Part 19

Jared hung limply, his limbs tied unto the support beams in Ituralde's extravagant tent. Ituralde had commanded the Blacksmith with the largest arms in the guild to torture Jared using Persha's rapture rose. The smith didn't use the thorn encrusted whip with the same finesse as Persha did , but then again his task didn't go beyond lifting the whip over his head and lashing it down at Jared's back as painfully as his abnormally large arms would allow him to.

The whip came down again, its thorns sinking down into Jared's flesh, for how many times it did at this point Jared didn't care anymore. His shirt hung tattered at his feet, completely ripped off before he was tortured. Jared's entire body was in agonizing pain, his arm still had the stiletto lodged in it, and his back was more wound than skin, but again Jared couldn't help but compare how meager it was to the pain in his heart. He sensed from the Suldam guild link all that was happening in the war. The outer wall had been destroyed, that was his fault, and He had told Ituralde about its weak point. If Malacca should fall, and Persha die it would all be his doing.

A large number of magic users in the guild were dead from the retaliation of Malacca while another large number was in critical condition from being overdosed with concentration and awakening potions, so that they could break the defense of the Malaccan telepaths and attack their minds. That was typical Ituralde tactics; use up as many lives as it needed to win a war, preserve the only life that mattered to him- his own. The thoughts put a bad taste in Jared's mouth; unfortunately it had to be mixed with the metallic taste of blood.

Before Suldam marched towards the Malaccan castle, Ituralde held Persha's rapture rose and was the one performing the lashing on Jared. "I will find her in the battle filed" the knight threatened "and I will bring her here so you can see me kill her." The words fueled Jared's rage to the brink of explosion. He needed to find a way to escape and save Persha from Ituralde.

The whip went down again making Jared cringed in pain. The smith was dim-wittedly chuckling behind Jared, not even trying to hide the fact that he was enjoying himself. Jared was at his wit's end, escaped seemed impossible. The smith raised the whip over his head and prepared to flog it down again, Jared closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain. Just when the smith was going to bring the whip down a commotion erupted outside the tent. The smith halted his arm midway before he glanced at the little space left open in the tent flap to see what was going on. Unfortunately for the black smith and fortunately for Jared, it was much too narrow to see anything significant. The smith turned to Jared and made sure his bonds were fixed, once he was satisfied that Jared wouldn't be able to escape he flung the tent flap away and stepped outside.

Jared was left in the tent alone, and he decided that it was his chance to escape, but how? A number of ideas entered his head but none worth while. The commotion outside was still continuing and at this point Jared began to get curious himself. He noticed that the smith had left the opening in the flap wider upon his exit. Jared raised his head to get a better look outside and just as he did the smith went flying into the tent before he slammed on the ground head first that the snap of his neck could literally be heard. Jared thought that the wars had found its way into the camp, but when he checked the guild link nothing told him that it did. Not mere moments after the smith had unceremoniously crashed back into the tent a male sage and a priest entered.

The sage had dark hair that at this moment was in disarray his eyes were purple and calling them piercing was an understatement. The priest that accompanied him had shoulder length auburn hair and blue eyes. Jared recognized them as Suldam members, not particularly significant guild members; Jared couldn't even remember taking second glances at them more than to remember their faces and stock them into his mental guild mate files, for his saboteur profession, incase they were needed.

The sage stepped forward to Jared and as he did he retrieved the stiletto from Jared's arm. Jared jerked from the jolt of pain, he closed his eyes a prepared himself for the slash to his throat that would follow. He knew that Ituralde didn't issue this order; Ituralde would not kill him until he saw Persha die, but then again there were hundreds in the guild who would have thousands of reasons why they would want him dead. To his surprise the knife went down on his bonds instead.

He collapsed on the ground and the priest immediately attended to him, he felt the priest's palms position on his chest before the warmth that came from the healing spread through his entire body wiping away his fatigue and wounds. He stood up and stared at the sage on par. The healing had closed the wound in his arm, but this priest's talent was below regenerating it to its original state.

"Who are you?" Jared asked. His eyes constantly darted back and forth from the stiletto that was still in the Sage's hands. He knew the sage's name, Vornamen Edalaram, he was testing whether he would be lied too or not, if he wasn't he'd continue asking questions until he understood what was happening right now, and if he was, he'd try to figure that part out later.

"I am Vornamen Edalaram; you should know who I am…Master Saboteur." The sage said with a tint of amusement in his voice. Jared felt a cold chill run down his spine, how could this person know him as the Master Saboteur? He had no prominent position in the guild; he wasn't anything special, nothing worth any attention to pay to. Or so he thought, it occurred to Jared that only Ituralde a few higher ups in the guild knew about his occupation, to the others he was nothing more than another guild member. This sage could have hidden his true identity as well as Jared did, probably even better.

Jared stepped back at this point; he looked around the room and found one of Ituralde's many spare swords leaning against the table. He quickly grabbed the sword with his available hand and quickly pointed it to the sage's neck. The priest's hand went to the sword mace at his side but the sage's signal to halt stayed him where he was.

"Drop the knife!" Jared commanded. The sage obeyed rather half mindedly. "Now, who are you?" asked Jared once more, but this time with a different tone of voice. The sage smiled "I already told you Jared, I am Vornamen Edalaram," Jared thrust the blade forward a little and drew a trickle of blood from the sage's neck. "Don't make me ask again sage, you know what I mean, who are you?"

"How very quaint, I'd expect nothing less from Turian's apprentice." Jared unconsciously began to lower the blade. "What do you know of my master?"

The sage wiped away the trickle of blood off his neck "I was the second in command of your master's rebellion Jared; there are still some of us in Suldam who believe in your master's vision of a guild."

"Impossible!" Jared shouted "All of you were killed; I myself fished you out one by one. The real second in command was executed along with my master."

"Merely voluntary decoys, except for your master sadly," An expression of sadness washed over Vornamen's face.

Jared realized that he had lowered the sword and quickly brought it up again. "So you've come here to avenge my master and kill me? It seems that you know of my profession and that I betrayed your rebellion." The sword in Jared's hand began to shake, he knew that he deserved whatever these men wanted to do with him, but he couldn't die just yet, not without saving Persha first.

"Yes Jared," began Vornamen "We know of what you have done and what you have been doing for Ituralde, but we also know more, we know of the drug that was used on you. Your master knew even before he died. But he thought that it would be better if our faction would disappear for the time being, pretend to be annihilated. So he sacrificed his own life, and we have been conducting our actions in the shadows ever since." Vornamen paused for a few seconds, waiting for any reaction from Jared but the younger man just kept quiet and waited for more of the explanation, like why an attempt on his life wasn't happening yet. Deciding that Jared knew there was more to the story, Vornamen continued his explanation. "Your master only had but one wish before he died, for you to be part of the rebellion."

"But why are you only approaching me now?" interrupted Jared throwing the sword away in frustration, it may have been a unintelligent decision disposing of his only line of defense but his rage overcame all common sense "It's been years since my master was executed, all those years I believed myself to be what I was doing- a saboteur. I've been Ituralde's lapdog all those years, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"You were too closely tied with Ituralde that we couldn't approach you without risk." Explained Vornamen his voice increasing a little below a shout, he calmed himself down before he continued "We ask you now Jared, be part of the rebellion against Ituralde, follow in your master's foot steps and fulfill his vision."

There was a silence that came over the tent. Jared remembered the day his master was executed; Turian had looked right at him before the moment of Turian's death and mouthed something. Jared always thought that it meant his master blamed him for his death that it was a final act to show Jared how much he was despised. Jared couldn't help but look away from his master before the guillotine went down. But now as he thought back, he remembered no signs of hate in his master's eyes. His master had looked to him that day to say that everything that was happening was needed, and Jared for the first time in years, actually realized what his master had mouthed- I trust you.

Jared looked up at the sage and the priest. They were looking back at him waiting for his reply and a ghostly familiar feeling began to resurface from a part in his heart that he had kept too hidden and too deep since his master's death. It was the feeling of being part of a guild, a guild where you protected your friends and they protected you in turn. It was like what Malacca had, and what their chant had so often reminded him of what he lacked. Now, he was part of something like that.

"I don't think that I deserve to join you after what I've done," Jared replied "But I have to save someone, and I am in no position to reject any help. I am honored to fight by your side."

Vornaman nodded before he extended his arm forward to shake with Jared. Jared for the first time in years took someone's offer of friendship without any hesitation.