A/N : Hi ! First of all welcome. So for this first chapter, I'm taking creative liberties with the books, you'll see what I'm talking about later. I haven't read them, but I read about them and plucked a couple of things for the whole Bloodfire thing which isn't really explained on the show… So I did my best and I'm sorry if you don't like the divergences. But the tv-show is canon here, well before this point anyway. Okay I'm shutting up now, just there's going to be a lot of swearing for the entire fic, it feels natural to me, especially for the humans of the Four Lands. You've been warned. And there may be mistakes, I'm French, but I'm careful about it.
Oh and we start right where we left off in season 1 : Eretria with the trolls.
TW : A bit of violence and a bit of non-con sexual content (very light but still)
Enjoy ! Oh and I own nothing !
"It's you..."
That's all she manages to say. She can't believe her eyes. She never thought she would see the blonde-haired, blue-eyed human standing in front of her in troll gear and war paint, again.
"Thought I was dead huh ? I bet you didn't even look for me" he smirks at the wide eyed brunette. "Well I found myself a new family, and they listen to me." He finishes with a proud smile.
"So is that what you do with your afterlife ? Lead a bunch of trolls to steal from innocents on the roads ? Well I'm still not gonna marry you, Baz." She laughs loudly at him, earning herself a glare from the man in front of her.
"You think you're funny ? You're bound and on your knees in front of me" He crouches down and grabs her chin with his right hand to make her look at him. "With no one to save you and no way to escape," he whispers dangerously before adding in her ear, "the way I see it, I'm the one who will be having fun."
He draws his head back and Eretria takes the opportunity to spit in his face. She won't admit it but she's terrified of him. They used to be dating, well she was using him for sex but he was in love. Then he asked her to marry him and she said no. He became reckless and kind of crazy, like killing people in their sleep crazy.
He went missing during a heist and the rovers told Eretria he was dead. She didn't care much and if she was completely honest, she felt relieved. The guy was creepy.
But there he was in the flesh, leading the Trolls.
He slaps her hard, making her fall on her side and hit her head on the concrete floor. "Cage her !" he orders angrily.
Eretria feels strong hands pulling her up. Her head is still fuzzy when she's turned around and pushed towards the door she came in earlier. She can't help herself and turns her head to taunt her former lover one last time, her words a bit slurry. "Nice throne, trying to compensate I see." She smirks as he shifts uncomfortably on the very large wooden throne against the far wall.
As she's being pushed around narrow corridors, she recovers her senses and tries to map out the way in her head to find an exit. She might've glimpsed something resembling stairs when they take a left and face the narrowest corridor yet. She assumes the "cages" are behind the heavy metal doors, one beside each other, lining up the left corridor wall. The space between the metal doors and the opposite wall is tight, only one person can pass at a time and on the other end of the corridor are, what she assumes guards, playing cards by a fire. Escape would be hard indeed. The troll guarding this end of the prison corridor grunts when he sees them and opens a door right in the middle.
Her claustrophobia suddenly kicks in and she panics at the idea of being stuck in a small space underground. So she elbows the guard behind her and makes a run for it the way she came and turns left. She sees the stairs and climbs them three at a time, hearing running and grunting behind her.
When she finally reaches the top, she's greeted by an incredible vision. An enormous room lighted by torches all around and a massive chandelier in the middle. At least a thousand trolls are trading, chatting, some are arguing but they all look peaceful. There are even kids playing around what looks like merchant's shops. She realizes this is a market place. The trolls have a market place. Her amazement is cut short by a sharp pain on the back of her head and her vision is blurring as she feels herself falling to the ground.
When she wakes up, the first thing she registers is the painful pull at her shoulders. After a while she decides to open her eyes to scan her surroundings. She's chained by the wrists to the ceiling, her feet barely touching the ground. She's in a death-smelling, moldy and very small stone room as wide as the metal door in front of her. She tries to reach it by swinging herself but her feet fall short of a few inches each time. She turns her head and the wall behind her is quite close, she can kick it easily. Unfortunately it's stone, so it won't do any good.
She decides she needs to do something, anything, so she shouts. Maybe one of them will be stupid enough to come in and she'll be able to knock him out, get his keys with her feet and get the hell out.
"Come on you cowards ! You're no better than gnomes ! Fight me ! Come on !"
No response.
"Are you scared of a little girl ? Know I'll kick your asses even chained up huh ?!" She takes a breath. "Oh I know ! You're too stupid to understand, dumb idiots !"
Still no response.
She's starting to lose patience and decides to go for the big one.
"Or maybe you're just ashamed to have Baz as you're leader. I mean he's more like a boy than a man, how the hell did he get you guys to follow him ?!" She smiles before adding "Candy ?!"
At that the door slams open, revealing a smirking Baz, wearing only a tight black shirt and grey pants with boots .
"Still a fucking charm aren't you ?" He moves slowly towards her.
"It was always my best quality." She jokes. For some reason she's not that scared of him anymore and just wants to kick his ass. "So what the hell do you want ?"
He scoffs. "Why would you assume I want something ?" He starts circling her, his hand trailing her side. She really wishes she had her orange jacket on right now.
Anger boils in her blood at his touch. She still answers though. "Well, I don't know, I'm not dead am I ? So you want something. Get on with it." She regrets that last part immediately and gulps.
He's behind her and whispers in her ear. "I do want something. You."
She's about to kick him hard, aiming as best she can for his groin but her window shuts when he presses into her from behind, closing the space between them by snaking his arm on her stomach and pulling her to him. With the other he removes the hair from her neck and whispers in her ear "I'm going to make you my queen Eretria, I promise you'll like it after a while."
She can feel his erection on her lower back. She's disgusted and starts trashing around, trying vainly to get out of his hold. He's still in love with her, after a year. And still crazy apparently. He moves his hand from her neck to her pants and unbuttons them. She starts to panic at that, thinking frantically for a way out, something to say. And weirdly she thinks of Amberle and what she would do.
"But we're not married, a king cannot bed his queen before marriage." She says frowning, trying to look offended.
He laughs lightly at that. "Nice try, but I've already fucked you, doing it again now won't change that."
Fuck it didn't work. She calms herself down and tries to think of something else. She didn't notice him in front of her until he untied the hold of her leather corset, leaving her bare chest exposed.
Suddenly she feels very vulnerable and she has to fight back her tears.
"But first, you need to tell me what that mark on your shoulder means".
"What's it to you ?" She asks, confused.
He draws a dagger from his belt. "This symbol is everywhere here, and I'm pretty sure something valuable is behind it, after all you are" He adds, a sick grin on his lips.
Gods he's gross, Eretria is starting to feel nauseous only at the sound of his voice. He used to be so sweet at the rover camp, well compared to the other men there. Basically he didn't try to forcefully get in her pants like the others and he could even be funny some times. She noticed him after she had to leave Zora in the middle of nowhere. She was in bits and he provided distraction.
She's torn out of her thoughts by a sharp pain on the lower left side of her stomach. She looks down and sees Baz cutting across her middle with his dagger. He goes slowly, stretching out the pain as much as possible. She manages not to scream at first, clenching her fists and biting her tongue as hard as she can, shutting her eyes to think of anything else but when he reaches above her belly button, a muffled scream escapes her throat and he smirks, happy he got a reaction. He continues though, and she bites her tongue even harder to stop making sounds. Her mind drifts to Amberle, remembering her bloody fingers at Pykon, remembering how she'd give anything to have been the one to save her, how she hurt when Will kissed her. She comes back to reality again when he finally stops right under her right breast. She can't stop the tears from her eyes or her erratic heartbeat and he looks smugly at her.
"Well ?" he asks, a satisfied smirk on his face. She ignores him and tries to steady her breath, knowing damn well this is just the beginning.
"No answer ?" he fakes disappointment and plunges three fingers in her fresh cut, earning a surprised and pained scream from the brunette.
"Go…fuck…yourself !" She chokes out when he draws his fingers back.
"Fine, maybe I should get that little friend of yours and ask her instead. She's an Elvin brunette, probably royal. My trolls don't find elves attractive but I'm sure I'd find her quite…" he approaches her, his blue eyes darker than she's ever seen them and his mouth inches from hers "exquisite".
For some reason she gets enraged at the mention of Amberle. How dare he talk about her like that ? Like he could get his hands on her, like he could touch her. That filthy rat !
Her blood is boiling and she can't resist the urge to head-butt him. She smirks at his shocked and pained expression. He takes a few steps back, grabbing his nose in his hands. Eretria can see blood gushing from his hands and takes the opportunity to kick him square in the chest with both feet, supporting herself with the chains. She sends him slamming against the wall, the air knocked out of him.
The guards come rushing a second later and drag his unconscious ass out while a third one punches her hard in the jaw. She's not out though and he punches her a second time near her eye. That one does the trick and everything fades to black.
She wakes up again, not knowing what time of day it is. She finally notices how dry her throat is and how her mouth tastes of iron… Her blood, as she recalls the biting of her tongue earlier. She also notices the ceiling above her head and smiles when her brain finally wakes up and tells her she's lying on the ground, her hands still chained but at least her shoulders aren't strained anymore.
She painfully sits up and looks around, the room is still empty. But there's an airway to the right wall and she lies on her stomach, careful on leaning on her elbows to avoid her cut from making contact with the floor, to see what's on the other side. When she reaches its level, she can't help the surprised scream from escaping her. A decomposed face was looking right at her, blue glassy eyes, gray-greenish leathery skin with plucks of brown hair on top. She quickly jumps back and hits the opposite wall, panting.
"Good. You're awake, we don't have much time and I have a lot to tell you." A disembodied male voice echoes through her cell.
She jumps again, up this time and searches the small room for the owner of that voice, ignoring her pain. "Where the hell are you ?!" She yells, trying to keep out the fear of her voice, and failing spectacularly.
"It's ok don't be scared. My name is Pagmor and I'm in the cell on your left. There's an airway on this wall too. We need to talk." He calmly states.
She looks down and sees it. She sighs, what's the worst that can happen ? So she grabs her stomach and slides down the wall, wincing the whole way.
"Why would I want to talk to you anyway ?" She won't admit that she wanted company right now, any company.
"Other than the fact that you're alone ? I'm the one who sold you to Cephelo."
She struggles to breathe for a moment. What the fuck ?
"You're lying." She unconvincingly accuses. For some reason, she knows it's true. It just feels true.
"You know I'm not. Listen I'm sure you know you're the Bloodfire by now. But it means a lot more than you know." He takes a breath. " You're a descendant of the Ghosts, a group of human kids who survived the Apocalypse that shook this earth. They found magic and tied their blood to the essence of the Earth to create life again : plants, animals but also the races that exist today. That combined with the radiation created the Diversity. They forbid using it again though because it became a weapon for their leader. So they sealed the power in only one of them. A girl name Tessa. Her descendants were the only ones with the blood and became targets. They were hunted and killed until about a hundred years ago. The druids discovered this magic and understood it's use so they vowed to protect the last Bloodfire, your grandfather. Are you still with me ?" His aging voice called to her.
She felt lost. This was insane. But then again, demons exist. She shrugs, then remembers he can't see her. "I'm still waiting for the part where you sold me to a Rover" She tells him nonchalantly.
"I'm getting there. The druids moved your grandparents to Safehold, where your mother was born. I am the Protector of the Bloodfire since her birth. You should know there is only one Bloodfire at a time and when your grandfather died of old age, your mother received the mark." She rubs at her shoulder absent-mindedly. "She came back pregnant with you, and told me your father died at the hands of rovers who wanted to steal from them. They let her go though, and a few months later you were born." He pauses there and she can hear him sigh. Like a father would about his child, she thinks sadly. "She died giving birth to you, I'm so sorry."
Eretria wipes tears away from her eyes. "What happened next ?" she asks forcefully, hiding the wetness of her voice by anger.
"I took care of you, it was my duty." She's a bit disappointed at that. He didn't want to, it was just his job. "We were fine and happy for about three years until the trolls invaded the tunnels. I couldn't keep you here, it was too risky, but I also couldn't abandon Safehold. My life is bound to it. So I ventured out and sold you to Rovers."
She frowns at that. "You couldn't find me a happy human family ? Seriously ?"
"I didn't have time to look, I was dying out there. I'm sorry. I thought you would be fine, being a part of a strong group. You would learn to fight and protect yourself." He says desperately, trying to convince himself more than her.
"Well, you had one job, protecting me. And you bailed. Nice work druid." She replies angrily.
"Eretria…"
"No I don't want to hear it." She cuts him off sharply, and they fall in silence. Her head is reeling with all the new information but her body is exhausted from everything that happened since leaving Utopia. So she easily slips into a deep slumber, curled up on the cold ground.
A/N : Sorry for the second author's note, I won't be so talkative in the future, I swear.
I hope you liked it, please let me know what you think, it's always great to have feedback. Next chapter is about Amberle and the perks of being a tree. In a week or before, I promise !