Pain became his only reality; he was unsure how many times he had been lashed, even more unsure the number of times he had said 'stop'. When it all came to an end, the fat man behind him was breathing heavily.
"Yer tougher than you look," the fatman said, before dissapearing into the shadows once again. "But there's many toys I have in this playroom of mine."
He began cackling, the sort of laugh that brought shiver to bone. "If yer mouth don't start saying something other than stop, yer not going to live long enough to see them people die."
He came back into the light holding a small worm in his chubby hands. The worm had a sharp mouth, and dozens of sharp tipped legs that crawled through the air in unison.
No. Why? Why are you doing this? I don't know what you're talking about, Luma wanted to say, however his mouth only knew the word stop.
The fatman bent over, and brought the worm close to Luma's ear. Right as he felt the tip of the worm's mouth brush the entrance, water began to fall from the sky.
Both he and the fatman stared up to the slit on the cieling, as the waterlevel in the room quickly rose. The man grunted, "Just when things wer getting interesting," he whispered before dissapearing back into the shadows.
In a few seconds, the water was up to Luma's nose. He fought to rise above it, but he was chained down to the floor.
Stop!
Stop!
"Stop!"
He woke up with a start, bumping heads with someone.
"That hurt you idiot!" a girl shouted.
Luma held his forehead in pain, finding that it was slick with water or sweat. He scanned the room with laboured breaths, his eyes still adjusting to its darkness.
"What? Who are you?" he asked, finally noticing the girl who was crouched down in pain at the side of his bed. "And why..." he continued realizing that even his bed was drenched "...did you pour water on me?"
"Because you kept screaming stop like your special care," she groaned, slowly standing up. "And I'm the only one who get's to ask questions here." She had a culling-knife in her hand, and she held it with the kanuit-bearer's grip— an unpredictable and cunning form of combat.
"Who are you, and how did you get past mother's security runes?"
Luma sized her up. This was obviously a misunderstanding, but the knife in her hand probably didn't care. She looked to be around his age or a little older, regardless she had no power stone in sight, so she hadn't undergone the rising ceremony.
The sandstrider form beats the kanuit, but I can't do much with my arms restrained, he thought, feeling the resistance of the tunic against his arms.
"You see this tunic," he said, slowly looking down at it. "It's a restriction tunic. Your mother was assigned as my watcher, she—"
"Nonsense, my mother would never bring a criminal home," the girl snapped.
"I'm not a criminal," Luma shot back, finding the insult more hurtful than anything else.
"Then why are you in a restriction tunic? You think I'm an idiot? They don't put those on people for decoration," she said, her knife hand growing restless.
"Things just went... wrong, for me," he said, his voice softer now. "If you don't believe me, then just go ask her."
The girl hesitated for a moment. "You're just trying to get me to drop my guard," she said, though her tone betrayed her lowered confidence. "I bet you don't even know my mother. I slipped up and gave you that information."
Luma sighed. "Tall slender woman, bad attitude, doesn't talk alot. Her name's Rela, Va Rela," he said.
The girl thought about it for a moment, before slowly putting her knife away.
"It's not Va Rela, it's just Rela," she said. "And you aren't supposed to know the name's of watchers. Mother must be stressed if she's slipping up this much."
The girl moved to lean against the wall, and silence descended in the room.
"So what? Are you just going to stand there and watch me sleep?" he asked, finding it difficult to go back to sleep with someone watching him.
She shrugged. "Until mother returns, someone has to make sure you don't do anything suspicious," she replied.
Luma scoffed at that. "Would've been smarter to keep that fact to yourself. Now I know you're alone."
"That doesn't matter. I've finished analyzing you, you aren't that much of a threat," she shot back.
Luma felt boiling rage seep into his blood. But he quickly calmed himself, remembering how strong Rela was. Yes, there was no benefit to even talking to this girl. His second trial would be soon, and he would be done with all of this for a while.
He closed his eyes, and tried to fall asleep again.
"So, who did you kill?" the girl asked, disturbing his peace.
Luma sat up in bed and glared at her. "No one."
She pointed to his tunic. "All five power stones is the maximum setting," she said. "You either killed or tried to kill someone important."
Luma found it suprising that the girl knew anything about the tunics. After all, apart from name, they were not taught about in the schools. To his knowledge, only watchers should know about the tunics, and their different codes.
He thought it over for a moment, and decided to reply. Perhaps he would be able to gain more information by talking to her. After all, she seemed happy to show that she was knowledgable.
"I attempted to kill a deathstalker—"
"A deathstalker?" the girl interrupted, breaking into laughter. "The sun be blessed, you're dumber than you look," she added. "Bet it didn't go at all as planned did it?"
Luma just stared at her in silence.
"But attempted murder of deathstalkers doesn't get you all five stones, three or four at most," she said.
Luma lay back down in bed. It had been a stupid idea to think he could learn anything from this girl.
"Come on, I'm sorry," she groaned. "It's just how many people have you seen try to kill a deathstalker," she asked. "What would you even have against them? They're brainless brutes."
Luma turned around, Guzla's final moment's replaying in his mind. "It wasn't the deathstalker I had something against," he replied, his voice thick with emotion.
"I meant to kill a whisperer," he said finally, and he could hear the girl catch her breath.
"To avenge my friend."