~Open To ALL~ The Seeker...[Year 1]

[Archanex]

Time passed.

When Archanex woke up next, he had a splitting headache.

A fierce bruise had developed on the side of his head where the strangers had struck him. He found himself in a rather large chamber, the ceiling several feet above his head. Archanex was tall, and he could barely make out the ceiling. There were several people of various racial configurations that surrounded him and he was on the floor. When his senses were normalized and his vision set back in, he could feel cold hard steel from the chains that bound him. The strangers spoke their native tongue...a language that Archanex had no knowledge of. The seeming female that was apparently in charged of the group of strangers near him.

Archanex had been laying on a cold floor at the feet of the woman.

When his vision settled to normalcy, he observed that he'd been taken prisoner by the strangers. It took a quick moment to realize his belongings were confiscated by his captors. The woman leaned forward. Their leader. "Leave us guards." She said in that language that Archanex had never heard before. When the others left the two of them alone, she relaxed considerably. Her eyes had a fiercely intelligent glow to them. She leaned towards Archanex and spoke in his native Ayenee tongue. "In my youth I met one of your kind before." She began. "Your star is Ayenee is it not?" She was speaking in the tongue Archanex spoke in.

Archanex nodded.

She placed the tip of her shoe against Archanex's chin. "My grand father once spoke of your tribe. Over Mage you are called yes?" She asked.

"That--" She kicked him when Archanex tried to speak, it hurt. He was already bleeding from the mouth.

"A nod will do you don't have liberty to speak." She stood up from her chair and sat down in front of him. "Do you understand the situation you are in?"

Archanex almost spoke but was a fast learner.

The sorcerer merely nodded accepting the finality of it all.

"I am going to level with you." She explained. "You belong to me. You're mine." She said. "As long as you understand that truth then things will proceed going forward." She was laying down the playing field.

She looked at Archanex eye to eye. "What is your name?" She asked. "Be very careful how you respond.." She ordered.

"Archanex." He said calmly.

"The one my Grandfather found of your tribe was particularly strong willed. Grand Father said your people have a special power. That is why you belong to me now." She grabbed Archanex by his long hair and pulled up so Archanex could be face to face with her. "Ayenee. Is your star a threat? Choose your words carefully." She ordered.

"Some forces in Ayenee could pose a threat to your people yes." Archanex explained. The Overmage was looking at her through his serious gaze.

"I am going to break you now." She said in a matter of fact sort of way.

"..." Archanex gritted his teeth tightly preparing himself for whatever assault would come.

She kept his head aloft by holding his hair. Then she placed her hand on the side of his head...

The next hours of the night were filled with the screams of Archanex as he was horribly tortured into the late hours of the night.

***

"What did you find?" One of her cohorts asked of her as she looked at him.

"There is power resting within him. I want to take it from him. It will help us with our goals." She looked at her cohorts. "He is quite strong willed it's been very entertaining."

"Can we freely access the portal?" The cohort asked of the woman.

"Use this on the experiments." She handed the man a small crystal she'd extracted from the prisoner's body.

'What do we do if it works?" The man asked.

"Do you doubt me?" She asked, a serious look crossed her face.

The man turned pale as if he'd been struck with fear. "No my Lady." He looked at her very very carefully. "If the portal can be summoned with his blood as the catalyst then that means..."

"You are not wrong." She said calmly. "Our employers want full access to those portals."

"Why is it happening so often, do we have a theory about it?" He asked. He was someone who liked having concrete answers...not theories.

"I've encountered Portals to Ayenee a few other times in my life." She said calmly. "His blood is the key behind all of this and I will discover the secret behind it." She said.

***

Archanex awoke shortly there after shivering with cold. He was in the same torture chamber. The woman who was his captor had done...terrible things to him and Archanex was attempting to resist her the best he could. His attempts at will power were proving to be very futile however. His eyes opened. He coughed up his Overmage blood, he had blue blood. That was the mark of power for his people.

He heard the boot steps of his captor.

He no longer even felt afraid at this point...he was just numb.

"I have been extracting your blood." She said confidently. "If my assumption about your blood is correct we will be able to fight any threat that comes from your star." She said. "I am going to tell you something. My family has been hunting a warrior from your star for many generations now. He always eluded us in the past." She said as she sat down next to him. "You have been an interesting pet so far." She frowned at that point and looked directly in his eyes. "The one named Rhougrez. Of the Darkness Tribe." She began. "You will give me everything you know about him even if you don't want to."