Dreams are a funny thing. Kazuto remembered in one that such a thing was simply scattered memories and desires melded into one. In that darkness he had been thrown into, all he could do was dream. He dreamed of his father going off to war and never returning. He dreamed of his mother succumbing to sickness. He dreamed of his aunt and uncle having to care for him along with his cousin Suguha. He dreamed of the questions he had pondered on the day everything had gone so wrong.
A lance of fire burned through his dreams. Light ripped him from sleep. Hands dragged him from the darkness. Kazuto's eyes opened to a poorly lit stone hall lined with barred off cells. As his ears reconnected to his brain the jeers of others in them reached his consciousness. What they were saying made little sense to him. Something about wanting their turn and how he wouldn't last a minute.
Ah, I want to go back to sleep, he thought with a groan. Hollow exhaustion had encompassed the whole of him. It was as if something had happened to his body in the haze of memory before the dark that left him entirely drained of life. No matter how hard he tried, though, what had been in his dreams wouldn't come.
"C'mon kid, get up." The gruff male voice rattled Kazuto's shaky sense of hearing. He had been placed into a chair by whoever had been dragging him along in the short time his mind had wandered. The white Witch-light stuck in the lantern hanging from the ceiling blinded him to all but the outline of the man. He made out the shape of the head before the figure leaned away to leave nothing but bright light. Then a rush of sensation as cold water brought him fully back to the material world.
"There you go. Rise and shine kiddo. There's a meal, a wash bucket, and fresh set of clothes on the table. Get eating, get changed, then get me when you're done." Kazuto's eyes met the gruff owner of the gruff voice. A dark skinned man; bald with a beard and dressed in half armor like a soldier. A maul was kept on his belt, although with the man's size Kazuto felt he barely needed a weapon to fight.
"W-why am I out?" It was the only question that came to the boy's mind so he choked it out of a sore throat. The soldier shrugged in response on his way out.
"Someone powerful wanted to see the little foreign boy we brought in. Lucky you, I guess. Now get to it." The conversation was ended there by the opening and closing of a door to Kazuto's left. With a glance over at the table he could see all the things the soldier had promised there. A plate of salted meat, some bread, and a single potato was what grabbed Kazuto's attention fully though. Rather, it alerted his stomach to its own kind of emptiness. It was promptly filled to allow him to pay mind to the other items.
Kazuto didn't need to, but took a look down at himself to realize the need for the wash bucket. His clothes were in tatters and he had enough filth clinging to his skin to impress a pig. Stripping down, he used the warm, soapy water to make himself feel better. Finally came the clothing. A simple woven shirt with shorter sleeves, pants to match, and a pair of boots made from astonishingly new leather. There was even a fresh pair of underwear and socks that he gratefully accepted.
Freshly dressed, full, and clean for the first time in what felt like weeks his mind started to work properly again. He began taking in details about the room despite how sparse it was. A stone box with the table that had carried his gifts and the chair he was sitting in. There were two doors, one to his left and one to his right. Kazuto stood with some effort to go over to the right door first. It was an exercise in learning; what his legs could and couldn't take was something he wasn't used to having to guess at. By the time he had reached the door his feet were more solidly under him for a good pull on the metal ring serving as a handle. Not even so much as a flinch from the impassive slab of wood.
"Couldn't be that easy," he muttered in a sigh. Options went through his head one after another but all came out the same. Without that soldier he wasn't going anywhere. Bracing himself, Kazuto walked slowly over to the opposite door and knocked. It didn't take long for the soldier to open it up to see what was going on.
"Didn't expect you to be walking with how I had to drag you in here." There was a genuine surprise in the statement as the soldier shepherded Kazuto out of the room and into a hallway lit by more Witch-lights.
"Makes two of us," he replied without thinking about the soldier's disposition. An instinct told him to ready for a blow, however the soldier seemed unphased by the remark. In fact the life Kazuto was expressing in spite of whatever hell he had been in was apparently enough to get the man to chuckle.
"Got the hardiness of a soldier and the wit of a whip it seems. Might just save you." The soldier motioned for him to follow as he started off down the hall. Not left with much of a choice, Kazuto complied. The two continued in relative silence as the boy judged if he could ask the man any of the questions burning in his head. After figuring he could take a harsh rebuke, words or otherwise, Kazuto opened his mouth to speak.
"What did you mean before? That someone powerful wanted to... see me?"
"You're not going to be some perverted nobleman's slave or anything like that. From what my commander told me, actually, it seemed like the Emperor himself called for you." This lit up several danger signs in Kazuto's head. An emperor wanted him? Of all people he wanted to see an orphaned farmhand? Not only did it not make any sense, but it made him shudder at what the soldier had implied with his first sentence.
"Guess I am pretty lucky," was what Kazuto came up with. All he got in response was a chuckle.
The two continued on in silence from then on. A cold feeling crept up Kazuto's back as they went along. At the end of the hallway they ascended a long set of stairs to a door similar to the ones in the room earlier. Beyond it, however, was a different kind of hall. The real sunlight streaming through the windows to his left provided the kiss of late summer to Kazuto's chilled skin. Even though the natural light made his eyes ache, it felt good to be above ground again.
"C'mon. Little further now." The soldier started off without any other warning. It took a soft jog that sent the boy's head spinning slightly to catch back up. More silence allowed Kazuto to study the grand halls they walked through. A red rug was underneath them no matter where they walked. Paintings of different royal-looking people were scattered over the walls periodically between sets of armor. They even passed a few soldiers, a few dressed the same as the large one escorting him and a few with even fancier armor. Eventually they came upon a massive set of doors with a dragon engraved into the nearly black wood. Kazuto couldn't help but notice that the wyrm was coiled around a sword. The image stirred something in him that was interrupted by the soldier's sandpaper voice.
"Here we are. You're on your own from here kid. The Royal Guard are handling you now." Panic suddenly rose in his chest. Kazuto needed to stall this, he wasn't ready. Not to meet an emperor, not to walk away from the only other person he had interacted with in too long, and most certainly not to be alone again.
"What's your name?" It was the first thing Kazuto could blurt out. The soldier looked at him dumbfounded for a long moment before laughing.
"You know what kid, make it through without losing your head and I'll tell you the next time we meet." The soldier, still nameless, offered a wave as he walked away. Those fleeting words with their implied promise had surprisingly helped. Given Kazuto something to latch onto for strength.
As the doors began to shift open he clenched his hands into fists, grit his teeth, and set his gaze as sharp as he could manage. Against the grinding feeling in his chest he walked into the throne room entirely alone.
Hey, did I promise or did I promise? The first in hopefully the complete series of the reiteration of Triumph or Die. This time I'm going to be doing my best to make sure there are as few mistakes as possible in the writing, as well as the consistency of the storytelling. I'll do my best to make everything clearer, explain plot points more, and pace everything nicely for those who like meaningful updates. I hope this satisfies everyone who had been waiting for the next update to the original.