Chapter 8: Winding Down

         Hours passed since the triplets were taken off by the black haired Magi, Rowan has been trying to get himself acquainted with the other prisoners. Rowan keeps surprising himself that despite all the names he has been exposed to, he seems to recall them with ease since his runes were put in place. Words echo in Rowans mind, "Expand, you're, mind." Rowan rubs the runes on his head tracing the writing as he hears it from his memories. He scoffs and continues the conversation with some of the other people.

"Heel!" Familiar words boom beyond the door interrupting all conversation and sending everyone once again to stand at attention away from the source. The metal door creeks open to show Alphis and the three boys carrying a sack as they walk in. Alphis with a stoic look examines the room to notice any changes, "Disperse the contents in the bag." Fion and Cyon turn the bag upside down to drop all the clothes on the ground. Alphis looks at Rowan and approaches, getting a closer look he grabs Rowan's chin to turn his head.

Rowan notices a hint of concern on the Magi's face as he lets go of Rowan's chin then addresses him. "You." Alphis then points to the pile of corpses with a poorly practiced grin, "Collect your dear colleagues." Rowan goes to Fion and collects the empty bag, then approaches the rotting pile. He was sure that the bag was not big enough to hold more than one body. But as he shoves one mangled mess after another into the sack, it still shows slack, like some kind of messed up magician's magic trick. Once finished the Magi addresses Rowan once more, "Now, come with me." Rowan following the orders and walks outside with Alphis, then the door closes once again.

Alphis commands, "Follow the hallway to the doors, then ascend the stairs." Rowan takes the sack and walks to the doors seeing the stairs and follows them upwards. Once they reached the top, Rowan reaches for the door and Alphis hastily commands, "Hold, hold now, I have to open it first." Rowan stops at reaching for the handle while Alphis waves his hands and recomposes himself. The door audibly clicks and Alphis gestures Rowan to open the door.

Rowan follows the gentle gesture and opens the door to be greeted by a long wide stone bridge with a twilight sky. The both of them step out and Alphis closes the door, then walks past Rowan and gestures him to follow. They walk a little ways down the bridge and Alphis turns to Rowan, "Here is good, you can give me the sack." It was not a command in fact since the Magi gave Rowan a look over none of these commands had the compulsive feeling like the others.

Rowan hands the sack to Alphis and his curiosity got to the better of him, "Why do you need me to give you the sack now, why not have me dispose of it?" Alphis's mask drops with a weighted sigh, "It so I can give them a proper rest." Alphis looks out from the side of the bridge, "Others would just have you dump the bodies off the bridge and call it a day." He shakes his head, "You all are more than creatures..." Alphis places a hand on Rowan's head, "And that is what you did, now then, let us return you to your cell." As Alphis reapplies his mask he begins to unlock the door once more to send Rowan back to the prison.

Rowan returns and the room is filled with darkness again, after everyone relaxes Kiri walks over to the triplets. "Fion could I have a light for a brief moment." Fion illuminates the room and Kiri starts looking the boys over. Eribella tries to comfort them, "Are you guys alright? He didn't do anything to you today?" The three turn their heads in unison as Fion speaks, "No we are fine, Alphis only does what he has to do." Eribella still concerned, "I know you mentioned this about him before but I still can't bring myself to trust anyone that calls themselves a Magi."

Kiri finds the new runes that have been placed on the triplets, she almost pokes the fresh inscription on Cyon's back. The runes are placed on the shoulder blades she reads out loud, "Flight." Eribella interrupts, "Did he make you learn how to fly?" Ion tries to contain his excitement, "It was amazing! We all got to fly, we did have to stay pretty close to the ground." Cyon continues, "Alphis didn't want to startle the guards into attacking us." Fion jumps into the conversation, "He made sure we knew what we were doing before giving us these runes."

Eribella still in disbelief about the purple eyed Magi, Igan walks up with a set of clothes from the pile and hands a set to Eribella. "Here, these feel better than our rags." Igan gives the women in the group first pick of the same simple clothes. Fion points out that they were "suppose" to dress him and his brothers when they grow up. But that was a cover from Alphis to get at least some clothing for us while still looking like investing in an asset.

Rowan thinks back on his brief interaction with Alphis and can gather that the man must be constantly putting on a face when dealing with us. Rowan tries not to over think about the current state he is in at the moment. "Nothing good will come from stressing about this any further" Rowan finally feeling mentally drained walks to a corner in the room and lays down. Eribella walks up to Rowan, "Laying down for a bit new guy?"

Rowan trying to find a comfortable spot to lay but opts to just lay flat on his back. "Yeah I've been feeling drained is all." Eribella now with a fresh tunic and trousers sits next to Rowan, "The first night is rough, well I can only assume its been a day." Kiri finishes looking over the kids and lets them turn the flame off so the room returns to darkness. Eribella ponders, "Hey Rowan, when you went outside, was it at least dark?" Rowan replies, "Yeah, the sun was setting when I walked out, it was a beautiful orange peach like color."

Comfort hits Eribella, "So there is a star in this world." Eribella slumps back on the wall looking up hoping to see stars. "I have not been outside before, only stepped out with others to power rituals." A palpable silence hangs between the two as he begins to wonder what she meant "to power rituals." Eribella trembles a bit recalling a memory, Rowan reaches his hand out, "Hey, grab my hand." She searches for it in the dark then grabs a hold. "Give it a squeeze, it'll be okay." Her grip pulses his hand, for someone whose build could rival Igan's she trembles. We all, are still able to be afraid, of what's going to happen to each other. And what might become of us, Eribella takes a deep breath and exhales.

Pulsing Rowan's hand Eribella asks, "Can I admit something weird or ask something of you? I overheard that you came here, not even a day ago right?" Rowan tries to re-perceive the time that he was on the table and how long he was truly there. "I believe so yeah, again its hard without a point of reference, but that seems about right." A sigh hits Eribella, "Ah, then you must have been the one that I was used for and the others died for..."

"You look different now."