Name Game
Coming back to the throne room.
Lucius paces himself towards the giant doors leading to the throne room; without giving the door guards a minute to react, Lucius pushes his way through.
Once upon entry, even though the guards come running after him in anger, the King puts his hand up to indicate that they stop.
Lucius bows to the King, ignoring the angry guards and awaits for his majesty to obviously question his insolence, but he fears not.
Gritting their teeth, the guards head back to their post and close the doors.
"I've allowed you to have an excessive amount of arrogance because of your status and your loyalty towards me, but to barge your way in here without my say-so has gone beyond your authority Lucius." The King says in a quiet but deathly tone.
"I know my King, and I'm willing to give my life for my intrusion, but the information I picked up needs your attention before it reaches any of the other nobles." Lucius responds.
"Go on, but know that if this information is not worth my time, it will not just be your head but also everyone you love." The King threatens
"I understand. My sources have learned that something that could endanger your goals relates to Ray, the fifth hero of Light."
"Go on." The King is now interested and has forgotten about Lucius's intrusion.
"My King, we are led to believe that there is an item that could get rid of any of the Heroes' powers, including the fifth hero's."
Not even this emotionless King could keep his shock from showing. Why have I never heard of this before!"
"Well, it is written in books that we do not hold, but the reason why it has not come to our attention for this long is that the item only can be held by any of the Heroes not only that, even if we could hold it, the item only responds to the Heroes will."
"Meaning?"
"The Hero wielding the item would have to WANT his powers to be removed."
"I understand this is rare information, but what does this have to do with our goal?"
"Well, hearing of the item's existence isn't the only information I was given. We also believe that Ray is looking for this item."
"Meaning that Ray is trying to get rid of his powers." The king interrupts
"Yes, my King!"
"Yes, this surely is a threat to my plan. Who is your source? Are they to be trusted?"
Lucius hesitates to answer.
"I demand that you answer me!" The King becomes angrier and angrier every fleeting second.
"There is a city West from here, the city of Wance, and in this city is a town taken over by bandits, the leader of the bandits had ambushed my carriage and was ready to defend myself, the bandit leader, although I am ashamed to say, he overpowered me, and that is when he told me this news," Lucius responds with a hint of shame in his voice.
"He told me everything, including where Ray is going."
Angry due to hearing that his plans may fall apart, upon hearing that his subordinate got such huge information from mere bandits has left the King infuriated, the King, without a word, slowly stands up from his throne and walks toward Lucius.
Grasping Lucius's neck, the King lifts him up without a hint of struggle.
"You barge in here without so much of an invitation, you tell me there is an item that could threaten my plans, then you tell me that you have gotten all this from a bandit that takes over an unknown town?"
Although gasping for air, Lucius doesn't struggle as his King is about to kill him.
"Y-yes, my King. I'm sorry, but this is the only information we have gotten after a year of searching. I first doubted his words, but I couldn't leave it ignored if he was telling the truth." Lucius says as he keeps struggling for air.
"And what if he lied to you?" The king asks.
"If-if he lied, I ask that you give me a month to search for the bandit that gave me the information and kill him, and then I will come back here to accept my death."
The King holds onto Lucius contemplating his decision.
After reaching a conclusion, the King lets go of Lucius.
*Thud*
*Gasps*
Lucius fell to the ground gasping for air as he held onto his throat, which left a bruise in the shape of a handprint.
"You will go find the item, and Ray, if you happen to find even one of them, I will allow you to have your worthless life, but if it so happens that you can't even find one, you and your family will go through an unspeakable death, do you understand?" The King said in a more calming but still threatening tone.
"Thank-" Lucius continues to cough as he speaks.
"Thank you for your benevolence, my King. I promise I will come back with both; if not, I will accept my death."
"I supposed that's good enough for now; you may leave." The King subsides his anger as he walks back to his throne, and when reaching it, he sits down as his body emerges back into the shadow.
Once Lucius exits the throne room, the King speaks his thoughts out loud. "An item that allows any of the Heroes to get rid of their powers? Such an absurd lie; even if it does exist, Ray would never want to get rid of his powers. Ah, right, there was a child. I wonder if he's even alive? After all, Ray, although a hero, doesn't care about the lives of others. Isn't that right, Seraphina?"
The king puts his hand on an oval-shaped glass container with a pitch-black head-shaped figure residing inside it.
~
*AHHHHH*
A mansion, surrounding it are trees and more trees going on for miles, a house away from civilization, allowing whatever happens in the mansion to stay in the mansion.
And what creeps in the pitch dark basement are the screams of agony followed by bones cracking before every scream.
A set of small rusty tools laid out neatly on a dirty cloth. Once every so often, when the screams quiet down, a hand is shown putting down a bloodied tool that was once as orange as the others.
Once the bloodied tool is set down, the hand picks up another one, leading to even louder screams than before.
"Which tool is this? Can you guess?" A man that is blurred to the eyes would ask.
Even when asked, the screaming didn't stop.
"Wrong! It's not "ahhhhhh" silly; it's called pliers." The man could be heard giggling when talking.
"Well, hopefully, you'll get it right on the next one."
As soon as the man said that, the deafening screams would continue.
~ [50 minutes later]
*Clank*
The man set down the tool delicately as if it were a baby.
With one tool set down, another tool was picked up, but not this time; hearing the footsteps of the man leaving, Zac didn't feel relief; he didn't feel anything but the unbearable pain of one of his arms, two knee caps, four fingers, and 5 toes broken all in the span of one night.
"He still needs time, but I believe he'll be ready in a week." The same man that asked Zac repeatedly the name of each tool he used to break Zac's bones could be heard talking to someone upstairs in the distance.
"Why? What's happening? Why am I here? Where's Ray?" Zac couldn't make of the situation that he was in. All Zac could do was question everything.
"Ray will be here. He's someone I can trust; he will kill everyone here and rescue me!" Zac cried while talking to himself.
The footsteps of someone could be heard by Zac, believing it was the same man that was torturing him, he pleaded.
"PLEASE! NO! NO! NO! NO! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! PLEASE STOP! STOP HURTING ME, PLEASE!" Zac cried and begged, but as soon as the man spoke, Zac's begging turned into confusion and hope that it was the end of the torture.
"Hey, there, little guy! We're not gonna kill you, so don't worry about it!" The man said in a happy tone.
"Why? Why are you doing this to me?" Zac would question as the tears still wouldn't stop dripping down.
"We've seen your capabilities, and we've deemed you to be special and would like you to join us! So what do you say?"
"I WOULD NEVER HELP YOU, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER! MY TEACHER WILL SAVE ME; THERE'S NO WAY I'D EVER HELP ASSHOLES WHO DID THIS TO ME!" Zac yelled in anger.
"Ah, you poor little thing." The man said as he wiped the dirt and tears off Zac, revealing him to be the bandit leader.
"You?" Zac questioned.
"Yes, me, if not me, who would it be? Hahaha," The leader happily said in a joking manner.
"Anyway, about your uh teacher, Ray, how do I put this? He's not coming." The leader said in pity
"What do you mean?" Zac angrily asked.
"I mean, did you not read the situation at all? Your teacher totally gave you up."
"Gave… me… up?" Zac's heart started to ache, not from the torture but as soon as he heard that Ray had betrayed him.
"Yes, gave you up! He wanted something, I wanted something, and now we both got it. Now that I know you won't willingly be part of our little group just yet, and you know why this is happening, it looks like Grandid was right about you needing time. Welp, I think our chat ends here." The leader said in disappointment.
"WAIT! COME BACK HERE, YOU BASTARD, TELL ME WHAT HE TRADED ME FOR?!" Zac yelled in anger.
The leader walked back up the stairs, and the same familiar heavy footsteps were coming down with his footsteps going up.
Grandid picked up another tool. "Our game hasn't ended yet, little boy; now, can you tell me the name of this little thing here?"
"N-no, stop! No!" Zac struggled to get out of the chair, but it didn't work.
Chapter End.