December 28, 2017
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Dust II: Elysian Kingdom
Chapter 12 — Thorn in My Side
The uneasy feeling of wavering between life and death lingered over his entire being as his consciousness slowly but gradually returned, quietly grunting from the strain affecting both his body and mind. It was when he attempted to stretch his arms and legs that he realized they were already being uncomfortably pulled outwards by thick rope tied down to the corners of the icy cold slab his body was pressed against, and darkness enveloped his vision even with his eyes wide open. At that moment, he became painfully aware that this was not a dream nor an illusion—he was a prisoner.
Against the back wall of the room, the Nimbat girl gently opened her eyes, greeted by a hazy red light bathing the whole area. Weakly pushing herself up, she quickly noticed that she was surrounded by iron bars, trapped in a cage hanging from the ceiling. Instinctively, she tried to scream as loud as she could, but no sound escaped her mouth. Whoever put her in here must've had her silenced; she wouldn't be able to speak or use her magic until eating a certain food called deadly delight. Shaking the unwanted thought of having to eat one of those repulsive things again out of her head, she grabbed the bars and scanned the room outside of the cage.
What she saw shocked her: countless people, no doubt villagers of Alcaeus, laying on steel tables against their will, littered across the floor. It didn't take long for her to pick out Dust amongst the sea of inmates, as he struggled against his bindings to no avail. She wanted to do something to help so badly, but couldn't even say a word; she just slumped back down to the bottom of the cage praying they'd both get out of there alive.
Dust gritted his teeth as he pulled his limbs inward as much as he could to make one last attempt to break free, but the rope gave no leeway. His breathing became heavy, his body began to sweat, and his strength had faded almost completely, not to mention his morale was suffering. He felt like a failure, taken out so easily by a sneak attack and restrained so harshly after having no chance to fight. What more could he do other than wait for either his savior or a harbinger of further torture? He wasn't sure if he should scream for help, for fear if someone was watching him for the very moment he revealed such desperation. No, that wasn't an option; his struggling already displayed too much weakness he wished he could take back.
The next sound that echoed throughout the room was the creaking of iron hinges as the door slowly opened. A tall and somewhat lanky but imposing figure entered, followed by two armored guards. The main creature, probably in his early twenties and clearly of a higher rank than his comrades, was immediately characterized by a visor-like helmet covering the top half of his head, with two stacked downward chevron-shaped slits in the middle for his eyes, his two lengthy ears sticking upwards out the top, and his mid-length blonde hair coming down the sides. He wore a long-sleeved, v-neck shirt, complemented by shoulder and chest armor held on by two straps creating an X shape around his upper body, and elbow-length gloves with two belts around each of them. Under his pants belt hung a small half-hexagonal metal plate with a diamond emblem emblazoned on it; the same design adorned the front of his cuffed knee-high boots as well as his chest armor. The double downward chevron symbol also appeared on the sides of his upper arms and thighs. Lastly, a sizeable collection of various keys attached to a ring dangled from the right side of his belt.
All was quiet as footsteps filled the air at a relaxed and steady pace. Dust cautiously slowed his breathing down as much as he could, sensing that whoever entered the room was approaching his location. Eventually the steps came to a halt right in front of the table Dust was stationed at, and the leader finally began to speak.
"Look who it is; the infamous Sen-Mithrarin, a humble guest of my prison."
Dust's eyes widened under his blindfold. "You're the warden..? What do you want with me?!"
Ignoring his questions, the apparent warden turned away for a moment, towards the other prisoners. "If anyone here has heard of the warrior called Dust, speak up now!"
Each and every person in the room remained silent in response. Fidget tried to say something from inside her cage but it was no use.
"..Good," he commented, before pushing forward a strange lever on the floor with his foot. Instantly, a flood of electricity coated the surface of the table and surged throughout Dust's entire body, causing him to lurch his back upwards and scream as loud as he could in agony, a piercing sound that rang into the ears of everyone present. Fidget watched the scene in horror from her cage, tears forming in her eyes. The warden observed his prisoner's suffering while remaining oddly calm, as if he took away some subdued satisfaction from it. Dust continued to scream while pulling his arms and legs inward at erratic intervals, a futile attempt to sever the ropes and escape his unbearable sentence.
Those several seconds seemed like an eternity, before the warden returned the lever back to its original position, ceasing the electric flow. Dust's breathing became heavy and labored, as his body constantly trembled.
The warden squatted down to bring his head level with his prisoner's. "You're tough, I'll give you that. Most of your Moonblood comrades didn't even last half that length." Dust was too fatigued to muster a response. "Shame you won't be around much longer once my master gets a hold of you," he finished as he stood back up. He then walked over to Fidget's cage and unhooked it from the chain dangling from the ceiling, carrying it with him as he made his exit out of the room, the guards following.
Silence filled the air yet again. Dust gradually tried to stabilize his breathing and regain his strength, his thoughts racing with uncertainty. What could the warden's master want with him, and for what reason? How long would it be until someone back in Aurora noticed something was wrong; that the mission was a failure? Where were Fidget and Ahrah, and what if they also were being subject to the warden's unyielding sadism? Everything appeared hopeless, and all Dust could do was suffer under the emotional weight while his very existence was hanging by a thread.
A young blonde boy hastily tried to catch his breath as he turned a corner and slammed his back against the wall of the corridor, a ring of keys dangling in his shaking hand.
"Okay.. ok ok ok. I did it," the boy thought, trying to calm himself down. "Now where could he be..?"
Observing his surroundings, he stealthily slid across the wall towards the first door in sight. When he found the key on the ring that matched the lock, he slowly entered the room and was taken aback by the sheer volume of prisoners inside, all blindfolded and tied down to steel slabs.
Suddenly, one of the inmates spoke up, his rudely-toned voice piercing through the crowd. "Who's there?!"
This surprised the boy, but he quickly responded. "M-My name's Corbin; I came here to rescue Dust.. and I promise once I find him, we'll both come back and get you all out of here!"
The prisoner continued, "And why does this Dust person get priority over us?"
Corbin's expression became concerned when he realized what Dust had told them about people not remembering him was true; it was hard for him to believe anyone could forget his hero.
"Because I wouldn't be able to get you all out of here without him... Even if you can't remember him right now, he saved Falana all those years ago, and I'll make sure he saves it again!"
Now with his goal clear in his mind yet again, Corbin hurried out the door and down the hallway, checking every other room that would open with the set of keys he held; dozens of inmates littering the interiors of each one. Eventually, he came to a room that looked nearly the same as all the others, the outlying difference being one prisoner's distinctive fur color and decorative outfit.
"Dust!" Corbin called out without hesitation. He immediately dashed towards the table that his hero was bound to, and carefully removed his blindfold. "A-Are you okay?!"
An almost inanimate Dust weakly opened his eyes. "..C-Corbin, is that really you? How did you f-find me here..?"
The boy had already began cutting through the ropes around Dust's wrists as he explained, "The Elder asked me to follow you guys just in case anything happened.. and good thing I did because who knows what else they'd do to you!"
"..nngh, yeah," Dust responded quietly as he was still exhausted from the electrocution. After Corbin freed his legs, Dust shakily sat up on the steel table, held his hand to his head, and did a few deep breaths to regain some composure. "Phew.. thank you, Corbin. I don't know how long I would've been kept here unless you saved me."
"O-Of course, Dust! I'm just glad you're alright."
"We need to act fast," he began as he finally stood up off the table, stumbling for a moment but gathering his strength yet again. "Let's free all the prisoners here, then search for Fidget and Ahrah. They're somewhere in this place, and I don't want to think about what the warden has planned for them. You didn't run into him, did you?"
"The warden? Not that I could tell, all the soldiers I snuck past looked the same."
"Good, he's not someone I'd want you to get involved with," Dust advised. "Alright, c'mon."
Corbin nodded. "Okay, let's do it!"
Splitting up, the both of them hurried to the other tables and slowly but surely released all the inmates in the room.
"T-Thank you so much," one of the villagers meekly praised Corbin after being freed.
"It's no problem. Do you know why any of you were brought here?"
She responded, "No, not at all.. There was no provocation; soldiers just came into the streets at random and arrested whoever they could, as if it didn't matter what they were doing or if they even did anything suspicious."
"I have an idea now," Dust said from across the room as he walked towards where Corbin and the villager were. "Gathering people like this.. The warden might be using the villagers as a source of negative energy, just like Nadia was at the hotel. And I'll bet that means he has another Blade of Elysium."
Corbin gasped. "You're probably right, Dust!"
"If that's true, it's just even more reason for us to stop him," he concluded, before turning towards the rest of the villagers. "Alright everyone! It's not safe for all of you to leave this room yet; stay here until we're sure it's all clear, and silence any guards who come inside!"
Murmurs broke out in the crowd but they all seemed to understand the situation at hand, so there were no objections. Dust turned back to Corbin and nodded, so they both proceeded to exit the room and silently close the door.
"Stay close behind me, Corbin. We're going to take that warden down."
[Alright so FINALLY here is the next chapter; I definitely need to apologize for the delay but 2017 was a very interesting year and my inspiration to write really dwindled due to work draining me so much. This chapter has been a while in the making since I had a dream of the opening scene forever ago back when I was on like, chapter 4 or something LOL so it feels good to finally get it out. Anyways, enjoy and I hope this will flow into the next chapter with enough hype to get me to write faster haha.]
