New Cali

by Erik Schubach

  She stomped like a petulant child. “Someone get me a bandage. Now!” Aelwen ran off, her eyes dull and thoughtless, to do Eris' bidding. Then she snatched Anadele from my hands and placed her beside her throne.

  She looked to be counting. “Fourteen? Your magics aren't like your countrymen. Why does it take so many to hold you?” I looked side to side slowly to the row of straining women, noting all of them were in front of me, their eyes blazing.

  She looked past me. “Take those two to the cells now. Keep Seekers there to keep them out until I can deal with them. That man will make such a wonderful toy once we convert him. Did you see how much power he commands?”

  Then she looked back at me and said, “You... I'll have to think up something special for you. You have more power than that wretched Aelwen creature, but only a trickle compared with Donovan and Emily, yet my followers are having a hard time keeping hold of you.”

  Then she sneered. “But first.” She walked past me toward Camille. “I should have done this myself the first time instead of leaving it for the others.” She looked to the Seekers holding her immobile with their magic, “Assist me.”

  I watched as Camille's struggling face turned slack as the glow of Eris' eyes and the other two Seekers lit her up. Her look became that of a besmitten young girl standing before a knight of the realm. “There. Release her.” Then Camille dropped to her knees as she looked up at Eris like she was her whole world, grasping her leg in a hug.

  Eris told her, “You were always trouble Camille, if Dianda... with her rather specific sexual proclivities, didn't find you so pretty, you would have been among the first gone in the purge at the start of my ascension, along with the old Prime and First Seekers.” Then she smirked. “Maybe I'll give you to her as a toy for a bit, maybe that would quell the rebellious streak in you.”

  “Whatever you wish, Eris.”

  “Address me properly.”

  “Yes, my goddess.”

  Then Eris looked to her First Seeker waving her hand airily. “Do whatever you wish with her. Bed her, kill her, just get her out of my sight.” Dianda had a cruel look on her face as she motioned for Camille to come to her and forced her to sit down at her feet.

  Then Eris looked at the two Disciples who were standing with vacant expressions now. “These two... hmm... it's been a while since a heretic execution. Choose one, the other wipe and start over. And for your own sake, use two Seekers so this doesn't happen again if one of you is killed. There's no excuse for laziness.”

  Then she spun back toward me in a flourish as Aelwen returned with a bandage and frantically started wrapping Eris' finger. The Prime had a cruel smile on her face as she pulled her helmet off to regard me. “And you... what am I to do with you? Once we break you, you would be a great tool for converting the people of Sparo to our cause. Or I could always use another mindless slave like this one. It is sort of a rush reducing once-powerful women to common slaves.” She shuddered. “Oh, it's delicious and tempts me to dip my toes into Dianda's arena. Imagine, a queen in your bed, broken and obedient.” She shuddered in delight then looked at me.

  The Seekers were having a hard time holding me, and I found I could talk. “You're broken. And I've been a commoner before, and it isn't the debasing insult you believe. I feel sorry for you.”

  She glared at me, and her eyes flared. “Shut up!” She told the others, “Assist.”

  Then the goddess from before was there again, she said, “Not so talkative now are you? I'm all you've ever wanted.”

  I shook it off, the invasive magics slid off of me and were consumed by my own. I rasped through gritted teeth, “My wife is all I've ever wanted. You're just another run of the mill psycho with delusions of grandeur, like Aelwen.”

  She slapped me and looked around, asking in frustration, “Why is this not working?” She was met with silence.

  Then she huffed and said to the others, “Well maybe once her people arrive tomorrow, we can give her the proper incentive to work with us.” My... people? Mother Luna, they were bringing our people here?

  Then she said, “Chain her there, I want her to witness everything.” Then she blurted, “Wait, no. Use ropes... the other one said she's a thing for metal. And we've witnessed it.”

  Then as she strode out the other doorway, her adoring court behind her, she called out, “Clean up this mess, and keep no less than fifteen seekers on her until we break her.”

  With that, she shut the door as I was led to a column next to the throne and tied securely to it. I shook once, holding back a sob. I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing me break down. Just then I was more afraid for our people, for my children. And I almost pitied Eris, because when Celeste returned with the bodies of our fallen to find we had been taken, then the shadow of the Harbinger of Wexbury would be darkening the doorstep of Doctrina.

  Chapter 15 – Helpless

  The next few days were excruciating. I just hung there for two days as the room was cleaned of the carnage and the columns were reinforced by timbers, but not repaired. It seemed they had a lack of skilled labor in their stables of slaves and Disciples. Were they all blind to this? Did it not matter to Eris that she was condemning the very people she wished to worship her?

  The only others in the room were the Seekers who had others rotate in for them every few hours, keeping me immobile.

  I lost my dignity on the second day, and the Seekers complained of the smell. I think Eris thought it would be humorous to send Aelwen in to clean me up. Every few hours a slave would come in to give water to the Seekers but not to me.

  That was ok, I could take it. I concentrated on the burning pain inside me as I continued to unravel their magics, and instead of bleeding them off, I had been storing them inside me. I wanted as much as I could hold because they would make a mistake at some point, and that would be the moment I would strike with all this excess power they were inadvertently feeding me.

  On the third day, I awoke after a couple hours of sleep when my exhaustion overtook me, I couldn't feel my arms anymore and even though I was being held immobile, I couldn't stand anymore, so I dangled there. That's when the room was ready and Eris finally showed her face again.

  She stepped past me like I was no more significant than a piece of furniture. She lounged on her throne irreverently and feasted on all sorts of fruits, cheeses, and meats her attendants brought her, washing it down with a large mug of water.

  When she finally looked over to me and said to the room, “Well where's the fun in this? She's too weak to even comment. Are the restraints done yet?”

  Dianda strode in with something. “Yes.” She cocked an eyebrow at them and said, “I could use a set of these in my chambers.”

  Eris looked bored and waved at me. Dianda looked at the table beside the throne, smirked and hefted Anadele. “It's so small, like a toy blade.” She stepped in front of me and grabbed my chin to examine me, then looked at my bindings and swung my blade. It sliced through the ropes like they weren't even there, and embedded half the width of the blade into the stone column. I fell limp to the floor, the other Seekers still preventing any movement.

  She smiled at my blade as she pulled it free. “Nice.” Then she said something to Eris in Spanish and they laughed. She tossed Anadele to the table, and her blade embedded into the heavy plank top.

  After pulling my bindings free, I winced in pain as the circulation returned with a vengeance. It stung and prickled. Then she was placing my hands behind my back in some sort of leather cuffs that had no metal in them. She did the same to my legs, then she fastened a length of that leather rope to one set of cuffs, and wrapped it behind the column to fasten the other end to the other cuffs.

  It took her some time to weave other leather sections through the cuffs. She had to have some leathercraft skills because when she was finished they were fashioned into a single unit with no knots to work at. They were planning on having me here for a very long time it seem
s.

  But at least I wasn't hanging there anymore, and if I could move, I'd have a couple of steps of freedom.

  When she stepped back to the Prime, they both admired their handiwork. They both tilted their heads to look at me with my cheek pressed against the stone floor. “Well, this just won't do. How can I torment her when she can't even stand?” Then she explained to the air as if I wasn't aware, “The human body can go three days without water and suffer no ill effects, but after that, tissues and organs can be damaged and of course after five to seven days dehydration and organ failure can kill. It is amazing the things one can learn in the Hall of Knowledge.”

  Then she smiled, popped what looked like a red grape into her mouth and said, “Food, however... well a person can go almost three weeks without food.”

  She told the Seekers. “Let her sit up.”

  The constant pressure in my head slackened, I flexed all my muscles, making sure I had blood flow to all of them in case I needed, but I just lay there. Eris seemed disappointed like she wanted me to perform for her or something.

  She picked at her teeth then sighed and said, “Sit her up and have that Aelwen tend to her, she's to clean her and give her water, but not food. We can't have any fun if she's unresponsive like this. I thought Sparo outsiders would be more... durable, given their magic strength.”

  One of the Seekers who didn't seem to have that worship of Eris in her eyes stepped out from behind a column and moved up to me. She crouched and grabbed my shoulders, and before she could pull me upright I flicked my eyes to hers and rasped out, “I'm sorry.” Then headbutted her nose with all my strength. There was a crunching and thudding sound and my head exploded in pain and when the woman fell onto my legs, grasping her nose, I wrapped my legs around her neck and strained backward. With a sick snap, she stopped struggling.

  I looked at Eris with a snarl and rasped, “I seem to have broken this one, do you have another?” My muscles stiffened and I tipped back over as the Seekers got over their shock and restrained me again.

  The Prime Seeker looked at me in disbelief, and a little fear, before she tucked it away and laughed heartily. “So small and unassuming. You use that as a weapon, disarming people with it, making them view you as no threat. Apparently, you live up to your reputation. Just know, you will be punished for that, Vega was one of my trusted inner circle.”

  She sneered. “I was going to allow you food if you were a good girl for a week. But now only water for two. And I understand that Aelwen and you are bitter enemies. If you break her, no one else will attend you and you will die, Laney dearest.”

  I just grinned at her, the most I could do as the Seekers around me applied more pressure. I scared them. Good. I hoped it would have been Dianda since Eris seemed to favor her. If it had been any other Seeker I would have stopped with the broken nose. But I've had plenty of time the past couple days to piece everything together as far as hierarchy went.

  It is one thing to kill in battle, and quite another to kill in cold blood like this, and I knew my nightmares would include Vega's face now as my chain of sin grew another link. But anything I could do to destabilize things and whittle down her inner circle...

  I took note of how Dianda and about three others, Vega included, didn't seem to be blind followers of Eris. Sure, they followed her orders, but they were more partners with her than brain-clouded devoted servants. So I would do what I could while also demonstrating that I was not broken. And I would not break.

  The next few days, they went about their business and didn't seem to care that I could hear how they deployed their people, and how they would bring in random controlled Seekers to reinforce their conditioning, but not the Disciples. So it seemed there was some sort of limit as to how long they could affect someone with a mind glow. Their hold must slip over time because of their magic. That was the piece that was missing.

  I think they just saw me as another toy or decoration for the Throne room.

  Eris would try daily to enthrall me to no avail. If anything, it was getting easier and easier to rebuff her invasion into my head. And I made sure to make it as painful as possible for her when I tore her probing tentacles of magic from me.

  At least I got a few minutes each day to stand and stretch my legs and use the chamber pot, though nothing much was coming out anymore. I could feel my strength waning each day. I needed food to stay strong.

  On the seventh day, Eris stepped over to me and looked to be counting on the ground and stopped a few feet away. She said, “When we brought your people in, of course, we had to execute a couple as heretics, and examples to the others. But don't worry, they were injured anyway, and wouldn't have made for good slave or Disciple stock. A few even have a spark of that annoying Sparo magic.”

  She had our injured killed? I could barely contain my rage. What sort of dishonorable people did that? That was akin to killing the defenseless or young. My blood chilled, the girls... I didn't dare ask lest she knows their value to me.

  Then she smiled and said as if it were good news. “I thought you might enjoy seeing us replace the men and women of ours you and that Donovan killed.”

  I tried not to smirk at the mention of Donovan. There were mumblings by the Seekers that attempts were made to convert him. But each time they woke him, he kept his eyes closed and would unleash a pulse of magic like the other. Killing more of their number. So they had to restrain his mind and put him to sleep.

  I felt the tremors in the ground and the pulses of magic from somewhere below this floor a couple of times, and assumed it was him. And I heard Eris and Dianda arguing behind that other door once about how they've had no success converting Emily either.

  My blood ran cold again when I realized what she had meant about replacing her thralls when a man with midnight black skin was dragged in on a chain. I recognized him immediately, Lord Annel, the scholar from Hell's Gate!

  I tried to shake my head or tell him I was sorry, but they had an iron grip on me, not allowing me to look away. He called out, “Great Mother!” They struck him in the back with a staff, then forced him to his knees in front of her.

  Eris looked him over and said, “This one is quite beautiful, is he not?” Then her eyes flared. She struggled for a moment, then looked to push hard and the man's straining face went slack. Eris smirked and then said, “This one has a strong mind, are all the people of Sparo resilient like this?”

  Then she nudged her chin and they released him from the chain. She said, “Give him a weapon to man the wall.” He stared at her with adoration as they led him away.

  She looked at me and said as she flicked her hand at the others, who lessened their hold on me, “I think one a day until I find someone you actually care about.”

  I was standing in front of her, stretching the leather rope behind me before I even started moving. That dark magic bleeding from my eyes, screaming at me to release all the stolen magic I had gathered so far. It was a struggle to not give in. I wasn't sure it was enough yet. Instead, I snarled at her, my face a couple inches from her.

  That is why she had counted the stones on the floor, so she could stay just out of my reach. Then she chuckled and went to sit in her throne as my muscles seized again. She was a sadistic... bitch!

  She looked at me with curiosity. Then asked me, “Did you just step through time there? It was all I could do to stop from flinching when you were suddenly just there in front of me.”

  When I didn't respond she just waved a dismissing hand then proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the day. The only person who acknowledged me was the mind-wiped shell that was Aelwen as she brought cups of water for me like clockwork.

  Chapter 16 – Vision

  Two days later, something changed, there was sliced fruit floating in my water. I looked at Aelwen, and she seemed to be partially in there. Her eyes held some awareness, and she nudged them at the glass. I quickly ate the fruit as she tipped the mug up for me and downed the water before
she left like always. Was their control starting to slip on her like it did on their own magic users? And why was she feeding me? If she got caught...

  Each time she showed up, she had something in the mug with the water. Jerky, fruit, and even peas floating in the cup once. She must have been taking whatever she could without being noticed.

  I was feeling much better, much stronger by the next day. Unfortunately, eating again had an unwanted side effect. When Aelwen arrived in the morning with the others, I indicated that I had to... well, you know. She rolled her eyes when the others couldn't see and helped me with my modesty.

  Eris and her inner circle didn't pay any more mind than someone tending an animal as they spoke of nightly raids by a shadow in the night, incapacitating guards, destroying weapons and equipment. They assumed it to be the Cristea, but I knew better. I thought out to the universe 'Good job, Jezelle.' She had made it into the city and was keeping them in disarray using guerrilla tactics.

  After I was forced to watch Baroness Meredith, the scholar from Solomon, enthralled near lunchtime, my pain in holding all the foreign magics in me had me seeing spots now. It had the unwanted effect of my own magics roiling from my skin in heavy mists.

  It wasn't lost on the two women in charge. Dianda, with a docile Camille on a leash at her feet, had leaned over to whisper something to Eris. The Prime Seeker studied me from her throne. She asked the air, “Why is her power not locked down with her mind? Why is it increasing in intensity?”

  When nobody replied she stood. “Hold her tight.” She approached and hesitated at my extreme mobility range then inhaled as she pulled her helmet off and stepped up to me.

  She grabbed my chin and studied me. “These just aren't scars, are they? You're broken somehow... by magic.” Then she looked at my armor and reached out to touch it. Sigils and charms glowed white as her fingers brushed it. She asked me, “Is this why? I can feel so much power in your clothing. Is it somehow giving you the power to resist?”