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The High Seeker had by now stepped back to gaze at the initials
and year he had incised, which were hidden in the shadow of his body. The
junior Seeker wondered whether he was seeing instead the initials of the
man for whom he had come here.
The junior Seeker said, "He is reborn. You can be sure of that."
"Can I?" The High Seeker often pronounced questions like this in the presence of prisoners. When he did so, it was with a light voice, mildly inquisitive, no matter how deep his actual interest in the prisoner's answer. Now his voice sounded as though it were dipped in dark liquid. "He was Vovimian, believing that he would spend eternity at hell. Perhaps that makes a difference."
The junior Seeker stepped forward then, touching the High Seeker lightly on his sleeve. "Love, he abused prisoners," he reminded the High Seeker solemnly. "If he is undergoing pain now, it is no worse than the pain he often gave others."
The High Seeker did not look his way. "The last words he wrote were of his apprehension that I would despise him if I learned that he was afraid when he was brought to his final moments. Despise!" The High Seeker's voice was halfway between a laugh and a sob. "He tried to reform his dungeon, knowing what fate awaited him if his efforts were discovered, and he believed I would think less of him because he feared that ending when it came!" He turned away abruptly, went over to the bed, and picked up the hood that lay on the pillow there.
He did not put it on immediately, though. He remained where he was, staring at the ground in the cool room, saying softly, "And it was all for nothing. All the work he did, all the pain he endured at the end – it was wasted. His dungeon is returned to what it was; his blood was spent for nothing."
"Then see that his death was worth it."
The High Seeker raised his head slowly to look at the junior Seeker. Though his face remained naked, his expression was unreadable.
This excerpt is part of an upcoming novel. To receive notice of book publications and free online fiction, subscribe to one of Dusk Peterson's e-mail lists or blogs.
This story is part of the Eternal Dungeon series. To receive notice of book publications and free online editions, subscribe to one of Dusk Peterson's e-mail lists or blogs.
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