Seth woke to searing pain, he cracked his eyes open and tried to move, but couldn't. He was bound into place by metal straps; at his back was a metal chair, his hands cuffed to the armrest. He shivered due to his bare skin pressed against the metal; he looked down and realized his shirt was gone. He heard a grunt and he looked up and left. There stood?… sat? A demon that looked kind of like Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars.
"I am your new instructor on mental and emotional attacks, Seth Sorenson." The demon gurgled, flapping one of its flabby arms.
"You seem to know my name, what's yours?" Seth asked, squirming a little to test the strength of his bonds.
"I am Slathgrus, the demon of dark desires and temptations!" The demon proclaimed, very proud of its title.
Seth looked the demon up and down incredulously, snorting a little, unimpressed. "If chocolate cake counts as a dark desire, then I can see it." He muttered to himself, slightly amused.
Suddenly waves of pain racked his mind, his head spun and his mind rebelled against him, he couldn't focus. A splitting head ache dominated his thought patterns and he no longer registered anything. It was over in seconds, but Seth had no desire to experience that level of headache ever again.
"I'm sorry." Seth muttered when he came to his senses.
"Good…" The blob grunted, "Now block my mind from probing yours. You have to be decently good at it at least before her majesty see you."
"Her majesty?" Seth asked before feeling his mind being wrenched out of his control and spun all over the room, a booming voice filled his thoughts,
You are not focusing, Boy! Think!
Seth tried to focus, but couldn't do it. Cluttering his mind were the sounds of hundreds upon thousands of dead souls, all clamoring for his attention, demons whispering to him from their prison bars, laughter. He got so dizzy that he threw up on the floor, and suddenly the nauseous spinning ended with all the sounds.
"You are terrible." Slathgrus spat, and began waddling away. Seth was too numb to respond as he hung limp from his bonds.
When the demon disappeared down a long, black path that lead to a place which Seth could not see, Morgana appeared out of the black lake that surrounded the chair on all sides. She strode confidently up to Seth and chuckled, "My my, looks like you have less talent than I thought."
"This is not what I asked for." Seth spat when he got his bearings back.
"Well, I never said it would be easy. The road to power is a harsh and treacherous path, the skills I am giving you now you will prize later. You should thank me."
"I will never thank someone like you." He glared defiantly, "You're a demon."
She smoothly put her hand to her heart and tipped Seth's head up to look her in the eye, cupping his chin with a firm hand. "I'm a dragon. You would not dare to challenge me in a million, thousand years." Her eyes flashed a dangerous emerald green and she released her grip on his face.
They glared at each other with loathing until Morgana snapped her fingers. The metal clamps over Seth's chest released and she began striding away to the wooden elevator that appeared on the black path. Seth staggered to his feet and tried to follow, but his legs were numb from not moving and having no blood circulate through their veins.
When he managed to stand he fell over, and from the ground, he watched the wooden elevator rise into the air. He cursed himself for letting her get away and letting the opportunity for a ticket out of here up. When he got his energy back he slammed his fist into the obsidian floor and stood up slowly.
He was standing on an island in the middle of the back lake, the floor was black, but it reflected what little light there was, so he could see where the water began and the island started. The chair sat in the centre of the island on a small dais, and was the only thing that looked different from the rest of the black and dark grey.
One thin walkway from the wooden elevator to the island stretched on to lead to an unknown destination. Slathgrus had slithered down that path and disappeared, so Seth had to assume the path went somewhere. As far as he saw, he had no choice. So Seth began his walk down the path, and into the darkness beyond.