Alone in the Dark

No One Is Coming

At some point, whoever held him had stopped telling him that his people had abandoned him. There was no pain used to break down his sense of self, no torture to remind him he was alone. Their words no longer reminded him he was worthless. Something had changed, though he could not make sense of anything other than darkness.

He didn't know when it was or if it was because they had broken him completely. That had been the goal all along. He understood the purpose of torture as surely as he had been trying to resist it. But through the haze of pain and desolation, he could not remember if he answered any of their questions. It was another kind of despair, to wonder if he had given them what they sought to drag out of him and had had tried to protect.

They still tortured him frequently, sending his body through pain he didn't think a human could survive. Somehow, whether it be through magic or a trick of the mind, he survived to be tortured another day.

The forms in the dark that tormented him had returned to asking questions of him. It ashamed him to admit to himself that he looked forward to the moments when the pain stopped long enough for sense to return to his mind. They would allow him those breaks so he could have access to the logical thoughts, memories and information they so desperately wanted. In those moments between pain and question, he could find some shred of himself, clinging to it like a drowning man clings to anything that floats.

It took a long time to understand what they were asking of him. They asked it in a multitude of ways to confuse him into answering. He believed he resisted, though he could not recall more than the smothering darkness and encroaching pain that waited for him.

He usually tried to remain hidden within himself, lost and resigned to being forgotten by the world as he was. When the pain was bad enough, he could escape into a place where the outside world no longer mattered. But when they stopped torturing him and used a form of magic to recall him into the present moment, he had to let go of that escape. They pulled him back into his broken down body, to his unseeing eyes. He would once again feel the pain shooting through every part of him, though the suffering he felt was a dull throb to their active torture.

Given that pull once more, he tiredly noticed the dampness in the dark, the cold of the air that was never enough to kill him, but always uncomfortable. Voices were growling and snarling all around him. He remembered who he was and what was happening. He was Kannein, and he had been ambushed, his men had been slaughtered and monsters had taken him to this dungeon underground.
Several voices asked at once, coming from all directions in the surrounding darkness. "Who would come if they tried to send someone?"

Kannein shook his head, not understanding why they would ask, when they already knew. "No one is coming for me."

"If they did, who would they send?"

"My father." His voice was raw from screaming.

Silence stretched before his world erupted with pain, the feeling of claws dragging down his back and blood running down his legs as he screamed in response. Somehow, they knew when he lied, but he didn't dare tell them the truth.

He wasn't sure he even knew what the accurate answer was. Who would come? Who did the monsters worry about?

The voices sounded frustrated, desperate. "How would they come for you?"

Kannein latched onto that realization and felt a burgeoning hope begin to build in his chest. Some half realized thought formed.

He smirked. "With torches"

His answer was not to their liking, and they threw him into torture that was mindless pain more than artful extraction of sense. It sent him tumbling and falling down into the abyss of his mind, rushing to that safety of complete oblivion from the moment.

Something had sparked in his mind and he grabbed at that delicately formed realization in desperation. Kannein held it hidden with him as a beacon of truth. He still existed in his world, and this world knew that. Somewhere beyond the dungeon lair of these monsters of darkness, someone cared for him.

Someone who could come for him.

***

Nerini pulled herself out of her saddle, barely catching herself as she landed on half frozen legs unprepared to stand on her own. As she gripped her stirrup to steady herself, she turned to look at dawn taking over the small, sleeping village. She squinting into the light of the sun as it rose, an icy beauty that she was too tired to truly appreciate.

Nerini was frozen from head to toe, coated with snow and ice that had been falling from a variety of directions throughout her foray into the depthless forests. She cursed the trees and dark paths that swallowed up secrets as she led Cocoa toward the stable.

The cold made her limbs feel out of her control and weak, her limbs feeling disjointed from her body, as if they did not belong to her. Her arms and legs certainly didn't listen very well as she stumbled into the glorious heat of the waiting stable. Cocoa pushed her forward, also eager to get out of the frozen elements and into a nice, warm bed. The stable boy, Tom, gave her one look and told her to go to bed with a serious air before turning to un-tack Cocoa and dry him off before he got a chill from the melting ice and snow.

Tom seemed to be getting quite bossy as he became more familiar with her. It was almost endearing to realize that she seemed to be accepted as one of his charges, as opposed to a client to put up with. The boy did not like humans, so the fact that he treated her with the same care as the horses meant something. Or it would, if Nerini wasn't exhausted and feeling the stinging burn of her limbs thawing out. Nerini scowled, though it was more from the frustration of yet another fruitless search for clues that had ended with her mind jumping at shadows.

She had been out all night straining her ears until she couldn't trust them and searching the snow for tracks until everything was a dull, featureless white. She had ranged through the woods in all directions, desperately hoping for another sign. But there was far too much ground to cover, and without Keana's talent with magic, she could wander in circles until she died before she found any trace of where Kanny was.

She paused for a moment to glare at Tom and Cocoa before trudging up into the inn through the front of the Inn. Nerini knew she'd probably fail at climbing the wall to her window as her hands were still achingly numb.

She had the presence of mind to go through the staff door a little to the side of the main entrance and up the back stairs to avoid anyone from within the Inn seeing her coming back. Nerini knew she was making token efforts at this point and that if anyone was watching her, she wasn't being stealthy at all. But she didn't care right at that moment, stumbling into her room, searching it to make sure no one was waiting for her half heartedly. Whether she could fight off anyone lying in wait was another question all together, though thankfully not one she had to answer. Once she settled down and ordered a large breakfast up to her room, she stoked the fire into a roaring blaze and forced herself to eat.

Despite behind exhausted enough that she could not see straight, Nerini felt a frustrated anger burning in her mind, keeping her awake and staring into her fire long after she finished her food. Nerini couldn't remember when she had last failed so spectacularly as she was currently, when her brother's life was at stake.

The trail had gone cold, and she was freezing herself to near death, trying to unearth a lucky break. Nerini needed an alternative plan, but she couldn't figure one out for the life of her.

She fell asleep to the thought she was failing her brother and possibly her entire kingdom, when the stakes were the highest they had ever been.