Prince of The Abyss

If his child self were here, he would have been absolutely ecstatic with such a sight in front of him. He would have run, trying to explore it all.

He really liked tree houses. When he was a young boy, he remembered that he had once made one of his own, but one of the maids found out about it and took it down, since he had made it into a tree in the royal palace.

That was the reason it was taken down; if he had done it in any other place, it would have been fine, but after that, he didn’t want to build another.

All that was left now was the beast humans...

And yet he couldn’t help but think something was wrong, after all, with how beautiful a place it was, how Lucien spoke of it earlier kept coming back to him.

Though they weren’t going to have to wait for long, as they reached a gate.

The gate stood apart from the city, planted firmly at the forest’s edge. It was built from thick, dark timber reinforced with bands of metal, tall enough to dwarf anything approaching it. Its surface was rough, marked by deep grooves and old impacts, as if it had endured countless assaults.

Beyond it, a massive fence encircled the civilization, stretching far into the trees. It wasn’t perfectly straight, shifting slightly with the land, but never breaking. Sharpened stakes rose high, bound together with heavy beams and rope, while raised watch platforms lined its length.

It didn’t look welcoming.

It looked like something meant to keep everything else out.

Which further made him worry; he was used to this kind of feeling, where his body knew something was up, where his gut was screaming at him, and he listened to his gut, most Readers did, of course.

Looking at the gate, two... beasts stood next to it.

They had two legs, just like humans had, not going on all fours like animals, and yet they didn’t seem to be trying to imitate humans. It was as if they had been first.

He had expected... something more human...

Fur covered all their skin, completely erasing anything he had in mind about how beastly humans looked, and breaking his younger self’s heart.

Even with the steel armor on their body and the helmet on their head, you could still figure out they were foxes, maybe because of the ears hidden under that piece of straight steel, or maybe because of how their snout stuck out just like an animal’s did.

Really, instead of being humans with some animal qualities, it was completely the opposite; it was animals on two feet, doing things that only humans normally did.

Aether looked back at Kade and Lucien, the magician looked worried, which made him even more on edge... all the while Kade seemed very interested in the appearance of the beast human.

Unlike him, who had read about things like this, and Lucien, who maybe hadn’t seen one before, but at least knew about them, Kade had never even heard of a beast human, so it must be quite amazing to see something like this for your first time.

Plus, he was still not the best at detecting danger yet.

Or rather, he just stopped worrying about it? Recently, the boy has been getting hard to read; he kinda missed their first days, when he kept teasing him, and he always reacted heavily.

Getting close, the guards spotted them, took their long spears, and pointed them towards them.

"Humans? What are you doing here? Don’t you know you’re not welcome here?"

Aether stepped in front of Lucien and Kade, raising his hands. There was no point in fighting, as it wouldn’t lead to anything. After all, it was a whole trained civilization against three guys, one that just awakened and didn’t know how to use the blade, and the other only recently has been getting better, and of course, the third that hasn’t seemed to change much, but if they really had, he wanted to be the first to engage, that way they could run away if they had to.

"We aren’t here for trouble, I promise. It is just that we are out of money and resources, we just wanted to ask if we can take refuge for a while, maybe take a job so we can make more money. Nothing else. I promise."

With that, he glanced at Kade and gave him a nod to drop the blade, which he didn’t hesitate to do. After all, having a blade on you in a peace agreement was not a good thing; you needed to make the other trust that you wouldn’t hurt them, and what better way of doing so than not having a way in the first place?

Of course, what they didn’t know was that they still had a blade, another reason why he stepped in front, no matter what happened, he still had Voidpiercer.

They could take everything from him, even his pants, and he would still have the most important stuff, his blade and mantle. The only thing he really needed to fight.

The guards looked at one another.

"Well, that is really unfortunate... sadly, our King doesn’t allow us to let humans in, no matter what... though I could get you some food for your travel to the next place, consider it a... gift."

Aether smiled. It was not what they were after, but at the same time, they still left with something, plus, they should be happy they left with their lives.

"Thank-" Yet as he was about to finish thanking the guards, Kade’s hand moved up to touch the fur of one of the beasts.

...

’Well, shit.’ He said as another seven guards came out and encircled them. ’I guess... at least now we’re going to get a stay in the city.’

...

’Only that in the dungeon.’

...

...

...

Aether sighed, lying in his bed, looking at the ceiling.

’Not the worst.’

The dungeon was nothing as it had been before; if you were to compare, this wasn’t even a dungeon. Ironic, isn’t it, the prison that treated its captives like actual humans was the one built by beasts.

’Amusing, really amusing.’

The walls were carved cleanly into stone, smooth rather than jagged, with no damp creeping between the seams. Light filtered in from narrow slits set high above, just enough to keep the space from sinking into darkness. Even the air felt... maintained. Not fresh, but not suffocating either.

’These guys actually take care of their dungeons, unlike most I have been in, at least, speaking of it, how many dungeons had he been in? Well, at least this one was better than the one in the colosseum.

The cells were reinforced with thick wooden bars bound in metal, sturdy but not crude. It was ironic, since he could probably break out of this, maybe, he wasn’t sure, and yet, he wasn’t going to do it... not that he didn’t want to, but as he had said, this thing is a civilization, he isn’t taking all of them on.

Each one held a simple bed, a folded blanket, even a small basin set into the corner. You could actually have a bath... how fun was that, you didn’t have to stink, though, it probably had to do with their strong and powerful sense of smell, made him wonder if someone refused to wash himself, and made it so he smelled really bad just to punish the guards.

It was controlled, deliberate. Not meant to break people. It was meant to keep people in it, so they could rethink their decisions.

Aether shifted slightly, the surface beneath him firm but not uncomfortable.

He had slept in way worse conditions, so this had nothing on him, really.

Across from him, in another cell, a man sat with his back against the wall, staring ahead without moving. Further down, a pair of voices whispered quietly, their tone low, careful, as if afraid to be heard. Humans.

Not just them.

Some looked worn, others simply... waiting.

That was the strangest part.

No screaming. No begging.

Maybe he wasn’t the only one who thought that this wasn’t the worst thing.

Aether exhaled slowly, eyes drifting to Kade and Lucien. The two weren’t that excited to be here, but they decided it was a great time to practice, so Kade taught Lucien his way of feeling his Will and guiding it... ironic since he had really developed that technique.

If he had to say, he probably had it the worst here, after all, he could train, but would just swinging his blade help him? He needed actual practice, sparing... but with whom?

...

’I wonder.’

...

...

...

How fast things can change, from a forest with a beautiful sight of a wonderful civilization, to a dungeon that was well maintained to this.

A summit beyond the clouds, on which he knew quite well.

"It’s been a while, Voidpiercer."

I had, which was weird, since before he met Riven in the Withered, he spoke a lot with Voidpiercer.

"What do you want kid?" The blade crossed its arms.

Aether chuckled. "Just a little bored."

...

"I wanted to ask... could you spar with me?"