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Fen'nan Solaveira stood frozen in the darkness of the Mercenary Keep cell, distant footfalls ringing in her ears as they faded down the corridor, leaving her with her promised words hanging in the air. Slowly she drew her gaze away off the dark, stone wall, blinking away the water that blurred her sea-green hues, swallowing thickly. When the footsteps had faded completely, her pounding heart surpassed the noise of her own barely breathing breaths, dread twisting and ripping her gut in a despair so large it left a wide, empty hole in her gut. A numbness so big, so hungry, she could no longer feel the stab wound in her leg. Not the stinging loss of her removed ear-tip. Nor feel the Crimson Lion Sigil brand carved into her palm. Even the fanged bite wound on her neck, the swollen nose and the bruises, it was nothing. Nothing in comparison to what she'd just given.

Leather boots skidded along the rock-hard, dirty floor as she forced herself from her shock, dragging her way out of her cell, it's door left open. The outside bars of the door stained with a horrific amount of red. Fresh blood. She clenched her eyes, but too late. A sharp ache pierced her head as images of a head slamming into the bars clawed it's way into her mind, the clang of skull against metal hammering its way into her memory. Pushing past it with a grit of her teeth, she continued to the open cell beside hers, peering down.

A man's dark head of hair lifted to stare back up at her, revealing his battered, horridly beaten features. She barely recognized the one-eyed, Half-Altalar Brood.


"All your fault." A familiar voice taunted her from within, and she winced. She knew it was. It'd been why she'd done it.

For him, for her friends, she had done it. Her life, for theirs. Execution hadn't seemed so dreary, not after today. But it wouldn't just be her. It'd be them too. They'd joined her, because she asked. Because they cared. Fell with her. They'd come back, for her. They were here for her. Because of her. And she'd done what she could to be there for them. None of them would be burning, not anytime soon. Fen'nan extended a hand, stained with red, towards the Half-Fin'ullen. She was surprised by how quiet her voice sounded, a bare whisper, hated it's hoarseness as she spoke in the darkness.

"…Lets go."

Barely she registered leaving Milo in the Nook to recover, limping her way across the dark, cobbled streets of Old Town. Just a little farther. Just a few more steps. Shock was waning, numbness further settling into horror, each second of the day playing through her mind. His voice, wreaking havoc in her head, splitting her skull in two. She played back his words, over and over. Even as she forced her way to her door, hastily unlocking it.

"...Your pride is gone."

Fen'nan nearly fell into the doorway, stumbling into her dark, wide empty home, the only light shining through being moonlight that streamed in through the massive windows. As soon as she was in, she was whipping around, slamming the door shut, securing the locks on her doors with trembling fingers, crushed wrist aching as she locked the door uptight, chin wobbling. The Minoor's rapidly growing breaths filled the silence. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think. The promise, what she'd given, taunted her, haunted her. Everything she sought to leave, everything she sought to break away from in Ithania. It was all for nothing.

"....You will be completely subservient..."
She'd simply stumbled upon another to cage her. The pain in her head was unbearable now. "Stop," she rasped, pressing her palm against her head, fingers digging into her scalp. Unsure if she was pleading it to the her panicking self, or the voices that swarmed her mind, one more prominent then the other still.

"-long to me until I declare you unworthy..."

Thud.

Allowing her head to thud against the door, splaying her hands over the wood, her gasping breaths beginning to fall quiet. Julius. Julius. Julius. Fen'nan opened her wide, round eyes. Watery, hateful. She sounded the name over and over in her head. Incensing her, burning it into her mind. Her heart, her soul. Hate, in all it's rawness. Filled her. For him. For the city, for the laws that could allow such.

Her hands slammed into the wood, once the twice as she unleashed a scream, a roar of uncontrolled fury, beating her hands into the wood. Her knees fell out from under her, sinking harshly unto the floor, her beaten body's aches and pains shooting through her as she dissolved into a mess of sobs that wracked her form. From the windowsill, she could feel the raven's beady black eyes watching her calmly, studying and observing from it's wired bird-cage.

The air was stale, quiet and still. Only her weeps disturbed the room, her crimson-head of hair lifting, braid a tangled, matted mess as her red-rimmed eyes fixed back upon the raven. So close to freedom, but it remained just beyond its reach. Now she'd been caged too. She inhaled a shuddering breath, blinking the last of her tears down her cheeks as she steadied herself, fists curling at her side. Fen'nan swallowed, bruised jaw tightening, sea-green hues practically glowing in the dark, feral and spiteful as it peered past the caged bird, through the window. She'd show them.

She'd show them all.

((@MrHasagi - cause Milo))
 
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He sat up in his bed near immediately with a gasp and a heave, that memory still haunting him each night. He placed a palm on his forehead, letting out a sigh. "That dream again..." he said quietly to himself. He let himself fall back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I'll move on from it...some day."

(P.S. Amazing story :D)