Lord Sekilan made his way into the long dark tunnel beneath the domed-city. He held a small silver orb in front of him, squeezing it in the palm of his hand until it released enough pale blue light to illuminate the way. The tunnel opened onto a passage with puddles that had gathered at intervals along the floor. There were no openings in the sandstone walls. The long, straight passageway seemed to lead towards nothing but endless darkness up ahead.
He walked for over an hour, hearing no sounds but the occasional small creature scurrying in the darkness. The smell of burning pitch drifted towards him, becoming stronger as he saw the glow of the first torches up ahead. The light grew brighter as he neared the flickering flames, casting a warm yellow light across the walls around him.
The rock floor was worn in places where it had been stepped on by thousands of feet over the previous seven hundred years. The sandstone walls were decorated by vertical brown streaks where running water had left minerals deposits on their surface.
When a tunnel joined from the left, Sekilan turned, stepping through a low archway that led into a small, brightly-lit room with burning torches mounted in sconces along the walls. Another arch led into a passage beyond it, and as he walked through it he saw a series of wooden doors on either side of him.
Opening the first door, he saw a black-haired woman hanging naked in a stasis field, her body hovering a metre above the ground. She was covered in bruises, her face distorted in agony. She couldn't move except for her bloodshot eyes. Her pupils followed him, pleading for salvation as Sekilan closed the door and headed further down the passageway outside.
The next room contained a stasis field too. It held a thick husk of a man, with heavy muscle across his chest and arms. He wore torn shorts but little else and his back was covered in livid red stripes as though he had been whipped many times. His face was locked in a permanent smile - totally at odds with his physical condition. His nose was broken and there was a deep cut above his left eye. Thick, black charcoal had been daubed across the sandstone wall behind him, forming a single word.
TOWLIN
His eyes watched Sekilan with interest but his black eyes didn't plead like the other woman's had. He didn't seem to need anything at all. He was calm, waiting, expecting nothing at all.
Sekilan was curious. Stepping forwards, he pulled a short staff from his pocket and when he pressed it against the stasis field, the man tumbled to the floor, gasping for breath as though he had been underwater for a long time. His arms trembled and his bloodstained back dripped with what looked like red sweat. He made no sound, refusing to scream or babble like many others before him.
Sekilan held the staff a moment longer, feeling the residue of the stasis field flowing up his arm. It had been in place for around three hundred years. The man had been imprisoned inside it for at least that long. Of course, he could have been imprisoned in a different stasis field before that. There was no way of knowing. Once opened, a stasis field could never be restored, but the clerics could always create a new one. Some of the senior clerics had developed quite a skill for the task.
'Towlin, is that your name?' Sekilan said.
The man lay on the floor, rising slowly to his hands and knees in silence. It wasn't unusual for people to be disorientated for a quite a while after being held in a stasis field for so long. Some never regained their senses. Some returned with broken minds.
Towlin rose slowly to his feet, stretching his neck from side to side. His black eyes took on a strange appearance but his smile remained in place as he swung his fist, catching Sekilan full in the face. A loud smacking sound echoed off the walls around him as he fell backwards, slamming onto the rock floor behind him. His head spun and blood poured from his broken nose.
Towlin charged towards him, punching him twice more before he could get out of the way. Almighty blows rained down on him, pounding his head into the floor as his lip split open and he tasted blood for the first time in years. The room spun until he raised his palm, forcing Towlin back with a sudden blast of air.
Sekilan climbed quickly to his feet, reaching into his pocket for the staff but Towlin kicked it from his hand before driving his knee high into Sekilan's ribs. Something cracked and Sekilan glanced down, shocked at the power of the man. He had never been injured by a human before.
He backhanded Towlin across the face, staggering him momentarily, but it wasn't long before he returned with his smile back in place. There was an insane joy in his eyes that shone brighter every time he threw a punch. Thick muscles rippled across his neck and shoulders as sweat formed on his brow. Blood dripped from a deep cut above his left eye but it didn't seem to bother him.
He moved like lightning as he punched Sekilan in the ribs and stomach. Sekilan gasped, backing away, and Towlin followed, forcing him into the passageway outside. Thrusting his palm forwards, Sekilan tried to force Towlin back but the deranged man grabbed his wrist, bending it to one side. His elbow struck Sekilan in the face with such force that it sent a tooth flying from his mouth. He staggered, bumping into the wall behind him before teleporting away.