Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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Chains

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The first thing I'm aware of is hard metal around my wrists, ankles, and neck.

I'm laying on my side, and there's a slight weight on me. I'm lying on something soft. At least, softer than I'd expected. I try to move, but my arms are restrained, attached behind my back. Manacles? I open my eyes. My left eye is met with brown cloth, while my right eye sees the fabric of the pillow I'm lying on. The wall in front of me is made of stone, like every other wall in this godforsaken place. There's a lit torch sitting in a sconce in the corner, maybe a foot higher than where my mattress rests against the wall.

"Ah, you are awake."

The voice is coming from behind me. There's a clatter of chains near the back of my head, and my throat closes up as I'm yanked upwards by the neck. I kick at the mattress, trying to catch my body up with the tugging on my metal collar as it hoists me to a sitting position, to the sound of another set of chains near my feet. The thick blanket that was covering me rips away, and the chill of the dungeon air hits me all at once.

To my right, a hunched figure wraps the end of a chain around a hook in the wall with one hand, while the other pulls the blanket the rest of the way off the bed. Blue scales, a red mane of spikes- Agitos? Chaor's advisor bundles up the blanket and drops it in a heap under the hook, then lifts a torch out of its sconce, opposite the one I'd seen first.

"Michael, you called yourself," Agitos mutters loudly as he presses the torch against another spot on the wall, which blazes with flame as well. "Human, you called your kind." He lights more torches along the walls as he speaks, and it becomes clear to me that the walls are completely lined with them.

Agitos is silent as he lights the rest of the torches, and I take the opportunity to glance around. One the left stone wall, below the row of torches, is a short door made of bars. The far wall is, again, stone, but with a mirror of sorts set into it, the reflection becoming more clear as the lights grow brighter. Below the mirror sits a stool, and flanking the stool are two small tables, one carrying a pitcher and a plate of... something mushy, and the other carrying... my clothing, folded haphazardly.

"What is with you UnderWorlders and stripping your prisoners naked," I growl as I vainly attempt to fold my legs up to my chest, thwarted by the chains keeping my feet close to the end of the bed.

"It is easier to search a nude body," Agitos says matter-of-factly as he replaces his torch in its sconce. "There are many places to hide things, in clothing and elsewhere."

Agitos turns away from me and heads for the stool. I close my mouth and take a quick breath through my nose. My breath passes only through one nostril. I try hard not to sigh in relief. The didn't find it.

Agitos sits on the stool and looks at me, his face difficult to read. "Then there is the fact that you feeling vulnerable is exactly what I want right now. Speak to me plainly, and I might decide to return your effects to you."

I'm a little thrown off by all of this. I was expecting some of this yes. The chains, the cell, an interrogator, that I've dealt with before. This particular cell? The mirror? The torches? Not to mention Agitos himself. That's new. Not to say new things haven't happened before, the slightest change can have dramatically different effects. I can't recall what I've done differently this time to end up like this, though.

Agitos tilts his head to the side a little. "Are you comfortable? Need anything?" He gestures to the platter beside him. "There is food and drink if you desire."

Suddenly I realize that I'm parched, but I say nothing. I'm not certain that I can trust whatever is in that pitcher. Though, if they wanted to poison or drug me, they could easily have done so earlier...

I swallow my paranoia. "Water would be good."

The corner of Agitos's mouth twitches upwards. "The best I can offer is this." He stands up and lifts the pitcher. I can hear it slosh around as he brings it to me, it sounds maybe half full. He puts the rim to my lips and tilts the vessel up.

The fluid is sour and burns my throat, and I cough up most of my first mouthful. Dark violet liquid spills down my front, but Agitos keeps pouring. I quickly try to swallow the rest, but even then most of it leaks out and makes a mess of my body and surroundings. Agitos abruptly pulls the pitcher away and takes it back with him. I gag on the aftertaste. Wine of some kind.

"You know what we are called," Agitos says as he sits down. "Explain."

Ah, I'd called him an UnderWorlder moments ago. It honestly had just slipped from my mouth, but no harm done there. "There's this game back on Earth called Chaotic. Game and a show. It's set in Perim and features many of its inhabitants."

"Hm."

I expected accusations of mockery. I expected shock or surprise. I expected a dismissal or anything in response to my unbelievable statement. Instead, that was all Agitos had done. Said "hm". What in the world is going on?

After a long, uncomfortable pause, Agitos breaks the silence. "Are you certain you need nothing else? It would not do to let your needs go unmet. As I said, there is food available." His gaze briefly lowers, and the corner of his mouth twitches upward again. "If you have a different hunger that needs sating, the palace's harem is staffed with many experienced servants. At least one should be to your taste."

"I'll manage without, thanks," I mumble. I feel a heat rising in my cheeks.

"You prefer the company of Human women, then?" Agitos leans back and spreads his arms out, an elbow on each table beside him. "It may take some time, but I am certain that a few will be added to the harem in time. Or perhaps it would be more to your taste to break in a virgin?"

"Shut up."

The silence is deafening. The volume of my voice startled me. Agitos doesn't even flinch, though. He just presses his thin lips together and nods slowly.

Something is up. Agitos is not acting as I'm expecting him to. Twice now he's made offers to me, with only one question between them. He's taking my statements far too easily, and that calm expression of his has only budged with small grins.

I look past Agitos, trying to get a look at my reflection. My front is dripping with wine. My hair is a mess. I look... uninjured. I'm uninjured. I don't have any aches or soreness. On my shoulder, where Rothar's vipers bit me, no sign of redness, no puncture marks. None that I can see with that mirror anyway.

My heart is hammering. That's why Agitos is acting this way. He's spoken to me before. He's not repeating our conversation the way I repeat lives, just in the relatively mundane way of making me forget our previous conversations. I have no way of knowing how long this has been going on. How long would it take for that bite to heal?

The wine. My stomach seizes up. Unless my memory was removed through magical means, then drugging the wine would be the way he'd have caused it. Something to block the formation of memories, stopping short-term to long-term.

"Well," Agitos sighs, his head tilting to the side again, "if there is nothing else you wish for right this moment, then we can continue with my questions."

I vomit.

Agitos watches as I heave, violet liquid spraying my mouth and drenching the sheets. His expression doesn't shift, except for the smallest of twitches as some droplets come dangerously close to hitting him.

It's too late anyway... Whatever drug he used is undoubtedly in my system already, as early as that first mouthful of wine that I coughed up.

"Are you finished?" Agitos drones, a bored tone to his voice. "We have many things to discuss."

That infuriating little lizard. "Why don't you look at your notes?" I spit. "I've answered your questions enough times before."

Agitos closes his eyes and smiles. He leans against the table carrying my clothing, rests his jaw against his hand, and raises his other hand slightly, palm up. "He noticed even faster this time than the last. Otherwise, the Human's behaviors and actions have been completely consistent. There is no reason to believe that the answers to any of our questions have changed. Is there any reason to continue?"

He's not talking to me. The mirror. With all the light in here, the glass would not show what was in a dark room beyond it. That's why there are so many torches. Someone is back there, observing us.

A high-pitched, scratchy voice sounds from behind Agitos, beyond the pane of glass. "No! I need more data! We must discover-!"

"Silence, Ulmar," a darker voice interjects. Chaor's voice. "This has gone on long enough."

Lights brighten the room beyond the window. Ulmar, a small gremlin-like creature with an exposed brain, glares at me with large red eyes. Towering behind him is Chaor's familiar form. Chaor shoves his mad scientist aside and steps closer to the glass. "Unchain him, Agitos, and take him to the baths."

"At once, Your Majesty," Agitos says as he stands and bows toward the window. Then he turns to me, grins, and lifts the pitcher of wine. "Nothing to fear, Human," he says before taking a swig of its contents. He wipes his mouth and continues, "I switched drinks."

Ulmar screeches at Agitos through the window while the latter unchains me. I rub my wrists and neck as I cautiously get up from the bed. "Why-"

Agitos raises a hand in front of my face. "Human, you stink. You are wet with wine and your own vomit, and an odor beyond that has begun to cling to you over the past few days. The only thing that would prevent me from bringing you to the baths would be Chaor's direct order not to." He scoops up my clothing, then pauses. "Or the opportunity to slit your throat and dump you with the rest of the sewage," he adds with a toothy grin.

I say nothing else as I duck under the cell door and follow Agitos down the hall.

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Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.