Chapter 2
Amongst the... Enemy..?
Ephas shivered slightly as he lay upon the cot. They hadn't fed him very well... But they didn't starve him... Not even close. Giving him a fair bit of collected leftovers. Occasionally a bit of mold, but not purposefully. It was already... he couldn't tell anymore. His head ached in his thirst before a small plate of waster was pushed under the door. It was like a charm or something as he stood shaking and moved over, lifting the plate he carefully drank it and slid it back under.
He sat against the door, back to it now. From his pacing, and doing odd ways to keep his muscles stretched the floor was worn already. His ears perked though as he heard the same two guards finally at it again about something similar to what they had... A month ago..? "I told you sympathizing venomtongue! I'll stick you in there with em if you think they so like us! It isn't no damned empty threat!" "Then prove it! Curse of Orobourous on you and your family! The primarch would have been disappointed with your ilk." He spat.
Ephas heard the popping of knuckles from a clenched fist before a thump. He heard the scraping of feet and a short fight. An oof. Before his cell door flung open and the other guard was tossed in. The door slamming back closed behind them as the other guard walked off mumbling. "Damned dark race sympathetics... Fools... The whole lot of them!" Ephas looked down at the Sesthil who lay battered upon the floor holding their torso from the pain of the beating. Slowly the pain faded and he looked up at Ephas, looking at him... Weakly. The Sesthil recoiled, almost jumping back as he tried the door, but Ephas just lowered his gaze for the floor.
The Sesthil calmed his own panic enough to at least greet the dark race prisoner. "Hello..?" Ephas answered with a two finger wave but otherwise didn't move, sitting on the cot that had been his bed for the last month... Month and a half..? "You don't look so hale and hearty..." Ephas rolled his eyes and nodded. Forcing down his pride so that he may part his own anger. "No..." "Ahh. So you do speak... Err. Sorry for the bluntness of that. So... You were a dark race soldier..?"
Ephas shook his head, drawing another question from the Sesthil. "What..?" "Conscription..." The Sesthil seemed perplexed... Conscripted for war..? IT was... Despicable... "Ephas shook his head a slight bit dizzy for the moment as his eyes seemed to spark alight for a brief moment as he held his head for a headache, and scratched slightly for a small itchy patch on his right shoulder that just wouldn't fade. In fact. It only got worse and worse... He assumed it was from not bathing this entire time...
Then again. He doubted any of those on the ships bathed during this month. As Ephas moved to scratch his shoulder however he yanked his hand away with a low yelp. "Oww..." Then he rubbed at it slightly. The Sesthil shook his head. "Let me check that... I have dabbled only a little in the healing arts. But it should be enough for a minor wound..." Ephas didn't try to fight back as they pulled up his shirt, pulling it away from his shoulder. At the back of his shoulder was a dry cracked red rash that covered most the back of his shoulder.
"Tssst... This doesn't look good... What is your name by the way?" "..." "Oh... Sorry... I am Apprentice Avin... Apprentice to what? Alchemy and herbalism." "... Ephas..." "Hmm... Very different naming your dark people use..." As the Sesthil brought up his hand, it ever so softly glowed with a relaxing light. But the effect was anything but relaxing as Ephas cried out and recoiled forwards onto the floor.
The Sesthil jumped, stepping back slightly aghast, wondering if it had had a negative effect... Were the dark people truly cursed with corruption..? He looked at the rash. It seemed to have spread slightly, and cracked even worse, skin splitting as a slight amount of blood trailed down his back. It was drier than ever now...
Ephas grasped at his shoulder and jumped to his feet, glaring at the Sesthil with an almost incited hatred... Making him recoil before the hatred melted. He didn't hold any hatred. And he could tell that this pain hadn't been the attempted path of Avin's healing... And his gaze lowered before looking up again. "... Can you continue..?" The Ses-... Avin looked perplexed at Ephas. But nodded... "Why..? And... A healer's oath... Is to do no harm... I am no healer. But... I still must follow it... It only seems to hurt you..."
Ephas shook his head. "What about helping through harm..?" Avin tensed... He didn't know every rule of the healer's codex. But nodded. "As long as it doesn't kill you..." He said as Ephas sat upon the cot and Avin lifted his hand again, the glow returning. Ephas gritted his teeth for a bit as a slight trail of blood rushed down his back... And slowly the pain faded. Though it was still itchy. Avin stared at the patch and scratched at the side of his neck, unsure of what to think but didn't say anything about it. "Better..?" Ephas nodded. "Still itchy as abaddon but yes..."
He reached to his shoulder and scratched at the small patch of scales before letting his linen clothing recover his shoulder. "Thank y-..." He suddenly checked again. Scales?! His attention was broken though as several bells rang. Marking approach to land. And a port of the Abolycan people. Avin knocked at the door heavily as he began to yell at the one who he heard come down to open the door. "Open the damned door! And tell Moris'tal he is going to be taking this up with the captain!"
A few quick footsteps and the door opened, the guard keeping their halberd handy as Avin stepped out, taking a slight glance back at Ephas. The dark people were just like any other race... if a bit easy to anger. They had good ones amongst the many bad... As the door closed Ephas attention was turned as he looked through the window portal. The thin slits allowed slight vision. Though severely cold drafts pushed through them. It was a miracle he hadn't frozen out on the way here... In fact. It was a miracle it was warm in this room at all! The coast was coated in snow directly next to the ocean... Huts of stone, wood, and polished adobe. Many people at the docks to meet and help the refugees settle.
Ephas stayed watching through the slats of the room at the side of the ship. The scales itched like mad and he had no idea where they'd come from! Why did he have scales on his back? Or what felt like scales. He couldn't see that far back... But he lowered the thin shirt back down. No time to trouble over it now... He had to figure SOMETHING out... But... Truthfully he didn't feel much like escaping... Or even fighting. They treated him better as a PRISONER than life in the dark lands... He'd wait and see...
Ephas shivered in the cold air... two months he had still been cooped up in that ship... And now they finally let him out. And even then only because they were salvaging the ships for materials... And yet. Sitting in his little prison. He was quite content. A better life as a prisoner of the Sesthil than a citizen of the Dark Race... But... Now that he felt the cold through his thin clothing... He wished he still was in his warm prison room. The steel bindings over his hands as he was led forwards weighed on him. But he was fine... Long as they didn't freeze him out...
He looked about. The Abolycans stood in the streets with heavily bundled Sesthil, trading wares. The Sesthil definitely weren't just some set of lazy refugees. They worked for their keep. The two Sesthil that flanked him stopped though. And another approached. He stopped, looking around as the Sesthil who approached lowered the clothing over their face to reveal. "Avin!" He said. Maybe a little too enthusiastically...
"Yes sshh shh... Don't need to yell... I have something you might like." And with that he lifted a key, inserting it into his shackles. And with a click they fell away. Ephas flexed his hands. Didn't fight. Didn't attack anyone. Just smiled slightly. "Most would be surprised by your response... I am just wondering how you can be so content like this..." "Life as a prisoner to you is easier than life as a citizen to the dark lands..." "Oh... Is that it then..? We made it easy for you?"
Avin laughed before covering back up with the cloth so he wouldn't freeze. "Life as a prisoner to your people seems like something from a pleasant dream... To most of us..." "Aye... Well. Follow me before someone questions how well you can handle the cold." Ephas nodded, following after Avin as he moved with a brisk run to a large reinforced tent. "Put something on so you don't freeze. After that. I am taking you hunting." Ephas was confused... They had let him go... Just like that..? And now taking him on a hunting run... "Am I dreaming Or did I hit my head too hard..." Avin laughed hysterically at Ephas Reaction but Ephas couldn't stifle laughing as well. The scales at his back had slightly spread, but, he was fine and dandy.
