XI
The concrete rung beneath our feet as the two soldiers pushed us down into a cramped prison, where we were transferred over to a larger prison guard. The two soldiers hobbled back to their master, carrying with them both Tarsus’ and my weapon.
“Enjoy, boys,” the dungeon guard spat, turning away with a chuckle.
Tarsus silently cursed him. We were thrown into a cramped cell located at the right corner of the small dungeon. My eyes began to adjust to the total blackness. There were lit torches on the walls, but the flames did not produce any light. Tyrannust’s choice of a black fire colour wasn’t the brightest decision, but then again, it could have been deliberate.
“You really like screwing things up, don’t you?” Tarsus asked, irritated.
“Me?” I scoffed. “If you hadn’t followed me and pushed me out of that shaft, I wouldn’t have ended up here!” I snapped at Tarsus.
“If you hadn’t screwed everything up, Grozorg would’ve still been untainted!”
“Says you! Ever since your guild’s been around, you’ve been nothing but useless!”
“Your guild’s the one that’s messed up every single step; not only do I have to balance your garbage guild with good deeds, I have to clean every damn mess you make!”
“At least I have a legitimate guild!”
“Your guild is a mistake!”
“You’re a mistake!” I shouted.
Tarsus immediately slammed into me as I hurled out my comeback. I tumbled down onto my back as he threw two quick punches into my face, blacking out my vision.
“Let’s see who the mistake is!” He snarled, pinning me down and throwing more punches. With all my might, I kicked my legs up into his chest and knocked him off of me, bashing my right forearm into his stomach and wrapping my other arm around his neck, placing him in a chokehold. He recovered at a surprising rate and jabbed two fingers into my eyes, slipping out of my grasp and leaping up to deliver a harsh roundhouse kick to the side of my face. I slid across the stone ground from the sudden impact as my ears rang in pain.
He lunged towards me, but I quickly rolled away, pushing myself off the ground to deliver a weak kick back at him. Catching my foot midair, he wrung my leg and caused me to lose balance, falling to the ground again. I instantly pivoted in a semi-circle on the cold ground, knocking him over with my free leg. He regained his footing, let out a cry of rage and dashed towards me once more. I jumped up rapidly against my throbbing head and rammed myself against his charging body, both stumbling backwards from the same forceful impact.
“Oh shut up you two!” The guard spat down the cobblestone staircase hoarsely, awoken from a midday nap. “You might want to save your energy!”
I retreated at once. There was no point fighting Tarsus now when our fates were uncertain. I calmed myself down, taking my thoughts off him and onto other memories. Glaring at him in the darkness, an unstable man stood across from me, ready to pounce anytime again. His body was reverberating, in pain, in rage, and he made every effort to hold himself down, turning away from me with growls of fury. I turned around as well, noting to myself where I was.
The dungeon design was simple; the title “dungeon” eradicated the true place itself. It was more of a simple four-celled chamber layout, with each cramping cell situated in four corners, divided by two narrow halls. It was beyond me why the guard would place both of us in the same cell when there were three other vacant spots.
An hour or so passed before Tarsus slumped down onto the ground, wearily relinquishing his search for an exit.
“Finally given up?” I said.
“Shut up,” he barked, crossing his arms and closing his eyes. He had settled down from our short strife, but he refused to talk.
“Why did Tyrannust put us here?” I asked myself, searching for clues.
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Tarsus sneered. “You’re so annoying. Why would anyone in the right mind choose to even follow you?”
I sighed in irritation, sitting down as far away from Tarsus and rolling to a side, gaining a comfortable position to lie down.
A few hours passed when I was suddenly awoken by a strange noise. It was quiet, almost soundless, but enough to stir me from my slumber. Tarsus sat up a few seconds later, crouched in a position, ready to leap. He glanced at me and I glanced at him, putting a finger to my lips. Mocking me, as usual, he stood up and approached the locked cell door, turning around to detect the sound.
“Tarsus!” I whispered harshly. When was he going to stop his senseless attitude?
“There’s cheering outside...” Tarsus replied, evading my shrill call.
“What?” I said in a louder tone. I approached Tarsus and stood behind the cell door, placing my ear against the cold bricks. The faint sound grew louder as I concentrated solely on the sudden noise.
“What if it was related to us?” I said, disbelieving my words right as they left my mouth.
“What, you think your valiant guild came to save the day?” Tarsus derided.
“Very likely,” I answered. “I know my men and they know me well. Wouldn’t be surprised if they breached the palace to rescue me from this damned chamber. But as for your guild, good luck with that.”
“And somehow your guild would defeat Tyrannust on the way?”
“Possibly.”
“Ha! Do you hear yourself?” He laughed harshly. “You have your hopes way too high. I’d reckon your guild will be dead before they even got near this palace. Well, at least it’d be one less thing for me to worry about then.”
“You question my guild? You don’t even trust your own men!”
“No I don’t,” Tarsus confessed. “If you had known me before, you would’ve figured out what trust really meant. Trust in darkness; trust is darkness.”
“Look,” I started, “I don’t know about your past and what’s happened to you, but you gotta learn to let go of the things that’s making you the cold-hearted person you are today.”
“Let go?” Tarsus questioned. “Let go of everything that made me who I was? Who pampered you and spoiled you and crowned you leader of a guild? Your dead father?”
“Tarsus, you don’t know my history either,” I growled back, controlling myself. “I’d advise you to shut up before spilling out more words you’d regret saying.”
“What, so you can beat me up? Try me,” he hissed, pressing his body against me.
The crowd suddenly grew louder, a roar rising from the throng outside as I stepped aside, containing myself.
I looked around, and examined the lock on our cell door. It was a simple metal padlock that could have been formed by a blacksmith’s apprentice. But the difficulty lay in the translucent black fluid that encased the lock. Learning through the hard way, the strange fluid would expand and explode on contact with anything, other than the metal padlock and cell bars. Moreover, the shocking explosion that resulted from contact would only harm human flesh, and proved to be no solution in breaking out of the small cell. Almegamancy, I figured.
“Looks like you had a fun time with that lock,” Tarsus said, nodding his head to my slightly scorched hand. “Useless.”
“Every man has his limitations. What’s wrong with that?” I responded. “At least I tried to do something.”
“You’re useless,” Tarsus began, approaching the lock. He breathed in and closed his eyes, raising both arms up to the height of his chest, and inhaled slowly. “Incompetent, both you and your guild.”
I glared at him. I could have pressed his face against the searing lock, but it took every effort to suppress myself, clenching my fists until my knuckles turned white.
Before long, a strange glow emitted from his two cupped hands, arms outstretched. It was a dull gray glow, but as the light grew more and more, the gray amalgamated into streaking silver. Tarsus opened his eyes, glowing silver, and he focused his gaze on the lock. The lock expanded a bit, then finally erupted from the pressure, shards soaring throughout the cramped prison. I ducked as a piece of metal pierced the tip of my ear. Inevitably, the Almega that had once reinforced the lock had now faded, like a mist in the wind gone. We were free from our cell.
I didn’t know what to say. All that time searching for an escape, and it was right in front of us.
“Didn’t know you were from the Ferromancy Domain,” I spoke after a quick pause.
“You don’t know a lot of things,” he replied. “And I’m not from there so shut up and stop assuming. And also, you’re welcome.”