ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter 35: Questions

I wasn't sure how long I had been waiting. All sense of time had vanished somewhere within the vast expanse of uncertainty that existed between hours and days. There was no point of reference with which to count the seconds and they soon began to merge, one into the other.

At some point, I had fallen asleep and woken to a meal of water in a metal carafe and a bar of some kind brown-grey substance served on a red ceramic plate. The bar resembled granola but somehow drier and less appealing. I recognized it as a common staple among the Peacekeepers. It was no doubt high in calories and nutrition and low in anything resembling flavor.

They had fed me better last time, if only slightly. The food did, however, mean that my captors had some interest in keeping me alive. I had no idea what their motivation was or for how long it would last. Sebbit didn't seem like the kind to murder me out of hand, but I had no idea what system of laws and justice he followed.

The Peacekeeper captain struck me as the kind that would follow the letter of the law with ruthless efficiency. I remembered something my father had once told me, "true justice is free of mercy." It was a comforting thought until one ran up against that justice.

Before I figured out what was going on I would have to hope that Peacekeeper law – or Hegemonic law, I wasn't sure on the exact relationship between the two – would grant me some version of basic 'human' rights.

In the meantime, I waited.

I kept my mind active by reviewing the events of the past weeks. I would replay images, and dwell on my mistakes. I had more of them than I care to admit. My memory was still sharp, much sharper than it was before the system had enhanced it – though not to the superhuman level I had been used to.

I wasn't sure if this meant that I still had some bonus from the system, or if there were other explanations. The Companion seemed an obvious suspect, or at least a source of information, but it hadn't revealed itself to me since my imprisonment had begun.

It was possible that I hadn't lost my abilities, perhaps I was only blind to the them or they had been countered by some temporary effect. I decided to test my physical abilities to get some form of baseline I could compare to my earlier abilities. It was most likely useless, but it gave me direction. I needed something to break up the silence and fill the emptiness.

My every waking moment was spent alternating between calisthenics and attempting to communicate with the Companion. Sometimes I would shout at the walls or bargain with myself in quiet whispers. At other times, I would sit in meditation, despite having no real sense of how to do so.

I simply sat and tried to find a sense of peace – some quiet corner of my mind. It hadn't born fruit yet, but I did find the practice surprisingly comforting. It brought me to the realization that what I desired was control, even over myself.

It was during one of these quieter moments that my wait finally ended.

The short hissing sound of pressurized air being released was accompanied by the clicking of metal gears grinding against each other. The door of my prison cell slid open, disappearing into a recess in the wall. Within the doorframe stood a tall silhouette backed by dull blue light.

There had been no warning, and at first my mind didn't register the event.

It was as if I had forgotten that the door existed, or perhaps I had given up hope that it would ever open. What brought me back to my sense was the smell; pure unfiltered air filled my cell. I breathed in deeply before looking up.

"You're not who I was expecting," I said.

"And who, exactly, were you expecting?" said Catayla.