by K Hanson
When she had touched that fountain, it had poured its energy into her. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious, but it had been long enough that the sun was getting low in the sky. By the time she had awoken, the fountain had emptied entirely, with nothing else coming out of it. If all of that energy had gone into her, she had no idea what that would do to her.
For now, all she knew is that she felt exhausted. After hiking up a mountain, getting the hell shocked out of her, and getting chased by a damn fire demon, she was ready to call it a day.
Nereyda felt uneasy about sleeping in the same cave as the previous night since it was so close to the ruins, but with darkness approaching, she didn’t have the time to scout out another location to make camp. Instead, she sat at the side of the pool and tried to process the events of the day. She wondered how the owner of the journal learned about this place. In all of her travels, she had heard more than her fair share of ghost stories, legends, and tall tales. After all, pirates were professionals at coming up with bullshit to brag about. But she had never heard anything about magical fountains or burned men attacking people.
Perhaps it was true that the Shattered Sea was a cursed place. Until now, she had just thought that meant terrible storms and murderous marauders. Or, maybe it wasn’t related to the Shattered Sea at all.
With these thoughts running through her mind, she wandered back to her cave and laid down. Despite her physical exhaustion, it took hours for her mind to quiet enough for her to fall asleep. When her thoughts finally settled, she fell into a deep slumber. Only when she smelled burning flesh did she wake up.
---
Did that fiery demon thing follow me all the way back down the mountain? How did it know I’d be here?
She looked across the cave and saw the charred bones of the explorer sticking out of the dirt. Of course, the demon had already been here. That is how that man had died, and why his journal mentioned smelling burning, rotten flesh. From his remains, she had a pretty good idea of what it did, if the fire burning in its body didn’t tell her that on its own.
Stuck in this cave, she would have nowhere to run like last time. She could take refuge in the pool of water outside if she could get to it.
Even if she did dive into the water, she couldn’t stay there forever. Eventually, she would have to leave the pond and somehow defeat or escape the abomination that pursued her. She figured that her sword would probably be about as effective as her dagger had been. And she knew that it moved fast, very fast. Neither running nor fighting were appealing options.
As the smell grew stronger, she started to edge to the cave entrance, to at least get closer to the shelter and safety of the water. If it was true that it couldn’t enter the water, then at least she could float around while she figured out a solution for her predicament.
Before she could exit the cave, the thing stepped into the opening and blocked her path to the outside. It slunk into the cave entrance and stared at her with those flaming eyes, its skin crackling like embers. Instead of moving further into the cavern, it just stood there. Nereyda thought she saw something like a smile spread across its charred face. It took great pleasure in toying with her. It wasn’t stupid. At least, it seemed smart enough to recognize that it had trapped her and sentient enough to have fun with playing games with her.
Nereyda observed that the cave opening was wide enough that the thing wouldn’t be able to block the whole space. With her agile footwork and speed, she figured she could outmaneuver the thing. Despite its strange and ghastly appearance, this thing was just another opponent, like the panther the night before. She had outsmarted that beast and could do it again here.
Out of habit, she drew her sword, despite knowing that it would likely do nothing to hurt the creature. It just felt right in her hand as she planned out how to dance around the thing hunting her.
She fixed the fiery beast in her gaze and sauntered up to it.
“What are you? Are you trying to protect this place?” she asked, pointing her sword at it.
The thing just hissed in response.
“Come on, don’t be shy. You followed me all the way here. Are you just going to kill me without at least telling me why? That seems awfully rude.”
Hiss.
“Look, I’m sorry I came into your home uninvited, but the door was just open, and it was raining. I had no idea that touching your fountain would ruin it.”
Still no response.
“What does something like that cost? If I promise to refill it, can I walk out of here? No? I guess there really is no pleasing some people.”
The thing tilted its head as if it somewhat understood her, but still made no effort to react in any other way.
“This has been a pleasant chat, but I really have to be going. Got friends to meet, places to be.”
She eased to her left, where there was the most space between the creature and the cave wall. As expected, it sensed where she tried to go and sidestepped to block her path.
Nereyda zigzagged to her right toward the newly created opening. Again the creature stepped to block her way.
She then feigned a move back to the left.
When the creature reacted to block her once again, she darted to the right to move past the demon. As she passed it, she swung her sword at the back of the creature’s legs, striking right at the knees. This move swept its legs from under it and it collapsed onto its back screeching.
Nereyda sprinted out of the cave and into the forest surrounding the pool. The only paths that she was familiar with were the path to the beach that had led her to this place, and the one that led back up to the ruins on the hill. In the darkness, she didn’t want to experiment by heading in a different direction. She chose to dash back toward the beach. Going back to the ruins didn’t seem like a very wise move.
A loud shriek behind her announced that the creature had recovered and was once again on her heels. Suddenly, a burst of fire flew past her and ignited the trail ahead of her, cutting off her route of escape.
That’s a new trick.
With a wall of fire now blocking her way, she spun around to see the creature behind her. She didn’t know why it didn’t use the fire on her. She was glad that it seemed content to not do so, but it also made her uneasy about what this thing had in mind for her. Does it want whatever I absorbed from the fountain?
Only a few paces from the pool of water, she sprinted to the edge and dove into it. When she popped up, she saw the beast staring at her, pacing back and forth along the edge of the pond. It seemed to be figuring out what to do. For now, they had a stalemate. Nereyda could take a moment to decide on her next move.
Or not.
The thing raised its hands and started spraying fire into the water. It didn’t come directly at her, but she could feel the water around her body begin to heat up. First, it felt like a warm bath, then a hot one.
She’d soon be cooked alive as this thing brought the pool closer and closer to boiling. Before the water could reach scalding temperatures, she swam to the edge and scrambled out of the pond. With no other option, she raced toward the path that led back up the hill, even though she knew that it would offer little hope of escape.
Another blast of fire cut off that route as well. Wherever she turned, that thing made sure that her chosen path was blocked by fire. It had her in its trap. She had no way out.
Despite the odds, Nereyda would never surrender without a fight. She strode back to where it stood next to the pond, determined to do whatever she could, even if the situation was hopeless.
She fixed the creature with a steely gaze and prepared for her last fight. It lunged for her, and she batted its arm away with her blade.
When she swung at the demon to counterattack, it raised its arm to block the blow. It didn’t seem to register pain or even notice as the sharp edge chipped into its ashen flesh.
It scratched at her, and she sidestepped the attack.
As she made a thrust toward the torso
of the beast, its other claw managed to catch her sword. The steel glowed red as he yanked it out of her hands and tossed it into the bushes that surrounded the pool.
Stunned, Nereyda could only look at the creature’s face to see it smile as it reached out to grab her wrist. She screamed in agony as her skin burned at the touch.
Instinctively, she reached up her other hand to push the creature away. Something inside her arose and burst out.
A wave of wind blasted into the creature and tossed it through the air and into the water.
When it splashed into the pool, it let out a bloodcurdling yell of agony as it began to dissolve, reaching desperately for a way out of the water that was killing it. The water that surrounded it bubbled and steam plumed into the air.
Nereyda herself felt like the air had been sucked from her lungs, like the feeling of getting the wind knocked out of her from a hard fall or a strong blow to the chest. She sank to the dirt as she worked to regain her breath.
As air filled her lungs again, she looked up to watch the dying creature’s final struggles in the water.
The charred being stopped screaming, and its arms stopped reaching in their futile effort to find an escape. Finally, the forest fell quiet and calm.
She began to feel the burn from where the creature had grabbed her arm. Crawling over to the pool, she dipped her wrist into the water to soothe her skin. Another battle wound from this island prison.
What the hell just happened to me? Where did that wind come from? She had just thrown a monster through the air with a wave of her hand. How does something like that happen?
Nereyda struggled to process everything that had happened that day. A glowing fountain that had knocked her out and healed her shoulder. A fiery demon creature that wouldn’t stop hunting her. And, now, she had just summoned a gust of wind from nothing.
Touching that fountain had changed her. It actually felt like something had awoken inside her as if something ancient had been slumbering deep within her. Which didn’t make sense, because she was only twenty-two years old. Whatever she had felt, it had to have come from that blue glowing substance in the fountain. Nereyda didn’t know whether to be glad she had found the power that that journal had described, or terrified at what these changes in her could mean.
Now, she had to figure out a way off this damn island. Maybe she could find answers somewhere out there. Before she could search for them, she needed her crew and a ship.
She pushed herself to her feet and found her sword in the bushes. As she stood back up after retrieving it, she heard a familiar voice.
“A pleasure to see you again, pirate,” said the voice of Commander Erhan.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The guards shoved Brynja up through several different corridors, winding their way toward the top of the mine. Once they were next to the exit, her escorts forced her into a room just off of the main passage. In this room, the rough stone floor was flat, unlike the constant slant of the mining hallways.
A rugged wooden table dominated the center of the room. Five comfortable chairs with cushions stood on one side of the table. On the other, she saw a stone chair with no arms and no form of cushion for the solid seat. Two irons sat at ankle level on the legs.
Her guards pushed her into the stone chair and fastened the ankle restraints.
“Give me your arms,” commanded the guard on her right.
Brynja folded her arms tightly across her chest.
“Now, prisoner.”
Still, she didn’t move.
The guard responded by clubbing the back of her head with his nightstick. By reflex, her hands shot to the back of her head to clutch the tender spot, where even now a bump had started to form. With her hands in the air, the guards took the opportunity to grab her arms and force them behind the chair, where they locked them into handcuffs.
Brynja gritted her teeth at the ache growing at the back of her head. “What the hell was that for? And do you really need to lock me up?”
“We always lock up slaves when they need to receive a judgment from the administration.”
“How does this work?”
“It’s not my place to tell you what their process is. The administrator overseeing your case will be here soon.”
Soon turned out to be a relative approximation. It felt like Brynja sat for hours on that stone chair. At first, the seat dug into her ass. She constantly shifted her position as much as her restraints would allow. Eventually, she realized that it was futile to find a comfortable position and gave up. By the time the door opened, and a man in official Imperial robes entered, her ass had gone completely numb. The same could not be said of the lump on her head where the guard had struck her.
The man that she guessed was the administrator slid into the chair directly across from her.
“Slave, it seems you’ve been pretty busy. I see that you’re accused of insubordination, assaulting three of our officers, and killing two of them. What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Do I actually get to defend myself? Will anything I say matter?”
“Honestly, it won’t affect much at all. I come as a representative of the administration of this mine. Your case has already been decided, and you have been found guilty. The question now is what your punishment will be for breaking these laws.”
“You’re not going to kill me?”
“Oh, not just yet. You have created the most productive mining team we have in this complex. While it is unfortunate that we have lost two members of our staff, as assets they are quite replaceable. If we let you live, you can at least work to make some of their value back to us. However, if we kill you, then we’ve lost another asset. This whole operation is really one giant machine, you see. Every person here, you, me, these guards, we’re all part of it. We exist to serve the Empire by providing resources that the emperor needs to carry out his wishes and to protect the realm.”
“You don’t care that I killed two of your men? They’re just expendable parts to you?”
“I am an administrator of a mining complex that utilizes prisoners of war and criminals to secure resources as they repay their debt to the Empire. People die here all the time. It’s part of the way of life here. No reason to shed a tear. Besides, the only real Imperial you killed was the guard. Your supervisor was a prisoner, serving his sentence just like you.”
“Wait, what? So I just killed a fellow slave? I thought he worked for you.”
“He has been down here for years, actually. He started much like you before working his way up the food chain. It’s really the only way to survive down here. Assets who never work their way up from being mere miners have a very short lifespan.”
“How does someone get to that position?”
“By doing what he had you doing. Didn’t he hand over his role as supervisor of your section of the mine? If that had worked out, he would have moved on to oversee a group of new prisoners that we just hauled in. But, of course, that did not work out, so here we are now. What made you attack your supervisor and that guard?”
“He made me whip my friends. Eventually, I just couldn’t keep doing it.”
“You don’t have friends here anymore. You are all just assets until we decide we are done with you, until you break, or until you are no longer useful to us.”
“That was my crew, my family. I’m supposed to protect them, not hurt them.”
“But you will hurt them because we ask you to do so.”
“No. I will refuse and force you to kill me.”
“If you think you have experienced the worst that this mine has to offer, slave, you are in for a hard education. Do you think you are the first person to rebel? Do you think you are the strongest person to stand up to us? We have broken generals, princes, and kings in this place. You will be no different. By the time we are done with you, you won’t know how to rebel. Fighting back here is the quickest way to having your soul ripped from you.”
Brynja laughed at him. “Do
your worst to me. I don’t care what you do.”
“You will care. We will make you care. You may not care about yourself, but I know that you care about the others. If we can’t break you by yourself, then I think we can arrange some pain for your crew.”
“What do you want from me?”
“You need to learn to do whatever we ask you to do. To learn to follow our orders without questioning them or mocking them.”
“How do I start?”
“You’ll start by spending a week in one of the deep cells.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“You’ve never been there. The deep cells have no light. You will be in the dark all day for the whole week.”
“I’m pretty sure that I can handle that. I’m not a child. I’m not afraid of the dark anymore.”
“We’ll see how you do. Being alone and without light does strange things to people. And there is another condition. If you scream, cry out, or beg to be let out, each member of your crew will get ten lashes to pay for your disobedience.”
“Whatever, let’s just get this over with.”
“Fine. Guards, you know where to take her.”
The administrator got up and strode to the door. He left without looking back as if he had done this a thousand times before.
The guards unlocked her ankles from the chair and hauled her to her feet. She shook away from their grip. “I can stand by myself, thanks.”
They led her back out into the corridor. However, instead of walking back down into the mine, they went to an elevator. An operator leaned lazily against the wall next to the crank that lowered or raised the car. He opened the gate to the elevator as they approached, then latched it shut after they had entered. One of her guards waved to him through the grate. He nodded, then began to wind the crank. The elevator car shook as it slowly lurched down into the deepest part of the mine.
It took many minutes for the car to descend. Brynja’s ears hurt from the change in pressure. She even felt the temperature increase as they went further into the crust of the world.