Nadael awoke to the taste of blood and bile. *How long have I been here* he thought to himself. He groggily opened his eyes and winced at the intense light, then squeezed his tired lids shut again.
*Where am I? Why am I here?*
He opened one eye to a slit and found the pain to be less, then slowly opened wider as his pupils adjusted. As he looked around, he realized he was chained to a wall by his wrists. The wall was built of gray stone, and there were no windows. The door on the opposite side of the small room was of a dark brown wood. The only lights in the room came from torches on the wall and from a crack beneath the door, still enough to cause a headache in Nadael's skull.
*Who brought me here? Did I come here on my own?*
As Nadael turned his head, he saw the symbol on the wall, a red oval with six intertwining prongs coming off of each end, and it all came back to him. He was in Ebonheart, and probably in a dark elf merchant named Garrett's basement.
At just that moment, the door came swinging open. A dumner came striding through the door, dressed in gaudy clothes and wearing a grin from ear to ear.
"Ah, Nadael, my young friend. You're finally awake! I was starting to think you were dead! Now, how are you feeling, muthsera?"
*This man killed my foster parents*, the tortured thief thought.
"Mnumnnn..." He groaned.
"Oh, yes, that's right, the paralysis hasn't completely worn off yet. Ah, well, I suppose you are wondering why I have you all tied up like this, don't you. And why I killed those two fools you were living with. They were barely bright enough to raise a dagger when my assassins bashed down their door..."
"Munmunmnn..." Nadael hated hearing this. Why couldn't he move?
Garrett grinned even wider, and crinkles spread to the sides of his red eyes. "Well, it's all right. They were just your foster parents, after all. Your real parents have been dead for such a long time, though, they must have felt like your real parents."
*Why? Why couldn't he just shut up?*
"Or were your real parents dead? Did you ever truly know they were dead? Or, perhaps, did they just abandon you, because they knew there was no way they could take you with them? Or what if they left you with something? What if the only way they knew to keep it safe was to keep it with you?"
*What is he talking about?*
"But what if this something wasn't a physical thing? What if it was a trait, the ability to go unseen, but not by hiding in shadows that are already there, but by creating your own? Do you know who made the attack on your house? The ones who, when finding you were not there, destroyed it and gave you the clue that led you to me?"
*No, no, please-*"Eris! Inni! Come here!"
*No, no, why-*Two Bosmer, one male, the other female, wearing dark red hoods and the broach with six prongs walked up to the dumner.
"They are your mother and father, Nadael. They tried to hide you, so long ago. But then I found them, and broke them. They are now my best servants. And someday, you will be too."
Nadael squinted into the light and saw the faces of his parents, cold, hard faces with deep lines, looking straight ahead. Eris turned his head slowly and looked at his son.
Nadael vomited blood, and fainted.