Inside the Dragon Chamber

Peter

I helped Sarah up and supported her while we walked over to the guards.

Are you sure it'll be okay...? she asked.

Yeah. It'll be fine, don't worry.

One of them gripped Sarah's upper arm, forcefully but not violently. "Please do not resist."
Three of the others surrounded Peter and attempted to usher him from the room.

Half an hour later, and Peter was chained to a wall by his neck in a fairly large, clean and spacious cell with a reasonably long chain. A tall, powerfully-built women lounged against the bars of the call, regarding him curiously with her only eye. A long, thick scar ran up the left side of her face, disappearing beneath the eye-patch and appearing above it again. Her uniform was fairly nondescript, with a charcoal grey cloak over her left shoulder and a large quantity of silver rank markings on her right arm. At great length, she spoke.
"So, you must be the new prisoner's servant. My name is Giref Boarslay. Would you care to tell me yours?"

Peter

I'd really thought it would've been my wrists or something. This was preposterous.

"Peter Arkan," I said. "And I'm no one's servant. Sarah is my subordinate, not the other way around." I was sure this Giref person would find that surprising.

Giref raised a single eyebrow. "Well, I suppose there is a precedent. Kraf Ventrix is male, I suppose. I'll make sure upstairs know about that. Look, why don't you tell me a little bit about these Sybek while we wait for an official to come down here so I can explain the situation?"

Sarah's room was hung with tapestries and thick furs, but still a little chilly. There was a large bed covered in thick sheets and even more furs, and a nightstand with a basin and a chamberpot on it in the corner. There came a knock on the door followed by a deep and imperious female voice.
"Are you ready for questioning in there?"

Peter

"The Sybek are a cult founded on the belief that the world they come from is the only one that should exist," I said. "They set up bases on other worlds, drain life energy from their adversaries, and use that energy to destroy the worlds they've established the bases on. Everything on the planet dies."


Sarah

"Yes," I answered weakly.

My head hurt, and it felt like I was stuck in a fog. I wondered where Peter was... I hadn't heard where they'd taken him.

Giref nodded, jotting everything down in a notebook. "Interesting. Tell me, what weaponry do they tend to use? What is their usual method of assault? What do their uniforms look like?"

The imposing Kraf Nihir strode into Sarah's room, the titanic blade slung on her back. "You must be Sarah, the refugee prisoner. Your subordinate is detained in the dungeons, but may be returned to you at a later date." She snapped her fingers at one of her guards. "Chair."
The lackey brought a heavy, wooden chair into the room and positioned it behind Nihir while her scribes and advisers assembled themselves on either side of her.
"You earlier claimed to come from a different world. Tell me about that world."

Peter

"They use their powers to fight," I started, "but they aren't above conventional weaponry. Each one has powers over two of either wind, fire, earth, water, or light--but never fire and water, and never wind and earth. They also have the ability to travel between worlds, and they can communicate mentally with each other through souls. Everyone in the organization Sarah and I are from also has these abilities, which is why we're the only ones who can adequately fight the Sybek. The Sybek dress in long, dark robes with hoods of varying colors; the colors tell you what their main control type is. Red for fire, blue for water, green for earth, light blue for wind, and pale yellow for light. Rookies wear white hoods only. Sybek robes also have stripes at their cuffs to show rank, and the backs have the Sybek symbol on them, which looks like a complicated star."


Sarah

"He's not my subordinate," I told her, "he's my leader. Where is he? I want our conditions to be the same, whether that means he's somewhere like this or I'm wherever he is."

Are you...really in a position to be making demands? Sorrel asked.

My judgment is really clouded right now and I absolutely don't care, I thought back.

Nihir grinned. It wasn't an entirely friendly expression. "Very well. Your solidarity is to be admired. Guards, take her to the upper dungeon and have her incarcerated with her... superior."

Giref nodded slowly. "What sort of ranges do their powers operate at best?"

Sarah

"Thank you," I said.


Peter

"Mid-range," I told her, "though they tend to get closer; all they need to do to kill you is touch you. That's it."

Giref smiled superciliously. "So artillery is beyond their range? How do they normally establish an outpost?"

The guards hauled Sarah upright and began hustling her towards the door before manhandling her through the corridors and eventually clapping her in a neck chain in the same cell as Peter.

Peter

"They set up an academy where they teach people about souls and powers," I began, "provided those people join the Sybek. They twist peoples' minds like any other cult."


Sarah

I came into the cell.

"What're you doing here?" Peter asked me. "It sounded like you were going somewhere nice."

"I didn't like the inequality," I answered with a shrug, then explained what I'd said to the woman earlier.

"Oh." He paused. "You shouldn't have done that... You didn't have to, at least."

I just shrugged again in response.

This place is really awful... I thought to myself. I'm officially upset that they put me in that relatively nice room while they put him here.

Yeah, that really wasn't okay, Sorrel thought back.

Giref smiled even more widely and nodded to the guards as they left. "A cult, you say? They won't have any idea what they're facing." She raised a hand in greeting to the newcomer. "I am glad to see you care so much about your friend. Honour is a valuable trait. Now, tell me, are either of you hungry?"

Sarah

"I'm not," I said.

"Neither am I," Peter started, "but thanks anyway."

This was a pretty ridiculous way to contain someone, and it struck me as really...impractical.

Giref nodded again. "Tell me if you are hungry at any point. In the meantime, I wish to know all possible weaknesses of these Sybek."

Sarah

"They don't have many," Peter said. "They give away the element of surprise by wearing their main control type on their outfits, but that's it, really."

"I can't think of any weaknesses they have," I added.

"I see," replied Giref. "So. How do these powers work? Which ones control lightning? How susceptible are they to artillery fire?"

Peter

I guess she hadn't been listening before when I named the control types...?

"No one controls lightning," I said. "And considering they can make shields out of earth, water, and wind, they aren't very susceptible to artillery fire."

Giref jotted down a few notes. "So, heat vents and lightning cannons are the appropriate counter-measures?"

Peter

"Not heat," I said. "The people who control fire control heat."

Giref crossed something out and made some more notes. "Lightning it is, then. How good are they at magic?"

Peter

"They don't have magic," I told her.

Giref stared at him for several seconds, her eyes wide. "And they are a threat to people, you say? You're absolutely certain people feel threatened by them? Do they know how to work metal?"

Peter

"Of course they do," I said. "You don't need magic for that. And I already said that they can control elements and energy, which is similar to the things some magic can do. They--and I, for that matter--could set you completely on fire right now with a thought."

"Yeah," Sarah added. "A group of water types working together could warp the water in your body in ways you wouldn't want it warped."

Giref snorted. "And if I chose I could strike you with lightning, but I would be surprised if you could penetrate the magical wards on the Norlan combat uniform. And if it takes a group of people to exsanguinate a single woman then I wouldn't want to be part of that group when the rest of the platoon get to hear about it. I only asked if they could work metal because any culture without a basic working knowledge of magic can hardly be considered a culture at all."

Peter

"Well, that was just an example," Sarah said. "What would probably happen is one person alone would pull you into water and drown you. Or trap you within a bubble of water and drown you that way."

"Also," I started, "how do the magical wards work? Because if they only keep magic out, then the Sybek would bypass them instantly."