"Edric."
That voice still lingered in his skull. Still echoed out even now. He could hear her voice, could see the lines on her face, could still watch the flicker of passion that ran through her eyes. It was a memory that seemed stuck in his mind, centered within his skull as though she had affixed it there herself. A cruelty offered by the strength of her will.
"You know why they chose you for this. You know what you're meant to do. Everything that you've trained for. Everything that they pushed you towards."
Her words stuck in his mind.
"What they didn't wasn't right. But it made you who you are."
He could feel the brush of her palm on his cheek. The gentle caress. That soft touch that he had so rarely felt in his life. The memory was as pure as the snow atop a fallen mountain. It clung to him, his mind grasping around it in desperation.
"No matter what pain you find there, they brought so much more."
Edric's eyes flickered open.
He could feel the chains wrapped around his wrist, the steel digging into his skin, the blood slowly dripping down his arms. Eyes flickered slowly through the small room he found himself in, the ancient stone walls standing stark in the dim light of the moon which shone through the bars behind him. A cold wind rushed through the room, goosebumps rolling over his bruised and broken flesh.
A thick steel door sat in front of him, beyond it he could hear the cries of the desperate and despondent. Long wracking sobs echoing out from those in the cells surrounding him. Footsteps echoed out, the heavy clank of armor. The steady beat of his heart almost drowned them out, threatening to pull away the steady beat as her voice drew his focus.
"Find him. Kill him. I know you can do it."
The words echoed in his mind, muscles flexing, aching as finally the chains that bound him snapped and he tumbled to the floor with a heavy thud.