I don't often post responses to my own writing prompts, but this is a story that has been trying to get out all week. If I don't write it down, it'll bug me until I do !
The prompt it's based on is Worldbuilding Weekend Prompt #31 - Prison
Image created by AI in Nightcafe Studio
The jailer-surgeon held his large syringe up and tapped it to release any trapped air bubbles.
With a cruel smile, he leaned over the strapped down prisoner. "Queen Arpa sends her regards, and regrets she cannot be here for your send-off."
Zli-Klak struggled indignantly in the bonds which pinned him securely to the table. "Send off ? I thought I'd been sentenced to imprisonment, not death !"
Laughing savagely, the jailer-surgeon pushed the syringe into the prisoner's thigh with little care for the pain inflicted. "You are too dangerous to just put in a cell. We know how you can weave your charms to make anyone help you escape. But we're not going to execute you. This syringe contains nanomachines which will ensure your imprisonment is effective. Within five minutes, they'll spread through your bloodstream and embed themselves in every cell of your body."
Then, straightening up and assuming a formal tone, the jailer spoke once more. "Warlock Zli-Klak, you have been found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of your natural life. Wherever in the multiverse you are, that shall be your prison. Farewell, Zli-Klak."
The world twisted and a spasm of agony hit the warlock like a sledgehammer. He blacked out.
................
When he awoke, he was no longer in the cell. He was lying on a grassy slope under a pale blue-white sky. Standing up, he could see smoke rising from a chimney in the distance. It looked like a farming hamlet. Good, good. He'd take these farmers, bend them to his will and start to rebuild his power base. He'd have his revenge against that bitch-queen.
An hour of hard walking later, he was at the door of the first house. A simple affair of wood, wattle and daub. He banged on the door with absolute confidence.
It was opened by a brown-clad peasant, sturdy, with suspicion in his piggy little eyes. He opened his mouth to speak and Zli-Klak talked straight over the top of him. "I am the warlock Zli-Klak. I am in charge here now. Please gather everyone into the village square. I wish to speak to them all in twenty minutes."
Then the world twisted in agony and he blacked out again.
...............
His eyes opened, and he saw he was lying in the sand under a black, starry sky. Clearly night-time, but it was still scorching hot.
As he stood up, he saw riding across the burning sand a band of lance-wielding riders clad in dun-coloured robes riding massive unfamiliar animals, shaggy great beasts with six legs and wicked-looking tusks. This was more like it !
He opened his mouth to bid them into his service.
For a third time, the wave of agony struck, taking him from the world again.
..............
He awoke to a sensation of floating. Opening his eyes, he briefly flailed around in panic. Then realised that although he was hanging in empty space, he was still breathing and the temperature felt neutral.
There was no-one around. No structures, no people, and the nearest star was just a dot.
That was okay, it gave him time to think.
It was the nanomachines, of course. No sooner had he got his bearings than they'd activate and send him somewhere else. He guessed it could be anywhere in the multiverse. In the process, he'd get a jolt of pain, but that was just a minor annoyance.
But he couldn't control when it happened, or where he'd be deposited. Only that it could be a few minutes or maybe a couple of hours between shifts. He suspected they were devious enough that he'd never see the same place twice.
That was when he started to despair. His life span was measured in millennia. Thousands of years of getting a jolt of pain every hour or so. No chance to build support and take a world to call his own and rule over. Maybe no sleep, even, if he couldn't get used to the agony of shifting.
He was imprisoned inside his own life, with nothing to look forward to except endless blackouts until his sanity inevitably gave out.
Pain hit him, and he blacked out again.....
