Dawn- An Age Of Darkness

An unfamiliar ceiling- again. I tried to move my head. It hurt to move but I successfully moved. I examined myself and the surroundings. I was in some sort of well-lit empty room. There was no one inside. My body was covered in bandages and I was shirtless as usual: at least not completely naked. 

I sat up. "Ungh!" My head throbbed. 

The curtains fluttered and fresh air entered the room. 

Looks like I've survived yet again. 

I sighed. Honestly, death might have been better. I lied down again. I had no desire to run around in my current condition. Someone would probably come by sooner or later anyway. I closed my eyes and fell asleep soon.

***

"I'm telling you, he is not a criminal! Are you telling me you don't believe me, the princess of the elven empire!?"

"Unfortunately, I won't listen to you even if you are a princess. I have only provided enough care for him so that his life was no longer in danger. However, now that he is out of danger, I intend to throw him to the dungeons: having a public execution of an unconscious man is no fun anyway. Even a princess's words can't sway me. Besides, we both know how much worth the daughter of the former king would have, anyway." There was a long disgusting string of chuckles.

What's up with all the ruckus? 

My sleep broke by a heated argument near me. I eavesdropped while pretending to be asleep. Judging from what little I heard, things were pretty bad. 

Yay! More politics. Just the thing I needed.

I heard two voices in the room but one of them belonged to Lianne. The other I couldn't be sure of. Maybe he was the king of this particular country?

"You do realize, you'll be punished gravely once I return to the capital, correct?" Lianne's voice was unsure. I never heard her talk that way. It was almost as though she was requesting instead of threatening.

"Do as you wish. However, my word is the authority here in this country. You have no power here, princess. Besides, I already have plans for you too."

I didn't like the way this man spoke. His condescending tone left a bitter taste in my mind. I couldn't open my eyes in this situation and opted to listen in instead. But I wasn't expecting something like this. I never thought Lianne was serious about the fact of executing me. I thought she was just saying that to keep me in the lady form, so she could stay a little longer with her mother. However, I was wrong. 

This world really was messed up. 

"But I still don't see any reason for throwing the hero who saved the town, in the dungeons."

"You mean the culprit behind the city's destruction." The man paused. Lianne didn't object. To a certain extent, he was right. So I couldn't really fault him either. "Besides, he holds too much power. The swords and armor alone were of too high quality. Who knows what else he has. And after a thorough interrogation, we'll be sure to wring it out of him."

I was starting to understand his way of thinking. But just because I understood it, didn't mean I liked it. I slowly felt my fingers. As expected, my ring was missing. They must have taken it along with my weapons. Things didn't look good for me. If anything, they'd probably be able to kill me as I was. 

And they certainly wanted to kill me.

So I had to play my cards patiently.

"I don't understand. Is greed the only thing that drives you?"

"Of course not! It's hope my dear. The hope of living free. If I can have those weapons of his and you as my hostage, I could negotiate with Alfeim and … ha ha ha ha… This whole country will be mine and mine alone!" The guy burst out laughing. Was he stupid? Why would he tell us his plans?

"Why tell me?" Lianne stole the very words from my mouth. I wouldn't have said them though. 

"Because there's nothing you can do. And I want to see that condescending look on your face be replaced with dread!" The guy laughed some more. "I love it when strong women like you break down and grovel beneath my feet! And I'd be sure to savor every bit of your body afterward." He was snorting like a pig. I really wanted my sword right about now so I could stab this human garbage. "Guards! Escort the lovely princess back to her room please."

There were footsteps and I could guess Lianne left. Before leaving she said, "If only that pervert hadn't run away with those three." Perhaps she knew I was listening. But whether it was her intuition or not it gave me some new information.

"Sir, what about him?" A different voice spoke up.

So there are more people here?

I assumed they were soldiers.

"The doctor said he should be waking up in about a day or two. Till then keep him well nursed. But once he wakes up…" Another streak of disgusting laughter filled the air. "But this thing really is a monster. To think he'd be able to kill a god. This guy ruined all my plans! The least I can do is torture him to death! And I heard he has great healing too. This will be fun!"

They're going to nurse me back to health just to torture me? Wait, did he say a God?

Seriously, did this guy really need to say everything out loud? And how much did he think he'd be able to get away with? In any case, one thing was clear. I had to get out of this place tonight.

"All praise to lord Zamsau! If I can pull this off, I could be his apostle!" There was madness in his voice. 

I just heard one name I didn't want to. 

Looks like that damn god pulled a lot more strings than I thought he had. 

Some of the stuff made sense. But I really wanted it to not make sense. I hoped humanity wasn't as horrible as the gods claimed us to be. But now I wasn't so sure.

***

After some time the guy left and I surveyed the area for soldiers. There were none inside. If soldiers were here then they were probably outside. This didn't sit well with me. Judging from the orange sky I could see from the window, we were pretty high and my condition was terrible to say the least. 

It was probably evening. I sighed and waited for night. I didn't go back to sleep. Occasionally, soldiers came inside and checked me. Naturally, I pretended to be asleep and almost got caught once. It was a nightmare, except I was still awake.

Sometime after the sun had fully set, I got down from the bed and took a step. My body roared with pain. It was like being stabbed by thousands of cactus needles all at once. To say it hurt would have been an understatement.

There was nothing in the room apart from the bed and a table. The table had a jug of water and a glass. Nothing in the room seemed expensive or luxurious in any way. It didn't even seem all that useful either.

I guess I didn't have the right to complain.