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Tancred awakes.
He hangs from the cold wall, arms bound by secure chain, a collar biting around his neck. Blood drips from his aching mouth, and there are bruises on his body he doesn't remember getting. His head swims, trying to piece together where he is. He remembers the pirates... killing... the bar, but noone is there with him. His vision is clouded and blurred from tears and fatigue.
He hangs there for an hour, a day, a year - impossible to tell. The paladin's mind begins to wander hither and thither, delusions creep in from around him. Is this a dream? Is this reality? Am I dead, and in Hell? Did the pirates kill me? He struggles to find a point of reference - and realises he's still wearing his thermals. Clutching on to this small piece of apparent continuity, the assumption of capture upon Titan presents itself for examination and is judged likely.
Time passes, and familiar voices drift down to the paladin's ears. He can hear soft, slightly feminine voices - and strains to make out words, tones. Recognition remains out of his grasp, but only just - he *knows* he knows those voices, but he cannot remember who they belong to.
Another eternity, and his vision begins to clear. Across the darkened room he can see, at last, a familiar shape. There are bars to this cell, and a small trickling of light - and beyond the bars, propped up against the wall, he can see his sword, Karnas. The blade is silent.
"Karnas!" Tancred pauses in surprise as his voice emerges hoarse and dry. He tries again, forcing the words through. "Karnas! Are you there?"
The sword seems to move a few millimetres across the wall - or is that only my imagination, wonders the Paladin?
"Karnas, listen to me! Do you know where we are?"
Again, the sword remains silent. A thought strikes Tancred - is it possible for a sword to be rendered unconscious?
"KARNAS!" The words are painful. "KARNAS! WAKE UP!"
There is a few minutes' silence as a suspicion turns into a full-blown fear.
"Karnas?"
The cold facts line up in Tancred's mind. The sword is silent. The room is dark - Karnas isn't glowing. Why would anyone just leave a sword of such power against a cell wall?
A moan of sorrow escapes past Tancred's lips as he realises the truth. He strains at his chains in a futile effort to reach the sword, the tears flowing again. Between sobs, he mouths a prayer for his friend's departed soul.
Karnas is dead.
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