Page 33 of Tales of Fire and Embers

“Stand,” Serpium commanded and I did so without protest, but as soon as I ordered my muscles to perform the action, I fell on the ground, unable to move or stand on my own.

“Here,” he said and crouched low enough to direct a cup near my head and shake it so I reacted to the liquid.

I eagerly accepted and drank deeply, struggling to swallow and choking more than actually hydrating myself after such a long time without nourishment. It tasted bitter, some kind of wine left out for far too long, but it was a lot better than nothing.

It took me a couple of minutes to stabilise my breaths so I was able to drink like a being again, then to stop while I took a small sip and followed its way down my stomach, where it filled the emptiness.

Serpium took a seat on a nearby chair and waited patiently until I recovered enough to stand and receive his orders. All of it looked planned, my release, my gratitude, the drink, and me following orders. The first step in a new life of obeying a damned king. One I hoped to escape soon enough.

As long as I pretended to be one of them, train and act like them, drink and follow orders, I would soon enough have my chance to be released on the surface with whatever mission, and with Marreth’s help, escape. The next time I saw him I planned to offer him refuge in the Earth Kingdom, he looked as eager to leave this place as I was.

When I finally stood, Serpium shifted and moved towards the table, allowing me to find my own strength and follow him. He did not look alarmed to have me freed nor concerned with the multitude of knives around us, which I could easily grab and cause him damage.

“Repeat after me,” Serpium commanded and started speaking slowly, allowing me to understand and memorise the words. “I am born from fire and recognize the one true king, Drahden.”

I cringed internally, hating myself for having to swear an oath to a ruler that was not father, even though my heart would not truly grasp the words.

“I have found a new kingdom, a new family, that I swear to serve and protect with my energy.”

I uttered the words slowly, marking every syllable that came out of my mouth, hating myself for what I was saying. Fuck it, I didn’t care about resurfacing anymore as much as I did about killing their king. The miserable bastard who stole beings away from their families and kingdoms, forcing them to fight their own and used their bodies as shields. They all needed to pay.

“How are you feeling?” Serpium carefully asked, commencing his analysis yet again. He scanned my body, my limbs, and muscles, kicking from time to time to study reflexes and pushing me from one point to another to study my reactions.

“Looks good,” he remarked proudly. “Time for the last one, it’s gonna be painful prince, I am not gonna lie to you.”

He turned to one of the cupboards and crouched low enough to reach the back of the wall, where the potion must have been stored. It was different from the ones he had injected me with so far, I could tell by texture alone.

It shone a dark black colour with waves and shimmers like the blackest part of the ocean had been trapped inside. The syringe he grabbed looked small, and the needle just big enough to prick a finger. I hadn’t witnessed the application of the other serums, since I remained trapped and blindfolded, but now I had become deserving of my own stance, especially since Serpium believed I was trapped inside a mind not of my own making.

“This is the most important part,” he said to no one in particular but felt the need to accentuate his actions by detailing his every move. “This is what will make you one of ours, it will penetrate the tissue deeper than the first one, that was merely to make you addicted. Which, by that dumb look on your face prince, you don’t even remember your own mother, am I right?” he cracked a joke only his laughter reacted to.

I kept my face blank, looking at nothing in particular and staring deeper into the wall, as though I had been awakened from a dream and the memories still dripped over my hazy eyes.

“Right, off we go,” he said and urged me to step closer to him. With a confident movement, he caught my jaw in between his fingers and turned my head to the side, exposing my neck, while his other hand held the tiny syringe with only a few drops of the potion. I did not understand how such a tiny thing could alter the lives of so many beings and how the firelings concocted it in the first place, but the only thing I could do was trust Marreth.

I had awoken, I was myself and remembered everything, so if the first potion lost its effect, the logical step was for this one to follow and enable me to walk out of here pretending to have become a fireling. Then I would kill the king and break them from the inside. I did not know if there was any chance of me ever escaping this place, I had begged for death numerous times already and only held a very small strand of hope of seeing my family again. What I could do, what I would probably die doing, was to spare anyone else from going through the same fate they pushed me into. Prevent them from being repeatedly tortured and turned into something they would rather die than become.

I would get my revenge.

The needle pinched my jugular artery and expelled the substance in a second, allowing it to flow into my body, carried by my blood and through every tissue, just like Serpium had said.

“You are home, you belong here, this is who you are,” he ordered me to repeat, over and over while tingles shimmied inside my bones, my arteries, my liver.

An oath my brain struggled to reject, as the words echoed, forcing me to believe them. This was it, Marreth’s warning. Think of them. Repeat the words but think of them. Do not embrace the firelings,this is not who you are.

Serpium repeated the words on a loop, forcing me to follow his lead as I pushed memories from back home into my vision. My mother, my father, my brothers. Anwen. I loved them, they made me a better male, they were part of me and I could not forget them. Would not forget them. Farryn, Bathysia, Damaris, Vikram, Takara. Anwen.

“I am home,” I forced my tongue to form the words.

Anwen.

“I belong here.”

Vikram.

“This is who I am.”

Mother. Anwen, Vikram, Takara, Damaris… who else? Someone was missing. Deep relaxation entered my body. It felt like my muscles were formed of air and any memories I had, needed to be dispersed into those vapours. No, I would not allow this, it would not take me. Not now. Not after fighting for so long.

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