"Walk with me," Vaylor said, turning away from him.
Alix followed him with urgency. His eyes seemed to be perpetually fixed onto his back. The man wasn't wearing his armour today, instead he was wearing a black diaphanous tailcoat with red diamond patterns that ran all along it.
"How long until that arm of yours comes back?" Vaylor suddenly inquired.
"I-I don't know, I didn't keep track, sorry." Alix said, hoping that answer satisfied him.
"Well," Vaylor shrugged. " it's only been a day since I saw you with that old stump, this one is freshly bleeding. Did the kangal…"
Vaylor paused and looked back slightly, waiting for an answer.
Alix nodded fervently. "Yes. It took the new arm that I had grown, unfortunately."
"Wow. Your luck is just the worst, isn't it, Alix. Good thing you're a tamer," Vaylor chuckled.
It felt good hearing him be addressed by his name and not by boy or 'worm catcha.' It was oddly comforting, even if it came from the throat of the most dangerous man Alix had ever met.
They walked through the dark hallway in silence. On either side were the same sweltering cells with other tamers glaring at them with aghast expressions on their faces. Lord Vaylor could make any man turn pale.
Just ahead, a flight of stairs beheld them. The sound of their footsteps susurrared through the halls, and Alix suddenly felt the urge to speak.
"Was that guy the tamer you meant? The one I had to fight alongside his tamer? Him and his kangal?"
"What? No," Vaylor laughed. "Of course not. That fool was a depraved, idiotic bastard. I simply wanted him dead without having to raise my own hand. No, the real beast is waiting in the arenas."
The arenas?
"W-where are we? And what are the arenas? If-if you don't mind me asking," Alix gulped.
"The sweltering cells is what many tamers call this place, I simply call it the first dungeon. It's where the lower level tamers go, people who aren't too far off from being tamerless. The real threats, however, are lurking even deeper beneath us." He said, ominously.
"As for the arenas, well, do you want the long version or the short version?"
"Both." Alix replied.
"Alright, I'll start with the short. It's where you'll be fighting, of course. It's where many tamers have fought and entertained the tamers and the tamerless who have the luxury of watching besides their masters. I'm surprised you haven't heard of this, being a tamer and all. Most of the trainees aspire to become arena fighters."
Alix felt like being honest today. What reason would he have to lie? Besides, he was soon going to be some form of entertainment for a crowd of blood-thirsty tamers. Would Vaylor truly kill him even if he felt like his words were all lies?
"I may be a tamer now, Lord Vaylor. But I was once only a tamerless slave."
Vaylor stopped and looked back at him once again. Alix could feel himself paling, and wondered if Vaylor was going to punch him to death.
"A tamerless becoming a tamer? That's not possible. Such a phenomena only happened millennias before our time, when the voice first descended on our world."
Alix's eyes widened, and the sound of a groaning door had returned the colour to his skin.
He only stopped to open the door, phew.
The voice, Alix thought. Lord Vaylor seemed to know a lot and more, just what had he meant by 'descended.' The voice was an entity? Alix didn't want to bother him with any more question, he simply shut his mouth.
"You're a tamer. I don't know why you're so adamant on being a slave, Alix, it's quite strange. But if you're so inclined to have me believe it, then at least prove it." Vaylor said, walking out into a brightly lit room.
How am I meant to do that?
"If…if I'm able to prove that I'm a slave, will you promise to answer any question that I have?" Alix swallowed hard, and braced himself for a punch.
Vaylor scoffed. "I was willing to answer them regardless. But sure, I'll wait until you prove your…former occupation."
Curses!
Alix sulked his way into the capacious space. It seemed like…an office. His mother had told him about them, though in warning. She had been dragged into one by some tamer and his men for dropping valuable goods that he believed to be ruined by her clumsiness.
It was…stunning. His entire life he thought an office was some decrepit place where tamers punished those that dropped valuables. But it was nothing like that at all.
There was a wooden desk with a chair behind and in front of it. The marble floor had been taken out of some milk-white slab, the veins that ran along it were kissed by gold, and it struck against the marble like lightning.
The office was greatly furnished. There were many glass cabinets with pictures, awards, and other medals within them. Shelves were stuffed to the point of bursting by a myriad of books, and there were comfy chairs that Alix so desperately wanted to sit on.
Above one of the chairs, there was a portrait fixed onto a wall that had caught Alix's attention. The man in the frame looked just like Vaylor, but he wasn't. His hair was the same shade of crimson, but much shorter and it looked like it had been slicked back by some sort of gel.
He was sprucely dressed, too. His blazer was darker than the sweltering cells below, and the white shirt he wore was almost as white as him.
"Stop dawdling," Vaylor demanded, "keep up."
Alix turned his eyes away from the portrait and continued following the tamer. There was another door ahead, and this one did not groan.
"W-where are you taking me," Alix shuddered, he could not say why.
"To the arena, of course. They're all waiting for you out there."
Alix's heart dropped. He was being sent to the arena already. How long had it actually been? Why was he condemned so fast and so…unfairly. Why did everyone believe Vaylor's words so easily?
He's a Lord
That may be so, but Alix had heard of the term 'fairness.' Though he was a slave, he has the right to express himself too, right?
Vaylor and other people he had likely told of Alix all knew him to be a tamer, so he had even more rights than usual. So why…why was he being forced to fight for his life so quickly and without his voice being heard.
Who am I kidding. How can there be fairness in a world where my parents lives meant nothing
When his parents died in the cruel conditions of the mines, Alix had done nothing but sob for weeks. He cried when he was working, he cried when he was sleeping, eating, hell, even when he was relieving himself.
But the world kept spinning, and nobody batted an eye, nobody stopped and thought to ask him how he was feeling, how he was dealing with his grief.
Yeah, who am I kidding
The two tamers walked into another capacious space with a bifurcated staircase. They climbed down it immediately and Alix found a large, oaken door staring back at him.
Vaylor pushed through it like it was nothing, allowing the cool, clean air to seep through. It felt nice on Alix's skin, and Vaylor had shut his eyes and taken it in in one giant, lung-filtering breath.
"Ahh, that's good. That's good. It's a shame I won't have peaceful moments like this to myself soon." Vaylor said gloomily. "Well then, up we go, Alix."
What? Up where?
Faster than a blink, two jet-black wings sprouted out of Vaylor's back. Vaylor looked back and grinned, piercing Alix's heart with fear.
He grabbed Alix by his shirt, and his face shrivelled up in disgust as he felt some of the remaining mucus on the fabric. In an instant, the two were now soaring through the air.
This is…too much!
Alix had lost all feeling in his legs. He had now just learnt that he wasn't only afraid of Vaylor, he was also afraid of heights.
The world looked beautiful from above. There were a plethora of buildings that looked like ants from this distance. Some were larger than the others, and some were smaller, they were all still diminutive to him.
Alix looked back and saw the building they had left in the far distance. It was a giant scowling spire, and the red glass that been used to complete it made it look like some bleeding tornado. They must have been on the lower floor, quite unfitting for a man of Vaylor's stature. Perhaps his place was out of choice.
Alix continued soaring, but now at an even greater speed. He could feel the wind whipping against his face, threatening to drown him, and the world below was a blur.
It didn't really matter, Alix had never known it anyway. He grew up in a different part of the empire, in a smaller zone ruled by a lesser lord, at least Alix thought so, for he had never met anyone quite like Vaylor.
The two were now gliding silently, and Alix had to catch his breath, but he still felt like he was drowning. When he he looked back down, he saw a large arena that was ready to welcome him with open arms.
We're already here. Oh, no
The gargantuan colosseum was roaring, demanding that it be fed some more tamers for it to bleed and spit back out. There had to be more than ten thousand people in there, Alix thought. And he was right.
There were so many tamers, so many lords and other powerful men in the crowd who were positioned on higher seats to get a better view. They were all so eager to watch their fellow man die. Did they not have other important matters to worry about? War, perhaps?
"Down you go, then," Vaylor snickered.
Alix was now falling through the air, spinning around wildly into the belly of the beast.