“What happened?” Soriche asked as she knelt down before her daughter and inspected her face and neck then her clothing.
Her anger was evident in her face and it wasn’t due to any love for her daughter. It had everything to do with station and the fact that she felt Avreel was her property. Playing it up as best she could she blubbered for a moment before wiping her eyes and looking up at her mother. “Yarus, he didn’t take no for an answer. I thought he was going to kill me and he said if I told anyone he’d finish the job and choke the life from me.”
“Guards!” She yelled at the top of her lungs. The two patrollers nearest to her rushed over to the door as quickly as their legs could handle them. “Gather a quad and apprehend spellstealer Yarus, I want him in my personal chains immediately!”
“Yes my liege!” The guards said in unison and scurried off to carry out her command.
“Did you purge yourself?” Her mother asked after the guards had gone.
“Yes mother, I purged myself as soon as he left me.” Avreel replied with a nod as she attempted to fix her clothing and hair. “I’m sorry; I’ll go clean myself up now.”
Soriche nodded her head and stepped past her daughter to follow the guards that had hurried down the hall not bothering to change out of her long bed robe. Yarus was quite the opponent so she would have to make sure he was captured and properly punished for putting hands on a noble. “Make yourself presentable, we’ll take care of this upstart.”
Once again Avreel had to force herself to stop smiling while she was exposed to the open stone hallways. She did her best to look distraught until she closed her door. When she was finally in her own private chamber she smiled and rushed over to the wash basin to fill it with warm water. Her successful planning had given her mother the proper distraction so she could put her plan into action.
It wasn’t long before she could hear Yarus making a commotion as he was being led past her door. The names he called her would make most people blush but all it did was dig his hole deeper. She knew his temper would prevent him from seeming sincere if he were to even attempt to convince them that she had come into his private chamber of her own will. Once he had passed she finished bathing and dressed herself again. He’d be placed in the special holding cell for prisoners that pissed her mother off. Avreel made her way down the hall to the stairwell that would take her to Rose.
The walk down revealed that a spellstealer initiate was watching the prisoners. Once she hit the ground she eyed the guard off-handedly and approached the cell where Rose was sitting. Avreel had the guard unlock the door and she stepped in. Avreel leaned against the bars near Rose who had opened her eyes but had not moved from her sitting position. Avreel ordered the guard to fetch her some wine and water then waited for him to obey. “I would speak to you plainly if you would hear me.”
“Seeing as I’m your captive I don’t have much choice.” Rose replied as she repositioned herself against the wall to get comfortable.
“I want out of this place but I can’t do it alone.” Avreel whispered intently. “I need your help to do it but the time must be right. My mother plans on draining you of your blood. For some vile reason she seems to think it’s valuable.”
“To some it is, but to an elf who already has the gift of immortality I know not what the point would be.” Rose replied and shrugged her shoulders, causing the chains to shake somewhat. “Why would you want to leave?”
“I tire of the political intrigues and the backstabbing; I want to live my life without fear of being killed in the night because someone decided I was a threat. My station is determined by the people I step on.” Avreel shook her head and sighed. “That is not nobility.”
“Can I trust you?”
“In the city of blood there’s no one you can trust. But I will do my best to prove to you that I am trustworthy. You must realize one thing though and I hope you understand but I have to keep appearances up. I’ve bought us a little time but not much. Honestly I don’t know how I’m going to get you out of here.” Avreel looked back at the stairwell to make sure no one had crept down toward them. “Any ideas?”
“What about the rest of them?” Rose asked, indicating the kurenai trapped in the cell not far from her.
“Don’t worry about us.” Ruckus replied to her without truly knowing what they were talking about and the rest agreed with a silent nod.
“I can’t leave you.” Rose lamented as she looked from Avreel to her friends. “They’ll kill you.”
“We are already dead; we just don’t know it yet.” Roathe answered before anyone else could. A little moisture in his eyes revealed the truth of how he felt.
“I can’t take everyone.” Avreel shook her head at the idea and met eyes with Ruckus; they shared a silent moment until she turned back to Rose again. “I’m sorry but they cannot be helped. It will be hard enough getting you out of the city let alone a whole herd of miners.”
“I started out my life as a prisoner, the elves that freed me made me a prisoner and the demons that held me thought I would be a prisoner. Now your people are holding me prisoner. I will find a way; that I guarantee. Can you remove the shackles?” Rose asked as she held up her arms though she knew the answer.
Avreel shook her head. “No, they’d suspect us instantly.”
“I still don’t fully understand why you’re helping me.” Rose sounded dejected and looked at the stones on the ground and her feet resting on top of them.
Avreel took stock of the captive for a moment and then decided that she would tell Rose about the dream she had. “I’m helping you because my god asked it of me. You are important to him in some way which means you’re important to me.”
Rose didn’t have a clue how they were supposed to escape so she wouldn’t be much help in that respect. Especially since her powers were limited because of the chains. She was just about as worthless as worthless could be. When Avreel stood to leave she gave Rose a pleading look as if requesting some sort of plan to get them out. But Rose could only watch as the frustrated elf left and slapped the returning guard on the head for taking so long before ascending the stairs leaving Rose, the kurenai and the guard all together in the nondescript dungeon.
~~~~
Walking the halls of her family’s home at night was almost as safe as walking the streets outside the compound during the day. Which was to say not very but she needed to think. Avreel needed a plan. She was not sure how to get the two of them out of the city safely but her god had requested it of her so she had no choice but to comply. She had been able to buy a little time by giving her mother a body to torture that was much more appealing. And it was all simply because of the supposed transgression. Yarus would occupy her for at least a day maybe two until he expired.
They would have to think fast if anything was to happen. Their escape would have to be at night and they would most likely need to take the secret route out to the family safe house. With the guards patrolling in the halls and the fact that a guard was set to watch over the corridor she knew it would be no easy task. None but the family royalty knew about the escape tunnel but she doubted any of them really cared. They all felt the house was secure because they were the most powerful family in the city. The mask for the tunnel was just a simple store room as far as everyone else knew. Once they were in the safety of the backup room they could get out into the city but it was uncommon for anyone other than an elf to walk the streets freely. Setting Rose up as a slave would be the best notion and she could bribe at least a few of the guards into absence by sending booze or whores their way courtesy of another guard or possibly a friend.
She would have to know the guard schedule to play that type of game and only two people saw to that list. One was in jail and the other was her father and he would be less than forthcoming with the information. She’d have to think of another way to take care of the guards. Staging a commotion would also cause many of them to be absent but she didn’t know of any way to do that without killing someo
ne. To be honest with herself she knew that she couldn’t take out any of her sisters or her parents; she wasn’t strong enough for that. The only one she knew of that she could have bribed to even try would have been Yarus and with him imprisoned she had no options to that tune. With a drawn out sigh she returned to her chambers to get some semblance of sleep until the day started she could almost hear the time ticking away and she had to finalize something in order to get them both to safety.
~~~~
Liostro and Nina had canvassed the entire city up and down to try and find out more about what had happened to Rose. The only thing they had come up with was that the demons had taken flight out of the city by wing possibly headed in a western direction but their searches of the area had come up nil. Magic also was not helping in finding Rose, all the ways that Nina had tried to locate or track her had come up with nothing but darkness. Frustration had taken over in Liostro before Nina could have expected and though she had given him more credit than that; it was obvious that his feelings for Rose were manifesting in the only way he knew how to act. Anger, rage and physical violence were visited upon any inanimate object in his reach. Those were the traits of his love because he could not express himself fully.
Watching over the campfire they had made she looked up at Liostro’s stern visage and saw nothing but hatred seething there. “You can’t let this eat you; you’re going to turn into the monsters you’re hunting.”
“It’s the only way I know to express myself.” Liostro admitted and hung his head lower than usual. His armor was gleaming in the light of the dying embers of the fire; he’d not taken it off since they had left. One of the properties of the armor seemed to be that it could be worn to sleep almost comfortably and he was determined to be ready for anything. Earlier in the day they had set out from the city once again to try and locate what the demons were flying toward in the west.
“We’ve searched in this direction three times now; I don’t think we’ll be able to find their trail.” Nina said after a long silence but she was merely voicing what the two of them had been thinking since their search had started. Time was flying by so fast that she feared the worst for her friend. “I don’t want to give up on her but I think we need to go back and try to regroup.”
“If you don’t want to give up on her then don’t.” Liostro picked up his pack and the sword that had been lying across his lap and stood, heading out of the clearing they had chosen to camp in. “I’m going to go ahead and start searching again.”
“It can wait until morning Liostro, it’s waited this long.” Nina countered as she watched him stalk past slowly.
“Every minute we waste could be another section of the jungle covered, every minute we sit and banter back and forth about the merits of continuing leaves me one step further away from her.” Liostro stopped at the edge of the campsite and turned back to look at Nina. “I can’t bear it anymore.”
“Alright but at least let me put out the remnants of the fire and I’ll join you.” She quickly disposed of the remaining flickers of flame and followed him into the brush. He was crashing through the path that had been carved by the animals that lived in this part of the forest so loudly she feared that everything for miles would hear them. Taking the initiative for both of their necks she walked up behind him and grabbed him by the arm, turning him around so that she could face him directly. “Your rash behavior could get us killed. This is my home but even I must have a healthy respect for the ecology here. There are predators that come out at night that would love to snack on an elf appetizer and a half-elf main course.”
Though he wanted to be mad and lash out at her he couldn’t find the heart. She was right as always and so far she had served as his conscience and his guidance at times when he knew he was going to lose his mind. Something in the distance caught his ear suddenly and similarly it caught hers. She took point as they crept through the brush and out towards what sounded like talking. Once they could see their quarry Liostro knew they had come to the right place. There was a ruined building like a sort of outpost covered by a thick coating of encroaching vegetation. Standing by the entrance to the old structure were two demons. One of them was familiar to him as he had seen it before in the city. It was the dog-headed red skinned humanoid with bat wings. The other looked like some sort of perverse cross between a crab and a man. It had stalk-like eyes jutting out of its forehead; the creature was covered in thick bone-like plates and had two large pincers for arms and humanoid legs to top off the grotesque ensemble.
Unfortunately for them the two strange-looking beasts were talking in a language neither of them understood. Liostro looked to Nina for guidance, wondering what she would suggest in the face of such a situation. He didn’t dare speak loudly if at all.
Nina looked from Liostro to the two demons and then back. For a moment she considered waiting it out or trying to communicate with them but she remembered what she was dealing with here. Judging from the tense look in Liostro’s eyes she knew what was going through his head. With a wicked grin spread across her features she reached down and unsheathed her sword and dagger.
Liostro mirrored the gesture, knowing that now was the time to let out a little bit of the pent up frustration he was feeling. In his shimmering armor he stepped out into the clearing and brandished his sword, he couldn’t see the fire in his eyes but he watched the two demons flinch visibly when he charged forward without fear.
~~~~
Her dalliance with Yarus had bought them precious little time and now she stood down in the dungeon facing the kurenai prisoners. Her mother was bantering something about feeding the wretches even though Avreel knew they received precious little food and water. In the end the feminine tyrant decided that the prisoners were to be killed immediately and disposed of. Avreel flinched almost visibly; she felt a twinge of something she had never felt before. Was it guilt or remorse? It was definitely somewhat along those lines though she couldn’t put her finger on it.
Her surprise was genuine when Rose stood up and strained against her restraints and cried out in the elven language for Soriche to stop. Their secret was out and she silently cursed her luck and the impulsiveness of the naarabian.
“Oh so you can speak a civilized tongue.” She said with a voice laced with corrosive acid. Soriche made a motion with her hand and every one of them including Rose fell to their knees with their hands spread out wide to their sides. “Kill the rock-headed fools.”
The nearest guards walked into the cells and began slitting the throats of the helpless kurenai prisoners while Rose watched. Soriche took pleasure in her wails of pain and torment. Something about true suffering gave her such a wonderful feeling. “They’re the lucky ones, they’ve been granted the merciful death a warrior deserves.”
Rose was down on the ground helpless with her chest heaving and her mind running through the things she would do to this vile woman when she was free. Her irrational thoughts poured into a loose fitting rage that threatened to boil up over and out of her body almost literally.
Avreel felt something at that moment; her mother had felt it too from the perplexed look on her face. It was the ripple of something unseen at work. Because Rose was crying so hard Avreel was having problems figuring out what had happened. When she looked over at her mother she followed that stunned gaze. Inside the cell she could see Rose clearly but more than that she could see a crackling white fire growing around her hands and arms in spurts and sputters. The shackles that were holding her to the floor began to vibrate and rattle against her straining. Another wave hit her and dropped everyone near Rose to their rear on the hard stone floor.
Ruckus was the last of the kurenai; he knelt in the blood of his brothers and sisters until he had felt the surge of magic growing around him. A swipe across his neck jolted his body as his life blood flowed to the ground. Before the light left his eyes he saw the expression that overcame Rose’s beautiful features and in his mind he felt pity for the elves that were standing in her path.
The anger at the core of her heart sweltered and seethed. Rose lifted her gaze from the ground and fixed her eyes on Soriche and they were burning with silvery flames that represented her tears. Each one trickled down and hit the ground in sizzling droplets.
Avreel was unable to turn away from the spectacle; she felt real fear at that moment. They could feel the raw power being drawn from everything, everyone and all of it was centered on the enraged naarabian. A nimbus of flames engulfed her body as the shackles dropped free, rendered inert from the draining touch. The golden-hued fur shimmered and swayed in a breeze that did not exist and the swirling hair behind Rose’s head was twisting and writhing on its own. Her eyes were what scared Avreel the most. Pure flames flickered in the angry woman’s eye sockets. She knew what was happening even if no one else did. The years of reading dusty tomes and old lore had led her to a ritual that had been performed by only the most powerful wizards in ancient times. It required several of them to cast and the end result had been catastrophic every time it had been used. Her voice was a whisper against the intensity of the gathering flames.
“Spellrage.” Even though her clothes had been burned away by the searing flames Rose was more than well protected. Normal weapons could not harm her and spells would fizzle or be drained into the chaotic swirl of magical energy.
Around her Avreel felt the cells and magical wards of the prison fading away only to be drawn in as Rose absorbed more and more power. The naarabian’s capacity for magic was greater than anything any elf had ever experienced before. Her mother was scared beyond belief. It was the first time she had ever seen such a look of horror on the powerful matron’s face. Avreel focused her eyes back on Rose; she was standing now and the silver flames had shifted to a golden color. The stone around her was melting but none of the molten rock touched her.
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