Flesh and Blood

This is one of my Elemental tales, this particular story is an accompaniment to my story Steel and Stone so go check that one out before this read. If you'd like to see the same characters and world then hit the favorites button.

Gorman prison was dark and intimidating from outside. Inside it was more so. Prisoners constantly set up a mournful cry and the lack of lighting made it incredibly gloomy. Not that it bothered everyone.

One of the guards taking his rounds was whistling cheerfully as he made his way through the squalor. He'd been on the guard for four years, starting when he was just seventeen years old. He was tall, slight but muscled, with brown hair and only slight traces of a beard. He could easily tuck himself against the wall to make way for two other guards heading on their own business.

"Afternoon gentlemen! On your way to serve the wonderful citizens of our magnificent realm?"

One of the guards just grunted, but the other was a bit more friendly towards the younger man.

"Ai, of course yer highness. Us nobles do love tending so carefully to our subjects!"

The young man drew himself up in a mockery of the rigid way royalty stood.

"Well then our royal highness Garrin, you and Prince Hirsch must have no easy task ahead of you, but a rewarding one none the less!"

Garrin gave a grin and a bow to him.

"Ah, Lord Kenan, we shall do our very best to be a wise and careful ruler in this most glorious of times."

Kenan gave a laugh and continued his way up the hall. Behind him, Hirsch just rolled his eyes and turned back to his path. Garrin gave a wink and a grin before heading after his partner. Kenan kept strolling, whistling as he went. Despite working in such gloomy conditions, he never stayed down for long.

"Afternoon gents." He said to a couple of the inmates as he passed. A younger man, in for murder, two brothers, caused a ruckus in the town center last night, and an older man, in for tax evasion. Garrin and Hirsch had already made rounds giving food and water to the prisoners. Kenan had a few more things to do, then he was headed out to spend a day in the city.

As he turned the corner nearing his destination, he heard a loud sound behind him. The sound stopped him, contemplating. It sounded loud, but down the halls a ways, back where he'd just seen Garrin and Hirsch. It was probably a prisoner trying to get enough attention to yell insults at the guards, that wasn't uncommon.

He really debated going to check out the noise. On one hand, he was currently unarmed and unarmored, on the other hand, sometimes it was helpful to have an extra person help out when things got heated between the guards and prisoners. Things were quiet now though, maybe Garrin and Hirsch had it under control.

But... Something in his gut told him to check it out. Kenan wasn't that old, but he'd learned at a young age that listening to his gut usually worked out. He padded softly down the hall, listening for sounds of conflict ahead. No sounds came down the hall to him. Cautiously he turned the corner to the hall. Laying in the middle of the hall was the twisted gate of a cell. The cell had belonged to the old man accused of tax evasion.

Alarm bells started going off in Kenan's head as he knelt to inspect the gate. The edges were twisted and crumpled, and there were gashes in the wall where the bars had torn out of the wall. The center of the wall was what interested him the most though, right in the keyhole were four shallow grooves, nearly a quarter inch thick. Kenan wracked his brain for a second before it struck him. The marks were made by someone's fist hitting the metal.

Fear crept into his mind. Whatever did this was something Kenan had never faced. Men who could punch through walls were not generally kept prisoners in Gorman. Men like that were in legends and folk tales, not running through prisons. Kenan had paused to look at the gate too long. Somewhere in the distance he heard a man scream. Kenan began to run down the hall, and he didn't make it far before running into the beginning of the nightmare he was about to experience.

Lying in the hallway were two guards twisted in the unnatural positions of death. Kenan knew without looking who it was, but he had to check anyway. Hirsch was leaning against the wall, eyes listless and blood trickling from his mouth. Kenan checked for a pulse, but he knew what the answer would be already. He was correct. Going from Hirsch he knelt beside the body face down on the ground. He didn't want to check the body, didn't want to flip it over and confirm what he already knew. Steeling himself, he rolled the body over.

He'd never forget what he saw.

He knew mentally that it was Garrin, but the grotesque picture below him looked nothing like his friend. Garrin's face had been crushed, nose caved in, facial bones smashed, and teeth shattered. Kenan carefully rolled the body back so he couldn't see the face. Then he emptied his stomach onto the floor. His stomach couldn't handle the sights before him. Kenan had been around death since he was a child, when his father died of disease he had lived in a mercenary camp until joining the Gorman guard, but he'd never seen such a brutal death of someone he was close to.

More sounds of conflict came from the hallways ahead. Kenan had to break himself from his thoughts and force himself to continue. Garrin had been deeply superstitious, and he always kept some trinkets on himself for protection. Kenan was not superstitious, but in his state of mind he wanted to keep a piece of Garrin, one of his only friends. He knew that Garrin had kept some things around his neck as a remnant from an ancient religion. Fumbling around his neck, Kenan pulled it out, a small stone knife on a string. Garrin had worn it around his neck despite jeering from the other guards. He'd always claimed it was a protection from evil spirits. Too bad it hadn't helped against the beast that killed him.

Kenan went ahead at a slow jog. He passed two more dead, he stopped only long enough to make sure the other guards were dead. He didn't check to see who it was, as he didn't want anymore distractions. Keep going. Another slaughter, this time five guards lay dead, strewn around the intersection of the hallways. Kenan crept past a man face down with a sword piercing his shoulder blades. He momentarily thought about taking it from the body, but the thought made him sick. If he'd had anything else in his stomach he would have thrown up again.

He was almost to the guard's keep, but he knew he could only be a little bit behind whoever was causing this trail of death. He crept slowly, being as quiet as he could, heart pounding. He slowly came around the corner, in front of him should be the guard's keep. There were nearly thirty guards in the keep, if he could make it there he'd be safe.

His heart nearly stopped as he saw what was in front of him. Facing the door was a man, the prisoner that had been in the cell. Kenan's heart stopped. His only thought was that he was about to die. He had no armor, no chance against this thing. Then the man stared directly at Kenan.

Kenan would have given anything to have a weapon. A mace, a sword, preferably a bow. He was feeling naked and defenseless. And then he got another surprise. The man staring at him had no eyes. He also appeared not to have noticed Kenan. His direct stare seemed to be mere coincidence and he turned back to the door.

Kenan watched as the man lifted a hand and pointed at the torch bracket on the wall. The torches were placed in thick metal holders that couldn't be opened without a key. Usually the Captain of the guard would give a key to a lower ranking guard to replace the torches. When the man pointed at the brackets however, they crumpled, knocking the torches to the ground and plunging the area into darkness. Kenan fumbled in the dark for a second, trying to go back the way he came, until there was a terrific crash and light poured into the room. The door to the guard keep was now open, and the light from it illuminated the room. Inside the room Kenan could hear screams and crashes as the slaughter began in there.

Any hope Kenan had had of being safe with the other guards fled as the screams intensified. He grabbed his ears, trying to drown out the sounds that went on for far too long.

Silence fell.

As terrible as the screaming was, the silence was almost worse. Kenan expected to see that blind gaze fall upon him and to die at any time. Finally he couldn't take it anymore. He had to know what was happening. He crept to the door and slowly peered in. The prisoner was standing in the center of the room seemingly untouched. Around him lay a carnage of what used to be the Gorman guard.

Kenan had never been superstitious, but looking at the slaughter before him, he had no doubt that this... thing... was not human. Carefully he pulled the stone knife out of his pocket. Garrin had claimed it helped with spirits. Maybe this thing would be killed by it. He slowly advanced towards the prisoner, whose back was towards Kenan. The prisoner threw out his hand and made a crushing motion with his fist. Kenan flinched as a helmet shattered a man's skull on the other side of the room. He didn't have the nerve to creep up on the man without a defense of some kind besides his flimsy knife, so he picked up a wooden shield as being as careful as he could to make no noise.

Finally he was close enough to strike. He made no noise, just trembled slightly at the thought of what he was about to do. He couldn't bring himself to do it, to stab this demonic beast of a man. His fear held him still until another helmet crunched nearby.

The sudden noise and jolt of adrenalin drove him to action. Quickly he drove the knife into the side of the prisoner, and before he could react, all hell broke loose.

Metal flew around the room like a rain of arrows, but far deadlier. A helmet smashed against the side of Kenan's head and a sword bounced off the shield as Kenan was knocked to the floor. He scurried backwards towards the corner trying desperately to dodge the incoming missiles. Another sword ricocheted off the shield as a necklace buried itself in Kenan's upper arm. He barely kept from screaming as it was torn from his flesh and thrown across the room.

Once he got to the corner, he huddled behind the shield and regretted his decision to ever go check and see what had caused the noise in the hall. All he wanted was for this hellish nightmare to be over. Fortunately for him, it suddenly was.

A mace flew across the room, striking Kenan's shield. The force was enough to knock the shield into Kenan's head and render him unconscious.

"You speak truth, but I want to be faster than an injured cripple who thinks he is invincible. Someone will be here soon."

Kenan gained consciousness in time to see a giant of a man bent over the prisoner. He was definitely the biggest man Kenan had ever seen. He had dark skin and a thick brow. His nose seemed like it covered half his face. He bent over to pick up the prisoner and turned to walk through the wall.

Kenan was groggy, barely conscious, and his eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing. The huge man walked out a hole in the wall that Kenan could have sworn had never been there. As the man passed through, the stone closed, leaving no trace it had ever been open. Kenan faded back out, losing his battle to stay awake.

The next time he awoke there were people in the keep. Maybe six men, all dressed in dark colors and wearing hooded cloaks. They were taking the bodies away and talking in hushed tones. Kenan could barely hear them, although that could have been because his ears were still ringing.

"None of the known Elementals could have done this, Erak would leave slash marks, Kar would have destroyed half the building, Stiles wouldn't have the ability.''

"I know. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it. This kind of destruction with such precision..... It's something I thought ended with the Duel..."

Kenan struggled to move, trying to lift the shield off of himself. He was normally a strong person, but the beating he had taken had drained him, and the mace was still embedded in the shield, making it heavier. He tried three times to push it off. It wasn't until the third try that someone noticed him.

"Lief! There's a survivor!"

The men rushed over to help him up, and someone handed him some water. Another man wrapped his head that was still oozing blood. After giving him a few minutes, their leader came to talk to him.

"We're with the night guard, a special force that Decim used as his police until he died, now we work for Ayric. Tell us what happened.''

Kenan gave them a run down, starting with the noise he heard and ending with the man walking through the wall.

"But,'' He felt like he should add something so they didn't think he was crazy, "I had been hit pretty hard and I'm not positive that's what happened.''

The man shook his head.

"You weren't hallucinating, that really happened. That man is Kar, he's an earth mage. One of the elementals. Tell me more about what this prisoner looked like."

After walking through it and describing the scars, the destruction, and the way the man launched metal around the room, Kenan saw Lief get stiff and then he sighed.

"That sounds like Steel. We thought he died. The scars are new, he got them in his fight with Decim. If he still had his eyes, He'd undoubtedly be the most powerful mage alive."

Lief stared off in the distance for awhile, then cursed softly under his breath.

"Our job just got way harder." He paused and looked at Kenan. "Most people don't survive a fight with an Elemental, and I've never heard of anyone but a mage harming one, let alone the most powerful one. You should join us. You obviously have guts"

Kenan didn't have any clue what he was getting into, but he knew that the nightmare he experienced would never leave him, and he never wanted someone to go through what he had. With images of Garrin's crushed face fresh in his mind, he stood to his feet.

"I'm in."