CHAPTER 5 - PRISONERS OF ROYALTY
INT. THELBIAN ROYAL CASTLE CATACOMBS - NIGHT
Amber waking up completely dazed, a pungent stench of drainage, urine, blood and smoke from the distant torches down the tunnel strike her sensitive nose. She stands slowly, her arms are weak and feels the blood from her scalp dripping and trickling through her forehead down her face and dripping off the tip of her nose.
AMBER
Ouch ouch - owww… that dumb nightmare again.
Standing up she topples over.
AMBER
(screaming)
AGH…
Touching her ankle, finding it swollen.
AMBER (CONT'D)
HELLO!!!
She looks up and no one seems to answer or look in, the dim moonlight barely manages to spill through a small crack from a distance up the stairwell.
AMBER (CONT'D)
(crying)
HELLO… CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME… H… Hello! Hello, please… It hurts… so much…
Managing to get her bearings, she slowly gets up limping towards the flickering lights far down the hallway feeling the cobblestone walls along the way. Further down the hallway her hand suddenly meets iron rusted bars, cold to the touch.
PRISONER
(jumps at Amber)
HOW MANY TAILS… WHAT SAY YOU!!!
AMBER
(screaming)
AGHHHHHH!!!
She launches back and falls on her butt looking at the prisoner. Skinny and bony, his face is youthful yet some teeth missing with hair so long it's knotted in clumps with grease and filth holding it together, dragging off the dirty floor.
PRISONER
ANSWER… IF FOUR THEN STAY AND USURP… If less flee, he will banish you to where we stand…
AMBER
I.. I… don't know what your saying…
PRISONER
A DEVINE… Only devine can justly rule… NOT A BLOOD KING… don't follow the torches sister… follow the darkness… for darkness will bring you to the truth… our REAL leaders…
AMBER
SPEAK NORMALLY I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING.
The prisoner's arm stretches out to point at the base of Ambers neck between her collar bones… She shuffles backwards, hitting the wall from the narrow hallway avoiding his long finger nails and dirty hands.
PRISONER
Sister… I am one of your siblings… the emblem of royalty you carry is meaningless, for your tails will be severed if your fate is not that of four tails.
AMBER
STAY AWAY… I don't know you… why would this place be here.
PRISONER
The Catacombs are for those who transgress or are speculated to.
He backs away into the darkness of the cell and disappears. Amber gets on her feet again looking down the narrow hallway. She limps over to the torches at the end to find a fork in the hallways, one with torches and the other with non. She turns towards the darker hallways and limps further down, as it gets darker, and darker, she is unable to see once again, a lot darker than the place she woke. Bumping her foot on a slight raise on the uneven surface, loosing her grip on the wall she falls down a slope of mud, slipping all the way down, being met with a slightly wider and longer hallway, with prison cells on each side. She slowly gets on her feet once again and walks further down and hears crying in the distance and approaches the sound of the cell where it's coming from.
AMBER
Hey… are you okay?
The prisoner looks up at Amber thin but not malnourished, a young WOMAN seen in the embryo position in the far corner of her cell draped in tattered rags, her ears are still bushy and healthy and her hair is silky and long. Dirt smeerd on her face and arms and her lower half is covered in dried blood.
WOMAN
Who… who are you…
AMBER
My name is Amber… my papa called me Amber because my fur is not as red or yellow as other people…
Amber squats down to talk to the woman.
WOMAN
Am… Amber…
She crawls over to Amber to reveal beautiful wide eyes, looking at her through the iron bars.
AMBER
Wow… hehe *sniff*
Amber wipes her eyes from the crying beforehand and looks at the woman's eyes.
AMBER
You're… super pretty. I'd like to look just like you one day. Hehe… mommy said one day I'll get to look something like you-
WOMAN
Forget it…
AMBER
Why…
WOMAN
You'll get banished no matter how many you have, they slice you up and send it off to the Selcians… and leave you to rot, taking all your dignity away. Our tails… as Thelbians it's our honour… and they took that from me too…
AMBER
Why?
WOMAN
We, blood royals are only born for one thing, and that is to rule inplace of Divine monarchs if there is none. We girls have one purpose though, and that is to give birth to blood royals, but only those who have four or more tails, that's when your even considered a royal. Our papa wants a naturally born five tailed Thelbian. Extremely rare… one in a million. You'll see what he does to you.
AMBER
And all these sleeping prisoners… they are the same…?
WOMAN
Not sleeping honey… dead… from the blood that they seeped from severed tails… you're young… in the 'Year of Fate' when they hold your ritual when your first metamorphosis and menstrual cycle, your tails begin to grow, he will let you to live and become a breeding concubine for other monarchs within this land or cut you up and throw you here if your tails aren't four or more.
AMBER
… Papa is mean… sometimes and he is kind sometimes… but he wouldn't make people suffer like this…
WOMAN
Head further down the catacombs, sister… you'll find something… that will break your view of this perfect messed up fairytale. For Mamseque is the land where war thrives best.
Amber gets up and looks further down the dark catacombs staring.
WOMAN (CONT'D)
Follow the darkness young one…
Amber limps towards the end of the tunnel. From the roof, stalactites get longer and longer dripping ever so slightly. It becomes easier to see for her now, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the catacombs she lets go of the wall with little more confidence as she limps down. She meets the sound of rushing water, her nose scrunches up from the stench. She hops down a small ledge and she submerges until her waist. Looking down to her left she follows the flow of the current.
AMBER
(gasping)
HHHH... so COLD! HUFF! Huff!
The stream and sewage mixture get deeper, her neck gets submerged as she is carried down trying to float. The catacombs get steeper and steeper and then suddenly she is caught in a stream connecting to more water ways. Amber tries to float but the different currents are making her lose her orientation, trying to swim and almost drown. She is launched out the spout of a pipe and lands on a body of water. Amber coughing aggressively she swims to the cobble stone bank.
AMBER
(vomiting)
BLUAHHHHHH! *COUGH* *COUGH* hwahhhhhhhhh~~~
Puking out the water she swallowed she shivers in disgust. She spits what is left and stands up her arm shadowing her eyes that the bright lights blinding her. It's bright, in fact too bright to even see properly. She taught she reached the outside but as she stands, she is met with two figures. A male and female, young adults with crystal crowns floating illuminating on their heads. The crystals each having a light of its own, hovering emitting a calm humming sound barely noticeable. Both locked up with long thick chains leading to a boulder in the far back tying everything together They looked dead… so thin and malnourished their ribs and bones seemed so defined.
AMBER
Oh… my…
She covers her mouth letting out a few tears. Looking back at the black body of water which seemed to stretch on forever into the darkness, she couldn't see anything beyond the bank,
Turns to the figures and KING LAVARIAN is staring at her, wide eyed with silver hair and five tails, long silky hair unkempt with bags under his eyes.
AMBER
(screaming)
EEEEEEP
LAVARIAN
Honoured child… calm yourself…
He sounded sickly, weakness from his voice emanating. QUEEN SHEEBA wakes up from Ambers screech. Looking at the King she turns and looks at Amber, her lips dry and cracked she tries to speak but struggles.
SHEEBA
W– whooo… are you?
CUT TO:
INT. HIGH CLASS THELBIAN RESTAURANT PRIVATE DINING HALL - DAY
Table cloth laid out as far as the table stretches wine coloured, with two glasses accompanying each seat with three pairs of forks and knives as well as spoons on the front of each plate. Some fruits but mainly meat and fish delicacies scattered about in great organisation.
Cerlincia, Romulus as well as king Sorca. Some other concubines and siblings from other families are enjoying a hearty meal as they banter on with stories. Cerlincia, distant, king Sorca glancing at her the odd time from slight displeasure.
ROMULUS
Mother… Mother!
Romulus taps his foot on Cerlincias ankle and he give her a side eye glare.
CERLINCIA
…? S- Sorry sweetie… I'm thinking of Amber… It's been a day since she's been missing, that poor child…
ROMULUS
Mother I understand your grief, believe me I'm just as upset as you, however his grace is looking… We shouldn't be so distant from our weekly family feasts… It'll embarrass him and spoil his mood.
Romulus looks at Cerlincias food, playing with it, barely eaten.
ROMULUS (CONT'D)
Mother… if you can… at least have a bite or two… not for yourself but for the king.
CERLINCIA
Oh Romi dear… you think they took her… to… oh Romi if only you knew…
Cerlincia's tears begin to pile up and shoots up rushing off.
INT. RESTAURANT GREAT HALL - MOMENTS LATER
Romulus standing with juice in a goblet in one hand and his other hand in his pocket looking around awkwardly. No one his age is around, all cousins, step siblings and other kinfolk seeming alot older.
A harp humming with an elegant soft melody in the background as everybody seems to be enjoying themselves and the king is surrounded by a number of his concubines, laughing as they watch a jester juggling and falling over. Romulus finishes his juice, picks up a small cube of meat attached to a toothpick eating it and leaves the hall through an open hallway into the women's bathroom.
ROMULUS
It's been forever since she's been there… what's taken her so long.
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
ROMULUS (CONT'D)
Mother… Mother…
Hearing his mothers weeping she stops. Flushes the toilet, opening the door to find her son so young yet so mature standing in front of her. She kneels and straightens his collar and his short whiskers.
CERLINCIA
Romi sweetie… I can't bear to lose more children… They've all been taken from me…
She holds back her tears, her face stuffy stands and walks to the sink, washing it.
CERLINCIA (CONT'D)
Off you go now… I'm sure you'll find something to do. It's not proper for a gentleman to be in the women's lavatory.
ROMULUS
Y… Yes mother.
Romulus pulls the door to exit the bathroom only to find a group of girls walking towards him. He blushes as they laugh and he runs off.
CUT TO:
EXT. SENTARIA, SOUTHERN THELBIAN CAPITAL - NIGHT
Bustling city with vendor's merchants and the like screaming the top of their lungs on their prices. McDune with his hood covering his head carrying a sack pushing through the crowd as he manages to find a door entrance with a small Sigil of Warlocks on a tattered flag. As he walks in he paces down the winding stairs it gets darker and deeper Following conspicuous marks on the wall, resembling the same sigil with a drawing of a tattered flag. As he winds through the small alleyways deep through the stairs, he finds a door with the same drawings.
*KNOCK KNOCK, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, KNOCK KNOCK*
The hatch on the door opens up to reveal a dark elves eyes peeking through.
MCDUNE
"Banished are the wanderers for only the rogues have a home among the dead dwellers of Mamseque."
The hatch closes and the door opens slightly. McDune is dragged in and a HUGE DARK ELF stands from the chair he was sitting at beside the door. He points him down the hallway. As he gets to the reception a few more dark elves search him and his bags.
DARK ELF
You wander in here… with these strange devices… what do they do, are they weapons.
MCDUNE
Yeah… have a few weapons on me… just going to leave them here and advertise a job.
The dark elves nod at one another, take his weapons and put them in a chest. He walks down the dark hallway spotting a door with muffled music emanating from it. Opens the door to find people fighting, drinking with the band playing music—the lead singer with one foot on the body of a drunken elf. Several races were spotted grouped. The selcians planning a job with their back hunched over a few papers and a map.
Not a single white elf in sight beside the one that the thelbians are beating up to a pulp as he seems barely to be alive. Some more selcians having a raizian strapped to a pole stripped, taking turns on throwing knives at an apple on top of his head, they miss and land the knife in his eye. Some gawvish, resembling young children trying to grope a thelbian waitress. One of their hands gets cut off by a dark elf protecting her. The bar is pure and utter chaos as drinks and the like are flying about.
MCDUNE
This place is a zoo and a half…
He keeps his head down as he is weaving through the crowd he manages to find a flight of stairs climbing up into a catwalk and finds a reception with iron bars and a solid metal door with another pair of bulked up dark elves.
Mcdune approaches LILORIA, a young thelbian woman with glasses and a black rose attached to her collar. A huge scar stretched through her neck reaching the bottom of her lip.
MCDUNE
Hey… wanted to place an advertisement for a job…
LILORIA
You can fill out this form sir and we'll get to you in due time.
McDune rummages through his bag, one of the tall dark elf looks at him and seeing what he may take out with diligence he unfolds his arm and steps closer to McDune.
MCDUNE
I filled out the paperwork… it's an assassination job… I need to get rid of somebody named Mono.
Liloria takes the paper off him through a metal box he placed it in and rotates it to her
LILORIA
Let me see here. An assassination job… and he is affiliated with…
Her expression breaks into a cold sweat.
LILORIA (CONT'D)
Okay… this is going to be a steep fee. I don't think anybody is willing to do this job…
McDune leans in slight and whispers.
MCDUNE
The reward, I'm sure people are willing, I guarantee.
LILORIA
This job… and you're certain who you mention you want dead…
MCDUNE
Only thing I don't know is how the tier system works which I left blank.
She turns to face the bulky elf.
LILORIA
You there… call the boss, we'll need to organise a meeting with him.
MCDUNE
Hold on hold on… I'm not meeting anyone… if I wanted to advertise in a wander's guild I would've done that. I expected to be out here by now not dealing with a bunch of paperwork… and meetings.
LILORIA
I don't think you can advertise this in a wanders guild anyways, we deal with everything quickly but this job isn't an ordinary job. There are ten tiers to the type of job you want to advertise and most people in the highest tier won't be able to take care of a job of this calibre. Sit tight in the waiting area it'll only be a couple of minutes. I'll call you up once ready.
CUT TO:
EXT. GUILD OF BARDS, STORIK CITY (NORTHERN CAPITAL) - NIGHT
Early into the evening as dogs are barking in the rain. Casias being the only one walking through the cobblestone streets of Storick square. Bells begin to ring, the last quarterly alarm that splits the day into four. He walks into his guild of bards, a small class room, and begins to prep the class. Toren walks in soon after.
CASIAS
Ah…. Toren, early are we.
TOREN
You never mentioned how this whole thing goes down.
He takes a seat in the front of the class and sets his tools on the table.
CASIAS
First third of the year, we usually study and the rest as a group we wander the lands learning and practicing our trade.
TOREN
Right… I'll expect to be here for most of the lunar year then.
CASIAS
You came in quite late into the trimester we will be heading off on one of our expeditions, after all it's a bards job to wander the lands.
TOREN
I couldn't care less for all these extra subjects though.
CASIAS
You'll pull through somehow Toren, when the summer rolls around we'll need you to cram for the entrance exam next year in the autmn.
TOREN
And what makes you -
The door bursts open as the students start to pour in one by one. Some older than Toren some younger. All possessing either bronze or silver oak branches on their heads. They sit down and continue chatting as Caseas is writing something on the chalk bored. A brown furred Thelbian, LIPE speaks to Toren in front of the class sitting in his chair
LIPE
Sorry and you are? Sitting on my seat... quite rude.
CASIAS
Lipe this is Toren. I'm sure Toren wouldn't take it again. It's our final class after all.
Lipe nods and looks at Toren as he walks to the back.
CASIAS
Toren Do you mind coming forward and introducing yourself?
TOREN
Sure… I don't mind.
Toren walks up to the front, turns to face the class. Bigger than he expected, filled with students and some extra to spare standing in the back with note in hand.
TOREN (CONT'D)
Hey… Casias, you sure this is the right thing for me.
CASEAS
First off I really don't mind you calling me by my name, however in certain circumstances I urge you to try saying 'Sire'. For occasions like this… reading the room won't hurt. And a second thing, that's for you to gauge by the end of our expedition. If it's not for you, go become a rogue or what have you for all I care… I'm starting to grow impatient with your indecisiveness.
Toren breaks into a cold sweat, feeling guilty of annoying Casias.
CASIAS (CONT'D)
(clapping)
Class… class… settle down please… we have a new member in our group. Toren… step forward.
TOREN
Hello all… my name is... Toren... Son Of the Lost… I grew up in Raizia… and i uh… I'm new in Thelbia as well so sorry if I'm not accustomed to your culture. I look forward to learning with you all.
Silence consumes the class as he trails back to his desk as Casias begins to bang his chalk on the black board writing the topic of the day.
END