The aches in my head slowly woke me. Opening my eyes, a brick ceiling came in and out of focus. Pain shot down from my head to my feet, paralyzing me for a few seconds. Sitting up was a struggle, but I propped myself against the cold wall opposite a thick iron door. Trying to breath evenly, I heard a small tapping on the other side of the wall to my left.
Scotching myself over and tapping the wall, the taps grew quicker and more excited. A pattern emerged from the taps and I recognized a kind of code my town used for discrete communication.
'Who… are… you… friend… foe…'
Trying to remember the series of taps from my childhood, I replied, 'friend… where… are… we…'
'Prison… … wizard… doctor… lab…' was the answer.
BAM the guard beat the door "Quit that noise. Eat." A tiny flap opened towards the bottom of the door and a tray was pushed through forcefully enough to knock the tiny piece of bread off onto the floor and the canteen almost lost its cap. Quickly guzzling the water, I left the bread knowing it would only dehydrate me and weaken me.
With a loud clank, a brick slid out from the wall where the taps had come from and I could see two eyes, staring through into the dim light of the moon seeping in through the high window. They saw me and opened wider in excitement. They disappeared for a second and a small rolled up piece of paper was slipped through. I reached for it and the eyes stared at me as I read it.
Welcome newcomer. Beware. None ever come back after being lead away. I leave at midnight. You soon after. Replace brick. I saw a hand reach through and snatch the paper. Looking through the gap I couldn't see anything. Giving up, I replaced the brick and lay down. Calculating the angle of the moonbeam and where it was when I woke up, I guessed that it was about an hour till midnight. Slowly closing my eyes, I drifted off to sleep.
The door bursting open in the cell next to me woke me up. There was a little scuffing, but the door closed quickly and quietly after that. Weariness seeped over me and sleep came quickly. The sun woke me up with its dim beam lighting up the room. Sitting up, I looked around. I gasped when I saw that the walls were covered in a strange writing that I couldn't quite make out. Looking harder, I realized that it seemed familiar. Before I could begin to read it, the cell door burst open and a guard snatched me to my feet and shoved me down the hall.
Another guard picked me up by my collar and carried me to a stone table with wheels on it. Strapping me down with tight leather straps, they rolled me down a few halls. I completely lot all sense of direction before they had finally stopped in a room with a small fire burning in one corner. They strapped my head into place and left.
The warmth of the fire was inviting and I began to relax, almost against my will. A small man stepped out of the shadows in the corner and made me jump.
"Alright I am going to be bunt with you," he said in a deep gravely voice, "I have come up with a method to immortality and seemingly endless power. You are one of my experiments and odds are you will not make it past the first few seconds. The six thousand nine hundred and twenty eight before you have been miserable failures and I am quite surprised they have funded me for so long. So here goes nothing, you may begin in one minute." The last part he directed at a big burly man that had just walked in holding a giant hammer and a big chunk of metal.
The big man walked over to an anvil and grabbed a handful of coal from his pocket and threw it into the fire causing it to flare up brightly and searing the side of my body. He turned towards the little man expectantly and the little man turned to me, held his hands over my body, and closed his eyes, muttering something under his breath. He did not move from that point on, keeping his hands over me and his eyes closed.
My body locked up as the big man took tongs and stuck the chunk of metal into the fire. A burning sensation started in the exact middle of my body and quickly expanded out. It soon felt as if I myself were in the fire. He pulled it out when it was red-hot and placed it on a metal slab, picking up his hammer. Time slowed down as he took his first swing. As soon as it impacted the chunk of metal, I let out a blood-curdling howl of pain as my soul its self was being beaten and molded.
He soon had it into two chunks and was beating one into a flat and long shape. I realized that it had been more than a few seconds and felt somewhat triumphant, but that soon faded as he took another swing, beating the metal mercilessly. Soon he has molded it into the shape of a fine blade and dipped it into water. The pain was temporarily soothed as the metal cooled and hardened. The relief was brief for he soon stuck the other piece of metal into the fire and began beating it into the hilt. I started to taste blood as my throat split from all of the screaming and writhing I was going through.
He soon finished the hilt and dipped it into the water as well. The soothing effect was immediate and forgiving. He put one end of the hilt into the fire and one end of the blasé and heated them up so they could combine. Slipping one into the other, he took his hammer and gave it two quick pounds before dipping it into the water again. When the sizzling had gone quiet, my vision blurred and I almost blacked out. The little man cam out of his trance and walked over to the big man who handed him the sword. Taking it, he turned towards me and sliced the air a few times. I felt my guts wrenching with each stroke.
"Well done. I have been successful. I have completely split your soul and stored part of it in this sword. You will wield it with unstoppable power." He pulled me into a sitting position and slapped me awake when I had passed out. "There is only one more test. Take it." He said, holding out the hilt so I may hole the sword. I weakly reached out and as soon as my hand wrapped around it, my vision went white and I was out.