The Forgotten Zodiac

Reetah was quick to get his wrists and ankles tied and secured. She wrapped what was left of the rope around his arms and his upper legs, making sure he couldn't do anything. All the ropes didn't keep him from squirming around and screaming, though. Reeta didn't feel too good about putting a gag in his mouth, but she had enough rope left...at least her sock was clean. She tied it into Sylas' mouth, sighing unhappily when he finally gave up on screaming. He struggled still, starting to cry. As though they had no reason to be tying him up.

Minori reverted after Reetah had Sylas secured, then looked down sadly at the boy. "I wonder if Jerod's had any luck finding our little warlock..." he muttered. He looked up at the sound of footsteps, but was suprised to see not Gabe or Jerod, but Quay.

"What's going on?" the selkie asked.

Sylas looked desperately up at Quay, panic and tears in his eyes.

"Nothing, Quay. Go back to...reading. Or whatever it is you do around here." Reetah growled, frowning deeper when Sylas shook his head, making muffled sounds and desperately trying to...well, apparently he was trying to cause doubt in Quay's mind about who was doing good here.

Quay blinked down at the human. "Isn't that Sylas?" he asked, looking at Reetah in confusion. Minori was the one to speak up, though.

"He's been hypnotized. He tried to kill me," the King said, placing heavy emphasis on the word 'tried'. Quay seemed to get a better grasp on what was happening now, and looked back to the human.

"He's sad," the selkie observed.

"He's trying to trick you," Reetah rolled her eyes, dragging Sylas back. The boy broke down and wept, shaking terribly. Reetah looked on in pity, then looked up sharply as Jerod returned with Gabe.

"Right. Just put him to sleep again, Gabe." Jerod urged the boy on, but Sylas reacted badly to his words. The bindings on his wrists snapped - Reetah had left them too loose - but he didn't try to break free and run for it. He tore the gag out of his mouth and screamed,

"Don't put me to sleep! Put me in the dungeons, tie me to the ceiling, anything but that cursed sleep again! The nightmares, the nightmares...don't make me sleep again...I beg of you..." He wept bitterly, staring fearfully at Gabe.

Gabe looked to Jerod for instruction. He had already turned to the page with the sleep spell, but seemed hesitant to use it after Sylas's words.

"He's sad," Quay repeated.

Jerod looked from Sylas to Gabe, sighing unhappily. "I won't make you use it, lad...but I don't know if we should leave him awake or not..." He said hesitantly, looking down.

Sylas, in the meantime, was begging. "Please, please, don't make me sleep, please!" He dragged himself closer to Gabe, reaching out towards the small boy. He cried over the boy's shoes, shaking terribly. He made no other movements, he pulled out no new weapons, nothing of the sort.

Gabe didn't seem to know whether to pull back or reach down to comfort Sylas, but he didn't have to think on it for long. L'arc came stumbling down the hallway on legs that seemed to still be half-asleep, and knelt beside Sylas. "Sy?" he called. "Are you all right? Shh, it's okay..."

"No, no, no, no," Sylas tried to pull away at first, but without warning, he lunged towards L'arc, wrapping his fingers around the forest prince's neck. "No, no, no!" He wailed, crying all the harder. Reetah intervened, dragging Sylas back and retying his wrists together.

"Be quiet, or I'll gag you again!" She snapped at him. He fell silent at once, resigning to just crying.

L'arc knelt by Sylas, looking slightly shaken but still determined to stay by his friend. "Sylas, it's okay. You don't have to hurt us," he said, in an effort to get the human to return to normal.

((How do we fix him?))

((Rush caaaan. Or at least, Rush knows how. Basically, you have to beat him to the point of death and give him your own orders that overwrite the ones he was given before. 'Be normal Sylas again', or something of the like.))

Sylas shook horribly. "Yo-you don't understand...a-all I can see...is his face. Taunting...and ordering that I have to kill...I have to kill..." He shut his eyes tight, pressing his cheek against L'arc's knee. "But I don't want to...I don't..."

"Right...L'arc, you're his friend. What...should we do? We suggested to put him to sleep again, but he screamed about nightmares and protested. He thought we should lock him up instead...which do we do?" Reetah questioned, frowning.

((L'arc can figure that out. Rush is too far away and I WANT SY BACK.))

L'arc bit his lip, putting his hand on the back of Sylas's head. "I... I can only think that... we do what Dysonious did, and tell him to not kill us," he said, his voice low with resignation. Minori's brow creased.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" he asked.

"Well, not really, but can you think of anything else? Is there a spell or something? A galdr?" he asked, his gaze turning to Jerod, Gabe, and Quay in turn. The selkie shook his head, while Gabe turned to his mentor, hoping Jerod knew something.

Jerod looked down, shaking his head. "I...read about the various forms of hypnotism after L'arc told me what happened to Sylas. This...'death walk' hypnotism functions on the drive within all creatures to survive. How to start it...you have to put them onto death's doorstep, practically. Then you have to convince the subject's subconscious that they can be saved by performing a simple task. Move a cup, draw something, easy things. When they do that, nurse them back to health. They likely won't remember, but their subconscious will. And when they're put on death's door again, they'll listen to whatever orders they're given as though they'll die if they don't obey. Any sort of wound will do, but the most effective seems to be wounds that draw a lot of blood and do blunt damage at the same time. According to the study notes I found, anyways..."

"So," Reetah sighed. "We basically have to hurt him in order for him to stop trying to kill us any chance he gets. Can't we just try and convince him that he won't die? And yeah, what about spells or Gladyrs?"

"That's just it," Jerod shook his head. "The subconscious isn't something to take lightly. He might consciously know that he's fine and safe, but subconsciously, he rejects those ideas and tries to kill us for self-preservation's sake. Gladyrs and spells may be strong, but technically...there's nothing physically wrong with him. The most we can do is put him to sleep--" Sylas wailed at the mention of sleep. "But apparently that's...emotionally scarring..."

L'arc shuddered. "I don't want to have to hurt him. But if there's no other way to fix him, then I..." he looked down at Sylas. "I suppose we..."

((Feel so bad for the short reply after your awesome one.))

"Right. Come on, Sylas," Reetah picked him up, ignoring his squirming. She carried him down the stairs and into the dungeons, making a beeline for the unused torture room. She paused, though, looking back at L'arc. "You...don't have to, you know. I can take care of it. I'll make sure we don't lose him..." She tilted her head a bit, but didn't wait for an answer before carrying Sylas in and strapping him down to the table. The second he realized where he was, Sylas was screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs, trying desperately to get away. Of course he would. He still had a rational mind, despite his need to kill. 

((It's okay. xD I feel bad for leaving the posts unnoticed for an hour plus all the time. Sorry. :L))

L'arc hesitated at the door. "I don't know," he said quietly. "Maybe I should just... I'll come in. I want to... I don't know. I want to be in there," he said.

"Come on in, then..." Reetah said, gagging Sylas out of the desire for him not to scream himself hoarse. "What...what do you suggest we do to him?" She questioned quietly, looking at the things on the wall. There was a mace that caught her eye. It was spiked, and looked heavy; it would cause bleeding, and blunt damage at the same time. At the same time, she didn't want to use it; they would have to be extremely careful so as not to kill Sylas by accident. Maces were not exactly careful weapons.

Reetah looked over at L'arc, frowning a bit. "We should also be prepared to give the order. What do we say? We can't tell him to not follow orders, he might reject anything we need him to do in the future..."

L'arc eyed the equipment on the wall with a disdainful eye. "And here I though Manakete were peaceful," he muttered under his breath. He turned back to Reetah at the question, though, and gave it careful consideration - though it seemed to take longer than normal, as he was still just waking up from his winter sleep. "Maybe just... tell him to be Sylas, again?" he asked, wondering if that would work.

"Even the most peaceful of us must be prepared for an unpeaceful encounter, L'arc." Reetah said quietly. "Perhaps that would work...but he still is Sylas. That hasn't changed. Perhaps we could just order him to not kill his friends, but that may leave urges to kill those he doesn't know as well...and if we tell him to not kill anyone, that might pose problems the next time you lot get into a fight with someone. Maybe...maybe if we tell him to forget Dysonius, he'll throw away his memories of his last order? Dysonius is the one that did this to him, isn't he?"