Dread Mage

He thought about killing them, if that's what it could be called, once more.

They had biological functions, but they weren't truly alive. Not everything that could breathe or bleed lived.

No. He wouldn't turn back now. They weren't what he was here for, but the sight stuck in his mind, and he couldn't get rid of it.

He just let it smolder in his mind until it burned out.

Afterwards, he wandered the dark halls until he found more light.

Vell moved towards it, driven by a morbid curiosity, the cries of the creatures fading behind him as he moved closer to the source of the light.

The room was different from the rows of cells he had left behind.

It was larger, filled with tables and glass containers holding strange concoctions. Perhaps a laboratory is where these creatures were made.

Vell’s eyes scanned the room, taking in the scattered vials, the numerous instruments, and the numerous mages here, attending to different types of creatures and people yet to be degenerated into nothing more than test subjects—victims.

Near the entrance of the room, there was a man chained to the wall. He was bound so tightly to it that he could neither move his arms nor his legs. He seemed to be the only one who got that treatment.

The only reason Vell took notice of him was because the man had taken notice of him.

He whispered in his direction, "You there."

The man must have had a supernatural sense of awareness, as Vell shouldn't be more than the darkness that engulfed everything else untouched by the light of the torches.

Vell thought about not talking at all and shrinking further back into the shadows, but he decided against it and listened to the chained man.

"You are not of the irathy. Your face shows far more life than they are capable of."

The irath mages were far too busy to notice the man talking, or even if they were, their subjects talking to themselves wasn't an unusual occurrence, as many spiraled down into madness due to their treatment.

"If you are a foe, then get out of my sight, but if you are a friend, answer."

Vell whispered back, "I can be a friend if you can help me in turn."

"A hireling then. What do you need?"

"Information," Vell's eyes shifted, knowing that he could be caught, but the noise of screams from those experiments on with painful methods drowned out most other sounds. As there was more than just one person screaming, he thought himself safe from detection.

"Ah. I can tell you everything before tomorrow's sunrise. My cell is on the opposite end of where you are standing; if you managed to meet me there, then my mind is yours."

"I will meet you there just before the sun rises," Vell stated.