Auri was back on the horse before the sun had fully risen. Mawr had been silent all through their breakfast. She'd watched him eat the dry porridge in complete silence. Something was wrong, she felt it in her bones. Her fire flared up every time she looked at him, and she knew she'd kept it in for too long. The flames crackled on the edge of her vision and her hand scorched dark marks in the wood when she rested her hand on the table. Heating him had not been enough, burning Nilfgaardians would never be enough.

She had found a flicker of hope when she opened her eyes that morning and found him holding her hand. His fingers laced through hers, like he didn't have a care in the world, and like he hadn't watched her sleep all through the night, moving her hair away from her face and calming her thundering heart when the fire threatened to overtake her. As though he hadn't placed a dagger to her chest-
'You're eerily quiet this morning?' he said when they crossed the Ina. The river was near silent too, the clear waters made no sound as it washed over rocks, floating branches and pebbles covered in moss.
'I have nothing to say yet,' she replied and kept her hands tangled in Sir's soft mane.
'Are you angry with me?' he asked again.
'Why would I be angry with you?' She lied. She was furious.
'Because I touched you?'
'I'm not angry. I'm still trying to figure you out, Mawr. Nothing you say makes any sense. I wish you would just tell me instead of hiding it. There is something about you, I will find out-'
'You shouldn't worry about that, it's fine,' he said dismissively and moved his legs away from hers.

She didn't know how to tell him that she hated to be touched, she didn't know how to explain that physical contact hurt her. Hands and fingers were always too cold, always too rough and always ignited the burning rage under her skin. Except for him. His touch did nothing of the sort. She'd felt it when he'd grabbed her arm in the cave and outside the inn. Even when he tried to hold her back and should have bruised her he didn't, his skin was merely the same temperature as hers and it made the fire in her die down bit by bit. Until he stopped touching her that was. She realized he'd been sent to kill her too. Of course he had, she'd been stupid to think otherwise. The rumors of her had spread to Temeria as well.

They rode on through the afternoon sun, it burnt the back of her head. When she couldn't stand it any longer she simply leaned back and rested the back of her head against his shoulder. He'd been quick to remove himself from her before but not this time. It felt like he was leaning into her, steeling himself in the saddle to keep her from-
'DUCK!'

Auri threw herself forward when Mawr moved a hand behind her neck and pushed her down.
The whistling of the arrow reverberated through her head as it flew past her ear and embedded itself in the rocky ground next to them.
'Shit!'

Mawr moved a hand around her waist and tightened the reins.
'We have to flee, hold on.'

She did. She held onto his arms as Sir leapt across the river, his hooves clanged off loose stones and sent a small wave of water crashing behind them.
'Scouts?'
'Soldiers-'

The arrow hit her through her right shoulder. One moment she was fine, and the next she was in the river with the shaft of it sticking out above her collarbone. Auri screamed as the pain exploded through her.
'Auri!'

She heard him turn the horse around, she heard several pairs of thundering hooves. Her entire right side was numb, she tried to get off the ground and move her face away from the rushing water, she managed to get to her knees when she saw them.
Six soldiers galloping for her, clad in night-black armor with the Nilfgaardian sun shining on their chests, swords drawn and glinting.

Auri reacted instinctively. She flicked her wrists and murmuring fire flared up in her hands. Her right arm was useless, she had to fight them off with the left. She aimed for the first of the sneering soldiers and sent a ball of fire flying towards his horse.
She moved on to the second one when the first one fell. Where the fuck was Mawr? Had he fled?

Auri's vision was obscured by a white flickering light and the explosion that followed sent her flying off her feet, she was in the air for a few seconds before her head met with the unyielding ground and the breath was knocked from her lungs. The last thing she saw was the Nilfgaardian blades shining in the setting sun as Mawr came galloping in from the side and thrust his sword through the second soldier's chest. Panicked screaming filled her aching head.

'It's the General! It's Cahir-'

Auri fainted.

The pain was unbearable. She tried to open her eyes but they refused to listen. Everything was a blur. She kept trying to move, her hands, her legs, anything. She couldn't hear, see, smell or feel anything but pain. Still alive then, in some capacity at least. She knew she was moving, she felt that.

Little by little her senses returned, but the pain didn't leave. A small ember in her chest still burned, a small flicker of fire still glowed. She tried her best to reach it just like Tissaia had said, only give it what you have.
Auri groaned. She knew what this was. She'd felt it before. On Skellige. Her grandmother had made her wear dimeritium rings to quench the fire and keep her from burning. The feeling of it made her sick. A black cloud of murmuring defeat sank down on her. Cahir.

Auri sat in silence until it pained her, she finally managed to move a finger when the winds picked up. Horses. Men. Dimeritium. Nilfgaard.

She had been taken. Cahir.

'Still alive, mage?' the voice was harsh but the hands that ripped her from the saddle and threw her to the ground were harsher. The blindfold was ripped off her and some of her hair came with it. She was alone. She found only one man standing by her feet with a hand on the pommel of his sword.

'There you are,' he was taunting her. His eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead and the toothless smirk he sent her made her gag. The teeth had rotted in his mouth and it appeared he'd done little else but spit them out. Auri looked at her hands. The already familiar black veins circling her wrists didn't surprise her. The dimeritium shackles were meant to keep her from burning them, which meant they had learned their lesson, and if the pain in her shoulder was any indication the arrow had a dimeritium tip. She groaned. They'd left it in.

'I'm glad we found you, our Commander General was useless it seems. The Emperor will be very pleased with the news. He is positively aching for your head.'
Auri's head swam. She had no idea what he was talking about. Which commander? Auri's eyes darkened. Lies.
'Tell you what though, I heard stories about what you did to the scouts. I should pay you back for that, don't you think?' he glared down at her, his cropped hair made him look like a turnip that had been too long in the sun. Liver spots covered his cheeks and his weak chin did little to hide the anger she saw radiate from him.

'You see,' he placed his black eyes on her and she heard him unsheathe a dagger. 'I heard that you burnt them first. That you then carved them up next, bled them dry and took their heads. It's only fair that I do the same to you. They were good men, they had families and children..' the evil glint in his eyes unnerved her greatly. She couldn't do a thing. She moved her eyes to the shackles around her wrists and tried to force her hands out of them.
'I should begin with your neck I think, cut you a little, and perhaps leave some strips of you for the animals, shame to waste your meat.'

'Touch me, and you die.' Auri breathed and snapped a finger. Nothing. She tried again and again. Soon, the roaring, taunting laugh obscured the sounds of her fingers hitting her palm.
'Give up. Just sit back and enjoy this, little girl. You enjoyed torturing my friends, you'll enjoy this too.'

Auri tried to get away from him, she scrambled backwards as fast as she could and the chain tightened, she was chained to him. He had the chain wrapped around his reeking armor. She was trapped.
The dagger hit her in the arm first, slicing into her already damaged skin. The blood flowed black. She refused to scream, she refused to give him the satisfaction, and it must have angered him.

He moved his reeking mouth to the side of her face and snarled into her ear.
'I will make you scream eventually, and when you do-' he moved the dagger to the arrow that stuck out from her shoulder and pushed the tip into the jagged wound. Auri hissed through her teeth, lifted her shackled hand and smacked the heavy chain into the side of his face. Fuck if she'd die here. Fuck them all. '-when you do, you will beg for death-'

Auri screamed. It took several cuts, but she screamed. He started small, only making tiny cuts on her collarbones and her shoulders, stopping only to wipe away the blood that ran from his head where the chain had struck him. She'd pay for that and she knew it.

When the cuts healed, she'd rip them back open by simply moving. She should have stayed at the inn, she should have slept, eaten and figured out another way to Skellige. Velen had been a trap. If she'd just gone by herself she would have been with her father and she would have been safe.

The blood seeped through her shirt and her pants. It ran down her arms and pooled on the muddy ground beneath her.

The soldier left her there chained to a tree, she'd assumed he went to take a piss or get something to eat, all the threats and the yelling must have made him hungry. She had no screams left in her. No care left to move away from the dampened footsteps she heard behind her. The dimeritium had dulled her senses but not the instincts, she heard rustling leaves and a leather clad foot stepping around branches and stones.

She had no idea where she was, all she saw was tall trees, smelly mud and horse-tracks. She had no idea how long she'd been here or what day it was, only that it was night. The man was alone, there was no chatter and no fires. He had taken her away from the rest of them, most likely to claim the reward by himself. Had he been clever he would have taken her some of the way back to Cintra. Auri realized her mistake, she should never have trusted him. She should have gone on her own, left him to die and been on her way. There was no way for her to get out of the chains without the key, and without that she'd bleed out in a few hours. She had made herself dependent on another human being, again. A fucking Commander sent to kill her. She had trusted-

Soft hands wrapped over her mouth and nose from behind and the gentle murmur of his voice made her heart leap.
'Don't scream.'

Auri's breathing quickened the moment his hands touched her. His worried blue eyes scanned her face and darkened when he noticed the blood. The color drained from his face and she feared he'd faint. He hurriedly fumbled for a small key and unlocked her chains before assessing the rest of her damages. Her senses were still off, she only saw his face in a dull fog.
'Can you stand?'

Auri ripped her hands away from him.
'Get your fucking hands off me,' she seethed. He had lied to her, everything he had said had been a lie. He'd tried to kill her. Everything he had done-
'What's wrong? It's me! Let me help!' his voice grew darker, he growled at her and she saw his own eyes darken. She ripped her hands out of the chains and scrambled to her feet. Her shoulder ached and the blood ran from her in streams. Everything had been a lie, and like the naive fucking idiot she was she'd believed him. She'd been happy not to be alone anymore-
You lied to me, she thought and stared down at him, still kneeling on the ground.
'I need you to burn, Auri. I need help. Now!' he turned his head and pointed at the soldiers scrambling across the clearing heading directly for her.