Chapter 4: Cadmus Brutus

I looked around the room in a calculating way before I walked to my left by a couple of feet. I then proceeded to create a rectangle on the floor by dragging the dagger across the flagstones; I pushed the dagger deep into the mortar between the stones, making the outlines of three of the four sides of the rectangle undeniably visible. The fourth side did not need to be drawn as the as the wall of the room worked as a substitute. Pleased with my seven foot by four rectangle; I turned back to face the men, securing my dagger on my person as I did so.

"Do you all see this rectangle?" I asked, as I illustrated the four sides by pointing with my forefinger. "This is my personal space. No one is to go inside it; anyone who does without my permission will lose his life." I looked at them all before saying, "I am going to go sit down for a while. All of you just go back to doing...whatever it is you normally do."

I walked to my private bubble of jail room space and sat myself cross-legged on the hard floor, with my back against the wall. I closed my eyes.

It was about twenty minutes before the men felt confident enough to get back to laughing, dirty joke telling, talking and whatever else it was they were doing.

I was currently in a meditative trance. I was getting low on energy from the work I was forced to do today, getting tortured and manipulating metal. It was a while since I last collected energy to top up the store of demonic fire and earth energy. (To some the fire element may seem self-explanatory, but the earth energy slightly confusing. To clarify, all demons have demonic fire energy, but only the ones on Earth, possessing a physical body have demonic earth energy. The reason for this is that all physical bodies on Earth possess some degree of earth energy. The creator made it that way, the first man was partly made of clay or earth, as an example.

But unlike human or animal bodies, my physical body did not require any kind of human cuisine. The 'food' that fueled my body was earth energy. The only kind of earth energy I couldn't use came from parts of the Earth near the surface that happened to be blessed by the other side (saints, angels, etc.). I usually reached far into the earth and retrieved earth energy from the vast magma core. This had the dual purpose of being safe from contamination as well as being of the highest potency.

As I did so now, I drew the energy slowly, like a thin, silk spider thread, up from the earth's core and into myself. The whole process took about an hour, all the while the meditation and flow of energy was kept constant. I was fully capable of ripping the energy out all at once, but that would defeat my purpose, as doing so would cause the unbalance of the earth's core and an implosion destroying the Earth and all life on it, including my physical body.

Feeling as refreshed and wicked as ever, I opened my eyes. I then proceeded to use some of my new energy to heal and regenerate. In the span of ten minutes, I had healed myself with no trace of burn scars and created myself a good quality shirt.

Now, while the Romans wore traditional Roman clothing like togas and robes, I preferred a more barbarian style of sturdy breeches and a well-fitted, good quality shirt.

Feeling pleased with myself, I continued to sit and mulled over how well everything had turned out so far. 'If this continues,' I thought, 'the whole thing will be as easy as taking sweets from a small child.' I reviewed the next several necessary steps in my head.

The opening of the only door leading to the outside world, caught my attention. Some guards came in with a few large bowls of something that looked like mush. I realized that these were supposed to feed all the men present, but I could tell there was no way it was enough.

'Hmm.' I thought, 'I had no idea it was dinner time.'

The fact that there was only one window in this room, and that it was a slit the same size as the distance between my thumb and little finger when I splayed my fingers, ment that little natural light entered. Also, there were only a handful of torches burning high on the wall.

As the guards placed the bowls on the floor and left, I noticed no one had even made a move towards them. I waited and wondered if they thought it was poisoned or something.

After five minutes of watching them stare down the food hungerly, but not touching it, I decided to go have a look myself. I picked up a bowl, and determined it was not poisoned; nor did I think the others were.

"Well, it's not poisoned," I said aloud, "and I doubt they will serve anything better in here, so what is the problem, gentlemen?"

After a lengthy silence, a man stepped forward, and I noticed he was the one who I had removed the shackles from earlier. He went to his knees before me and bowed his head. "My lord," he addressed me in a quivering voice, "We were waiting for you. None of us will eat until the leader has taken his share."

'Ah!' I thought, 'They have a pecking order for eating as well.'

Feeling very amused, I laughed out loud. All the men seemed surprised. I decided let them in on the joke. "I will not be eating any of that," I told them, "this body doesn't require human food; demons don't 'eat' like you do."

They seemed both surprised and relieved by this. 'Maybe some thought I consumed human flesh?' I wondered. It was a common misconception.

"At any rate," I continued looking at the man still kneeling before me, "What is your name?"

He looked uneasy as he most likely knew names have power. So, I said, "You don't have to tell me your real name, just give me something to call you, that you will respond to; could be a nickname if you really desire."

He looked a little less tense. "My name is Cadmus Brutus," he said.

'Cadmus Brutus?' I thought, 'The man's father clearly did not love him when he decided to name him. What father names his son "dull/ stupid one from the East" ?' I shook my head at that.

"Well, I hope everyone has taken note of Cadmus Brutus, I said, "He showed me respect and answered me when I wanted information." I glanced down at the dirty, underfed man still kneeling. "As a result, I have decided to grant him as a reward the privilege of eating first."

You didn't have to be a demon to sense the resentment and jealousy rolling in waves off the other men towards him.

"This is only for tonight though." I said directly to Cadmus Brutus. When the others heard this, they calmed down a significant amount.

"Keep in mind, I reward those who are helpful and loyal to me." I said to the men. "Go eat." I told Cadmus Brutus. I then returned to my section of the room and lay down to think further.