ooc: This takes place approximately 5-6 months after the kidnapping!
ic:
It had been months. There was no counting exactly how long it truly had been as they were being kept in the middle of nowhere with the only knowledge that they were on some sort of mountain and there were trees out of the barred window. As the weeks passed, they soon learned that they had been taken some place in Zantaric....but that was not nearly enough information to help at all. They were kept in one of the two rooms in the small wooden cottage, let out a few times in a day to relieve themselves, but usually, they were just kept shut in that room.
It became like a prison cell. The door was guarded day in and day out and the only person who really ever came in was Nakaris. He would come in, usually to pull Chailyn from the room, having taking some sort of special liking to her. She learned quickly that he had been the man years ago that she had tried to save from the terrors of the Serendipity dungeon when it was run by a monster...He had recognized her...maybe he felt as if he owed her some sort of debt or something...she didn't understand it. All she had done was scream and get pulled out of that wretched place without even beginning to help any of them. He didn't owe her anything, but that didn't keep her from appreciating the slight kindness he showed her.
The first time she disappeared, Fenway had panicked thinking that she was going to be returned barely able to stand. He had struggled against it, but Nakaris could quickly subdue either of them with barely any effort...before Fenway had regained consciousness it was already long after she had gone. However, despite his worries, and worries of her own...it wasn't anything she had expected. It wasn't exactly....pleasant....but...she wasn't attacked....it was more like...he was letting a cute dog out of its kennel for a few minutes to keep it content. She was let outside, allowed to roam around a bit in her own little area, with the full knowledge that if she pulled anything it would be swift unconsciousness and back into the room.
So she behaved.
After all, she wasn't about to give up some little kindness she could find. But...she learned later that with kindness came repercussions. While Nakaris was around, she had some sort of amnesty against anything and anyone...Fenway wasn't that lucky...but she wasn't touched. Then...the first time Nakaris left...everything became apparent. He might be the leader while he was around, but the moment he left his men took matters into their own hands.
She became the object of their spite, their lust...but mostly their spite. Nakaris' platonic attitude towards her caused great unease amidst the ranks, and they let her knew their displeasure the moment his back was turned towards the door.
That first night was the worst...even still she found herself waking in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, shaking feverishly while Fenway calmly stroked her hair, whispering softly in her ear to chase the demons away. He felt particularly responsible for it, but she knew he was not to blame. Not even Fenway could fight his way through sharpened steal with his bare hands, and his death would throw the kingdom into turmoil. Her death, however, would not see anything of that sort. They would simple mourn her loss out of duty and find a new Head Mage. But that didn't stop the nightmares. And it also didn't take back the fact that Fenway had seen her scarred back after she was thrown back into the room when they were finished with her...
It was strange though...before anything like this would have broken her...sent her on a downward spiral into herself as she remembered everything about her past...but now...now she just felt a growing anger...defiant even. They could do what they liked with her...and she could honestly say she had endured worse.
And...Nakaris' rage against his men for her cuts and bruises was enough to keep her going. The moment he laid eyes on her puffy, swollen cheeks, the caked blood at her temple and split in her lip....he went ballistic. It didn't help that each time he demanded she tell him who was responsible, she merely replied that she had tripped. Fenway found that this was a dangerous tactic because it only sent their captor into more of a rage. His curses rang through the mountains, threats shortly following...until even he realized how silly it was to threaten a woman who was refusing to divulge her attacker's names.
It was the same each time he left: the orders that she would not be touched, the beatings that followed regardless, and the cursing when she continuously refused to talk.
Defiance...it kept her strong, stronger than she could have imagined; at least when she was awake. The nightmares became more and more frequent until she found herself barely sleeping to avoid them. Images of her step father sending her into tremors and terrors the moment she closed her eyes, followed closely by everything that was happening now...
Fenway didn't have it easy either, and found himself with as many bruises as her...but he also gained the attention of the one who would not touch her...and his methods left no marks. Those were perhaps the worst. There's no way to block a mental attack like his...no way to keep it from hurting less. She did not envy those sessions at all. Fenway would be returned to the room barely able to complete full sentences whenever Nakaris decided to have a "session" and it sometimes took days for him to regain his full strength.
Finally...after weeks turned into months, and the months continued to pass by, Chailyn gave up any hopes of escaping. There was no way they could overcome the men guarding them...and certainly no way to overcome Nakaris when he was there...they would be stuck in this prison until whatever he wanted with the king finally came to pass, or was put into effect. Fenway was obviously the bargaining chip behind all of it...but neither one of them was able to decipher exactly what "it" was. Chailyn had tried, which only spiked Nakaris' anger and ended one of her outdoor escapades moments after it began.
But then, while she had given up, Fenway was working out the best possible things to do. He would be helpless without a weapon, but he knew that Chai could be a great asset, if he could convince her to once again pull a power that she had sworn to never again use: her ability to control the water in people.
When he mentioned it, she was repulsed. The last and only time she had used this talent was during the battle on Serendipity, and she refused to use it again after that time. It had nearly cost her her life, using too much energy to kill multiple enemies with the ability, and she didn't want to have that type of blood on her hands ever again.
So she refused.
For weeks he pestered her, wearing her down more and more each time he tried, until, finally, he showed her a pair of daggers had had somehow managed to smuggle into the room that he had hidden under the mattress where he slept. She pressed him on how he had received them, but he quickly brushed it aside and asked her one last time to use that ability. It was their only hope. She could pull the water out of the two guards, use it to seep into the lock and then expand sharply, breaking open the door in one swift moment. After that, they'd have very little time and would need to run west he had gathered from listening to the stupid ones talk more extensively about their whereabouts. They would split up to split the trail and meet back in Adela which was the closest kingdom to Zantaric.
It was full proof...she could not refuse...not this one chance at freedom after months of confinement and battery.
She agreed.
It was weeks before Nakaris left again, and the night of their escape was at hand. Chailyn reached with her powers into the two guards at the door, silently bidding their pardon as she focused with all her might, calling each water molecule to her. A few seconds passed and a sharp pop echoed on the other side of the door, followed by clothes and weapons clattering to the floor where their masters once stood moments before. Instantly, she put all of the water she had collected into the lock and forced it to expand. The metal groaned under the stress, and for a moment she thought she would fail. Sweat broke out on her brow and she focused harder until the nails gave a final shutter before splitting, the door swinging open.
She fell into the wall, exhaustion pouring into her limbs as the water collapsed to the floor with a splash. That was hefty magic, and she already felt most of her strength dissipating from the effort it took. She could not continue like this...
But she didn't have time to stop and rest. The instant the door creaked open, the other men were there, coming to see what the loud noise had been. Fenway had abandoned his daggers for the sword that now lay in the pile of dust that had once been a man. He charged from the room, hacking as he went. Chailyn followed, summoning the water that had fallen onto the floor once again, and using it to whip towards her attackers.
And they fought.
They fought through the ranks of trained men stationed there for this reason. Blood was spilled, both her own and Fenways along with the other men. She tried to ignore the stinging as blades managed to reach her, a slash appearing on her cheek from a near miss.
She didn't know how long they fought, but they were outside.
"West!" Fenway shouted, gesturing with one hand towards the direction they had decided, "Meet me where we agreed!" and off he ran, hacking as he went. He was covered in blood...most of it probably his own. She could see his shirt was in tatters from the many sneaking blades that ripped at his flesh. She herself found more gashes along her body that she could remember receiving, but now wasn't the time to contemplate the complexities of human perception.
With a surge of energy she did not realize she had, she pulled the water from the man blocking her way towards freedom, and dashed through the dust that was him after she was finished. She ran, unsure how far she was going before she would need to change direction to be on course towards Adela...this way the attack party would have to split up and chase both of them. It was the only way that either of them might be able to stand some sort of a chance. So she ran as hard and as fast as she could. Her breath came in painful gasps and she could tell that a rib has been broken by a punch to the gut she had received during the escape. A slash on her forehead bled into her eyes and she desperately tried to clear them with the back of her hand. It would not do well to run into something because she couldn't see.
No...she needed to get out...she needed to meet up with Fenway in Adela like they had promised. They needed to get back to Serendipity where they belonged...
Gods...she had never thought she would ever think that...a place that she could call home...a place where she felt as if she belonged....Khas would be waiting for her, he would be so relieved to know that she was ok....
Without realizing where she was going, partially because the twilight was slowly fading into night, and partially due to the blood that still insisted on falling into her eyes, she felt herself slam full force into something very solid. Winded, she bounced back and tripped, falling heavily onto her side, the broken rib shrieking in protest as the contorted pose pushed it out of its skin casing and causing her to whimper in pain.
For a moment she was blinded by the pain in her side before looking up at the object-or in this case, man- that she had hit.
In fear she reached out with her magic and prepared to try one last time to turn this man into dust, when a last ray of sunlight touched his hair and she flinched, her magic barely touching him before retracting.
It was Nakaris...
Gods...the one person...the one person that she needed to get by...and she couldn't....she couldn't bring herself to even try...
With a cry of desperation and defeat, she pull the water she could get from the nearby plants and tried desperately to incapacitate him with a swift whip to the temple...something that wouldn't hurt him...she couldn't...after all of these months of his awkward kind of kindness...the water hovered in the air for a few moments before falling to the ground with a splash, soaking the earth in her defeat.
She remained on the ground, her head bowed and her arm wrapped around her waist where the protruding rib gleamed brightly against her crimson blood, tears silently falling down her blood stained cheeks.
She was defeated...she couldn't fight him.
