Abandoned (Born From Shadows #2)

The woman stood beside him, her eyes piercing into him. Koltalla did not dare do anything that could be misinterpreted by the Lady. Don’t look down at the floor, or else it may seem as if he is ignoring her. Don’t look directly into her eyes as she may see it as a challenge or provocative. Do not fidget or else she may think he is bored of her presence. Don’t seem too stiff and brooding or else she may think he was trying to intimidate or threaten physical harm. There was a fine line between all of those action that the Fae kept to, very closely, never falling off the edge as if it were a tightrope.

“You are getting much better and quite quickly healing. You can thank your Fae blood for that,” she noted. Like always the Fae male did not respond.

“Vikervash, please leave,” she told the Dwarf, her eyes however stayed on him.

“Yes my Lady.” Then here was a sound of the dungeon door closing, after that, silence. Not even the rocky walls whispered and groaned.

The woman stared at him, through him. Her hand reaching up to trace the scar on his heart and stomach. He could barely even feel the touch.

“Your sacrifice has furthered years of research, Kol,” she says and distances herself from him. She begins to pace the small room, whilst still directing her eyes towards him. “Your kind is controlling, egotistical and hungry for power. They think that it is fine to let a human or dwarf suffer just because they are mortal. You have helped me find a way to punish all those with that same mentality. Do you no think that in the face of the cause my actions are right?

He didn’t know. He didn’t know what even was right, so his face remained stoic.

“Well then picture this, Kol. Picture a world devoid of light. trees just a withered bone, no flowers scatter the ground. No fire to burn the infections away. Life struggles to breath for the air is thick with ash and pollution. Pollution that the human’s placed. They are just as bad as the Fae, their factories ruining our planet. Dwarfs dig and cut at the earth. I want a place of beauty, of unity. Where nature rules and I just pass her judgement. Where creatures kept in subjectivity and captivity of the ‘normal’ species, get to roam freely. You have seen what it is like to live in chains, imagine an eternity of it. To live and die as just a distant legend in the darkness. Is it not right for them to get a chance?”

This time he nodded his head. He tried to reach for a memory of these trees and flowers that she spoke of, but only a void replied. He did not have to imagine, not if he were already living it. If a better world exists…he would wan to be a part of it. Yes, he would not wish the black void upon anyone, or thing.

“That is why you are going to help me. I can not control all aspects of life, no one can. So, I can not promise fighting with me won’t hurt. But you won’t do it for a release from the pain, you will do it for the cause. So I will ask you once more, this time with a new perspective. Will you work by my side, even if someone were to try and convince you otherwise?”

Once again he nodded his head.

“No,” she replied her voice raising slightly. “I need you to say it. Say yes.”

He swallowed all liquid in his mouth, took a deep breath. “Yes.”

A smile spread across her dark face, shadows illuminated by the dim light in the room. A single fire torch. The was a gentle knock against the door, at which the woman’s frown disappear, confusing Kol.

“Any plots, any plans you hear of, you tell me ok? That the only way we reach our goal. Our free world,” she says as a final word before opening the iron door. Vikervash stood there with a grim face.

“There is an Elf at the front gate claiming to be their Queen, despite not having any guards,” the Dwarf spoke. “I think it’s a trap my Lady.”

“Well of course it is. That’s what makes it all the more exciting. Let us go to the throne room shall we?”

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Koltalla tapes his fingers against the stone table. Once, twice, thrice, until he could no longer count each drumming. Moving in pattern and rhyme, a comforting rhythm to his mind. He could here banging on the walls around him, shouts and yells in Dwarvish. His fingers kept tapping. The screams fading themselves away into the walls surrounding him. A minor irritation, that was until the iron door burst open.

He did not bother to shift his eyes, not till he felt a jolt in his heart and a pull deep within his mind. There stood a winged male in the doorway, drenched in blood wielding a red dipped sword. Was this his final breathes, or was this what the woman was talking about? Was the Fae here to try and trick him? Deceive him and take him from his home, the four walls the had become more familiar to him than his own body.

“What did they do to you?” the Fae male muttered, a whisper in the air. The other Fae had dirty white wings, stained red. As he approached the table Koltalla did nothing to recognise the other males presence.

But he could feel something…deep down. It was screaming at him. Listen, see, remember. He shut it off to quieten the voice. To have the silence he was so used to. Just himself and his friend insanity, like always.

“Can you here me?” The other Fae whispered, getting closer and closer. Yes, no…maybe. He didn’t even know. He was certain he had gotten past the point of hallucinations, this Fae was real. “We are going to get you out of here,” the Fae promised.

Koltalla shook his head. The first sign of communication between the two. Why would he leave, they had been nice. They stopped stabbing him. They fed him gave him shelter. They fought for something just, he had a home.

“You…you don’t want to leave?” the Fae replied in shock, pain in his voice. Once again something deep within Koltalla did not like the pain in the other Fae’s voice. But to find it the pressure of the water would explode his mind, so he stayed treading along the surface, barely even getting wet.

“I am so sorry,” the Fae said to Kol’s wonder. Sorry for what?

“Forgive me, Kaycion,” the Fae whispered before colliding the hilt of his sword into the broken Fae’s head, immediately causing him to fall into his subconscious. Kaycion? What was a Kaycion? Was his final thoughts as Kol drifted from reality.

Kaycion.