The next time he awoke he felt cold stone under him, the smell of old hay and something unpleasant assaulted his senses. Sitting up groggily the world constantly shifted and tilted a bit as he opened his eyes. Much to his surprise he was in a cell! Aldrich tried to stand up but his legs wobbled beneath him, causing him to fall over as the rattle of chains was heard. He looked around in bewilderment and saw that there were six chains bolted several points of the wall behind him, which ran to a collar around his neck. Noticing a bucket that seemed to be filled with water in the corner he stumbled over to it. Looking over the collar in his reflection he saw that it was faintly glowing with some kind of runes, ones that he had never seen before. They made a faint and unsettling humming noise. He panicked at this, and tried to pull it off; and for his efforts he received a jolt that caused him to emit a cry of surprise and pain. His flames roared from within at his panic, and he froze as he saw them being pulled towards a gem floating just outside his cell. Its faint light grew a bit brighter as it absorbed the energy, showing no damage at all.
After what seemed like hours, he heard the screech of old hinges opening though he couldn't see the door. Footsteps echoed across the stone floor as a man in dark grey robes with golden runic trim walked into view. He had close cropped grey hair with flecks of black. His deep set green eyes had an odd gleam to them as he looked at Aldrich from behind round glasses. His long thin beard was tied into a braid and held with a small ring. The golden band was engraved with various runes that seemed to shift and move on their own. Hands entered his feild of view, their skin mottled with stains and old scars as he stared at poor Aldrich. The old man ran his long thin fingers along his beard he finally spoke.
" Ahh, Ten, you are finally awake. Good, very good; that means that we can start working on new and exciting experiments soon." He nodded to himself as he spoke, rubbing his hands together with excitement. "If you are a good test subject then ill make sure you get a full bowl of gruel today. Maybe even some actual food if you give me some rather good data."
"Umm sir my name is Aldrich and.." He started to say before he was cut off with a glare from the old man.
" You are Ten," the man informed him, his eyes and tone cold and cruel as he spoke. "As in the tenth phoenix I have used in my experiments." Leaning forward slightly the old mage smiled in a way that terrified Aldrich. " Let us hope that you prove to be far more usable to my needs then your predecessors, Hmmm?"
" I...If my father finds out about this he will be very, very angry!" The fledgling stammered as he backed all the way to the wall of his cell nearly tripping over the chains dragging on the floor. " You will be in big trouble then! S-so just let me go and I won't say anything ok? Just let me go!"
The old man raised an eyebrow and tilted his head slightly to the side as he snorted. "Oh?" he asked, his tone dismissive, "And who exactly is this father of yours that I, the great archmage, Zacaria Hildenmiester should somehow be afraid of?"
"M-my-my father is William Anjin gan Bhriseadh the 14 emperor of the Phoenix empire and wielder of the divine flame. He is regarded as one of the most powerful emperors to ever exist!" Aldrich's voice grew more steady as he spoke drawing a measure of strength from mentioning his father and lineage. To his surprise and growing terror however, Zacaria did not react with fear or in any way that he expected. The mage's smile grew wider seeming to almost stretch off the edges of his face. The odd gleam in his eyes growing even wilder as he began to laugh. His pitch grew and grew as the laugh showed just how insane the mage truly was.
" A royal... hahaha... a royal blooded phoenix fledgling? I will need to give those adventurers a large bonus for this! This is so much greater than I ever hoped for!" He stepped closer to the bars while still laughing. " Royal blooded are even more robust then the lesser examples of the species..." Hildenmiester's grin was sharp, cruel, all teeth and madness, "Oh Ten, this is wonderful news! That means I can push my work even further in finding out what gives your kind its unfair healing and even rebirth abilities. Yes, I Zacaria Hildenmiester; one of the foremost flesh crafters in the world of Anaria; will discover the true secrets of it and make myself as all true geniuses should be," His hands moved in wild gestures as if he were performing before a large audience. "a true immortal with nothing to stand in the way of true progress. Come now little Ten." He gestured and the chains detached from the wall wrapping themselves around Aldrich binding his limbs until he couldn't move at all. Every flame he emitted was simply consumed the the floating gem that had moved into place above his head.
"Yes, it is time to work some magic!" Zacaria said with a clap of his hands as he started to walk towards the door humming as he went.
The cell bars lifted into the stone ceiling as the wrapped chains floated Aldrich along behind Zacaria. He thrashed and struggled, but could not even manage to make the chains rattle. As they went along the hallway they passed door after door with various cries, howls and screams coming from behind them. Words in more languages than Aldrich had ever heard were calling out for their mothers, gods, even demons to save them from this place. At this point tears were falling from Aldrich's eyes. "Please," he sobbed, "let me go! I didn't do anything to you why would you do something so horrible? What did I do to deserve this?"
The old mage turned around with an annoyed expression. " Stop being such a crybaby Ten. You aren't old enough to reincarnate yet so I won't do any experiments that are likely to kill you only cause some pain," he waved his hand dismissively, "perhaps some discomfort. I WILL understand how your species does what it does, and correct the mistake of nature that makes it exclusive to you." He waggled his finger at the terrified fledgling as if he were personally at fault. "Don't worry about anyone like your father interrupting our work and the gods do not care. You aren't a chosen after all or this would never have been allowed to happen." Turning around he began to walk again as he spoke further. " Now don't you worry one bit about flame emission or any of the harvested materials going to waste. Any parts not used will be sold to fund our research or to fuel the lab. Don't you feel honored? Being able to be of use to others?"
They stopped, having seemingly arrived at the correct door as Zacaria pulled it open with a crooked grin. "Welcome to exam room 23, Ten. We are going to learn so much here, so lets work hard for excellent data!" He pumped one fist into the air with excitement like a school child about to start their favorite class.
As the chains floated him into the room he could see an examination table in the center, a ring floating above it near the ceiling. The loop of metal had some sort with strange doll like arms hanging from it. Each arm held a tool of some unknown purpose along with clips holding wands suspended from it in between the arms. Around the outer perimeter of the room were counters with countless drawers and cupboards. All of them seemingly made of a black stone-like material. Even the hinges and recessed handles were of the same mysterious material. Placed along the counters were jars, all filled with a myriad of colored liquids; some of them with strange fleshy objects floating in them. Chalk boards covered one entire wall covered in diagrams in exacting detail of a phoenix's body showing veins, arteries and even nervous system. Notes scribbled in an illegible manner covered the surface of a large tome that floated next to the table.
The cocoon of chains lowered Aldrich unto the table then seemed to retract entirely into his collar. He desperately tried to move, but found to his horror that his body did not respond. The crazed mage began chanting spells as the arms began to move, and the world seemed to go white in pure pain. He didn't know how long it lasted. Minutes? Days? He quickly lost track of time. Eventually he felt conciseness mercifully slipping away. His last thoughts before he passed out were 'At least my sister is safe. She doesn't have to live thought this.'