This fortress was the new sanctuary of the Ebon Hand, Severin realized. He had thought they had disbanded long ago, after all had been lost to Drustan.
“Malik Severin” Titus called his name like a grand proclamation, “It has been twenty long years. When I first found you, you were just a stray orphan wandering the streets. Look at you now--a grand general and the Emperor’most valued confidante. I should offer my congratulations,” he had spoken lightly, but there was an undeniable savage note which lurked beneath his words.
“So, we meet again, brother.”
“Brother?” he scoffed. “You have no right to call anyone here a brother. Not after everything you have done.”
The general only sat in silence as he studied the man seated across from him, still disbelieving his eyes. It was a face that he had never expected to see again. Twenty long years had gone by, and he still looked just as Severin remembered.
Titus, who was perhaps the only person he had ever called a friend. Titus, who had forged him into the very thing he despised.
“The Asharan princess,” Severin began after some hesitation, “What will become of her?” He was struggling to keep his voice even, determined not to betray his concern for her.
Titus stilled at that question, assessing the general with a searching look. “She was meant to die along with the others,” he admitted at last. “It was Cadeon’decision to bring her here.”
“Cadeon,” he hissed the name underneath his breath as he recalled the face of the man who had apprehended them on the ship, his temperature growing heated from rage. “Your business is with me alone. Release her.”
“I’m afraid that is impossible. She knows about us.”
“What are you afraid of?” the general taunted, “That she would reveal the location of your hiding place? The girl is blind. And she has nothing to do with this.” Severin reasoned. “Return her to Ashara--”
“Ashara,” Titus spat the word with disdain. “Where were they when Drustan first invaded us?” He asked with contempt. “Where were they when Drustanis ships landed on Eastern shores and razed our homelands? For nearly eight decades, they’ve sat behind their walls and did precisely nothing. And you--” Titus continued as he glared at the general, eyes filled with hatred, “You are worse than nothing. I gave you one task and you failed. You had the chance to stop it all by taking Zakhar’life.”
“You are a fool to believe that a war would end with the death of one man,” Severin answered. It was true--even if the Emperor had died, another would step up to take his place.
“Perhaps not, but it was a start.”
“Let it not be said that I am without mercy. I will give you one chance to rectify your mistakes. I think you know what you’ll have to do.”
“My answer is ‘no’. I’ve already made my choice.”
Titus gave no response but only rose to stand by the fireplace. For long moments he stood there in silent contemplation, his expression vacant. “I did not believe it--not at first--when they told me of how you had betrayed us,” he murmured at last, mostly to himself, as his gaze was fixed on the flames. “After all these years, one questioned still lingered in the back of my mind: Why?”
Acclaim, respect, power, the things which young men desired. Twenty years ago, that was what he wanted. But now, Severin only sat in silence as he had no satisfactory answer to give.
Titus laughed bitterly. “So, the Emperor bestowed you a with title and some land, and in turn you happily slaughtered in his name. Was that it?” he shook his head in disdain. “I expected better of you.”
“Kill me and be done with it,” Severin responded dryly, “But spare me of your blathering”
“Kill you?” asked Titus mildly.
“That is reason you have brought me here, is it not?”
“No,” he answered in a cold voice. “Death is too good for someone like you. I will keep you alive, but just barely.”
From the back of the room, Szeth dragged out an iron rod from the burning brazier, sending forth a drifting shower of orange sparks.
With a sadistic smile on his lips, he walked across the room and pressed the yellow-hot metal against the general’face.
When the rod met his skin, it made a hissing noise as steam shot up. The faint smell of burning flesh drifted through the room. Severin gritted against his teeth, fighting the urge to scream. He would not give them them the satisfaction. His fingernails clawed into the palm of his hands, so roughly as to draw blood.
Discontented with the general’response, Szeth withdrew the metal rod from the Severin’face and jabbed it into his left eye, twisting it.
It was then that he lost all remaining willpower and screamed, a sound which resembled nothing human. His back arched, as his body thrashed against the chair. In that moment, he could think of nothing else but for the excruciating pain which was unlike any other. Agony overtook his mind, banishing all other thoughts.
He had screamed until his lungs were sore, and his throat raw from the exertion. At last, the room grew quiet as the final breath was drawn from him.
“Aaliyah,” Severin murmured her name in a moment of weakness, dazed and unthinking
“Don’t tell me that you harbor feelings for the girl,” Titus remarked in disbelief. When the general gave no response, he continued with an added vehemence, “I thought you knew better than that. It’best that you forget about her... Or should I bring her here and kill her before you?”
His fingers gripped onto the wooden arm of the chair until his knuckles turned white, all the while his face remained impassive. “To what extent must I suffer in order to satisfy you?” Severin asked in a strained voice.
“Do you think that it pleases me to see you like this?” A look of pain crossed his expression as he lashed out in anger, his tone unbelievably sharp and grievous. “I am only doing must what be done. You’ve brought this on yourself.”
He walked over to the general and knelt before him.
“Love is such troublesome thing,” Titus murmured as he carefully wiped away the blood with a surprising gentleness which contradicted every other aspect of him. “I have found that it only brings sorrow and grief, as you have proven to me time after time again. I will keep you alive,” he repeated for a second time, “But you will live out the remainder of your life in these dungeons to reflect upon your deeds.”
That day, she wore a long white dress which clung tightly to her perfect form. Her dark hair flowed freely over her shoulders and down her mid-back, lightly tousled by the chilling breeze.
Aaliyah.
His heart constricted at the sight. Just the mere glimpse of her would always take his breath away.
She was safe. His heart could sing from joy. That knowledge of that fact changed his entire disposition.
“You’ve come for me,” she remarked in a quiet voice as he approached her.
Severin froze in his track. “Of course,” he replied indignantly. Had she ever doubted him? The pain of her mistrust cut deeply, as a part of him bled inside. As the silence between them lengthened, he found that he couldn’t move toward her any more than he could move away.
“I’ve been waiting for so long,” she began after some time, “I thought you had forgotten me--”
“Never,” he interrupted with renewed vigor. Doesn’t she know that such a thing would be impossible? With a few broad steps, he quickly closed the distance between them. “There hasn’t been a waking moment where you were not in my thoughts,” those words had escaped his lips before he could stop himself. The general stood perfectly motionless, uncertain of how she would react to his sudden declaration. Would she shy away from him now? He did not breathe. He did not blink.
She turned to him then, eyes brimming with hope. “Truly?” she whispered as she clutched onto him for support, as if the fate of the entire world depended solely on his answer.
“Yes,” he said with an exhale of breath, which came out more like a laughter. There would be no other answer. She was alive, and he was with her. That was all that mattered.
He brought her delicate fingers up to his lips and kissed each one. His arms wrapped around her waist as he buried his face in her hair, breathing in her scent. Her smell, her touch, her voice--he needed it all to confirm that she was real. And for a long time, they stood that way.
Happiness, was this what it felt like? It was an odd, unfamiliar feeling.
Severin could have stayed that way for the rest of his days, just holding her, feeling the steady rise and fall of her breathing, but after a few minutes he broke from her with great difficulty. They were not away from the danger just yet.
“Quickly, we must leave this place before they find us--”
“Leave?” she asked with a puzzled look, “But why would you want to?”
Severin awoke in his dank cell, having no memory as to how he arrived there. His body was splayed across the stone floor, too exhausted to move from the spot. He would perpetually phase in-and-out of consciousness, uncertain as to how much time had passed. Often, Severin was unsure of whether he was awake or hallucinating. But during those days, he found that he greatly preferred the latter, as his torment was only lessened by sleep.
With one hand outstretched, he lightly touched his cheek and winced from the pain. The side of his face was heavily burned, and his left eye gouged. What he must look like now, he did not care to imagine.
As much as he wanted to hate Titus for what has happened, Severin found that he could not.
Titus, who had once been a friend and brother. Titus, who had once loved him. and he had secretly loved in turn.
Perhaps he had spoken truly--this fate was a consequence of all the general’past actions. His own sufferings was a pale comparison to all lives he had ruined.
But Aaliyah, she would not be in this situation were it not because of him. Was she alive?Would she blame him if she knew?
For a split second, Severin believed that he could detect the faint scent of her perfume lingering in the cell. No, that was not possible. Any essence of goodness had left long ago, as only depravity remained.
And he alone was left to endure this insanity.
.
Using what remaining strength he had left, the general forced himself to rise as he heard the commotion. On the opposite wall, he watched the shadows danced as blades wavered and clashed against one another.
As the shadow moved, he carefully listened to the sound of soft footsteps approaching his cell.
Then, she had appeared--the apparition which had once lingered in the darkness of the balcony; the illusion which he had once attributed to an overactive imagination. She smelled only of blood and death, a familiar scent which he was wholly accustomed to.
“Well, well, well,” the woman drawled in a mocking voice, a malicious smile present on her face, “Look who we have here--”
Am I still dreaming? Severin wondered as he stared at the intruder in disbelief.
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