Quinn had only been in the tribunal once.
When she had first arrived in the castle a few years ago, after being knighted, she had been offered a visit. The greatness of this room had impressed her: its worked wooden benches, the elevated jury box, the high stained glass windows overlooking everything. This place exuded majesty.
She had been far from imagining she would stand at the accused's dock with her hands bound.
The session was held in a small committee. The royal judge was there, but the King was absent. Only Jarvan was there to represent him. The whole room was surrounded by mute guards staying in the shadows.
"Quinn of Uwendale," the judge began speaking. "You stand before this court accused of illicit relations with an enemy. The allegations are grave, and endangers the safety of our kindgom. Added to this is the suspicion of espionage, collaboration with the enemy, and threrefore high treason. Do you understand the charges against you, ranger-knight?"
"Yes." Quinn's voice could barely be heard.
"A witness has presented their testimony of seeing you and a Noxian man together. Apparently, you have invited him in your bedroom many times, engaging in intimacy, and have met him outside of the castle's grounds. We have consulted your personal entourage, and they confirmed the unusual activity."
The judge cleared his throat. Quinn's eyes kept fixated on him, for she couldn't bear looking at Jarvan. Hearing these charges and being in the same room as him was already too much.
"Now, you have heard the charges brought against you. How do you plead: guilty or not guilty?"
Quinn realized only now that she was biting her lip so hard the taste of blood slowly invaded her mouth. She made the mistake of raising her head in the direction of Jarvan, standing a few feet above her next to the judge.
His face was tense to a point it had become pure, contained, rage. His jaw was clenched so hard Quinn could almost see his teeth breaking. And his eyes. Locked on her, waiting for her to speak like flames ready to burn a forest down.
The silence had become heavy.
"Guilty."
Quinn was surprised how clearly she had said the word. Jarvan closed his eyes, the crease between his eyebrows more prominent than it had ever been. He stood up, and held a piece of parchment before him. When he started speaking, his voice was cold and sharp like steel.
"A few months ago, I personally sent you on a mission in Ixtal to find and kill a Noxian assassin. You were ordered to discover what Noxus was seeking there, and to contravene to any of their plans. You barely made it back, and this mission was canceled due to your failure."
Jarvan marked a pause. His hands were tightened on the parchment so hard it almost got ripped.
"Quinn." His voice betrayed a glimpse of vulnerability. "Your possible confession could spare your life. As you know it, high treason is punishable by death. I have been able to negotiate your pardon in exchange for your collaboration with my father, the King. If you provide us with the identity of your... romantic partner... and help with his capture... Your life will be saved."
Quinn wanted to laugh. Of course he was asking her for the impossible. As badly as she wanted to live, she could never betray Talon. She shook her head and spoke with an empty voice.
"My Prince... May I ask who your witness is?"
Quinn hoped with all her heart it wasn't Lux.
"You can't have access to this information. I will simply show you this evidence that was anonymously sent to us... If that brings back any memories to you." Jarvan spat the last words.
Jarvan searched for something in the interior pockets of his uniform, and plucked out a crumpled piece of parchment. Without even being able to read its content due to being too far, Quinn recognized it.
Outer hunting woods. Apple tree. Noon.
Though the message didn't explicitly say it was for her, Quinn knew fighting against the charges was of no use. If they had brought her to the tribunal, it meant they were sufficient to condemn her. Quinn swallowed coldly.
"What is your answer, Quinn".
"I won't help you." Quinn blew out.
Jarvan closed his eyes again. The parchment in his fist was completely crushed by now. The judge marked the end of the trial, and Quinn was taken away by two guards. Jarvan didn't even look at her, bearing a painful expression of disgust.
Though Quinn was conscious of the gravity of the events and what it meant for her, a part of her was relieved. If Talon was safe and alive, maybe she could spend her last days with a semblance of peace.
Time had ceased to exist for Quinn. She had been put in a temporary cell resembling a small tribunal. A bunch of guards from a unit she never saw regularly came to her, asking her questions about her possible collaboration with the enemy.
The beatings started after what Quinn estimated to be the third day. She was tied to a chair while three guards charged with her interrogation started doing as they pleased. Though she was no stranger to pain, Quinn had never been truly beaten, especially without any possibility of defending herself, or without Valor by her side to fight with her.
"Will you tell us who he is, filthy whore?" spat a guard whose face was partially hidden behind a mask.
He kicked Quinn in the stomach with the metallic sole of his boot. Her breath went out, and the pain radiated in all of her body. She was on the verge of passing out.
Blood was running from a wound above her eyebrow after a bad hit she had taken hours ago. One of the guards laughed in front of her silence.
"He must be far by now. Who would want a Demacian bitch anyway?"
"Hah, not a Noxian for sure."
"A Noxian out of all men!" the guard who kicked her was outraged. "You disgust me." He spat on Quinn, and came closer to her face.
"Careful Kendrick. You don't want to come near her stench."
"You can pretend being dead like a rat all you want, but I know you hear everything. How does it feel, whoring yourself out for a man who doesn't give a shit about you? Women are all the same. It's just a shame our King believed you were worth his trust."
The sheer hatred from his words penetrated her open wounds and flowed freely in her veins. Quinn didn't even look at him, and focused on her increasing pulse. Though she appeared dead on the outside with empty eyes, a dangerous fire was raging inside of her. Maybe her elevated state of panic was what kept her from passing out.
Kendrick's face was still glued to her, eyeing her every move and reaction. A rigid smile was plastered on his face, a smile of frustration.
"I don't think you want me to go further, do you? Spit his name out now."
Quinn simply swallowed with pain, and didn't raise her eyes to his. Her hair was sticking to her face and dirty with caked blood. Her mind was racing, she at the same cared and didn't care about what he could possibly do to her. Her survival instinct wasn't dead yet. This man and his henchmen had broken bit by bit the dreams of glitter and gold about her kingdom she had during her childhood.
The truth was right there, in the dungeon. Mud. Spit. Blood and bruises. Quinn saw what kind of people she had been fighting for. Pigs. She wanted to burn her ranger-knight uniform and forget every dream she had ever had, for this moment was an excruciating reminder that it had all been nothing more than dreams.
Kendrick suddenly grabbed her shirt and ripped it from her with a pocket knife. He also ripped her undergarments, and held the tip of the knife right above her cleavage.
"Maybe you'll speak if we're having fun." he snickered with a wicked smile.
Quinn's eyes frantically searched for the two other guards in a last attempt of her instinct to find any help somewhere. They were laughing too, watching with morbid curiosity. Probably waiting for their turn.
"No, no... Please!" Quinn begged.
This seemed to make her torturer even more eager to have his fun with her. With a brutal kick, he made the chair she was tied to fall to the ground. Quinn hit the muddy floor and pain shot in all of her body. Kendrick then proceeded to sit on her chest, suffocating her in a parody of a normal conversation.
"Such a pity a beauty like you happens to be a whore." He played with his knife. "Ranger-knights really think so good of themselves they can't even see when they're breaking the law. Looking down on the people doing the dirty work. But don't worry, I'll show you how good I am at my work."
He sliced the skin above her breasts with the edge of his knife. Quinn cried at the sudden ripping of her flesh and clenched her jaw. She felt like time had stopped for her to stay in this eternal moment of torture. Another slice came on her shoulder, her blood flowing down to the ground.
Kendrick pounced over her like an animal, and held her neck so tightly that she almost choked. His hot breath spilled on her overly sensitive skin, and she jolted when she felt his other hand grope her left breast harshly. Every part of her body hurt, but she was afraid it would very soon hurt even more.
"Please..." She sobbed.
"Oh baby. All you need to do is ask." Her torturer viciously answered.
He bit her neck to the point it drew blood, the part of her body Talon adored so much. Quinn loudly cried.
"Mmm... I understand this Noxian. You really taste delicious. You know, we almost never have women down there... I'm happy you're visiting."
His hand that was bruising her breast traveled to the hem of her pants, and undid her belt. Quinn shook her head in panic. The stranger hand visited her body without being invited, harshly grabbing her skin in every place, plunging its fingers right inside of her. Quinn writhed her body and tried to get his hand out of her. His fingers were hurting her so much.
She tried thinking of Talon. He was the only one that could get her out of this absolute horror.
Talon. Help me.
Her torturer bit and licked her neck, again and again.
My love. Talon.
He completely tore her pants, leaving her almost naked.
Find me, Talon.
"Ta... Talon"... Quinn weakly said.
"Oh, Talon... So that's his little name? At last." Kendrick almost chuckled.
Quinn felt like an icy blade had pierced her body. She was so weak she hadn't realized she had spoken her thoughts out loud.
"That puts a name on the face... I'll ask him if that's his name, when I see him later."
"What did you say?" Quinn pitifully asked.
Kendrick's last sentence had hurt far more than all of the torture he had inflicted upon her.
"He's in the dungeon too. We caught him this night. But he was such an easy catch that I doubt he's the right one."
Through all of the pain, Quinn was unsettled by the ease with which Kendrick could speak to her, as if she was simply a guest in the dungeon. She wondered if he mainly spoke to himself out loud.
"I've been a bit long... Guys, who wants to go first?" He asked to the other two in the back.
As one of them made a step towards her, undoing his belt, someone else opened the iron door of the cell.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Boomed a loud voice Quinn immediately recognized.
"Our job, my Prince."
"Get the fuck out of there. Or you'll end up dead. Get out." Jarvan ordered.
The three men didn't make him wait, and left the room with haste. Jarvan walked over to Quinn, and untied her. He helped her sit up, but didn't offer her any clothing.
"I'm sorry Quinn. I never told them to do that."
"What... Did you tell them to do?" She managed to say through her bruised lips.
"Simply make you say his name. I want to avoid you the death sentence."
Quinn didn't answer yet. All of her body was hurting.
"Did you... catch him..."
Jarvan froze. He then frowned, looking at Quinn coldly.
"Forget him, Quinn. Just forget him."
"But did you?" She barely had the strength to speak.
"A disgrace like you shouldn't even be requiring such information." Jarvan spoke harshly. "You don't deserve all the efforts I'm doing for you."
He clenched his fist and looked into Quinn's eyes.
"I've just saved you from death. And I'm doing my best to get you out of here."
Quinn was a miserable hunched form on the muddy ground, holding her limbs around her naked body. She couldn't bear Jarvan seeing her like that.
"Be mine, Quinn. That's all I'm asking."
This wasn't the best moment to ask her this, Quinn thought with irony. She simply shook her head. She didn't see Jarvan leave the cell, but she heard the heavy thumping of his boots on the ground and the sound of the heavy iron gate being locked. She was at last alone in her cell.
She curled in a corner and pitifully slept.
Later in the day, someone brought her a linen tunic and a bowl of gruel. She almost didn't eat the disgusting dish.
Only one name was on her mind: Talon. The name she had stupidly pronounced when she so had to keep her mouth shut. She still didn't know if he had been captured or not, and hoped he was as free as Valor.
She hadn't expected that rotting in the cell was worst than the torture she had been through. Luckily, her scars seemed to be healing correctly. She had washed them as well as she could with a bowl of water of questionable quality. When Quinn had the luxury to not be invaded by dark thoughts, she slept.
One day, she was awakened by the voices of the three guards that had tortured her. She began uncontrollably shaking: her body hadn't forgotten a second of it. But they didn't open her door. They seemed to walk further in the dungeon, and stopped at a cell a few meters from hers. Quinn had no clue where she was being kept, they had probably come here to make another prisoner miserable.
The laughs, screams and metallic sounds produced by the guards went on for an hour at least. Quinn was reminded of moments she'd rather forget.
Then, after a long time, other masculine screams came to Quinn's ears.
She recognized this voice, but she had never heard it so loud and deformed by the howls of pain... It belonged to Talon. She knew it deep inside her guts. Quinn started crying all the tears remaining in her body throughout the long torture he was being inflicted. Her mind was imagining everything he could be going through, it already was much longer than her own torture.
At one point, the screams stopped. The guards' voices started getting louder. Quinn clung to the hope that the Noxian assassin was still alive.
The following hours of doubt were the most painful moment she had ever been through in her entire life.
[A/N: Not a fun moment for the characters. Today was my day off and I spent it writing horrors :p Btw Brom, I just saw your review and edited this chapter right now after posting to answer you. I'd gladly speak of that with you, but sadly I can't communicate with you since you don't have an account. Maybe make one? :3]
