Troug, 14th.
I stood back in the world of the waking and imprisoned going over some preliminary thoughts in my head as I planned my escape. Most of my ideas hinged on someone opening the doors to let me get out after rushing past them, or confronting them in some epic, if not quiet, battle.
At least I was warm now, or rather warmer than I was. It was still damp and cold down here. I honestly had no idea how so many young people could be stuck in a cold damp hole for so long without more of them becoming ill, then again, they did have people skilled in healing magic available. Maybe there was some Cure Disease or Cure Sickness spell out there for such things. Yeah, that was quite possibly the way of it because why not. Magic.
“Wake up, wake up.” A shouted voice came from up somewhere the tunnel that led down to this lower level. Apparently, I had a visitor on the way. It was either that or she had underestimated the level of volume she was calling out and had meant her calls to be heard by the massive cavern further down. I was betting she aimed her comments at me though.
I was just recalling the fact that Reggie, the mighty red ranger of the bastard brigade had mentioned sending someone with clothes down to see me taken care of.
Joy.
It was only a moment before I saw the woman round the bend higher in the caves. She wore typical servants clothing, which is to say she had on a frilly ankle length dress of sorts with matching gray and white shirt and a small bonnet to tuck her hair into. In her hands was a small bundle of clothing and what looked like a bag containing an empty pitcher and soap. Also, was that a brush?
I could use a brush…
“Well, they said you would be in worse shape than this, dearie.” Her statement was full of surprise and disappointment both. I wondered at what aspect of the meeting she had been looking forward to, though most of the more malicious reason for such feeling left my mind when I noticed the small silvery anklet she wore. It bore the marking of runes and glyphs shown to me by Matilda.
Unbidden my eyes wandered to the center of the cavern that was still visible from my cell to find that figure still there, mounted upon a wooden construct that very closely resembled a cross. I couldn’t tell if she was still alive, but I was betting Reginald had found some way to lengthen her time of torment if only to cause the other captors to behave; living examples of torment were very good motivators for obedience.
“Hello there madame,” I said by way of greeting to the woman as she drew nearer, “I had a chance to wash up in the night.”
“My, oh my! You are certainly more chipper than the usual sort kept in these dreadful cages.” She said with a small grimace that slowly turned into a controlled smile, “Just how did you manage that. Also, those clothes look new; was I not the first one to visit?”
“Alas, no dear lady.” I said as I channeled my inner lady-ness, “I simply made do with what was before me, I do not suppose I could borrow that brush though?” I emphasized my desire by running a hand through my still tangled hair. I had definitely not expected so many knots to have formed with my short hair.
Perhaps noticing the flinch on my face as my hand caught on a particularly nasty knot the woman’s face shifted to one of sympathy and understanding. I doubted she was happy being reminded of some past experience where she had waited to be sold herself.
I wondered then if Lady Avery actually had anyone in her service that was not a slave; outside of the guards and that whack-job doctor. Probably not.
“Either way, I was told to get you cleaned up and to get these clothes to you, I have to follow orders after all.” Said the woman with a small wink as she slipped the parcels through the bars to me.
I smiled as I thanked her, doing my best to not quickly hide the things away in my happy little storage room for later. I expressed my thanks to her several more times, smiling even as I ran the coarse brush through my rough hair. She watched for several long minutes with a confused look on her face, as if lost in thoughts of a time she could not fully recall.
It was strange, but I realized that she had probably been here for quite a long time. Maybe she had children once upon a time, or maybe she only wished she had had the opportunity. Either way it was not long before the woman nodded to me in acknowledgement before turning and walking back the way she came.
It took several long minutes with the brush to get my hair in some semblance of order, not perfect but it would do. I had not really taken any time to do anything with my hair in a very long time and it felt nice to actually do something so mundane again; something normal. The whole process served to help balance my fraying psyche, to the extent that I was starting to doubt my own mental well-being.
How bad was my mind messed up to be so changed after just a few minutes of combing my damned hair.
“I really need to leave.” I muttered to myself then, barely a whisper in the cold space.
I was taken from my introspection by the cold voice of a woman I had met only once before as she said, “Don’t you worry, dearie. We will be leaving together very soon, only a few more hours…”
She let her voice trail off as she came fully into view, smiling as I turned to see her walking up to my cell. I had not fully registered this woman when we first met, but I remembered her name and sighed, “Sonia.”
Her face lit up to hear her name, a bright sadistic thing, framed by her silvery blue hair that was no longer tied back in the severe knot of yesterday. Her attire had also changed to something less formal and more domineering.
She now had on boots of rough leather that came almost to her knees with loose fitting brown linen pants held in place over her tucked in tan blouse with a copper-colored belt of some shinty material. I was never really keen or discerning when it came to fabrics, even on earth. She honestly looked like she would fit in well climbing the rigging of some ship in a pirate film.
“Why don’t you just back away from the door for a moment.” It was almost a question, but I could pick out the not-so-subtle command laced in the words as I backed away. “Good girly, I just wanted to have a little chat before I go back up and join the others, we have a long trip ahead of us today.”
I did not like the inference in her words, and I had also forgotten that they had planned for us to leave today. I wondered if Doogan and his group would make it in time to save the other future slaves or even me. The same thought had crossed my mind before now, but as I approached the deadline for our departure, I could not help but feel a little anxious at the prospect of it all.
I had yet to get into any real combat situations, and this whole ordeal down here had seemed more like a linear story where I was taken from the lead role and cast as a random extra. It was not a pleasant feeling, at all.
Sonia stepped into the cell with me after making use of a large key she had pulled from her pocket and upon stepping inside she merely pulled the door shut again to click it back in place. All the while she wore a most predatory smile.
I did not like this, nope, not one bit.
“We were never properly introduced yesterday.” She said stepping closer to me even as she ran a hand down the front of her blouse, as if trying to entice or frighten me. She had the second part well and truly started, for sure.
“I was under the impression that I was off limits to you.” I said, trying to sound calm, if not slightly confused by her actions. I was in no way confused right now, but I had to seem off balance to her to keep her from being too cautious. I did not want her to prepare for anything that might give me a chance of escape.
She had a key.
She stepped closer and I could not help but back away further, succeeding in only getting myself against the wall. My eyes widened involuntarily as my body contacted the cold wall, a small, ragged breath escaping my lungs.
Sonia smiled, showing me a craven look of predatory glee. It seems like I had pegged her correctly as the sadist in their little pairing, not necessarily a good thing for me. She unclasped the buttons in her blouse as she approached, baring even more of her chest to the room. A room that was nowhere near as large as I would have preferred as I had nowhere else to go.
I was in no mood to put up with any more of this aggressive crap from the underbelly of society, but at the same time I needed to pretend to be intimidated so I could implement my master plan, pretending was very easy, the actionable parts of my fictional plan were not.
I had no idea what to do in a scenario like this, but I knew playing along or at least allowing her to play her part would buy me some more time to think of something.
She closed on my position with only a few more steps, placing one arm on my shoulder as her other worked to finish exposing her torso to the cold air. I could not help but notice that she was showing visible signs of the temperature, that or she was much happier than I had assumed.
“She leaned forward, wrapping that arm around my neck as she whispered, “All alone with my little raven.”
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My breath caught for a moment thinking of how she may have discovered Corvin before the pain of my hair being pulled let me in on the fact that she was referencing my own raven-colored hair. This coincidence was far too close for my little heart to not shudder. A fact she picked up on.
“No need to fear little bird, we are only going to play for a little while.” She whispered into my ear as she held me against the wall with her body.
I could feel her free hand working its way up the side of my body, freeing my flesh of its confining clothing. I felt a tug as my belt was pulled from the loops and released, giving me only a second to snag at the other end and will it away into my special place.
If Sonia noticed a lack of noise from my belt falling to the ground she showed no signs, intent as she was in removing me from my wrappings.
It was only a few moments after my belt had been removed that I felt her shuffling in place, and only a few seconds more to realize she had removed her feet from their boots and was now working to access my own places of privacy.
I shuddered again at her mostly unwelcomed touch, wondering at why I was not even more revolted by this woman and her blatant violation of my body’s sanctity.
My mind was racing for a solution to figure out what was wrong with me as I found myself slowly and silently complying with this woman’s unspoken commands, stopping at one spell in particular. Detect Magic.
There had to be something magical going on, something swaying me somehow. That or Charisma was much more insidious than I had thought before.
So, in a panic I dumped three of my nine skills points into Detect Magic. I was hoping that it would help while justifying the expenditure as an investment, I was sure it would be a prerequisite for some other skill in the future. Probably.
Detect Magic: This spell allows the target to detect magical energies imbued in objects, creatures, and the very air. Colors and patterns can help discern the nature of many magical spells and items. Spell effectiveness increases with the level of Magical Attributes, Piety, and Arcana. A wider knowledge of magic can aid the target in discerning the true depths of the world.
Rank Two: Further enhances the ability of the target to detect magical signature, even when cloaked by the aura or magic of others. The target of this spell can more clearly see the separation of magical fields.
Rank Three: Allows the target to detect magical signatures more easily in the environment. The target can now sense unmasked mana signatures inside the body of another, as well as the workings of magical conduits inside of objects and living beings. Resistance to foreign magic is increased.
Rank Four: Unlocks a passive ability that allows the bearer of this skill to feel, smell, taste, touch, and at times manipulate magical energy at no extra cost. This passive is permanent, and its effects shall only be limited by the Wisdom and Intelligence of the one who obtains it. The Duration of Detect Magic is now increased to Level multiplied by Rank in hours with range being Level multiplied by Rank and the average score of Wisdom and Intelligence.
I rasped out a breath under the sound of Sonia’s excited noises barely whispering the words, “Detect Magic.”
Sonia must have only felt the heat of my breath on her exposed neck as she pressed herself closer to my body, her desire to have what was not hers evident in every movement of her body. She wanted to have me for the sake of having me, to despoil something she had no rights to. I had a feeling this behavior had long been nurtured by whatever sick pile of garbage this advisor was, and I made sure to remember that I would need to look in on some of the shadier politicians when I got a bit stronger.
This kind of behavior was totally not going to last in the world. Nope.
Sonia’s hand, the one not wrapped firmly around my neck, soon found its way beyond the line of my waist and was now freely exploring my softer bits, both above and below. Her hands were not at all clumsy, but she lacked any sense of wonder or subtlety in the act. She was like a brutish monkey who had cracked open a particularly large fruit, all greedy grabbing hands attempting to steal away the best bits and leave only scraps in its wake.
It suited me just fine as it helped me get my head away from the moment, to shrug off the power of whatever was influencing my mind. I will admit that it may also have been some of the power of the upgraded skill.
I freed my eyes from the woman’s hair to glimpse my surroundings again and my breath hitched a bit. This did not serve to alarm my assailant but seemed to excite her as she bit into my ear. I had to push a bit with my left arm against her shoulder though I lacked any kind of real leverage, and my right arm was pinned between our bodies, stuck against her heaving chest.
I saw the room now awash in subdued mana rivers. There were slow streams of brown and gray moving along the walls and floors of the cell, while a red-orange aura was emanating from the iron bars at the front. Beyond those bars I could now see a group of guards watching from a recessed area not far from my cell.
I spoke softly to the lech of a creature that was busy pawing at me like a drunken slug, “We have an audience.”
Sonia only chuckled low and throaty as she said in a husky voice, “Let them watch.”
I rolled my eyes as she explored my body while busying myself with taking in the room, and my attacked as best I could.
I had noticed a small faint glow being emitted from an area near the woman’s neck through her long hair and I was determined to find the source.
I had tried pushing the woman away again as I noticed it but when she had said the word no my own body had stopped in the act of shoving her away. It only cemented the fact that I was being magically mind-warped somehow and I worked on a different method.
I buried my face in her hair, searching along her neckline with my eyes as I moved her hair with my chin, nose, and in an instance or two I had even nibbled a bit. Blaming the magic on that. My eyes began filtering out the ambient magical energies as I searched and Sonia was most assuredly thinking that I was finally succumbing to whatever the hell was going on she raised her bare legs to caress my exposed hip in an animalistic fashion, as if we were two beasts in rut.
It took entirely too long for me to see the faint steamer of magical energy flowing from her ear, a place that should have been obvious.
Gah!
Magic was so very awesome and so very awful all at once, and though I had no way of knowing for sure, I was certain that this bauble was the source of all the lusty, estrogen-fueled shenanigans in the cell.
I moved my head deeper into her hair, nibbling at Sonia’s neck in a playful way. The way you would in any intimate encounter of desire and mutual trust. I moved my mouth upward taking her ear firmly in my mouth to the surprise of Sonia, I heard her gasp in pleasure at the contact as I took the lobe into me and pulled it straight with my tongue.
The moans of pleasure and anticipation turned to a scream of outrage and pain as I bit down hard, severing the appendage and ripping the offending enchantment free.
She tried to back away from me as I spit the flesh from my mouth, blood flowing from the wound in a steady little stream but her arm was stuck around my neck and her pants were very much in no position to facilitate footwork of that nature.
I took the moment of clarity to use my wits and pulled the knife from my storage into my left hand as I brought it around to her stomach aiming to dig deep.
My elbow had jarred against the wall as I swung it around, but I still had enough room to plunge the blade deep using the fourteen in my strength stat for all that I could as I pushed. And pushed.
My hand went in after the blade as I shoved upward to pierce at her heart, much as I did to a certain brood mother in a previous fight. One thing I discovered quickly was that without the weight of a two-hundred-pound creature forcing the entrance I was not going to be able to hit her heart this way, and I did not want to lose another knife.
I spun to the left, freeing her arm in the process as I made space between us as I freed the blade from her abdomen.
The guards in the hallway were now fully aware that something had gone very wrong as they hurriedly jostled to get the door open and assist the angry woman as she began to bleed out in my cell.
I moved my hand behind my back storing the blade away while Sonia cradled her injury, trying to prevent her lifeblood from flowing onto the floor. I could pull it back if I needed it, I also saw no need to press for an advantage here.
The guards would soon be in the room, and I did not want to give Sonia a chance to grab me and prevent me from moving.
“You… You vile little rat.”
I turned slightly to see Sonia staring me down, her words coming out with specks of spittle and a visually impressive amount blood. I had to have ruptured something near a lung for that kind of display.
“Yep, me.” I decided to keep her angry now, and I really was in no mood to make her less angry; hell, I was angry, there was no reason not to show it. That magical roofie was no joke. It may not have been a full-on thief of conscious thought, but it was damned close to making me some helpless doll for the amusement of one Sonia Von Succubus.
Apparently even my limited flippancy had served as a motivator for the woman as she stood a little straighter with a hand still to the gaping hole in her stomach as I picked up a word she uttered, “Pzar.”
I saw the magic coalesce in her body and pool down her arm as it exited her palm and sank into her flesh before the wound began to heal over. The blood stopped and the flesh pulled itself together leaving the smallest of silver puckers on her otherwise flawless skin, discounting the copious amount of blood anyway.
I had forgotten that she was a bit of a healer. Apparently, she was quite a bit more of a healer than I was.
I had to go.
“Yep, I’m out.” I said to her as the guards began filing in, taking up position behind the now healed woman. They were hesitant to approach the woman because she was covered in blood, very angry, and also nearly nude.
“You will not be going anywhere, little bird.” She said to me, I could swear that I saw the mana around her changing to a sickly red even as I backed away once more. “There is nowhere else to go.”
As she said this, I heard the door to the cell click shut and lock as a new figure emerged from the crowd of thugs, the room was definitely beginning to shrink.
“What seems to be the problem, Miss Sonia?” came the slow and measured voice of Reginald.
Sonia looked to the man before looking back at me, “I was merely sampling the goods as is my right. It seems that the little bird has claws though, she somehow procured a knife.”
Reginald’s brows shot up as he took in the scene again. The blood, the tiny scar mark, the lack of clothing, and the lack of a knife.
“Do you happen to know where the knife is now, Sonia?” asked Reginald, even as the woman scowled at me and looked about on the wide empty floor. Empty of anything but a hunk of flesh and a flash of shiny metal.
I smiled just a bit as I saw her eyes linger.
“I suppose it does not matter in the end. We shall have her bound and taken upstairs.” Reginald said as he motioned the guards forward.
The men began tripping over themselves as they pressed forward in an attempt to follow orders, it seemed that no one wanted to be seen as not listening even if in the process they made it harder to perform said task.
I took advantage of the slower movement to jump up and back to stand up on the one and only raised surface in the room before saying to the crowd, “Screw you guys, I’m going home.”
I pulled my heels together after a quick cast of Wind Walk and allowed myself to fall through the only hole in the floor. Yes, I had just dropped like a needle into the toilet.
I heard the curses of several men above me fading away as I descended into the dark below realizing that my spirit-bound elementals must have had some form of altered sight to allow them to see so clearly down here.
One thing I also failed to do was tuck in my arms. I suffered a great many bumps, scratches, and at least a few serious cuts as I dropped through the coarse tunnel to the water below.
Which let me know I had forgotten one more thing. I had not graced myself with those other beautiful spells, Water Walk or Water Breath.
I hit the surface of the water hard and immediately sank below the surface, cold water pressing in from all sides as I struggled to pull myself up from the depths.
It took several tries before I was able to pull myself free of the cold water and lug myself onto the bank of the small stream, the current had pulled me well away from the original place I had fallen in at and I still had no way to see my surroundings.
But for the moment, I was free. Mostly.