Morning all. Hope you are primed for a fabulous Friday. Let’s see what the last prompt of the week brings shall we? Timers at the ready and off we go.
I kind of like the set up on this one. I don’t think it needs to be the primary story but their tale woven into a larger one where the protagonist is someone other than Troy or Sebastian. Something to play with later.
Friday, June 6th: Bring him to me.
“Bring him to me,” Sebastian said. He let his voice roll out, echoing against the stones. The guard bowed low before hurrying off to the cells. Sebastian paced. He had been expecting this day, dreading it, but expecting it.
‘And now it is here,’ he thought. As he paced he thought through his options. He knew Troy and Troy knew him. They came through the gate, void, wormhole thing at the same time. They landed together and spent three days wandering together as they tried to figure out what was going on. One thing they both knew was that this was not the wooded running path in the city park where they were running.
‘Not in Kansas any more,’ he thought. “Or Georgia for that matter as we weren’t near Kansas to begin with.’
Sebastian dismissed the thought. After three days they ran into a patrol of imperial guards who looked more inclined to shoot first and ask questions later. ‘To be fair as they were shooting arrows they might have been able to ask questions later,’ Sebastian mused as he paced.
The attack split him from Troy as they both ran far and fast in order to save their own skins. Sebastian convinced himself going back to look for Troy would be a bad idea. There were still armed men in the woods and as he had only known Troy three days he didn’t think he owed him anything. For a while he told himself that once he figured things out he would go look for Troy.
He knew it was a lie even when he told it to himself. He had never been one overly worried about the fate of others. He always believed that if you wanted to make it then you had to put in the effort yourself. If you couldn’t then you deserved what you got. It was an attitude he learned to hide early as he very quickly learned that to get ahead people needed to like you at least a little bit.
‘At least for a while.’
Sebastian smiled. He hadn’t needed to hide it from the old necromancer though. He saw who Sebastian was right away. There were some tense moments and Sebastian spent quite a lot of time in the dungeons where Troy now sat before he and the necromancer came to an agreement. Then Sebastian became a willing student, excelling in his studies as it was the only way he could survive. When the necromancer died, Sebastian took his place and assumed his title. No one here knew his name was Sebastian. It didn’t seem quite fitting for his position so he simply never spoke it aloud.
And if no one here knew it, then he doubted it was known beyond his gates. ‘Except Troy.’ Troy had done well for himself albeit in a different way. Sebastian knew he had rank and prestige in the kingdom he found himself in, but Sebastian knew no details. Troy was sent as an emissary and Sebastian recognized his face and the traces of his accent. He was wearing his mask of office and Troy had yet to see his face. Sebastian intended to keep it that way. Still making an emissary uncomfortable to drive home the point that you didn’t want unexpected visitors was one thing, leaving him rot was another. He would have to meet with him and see what it was he wanted. Sebastian realized he would have to watch the traces of his own accent, and channel the rolling cadence of the necromancer who trained him if he wanted his identity to remain a secret.
Ten til Midnight 