Three days later (Saturday, July 23, 2022) Throne, The Hidden Kingdom of the Emperor

When Ella came to, she was suddenly in excruciating pain. Her face felt like it was on fire and she gasped and tried to speak but could only cough.

“Remarkable how fast you heal.” Kothin sat near a small fire, carefully shielded by debris. Ella forced herself to look around, something felt wrong and she went to move her arms and couldn’t. She was tied up.

Kothin smiled at her. Then took out a large knife and cut the ropes that he had tied her up with.

“You kept trying to claw at your face, I had to tie you up to stop it.”

Ella tentatively lifted her hand to her face, her right hand touched first and everything felt normal, if a bit tender. Suddenly she found herself scrambling in the ground around her almost blindly, looking for… the mask, which she found sitting on top of her other gear.1 It was now streaked with white crytalline lines, almost like tiger striping.

“What? What happened?” she whispered. She was clutching the mask in her hands and she felt an overwhelming desire to put it on.

Kothin responded, “You have been unconscious for over a week. I figured you would be dead by now… But instead you have just been healing.

“How? What…” she mumbled incoherently.

She passed out again.

The next day (Sunday, July 24, 2022)

Ella woke up with the sun high in the sky It was red from the ash in the air. she coughed some and rolled over to her side. Kothin was there as was Arcsa. Arcsa who some Aqrabuamelu were holding down and sawing off the remnants of a mashed leg.

He was biting down on something and his face was contorted and horrifying. The tourniquet above was cranked down further.

Ella staggered to her feet and almost fell over. She made it to Arcsa who even through the pain looked at her with something close to happiness.

My fault was all she could think.

He was getting paler and Ella reached out blindly, hot tears dripping from her eyes as she grabbed where the leg was. There was a flash of light and then darkness.

The following day (Monday, July 25, 2022)

When she came to again, Arcsa was sitting by the fire, his leg gone but he looked hale.

“Eleanor, you are awake?” he said quietly.

She couldn’t take her eyes off where his leg should be.

I’m sorry. she said. No she thought.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered.

Arcsa didn’t respond.

“I’m sorry!” she said louder.

“I heard you,” he replied, not taking his gaze from the fire. “It is not your fault. But you’ll understand if I would like to not talk right now.”

“I understand. The others?”

“Zaidu is scouting with Adrahasis and a few of the others. Everyone else? Dead or captured.”

“How many are left?”

Arcsa listed the names of those remaining. Davcina was not on that list.

Ella was numb. She couldn’t even understand what she had heard.

“We found Davcina… She didn’t make it. We partake of her strength now.”

Arcsa gestures towards the pot and Ella, stared in revulsion and longing. In the end she took some in a bowl, she justified it as what Davcina would have wanted, but was that the real reason?

The Emperor’s derisive comments weighed on her. She had taken to wearing the mask whenever she wanted to disassociate herself from her actions. It had taken on a larger life in her and then the past few weeks… she had become something else.

She dreamt that night of those past weeks and they were not glorious victories, but obscene acts of cruelty and sacrilege. She was feasting on the guts of orcs, flaying them, brutalizing them… and in her dreams, she wasn’t the mask, she was Ella. And she was enjoying it.

The morning found her trembling, eyes open and staring at the past few weeks in absolute fear.

Zaidu looked at her. He was nonplussed at her problems and also unsympathetic.

“I once dragged a man by his intestines through the forum of Alexandria for using false weights. He lived for longer than I would have thought he would. And Antonius was a good friend of mine.”

Gee, thanks Ella thought but the sarcasm had no bite. She felt she was in a miasma.

“What will you do?” asked Arcsa.

Ella had only one answer, “The Emperor must be contained. And then I would ask you for an end… I cannot be a ruler or a leader after this, or even continue.” Her voice was still dull but knowing there was a conclusion to this was perhaps her only solace.

“As you wish…” was all Arcsa said.

If you are wondering what mask Ella has been wearing since it is obviously taking on some importance, it is this Atomic Defense Ballistic Face Mask. ↩︎