The tamer died instantly.

Isha drew a slow breath. Time seemed to stand still as everyone stood unmoving, and the only sound was the blood pouring to the floor.

His hands relaxed. The moment the iron bar fell, all the other tamers rushed him.

He was smiling as they brutally attacked, clubbing, whipping, punching, kicking. Because there was a note in their screams and curses that he recognized, the sound of their fear. They were like herdbeasts, using their numbers to hide their weakness.

He was smiling all the way through the brutal beating, until suddenly it stopped. The ferocious Kurkan children had lunged for the tamers.

“Isha!!!”

“Let him go!”

“Die, die, you bastards!”

The Kurkans tore into their tormentors, biting and scratching. It was a hopeless attack from the beginning. Everyone knew how it would end. They could surprise the tamers and subdue them at first, but sooner or later, the soldiers would come.

But the other children hadn’t hesitated, and didn’t care about the consequences. Their eyes were filled with tears as they bit the tamers. They weren’t just doing it for Isha. This was vengeance for Mel.

What idiocy, thought Isha. Stupid children, who could not even take care of themselves. And of all the stupid people gathered here, he was the stupidest of them all.

His eyes blurred. His body had taken a lot of damage. He tried to keep his eyes open, but it was futile. Isha’s consciousness faded.

***

“……!”

A blast of cold water drenched him, and Isha started awake, all of his senses alive at once. He blinked, looking around at his surroundings. The tamers were around him, glaring at him with contempt, as if all of them were imagining shoving an iron bar through his throat on the spot.

So the Kurkan rebellion had already ended. Though he had known it would happen, Isha felt bitter.

Looking around, he saw no other Kurkans in sight. Most likely, since they could not punish everyone, the tamers would decide to make an example of Isha, who had caused all the trouble. As soon as he spotted the wooden door in the floor, he knew what his punishment would be.

That was the hole.

That was the place that had made Mel kill himself. Now Isha would be locked in there. As he bit his lower lip, one of the tamers spoke.

“Tie him up.”

They wrapped chains around his body. They shackled his hands and feet. Even his mouth was gagged. They opened the door in the floor with a creaking of hinges.

Beneath it was the hole, so deep that the bottom could not be seen, only a well of complete darkness. Someone pushed him from behind.

“You won’t come out of there in one piece,” the tamer said, annoyed.

The wooden door closed. Isha fell into utter darkness.

“……”

Even when Isha focused his eyes, it was the same as if they were closed. There was nothing to see. Not even his own body.

Slowly, it became harder and harder just to breathe. He tried to calm down his frantically pounding heart, but he couldn’t. The emptiness of this place was suffocating.

It was the beginning of a cruel confinement.

He was locked up for a long time. At first, he talked to himself, trying to fight the silence. But little by little, his words faded. The only way to be sure he was even alive was the agony of his wounds and his hunger.

His wounds festered. The smell of them made him worry that they might rot. None of them had been treated, what would he do if they had to amputate one of his limbs?