Chapter 5 Last banquet

Chains clashed, producing irritating squeaks. Waves of shadows with atrocious grunts invaded the whole place, enveloping the cell of the two boys in opaque and suffocating veils. Kei trembled, frightened, but Miron stiffened, ready for an affront. Tiny balls of black light appeared and filled the place, emitting high-pitched sounds that tore the ears, forcing the two boys to cover their ears and scream in pain. The two guardians materialized in the black light. Huge beasts with scarlet and bloody eyes emerged from the mass of shadows, growling wildly and surrounding the two boys.

Young Johes opened the cell. He smiled cruelly.

"Good evening, ladies. I hope you slept well."

Miron smiled ironically at him.

"Like two orphans who were put in a cell to prepare them for a mortal battle."

Johes emitted a kind of scornful grunt, while Koel shook his head, annoyed, then concentrated, releasing a purple magic that he spread all around, then the cold water that flowed tirelessly along the cell walls cooled even more, the waves swirled around Miron and then enveloped him.

"No, stop it!" Kei shouted, upset and angry. "Leave him alone."

"Shut up, you little brat." Johes answered very satisfied. "Your friend, so insolent and arrogant, needs a little lesson."

Kei got up and approached the two guardians, trembling with fear but finding even more courage to face them, alas the beasts easily stopped him.

"He doesn't need any lesson! Unlike you, who would have to take lessons every day if it were still enough! You are monsters, worse than those big black beasts that you enslave and who drool like hungry and lost creatures."

Terrified of what the guardians could do to Kei, Miron resolved to surrender and was overcome by the terrible cold of the water.

He slid to the ground, his head humbly bowed to the ground, to show a mark of absolute submission. The cursed waters of the old guard penetrated his skin and made him shiver like a lost leaf in the black forest of Stanys. At this most pathetic sight, the two guardians had a fat and disgusting laugh, seeming to be having the time of their lives, and Koel in turn knelt before Miron, whispering in his turn,

"And you haven't seen anything yet, my boy. We are going to take you both to a sumptuous feast that has been set up just for you two. You will eat and drink as much as you ever imagined and as much as you wish, in preparation for an irredeemable fall."

Although feeling weak and numb from the magical water, Miron looked up and faced the icy gaze of his jailer.

"I hope so. We need a lot of strength to let you know what genius means. »

Koel felt a twitching muscle in his jaw, while Kei, still restrained by the animals, barely swallowed his saliva.

"We need it, for sure."

"Yeah, we do."

Johes ordered the animals to withdraw. He liked to see Kei's tormented face. Koel stood up and finally freed Miron from his magical water prison, suffocated and almost petrified.

"Come, come and stand before me, feet and arms apart, and let us put the chains on you."

The boys found it difficult to carry out the orders, so Kei had to help Miron get up, so that the two dormitory guardians could put the chains on the two orphans. Then the beasts took the black chains in their sharp mouths, a terrible magic wrapped the metal chains around their huge, stinking bodies, and when they were perfectly tied on both sides, the beasts only had to wait for their master's order to drag the boys into the sea of darkness. When they received it, they obeyed with as much brutality as possible. The two boys, surprised, cried out in pain, disappearing into the mass of blackish liquid.

"What the hell is going on!"

They carried the two chosen ones at breakneck speed to one of the highest floors of the building. Crossing the stairs and corridors, they were soon ejected from the pool of shadows in a violent explosion, and landed in a vast room with a large, beautifully carved black wooden door, which slowly opened onto a private living room where a large feast awaited them, ostensibly spread out on a huge crystal glass table.

On the threshold of the room, the Johes sketched out countless vulgar curtsies while Köel presented the buffet to them in a theatrical gesture, exclaiming.

"Here come the kids. A king's feast as promised, specially prepared for the two of you alone."

Stunned by this brutal transport, Kei and Miron found it hard to come to their senses and shook their heads to pull themselves together.

"How ironic. I think I'm going to vomit," Kei replied, raising his hand to his mouth and sighing in distress at the sumptuous dishes offered to them.

Miron nodded his head, still very shaken.

"You're not the only Kei. But it's better to eat for now."

"Listen to your friend, little buddy." Johes laughed as he pushed the handsome blond boy into the luxurious room. "Might as well eat instead of starving yourself, given what awaits you later. Because you'll never have such a meal again in your life.

"And that's the understatement of the year, to say the least." Köel over, sarcastic.

The two guardians burst out laughing. Pushing them and brutally abusing them by removing their chains, they then took them by the collar of their old clothes and forced them to sit on the blue and gold velvet chairs in front of the table. Miron struggled to escape the painful hugs, grimacing and writhing as he could. In front of his chair, the young boy managed to tear himself away from the cruel hands of the old guardian, before looking at him with anger and disdain.

"There's no need to mistreat us like that, you old pervert."

Trembling with rage, the old pervert violently grabbed Miron's hands and brought his face closer to his own. A sly and furious smile appeared on his distorted face, and his foul breath made the young orphan nauseous.

"Miron, let me tell you this, Johes could hate you desperately, and Sirkol would curse you every moment of your existence, no one would ever hate you as much as I do. Of all the orphans who have passed through here, you are the only one who has ever dared to be what you are. Rebellious and insolent. But that wouldn't have helped you in the end, because your life is going to end tonight and in the worst way. And during your desperate struggle against the inevitable death, I will be the first to applaud your agony. And I will watch your body slowly lose its life, gnawed horribly from hard flesh to white bone, until there is nothing left of you except a brief memory".

Finally, freeing the young magician, he brought him back to his chair. Johes and Köel carefully observed the two orphans sitting on huge chairs in front of the heavy table, sublimely covered with royal red velvet cloth and furnished with a huge banquet, unconsciously displaying an image of irresistible innocence and purity.

"What an image that touches so much my little ones".

The two little ones looked at their jailers without understanding.

"Two young boys so ignorant and sharing everything. Dinner for two, under the majesty of a full moon night. A couple destined to be together and to fall together. Perhaps one day, if I have nothing better to do, I'll tell your wonderful story."

Bravely overcoming his anger and fear, Miron looked at his persecutors with cold eyes.

"Yes, I think there is one thing in which you have told the truth, Köel. That it will be a beautiful story. I promise you and your foul comrade here," he added, pointing to him with a dismissive chin gesture, "that you will not see better at any time. And as you would so much like, you will never forget it."

The two guardians slowly shook their heads in desperation, giving the young Miron his cold look back, then stepped back, letting the masses of shadows invade the room before slowly descending into the dark, liquid realm that was theirs and finally leaving.