Rebirth (The Eternal Dungeon, Volume 1)



  The Eternal Dungeon

  Volume 1

  REBIRTH

  Dusk Peterson

  Love in Dark Settings Press

  Havre de Grace, Maryland

  Published in the United States of America. March 2016 edition. Publication history.

  Copyright (c) 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016 Dusk Peterson (duskpeterson.com). The author's policies on sharing, derivative works, and fan works are available at the author's website. This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

  CONTENTS

  === Front matter ===

  Maps.

  === Rebirth ===

  Elsdon Taylor, a prisoner accused of committing a terrible murder. Layle Smith, a torturer with a terrible past. Their meeting in the Eternal Dungeon appears certain to bring out the worst in both men.

  Yet neither man is quite what he appears. As the prisoner and his torturer begin to be drawn toward each other, the ripple effects of their meeting will have a powerful impact on other inhabitants of the Eternal Dungeon: Layle's faithful guard, struggling to contain his doubts. A younger guard determined to take any shortcuts necessary to ensure that his life follows the path he has already chosen. An old love from Layle's past, still sorrowing. And most of all, a prisoner who has not yet arrived at the Eternal Dungeon, but whose fate will depend on how Layle handles Elsdon Taylor . . . and on how Elsdon handles Layle Smith.

  Rebirth #1: The Breaking. The prisoner knew that the Eternal Dungeon was a place where suspected criminals were broken by torture, and he was prepared to hold out against any methods used against him – except the method he could not anticipate.

  Rebirth #2: Love and Betrayal. As a torturer learns the art of questioning prisoners, he discovers that the word "love" can have a darker meaning than he had supposed.

  Rebirth #3: First Time. One man seeks to heal from abuse. The other man dreams of abusing. Now they're in love.

  Rebirth #4: In Training. Unexpected danger reveals to a young torturer the dark mystery of his mentor's past – as well as unpleasant revelations about himself.

  Rebirth #5: As a Seeker. If the High Seeker wants something, no power in life or death will hold him from taking it. What he wants now has brought danger to the Eternal Dungeon.

  Rebirth #6: Tops and Sops. The torturer was young, inexperienced, and lacking in knowledge of the world. The prisoner was tough, worldlywise, and had an infallible plan that would give him escape from this place. So why did the prisoner feel as though the torturer had the edge?

  Rebirth: Historical Note.

  === More Turn-of-the-Century Toughs fiction ==

  Transformation (excerpt). A preview of the next volume in the Eternal Dungeon series.

  Mercy's Prisoner (excerpt). A preview of the first volume in a related series.

  === Back matter ===

  Appendix: Turn-of-the-Century Toughs calendar systems.

  Appendix: Turn-of-the-Century Toughs timeline. Includes links to all the current Toughs stories.

  Credits and more e-books by Dusk Peterson.

  MAPS

  A larger version of the first map is available at:

  duskpeterson.com/toughs

  o—o—o

  o—o—o

  o—o—o

  === Rebirth ===

  Then straightaway Love came toward me with quick steps, and as he came he cried out: "Vassal, you are taken. There is no chance for escape or struggle. Surrender without making any resistance. . . ."

  I replied simply, "Sir, I surrender willingly, and I shall never defend myself against you. May it never please God for me even to think of ever resisting you, for to do so is neither right nor reasonable. You may do with me as you wish, hang me or kill me. I know very well that I cannot change things, for my life is in your hand. Only through your will can I live until tomorrow, and, since I shall never have joy and health from any other, I await them from you. If your hand, which has wounded me, does not give me a remedy, if you wish to make me your prisoner or if you do not deign to do so, I shall not count myself deceived. . . ."

  With these words, I wanted to kiss his foot, but he took me by the hand and said, "I love you very much and hold you in esteem for the way you have replied here. Such a reply never came from a lowborn fellow with poor training. Moreover, you have won so much that, for your benefit, I want you to do homage to me from now on: You will kiss me on my mouth, which no base fellow touches. I do not allow any common man, any butcher, to touch it; anyone whom I take thus as my man must be courteous and open. Serving me is, without fail, painful and burdensome . . ."

  Immediately, with joined hands, I became his man.

  —Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun: The Romance of the Rose (Roman de la Rose, 1230-1275), as translated by Charles Dahlberg.

  Rebirth #1

  THE BREAKING

  The year 355, the fourth month. (The year 1880 Barley by the Old Calendar.)

  More than one student of psychology has been shocked to learn that the origin of our nation's superb system of counselling and "transformation therapy" lies in the whips and racks once used in a dark chamber of torture.

  Of course, no psychologist today would countenance some of the methods that were used in the Eternal Dungeon. But modern-day psychologists who react with horror at the idea that their profession's roots lie in this place have not taken into account the historical context of the Eternal Dungeon. For what occurred in places like this during the preceding centuries was indeed beyond any measure of defense: a heartless system designed to destroy prisoners and satisfy the basest desires of the men who tortured them.

  The Eternal Dungeon represented a step forward in the progress of civilization, largely because of its code book, a product of several generations of foresightful torturers who saw that the application of pain might not be the only means used to bring about a change in the criminal's character. The introduction of the Code of Seeking marks the birth of the Eternal Dungeon, whose emphasis was on transformation rather than destruction, for the Code's carefully delineated rules required the torturers to place the best interests of the prisoners first. However often this principle may have lapsed, the principle did at least exist, and from this strange birthplace sprang, in due time, the modern psychological movement.

  The Eternal Dungeon's Golden Age – a phrase I use with no intention of irony – came at the time that the torturers first adopted the term "Seeker" to refer to themselves. Their leader – always the most skilled torturer of his generation – was in turn called the High Seeker.

  The first of the Eternal Dungeon's High Seekers was also its most famous . . .

  —Psychologists with Whips: A History of the Eternal Dungeon.