Evolving Classes In The Apocalypse-Chapter 20: Held Captive

A sharp pain greeted me the moment I opened my eyes. Perhaps it had been there all along and I simply hadn’t known, but the instant my eyelids parted it announced itself with a vicious clarity, spreading through my skull like cracks through glass.

Then the other pains registered, one after another, across my entire body, as though they’d been waiting in line for my consciousness to return.

My legs were covered in scratches, long and raw, as if my body had been dragged across a rough surface. The blood had dried into dark, crusted lines. My elbows and knees had sustained worse, the kind of grazes that went deep enough to sting with every small movement, and their blood had dried too. I looked like I’d lost a fight with the ground itself.

The environment was harder to read. Everything was embedded in a thick darkness that my eyes couldn’t pierce no matter how long I stared. But I could smell wet rock, cold and ancient, and the metallic tang of blood.

’Mine, probably.’

There was also a subtle rustling sound, like someone moving just beyond my line of sight.

I was lying flat on my chest, and when I tried to move my hands, they didn’t budge. I applied more force, already knowing they were bound, but it was futile. The binding was tight and deliberate.

Then I heard a voice behind me.

"You’re awake. That was a long sleep you had. What, you’ve not slept for two days or something?"

The voice was familiar. It took me a moment, but I placed it soon enough. When I did, a dark frown settled on my face. I gritted my teeth so hard the pain in my skull doubled.

I felt him grip me, then he shifted my weight and hauled me upright. The moment I rose to my knees he shoved me, and my back slammed against a rough surface. The impact punched the air from my lungs. I slid down into a sitting position, hands still tied behind my back, the stone wall biting into my wrists.

He stood over me now. His gaze was unsettling, his eyes perpetually tired, but the smile he wore was something wicked. The kind of smile that belonged on a man who enjoyed the work he did.

I turned my head, studying what I could of the surroundings, and the picture came together quickly. Uneven walls, low ceiling, no visible exit from where I sat, it was a cave.

’What about the others? What about Ysoriel? Why are we alone?’

The questions bubbled in my throat and threatened to scald it, but I swallowed them down.

I didn’t want to assume my captor was the friendly sort. Aside from the unapproachable air that had always hung around him, he’d felt eerie even from a distance. Now, in the close dark of this cave with my hands bound behind me, all of that was amplified tenfold.

Still. I needed to know something.

I inhaled gently and met his gaze as he moved to sit opposite me, settling behind a fire pit of freshly gathered kindling. I watched him strike stones together to light it, but the first pair produced nothing. No sparks, no sound. His hands sank into them like they were made of something soft.

"Ah, wrong stone." He muttered it to himself, tossed them aside, and began searching for another. He picked one up, squeezed it in his grip, then threw it away. Repeated the gesture a few more times, discarding stone after stone, until he finally found what he needed and coaxed a spark from the pit.

The fire caught. The cave’s temperature climbed slowly as the flames burned between us, painting the wet walls in shifting orange.

For a while it was only the crackling that filled the silence. I used the time to steady myself, to prepare. Then I let my voice loose, measured and light:

"Sir Adept, you wouldn’t happen to know where your subordinates are... would you?"

He was silent for a moment. Just staring into the flames with that eerie stillness of his. "Why? So they can come to your rescue?"

I chuckled. "Oh my, look at me, how could I have failed to consider that possibility..." I leaned my head forward, tilting it just slightly. "Can I add that to the menu?"

He raised his head and held my eyes. A small, infuriating smile crept across his lips. "I know you. I’ve seen your banters with Master Vorn, and I must say, you are mistaken if you think your guts and that bladed tongue will earn you a ticket out of here."

He lifted his jaw, the smile turning sinister. "In fact, keep up the character. I believe my clients would have fun breaking you."

My amusement died. "Okay, that’s unexpected. You’re not taking me to the government?"

He gave me a bilious look. "Why would I want to give away a commodity worth quite the fortune to people who would never appreciate its true value?"

I stared at him. Whatever I felt, I kept it behind my eyes.

"Okay... but these clients of yours, just so I’m sure we’re on the same page regarding how valuable I am, because I tend to have a high opinion of myself, you see... give me a brief. Anything will do."

He unleashed a grin that spread from ear to ear. The fire caught in his tired eyes and made them look almost alive.

"Your father was not a very merciful Ruler, you know. He has people who really, really hate him."

’Oh... shit.’

"They will enjoy tearing you limb from limb and fixing you back together. They will enjoy tearing you apart and making sure you never die, and they will pass you down their lineage as a family heirloom until the day your father can see it. They will relish the misery in his eyes, even if it comes at their annihilation."

He paused, letting the fire crackle between us. "These people... that is how much they despise your father."

I chuckled. The sound came out lighter than it had any right to. "That sort of makes the two of us. But eww, no thanks, Mister Adept. I value myself too highly to be a slave or anyone’s ripping toy."

His gaze hardened into something hostile. His small eyes began to glow with a threatening crimson light.

"And what are you going to do?"

I giggled at the absurdity of the question. "Excuse you? Escape, of course." I let a beat pass, then shifted my tone into something more casual, as if we were on talking terms.. "That aside, you wouldn’t happen to have seen a girl with platinum hair, pale skin, very beautiful, with enchanting lilac eyes?"

The Adept didn’t answer immediately. He stood with a cold expression settling over his perpetually tired face, then circled the flame and approached me.

I sat there. Slowly, I craned my neck to meet his gaze as he loomed above. He grabbed my throat and hoisted me up, slamming my back against the rough wall. The entire cave shuddered from the impact. Dust and small stones pattered down from above.

"You’re a Defined with a mundane rank class. Barely a Defined, if you ask me. You are base humanity in this new world." His grip tightened. "While I, on the other hand, am a superhuman."

I struggled within his hold. Breathing was hard. Speaking was harder.

With a hoarse voice, I forced the words through the tightening around my throat.

"Yeah... got it... but you didn’t... answer my question..." Each word cost me air I didn’t have. "Beautiful girl... where... is... she?"