AN: Thanks very much for all of the kind reviews! This chapter is a bit longer than the others, but as it's spring break I could actually take the time to write. Please forgive me of any errors in time period. This is meant to take place around 1708. I can't remember when the game is meant to take place but as Italy is refered to as the Kingdom of Naples and Vercci is mentioned as supplying armaments to the invading Spaniards, I assume it was around this time. Voldo's brothers, who are said to have died in war, could have bitten it durring the The Spanish Succession. Blah, blah, I'll stop rambling now.

Voldo blearily awoke to find the world upside-down and moving at a remarkably fast pace, the dark, familiar shapes of his nest gone and replaced with the startlingly open farmland he had just recently passed on his way to retrieve fresh water. Had he had any inkling of what it meant to be insane, he would have assumed that he most certainly was for the earth did not move upside down unless he wished it to, and only then could it be accomplished by turning his head. The cannibal closed his eyes as parts of the reversed countryside swam in and out of focus making his stomach rise uncomfortably and thinking that when he re-opened them he would somehow be back in his alleyway.

As his nausea quickly increased so too did his understanding of his surroundings. He noted the ground was shaking horribly beneath him and sounds came rushing back as well. At once his senses and mind awoke fully from his semi-conscious state and he remembered with a start the strange human who had fought him, tried to take his territory and meat.

Voldo made to move and flip the world back to its proper state when he realized he could not twist his body; all of his limbs and even his torso were tied down with ruthless efficiency. More than a little confused, Voldo lifted his head as far as his bindings would allow and realized that it was not the earth that was shaking, but rather a large and sweat drenched stallion that he was bound to, as humans would strap down a parcel or sack of bread. This caused a bolt of panic to sweep through his immobile body. Voldo was very nearly terrified of horses and being trapped against one made his instinctual mind cry out in fear. He could recall no distinct event that gave rise to this fear. He simply did not like the massive beasts, their rolling eyes or the fact that they could easily outrun him. He did not even like the taste of their meat.

He thrashed furiously against the taut ropes crisscrossing his body but could no more free himself than he could remember how he had gotten into this situation. Another anger and fear fueled cry brought him the attention of the human he had not noticed through his panic. As the manic and dignified face turned it's gleaming eyes to his bound form, Voldo immediately recognized him as the one who'd intruded into his nest and caused the pain in his now throbbing back. He hissed in rage, thrashing so ferociously that the ropes cut into his sordid skin, causing raw red burns to erupt and bead with blood. The pain of these only heightened his struggle. His frenzied movements threw the galloping stallion off balance, the steady rhythm of it's hooves faltering and then slowing in an effort to keep itself from toppling over. The horse whinnied in frustration at its heavy and struggling load, tossing it's shaggy head and causing Voldo to become even more desperate in his attempts to escape so that his blossoming burn marks began to open and bleed freely. In a vicious cycle of cause and effect, the scent of blood further panicked the horse, which then further panicked Voldo.

His captor pulled the animals reigns and brought it to a complete stop, turning in his saddle with exasperation. His brow furrowed, Vercci glared down his captives prone and bloody form, the cannibal's chest heaving with effort, rage and panic. Unsure of what to say to calm a man whom he'd violently taken prisoner, or even what was causing such crazed fear, Vercci could do little but try to focus the mans attention on him.

He slowly moved his arm towards the man's bare, rapidly rising ribs, which were now shining with scarlet tendrils of blood. As he'd hoped, the cannibal's wide eyes immediately focused on this new threat and he stopped his thrashing in an attempt to concentrate his dwindling energy on the hand.

A curious thought struck Vercci and he wondered if the cannibal possessed the ability to understand language. Knowing that if he continued to thrash, he may well send the stallion off kilter and to the ground, possibly pining his own body in the process, Vercci decided it was worth trying to get the man to realize he was in no immediate danger.

"Calm down." He said slowly and clearly, staring the cannibal directly in his shadowed eyes. The cannibal's head turned from Vercci's hand to his face. Happy that he at least had his attention, Vercci tried again. "Calm down. I will not hurt you."

Deciding not to press the man's possibly limited vocabulary, Vercci did not bother to add 'unless you disobey my commands'. The cannibals chest continued to heave, his body continued to shake but he was no longer thrashing or expelling his dry, raw screams of panic.

"Do you understand me?"

Voldo stared at his captor in alarm. No human had spoken to him before, at least not that he could remember. They yelled at him, yes, but actually speaking in tones such as these was reserved for their companions, their fellow humans. Voldo did not understand all that the man had said. He understood 'down' and 'not hurt' as those were things he often heard his prey scream before succumbing to his appetite, but applying these terms to his present situation was more than his mind could coherently process. But Voldo was not stupid and he understood that if the man wished to harm him, he easily could and Voldo would have no way of stopping him. The wound on his back, and his now aching skull reminded him that this man was powerful and not encumbered with fear as those he preyed upon were. He kept as still as his twitching muscles would allow and silent, his eyes fixed on his captors face.

Vercci gave him a look of annoyance and eventually conceded to the cannibal's silence. "I'll take that as a 'no'." He said in a disgruntled tone before turning back around in the saddle and giving the reigns a light shake. As the stallion trotted forward, and as Vercci had feared, the cannibal gave another rattling cry of panic. Squeezing his eyes shut as if for patience, Vercci eased his mount into a gallop. As the horse barreled forward, the cannibal began to twist about in his bindings once more. This continued for several minutes until Vercci's patience snapped. He pulled the horse to a stop, twisted about and smacked the cannibal hard in the face. "Silent!" he yelled, now utterly frustrated.

It had the same effect as smacking a young child, except for the rage. The beast mans yells only became louder although the panic had been instantly replaced with rage.

Rolling his eyes in exasperation that this had not cowed the beast into silence, but somewhat excited by it as well, Vercci pulled a strip of the mans clothing off and made to gag him with it but was brought short by the gnashing of bloodstained teeth. Vercci immediately raced his other hand to the bare chest and the cannibal's attention went with it. Vercci used that brief interlude of concentration to stuff the foul, waded up piece of cloth into the still gaping mouth. The cannibal choked and immediately tried to force the disgusting thing out but Vercci already had another strip on the way and tied this one tightly across his head and mouth, rendering it impossible to dispel the gag.

Satisfied, Vercci turned, and urged the stallion onwards yet again.

They had not gotten half a mile before Voldo's thrashing had again become so violent as to upset the stallion and send it heavily to the ground.

Nearly yelling in frustration at the cannibal's forthright obstinacy, Vercci pulled the reigns so fiercely that the horse stopped dead in its tracks from a gallop. This caused Vercci to slide up the beast's neck and his hat to fly from his head. Growling in indignation, he leapt from the saddle, cursing the cannibal, cursing the stallion, his hat, and the bruise on his head. He picked his hat up, dusted it rather violently off and walked around so that he was level with the gagged and grimy face of his cannibal.

"Stop moving!" He yelled. Vercci was usually rather patient, but his eagerness to get to his mansion and have full room to examine the incredibly stubborn creature before him was clouding his mind. Again he smacked Voldo in the face and in another cycle of cause and effect, the cannibal resumed thrashing and Vercci in turn became angrier. Gritting his teeth over the cannibal's muffled yells, Vercci tore off another strip of the man's clothing this time tying it about his eyes.

At once Voldo's thrashing deadened to a dull quiver and his gagged yells died down to a barely audible whimper. Vercci was vaguely impressed that this tactic worked and he leaned back, arms crossed. He knew that covering a wild beasts eyes would render it silent and lame, as though the blindfold had turned out the entire world for it. Voldo was now dead silent beneath his gag and Vercci looked at the man in a disturbed sense of wonder. The cannibal was truly wilder than he had imagined if something such as this would render him silent and pliable. A grin tugging about the corners of his mouth, Vercci remounted and kicked his stallion's sides.

As the beast gained speed, Vercci glanced over his shoulder at the cannibal. He no longer thrashed, although he was shaking violently. Satisfied that he could continue the ride back in peace, Vercci dug his spurs painfully into the horse's side causing it to whinny. Vercci reveled in the combined fear and fury of the beast and the cannibal, knowing that nothing
could withstand him and basking in his self proclaimed superiority. But whereas the horse was already broken in mind and body, he had yet to test the cannibal to his full limits.

Dim yellow lights appeared faintly on the lightening horizon, shining through the thin veiling mist of the night and signifying the approach of a cold dawn. Barely discernable from the deep blue-gray sky was the impressive shape of a large, Romanesque mansion that housed the flickering lamplight. No orders had been given to expel the lamps and the servants were much too cowed to dare go against their master's orders and save fuel. Their minds understood the waste but Vercci…why not waste when you could afford to replace?

As it was, they waited, most on pins and needles for Vercci's imminent return. Some took this opportunity to relax, but these were the ones who had not paid attention to Vercci's demeanor before he had left, had not noticed the way he had smiled or the way his dark eyes shown with obsession. Those that were unlucky enough to be near him before his departure knew that look and knew that Vercci's mind was in the state of dominance it only achieved when bringing in another luckless person to break. They understood that they could not afford to relax.

And then there were the rumors that some of Vercci's scouts had been quietly spreading throughout the mansion's staff during the long hours of the night; rumors of Vercci's quest to tame the famed cannibal of Calabria Ultra. Some felt a lackluster sort of hope awaken deep within them, daring to wish that the cannibal would eat their master and leave them free to escape. Those that knew Vercci better came to the unfortunate conclusion that a cannibal may soon be living amongst them and they could hardly be thrilled with this prospect. Very few slept and talk was scarce and sounded forced. The servants waited with queasy apprehension for the sound of thundering hooves and perhaps the high cold laugh they so despised.

In that dreary, silent space in between night and true dawn they could faintly make out the light rhythm of weight hitting the cobblestones up the olive tree enshrouded lane and out of their sight. All of them quickly took up their posts within and without the mansion, their faint hope in Vercci's death now as dead as anything else they had dared to hope for since becoming enslaved.

The light sounds gained volume and became the recognizable clatter of hooves. The ghostly figure of a horse and its rider detached themselves from the darkness as they moved steadily forwards. The gatemen swung open the elaborate wrought iron barrier between the mansion and the outside world, allowing their master to barrel onwards without having to slow his mount in the least and then re-latched it securely, both men looking extremely put out at Vercci's arrival. The lamps flickered as the animal galloped by and one of the gatemen could just make out the shape of a bound figure strapped to the horse. He quickly looked away and tried to shove the image from his mind.

Vercci pulled the reigns dramatically as he neared the entrance to his mansion, causing the winded and overloaded stallion to rear up and flail its powerful front legs. The stablemen backed away from the sweat drenched beast, pity and fluttering anger swelling in them as they saw the condition of the horse, it's sides bloody where Vercci had repeatedly dug his spurs into it, it's eyes wide and mouth and chest soused with its own foamy saliva. Under any other owner, the stallion would have been a prized and gleaming animal. Under Vercci it was a heaving and disheveled mess. One of them made for the reigns, hoping to take the beast to the stables for a good rest, but Vercci had already dismounted and swatted the man's hand away impatiently.

"Not yet, not yet." He spat under his breath as he wound about the stallion to face his captive. His voice was winded, as though he himself had run all the way back from cannibal corridor but the stablemen knew it was from the focused and demented glee in having achieved his goal. His eyes were bright, the lamplight dancing across the slick dark surface and making him look like a man possessed. Vercci exhaled nosily as he pulled on one of the ropes binding the cannibal to the stallion. Clotted blood came with the rope as he removed it, reopening the self-inflicted burns that had just mended. The cannibal breathed hard from his nose, a muffled sound pushing past his gag, as more ropes were removed and more wounds laid bare.

By now several servants had circled about the stallion, unable to help their curiosity and seized with an unexplainable desire to look upon the cannibal with their own eyes. Vercci did not mind their presence this one time and removed each scabbed strip of rope with a flourish fitting his almost childish excitement. They had only seen such excitement in Vercci once before, and that was as he had been breaking the man who was now his personal bodyguard, Cephas.

"You there," Vercci breathed to a servant on the opposite side of the horse, "Take his legs, don't dare untie them or you'll be his next meal. Get that end off the horse." The servant, whose name Vercci had never bothered to learn, looked rather ill, possibly due to the cannibals smell, but quickly complied, loosening the ropes and letting the legs hang slackly over the horse's broad side. The cannibal flailed slightly at this action and a low moan escaped his throat, his head pressed tightly back in pain as blood rushed into the legs that had been tightly fixed in the same position for hours. The servant jumped backwards as the cannibal moved and looked to Vercci for further instruction.

"There…there, yes, almost done." Vercci said to himself, now smiling his predatory smile as his hands danced across the cannibal, peeling the ropes away until the man was free from the stallion, although his wrists and ankles were still tightly bound, his eyes still covered and mouth still gagged. "Take his legs, support him." He barked suddenly to the now thoroughly unnerved servant.

Vercci pushed the cannibal forwards off of the horses back and the servant reluctantly took him by the waist to keep him from crumpling to the ground. Vercci was around the horse in an instant. He batted the man aside as he took the cannibal's arm over his shoulder, supporting him as he had done in the alleyway after knocking him unconscious.

The stable men quietly and quickly led the quivering horse away as Vercci half dragged the cannibal up the limestone staircase and into the mansion, the servants parting quickly and giving their master a wide breadth, gasping and exclaiming amongst themselves as they eyed the cannibal.

The cannibal was struggling now, his arms twitching and flexing as blood forced his deadened limbs to reawaken in a sensation of burning needles, his legs and bare feet trying to function against the cool slick tiles of the mansions interior. Vercci held fast, excited by the feel of the shivering body against his own and satisfied by the muffled howls of pain the cannibal exuded.

Vercci paused in the middle of the foyer, breathing heavily and looking about him. "Cephas!" He boomed, his sharp voice resounding in the open space. At once a tall and powerfully built man with a heavy brow, olive skin and hooked nose emerged from one of the studies located in the left wing of the mansion. He looked eager to obey as he bowed before his master, although his brown eyes were dull. "Have the concert hall lit and ready to receive me in ten minutes time." Vercci panted, while struggling to gain a tighter hold on his slowly reanimating captive.

"Yes, master, it will be done." Cephas grunted, in a heavy accent that suggested he had hailed from areas wilder than southern Italy, perhaps an Austrian left over from one of Austria's many failed attempts to conquer Naples. Vercci had never bothered to find out although he had at least seen fit to bestow his bodyguard a name, never mind what his real one had been. Cephas turned on his heal, motioning several other servants to join him in making the concert hall fit to receive Vercci and his rather…disturbing new plaything.

Vercci leaned Voldo heavily against one of the slick limestone walls supporting the sweeping three-story staircase and wiped his glistening brow. The cannibal staggered, knees buckling, but he had regained enough control to keep himself from collapsing. He spasmodically flexed his arms and fingers, agitating the skin beneath the rough rope, but not concerned with it. Vercci watched the cannibal for a few moments before turning to the nearest servant and telling her to, "get everyone in the concert hall". She curtsied and began to spread the word at once, eager to remove herself from the presence of the cannibal and her master's manic eyes.

The concert hall was not a concert hall. That was simply the name Vercci used for it when not wishing to sound too suspicious around his fellow upperclassmen, or possibly to ease the guilt in his mind of the events that usually transpired there. Vercci did not often feel guilt, and on the rare occasion that he did, he was quick to cover it with a pleasant name as if to rationalize it and make it right. After his mind accepted the adopted term the things that took place in the concert hall never again bothered him. In fact, he looked forward to them in the way a poet would enjoy a Shakespearian play. The hall itself was simply a glorified dungeon. An arena had been dug into the center of the room and stadium seating had been erected around it, keeping viewers safe from whatever deviltry was taking place below them. Vercci had had a grand, marble viewing box carved for himself, front and center.

He let the cannibal stand, hoping the beast would quickly regain use of his limbs and was amused to see that he had his head bent towards his chest, bringing his long fingers to his face in an attempt to pull the gag out of his mouth and unbind his eyes. Vercci chuckled as he watched the cannibal struggle with the filthy pieces of cloth. They had been fastened at the back of his skull and his current restraints would not allow him the mobility to reach around and untie them. Vercci watched until the cannibal began to get extremely frustrated, at which point he grabbed him by the improvised leash he had tied about his neck and pulled.

The cannibal immediately dug his heals into the marble tiles in surprise and anger, refusing to be led by something he could not see to a location he could not guess. He twisted his torso forcefully with a limberness that caught Vercci off guard and slackened his grip on the lead. Grimacing, Vercci redoubled his efforts to drag the cannibal to the concert hall.

He pushed open the heavy oak door some fifteen minutes later, drenched with sweat and fully dragging the uncooperative and half choked cannibal behind him. As he entered the now lit and crowded hall, he had two servants lift his captive and carry him into the open arena as Vercci walked up the stone aisle to his viewing box. From there he watched with hungry eyes as the cannibal was lowered onto the dusty earthen floor, an indoor mockup of a gladiatorial ring. Here, he was Caesar. His eyes lighted upon Cephas, rocking on the balls of his feet near the entrance to the arena.

"Cephas!" He called out. The tall man quickly turned to him, and crossed the gritty arena floor, past the struggling cannibal and terrified servants.

"Yes, lord?" He inquired.

"Have the arena exits closed and barred." Vercci yelled down. Cephas bowed and immediately commanded the exits closed. As Cephas made to join his master in the top box, he realized that the aisles had been barred as well. The two servants hovering near the thrashing cannibal seemed to have noted this too. All of them were effectively trapped in the arena.

"Master?" Cephas's dull eyes were fully enlivened now.

"Cephas, you are my personal guard, are you not?" Vercci said drolly from his lofty perch. Cephas thought this a rather odd question.

"Of course, master."

"And you have been trained to be a most ruthless killer, have you not?"

"Yes, master, I have."

"Then you will not mind proving yourself."

Vercci strode out of his top box and down one of the aisles nearest to the cannibal. "You two," he called down to the servants, "cut the cannibal loose, unbind and un-gag him. Do this and you will be taken from the arena. You will be spared." Vercci smiled at them, and tossed a short dagger to the ground before their feet.

"Spared?" Cephas exclaimed, his voice now hoarse with disbelief as he stared from Vercci to the cannibal.

Vercci paid his guard no mind. "Come, come, he's already fed tonight so I find it highly unlikely that he will turn on either of you if you free him." He soothed the incredulous looking servants. One of them swallowed deeply, reached a shaking hand to the cannibals gag and undid it. At once the cannibal spat and shook his head before uttering a low, gurgling growl from deep in his throat, his mouth tight and teeth bared. Vercci's grin broadened. "The eyes, quickly, the eyes!" He cried, excitement again constraining his voice.

The blindfold was removed and Voldo was met with the bright light of the arena. He quickly made to hide his night-accustomed eyes behind his arm, his growl dwindling into a surprised hiss. "Do it, now, the arms! Free them!" The servant hesitated only a second, too accustomed and beaten by Vercci to disobey. He brought the dagger through the thick rope binding the wrists.

At once, Voldo's long sinewy arms snapped out in a flourish, catching the servant who had freed him across the throat. Stunned, the man went down, clutching at his crushed windpipe. The other servant raced to the blocked aisle entrance that Vercci lounged against. "Master!" he shrieked, "Master, let me out!" Vercci did not take his eyes off of the cannibal, who was now ripping open the soft abdomen of his felled and still live victim. "Shh." He hushed, bringing a finger to his lips.

Cephas was running now, not all of the nobility in him fully quelled, and made to intercept the cannibal and save the servants whose names he had bothered to learn. His primal scream caused the cannibals head to whip around. Immediately Voldo dashed towards this new threat, blood flying from his grimy arms and hands. As the two clashed, Vercci stood tall, eye's blazing, half laughing and half howling, "Fight!"