"Yes, Eis. It is me." She said, her tone cold, making him unconsciously flinch. "I have come to say goodbye. After all, we got what we hoped for, and it is time to move on." She looked at him like she would look at a complete stranger.
Eis stared at her, struggling to understand what she was saying. "Got what we wanted? What are you talking about? Geb and Borus... they are dead, Narni. I don't know what to..."
Before he could finish, a powerful fist slammed into his face, knocking him to the floor of his cell. The man who had entered with Narni had crossed the distance in an instant, now towering over Eis with contempt etched on his features.
"For the second time, you casually use Lady Nastar's first name. There won't be a third," the man, nearly two meters tall, stated coldly, brushing the blood from his glove with disdain.
"It's alright, Gaur. He's from The Belows. You can't expect too much from him," Narni said dismissively, not even sparing an apology for the man's actions.
Her gaze never left Eis' crumpled form on the floor, watching with indifference as he struggled to recover from the blow. "Of course, they're dead, Eis. What did you expect? Did you really think a group of street rats could rob a carriage belonging to the Kingdom? Even more astonishing, you tried to rob a diplomatic mission from the Empire. The bounds of your stupidity are only as vast as the luck that kept you alive."
Eis slowly got to his feet, his eyes fixed on Narni in disbelief. "You're not Narni!" he shouted, gripping the iron bars of his cell. The woman he knew would never have spoken or acted like this. "She's a gentle person who remembers her friends. Who the f*ck are you?" His voice trembled with anger and confusion.
Gaur moved to strike Eis again, but Narni raised a hand, stopping him. "I always hoped you would grow up, Eissen," she said with a sigh, her voice tinged with disappointment. "Friends? Enemies? A gentle person? Those things don't exist for me. Only my interests do. And thanks to you, I've secured an opportunity I never thought possible in this miserable city where I'm exiled."
Eis' anger faltered as he tried to process her words.
"Your plan, Eis," Narni continued, her voice growing more pointed. "It was an attack on a diplomatic mission—an event worth much in my father's political games. When he learned of it, I thought his eyes would pop out of his head from excitement." She giggled, but the sound was hollow.
"You!" Eis' voice cracked as he stared at her in disbelief. This couldn't be real. It had to be some kind of nightmare. "You killed them!" The words came out as a whisper, his grip on the bars the only thing keeping him from collapsing.
"Don't be absurd." Narni's smile was devoid of warmth. "You were dead anyway, Eis. Now we both got what we wanted. Isn't that enough?" She tilted her head, studying him like a specimen under glass. "Think about it, Eis. I'll gain the support of that bastard father of mine and use it in the next three months. With the training and equipment I'll receive, I'll be ready to survive a portal. True freedom will be mine as awakened. The coin you were planning to steal is no longer needed. And you? You're going to die, just as you accepted months ago. Honestly, I don't understand why you're so angry now."
"I trusted you with everything," Eis muttered, more to himself than to her.
"No, you didn't," Narni responded, her voice dropping to a chilling whisper. "Never before have I seen someone like you, Eissen. I feel like the emotions you show are only for show—a second skin to hide the monster within. Even now, I can feel the tension in your wrists." She smiled, a cold, calculating expression. "If I take one step closer, you'll snap my neck, won't you? I doubt even Gaur could save me in time."
"He won't," Eis replied, his voice eerily calm. His pupils slightly darkened, black wisps swimming within them.
Narni's smile widened, almost as if she had been expecting this. "That's what I thought," she whispered, her eyes never leaving his. "But it doesn't matter now, does it?"
Narnia Nastar turned on her heel and made her way toward the dungeon exit, her personal guard following in silence. Each of her steps was deliberate, exuding an air of confidence and grace that seemed almost out of place in the grim setting.
"Hey, Narni," Eis called out. His voice stopped her in her tracks. Gaur tensed at the casual disrespect. "See you soon."
Narni's frown deepened as she turned her head slightly, regarding him with a mixture of disdain and something else—pity, perhaps. But she said nothing. After a moment of tense silence, she turned away again and continued walking, her departure as silent as her arrival.
"Man, you've got one messed-up relationship with your girlfriend," came a voice from the opposite cell. The fellow prisoner, who had introduced himself as Keo, grinned as he moved closer to the bars.
This was the first time Eis had really taken a good look at him. Red fiery hair fell over the broad shoulders of a young man, though his voice belonged to at least a sixty-year-old veteran soldier who served in at least two or three wars. His brown eyes looked at Eis like a seasoned trickster at the score of his life, and his warm smile gave him chills for some reason.
"Shut up! You weren't so talkative yesterday!" Eis snapped, retreating further into his cell. His mind was a whirlpool of confusion and desperation, his legs barely holding him upright. On top of that, the wounds on his body had yet to heal.
"Come on, tell me your story, my friend. I'll spin it into a tale that'll be told in every tavern across the Kingdom! You'll be famous!" Keo's enthusiasm was unnerving.
"You realize we're probably going to die today, right? Didn't you seem pretty happy about that yesterday?" Eis retorted, sinking to the floor and crossing his legs. His stomach growled in protest, the pangs of hunger gnawing at him.
Eis hadn't eaten since the day before, and the creeping starvation only added to his growing despair. Life in the Belows had never afforded Eis much in the way of sustenance, but he had always managed to scrape by his quick hands and sharper mind.
"A man has one drink too many, says a few things he might not mean, and suddenly everyone holds him to it," Keo said, raising his hands in mock surrender. "But we've still got time, don't we? At least, I do." He lifted his left arm, revealing the runes etched into his skin. "They can't keep Keo the Invisible down with their pathetic attempts!" He burst into laughter, a sound so manic that it made Eis wonder if Keo was even more unhinged than he was.
"How long?"
"Two weeks. What about you, Eis?"
"Seven days," Eis replied, his voice flat. Keo let out a low whistle.
"Living on the edge, huh? Well, what happens next is out of our hands, but..." Keo paused, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "I've got a weird feeling about today."
"How so?" Eis' curiosity was piqued, despite himself.
Keo chuckled, a low, raspy sound that echoed off the stone walls. "I've been in and out of places like this more times than I can count. But there's something different about today. The air's got a strange feel to it. Like the world's about to flip upside down."
"Oh, great. You're one of those charlatans who can 'feel' and 'predict' the future, aren't you?" Eis snorted, rolling his eyes. "I've already met someone like you. She wouldn't stop rambling about cards and destinies. At least she had the decency to do it from inside a tent."
Keo chuckled, unfazed by Eis' skepticism. "No, I don't have any special gifts," he replied with a knowing smile. "But I'm curious—what was the last card you pulled? You can tell a lot about someone based on their final card."
Eis hesitated, feeling a pang of regret for mentioning it at all. He didn't owe this stranger anything, but then again, what did he have to lose? With a shrug, Eis recounted what he could remember about the card reading. Yet he didn't know what the last card was as he left before it was revealed to him.
Keo listened intently, his brow furrowing slightly as Eis described the details. "Interesting. Half of those cards aren't from any traditional deck. You must've met someone truly unique."
"Or just as crazy as you," Eis scoffed, trying to dismiss the unsettling feeling creeping over him.
"Maybe," Keo agreed with a nod, the smile never leaving his face. "So, what do you say, Eis? We bust out of here, rob your girlfriend blind, and I'll cover your funeral expenses. Those things are expensive, you know."
"Yes, let's not let a casual execution stop our goals. I liked you better when you weren't talking," Eis sighed, feeling the weight of exhaustion settle on him again. "Can't you act like a normal human? Show some compassion or something?"
"Compassion?" Keo raised an eyebrow, a glint of amusement in his eyes. "That sounds like a tedious task for boring people. Or maybe you're just itching to escape so you can kill her like a dog in the street?"
"Maybe," Eis muttered, though the certainty in his voice was absent. Narni had been his closest friend, his guiding light, even when others warned him against trusting her. Now, his friends were dead, and she had betrayed him—or had she? Narni was right about one thing: they were all doomed from the start.
A flicker of something stirred within Eis, a faint sense that he was losing something crucial, something that had anchored him, but he couldn't quite grasp what it was.
"Why are you here anyway, Keo?" Eis asked, closing his eyes in a futile attempt to ease the pounding headache. The chaos in his mind was gradually morphing into a simmering anger, one he kept tightly contained, ready to unleash when the time was right.
Geb had been misled, Narni had betrayed him, and everyone would pay for it. But first, he had to survive his own execution. The problem was he had no idea how.
Keo shrugged, waving a hand lazily toward the ceiling as if addressing the universe itself. "Several reasons could account for my current misfortunes," he replied with exaggerated drama. "Unfortunately, the guards aren't too keen on explaining things when they're busy beating the sh*t out of you."
Eis opened one eye, studying Keo with skepticism. "Why did you decide to talk to me? You realize I don't actually know who she is, or how to get her, right?"
"She is Narnia Nastar," Keo explained, his tone suddenly serious. "Of House Nastar, one of the six children of Baron Caedric Nastar of the Vulan Kingdom." When Eis continued to stare blankly at him, Keo sighed and added, "Your Kingdom."
"Oh," Eis responded flatly, clearly unimpressed, which sent Keo into a fit of laughter.
"Yes! I knew it!" Keo gasped between laughs. "You really are something else! I doubt there's anyone else in the Kingdom who doesn't even care to know its name!" By this point, Keo was rolling on the floor, clutching his belly as if he couldn't control his laughter.
Eis gritted his teeth, feeling the frustration boil over. He'd give anything to wipe that grin off Keo's face, but the sound of approaching footsteps snapped him back to reality.
Three guards, clad in heavy plate armor and wielding long glaives, marched toward their cells. One of them fumbled with a ring of keys, searching for the right one. It took only a few seconds for them to reach Eis and Keo.
"Get up, rats. It's time!" one of the guards barked, his voice devoid of emotion.
As the cell doors creaked open, two guards kept their weapons mere centimeters from Eis and Keo's necks, ready to strike at the slightest sign of resistance. Any plan Eis had concocted evaporated instantly, replaced by a cold sweat trickling down his spine. His head, the very one that was soon to be separated from his body, felt unnervingly light.