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Zack’s stomach is ice.
The room they are in is not cold. In fact, it is pleasantly warm. The torches are extinguished, of course, even with her in iron no one would risk an elemental around open flames. But the room has large windows, with colourful stained glass that cast patterns onto the floor. This area of the country is warm enough that flames aren’t needed. The room is large with a high ceiling, and iron detailing is used all over it.
“So you three are the mages that have been causing us so much trouble?” The head mage hunter is tall, wearing a dark blue cloak with iron grey detailings and a delicate iron clasp. She wears a metal helmet and mask. Surrounding the three children are mage hunters with less decorated cloaks, and swords pointed right at them.
Each child is also held by a mage hunter. Melissa is still squirming, not that it is doing anything. Zack just feels frozen. Milo stands still too, but Zack doesn’t think fear is what plants his friend in place. Milo’s expression is defiant, almost mischievous. Of course, mischief in the face of danger is Milo and Melissa’s thing, and something they have been teaching Zack. But Milo showing so little fear in the face of the head mage hunter, a figure that haunts the nightmares of even the bravest of mages, is remarkable.
“That’s us!” Milo smiles. “Milo, Melissa, Zack. Abjurer, elemental, healer.” He introduces himself casually.
“Don’t speak those words around the mage hunter supreme!” The mage hunter holding Milo shakes him roughly.
“At ease.” She raises a hand. “But those classifications don’t matter. All that matters is that you three are unclean, wicked mages, created by the evil gods themselves to drag us all down to the dark world.” She spits each word like a curse.
“If you say so!” Milo smiles. “I was just trying to be polite. That’s how we mages introduce ourselves to each other, you know. Some would say that it is a sign of great respect for us to talk to a normal person like that.”
Zack can’t see her face, but he imagines that she is scowling. “I am not among those who feel that way, wicked child.” She says. “Do you understand the situation you are in?”
“Yeah, pretty well.” Milo says.
“You are going to die. Slowly, and painfully. And we are going to ensure that many can see it, and none can interfere. Your deaths will be lessons to every mage who thinks that your lifestyle is ‘fun’ or ‘easy’. You are ungodly pieces of dirt beneath the shoes of every decent person, and the only good you will ever do is dying.” Her voice is loud and booming, every syllable drives a knife of ice into Zack’s heart.
“Oh will you shut up? You’re as dramatic as your cronies, it’s annoying.” Melissa grumbles. “We’re not in a play, we don’t need a villain monologue.”
“Silence!” The woman stamps her foot, the sound echoes around the room like thunder. “I am no villain, I am a hero. I am the right hand of the gods on earth. You are the villains. Puppets of the most evil of gods, bringers of hellfire, disease and destruction.”
“Zack’s a healer, so that doesn’t really work. I guess Melissa does set a lot of fires though, and I can be pretty destructive!” Milo concedes. “Your speech could use work but overall it’s pretty good.”
“Disrespectful, wicked monster.” The woman snaps, voice cold as ice. “I am your end and your soul’s salvation. The least you can do is show me some respect.”
“How should I do that?” Milo tilts his head slightly to one side.
She takes a step forward, closer to him. Milo flinches back slightly, but it’s so minuscule that it is hard to notice. When she speaks, her voice is low and threatening. “Show me the respect I am owed as mage hunter supreme, the right hand of the gods on earth. Kneel to me.”
Silence. Pure, tense silence. The mage hunter looks down at Milo, Milo looks up at her. And then he starts laughing.
The mage hunter observes him, then observes the other children. Zack, terrified and uncomfortable but forcing himself to stand his ground and glare at her. Melissa, scowling with the fire that she usually controls dancing in her eyes. Milo laughing at the very idea of kneeling in front of her.
“Very well. If respect is not natural to you, then respect can be taught just as well.” She snaps her fingers. The hunter holding Milo suddenly moves, pushing him down onto the floor. He hits the ground roughly, bruising his knees. The guard digs his iron gauntleted hands into the boy’s shoulders, and Milo winces. But he looks up and fixes the mage hunger supreme with a glare that really does look out of place on his face.
“And what of you two?” The woman brings her attention to Zack and Melissa. “Are you more respectful than your friend? Will you kneel of your own will?”
“Fat chance.” Melissa spits, grinning wickedly. Zack is reminded of when he first met her, when his opinion was so different- now her wicked smile encourages him instead of frightening or disgusting him.
He nods, glaring up at the supreme mage hunter, the nightmare and hero of his childhood. He draws himself up as much as he can while being held, putting all of the bravery and self confidence Milo and Melissa have taught him into his expression. “Never.”
Another click of her fingers, and Zack finds himself shoved down on his knees. He bites the inside of his mouth to stifle his automatic yelp, refusing to give any of them that satisfaction. The iron gauntlets dig into his shoulders, which will surely bruise but also burns- it hurts, but he tries not to show it on his face.
“Much better.” He can’t see her face, but he can hear the smug satisfaction in her voice. Despite that, the children glare defiantly up at her. “You know, you do nothing but give us evidence of your ungodly wickedness. A real, good person would grovel before me and beg for forgiveness.”
“Would it matter?” Zack didn’t plan to speak, but the words spill out in a voice that shakes with emotion. “I spent my whole life believing that I was bad just because of how I was born, and trying to earn forgiveness. I let people hurt me because I thought that I deserved it, I hated and feared myself and hid my ‘unnaturalness’. And I still got arrested, tortured and was nearly executed. You would hate us if we had never done anything wrong in our life.”
“You have done wrong. You are a-“
“A wicked, ungodly monster, I know.” Zack interrupts her, which earns him a rough punch from behind. He yelps, but he still continues. “So why should we grovel if we can never been good no matter what we do?”
“I will not argue goodness with someone incapable of understanding it.” The woman waves a dismissive hand. “I am sorry that you never had a chance.” She doesn’t sound apologetic, not at all.
She turns, and her cloak flairs around her like wings. “Take them back to their cells. Dismissed.” She marches out the large double doors opposite the way the children were taken in, her boots tapping loudly against the wooden floors as she goes. The doors slam behind her.
The children are yanked to their feet and dragged back to their cells. Just before they are locked in, Milo turns around as much as he can in his captor’s grip. “We’ll figure it out, we’ll escape.” He says, smiling reassuringly.
“We will.” Melissa agrees.
And this time, Zack is able to smile back with determination. “We always do.”
The mage hunters roll their eyes, drag them away, separate them and lock them up. But this time, despite his fear, Zack doesn’t fall to despair. He sits down on the thin wooden bench, wiggles his hands that are going numb in the iron, and takes a deep breath. They’ll escape. They always do.