You were pulled like a fish on a hook. “How can I be of service, my lord?”
Those words weren’t even yours. You had just a sliver of consciousness left to realize that, but not enough free will to break free. And it occurred to you how strange it is, to be at the mercy of some unseen force.
He seemed all too pleased with your servility. “Yes… Just a little closer, my darling.” The source of that velvety purr was let out a satisfied hum as your nose pressed against cold metal. “You take orders well. I think you’ll do just fine under my command.”
And the odd thing: you were nearly chest to chest with the stranger, yet you couldn’t feel an ounce of wampth from his body… None the matter, you were consumed by something far more intriguing. In the blackness, just barely smoldering, sat two glimmering rubies. They almost seemed to emit their own light as whoever- or whatever- they belonged to, self eulogized:
“I consider myself a… a liberator, of my kind. A savagely mistreated kind.” The thought didn't occur to you to ask exactly what kind he was referring to; subjugation is a tale as old as time, and may I add, a cause you could empathize with.
A thin, white palm emerged from between the bars that separated you, fingernails resembling claws more than anythung human. “I’ll see to it, given you help me with a…relatively minuscule component of my plan, that you be treated with utmost prudence.”
“Please…would you mind giving me a hand?”
That dangerous purr sent you into this sunstroked semi consciousness as waves of ecstasy rippled down from your brain stem. “I can free myself from this bondage, but…I hardly have the strength in my current state.”
He was asking you for help. Well, you didn’t know what he was really asking for. But if the stranger wished you harm, Wouldn't he have seized you by now? So, you took his icy cold palm in your.
And your hand disappeared into the darkness. And nothing happened for a while…
Sharply, something pierce the meat of your arm! “A-ah!” Startled, you choked at the burning pain. Still aware of the physical sensations, you couldn't move your body! You were trapped in the iron grip of your captor as he drained whatever was left of you.
It wasn’t until the meager light that filtered in the room began to flee from your vision, and your limbs fell slack and cold, that you were let go, your body crumpling in a sad heap to the stone floor. You’d served your purpose.
Even hours later, when you groggily roused from your slumber, your wrist was still aching. Bandaged, but aching. Blinking awake, you took in the environment around you. A far cry from the underground passageways, you found yourself among the luxurious velvet interior of a shadowy barouche, chattering up some rocky outcrop of the Borgo Pass.
Had you been kidnapped by whatever you helped in the catacombs? Or were you being saved?
Panicking, you pushed open the velvet curtain that obscured the window! Oh. Oh… You were right. Feeling your stomach sink, your face fell at the smoldering skeleton of the town you were in just moments ago. And some seed planted in your mind whispered to you: