Thomas caught the clips and placed them on his belt, feeling reassured about having a little more lead on his waist. "Lead the way, ma'am. I got your back."<br/><br/><br/>Ylik sat in his cell, contemplating his sentence. It made sense that he'd be exiled, he did practice necromancy, killed various individuals to obtain the knowledge he had now about how to contort the human body, and was one of the primary leaders in the civil war that devastated the continent. The sentence wasn't what confused him, it was why his own family had turned on him so that left him enraged and confused. Ylik could not fathom how they tolerated withering and growing old, he himself had learned how to suppress his age and even transform himself into the way he was when he was young. Who would not take that sort of opportunity? Ylik thought harder and harder about his brother and sister's betrayal, he was the eldest, by right he should have been able to overrule their decision to ban his arts. So much time, so much effort, so much careful planning, all of it so no man would ever have to age again and to completely revolutionize the arcane arts, but they refused to see progress. "Those fools must not be ready to face the future..." Ylik spat, "Mayhap they find solace in the archaic forms of magic they practice..."<br/><br/>Ylik heard the door fly open atop the stairwell, knowing full well that it meant his sentence was to be carried out. A simple black tunic and breeches with a pair of brown boots, that was what he was allowed. He despised wearing the garbs of the peasantry, and who wouldn't after decades of dressing in nothing but the gaudiest of robes. He stood up from his bed, if one could call a stone slab that, and walked to the iron doorway of his cell. Down the stairs came a finely dressed knight, one Ylik knew right away.<br/><br/>"Sir Alistair," Ylik said quietly, his tone very flat. "I should think a Knight Gallant has far more pressing matters than escorting a prisoner."<br/><br/>"Still your forked tongue, devil," Sir Alistair shot back heatedly, "I have naught to say to vermin like you!"<br/><br/>Ylik cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrows as he responded with, "Were that the truth you would not have said aught at all. Pray tell, what becomes of my man, Kesch? He is very much like a son to me, I would hate to see ill befall him on my account. But I suppose you know that, after all, when you were a touch younger I felt the very same way about you."<br/><br/>Sir Alistair pulled out a key ring and unlocked the cell, drawing his sword with his free hand as he said, "I said be silent, lest I decide to send you to the next life instead of another plane!"<br/><br/>Ylik shrugged, happy he had hurt the man sufficiently. Sir Alistair clasped a set of irons onto his hands and shoved him towards the stairwell. Ylik smiled at him before moving climbing it. The two walked in silence through the walls of the keep that Ylik once called home. This was the keep Ylik had lived in for nearly seventy five years, and now it was under the control of his ungrateful siblings. As the two walked through the halls, memories of the place came to Ylik, and the thought of never returning became far more real with each step. Ylik snapped back to reality and saw that they had reached the grand hall, feeling disgust over his family making his punishment a public display of power. Sir Alistair opened the large double doors and shoved Ylik inside. The two slowly walked towards the center of the room, and as it was happening Ylik took a look around. His banners were gone, and now hung the symbol of the government, Ylik knew this was meant to infuriate him and have him try to kill people so he may be put to death as well. Ylik, however, would not give them such satisfaction and walked calmly down the center aisle towards the circular ring in the very center. Ylik walked by rows of pews and several marble pillars, looking nowhere but ahead as he did. The people around him shouted in anger, calling him a heretic, a murderer, a butcher, and far more vile things that Ylik could not hear in the cacophony of screams.<br/><br/>Ylik reached the circle and stood in the middle. He kept his head held high, deciding that these people were beneath his notice and refusing to show any sign of remorse for his actions. Sir Alistair had stopped walking with him once he reached the outer edge of the circle, knowing he didn't want to be standing there once the sentence was to be carried out. Ylik's eyes shifted to the left as he noticed ten magisters clad in gilded burgundy robes walking towards the circle. He watched each of them position themselves along the circle's edge, smiling agreeably at each as they did. Ylik knew every one of these mages, and he knew his family did this to torture him further. After all, what better way to punish a man than to see that his childhood friends carry it out?<br/><br/>A man clad in a flowing white robe entered the room and walked over to the circle. Ylik knew the man, lord Javrai, a pompous and arrogant man who had always loathed Ylik. Ylik watched him move towards the circle, unblinking with a spiteful grin plastered across his face. Lord Javrai sneered at Ylik in disgust as he moved to stand before him.<br/><br/>"Ylik Windl," he droned, "You have been tried for treason, heresy, two-hundred and thirty-nine counts of murder, four-hundred and twelve counts of illegally exhuming corpses, and practice of the black arts of necromancy. You were found guilty, and your punishment will be carried out immediately. Your siblings take pity on you, a luxury I find to be wasted on a pathetic wretch such as yourself. You will be exiled from this plane and sent elsewhere, mayhap your comrades will learn from this and surrender lest the same fate befall them. Do you have anything to say before the sentence is carried out?"<br/><br/>Ylik nodded, then he said in a flat tone, "Just one little thing. I will be back, and when I return you sorry lot will face proper justice by my hand." The spectators laughed and jeered him, but Ylik stood, looking very solemn, which only fueled the anger the people had towards him. Lord Javrai lifted his hands and the crowd fell silent. He looked towards the mages and said gleefully, "Proceed with the punishment."<br/><br/>The mages began chanting, and as they did a blue glow began to emanate from the circle. The light grew stronger and stronger by the second, causing spectators to shield their eyes. Ylik closed his own and lifted his head, allowing the light to wash over him as he was whisked from his home and sent far away.<br/><br/>When Ylik's eyes opened, he saw he was in the middle of a very confusing place. There were large metal buildings, roads paved with... well he didn't know what, and large, strange objects lining the road. Ylik looked down at his hands and saw the shackles hadn't traveled with him, so he rubbed his wrists a bit to get the feeling back in them. "Gods be damned..." he muttered under his breath, "What the hell is this place?"