The journey to Eli’s dungeon felt like a repeat of past events, it was like a flash of what had happened after the Red Moon Ritual, a reminder of the time Alaris had led her to his dungeon. She had followed Alaris with worry and love for him in her heart, then she found him in chains and finally, she left his presence betrayed, sad, and a grounded hatred for him.
It felt sickening to be in this type of situation again though under different circumstances. She wished it was over, she wished she had seen him and saved him.
She heard his voice before she saw him. A shout filled with agony. Her heart clenched with pain as she prepared herself to see the worst.
Ama stopped walking and Belladonna who was following her did the same. Why had they stopped? She couldn’t see Eli anywhere, in fact, she could barely see her surroundings; she could still hear his voice though, and that in itself was too painful to bear. What type of torture were they putting him through?
Suddenly, the growls of pain stopped. So that was why they stopped, to give them time to stop torturing him.
“Here we are,” Ama said and the way the gates clanked as they rolled open confirmed her suspicion of them being surrounded by guards.
Belladonna stepped in through the gate and it seemed that all dim red light in the dungeon was on Eli, everywhere else retaining its darkness. The light blue glow that surrounded her was still there but now that she was noticing it, it seemed to have dimmed a lot after Ama had dug the scythe of the Wielder into her heart. The need to know the consequences of that still shrouded her mind and she had tried to ask Ama again about it on their way here but everything had happened so far and Ama was clearly more excited about her meeting Eli than answering her questions. Seeing Eli too was a priority to Belladonna but with her experiences, she knew that things like this always had a cost; a deadly cost at that.
Ah! By Ignas. Deadly. How deadlier could it get?
It was strange how this realm worked, it was even stranger to find Eli suffering this much in death.
He was on his knees, his head bowed with chains trailing behind him into the darkness that surrounded them.
“El—i?” Her voice broke as she called his name. It felt like forever since she had seen him last, forever and moments too short to even be enough to erase the pain of losing him.
He back tensed the moment he heard her voice, as if he had gone completely frozen. He raised his head up slowly like he was hoping that his ears were just playing tricks on him, hoping that she wasn’t truly there.
His eyes widened when he saw her; he sprung up to his feet so fast it was a movement that almost went unnoticed but for the quick clanking sounds as the chains strained, killing his struggles to get closer to her.
“Eli!” She pushed her hands out through the bars, trying her best to touch him, straining every muscle in her fingers to close the distance between them.
Even just a graze would be enough but even that little was a luxurious dream with all the things keeping apart.
“Donna, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here,” He asked, his voice rough and almost unfamiliar. He had changed. This torture had changed him. Despite all that, she could still see the Eli she knew and was in love with. “You are not supposed to be here,” He repeated sharply as he looked around, wearily, agitated and guarded, like a prey that knew his predator was near and wasn't ready to go down without a fight. Then his gaze fell upon her once again and for a moment he stopped struggling against his heavy chains.
Everything seemed to stop around him as he took a moment to access her, realization slipping into his brown orbs.
“You are… dead.” He took a step forward but the chains pulled him back and he fought against it once again to stand as close as he could.
Tears fogged her sight to see the angry spark in his eyes switch from confusion to sadness then anger and betrayal.
“Did Alaris do this? He wouldn't— he wouldn't do this just to spite me. He wouldn't kill you.” His voice broke at the last word. “You shouldn't be here, Donna.”
“It was the only way. I asked him to or else Xinora would have won. Trapped in my own body, pushed to the back of my mind. That is not life.”
“There must have been some other way,”
“There was no other way.” She was quick to explain every detail of her time here as much as she could within little time.
He was angry that she had chosen this uncertain path rather than going to the Upperrealm. Her excuses of not wanting to forget him felt irrelevant compared to the agony that awaited her here. Indeed, forgetting him was something that would hurt tremendously, that, he admitted but the fate that awaited her and the cost of remembering him was far too much.
“I don’t regret the choice I have made and I will see it to end till I set you free.”
“They will not let you pass whatever test it is. We are nothing but things of amusement to them.”
Belladonna sharply looked behind her to Ama whose face held no emotion, until Eli’s voice called back her attention to him.
“Forget— me.” His voice broke as he spoke but he was determined to hide the pain he felt. “Go back to the Wielder, your light still glows; you still have a chance. Go back before your light dims completely and you have no other way but this….place. Do it for me, Donna. You love me, don’t you?”
“Your time is up, we have to go,” Ama said, now pulling her away from the bars.
What?! She needed more time, they just had to give them more time.
“No, please,” she began to beg Ama when something else pulled away her attention.
Eli’s chains snapped at that moment and he rushed to the bars, his hands slipping through the space to pull Belladonna as close to him as he could. Her h
ands slipped around him too, the bars, nothing but intruders.