Edric Cadash was a surly old dwarf with dirt in his beard and a fury bubbling way in his heart, that burned a little hotter when he awoke to discover himself shackled to the floor in the dark.

Twisting his wrists the cold iron didn't budge or groan, he apprised the craftsmanship for a moment and begrudgingly acknowledged that they were sturdy and not liable to break anytime soon.

He sat there on the floor in the dark slowly loosing the feeling in his legs and could almost believe he was back at home in the Carta caves by the docks. He could even hear the soft splashing of the waves on the rocks.

Even feel the warm kiss of the sun on his wrinkled leathery face.

He opened his eyes and immediately shut them again. A wide swath of the darkness had been peeled back and cold snow blew in to settle against his boots.

"Close the damn door!" He growled as gust of icy wind slithered up his coat.

"Prisoner's awake!" The silhouette shouted to someone Edric couldn't see. Didn't care to see.

He always knew his fate would end like this one day. Captured. The Carta wouldn't save him, they'd told him so, many times. Sure, he could get money from just about anyone they sent him after, he even built his reputation on it. But there would always be more up and comers. Smarter and meaner than him. Besides he was knocking on a bit and doubted his chances of surviving torture. Certainly torture was frowned upon by those holier than thou types, but you know what they say? Behind closed doors, no-one can hear you scream. Because any good torturer would stab you in the lung first so you just kind of gurgle. Edric wouldn't gurgle, he would just hold his breath until he drowned in his own blood, never making a sound.

That was the plan then.

The blinding white swathe of light had dimmed as his eyes adjusted and revealed a path of brown cobblestone spattered with grey/brown snow sludge. A tall woman cut into his view clad in stained purple leathers. Her pretty face was scrunched up into an expression that could curdle bronto milk.

She stomped into the room her presence making the even the darkness shrink back in mild panic.

"What were you doing at the conclave?" She demanded. Her voice was feminine enough but had a quality that reminded Edric of a rock slide.

Edric was grinning beneath his beard, she seemed the type that was quick to anger. If they were going to kill him or keep him here chained up he might as well get a chuckle out of it before the darkness took him again, perhaps for the last time.

"Looking for whores."

She kicked him, hard, in the leg. He remembered he had legs, the impact didn't hurt but the rush of pins and needles up his leg as the blood remembered it hadn't actually frozen solid, made him hiss in air. He let the air out as a chuckle.

He knew he had been there to spy on the proceedings but he wasn't going to tell her that. He had seen the Divine in person, perched on what could be called a fancy chair or a half assed throne at the summit. He knew Dwarves aged like leather, getting tougher as they got older. But humans aged like paper it seemed, getting thinner and yellower with age. He had been surprised the old broad hadn't frozen to death up there. He'd watched and waited, playing cards with the other mercenaries as the humans droned on and on all the while waiting for a particularly strong breeze to sweep the Divine clean off the mountain.

"They said the best ones are at the top and the old ones don't charge if you chew their food for them."

He realized his interrogators face actually looked like that as he saw it scrunch up some more in what passed as snarl in most humans.

She stuck him hard across the face. There must have been some metal reinforcements in those gauntlets as the first blow opened a cut along his cheek bone and the second caught his beard ripping a tuft of it out along with a bloody scrap of skin.

The third strike never came as a second woman ensconced in paler purple rushed in and caught the raised fist.

Edric laughed as the newcomer wrestled the other woman out of the windowless room.

It was quiet for a moment as he shook his face to get rid of the stinging sensation from his sudden partial beardectomy. He had a feeling there was going to be a permanent bald spot on his chin. A few of his teeth wobbled as he poked them with his tongue.

After a while, long enough for the snow at his feet to melt and soak into his boots, right down into his socks even, another figure darkened his doorway. He hadn't noticed they'd left it open, not like he was going anywhere anyway, chained to the floor and all. It was the second woman. She pulled back her hood, revealing a small cascade of short red hair, as she introduced herself.

"My name is Lelianna. Perhaps you have heard of me, no?"

"No."

"Sister Nightingale?"

Edric made a show of thinking, decided he didn't know a 'Sister Nightingale' and simply shrugged.

A brief flash of annoyance slipped past that impassive mask she wore as a face.

"What did you say to make my friend so upset?"

She sounded genuinely concerned. Edric knew her kind. The kind that got you talking, spilling your guts, metaphorically or literally. He knew which one he'd choose.

He looked up at her, smiled showing teeth stained pink with a little bit of blood and said;

"I may have implied the Divine was a three copper lowtown back alley whore."

"I see."

That was all Lelianna said for a moment. Edric's interest drifted and he decided that he could chip away at the walls if stared at them hard enough.

"I understand why Cassandra hit you."