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 Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:36 pm
Cain was growing more uncomfortable by the second as he hesitantly stepped into the black room. This mysterious group of women freed him (for no apparent reason) to lead him there. In such a complete darkness, he couldn't see anything - or anyone, for that matter.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 8:25 am
As they stepped in a soft murmur reached their ears that had been hitherto blocked by the wooden door. The sound of many female voices in a simmering discussion became even clearer as Fabel, after descending a set of dirt stairs, opened yet another door into an interior basement.
"Stay close," she had whispered to her party just before pulling the door open. Although voices were kept low in the basement, the discussions at hand were still a flurry of emotions.
Lanterns resting in alcoves lit the room as in the dead of night, glancing off faces twisted by agenda and movement. The large room was already fairly crowded for Fabel's tastes, with the crowd giving four women in the center a respectful birth. The four women kept their heads together and argued in hissing tones, pausing sometimes as another women might come up to whisper something to one of them before retreating again.
Cain and Sverrir were not the only slaves there, but the men seemed restricted from the important conversation. It was a rare male voice that spoke up, although some whispered in the ears of more liberal-minded women. "Please stay close," Fabel repeated as she saw another woman bump into Sverrir. Fabel reached out, trying to touch the shoulder of the slave that Vania inexplicably felt such an affectionate protectionism towards.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:59 am
Without the dragon magic influencing him Sverrir would have been in a panic, and even with it Sverrir flinched when he was bumped. Normally he would have fallen to his knees and apologized but there was no space here, instead he mumbled an apology and tried to move out of the way but he was conflicted with his instinct to move away from Fabel's touch while trying to obey the orders to remain close to her.
He quickly assumed the most pathetic demeanor he could, he lowered his eyes and his shoulders slumped all of the way forward, he looked like sulking dog that had just been beaten for no reason. He didn't know what was going on, he had never been forced this close to this many women and every time he brushed a piece of clothing or came close to touching a woman he cringed like he expected the woman to strike him.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 1:55 am
I should never have left Tok...
The former pickpocket-turned noble-turned merchant-turned slave wondered at the horribly unlucky turn of events for him. With the woman's comments, and the tense atmosphere which he felt himself in, it certainly didn't feel like a hospitable place. A few years back, Cain would've thought women harmless, in need of protection, and only good for company. The soft light in which he saw women near vanished when he reach Feretris, and instead, he had grown rather defensive towards them.
His vision in the dim light made him see throngs of people, and although he spotted the odd male here and there, it was a primarily female group. He was too short to see all of the room, his vision blocked by bodies, and he constantly groped for his 'companions'.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:31 pm
Vania stood near the entrance of the meeting hall. She was use to much more organization in an organization. She was about to take charge and try to sort out the cramped emotions when she heard a cracking sound behind her. It was small, distant, but it raised the hairs on Vania's neck. She frowned, then left the group to quickly investigate. After turning a few corners, she looked out a window and into the empty courtyard. She did not see anything, so she turned around and headed back.
Alas, fate had a different plan for the young Tok princess.
A sudden, heart-wrenching pain gripped Vania. She had long-learned to never cry out in pain in her training, but the discipline was leaving her. As she slowly slumped against the cold, barren wall in the hallway, her mouth opened up to emit a pained cry. However, an extra surge of stomach-twisting pain prevented a single sound to leave her mouth, forcing her mind to retreat into an unconscious state.
'Vania? Vania! VANIA!' Her draconic partner cried out to her before he too blacked out from the empathetic pain that overwhelmed the bond. His magic slipped and faded, releasing Sverrir's mind from its influence. It was rather abrupt, but silent. Vania was down, and she was not getting up for a while.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:56 pm
The Feretris woman who had stopped Vania's snooping was not alone. Someone, possible Vania and her group, had been followed to this place, or otherwise given away the location. Although the force was not quite as large as the group inside, they were formidably unified and far more prepared.
An odorless gas was already beginning to fill the basement, a sleep agent meant to complete the job that the Feretris women were ready to begin; with a concerted effort, they leashed their pain-empathy magic indiscriminately on the group inside, causing every nerve to scream a confused warning. Pain.
Because the magic was spread over a group, some individuals might be hit less than others, not necessarily passing out immediately as Vania had. It should, however, disable the group and bring them down into the sleep fog.
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Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:33 pm
Sverrir was released from the influence of the dragon magic and was overcome with blind panic. The sudden lack of control caused him to succumb to the instinct to flee from the room, he opened the door and stepped to the side of the women who tried to restrain him ran down the hall trying to escape from some many women. Sverrir turned his head as he heard screams coming from the room he had just left, causing him to crash into the group of women as they were using their magic.
They will probably kill me for running into them like this.
Sverrir stood up immediately after he ran into the women and began babbling his apology.
“I. . . I am sorry m. . .mistress. I didn’t mean to run into you but I was brought here and I wasn’t afraid very much and all of the people were talking and then mistress Vania left and then I was afraid and then I ran and then I ran into you and then I knocked you down. Please forgive me mistress I didn’t do it on purpose.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:34 am
[[ OoC: Dun-dun-duun's main. ]]
Cain's eyes widened as he felt the foul concoction of gas enter his body, the first wave of sudden and sharp pains as if someone had swords stuck in every area of his body, the pain not dulled at all by a sudden wave of dizziness that hit him. All around him, he felt other people, men and women alike, succumb to the pain. Every few seconds, his body would start to scream at him again with renewed vigour, his mind panicking, unable to form a coherent thought. He was frozen in the illusion of unbearable pain, finding himself curled up on the ground in fetal position, slowly falling into the black abyss of unconciousness.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:41 am
The women who had run into Sverrir did not have time for his excuses. They had heard rumors of some men and women possessing magic of the plains variety, and so they had come prepared for battle despite the fog and the use of their own magic. In fact, they were standing there just to catch people who were able to run off. At the moment they were not able to enter the room without also falling prey to the blanket of magic laid over the rebels. They could, however, handle escapees individually.
The woman that Sverrir was begging and drawn her short sword for close combat, but saw quickly that this man was no threat. One of her companions darted behind him and stepped on his back, pushing him to the floor in order to bind his wrists and feet. That was what they were planning to do to those rendered unconscious by the fog, so why not also a compliant, babbling slave?
The other warriors, four total in that one hallway checkpoint, stepped around Sverrir to meet whatever other, more worthy foe might come by.
Cain, Fabel, and Vania, because they were all overcome by the magic or the fog, would wake up with their wrists and feet tied tightly together like many others. Once a few escapees were slain, the warriors cut off the magic, closed in on the room, and began removing people as they were tied off. They were first carried off on branches tied together into a platform and balanced over the backs of some of the warriors. The human caravan brought them in this fashion to awaiting horse-drawn carriages, packing the prisoners tightly together after a few trips back and forth between the building and the carriages. It was at this time that some might begin to wake up, probably disoriented by the continued affects of the fog.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:24 am
In the time it took everyone to be loaded Sverrir had calmed down greatly. He sat in the carriage with his knees pulled to his chest and waited to find out what would happen to him. He spent his time lost in thought, trying to figure out what had caused the sudden panic and what exactly was going on here, this was his first time seeing women treated so roughly.
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:29 am
Cain awoke, groggy and disorientated, to the rough jostling of a wagon, his body sore, and having a throbbing headache, his limbs bound together so tightly that he couldn't even wriggle his wrists, his hands balled into fists. All around him, he saw others who had been given the same treatment, most of the women he had seen in the basement.
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:52 am
The prisoners had little light from the tiny windows near the top of the covered wagon. Although the canvas protected them from the direct rays of the sun, body heat compressed the small spaces between people, threatening to press their lungs closed. The heat made body oder worse, smells emanating from frightened bodies, many of which had been traveling all night. The bump of the wagons on the road caused their bindings to chafe periodically against wrists and ankles.
As people began to wake up, each seemed to take one of four modes of reaction; complete silence even when talked to, shouting in anger and confusion, whispering calm but frightened questions, or crying. A few wretched from the drugs and the smells, while one in their wagon began to hyperventilate from panic.
Vania, Cain, Fabel, and Sverrir were in the same wagon because they were some of the first to be taken out of the meeting, due to their individual wanderings and their position near the entrance. Fabel was beside Cain, but the others were spread out in the wagon.
"Vania?" Fabel croaked out first, heavily disoriented by the gas. Vania was a friend of hers, these slaves mere acquaintances and recent ones at that.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:15 am
Vania slouched against an uncomfortable wall in the wagon. She was in deep shadow, which was quite good. Due to her dragon's fainting (and her own), the magic that concealed her heritage fizzled away. She was her blond-hair, blue-eyed Tok self.
With a soft moan, Vania slowly opened her eyes. "F-Fabel?" Vania really liked Fabel, and it sure sounded like her. When she quickly regained clarity, Vania practically jumped with shock. She was uncloaked in a wagon with unknown people! Her cover could have been blown.
Quickly mustering up her willpower, Vania nudged the groggy mind of Smargadus. He mentally grunted in response. 'Wake up, Smargadus! Wake up!'
'Mmmm . . . not now.'
'Yes now! Right now! We've been trained better than this. And I need you.'
'What do you need a tired ol' dragon like me for?'
'I have no magic. You have magic. I am in Feretris. I have no mystical cloak over me.'
'. . . And?'
'I will be discovered.'
Smargadus immediately woke up. He felt the exhaustion and struggle Vania was enduring through the bond, and he knew that his own sluggish behavior was due to her. If she could fight it, so could he. He mentally nodded before releasing a small flow of energy over the bond, through Vania, and into the mind of those around her. It was more difficult, that was for sure. It was like pushing a river through a crack. However, he had trained with Vania against magic-suppressing drugs, charms, forces, and people. He could do it.
Gradually, Vania returned to her Feretris persona throughout the verbal conversation. Hopefully no light would fall on her before the effect finalized.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:50 am
Fabel thought that she noticed something strange in Vania, as soon as she located her across the wagon, but the drug haze that she was coming out of made her not only unsure that her perceptions were to be trusted at the moment, but it made her forget the details of what she had seen. She would put it down as a strange half-dream, for right now her friend was the one thing she depended on to be stable and steady as a rock foundation. After all, they were probably going to die.
"Vania?" she asked again in a clearer voice when she spotted her. "Were you injured? Are you alright?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 8:36 am
Vania mentally probed her body. She was aching all over, but she did not know if any of it was injured. After wiggling her toes, stretching her fingers (that took a bit of effort to get through the binding), and waddling a bit in place, Vania shook her head. "I do not think I am injured, but by the stars does this hurt."
Vania tested her bindings on her ankles and wrists. They were tight, well-tied, and she would hazard a guess that there was a continual field of the blasted empathetic magic over them. Gritting her teeth, she tried to get her body to respond to her mental commands better.
"How are you, Fabel? Did they hurt you? Did they break anything?" Fabel's voice was calm and centered, but it wavered slightly from pain and suppressed panic. She had been trained to withstand torture, be calm in panicked situations, and resist the effects of drugs. Vania knew that she'd be all right, but her training could not be passed onto others. She couldn't stop them from feeling pain. Right?
'Smargadus?'
'Mmm, yes Vania?'
'Can you give people some of my training?'
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