ENTRANCE TO THE PIT
GUARD TOWER
145TH FLOOR
CORNELIUS DANEAITANI
Cornelius could not help the cold sweat that trickled down the nape of his neck into his clothes and down to the base of his spine. He was nervous, more than nervous, he was terrified. Adein the lover might be known to many people by just reputation, but Cornelius had on more than one occasion been at the receiving end of Adein's special brand of loving. He would know exactly how dangerous this human is, after all...….Adein was the one who broke him.
"Elder Cornelius, it's always pleasure having your presence around, please take a seat."
That voice terrified him, it made his skin crawl with an itch he could not scratch or control. It was the voice of a monster. Cornelius looked around the floor not seeing a single chair of furniture except for the curtain covered be almost fifty meters in front of him. That was where the voice was coming from, that much distance and his voice could still reach him as clearly as if he was standing right next to him. Adein was not just a torturer it seems, he has the power to back up his brutality.
With no other choice Cornelius sat himself on the ground, a demeaning position no doubt, but one he had no choice but to take because of the monster in front of him. But with the stifling atmosphere in this tower, he would rather hurry the fuck up and get the hell out of his place.
"We encountered some problems."
"Oh really!, well for your sake let's hope it's not something that can't be solved, the high weaver of the council is not a patient person."
Cornelius shivered involuntarily, there was a saying he had heard, that no matter how strong a person was, there was always someone or something else stronger. And in this case it would be someone more ruthless, and brutal, a man who would not torture your body, but your soul, your heart, and your mind. Cornelius would prefer to not have anything to do with that man.
"Elder Asha has refused the [Udama], in fact when I delivered the order to her, she tried to kill me." Cornelius explained.
"Oh! Well I expected as much from that woman, but how is it that you're still alive, hmmmmm. Don't tell me she had a change of heart, because trust me that would be too boring."
"I don't know why she stopped, but she ran out almost immediately, even using her abilities as a vampire to move faster than normal. And she didn't change her mind, I'm afraid the next time she see's me, there's nothing capable of keeping my head attached to my shoulder."
"Well that's true, Asha's a vindictive bitch, and she never leaves an enemy alive, I should know....she's my great, great, great something aunt. But that aside, were you successful in the other task?" Adein asked with slow words.
"I'm sorry warden Adein, but the vampires who I hired for the job, never showed up at the rendezvous point, and even worse is that no one can find them." Cornelius answered with a subdued tone.
"Come here."
Cornelius felt his heart skip a beat, he really didn't want to go close to that monster, but refusing to do as he was told would only make his situation a million times worse. He got up and prepared to head towards Adein when he heard him speak again.
"Did I say you can get up!, go back on your knees and crawl your sorry ass here." Adein ordered.
Cornelius had no choice, the seal on his wrist and the one on his back prevented him from being nothing but a plaything to his captors. He swallowed hard as he got back on his knees and began to crawl towards Adein's bed. The humiliation he felt was so strong that tears fell from his eyes. He was an elder, a vampire at the top of the ladder, a being capable of turning mountains to rubble if he so wished, but here he was being demeaned by a filthy human, a man, a mere mortal who has not even to sniff at the threshold of the power he owns. Cornelius made his way with his head down, until he got to the foot of the bed and felt Adein place his foot on his head.
"Of all the things you were meant to do, acquiring Kael Cor was what you were not supposed to fail at. I put all of the tools you needed right in your hands, I risked inciting a rebellion just so you could get a helpless, comatose and unprotected vampire, a fucking revenant! And you tell me you failed. Why?"
Every single one of his words dripped with malice and a promise of intense pain, even death was not out of the equation. It was one thing to irritate Adein, it was another to anger him, but what this twisted being of man hated the most was being disappointed, he liked to meet every expectations complete to utmost perfection.
"Warden, I have no idea what happened, I was carrying out the secondary task of activating the kill seal on Asha. There are angles to this we have to consider, anything might have gone wrong." Cornelius pleaded.
"And what could have gone wrong, I would really like to know." Adein asked, as he ground his foot harder into Cornelius's head, making sure his forehead was in contact with the tiled ground beneath him.
"There's talk of a gnome girl that serves him, and that she's quite good with earth magic." Cornelius explained.
"Do you want to die? You lay there like the dog you are, and you have the gall to tell me that a gnome, a filthy creature born from mud, a child stopped four grown vampires from carting away an unconscious bastard. Do you take me for a fool?" Adein spat out, with his voice significantly higher than before.
"Warden, there's more to this story than you would know, the gnome girl is not the only child with him. There's another, a boy, he's a vampire." Cornelius explained with frantic breaths, afraid for the reckoning that would come if Adein is not satisfied with his explanation.
"You keel saying stupid things, and quite honestly my patience is running out. Maybe we need to have a session together, it would clear your head and maybe instill some intelligence in you dead vampire brain."
Cornelius had his eyes widened in fear, as his second heart began to beat to fast for him to have control over.
"NO!, warden Adein, the boy is a vampire, but he's UNSEALED!"
Cornelius shouted, hoping against all odds that he could leave here with all of his body parts intact. He felt Adein lift his foot from his head, and placed them under his jaw, then he raised his head up until his tear streaked eyes met Adein's cold blue ones.
"Well that's an interesting notion, are you positive about this information?" Adein asked
Cornelius nodded his head frantically.
"Yes, yes! Warden its completely true."
"Very well then, find this boy and bring him to me. And I want you to get me Kael, I don't care how you do it, but I want that vampire, and I want him now. You can leave."
Cornelius gave a deep bow as he tried to get back up to his feet. But a few seconds later he fell back to his feet as his back burned with pain from where Adein had hit him with his silver whip. Cornelius felt his vision go dark and tasted blood in his mouth as he had bit his tongue in agony.
"Did I say you can get up. You can leave, but you will do it on your hands and feet, like the dog you are. Now get out."
Cornelius turned and began to crawl towards the entrance, every move he made inflamed the wound on his back and he had to bite down hard on his lip to resist the pain being ravaged in his body by the silver. He hated this, he hated the warden, he hated the humans, and even the Vampires for abandoning him to this fate, for loosing a war and condemning millions into such a torture. He was powerless and at the mercy of all them all, but that's only for the moment.
He could feel it crawling all over and within his body, his growing power, his growing connection to the one god. This people had thought they were making another tool when they had him baptized in the pool of black pestilence, but they didn't know they gave him and his true master the key to freedom for both of them. And when that key has broken their shackles, the both of them would drown Shearath, and much of the universe in thick endless darkness. This was his destiny.