In the hours (or was it days?) that Kayen had spent wandering around this facility, he had seen some awful things. Freshly cut up corpses. Live births of monsters and beasts. The farming of organs and tissues. The testing of horrible substances, from powerful sedatives to seizure-inducing poisons. The creation and destruction of new forms of life.
But none of that had bothered Kayen more than that one, sorry sight.
It was the sound that caught his attention. A quiet whimpering sound. One that followed voiceless, telepathic pain and anguish. Almost everything else so far had been eerily silent, hidden behind the odd squelching noise. But this sound came from a rather ill-fitting concrete cell. One that stuck out from its sticky, fleshy surroundings.
Inside was a familiar soul. The beaten, broken body of Phovos, the Raptor of Palaestra, one of the strongest and most powerful beings Kayen had ever met. At first, he wasn’t sure whether the Raptor was alive. It wasn’t until she awkwardly changed her position, avoiding various cuts and scratches, that Kayen realised she wasn’t dead.
He needed to save her.
Luckily, doing so wasn’t too hard. There were no guards around, no cameras, no nothing. It seemed that Phovos had just been abandoned here.
With what remained of his telekinetic energy, Kayen forced the single entrance open. The seemingly wooden door collapsed but somehow splattered on the floor, making not at all the noise Kayen expected.
Phovos moved, but not very much. She was weak and exhausted. As she rolled onto her side and watched Kayen shuffle over, she mumbled something about all of this being a trick.
“It’s not a trick. It’s me.”
“Little tax kid.”
“Yeah.”
Kayen sat Phovos up, letting her lean on him. She felt oddly light, as if she had been starved. There were cuts all over her chest and stomach, deep incisions her body was desperately trying to heal from. Her furry mane was tattered and knotted. Her horns and claws were blunted and bloodied, from trying to claw her way out of the cell.
“You won’t ask?” Phovos suddenly gurgled. Her mouth was full of blood as well. The puffiness around her eyes and the scratches across her throat suggested she had been beaten recently. The broken Ksithan shuddered, then nuzzled Kayen. Kayen held her tightly, running his fingers through her mane in an attempt to comfort her. He had no idea if Ksithans liked that, but as Phovos’s breathing calmed down, he realised that she was hiding more pain than he could imagine.
“I won’t ask if you don’t want me to.”
“It hurt.”
“I know.”
“Did she hurt you?”
Kayen shook his head. “I don’t remember. I just kinda woke up. I’m really hungry and thirsty.”
“The sacs…” Phovos was fighting back tears. “Wanted to suck you dry. Would have preferred that.”
The little Skyavok sighed. He couldn’t imagine what had happened to break the Raptor so badly. He didn’t want to ask what had happened. It was bad enough that Phovos was in pain, he didn’t want her to have to relive it.
Phovos fell silent, occasionally letting out a couple of laboured sobs. Kayen continued to hold her tightly. It was making her feel better. Right now, that was all Kayen cared about.
Neither of them were sure how long they had been sitting there. It couldn’t have been long. A low, angry gurgle snapped them back to reality. A gurgle that sounded like it could have been coming from anywhere.
“I want to burn this place down…” Phovos muttered, sitting up straight and wiping blood from her jaw.
“Yeah, but we need to find the others first…” Kayen sighed. “And I have no idea where they are.”
Phovos climbed awkwardly to her feet. Kayen got up too, giving her some stability as they slowly walked out of the shamble of a cell. “I know where they are…”