A Court of Ashes and Rebirth

5

The dungeon was huge and cold, Eris blinked heavily, and it shrank, the walls almost crushing him. He clenched his eyes shut. It was hot, unbearably hot. He couldn't move, where was his magic?

...

Eris opened his eyes, still in a drunken haze., darkness hovered over him. He couldn't see but the agonized screams of ill-fated prisoners carried over the sound loud cheers to him. He shuddered, blinking through the feverish haze, Eris tried to make sense of his surroundings. His body burned as if on fire. His vision blurred in and out of focus as Eris tried to stay awake, to keep his eyes open, but his eyelids were made of lead. Panic bloomed in his chest like the year's first moonflower...

Where was he? What was happening? He didn't have time to answer those questions as he slipped into a merciful oblivion.

She dipped the cloth in water again, and twisted it, squeezing the extra moisture out. He was still unconscious. Sweat had beaded on his forehead. And his chest was red with drying blood. The water dripped in the bowl.

Drip...drip...drip. Eris didn't know where the sound was coming from. He forced his eyes open, everything was foggy. The dungeon was huge again, and cold... very cold. The screaming had stopped too. His clothes were in tatters barely shielding him, his body shivered against the cold.
The dripping sound stopped. Eris felt a cold hand on his chest. There was nothing tentative about it. It was evasive, pitiless. Eris felt it trail his chest and torso. Claiming it. His body tensed in response. He struggled to move as realisation dawned on him... He tried to shutting it all out. But he couldn't. The cruel hands crawled up, savouring the plains of his bare chest. He felt the cold brush of them at the base of his throat. A drop of cold sweat trickled down his forehead and into his hair.

"What were you thinking?" A sickly sweet voice questioned. "How foolish, my dear, can you be? You chose to keep secrets from me," Amarantha sighed, her crimson red mouth widening into a ruthless smile, "How shall I make you pay? How should I punish you?" Eris stared at her, pupils wide with fear. "Or should I punish someone  in your stead? Your mother? What about your odd little brother? He still has an eye to spare, maybe I'll make you a ring like mine."

It was more challenging than what she had expected it to be. She didn't know anything about the art of healing and there wasn't anyone she could turn for help, certainly not someone she could even remotely trust; she couldn't even use her magic on him. Huffing in exasperation she wondered why he had come here? To her? After all those decades of absence. She picked up a thin curved metal tool; she had seen humans use it to stitch deeper wounds, exactly what she was going to do, or try anyway. Clean the wound, suture it and bandage neatly. Easy...

He didn't know what had happened, how it had happened? How Beron found out that he'd deliberately let Morrigan go? He wondered where she was now. In the Night Court? Warm and week with sweet relief? Or had Keir found her again... Beron's wrath was his only answer.  It was so easy for the high lord to take away Eris's power, his magic...now he was a prisoner in his own body. A slave to his 'father' a victim to the very fire that ran in his blood. The pain cut his tie to reality, a blissful consolation compared to the nightmare that had unfolded around him. Yet only a moment too short.
            How could he be this numb when he was in so much pain? His own cold laugh and Morrigan's pained whimpers echoed in his ears. Only now it was paralleled by Eris whimpering and his father chuckling. He arched, trying to elevate himself from the slab of burning hot stone his father had him tied to. His back... hurt. He couldn't see the damage but knew that it was now just a slab of torn muscles, ravaged; healing and burning. Another wave of undiluted agony seared through him as Beron laid a fire-laced hand on his stomach.
In those moments, staring up at his father's mirthless abominable existence as Eris screamed, his body breaking from pain, unable to take the brunt of the torment any longer, everything in Eris broke. Extinguished like the small fire that had tried to burn against a blizzard, vanishing without a trace. All hope gone, dead, just like his integrity. He would never be the same again...

Agatha made the final stitch, she sighed, the wound was going to leave a scar.

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