The first thing to grace her eyes were the bars. Thick, unwielding poles of metal which gave no indication or any sort of hope that one would be able to break through. Flanked upon it by all sides, immediately Vyra came to appreciate just what it was that she was in, the situation she had befallen into.

A cell.

It was not the first time, nor unfortunately could she have reliably come to expect that it would be the last either.

But the familiarity of the situation did little to ease her worry, her outright fear. It was not like that with the Witch Hunters, knowing that there was Alisa Vollan awaiting for her on the other side. To see the outlook through these bars, it was one of two options; a returning to the slavery lifestyle that she had been thrown into. Or to the helplessness, the lacking of any sort of home to call her own.

In neither situation did they seem to bear any fortune or benefit to Vyra. Only disappointment. A life unfulfilled.

It left her feeling without any hope, any inherent desire to return towards those fates. If there were no outlook to her fortunes outside of those two paths, what point would there be to try to escape? As such, she found herself resigned to simply remaining within the cell, until whatever was planned for her came to pass.

Perhaps death were a more welcome option for her in the end.

She closed her eyes, hoping to get what sort of rest she could before judgment is cast upon her.

“Hardly seems a time to rest, wouldn’t you say?”

A voice. Unexpected, but loosely familiar. Enough for her to open her eyes, glancing upon the woman standing just on the outside of her cell, looking at her with a face of concern at first, shifting quickly into that of joy upon seeing the pupils of Vyra’s eyes.

“There we go! I said we would meet again, didn’t I? Although, these were hardly the conditions that I envisioned.”

Before Vyra stood the Lady of Thorns, the Red Queen’s distinguished guest, perhaps the one individual that Vyra had expected to see at the gathering the other night, but was not in attendance. To some degree, the Demi-Human was surprised to see her there. But quickly, a sense of relief began to flood through her as well.

A hope! One that she hoped, that she prayed, were not in vain.

“You’re here? I… I wasn’t expecting to see you here… You weren’t at the party…”

The Lady of Thorns lifted an eyebrow, something between a smirk and scowl appearing before her lips. “Party? Cute way to describe it. No, no I am not here to engage in such debauchery. If I were to entertain my carnal pleasures, I need not travel to someplace like here for that.” It was a scathing regard for the Red Queen’s evening gathering, but an accurate assessment, when all considered. “No, I was brought here for a very specific purpose.”

“What?”

The Lady of Thorns smiled, as if Vyra had asked exactly what she wanted, “The Red Queen sought me to help her conduct an arrangement. A Pact, if you would prefer to call it. At least, that was the plan.”

She smirked.

“I had not expected to run into someone like you. To say the least, a welcome surprise, if not a game changer to all of this.”

The Lady of Thorns looked around, turning her for a moment oft in a different direction, focusing on it for a short time before turning her attention back towards Vyra. “This is not the proper place to explain, but come to my quarters, before nightfall preferably, before tomorrow. Otherwise, there is nothing more I can do for you.”

A foreign sound echoed through Vyra’s ears, a brief moment of hope as the sound of the key within the gates of her cell opened, her prison shifting thus into a potential door to freedom.

“Good luck, Vyra.” With a final smile, the Lady of Thorns departed, going off in a direction towards the sound of the noise. Some commotion was heard far in the distance, enough not that Vyra could understand it, but knowing that someone were there. In the moment it dawned upon her, the realization that made a world of difference for her but she had failed to appreciate before until this very moment.

Her collar was gone.

The source of her imprisonment, the betrayal of her body and its capabilities, no longer were she subjected to that cruelty.

Vyra was free.

She felt it building, the manifestation of her rage and anger, fueling itself, taking form, her arm encoating itself within the horror within her, the nightmare of her own thoughts giving way as it encased her arm, its attributes waning away, the human aspect of it dissolving away into almost that of a monster itself.

A being of nightmare.

She looked upon it, as much horrified as she found it a weapon for her own uses. A tool of which she could get the revenge sought, her first taste of freedom since having been betrayed back in Hargeon.

Getting up slowly, the sensation of being able to walk on her own seeming foreign to her, a lost attribute that she were as much expected to relearn. There would be time for that though, as the foremost thing in her mind were her own escape, the route that the Lady of Thorns had taken still fresh in her mind. Proceeding that way, the commotion’s source became clear, several guards having been standing at attention, otherwise distracted in one facet or another, hardly appreciating what was going on around them. Certainly not expecting Vyra, least of all the nightmarish gauntlet that had effectively replaced her arm.

It was quick, unrelenting, and left them with little to no time to respond accordingly. The first fell without a fight, the other barely managing their weapon before also being cut down. Like branches tossed within a flame, they crumbled down to the Demi-Human’s anger and rage like that of a branch burning down into ash. Cries of anguish littered throughout the stone walls, bodies slumping over, tides of crimson pouring out through their armor, leaving a small pool within the ground as whatever life were still within them caught a final glimpse of the Demi-Human, adorned in rags, no collar upon her neck, a nightmarish arm having replaced her own, all intent upon finding the Lady of Thorns.

1093/1000 ( -50% | -20% Oración Seis Guild Level 2 Perk, -20% Explorer's Belt, -10% Companion)