The young man with brown hair was sleeping with his face turned on the cot. He awoke with a start when he heard the loud and hateful laughter of the demon. Camelia was sitting, had twisted her neck towards the demon, looking at him with spite.
"I see you have made yourself comfortable, meddling human," Noxfor crossed the luminous bars of the cell as if they were air and intersected his arms. "Your pledge to pay is just beginning, don't think I've come to get you out."
"You kidnapped me from my world, I wonder how much longer they will let you do it," replied the human, rubbing his eyes. He didn't know what time it was, nor how much time had passed since he had fallen into that prison.
The demon furrowed his eyebrows. "Oh, so you and the seer have talked a lot," the demon took a step towards him, and Egan retreated as much as he could. "Too bad you only gossiped about nonsense."
"He spoke the truth, no point in trying to ignore it," Camelia intervened without flinching.
"Be quiet, you were not invited to the conversation. The meddling human doesn't need a woman to defend him, or am I wrong?"
"What do you want from me, Noxfor? You've been treating me like a puppet for days, what else do you want from me?" Egan felt the stone pressing against his groin; it must have slipped below the elastic. He remained still, motionless, even as the demon approached him again.
"You are useless, what could I want from a being like you? You are incapable of even handling a woman."
"Did you want me to open up to him? To confide all my secrets to him?" Camelia got off the cot. "Let's send a human to the seer, so maybe they talk… right? And I did," she smiled slyly at the demon. "There's a problem though, what you consider important, what you wanted me to tell him while your spy was listening to us, what you have longed for, for me is not important at all!" she pointed a finger with a worn nail at his face. "You know nothing about us humans! You boast of your wisdom, but that is not knowledge, your vicious experiences on Earth have nothing to do with our true essence!"
Noxfor blew and the young woman hit the cot, with a tumble; due to the strong push, she ended up on it. "Hold that tongue of yours, I'm not here for you, but I can always change my mind."
"Hey," Egan caught his attention. "Forgive me, but if you consider me so useless, what am I still doing here? After all, you cheated, you know I won the race. Your pledge is an illegitimate imposition," Egan put a hand in his pocket and grabbed the stone through the fabric, so it wouldn't fall; then stood up. "Let's go back to Earth, so you can enjoy-" he felt a grip on his throat. The powerful hand squeezed and seemed even larger than it already was. Egan opened his mouth wide. His ears heard Camelia's distant voice; she was shouting at the demon but Egan couldn't distinguish what she was saying.
"I believe that Earth, as you mortals call it, you will never see it again."
Egan's eyes widened. The demon's hand released him and he collapsed to the ground, on the cold stone of the rough floor. His gray eyes fixed on the demon who grinned with satisfaction. A shiver ran down his spine.
"And you," the demon looked at Camelia. "If you really don't know what interests me, you become useless too. It's time to turn your stay here around. Soon you will become one of my disposable toys."
Camelia swallowed, her sweaty fingers twisted around each other, and her lips tightened so hard that the wound started bleeding again.
Noxfor vanished.
The young blonde collapsed to the ground, on her hands.
"I'm sorry," murmured Egan. "It's my fault if he has also turned against you."
"He's been doing it since before you were born, for that matter," Camelia closed her eyes. "But I won't give him the satisfaction of losing my dignity by becoming what he calls a toy. I'd rather die."
"Don't say that, please," the brunet sighed. "I need your strength of spirit. You have my total respect for how you have stood up to him, and who knows how many times you have faced him before this, alone."
Camelia smiled sadly. Then she knelt near the back legs of the cot; she grabbed one and pulled with force. It was so old and decrepit that it bent immediately. She continued to bend and twist until that old rusty rod broke. "I don't know how it held my weight all these years. Even here there is shoddy workmanship or shoddy magic," she laughed weakly.
Egan looked at her worriedly. She had been in that cell for years and the demon only let her out to mock her, like during that dinner, or torment her with his questions. "What do you want to do with that?"
The blonde observed the metal rod, it was hollow inside and where it had broken it had a point that looked sharp. "He can heal any wound, but he can't resurrect the dead."
The indigo-colored insect had sneaked into the prison. On that last day, there had been a lot of movement. Several detainees had arrived and the attention of the generals—those who were involved in the transfer to the prisons, before each prisoner was judged definitively—was all directed elsewhere; certainly not at a fillian interfering around. The cells were all interconnected, privacy did not exist. However, that corridor had been clear for decades, as if spared. Now, however, footsteps could be heard echoing along those deserted halls. The fillian accelerated but not too much, so as not to arouse suspicion.
Camelia pointed the sharp part of the bar against her neck and then Egan sprang into action, without even thinking about it. The stone slipped down his leg and rolled out of his pants as he moved quickly. Rolling, the stone crossed the bars, but not passing through the middle; exactly where it hit the blue lights, they deviated, forming a dip that allowed it to go through. Camelia's eyes widened when she saw it. Egan was so frightened that he didn't even notice he was bumping into those luminous bars. A spark and then he fell to the ground. Only then did he realize that the stone was now in the blonde's cell and that the woman had left the bar to approach and look at it more closely. "What is it?" she asked him without touching it.
Egan caught his breath and sat on the floor. "A gill's tear."
Camelia wiped the blood from her lips. "Can I touch it?"
"I think so, I've had it with me until now."
It was so bright that it illuminated the entire cell. "It's beautiful... did you see what just happened?" Camelia was mesmerized.
The brunet nodded. "The being who gave it to me said it would protect me," he got up from the floor. "Maybe, in some way, it can interact with these demonic cells," he gestured to the seer to touch the luminous chains on her ankles with the stone. "Be careful though, I don't know what might happen," he concluded, warning her.
"At this point, nothing scares me anymore, except losing myself and my dignity," as soon as she placed her fingers on the stone, an image and then another and another began to flash rapidly in her mind. The clash between Lisl and the ferret, the cave and the gill being freed, the same gill sacrificing itself by giving its life to turn into that stone. Camelia removed her fingers from the stone, turning her head slowly towards Egan. "The gill is this stone," she told him. "The tears of light are the explosion you saw before it appeared."
Egan parted his lips. "But, where is he?"
Camelia shook her head and touched the stone again, grabbing it firmly. "He is no more," she brought the stone closer to her chains and they disappeared. At that moment, the flame of hope reignited, strong and reassuring. She had missed it for decades. "He left you a very powerful weapon, this gill wanted to protect you at all costs."
Egan suddenly found his eyes moist. "He had already saved me… I was drowning and he pulled me out, there was no need for this too," he touched his eyes and stopped the tears from flowing.
Camelia stumbled on the first step she took in her natural length. She had lost the habit of walking normally. Egan rushed to help her but the bars prevented him from reaching her. The blonde, who had collapsed to the ground, threw the stone at him, making it pass through the bars again. He picked it up. "Try to come to me, with that in your hands," she suggested.