Hey, guys! Welcome back to RFL 2: Into the Dark! So sorry for the gap between updates! Had a really busy (and long, because some of my family couldn't celebrate on Christmas itself so some things had to be pushed back) holiday season, then went on a trip to Universal Studios Orlando (was really awesome, by the way :D), and only just recently returned. However, I'm back now, so...let's get right to the reviews!

Thanks so much to 10 (Aw, thank you! :) Sorry I took so long to update!), Demi clayton, GhostFromGotham (Thank you so much, that's very sweet of you to say!), Guest (Thank you! :D), and WinterCrystal1009 (x3) (Ah, Winter, good to have you back! Thanks so much for your comments, and I'm glad I was able to create a villain worthy of hating XD As for updating frequently...well, I haven't been the best at it for this particular story, heh heh, but the best thing to do is set a specific schedule to follow...although mine has changed around a lot since starting this, whoops lol) for reviewing!

And with that, on with the chapter!

Chapter 23: Rest at Last

Jack's Explanation

My side of the story is not a happy one...though from those carvings on the wall, I expect you already know as much.

My misfortune began when "Arios" tricked me into letting my guard down when I was alone with him, and he knocked me out and took me to that damn cell. He revealed his true identity to me immediately, though he had not yet decided on a name for himself; thus, I only knew him as "the Fearling."

The monster loved to talk. He would go on for what felt like hours, apparently loving little more than the sound of his own voice. In doing so...he revealed his origin and his plans to me.

Apparently, Ebon first possessed Arios six years ago, when the sprite village the Fletchers lived in was destroyed in a fire set by a mob of humans thinking them demons...much as my own home was. Arios had run back inside his burning home to find his mother, but...upon finding her in a state of dying, experienced great enough Fear to draw a Fearling towards him. When he soon fell unconscious, the Fearling entered his body.

Ebon apparently lay dormant for years, though his presence seemed to still influence Arios' behavior, manifesting in a short temper and paranoia that he tried to spread in order to feed off of the Fear of others. And...despite us chaining the Nightmare King and rendering all of the Fearlings unconscious a few months ago, Ebon was not affected, due to his possession of a vessel.

Then...despite not surfacing for six years, my arrival completely awakened Ebon, due to the large amount of Fear I caused within the city...as well as the reservoir of Fear that I myself regrettably hold. With plenty of Fear now at his disposal...Ebon began to set plans he had been formulating for a while into motion.

First, he emphasized his distrust of Simon and myself as much as he could, getting many of the snow sprites in the city to fear us, and worry that we might tell their secret and destroy them. He tried his hardest to brand me as a traitor and Simon as just another sprite-killing human...but evidently, things were moving too slow for his liking. He then captured me, and, if your account of the events you witnessed upon arriving here is anything to go off of, he likely painted my absence as something sinister, perhaps as me escaping and running to tell the world about New Iskald.

At first, I thought he might kill me, but Ebon found this notion amusing...he asked me, "Why kill you when I can use you instead?" Yes...he began to use me as a power source, using any method of torture he could think of (and he always did pride himself on his creativity) to draw Fear out of me to feed off of.

He hurt me...both physically and magically. He half-drowned and scalded me, sliced me, punctured me, cut and burned me, cast spells that induced intense pain, fevers, or made my limbs move like a marionette, jerking about and contorting in strange ways, often to the point of breaking. The only reason I am able to sit up and write this out for you now is that he magically healed me several times throughout the torture process in order to prevent my death. Of course, he wasn't so merciful that he would mend my wounds soon after I sustained them...no, he would let me suffer with the pain of them until the next torture session would start. He claimed he liked to start every masterpiece with a fresh canvas...though he kept my body intact, I felt pain every second of every day that passed, and I was forced to stay conscious through the entirety of it.

Towards the beginning of my time in captivity (after the first boiling water session, during which I'm sure I blacked out), I believe Ebon cast a curse on me that prevented me from falling asleep all this time...even now, as exhausted as I am, I cannot rest. Despite having my eyes shut for long period of time, I have not once been able to fade into unconsciousness. This, of course, was torture in and of itself. But...I believe its true purpose was to make one torture method even worse than it already would have been.

I was left entirely alone for an indeterminate amount of time. Though I know it was not, it...felt like years. Ebon left me there, hanging from the ceiling by my wrists in the darkness, with nothing to keep me company but my own thoughts...and soon, the voices and visitors that never really existed. I don't know if Ebon used some sort of magic to quickly drive me mad, or if my mind merely deteriorated on its own due to both isolation and lack of sleep, but...up until just now, when I was given the chance to breathe freely again and revel in the coldness I draw my power from...I was living through a dark, haunted haze. The amount of Fear Ebon must have drawn from me...it must have been enough to fuel an army.

Which brings me to the reason why Ebon was gathering Fear in the first place...as you may have already guessed, he plans to free the Nightmare King and return him to power. He proclaimed himself the "savior" of the Nightmare Army, and is certain that he will earn the king's favor with his deeds. However...he knows that the Fear taken from me won't truly be enough to return the Nightmare King to full strength. And so...he plans to plunge Soluna into war. I'd wager anything that the sprites Ebon took with him upon leaving New Iskald are to be the forces with which he starts an insurrection against the Tsar...effectively undoing everything I've done to clear my people's name over the past few months. He never made any indication as to where he might go, but...I know that he is bent on causing a revolution as a means to his end. Ebon wanted to break me to the point where I wouldn't be able to tell you about any of this, and he very nearly succeeded...I held out this long so that I could deliver the message. Please...I might be out of commission for right now, but we need to do whatever it takes to stop him before he begins this revolution.

()()()()

It had taken Jack an extremely long time to write out the entirety of his explanation, due to his still-somewhat-shaking hand and his need to take breaks in order to rest his sore arm. However, he pushed through with all the energy he had, writing as much as he could so that nothing would remain unclear to those who were to read his account.

Jack honestly was not sure why he had decided to go into some detail about the torture he endured while he was still locked in the cell, considering that he knew that the other Guardians had already read about it via the carvings on Arios' wall. Perhaps he simply needed to write it down in order to...accept it, or some such? Or maybe he thought that it might make him feel better to not have to carry the burden of the memories alone...whatever the case, he had written it, and there was no taking it back now.

Once Jack had finished writing, North had picked up the piece of parchment, and, with Jack's permission, began to read it aloud for everyone else to hear. Throughout this time, the boy kept his eyes lowered to stare at his ink-stained hands so that he did not have to witness everyone else's faces drop from sadness to shock to fear as the tale progressed. Even so, he could practically sense the atmosphere in the room shift each time a new paragraph revealed new horrors.

Finally, after finishing the final sentence Jack had written, North fell silent, still staring at the parchment, expression troubled. For a long few moments, the only sound in the room was that of Toothiana's gently buzzing wings as she hovered, both hands moving to cover her mouth in dismay. Then, Aster swore loudly in Motorean, shattering the silence and causing a chain of reactions to come from the room's other occupants.

"A revolution!?" Simon blurted in shock, eyes wide. "Are...are you serious!?"

"He's...he's using the people of New Iskald as soldiers…" Lily murmured, visibly distressed. "All those who distrust the outside world the most...he managed to convince them to start a rebellion against the Tsar...but...how…? How could they not see what he was, when he was asking so much…?"

"He sent 'em all away before he revealed his identity ta us, remember?" Aster growled, sounding frustrated, though not with Lily. "They likely have no idea they're followin' a Fearling...ta them, it probably seems like they're workin' towards avengin' their loved ones, with a man who's lost both of his parents at the helm. Can't say I don't at least see where they're comin' from…"

"Understandable motives or not, we need to stop this before it even starts!" Tooth added, alarmed. "We only just chained the Nightmare King and Jack has only just managed to convince the people of Soluna that snow sprites aren't demons! If we allow Ebon to go through with this...all that progress will just be erased!"

"Indeed, this is...very bad…" North mused, sounding uncharacteristically quiet. "Especially because we do not know where Ebon has taken sprites...we do not know where he will try to strike from."

"W-Well…" Lily put in nervously. Her hands visibly shook at the idea of sprites who had just recently been her companions now clamoring for war, but she fought to keep her composure for the time being. "A group of that many snow sprites will surely bear a very large, very detectable magical aura...that is, assuming that they don't put up a spell that can mask their magical signature, which is entirely possible...but there are always counterspells to break through those sorts of things, so other magical beings could at least sense their presence over a certain distance...but it's a fairly limited range, so I don't know how useful it will be…"

"At this point, we'll need to take whatever we can possibly get," Tooth replied softly. "Thank you, Lily…"

As Lily nodded anxiously, Jack lowered his head, sighing softly. Tooth is right, of course, he thought. As is North, and...well, everyone else I suppose. The situation we've found ourselves in is certainly a grim one...I can honestly say that I have no idea how to proceed.

Suddenly, there was a tugging at Jack's sleeve, and the boy jolted in shock, almost succumbing to panic at the unexpected touch before remembering where he was. Desperately trying to slow his breathing back to a normal pace before everyone else noticed his fear, he looked down to his left to see Sandy standing at his bedside, eyebrows creased in worry.

Jack stared wordlessly at the Sand-Spinner for a few moments, unsure of how to respond to his presence. Then, Sandy began forming images above his head: first a snowflake, then a bed, which was then crossed out with an X. Then, the crossed-out bed jerked to the side slightly, colliding with the snowflake and causing it to crumble into dust.

Over time, Jack had come to realize that a snowflake was the symbol Sandy had reserved for him specifically, and put together with the crossed-out bed and its ensuing actions, Jack thought he had a general idea of what Sandy was trying to tell him: You haven't slept at all, and that will greatly hurt you.

And if the paranoia, hallucinations, and weariness that permeated his entire being had been any indication, the little man was right.

Even now, Jack was already beginning to feel himself slip back into an exhausted misery now that he was back underground and so far away from the fresh air he missed so badly. Writing out his explanation had drained a sizable amount of his energy, and he now longed for nothing more than to let himself fall into the sleep Ebon's curse had stolen from him for so long. His immortality had protected him from any fatal effects of staying awake for so long, but he still found it difficult to not only concentrate, but also to cling to his alarmingly meager remnants of sanity.

As much as he wanted to stay awake and be a part of whatever preparations the other Guardians would decide to make, Jack was not foolish enough to believe that he could properly do so without getting some rest first. Thus, he sighed silently, picked up his quill, and wrote, Can you break the curse on me…?

Without a moment of hesitation, Sandy nodded affirmatively. Sand-Spinners were experts in the area of sleep, after all...Jack suspected that Sandy's powerful dreamsand would have no difficulty cutting through the foul magic that Ebon had used on him, not to mention preventing the nightmares that would surely plague him otherwise.

And Moon above, I'm thankful for that, the boy thought to himself. My mind tortures me enough while awake...I can't imagine what it would do to me in unconsciousness if were left to its own devices…

Suddenly realizing that Sandy was likely waiting for his permission to act, Jack quickly dipped the end of his quill in ink once again, this time scribbling down the three simple words, Then go ahead.

Then, after handing off his writing supplies to Sandy so that he could set them aside, Jack allowed himself to slowly slide down the pillows he had been using to prop himself up into a sitting position, wincing as the movement aggravated his sore body. I'd prefer to be involved in the conversation, he thought grimly. But...I can't even talk. And for...what reason? Logically, I know that being afraid to speak is irrational...but I...I just can't get it out of my head…

Jack gritted his teeth in frustration, closing his eyes as he tried to settle down in his now-horizontal position. Damn, you, Ebon...I won't let you win...I won't...perhaps after I've rested, I'll attempt to speak again...no matter how much the thought terrifies me...I won't let that damn Fearling have his way…

Similar determined thoughts continued to cycle through the young sprite's mind, even when Sandy sprinkled some dreamsand over his eyes. As Jack finally, finally began succumbing to the sleep he had sorely missed for so long, his resolve followed him into his dreams, marginally comforting him, as well as granting him a small amount of hope.

Not the most exciting chapter, I know, but now we have more clear insight on what Jack experienced...and now our boy's finally getting the rest he deserves. :) The struggles aren't over yet, but we'll see if we can't get him talking again soon ;)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed, and don't forget to leave a review to tell me what you think, because it really does help :) I'll see you guys next time!

'Til then, Sapphire316, out.