More terrifying then the sound of screams and whips and the harsh barking tones of the warden and his guards, laughter echoed in waves from one of the innermost cells of the Blacklake dungeons. Hoarse, rough, dry, it was both young and weary, both pained and exultant, as though amused beyond measure at the predicament it found itself in. Which, of course, it was-looking to the soldier before him, it was hard for Cid to contain his mirth as he looked to him with green eyes that slowly boiled away into a deep crimson red before continuing on to an azure blue.

"You're jokin' with me..." he breathed, his voice rough and dry after all these years, bust still retaining the youthful quality of his age antagonized by the fact that he hadn't grown since his transformation. It had been forty seven years-he'd counted every one of them, day by day-since they'd put him here..."And now you want to let me out, and to fight fer you? Yer daft, boyo..."

"I don't think so." the man said, looking with disgust to the emaciated elven figure before him. Against the wall in front of him, Cid's body was pinned visibly with what looked to be shafts of iron, two of them piercing through his chest and hanging him against the wall. His arms were behind his back and pierced similarly with iron spikes that braced them apart and lined his arms; much the same with his legs. All along the metal, twisting red runes, sinuous and hot enough that they made the air above them shimmer, stood firm against the blackened metal. The only part of his body free from the assault was his face, and even then a slitted mask covered his mouth, obscuring his lips and mouth behind it as though he were a cannibal...

Which he very well might have been, if he considered humans to be his species.

"You will obey, elf, because if you don't things will be all the worse for you. The only way you'll ever be allowed out of this is to aid us in bringing in the head of the leader of an army that has recently threatened our world. Our undead allies-"

"Allies? Since when did we work with them cadavers?" Cid interrupted, cocking his head to the side as best he could and revealing a similar iron spike lodged through his throat, from front to back, the skin charred where it came in contact with the metal.

"Since we were forced to a year ago after the death of our king at the hands of the invaders. These are tough times-" The marshall muttered darkly before Cid interrupted him.

"So the king's dead, eh? Now I'm startin' t'see why y'might need me..." he muttered with a chuckle as he looked to him, a smile on his face beneath the mask but his eyes alight with hatred towards the man before him. He was a human, and not only that, he was one of the humans who imprisoned him here, pinned to the damn wall like a fly, alone in the dark with nothing but the constant sear of fire against his regenerating skin... Unable to move so much as a muscle...

"Alright, then...lemme down, and I'll fight your war for you..." he said, grinning beneath the mask as the metal in the wall behind him sunk out, the iron spikes allowing him to drop to the ground. He fell to his feet and looked triumphant to the man in front of him before he began to sway, realizing that he couldn't balance with his legs pinned as they were. The guard smirked as he slammed foreword into the floor, crying out in pain as the bolts across his body jerked within him. He was so used to them he didn't feel them anymore, at first, but once they were jerked...

He could do little but whimper, and after a minute or so he'd managed to restrain himself to the point where he could glare with hatred at the man who had let him fall. He wanted to kill him, wanted to tear his arms free and rip out his damn throat and feed it back to him...which was probably why he was so restrained.

A pair of mages swept foreword, their hands sweeping foreword and leaving inky blotches in the air where they spelled out runes before twin lines shot toward the young man, twining one set around his throat and the other around his legs. The iron rods in them pulled free, orbiting around him slowly as they tore from his flesh, leaving gaping holes that before the eyes of those watching began to fill in, the flesh sliding back into place until they were entirely sealed. When they were satisfied he could walk, they jerked him to his feet and started him foreword towards the gates of the castle, the young boy walking along after them with difficulty-it had been a very long time since he'd been able to walk, afterall. When finally they lead him out into the light (he clenched his eyes shut, the light was almost painful now...) and he could see, he found himself standing on the stone street outside of the black rock of the castle, looking out over a fairly bustling town. The mages stood beside him, shifting lightly, and as he watched he looked around in slight confusion as to what was going on-the light was making his head hurt, but he'd get used to it...

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