The Fifth Star - Chapter 3 (3/3) - Secrets Exposed

Only a grunt preceded the repetition of the horrid noise, and the door was opened wide for their admittance. Only once the door was shut behind them and locked with a key about the jailor's neck did Vynn set Sparrow upright onto her feet. Her head thundered and her vision darkened for a second as the blood that had built up within it dispersed. Two rows of cells extended down the elongated room and out of sight as they rounded a corner, their occupants emitting chilling moans and grunts of suffering that set Sparrow to shivering in place. Sparse torches illuminated the space, leaving many of the cells in near complete darkness. There were no windows either; though of course they were well underground. A small table and chair sat in a corner by the door they'd just come through, with a lantern, quill, ink and a massive ledger upon its surface. The prison guard was overly thin, with greasy black hair and a noticeable limp as he crossed in front of them and sat in the single chair. Her captors made no move to take the gag out of her mouth.

His rheumy eyes looked entirely disinterested as he studied her. “Name?” he drawled while he opened the book to the correct page and dipped the quill. It hovered above the paper, an ink drop quivering on its tip while he waited for a response.

“Sparrow,” Dorivan told him with a smirk.

“Any other aliases?” the guard asked with a raised brow, and Dorivan shook his head.

“None that we know of.”

He continued unfazed. “Reason for arrest?”

“Mage-talented; failure to submit herself for training.”

Sparrow could have predicted many answers, but that was certainly an accusation that she did not expect in the slightest. For the first time since it had been so gracelessly shoved in her mouth, Sparrow tested the gag as she tried to protest, “You've got the wrong person,” but of course it came out as nothing more than wordless noise. Failing that, she shook her head furiously back and forth, trying to convey the error.

“Oh, come now,” Dorivan said to her with plainly sarcastic pity, “you cannot deny it. I've Seen the power you possess.”

She stopped her movement before he got it in his head to strike her for a second time, but inside she reeled. I don't have magic. I don't. I would know it… wouldn't I? The guard continued to ask questions of her captors but she heard none of it, too preoccupied with such an outlandish accusation to pay it any mind. Even after she'd been picked up once more and deposited into her cell, one with only the scarcest splash of light on its floor, she wasn't truly present. She was lost in her mind, scouring her memories for some indication that what they said was true, and coming up blank. But everyone knew of the Seers, and they were never wrong. Sparrow did not return to reality until the sound of the lock turning in her cell door jarred her to the present.

Vynn's face was twisted with an apologetic expression, barely visible in the darkness as he gazed upon her through the bars. Maybe she imagined it, only trying to ascribe some manner of empathy to those who put her here. She couldn't say for sure, and then he was gone. With naught else to do, she curled into herself with her hands about her knees. Mentally she took herself away from this place and she flew, free as her namesake, over a crystal blue lake, the sounds of human misery all about her piercing through the veil of her imagination.