AN: Authorial Warning
This chapter is not a particularly pleasant read.
It can be summarised as follows, if you would prefer not to read it:
Claudia taunts Rayla, whose voice she has stolen, before paralysing her, and painting dark magic symbols on her body. She then leaves the coins containing Rayla's parents on a table in front of her.
Soren reveals he left Callum tied up and naked in Rayla's quarters.
Callum manages to escape, although his dignity takes a hit, and his voice has also been stolen.
Claudia returns, taunts Rayla some more, and then force-feeds her a dark magic potion
Chapter below
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Unable to speak, Rayla stared at the human.
"Oh, you're scared." Claudia commented. "Scared of dying, just like my father!"
Your father was trying to kill the king. Rayla thought, as the human continued to rant.
"Still, you're definitely a good ingredient. You're young, fit, healthy, strong… if you got out of those chains, I doubt I'd be able to do anything to fight you off physically. Which is why you're chained up, by the way. Because I can't have such a nice source of power go to waste. Your hair is really nice, by the way."
She held up Rayla's braid. "Very soft. Very silky. Do you take special care of it, or does it just come naturally for you elves?"
Rayla looked away, refusing to rise to the bait.
"Oh, I see. I steal your voice with magic…" She held up a jar, containing a glowing silver mote. "And you get all bashful. While you're trying to slip your hands out of those manacles, of course. Hoping that restraints in a dark mage's private sanctum aren't specifically designed to keep elves in!"
Rayla slumped back against the wall, as Claudia approached with a paintbrush.
"Hold still. If any of these runes aren't perfect, the spell might not work."
Rayla began to twist and turn, moving to the best of her limited range.
"Oh, stop that."
Rayla gave her a look with a very clear message. Make me!
"You don't have to be troublesome; you know." Claudia commented. "If you cooperate… I'll make sure you're asleep when the ritual takes place. You won't know a thing about it."
Rayla lunged forward, snarling soundlessly, making the human rock backwards for an instant.
"Oh, you're not going to give in, are you? You're going to fight and remain defiant, right until the end. Fine! Have it your way."
Claudia reached into her bag, producing a jar containing a small bug Rayla recognised from her assassin training.
"This is a Xadian slow-spider. It's basically harmless to an adult, but if it bites a child, or a small animal…"
They die a slow, painful death, unable to move, breathe or call for help. Rayla completed, silently.
"Ehtaerb reh tel tub fle eht esylarap!" Claudia said, reaching into the jar and casually crushing the insect, her eyes glowing purple.
An instant later, Rayla couldn't control a single muscle in her body, as a ray of sickly green light washed over her.
"There we go." Claudia said, brightly. "Far more comfortable."
She began painting symbols on Rayla's face and arms, as she hung there in her chains, utterly unable to move, protest or defend herself.
And it was the most horrific, terrifying experience Rayla had ever had. She was helpless, in the power of a dark mage who was several shadowpaws short of a pride.
Claudia wandered out of the cell, briefly, leaving the door ajar. Rayla fought her flaccid body, trying to will the slightest motion back into her limbs.
When the human returned, she was carrying a small purse, and a table.
"I always wondered about these; you know. Who they were? What their lives were like, back in Xadia?" She smiled cruelly at Rayla, as she placed something on the table.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as Claudia left the room, slamming the barred door behind her, as the strength very slowly seeped back into Rayla's limbs.
"Soren, what did you do with Callum?" She asked someone Rayla couldn't see.
"I made sure that the step-prince won't be going anywhere for a while. Especially if he values his dignity." It was a male voice, with a certain degree of satisfaction running through it.
"Oh?" Claudia asked.
"Well, obviously, I tied him up like you told me, but I took all his clothes away first." There was a rustle of fabric, and Rayla saw a red scarf and blue coat fly into a corner. "I doubt he'll hurry to be found by the guards. Not unless he wants to be laughed at behind his back for months. And he's not going to be able to untie himself in a hurry, no matter what he does."
When Rayla could eventually lift her head again, she noticed that there were two coins on the table. And then she screamed, silently, and began fighting with the chains holding her in place, tears rolling down her cheeks.
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When Callum woke up, his shoulders hurt, as did both of his arms. He could vaguely smell an aroma that reminded his sleepy brain of elderflower on a warm summer's day, before his mind snapped into gear. He thrashed, briefly, before going still.
His hands were bound behind his back, tightly enough that his fingers felt tingly. His ankles were tied together and linked to the ropes binding his wrists by a short length of rope, forcing him into a vaguely arched position.
A brief glance over his shoulder, the cold of the room, and the sensations of bedlinen on his skin told him that he was entirely naked and tied up.
He tried to shout, but no sound came out. There was just a hoarse whisper, like when Viren had stolen his voice in the tower.
He glanced around the room, trying to spot Rayla, and turning bright pink with the thought that she might be in here as well.
She wasn't.
Where the windows had, at his last awareness, bought the golden glow of a sunset into the room, there was now darkness, offset by a single burning sconce next to the wardrobe.
The wardrobe… he thought, frantically. There's a secret passage… RAYLA!
Glancing around, he spotted a small glass on the shelf at the side of the bed, bearing the dregs of some sort of dark, almost blood-red liquid. It was well out of his reach, but it was close to the edge of the shelf.
He began squirming towards it, wriggling as best he could, barely able to make any progress over the loose bedding. He didn't stop, though. He knew that he had to get to that glass as soon as possible.
Eventually, he got himself into a position where he could reach the glass with his legs. Twisting and squirming, he managed to spin himself around, and knocked the glass onto the stone floor.
It shattered with a glorious bell-like crash, echoing through the room, as he tried to twist onto his front.
Before he could manage it, the door crashed open, and two female Crownguards he vaguely recognised came crashing through the door, swords half-drawn.
He wasn't sure if he was more embarrassed than them or not. One of them actually screamed and ran back out of the door. The other backward towards him, taking off her cloak, and tossed it over him, before turning around.
"Prince Callum? What happened? Where's the elf? Did she do this to you?"
He tried to croak out a denial that Rayla had anything to do with his predicament, but, as before, he couldn't speak.
Most of his blushes were saved when General Amaya burst into the room, her face a picture of rage and aggression. "Where is she?"
Callum picked his words carefully, so that Amaya would have the best chance of lipreading them.
"Rayla gone. Tied up and naked. Please untie me."
Amaya crossed over to him, and grabbed the rope connecting his arms and legs, using it to pull him into a less undignified position, before slicing through the ropes around his wrists. He sat up, twisting awkwardly as every single muscle in his body picked roughly that moment to cramp up.
When he could actually lift his arms again, he began signing at Amaya.
"I was talking with Rayla when we heard music. We… must have fallen asleep, because when I woke up… she wasn't here. I remember her looking like she was falling asleep as well."
"How long do you think you were asleep?"
"The sun was setting."
"It's now two bells after midnight." Amaya replied, before turning to the remaining Crownguard. "Turn out the guard. Immediately."
She saluted and ran up the stairs, as Callum rubbed feeling back into his arms.
Perhaps a minute later, the bell on the tower started to ring, frantically. The various other bells around the castle began to sound as well, creating a cacophony that echoed through the surroundings.
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In the dungeons, Rayla heard the bells ringing, although the sound was relatively muffled.
She smiled, mirthlessly. Callum had either escaped or been found. And now… they would be looking for her.
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By the time Callum had made it to his rooms, and thrown on some clothes, the Crownguard was fully assembled. Amaya was giving them orders, translated as always by Gren.
"Fan out and search the woods. Remember, you're looking for a Moonshadow elf, so check up trees and in places you wouldn't expect to find a human. Corvus will be leading the search party, so follow his lead. Make sure you find her. The egg is still secure, but if she gets back to Xadia with news it exists, we'll be surrounded by elves before the week is out."
There was a clatter of hands slamming into chests. "Dismissed."
The soldiers headed for the castle gates, carefully searching every bush and shrub inside the castle.
"Aunt Amaya…" Callum signed. "You know it wasn't Rayla."
Amaya grabbed him and pulled him into an alcove, behind some flowering plants.
"I know." She responded. "But this means that our opponent will relax. They're going to think we're searching the woods for an elf, and that we won't be looking for her inside the castle. But we will."
Callum smiled.
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When Claudia returned, Rayla glared at her, eyes promising death.
"Oh, that's sweet. You want to kill me." Claudia commented, moving the table to one side. "Did you recognise them? They look like you, so I thought you might."
Rayla just stared at her, schooling her face and refusing to show the slightest expression.
"You did? How sweet. Are they your cousins? Parents? Relatives?"
Rayla didn't respond.
"I'm not going to give you your voice back, even if you do refuse to answer my questions."
This human is insane. Rayla thought.
"Anyway, I need you to drink this potion for me. Open wide."
Rayla twisted her head away, clamping her lips shut.
"Soren, she's not drinking the potion."
Soren, which appeared to be the name of the human who'd tied Callum up, stomped into the room, wearing what looked like a full suit of Crownguard armour. "How can I help, Clauds?" He asked.
"She needs to drink this potion." Claudia told him. "Hold her head up and stop her spitting it out. I don't have any more of those Xadian spiders."
Soren obliged, grabbing Rayla under the chin, and forcing her to look up, in spite of her best efforts to twist her face out of his grip. "Stop struggling." He told her. "You're only making this harder."
Rayla continued to fight, as Claudia pinched her nose shut, once Soren had completely immobilised her face. Eventually, the need for air forced her to open her mouth, and the nozzle of the potion flask was forced between her lips as soon as she did. A foul-smelling liquid was forced into her mouth, as she trashed and twisted, and then her head was tilted back, Soren's hand covering her mouth.
"Swallow." Claudia told her.
Rayla just stared back, refusing to.
Soren pinched her nose again, and, eventually, her body forced her to swallow the liquid, so she could take a breath. Without pausing, Claudia strapped what felt like a copper cup over her mouth, ensuring that, if she vomited up the potion, she'd have no choice but to swallow it again.
She felt dirty and violated as the two left her cell. They'd repeatedly used dark magic on her, and some sort of dark magic potion was now inside her.
Tears ran down her face as she looked at the coins containing her parents.
She wondered if they'd ever know what had happened to her.
AN: I'm aware that this chapter is heavy and may be uncomfortable to read. It wasn't much better to write. This is about as dark as this story will get.
I'd like to thank TheFranninator and BlackDragon829 for their feedback on the last chapter, and encourage anyone with thoughts to drop a review or a PM