Chapter 20

Bradey led me back through the hallways to the place I had first woken up in. I felt a shiver as we descended below where the sunlight shone and only torchlight kept me from tripping. I kept looking to my side, where I had already lost count of how many empty cells carved out the brick walls into lonely gaping maws. Two mages came walking toward us, snickering as they whispered between themselves. “Oh, Lieut’ant!" The first to see us straightened, stepped to the side and saluted. His friend quickly followed, making way for us.

“I take it all is well?” Bradey asked, pausing as we passed by.

“Aye, yessir,” the second one replied for the both of them.

“We was just taking care of the prisoner. He got me pretty dang good in the stomach, I’ll tell you waht,” the first complained with a grin on his face.

“Well, if he is currently secured, then back to your positions, or wherever you’re supposed to be,” Bradey ordered. The men nodded, stiffened their salute, and hastily shuffled past us.

I wanted to run ahead but I held myself back, either to stay with Bradey or just out of nervousness. Why was he here? How was he here? What would he say to me? I… Oh, oh no… I had been under the impression in the back of my mind that he was here to attack Hector, or get me out of here… but after what I had done…

“Keep going, he’s in the next cell,” Bradey told me, shoving me in the back.

I hadn’t even realized I had stopped. Something in me must have known though, and not just because it was the last cell at the end of the hall. I hesitated, dragging my feet in the last second to show myself to him.

“…Father…?”

I barely recognized him. His face — his whole body — had been beaten, his naked chest bruised. His eyes were swollen to the point that only one of them cracked open, blinking away blood that trickled down from his forehead. His head barely tilted up but he groaned sorely from the effort, looking up at me from where he sat, slumped against the wall. Two spheres of metal, larger than cannonballs, were chained around his waist, keeping him on the ground. His wrists were chained to the wall that he leaned against, and they gave so much slack that one hand sat in his lap while the other dragged across the floor, leaving streaks from bloody knuckles. Even so, other than the slow rise and fall of his chest, he didn’t move.

Bradey stepped past me, sliding a key into the lock before pocketing it again. “I’ll give you a few moments,” he told me before stepping back.

I ran in, skinning my knees as I slid beside him. “Father? I’m here!”

He groaned, sore as he turned to me. “Ren? …Is that you?” His hands reached out, fingers slowly opening and closing, searching the air.

I hugged him back, carefully sinking into his embrace. “Yes, it’s me. I’m safe,” I told him, tearing up.

“Ren… it is you…” he muttered as he held me tighter and tighter. He smelt of dust and sweat and blood. I felt the chains from his wrist slap on my back as he wrapped himself around me, hands over and on each of my opposite shoulders. The spherical weights scraped against the stone as he dragged them. His grip clenched, elbows buckling in as my forearms were locked to my side. I gasped, my back cracking as he drew me in. His huffing breaths were warm on my cheek, grunting with exertion as he locked on me like a spring tightening its coils.

“Father…” I winced in his grasp as he held my arms, beginning to grind them against my ribs. “Y-you’re hurting… me—” I grunted with my last bit of air. I couldn’t take in another breath, my chest squeezed against him.

“You… you killed her.”

I froze, not that I could move at all, but his words chilled my blood.

Did he not come to save me?

“I… didn’t…” I wheezed, struggling to get any final words out.

“I thought…” he mumbled, “…that I had raised you better.” His grip tightened. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t speak. “You… I thought you… wouldn’t be like him.”

My mouth opened and closed but nothing went in or out, just a strangled wheezing. I tried to scream but couldn’t as I felt my chest crack. My eyes closed. I stopped fighting it. He was going to kill me. I didn’t blame him.

I was suddenly sent rolling across the floor, painfully slamming into the wall beside us. It took a second for me to open my eyes as I gasped and coughed, catching my breath. I slowly got to my knees, looking for whoever had saved me.

My father just sat there, slumped against the wall. His arms slowly lowered back to his waist as he turned his face away from me. “I had to… bury my wife; that happens,” he muttered. “But I… I had to bury my daughter. No man… should ever have to do that.” His eyes welled with tears as he relayed to me a fraction of the greatest pain he could ever feel. “Get out. I never want to see you again…”

I crawled out of the cell, pain shaking my body as my arm didn’t quite bend right. I couldn’t stand, a stabbing pain in my side stopping me from leaning up.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

I looked up as I heard the footsteps approaching. Bradey looked back down at me through slit thin eyes. “I suppose that could have gone worse. You look like…”

I didn’t hear the rest as my vision faded.