Searching [Chapter 10]
Fandom: Original
Summary: The world of Torpin is open, dragging in xeni from other worlds. The majority of them are monsters, prone to violence. There are some, however, that are not, and are able to live amongst the human population, if allowed to. Marland should know; he's one of them. His job is to hunt and stop the xeni that seek only to destroy what's around them. On one job, a human xeno drops through a portal, an event which Marland has never heard of happening before. And that's not the only thing different about the human...
Rating: R/NC-17
Notes: Contains swearing and torture.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 6,570
Total word count: 68,975
Status: Work in Progress (reposting, but is complete)
Marland woke up slowly, the world spinning and bright. There was a low buzzing in the air that made his ears flick. Wincing, he curled up on himself, and tried to cover his head with a wing; he was only able to bring it up partway. His body was stiff and sore in places, pain shooting up his right shoulder and wing. It felt like a xeno had taken a chunk out of his shoulder, while his left wing was slightly numb.
Wait. This wasn't his room; he wasn't on a mattress. He would have never left the curtains open either. What…?
His ears swivelling around slowly, Marland could hear someone else in the room, their breathing deep and even. He couldn't hear anything else, apart from that annoying buzzing.
He cautiously cracked an eye open with his head still under his wing. A white floor, white walls. No door was visible from this angle. The other person wasn't in view either.
Marland waited a few moments, just in case he'd missed something. Nothing happened, so he carefully brought his wing back and raised his head.
Full white small room with - Shodin! Marland scrambled to his feet, ignoring how his head span, and took the few short steps towards him. The room was probably twice as long as he was tall, but he really wasn't willing to check. And wouldn't be in the future either.
Crouching next to Shodin, Marland could see a bruise that had developed on Shodin's temple, dark and obvious. The next thing Marland noticed was a collar around Shodin's neck, black and thick - it also rested right over the spot where the last one had been, almost fitting the scar exactly.
Unsettled by that, Marland reached over, his claws out to rip through it again. He was able to hook the tips under the edge, but he couldn't quite get them in. When he pulled down, the collar didn't give at all. His ears twitching, Marland withdrew his hand and briefly considered burning it off, then disregarded the thought. It was made of a different material from the first one, and he didn't know how it would react to fire. That, and his control wasn't that refined.
Shodin was waking up anyway, making a muffled sound as his eyebrows drew together, so if he really wanted the thing off, they'd see what they could do. Shodin had barely opened his eyes before he was gasping, a hand flying to his neck.
"Shodin?"
His breathing not calming down at all, Shodin tried to yank it off, his full attention on the collar.
"Shodin…?"
He stopped trying to pull the collar off, eyes slowly going to him. "Marland?" Shodin's fingers twitched, and he tugged futilely at the collar again. "I don't…" Shodin swallowed. "I don't feel well. I feel sick."
Drugged. Shit.
They had no idea where they were (they could be in another continent for all they knew) and Shodin was drugged with who knew what. Scanning the room, Marland could see the outline where a door could be; there wasn't a door handle. There was, however, a small swing panel on the bottom.
Shodin pulled his shaking hand away and heaved himself upright into a sitting position. "Where are we?" There was a breathy element to his voice that wasn't hidden by him trying to look curious.
Marland shrugged with his wings, watching the door warily. It didn't open, so Marland turned his attention back to Shodin, his ears still pointed towards the door.
"Did you see anything before the flash?"
Shodin shook his head, his hair waving slowly. "I had my attention focused on the xeno the entire time."
Same for him. How hadn't he heard anything coming? The snow had announced their presence to anyone who had ears, and it wasn't like the xeno made a lot of noise to cover anything. Marland's ears had been down during though, throughout the fight.
"Do you know how long we've been out for?"
Marland shrugged. There wasn't a window or a clock in the room, and neither of them wore a watch. He was feeling hungry, but he'd been hungry when they set out of the flat; that was why they'd left in the first place.
"Hm." Shodin hugged his knees, his chin resting on top of them. He looked up at Marland. "You couldn't get yours off either?"
What? Blinking, Marland raised a hand to his neck and his fingers brushed against material that wasn't his DT instantly. Snarling, his ears flattening, he tried to tear it off, but it didn't work like it hadn't worked with Shodin's. Fine, he'd burn it off; he wasn't affected by his magic so-
The fuck?
Nothing happened. Staring at his hand, Marland tried again, concentrating. And still nothing.
There was an exhalation from Shodin, and when Marland looked across, Shodin was clenching and relaxing a fist, but other than that, nothing happened. Then Shodin jerked back, his eyes wide and he inhaled deeply.
"I can't hear Puzz."
Just what the fuck was going on? Their magic didn't work, and Shodin couldn't hear Puzz? Marland looked away, trying to remember what had happened on the night they'd met, when he'd been wearing the collar. Shodin couldn't breathe, but as soon as the collar had come off, that was when Marland had begun to hear Puzz.
And Puzz had been really protective of Shodin back then, and had been relieved that Marland hadn't been human.
The spark of panic Marland had been shoving down while he tried to work out what happened grew, his heart beginning to pound to a double-beat, his head feeling light and the world had begun to sharpen around him as pieces started to slot together. Not enough to form a coherent picture, but maybe enough to at least guess what it could be in the end.
So, Sho - Ronthar, at that point, and Puzz had been captured, collared so that their magic wouldn't work, and then what? Ronthar got beaten up? Why? Or had it been something different, that Puzz had been, what, implanted in Shodin or something?
Marland growled, shaking his head. There wasn't any point in thinking about wild theories; they had to get out of here first. Then they could try and work it out, or try to forget this whole fucking thing.
At that point, the door opened, Marland only just hearing the click of the locks before it did. Marland whirled around and lunged. A second later, he hit the ground, his entire body twitching from the aftershock of an electrical surge. Where the fuck had that come from?
"Marland!"
"Ah! Not another step, hm?" What the hell? That was Balt's voice. "Wouldn't want you too close now, just in case you tried something." Who wasn't pausing while talking, sounding calm and measured instead.
Dread joined panic in Marland's stomach, seeping into his bones. Marland quelled the theories that were spinning in his head. He had to wait for an opportunity to get out, and to do that, he couldn't be distracted.
"Balt, what's going on?" Shodin asked, his voice quiet and controlled.
"You have something that I want; I'll be doing my very best to get it from you." It sounded like Balt was talking about the fucking weather, like there was nothing fucking wrong with what he was saying, or that it was something completely normal and that he did it every day.
Marland started growling, his ears pinning back before he could stop them. Balt didn't react to that, at least, not verbally.
"Then why did you drag Marland into this?" Marland could hear that Shodin's teeth were clenched as he spoke, a quiet fury in his voice.
"Because he has what I want as well: magic."
What? The bastard wanted their magic? How the fuck was he supposed to take that away from them? It wasn't exactly something you could just cut out of them, and then use it like it was your own.
"And if you are successful? Then what will you do?"
There was a brief pause. "So you don't care about your magic?" Balt's voice was full of fake surprise and genuine smugness. "But that's all you cared about last time."
Marland's head snapped up and he stared at Balt. Balt was in regular, casual clothes, no white lab coat of a 'mad scientist'. He was leaning on the wall, his arms crossed loosely, and one leg was braced on where the wall met the floor. He was also looking at Shodin head on, his face not turned away or avoiding his gaze. When Marland moved, Balt's eyes flicked to him, and he looked merely bored, assessing him and finding nothing to worry about.
He snarled, pushing himself up on all fours, ignoring his twitching muscles; he was about to lunge at the bastard with his claws out when he saw what Balt was waving in a lazy arc: it was a small box, one that fit easily in his palm, one side covered in buttons. A thumb rested on one of the buttons. The threat was obvious.
Marland snarled again in frustration, concrete grating as he raked his claws over the ground.
Balt merely smirked down at him. "Smart xeno."
Marland bared his teeth, his wings flaring, wanting so much to rip that smug smirk off his face. Marland glared at him; Balt looking back at him, completely unaffected.
They stayed like that for a while before Shodin asked carefully, "You said 'last time'. So, I've been here before?"
Balt looked away from Marland, turning his attention back to Shodin. "Yes, you were," he said with a twitch of the lips, a satisfied look in his eyes. "A few months ago."
A few months ago. When Shodin was supposed to be a volunteer for where Balt worked. Marland snarled again. What the fucking hell?
Balt sighed, then glanced over at him in annoyance. "You're being too noisy; you only get one warning."
And screw being fucking obed-
Marland's head crashed to the floor, his body following suit seconds later. His muscles spasmed as pain slammed into him again. Shit, he couldn't breathe, and his heart beat crazily in his chest, in overdrive and erratically. It stopped after who fucking knows and he lay there, gasping and twitching on the ground.
"That was your one short warning. Understood?" The tone was of bored indifference.
Marland growled at him weakly, unable to do anything else. Fucking hell. He could barely even think.
"Why do you want our magic?" Shodin demanded. His voice was closer than what it had been before.
Balt clicked his tongue. "I would have thought that the answer was obvious: to defend ourselves from xeni."
Marland carefully got back to his feet, slow and feeling so out of control of his own body, his wings outstretched for balance. He glared and bared his teeth at Balt. "We're already fightin' th' xeni f'r you." Fuck was it hard to talk - it felt like his tongue was twice the size and half as responsive. He tried to call his magic to him but there was absolutely no response - he couldn’t feel the usual rush of energy racing towards his hand. Nothing.
Balt sniffed. "And when you die?" He shook his head. "Then we'd lose that resource." Well fuck you. "No, I'm trying to find out how the people here can protect themselves with magic."
Marland glanced at Shodin. So what did that mean? Was Shodin - no; Shodin had magic and Balt wanted it, so Shodin wasn't an end-product of whatever here.
"And how exactly are you going to do that?"
At that question, Balt narrowed his eyes at Shodin. "I wish you had told us - you only said that your magic had come to you," -he gestured to his own head- "and that was it."
Puzz, Marland realised with a start. Balt was talking about Puzz.
And Puzz had a fixation on Marland, assuming that he'd protect Shodin because he had magic. Shit, but that wasn't it, was it?
Marland had got it wrong. It wasn't that Marland would protect Shodin because he was duty-bound or something like that, since he had magic; it was that Marland would protect Shodin because they were in the same fucking situation.
Marland growled at Balt, his ears flat, shoulders hunched. "You're either born with magic or you're not - you can't just take someone's magic and expect that you can stick it in someone else," he snapped.
Balt raised an eyebrow and then sighed, pity in his eyes. "Ah, but can't you see? That's exactly what happened to Ronth - oh, sorry, Shodin's situation." He glanced at Shodin, tipping his head in an apology. Shodin didn't respond to that. Balt then looked back to Marland. "Just because that's how it worked on your world, that doesn't mean it's the same on Torpin."
Marland bared his teeth at him. He didn't know how magic worked on his own world; he could barely remember what it looked like or what it was even called. He attempted to call his magic again but it was as effective as last time.
"If you were able to take my magic and put it in someone else," Shodin said slowly, his body still and poised, "wouldn't you then have the same problem as before? You would still only have one person who had magic." He didn't brush away the hair that had fallen into his face.
Balt shook his head. "But then that would be at least one person definitely trustworthy who had magic." He looked at Shodin, like he was looking at him over the rim of a pair of glasses, a small smile on his face.
"Do you know how many xeni display magic of any kind? There's quite a few. So if we could take their magic, our numbers of humans with magic would be quite big as well. You're also assuming that magic works on a one-to-one basis." Balt shrugged. "Maybe it does with some, but there has to be others where it doesn't, and maybe those ones will re-activate the magic in the humans here."
Marland stared at him, disbelief spreading through him at every word and his jaw dropped open. Was he fucking serious? "But humans here don't have magic!" he blurted out before he could stop himself. That was the entire point! The humans had a hard time with dealing with xeni because regular, small guns didn't always help in some situations, drawing the attention of more xeni instead of killing them.
Balt glowered at him darkly. His arms crossed tightly across his chest. "We used to though, millennia ago; we merely forgot."
He was insane. He was actually fucking insane. What, did he read a story when he was younger and thought it was real? That would have been, well, something if Marland and Shodin hadn't been caught up in his delusions. Shit. How the fuck were they supposed to get out of this?
Balt shook his head slowly. "I guess I've been chatting here too long." He smiled at them, waving the controller. "I do hope you can help us." He left, not taking his eyes off them, never fully leaving his back open either.
As soon as the door closed, Marland punched the floor with all his might, his mind a whirl of different, constantly changing emotions. His magic hadn't worked at all during that, no matter how much he tried. How the fuck was that bastard doing that?
"Marland, are you okay?" Shodin asked gently.
He nodded, slowly flapping his wings, testing their movement. The twitching had mostly died down by then, but there was still a few unexpected ones when he moved. He growled, glaring at the door. Stiffly, he got to his feet and went over to it. He ran his hands over the door, but no parts gave and when he punched it, it sounded solid and utterly unmoveable. Digging his claws into the cracks and pulling did nothing either. When he pushed the flap at the bottom of the door with a toe, that didn't move either. So, magnetised or something? It couldn't be that heavy, or else the food couldn't be pushed through.
Shodin followed him over, and ran his fingers over the door and wall. He shook his head. "I can't feel anything, and even if I did, I wouldn't know what to do."
Marland snorted. "You think I would? Never been caught by a person who wanted to steal my magic before."
Shodin's lips twitched at his comment, his eyes softening slightly. "I guess I actually have more expertise than you in something; too bad I can't remember it."
Marland glanced at him, his head tilted down, ears forward. "You want to remember what they did to you here?"
Shodin blinked, and then chuckled, brushing his hair back. "Hm, point. I doubt the information would be of any use."
One of Marland's ears flicked to the side. "You were able to get out of here before, so that means we should be able to get out too." Except the collars were different, so maybe the security or however they got out had been changed. But they had gotten out through magic. How…?
Fuck, he hated memory problems. Shodin definitely couldn't remember, and they couldn't ask to Puzz, who probably couldn't remember either. Shit.
Marland punched the door again, snarling. He didn't care that he was doing that a lot now; just what else could he do? They were trapped in who-knew-where, with a guy who thought he could just lift their magic away from them, but could also shock them into submission. He snarled again, as loud as he could.
"I'm sorry you were dragged into this," Shodin said softly, almost drowned out by the echoes.
He snapped his attention to Shodin, who had his arms crossed tightly, looking like the wall was the only reason why he was standing. Marland snorted, rolling his eyes. "It's not your fault; he's the one who's locked us up here."
"Yes, but," -Shodin shook his head jerkily- "if you hadn't helped me, then you wouldn't be in this situation with me."
Marland's ears flattened, and he looked at him closely, a loss of what to say. If this had been one of those films that they had watched together, the main character would have the perfect line to say that would have made the other person feel better. But he wasn't, and he had difficulty in just talking and ugh.
"Shodin, I really don't give a fuck if you think it's your fault." Shodin's head snapped up at him, his eyes wide and his mouth open. "I don't. Care. All I care about right now is getting out of here."
Huh. He'd actually made Shodin speechless. Shodin was blinking at him, working his mouth, but no sound was coming out. That was different. After a few moments, Shodin eventually pulled himself together. "Yes, you're right." He took a deep breath. "Blaming myself or feeling sorry isn't going to help."
Yeah. Just keep going, and then after everything, then think about it, or don't, and just keep going after that as well. Whatever.
"So how do you think we should do it?"
Marland shrugged. "We don't know how they do things here, so we'll have to find that out, and if we can see what outside the room looks like, even better."
So all they could do for the moment was wait.
* * *
Marland hated the room they were in. Apart from the fact that it was too small to really pace, there was nothing to take his frustration out on, and there was nothing to sit on either. So unless he wanted to stand for hours on end, he had to lie on his stomach, and he hated being in a vulnerable position, especially when they were in this kind of situation. His eyes had adjusted to the lights in the room, but that didn't mean he didn't have a headache from the strain.
There was a knock at the door, two short taps, before it was unlocked and Balt walked in, the fucking controller still in his hand, and flanked by two other, heavily-muscled men. The one on the left had shorter, darker hair than the one on the right, but they both looked like they were experienced in this job and knew exactly what they were doing. Balt smirked at him when he saw that he was staring warily at the controller. "It really is so much easier when the xeno understands you," he purred.
Marland glared, his ears flat, but cut his growl short when Balt waved the controller. Balt had his eyes on him the entire time, far too fucking smug and satisfied. His smirk widened when Marland's growl died off, before he turned to Shodin. "You're coming with us," Balt said dismissively as he turned back around and began to leave the room.
"What for?" Shodin demanded, not moving.
Balt paused, and then turned his head to look at Shodin over his shoulder, tapping his chin with the controller. "I suppose I did cultivate this." He sighed, turning around more. "You are not to question what I say; you are to do it immediately." He said this slowly, with an almost gentle tone that couldn't hide the claws hiding behind them, or the threat of retribution if he wasn't obeyed. "Question time is over. So. You are coming with us." He waited, the controller still tapping slowly.
Shodin opened his mouth, before he glanced at the controller, swallowed, then nodded. Arms stiff at his side, Shodin walked over to them, not looking at anyone, his teeth clenched, and his breathing uneven. Balt waved him through the door first, the guards following after, then Balt glanced at Marland, smirk back in place.
"Now, I wouldn't do anything that would hurt Shodin, hm?"
What the fuck did that mean? Marland continued to bare his teeth at him, his wings outstretched.
"If you were to attack us, or not do as I say, then I take it out on you or Shodin; I really don't particularly care which. Understand?"
Marland stared at him, his glare fading away. What? So - Shit.
Balt raised an eyebrow at him. "I said, understand?"
What the fuck did he - fuck. "…Yeah," he muttered, not looking at him, his teeth clenched, hoping that it would be enough to satisfy him.
It was. "Good," Balt said cheerily. "I'll see you later then." A few clicks of shoes on the floor, and Marland was left alone in the room.
Shitting fucking - Marland continued to swear until he couldn't think of anything else, and when that happened he started all over again. What the hell were they going to do to Shodin? And these stupid fucking collars! If he wasn't wearing one, Marland could have taken them all on easily. Fuck, even if he didn't have magic, he was sure he would have been able to take them on - just so long as he didn't end up twitching on the ground after he had taken one step he could have done it.
* * *
Marland didn't know how long he waited, but the wall ended up being scored by his claws, as did the floor from his feet. Every second ticked by with him noticing it, dragging its heels; his mind was in overdrive, trying to think of anything that he could do.
It all pretty much boiled down to nothing. Not until they knew more. If they tried anything now, they would end up being hurt (or more hurt - what the hell were they doing to Shodin right now?) and they needed to be as fit as possible to have the best chance of escaping here.
There were two sharp knocks at the door and Marland whirled around to face it. When it opened, Balt walked in, rubbing a shoulder. The controller was in his other hand. He smiled tiredly at him. "Ah well. I shouldn't expect results straight away." Marland stared at him warily, but his attention was diverted when the guards dragged a sweating and maybe unconscious Shodin in, each of them holding him up by the shoulder.
"What did you do to him?" he hissed.
Balt raised an eyebrow, than raised a finger. "One warning." Marland cut himself off with a snap of teeth. "But I suppose I'll let you off this time, because you're about to find out."
What? Marland glanced at Shodin's still form. He was breathing unevenly, shivering, his fingers clenched by his sides, and his face was hidden by his hair. Growling to himself, Marland nodded to Balt, and then stalked outside the room. The walls outside the room were exactly the same, all white and clean. There was no-one else in the corridor, or anything else; it was completely empty. There was pretty much only one path that he could take, so Marland started walking down it, the two guards following him closely.
He could feel his skin crawling at their close proximity, wanting space between them but there wasn't anything he could do about that, so he drew his wings in closer and tried to ignore the feeling.
"Stop here," one of the guards grunted. Marland did so, just after a door, turning around to face them. The doors were clearly marked here, numbers above each one, the handles shiny. One of the guards, the one with the light brown hair watched him coolly, one hand on a hip, a thumb stroking a controller that was hanging from his belt. Fuck. The other was facing a panel with a scanner on the top, and was sliding a card over it. When the door beeped, he slipped it into his chest pocket. Keeping an eye on him, the guard pushed the door open, then gestured him through. The smell of pollen hit him before he moved, thick and sweet.
Marland did so, before he nearly stopped again at the sight that greeted him inside the room. In the corner was an area that was blocked off by glass, the top half clear, while the bottom half was misted over. From where Marland could see, there was something softly glowing in the mini-room, lighting it up. There were five lit candles sitting in a circle in the middle of the main room, a wooden bowl of…stuff that Marland couldn't identify in between each one. There was a chalked X in the centre of the ring of candles.
You had to be fucking kidding.
Marland was morbidly surprised that there wasn't any paint or more chalk on the ground, with a drawing or doodles that looked significantly 'magic'. Or maybe there was and only Balt could see it.
But then, what the fuck had they done to Shodin? Beat him up when he couldn't do anything? He growled, and one of the guards cleared his throat when he did that. He looked at him, and the brown-haired guard said, with an eyebrow raised, "You're not to make that much noise."
He bared his teeth at him, but stopped himself from growling with an effort. By that point, Balt walked behind in them, and he waved towards the circle.
"Stand over there please."
Right, because being polite was necessary after what had happened. Marland still did as he was told. He peered down into one of the bowls as he passed it, and he could see that it was a thick dark blue liquid that looked like it had the consistency of wet dirt. It wasn't blood at least.
As soon as he was standing on the 'X', Marland turned around. The three humans had retreated behind the glass, their faces lit up by whatever was in front of them, deepening their shadows.
Balt was looking down at something, a satisfied smile on his face. He looked up at Marland. "We'll start right away."
The lighting in their room changed, getting brighter, and Marland could see that the light wasn't a constant one. It faded in and out, some sides getting brighter than others.
Marland began hearing a sound, like someone was rubbing their hands together. He glanced over at the group of humans, but none of them were moving, all watching him intently, and the sound was too close to have come from them. Marland caught movement in the corner of his eye, and he swivelled his head to look.
At first, Marland didn't see anything, but he kept watching, his ears constantly on the lookout for anything else. Just as Marland was about to turn away, he saw the liquid in one of the bowls start to rise, a small tendril poking up above the rim.
What the hell? He quickly looked over to Balt, and Balt just smirked at him, his face lit up with sickly green light.
As Marland watched, the tendril grew, thickening before splitting into two. It fell, the parts going in separate directions, and that was when Marland noticed that all the bowls were like this, the liquid rising and moving on their own. The tendrils joined with each other, forming a circle that was about half-a-foot above the ground before the tendril split again, keeping the circle intact, but winding its way in.
Marland regarded them warily, ready to move in case they tried to get close to him, but they didn't, forming more lines around the edge of the circle, swirling around each other. Eventually the liquid stopped moving and hovered there. There was a lot of space for Marland's legs, but if the liquid lifted up, staying in the position they were in, they'd hit his wings one way or another, and Marland didn't want to see what would happen if it did.
Then the liquid fell to the ground. A second after it did, the liquid began glowing softly, a faint hissing in the air like it was boiling. It hadn't splattered across the ground like Marland thought it would have, the line still unbroken and neat, not one drop, assumedly, out of place.
Marland didn't understand what was happening. From what Balt had said, Marland had thought that he didn't have magic, but whatever just happened, that was definitely magic, so…
Before Marland could finish that thought, the candles flared and their fire grew into pillars of light. Marland winced, squinting at them, resisting the urge to shield his eyes. The fire dwindled and while Marland's eyes were trying to get rid of the afterimages, he could hear them as they sped towards each other, zigzagging from one side to the other.
He growled at the brightness, but that eventually faded. When he could see properly again, without having to turn his head to peek through unaffected areas in his eyesight, he could see that the fire had solidified at chest height, still full of colour but frozen. There were a lot of curls in this one.
What was this?
"Now then, Marland, if you could start using your magic, we can begin properly."
Use his magic? He stared incredulously at Balt, who looked expectant. Wasn't that what the collars were doing, stopping him from using magic? So how the fuck was he supposed to call him magic to him?
Balt sighed and rolled his eyes. "The collar isn't working right now. Don't keep me waiting."
It wasn't? Marland blinked. Huh. That annoying low buzzing was gone too. So that probably had something to do with it, in whatever way he did it. But if he could use his magic now…
Marland summoned the fire to him as quickly as he could, and aimed -
His knees crashed to the floor, the fire in his hand gone. He gasped, trying to refill his suddenly empty lungs. Above him, the frozen fire glowed faintly. What the fuck? It felt like something had tried to suck out his magic when he tried to use it, and then started scraping at his insides when it couldn't get to it.
"Again."
Marland twitched at Balt’s voice, but he slowly got to his feet, glaring at Balt once he could see him. He'd tried doing that fast, so maybe if he did it slowly…
Didn't work, and Marland stood there shuddering, an emptiness seeping through him where he could feel parts of his magic were gone.
"Again."
Marland glared at him, baring his teeth. He was not going to let his magic be sucked out of him piece by piece!
Balt sighed again. "All right."
Marland blinked, straightening up slightly. He was -
His knees collapsed under him, and he choked, his heart beating far too fast and he could barely get enough control to snatch quarter-lungfuls of air. It felt like he could only breathe in so much before his lungs froze up. His body twitched, and then locked up, every muscle tensing. He could hear buzzing like it was right next to his ears and - fuck.
It stopped suddenly after some indefinite amount of time and Marland lay trembling on the ground, barely enough strength and control to keep breathing. His whole body felt like it had been burned by someone who had stabbed the length of a burning needle through every bit of his scales. He could hear footsteps approaching him, loud and echoing in the silence. He saw a pair of shoes stop right by his face, and Balt crouched next to him, pulling at his chin to make Marland look at him.
"Next time," he said softly, "do as you're told, hm?" Balt looked at the guards. "Take him back."
Marland was dragged back to the room in the same fashion as Shodin had been, with the guards pulling him along with an arm under his armpit. His wings rested on their forearms, but he couldn't make them move, couldn't do anything except let himself be pulled along like a corpse.
It took some manoeuvring, but one of the guards unlocked the door, while the other knocked on it before opening it. They dumped him in a heap on the ground before they left.
"Marland," Shodin whispered urgently as he came swiftly over as soon as the door closed. "Dammit. How are you?" His hand hovered above his head, before Shodin pulled it away again, the hand curling into a fist.
He growled, still twitching. "Shit," he croaked. He didn't try to get up; he didn't think his legs would be able to support him, the way they were feeling at the moment.
Shodin sagged next to him, taking a shuddery breath. "I…" He shook his head and took another breath. "I thought you were dead when they dragged you in."
"Same," he grunted. He slowly brought his arms up so that he wasn't so splayed out, so he didn't feel like he'd just fallen over and had stayed like that. He had, obviously, but he didn't want to feel like it too. "You get the flashy magic too?"
"Yeah," Shodin said, nodding. "With the water and the fire."
Marland snorted, testing out his jaw. "If you can call that water."
"Well, it moved like water, and what else could you really call it?"
Marland turned his head more to get a clear shot of him. "Shodin, tell me where the hell you saw this 'water' and I'll blast it, because it's obviously not drinkable."
Shodin let loose a short burst of laughter. "When we get out of here, then I will," he promised after he'd stopped, smiling down at him.
Good. He was just going to rest for the next little bit… The headache had grown over the last little while, and Marland decided that it'd be better to sleep it off rather than try to stay awake.
* * *
Marland completely lost sense of time over the next few days. He assumed it was days, but he didn’t have a way to keep a track of time; he had no idea how long they're been there for. The lights were constantly on as well, so he couldn't use that to guess the time either. There didn't seem to be a set pattern for when food was brought or taken away - it came at all hours, no long break in between to say they should be sleeping. They probably knew that Marland was nocturnal, one way or another, but Marland wasn't sure if he was anymore.
Marland and Shodin only ever saw that corridor. They didn't get taken anywhere else; the toilets were only one door down from the 'magic taking' room. So they had no idea how big this place was, where they were, or how busy it was. They had next to no information.
Every once in a while (Marland guessed a day, or maybe half-a-day) he or Shodin got taken to that room and told to perform magic. So they had a choice of feeling their magic get eaten away at, bit by bit, or electrocuted and then ordered to keep using their magic. It didn't matter that their magic had mostly replenished by the time they were called through; in some cases, that was probably worse because that meant that the cycle would never stop.
Marland could feel more of his magic being sucked out every time he went, the what, 'circle' being more successful, stronger each time. It left him feeling empty, hollow, cold afterwards. He started to dread every time he heard the knock on the door and every time he called his magic to him, he tensed, expecting the pain to slam into him before it happened.
He couldn't tell if Balt knew he was making progress, at least with him, or if Balt even considered that progress. He might only want the end-result. Balt didn't seem to be inclined to talk to them anymore, just ordering them to come or ordering them to be taken away, more focused on his side of things.
That was why Marland noticed something was up when Shodin was dragged into the room on day, Balt following after, a triumphant smile on his face as he watched Shodin being thrown to the floor.
Balt turned to Marland hungrily, and Marland bared his teeth at him, trapping his growl in his throat. "I can't wait to get yours," Balt said quietly, a gleam in his eyes.
When they left, Marland rushed over to Shodin. He was shuddering and keening, a sound high and desperate, made at the back of his throat. He was curled up on himself, his hand fisted over his hair.
"They took him," Shodin muttered. "They took Fion."
Marland paused, blinking at him. "They took who?"
"Fion," Shodin stressed, and Marland could see his mouth was a thin line. "My laknur."
"Your what?" Just what the fuck had they done to him?
Shodin huffed, then pushed himself up sharply, almost hitting Marland before he could jerk away and glared at Marland. Marland’s stomach sank when he saw that look; he’d never seen that expression on Shodin’s face before.
"My laknur, my ‘magic’ as they would say," Shodin spat as he gestured angrily towards the door.
Marland watched him warily. Something wasn’t right. What had they done to him? "Shodin…?"
Shodin raised an eyebrow at him. "Who's that? I'm Ronthar."
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Summary: The world of Torpin is open, dragging in xeni from other worlds. The majority of them are monsters, prone to violence. There are some, however, that are not, and are able to live amongst the human population, if allowed to. Marland should know; he's one of them. His job is to hunt and stop the xeni that seek only to destroy what's around them. On one job, a human xeno drops through a portal, an event which Marland has never heard of happening before. And that's not the only thing different about the human...
Rating: R/NC-17
Notes: Contains swearing and torture.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 6,570
Total word count: 68,975
Status: Work in Progress (reposting, but is complete)
Marland woke up slowly, the world spinning and bright. There was a low buzzing in the air that made his ears flick. Wincing, he curled up on himself, and tried to cover his head with a wing; he was only able to bring it up partway. His body was stiff and sore in places, pain shooting up his right shoulder and wing. It felt like a xeno had taken a chunk out of his shoulder, while his left wing was slightly numb.
Wait. This wasn't his room; he wasn't on a mattress. He would have never left the curtains open either. What…?
His ears swivelling around slowly, Marland could hear someone else in the room, their breathing deep and even. He couldn't hear anything else, apart from that annoying buzzing.
He cautiously cracked an eye open with his head still under his wing. A white floor, white walls. No door was visible from this angle. The other person wasn't in view either.
Marland waited a few moments, just in case he'd missed something. Nothing happened, so he carefully brought his wing back and raised his head.
Full white small room with - Shodin! Marland scrambled to his feet, ignoring how his head span, and took the few short steps towards him. The room was probably twice as long as he was tall, but he really wasn't willing to check. And wouldn't be in the future either.
Crouching next to Shodin, Marland could see a bruise that had developed on Shodin's temple, dark and obvious. The next thing Marland noticed was a collar around Shodin's neck, black and thick - it also rested right over the spot where the last one had been, almost fitting the scar exactly.
Unsettled by that, Marland reached over, his claws out to rip through it again. He was able to hook the tips under the edge, but he couldn't quite get them in. When he pulled down, the collar didn't give at all. His ears twitching, Marland withdrew his hand and briefly considered burning it off, then disregarded the thought. It was made of a different material from the first one, and he didn't know how it would react to fire. That, and his control wasn't that refined.
Shodin was waking up anyway, making a muffled sound as his eyebrows drew together, so if he really wanted the thing off, they'd see what they could do. Shodin had barely opened his eyes before he was gasping, a hand flying to his neck.
"Shodin?"
His breathing not calming down at all, Shodin tried to yank it off, his full attention on the collar.
"Shodin…?"
He stopped trying to pull the collar off, eyes slowly going to him. "Marland?" Shodin's fingers twitched, and he tugged futilely at the collar again. "I don't…" Shodin swallowed. "I don't feel well. I feel sick."
Drugged. Shit.
They had no idea where they were (they could be in another continent for all they knew) and Shodin was drugged with who knew what. Scanning the room, Marland could see the outline where a door could be; there wasn't a door handle. There was, however, a small swing panel on the bottom.
Shodin pulled his shaking hand away and heaved himself upright into a sitting position. "Where are we?" There was a breathy element to his voice that wasn't hidden by him trying to look curious.
Marland shrugged with his wings, watching the door warily. It didn't open, so Marland turned his attention back to Shodin, his ears still pointed towards the door.
"Did you see anything before the flash?"
Shodin shook his head, his hair waving slowly. "I had my attention focused on the xeno the entire time."
Same for him. How hadn't he heard anything coming? The snow had announced their presence to anyone who had ears, and it wasn't like the xeno made a lot of noise to cover anything. Marland's ears had been down during though, throughout the fight.
"Do you know how long we've been out for?"
Marland shrugged. There wasn't a window or a clock in the room, and neither of them wore a watch. He was feeling hungry, but he'd been hungry when they set out of the flat; that was why they'd left in the first place.
"Hm." Shodin hugged his knees, his chin resting on top of them. He looked up at Marland. "You couldn't get yours off either?"
What? Blinking, Marland raised a hand to his neck and his fingers brushed against material that wasn't his DT instantly. Snarling, his ears flattening, he tried to tear it off, but it didn't work like it hadn't worked with Shodin's. Fine, he'd burn it off; he wasn't affected by his magic so-
The fuck?
Nothing happened. Staring at his hand, Marland tried again, concentrating. And still nothing.
There was an exhalation from Shodin, and when Marland looked across, Shodin was clenching and relaxing a fist, but other than that, nothing happened. Then Shodin jerked back, his eyes wide and he inhaled deeply.
"I can't hear Puzz."
Just what the fuck was going on? Their magic didn't work, and Shodin couldn't hear Puzz? Marland looked away, trying to remember what had happened on the night they'd met, when he'd been wearing the collar. Shodin couldn't breathe, but as soon as the collar had come off, that was when Marland had begun to hear Puzz.
And Puzz had been really protective of Shodin back then, and had been relieved that Marland hadn't been human.
The spark of panic Marland had been shoving down while he tried to work out what happened grew, his heart beginning to pound to a double-beat, his head feeling light and the world had begun to sharpen around him as pieces started to slot together. Not enough to form a coherent picture, but maybe enough to at least guess what it could be in the end.
So, Sho - Ronthar, at that point, and Puzz had been captured, collared so that their magic wouldn't work, and then what? Ronthar got beaten up? Why? Or had it been something different, that Puzz had been, what, implanted in Shodin or something?
Marland growled, shaking his head. There wasn't any point in thinking about wild theories; they had to get out of here first. Then they could try and work it out, or try to forget this whole fucking thing.
At that point, the door opened, Marland only just hearing the click of the locks before it did. Marland whirled around and lunged. A second later, he hit the ground, his entire body twitching from the aftershock of an electrical surge. Where the fuck had that come from?
"Marland!"
"Ah! Not another step, hm?" What the hell? That was Balt's voice. "Wouldn't want you too close now, just in case you tried something." Who wasn't pausing while talking, sounding calm and measured instead.
Dread joined panic in Marland's stomach, seeping into his bones. Marland quelled the theories that were spinning in his head. He had to wait for an opportunity to get out, and to do that, he couldn't be distracted.
"Balt, what's going on?" Shodin asked, his voice quiet and controlled.
"You have something that I want; I'll be doing my very best to get it from you." It sounded like Balt was talking about the fucking weather, like there was nothing fucking wrong with what he was saying, or that it was something completely normal and that he did it every day.
Marland started growling, his ears pinning back before he could stop them. Balt didn't react to that, at least, not verbally.
"Then why did you drag Marland into this?" Marland could hear that Shodin's teeth were clenched as he spoke, a quiet fury in his voice.
"Because he has what I want as well: magic."
What? The bastard wanted their magic? How the fuck was he supposed to take that away from them? It wasn't exactly something you could just cut out of them, and then use it like it was your own.
"And if you are successful? Then what will you do?"
There was a brief pause. "So you don't care about your magic?" Balt's voice was full of fake surprise and genuine smugness. "But that's all you cared about last time."
Marland's head snapped up and he stared at Balt. Balt was in regular, casual clothes, no white lab coat of a 'mad scientist'. He was leaning on the wall, his arms crossed loosely, and one leg was braced on where the wall met the floor. He was also looking at Shodin head on, his face not turned away or avoiding his gaze. When Marland moved, Balt's eyes flicked to him, and he looked merely bored, assessing him and finding nothing to worry about.
He snarled, pushing himself up on all fours, ignoring his twitching muscles; he was about to lunge at the bastard with his claws out when he saw what Balt was waving in a lazy arc: it was a small box, one that fit easily in his palm, one side covered in buttons. A thumb rested on one of the buttons. The threat was obvious.
Marland snarled again in frustration, concrete grating as he raked his claws over the ground.
Balt merely smirked down at him. "Smart xeno."
Marland bared his teeth, his wings flaring, wanting so much to rip that smug smirk off his face. Marland glared at him; Balt looking back at him, completely unaffected.
They stayed like that for a while before Shodin asked carefully, "You said 'last time'. So, I've been here before?"
Balt looked away from Marland, turning his attention back to Shodin. "Yes, you were," he said with a twitch of the lips, a satisfied look in his eyes. "A few months ago."
A few months ago. When Shodin was supposed to be a volunteer for where Balt worked. Marland snarled again. What the fucking hell?
Balt sighed, then glanced over at him in annoyance. "You're being too noisy; you only get one warning."
And screw being fucking obed-
Marland's head crashed to the floor, his body following suit seconds later. His muscles spasmed as pain slammed into him again. Shit, he couldn't breathe, and his heart beat crazily in his chest, in overdrive and erratically. It stopped after who fucking knows and he lay there, gasping and twitching on the ground.
"That was your one short warning. Understood?" The tone was of bored indifference.
Marland growled at him weakly, unable to do anything else. Fucking hell. He could barely even think.
"Why do you want our magic?" Shodin demanded. His voice was closer than what it had been before.
Balt clicked his tongue. "I would have thought that the answer was obvious: to defend ourselves from xeni."
Marland carefully got back to his feet, slow and feeling so out of control of his own body, his wings outstretched for balance. He glared and bared his teeth at Balt. "We're already fightin' th' xeni f'r you." Fuck was it hard to talk - it felt like his tongue was twice the size and half as responsive. He tried to call his magic to him but there was absolutely no response - he couldn’t feel the usual rush of energy racing towards his hand. Nothing.
Balt sniffed. "And when you die?" He shook his head. "Then we'd lose that resource." Well fuck you. "No, I'm trying to find out how the people here can protect themselves with magic."
Marland glanced at Shodin. So what did that mean? Was Shodin - no; Shodin had magic and Balt wanted it, so Shodin wasn't an end-product of whatever here.
"And how exactly are you going to do that?"
At that question, Balt narrowed his eyes at Shodin. "I wish you had told us - you only said that your magic had come to you," -he gestured to his own head- "and that was it."
Puzz, Marland realised with a start. Balt was talking about Puzz.
And Puzz had a fixation on Marland, assuming that he'd protect Shodin because he had magic. Shit, but that wasn't it, was it?
Marland had got it wrong. It wasn't that Marland would protect Shodin because he was duty-bound or something like that, since he had magic; it was that Marland would protect Shodin because they were in the same fucking situation.
Marland growled at Balt, his ears flat, shoulders hunched. "You're either born with magic or you're not - you can't just take someone's magic and expect that you can stick it in someone else," he snapped.
Balt raised an eyebrow and then sighed, pity in his eyes. "Ah, but can't you see? That's exactly what happened to Ronth - oh, sorry, Shodin's situation." He glanced at Shodin, tipping his head in an apology. Shodin didn't respond to that. Balt then looked back to Marland. "Just because that's how it worked on your world, that doesn't mean it's the same on Torpin."
Marland bared his teeth at him. He didn't know how magic worked on his own world; he could barely remember what it looked like or what it was even called. He attempted to call his magic again but it was as effective as last time.
"If you were able to take my magic and put it in someone else," Shodin said slowly, his body still and poised, "wouldn't you then have the same problem as before? You would still only have one person who had magic." He didn't brush away the hair that had fallen into his face.
Balt shook his head. "But then that would be at least one person definitely trustworthy who had magic." He looked at Shodin, like he was looking at him over the rim of a pair of glasses, a small smile on his face.
"Do you know how many xeni display magic of any kind? There's quite a few. So if we could take their magic, our numbers of humans with magic would be quite big as well. You're also assuming that magic works on a one-to-one basis." Balt shrugged. "Maybe it does with some, but there has to be others where it doesn't, and maybe those ones will re-activate the magic in the humans here."
Marland stared at him, disbelief spreading through him at every word and his jaw dropped open. Was he fucking serious? "But humans here don't have magic!" he blurted out before he could stop himself. That was the entire point! The humans had a hard time with dealing with xeni because regular, small guns didn't always help in some situations, drawing the attention of more xeni instead of killing them.
Balt glowered at him darkly. His arms crossed tightly across his chest. "We used to though, millennia ago; we merely forgot."
He was insane. He was actually fucking insane. What, did he read a story when he was younger and thought it was real? That would have been, well, something if Marland and Shodin hadn't been caught up in his delusions. Shit. How the fuck were they supposed to get out of this?
Balt shook his head slowly. "I guess I've been chatting here too long." He smiled at them, waving the controller. "I do hope you can help us." He left, not taking his eyes off them, never fully leaving his back open either.
As soon as the door closed, Marland punched the floor with all his might, his mind a whirl of different, constantly changing emotions. His magic hadn't worked at all during that, no matter how much he tried. How the fuck was that bastard doing that?
"Marland, are you okay?" Shodin asked gently.
He nodded, slowly flapping his wings, testing their movement. The twitching had mostly died down by then, but there was still a few unexpected ones when he moved. He growled, glaring at the door. Stiffly, he got to his feet and went over to it. He ran his hands over the door, but no parts gave and when he punched it, it sounded solid and utterly unmoveable. Digging his claws into the cracks and pulling did nothing either. When he pushed the flap at the bottom of the door with a toe, that didn't move either. So, magnetised or something? It couldn't be that heavy, or else the food couldn't be pushed through.
Shodin followed him over, and ran his fingers over the door and wall. He shook his head. "I can't feel anything, and even if I did, I wouldn't know what to do."
Marland snorted. "You think I would? Never been caught by a person who wanted to steal my magic before."
Shodin's lips twitched at his comment, his eyes softening slightly. "I guess I actually have more expertise than you in something; too bad I can't remember it."
Marland glanced at him, his head tilted down, ears forward. "You want to remember what they did to you here?"
Shodin blinked, and then chuckled, brushing his hair back. "Hm, point. I doubt the information would be of any use."
One of Marland's ears flicked to the side. "You were able to get out of here before, so that means we should be able to get out too." Except the collars were different, so maybe the security or however they got out had been changed. But they had gotten out through magic. How…?
Fuck, he hated memory problems. Shodin definitely couldn't remember, and they couldn't ask to Puzz, who probably couldn't remember either. Shit.
Marland punched the door again, snarling. He didn't care that he was doing that a lot now; just what else could he do? They were trapped in who-knew-where, with a guy who thought he could just lift their magic away from them, but could also shock them into submission. He snarled again, as loud as he could.
"I'm sorry you were dragged into this," Shodin said softly, almost drowned out by the echoes.
He snapped his attention to Shodin, who had his arms crossed tightly, looking like the wall was the only reason why he was standing. Marland snorted, rolling his eyes. "It's not your fault; he's the one who's locked us up here."
"Yes, but," -Shodin shook his head jerkily- "if you hadn't helped me, then you wouldn't be in this situation with me."
Marland's ears flattened, and he looked at him closely, a loss of what to say. If this had been one of those films that they had watched together, the main character would have the perfect line to say that would have made the other person feel better. But he wasn't, and he had difficulty in just talking and ugh.
"Shodin, I really don't give a fuck if you think it's your fault." Shodin's head snapped up at him, his eyes wide and his mouth open. "I don't. Care. All I care about right now is getting out of here."
Huh. He'd actually made Shodin speechless. Shodin was blinking at him, working his mouth, but no sound was coming out. That was different. After a few moments, Shodin eventually pulled himself together. "Yes, you're right." He took a deep breath. "Blaming myself or feeling sorry isn't going to help."
Yeah. Just keep going, and then after everything, then think about it, or don't, and just keep going after that as well. Whatever.
"So how do you think we should do it?"
Marland shrugged. "We don't know how they do things here, so we'll have to find that out, and if we can see what outside the room looks like, even better."
So all they could do for the moment was wait.
* * *
Marland hated the room they were in. Apart from the fact that it was too small to really pace, there was nothing to take his frustration out on, and there was nothing to sit on either. So unless he wanted to stand for hours on end, he had to lie on his stomach, and he hated being in a vulnerable position, especially when they were in this kind of situation. His eyes had adjusted to the lights in the room, but that didn't mean he didn't have a headache from the strain.
There was a knock at the door, two short taps, before it was unlocked and Balt walked in, the fucking controller still in his hand, and flanked by two other, heavily-muscled men. The one on the left had shorter, darker hair than the one on the right, but they both looked like they were experienced in this job and knew exactly what they were doing. Balt smirked at him when he saw that he was staring warily at the controller. "It really is so much easier when the xeno understands you," he purred.
Marland glared, his ears flat, but cut his growl short when Balt waved the controller. Balt had his eyes on him the entire time, far too fucking smug and satisfied. His smirk widened when Marland's growl died off, before he turned to Shodin. "You're coming with us," Balt said dismissively as he turned back around and began to leave the room.
"What for?" Shodin demanded, not moving.
Balt paused, and then turned his head to look at Shodin over his shoulder, tapping his chin with the controller. "I suppose I did cultivate this." He sighed, turning around more. "You are not to question what I say; you are to do it immediately." He said this slowly, with an almost gentle tone that couldn't hide the claws hiding behind them, or the threat of retribution if he wasn't obeyed. "Question time is over. So. You are coming with us." He waited, the controller still tapping slowly.
Shodin opened his mouth, before he glanced at the controller, swallowed, then nodded. Arms stiff at his side, Shodin walked over to them, not looking at anyone, his teeth clenched, and his breathing uneven. Balt waved him through the door first, the guards following after, then Balt glanced at Marland, smirk back in place.
"Now, I wouldn't do anything that would hurt Shodin, hm?"
What the fuck did that mean? Marland continued to bare his teeth at him, his wings outstretched.
"If you were to attack us, or not do as I say, then I take it out on you or Shodin; I really don't particularly care which. Understand?"
Marland stared at him, his glare fading away. What? So - Shit.
Balt raised an eyebrow at him. "I said, understand?"
What the fuck did he - fuck. "…Yeah," he muttered, not looking at him, his teeth clenched, hoping that it would be enough to satisfy him.
It was. "Good," Balt said cheerily. "I'll see you later then." A few clicks of shoes on the floor, and Marland was left alone in the room.
Shitting fucking - Marland continued to swear until he couldn't think of anything else, and when that happened he started all over again. What the hell were they going to do to Shodin? And these stupid fucking collars! If he wasn't wearing one, Marland could have taken them all on easily. Fuck, even if he didn't have magic, he was sure he would have been able to take them on - just so long as he didn't end up twitching on the ground after he had taken one step he could have done it.
* * *
Marland didn't know how long he waited, but the wall ended up being scored by his claws, as did the floor from his feet. Every second ticked by with him noticing it, dragging its heels; his mind was in overdrive, trying to think of anything that he could do.
It all pretty much boiled down to nothing. Not until they knew more. If they tried anything now, they would end up being hurt (or more hurt - what the hell were they doing to Shodin right now?) and they needed to be as fit as possible to have the best chance of escaping here.
There were two sharp knocks at the door and Marland whirled around to face it. When it opened, Balt walked in, rubbing a shoulder. The controller was in his other hand. He smiled tiredly at him. "Ah well. I shouldn't expect results straight away." Marland stared at him warily, but his attention was diverted when the guards dragged a sweating and maybe unconscious Shodin in, each of them holding him up by the shoulder.
"What did you do to him?" he hissed.
Balt raised an eyebrow, than raised a finger. "One warning." Marland cut himself off with a snap of teeth. "But I suppose I'll let you off this time, because you're about to find out."
What? Marland glanced at Shodin's still form. He was breathing unevenly, shivering, his fingers clenched by his sides, and his face was hidden by his hair. Growling to himself, Marland nodded to Balt, and then stalked outside the room. The walls outside the room were exactly the same, all white and clean. There was no-one else in the corridor, or anything else; it was completely empty. There was pretty much only one path that he could take, so Marland started walking down it, the two guards following him closely.
He could feel his skin crawling at their close proximity, wanting space between them but there wasn't anything he could do about that, so he drew his wings in closer and tried to ignore the feeling.
"Stop here," one of the guards grunted. Marland did so, just after a door, turning around to face them. The doors were clearly marked here, numbers above each one, the handles shiny. One of the guards, the one with the light brown hair watched him coolly, one hand on a hip, a thumb stroking a controller that was hanging from his belt. Fuck. The other was facing a panel with a scanner on the top, and was sliding a card over it. When the door beeped, he slipped it into his chest pocket. Keeping an eye on him, the guard pushed the door open, then gestured him through. The smell of pollen hit him before he moved, thick and sweet.
Marland did so, before he nearly stopped again at the sight that greeted him inside the room. In the corner was an area that was blocked off by glass, the top half clear, while the bottom half was misted over. From where Marland could see, there was something softly glowing in the mini-room, lighting it up. There were five lit candles sitting in a circle in the middle of the main room, a wooden bowl of…stuff that Marland couldn't identify in between each one. There was a chalked X in the centre of the ring of candles.
You had to be fucking kidding.
Marland was morbidly surprised that there wasn't any paint or more chalk on the ground, with a drawing or doodles that looked significantly 'magic'. Or maybe there was and only Balt could see it.
But then, what the fuck had they done to Shodin? Beat him up when he couldn't do anything? He growled, and one of the guards cleared his throat when he did that. He looked at him, and the brown-haired guard said, with an eyebrow raised, "You're not to make that much noise."
He bared his teeth at him, but stopped himself from growling with an effort. By that point, Balt walked behind in them, and he waved towards the circle.
"Stand over there please."
Right, because being polite was necessary after what had happened. Marland still did as he was told. He peered down into one of the bowls as he passed it, and he could see that it was a thick dark blue liquid that looked like it had the consistency of wet dirt. It wasn't blood at least.
As soon as he was standing on the 'X', Marland turned around. The three humans had retreated behind the glass, their faces lit up by whatever was in front of them, deepening their shadows.
Balt was looking down at something, a satisfied smile on his face. He looked up at Marland. "We'll start right away."
The lighting in their room changed, getting brighter, and Marland could see that the light wasn't a constant one. It faded in and out, some sides getting brighter than others.
Marland began hearing a sound, like someone was rubbing their hands together. He glanced over at the group of humans, but none of them were moving, all watching him intently, and the sound was too close to have come from them. Marland caught movement in the corner of his eye, and he swivelled his head to look.
At first, Marland didn't see anything, but he kept watching, his ears constantly on the lookout for anything else. Just as Marland was about to turn away, he saw the liquid in one of the bowls start to rise, a small tendril poking up above the rim.
What the hell? He quickly looked over to Balt, and Balt just smirked at him, his face lit up with sickly green light.
As Marland watched, the tendril grew, thickening before splitting into two. It fell, the parts going in separate directions, and that was when Marland noticed that all the bowls were like this, the liquid rising and moving on their own. The tendrils joined with each other, forming a circle that was about half-a-foot above the ground before the tendril split again, keeping the circle intact, but winding its way in.
Marland regarded them warily, ready to move in case they tried to get close to him, but they didn't, forming more lines around the edge of the circle, swirling around each other. Eventually the liquid stopped moving and hovered there. There was a lot of space for Marland's legs, but if the liquid lifted up, staying in the position they were in, they'd hit his wings one way or another, and Marland didn't want to see what would happen if it did.
Then the liquid fell to the ground. A second after it did, the liquid began glowing softly, a faint hissing in the air like it was boiling. It hadn't splattered across the ground like Marland thought it would have, the line still unbroken and neat, not one drop, assumedly, out of place.
Marland didn't understand what was happening. From what Balt had said, Marland had thought that he didn't have magic, but whatever just happened, that was definitely magic, so…
Before Marland could finish that thought, the candles flared and their fire grew into pillars of light. Marland winced, squinting at them, resisting the urge to shield his eyes. The fire dwindled and while Marland's eyes were trying to get rid of the afterimages, he could hear them as they sped towards each other, zigzagging from one side to the other.
He growled at the brightness, but that eventually faded. When he could see properly again, without having to turn his head to peek through unaffected areas in his eyesight, he could see that the fire had solidified at chest height, still full of colour but frozen. There were a lot of curls in this one.
What was this?
"Now then, Marland, if you could start using your magic, we can begin properly."
Use his magic? He stared incredulously at Balt, who looked expectant. Wasn't that what the collars were doing, stopping him from using magic? So how the fuck was he supposed to call him magic to him?
Balt sighed and rolled his eyes. "The collar isn't working right now. Don't keep me waiting."
It wasn't? Marland blinked. Huh. That annoying low buzzing was gone too. So that probably had something to do with it, in whatever way he did it. But if he could use his magic now…
Marland summoned the fire to him as quickly as he could, and aimed -
His knees crashed to the floor, the fire in his hand gone. He gasped, trying to refill his suddenly empty lungs. Above him, the frozen fire glowed faintly. What the fuck? It felt like something had tried to suck out his magic when he tried to use it, and then started scraping at his insides when it couldn't get to it.
"Again."
Marland twitched at Balt’s voice, but he slowly got to his feet, glaring at Balt once he could see him. He'd tried doing that fast, so maybe if he did it slowly…
Didn't work, and Marland stood there shuddering, an emptiness seeping through him where he could feel parts of his magic were gone.
"Again."
Marland glared at him, baring his teeth. He was not going to let his magic be sucked out of him piece by piece!
Balt sighed again. "All right."
Marland blinked, straightening up slightly. He was -
His knees collapsed under him, and he choked, his heart beating far too fast and he could barely get enough control to snatch quarter-lungfuls of air. It felt like he could only breathe in so much before his lungs froze up. His body twitched, and then locked up, every muscle tensing. He could hear buzzing like it was right next to his ears and - fuck.
It stopped suddenly after some indefinite amount of time and Marland lay trembling on the ground, barely enough strength and control to keep breathing. His whole body felt like it had been burned by someone who had stabbed the length of a burning needle through every bit of his scales. He could hear footsteps approaching him, loud and echoing in the silence. He saw a pair of shoes stop right by his face, and Balt crouched next to him, pulling at his chin to make Marland look at him.
"Next time," he said softly, "do as you're told, hm?" Balt looked at the guards. "Take him back."
Marland was dragged back to the room in the same fashion as Shodin had been, with the guards pulling him along with an arm under his armpit. His wings rested on their forearms, but he couldn't make them move, couldn't do anything except let himself be pulled along like a corpse.
It took some manoeuvring, but one of the guards unlocked the door, while the other knocked on it before opening it. They dumped him in a heap on the ground before they left.
"Marland," Shodin whispered urgently as he came swiftly over as soon as the door closed. "Dammit. How are you?" His hand hovered above his head, before Shodin pulled it away again, the hand curling into a fist.
He growled, still twitching. "Shit," he croaked. He didn't try to get up; he didn't think his legs would be able to support him, the way they were feeling at the moment.
Shodin sagged next to him, taking a shuddery breath. "I…" He shook his head and took another breath. "I thought you were dead when they dragged you in."
"Same," he grunted. He slowly brought his arms up so that he wasn't so splayed out, so he didn't feel like he'd just fallen over and had stayed like that. He had, obviously, but he didn't want to feel like it too. "You get the flashy magic too?"
"Yeah," Shodin said, nodding. "With the water and the fire."
Marland snorted, testing out his jaw. "If you can call that water."
"Well, it moved like water, and what else could you really call it?"
Marland turned his head more to get a clear shot of him. "Shodin, tell me where the hell you saw this 'water' and I'll blast it, because it's obviously not drinkable."
Shodin let loose a short burst of laughter. "When we get out of here, then I will," he promised after he'd stopped, smiling down at him.
Good. He was just going to rest for the next little bit… The headache had grown over the last little while, and Marland decided that it'd be better to sleep it off rather than try to stay awake.
* * *
Marland completely lost sense of time over the next few days. He assumed it was days, but he didn’t have a way to keep a track of time; he had no idea how long they're been there for. The lights were constantly on as well, so he couldn't use that to guess the time either. There didn't seem to be a set pattern for when food was brought or taken away - it came at all hours, no long break in between to say they should be sleeping. They probably knew that Marland was nocturnal, one way or another, but Marland wasn't sure if he was anymore.
Marland and Shodin only ever saw that corridor. They didn't get taken anywhere else; the toilets were only one door down from the 'magic taking' room. So they had no idea how big this place was, where they were, or how busy it was. They had next to no information.
Every once in a while (Marland guessed a day, or maybe half-a-day) he or Shodin got taken to that room and told to perform magic. So they had a choice of feeling their magic get eaten away at, bit by bit, or electrocuted and then ordered to keep using their magic. It didn't matter that their magic had mostly replenished by the time they were called through; in some cases, that was probably worse because that meant that the cycle would never stop.
Marland could feel more of his magic being sucked out every time he went, the what, 'circle' being more successful, stronger each time. It left him feeling empty, hollow, cold afterwards. He started to dread every time he heard the knock on the door and every time he called his magic to him, he tensed, expecting the pain to slam into him before it happened.
He couldn't tell if Balt knew he was making progress, at least with him, or if Balt even considered that progress. He might only want the end-result. Balt didn't seem to be inclined to talk to them anymore, just ordering them to come or ordering them to be taken away, more focused on his side of things.
That was why Marland noticed something was up when Shodin was dragged into the room on day, Balt following after, a triumphant smile on his face as he watched Shodin being thrown to the floor.
Balt turned to Marland hungrily, and Marland bared his teeth at him, trapping his growl in his throat. "I can't wait to get yours," Balt said quietly, a gleam in his eyes.
When they left, Marland rushed over to Shodin. He was shuddering and keening, a sound high and desperate, made at the back of his throat. He was curled up on himself, his hand fisted over his hair.
"They took him," Shodin muttered. "They took Fion."
Marland paused, blinking at him. "They took who?"
"Fion," Shodin stressed, and Marland could see his mouth was a thin line. "My laknur."
"Your what?" Just what the fuck had they done to him?
Shodin huffed, then pushed himself up sharply, almost hitting Marland before he could jerk away and glared at Marland. Marland’s stomach sank when he saw that look; he’d never seen that expression on Shodin’s face before.
"My laknur, my ‘magic’ as they would say," Shodin spat as he gestured angrily towards the door.
Marland watched him warily. Something wasn’t right. What had they done to him? "Shodin…?"
Shodin raised an eyebrow at him. "Who's that? I'm Ronthar."
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