Chapter 8 Spring Equinox - Oriaron Prison

~* The morning of the Spring Equinox *~

They got the day off. It was to honor the festival. So, today prisoners would spend time in their windowless stone boxes. The higher security cells were warded against magic and had a row of iron bars serving as a door. Rhanes heard the sound of Mad Melvin being drug to isolation again. Rhanes smiled because this meant he would also get to enjoy the silence. He focused on the footsteps. Rhanes had spent the last five years learning them.

The years had been easy to track as well. The clocktower sounded the passing of each hour and marked each new day. There was 50 days in a span, 2 spans in a season, 4 seasons in a year which resulted in a four-hundred-day year. He was there for over two thousand days so far, and lucky him, today he didn't have to scrub the sewers.

Continual waste sludged along infrastructure that was centuries old. One could get lost in those tunnels, and some did. Rhanes wondered sometimes if they were attempting an escape to only drown in the waste. To today, Rhanes would clean, eat, and sleep. He glanced at the privy hole. The hole led directly to a lake of shit floating beneath the prison. No amount of blocking the hole helped. At least it wasn't frosting over anymore. This is where Rhanes decided to start scrubbing.

Once satisfied he waited and listened for a specific set of footfalls. The guards here were of two breeds, those who harmed and those who helped. Once Rhanes found a set of helper steps he whispered, "Psst, Constable Stevens?"

Rhanes amplified the whisper with magic. This caused the iron collar, shackles, and manacles to hiss with the use.

"Sullon." The guard greeted him.

"Happy Spring Equinox. May I please have a bucket of water?" Rhanes smiled at the guard.

The guard nodded, stealing glances down the hall. Though he hesitated, Stevens seemed willing to help. Rhanes leaned toward his bars, careful not to touch them, "I'll tell you more about Naysel." Soon Stevens returned with a bucket of water, rags, and a stool to sit on. Rhanes began a better scrubbing of his cell as Stevens settled on the stool,

"I'm not entirely convinced you've ever seen Naysel." Stevens spoke his skepticism aloud but leaned in to listen regardless.

"Seen Naysel?" Rhanes appeared startled, "Of course I have. I'm from there."

"So you say, but you can't prove it."

"Prove it? I can, Constable. Would you be ever so kind to remove my chains, and I can demonstrate.", Rhanes chuckled.

"Now, now." Stevens bantered back with a shake of his head, "You'd have me executed if I did that."

"Oh, nonsense." Rhanes said honestly, "We both know they'd shove you in here with me, but then you could hear about Naysel whenever you wished."

A third voice interjected, "The prisoner is acting like he doesn't have the power to leave anytime he wished."

Rhanes stopped his scrubbing. He hadn't heard the approach of these footsteps - but he knew why. Tybalt had masked the sound with magic. Rhanes reasoned Tybalt chose that moment to reveal himself.

"Ah! Duke Tybalt! You are just in time." Rhanes greeted the man, "I was about to tell the guard more about Naysel." Rhanes said, greeting the newcomer with a stiff salute.

"You sure he wants to hear it?" Tybalt cracked a smile, peeking at Stevens. The Constable was beside himself, startled at the sudden appearance of the High Commander. He offered a salute as well. But Rhanes answered for Stevens,

"Yes, even if he claims he doesn't believe a word of it."

Stevens froze there, hesitant to respond. Tybalt leaned in, eyes on Rhanes. The Duke informed the Constable, "His tales are true."

"Pardon, Commander?" Stevens stammered.

Tybalt directed the question back to Rhanes, "He is from Naysel. He left some thirteen years ago or so."

Rhanes nodded in agreement, "Something like that."

"Pardon, but how? Naysel is protected by the dome. Nothing goes in or out." Stevens wondered.

"That's not entirely true. Water, air, even animals seem to go in and out untouched. That's how we get those pigeons from there on rare occasion. The dome stops people. No one can enter, no one can leave." Tybalt asserted.

Rhanes chuckled and gently corrected Tybalt, "No one enters, but anyone can leave at any time."

The Duke deferred to the prisoner, "I trust his knowledge of it. I am convinced he is from there."

The surety of Duke Perrington's support made Stevens want to believe. The Duke continued, gesturing at Rhanes who stopped his scrubbing, "This is the 'Harbinger of War'. The strongest Battle Mage the Council's Army ever knew. The strongest magician I've ever met." The compliment didn't last long as it was followed by an insulting, "... and by far the most foolish."

"Do not pay the Commander any mind, Constable. He is bitter that I am in here." Rhanes watched his friend, not once breaking The Duke's gaze.

Stevens said nothing as the two seemed to use him to communicate their feelings. He knew Rhanes had been locked in magical security, but had not once been an ounce of trouble. Stevens knew the justice system had handled Rhanes unfairly, but decided it was best to remain silent. He watched the exchange.

"Oh no, Constable. This prisoner is mistaken. I am beyond bitter. I am still livid." Tybalt broke his silence.

"Correction. He is livid." Rhanes chuckled but the Duke did not think the situation was funny. Before Tybalt could argue further, Rhanes consoled his friend, "The High Commander may have forgotten why I am in here."

"I will never forget." Tybalt scoffed. Rhanes watched his friend's troubled expression.

"Correction, The High Commander recalls, and understands."

Tybalt locked his gaze on the floor. Years he had begged Rhanes to end this. All of his power and authority could not make his friend move. Tybalt knocked once on the iron bars with his gold ring, "I understand, Rhanes." Tybalt glanced at Stevens who continued to stare at the pair.

"Well, perhaps Duke Perrington would like to hear the tale as well?" Rhanes offered. He didn't await confirmation and began, "The thing about Naysel, is that everything defies logic. That's because it was built on the heart of magic..."

Tybalt and Stevens settled in. Tybalt listened with the same wonder he had when he first heard Rhanes' tale. Gardens without soil. Buildings that moved and changed shape. Glowing crystals as a source of light. Balconies suspended in the air with unsupported stairs that led to them. Rhanes told them of the people, customs, history, and eventually about the dome. It was called "Zalis' Promise'. Centuries ago, Zalis swore to the citizens that he would protect them, but at a cost. The world was in chaos with war, famine, and disease, and they would not be able to enter the dome. The society there agreed to be locked away from the rest of the world. The dome surrounded the already isolated islands. Therefore the entire population, as well as the heart of magic, were protected under this promise.

As Stevens marveled his imagination swam through the descriptive. Despite the restraints, Rhanes recognized this. He knew Stevens wanted to believe in the impossible, which was magical. In turn, the mage then projected about them hanging visions of the people. Happy, harmonious, and civilized. No mage, not even one as skilled as Rhanes, could fabricate such visions. Stevens, understood, Rhanes had to have experienced the visions he saw, or they could not be generated. The iron began to angrily singe and burn so Rhanes eventually dissolved the visions. After they dissolved Stevens asked, awestruck,

"Why would you ever leave?"

Rhanes didn't have an answer ready, so Tybalt explained, "He had a calling. He had to leave."

Rhanes nodded, that was the best way to explain it. He reassured Stevens, gesturing to his own cell, "This was unplanned, but necessary. A temporary set-back."

Tybalt argued, "Do not listen to the prisoner. He does not belong here, and literally can leave any time he wants. The bars, the shackles, the guards, they are all useless. He chooses to stay here."

"Not always, you should tell him about Birthday Tea." Rhanes grinned.

Deadpan, Tybalt explained, "The first year he was imprisoned he appeared in my private chambers to wish me a happy birthday. He promised to sing a traditional elvish birthday song. He always keeps his promises."

"And to your sister."

Tybalt confirmed, "And the Duchess, he sang to her afterward. Took a bath, had some tea, and came back." Rhanes and Tybalt watched each other before the Commander instructed the Constable, "He looks lean. Double this prisoner's rations for tonight."

"Thank you Commander!" Rhanes said with a smile. Double slop was still double. He tried to reassure the Duke, "Only five more years."

Tybalt heard this and felt no comfort. He turned to leave as silently as he came, "Aradelle says hello." The High Commander stated as he reached the end of the hall.

"Give her my fond regards." Called Rhanes to Tybalt's back. Stevens, however, stood there unsure what to do. Soon Rhanes settled on the pile of rags serving as his bed and offered to the Constable, "Thank you for the bucket."

With that Stevens left to carry on with his other duties. Before noon, his shift was up. He made his way up and out of the prisons under Daggor Cathedral. He emerged into the busy courtyard as the masses celebrated the spring equinox. Stevens paused at each visage of the gods, as he always had done, but for the first time stopped before the image of Zalis. He dipped himself and then dared to make a request, "The prisoner, Rhanes Sullon, he could use some of your help I think."

Simultaneously, but in no response to Steven's heartfelt prayer, magic was already working in the prisons. As Rhanes slept, and without explanation, he had a flickering purple halo. First the prisoner's iron shackles, manacles, and collar vanished in a searing hot flash of light. They left fresh blisters and marks on the man's skin. Soon, all the iron vanished. Every chain, key, lock, hinge, rivet, or screw simply vanished. Each guard, then each prisoner vanished. The Inquisitors and their racks vanished. Even the rats vanished. Same with every written record disparaging Rhanes. The only documentation that remained were awards and accolades of his service as a Battle Mage. Rhanes slept through it all, in a trance, on the floor of his cell. It was after twilight when they found him.

Nothing remained but Rhanes and the bare structure of this building's belly. He curled up, unable to be awoken, in the center of his open cell. Rhanes was moved to a stone on stone cell, and could not fathom where he was when he woke much later. He knew Tybalt was there, outside the door, as he woke. He learned what occurred, and that he was the last one in the entirety of the prison.

But there was something more, something that wore lines of distress over Tybalt's features. The Duke cleared his throat and informed his dear friend finally, "So you understand why The Council requests the attendance of The Divine High Priest of Zalis, the Harbinger of War, Rhanes Sullon this evening."

Rhanes chuckled, such was fate. Magic was a tricky mistress. Out of the pan, and into the fire. Rhanes knew this meant he would have to face the Artifact during The Selection. Rhanes also knew it would vaporize him in a moment. They didn't wash or clean him, instead he was escorted from the prisons at his demand and walked to the Abbey.

And that's how he ended up in the reception hall, famished, in prison garb, with marks burned into his skin. Rhanes sat, with the other Anointed as he watched a dwarf shovel the more food into his mouth.