Ashera wandered back into the base, questions still swirling around her head. She immediately went looking for Artemis, she needed to know what happened. Artemis was hanging around the entrance, so he wasn't hard to find. Having seen everything Ashera had seen using the glasses Artemis knew what was coming.
"It's a long story, Ashera," Artemis began, "I'll explain everything that happened."
Ashera sat there for a long time after Artemis’s story in silence. Mostly she was in disbelief of what she had heard. Artemis had done the best thing he could and still ended up here. Those elves were unforgivable, Ashera was grateful though as being here was the best of his options. She wondered how Artemis was still in such good spirits with all he had been though, she didn’t think most would be that strong.
“You saved the elven queen,” Ashera said.
“Yes,” Artemis replied.
“And you still ended up here,” Ashera confirmed. “What the fuck?”
“I know that’s the last time I help a high elf,” Artemis said laughing.
“Now the question is who they will leave in charge. Depending on who it is changes our plan, if it’s Rivnear we change the plan and destroy the guard city as he would be more inclined to kill us than throw us in the tower. We will break into the tower from the tunnel being dug by Sumal and attack from the inside. If it’s Cyrth we continue with the plan. We’ll need to send someone who hasn’t been to the city before,” Ashera explained.
Artemis nodded, “I have just the person in mind.”
Artemis got up and left Ashera sitting in the cafeteria. He headed down to the training floor to see if he could find Aypryl. Artemis looked around the training area for her. She wasn’t easy to find at the best of times but the harder you looked for her the more she seemed to disappear. Without a word Aypryl stepped up behind Artemis.
“You’re looking for me,” Aypryl said.
“Yes, I am,” Artemis said. “We have a job that requires your skills. We need you to find out who is being left in charge of the island now that Venthal is leaving.”
“Venthal is leaving?” Aypryl asked.
After a moment Aypryl said, “and we need to make sure that everything is still able to go to plan.”
Just as quickly as she had appeared she disappeared again. Leaving Artemis standing there.
***
Sumal and his group were making excellent time. They had made it out to the coast and were in the process of clearing a wider tunnel. Sumal figured by nightfall they would have the tunnel up to the city complete. Leaving only the tunnel to the tower to be dug. Sumal handed an updated report to Lyra and sent her off to update Suntiana and the others.
***
Aypryl had reached the city just in time for the changing of the gate guard. This was perfect for her; she could listen in and see what these new guards knew. Aypryl pulled out some sunsparks in case she needed to sweeten the deal.
“The boss looked pissed,” one of the new guards began, “the way that army captain told him he was being drafted again. I almost pity those damn rebels.”
The group of guards laughed at this. In a nervous way, as if they had seen him mad before and it hadn’t ended well.
“So, who are they leaving in charge? It’s not Rivnear is it? Divine living elven god, I hope it’s not Rivnear,” one of the guards said.
“Fucking suck up,” Aypryl thought, “invoking the emporers preferred title.”
“You’re half right,” the guard began. He leaned in after looking around to see if anyone else was listening. “They’re leaving two people in charge, Rivnear as the brute and Cyrth as the brains. Basically, means Cyrths in charge, Rivnear will be his bitch before the commander leaves for the mainland.”
The group laughed at this, not noticing Cyrth coming up behind them.
“Mind filling me in on what’s so funny?” Cyrth said with a knowing smile.
“Nothing sir!” The men said as they snapped to attention.
“Good keep it that way. We don’t want any rumours to spread around,” Cyrth said to the group.
With that the four men went their separate ways. Aypryl wasn’t sure what to do with this information. She decided it would be risky to leave without asking for some water and decided to approach the guards.
***
Lyra made her way into the base to find Suntiana and the others. As she was heading down the stairs, she heard the door to the base open again. It was Aypryl, she looked like she had something concerning to report. Aypryl walked past Lyra as if she hadn’t noticed her. Lyra Shrugged, figuring it was important news and followed her down into the common area. They found Artamis and Ashera in deep conversation and Suntiana sitting off to the side making more notes. Lyra figured it was more notes about their plan to get into the tower.
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“We have bad news,” Aypryl said, almost bellowing it to get everyone's attention. “they’re leaving both Rivnear and Cyrth in charge of the island. From what the guards were saying they think Cyrth will actually be in control. They figure Rivnear is too stupid to know any better.”
This caught everyone off guard. Suntiana closed her book and stood up abruptly moving towards Ashera and Artemis. They exchanged looks, each one saying more than Lyra and Aypryl could discern. Suntiana moved to Aypryl and placed her hands on Aypryls shoulders.
“You’re absolutely sure? Are they both in control?” Suntiana asked grinning.
Aypryl nodded furiously, unsure of why Suntiana looked so pleased with this news. Suntiana, Artemis and Ashera started laughing. This left Lyra and Aypryl with lots of questions and no idea where to start. Seeing the confusion the three tried to compose themselves.
“This is great news, better than we had hoped for. With this all we must do is plant a couple ideas in Rivnears head about being left as the bitch and how he isn’t taken seriously. Suddenly they’re fighting themselves and less concerned about our presence in the city,” Ashera explained, in between her laughter.
The three dismissed Aypryl and were about to do the same with Lyra when she spoke up. “Sumal wanted me to report that the tunnel to the sea is built and they have begun construction on the tunnel connecting to the tower.”
“Go back and stop them immediately! The inspection is likely in the tower now. We can’t have them catching onto our plans,” Suntiana exclaimed.
With that Lyna took off at a sprint headed back to Sumal. Aypryl left the group and headed for a rest.
Venthal and Shendra made their way down the tower to the solitary confinement wing. It used to be the extended floor for medical treatment but now it served as both prison and torture chamber. Venthal led Shendra to their new medical wing that was along the way to check in on Rivnear. The building looked like the tower being used by Ashera’s group for their home base. The layout was slightly different because the tower was round, but the same principles applied, at least for this floor. At the back of the room was Rivnear grumbling and groaning in pain as the Grace reattached his foot.
“How’s it going?” Venthal asked.
The Grace ignored him, tending only to her duties. Graces rarely spoke, they believed others beneath them. Even other high elves as they were given power by the god emperor to preform healing magic.
Rivnear looked at him with disdain in his eyes. Rivnear blamed Venthal for his current condition. If he hadn’t been so incompetent the rantaru would never have gotten so close to the city. What had he been off doing, and why hadn’t the guards on duty noticed them. He didn’t care all he wanted was to make a fool of Venthal.
“It’s going peachy,” Rivnear snarled, “Why don’t you work as the distraction next time and I’ll get the kill.”
Venthal laughed, “sure Rivnear, I’m sure you could handle a mutated rantoru all on your own.” He rolled his eyes as he said this.
“What beings you and the commander down here, I’m sure it’s not just to check on me,” Rivnear said, ignoring Venthals bait.
“You’re right,” Shendra said, smiling at Rivnears pain. “We’re here to tell you Venthal will be heading back to the mainland for the foreseeable future on a new assignment. This means we need some people we can trust running the island making sure the inmates stay in line. We have chosen to leave you and Cyrth in command.”
“Why two of us? I can run this place just fine on my…” Rivnear began. “OW God damn it you stupid grace that’s not how my foot moves! make sure you attach it properly. I don't want to go through this again. As I was saying, I can run this place just fine on my own.”
“I have no doubt about that,” Shendra said, while rolling her eyes. “We figured having Cyrth to oversee the more mundane things here would free you up to make sure the prisoners were staying in line.”
Rivnear mulled this over for a moment, then smiled. “You’re right it is good to have a lacky to make sure the paperwork is done.”
Shendra and Venthal exchanged glances trying not to laugh at how easy that was. After a little more chatting They left Rivnear in the Graces capable hands and made their way down to the Prison ward.
This place was different in many keyways from the rest of the building. Firstly, it had magic circles used to stop others who had the latent ability to cast magic from using it. These individuals were often found in the beastite tribes being used as healers, Shamen or even religious figures. Some even came from the Northern kingdom; they were kept here in secret. Secondly, there were prison cells lining the one side of the room from floor to ceiling. These cages were stacked one on top of the other beastites and other races imprisoned one on top of the other. These cages were barely big enough for them to stand in let alone do anything else. Lastly, the elves had brought in tables to use for attempting to extract the magic potential from these outliers. They would go after whatever they thought was giving them their abilities. Some prisoners had lost hands, arms, internal organs, and some had even lost parts of their brain.
Looking at the cells as they walked in Shendra noticed a few exotic guests were here. Looking at the cage closest to them she noticed a set of eight eyes staring at her watching her every movement as if waiting for an opportunity to strike. From the little light trickling down through the other cages Shendra could see the upper body was that of a beautiful woman. It looked elven except with rounded ears to her. Shendra grimaced with disgust. as she stepped forward in the cage putting her hands on the bars, Shendra noticed her bottom half was a spider. All eight legs crammed in barely able to move. She looked very uncomfortable, this made Shendra smile again, nothing gave her more pleasure than someone else's pain.
“She’s our longest standing guest from the Northern Kingdom. She was able to read the future but refused to do so for our king. We brought her here and extracted her gift from her. Now she’s nothing more than a hideous freak,” Venthal explained. “We don’t normally keep them once we are sure we’ve extracted their gift but she’s quite literally the only one who can use it. We reimplanted her gift to her. Instead of being grateful she killed the doctor who performed the procedure and injured three guards. Now we keep her here just so we can torture her every few days.”
Shendra Nodded in approval, “excellent. Do any of the other prisoners rank as highly as this one?”
“Nothing worth noting. There is this peculiar rat-like creature, but she has no magic affinity. She seems to be diseased though everyone she bites falls to fits for weeks on end.” Venthal responded.
“How boring. If nothing else at least I can have some fun torturing the spider woman before we go,” Shendra said, with an evil smile. “Before I begin, does she have a name?”
“She does, not that we have taken the time to remember it,” Venthal replied.
“It’s Hayami,” said Hayami from behind them. “At least respect me enough to learn my name, you filthy elves.”
“We elves are not filthy! You inferior races are the problem, you should learn your place,” Shendra screamed. Calming herself she continued, “it appears I will have to teach your place to you.”
Hayami smiled, her face showing she knew something they didn’t, and she laughed a little. An eerie ethereal laugh, it was creepy in a way Shendra wasn’t expecting. Shendra slammed on the cage bars attempting to make her shut up. This only served to make Hayami laugh harder.
“You won’t be so full of yourselves in time. I’ve seen your future, and it is short!” Hayami laughed.
Shendra, unnerved at this statement, drew her sword, opened the door and cracked the shackled Hayami in the head, knocking her out.
Hayami came to on the torture table legs shackled down on either side with no room to lift them. Arms chained down above her head, exposing her underbelly to the room. Above her stood a smirking Shendra, implements at the ready. Shendra was fully aware of what she was about to do and knew Hayami wouldn’t have seen it coming.
“Let's start with the big problem here,” Shendra said, in a calm twisted voice. “Clearly when our doctors gave you back your gift it didn’t work right. I think the very least we can do is correct that for you. To make sure it works though, we are going to need to keep you awake. For the whole procedure.”
Venthal’s eyes went wide he had never tortured Hayami like this before it had always been mental torture. Things to break her mentally and emotionally. In the hopes of getting her to reveal the future to them. His team always put them under when extracting the gifts, it could kill them if they were awake, and he wanted his prisoners to stick around as long as possible. However, this did seem like it might work. He could see the look of fear on Hayami’s face. Shendra was a cruel woman to be sure, but she knew what she was doing. Shendra reached over to the table holding the scalpels, graspers, saws, spreaders and other surgical implements.
“Now shall we begin?” Shendra asked, not waiting for a response.
Hayami started to scream uncontrollably, the sound causing Venthal to wince just a little bit.
After what felt to Hayami like an eternity, Shendra was done. Unable to speak from the shock and unable to move from the pain Hayami was tossed into her cage with ease. Shendra wiped the last of the blood from her hands and lifted the jar holding Hayamis silk sack. Shendra smiled looking over her prize, happy with the work she had done.
“There, I think she will remember her place now. Venthal, make sure they continue to use this method with her. We don’t want her to forget anytime soon,” Shendra said dismissively.
Venthal, still looking on in disbelief nodded, “I have never seen anything like that before and I must admit I don’t know if our torturers have the skill to do that with the subject squirming like that.”
“Well, a few extra scars won’t make a difference in the long run,” Shendra replied. “Now we’ve wasted more than enough time here. Let’s get out of this place and back to the mainland.”
