Tamrissa cries echo Fei’s as Naraka allows her access to the ritual's happenings. The little metal box she huddles in vibrates with her screams and pierces through the ritual chamber, reaching up into the sanctuary of the temple above. There, the chanting of the lesser priests drowns the pained sounds out.

“I will kill you!” she shrieks in a choked voice as the visions and the sounds of Fei’s pain subside.

Naraka stares at the dead priests as Tamrissa throws herself against the walls of the cage. His eyes are wide with wonder at the intensity of Fei’s power, Tam’s threats and screams nothing more than whispers in his mind.

“Pull him back up to the surface!” he suddenly waves his hand at the remaining priests and crosses his arms, looking intrigued. “I will have more of his power this night.”

The priests do not move from where they stand in shock.

“Do it!” his yell visibly shakes them.

“Adon…Master…Great One,” one priest begins. “The woman would be better at this moment. He will not harm her.”

“You dare defy me?” Naraka narrows his eyes and turns to look at the groveling man.

The unlucky priest suddenly grabs his head, jaw dropping. The skin of his face seems to grow thin and cling to the sharp bone structure around his eyes and cheekbones. His mouth stretches open with a long silent scream. His mind rolls and tosses with violent images of pain. Bright colors flash along his eyes, but the imaginings in his mind are all that he takes notice of.
Lesions begin forming on his hands and arms. Blood drains from his eyes and ears. Five of his teeth shatter inside of his mouth with audible pops. Finally, a sharp snap at his knee sends him to the dirt floor of the chamber. Naraka blinks and the priest begins screaming, rolling on the ground with his hands wrapped around his knee, peaces of white tooth coming up with the blood that he coughs out.

The others drop to their knees and put their foreheads to the ground, all facing their master. He sneers at them.

“Get out of my sight!” he hisses and at once all of them scramble from the room, two carrying the screeching priest between them.

He waits until they are gone and then smiles at the altar, pleased with the amount of power he has received.

“In the end,” he replies aloud to the threat Fei spoke just minutes ago. “The abyss will eat your drained, powerless, pathetic soul.”

His smile turns to a grin and he slams a fist down on the metal box that holds Tam, her voice still screaming threats and her fists and feet still pounding against the cold metal.

“Shut up, woman,” Naraka mumbles and the box rises into the air with the lift of his hand.

The sound of a gleeful hum of satisfaction follows the floating cage up the stairwell.