Everything ached.

For however long it had been, perhaps going on almost several day now, Vyra remained within the same cell, limited to no more freedom than what was provided within the dimensions of the steel bars. Within these confines, time did not seem to exist; the nature of being within the cell, no indication of time moving forward outside of the actors from beyond the cell bars, the environment static regardless of time that passed.

Worse even, the guards whom operated and lived their lives through the other side, they seemed to pay zero heed or concern towards Vyra. Her cries went unheard, pleas unacknowledged. Her existence limited to that of the small little tray of food, edible at the minimal, maybe enjoyable under the worst of circumstances, provided twice a day to her.

Vyra was a prisoner. No fancy way to otherwise describe her situation.

She had come to them, struggled to find them, all in the hopes and ambitions of getting better. And for that effort, she now found herself behind bars, unsure of their intentions for her or what her future stood to be.

It left a gloom cloud in her heart, making her wonder if she ever stood to get out of there. The longer she spent there, the more miserable and hopeless the situation seemed to get. Her mind flashed to the Blue Pegasus Guild Hall, her home there, the bed that she was able to call her own, escaping into the luxury of her memories. It made the reality all the more unbearable, to know that that life as she knew it, there was little to believe it would be there for her again whilst beyond the bars.

[285/2500]

“Vyra? You seem, disheartened? Are you feeling well?” The voice that came from behind her brought the faintest of smiles to the Demi-Human. The older woman, Seras as she called herself, she had proven to be a genuine salvation to Vyra during her time within confinement. It still baffled the Demi-Human, how a woman like Seras would have found herself in this situation, mirroring Vyra’s to some degree, if only just. In their time together, the woman had served more as a motherly figure to her than she would have ever expected, having provided her with a level of care and sincerity not just seeming alien to anyone in this position, but to Vyra entirely.

Despite the relationship that she had developed with Alisa, the one that the Demi-Human had desperately – and often fruitlessly – tried to make stronger, but the reality was that the Vyra was another person within Alisa’s already busy life. To Vyra, Alisa was all she had. It was an unfair reflection of their relationship, one that as much rooted in a lack of anyone for Vyra to call a family herself. Alisa filled that gap, in a way almost seemed to accept the role that the Demi-Human had thrust upon her, but to completely live up to the role as Vyra had hoped for, she had set herself up for false expectations.

It hurt, knowing that that was in large part the reality of her life now in Blue Pegasus, longing to want more of that sense of a relationship out of Alisa, for it to possible never be reciprocated back, not for lack of care towards Vyra, but simply just the reality of who she was. A guest of Alisa’s, an important guest undoubtedly, but she would never be her daughter, as much as sometimes moments like this wished that it would have been the case. Born a Vollan, no reason to ever suspect that she would be in this sort of a position. Though, with this woman who seemed to be running things, it was hard to say entirely.

That unknown made it all the more precious to be in the company of Seras, who as much filled the gap that being separated from Alisa provided, as well as being a solace in a situation where she had no business being. The woman provided her with kind words, tended to wounds, and existed as an outlet for the Demi-Human, a chance to speak her worries in confidence, while at times even being a source of information herself, giving insight that Vyra otherwise would not have known. And not just of the situation present, but of the world entire that she admittedly was still so largely ignorant towards.

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“Fine, I suppose,” Vyra lied, the heartbreak of her situation taking more of a toll upon itself as the time went on. Even if it may not have been everything that she wanted, she missed Blue Pegasus, she missed Alisa, she missed the people and life that she had begun to familiarize herself with over the past two years. “Just… Seras, do you miss home?”

It was a question that she did not expect to receive an answer towards. She hoped that the asking as much answered the question prompted earlier, but to Vyra’s admitted surprise, it did not seem to bother Seras in the slightest. “Certainly, I would say that I miss home. But, home is more to what one regards it to be. For me, home is the world out there, beyond these cells, beyond this place that they’ve resigned us to.” The woman let out a sigh, not one of defeat, but one of a curious optimism, “I do not know how long I have been confined here. I did not know when you first appeared here.”

Vyra turned towards Seras, interpreting that dually as a hopeless situation for herself, but also one that led her to wonder towards the woman. Seras had spoken sparsely of her past, including before and what immediately preceded her arriving within this cell, and it gave pause, not only towards her, but towards the motivations of her captors. Perhaps the doom and gloom situation that ran through her head was nothing more than that, a fear that was allowed manifest. “How… how long have you been here?”

The woman responded with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, “I would expect for longer than you and I have had the pleasure of knowing each other.” That remark left a small smile upon Vyra’s face, a rarity under these circumstances. “At some point, they had taken me and the company I had been travelling with, feels like ages ago. One by one, it seemed that those I arrived with were taken and never seen from again.” Seras paused, looking to the ground with a solemn expression upon her face, “Eventually, it was only myself. I don’t know what why, but I am thankful if only for the reason that it has introduced me to you, Vyra.”

[1121/2500]

Seras’ words touched Vyra, a feeling similar to that of when she had met Alisa running through her. It was truly comforting, to experience any sort of kindness or appreciation of her person within a hell like this. She wanted to reach out and grip Seras and hold her with all of her strength, but something kept her from doing so; the cold look that the woman seemed to show towards an individual from outside of the cell. As Vyra turned, she saw exactly whom it was that had garnered Seras’ scorn.

The redheaded woman whom Vyra had first met. The one who arguably set all of this in motion.

Vyra said nothing but watched as Seras kept her gaze trained upon the woman, no point breaking with wherever her body ventured until finally she seemingly disappeared into some other part of the compound. “Seras?”

“Be mindful of that girl,” the woman spoke in a cold tone, perhaps the darkest that Vyra had up to this point heard from the woman. “Whatever you do, it is your best interest to not trust her. Something about her, I do not know exactly what it may be, but promise me that you will consider anything in which she tells you from this point with extreme prejudice.”

She wasn’t quite sure how to respond to the woman’s request, sort of looking beside herself as her focus swapped back and forth from her to the where the woman had departed to, back to Seras, and so forth. “Promise me,” Seras said again, breaking her out of the loop.

“I promise,” Vyra said, albeit it with a level of uncertainty to exactly what it was that had Seras so worked up towards the woman. Based on their first interaction at the bar, it seemed that she and the redheaded woman were polite enough, and when she awoke for the first time within this huge facility, the woman had welcomed her. In fact was the only one who welcomed her.

The fact that Seras viewed her with so much contempt, was there something that Vyra had been missing all along about her?

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A short time following that, the pair of Vyra and Seras were met by an unexpected guest.

A guard, one of several that had been responsible for their “care” while they remained within the cell. But care was a generous term to describe how they were being tended to. Injuries, namely those that Vyra had sustained, were handled not by them or whomever within this facility was responsible for the health of its occupants, but rather by Seras. Outside of the designated meals that they were given, barely food even by the standards of what they would tend to give to condemned prisoners, no attention or considerations were made towards them.

As such, the nature of any sort of attention by the guards tended to be more an anomaly or otherwise indicative of something likely not in their favor than it did something good. The expressions of the two as the man approached both seemed to differ, Vyra of a lukewarm anticipation whilst Seras was that of indifference, if not a slight bit of intrigue. “You, goat girl,” the guard said in a rough voice. “Come with me.”

Vyra started to stand but a hand place upon her shoulder stopped her. “Where is she going?” Seras demanded, responding to the man’s order like that of a mother protecting their child. Not bothering to move any more than what extent she had already, Vyra simply watched on, both touched at Seras’ demand and worried for the man’s request.

“She’s needed for something,” his response lent little to the imagination, nor did much to particularly calm down concerns that Seras had; her hand remaining upon Vyra’s shoulder. The guard looked at Vyra, and then at the woman, and for a moment it seemed that things stood to escalate in a negative way, neither him nor Seras seeming to waiver in their stance. Finally, after a tense moment the guard seemed to relent slightly, dropping his shoulders as he let out a sigh, “She’ll be fine. Just some questions that be needing answered.”

The hand did not leave her shoulder immediately following that; Seras’ focus left upon the guard’s face for a time longer before she finally pulled her arm away, seemingly indicating Vyra was free to follow. Before the Demi-Human could however, Seras pulled her into a unexpected, yet tight embrace, holding her for a moment, saying nothing, before finally releasing her grip of Vyra. “Remember what I said,” Seras said through quiet lips, her words audible to Vyra only as she began to follow the guard to wherever they were headed.

[1907/2500]

Their walk was silent; Vyra simply following the guard as they traversed through dimly-lit hallway upon dimly-lit hallway. Despite the man’s assurance to Seras that Vyra would not be in harm’s way based upon wherever they were going, she had every reason to be some level of paranoid. Thus far, her experiences with these people had left her questioning not only their intentions, but also herself, on several occasions now.

While she hoped that this time would what he said was true, tragically she was more expecting to come out of whatever this was for the worse than for the better.

Eventually their walk came to an end as they came upon a guard who stood before a large metal door. The two guards exchanged some words, none of which Vyra heard, nor was she paying much attention towards, instead far more interested in possibly running away, hoping to escape from them. The reality though was she did not either to lose them, nor did she expect that if she did try to run that they would not discipline her for such an act. And who knows just what exactly that punishment would include.

Brought back to reality by one of the guards gently tapping her upon her shoulder, Vyra looked to see that the door was open now, leading into some sort of room, much more illuminated than the hallway had been. Actually taken aback by the contrast in light, Vyra was guided by the guards to an unexpected sight.

In the room there was nothing except for a table, an empty chair on the far side of the table, directly facing Vyra, and another chair occupied with the person seated having their back to Vyra. Almost immediately though, she could tell exactly who it was that was seated in the chair.

The redheaded woman.

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With reluctance, Vyra took a seat at the table, admittedly surprised to see the redheaded woman greeting her with a full smile. A smile bred of ignorance.

“Hello Vyra,” she said with a spring of enthusiasm, more akin to their first conversation in the tavern however long ago that had been now. “How are you fairing through all of this? Alright? You’re eating right? I’m making sure that they’re providing you with appropriate meals. I know the selection isn’t the best, but is there anything else that we could be getting you?”

Vyra didn’t answer, simply looking on, suspicious of the woman and the concern that she seemed to have been displaying. Not once since she had awoken in the cell had this woman made an effort to reach out to her, even so much as to say hello. Yet now as she expected to try to build a report with Vyra, Seras’ warning floated consistently through her head.

The woman sighed, “I know you may not trust me. Believe me, if I were in your place I one-hundred percent wouldn’t trust me either. That doesn’t mean that I don’t worry for you.” Vyra for the briefest of moments glanced down to the table before raising her eyes back to meet the woman’s, “I should have been there for you back at the tavern. That whole situation, I never imagined it playing out that way, them or you really. Will be something I’ll always have to live with…”

Vyra said nothing, simply listening. Despite her doubts towards the woman’s intentions, there did sound like there was sincerity in her voice. It was hard to say entirely. Perhaps it was simply it being a conversation that seemed to go amicably with someone who wasn’t Seras, a slight rarity these days.

“You mean that?”

The woman nodded, “Sometimes I feel we lose touch with what our goals are meant to be. I want to help people, like you. Politics have turned everything into something so much more complicated, so much more ugly.” She sighed, leaving herself to collect her thoughts a bit, the reality of how things were seeming to affect her. “I want to see you home. Whether you’re actually in Blue Pegasus or not, I know enough about you to know everything you’ve said is true. Just need a little information that I can give to, that I can give to the person in charge to show you don’t belong here. What do you say?”

Vyra never received a chance to respond. Even before the woman had finished speaking, the guard who had been stationed inside of the room to monitor both of them had begun to move forward. Nearly as she prompted her question to Vyra, the guard was tugging upon her shoulder in an effort to get her attention, “We need to talk. Outside. Now.”

The woman looked with confusion at the guard, clearly this interaction nothing of what had been expected. She shot a quick glance at Vyra, the Demi-Human able to clearly see the confused look upon her face. Very visibly frustrated, the woman got up and followed the man outside beyond the heavy metal door, leaving Vyra all alone with the room with nothing but the empty chair across from her.

[2759/2500]

She waited there for a while it felt like, stuck within the room, knowing that there was no hope of her escaping, even if she wanted to attempt something like that. The faintest sounds of loud and animated voices managed to penetrate through the thick metal door that stood in the way of Vyra’s freedom. And if the voices were any indication, likely that at least a single guard, if not another one, were there with the redheaded woman.

There was no hope for her to escape.

Resigned to that fact, she simply sat within the chair, waiting. Neither patiently, neither impatiently. She was completely at the mercy of however long it took whatever discussion that has being held to conclude. It seemed to just drag on, the wait and wait for something to happen. Vyra hoped that it would move along; the idea of returning home, of perhaps the woman who she had encountered before, the pale woman, hopefully being convinced to let her go. There was a part of her that wondered if it may have been a lie, but she had to hope it was true.

It was all she could cling to at this point.

The sound of the metal door scraping against the cobblestone sprung her to life with anticipation. But as the door opened to show the pair of guards leading the way with the redheaded woman walking slowly behind, Vyra could feel her heart sink with each step taken. One of the guards walked around the table while the other walked right up next to her; the two of them effectively sandwiching Vyra between them. The woman simply stood off near one of the walls facing Vyra, the Demi-Human able to see the utter dismay upon her face. In that instance, she realized that the situation was about to go in a completely different way.

[3071/2500]

“I’m not interested in entertaining this little back and forth. Just tell us what we want to know! Tell us about Alisa!” The guard barked out, any sense of subtly or finesse that may have been usable to coax information out of Vyra being completely abandoned in favor of pure intimidation. Vyra was taken aback, not just by the demand but also the manner and tone that the guard used, his ‘request’ no different than that of a grown man yelling at the top of their lungs towards a toddler.

“Ain’t gonna get no info out that way,” the other guard said with a twang in his voice. “Gotta do it like this, now watch here,” he casually remarked as he grabbed hold of the back of Vyra’s head, wrapping a large quantity of hair and pulling it, lifting Vyra right up from her chair, at the same time causing her to cry out in pain.

“What are you doing!?” the redheaded woman cried out, equally disgusted by their behavior as she was fearful for Vyra’s well-being. Undoubtedly some part of her feared what stood to happen, if Vyra were to unleash her Magic. Though it was never considered initially, they had set themselves up in a potential death trap should things get out of hand, and that was the only logical step that this could go if this were any indication.

“Just doin’ ya job missy. Getting some much needed info out of this girlie,” the guard with the twang remarked, laughing as he gently yanked at Vyra’s hair again. Not quite as rough as he had earlier, but still enough that the Demi-Human felt it and whined accordingly.

The other guard let out a chuckle as well at the girl’s expense, leaning down slightly to catch a glance at Vyra’s face. Seeing the tears trailing down her cheeks, he could not help but look to his fellow guard with a wicked sheen in his eyes. “Seems you’ve got a knack for this. But do be a little careful; I don’t want that freak in the cell to see anything too apparent. Made a promise after all.”

The hidden code within their words seemed only to be understood by the two of them, the redheaded woman continuing to protest the treatment of Vyra while she endured the abuse thrown at her. At some point, the guard finally released his grip of her hair to the great relief of Vyra, but it did little for her cumulative suffering.

It was only about to get worse.

Nearly immediately, Vyra felt her throat get tight, the guard whom had previously gripped her hair now having his hands wrapped around her throat. She could feel his grip get tighter and tighter, then release and loosen, only to get tighter again.

“Stop! You’re going to ruin everything!” the redhead plead, more for her own safety than that of Vyra’s. “If you don’t stop, Aegir will kill us all!”

“What are you talking about? There aren’t any marks, see?” The guard who simply enjoyed the show said with a sick level of sadism in his voice as the other guard released his hands entirely from Vyra, only to pull the Demi-Human’s hair that may have covered the neck, revealing barely even the faintest of hand marks upon the skin. “Go again.”

The tightness began again and Vyra began to cry out, struggling to breath as the guard’s grip had become so much worse than it was before. Having seen little evidence of their rough play, immediately the two had become all the more emboldened in their efforts.

Vyra tried to fight back, pulling as hard as she could, but her fatigued and deprived frame could do little against that of the well-trained and physically more dominant guard’s grip. Desperate, she started to cry out, yelling something that was not quite clear but seemed to draw the attention of everyone within the room. Curious perhaps more than anything, the guard released his grip, but Vyra did not stop, continuing to wail out as the black clouds began to form.

“What!? What is that!?” One of the guards yelled out in panic, feeling the blackish fog begin to cloud through the room.

“That! That is what I tried to warn you!” the redhead bellowed out as she ran towards the door, desperately trying to open it, knowing what was to come.

But the black cloud was already there waiting for her.

She cried out, desperately clawing at the metal door, the strength required to open the door utterly disappearing from her as she started to slump down against the frame. In mere moments, her form was identical to that of the two guards who moments earlier were abusing Vyra, now just lifeless corpses arranged upon the ground.

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Spells [2400/2600]

Name: Black Death
Rank: A
Mana Cost: 200
Requirements: Living Plague; Debuff (Offensive); Mana Burn (Offensive)
Type: Offensive
Element: Darkness
Range: 20 Meters
Cooldown: 4 Post
Duration: Instant
Effect: Vyra lets out an incoherent scream, causing a Magic Seal to form beneath her. Her skin will then begin to violently fume a deathly blackish-fog that forms around and outwards from her, covering the area around Vyra, encompassing an area of 8 meters just beyond her immediate person for as long as she sustains the spell. While thick in nature, the fog does not impede sight, but instead causes all those within it to suffer a feeling of lifelessness enter upon them, suffering A-Rank damage within the fog or otherwise upon entering it, as well as suffering an A-Rank debuff to their Constitution attribute for one post.

Vyra fell to the ground, gasping for breath. The feeling of the man’s hands upon her throat, the life being pulled out of her left her in a state that she could not quite remember experiencing. Her eyes watered, her breathing was erratic, the only comfort that she could really take was that she was alive.

Looking beside her, she was the only one who could say that.

The bodies were contorted, ruins of what once were lives. The guards, she shed no tears for them. The loss of life, while tragic in its own right, there was something so much more than compared against that of the thugs from earlier. She did not mean to take those lives. She did not want to take their lives. The circumstances of that, the situation that surrounded it, she wished so much for the chance to take that back, to not have to return to that moment, to even take back the lives lost.

As terrible as it was, she did not feel that way towards those within this room, namely the two guards. They intended to harm her, they succeeded in that. Whether it was deliberate or them acting on their own, it wasn’t by accident that their hands were on Vyra’s neck, it was not by accident that taunted Vyra whilst it was happening. Everything they did was intentional, and Vyra, though a part of her did still feel awkward about the taking of life, there was only one life who she was upset about and it was the woman whose corpse lay upon the door.

It saddened Vyra. Of what she had come to know of the woman, she did not seem like a bad person. This organization, whatever this group actually was, it may have been of something evil, but it did not mean entirely that this girl had been. Vyra wanted to believe that the woman who was speaking to her minutes ago at this very table, that that was the actual girl; even if the other instances like the tavern or when she had first arrived were nothing more than masks that she wore, Vyra choose to think that she had a chance to meet the real her, if only briefly.

While the bodies of the guards were left there as they had fallen, Vyra could not help but still feel a sense of guilt as she made her way towards the other body, the remains of the woman who had set all of this in motion, whether by intent or otherwise. Vyra did not wish to leave her like that, sprawled against the door like a rat desperate to escape from the pouncing cat. Carefully, delicately, and in a manner trying to convey as much respect as possible, Vyra laid out the woman’s body upon the table, the arrangement a stark contrast against that of what was left for the two guards, the extent of any movement done towards the body being when they were pushed by Vyra’s own movement.

She said nothing as she looked back to the body that lay upon the table, taking a deep breath of disappointment that things had to play out the way that it had. Finally, after several seconds of deep thought she started for her way out, opening the door that the woman had desperately tried before. It seemed, as cruel as it may have been under the circumstances, the best chance Vyra had to escape and find her way home, and as she heard the sound of the door scraping open, she began to think positively of what she was going to do once she was home.

But as the door opened to reveal the pale woman standing on the other side of the doorway, flanked on both sides by a number of her guards, each of them pointing muskets in Vyra’s face, the Demi-Human stood still, taking a deep breath, thinking that that may have been the very last time that she would be breathing with any sense of freedom to her name.

Because it was apparent, the pale woman was not done with Vyra.

Not by a longshot.

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