'Next!' Niren The Wise sat scribbling away at his desk up ahead. The blot of his quill would determine our fates here, and as the old saying went, the pen was indeed mightier than the sword. At least it was throughout the confines of Stillrun Camp.
Our jailers had made us walk to get to this desolate place, travelling without supplies for what must have easily been ten miles. Then they'd separated us as soon as we'd arrived, and now, only Violet was left here to keep me company. I'd asked the guards countless times if they knew where our friends were, but they couldn't even reply.
I held my palms out, making sure to hide them away from any prying eyes. 'Dammit, I still can't use my magic.'
'I'm betting no-one can, Jake. Otherwise, we'd have all broken out by now.'
'Next!' Niren repeated. It finally felt like we were moving forward in the queue.
Violet puffed out her cheeks. 'Only twenty-four people left to see him before it's our turn.'
I nodded, leaning back against the mud-daub wall. 'Any sign of Edmond Strike yet?' When she didn't reply, I tried standing on the tips of my toes. It appeared I was too small to see over the heads of the people both in front and behind, though. 'Violet?'
She was staring at the tunnel's low ceiling, breathing heavily. 'Yeah?'
'You alright?'
She ran her hands over her face before looking up and down the length of the queue. 'There must be hundreds of people here. How are there so many?'
I shrugged. 'Edmond may have designed Titan's Reach that way, or the current rulers may have exploited other portals to take prisoners. The fact is, we may never know.'
'Do you mind?' I ask the overgrown bear of a man standing in front of me; his beefy fur-coated tail kept whipping back and forth while wrapping itself around my leg. I let it go the first time, but now I was getting annoyed.
When he turned around, his long whiskers seemed to scrunch up his face to the point they were brushing against his eyes. Then he snarled at us while revealing sharp teeth as he tried to scare us away. Even the young child strapped to his chest did the same, only with a cute growl that came across as more of a whimper.
'Awww.' Violet said, reaching to stroke the critters fluffy little head. The father tried to bite her fingers, though.
Then I stepped in between them without thinking. 'Easy, big guy. We don't want any trouble; we're just trying to find our people.'
The child was crying even louder now, and we could hear the heavy footsteps of the mind-controlled guards approaching, stomping faster and faster as they began searching for the source of all the noise.
Someone behind us in the queue was shoving their way forward. 'Shut that thing up, or you'll get us all thrown in for reprocessing!'
'That doesn't sound good.'
The hairy creature seemed to relax, his face creasing as he folded away sharp incisors. 'You have no idea, laddie.' His accent bore traces of Scottish, abrupt but remarkably soothing to the ear at the same time.
'I'm Jake. My friend here is Violet.'
She flashed a brief wave but quickly pulled her hand back to avoid the creatures gnashers this time.
'Sorry about that, I get a bit overprotective sometimes. I'm Baltar, and this here is Hydi. My wife always tells me off for-' His face cracked as he mentioned her.
Violet did reach out this time, placing her hand on his shoulder. 'What happened to you, Baltar? How did you come to be in this hell hole?'
The creature's eyes widened. 'You think this is a hell hole; you should have seen where we've been kept for the last two weeks! No, lassie, this place is paradise, and in another half hour, I'll finally get to see my wife again.'
'But how do you know?' I press, not noticing the child watching me with wide, teary eyes.
Baltar covered Hydi's small round ears as he spoke quietly. 'False hope is a dangerous thing, I know. But I choose to believe she's out there, somewhere. And after we talk to that monster, Niren, we're one step closer to finding her.'
I nodded, lifting my head as Niren called out for the next person and the next, and the next until there were only the four of us standing at the front of the queue.
Niren was a Troll from the looks of him; at least he matched the description I'd read in a book once. With a bulbous head and bulging stained-white eyes which seemed to watch his observers with great interest, there was no question that he was basking in their fear. Dark brown wiry hair appeared to cover most of his pale green skin, and as a final insult to us all, he stood completely naked, relishing our unease as we shuffled closer.
The Troll's grin was vulgar, and forcing everyone to see him in his birthday suit before they died was as big an insult as he could have managed. His thick black lips were stretching from ear to ear, revealing crooked rows of disgusting yellow teeth. And his breath, kill me now, his breath I could smell ten paces back.
Violet vomited over my feet. 'I can taste his sweat.'
Then Niren barked again as the queue moved.
Baltar was brushing his whiskers against Hydi's bushy face. 'This is it, little lassie.'
'What kind of backwater snot are you?'
Baltar didn't react, other than to turn slightly and shield Hydi from the clutches of the troll.
'And who might this be?'
'My daughter.' Baltar answered firmly.
'No, it's a fitting gift.' Niren corrected him, snatching the child from the rope-weaved carrier on his chest.
I tried to push forward to help, but Baltar wouldn't let me pass. And the green and yellow sparks shooting out of my hands looked more like dud fireworks than magic.
Violet grabbed my arm. 'You know that won't work here.'
'I'll find you!' Baltar yelled from over his shoulder as he was carted off to who knew where.
Niren handed a hysterical Hydi off to one of his guards as he waited for us to get closer. 'Not more of your kind. Crawling out of the woodwork, I see, just like the cockroaches you are.'
Violet had to hold me back again. 'Where did you send him?'
'Who? The overgrown bag of fur?' Niren laughed. 'Don't worry about it; you'll be together soon enough.'
The sick bastard was already calling people forward as we were escorted away. Then after an hour or so, I couldn't shake the feeling that we still had a long way to go, potentially miles on already-aching feet, with nothing but silent guards and painfully bright fluorescent lighting to guide us.
Sometime later, it started to feel as though my legs were running ahead of the rest of my body as we delved deeper into the bedrock of Titan's Reach. And the further in we got, the more we could hear people crying out in pain.
Violet sighed louder than she needed to. 'I guess they have enough people playing Runeball, after all.'