Chapter 4: The Knight and the Rose
"You could stop this anytime, you know," a voice dripping with malice hissed. All you have to do is swear a blood oath of allegiance to Her Dark Majesty," Magius lifted his head from the floor slowly. A black-haired boy stood before him, no older than nineteen, robed in gray. He stared down at the prisoner with eyes slit like a snake's, in pools of dark yellow, leaning on a huge mace. He smiled unpleasantly, showing pointy teeth. "You are powerful. You are useful. You could defeat me easily if you had back your strength," The boy, Lukath, narrowed his freakish eyes. "It would be so easy. Just do it. She will grant you power beyond your wildest dreams. Become second only to Dracos and have this world in the palm of your hand. Nothing could be easier…" Magius closed his eyes with longing. Such temptation! All pain would stop. His magic would be stronger than ever. It would be so easy…But a sudden vision halted his thoughts. Huma's form charged forward in his mind, fighting valiantly, the sun bursting his silver armor aflame. Huma… He was always there for Magius. Flashbacks of young Huma carrying the boy Magius away from harm's way at the cost of his own health flared. Another childhood scene unfurled itself, bringing back memories …
"I can't believe you did that, Magius!" the young man laughed, holding onto the huge tree they were standing underneath to steady himself. Magius laughed too, innocence and youth sparkling in those mischievous cobalt eyes.
"I couldn't help it, all old Belgardin was doing was droning on and on. He should thank me for this well-earned snooze…" Both boys laughed. Huma raised an eyebrow, teasingly.
"How do you expect to 'become the greatest mage who ever lived' if you refuse to learn from a master?"
Slightly pompously, the young mage sniffed, "I already knew everything he's trying to teach me. That old fart can't teach me anything anymore," Huma looked at his friend dubiously.
"A little modesty couldn't hurt, you know!" the boy chucked a handful of mud at his friend. Magius jumped in surprise and got a faceful of mud. "Seriously though, Magius. What are you going to do if you don't pass the Test?"
Huffily, with an air of omniscience, the young mage replied, "Oh please," Huma smiled.
"Watch out for yourself," Huma looked distant for a moment, his cerulean eyes gazing far away into something only he could see. "Every action has it's consequences. Everything happens for a reason. So says Paladine, Great Defender…"
Young Magius rolled his eyes. "Honestly, if you weren't training to be a knight, you'd end up being a cleric!" Magius threw a handful of mud at Huma. "I'll be fine…better than fine because I'm going to be the greatest mage who ever lived!"
Everything happens for a reason. Even in his youth, Huma was wise. No, Huma would never have given up. He would never have given in to temptation. Magius wouldn't give in, either. He glared up at his newest tormentor and smiled in an almost mad way, revealing his lost of several teeth.
"Everything I have done up to this moment has been for my own benefit. My own greed and choices led me here. I understand that now," Magius raised his face upwards, as if he could see sunlight through the ceiling of the wretched cell. "I renounce my friendship with Dracos and everything that was done because of it. I'm sorry for all the hurt I've caused people I've cared about. I'm sorry to you, Belgardin, for forsaking the paths of true mages for my own selfishness. I'm sorry to you, Kaz, for abusing my gift of magic against you, a friend of my friend, even if you are just a hot-headed stubborn ass sometimes. To you, Huma. You have always been a true and loyal friend. I only wish that I could be like you. Dearest friend, I am so sorry!" The Huma that he had abandoned, forsook, and betrayed smiled down at him. Magius cast his face up toward Huma's invisible glow. During this epiphany, Lukath rolled his eyes.
"Shut up already!" he yelled impatiently. But at the sound of his voice, Magius' robes began to lighten. As Lukath watched, the bloodstained crimson faded to a soft rose, then into pure white.
"Solinari," Magius whispered in awe, touching a silver rune on his sleeve. The Grey Robe gaped at this sudden transformation, but shrugged, swinging his mace.
"Your choice of color makes no difference to me. I can always change your robes back to red-blood red in fact," he grinned at his own joke. "Now, back to business…" While the other babbled on, Magius took a quick inventory of his injuries. Unfortunately, Solinari had only blessed Magius with a new change of clothes rather than renewed strength or health. He sighed quietly and just barely caught the words, "What do you know about love, White Robe?" At these words, the prisoner's head snapped up to look at the boy. A cold stab of fear sank in Magius' heart. Lukath looked amused at the alarm that Magius' haunted eyes couldn't hide. "Hmm? Nothing? Well, I'm sure she'll appreciate that when I tell her…not to dig up history or anything. You still don't remember? Allow me to give you a trip down memory lane!" At these words, two guards carried in a large burlap sack and dumped the contents upon the floor. A girl sprawled on the floor in a flurry of violet and indigo fabrics, her brown curls splashing over her shoulders and into her face. Magius' heart skipped a beat. To him, she was like a draft of cool wine to his parched throat. She was a glow of color in the drab, gloomy atmosphere and only when the shock of seeing her wore off did Magius see that her face matched her gown, the dark bruises marring her tanned flesh. The heavy chains on her wrists and ankles chafed her skin raw and red. Raising her head defiantly, she glanced over at the White Robe.
"Paladine save us! Magius!" She looked in horror at the mage's broken body and in shock at his white robe. Lukath turned sharply.
"Do not utter that name here!" he hissed brutally as he slammed his booted foot into her side. She started to cry out, but quickly stifled her noise, taking a deep breath.
"Paladine, Paladine! PALADINE!" she yelled rebelliously. Scowling, the boy reached down to the ground where she lay and pulled her to a standing position with her hair. Knowing her vulnerable, he smelled her hair with relish.
"You are very beautiful, Andúnë. But you need to be taught your position, slave girl. I can do whatever I desire of you. For instance," Out of his pocket, Lukath removed a long dagger, the dim lighting reflecting the two tiny emeralds that were the eyes of the snake that coiled around the handle. He pressed this cold dagger to her neck and leaned over her. He kissed her harshly, biting her soft lips to make them bleed. She screamed, and attempted to wrench away from Lukath, but he slapped her hard across the face, letting the knife kiss her neck in the same way he had her lips. Heartbroken, Magius watched, feeling nauseated and useless. He closed his eyes painfully, willing the situation to disappear. But he could not close his ears.
"Now, have you learned your lesson, my pet?" Lukath cooed mockingly, twisting his bloodless lips into a cruel grin. Andúnë's manacled hands flew to her throat, feeling the bleeding ruby necklace that encircled it, and blanching slightly, the dawning terror of the situation silencing her usually spicy demeanor. "You have no idea who you're dealing with," the Gray Mage murmured in her ear, the softness of his voice like the whispering of sweet doom. He let her hair go, and she collapsed to the floor listlessly, her eyes, usually sparkling mischievously, dully never leaving her former lover.
"Andúnë," Magius managed to croak, his throat raspy after his prolonged lack of nourishment. "This is all my fault. I'm sorry…" He looked at her with his heart in his anguished eyes.
"Magius, I-"
"Enough of this sappy crap," Lukath commented dryly, re-finding the mace he had set down earlier and leaning on it casually. "We are gathered here for a purpose. Slow, painful, and agonizing death for everyone. Excluding myself, of course. So, let's play a little game. I ask you questions, most of which I already know the answer to, and if you answer wrongly, I get to flog the lovely Andúnë here. If you refuse to answer, I'll flog her anyway? Ready?" he looked at the furious and fearful Magius.
"And if I answer correctly?" he spat angrily. Lukath pondered for a moment.
"Then you spare her a flogging. Enough stupid questions. Question number one: Who is the most powerful of the gods?"
Magius spoke without thinking, his excitement at his knowledge of the answer blinding his reason. Not that it would have mattered, anyway. "The first three gods, Paladine, Gilean, and Takhisis, of course-" BAM!! The mace went flying in a whirl of deadly silver to smash into the maiden's leg. She screamed at the sound of bones splintering and clutched at her leg, watching in horror and shock as the holes the mace created in her gowns welled up with bright crimson. Magius attempted to lunge toward Lukath on legs that would not work, succeeding in falling cruelly to the floor, his manacled hands clutching the other mage's robes in a vice-like grip. "Why her?!" he gasped frantically, spewing scarlet from his bleeding mouth. "Punish me, damn you! She hasn't done anything wrong! I answered! Punish me!!" he cried, his already pallid face turning into that of a spirit's. Lukath smiled, almost indulgently, then kicked the White Robe off of him with a pointed boot.
"Well, traitor, you apparently aren't as well schooled as I was told. Everyone knows that Takhisis is by far the most powerful. My, my, you've got a lot of learning to do…" Magius somehow managed to crawl over to the sobbing Andúnë on his scraped elbows. Lukath looked down at her in disgust. "They said that you were a dancer of some renown for those wandering gypsies of Southern Ergoth," he gave a derisive laugh. "Guess you won't be dancing anymore, eh?" He guffawed maliciously. "So you won't be needing that weird costume anymore," In a single smooth movement, the Gray Robe whipped out his knife and slashed into Andúnë's cultural dress. With her gown littered about her in rags, Andúnë lay naked on the floor, her body embroidered with red thread from the knife, her smashed leg throbbing deep crimson.
Lukath laughed. "Well, I see now, why you chose this one, Magius…"Andúnë's dark eyes, dead with pain and shame only minutes before, began to kindle. She whispered a prayer to Paladine for strength, and then raised her head to the monster that towered over her.
"You coward! You gloat that you can hurt innocent people that are in chains. You think this gives you power. You fool! Don't you know that they will throw you away after they are finished with you? You are rotting in your own personal Abyss right now and no one will care to save you because you are such a monstrosity! You think you are so much better off than I am? Here's what I think of you!" She spit on him, her modesty and shame forgotten in her moment of righteousness. The torturer leered at the livid naked maiden at his feet.
" 'Rotting in my own personal Abyss', huh? You'd think I'd notice. Personally, I think you have no idea what a 'personal Abyss' even is. Don't worry about that one, you'll know soon enough," he smirked, then turned to Magius. "I tire of this game. You, the so-called best mage in the entire world, are probably wondering why I wear the Robes of Gray as I haven't done any magic. Well, I'll kill two birds with one stone then and show you," he gestured at Andúnë, "what a true personal Abyss is and show you," he pointed an abnormally long finger at Magius, "why I wear the clothes of a mage." The Gray Robe began to mutter spidery words that Magius couldn't understand; magic he would never be able to understand again. Andúnë, uttering a cry of shock, began to be dragged across the floor toward the White Robe by an unseen hand, the chains binding her clanging loudly on the floor. The separate manacles binding the two lovers grew white hot, and fused together into a single, heavier chain, winding the two together with one chain, hand to hand, foot to foot, face to face. The fused cocoon lifted off the ground and hung the lovers dangling in the thin air. Magius found himself touching the one woman he had loved and lost for the first time in months. He had forgotten how her hair curled, how she always emitted a scent similar to moonflower. She looked up to him, the man who haunted her dreams, both sleeping and waking, with tears glistening in her eyes. Both knew death loomed close.
"I'm so sorry, Andúnë," Magius whispered, "I should never have let you walk out on me. You were the best thing that ever happened to me," The maiden inhaled shakily.
"I love you," she whispered back, drowning in deep blue. "That's all that matters," Almost tentatively their lips met, but the pent up passion welling inside them both re-ignited a spark that escaladed into desperation so like a shooting star. Brilliant and ephemeral. From the ground, Lukath began to chant, holding a piece of the iridescent ruined cloth that littered the ground. The cloth burst into flame. A moment later, Andúnë's skin began to glow. Within seconds, Magius found himself kissing a miniature sun. Andúnë broke the kiss, wailing in pure agony as the orange and red tongues consumed her flesh. Her scream echoed eternally throughout the cell on one bloodcurdling note. Magius, closely bound to Andúnë, waited for his own cremation to initiate, for the purifying flames to sear their skin together and send them together to the Afterlife. But his livid skin remained cold and unburned. Magius screamed in frustration and grief. Abruptly, the maiden ceased her cries, her burning head falling limply on Magius' shoulder, leaving no mark except a bit of ash. She could feel her world darkening even as the fire around her burned brighter. As she suffered, she found herself thinking of Magius one more time. A long-forgotten memory when both lovers were thirteen...
"By the gods, will you stop poking me?!" Irritated, Andúnë whipped around, her long honey brown curls sailing over her shoulder hazardously, already knowing what she would see. Those cobalt eyes smirking at her. That stupid half-smile that he always wore. Yep. There he was. "What do you want?" she asked through gritted teeth. The boy's impish smile widened.
"To say hi," he stated as if it was the most obvious fact in the world. He reflexively brushed his golden curls out of his face. Still grinning at the dubious expression on Andúnë's visage, he continued. "And to give you this," He withdrew a hand from behind his back and handed her a stick.
"Is this some kind of joke?" Andúnë took the stick, thinking it would be an excellent tool to beat the strange boy over the head with, when a bright green beam of light quickly wound up the stick. Andúnë gasped and almost dropped it, but her curiosity held it tightly. Within seconds, tiny emerald ribbons swirled upwards, connecting together in a web of color, and centering at a throbbing point at the top. Other ribbons meandered out of the stick all together, unfurling a leaf. All of a sudden, the central point burst, releasing dark crimson petals to gently unfold themselves. Shocked, she looked at Magius, who gazed back at her, and found herself looking suddenly at the face of an adult. Adult Magius drew her near to him and kissed her with a fiery passion.
"I love you," he whispered.
Andúnë's scorched and blistered lips broke into a faint smile. Then everything went black.