The Forgotten Zodiac

L'arc nodded, vaguely remembering something of the sort. "Yes, yes that's right," he said, nodding more strongly as this truth solidified in his mind. "That sounds like it would work."

"Alright, then. Help me pick what to do," Reetah said, coming up with a mallet and a few knives. "We could break his bones first, then cut him open so there's a lot of blood..." Sylas, in the meantime, was still trying to struggle and get away. He didn't want to be hurt...

L'arc winced, but took a knife into his hand. "Let's just get it over with," he muttered, fingering the blade with a look of resignation. He refused to meet Sylas's gaze, fearing he'd lose his nerve if he saw the look in his friend's eyes.

Reetah, displaying her usual nerves of steel, brought the hammer down on Sylas' arm. There was a painful crack, and even she stopped and winced terribly when Sylas screamed. She liked Sylas, there was no way around it. It was hard to hurt him. But it had to be done...with that in mind, she brought the hammer down again, this time on his upper arm, near the shoulder. She was being careful not to break anything that couldn't easily be healed. She moved on to the next arm, this time hesitating. Sylas...he screamed and wailed and pulled against his bindings, shaking his head and crying miserably.

L'arc stood there numbly, unable to move. The Forest Prince liked this even less than Reetah did. He considered the knife in his hand, then shook his head and lowered it. "The faster this is done, the better," he said, looking to Reetah. He then lifted his hand, watching as vines sprang from the walls and floor of the cell. They wrapped themselves around Sylas's arms and legs, waiting for L'arc's command. The Prince looked to Reetah once more, then away as he closed his fist, causing the vines to constrict around the human's limbs.

Sylas thrashed, but it was no use. Snap, snap, snap. No more struggling. There was still plenty of screaming, though. Reetah sighed unhappily, shaking her head; she wasn't the toughest Manakete alive. Hurting Sylas like this was starting to get to her, and she wasn't even the one doing most of it, now. Reetah grabbed one of the knives, stabbing it half-way into Sylas' stomach, just below his ribs. She made several shallower cuts, then went on to cutting Sylas' arms, making small and shallow cuts.

The vines made cuts of their own, before L'arc had decided that it was enough and caused them to receede back into the ground. "Do you think it's enough yet?" he asked, looking to Reetah.

Sylas wasn't screaming too much anymore. He was just...twitching. He looked like he might be there, but when Reetah looked down at him, he tried to make noise and struggled again. "No...I don't think he's quite there yet. We should make him bleed more," She suggested, though she had no idea what else to do. Controlled wounds weren't working too well...

L'arc looked to Reetah, then to Sylas, then back to Reetah. "I guess there's only one thing to do, then," he murmured, sighing. He reached over his shoulder and drew Lisben from its sheath. "I just hope Gabe knows some fantasitic healing spells," he said, raising the blade up over Sylas's torso. The steel flashed as it sliced through the air. L'arc had positioned the blade so that the flat of the sword hit Sylas directly in the chest, snapping several more ribs.

Sylas started weakly coughing, a bit of red spreading over the gag. He let out another weak cry, now finding it too painful to move. "This is taking too long," Reetah growled, grabbing the mace she had been eying before. She brought it down on Sylas' chest, mostly just dropping it from a small distance up. He didn't respond much at that, heaving in another breath and coughing weakly again. Reetah dragged the mace off, not surprised at how much blood had been drawn forth from the wounds. It was in a puddle around them now, running onto the floor.

"Alright," Reetah tore the gag out of Sylas' mouth, watching as he started to go limp and close his eyes. "No, no, no, stay awake, Sylas." He forced his eyes open again. Reetah frowned. "Blink," She ordered, and he did. "Right. He's ready, L'arc. Would you like to do the honors?" 

L'arc nodded, then moved over near Sylas's ear. "Sylas, listen. We want you to go back to being normal Sylas again. Forget about Dysonious, and the orders he gave you," he said. At the same time, the druid reached for the shackles holding Sylas down, moving to undo them. "Okay?"

"O...kay..." Sylas moaned, then promptly passed out.

"Get him out of this," Reetah ripped off the bindings, lifting Sylas easily and practically charging back up the stairs. Jerod had already set up the healing circle, and set Gabe on the right page. They would need as much magic as they could get to heal Sylas fully, so he had given Gabe an unused Dragonstone; he knew it wouldn't work for long, but it should lend its power to the spell for now.

Dragonstones were imbued with quite a lot of magical power, but Gabe found himself wondering if it would be enough as Sylas was carried into the room, dripping with blood. Gripping the stone tight in one hand and his spell book in the other, the little warlock set quickly to reciting various healing spells, doing all that he could to heal Sylas as quickly as possible.

Sylas didn't seem to react much at first, but slowly, the bleeding stopped. His bones slid back into place with all the haste of a snail, and his wounds were stitched shut with a magical line conjured from the spell. When the spell was cut off due to the lack of energy needed, Sylas was left with stitches and cracked ribs, but he was definitely alive. His breathing and heartrate were steady.

He flinched the tiniest bit when Reetah moved forward to pick him up. "L...L'ar...rc..." The human moaned softly, opening his one eye as much as he could manage to try and find his dear friend.

L'arc rushed foreward, taking hold of Sylas's hand. "I'm here," he said, following as Reetah took the human over to a bed to rest in.

"What...happened..." He murmured, closing his eye again as he was settled on the bed. Without warning, he jerked his hand away from L'arc. "Wh-why...why d-did you..." He looked desperately around the room for someone else. Anyone else. His wandering eye found a small potted winter rose. He struggled to drag it onto his bed, trembling as he held it tightly for comfort.

L'arc reached over and grabbed the potted rose, then sat it next to Sylas as the boy seemed to want. "There, there," he tried to soothe, reaching for the human's hand again. "It's all right..."

Sylas cried out in a panic, twisting around in his bed and promptly falling out of it. He screamed as he hit the floor, his wounds still very much fresh. Reetah moved to help him up, but he would up pushing himself under the bed. "L'arc...maybe we should have made him forget that we hurt him," Reetah said quietly, frowning unhappily. They couldn't do it all over again, Gabe was too tired for healing. "He won't understand what we're talking about if we try to explain, we...we made him forget about his past orders, and Dysonius...skies above, I knew something like this would happen," She snarled and kicked the bed, backing up a pace when Sylas whimpered.

L'arc's expression fell, then twisted in anger. "Of all the stupid... why didn't I think of this? Sylas..." the druid continued on in this mannar as he stormed out of the infirmary, not wanting to upset Sylas any more than he already had.

Gabe, on the other hand, inched closer, then crawled under the bed to join Sylas, bringing the potted plant with him. "Sy? I brought your flower..."

Reetah followed him, angry as well. She might have to punch more statues later...

"Look, maybe we can convince him that it was a hallucination or something. We'd be lying through our teeth, sure, but...it's for his own good," Reetah said quietly, rubbing her arm. "This is a disaster and a half..."

Sylas seized the plant. After a moment, he set it aside and hugged Gabe as tightly as he could without hurting himself. He cried weakly, his heart shattered into a million pieces. L'arc...L'arc was his friend. He wouldn't have hurt him without reason...with another sob, Sylas realized that he needed L'arc. His friend, his dear friend.

It took several long minutes before Sylas dragged himself out from under the bed, after shoving the plant back into Gabe's hand. Sylas tried desperately to stand, but his body...torn and fractured, it just couldn't do it. Jerod had to help him back onto the bed, but Sylas didn't want to sit. He wanted to find L'arc.