From behind the door hurtled a blurry shape collided with Dmitri, knocking him to the ground. He managed to roll onto his back before he felt a weight upon him. The shape that had hurtled at him was a woman, quite a beautiful woman actually, despite the dirt and grime marring her features. He only had that split second to see her before she was raining blows on him. Outside the cell, Birkett was laughing; Wayte stepped in and pulled the woman off Dmitri. Birkett made a disappointed sound, deprived of his entertainment. With Wayte holding back the woman, Dmitri was able to rise again, the woman, now restrained took the time to look at Dmitri. In that same instant, the both recognised each other as the source of the resonance they could each feel. She started muttering apologetically in French.
Wayte, seeing that that she was no longer going to be a threat to Dmitri, released her and left the cell with Birkett. Dmitri heard the door being locked behind him and heard Wayte tell Birkett to remain on guard until Mattief arrived to replace him.
Dmitri turned back to survey the room but found the woman starting at him.
“I can feel your magic,” she said in English, looking at him with amazement. “Even muted it sings to me.”
Embarrassed by the attention, Dmitri tried to focus his thoughts away from the woman in front of him. But then his mind latched onto something she had said; “Muted?” he asked, “Do you know something about it?”
“I only know what I have found out in my captivity, from visits from the ‘Lord’ Draycott and his advisor.”
Dmitri could clearly hear the inflection on the word Lord and asked of it.
“The man you call Draycott rose to power through death and destruction. He and his men raped and pillaged their way across my land. Even now as their captive, I am unable to prevent them from taking what they want.” She nodded towards the closed door, indicating where Birkett would be standing outside on guard.
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“You mean Birkett?” Dmitri asked.
The woman nodded.
“I would help you if you could,” he continued, “My magic is normally quite powerful when it comes to healing. But the muted sensation that you speak of has all but cut me off. What do you know of it?”
“When I was first captured, I was aware I had magic, but not how to use it. It was the two guards that brought you in actually, Wayte and Birkett; they were the ones that captured me. Wayte is a good man; he simply chose the wrong side. But it is easier said than done to escape the clutches of Draycott. Birkett on the other hand is far from a pleasant man. Where Wayte is a happily married man, Birkett is a lustful hate-filled little man. He will hurt anyone at the slightest provocation or to attain his desires and he seems to enjoy causing pain.” She sighed, clearly remembering her own pain caused by him. “But Wayte seems to be able to rein him in somehow. If he hadn’t, Birkett would have risen to captain of the guards by now. And in that position, he would have had Draycott’s direct attention and the two men would wallow in their perverted pleasures together and there would be no accounting for the pain they would cause.”
“But how is it you know so much about these men?” Dmitri asked.
“It is because I’ve been at their mercy for so long. You can learn quite a lot about a man in that situation.” She replied sadly, than changed the subject, “So who are you and what landed you in the clutches of Draycott?”
Dmitri started to regale her with his tale as he had Judith, but when he mentioned the runes outside the cave that he had removed, she interrupted him.
“What did the runes look like?”
Dmitri described them and she exploded, “And you erased them? They’re an ancient form of magic!” Calming, she explained, “Usually carved on a planar prison to keep the being trapped inside in a deep sleep. The loose translation is Darkness Sleep. But erasing them would have allowed whatever was contained in the prison to awaken and potentially escape.”
Dmitri nodded, “Which would explain what happened next. When I purified the waters and sealed the cave, I did awake something, a demon. The Arch-Angel Uriel called it Akahaziel. He sent me here to find a person by the name of Destria. That person is meant to teach me how to imprison Akahaziel again.” He sighed, “But now I’m trapped in here, and if your imprisonment is any indication, I will be for some time.”
“Well my friend,” then she paused, “What was your name?” she asked, and Dmitri told her. “Well Dmitri, it may not be as bad as all that.” Dmitri looked at her questioningly. “My name is Claudia Destria; I believe it could be me you were sent to find.”