Chapter One: The Keep of Shadow's Soul
I appeared in a black-stone room. It was a cubic-room with four doors. A red skull was painted in the middle of the floor with blood. Four students were in a circle around it. Obediently, I went over and kneeled like the others. Zalphon walked to the circle and hissed, "You are the potential students. You must earn my favor through tasks that are what symbolize the Order of the Ebon Rose. Follow the Code of Honor and you will be worthy, if you survive..."
"Lord Zalphon," One Student called out. "What must I do to earn your favor."
The Daedric-Clad Lich turned into a blur. The student was beheaded and Zalphon asked, "Would anyone else like to speak to me by my name again. Maggots, I am called Master Broodikus, is that clear?"
We all nodded, fearing the ebon longsword he held. Legend said that the sword was enchanted with the soul of a treacherous lich. "You each know where your quarters are?" He asked. "If you don't then the floors are quite nice."
I sighed and opened one of the doors. It led to a long, black hallway. I heard screams of anguish and shrieks of terror. Behind me walked one of the other potential students. He slammed me against the wall and whispered, "Listen little girl, I will win the challenge, am I clear?"
A black throwing knife appeared in the side of his skull. I looked at my savior, for the quick glimpse I saw, it was an argonian in black-leather armor. He was gone as fast as he came. Zalphon noticed me holding the corpse. "I see, you were too weak to perform the kill yourself," he barked. "Head to the detention center for punishment."
"Where is that?" I asked.
Black flame surrounded me and I was in a dark, dome-shaped room. Cages lined the walls, stretching racks, thumbscrews, pain-pears, were on tables. There were several spiked chairs and crushing boots strewn about the room as well. There were other torture devices as well, such as lead-sprinklers and tongue-rippers. I even saw breast-rippers and iron-maidens. This wasn’t a detention room, it was worse. “Ah, the newest recruit,” the Torturer laughed. “Take a seat.”
Obediently, in fear Zalphon’d kill me I did. He slammed my ankles and wrists into the chair’s spikes and then locked them. I could see my blood start to drip, the agony was intense, but I didn’t complain. It’d only be worse.
The Torturer grabbed a pain-pear and smiled with delight. Sadist. He put it into my mouth and said if I moved an inch, he’d not only dislocate my mandible, but have it completely torn off by the pain pear. He melted boiled some water and put it in the lead-sprinkler and used it on me. Blackness filled my vision due to the intense agony of the spikes, the metal taste of the pain-pear and the heat of the boiling water on my skin. I was dead or worse…
--------------------
"You have the same twenty-four hours as me; don't be mad just because you don't use yours like I do." -Tupac Shakur
|