Questioned

The blackness slowed then paused as our lord thought. I didn't believe it was the first time he had thought about the problem but I could be wrong. Probably best not to think I know anything about how his mind might work. "There are, and I am not completely blind to what is happening in places I am not allowed to go. You do seem to know more then you should. Does that mean you have a possible solution?"

I took a breath, this would be the second part that might end badly, "Start training your humans to be loyal to the lord first and you second, master. Make it much harder to use your men against the lord and Avery at least would know it. It wouldn't help if the lord returned one day and didn't wait for an explanation, master."

The darkness started turning again, it reached out and I let it pass again, "How would you go about making the transition?" I got the feeling that the darkness was reading something when it reached out but it was so quick that I wasn't aware of what it had seen.

"By educating your humans, master and telling them that the improvements in life from now on are the wish of the lord. That you still only care as long as you have what you need and the humans are safe from the monsters that roam the other lands. If the blood supply is good enough for now, master the bigger your human population gets the smaller the percent you actually need will be. Eventually the arena will be best as a criminal deterrent and to keep the ideas pinned that you don't want out yet, master."

"If the human population starts growing again. Is it correct that your plan for that has something to do with why you don't help your sisters?"

"Yes, master. To raise a stronger bond you must have bonds pretty much from birth. The first bond is with your mother and father and you learn of bonds by the bond between your mother and father. That is why your population is slowing down, now. No one in the cities knows how to trust anyone else beyond what they absolutely must to survive, master. Trade even between houses is almost nonexistent and between the cities even more so. The city I was in is less then half a days run, for a horse it would be a little faster and there is even a road, but I would bet the only thing that uses that road are the carts for you and maybe one or two carts for the harvests, master."

I felt our lord move like he was standing up. I worried I might have gone too far, I sometimes get carried away with my thoughts. I pressed my head into the stone floor harder trying to supress my other sense but it was fighting me. "It is worth thinking on. Next though is to find out if you are lady Avery's spy."

The darkness struck out this time. I tried to let it pass but I couldn't predict where it was going or how to move with it as it seemed to come from all sides at once. I heard myself screaming and it felt like lighting must be sparking between my teeth. It took quite a bit of will power to accept the pain and try to focus on what the shadows where actually doing. It seemed to be going through my memories. "Please, master, tell me what you want to see." I wasn't sure I was talking, my throat hurt and my body was shaking. I picked one of the shadow strands and started to follow its path. I could only focus on one at a time so I didn't try to worry about the other two that also seemed to be going through memories. I would watch with it like I was standing over the shadows shoulder. I wasn't trying to stop it so it ignored me. It seemed to be picking things at random to view. The memories were disjointed and blurry. The next one the shadow grabbed, I grabbed as well bringing it more into focus. The shadow didn't pull back on the thought so I sped through it like the shadow had done the last one. This was much clearer and my mind put emotion and thought into the memory not just the bland fact of what was seen, and heard. As it started to near the end the shadow seemed to start after another cross thought. I was still in a lot of pain and it jumped up as the shadow moved but I grabbed on to the memory again and the pain lessened.

I hadn't gotten very far with the second memory I was handling when my mind was jarringly my own once more. It took a minute before I was aware of the cold stone under my back. I was still shaking and it felt like my body was trying to pull itself apart. My mind reacted in fear before I could stop it as one of the shadows reappeared again to it. The shadow didn't respond while I tried to calm my response and let the shadow in again.

It wasn't as painful there was only one shadow this time and it seemed to be ok waiting for right this second while I got myself under control. I wanted to say thank you but I wasn't sure how that would go over. I took a shuddering breath instead. The shadow could clearly see me and I let myself submit and the shadow moved deeper. I was afraid of the pain the shadow had brought last time but the shadow had been forcing its way through last time. "Show me the earliest thing you remember."

I heard the shadow but nothing had actually talked. I complied with the requested information before the shadow started looking for itself again. The shadow seemed to want to see everything and I showed it everything. Every once and a while I would gloss over something that I hadn't been particularly proud of or was something most people considered private. The shadow would reach out just a bit to stop the memory and restart it. It would hurt when it did that but it wasn't as debilitating as it had been before. It felt like enough time to live my life again must have passed before the shadow released me back into the world of the present. My eyes opened to see two red eyes looking down at me. I froze unsure what I should do.

The man with the scary red eyes frowned and then stepped back. It felt the swirling mist of shadows follow him back to the throne. He sat before I realized I was not on the floor, I seemed to have been restrained while I was out. I tried not to pull against whatever it was holding me down. I wondered how long it had been, the room seemed brighter then before. My head was restrained so I couldn't actually look around. Not that I needed to, now that the shadow had moved away I could sense the whole room again.

I focused on breathing and relaxing my tense muscles while our lord, the shadow, the red eyes, watched me from the throne. Fear caused me to shake no matter how I tried to let it go. I tried focusing on the room instead of myself. The room was definitely getting brighter. When I had first learned of the tower from Father I had asked him how our lord survived surrounded by glass if the sun could hurt him so much. The shadow had seen that memory and it had been one of the few times it stopped. Father hadn't known why our lord didn't burn when he was in the tower. It hadn't mattered to him he had other things to do. It worked, our lord was safe, he was as happy as he ever got. "They are treated to block the rays that cause burns in humans and can damage my skin. You could still go blind if you stared at the sun through them but it shouldn't burn you even if you stood there for days." The memories had gone on before I could react to the new information.

The messenger walked over to where I was, it was the same man and he didn't look years older. He had started doing something and the restraints were releasing. He stopped and seemed startled when he noticed my eyes watching him. "Continue."

The messenger moved around whatever I was laying on and started to release the otherside. I think it was a table but the table had not been there when our lord started questioning me. Thinking of it that way seemed to help relieve some of the fear I was feeling. It had started as a lot worse then questioning. The last restraint opened and the messenger stepped back. I didn't try to move, I wasn't sure I could and our lord hadn't told me I could. I could still feel the black flames that I registered as his moving around the room. I knew how fast they could be, this close there was no way I could get away and even if I was standing in front of him with a weapon to his neck I knew I wouldn't be fast enough to kill him, not that I would. I remembered the pain. Pain was a primal thing and it didn't matter what my conscious mind said my subconscious mind wasn't going to let it go that easy.

The messenger knelt before our lord. "There are two fights scheduled with his intended participation, correct?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Inform the houses involved that the arena has changed, as well as the date." A small bit of misty shadow moved through the messenger, and he stiffened.

"As you wish, my lord. Do you wish for it to be a royal or 8 on one?"

I could feel our lord look up at where I lay. "Ask the brothers that came with Mir if they would like to join. If they do make sure they know 8 is the minimum they might be facing. Also take Mir and get him changed. Him and his brothers that came with him, will stay as my guests for now. See that they have what they want." The messenger blinked, that implied that our lord would be covering the cost. "Mir, Hose here will show you where you can train tomorrow. Spend time thinking on what you have learned of those powers of yours."

I tilted my head and the world felt like it was spinning. I was glad I hadn't tried to move more, "Yes, master."

The messenger started to move but stopped as our lord spoke again, "If you survive again, I will accept you as a special like the messengers, even though you are stronger then them. Meaning you will address me as lord not master. Lord Harus is the master here."

"Yes, master." The shadows seemed to stop for a moment but they spun around him darking that side of the large room. I was pretty sure he wasn't on the throne any more but I wasn't sure.

The messenger pushed my shoulders up. I had been trying to sit up after our lord disappeared but I hadn't gotten very far. My muscles hurt worse then they had after the most challenging of arena bouts. The messenger seemed patient though, and unworried about the state of my clothes as I just about fell off the table. He almost carried me to the lift. I wasn't light but my size probably helped this time. The lift was open and the waiting priest on board didn't seem in a hurry which was good, I wasn't really in a condition to hurry right now.

The messenger held onto me as the priest pulled the rope and the lift slowly started down. The trip didn't take long and I was pretty sure it wasn't because the lift was moving any faster. The priest opened the doors for us and I was sure the lift hadn't moved faster, it just didn't go all the way back down. The messenger carried me out into a hall. This one had white walls around with globes of light hung every few feet. The lift closed and started moving again just seconds after we stepped into the hallway. I and the messenger started to the right where the hallway continued for a few feet then it looked like it turned. There weren't any doors on the wall. When we turned the corner though there were white painted wood doors every few feet, there also seemed to be metal numbers on each door. I felt like I was falling asleep on my feet.

The messenger opened the third door. I had been examining the rooms beyond the doors with my extra sense but I wasn't sure what I was feeling. When the messenger opened the door there were strange furnishings in the room. I was too tired to try and think about what they might be. The messenger left the door open as he walked to what seemed to be a couch, but men didn't have couches and why was it in the man's room?

He set me on the couch anyway and I didn't even remember laying down but I was out.