The Chronicles of Phoenix Bloodheart I: Turning Red

Chapter XXVI: Web

Back in the Steelfeathers' hidden prison, the two guards each bring a chair into the room. One, a relatively slim elf in his thirties with messy ginger hair, places his chair in between Phoenix and Amelia's cells. The other, a middle-aged bald elf with a large frame and muscles almost matching Seven's, sits opposite the orc's cell.

The first says to his friend: "Look Dirk, I've got a mother and her daughter both wanting a piece of me!"

The bald-headed elf laughs and glances at Seven, saying: "Why do I always attract the weird ones?"

The pair laugh. Phoenix crouches on the hard, scratchy stone floor and leans up against the bars, with her back to the guard. She curls up into a ball, bringing her knees up, leaning her head in between them and wrapping her arms around them. A wave of tiredness and hunger rushes over her. Her left knee aches with pain.

The first guard, the slim one, unlocks Amelia's door and unties her from the stool. Her wrists crack as she stretches them and she gasps with pain. The guard lingers, watching her uncomfortably.

"The boss's daughter wants you to wear that robe again, but if I had it my way you'd be without your clothes. Tell you what, I'll come in here later, you make me feel good and I'll bring you some food."

He winks at her leeringly. Phoenix frowns as she hears his words, glancing around to look at him. He has a baton and a sword in his belt. Amelia just ignores him and his eye contact, and pulls the robe over her body before inspecting her wounds. She cries out as the robe touches her burn marks.

"Can you bring me some water and bloodthistle please, Arun?" she asks the guard through the bars. "I need to look my prettiest. I am in pain."

He looks at her doubtfully and almost caringly for a moment, nods and exits the room, leaving her cell door open.

Amelia looks across at Phoenix, who senses this and turns her neck to face her mother properly in a more calm situation for the first time in years. Amelia smiles genuinely at her daughter. A pained expression flashes across Phoenix's face, before a thin, forced smile spreads from her lips. Deep down she is stinging from the admission that she is a mistake - and responsible for this entire situation.

"Don't worry Phoe," Amelia says, as if reading her mind.

"No talking to each other!" the bald guard shouts loudly in the small space, his deep voice booming. He swings a metal baton into some nearby prison bars, making a deafening noise ring out inside the small prison. Phoenix cringes. She blinks and lies down, staring at the ceiling. She realises her mother has no idea about her training or current situation, and decides there's no reason to mention it. Her mother would only end up asking questions, with the guards taking any answers to Alexandra or her father Norros. Plus, she is tired and feels helpless to do anything but sleep.

The ginger guard walks back into the room, with a bowl of water and a bloodthistle leaf. He pushes them through the small gap under the bars of Amelia's prison cell.

"Thank you," she says to the guard, before applying water to her burn wounds and crying out in pain as she does so.

She rolls up the bloodthistle leaf and lights it using the candle behind her. As she smokes it, that horrible stench Phoenix hates fills the air, and it reminds her of all the times her mother would do so when she was younger. Right now she understands Amelia is smoking it to help with the pain, but she still despises it nonetheless.

The ginger guard sits on his chair and properly notices Phoenix - who is facing up with her eyes almost shut - for the first time. His eyes scan her body, her legs, her small breasts and long fiery hair, ogling her.