Offerings for Home (Closed)

[Amirah]

20th of Fall 509 AV
Cyphrus Eyktol Border
Closed

There was pain first; pain woke her, then the bindings. A moan came from the woman as her eyes slowly opened the dazed look blinked away leaving only a tightening around the kohl lined eyes. She couldn’t move that much was obvious as was the fact she was on a wood floor that moved and jostled and there was the sound of horses and crying. Her eyes looked around and saw faces she did not recognized, mostly women, humans. Mostly dirty, crying or silent, looking out into space. The cart stopped, she hadn’t noticed until the door behind her opened and hands grabbed a hold of the Eypharians ankle.

Thought fled as the body squirmed and thrashed but this was not the panicked mewling and struggles of a woman in need, she did not kick blindly, quickly rolling to her stomach booted heels struck out at the hand that held her leg and towards the face of the human that held her, boot glancing off his cheek. Slavers. The face was familiar as the man stumbled away from the Eypharians reach and just as quickly another took his place. Amirah pushed way away from the opening and reaching hands deeper into the cart, the cries and screaming that had gone up were unnoticed. The cries that came from her own throat were little more than growls and snarls, insults hurled in shiber at the reaching men, her bravado faltering only once as she was grabbed and pulled forward again, the panic making eyes widen and color drain from her face before a misplaces kick put her leg in the bars of the grated walls and that’s where the Eypharians hung. Her body clenched tight to the wooden bar and teeth clenched and curses muttered as her leg was wrenched and pulled. Another cry came up as another was pulled from the cage and the door was slammed shut.

She didn’t move for a long moment before rolling away, kicking away from the wall and crawling lamely towards the back, away from the opening, before she simply stopped curling for a moment her forehead pressed to the wooden floor and trembled. Her fingers moved idly between the ropes but that was all, both pairs of arms bound to her sides were little more than useless weights.

[Lye]

Another hand snaked in between the bars, fingers trembling like the questing mandibles of a spider. And much like a spider, it was crushed without a thought, the boot of a dark skinned, wild eyed man stomping down upon it, his horrible smile growing wider as he felt the knuckles pop and crack. "I don't think so," Lye hissed through his teeth, shoving his face against the wooden bars, no fear in him of a blow from a baton or a lash from a whip. The dark eyes of the lecherous slaver had begun to tear up as the Akalak ground his foot against the splintered bones. "That one's mine. Reach in here through the cage like a coward, and I'll just break your hands. Come inside like a man, and I'll bite out your throat."

"You buh-both belong to us!" The slaver cried, his uninjured hand struggling, groping against Lye's ankle, desperate to pry the boot loose from his broken fingers.

"What's your name, friend?" The Akalak asked, his tone mockingly saccharine sweet and full of poison.

"You do not need to know my name, slave! Release me or you'll be killed!" His smile merely growing into a mad grin, Lye lifted up his foot - and stamped it down again faster than the other could react, causing the other to scream and collapse to his knees. Stepping back, the Akalak kept his cold eyes on the slaver.

"That's fine. I know your face. I'm going to kill you first, when I can..." Lye turned away, his smile faltering as he realized he was still bound with heavy rope. His eyes fell on the Eypharian on the floor, and the impossible happened - his features softened. Carefully, he lowered himself to the floor beside her, and then bent down with some difficulty, his chin resting against the ropes at her shoulder. "Calm down....doesn’t listen to the sounds. I killed four of them with my hands before they took us - they're frightened of me. I won't let them take you."

[Amirah]

--Amirah
“Do you know where they are taking us?” There was surety in that voice that was absent in her face, “The others in this hell look as if they have been here for days, if five remain,, and one is injured, surely we can stand a chance to freedom if we could rally these women, or there are men aside from you. Although I fear you have made me an appealing target. Claiming me and saying none will have me. People do not like to be told no. “Amirah paused for a moment raising her head again to peer over Lye’s shoulder another glance of their surroundings stolen before the woman continued.

“Wood bars instead of metal, if they travel through the night mayhap we can dislodge a beam before next dawn.”

--Lye
"I don't know," he admitted without hesitance, his eyes regarding those outside of the cage with a wintry hate. "We're close to Ahnatep, I can feel that. I recognize the routes they've been taking." Lye smirked, a wry chuckling escaping him despite their situation. "They sort of did my job for me. We're both a little bruised, but hey, you're close to your destination, right?"
His eyes narrowed as he strove to wiggle his fingers through the coils binding him. Biting his lip, teeth digging into the soft flesh, the Akalak managed to wriggle his entire right hand free. He began pawing around, searching for the nearest knot - but paused and scowled down at the woman.

"Well, I would say, by all means, fear, but gods damn it; I've got something to back my words up. I've still got one ace up my sleeve..." His hand had found a knot, and he began furiously tearing at it, seeming to be uncomfortable telling her exactly what the ace could be. True enough, he knew that, if played right, it could mean their freedom, and his vengeance - but it could easily backfire on him, killing most if not all of them.

"Honestly, between the...the two of us lady...I think..." Lye's face twisted up in a strange mask of annoyance and concentration as he plucked at a tight loop with his fingernails. "I think...that you'd have a lot better success rallying any of these people. You gotta know by this point that my people skills are just...the worst."

--Amirah
They were close to home…. The damned fools were dead, sooner or later, they were racing towards their death without a clue. “Perfect. Worse to worse, they will die in Ahnatep.” His movements were noticed, impossible not to, her face against the flesh of his neck. The closeness while a small degree of comfort was mostly for the benefit of their captors, she only had to hope it would not back fire. Like she spoke before, people, men in particular did no care to be told no. Lye had killed their comrades, then punished another for trying to take one he claimed was his. She had not screamed and panicked, she had fought, hurt them and remained safe, untested. They would need to be broken before they were brought to be sold. Foolish pride would demand the slavers broke the pair, prove them helpless before the slaver might, and theirs to do with as they pleased. Mostly that would mean for her to be…sampled, most expectedly by all, and Lye proven to be unable to do anything he mentioned, his threats empty, and his ability to protect her gone.

The longer she remained from their grasp, and appeared to cling to the safety the Akalak provided the more agitated they would become. The more stupid as well. As Lye mentioned an ace, Amirah smiled wryly, it was just the other night they were on the plains before a fire, wine making her blood sing, dice upon the blanket and her fingers plucking a card from the merchant’s boot. That had been an Ace then too.

“What do you need me to do for that Ace of yours to get us free, I will help, but will be damned if they think they have a chance to part my thighs by charm or force. Bite off my own tongue first than suffer these swine.” The words were bitter but full of malice that rang of truth to the lovely woman’s words. She would not be like those within the cage they shared, broken and glassy eyed, or shattered and tears, death would be more honorable, more sufferable than those fates.

“Do any of these women look competent at the moment to unbind us? I would call one to give me my blade if I did not think they would get us killed.”

[Lye]

--Lye
"Don't even worry about it." Lye smirked, feeling a swell of triumphant pride as he lifted one of the legs she had leaned upon. Shifting his weight onto the opposite side of his body, he angled the toe of his boot towards the ceiling of the cage, and with a grunt, pressed down with his heel. With a sharp click, a dull colored burst forward, faster than a man could blink.

"They're sloppy already, without you or me fucking with their heads. The idiots didn't take my boots, but I couldn't exactly get the things into my own hands to cut my knots. But you..." Thankfully, the slight tarnish the weapon had see4med to accumulate in the less than stellar sheath it slept in did not reflect the moonlight as he curled his leg back towards them, the edge of it waiting to chew into her ropes.

"I guess I misspoke though...I have two aces." The Akalak's smile took on a stranger, more alien quality than usual, and some sinister fire danced behind his chilly eyes. Lye had lived for years with the other. All of his brothers had a similar problem; Lye seemed to be the only one to embrace it. And during the raid, the ride, and this most recent, barbaric development, the other had been whispering to him, guiding his steps, advising him quietly and coolly. The crushing of the hand, the possessive words, boot knife...Uriel had helped him along with all of it.

And Uriel wanted out to kill.

Lye shuddered as a thrill raced up his spine, and his smile widened to insane, proportions for a moment as his other half began to bleed into his thoughts. "All I need is...fifteen seconds. Remove their attention from me, for fifteen seconds. I only need to slip into something more comfortable." He laughed, a strange and curious thing that would most likely leave the woman full of questions. His left eye had seemed to change; his left was all Lye, angry, confident, and full of swagger, but the left mad those who fell under its gaze feel a biting, terrifying cold deep into their bones. "After that, you don't need to worry anymore. They'll never taste your...honey. I will injure them in ways that will make them useless as men before I shatter their skulls. Here, let me speed along this process." To the slavers, it would look like another futile moment of sweet intimacy before they tore the two assumed lover's worlds asunder. But Lye as Lye lowered his face over her's he pushed a bunching of fibrous rope into his mouth, and began to chew furiously, ripping at it.

--Amirah
The Akalak by far was of more use than she had either imagined or planned, Amirah would admit it later, in private, she was impressed, a bladed boot, good luck it seemed, as the blade appeared and the leg brought back to be hidden by their bodies the woman slowly turned and eased her body back, her head falling to the Akalaks shoulder, while it appeared the woman was resting against her companion, her back was carefully arched, her torso slowly rising and falling dragging her binds against the blade.

The voice that spoke to her ear, the breath that stroked along her neck sounded, strange, it made her body squirm and a hiss came as the blade sunk passed the ropes to pierce her skin. Yet beyond that intake of breath she made no complain, her mind was turned firmly to their plans, 15 seconds. She could give that, given her hands, she could give plenty.

A gasp came softly again, this time of surprise and something not close to pain. Teeth tug upon the bindings that held her arms firm to her sides. It was neither the time, place, nor person yet it did not soothe the tremors that raced up her spine, and for a moment the blade at her back forgotten as her body squirmed and breath dragged deeply within. The sound was soft a gasp, a swallowed groan then she stilled.

The woman did not speak, did not look to the man that tore at her bindings as she began again herself to cut through the cords. Moments passed and the bindings began to loosen, her voice was soft, breathy, an edge of humor that spoke of something nothing to do with the danger around them.

“Slow, slow. Do not break the ropes all the way through. Let me look captive still when they take me, it may afford me less caution and give you more time. “The woman sighed, a happy sound as the bindings at her lower arms gave way and the lower arms moved freely in the hidden space between their bodies. Fingers pulled upon the Akalak’s ropes as her body settled nearer, the blade’s purpose served.

[Amirah]

--Lye
As an entire coil of rope gave way beneath his gnawing teeth, the curious, soft noises shuddering from the woman's lips caused the Akalak to arch a curious brow, though he said nothing, merely continued to chew at her bonds. As another tremulous gasp was breathed into his ear, he began to wonder just how much of her movements were meant for the blade he'd produced from his boot. Just as she had done to him, he had seemed to judge the woman merely at face value; she was a strange, though interesting thing, resilient, strong, and ambitious. The muscles of his jaw bunched tightly as he ground through yet another coil. He felt her sag upon him; the tensions of the ropes that had kept her so still, and at such mercy, were losing their power. She huddled in closer to him, and were it not for his eyes, as good in the dark as they were in the light, he would not have seen one pair of her hands, freed now, slip around his back.

He pulled his head back, spitting tasteless, irritating fibers from his mouth as she spoke again, and he laughed quietly, eyeing her with some admiration. He felt his own ropes began to loosen as her skilled hands loosened knots just as efficiently as they would have done on a stiff muscle. "Hmm...Yes. But when I stated fifteen seconds, I will need no more. I perhaps will not even need the entire fifteen."His tone, his voice, his speech was suspiciously different - there seemed to be nothing of the man named Lye who had played cards with her mere moons ago in this blue skinned face.

"Very well. No more then. However, you may want to speak to your attentive masses now." He sat up a bit, turning his head away to look at the woman in the cage. Most were huddled in corners, breathing shallowly, their eyes all but empty of fire.

But something still burned, and even a spark could grow to burn down a forest.


--Amirah
“Ladies. Ladies hear me, please.” There was strength in those whispered tones that drew attention, it may have been brief, just a glance, or a full look of complete attention, but it was the entire woman needed. Amirah held her position in Riverfall not simply because she was pleasant to look upon. It was because she was a good speaker keen to the subtle cues of her audience and applied the right mixture of gentle urging and unyielding demands. It was not a lie to say the Eypharian form time to time used her gifts upon her charges, to get them to relax, to get them to open to her, to make a crack in their shields for her to get beneath their defenses.

But that was rare and on single person basis.

The voice that spoke, held strength, determination, curbed by the fragile sound of urgent beseech. The Eypharian sat up, arms slipping from the Akalak at her back, the distance brought between them were small but it was distance all the same, showing her to b on her own feet so to speak rather than clinging to the man’s shadow.

“Hear me, help us. Help us; give you back your freedom.” The Eypharian was quiet as attention grew an eyes turned more fully upon her form. It was a different approach; it was not putting Amirah and Lye above them, or even on par with them, but making them, their sole concern, higher than the bound pair together.

“We are of Riverfall, where slaves are not held in captivity, and all men and women are free and equal. This caravan is heading to Ahnetep, the burning lands of sand and sun, beyond the reach of Riverfall and the safety guaranteed there. We need not much of you gentle hearts, but be prepared to flee and free the men to join us when the time comes, to stand together in times of chaos, and be safe.” The sincerity that seemed to drip from Amirah’s lips had a curious effect, some responded to doing simply what they were told, don’t worry your pretty head about anything just run when you can, and hide when you can’t, while others, took offense. Those who still had spirit still had fight.

“What do you care? Once we get to Ahnept you will probably be freed, the worse for wear at being a belly warmer until they decide they are through with you. We will be sold into slavery serving you Eypharian. You only want to be free to not spread your legs like everyone else.”

An older woman, brunet with hair long fallen from a bun of some sort, her clothing was torn, bloody and smeared with dirt. She managed to pull herself unright enough to show well enough she was not broken, or one to be led by the nose. The Eypharian managed to cast a uncertain glimmer to her face, her bound body sagging for a moment as if teetering on the edge of giving up before straightening, gathering anew her resolve.

“What I am, has no bearing on who I am. I am Amirah of Riverfall, the same Amirah who goes out of her way to help those saved from the fates we shall surely receive return home to their love ones, recover, and find jobs, careers, lodgings within the Riverfall city, as I have done for years. My stake in this endeavor is the same as all, my freedom, my life, your life, your freedom, as much as my own.

All we need is for you to be ready, we will do most of the work, I will distract our captors, and if someone could free the men as soon as possible that is all I would ask of you all, that and to have care to be safe.” The expression upon her young face was so believable, when she glanced over hr shoulder quickly at the sound of a twig in the distance, the fearful look smoothing as the Eypharian settled back against the Akalak. Eyes watched the pair before quietly speaking amongst themselves, or like before looking to the sky glassy eyed. Except for one set of eyes that lingered longer than the rest on the pair.

Amirah snorted, “Be helpful if she had an accident, I am certain of it. She has alpha bitch scribed all upon her, and she’s eyeing me like a threat to her little kingdom. Queen of the fausting harem.” The words were muttered from Amirah who turned to her conspirator enforcing the illusion and privacy.

“Many will trip over themselves to help when it starts. It should help with the confusion and get you those fifteen seconds. “

[Lye]

Lye shoved his other hand through the ropes, rather pleased at the ease when compared to the cramped struggle the other had given him. Shutting his eyes, he tilted to the side, allowing him more clearance to the knots the slavers had tied. In truth, it was as sloppy work as they had done when searching him for weapons; all they'd taken were his gauntlets and his lakan, for those were the two most dangerous looking possessions - but sometimes, the plainest, most unassuming insect in the wild held the most violently deadly venom. They'd disarmed him...but only to a small degree. Despite himself, the akalak's smile grew - his revenge was oh so close that he could taste it, chilled to perfection upon its silver platter.

He paused though, as the woman leaned against him began to speak to the other captives. Slowly opening his eyes, he stared at her, watching the curious, soft angles of her exotic face. Her words were carefully chosen, subtle, and powerful, though there was...something beyond it, something familiar yet completely removed from something he'd experienced several times. This was a rare sort of woman, one who could lead thousands, and just as easily hustle a small group of idiots with her silver tongue.

The akalak noticed her unspoken cues quickly. Say what you would about him, but he was no fool; she was trying to present herself as a strong, independent leader, and his presence hanging over her helped nothing. As she continued to speak, he tilted to tilted to the side again, away from her, and bowed his head, absently fiddling with the ropes he'd already unknotted, listening to her speak. One of the woman, hot tempered and surprisingly unbroken, snapped bitterly at the eypharian, but the woman who had just been reclining in his lap delivered a calm, unphased rebuttal on par with the finest, most precise sword strokes. Not only was she quick to talk of business, she almost always went straight for the throat...unable to help himself, he could feel his respect for her growing. Finally, she lounged back against him, muttering acidly, hatred in her lovely eyes.

"No worries. There will be blood, and much of it in the next minute." As though on cue, the wooden door of their cage slammed open, and two of the slavers climbed in, swaggering and sneering in false bravado, their hands on their weapons, their eyes on the pair.

Slowly, like the hissing of a rattlesnake prodded far too many times by a stick weilding child, the akalak drew in a breath and watched the slavers coming, oozing machismo that barely hid anger and fear. While the other cowering and broken ones had been with their company for weeks, if not, perhaps, a month or more, Amirah and he had only suffered their indignities for upwards of a week, feigning sleep, whispering daring plots in each other's ears. Lye and his other self, despite being, on the surface, at the mercy of their captors, had tolerated their treatment for some time - until this moment. Until the slavers had decided to try to take the eypharian as they took two or three of the other girls out onto the sands for a bit of entertainment.

"Slaves! We have come to make an example! You belong to us. You are property. And you will be treated as such!" The one on the left bent and snatched the bound woman up, grabbing a fistful of her hair. The one on the right smiled widely at the akalak. "We will take what is your's, now, and make it our little plaything. All of the men shall have a taste of her." Surprise registered in the man's eyes as the akalak merely tossed back his dark head and laughed.

"Have fun...she'll bite it right off." The speaker snorted and spun around sharply, gesturing to the other, who began to shove the eypharian to the door, hissing vile, rotten things in her ear, eager to tell her what he had planned for her supple flesh. Without a moment's hesitation, Lye rose to his feet, but it was Uriel who shrugged off his loosened bonds, stretching and flexing his stiff arms. "One Valterrian..." he whispered under his breath, keeping track of time, turning silently on the women still in the cage, his eyes nearly devoid of emotion, save for a bone chilling impish delight almost hiding the bloodlust broiling beneath. "I promise you, ladies...assist us, and I will lead you back to Riverfall myself...lay stones in our road, and I shall cut your throats myself. Five Valterrian..."

The cage door was unlocked, as he had predicted it would. Uriel opened it with a simple push of his lone forefinger, dropping to the ground without a sound. Ten paces away was the first guard. "Seven Valterrian..." The akalak homed in on the man like a desert snake in the cold of night, tracking a foraging mouse - all for the glint of metal at his waist. The Lakan was plucked free with nimble fingers, and Uriel smiled cheerily at the slaver as he spun around, struggling with his sword. "Ah, what good fortune! Lye claimed you would be the first to die! Allow me to indulge that declaration." The edge of the the twisted dagger parted the slaver's throatflesh like mere paper, and thick, dark blood came gushing forth as the akalak tucked his dagger into his own belt, grabbing a bloody fistful of the man's shirt, lowering him slowly to the ground as he bled out.

"Ten Valterrian..."

"Yeah, gonna stuff you full, bitch," the enthusiastic slaver growled in the eypharian's ear, his clammy fingers digging through the ropes to claw at her breast, the other hand fucmbling with her ropes. His next next lecherous exclamation was cut short by the strange dagger that came spinning through the night air and dug deep into his back, ripping a scream of agony from him as he fell, his legs useless. The other slavers spun around, their eyes wide with terror and shock, in time to see the sinister smile of the akalak standing mere feet behind them. "Fourteen Valterrian!" He announced proudly, slowly drawing his middle and forefinger down the length of his arm, breathing slow and deep breaths.

"Fust - a Flux mage!" Insane, gleeful laughter ripped from Uriel's lips as he burst forward, easily ducking beneath a clumsy stroke from a wildly swung mancatcher. With super human, enhanced speed and strength, his cobalt knuckles shot upward in a crushing blow into the man's groin, taking perverse pleasure as he felt something small give. The slaver shrieked, dropping his polearm, but Uriel did not pause, viciously spinning into the man, cracking ribs with a powerful elbow strike, crushing the trachea with a vicious jab into the throat.

A mere second into the flow of djed, and he could already feel his muscles aching. The akalak pushed it from his mind though, darting towards the next one in a low hurtle, snatching his lakan from the back of the paralyzed man. Behind them, angry women surged forth from the cage like boiling water, kicking the corpse with the slit throat before running to the chained men, weary from the long walk and constant abuse.

The glow of blood upon the dagger was lovely, more gorgeous than all the gold in the world to Uriel...he took a moment to pause, exhaling slowly as he halted the flow of djed into his arms to admire the slick blade, silver glimmering off of liquid ruby. Two corpses lay at his feet, one still clutching at the entrails spilling out of his split stomach with claw like, dead fingers. One of the last of their captors lay beneath his boot, his legs bleeding badly, the left sitting at a crooked, unhealthy angle, weeping and clutching at the akalak's boot. His grin had grown so wide that his teeth were showing, wolf-like, as bright and ominous in the light as were his burning eyes.

"Tell me...is there more wonderful a sound than a man choking upon his own blood?" Uriel pressed down on the man's throat, and the slaver's eyes bulged, his tongue waggling between his teeth, gagging for air. "The coo of an infant in it's loving mother's arms? The happy sigh of a contented lover, warm and close?" The slaver slapped weakly at his boot, and the akkalak titled his head in curiosity. He released some of the pressure - then brought his foot back down with tremendous force, collapsing the man's windpipe.

"No...hahaha, there's not a more pleasing sound..."

[Amirah]

--Amirah
30th of Fall 509 AV
Eyktol
She flailed without thought for a few moments as she was pulled roughly by her hair of all things, Her hair was plain, unpainted, but it was long by any standards and well tended it was her point of pride as a Eypharian and a woman, and it was being used like a handle or a leash.

The futile struggles stopped for a moment as her body hit the ground out of the cart, the air was forced out of her lungs from the fall before the woman was dragged up to her feet again by the hand buried in her hair.

It was a short lived event before the Eypharian was shoved forward landing on the ground again. The growls came as the woman rolled to her back kicking out at the circle of laughing faces. She felt a cord snap in her struggles but it seemed unnoticed as a figure dropped upon hers, a body straddled her waist/ Safe from the reach of her legs and her arms still bound a rough hand sought to move past the ropes to flesh. His other running over the knotted ropes pulling on the weakened fibers. A cry went up as his body slumped to the side his mouth moving to give his sounds of pain.

--Lye
Clutching pitiful rags around their bruised bodies, the captured, abused woman tore around the cage like a pack of feral, bloodthirsty animals, teeth bared in wrathful snarls. The men in their shackles followed, grim faced, hands clutched into tight, angry fists, their eyes full of rage. One of the slavers, terrified, sobbing, knowing that justice had come for him, was making a mad dash across the sands, kicking up great plumes of it as he tried to escape. Beyond, the disturbingly cheerful laugh of the akalak rang out loudly, nearly drowning out the screams of those being butchered. The retreating gave a glance over his shoulder - and cried out as the women bellowed as one, charging at him, some bending to pick up sun bleached, dry sticks.

"No no no nonononono!" He sobbed, his feet stumbling as he struggled with the strange, foot long stick he held in his hands. Angrily, desperation bleeding into his frustrated action, he slapped the iron rod against his hand - and turned, just as the tip of the metal staff burst into brilliant golden light, through a horrifying cast upon the faces of the furious mob that were mere steps from him. A wordless cry burst from him as he turned, hurled the Sunrod as high into the air as he could, and tried to run again - but vengeance made the captives fast, and smart. One of the knotted, crooked sticks whistled through the air, hurled from the woman's hand, and struck the slaver painfully in the back of his leg, dropping him to a knee. The same woman lunged, dropping her bulk upon the man's back, and it was all over.

The slaver wept openly as he pushed onto his yellow belly into the sand, and still he struggled, stretching his arms out, clawing great furrows in the sand. "You bastard, you dirty bastard! I can never have back what you took from me!" Dirty, slender fingers with wicked jagged nails sunk unto his eyes as the first woman curled her fingers around his skull, a primal grin stretching her face as the slaver screamed hideously, blood beginning to gush from the sockets as she pressed farther into the sockets. Flipping him over, the next woman brought the heel of her bare foot down upon his face, mashing his nose into a blood spattered, split tomato, cracking the jaw, blood and spittle and teeth showering the sands. The others caught up then, raining down bloows with sticks and heavy stones and feet, and when the men joined, they held their fists together and viciously whipped the man with the chains of their shackles.

Brilliant golden gleam of the sunrod rising in the air above the carnage served its purpose though. Slicing through the air, the dark eyes of a hawk spied its ascent, then fall back to the sands, curving a low, descending swoop away from the killings.

Moments later, an ear splitting whistling noise broke the akalak's blood drunken happiness. Uriel bellowed a furious obscenity, clapping his hands over his peaked ears, but the disgusting word was drowned out with the advent of more of the impossibly load, sharp whistles. His eyes began to water far before glass flasks shattered on the sand, thrown by cloaked forms on horseback, spilling thick, stinging clouds of smoky dust into the air. A mere breath later, setting his lungs on fire, the sensation of his head being sliced in two by an exceptionally keen blade was lost to a thunderous crash on the back of his head, and then, darkness.

--Amirah
32nd of Fall 509 AV
Cyphrus Eyktol Border
The darkness gave way to new darkness as pain erupted like an invisible blossom across her ribs at the booted kick. The second stole her breath and the body rolled away from the pain. There was hushed angry whispers beneath the groan Amirah gave slowly sitting up. Her eyes blinked at the darkness before realizing they were somewhere dark. Her head was throbbing, and now her ribs ached as well, and yet again, she was bound.

“I do not care! For all that she could have got us killed, for this! To be locked away in the dark now, to still be sold, we’re all lucky to not be dead! No thanks to that Eypharian bitch!” It was dark as pitch, but that voice was familiar, its biting words and superior tones. Before Amirah had played nice, she had played the humble, civil servant. Had pandered to those broken waste of flesh, but enough was enough. Her leg shot out toward the voice, but was too far to do more that skim the front of the woman’s chest.

It was a curious thing, Amirah sitting up with more ease than one unaccustomed to being without her arms, considering the number she had. Yet Amirah’s body moved with relative ease sitting up and moving near with no use of her arm. The motions were slow, the silent rage gave the strange motions a predatory grace, the darkness masking the fierce rage upon her delicate features. Her leg rose up again but did not shoot forward it moved with uncommon control and faltered only once, the sole of her boots pressing upon the other woman’s lips and chin before lowering to her throat and pressing. The flailing kicks of the taller woman were unnoticed, Amirah pressing her body against her leg, hiding behind her thigh while adding pressure upon it upon the curs’ throat.

“You hear me now, and well you cowardly bitch. Do not blame me for not listening and fleeing when given the chance. Do not blame me for not standing to fight for your own life. You cannot reap the benefits and cast the blame on those bold enough to fight, to try to actually live. And do not EVER touch me or I will rip your squawking throat out with my teeth and spit in the valley. Hearing you drown on your own blood would be more pleasant than that self pitying whine and seek to lay blame you damnable crow. Boo hoo you got captured, you got raped, you saw someone die, it happens, I do not care! You had your chance and you botched it. Not I, you. So if you want t be some else’s whore, still your tongue and wait to be bought. If you are ready to try to escape again when I do, still your tongue and wait. But by the gods you will shut up or I’ll chew out that damned piece of flesh here and now!”

There was viciousness to the once gentle tongues that spoke faster and harder than a crack of a whip over the choking sounds of the woman before her.

Amirah pressed upon the woman’s neck a moment more, harder before abruptly releasing her and rolling away from the coughing form. To kill the woman was a strong desire that grew with every ache of her ribs as she moved but for now she let the human live annoyed in general, breaking her facade, being recaptured, again, having her armed bound, and her head throbbing. It was simply not her fusting day.

“Where the Valterrian is my fusting man?” The annoyed tones filled the darkness as Amirah tested the binds, again all four arms were tied off and at the moment she was certain the other women had every intention of staying as far away from the woman as they could, to avoid her wrath or madness. It left only Lye to again undo her binds and again for her to return the favor if they had not killed the Akalak already.

“Just what we need, smart slavers.”

[Lye]

The woman, gagging, coughing, humiliated, rolled across the cage floor, stopping at the toe of a dark mass. "He remains elsewhere," a pleasant voice, its tone amused, spoke up from the far corner of the cage. The akalak raised his head, smiling calmly and happily, ignoring the stinging slash just beneath his left eye, caked blood upon his cheek, black and brittle like the shell of a scarab. Again, he had been given cautious, preferential treatment to the other man, who paced along outside, heads hung low. Now, however, the ropes were tied so tightly they threatened to cut off blood flow to his extremities; indeed, he fingers, lightly stroking the cold iron of the manacles around his wrists, were chilly and numb to the touch. A heavy iron collar was bound around his neck, a chain trailed from it, down his chest, meeting the one fastened to the shackles. Another pair of cuffs had been locked around his ankles, though again, the fools had not taken his boots.

"I decided that it was in our best interests for me to remain in control, my dear. They woke me before you, and tried to torture me, to make an example of me but...their tools and techniques were comical, at best. I've inflicted worst punishment upon myself." The akalak's eyes slid slowly down to the the loud mouthed woman, who still lay gasping on the ground, clutching at her aching throat. "Quite the speech, my dear, I do confess quite the thrill from it. Our friend Lye was quite pleased by it as well - he gave the suggestion of, how did he word it? Crush that cunt's thoat! Yes, haha, something like that. Ever the eloquent one." Uriel's eyes narrowed to a blade's edge, apathetic to the tears of anger and shame in the woman's eyes.

"Did I not tell you to seal your mouth? Did I not warn you of that exact consequuence? I believe I was even polite, the first time I asked you to stop talking. Contemptable shrew. Tell me, were you loose tongued before or after the slavers pried open your thighs and loosened you several degrees lower? I do believe when this is all over and done with, you will be killed." The woman shut her eyes tight, curling in on herself, and no remorse creased lines in the akalak's face as he shoved at her with the toe of his boot before sighiong, clapping his numb hands together.

"Well then." The akalak turned his smile onto the eypharian; disturbingly enough, the expression was unchanged, the same as it had been mere seconds ago as withering abuse had poured from his lips like sizzling acid. The links of the chains on his ankle manacles clicked quietly as he spread his legs, hilding his hands open in a welcoming gesture. "Come here, my dear. Again, we have something to help one another with."

[Amirah]

--Amirah
That voice came again, the one that made her squirm tad uncomfortably. In the darkness she could not see, but she could hear. The man that spoke and how he referred to the Akalak before could only mean one thing as suspected, and expected, she was in the presence of the darkness of Lye. Yet by far, this “dark” side to the Akalak was more polite and formal in speech, his accent strange and was difficult to place, she had never heard anything like it. Yet beyond that, there was something that set the woman on unease.

Those same pleasant tones shifted target, from Amirah to the coughing woman from before, not a change in rhythm or lilt, even in the promise of the other woman’s death. He went as pleasant as he was before, even though he had yet to call Amirah by name she knew well enough when he spoke to her and when he did not.

“I thought I heard you earlier, such a shame to meet this way when I cannot even put your face to my sight. We have yet to have a proper introduction, I do not even have a name by which to call you.” The Eypharian moved, slowly in the dark, unable to stand fully , her head striking the low cage ceiling confirmed that bit of wonder, and being unable to see in the near pitch darkness she moved with care, her light steps slow, sweeping motions made with the toe of her foot searching for any obstacles in her path. Pausing at the huddled form upon the floor in front of her the Eypharian stepped over the woman, the back of her head and hair dragging lightly along the low ceiling as her body gingerly stepped over the woman.

The body was stepped over with little regard aside making care not to step upon or be tripped by the figure she neared the Akalak, pausing as the toe of her boots brushed upon the chains upon the floor attached to two legs. The woman slowly knelt, lowering to her knees was more difficult than rising.

“How hurt are you two?” The woman slowly fell to the side upon her rear just beyond the reach at the Akalak’s feet, she could indeed move closer with relative ease but she remained away. Despite this personality be far seeming more polite than the Lye she knew, in the dark and facing a stranger the woman kept a wary distance.


--Lye
"Ah, but I can place your face with ease," the Akalak replied, his smile widening, the illusion of good humor slowly vanishing. When one lived with something for all their lives, it was too easy to forget that another may lack what you have in spades, and at the moment, that was good eyes. Like a viper coiled hidden in the leaves, Uriel sat in silence, watching Amirah as she stumbled clumsily across the cage floor, all but blind in the dark.

"Rude of me, though, not to introduce myself. Most would simply have been perplexed with my choices of words, but one who has spent years palavering and cavorting with my poor, stupid sheep of brothers would know things others would not, yes? You may call me Uriel if you feel so inclined. And I assure you that I will behave just as the well mannered gentleman that you have seen thus far," he lied, smiling serenely as he folded his hands together, watching carefully as the Eypharian stepped over the traumatized woman as though she were nothing more than a bundle of broken sticks.

Uriel cocked an eyebrow at the woman's own choice of words, and rewarded her with a soft laugh. "Clever one. Lye is in perfect health, though he is absolutely incensed at the misfortune of our recapture. I confess that I was even unaware that he was as knowledgeable as he is in the lewd and oft-overlooked field of vulgar racial slurs and angry obscenities. As for myself...the flesh is spongy and bruised, but the mind is still willing. We suffered worse damage during our Rites."


--Amirah
"That is good. Tell me Uriel, are the deals and deeds made by one, held by and honored by both?" The Eypharian shifted in her place, her eyes closed to the darkness and her chin rested upon a raised knee, cutting out the straining senses of eyeing the darkness in which she could not see, she focused her senses upon listening to the Akalak for their captors, and shifting beneath her rope binds.


--Lye
Despite the weight of hemp and iron upon him, the Akalak darted forward, rocking almost up onto his heels, his face appearing before her own in the darkness as though it had been summoned by some evil spell. His light eyes glittered with what looked all too much like malice and glee. "That depends, my dear. Would you like the truth, a lie, or Lye?"

“Always the truth if we are to be working together, however short or brief it may be.” The words that came from Amirah’s lips sounded mellow despite the drumming of the heart within her chest, the clank of metal, the scuffle of his feet, the sudden breeze of the body suddenly looming before her, the woman was motionless, with as much muster from fear as well as stubbornness.


--Amirah
In the dark she rubbed her cheek against her thigh as if the Akalak before her was not an intimidating creature. “All I want is your word by whatever god or goddess you hold dear you mean not my harm. Or give Lye back to me for the time being. More blood will surely be spilt to make amends for this, unfortunate situation.”


--Lye
"Ha ha ha ha...bold. Brash! Stupid? Ah, forgive me. It has been some time since I have not seen someone recoil or flinch in the face of something they've seen shed so much blood." Again, he laughed, and settled back slowly into his corner, pressing his thumbs together. "No, you may not have Lye back. He is sharp, intelligent, but with you, as he is with some others, he is very stupid. However, I admire those nerves of yours, forged of Isurian Steel as they are. Very well. I shall slake my bloodthirsty on any but you. You have my word not upon any god, but upon my own flushed health and sturdy well being, dear Amirah."


--Amirah
“Very well.” The Eypharian would sigh her relief and slump against a wall if she could, but more work was to b done, sooner, rather than later and she needed to trust the Akalak before her to honor his words. Or kill her quickly, that was always a good perk. Amirah moved slowly forward before settling before the Akalak well within reach with leg upon either side of her.

“My thanks for indulging my whim Uriel, if you would be so kind?” Cool fingers waved futile from the ropes that held her hands firmly to her back, the woman leaned forward slightly to give more access to the ropes before sighing softly.

“We’re are not home yet, or like the bitch had said, I would have been freed long ago. It is bothersome all the same, to suffer this indignity, or to be ‘rescued’ upon entering the city. While here, suffering, laws do not touch us, and the sands eat many a body. But if we are not close already it worries me, that we have not already reached the city as it is. And that I am still here. One does not have a debtless Eypharian slave. It is a crime punishable by our ruler herself. But where else is there to go I wonder.”

[Lye]

--Lye
The akalak was silent as she finally sat down and spoke, satisfied with his shaky promise. She turned her back to him, and he finally got a full view of hos they had bond her this time; her wrists had been lashed together, behind her back with elaborate knotwork forcing the limbs up her back, allowing the awkward position of her limbs to lock them in place. Uriel studied it for a moment, and quickly realized what held her arms in place was a single section looped around her neck. If she tried to pull her arms back down, it would choke her.

"A debtless eypharian slave sounds like no fun, indeed," his voice soft and amused as he leaned forward, baring his teeth, lowering himself to the back of her neck. His teeth scraped across her flesh as he locked his jaw down across the rope, his lips brushing against her warm flesh as he pulled back, chewing steadily even as his jaw began to ache.

--Amirah
The breath came out of her lungs quickly as the shiver raced down her spine. The rope at her neck had hardly been noticed until lips touched her skin. Her shoulders shifted at the teasing brush of skin as the Akalak chewed at the rope about her neck. A low moan came from dry lips before Amirah shifted, legs raising pressing against her chest. The Eypharian was silent after that, stilling but a tiny shiver that would come at a stray brush of skin. Eyes closed her face against her thighs the woman thought of sand, the unpleasant feel of it between her toes, the glaring hot sun, the jostling of the cart, anything but the dark and light touch.

“Who… has taken us prisioner, this time?”

--Lye
The rope finally gave under the frantic sawing, freeing the girl of his painful binding. The akalak recoiled, gagging, whipping his head to the side, spitting onto the floor. The voice that spoke next was a great deal angrier, and while it had lost its soft, melodius flow, perhaps it would still bring some happiness to the woman. "Agh, ugh! The fust did they rub these ropes in? Animal shit? Old sour cheese? Oh, this had better be the last time I gotta eat like a rat. I'll be so pissed if I get tied up again." Grimacing, he spit again, and shoved his fingers into his mouth, trying to scoop out irritating, jabbing bristles.

"I wasn't really sure at first," Lye muttered bitterly, thumping his heel against the floor of the cage. With a click, the knife sprang forth again, and he took a moment to curse quietly as the boot fought against him to slide off his foot. "I was thinking, 'damn, just our luck, a whole nex crew', but they were quick to let everyone know that they were kind of...I don't know, the rear guard. They said they saw a sunrod go flying up into the air and they knew. Real pricks, too. You wanna kinda nudge that boot up closer to my hands, or something? And scoot a little closer, maybe...I don't want to go and slice you."

--Amirah
The familiar voice that came from behind her was comfort to which Amirah’s shoulders sagged in silent relief as the angr voice spoke and spat. The weight around her neck released also was its own relief and even though she still could not freely move her arms she had a degree of freedom that had not been there before. The woman listened the Akalak explain what he knew, all the while playing with the new breaths of freedom she had been given. Again she silently cursed their luck. Smart slavers, organized too, it was not boding well at all in truth. Were they always this efficient and those of the civilized, or anti slavery world did not realize it? Or was this group… different.

As Lye mentioned his boot the woman leaned to the side, body resting upon his other thigh as she used a leg to press the sole of his boot against his foot securing the boot anew. When he brought his bladed boot closer to his body, like days ago Amirah inched back, her head resting against the Akalak’s shoulder and the rope brought against the blade.

“Very kind of you again. At this point I do not rightly care to even maintain the illusion of capitivty, I hated sleeping like that. And here, only you can see. I cannot even hear over the others if someone is near or watching. And sadly, sleep, and unconsciousness are not one and the same.”

--Lye
"Yeah, I know the difference from passing out drunk," he joked, grinning at her. The difference between the personalities was jarring; while it would be a stretch to call Lye any sort of saint, but he was far better company than the psychotic Uriel. "But you know, don't thank me for my uh...kindness by words. Do it by cutting the fusting ropes around my arms and chest, please?" The akalak laughed, feeling her moving against her, gradually slashing through her bonds with what was quickly becoming his most prized posession. Soon enough, he heard her cry of triumph as the ropes broke and her hands fell into his lap.

"Damn, you've got welts all over your arms," he muttered, trying to press back further against the cage wall as a signal to free him next. "The leader took my lakan. They're smarter, a little more organized than the last ones, but they still thought that was my only weapon. Racists. Think an akalak just runs around with a knife? Gods, I can't wait to kill these ones, too. But, anyway...since he's walking around with it like its some severed trophy head, I know where he is. You can sleep, if you want. They're not going to mess with us. I heard one of them call me a demon and then muble a bunch of gibberish, hahaha."

--Amirah
She chuckled, she could not help it, free again as she was she took a moment to move her aching limbs, days of that prone position left indents upon her skin, her fingers cool to touch and tingling. The sound of concern acknowledge with a simple pat upon the knee before the Eypharian removed the Akalaks boot and with it firmly in hand, carefully in the dark, sliced through the bindings.

Although the knife could no cut through steel , Lye’s motions and movements were returned to him wih the exception of the iron manacles. Returning the boot upon the foot it belonged the Eypharian gave little thought, returning to the place that had offered the most safety for the past several days, she lounged against the Akalak, the back of her head resting upon the curve of her shoulder and body laying easy in the cradle of his legs, her eyes closed and that simply was that, the change came quickly, the deepening her breathes and the tension of her body being stolen away as the woman fell into sleep.

--Lye
True, honest to gods shock registered on the akalak's face, though no one else save for him would have been able to see it the near lightless black. She settled down upon his body like a cat seeking heat and confort, sliding beneath the chain arresting his arm's movement, and within meare breaths, she was asleep, soundly against what could arguably be the second biggest danger to her life in the surrounding dry mile.

It was so strange, this change, this show vulnerability and need from a woman he had perceived so cold and strong that she could weather anything their tormentors could throw at her. He squinted down at her, at the peaceful face, searching for hints of that bitterness, that iron wrought power she'd presented him with when she'd first approached him with Chibale - but all he could see was a girl, as young as he was, firghtened, full of worry, and fragile.

Lye was so alien to his brothers, to their rules and morals and prides, but something tugged upon the strings of his greedy little black heart. Gingerly, he laid his hands on his knees, taking care not to make noise, and then let his head fall back, against the cage wall. He could hear people walking outside, laughing, babbling, one man singing. Inside, Uriel stirred, a brief black blade of hatred and fury.

For hours, Lye sat motionless, on self appointed guard duty, waiting - before finally, he too fell asleep.