The Chronicles of Arnora: The Curse of the Blood Moon

Chapter Eight: The Elysium Tower

~Chapter Eight~
The Elysium Tower 

Owin awoke feeling very groggy, his head was dizzy and his body felt numb and weak. He slowly sat up and observed his surroundings, he was in a cold windowless stone cell. The sounds of loud screams had filled the air, he slowly got up off the stone slab bed he was laying on and made his way over to the cell door grabbing ahold of the rusty iron bars. He then peered through them looking out into a long hallway full of other cells. No one seemed to be in any of the ones across from him and there were no guards in sight. He then yelled as loud as he could trying to get someone's attention.

Owin: "Hey! Hey! Is there anyone else here!?" But no one answered him. "There has to be someone else here, anyone!" Again no one seemed to answer him, then he heard a low growl coming from down the hall. Owin looked to where the sound was coming from and saw the creature that was making the noise; it was a large stone golem covered in glowing blue cracks. It was pulling something behind it and as the golem came closer the object it was dragging became even more visible. It was a body, the golem then stopped in front of Owin's cell, opening the one across from him, throwing the body into it. As it closed the cell it turned and looked at Owin, the creature let out a very loud roar then proceeded back the way it came from. Owin looked over into the other cell, the body was of a middle aged man with shoulder length black hair and a short beard. The man then started to move, struggling to do so. "Hey are you okay over there?" The man grumbled as he tried to sit up.

Man: "Does it look as if I'm alright? I just got dragged around by a golem and thrown back into this damn cell after being tortured by a maniacal witch." The man slowly sat up and leaned against the wall nearest to him. "It's good to see that you're alive, when they brought you in here earlier you were as limp as a dead fish. My name is Percival by the way and who might you be?"

Owin: "My name is Owin and I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you but considering the circumstances we're in now I'll save the pleasantries. You said your name was Percival, That's Avalonian isn't it?"

Percival: "It is indeed, and you're obviously Arnorian, with a name like Owin. I guess we're both a long way from home then."

Owin: "What do you mean by that, we're in Zhagos are we not? If anyone is far from home it's you, Avalon is far to the north of Arnora last I checked."

Percival: "Well you aren't wrong about that but how do I explain this, you're in Zhagos but then again you aren't." Percival pulled himself up off the floor and limped over to his cell door. "You see I was in Zirovrane just about five days ago now on a diplomatic mission from Camelot and I believe it takes just over two weeks to travel to Zhagos from Zirovrane. But here I am in this cell across from yours, so clearly we're not in Zhagos, which only leaves us with one possibility."

Owin: "That possibility being that we're in a magical pocket dimension and it would explain the golem with the glowing blue cracks. You can only get golems with a blue mana flow when they're created in pocket dimensions such as this. But what one are we in exactly?"

Percival: "That I think I can answer for you, I believe we're in a place called The Elysium Tower, at least that's what the guards here call it."

Owin: "The Elysium Tower you say? I know of it and it's not a place I want to be in for too long. This place was once home to the Arnora Mage's Council but that was a very long time ago, now it's used as a Zemorian prison for the Empire's most dangerous criminals, so we're definitely still in Zemor. Which brings me to ask you how exactly an emissary of Camelot on a diplomatic mission to the Empire ended up here?"

Percival: "I could ask you the very same thing Owin, from those green eyes of yours, you're clearly a Slayer. A righteous warrior who serves and protects the people of Arnora from monsters and evil, yet here you are imprisoned alongside me. To answer your question however as to how I ended up here, I was sent to Zirovrane by my king Uther Pendragon to organize a peace summit. Avalon and Zemor have been at each other's throats for quite awhile now, so King Uther wanted to negotiate a peace treaty and trade agreements with the Zemorian Empire to avoid all out war. But the Emperor refused to hear what I had to say and wanted nothing to do with the summit. I was accused of being a spy, they arrested me and I ended up here."