking and by Elune, he could breathe. He stood for a moment, captivated by how much he had forgotten the joy of simply being allowed to go where he wanted to go. Merrick finally caught up to him, and grabbed his hand before the surge of apprentices could drag him forward into the crowd.

"Come on, I'll show you the best places."

Years later, when Kalibose thought about all the best moments of his life, he would first mention the day he had met Mae, the day Mae had told him she loved him, the birth of their daughter. But even though he kept every single memory of his time in Eldre'thelas, and especially those of his first year, locked tightly in the back of his head, he did remember the feeling. He remembered the feeling of fresh wind on his face, of freedom in his veins, of taking in every single sight and smell of a brand new place that he had the liberty to roam, after months of being locked in indoors, and before that, years of living in secrecy. And maybe, if he didn't manage to squash it out of his mind immediately, the feeling of a warm hand in his and excitement twinkling in eyes that seemed too bright for the dark shadows that they hid in.

There was so much to take in, that the many of the details were lost to him. The most he could do was hold on to the path that they had taken, so that he could retrace it later. Merrick led him in and out of scraggly trees poking up trough ruins of the forgotten city, past ancient arcane wards, and finally onto the main thoroughfare that was by far the busiest place he had seen in months.

There were people everywhere. Sometime in the past few months, Kalibose had forgotten that anything outside his imprisonment existed, and seeing all these different people, just walking around and talking and bantering back and forth and even getting into heated arguments, was incredible. He and Mannerel's other apprentices had exited into a lower level, a sort of pit area, that held other apprentices but not much else. Directly to the left was a gigantic ancient stone stair, and it was on that upper level that the vendors were. Slowly, as Merrick wove them through gaggles of apprentices that looked younger than him and definitely less mature, and into smaller clusters of mages and archmages, Kalibose started to get the idea of how the city, if that was what you could call it, was laid out. Almost all of the apprentices came out of that one sunken courtyard, and Kalibose assumed that the exits led straight down into the catacombs, into the laboratories and tucked away places that the highest ranked mages kept their experimental and training areas. Up top, where men and women walked more stately and were adorned in robes and such that showed their rank, contained secret entrances to the mages inner quarters. The vendors dotting the rectangular walkway sold all sorts of items, from rare reagents, to clothing, to exotic pets, and even right there in the open, slaves to purchase.

The last discovery was enough to make Kalibose dig his heels in and release Merrick's hand, and drop his jaw in disbelief. The slave tent was by far the most lavish set up in the entire area: silk scarves of red and purple billowed about in the late winter wind and attracted the eye to the area immediately. It was not the only place of decadence: there were mageweave vendors, places where it was obvious that only an excessive amount of gold was welcome, and carts of ancient spellbooks to buy. There was even a secluded booth backed up to a padlocked covered wagon, manned by two very elegant satyrs, who were selling spices from the front and exotic drugs from the back.

But none of those made Kalibose's stomach turn to ice and catch his breath as the sight of the slave tent. It was obviously a well-established place, due to the casualness in which the other patrons of the common areas strolled around it, even stopping to pat a slave on the head or ogle one that was dancing without shame. The tent was huge, big enough to provide shade to all of the "wares" without being crowded. There was a goblin sitting on a chair that had obviously been built to elevate him in height to talk to the mostly Kal'dorei population in attendance, and he looked as all goblins did-dressed impeccably in silk and brocade, pants and waistcoat and top hat, but oozing greed out of every pore. He was in deep conversation with a female archmage who was dressed head to toe in red and black leather adorned with gold spellthread. The coloring against her dark purple skin and even darker purple hair gave her the appearance of a demon. As Kalibose watched, stricken to the spot, the goblin leaned behind him and barked out an order. Two slaves, willowy night elves that looked as if they had never lived outdoors in their lives, rose from their cushions to attend their captor. They too were also dressed in silks, although much more revealing. They had bare feet, and the male had a bare chest. Both the male and female had flowers woven into their flowing dark blue hair. They looked so similar, waifish and built like dancers, that Kalibose thought they might be siblings. The collars around their necks looked almost ornamental, inlaid with gold, but Kalibose knew that looks were most certainly deceiving, especially in a magical community. They both bowed to the woman eyeing them critically, but as they did so, something caught his eye that made Kalibose take a horrified step back, then another, until the back of his knees hit a bench and he sat down hard.

They both had arcane tattoos on their backs in purple. They were not just slaves, but magic users.

"They are actually treated very well."

Merrick had appeared behind him from thin air, but Kalibose did not startle. Kalibose shook his head, opening his mouth and trying to find any kind of words as Merrick spoke to him.

"Jeezer, the goblin, has a huge estate within Eldre'thelas and all of the slaves are kept clean, fed, and there are caretakers that tend to them. They lead a very good life: no one is allowed to touch them on pain of death, as they are another person's merchandise. You shouldn't pity them, Kalibose."

There was a rough tone to Merrick's voice, but Kalibose barely registered it. Finally he was able to choke out one word.

"How?"

Merrick looked down at him with a hard look on his face. In that moment Kalibose felt he caught a glimpse of a side of the other apprentice that he had never seen before: the type of person who was addicted to the arcane at the age of six, the type of person who was given to an abusive archmage before he had even hit puberty. The type of person who had seen so much that something like humanoid trafficking was regarded pragmatically and categorized as a way of life.

"This is an outcast society, Kalibose, don't be thick. There is no law here except the law of the archmages and their peers. Don't expect any kind of highbrow morality."

Merrick took a step in front of him until he was the only thing in his vision. He held out his hand to Kalibose, and he took it. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Kalibose let himself be led away from the main area of the vendors. He tried to keep his eyes down from the slave tent as they passed it, but without meaning to, he glanced up. He met the eyes of a male slave, a Kal'dorei. He looked a little older than he did: he had the beginnings of a trimmed beard and his bare chest was muscled. He had an ice blue starburst tattoo in the corner of each eye and a diamond over his left eye, like a mockery of the tattoos the Sentinel women bore. The slave looked at him unabashedly with a steady, blank stare, and Kalibose found that he had stopped moving at all. He was vaguely aware of Merrick saying something heated, and then he was yanked away from the slave's captivating stare. The last thing he saw before Merrick bodily drug him away was the slave's expression change minutely. Instead of aloof neutrality, there was a bit of a spark in his eye, and the tiniest of smirks, barely a curl of lip, which made Kalibose blush from his ears to his shoulders and he dropped his eyes and scurried after Merrick so fast that he almost trampled him.

Together they slipped past the busiest part of the common areas to the shadowy places, where different entrances and exits marked the edges. Here Kalibose saw evidence of his imprisonment as an apprentice: barely visible around each doorway was the same glow that had lit the exit that had given him Mannerel's mark. He assumed, if he passed through the doorway, he'd be caught immediately. Some of his excitement dampened as Merrick led him to one of the corners of common areas. This was obviously an old entrance: half covered with dead vines and the crumbling rock, but still was that glow, and Kalibose could clearly see the purple rune in the uppermost corner. Merrick stopped in front of it and turned around. Kalibose could barely see the hint of a small grin on his face under the shadow of his hood.

"Now, I will show you how to bypass the marking system."

Kalibose watched as he poked around the dead vines that adorned the wall near the exit, until Merrick held up a stick that definitely had not grown there naturally. It was the same thickness and color as the vines, but at the end a tiny double-sided mirror had been fastened. Kalibose nodded his head in appreciation as Merrick carefully held the mirror up to the rune: the spell reflected back into itself and the glow disappeared. Kalibose's grin matched Merrick's as he slipped through the now safe exit, and Merrick followed, carefully holding the mirror up until the last moment before moving it onto the opposite side and stashing it among the vines. Once it was removed, the door continued glowing.

"You can't take too long going through, no more than one or two people at a time, but you can do that to almost every doorway. And now we are free for the afternoon."

They had picked up the first hot meal available in the commons, fresh lemon bread and a hunk of cheese, and holding the paper tightly, they ran along the crumbling stone passageways, dodging places where the rocks had fallen down in the way and climbing up on top of the wall to skip along the top. Merrick took the lead, but Kalibose could see that there was so much space up here, twists and turns and little nooks and crannies to climb and hide in, that they could wander the entire rest of the day and not run out of room. They could also clearly see the sky from out here. They would be able to make it back in plenty of time. The sun was directly overhead as Merrick led them higher and higher, away from Eldre'thelas proper, and closer to the ogre arena of Dire Maul.

If Eldre'thelas was the hidden backroom of mage society, Dire Maul was the storefront of normality. The archmages and the ogres had an agreement; the ogres would not delve into the secret passageways and courtyards of the mage city, and the mages would keep all of their experiments away from their arena. Kalibose assumed at least a little magical subterfuge was used in the agreement: no one would approach the city with the ogres protecting it, and the mages took every advantage of that natural protection. Perched on the very top of the tallest spire above the arena, Kalibose watched the ogres below in disgusted fascination. They were huge brutish things, and every now and then he and Merrick would get a whiff of their pungent smell. But those incidences were minor compared to the dizzying longing for the freedom that was so close they could almost imagine it was possible.

"I wish we could stay up here."

Kalibose didn't realize he had even said it out loud until Merrick turned to look at him. He had only eaten half of his lunch before giving the rest to him, and now sat with his arms around his knees and his hood drawn over his face in quiet contemplation. Kalibose could just barely see a hint of blue light around the other apprentice's eye as he spoke.

"This is one of my favorite places. No one can get you up here."

Kalibose watched him for a long moment. So much had happened in the last year, and so much more in the last 24 hours. The thought of what might yet to come, even in the next few days, made his head spin. There was no stability in his life at all, except for pain, and this completely unpredictable friend that he had no idea how he felt about anymore. The question, when he asked it, held a bit of that despair in it.

"What are we going to do next, Merrick?"

Merrick tilted his head slightly, just so he could see him, then turned completely around. There wasn't much room at all to move up here on this spire, but he crawled on his hands and knees so that he was squeezed in beside Kalibose, shoulder to shoulder. The weight and warmth of him was a comfort, whether he wanted it to be or not. He could hear Merrick's breathing, shallow and light, as he leaned closer to him, close enough that he could actually see his face in the shadow of his hood. Merrick cracked a tiny half smile, and held up his hand.

"I am going to throw this conjured snowball at that ogre. Want to watch?"

Kalibose nodded his head, forcing a grin onto his face. As soon as Merrick leaned past him to throw the snowball, the grin fell as he felt the impact of what Merrick said. He wondered in a detached manner if he would ever get a straight answer out of him, something to hold onto rather than a failing hope. He watched Merrick whoop as an ogre far below jumped and looked around as if his companions had thrown it instead. With some effort, he made his own snowball in his hand, and joined in the fun while it lasted.