From Ashes and Snow

A Man, an Elf and a Rat.

Chapter 26: A Man, an Elf and a Rat

I felt the metal digging into my wrists and the ache in my shoulders when I woke. The smell of damp was prevalent, and my nose twisted up before I even opened my eyes. Only the tiniest sliver of light cut through what looked like a cell, highlighting a slab of stone.

"Shite."

My throat was dry and sore. Chains rattled as I shifted slightly. My hands were held above me, chained to the wall. My shoulders took a lot of the weight, my feet lightly pressing against the stone beneath me. All of that paled in comparison to my knee. I couldn't look down at it, but I didn't even want to move it. It felt hot and tight, throbbing incessantly when I even deigned to twitch it.

"Welcome to the land of the conscious, Miss Birchwood." In the shadows of the corner, a shape shifted. Like me, his arms were tethered above his head. He had been stripped and left with only a threadbare pair of trousers to preserve his modesty. I could only feel a whisper of clothing on mine and my stomach sunk as I realized that they had taken my armour, my Alelang blade and Heslan's knife.

"You're alive!" I croaked.

"How lucky is that?" He asked wryly. "I am so enjoying being alive and shackled to a wall, starving and harassed by rats. They are only a little better than the ladies at the Retkin outpost, but not by much. Those ladies wouldn't leave me with some trousers."

"At least your spirit is strong." I wheezed a laugh.

"Actually, I am lamenting my upcoming death." He let out a sigh, tipping his head back to rest against the stone.

"We are not going to die." I replied in an instant. I couldn't just die. I had far too much to do – I had to strengthen the Legion, find the creature with the amethyst eyes and kill him. A simple prison wasn't going to stop me when I hadn't even begun! I gritted my jaws, bracing to test my weight against the chains. 

 White hot pain slashed up my leg and I cried out, slapping back against the wall. I glanced down, tears brimming along my lashes. They had wrapped it, or at least attempted to but they had done nothing for the pain.

"They have their own Magins." Greydon kept an eye on me. "They weren't happy that you were brought in with a shattered leg. They said something about 'damaged goods' before they brought the Magins in. I thought you were going to lose your leg. Divine, Aviana but under those wrappings, your leg creeps me out."

Perhaps it was the darkness that hid my acidic look, because he didn't immediately shrivel up and die. "We are shackled in a rat infested dungeon by fanatics and you're creeped out by a scar. You are a Paladin, Greydon."

"Does being a Paladin mean I am immune to being bothered by creepy, roping wounds?" He asked.

"Yes."

"You are such a cruel woman, Aviana Birchwood." He lamented.

I eyed the doorway. It was only a thin wooden one, eaten through by rot so I could catch a glimpse out into the hallway. Energy burned in my limbs as I tried to cast a simple flame. I felt the familiar tickle on my fingers before it felt like there was a literal stone in my mind, blocking me.

  Asha'da. 

They must have had fed me something to block my magic. It didn't bother me. Not all problems were to be solved with magic. That narrow thinking was not the way of a Dratlan Elf.