My Two Worlds - 12
Just a small tidbit: Cedric knows Cornelia is a Guardian, he knew it from the start.
In other news, thank you everyone that has reviewed so far! And for the favorites and follows as well! I really do appreciate them ^.^
She glanced around in the dark, turning again and again until she was spinning. Soon she was lost, unsure if she was even standing upright or upside down. Completely confused that the darkness didn't give any detail to her surroundings.
"Hello?" Her lips barely moved, not really uttering the words, "Will? Taranee? Where are you?" she asked the darkness, her own. "Irma? Caleb? Hay Lin?"
The dark echoed her words right back at her and she shivered in the cold air hissing through. Wait. Hissing?
"Hello?" she tried again. Was someone there?
"Cornelia." A voice answered, sounding far away.
"Yes?"
"Come here." It was closer now and she could see the outline of a hand beckoning her in the black. She stepped forward, almost gliding over to reach out and take it. "Look."
"At what?" she asked. "There's nothing here."
"Wake up, sweetie."
She could feel the hand coaxing her forward where it seemed to grow darker. "No." she stopped, pulling her hand back. "There's nothing there." Her voice repeated, softly as if the words were being swallowed up into the surrounding darkness.
"Look closer."
"Do I have to repeat myself? There's nothing there Ce-"
"Shh." A finger was held to her lips. "You have to look for it."
"For what?" she asked the cold dark empty world. The finger fell away once more. Fear pounded through her at the loss of contact. "Come back." No words answered her call this time and she wrapped her arms around herself. Where had he gone? "Please." The quite closed in on her like a stalking lion getting ready to spook the prey. "I'm scared."
"Good."
Cornelia whirled around in the dark, her skirt billowing around her in the viscious wind that had begun. "You came back."
"I'll always come back for my flower." Cold lips pressed to her forehead and she smiled despite it all. She was already calming now that he was back and his touch only served to send a thrill of electricity through her.
She was about to speak when she felt a sharp jab in her arm. A thin light flickered in the dark for a second until a hand drew her back into the folds. "You need to look." Another jab at her leg. "Cornelia," The voice called as she saw the light for longer this time. "you can't forget." The fingers slipped from her arm as she was prodded again. A sense of loss swept over her.
Then she was jabbed hard in her hip. "Ow!" She yelled sitting up from the cold floor and blinking in the fire light casting on the walls from torches. Huh? It wasn't dark anymore? Panic swept over her. Where was Cedric? He had been with her a moment ago in the dark.
"Aha! That woke you up!"
What? Cornelia turned her head, flinching at the loud noise. A figure was crouched on the ground a few feet from her but there was... bars inbetween them. "Hay Lin?" she questioned when she saw the twin black pony tails as her vision came back to her slowly, the darkness creeping away.
"Yup!" The girl bounced to her feet in the seperate cell from her own wearing... her own clothes. She wasn't in Guardian form. "She's awake everybody!"
"Halleluyah." Irma replied sarcastically. "Now we can all sit in a cold dank cell and wonder what happened to our lives. Instead of being knocked out cold."
"We were ambushed." A mutter in another direction. Cornelia strained her head to see Taranee on her right side.
"How?" She asked her.
Taranee glanced up, looking over at Cornelia. "Well the guards were speaking about it on the way back to the castle dungeons. One of them name, Tyron or something similar apparently spotted us in the trees, walking. You know how we kept to the ground to remain unseen? Well, it backfired. Plus they had brought the cage along expecting us to go after Elyon's parents. I heard one of them whisper that a traitor was in their ranks passing along info to the Guardians of the Vale." Cornelia blinked as the girl took a break to catch her breath. So it hadn't been her fault? The snake hadn't actually planned the ambushed outright? Some Tyron had? "Anyway, Tyron went and told his General and they sent a small party ahead of the direction we were walking and set up the cage trap. It took us by surprise. I don't know whether Irma and you were lucky not to get caught in the initial trap or not, but it's not like it mattered. We saw Irma go down and then after we were out of sight of you we thought you had gotten away before-"
"Before that lizard boy came out of the forest carrying your knocked out body. Nice bruise marks by the way." Irma added at the end.
Cornelia frowned. She was glad that her being seen in the castle before wasn't the cause of this but that just confused her more. Don't think about it, she told herself. Shoving the thoughts away she looked down to see dark blue marks on her waist and a section of her leg. Gosh, that creature had a tight grip on her. She was honestly surprised she hadn't passed out sooner. "Why aren't we in Guardian form?" she asked, remebering how Hay Lin and the others were in normal clothes now, including herself. Suddenly she found herself yearning for the protection of her robe.
"Will had to hide the Heart so she had to take if off her when the Guards weren't looking when they first tossed us into the cells. The blinding light from when we transform stopped them from seeing anything for awhile to."
"Oh yeah. You weren't awake." Irma said before deciding to fill her in. "Phobos came in earlier all up in flames angry that the guards hadn't retrieved the Heart. They took Will away and-"
The doors slammed open to the dungeon, interupting Irma.
"Search the forests for it!" Phobos yelled, "And open the two cells!" Two cells on the other side of Taranee were rushed open by the guards. Cornelia watched as Will was dragged into one and Caleb into another. The doors swung back closed with a clang. "Get moving I don't have all day!" With that Phobos left the room as sudden as he had come.
"Will! Caleb!" Taranee shouted, concern evident in her voice.
Cornelia turned her head to look over and couldn't stop the gasp from her lips. It looked like Will had been beaten, yet a thin smile was on her lips and she was mouthing words, 'he won't find it' she seemed to be saying. Holy crap the girl couldn't even speak.
Cornelia got to her feet and wandered over to the side facing her. "Will? Are you okay?" she asked. Even though it was clear she wasn't. Blood was dripping down her back it looked like... Phobos had her whipped. The clothing was torn in some places welts forming on the skin. Damn, her question was so stupid and it pained her even more to see that smile widen at her.
Will coughed up blood, smile still intact somehow and mouthed, 'shouldn't I ask you that?" her eye lids were drooping and after a moment they closed. Cornelia's breathed halted but then relaxed at least slightly when she saw the rise and fall of her chest. They hadn't killed her just tortured her. Oh god, how was that any better? Besides the obvious. She shoudln't have asked them to come to get Elyon's parents with her. She should have gone herself.
She slid down the metal bars, hands clutching onto them for support as her knees hit the ground.
"Crap." Irma's voice broke the silence and got straight to the point with a single word.
"Phobos hasn't found the Heart though." Hay Lin said, sounding shaken by the sight and condition of Will.
"Something tells me when his guards don't find it he'll think one of us hid it." Taranee muttered.
"What?" Hay Lin asked, incredolous. "But we had nothing to do with it."
"Taranee's right." Irma said. "He'll keep interogating all of us until he's satisfied that one of us is still hiding it. It's a good thing Will held out. But when Phobos comes back don't tell him she knows no matter what he does to you."
Hay Lin was staring at her, still not completely getting it. Cornelia had understood as soon as she saw Will get dragged in and heard Irma murmur that single word that seemed to condone them to this place. "He can't possibly think-"
"He will." Irma replied harshly, but she had to, she was the voice of reason right now. Taranee looked scared to death even worse than earlier that day. Pale as a ghost, well as close as she could get to pale. "He took two of us today. He'll take two of us tomorrow. We throw him off the trail and keep him off. That's all we can do so he doesn't get the Heart of Kandrakar."
Somehow that made Taranee crack. "I'm not strong enough to do that!" she wailed.
"Quiet! The guards will hear you!" Irma hissed-shouted at her.
Taranee quited but she began to murmur quietly to herself. Cornelia could hear small tidbits as she was the closest consious person to her. "ah, i can't i can't, that sort of pain?, i just... oh, i'm so scared."
She turned slowly to look back into the cell willing herself to not look at Will behind her or Caleb beyond even her. He was still, breath rising and falling as well but there was bruise marks on his face now besides just his neck. Cornelia felt horrible for that, especially now. Ignoring the fact that she could see blood on his cape she reached through the bars to touch Taranee's shoulder.
"Cornelia!" Taranee turned quickly and reached through the bars for her at the touch on her shoulder. "I'm so scared right now. What if we die here?"
She let out the small breath she had been holding at her friend's worries. "I won't let anything happen to you Taranee." Cornelia told her with her friend holding her tightly and just simply shaking in fear. This was really going to mess her up.
"How?" Taranee asked, not convinced. "No offense but we're not in Guardian form and we can't use our powers to the full extent to actually fight. Even if we could our powers don't work in these cells."
"I," Cornelia sighed. "I'll take care of it when it comes to that." She replied even though she had no idea how she would keep such a promise.
Her gaze rested on the door for awhile. A small snore sounded near her and she glanced over at Taranee to see her laying on the ground using her arm as a pillow.
"She finally calmed down enough to sleep huh?" Irma questioned.
"Yeah." Cornelia tugged a piece of hair behind her ear as she continued to look at the door.
"You shouldn't have made a promise like that. We don't know who Phobos will pick out later today."
"Today?"
"Mhm, my mom says I always had an internal clock. Even if I can't see the sky to diffrentiate normal dark to night dark I can still tell what day it is and the hour roughly."
"So, what time do you think it is clock woman?" Cornelia asked trying to make a light joke with her since everybody else was either knocked out or asleep, including Hay Lin who was a more silent sleeper.
"Around three am. Phobos will probably be back in four to five hours. I'm sure his henchmen will report back to him the minute he wakes up. Once he's done dressing he'll come straight here and demand answers from the rest of us."
"Great." She muttered, that wasn't exactly the news she had wanted to hear but it was the truth.
"If it makes you feel any better, you're the most durable of all of us and I'm sure Phobos would have enough of a challenge with you to leave Taranee alone. You survived the Mizaki Mountains at night. Fought Phobo's General one on one, granted you lost but hey at least you tried."
"I was helped at Mizaki by a stranger. Any of the other Guardians could have gone against lizard boy and lost with their own trophy bruises."
"not me" The words were so quiet Cornelia almost didn't hear them. She glanced over at Irma; who was sitting with her back to the stone wall, knees drawn up to her chest, face bent down, her mouth hidden from view cause of her legs and they helped to muffle her voice. She sighed raising her head back above her knees. "I hate snakes. They always scared me as a kid. I would probably faint dead away if his scaley hide touched me at all. Even though we were down the path some ways we heard the occasional roar from lizard boy, the yell from you, a crash here, and a crash there. He must have grabbed you millions of times to send you flying into a tree or something and you kept on fighting him until finally we didn't hear anything else and hoped for the best." Irma paused to draw her knees up even further trying to hide behind them like a shield. "When he came out of that forest holding your body all bruised up and unconsious I swear I almost threw up. That's just from knowing you had to fight nail to scale with him. Besides that," She clearly shivered. "The way he held you was creepy."
"Creepy how?" Cornelia asked lightly, not wanting to press the issue.
"It wasn't really the way he held you it's just... the thought of being so close to a monster like that. Being so helpless in it's grasp. It's terrifying you know? And... you looked peaceful even when knocked unconsious with bruises blooming over your skin. It was just a weird sight to see you like that."
She supposed it would be odd. Of course they had seen her back at Mizaki and she had probably looked peaceful then if not a little groggy. "I'm a deep sleeper."
"No kidding. I would have woken up and started screaming the moment I felt scales pressing against my skin." Irma flicked a stone from the floor, sending it flying out of the cell to land on the floor. "Everyone was disapointed to see you come out like that. I think Will thought that if you had gotten away you could have relayed a message to the rebels to form a plan to get the rest of us back."
"And how did the others take it?" Cornelia questioned softly.
"Caleb was cursing through the rope in his mouth. Besides that though, no one said anything. In retrospect I guess, none of us really thought you would come out as the winner. All of us have faced him together and even then it was difficult to win that battle. It was just a sort of hope we held onto for as long as we could. However you did holdup longer than we thought possible."
"I'm sorry."
Irma sighed. "Not your fault we're stuck here. They had the advantage of surprise and an overhwelming amount of soliders." After a moment she yawned.
"You need to get some sleep." Cornelia told her.
"So do you."
"I was knocked out before. I'm fine."
Irma gave her a look that said she didn't believe her and yawned again. "Fine. See you again in the morning." The girl slumped against the wall, apparently going out cold as if she had fought to stay awake for their whole conversation.
Cornelia ducked her head down for a moment, looking at the dirt below her. The grains looked back at her, doing nothing. With a tired sigh she raised her head to the door watching it as time went by. Her eye lids flickered and each time she gave a slap to the bruise on her leg so the pain would draw her back from sleep.
The doors finally creaked open and tensed for a moment only to relax when she saw it was a kitchen maid. "Food for the prisoners." The lady told the guards before being let to step inside. She walked to each cell leaving a piece of bread there. Her gaze connected with Cornelia's watching eyes and for a moment she looked startled to see one of them awake. "Come here," the woman whispered. After a second Cornelia shifted herself over to the other end of the cell. "The Earth Guardian correct?"
"Yes." she replied wondering why the woman had asked if she was herself specifically.
The woman reached back into her pocket after a glance at the guards standing vigil at the door. "For you." Her hand came back with a blue silk pouch, dropping it into Cornelia's open palm. Without saying anything else she walked away. Cornelia angled her body so they wouldn't see the pouch if they looked back to check on the maid. She waited for the sound of the door closing and crawled back to her position against the bars, grabbing the bread from the corner as well.
Sitting down she dusted off the bit of dirt on the bottom before setting the bread in her lap, tearing off a small chunk to pop into her mouth. Ugh, it tasted burnt. Carefully she pulled the draw strings from the top of the pouch apart to look inside. Her stomach clentched for a moment. It was filled with fruit. But who had asked for this to be delivered to her? She picked out a grape, holding it between her fingers after a second's thought she pushed it into her mouth. After swallowing she waited. She didn't feel any different but apparently she was for getting this.
She could hear the door start to open again and quickly manuvered the pouch out of sight. Phobos came walking through the door. "Well look at who's finally up." he said. Funny, now that everyone was asleep she was the one still awake when it had been the other way around before.
"You're not getting the Heart Phobos." she growled at him.
He laughed at her as he walked forward. "Do you take me for a fool Earth Guardian? You were knocked out when dragged into that cell. I know you couldn't have possibly hidden it." Damn it. Well, scratch that plan. Now if she could come up with a plan b.
"I could have faked it."
"Maybe, but you didn't respond to getting that cut on your arm when I had the guards try and wake you. So I seriously doubt it." Cut? She glanced at her arm and sure enough there was a mark there. It wasn't very deep but still the evidence was there for her to see.
"You're still not getting the Heart." she muttered out of ideas now to divert his attenssion from the others.
He simply laughed as he approached the cells. "Those two." He nodded in the direction to her left.
Cornelia looked up as the cells to Irma and Hay Lin opened. Irma was stirring even before the guards were in the cell and grabbing her. Hay Lin on the other hand was still fast asleep and muttered, "one more hour mummy." when picked up and carried out.
Her hands formed into fists at the sight but there was nothing she could really do. Then she heard the scream from Irma. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Let go of me right now fugle!"
Phobos was smiling as the two were taken from the room. "Tomorrow then." He exited with them.
Cornelia glared at his retreating back until the doors closed. She raised the bread up again and bit into it angry with the fact that he could just walk right in here and do whatever he wanted.
"What was that screaming for-oh no." Taranee had just woken up, apparently because of Irma.
"hmmm" a sound came from another cell. Taranee and Cornelia glanced over to see Will and Caleb beginning to stir. Absently she found herself wondering for how long she had been out of it herself yesterday. "What was that?" Will mumbled. "Fugle?"
"Ugly henchmen, in more simple terms." Taranee guessed, she seemed more relaxed and not so scared now that Phobos hadn't chosen her for his 'interogation' for today.
A sigh came from Will as she started to stand up but then fell back down. "Bread, again?" she was looking at the loaf left in the corner of her cell.
Cornelia quickly remembered the pouch and passed it over to Taranee without taking any from the bag. "Take some and pass it to Will."
Taranee blinked and reached inside to pick out a handful of fruits. She blinked again, staring before passing the bag slowly to Will and setting it in her cage. "Where did you get this?" she asked.
Will looked over at the pouch set in her cage and looked in before looking over at Cornelia with the same question in her eyes.
"The maid that came with the bread handed it to me." She replied neglecting to mention that it had been her specifically that the pouch had been sent to. If she hadn't been up the woman probably wouldn't have taken out the pouch at all.
"Is everyone here?" Caleb's voice came from Will's side of the room.
"Irma and Hay Lin were just taken." Cornelia replied.
"You were awake for that?"
"Getting knocked out is a cure to sleep deprivation."
"What did Phobos say? How come he didn't take you if you were awake?" Caleb started questioning her the minute he was fully awake, wonderful.
"That he wanted the Heart, duh. If you didn't notice I was knocked out at the time the Heart went 'missing' so I can't actually be the one that hid it. Plus got poked with a sword apparently when the lackeys tried to wake me up. Grow a brain."
"I was just curious. There's no reason for you to be giving me attitude-"
"We do not need thsi right now. Shut up Caleb." Will said rubbing at her forehead as she spoke. "You two give me headaches."
The doors opened slowly and Cornelia glanced over wondering who it could possibly be. Soon she could see a big blue creature walk forward.
"Vathek." Caleb hissed as he approached.
"The guards are changing shifts right now. I just heard you were in this dungeon." Vathek replied to him.
"Do you know what's going on?"
"Not exactly. These past few days have been out of the ordinary though."
"You mean besides us being captured." Will said notcing how surprised Vathek looked that Guardians were really here. As if he thought it must be a rumor, not true. Saviors of the Vale imprisoned by Phobos.
"Yes."
Cornelia was going to stay out of this but then asked, "How's Elyon?"
Vathek glance over at her. "That's part of what's weird. Yesterday I noticed that after she went to her room that she seemed to be growing distant to Phobos, really it's barely noticable. But she doesn't run for him immedietly every time she needs something anymore. Instead she's been going to his General and spending time with him. If he's in the room and Phobos asks for the guards to escort her to say, the garden. She asks specifically for him."
"What? That doesn't make any sense. How is the General even okay with that?"
"I hadn't seen the General since yesterday up until an hour ago. When I did though... he looked tired. Don't know what from, went straight to his room after leaving the Earth Guardian in the cell I heard. It's not like there's been anything going on recently either. So I didn't actually see him with Elyon, just heard it. Wouldn't be able to give you a reason why without having seen it for myself though." He coughed suddenly. "I have to get going before the next set of guards comes."
"Thanks for telling us Vathek." Caleb said.
The rebel nodded and walked out from the room, closing the heavy doors behind him.
"I don't get it." Caleb muttered.
"We'll talk about it when Irma and Hay Lin get back." Will said to stop him from continuing on.
"Right."
Cornelia sighed and reached through to touch Taranee's shoulder. The girl glanced over at her. "Wake me when they get here." she murmured surpressing a yawn.
"Okay." Taranee replied softly before she let herself flip off into darkness more peacefully then the last time.
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