Ghyreian listened to Edwin's tortured moan with a small wrench in her heart. A small, sickening pop as his arm was severed from its socket further unnerved her. But why should she care? She herself had had the pleasure of personally torturing dozens of victims before, in the dungeons of Her Dark Majesty.

She heard the rustle of robes at her ear, and a jolt. White hot agony shot through her head, blinding her and sending multi-colored illusions to her closed eyes. She bit her lip to keep from gasping. She tasted blood in her mouth.

Tanreal kicked her again, harder, grinning as she gave another involuntary grimace.

"Who would have thought...?" he jeered with mock concern. "A dark elf allied with a Red Robe human. Is he your friend? Do you love?"

"What an tactless remark from a *beep* secretly doing the bidding of Solinari," she grunted in between the creaking of the rack and the disgusting sound of more bones popping.

Tanreal scowled and murmered a spell.

She screamed. A force rippled through her body, seeming to tear her limbs apart and burst her skull. She writhed on the cold stone floor in excruciating agony, her heart bursting.

But it was over in moments. Tanreal leaned his face close. "Tell me what I need to know. Do you know where you are?"

Ghyreian drew a shuddering breath, met his gaze with such loathing that even he was forced to avert his gaze.

"Neraka," she spat. "Do you think I'd not recognize if from the countless times I've been here?"

Tanreal looked taken aback by the latter, though he quickly regained his composure. "Right you are there. But tell me what I need to know, or I fear that you will soon be mourning your friend's unfortunate passing...."

But Ghyreian wasn't listening. While her oppenent prattled on, her hand was slowly wriggling her bonds a little looser so that she may perform the required spell...

Her opponent caught the movement. Eyes widening, he lunged forward -

Too late. That was when a blast of such magnitude struck him that he was flung backward into the wall.

Unsheathing her dagger, Ghyreian swiftly cut her ropes and faced the other two Black Robes.

_________________

Edwin limbs were in great ache and pain ripped his hole body only because some dumn fools wouldn`t believe what he had said, but what could he expect from a dirty group of black robes. Suddenly Tanreal flew across the room and Edwin smiled to the sight, the other mages went forwards to confort Ghyreian, but when the other passed him he desperately slammed his cutted hand part in the face of the other black mage. To his amazement the mage was quite suprised and skinny, he was left on the floor holding his nose, but not for long.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian hurled another spell, which the other Black Robe blocked with a shield. She would have to even the odds quickly - the other one was getting to his feet and Tanreal, the most dangerous of the three, was recovering.

Nuitari must be immensely enjoying himself, she thought with a bitter curse as she cast her own shield against her body.

She tried making a dash for Edwin who was still stretched rigidly on the rack, but her opponents, guessing her intentions, blocked her.

She chanted a spell of summoning. The stone beneath their feet shook, then cracked apart as a fiery demon from the Abyss shot up to land squarely between her and her foes. The demon uttered a bellow that shook the very foundations of Neraka, then raised its whip to strike. The whip crippled one of the Black Robes, but the other two suddenly shouted a word of magic and the demon moaned as its form was devoured by a blast of water that doused its fiery essence.

Gritting her teeth, she raised her voice for another spell when darkness, pure as the night, blinded her. She groped for a spell components. If she could only get her hands on... Her instincts buzzed. She heard a faint hissing sound... and threw herself out of the way as a lightning bolt streaked past. It seared her side, and her nostrils were filled with the stench of sizzling flesh. Any closer and it would have hit her heart.

Staggering with agony, she managed another shield just as a second lightning bolt came her way. She shouted a spell and heard a shriek of pain. The darkness lifted. She was able to see once more.

She was about to cast another spell when three fireballs hurtled in her direction. One would not penetrate her shield. The second she could ward off once her shield had fallen. But the third, exploding towards her with deadly accuracy, would be the one to hit her.

_________________

Edwin looked at Ghyreian`s desperate battle and looked around to escape, but most importantly help Ghyreian because without her he would need a miracle to get out of this place. Edwin strangled in the rack, but seemed to only make it more painful and cursed, but suddenly the door was thrown open and a figure stood on the doorstep. Edwin sighed...

"What is the meanning of this noise?"

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"My lord!" The fireballs vanished. Panting, Ghyreian sagged against the wall, clutching her wounds.

"My lord," Tanreal said again, aghast. He bowed low. "I was only acting on your orders, no more - "

"On my orders?" Ariakas boomed, striding into the room. Flanked by a dozen more draconians, his dark red cape swirling behind him, he was a forbidding sight. "I was more under the impression that you were acting to your own benefit."

Tanreal bowed again. His underlings did the same. Ghyreian noticed with ironic amusement the faint sneer in the Black Robe's voice and his derisive air. Ariakas, however, did not.

"My lord, whatever I do furthers our Dark Queen's glory," he said humbly.

Ariakas frowned. The draconians beside him leered. "And who is this?" he asked, gesturing at Ghyreian.

Ghyreian answered before Tanreal could open his mouth. "My lord, I serve Her Dark Majesty, do I not?" she said through teeth tightly clenched against the pain, with equal humbleness and slightly more sneer. "And by serving Her Dark Majesty, I serve you. These incompetent fools here - " she waved a hand disparagingly at " - made quite a mistake. Apparently they thought to dispose of me to further their own ambitions."

"My lord - " Tanreal began angrily.

"And this?" Ariakas pointed at Edwin, still stretched on the rack.

_________________

"Just one unfortunate by passer that these fools decided to capture thinking that a red mage would carry a medallion of Lunitari like they didn`t have any of themselves...."

Ariakas observed Edwin for a while and turned back at the black robes.

"And what should I do with this mess? Any suggestions?" Ariakas asked with a threatening voice.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

She could already feel the poison spreading through her veins. Sweat beaded on her forhead. "My lord," she snarled. "My name is Nightsong. I am one of your agents!"

Ariakas stared at her for a moment. Then, in sudden decision, he strode across the room and yanked back her hood. His brow furrowed in thought for a moment. Then recognition dawned in his eyes. "Ghyreian, is it not? Yes, yes, I remember you."

"You," He gestured at one of the draconian captains. "Clean up this mess. I have no time for this." He turned to two more underlings. "You two... escort Nightsong to one of the clerics."

Ghyreian caught him flash a significant glance at her "escorts," who likely would follow her for the rest of the day and kill her if she did anything suspicious.

_________________

hey, ah, Curunir? are you still there? we havent rped in a waaaaaaaaaaaay long time

_________________

OOC: Oh sorry... I have been busy rping elsewhere...

Before Ariakas was able to get out of the room Edwin spat blood out of his mouth and spoke.

"And might I ask what will be my fate?"

Ariakas turned at Edwin with furious eyes, but then siddenly his mouth turned to a cunning smile.

"Perhaps your life will be spared, if pledge to serve me or the other choice is to rot in the prison, but for now you will be placed in a nice cell..."

Two Draconians released Edwin and carried him by the shoulders away from the room, Edwin looked back at Ghyreian with a battered smile and seemed to accept whatever fate was on it`s way for him. The Draconians walked past few cells where some prisoners looked at the dragged mage and sad something, which Edwin didn`t hear. Perhaps mocking, welcomes or wishes of everything good. The Draconians threw Edwin into his cell floor and Edwin layed there quitely waiting for the guards to go away, he slowly and painfully got up to sit on a small bench sort. He could now only hope for a quick death.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

An hour later, Ghyreian paced the floor of her bedchamber. The room was luxuriously furnished, with soft cushions and a bed of silk. She had been healed by one of the dark clerics a short time after the incident, and now she was comfortably situated and had had her share of food. Comfortably situated. She felt like sneering. Comfortable except for the tiny discomfort of not being able to leave her bedchamber. Two draconians standing guard outside the door made sure of that.

As a matter of fact she did have a way out. Her hand slid deliberately to a small vial inside one of her many pouches. She frowned. She had been hoping to use the spell for a more adequate moment, instead of merely using it to escape Neraka, the place she had dwelled in for months. As far as she knew, the spell could only be used once.

She toyed with the idea of saving the Red Robe as well, then discarded the notion. That would only add to her troubles and reduce her already slim chances of trying to escape. A pity. And she had been growing quite fond of him too.

She irritably waved away her misgivings and took out the vial. It was roughly the size of her thumb, and contained a black wispy substance. Carefully, she unscrewed the top and tilted it so that the smoke could drift into her open mouth and down her throat.

_________________

Edwn sat in his cold cell and looked with a blank face at the door that lead out, there was no escape from here nor alive from the place they were in. Or now where he was because Ghyreian wouldn`t risk herself to save him, but Edwin had to admit she had been good company in her own way. Suddenly a draconian appeared to the door and left the food on the floor with small smirk on it`s lizard face.

"Here`s your meal sir!"

The Draconian dropped it so half of the food spilled to the floor and that half or whole wasn`t much, Edwin took the food he could and eat looking around for a desperate escape way.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

A small silver-eyed cobra slithered down the dimly lit corridor. The cobra paused a moment to sniff at the door leading down to the dungeons, as if mulling over something in its mind. A moment later it let out an agitated hiss and slithered off in the opposite direction.

What really miffed her, apart from the soft spot she was now nurturing for the Red Robe, was that Ghyreian now had to slither through the filth, when months ago she could have strode in open down the corridors as goblins and gully dwarves scurried to get out of her way.

Fortunately she knew the way well, and apart from attempting to keep in the shadows to avoid being stomped on by draconians, there was little incident.

_________________

(Joining in )

i was well hidden in the shadows and watching my new cell mate gobble down the small ration of food they gave us, i had not eaten in over a week and a half i belived that the gaurds thought me to be dead, that wasnt a far off, i had been in here for a while and was getting increasingly thin, i had been laying on the floor as a shadow but now i asumed my form for the sake of the other, he was of the red robes, i thought of my master, guilt set in i should have been able to save him, i saw this as my chance not only to escape but to make it up to my master buy saving another red robe thou i would need his help and his trust and that woud be hard to gain

_________________
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity

I am the darkness that creates the shadow....i am the essence of night its self.... i am gone before u even knew i was here...

Edwin began looking at his surroundings and the shadowy corners with suspecying eyes, but only looking for an exit and that seemed to be in vain from the beginning. Edwin walked to the door and looked out with the guards talking about two in this cell. Edwin fell silent and turned around.

"I know your there... come on and show yourself..."

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

i did not relpy to the challange right away i was weak and he was still strong, but then again i had nothing to loose, i came out of the shadows, and staired at him, my eyes burning icey blue. i had no real weapons and most of my spells were lost to time, but i had nothing to loose so i waited

_________________
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity

I am the darkness that creates the shadow....i am the essence of night its self.... i am gone before u even knew i was here...

Edwin sat down on the small stairs at the door releasing a tired sigh and looked at the man dressed in black, the stranger had been in the shadows and seemed to have heard his arrival.

"Don`t worry... I am quite in pain at the moment and besides I have no reason of blasting you away, if your afraid of mages...so...why did they lock you up here? Trespassing?"

Edwin allowed a small smile to creep on his face.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!