Bitter Wars- Ashes

by Kerriann Burns

  ‘Addie!’ a voice called out, but there was no mistaking that voice even in the distance, it was Fenrir.

  ‘Fen!? Fenrir!’ she called out as she shot up from the floor.

  ‘Where are you?!’

  ‘I’m in a cave! Careful there’s a sheer drop!’ it took a few minutes before his figure blocked out the rest of the limited light, he leaned forward and could only just about make her out in the darkness.

  ‘How did you get down there?’

  ‘I thought it was the exit, but I never saw the drop, I’m stuck here.’ Fenrir looked down at the sheer drop by his feet and could see the close call as his boot was already halfway off the ledge. He laid down flat and reached his arm out to her, Adonia tried to run and jump, trying to kick herself off the stone but there was no chance she could reach him.

  ‘Why do you have to be so damn short?’

  ‘Excuse me for something I have no power over, isn’t there anything you can use?’ he looked over his shoulder and left her to find something within the forest. It took him a little while before returning with a long dead tree branch, long enough to reach her and sturdy enough to pull her out. Adonia held the tree branch firmly while he began to pull her up, just as she reached to grab the ledge the branch snapped and sent her down back into the darkness with a heavy thud.

  ‘Shit, Addie!’ he called out, but he couldn’t even see her now. ‘Adonia?’ the silence remained. Fenrir paced slightly, if she’s badly hurt, he can’t return to the village for help, but if he goes down, they’d both be stuck down there. He called for her again and still couldn’t hear anything, he gritted his teeth and held onto the ledge before letting himself drop down to her. It was a fair drop, so it was no surprise that she was hurt, he felt round the darkness until there was a hint of warmth. Fenrir shook her slightly until she groaned and suddenly hissed in pain.

  ‘M-my wrist…’ she hissed as she sat up properly.

  ‘Well there goes another idea.’ He sighed as he looked up at the taunting light above, he thought perhaps if he lifted her up, she could reach the ledge but with her wrist possibly being broken there was no way.

  ‘Why didn’t you get help?’

  ‘You could’ve been badly hurt; you’d want me to leave you in a cold dark cave alone?’

  ‘That’s new for you.’ She chuckled which caused her to hiss in pain again. ‘Thought you couldn’t care less if anything happened to me.’

  ‘Normally I wouldn’t.’ he said as he felt around the rocks. ‘But you’ve got a kid you need to get back to.’ Adonia gave a small smile as she looked away, at least it was something he showed compassion for.

  ‘You like kids then?’ she could feel his glare. ‘You like the idea of kids, like the bond you have with Arthur…It’s almost as if he was your own son.’ considering Arthur was around fourteen and she could only guess Fenrir was the same age if not older than herself it wasn’t impossible age wise but with Fenrir living in imprisonment it definitely made it extremely unlikely.

  ‘If you ever meet a woman that’s interested in me, let me know.’ Fenrir replied as he continued to scan the surrounding walls.

  So, he’s a never been with a woman? She thought, but then thought about his situation, he was a slave for what sounded like most of his life and the girls at the tavern didn’t seem so keen to the idea.

  ‘Why did you never have a family? Even after you got out of slavery.’

  ‘Because I never got out of slavery I escaped, besides I can’t speak elvish and I’ll never live in the city, I’d be even more oppressed than I am now.’

  ‘Why would you have to go to a city?’ once again she could feel his silent glare, but that was enough of an answer, because there were no elves here, for someone so strong minded it seemed unusual for him to only want an elven partner yet again maybe that’s what he was attracted to. As Fenrir reached the back of the cave, he could feel a small breeze behind some loose rocks.

  ‘There’s something here.’ He began to pull back at the rocks to reveal a larger cave that pulled them even deeper into the darkness, as they crept forward in some hope of escaping Adonia didn’t want to but she placed her healthy hand on his shoulder and followed his lead. As the small hole became narrower, Fenrir reached over and took her hand and placed it on his back, indicating her to hold onto his shirt to give them more room. It was a tiny feature that always took her by surprise about Fenrir, he wasn’t afraid to just outright touch her whether it would be for a fight or just like now. She remembered the men in her life, especially Greymire would always seem to ask her permission for her touch even if it was silently, whereas Fenrir didn’t seem to care. The cave tunnel opened again into a vast opening, but this time there was light. They both looked up to the celling and it was like the night sky, beautiful blue lights twinkled above, something neither of them had seen in their entire lives. Adonia admired this magical beauty as the lights gently swayed and danced above, it was captivating.

  ‘You can let go of me now.’ She snapped back into reality as Fenrir stared bluntly as she still clutched onto his shirt and quickly released which let him continue forward. Adonia took one last look at the lights up above before following Fenrir, at least now their way was illuminated. ‘How’s that wrist?’ he asked as they continued walking on.

  ‘I can barely move it and my hands numb…’

  ‘Broken then…Hmm.’ He looked around the cave but couldn’t see anything to secure her arm. ‘Just support it as best you can.’

  ‘Sounds like you’ve done it before.’ He gave a sharp exhale from his nose then turned to her and held up his wrists.

  ‘Both of them.’ She could see the scars of shackles.

  ‘Was it the shackles?’

  ‘Breaking out of them yes.’

  ‘You’re pretty talkative for once.’ Adonia said as she followed close behind. She did wonder about it; this was the first real conversation they had.

  ‘If you prefer to walk in a cave in silence then be my guest.’

  ‘I’m just saying we never actually talk.’ He remained silent. ‘Very funny Fenrir.’ Through his silence she thought more about him, what he had done, it was ever since he mended her necklace that she saw him in a different light. She looked down at the necklace that twinkled in the blue light and tried to speak to him again. ‘Why did you fix my necklace?’

  ‘…I guessed it was important to you with a reaction like that.’

  ‘Someone I loved very dearly gave it to me as a birthday present, I always took it off before bed so I wouldn’t break it…Then the attack happened.’

  ‘And there’s your best friend stealing it from you.’ Adonia glared but kept her head down as a hatred started to boil.

  ‘Dukan’s next I can promise you that.’

  ‘You like to kill people that have done you wrong don’t you.’

  ‘Coming from the one he kept in slavery.’

  ‘Dukan’s done far worse…That I can promise you.’

  ‘Next plan of attack then.’ He gave another exhale out of his nose.

  ‘Were you always so bitter?’

  ‘I must take after Alexander then.’ He rolled his eyes sarcastically and continued on.

  The tunnels were vast in length spanning much further than any of them realised until they came to another tunnel and Fenrir finally realised where he was. They came to a huge opening in the cave where there were ancient scaffolding structures that lined the walls, rats scurried away at the signs of life but what caught Adonia off guard were the bones, multiple skeletons lined the floors, and the stone was stained an unnatural red.

  ‘The Blood Mines…’ he sighed as he looked out at the open space.

  ‘Blood Mines?’

  ‘Surely you of all people must know how the Griffiths family came into money.’

  ‘Of course, they found mountains rich with ore…But I’ve never seen stone this shade of red it looks like…’

  ‘Blood?’

  ‘Yes but…That’s ridiculo
us right?’

  ‘It’s how the mine got its name, people died here so often and so brutally people said that the stone had been stained with their blood ever since, but how else did they make their money?’

  ‘…I don’t quite follow.’

  ‘Slavery, all the bodies you see here were slaves.’ She looked around and could still see the masses, there must have been hundreds here. But some different bones caught her eye, they were much smaller, then the realisation hit her; they were children.

  ‘Even children…?’

  ‘Children are more expensive to buy but they last longer…’ Adonia moved along, she didn’t want to be here any longer than she needed to, but her wrist was swelling, and the pain started to affect her. ‘Wait.’ Fenrir said before exploring the scaffolding, some of the wood was already broken and barely held together by old rope. ‘Sit down a second.’ They sat down together while Fenrir attempted to secure her arm as best as he could, she hissed and winced in pain as he tied the rope tightly over the splint, he looked at her occasionally as he wrapped and tied but barely spoke a word. ‘It’s not the greatest but you’ll live.’ He looked around the cave briefly before collecting more wood and placing it into a pile.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘It’ll be dark by the time we get out, we’ve already been here for hours, might as well rest up.’

  ‘In the mines of all places?’

  ‘This place has been abandoned for years; we’ll be fine.’

  ‘But the bodies…’

  ‘They’re just bones, they’ve been dead longer than we’ve been alive. Of all things I never thought you’d be afraid of is a couple of bones.’

  ‘I’m not afraid just uneasy…These were people Fenrir.’

  ‘Again, people that have been dead a long time, you never knew them they never knew you, simple as that.’ He said as he tried to get a fire started.

  ‘And you call me bitter.’

  ‘But at least I’ll admit it.’

  They sat by the crackling fire quietly for a while, Adonia would occasionally look at Fenrir through the fire but just as quickly looked away as he looked at her.

  ‘Do you like staring at people?’

  ‘Quite the opposite in fact.’

  ‘It’s funny really, considering you fight like a retired knight you’re actually shy.’

  ‘What makes you say that?’ she said with an annoyed tone as she leant her arm on her knee. Without a word he stared into her eyes, she tried to stare back but her eyes shifted and eventually she looked away.

  ‘Because you do that.’

  ‘It’s a natural response! It’s intimidating when you glare like that.’

  ‘I bet you used to do it with Greymire a lot as well.’

  ‘No, I…I didn’t…’ she held her tongue as she thought about it, yes of course she hid away, how could she have forgotten?

  ‘Can I ask you something?’ she gave an acknowledging head tilt. ‘Did you actually love Greymire?’

  ‘What kind of stupid question is that? I married him and had his child of course I loved him.’

  ‘Well did you love him because you wanted to, or because you were told you had to, everyone knew you were getting married but that wasn’t your choice was it?’ she sat quietly for a moment trying to glare at him.

  ‘No, it wasn’t my choice, but we did fall in love regardless, personally I don’t see how it’s any of your business.’

  ‘I know, I was just curious.’ He said as he laid down on the floor with his arms crossed behind his head.

  ‘Alright then let me ask personal questions about you.’

  ‘There’s not much to ask, you already know what you need to know.’

  ‘…Are you from Reckson?’ he gave her a slight sideward glance. ‘You have a little twang in your voice, only just noticeable though.’

  ‘Alexandrian born, spent most of my life in Reckson, but I was shipped around a lot to fight.’ ‘Where’d you learn to fight? Who taught you?’ he closed his eyes but continued to answer her.

  ‘Myself, I didn’t have any fancy teachers…Well apart from the one Dukan hired but he mainly hired him for me to kill.’

  ‘What, why?’

  ‘See how good I was.’

  ‘Fenrir…Your so strong minded why did you ever do what he said?’ he opened his eyes and stared at her once again, but this time she held the look.

  ‘Have you seen my body? The scars, the brands, the tattoos, do you think I accepted them willingly?’

  ‘So, he tortured you.’ He sighed as he looked back up at the ceiling and closed his eyes once more.

  ‘He conditioned me, if I didn’t fight I’d get beaten, tortured, starved you name it, but when I did fight, when I killed I was given food and praise, I was only a kid so what choice did I have but to obey or die a slow painful death?’ Adonia couldn’t imagine what a life that was, she looked closer at his wounds and thought how painful each must have been and how he’d only be allowed the most basic of treatment not to care but just to keep him alive. ‘I only tried to escape once…Must have been around Arthur’s age, managed to sharpen a rock in my cell and when Dukan came to get me out I tried to kill him, Divine.’ He sighed. ‘I was never beaten so badly in my entire life, I couldn’t walk for weeks, I couldn’t even open my eyes they were swollen so badly, knocked out some teeth…Ever since, I stayed, and obeyed.’

  ‘…How did you even get into slavery?’ he remained silent to the point where Adonia thought he didn’t want to talk to her any longer, so she went to lay down herself until he finally spoke.

  ‘I had a family once…I don’t remember my father only that he worked in the mines and died in an accident when I was very young. My mother never let me work there said she couldn’t bear to lose another loved one, she and my older sister worked as tailors, until they came. In the middle of the night some thugs attacked our home and tried to take us away…My mother gave herself to save us while all me and my sister could do was hide while they…’ he took a nervous inhale but cleared his throat. ‘But they still took us and shamed my mother. All I remember is being in a big dark room with what felt like hundreds of elves all in chains being gawked at by nobles. They pulled at us, pried our mouths and eyes open like fucking livestock. When they tried to sell my sister my mother went berserk, like nothing I had ever seen, she bit and scratched anything that came near, so they killed her…My last memory was of my mother staring at me on the executioners block and her final words to me were “I’m sorry” before they finally killed her…Griffiths bought my sister and I was so angry and afraid I lashed out just like my mother did, I wouldn’t let them take me, I couldn’t, so they were just going to kill me like they did my mother, that’s when Dukan bought me to be his big gold earner. The Blood Elf is what I was called, a name everyone came to fear, men killed themselves when they knew it was me they faced, they cowered but I still slaughtered them, because it was either them or me, at least I gave them the mercy of a quick death as I knew I wouldn’t have that luxury.’

  ‘Fen…I had no idea.’ She shuddered as she leaned back up.

  ‘Even Barmic doesn’t.’

  ‘…Then we have to get to Griffiths right away, we’ll save your sister and-.’

  ‘She’s dead Adonia.’ He interrupted. ‘They tortured me to get me riled up before fighting and it just stopped working, I was broken by it so they had a new method, they chained me up and brought my sister in and… they raped her just out of my reach…She screamed for me to help her but I was powerless but it got the results that they wanted. They did this again and again, Griffiths, Dukan, their soldiers, even their servants that wanted to take part had her until she became broken to it. So, they killed her in front of me, but that was the night I escaped and eventually made my way here.’ They were both silent but Adonia shifted toward him and gently placed her hand on his shoulder which he gave a glance at and was quick to remove her hand. ‘I appreciate the effort but don’t bother, I don’t need your
comfort.’

  ‘I was just trying to help.’ She said nervously as she recoiled back.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Fenrir…Why did you come looking for me?’ he glanced over at her briefly. He took a moment to examine her emotions then glanced back up at the ceiling.

  ‘Would you believe me if I said I never wanted you to get hurt?’

  ‘Hm, you?’ she chuckled sarcastically. ‘I’d believe you more if Barmic told you to look out for me but even then, I’d imagine it would take some convincing.’

  ‘I never want anyone to get hurt, no doubt you’ll be the death of me and a royal pain to me until then but, that doesn’t mean I want you to throw your life away. Revenge isn’t everything.’

  ‘I know.’ She sighed. ‘But it isn’t just about revenge, it’s about justice, Griffiths can’t be allowed to get away with what he’s done, if not just to me but to the people of the village, and you.’ She met his glance again. ‘I know nothing can bring my family back, but…I just want peace.’

  ‘And what if his death doesn’t bring it?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I’ve thought about killing the Dukans for years, hoping that it would make me feel like a free man, yet when I killed Ila…I felt, nothing. Perhaps when its Dukan’s turn it might be different, all I’m saying is don’t hope for everything to be fixed just for one accomplishment, now enough of that, get some rest and we’ll look for an exit.’ He said as he rolled over onto his side away from her and lent on his arm to sleep. Adonia stared at him briefly but tried to do the same, she rolled facing away and attempted to sleep, but the cold kept her awake. Fenrir stirred slightly, unable to sleep he quietly looked over his shoulder to see her shivering as the fire began to die out. Years of being locked away meant his body was used to the cold stone against his skin, but not her, he gave a quick sigh before getting up to find more wood for the fire.

  Adonia awoke somewhere new, but this time she was in chains with only a single window as her light source.