by Tom Hansen
He looked at her for a moment, his eyes not focusing. She kept her distance but put on a warm, motherly smile. Eventually, his gaze focused and he nodded, but it was still a wild, untamed nod, like you would get from a young child.
“Okay. Do you know if they took Joanne? Did they take you and Joanne to the same place?”
He glanced behind him, looking at the buildings to the north. He pointed at a door four buildings down. “First Enlightenment.”
The girls shared a look.
Synol put her hand out, palm up, but kept her distance from him, allowing him to make the first move. “Do you need help standing?”
He picked up his hand, almost by rote, but then stopped. “No. Actually, I just want to sit here.”
Synol retracted her hand. “That is fine. Is it okay if I sit here with you?”
He nodded, then glanced up at Ynya. “They took her. I heard her scream. I screamed too. They were not nice.”
Ynya balled her fists. “I knew it.”
“If you can tell us anything about what goes on in there, it might help us know how to help you and Joanne once she comes out.”
He nodded, then glanced back at the building. “They make you pray.”
“You pray?”
“Yes, but they strip you down to nothing and put you in a cold room so you start to shiver, and if you pray to the Frost Queen they sprinkle warm water on your back.”
“What the hell?”
“Is that all?”
“No. If you refuse to prey they throw ice at you until you kneel in the water.”
“Gods Below,” Synol said. “It’s okay if you prayed, Tyrain. It is. They shouldn’t have made you do that, but you have to do what will keep you alive. There is no shame in keeping yourself alive.”
“Joanne wouldn’t pray. I heard her in the room next to mine. She refused, and they threw ice. She screamed louder, and they threw more ice, and when they ran out of ice they shut the door to let her freeze. Eventually she stopped screaming, but I know she was still alive because she spoke to me through the walls. She told me to get out of there. She told me to do what they say and she would come see me once she got out.”
Ynya tugged on Synol’s dress, pulling her away.
She kept her voice low. “Do you think they are going to let her out of there anytime soon?”
Synol glanced back at the boy but shook her head. “I’d be surprised if they did until she broke. Letting her out now might be easy.”
She knelt back in front of the boy. “Tyrain, Joanne mentioned to us the last time we saw her that she has some friends here. Friends who get to work outside of The Pit sometimes?”
He nodded. “Thore and Gustav?”
“Yes, those are the ones. Do you know if they are in The Pit right now or are they out doing their jobs?”
The boy shook his head. “Thore works the walls and lives in the barracks. He’s one of the guards but treats us well when he can. Gustave works in the bellower and lives here with his family. You can find them all closer to the bell tower. He has no hair and is big from using that large mallet to ring the bells. They also feed him plenty of food that he shares with his family when he can. He might actually be off-shift right now.”
The sisters shared a look.
Ynya nodded. “I’ll talk to him and see what I can get. You’ll be okay here?”
Synol shooed Ynya away.
“Gustave?” The man was pretty easy to recognize. He was a full foot taller than everyone else with a shaved head and thick, corded muscles under his thick skin. He wore cutoff pants and sandals, but no shirt.
Ynya paused a moment to take in how huge his chest was when he turned toward the sound of his name.
“Yes?”
Her gaze lingered on his bulging muscles.
What is wrong with me?
She shook her head to clear the haze that had suddenly overtaken her mind.
“My name is Ynya, I’m a friend of Joanne.”
The burly man excused himself from his group of people and walked over to her. “Oh yeah. How is she doing?”
Ynya’s mind focused. “She, uh, she’s being Enlightened right now.”
His face softened and took on a concerned expression. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Ynya nodded, but a hundred questions burned in her head. “Can you tell me what goes on in there?” She glanced at his ordinals, ending just past his elbow. She noticed the strange symbols at the end, something she hadn’t seen yet.
He followed her gaze. “It’s because I only have the two abilities.”
“What?”
“I see you’re looking at my Ordinals.” He pointed to his elbow. “Here is the date and my unique identifier. Here are the ordinals for my testing. As you can see, they only go to my elbow. The ones after signify I’ve completed the First and Second Enlightenments.”
Ynya noticed that his skin had fully healed over from the invasive tattoo method, while hers was still raw and painful. “How long has it been?”
He held out his wrist, indicating the first few numbers. “Sixteen years. I came here when I was eight.”
Ynya gasped. “You’ve been here as long as I’ve been alive.”
A strange silence grew between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, just reflective.
He glanced over his shoulder and placed his massive hand on her small back. “Come, let’s go over here where there are fewer ears.”
They walked a dozen paces away. “The First Enlightenment is all about them showing that they have absolute control over you. It’s about breaking you down, leaving you raw and exposed. It’s painful, both mentally and physically.”
He glanced around once more.
“The Second Enlightenment is all about programming you to obey the Frost Queen. All the guards you see out there, or anyone with a job outside of The Pit completed that second training. Many of those that are in here have only been through the First. They will only take those that have broken completely to become guards or beyond.”
“Skarmyord.” Ynya replied.
He nodded. “Or worse.”
“So, what about you?”
He grinned, and when he did, her heart melted. She wanted to jump into his massive arms and ask him to carry her around all day.
What is wrong with me?
“I have two abilities.” He pointed to his bicep as large as Ynya’s head. “Firstly, I have a lot of strength. You should have seen me as an eight year old when I first bloomed. I was almost this muscled but in a small package. I was pretty odd looking.”
She nodded, suppressing an image that popped into her head. She couldn’t stop looking at how huge his muscles were.
“My second ability is charisma.”
Something broke inside her mind, and suddenly she wasn’t fascinated by his muscles anymore. She looked up at his face, hoping she didn’t get lost in his dark brown eyes again. She was a little disappointed when she wasn’t.
“Sorry, I have to concentrate really hard to turn it off, and I can only do it for one or two people at a time.”
“What do you mean?”
His face flushed. “I accidentally spelled you. It’s hard for me because it’s on by default and I have to work to turn it off when I speak to people.”
She finally realized what he was talking about. She had been so wrapped up in how thick his body was, or how dream-like his eyes were that she hadn’t realized it was magic.
Magic.
“Wait, how are you able to do magic?” She looked at his ear and realized he didn’t have any earring, though she did see the lingering scar from a hole long ago.
“Anyone who survives the first two Enlightenments can have their earrings taken out.” He frowned as he looked at her stitched-up earlobe. “I see you tried ripping it out?”
She nodded.
He put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. It happens a few times a year, usually in the middle of The Pit. I think they prefer when prisoners do that
so they can make a big spectacle of taking them down and putting in the new one. But yes, if you make it through both Enlightenments, you can have your earring taken out, but it’s not an easy proposition.”
“What do you mean?” This was the main reason she had come here, to learn how the Enlightenments worked.
He sighed like he had a heavy load on him. It was a deep, mournful sigh filled with regret and pain.
“Depending on how many skills you have, you either become a soldier, perform duties around the camp, or are sent to train to be a Skarmyord. It all depends on how many abilities you have, and what they are. If they have need of someone specific, they will take them for that job.” He paused. “Rumor is that if you have frost magic of any type the Queen takes you for herself. Why, I don’t know.”
His eyes glanced down to the dozens of ordinals adorning her arm and peeking out her dress’s shoulder. He winced for a second but then cleared his face.
“It’s okay, I know I have a lot.”
He nodded, clearly trying to avoid discussing it further. “I lucked out in that my charisma was so powerful, pretty much everyone just let me go as soon as I was put into any situation that involved Enlightenments.”
He held up his arm again. “I really didn’t have to do anything that anyone else has gone through here because as soon as they strapped me down into the chair and removed the earring to Enlighten me, they all felt bad for me and would just write down in their documents that I passed.”
Ynya snorted, even though her brain told her it wasn’t funny that he hadn’t endured torture. “So you just flirted with everyone and got yourself into a job banging on bells?”
He shrugged. “It’s what I do best, so here I am.”
He turned to look back at the group of people he was with. “My family hasn’t fared as well as I have, though. My older sister was taken away a long time ago and I’ve never seen her since. I’m pretty sure she was turned into Skarmyord.”
He pointed. “My mother and father adopted my sister and I when we were young. Neither of them have magic, but they won’t let them out. Luckily, they haven’t had to endure most of the torture they do to the people here, and I’m able to bring them extra food and clothes to keep them healthy.”
His countenance darkened as he looked at a young woman sitting on the ground between his parents. She held onto each of them with one hand.
“She hasn’t fared very well, though. My younger sister went into Skarmyord training, she had almost as many ordinals as you have in fact, but after a year, she was dumped back into The Pit like that. She’s never spoken since, and sucks on her toes when she’s scared. It’s like she’s reverted to being an infant again.”
Ynya’s heart sunk as she looked at the girl who looked to be about Synol’s age.
Above them, the bells chimed. Time for an announcement.
Chapter Seventeen
“2201.” The Translator stood over her, holding a light in front of her eyes. “Can you hear me?”
She grunted in the affirmative.
“I can’t say how disappointed I am with you, 2201. I thought we had an understanding about unleashing your abilities.”
She knew what she needed to say to this. She had been taught.
“I have no abilities but what the Frost Queen grants me. All my abilities serve Her. I am a vessel, filled but not overflowing with the Concordance. Through her, I will be made glorious, and spend eternity in Her service. Glory to our Queen.”
He pursed his lips. “Yes, well, I’m glad to hear you memorized that properly, but I’m more concerned with how you unleashed your winds in here. Did She tell you to unleash the winds?”
“No, the voice told me to. I tried to ignore her, as I was trained, but the pain allowed her to come forth. I couldn’t keep her from taking over. She was very insistent.”
“Ahh.” He nodded, clucking his tongue. “This is all-too common for those of you who are put through the Enlightenments so quickly. It is unfortunate, but I did need you sooner rather than later. I wish there were a better way, but time waits for no one. With your abilities, I couldn’t pass up the chance to get you into my chair sooner.”
She didn’t reply. She didn’t know if she was supposed to, so she remained silent.
“Well, all that said, I want you to remember your training. Remember the Enlightenments and how to keep your old voice down. Remember that you are part of something grand now and you must leave your old life behind.”
<
“Of course, if you aren’t able to keep your mind from wandering, I might have to take you back to the Second Enlightenment for more conditioning. You wouldn’t want that, now, would you?”
She shook her head. She had spent weeks going through the Enlightenments before the Translator had come for her. Weeks of torture and training. Weeks to tell her that her old life was behind her. No one came to help her, but if she gave herself over wholly to Her, then she would be taken care of. She would be wrapped in Her frigid embrace and learn to love the frost.
<
She hadn’t broken, not really, but three solid weeks of relentless torture had been enough to convince her to leave her past self behind.
At least some of the time.
<>
“Well, I still have to take precautions of my own if I’m going to ensure any sort of result out of this next serum. I’m going to have to sedate you so that we don’t have any more of your outbursts, do you understand? Normally, I wouldn’t want to do this because it might affect the end result, but like I said, compromises needed to be made in this case.”
She nodded. She understood.
She had destroyed his lab, and all of his serums. For an entire day he had to scramble and get everything fixed in the lab before he could begin his experiments on her again.
<>
“Well, then. We should begin.”
The Translator pulled a needle from his pocket and fiddled with it for a moment, then stuck it into her arm and plunged the purple liquid in.
There was no pain, not this time. She ignored pain, looked past it. She focused on Her in all things. She protected 2201, and kept her from failing. She was everything. She was the Frost Queen, and the Frost Queen was She.
No other voices bothered her as the serum took hold and plunged her into the darkness.
“1267071302! Time for your First Enlightenment!”
Ynya looked down at her arm, reading the numbers that had just been called out. She would never get used to being called by a number, it was demeaning and dehumanizing.
Which is why they do it.
She looked around at the hundreds of faces that didn’t bother looking up. Maybe you did get used to it after a while. She shuddered at the thought of being here so long that she wouldn’t think of her name anymore.
Gustave frowned. “You better go.”
Ynya nodded. “Thank you for your help. I guess I will see first-hand what the First Enlightenment is all about.”
His large eyebrows furrowed. “Do you want me to talk to the guards? I might be able to keep them at bay for a while if you want.”
She shook her head. “No. Thank you, though. I think I can handle it. I want to know what everyone else is being put through.”
Gustave’s face was deep with worry, but he nodded. “I have heard of people resisting. Keep your mind focused on something positive.”
“1267071302! Last chance!”
Ynya raised her arm and yelled. “I’m coming!”
She turned to face the guard, but as she did, she caught sight of Synol, who was mid-stride through the pen. Behind her was Tyrain. He had more color in his face now.
She smiled at them, and raised a hand, despite the exasperated, terrified expression on her sister’s face.
“I love you.” She m
outhed the words, then turned toward the guards.
It was an hour later when the door finally opened to the small wooden cell.
“Ynya Oblique, so nice to meet you once again.” The man in red, the Warden of this place sauntered in with a flourish. “I hope you have been enjoying our accommodations.”
She growled. “You tie me up in a wooden room with nothing to do. I think I’d rather have the ice water treatment I keep hearing about. Sounds refreshing.”
He grabbed the chair on the other side of the table and sat down, crossing one long spindly leg over the other.
“Is that so? Well, I’m sure that can be arranged.” He turned toward the guard at the door. “Please ensure that 1301 receives the ice treatment.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ynya’s blood flash-boiled at her sister’s number. She tried to stand up from her chair, but the restraints about her wrists and ankles held her down. “You can’t do that to her!”
“Oh, but I can. You see, I can tell a lot about people. I have a feeling that whatever physical torture I put you through isn’t going to be very effective. No, I need to do something much more subtle to you.”
Ynya wanted to jump across the table and bite the man’s nose off. She pulled against her chair once again, but it was bolted to the floor and refused to budge.
He smiled, a crooked, primeval look just dripping with malice and humor. “That’s the spirit I need to break, right there. You love your sisters quite a bit, don’t you?”
He snapped his fingers and a female guard came in holding two objects.
One was a book, the other was a hair.
A red hair.
Chapter Eighteen
“2201? 2201, are you still with me?”
She awoke with a gasp. Her lungs burned for air, her head pounded, and the bottom half of her body was numb.
<
“Well, that was quite exciting, I must say. Nearly lost you there.”
The Translator dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief, wicking away the beads of sweat that adorned his pale grey skin.
