Chapter Four: Stem The Flow

   Jairo woke to the iron door of their tiny cell creaking open. Someone behind the blinding torchlight tossed in a small sack and said "Eat up" before shutting it again and locking it. Jairo woke the others so they could crawl over and look inside the sack. Korf pulled out six small, hard loaves of bread. Looking over, Jairo saw Dae was holding his injured arm to his chest. It probably didn't have much chance to patch up after yesterday's kidnapping.

   Asa bit into one and immediately grimaced. "REALLY stale." he said.

   Jairo took a chunk out of his. It could be worse, but it certainly replaced any other tastes in your mouth. They tried to eat as best they could with their knees and feet, with their hands only being able to manipulate behind their backs and all. Then there was the dilemma of what to do next. They had already slept, been up for a good twrell minutes, and were in the middle of the floor with a flat, almost cold stone floor. Jairo just leaned against the back of whoever was behind him and stared at the wall.

   Who knows how much time had passed, seconds, minutes, hours? But finally, he heard footsteps slowly get louder outside, until someone unlocked the door and the same person, or at least the same voice, told them to get up and move it. SLOWLY. They managed to squeeze through the cell door again and awkwardly made their way through a warren of tunnels, taking forks seemingly at random, until they arrived at a big room with a big oak-and-metal, decrepit throne standing against a wall. On this throne sat old decrepit Saph who leered at them in a slightly slouched position. When they shambled in awkwardly, now used to the flickering torchlight, Saph stood up with a concerned expression.

   "Borean, why are they still tied up like this? There's no reason to be rude to servants. Put them each in their own set of ropes." Saph snapped his fingers, and the big man behind them bowed around his somewhat protruding stomach.

   "As you wish Sapphire," he said in a clearly bored voice.

   Saph's calm and concerned expression vaporized and he stood up, facing turning red. "I TOLD you not to call me by my full name! No drink for your next raid! It makes me sound like a girl," he mumbled, and sank back into his rusty/molding throne again.

   Borean exhaled sharply through his nostrils and made his creepy little bow again. He untied Jairo's rope from the iron ring and retied his hands in front, and did the same for the others. He stretched his cramped arm muscles a bit, then Saph addressed them again.

   "Welcome to my establishment." he said, and grinned at them wickedly. "Escape is futile. Our lair is a labyrinth of tunnels you cannot hope to master, and every exit is guarded by at least two just as competent as big Borean here. Now, as servants you will be given tasks of work to do, and good behavior will get you small rewards. Don't behave well, and..." Saph chuckled and smiled again unnervingly. "Let's just say I get to become a bit creative with your punishment."

   "But let's focus on the positive. Wor- I mean TASKS, is good character building, and your room and food is given free of charge. Any questions?"

   "Yeah," piped up Hyle. "Do we ever get out?"

   Saph laughed at that. "We'll see, my friend. We'll see." And with that, he signaled with his hand to Borean, who herded them back to their cell.

-----V-----

   The next few days was spent in a blur of thought and motion and work. There was no day or night in the tunnels, and the only marker was their sleep time, and even then they didn't know if it was during real night, or day, or whatever, or how long it lasted. Jairo found it hard to concentrate on anything and just found himself doing work without any conscious effort. They were given sparse meals separately, and only got any chance to talk while they were supposed to be sleeping in their cell. But they were usually too tired to say/hear anything or were being eavesdropped on by someone who told them to shut up whenever they started talking.

   Jairo did all sorts of things, from cleaning out the restroom (which they only got to use once a day right after waking up), to excavating new tunnels and hauling crates of stuff from their (most likely) illegal operations outside the lair. But Jairo tried to concentrate whenever he got sweeping duty. He was loosely watched, and had a good opportunity to try and learn the tunnels.

   One day Jairo was sweeping close enough to the "throne" room to hear people's voices echo down the tunnels. Asa was sucking up to Saph again, while probably polishing his trophies or his feet.

   "Generous Lord Saph, I would do ANYTHING to prove myself to you."

   "And why would you want to do that?" Saph said, chuckling.

   "At first, well... I didn't really like it here. But I've come to appreciate the lesson you're trying to teach us, Wise One."

   Saph made a strange humming noise, as if the flattery was actually getting to him. "Yes, yes. Ah! But how would you prove your loyalty to me?"

   "Anything, lord."

   "Would you be willing to kill one of your less grateful little friends?"

   "If you would but just give the word, Most Thoughtful One."

   Jairo turned away and started sweeping again, disgusted. Was Asa just trying to get lighter work, or would he actually turn on them to join the bandits? Either way, it meant nothing good for him.

-----V-----

   That night, or whatever time they were supposed to be asleep, Jairo couldn't go to sleep as easily after hearing that particularly murderous line that day. He rubbed his eyes and looked around, and spotted Hyle huddled in a corner, doing something. He moved closer, doing so quietly in case anyone outside was looking for an excuse to yell at them, and peered over Hyle's shoulder. A pile of bones lay at his feet, and he was trying to quietly scrape away at one bone by putting it against the corners of the stones in the wall.

   "How did you get those?" Jairo asked quietly.

   "I was working in the kitchens today, cutting up meat. I hid as many as I could in my trousers without appearing noticeable. These are all from a pig or boar or something, so they should all work for a sword."

   Jairo shook his head. Hyle was a genius. "When do you think it will be ready?"

   "At this rate, a week." he said, turning the bone to work on a new groove. "Maybe two."

   Inspired by Hyle's effort for rebellion, Jairo went to sleep with a lighter heart.

-----V-----

   A few days later, while Jairo was washing plates and mugs when a loud clamoring started. Not like the drunk-happy yelling/singing of the raiders, but an angry yelling, topped by Saph's high-pitched shrieking. "He tried to kill me! He tried to kill me!"

   A bandit trying to conceal a bemused expression came into the kitchens and beckoned to Jairo. He gladly left the almost scalding hot water and dishes and followed, but worried about what lay ahead. They went straight to the throne room, which Jairo guessed partly from knowing the tunnels a little bit now, and Saph's still-panicked voice ricocheting along the walls. He came into the room with Saph trying to look as dignified as possible in slippers, and being angry, sitting, and injured with a gash on his leg, all at the same time.

   He joined the others, except Asa was being held by two of the biggest and angriest-looking bandits he had ever seen.

   "I show you this as a lesson to all!" Saph said, trying to calm down now, but still screeching. "Whichever of you five will kill this traitor will become an official bandit in my book!"

   They looked at Asa, who grinned and said. "Guess you can't kill him with his toenail clipper, however big it is." Asa was trying to get close to Saph so he could kill him? The notion of bravery alone put Jairo off from killing him.

   Jairo looked at Saph straight in the eye. "No," he told him.

   Saph looked wildly to the others. They all said no as well, or folded their arms, conviction evident. Saph got even redder in the face, so he almost looked the color of dark, red, wet clay.

   "TAKE THEM TO THEIR CELLS!" he screamed, and he looked like he was trying not to explode.

   But before they did, Saph strode down from his throne, drew his sword, and stabbed Asa in the side. He twisted it and pulled it out, wiping it on one of the retaining bandits' tunic. They were all dragged/walked to their cell, and put inside.

   As soon as the voices outside faded away, Jairo rushed over to Asa's side and inspected the wound. It was hard to tell in the dark and he wasn't exactly adept in medical practices, but it looked bad. Dark, scarlet blood poured ominously from the wound. Desperate emotions surged around in him, and he accidentally ignited a spark or two. But then he had an idea. If you know exactly how it should be...

   "Hyle, pull up your shirt," he said.

   "What? Asa's the one injured, man. Are you okay?"

   "Just do it."

   "Okay." Hyle complied and Jairo placed his hands on Hyle stomach identical to where Asa was stabbed. He used the thermal vision and spent a good five minutes studying where the veins and the tissues were, shushing people as they tried to ask a question and break his concentration. Then he moved over to Asa, who looked a bit paler, and put his hands on Asa's stomach. When he saw Asa's insides, he almost recoiled. It was a mess and blood was flowing everywhere, and Asa's quicker breathing made everything move around faster. 

  Jairo steeled himself and started by zooming on one vein, and looking at the little heat packages that were the agents of Asa's body to repair damaged wounds. He fed them heat and energy to speed up their work, and he quickly got it into a pattern, then zoomed out but kept the energy flowing. He did this several times, taking heat from the surrounding air whenever he felt cold and clammy, or like he was going to pass out. By the time he had done as much as he could he sat back and gave the different points of interest a packet of energy before severing the flow.

   By this time most of the bleeding had stopped, the room felt much colder, and everyone else was either dozing off or trying not to appear like they were getting a bit bored. But Asa watched mouth agape until he finished. When Jairo finished he closed his mouth.

   "That was amazing!" he said. "I feel much better! But why did you stop? Keep healing me, restore me completely!"

   Jairo shook his head. "One, I'm exhausted from that and I'm making the room too cold," he said. "Two, we don't want to appear suspicious."

   "Come on! Let's use your fire powers and kill them all!"

   "First of all, we're tired, and I doubt we'd be able to kill them all," interjected Dae. "Second of all, we should probably keep Jairo's powers a secret. It's a believable story that you survived that, but it's completely strange that you're completely healed. Not only would it be suspicious, it would make Saph's temper worse and could lead to even more injures to us."

   "Fine," Asa sighed, and he laid back to sleep. "But as soon as we can," he burbled, already half-asleep," we kill them all, ok? Ok..." and a snore erupted from him.

   Dae and Jairo changed his position so the wound would heal better and he wouldn't snore as loud, and they went to sleep.

Author's Note

Keeping in line with this universe's base eleven number system, twrell just means two rell, or twenty-two minutes.