Polaris opened his eyes, they felt heavy and sore, he remembered back on the field, when one of zaraar"s men had thrown his limp body over their shoulders, he was fading in and out of consciousness, he could faintly remember a blurred image of Barak in his head, laying on the ground unconscious, he remembered the chains pinning him to the ground how labored his limbs felt as if they were about to fall off,
Then he remembered where he was, Zaraar had put him in the lowest cell he could find, the cell was dimly lit and he could barely see, he was being hung from the ceiling his hands bound by cuffs and chains, his body felt heavy, bruises and cuts all about, he could feel the blood trickle from his wounds, he had been beaten mercilessly for hours by zaraar's men while zaraar himself stood there smiling, after the beating zaraar mentally tormented him, forcing him to recite the prayers of junorra over and over again,
'you must devote yourself to her daily',
'again',
Praise the mother of the earth',
All of the lessons Zaraar tried to impart upon him, for what felt like a few days, whispered and echoed through his mind, as he swung there helplessly, his vision blurred and doubled,
He heard the creak of the cell door open once more, in walked Zaraar, a look of disappointment on his face, he walked over to a metal table that stood alone in the cell with Polaris, het took a pair of gloves off of the table, they were black, with a liquid like shine on them, and on the knuckles were sharp metal studs,
"Now, I take it you took that short reprieve to get some rest", Zaraar said, walking up to Polaris, He held Polaris by the chin looking at his swollen face,
"lets continue shall we, now why am I doing this to you", Zaraar asked,
Polaris looked at him as painful as it was, and glared, seemingly trying to burn a hole through zaraar with his sight,
"ANSWERME POL", zaraar shouted,
"why am I doing this", Zaraar asked once more,
"because you're a piece of shit that tortures his dead brothers kid who you were charged to take care of", Polaris said,
"you cheeky fuck", Zarar shouted,
"you brought this amongst yourself by stopping my ascent to be the leader of this clan and thus executing the will of junorra", Zaraar said,
"ex…excuses", Pola,
"no you're the one constantly making excuses, I gave you everything raised you as my own son and you repay it with your constant disrespect, and whing, so what if you have to execute the dissenters who do not wish to follow junorra's will, they deserved death for questioning it in the first place", Zaraar said,
"I was….innocent….and you took that away from me…to satisfy your own needs and your lust for even more power", Polaris said, as Zaraar stepped forward his fist came flying at Polaris,
PPolaris opened his eyes once more, He heard the cell door open, he looked up and there she stood, Adalynn, his mother, she walked towards him hurriedly, she undid the cuffs and he fell to the ground, she tried to help him up but he pushed her away, he glared at her, not saying a word, he got up and limped out of the cell, he made his way through the familiar dungeon-like passage way, he passed multiple cells, old blood stains were all that could be seen, he knew why those blood stains were there all to well, for this was the place that the enforcers for the clan would take captured 'targets', eventually he found his way outside and when he stepped outside, the soft warm rays of the sun warmed his cold face, the air felt crisp on his skin, as he slowly took a deep breath, he looked over to his side, there was Levant sitting waiting on him,
"You've been gone for an entire week", Levant said, handing over a white hoodie to Polaris
"Yeah,not by choice this time", Polaris answered, taking the hoodie out of Levant's hand,
"one day Pol, One day", Levant said, looking at Polaris' beaten and bruised body as he zipped the hoodie up,
"you look like shit", Levant said, chuckling lightly,
"the fuck were you expecting me to look like after spending a week in there", Polaris said, pointing to the grey, heavy metal door, he emerged from a minute ago,
"fair point", Levant said, throwing his hands in the air slightly,
"I'm gonna get cleaned up and then we can leave cause i don't want to be here right about now". Polaris said as he went inside the house,
Meanwhile...
Aster sat down on the cold ground, light barely shining through the window from his cell, he sat there with his hand on his knees twitching his fingers as he just stared at the iron bars,
The door creaked open and in walked Canaan, he walked in pulled up a chair and sat looking at aster all gleefully with a big grin on his face,
"So how we doing today...huh ?" He asked in a very jolly tone, aster just looked at him and a wicked grin came over his face,
"And what is that look for" Canaan asked as he stopped grinning and now he had a cold look in his eyes,
You've had me here for about a week, yet you haven't sent in any of you're men to beat or torture me, hell normally by day three you yourself are joining in on the action, so whats different this time", Aster asked,
Canaan let t a deep sigh, "it makes no sense for me to discipline you, aside from Zarin and Darik, you Aster are the finest enforcer I have ever produced, levant, Polaris and Barak are powerful sure, but you Along with Darik, and Zarin are the three in am most proud of, your willingness to do whatever it takes for the clan is what makes you so effective at you job, but sadly barak and the others have rubbed off on you, that's why I had to bring you down here so often to discipline you, to make sure I kept you in check, but I realized after a while you reveled in the pain, so after the last time you were in here I decided that the best way to keep you in check is to not to", Canaan said,
"ohh so you're saying that all of that 'discipline' you dished out was so I would be beneficial to the clan, what about all the times I was off duty and you called me in here, and I received discipline from you and the others, leaving here with fresh scars on body every time" Aster said,
"I merely was reinforcing my methods", Canaan replied,
"Haah, just admit it, you beating me up for no reason was just a way for you to relieve your stress and pressure that the elders were putting on you, and because of my blind faith in you, you knew I wouldn't say anything, in the end it was my fault though, believing the lie you told me that if I became numb to the pain I would grow stronger from it", Aster said,
"luckily I came to my senses when he died", Aster said,
"who, Zarin, hahahahaha, you can't even say his name yet, can you", Canaan said laughing at Aster, but Aster just sat there glaring at him,
"well that makes sense, since it was you four that killed him", canaan said,
"it was on your orders, you told us that he was a traitor, that he killed his entire squad", Aster said,
"I did, didn't I, well he did he lead them to their deaths and tried to run afterwards, but the execution order didn't come from me, oh no, it came from the elders, his father a known traitor to the clan was on the island and then his entire squad, save for him, the best squad in the clan even better than the four children of prophecy just up and died all except for zarin, and then he tried to run, what do you think happened", Canaaan explained,
"what I think happened is that rather than try to figure out what happened you had us execute him as a way to try and sweep it under the rug to keep things quiet, you and I both know those rich investors of yours would have taken their produce and money and left if word got out that your best squad had been wiped out, like always you and the elders prioritized the status of the clan over the well being of the people in it", Aster said, standing up and walking towards the iron bars,
"and where do you think you're going ?", Canaan asked,
"I'm getting out of here today, a week is long enough and now I'm getting very bored of being in here" aster said, his green eyes held no doubt within them,
"Hahahahahaha" Canaan chuckled,
"from a kid you always had a sense of humor....I'm glad to see it hasn't faded....but how are you gonna get out of here ?" Canaan asked, but before aster could reply Canaan felt a blade at his throat and a hand on his head,
"Now if you move I'm either going to fry your brain or slit your throat, I haven't quite decided yet" Barak said as he smirked,
"aster you ready to leave or what ?" Barak asked to aster,
Aster walked towards the cells bars and as he got closer they began to shake and by the time he got in front of them they bent away from him as he walked straight through without meeting any resistance,
"You may have most of the clan fooled but I can see it in your eyes...there cold and sharp without a trace of warmth or compassion in them" aster said to Canaan as he was walking towards the door,
"you can count me out for voting for you as next clan leader", Aster said,
"oh, then you choose to side with Zaraar, a man who willingly tortures Polaris whenever he see's fit, A man who thinks the only way forward is to venerate the gods", Canaan said,
" I never said I would vote for him either, as for as I'm concerned if it isn't enforcer business, then both of you can burn in Etanma's flames of hell for all I care", Aster said,
" since we were observing each other earlier, here's mine to you, you may have everyone fooled but I know that somewhere deep within you you've noticed it to, you've never once won a fight against barak, I beat you last week and you couldn't even get out of here by yourself. So stop feigning that confidence, you know that you are pathetic, you rely too much on others to help you", canaan said calmly to aster,
Aster threw his hoodie over his head and walked through the door with Barak close behind him.
Aster and Barak entered the courtyard and saw that Levant and polaris were there waiting on them and as the four reunited they sat and started to talk about the week that passed,
Off in the distance in a tree, the mysterious person grinned as she stood up she looked in the direction of the village.
"I've observed them for a week", the stranger said,
"they will be perfect",