From the Pit to Rhy'din

[Mael Feu]

| Just a bit of f.y.i First, this post corresponds with his time On Lockdown. Secondly, I wrote these in first-person point of view for effect, the rest of my post will be in standard third-person. |

---------------------------------------------------

My plan of confronting one of the big bosses outside, in the rain, was shot to hell. Ruined before I had even gotten a chance to speak to one of the ringers. A fight had broken out with one of the lesser factions and it stirred up more controversy than a little and had managed to put me into the midst of it by association.

As it turned out, the fight was only a ruse, to draw the attention of the guards so that a toxin could be mixed in with the rain water and then splashed on them when they were close enough. The toxin worked like an acid base and burned partially through the guards; messed them up right well. Combined with the fighting it even got two of them killed. Pretty clever. Too cleaver and whoever was behind it all covered up there tracks well. As no one confesses to how the toxin was made (I would have loved to get a sample of it) four of the most likeliest perpetrators - I was one of them - were gathered up and tossed into individual holes.

We called it The Pit, twenty feet down in the ground and an estimated six feet across, there wasn't much room for anything. The top was sealed with a heavy metal lid, a small sliding door of bars let in light from outside, any food that they remembered to drop down, and anything else that found its way through. It was designed to break its inhabitants due to the darkness and solitude, and for many people it worked. I won't be so cocky as to say that I have no residual effects, I just don't know what they are. I worked to keep myself busy: exercising, meditations, grooming (the best a person can without much light or toiletries), and making a mantra from the reason I was even in this hell hole in the first place.

I also didn't know how long I was down there. For the first few days it was easy to keep track by the rays of sun that slipped in through the bars, but then there was the rain, and the day was as dark as the night. I slept when I was tired and started to keep track of the days by making braids in my hair. It wasn't my style, but at least it helped me tell some sort of time.

I had ten braids in my hair the time that the metal lid on top opened up and a bright light was shined down upon me so that I was blinded. Spending countless days in near darkness can make many a person sensitive to light. Spots danced across my vision and, while I couldn't see, I heard someone being hoisted down into my prison. They had to be letting me out. A rope was lassoed around me and then I was being hoisted up. It was a relief to finally get getting out yet, at the same time, I had a sinking feeling in my gut.

By the time they pulled me over the rim of the Pit my sight had returned enough that I could make out the prison transport and four people who were waiting for me, one of them was none other than the Boss Man. That wasn't really his name, when said it was meant as a joke, must be why I used it now.

"How nice, Boss Man is taking my place," I suggested with a sneer.

"Get in the transport, it will take us to our ride and you can fix yourself up," he directed, "There is work to do."

I shrugged by shoulders and made a single scrub with the palm of my hand at the dirt caked unto my cheek. I could only imagine how I looked at the moment, not to mentioned smelled. This guy was the reason why I had that feeling on the way out the Pit. The Syndicate had come to get me. I wasn't surprised, but it was one of the last things I wanted. My plans was to get out of prison, but on my own, and leave the Syndicate behind as I had been trying get from under them for years. Guess I was in prison longer than I thought.

I gave my head a single shake. "I have work to do here."


Boss Man was suddenly in my face, I could smell the chewing tobacco on his breath and the residue of a bitter whiskey sprayed from his mouth as he harshly whispered. "I don't give a damn about what you think you have to do. Now, get in the transport."

In my head I saw myself quickly snapping his neck before tossing him and the surrounding guards, into the Pit, but I knew how to pick my battles. While that would have been a satisfying end, it wouldn't have been a permanent one and I wasn't prepared to deal with the backlash it would have on all the other members of the Syndicate - or the reason I kept myself apart from it so often.

Quick step back and I was away from him and sidestepping over towards the transport and getting in. The good thing from all of it is that I would get my jacket back, it was waiting for me when we got to the ride that would take us to the Syndicates Rhy'dinian base.

The Boss Man may think he has all the cards, but there's always that Ace in the hole.