“Control yourself,” a deep male voice barked from down the hall. “You can’t fall all to pieces down here if you want to live.” The noise just became higher pitched with hiccups as I tried to control the sound.

“C..Cammm…Cammie’s dead,” I stuttered out. “It’s my fault, if I were stronger, I could have, I should have.”

“Hush,” Tym from across the hall whispered. “There’s nothing you could have done. You should be happy it wasn’t you. If you don’t quiet down and stop talking they’ll hear you, and then they will come back.” A week ago his brother never returned to his cell after a night with the machine. I haven’t heard him utter a word since. He had withdrawn into his own pain.

“It doesn’t matter,” spoke the first voice, “Let them come.”

It was a voice I didn’t recognize, so I assumed this must be the new prisoner they brought in a few days ago and it was the first time he’s been coherent enough to speak.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“No one,” he muttered.

“If we are going to die down here I would at least like to know your name,” I pleaded into the echoing halls.

“Kael.”

“I’m Thalia,” I said with a small smile. “Why are you here? Why were you drugged for so long? Are you someone important?” The questions came sputtering out.

“Someone important?” he made a snort. “No. They’ve kept me drugged because they know that I will eventually kill them all.”

“Can you do it? Can you break out and take us with you?” The desperation rang in my voice.

A long silence followed and I prayed that Kael was planning an escape. I didn’t expect his painful answer. “No.”

I felt tears of disappointment burn at my eyes but I wiped them away with the back of my dirty hand. Feeling my world crumble around me, once again as my hopes were dashed of ever leaving.

“I could if I were stronger, I’m a Denai, or was,” Tym interrupted sadly. “I can barely shift anything since they brought me here. Wherever we are?”

“Hell!” Kael spoke gruffly.

“It’s the drugs,” I whispered. “It blocks all of your power and gifts like Cammie.”

“If only Sal was still here,” Tym whined. “He would know what to do.” A moment of silence followed before Tym became talkative again. “Why are we here?”

“I don’t know.” We could only speculate at what the Septori’s motives were behind these painful experiments. I had never seen Raven’s true face, for he hid behind a silver, hook-nosed mask and a robe. The sound of his raspy breath and hollowed eyed mask haunted my dreams each night.

“What did I ever do to deserve this? I shouldn’t be here!” Tym argued. I knew he was confused and rambling, but it was becoming annoying.

“I don’t know? Why are any of us here?” I muttered. I started to wind my dark hair around my finger, something I tended to do out of habit when I was nervous or frustrated.

Just then a loud pounding sound came from the cell down the hall. It sounded like Kael was throwing himself against the door, and then he would intersperse it with pounding his plate against the lock.

“You aren’t going to open the lock with that plate,” I remarked dryly.

“Don’t need too, just need to get their attention,” Kael grunted between throws.

“What!” Tym hissed. “You can’t be serious. You want them to come?” His voice changed to a higher pitch as his nervous laughter got the better of him. “He wants them to come down here? Th-they are gonna be mad, they’re gonna b-b-beat us.”

“Please don’t!” My body started to shake at the thought of the beatings we would receive for breaking the rules. I could handle the pain, I couldn’t handle the machine. “I don’t want to go back into that room.” Now my voice was quavering. “I can’t take it anymore.” Hoping my pleas didn’t fall on deaf ears; I pressed my body against the cold door and prayed.

The noise stopped for an instant as if he heard me, and then picked up again with a desperate fervor. He interspersed the banging of the plate with kicking, pounding and yelling. I pressed my back to the cell door, slid down to the floor and resigned myself to the painful punishment that would be doled out to all of us equally.

“What’s going on?” Scar Lip yelled as he opened the door followed by three guards. None of the Septori in their robes appeared. I wondered briefly where they were. The armed men rushed to the cell and gathered around Kael’s door.

“Over here, you moron! I have information that your master wants!” Kael had immediately directed Scar Lip’s attention onto himself, instead of Tym and me.

Scar Lip halted suspiciously outside Kael's cell door. “What is the information that you have for him and is it valuable?” he asked.

“Oh, it's life changing alright.”

Scar Lip licked his lips in anticipation. “What is it that you want me to know?”

“I thought it imperative that your master knows,” Kael paused for effect, “That you are a slimy, no-good, rotten toad. A bastard son of a flea-ridden donkey.”

“Quiet!” Scar Lip hissed.

“You can’t even think for yourself. You must like the taste of dirt because you grovel so much to the Raven.”

“Shut up!” Scar Lip pounded on the door. “Or you’ll be sorry! I’ll make you wish you’d never been born!”

“I’m already sorry. I’m sorry that I’m subjected to seeing your ugly face every day. You know only a dog or a mother could love that face. No, I’m wrong. Your mother must be a dog to love the likes of you,” Kael taunted.

That did it. Scar Lip with his thick fingers grabbed the keys from his belt and shoved it into the lock. The other guards grabbed their clubs, and entered one by one into the cell.

I ducked to the floor and lifted the metal flap to try and see what was going on. But all I saw was the dust cloud made from the scuffling of their feet. I heard fighting and grunting and I hoped Kael was the one dealing the punches.

Finally, the fighting stopped, the dust settled, and I saw Scar Lip emerge from the cell with a victorious smirk on his face. Following behind him were two of the guards dragging Kael between them by his forearms. The third guard trailed behind.

Kael was dead or unconscious. His long, dark hair covered most of his face except for a blue headband around his forehead. His body was long, lean and well-muscled, if a bit thin. His dirty and torn clothes marked him for either a hired sword or a mercenary. In his current weakened condition it was suicide to try and take on all of the men at once.

“Let’s give him a session on the machine,” Scar Lip roared angrily.

“But we’re not supposed to enter Raven’s workshop when the he’s not there,” a nervous guard spoke up.

“Shut up, you idiot. No one will know but us, and believe me, this one needs another lesson in obedience,” a second guard intervened.

As they drew closer to my cell I started to feel an intense pressure in my mind; a headache that pulsed at my temples. I closed my eyes to stop the pressure and I almost missed Kael spring to life.