Caught in Darkness Ch. 01

With a subtle knock on the door, the carrier announced his presence to those within. The large round stone door swung open under its own power. The courier did not waste a moment and begun pulling the cage into the room. A soft glow from within revealed the room and its occupant -- a Zecarin elf. Darker cousins to the faerie folk, they lived in the dark places of the world, preferably around volcanoes.

A lady of lavish tastes sat observing an odd scaly creature inside a glass terrarium. She watched it feed off a bit of rubbish and made notes in a journal ever so often. She wore white silk sheer enough to nothing to the imagination in dim light. But when she leaned closer to the terrarium, and closer to the light source next to it, the fabric changed a dark opaque grey and blended with her skin. Her red hair was artfully woven into a complex array of braids that arched and crossed one another, with the tail ends dangling around the whole making the back of her head resemble a flower bloom. She didn't seem to notice the servant as he worked.

The courier, a mangy looking bugbear with brutish arms clad in a only a loin cloth positioned the cage next to one that was built into solid rock of the back wall. The metal bars locked together, and with the flip of a lever, the door unlatched and opened into the other cage. The prisoner inside took his cue and walked to his new quarters.

A human male was rare this deep in the city. Under elf had no taste for them. Their strength could not compare to bugbears or trolls, and they lacked even the coordination of lesser under elves. Humans also could not survive underground without light as madness soon took them without it. The other races were adapt to the darkness with heat sensing vision that humans lacked. They were also more susceptible to the coldness of deep ground. Luckily for this one he got caught.

He hadn't been a captive long as his face was still free of fur. Yet he did sport a few bruises, especially a dark one around the left eye. What remained of his original clothing was still clinging to his body. Now torn and darkened with spots of blood. He took it all in stride and sat patiently on the floor of the cage as his jailor finished securing him. The bugbear knew his job well, and was soon hauling the rolling cage back out the round door. Once through the door shut behind him without a sound.

Silence was his jailor now. He watched the woman across the room study the creature. Those were the only two recognizable things in the room to him. He couldn't tell what was art, to what had a purpose as the line between the two would blur item to item. He recognized the glint of metal of tools that looked too vicious to be anything but torture devices as the laid arrayed on a table. Hopefully he never got to see that side of the room more closely.

"I speak little human." Said the woman. Her voice was melodious and soft but marked with a heavy accent. Like the scales of a snake - smooth as silk yet rough at the same time. "You is not afraid?" she turned in her chair and crossed her legs casually to regard her new specimen. Her face was stoic, as she rested her elbow on the table and leaned her head against her hand. She regarded him with curiosity.

"A little." He said as he crawled to the edge of his cage and gripped the bars to look around. His injuries seemed minor, but left their mark on his posture.

"Why is you here?" She started slowly. The language was noticeably difficult for her. She glanced sidelong at her other subject as it finished eating. "You come alone?" He didn't look her in the eyes but kept his rotating around the room as took in his surroundings.

"You notice many, before you notice few." He said slowly, lowering his grammar to a simplistic level to ease the translation. In his last phrase he even copied her intonations, mimicking her accent. It did not go unnoticed.

"You..." she paused searching for the words. "...came in not seen. How?" He paused to regard the floor for a moment thinking.

"I have tools. They took them."

"Tools? That can lie to magic?"

"Tools. That can hide from magic." He corrected carefully. Blind defiance would only get him killed. And they both knew this. His only chance to survive was to work with the under elf and somehow stay alive long enough for an opportune moment.

"You show this?" her interest was piqued. He was being interrogated on how he infiltrated their domain. How he slipped past their security spells, wards, and guards. He got all the way in to their dungeons and freed a prisoner. By the time the Zecarin realized something was amiss. The prisoner was gone, and he was in her place.

"Tools, left with her." He said. "so she could return to surface."

"Why?" she asked. Her attention went to her journal as she flipped to a new page and began taking notes.

"Paid to." He answered as he rubbed a growing bruise his left forearm. She paused in her note taking and chuckled lightly and ironically to herself as she looked at him.

"Too bad for you?" she smiled darkly. He shrugged, and a silence grew as she looked off in thought for a moment. The lady stood and opened the terrarium. She gently removed the reptilian creature and carried it in her arms as she walked toward his cage. Her face showed the lines of age, she was mature for an elf and not afraid to show it. Her gait and demeanor however hinted at a youthful spirit. But there was no mistaking the thin chain wrapped around her waist with razor tips embedded along its length. Disguised as jewelry to accent the braided purple rope belt, it lent a deadly touch to her lavish attire. He knew better that to think it decoration.

Her hand gently stroked the head of the lizard-like creature as she looked him over. He stood slowly and presented himself respectfully. His eyes angled down to her bare feet, but through the top of his field of view he could see her well. He stood a good foot taller than her. She was tall for an elf, and he was tall for a human. She was gaunt, almost skinny accept for an ample bosom, and motherly hips. Age had drawn the skin taught on her cheeks. The sheer of her gown shifted to translucent. Her appeal was undeniable, and she knew how to use it.

"You speak elf?" she asked casually as she regarded his injuries. "So hurt. Yet not dead." Her words almost sounded like a compliment.

"No." he replied. Lifting his head up but kept his gaze focused past her.

"Look at me." Her words were a command. His gaze shifted down quickly to her without movement. She looked up at him from under her brow. Like an animal regards something larger than it right before it takes it down -- sizing it up for the strike. Her hand slid down her torso to her hips suggestively. Her lips parted for a moment right before she bit her bottom lip out of habit. Her fingers touched the chained razors around her waist and caressed them. "Look..." she breathed huskily. His eyes locked onto hers and never left them. Slowly he noticed the intensity of those red irises rise - a sign of excitement.

Suddenly with a yank of her wrist the chain flew free. A deft flick from her wrist and the end wrapped around the neck of the creature in her hands. It had barely a moment to squeal before she yanked on the chain and the tipped razors tore through flesh and bone severing the creatures head in an instant. Blood spurted towards him, splattering down his stomach and legs. The head thumped to the floor with a wet plop. None of the gore landed on her.

"Never look again." She said in a growl as she walked back to her table. She placed the carcass on the table. From her hair she pulled free a slender sliver of metal. With it she severed meat from the carcass and skewered a piece.

"Eat." She said over her back without looking at him. She nibbled the piece of flesh daintily. Her fingers worked skillfully as she filleted the kill with little trouble. Without further regard the lady resumed her note taking in her journal.

The man stepped backwards until his back was against the wall. He made no effort to clean the gore off of him or remove the head as it laid between the bars. Slowly he slid down the wall to the floor. His arms wrapped around his knees and he rested his head on his arms as the silence grew between them. The shock of the display slowly settled in and passed.

"Where from?" she asked at length. With one hand she flipped pages in her book, and with the other she skewered bits of carved meat with her stiletto and ate them.

"The surface." He said. His tone reverted to a more natural accent, forgoing the attempt to sound like a Zecarin.

"Where?" she repeated.

"My home is not near a city. It has no name." he said at length. She muttered something in her language that he did not understand. She stabbed another piece in frustration and devoured it ravenously.

"alone?" she asked as the meaning to what he said came to her.

"yes."

"Why?" He did not respond. "I not speak twice." She warned and touched her belt to emphasize. She knew he was watching her even though her gaze never left the books before her. But there was still a silence.

"I do not live in a city, or village, or town." He said at length. "there is no one to seek revenge on." He lifted his head and regarded her evenly.

"Where get tools?" she said changing the direction of the interrogation. "Magic?"

"I made them. No. That's why I called them tools." He retorted.

The stone door opened again silently. The bugbear and cage had returned. He stood, expecting to be put inside that mobile cage. But instead he saw it was occupied. As the cage rolled closer he saw a limp form lying on the ground. Long golden hair covered most of the body but light skin appeared from here or there. It was from the surface, and was probably another human. The cage rolled into place next to him and locked into place in the adjoining cell. The door opened, but the occupant was obviously unconscious and not going anywhere. The bugbear pulled the lock bar from the cage door and used it to roughly push the body into the cage. It rolled out -- an elvish girl. She wore torn undergarments and nothing else. She had obviously been captured in a fight and stripped of anything useful. Her body was covered in a dozen cuts and bruises, all fresh and coated in dried blood.

The lady walked over as the bugbear secured the captive and started pulling the cage back out the room. She stared at the prone girl with a snarled lip and a look of disgust. She spoke another curse in her language and glanced at the human. He felt her eyes on him, but he did not take them off his neighboring cell.

"Better for food." She growled and unlatched the door to the elf's cell. With one hand resting on her belt and the other caressing her long thin knife, she stood in the entrance to the cage and regarded the body at length. The soft tap of metal broke her concentration and she looked up to find the human standing near, placing his hands on the bars that separated him from her. His eyes looked into hers, with that same look he gave her last, and in that moment a hair stood up on the back of her neck followed by a shiver that ran down her spine.

The sensation unnerved her, and she instinctively took a step back out of the cell confused by this display of confrontation and disobedience. She walked, dazed, from the elf's cell to his. Their stare never breaking as one bar after another came between them until she reached the door to his cell. Those pale grey eyes somehow held her transfixed. She tilted her head to the side to regard him a moment. Then without another thought the chain flew from its rest and darted between the bars. The weighted end flung around and wrapped itself around his neck once, but he caught it quickly before it could wrap around any further. Instinctively she braced for a retaliation and held her knife high, but he just stood there watching her her.

"Very tough." She whispered, regarding her new pet in a different light as an idea came to her and she relaxed. "Very useful." She lifted her chin up to him and took another step closer. She was within reach of his arms, but he didn't make a move. "you like her?" she nodded in the direction of the elf girl, but could not take her eyes off his.

"no." he said calmly. "I do not like blood." He corrected and shook his head. He looked to the chain and slowly unraveled it from around his neck. "I will tell you a secret, for her life." Now he nodded to the elf girl. "I could have killed on my way to your dungeons. But I didn't." She tilted her head to one side as her mind digested his words and translated them.

"Why?" she asked evenly. Always that question.

"Because I can." He answered. Her grip on the other end of the chain tightened as she watched him. "If you want to leash me, use something that does not cost you a weapon." With the last of it off, he let it drop, and rubbed his neck. With a flash of her hand it was around her waist again. She walked off to the other side of the room in silence to contemplate his words. He watched her walk away to the place where the table full of torture tools stood. He could see knifes of different lengths and curvatures, forks with curved prongs designed for plucking out round objects, heavy cutters for thick round materials, and thin stickers with small hooked objects at the end. She selected one of the forks with curved prongs.

"What can you do?" she said to him as she returned. She held the instrument in her hands casually as she read his face for a reaction. "Can you fight?" he watched her intently. "Can you get away?" she stopped between the two cages and waved the wand back and forth as if making up her mind.

"Can you stop me?" she let the words roll off her tongue and looked to the elf in the other cage.

"No" He said evenly. "I wouldn't get far."

"Wouldn't?" she asked again confused by the word.

"what is this word?"

"I can not get far." He repeated. Her head angled back and she smiled darkly up at him.

"You need me." She grinned sadistically. "then you will learn. And you will teach me more..." she turned slowly away and walked to the round door. It opened for her and she left without another word. The glowing lights blacked out as she left plunging the room into complete darkness. He was left alone, with only a badly beaten, unconscious elf woman to keep him company.

Long hours passed before the door opened again. But the lights did not return. From the sound and the smell he could tell it was the bugbear servant returning. It slid something long and flat between the bars for both him and the elf before leaving. The man reached around in the dark and found the tray of food left for him. Half eaten scraps of fish and flesh, with a few rotten vegetables and mushrooms. It was all he had and he gave no complaint as he wolfed it down instantly.

Then he was alone again left to the darkness...

* * * *

The days came and went just the same. He learned to keep his eyes closed to maintain some sanity in the blackness. His neighbor in the other cell was alive and breathed deeply as she slept for days. The bugbear came repeatedly with scraps on platters, and he ate every bit. It was barely enough to keep him alive, but it would suffice for now.

The day came when the round door opened and light came back into the room. He shielded his eyes and waited until they adjusted. His captor entered the room grandly, her long hair trailing behind her on the ground like a cloak. She wore more casual attire than her revealing gown before. Her body was covered in a plain scarlet dress that covered her neck to toe, and her arms up to the wrists. It was form fitted with slit down the left side for ease of walking. The hairy hulk servant followed her into the room and closed the round door.

"Kill them," She said. Her words were in his language; something she had not spoken to the bugbear before. The message was meant for him. That confused him, but as the goblin kin brute marched towards the cage with a clever in his right hand there was no mistaking its intention.

"Elf first." She smiled wickedly as she watched his reaction. This was a test; she was forcing his hand. The moment the brute passed his cage he snatched up the ceramic food tray and smashed it over the bars. Powder and fragments flew over the ground, but left a large piece in his hand. Fast as a serpent's strike, his arm snaked through the bars of his cage and flung pottery shard towards the goaler. It sliced through its neck with deadly precision. The creature clutched its throat in surprised as it choked on its own blood. It fell to the ground and tried to stop the bleeding, but the fatality of the wound was unmistakable. It took several horrible moments for the monster to die as it bled to death coughing up dark green splatter. The silence that followed its final breath was accented by deep husky breath. The mistress let out one long sigh of pleasure. She was licking her index finger sensually and caressing her body with her other hand. The dark scene elicited an unexpected reaction from the elf. Those hateful red eyes fluttered back into her head as her pleasure peaked, and then slowly fell on her human prisoner.

"I like..." she cooed and approached his cell. In his grasp was another fragment of the serving tray, and his other hand was on of the bars of his cell. "You will kill for me." She spoke in that whispery husky voice as she paced along the bars in front of him.

"you like elf?" she strolled casually in front of the prone maiden's cell and placed her hands on the latch of the cell door. "You kill me for her?" she tilted her head to the side as she read his face trying to gauge his intent. He didn't flinch as his predatory eyes followed her every step she took. She looked down to the slumbering elf with a wince of disgust. The mistress stood abruptly and walked out of the cell as if something had changed her mind. At her writing desk she pulled an elegant glass bottle with a rosy pink liquid from a drawer. Her fingers caressed the curves of the glass container as she floated seductively over to his cage.

"This causes fire inside," her eyes were malicious and taunting as her words trailed off her tongue. As her grasp of the language became more practiced, they flowed with more ease. "many beg me to put it out." She unstopped the glass cork and breathed in the aroma of the potion. She approached him slowly and held the glass bottle tightly in her grip as she lifted it to his face. "Do you know it?" The smell wafting from the potion was unmistakable, and she read recognition in his gaze. A lustful grin curled her lips as she lifted it to his nose. It was electrifying. A deep yearning inside him awoke suddenly and he breathed deeply to steady himself. He had to remain composed, the longer he drew this out the better his chances of finding a way to escape. She watched his reaction and snorted, stoppering the flask suddenly.

"This not for you." She growled and walked to the elf woman's cage. With a snarl she kicked the prone elf over. Unkind hands grasped the limp head by the blond hair and yanked it back to open the mouth. The stopper left the flask and the bottle was tilted ever so slightly to cause the rosy substance to drip from the curved spout. Three drops landed in the elf woman's mouth, he knew it to be a deadly dosage.

His hands curled tightly on the bars in anger. The knuckles turned bright white as he watched this. He understood the game. The potion was a very potent aphrodisiac. So potent it took control of the brain and created an insatiable, all consuming desire for fulfillment in victim. If they fought it, it would burn at the back of their mind, creating excruciating headaches, and eventually death from seizure.

The elf started to stir. The potion seemed to also have some reviving properties, no doubt their captor mixed it in purposely. His captor touched the bars separating their cells and spoke deep guttural words that echoed off the walls with magical power. The metal bars melted away into the floor, making their two cages one. She cooed to herself as she walked away to her writing desk and sat satisfied with her trap. With a wave of her hand the lights in the room dimmed except for the one sconce above their cell. His gaze fell on the elf woman thrashing in her sleep.