He was awakened by his own scream of agony. If only it had been the merciful unconsciousness without any dreams, without any thoughts... without drowning in the depths of a soul full of wounds that were deep and all too fresh. But it was not. If only he could escape the torment that cannot be described by any words, where he would be connected to his own mortal body only by a subtle string, that would allow him to return to his body the same way, as a paddler returns on his raft to the shore... but he couldn't. He escaped from the flesh only to his mind, swarming with nightmares and images of the last hours of his life.
He was dead... his body was no longer filled with life. And yet his soul was ripped out from death's clutches and chained up to his body with iron shackles. Yet he felt pain, though he shouldn't feel it anymore.
Tears filled his eyes; tears of pain rising from the deepest corners of his mind. Tears of a strained soul, that didn't want to give up without a fight. He tried to take a deep breath, but his lungs failed him. It was nothing but a mere custom from his former life... from the life he still remembered. But even if he could breathe, the dank air filled with rot and decay would make everything even worse.
"You still oppose me," a voice echoed, dry as an old scroll from the times before the Sundering.
Sir Zeliek tried to clench his fists, but he merely touched a chain with his lacerated nails and fingertips crushed with a hammer. The chain was going through his palm and came out on the other side, scraping his bones and already dead tissue.
"Maybe you've lost your sense of time after all what happened," the voice in the darkness of his cell continued.
Zeliek's mind, despite all the pain, was awakened by the lich's words. He truly had no idea, how long he had been in this place. How much time had passed since it all had gone so terribly wrong... since the point of no return. He didn't even try to move his pale bloodied lips and form them into words.
"Two weeks have passed, but your soul is still resisting. Is it really that precious to you, that you won't give it up?" The figure finally arose from the darkness of the cell. Rats quickly dispersed. "Is it worth the pain? Nothing is worth pain like this... and certainly not your soul. I know who you are. I know what's behind that faith of yours, what is hiding who you really are."
A cinderous hand grabbed his chin and lifted it up; it was fitted with deadly claws able to pierce through any armor, regardless its thickness or solidity. Once their eyes met, Zeliek didn't look away. The thing looking down on him had little in common with a human. It was a hideous monster, a skeleton... a lich. The lich that had been tormenting him the whole time.
"So tell me: Why is that little soul of yours so important to you? Pain and suffering is all that's left. What do you intend to do with it?" Zeliek tried to force his lips to smile, but they were stiff and every motion hurt.
"I intend to keep it... I'll never... surrender it... to you." His voice cracked from agonizing screams. Despite it was hardly recognizable, it still held marks of determination and defiance.
"If you really want it this way, everything you've been through will be nothing compared to what I'm going to do with you soon." The Lich released him from his grasp, but he was still floating nearby. " Maybe we could have a look at your exemplary life once more. Maybe you'll finally find something, that will give you a hint that there's no point in opposing." Cold hand touched his forehead. Zeliek knew, what was about to come. But he was ready... ready like never before.
Sarah! Aneth!
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