The Unanswered Question (The Eternal Dungeon) [original fiction by Dusk Peterson]

[duskpeterson]

Title: The Unanswered Question.
Author: Dusk Peterson.
Where to find me: Website, Dreamwidth blog, InsaneJournal mirror blog, LiveJournal mirror blog, duskpetersonbooks (e-mail list with announcements of my fiction).
Type of work: Fiction.
Contains: References to past sex and brief present attraction, but no onscreen sexual activity. There is brief but intense violence. This is prisonfic, with all that follows, but the primary focus is on a nonviolent platonic mentoring relationship. Series warnings.
Note: This is my 2009 holiday gift story to my readers. You can see the prompts from my readers that inspired the novella and my response to their prompts (both with major spoilers, so they're best read after you've finished the story).
Summary: No weapons, no allies, and no guarantees that he will survive the test.

He was weaponless. Or rather, not quite weaponless, for he knew what he was capable of doing with his body, but he bore no blade, nor any whip, nor any lead pipe with which to stun his victim, nor any rope with which to strangle the victim . . . The number of potential weapons he had deliberately laid aside was frighteningly high.