The spiked wheel: The penalty for treason in Tevinter

The rebel had known this when he took up arms, had known this when he decided that he would fight for equality between mages and mundanes. All throughout Thedas it was either mundanes above mages or mages above mundanes; there was nowhere that the two were considered equal. The rebel had thought that the spiked wheel was worth risking in striving for a place where that was possible.

But he had never been on the spiked wheel before. He was tied to the wheel at the wrists, elbows and ankles and stretched out along the spike covered wheel. His back was against the spikes and every time he relaxed even the slightest he was gored by the spikes. He had only been on the wheel an hour and already he back was slick with blood.

The rebel cried, not in pain, not yet – that would come later – for now he cried for his still free comrades, knowing that sooner or later he would betray them to stop this pain and in doing so, condemn them to the same fate.

oOo

The slave suffered the indignities of the search; no one was allowed into the prison without a thorough search to ensure that they weren't carrying anything. Furthermore, slaves like herself were required to trade in their own clothes for an outfit made in the prison, for the prison, better ensuring that nothing could be smuggled in.

The slave headed for her assigned station, if she was not there within five minutes she would be beaten. She was halfway there when the guard grabbed her.

She was a pretty young thing, it was a miracle that no one had gotten to her before she did. New as well it seemed; only the newest slaves bothered to tell the guards they needed to be somewhere. After about a week or so they just took the abuse in silence, he would enjoy teaching her the score.

He grabbed her and pulled her into a deserted room, enjoying her futile struggles and attempts to pull away. When she begged that someone might find them the guard laughed; this was the night shift's rooms, no one would come in here for another four hours, long after he'd came in her. She smiled

The guard had barely enough time to realize the strangeness of the slave's smile when she snapped his neck. Wrapping her arms around the body she gently lowered it to the ground before searching it. She quickly found the key she was looking for but no knife. Her face fell as she realized what she had to do.

She placed the body under one of the beds so it would not immediately be discovered and left, heading for her destination.

oOo

When the slave entered the room the rebel smiled, glad to see her. "E-Elisa, love I-I haven't told them a-anything"

"I am glad to hear it" Elisa replied

"C-come, undo these chains s-so we c-can get out of here"

"I'm sorry, I cannot get us both out of here" Elisa visibly walled off her feelings as she looked at her lover

"T-then slit my throat and leave"

"I have no knife" she began to walk toward the rebel

"m-magic?"

"They would detect me in an instant" she picked up a chair and snapped of one of the legs "I am so sorry"

The rebel finally understood what would happen and prepared himself for the pain; the wheel was specially designed so that it was impossible to strike the head of someone on it. But not the limbs

"B-better than betraying my friends" the rebel smiled "Do it"

Elisa swung the chair leg down, breaking the rebel's arm. He screamed as his body collapsed, impaling him on the spikes that the wheel was named after. She broke his leg just as quickly but could not reach the other side.

As the rebel screamed with all his might Elisa slipped out as easily as she had come, cursing that fate had made such a horrible death a mercy

A Tainted Mercy

A/N this is set in my Tainted Blood universe a few years before the main events of the actual story. It kinda popped into my head when I was reading King Lear in class – guess Shakespeare's good for something other than torturing high school students eh?

Anyways I've kinda been frustrated by how the actual story Tainted Blood hasn't really given me a chance to illustrate how ruthless my Elisa Cousland can be so I decided to "vent" if you will, by making this oneshot. If you liked this then you may like the actual story, which can be found on my author page. (Shameless plug ftw)

Thanks for reading and please review