A/N: I'm glad to know that people are still reading my story! Yay! Sorry
this chapter took so long for me to upload...FanFiction.net wouldn't work
for my computer and it was being evviilllll...*sigh* at least I got it up
now, better late than never...
***Phi, Tom, Alex, and Devic's View***
The minutes passed slowly by. Phi and Alex had returned to the couch and were now sitting on opposite ends, draping their arms over the couch arms. Tom was sitting with his head back, staring at the ceiling and Devic was sitting upside down with his head on the ground and his feet up in the air. They all jumped when the door hinges creaked and the handle turned. Before the door opened, Devic did a summersault off the seat and clamored into a proper sitting position.
A man stepped out from the darkness behind the doorway and shut the door firmly after he stepped inside. Phi stared as he turned around and smirked at them. The man looked to be in his middle to late twenties with brown hair, brown eyes and pale skin. He was very lean, and medium in height. In fact, he looked like a...normal guy. That is except for the malicious grin on his face and a slightly unsettling twinkle in his eye. He bowed mockingly to the four and walked around to the side of the room so that they could all see him easily.
"I suppose your wondering what you are doing here? And maybe perhaps, where here is? I will tell you." Phi cast a nervous glance at her brother, but Tom was gazing intently at the man, as if waiting for him to pull out a dagger from behind his back, but the guy just continued to speak, "I have brought you here because I wanted to. The three of you," he acted although Devic was not there and looked at each Phi, Tom, and Alex in turn, "have sparked a interest in me from the last visit you paid Tortall. And where are you? Nowhere and yet you will be able to go anywhere."
Alex furrowed his brows at the last comment. What the hell did that mean?
The man turned and stared directly into Alex's eyes, "It means that you will eventually find out if good luck abandons you and you find yourselves on my bad side." Alex stared at him in disbelief. How did he do that?
"It is simple. For one who seemed bright, you seem to be asking a lot of stupid questions." He cast he glance over all of them, "I can enter your mind..."
A light bulb switched on in Tom's head. It was this guy who had put them in that magical trance and forced them to come here. It seemed that when he entered their minds, he could also control their bodies.
"Very good..." Tom whipped his head around and glared at the man. How dare he enter his head like that, "It at least seems that one of you have the right idea. Oh, and my name is Trycos, just for when you think of me next. It was I who brought you here."
Devic frowned, "Why?"
"I told you already. They interest me."
Devic's mind was spinning. He had spent the past three and a half years studying about the Gift and it's different forms, but he had never heard of anything like this before. Trycos's smirk widened and he began to circle the group like a shark, waiting for the best moment to devour his prey, "I admit, mine is a special case. You cannot believe what I went through to train it to become this usable, how many people I had to kill, how many fears and nightmares I had to delve into to gain control. Of course, I got better at it, as you can tell."
Phi continued to stare but said, "What do you want us to do?"
"Well, he spun around and stopped right next to the side of the couch she was leaning on and stared into her face, "I want new blood to play with..." Phi was outraged. New blood?! What the hell did he mean by that...? "You see, Phiona, or should I call you Phi? I have gotten bored of the Tortallian way of thinking. I want something different. A challenge. You three, you think differently than the others, your mind has been formed differently, shaped by different things. Your memories should be very entertaining to watch."
Devic gaped at Trycos. This man was insane! The man swerved around the back of Tom and Devic's couch and stood right above the boy, "Many have told me I am, so maybe you are right, but maybe your not. The things I have seen would drive any one a little insane. Deaths, famines, starvation, grief, suffering, and fear...all the bad memories surface first in the mind because they usually contain the strongest amount of emotion..." A psychotic grin had grown on Trycos's face as he listed off the horrors that he had had to witness and Devic subconsciously had scooted closer to Tom and out from underneath the man as he had made his speech.
"Unfortunately," The grin subsided and his old smirk appeared again, "I have some unfinished business to take care of in the outside. Be back in half a day!" He sauntered back to the door, opened in easily and stepped through. Only when they heard a click of a key did any of them move.
Phi turned slowly to her brother, "What a freak!"
Tom raised his eyebrows in agreement. The man's voice had triggered something in his mind. He jumped up onto his feet, surprising Devic who nearly fell back off the couch, "Oh my god!" Tom spun frantically around the room, as if really seeing it for the first time.
Alex stood up, "What's the matter?"
Tom grabbed Alex by the shoulders and shook him lightly, "We need to get out of here, now!"
"Whoa, slow down dude, and let go of my arms, I'm losing circulation...Why do we need to go? I mean, obviously that guy was insane, but what did you just figure out that seems to be so important?"
"That dream I had, the vision, on the very first night we were here? It happened in this room!"
Devic frowned, "What happened in your vision?"
"Nothing, well something happened, but I just was reaching out for the handle of that door and someone laughed. I think that someone was Trycos, and all I know is that is wasn't a nice laugh, it was more of a I-just- killed-someone laugh!"
Phi raised her eyebrow, "Okayyy...Well, I hate to tell you this, but I already tried the door and it wouldn't budge..."
"There has to be some way out of here! Look for a secret passage or something..."
"Tom, this isn't the Hardy Boys, there won't be a secret passage way! This is real life!...Well, sort of anyway, but I don't think real bad-guys put in escape routes for the people they kidnapped."
Tom sighed, "Well we need to think of something..."
Phi thought for a moment, "How about if we don't let the evil guy into our minds and memories?"
"No Phi, that's usually the kind of rebellion will lead to one of us being killed..."
"So are you saying that we just go along with what he wants and do what ever he says?!"
"At the moment, yes."
Alex and Devic turned from Phi to Tom as they talked, and when they finished, Devic looked at the three of them, "Well at least there is one thing we can count on...that someone out there is looking for us, probably as we speak, unless of course it is midnight in the outside...then they're probably asleep..."
Phi looked up at Alex, who had been there the longest, "How long has it been since we came here?"
"I would say it has been about...thirty minutes since you and Devic got here, so that's about a day..."
***Outside in the city...***
Alanna strode down the main street of the city, glad to be out of the Palace for the first time in about a week. As she walked, she tried to think of where George would be at this hour. Of course! She walked up to the front of the Dancing Dove and paused a minute before stepping inside. Where else would he be other than his old hangout spot. When she was training to be a knight, this was the one place that, strange as it may sound, made her feel welcome. But now that it was being run by a different thief lord, she wasn't sure what to expect.
Alanna stepped inside cautiously, one hand near the dagger that was attached to her belt. She wandered among the tables, avoiding eye contact with strangers, and made her way to the far side of the room with little difficulty. She smiled triumphantly to herself when she recognized George sitting in a table in the far corner of the room with a shady looking man that Alanna had never seen before. Her husband was talking to the older man in a hushed voice, as if not to arouse anyone's suspicion. Alanna leaned against the side of the wall, hovering just behind George, who did not seem to notice she was there. Curiously, she began to eavesdrop on their conversation.
George leaned closer to the man, "Are you sure it's him?"
"There ain't no body else it could be at this point, says I at least. Mind you George, others be having other opinions too..."
"What others? I thought you said no one else knew?"
"Oh they do...they're just not fit enough to be tellin' any stories right now..."
"Why not?"
"They're all a bit insane...it's the mark he leaves on his victims. Every time we be sending a man out, if they come back at all, they be comin' back babbling like an idiot or totally silent, like they went mute...Other times, we be finding there bodies mangled or hung...committed suicide the other ones did. An' he never leaves any evidence, he disappears, then comes back, like some kind of shadow..."
"Except he is not a shadow, he's a man. Do you know anything about him that could help me...pay him a little visit?"
"If you be wanted to see him, then you're already insane. But I'll tell you this much, if ya want to meet him, just let everyone know and he'll find you. That's the way things work."
George scowled and shook hands with the man to bid him goodnight, slipping two coins into his hands. The old man bowed and shuffled out of the building, securing a black hood over his head before stepping outside into the growing darkness.
Before George got up, Alanna slipped into the seat the older man had been using him and grinned at George's surprised expression. He recovered quickly and settled back into his chair, "Hello Alanna. Funny thing, running into you here..."
"George, you know something that you're not telling the rest of us..."
"Yes and no at the same time..."
"Who was that man you were just talking to and who were you talking about?"
"Oh, that was just an old friend form back in the good ol' days dear. And we were discussing the information about a suspect for the recent kidnappings."
"And who would that be?"
George sighed and sat up, "That would be the problem dear. We know, and yet...we don't. We know his name is Trycos. He was around when I was the king of thieves, but just starting out so I didn't pay him much attention. There is nothing noticeable about him, in public anyways, but that is his weapon. He is said to have brown hair and eyes, be of medium height, and be somewhat lanky, and he never seems to get any older. The only way you can identify him is by a self-inflicted burn scar on his right hand that looks somewhat like a four-pointed star. The only problem is, if you're close enough to see it, you're basically a dead man walking and the next thing you know, you've gone insane."
"So... what other information do you have on this guy?"
"That's about it. Except for how...although you undoubtedly heard most of the conversation that I was previously having with my old friend, no one knows where he lives, or where his headquarters are...it's as if, how shall I say this, they are invisible?"
Alanna's eyebrows rose, "Do you mean the whole going through the solid rock wall thing?"
"Well, that is what I was thinking anyway. That's what first aroused my suspicions...actually, he first came to mind as soon as I heard that both Alex and Tom disappeared."
"And why was that?"
"There are a lot of pick-pockets, thieves, house burglars, muggers, vandals, robbers, and street rats in this city but I know of very few kidnappers that would be able to do such a thorough job twice in the twenty- four hours. Most thieves just kill people. Holding them hostage or for ransom is just too messy and bothersome, and the royal guards get on your tail a whole lot faster if you do. The kind of act that our kidnapper pulled was discrete and it left some of us wondering about our sanity, which immediately made me think of the man who is infamous for causing insanity."
"Why didn't you tell me before?!"
"You were busy..." Alanna glared at him, "And I couldn't and still can't really be sure. I was going to tell you, just after I got more proof."
"So, how are we going to find out for sure?"
"I guess we have to let him find us..."
A/N: well that explains a little now don't it? The situation will become clearer as time progresses. I am planning to do more with this then currently meets the eye...
***Phi, Tom, Alex, and Devic's View***
The minutes passed slowly by. Phi and Alex had returned to the couch and were now sitting on opposite ends, draping their arms over the couch arms. Tom was sitting with his head back, staring at the ceiling and Devic was sitting upside down with his head on the ground and his feet up in the air. They all jumped when the door hinges creaked and the handle turned. Before the door opened, Devic did a summersault off the seat and clamored into a proper sitting position.
A man stepped out from the darkness behind the doorway and shut the door firmly after he stepped inside. Phi stared as he turned around and smirked at them. The man looked to be in his middle to late twenties with brown hair, brown eyes and pale skin. He was very lean, and medium in height. In fact, he looked like a...normal guy. That is except for the malicious grin on his face and a slightly unsettling twinkle in his eye. He bowed mockingly to the four and walked around to the side of the room so that they could all see him easily.
"I suppose your wondering what you are doing here? And maybe perhaps, where here is? I will tell you." Phi cast a nervous glance at her brother, but Tom was gazing intently at the man, as if waiting for him to pull out a dagger from behind his back, but the guy just continued to speak, "I have brought you here because I wanted to. The three of you," he acted although Devic was not there and looked at each Phi, Tom, and Alex in turn, "have sparked a interest in me from the last visit you paid Tortall. And where are you? Nowhere and yet you will be able to go anywhere."
Alex furrowed his brows at the last comment. What the hell did that mean?
The man turned and stared directly into Alex's eyes, "It means that you will eventually find out if good luck abandons you and you find yourselves on my bad side." Alex stared at him in disbelief. How did he do that?
"It is simple. For one who seemed bright, you seem to be asking a lot of stupid questions." He cast he glance over all of them, "I can enter your mind..."
A light bulb switched on in Tom's head. It was this guy who had put them in that magical trance and forced them to come here. It seemed that when he entered their minds, he could also control their bodies.
"Very good..." Tom whipped his head around and glared at the man. How dare he enter his head like that, "It at least seems that one of you have the right idea. Oh, and my name is Trycos, just for when you think of me next. It was I who brought you here."
Devic frowned, "Why?"
"I told you already. They interest me."
Devic's mind was spinning. He had spent the past three and a half years studying about the Gift and it's different forms, but he had never heard of anything like this before. Trycos's smirk widened and he began to circle the group like a shark, waiting for the best moment to devour his prey, "I admit, mine is a special case. You cannot believe what I went through to train it to become this usable, how many people I had to kill, how many fears and nightmares I had to delve into to gain control. Of course, I got better at it, as you can tell."
Phi continued to stare but said, "What do you want us to do?"
"Well, he spun around and stopped right next to the side of the couch she was leaning on and stared into her face, "I want new blood to play with..." Phi was outraged. New blood?! What the hell did he mean by that...? "You see, Phiona, or should I call you Phi? I have gotten bored of the Tortallian way of thinking. I want something different. A challenge. You three, you think differently than the others, your mind has been formed differently, shaped by different things. Your memories should be very entertaining to watch."
Devic gaped at Trycos. This man was insane! The man swerved around the back of Tom and Devic's couch and stood right above the boy, "Many have told me I am, so maybe you are right, but maybe your not. The things I have seen would drive any one a little insane. Deaths, famines, starvation, grief, suffering, and fear...all the bad memories surface first in the mind because they usually contain the strongest amount of emotion..." A psychotic grin had grown on Trycos's face as he listed off the horrors that he had had to witness and Devic subconsciously had scooted closer to Tom and out from underneath the man as he had made his speech.
"Unfortunately," The grin subsided and his old smirk appeared again, "I have some unfinished business to take care of in the outside. Be back in half a day!" He sauntered back to the door, opened in easily and stepped through. Only when they heard a click of a key did any of them move.
Phi turned slowly to her brother, "What a freak!"
Tom raised his eyebrows in agreement. The man's voice had triggered something in his mind. He jumped up onto his feet, surprising Devic who nearly fell back off the couch, "Oh my god!" Tom spun frantically around the room, as if really seeing it for the first time.
Alex stood up, "What's the matter?"
Tom grabbed Alex by the shoulders and shook him lightly, "We need to get out of here, now!"
"Whoa, slow down dude, and let go of my arms, I'm losing circulation...Why do we need to go? I mean, obviously that guy was insane, but what did you just figure out that seems to be so important?"
"That dream I had, the vision, on the very first night we were here? It happened in this room!"
Devic frowned, "What happened in your vision?"
"Nothing, well something happened, but I just was reaching out for the handle of that door and someone laughed. I think that someone was Trycos, and all I know is that is wasn't a nice laugh, it was more of a I-just- killed-someone laugh!"
Phi raised her eyebrow, "Okayyy...Well, I hate to tell you this, but I already tried the door and it wouldn't budge..."
"There has to be some way out of here! Look for a secret passage or something..."
"Tom, this isn't the Hardy Boys, there won't be a secret passage way! This is real life!...Well, sort of anyway, but I don't think real bad-guys put in escape routes for the people they kidnapped."
Tom sighed, "Well we need to think of something..."
Phi thought for a moment, "How about if we don't let the evil guy into our minds and memories?"
"No Phi, that's usually the kind of rebellion will lead to one of us being killed..."
"So are you saying that we just go along with what he wants and do what ever he says?!"
"At the moment, yes."
Alex and Devic turned from Phi to Tom as they talked, and when they finished, Devic looked at the three of them, "Well at least there is one thing we can count on...that someone out there is looking for us, probably as we speak, unless of course it is midnight in the outside...then they're probably asleep..."
Phi looked up at Alex, who had been there the longest, "How long has it been since we came here?"
"I would say it has been about...thirty minutes since you and Devic got here, so that's about a day..."
***Outside in the city...***
Alanna strode down the main street of the city, glad to be out of the Palace for the first time in about a week. As she walked, she tried to think of where George would be at this hour. Of course! She walked up to the front of the Dancing Dove and paused a minute before stepping inside. Where else would he be other than his old hangout spot. When she was training to be a knight, this was the one place that, strange as it may sound, made her feel welcome. But now that it was being run by a different thief lord, she wasn't sure what to expect.
Alanna stepped inside cautiously, one hand near the dagger that was attached to her belt. She wandered among the tables, avoiding eye contact with strangers, and made her way to the far side of the room with little difficulty. She smiled triumphantly to herself when she recognized George sitting in a table in the far corner of the room with a shady looking man that Alanna had never seen before. Her husband was talking to the older man in a hushed voice, as if not to arouse anyone's suspicion. Alanna leaned against the side of the wall, hovering just behind George, who did not seem to notice she was there. Curiously, she began to eavesdrop on their conversation.
George leaned closer to the man, "Are you sure it's him?"
"There ain't no body else it could be at this point, says I at least. Mind you George, others be having other opinions too..."
"What others? I thought you said no one else knew?"
"Oh they do...they're just not fit enough to be tellin' any stories right now..."
"Why not?"
"They're all a bit insane...it's the mark he leaves on his victims. Every time we be sending a man out, if they come back at all, they be comin' back babbling like an idiot or totally silent, like they went mute...Other times, we be finding there bodies mangled or hung...committed suicide the other ones did. An' he never leaves any evidence, he disappears, then comes back, like some kind of shadow..."
"Except he is not a shadow, he's a man. Do you know anything about him that could help me...pay him a little visit?"
"If you be wanted to see him, then you're already insane. But I'll tell you this much, if ya want to meet him, just let everyone know and he'll find you. That's the way things work."
George scowled and shook hands with the man to bid him goodnight, slipping two coins into his hands. The old man bowed and shuffled out of the building, securing a black hood over his head before stepping outside into the growing darkness.
Before George got up, Alanna slipped into the seat the older man had been using him and grinned at George's surprised expression. He recovered quickly and settled back into his chair, "Hello Alanna. Funny thing, running into you here..."
"George, you know something that you're not telling the rest of us..."
"Yes and no at the same time..."
"Who was that man you were just talking to and who were you talking about?"
"Oh, that was just an old friend form back in the good ol' days dear. And we were discussing the information about a suspect for the recent kidnappings."
"And who would that be?"
George sighed and sat up, "That would be the problem dear. We know, and yet...we don't. We know his name is Trycos. He was around when I was the king of thieves, but just starting out so I didn't pay him much attention. There is nothing noticeable about him, in public anyways, but that is his weapon. He is said to have brown hair and eyes, be of medium height, and be somewhat lanky, and he never seems to get any older. The only way you can identify him is by a self-inflicted burn scar on his right hand that looks somewhat like a four-pointed star. The only problem is, if you're close enough to see it, you're basically a dead man walking and the next thing you know, you've gone insane."
"So... what other information do you have on this guy?"
"That's about it. Except for how...although you undoubtedly heard most of the conversation that I was previously having with my old friend, no one knows where he lives, or where his headquarters are...it's as if, how shall I say this, they are invisible?"
Alanna's eyebrows rose, "Do you mean the whole going through the solid rock wall thing?"
"Well, that is what I was thinking anyway. That's what first aroused my suspicions...actually, he first came to mind as soon as I heard that both Alex and Tom disappeared."
"And why was that?"
"There are a lot of pick-pockets, thieves, house burglars, muggers, vandals, robbers, and street rats in this city but I know of very few kidnappers that would be able to do such a thorough job twice in the twenty- four hours. Most thieves just kill people. Holding them hostage or for ransom is just too messy and bothersome, and the royal guards get on your tail a whole lot faster if you do. The kind of act that our kidnapper pulled was discrete and it left some of us wondering about our sanity, which immediately made me think of the man who is infamous for causing insanity."
"Why didn't you tell me before?!"
"You were busy..." Alanna glared at him, "And I couldn't and still can't really be sure. I was going to tell you, just after I got more proof."
"So, how are we going to find out for sure?"
"I guess we have to let him find us..."
A/N: well that explains a little now don't it? The situation will become clearer as time progresses. I am planning to do more with this then currently meets the eye...
