They beat her, grown men each of them weighing more than twice the weight of the woman, they beat her as a fish vender would beat a thieving dog. Men with mothers forgot where they came from, pummeling the woman as one would a drum without rhythm. At first she lay silent, peering over at her screaming son, not giving in to the pain, but as one soldier gripped her leg and broke it like a twig, leg bending awkwardly below the knee, then did she scream. An anguished cry akin to the dying wails of an infant Dragon within the maw of an adult male Dragon.

  "This is madness." Celyd said from where he stood beside Prince Benji. The Prince had this manic grin spread over his face, as if he was terribly pleased with himself. Celyd imagined what life would be like under the rule of the man standing beside him, not an ounce of morality within the Prince, not a smudge of mercy nor a dab of humility. Pride and animosity warred within him like Dragons over a mate. And animosity always prevailed.

  The woman's loud cries tore at her throat until they came out gurgling, blood filling her mouth from internal wounds. Still, the soldiers beat her. The proud and mighty Black army of the West. The killers of the night, men who were rumored to be able to charge a Dragon upon command. Here they were now, beating a helpless woman. If the Rad es Maalas could see their army, the symbol of their pride, the echelon of military prowess. This here, this sight of the strong pounding on the weak spoke volumes about the hypocrisy their religion was confounded on.

  Celyd remembered himself at the steps leading to the Citadel whose teal marble towers rose in spirals that fingered the sky. The first time at the Citadel, an acolyte with big dreams. He'd thought himself on a path leading to enlightenment, an understanding of sorts regarding his place in Basi Haya. He'd gone there to become someone who could guide others in a way of life that negated violence and spoke of peace. A way of life that might turn the ire of Sin away from the Rad es Maalas and have the Dragons depart Basi Haya. He'd been young then, young and foolish, the two often went hand in hand. To think he could change the perspective and thus the actions of an entire civilization based on his understanding of some stupid principles people only pretended to follow and a book whose author was unknown and probably was some powerful drunk who got a hard on from being quoted.

  Here now, watching soldiers beat a whore half to death. A whore whose screams had died out and now the only sounds were that of gauntleted fists thudding wetly into bloody flesh, and her son, Kaza with the Dragon's eyes, thrashing and groaning beneath a soldier who pinned him down, his throat scraped raw from his own screams. Here now, Celyd realized he wanted no part in this. He did not want to be a Priest of Sin, he did not want to be holding this stupid torch with the stupid flame that he catered for night and day like an infant simply because he was told its a Dragon's flame and that it was holy. It does not need telling that if the torch was doused, Prince Benji would kill him.

  "Tell them to stop, please." Celyd said. The woman was a mangled mess, leg broken, limbs twisted. Face all botched and bloody, some of her teeth lay around her. She'd bit into her tongue and blood dribbled down her lips endlessly. She was as good as dead, that much Celyd was sure. She required an act of mercy, a simple quick death. More pain was pointless, she was past the point of pain.

  "You speak out of turn, Celyd?" Prince Benji inquired, his tone placed emphasis on the underlying threat.

  You stupid, incompetent and sorry excuse for a future ruler. You were definitely the spawn of a fucking goat rather than a man for you have the capacity of a beast. Celyd thought. "No." He said. "I'm begging you, to put an end to this."

  "Stop." Prince Benji shouted a command and the half a dozen soldiers pulled away from the woman who lay broken and limp on the ground in a pool of her own blood. The soft rising and falling of her chest the only indication she was still alive. Her son was crying now, those wide eyes with slits for irises could cry. It was odd, like looking at a Dragon weep, a sight nobody could say they've witnessed. "Kaza!" Prince Benji called out and the lad lifted his head. "I have shown her mercy, a death without humiliation is mercy in itself. And for that your life is mine as you promised."

  "The child promised his life if you'd spare his mother." Celyd pointed out. All care thrown to the wind, he didn't care if this rotten prick beside him killed him, he was past the point of caring.

  "Speak out of turn once more, and I'll peel your skin slowly over oscillations until you die." Prince Benji said with a glare sent Celyd's way before turning back to Kaza. "What say you, Kaza?"

  Celyd had to give the lad some credit, in the face of what he'd witnessed and what he was going through, he kept a composed face as he lifted himself off the ground once the soldier pinning him to the ground eased himself off. Kaza tilted his head Prince Benji's way but before he spoke, the torch in Celyd's hands flickered as if blown by a strong gust of wind, one way then the other, then the flame abruptly roared, rising as if doused by Leviathan oil before subsiding to its usual intensity. Celyd peered at the torch in his hands, he looked around and realized he was the only one who'd seen what had just occurred. That was until he turned his eyes to Kaza and found the lad's eyes on him. Those eyes! It was like standing within the Dragon's discern.

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  "Prince Benji," Kaza spoke in a raspy croak. Only now did Celyd realize the boy's face was swollen, so too was his neck, marred by dark blotches. "My Prince," He shifted until he was on his knees, then he bowed low, arms spread out before him in a feint mimic of his mother's subservience. "My mother yet breaths, she still lives, the beating... She still lives... Let her be and I will be your slave until the Dragons are no more."

  Prince Benji took a moment to stare at the lad. And Celyd wondered whether such a plea from such an anguished soul could register to one like the Prince. And as if on cue, the Prince gave the signal for the Rankf Leviathan oil and the motions followed, the same motions that Celyd had witnessed repeatedly during the purge, the same motions that warranted action from him, his seal on barbarism. The soldiers, moving methodically, went to the wooden shack that had been the whore's abode and started pouring oil out of clay jars, all over the walls, all over the floor, making sure it spread everywhere. Kaza shifted about, looking at all that went on. One soldier went and doused his insensate mother with the oil and Kaza started screaming anew, he was weak, what should have come out as screams was nothing more than anguished squeals.

  Prince Benji walked towards Kaza, a brisk pace that was unlike him. Celyd turned to face the villagers who stood as nothing more than mere spectators, some with mouths pursed in a thin line, others with a smug satisfied look. As if they didn't know the child crying for his mother, as if they didn't know the woman lying in a pool of her own blood and filth. It was as if the villagers had never seen the mother and son before, never greeted them in the morning or gave a nod of acknowledgment at noon. Never bartered with or spoke to, never sought the woman's services....

  Celyd hated the Rad es Maalas at that moment, hated that he was a part of them, hated that he was privy to all that was going on. Hated that he had a role to play, failure to which the consequences would be dire.

  Kaza made to lunge for his mother as a soldier dragged her by the foot towards the shack that stunk of oil, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. But Prince Benji grabbed Kaza's arm, twisted it and had the lad facing the direction of the shack in a solid grip that had his thin limb pressed to the small of his back, with the other hand the Prince grabbed the boy's neck and forced him to face the shack where his mother had been dragged into. Another soldier walked into the shack, hammer and steel peg in hand, going to pin the woman to the shack's wall to ward off escape from her fate.

  "You'll offer your life to me if I spare your mother?" Prince Benji asked. He always did this, always gave one hope before crushing it, that way the pain would be more severe. Celyd knew Kaza's mother was going to die, no matter what Kaza pledged, she was going to die. Prince Benji never went back on an issued command. He was just toying with the child. Celyd found himself wondering whether there was a way he could kill the Prince without touching a blade, as it was against the Principles followed by the Citadel Priests to wield any weapon other than fire. Then again, Celyd knew upon parting ways with Prince Benji's retinue, he would not be returning to the Citadel, there was no God among the Rad es Maalas, no God would stomach such a putrid civilization.

  "Yes. I will give you my life if you spare my mother." Kaza said.

  Prince Benji laughed. "You think you can issue demands, boy? Your life was mine the minute you breathed your first. Your mother will die." A sharp thud sounded from within the shack together with a scream, the hammer meeting the metal peg driving it into the woman's arm and into the wall of the wooden shack. Another thud and another scream. "She will die and I will take you with me to the West, oh you'll love it there. I'll put you in a cage and everyone will come traveling from far and wide to see the boy with the eyes of a Dragon. I have grand plans for you, Kaza, imagine what a fortune we shall make from the curiosity of the Rad es Maalas! Charging people to stand before you! Giving them the thrill of being in the Dragon's discern! Hah!" Another thud and another scream.

  Kaza was straining against the Prince's grip, trying to make his way to the shack where his mother was being nailed to the wall. "Celyd! Set the flames!" Prince Benji commanded as the soldier emerged from the shack with hammer in hand, wiping his bloody hands on his breastplate with this smug look on his face like he lived for the thrill of nailing people to things. "Celyd!" Prince Benji called once more.

  Celyd found he could not move, found he could not think, all he felt was a simple word that he did not know he had the power of giving voice to. "No." He said.

  "Celyd! Light the bloody shack!" Prince Benji shouted at him.

  "No!" Celyd shouted back.

  "You dare defy my command!" Prince Benji was practically frothing at the mouth. Kaza had turned his head to face Celyd, and there, within those vertical slits for irises, Celyd saw recognition and... gratitude.

  "I defy your command you insufferable piece of fish dung, you heartless murderer, Prince of the West my flaccid cock!" He flung the torch to the ground in the same instant two soldiers barreled into him, driving him into the ground as a third lifted the torch before it extinguished. Celyd laughed as the wielder of the torch stood perplexed, unsure of what to do. "You do not fully abide by the three hundred principles of living with Sin yet you've touched the breath of the Dragon! By the law of the Rad es Maalas, death is your portion!"

  "Soldier!" Prince Benji called out to the man holding the torch. "You are pardoned of your crime, you saved the Dragon's flame and for that I give you a full pardon! Now fling the torch into the sorry excuse of a house and let the bitch burn!"

  "You cannot absolve someone of a Sin against Sin!" Celyd cried out. "Only I am worthy of carrying the torch, find another Priest perhaps to carry it but no man who wields a blade should hold the torch!"

  "Soldier!" Prince Benji called out, his yellow eyes had a deathly cast to them. Celyd had tried his best to prevent what was about to happen. He thought by not taking part in it, he could have saved the woman. Kaza squirmed as he watched the soldier holding the torch walk to the wooden shack that he'd called a home, he struggled in Prince Benji's grip as the soldier flung the torch within the hole that passed as a door and all watched as the flames caught, feeding on the oil and spreading. Then the screaming from within started anew and Celyd found himself weeping.

  Kaza strained against Prince Benji's grip, and the Prince laughed all the while, he then called out, loud enough for all to hear. "If you care about your mother so much, child, why don't you go and save her!" And the Prince let go of Kaza and the lad, without a second thought, rushed into the burning house.

  "No!" Celyd cried out, but it was all in vain. All in vain.

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