Asliria shivered. It was cold down here even with the blanket Zoltan had given her. Her mind was blank save for thoughts that it was freezing down here and counting the number of cracks in the cell she was sat in.
She blinked in surprise as Zoltan suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Power over the shadows," he said, answering the question on her face. He took her hand so she could stand then took her to the cells bars. He released her hand as he melted through the bars with the shadows then took out a key in his pocket.
"Zoltan, what are you doing?"
"Helping you get out of here," he muttered as he opened the door letting Asliria out.
Asliria stepped out and suddenly cried out in surprise as he took her hand and was suddenly following Zoltan as he took various twists and turns through multiple underground tunnels that it left her dizzy. When he finally stopped, Asliria stumbled feeling sick.
"Not so fast," she muttered as she clutched the wall to stop her falling down. She scowled at Zoltan who was grinning at her, finding it hysterical. She stood up, still unsteady and looked at him. "Not that I'm complaining, but why have we stopped?"
He laid hand over her mouth and motioned for her to be silent.
Kasim was stood in the hallway before them and looking significantly annoyed. He appeared to be impatient then, when he spoke, seemed to be speaking to someone annoyed.
"That girl was stronger than I thought but I think I may have found a way to get to her should her refuse to do as we want: the memories of her family. If I threaten to destroy them, she'll co-operate."
"You sure?" came the new voice. It was deep and harsh.
"Yes. She is incredibly attached to those memories. She fought enormously to hide those memories from me."
"Very well. Go get her and bring her to the room."
"Very well."
Kasim left and the other person stepped forward. He looked down the corridor and, seeing nothing but darkness, walked on.
Asliria pushed Zoltan away who had slammed her against the wall and covered her and himself with his clock and used his abilities to further hide them from view.
"Sorry," he muttered, his expression suddenly serious.
She stepped forward and saw him sigh as he shook his head.
"Damn it…I was planning on getting you out of here without raising any alarms but..." Grabbing Asliria's hand, he began running again, leaving Asliria no time to yell out in surprise as the world became a blur save for Zoltan running in front of her. Suddenly, he stopped making her crash into his back.
"Zol-" began Asliria but was stopped as Zoltan placed a hand lightly on her mouth. She panicked as she saw a vampire soldier staring at them hard and cold.
Zoltan breathed hard as the soldier's sword was placed on his neck in warning. "This isn't what it looks like," he whispered but stopped when a voice said, "I knew you could not be trusted Zoltan. Alonso was right when he said you might try to help the "Normal"."
They looked round to see Kasim and the other man stepping forward to them.
"Master Kasim!" Zoltan panicked stumbling backwards knocking Asliria down to her butt.
"Put both of them into cells but far away from each other…and make sure his abilities are bound," Kasim said, his eyes suddenly on Asliria.
She swallowed, looking at him terrified, then panicked further as she felt her arms being grabbed. She began swallowing hard to steady her breathing and couldn't hear what Kasim said as she was dragged away from the sounds of Zoltan panicking and begging for help. Asliria began to fear for her life as she realized that she wasn't being taken back to her cell but to another part of the castle.
She breathed deep to get her composure as she was brought into a room that was dark save for a few low level lights. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom and she eventually saw a man stood in the gloom. She didn't say anything, slightly afraid.
"I've heard you are a strong-minded young woman."
Asliria remained silent, unsure what to say.
"Come forward girl."
Asliria was forced to do so by the guards who still had a tight hold of her arms but she didn't struggle, not wanting to risk the vampire's wrath. As she did so, she saw another shape come into view. It was rectangular and appeared to be chained.
The vampire watched as she came closer then, once she was close enough, he grabbed her hand and forced it onto the books cover. He scowled as she suddenly screamed in terror and pain.
"STOP! STOP!" she screamed as visions filled her mind, horrible visions of blood and killing and darkness! It hurt so much! After what seemed like hours to Asliria but she knew it was probably but a few minutes, she dropped to the floor, sobbing in pain, breathing hard.
"What did you see?!" Shen demanded. When she didn't respond, he dragged her up. "WHAT DID YOU SEE?!"
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Asliria shivered as she laid in her cell sobbing, in so much pain.
Kasim had been summoned to the room to force the information from Asliria but they had finally had to give up for now as Asliria was in so much pain that she was just speaking gibberish.
She was glad it had ended there as they had started threatening her with destroying her precious memories of her family, those that she had loved more than anybody else, exactly what she and Zoltan had heard earlier that day…was it even the same day now?!
How long since she had had been kidnapped from Kanran? Days? Was it a week now? It was so difficult to gage the time of day in here. There was no sunlight, she had nothing to tell her the time and her own internal clock had been completely destroyed with the torture of her mind and the fact that she was extremely cold and miserable down here.
Asliria sighed sadly and pulled the blanket around herself, desperately trying to keep warm. She thought reluctantly about what she had seen when her hand had been forced. Her arms were bruised from the guards' and the other mans grip and it was hurting badly.
She had seen a lot of blood and darkness…there had been some sort of attack…that much she was certain of…it had been on a dark haired man and reddish brown haired woman…a man getting put into…she didn't know how to describe it…was coma the right word?
Her mind strayed to all the pictures she had found of the vampires, most over hundreds of years old, and she had seen group pictures of the court….
Asliria suddenly sat up, her eyes wide as she realised who she had seen. "No way!..." The light dawned as she realised what the vampires were after…why she had been forced to place her hand on that book!
"I have to get out of here!"
"Fat chance," she heard a voice say, completely dejected.
She looked up and crept to the bars before gazing down the hall.
"Zoltan!" she said, surprised.
"I'm sorry…I was only trying to get you out of here." He looked so sad.
"You were trying to help."
"And I could hear you…I only caused you pain."
"Zoltan…" She paused thinking. She could feel his pain and depression from here and it hurt to watch. He had been so upbeat and determined before. Just as Asliria opened her mouth to speak again, there was a flurry of action and she was suddenly being cuffed and led up some stairs. She had lost sight of Zoltan but could hear him yelling in pain. She tried to block it out as she was dragged away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kasim stood amongst the royal advisors and near the Queen as Zoltan was forced march towards the middle of the room.
Zoltan's face was a mask of despair as he walked, his eyes looking round for Asliria as he walked and his eyes finally fell upon her face, looking at him scared and confused. He looked up to the roof and began breathing hard, suddenly knowing what was happening.
The deep voiced man from the tunnel conversation with Kasim and the guy who had forced her hand onto the book from before, Shen, spoke up. His voiced echoed seriously.
"Zoltan, you have been brought before the Vigron Castle Court after being found helping the Queen's prisoner. You have been found guilty of high treason and you are hereby sentenced to death by sun execution."
"Sun execution?" murmured Asliria. She watched as the guards who had marched him in left him in the middle of the room and got the answer to her question when suddenly shutters opened and the sun streamed in.
Zoltan screamed as the sun hit him and started burning before suddenly exploding with such a bright light that Asliria cried out in surprise and was blinking hard afterwards to get rid of the bright lights flashing in her eyes.
Her eyes cleared after a few seconds and all she saw where Zoltan had been stood was…nothing… She started shivering and breathing hard in fear realizing that most of her hopes of escape were now gone. Her eyes filled with scared tears as she was led back to her cell in a daze.