Eritance - Chapter 53

It wasn’t long before I became extremely weak waiting for Apollos to come back. I tried to count the time as it passed, but I eventually lost track. I had no idea how much time was going by. That was the worst part of this mental torture, there was no clock to count the seconds, minutes, or hours. I had my mind alone.

The mind plays tricks on a person when it is under great strain. I was definitely under great strain. Just as I thought I would pass out, I heard a familiar creak of a door. It must’ve been Apollos coming back to torture me again.

Sure enough, Apollos and the group from before came to my cell. “Rise and shine sunshine” he said. “Have you reconsidered whether you would work with me or not?”.

“Waterwater” I whispered lifelessly. I had no energy within my body. I felt like I was going to die. “Please give me some water”.

Apollos clicked his tongue and said, “Now, now, don’t be selfish. First you must do something for me before I do something for you”. He snapped his fingers and the drow brought out four swords again. “First, split your power among these four swords, then you may have a drink. Those are the terms”.

I didn’t want to lose my power, but I had no choice at this time. I mean, what else could I do? It had been days since I could drink any water or food. I wasn’t strong enough to escape either.

I grit my teeth and weakly said, “okayI’ll. do it.”. “Excellent, release one of his hands from the shackles” Apollos commanded one of the drow. With that, one of the drow walked over and produced a key from within his jacket. The key was used to unlock one of the shackles keeping my arms behind my head. My arm immediately fell to the floor, numb. It had been a long time since I had been able to move them, so it took some time before I could properly move it again.

I weakly held up my arm as they brought each sword to me. Focusing my energy was extremely difficult after becoming so weak. It took a long time, but I was able to slowly grasp the energy inside of me and push into the sword. I could feel my power slipping away as my hand fell off the first blade. Suddenly I felt a lot more drowsy and weak than before.

I didn’t have the strength to speak, so I had to continue. I weakly put my hand on the next blade and repeated the process two more times. Finally, when I got to the fourth blade, I could no longer lift my arm.

The drow had to place my hand on the blade for me as I pushed the last of my stored power into it. After that the four blades were taken away and a small cup of water was brought to me. The drow held it up to my mouth and I slowly drank it all. Having the small cup of water gave me some more energy, but it was far from enough.

I was still extremely weak. “Excellent, we thank you for your cooperation” Apollos said cheerfully. “Take his jerkin off, otherwise he can continue to store power in it”.

With that the drow returned and unshackled my other hand and my arm fell to the floor. They quickly stripped the jerkin off me and I felt most of my remaining energy dissipate. The only reason I was able to maintain my consciousness for this long was because the boost from my jerkin boosted my stamina. Without it though, I only had the strength and stamina of a normal person. Almost immediately, I passed out again.

When I awoke later I was in a small room above ground. I appeared to be inside some kind of cabin and light was filtering in from a window nearby the bed I was sleeping in. As soon as I awoke, a drow appeared and handed me a tray with a cup of water and some bread on it. The drow then turned around and left a pitcher of water on a small table in the room and left. I ravenously ate the hard bread and drank the water.

I was still extremely famished but now I had something to give me energy. I tried to stand but stumbled to the ground. I was still extremely weak. I crawled over to the table and pulled the pitcher down towards me. Some of the water spilled out onto the floor but I was able to drink more than half of the water in it.

With this I was able to sate my thirst. Slowly I managed to stand up and walked to the door. I thought it would be locked, but to my surprise, it was unlocked. When I stepped outside I was confused. I was indeed inside a cabin, but there was a small oasis nearby.

On top of that though, the oasis and the cabin were surrounded by high and thick walls with square holes spaced evenly every three or four meters apart. I wasn’t sure what the holes were for, but I could deduce that the walls were hollow inside, as I could see darkness without light coming through.

“Ah, you’re awake” a familiar and annoying voice said. “I hope you like your new workshop. Here we will deliver kobolds and goblins for you to kill, you will also spend your time imbuing power into armors and swords here. Do not try to escape, you will be monitored at all times by drow and their beasts. You will certainly die if you try to leave. Armors and swords imbued with power will be exchanged over there for food.” He said as he pointed towards a gate with a square hole in it.

“Settle in now, welcome to your new life serving the cause” Apollos said. With that, he uttered a magical incantation and disappeared.