Private (+18) Drahonnal

[Irishman]

It had been four days since Ricoh had been taken away from the mining floor after accidentally stepping backwards into an ebony guard. The guard took offense to this and beat the redguard. Ricoh, being a headstrong young man, had not submitted and instead laughed at the guards attempts to injure him. A second guard had quickly come over and knocked Ricoh out with the butt of his mace and dragged him off the floor. This incident had happened in front of Cyrus and he feared for his young friends life. After a couple of days, Silvertongue conceded to himself that they had probably killed him.

Seeing him in this state now though, riled Cyrus up more than having thought him dead. Sure, Ricoh liked to run his mouth a bit, but uncleanly cutting out someones tongue than dragging them back into this festering place was asking for infection and a slow, excruciating death. Already the usually strong, energetic man was declining the food that Jeelius was offering him. He instead dropped the brave act and slumped into his bedroll.

A commotion over in a corner of the sleeping quarters snapped Cyrus out of his thoughts of revenge. He looked over to see the two new women being harassed. The redguard turned back around and busied himself with cooking some more skeever in the small permanent fire pit in the ground. He knew what was likely happening, and was in no mood to cheer on the filthy rapists. A rather manly sounding yell made Cyrus look up at Jeelius, who was looking past him at the incident. "well that's not something you see everyday!" The argonian stated, before springing to his feet and going over to get a closer look. Cyrus turned back around and saw the two women dragging an injured and bleeding man to a darker corner. They dumped his body and several skeevers pounced on him, tearing into his flesh.

Silvertongue was impressed.

Obviously not just two more skirts, ready to roll over at the first sign of hardship.

He went over to his bedroll and rearranged the blankets, getting ready for bed. With his connections through the prison and outside world, Cyrus had one of the more comfortable beds. It had a large bear skin blanket and was sitting up off the ground on a slab of stone. It was nice and close to the fire pit and was up against the wall, surrounded by the bedrolls of his group. Cyrus smiled to himself, noting how he had made something out of stint in Drahonnal.

With these New Bloods, something might change for the better in this place...

And with that thought, he closed his eyes, shut out all the background noise and fell into a dreamless sleep.

 

[Writes-Many-Posts]

Thurayah didn't take long to skin the furry thing and roast it above her torch, with enough skill to resemble a housewife. Before the meal was ready, though, an enormous khajiit was dragged out of the torture room, a large trail of blood following him, flowing out of the large wound in his belly. One of the new girls stepped out of her bedroll to give him part of her skeever, for whatever reason it was. Jaxx wasn't feeling like getting close to that bulky thing alone, especially since it was alive after such a wound being made without specialized healing. Thurayah elbowed him back to his own problems. Time had come to silence his stomach's endless growls. With his shiv, the breton divided the thing in half as precisely as he could, handing the one that, to him, seemed smaller, to his friend. Their looks towards the gross thing were more than enough to know none of them had ever eaten it. "First time, huh?" Thurayah replied, in an awkward, disgusted tone. "My husband kept me fed with decent food..." Jaxx counted to three, and they both bit one of the skeever's legs at the same time, swallowed it with a lot of haste, and took a deep breath. "Yeurgh! Who can live with himself after eating such a thing! I miss eldar cheese..." He thought, taking some dust out of his nails with his shiv, very carefully to avoid infecting himself. "Hmm... What can we milk skeevers...?" Thurayah interrupted the rest of his questioning thought. "Eeeeewww!" "I guess that's a no, then..." Jaxx looked to the ceiling of the dorms, being his mind now getting fed up with the endless ebony tone wherever he turned. "Hmm... Did you have a baby recently?" Thurayah's tone was loud enough to know she got angry, hinting she could have had a traumatizing experience about babies, or breast feeding. "There is no milk in Drahonnal!!!!" Raising his hands with the 'it wasn't me' expression, Jaxx apologized, and took another bite in his half of the skeever, this time ignoring the horrible flavor thanks to the surprise of her anger. Once it was over, Jaxx crawled inside the bedroll, ignoring everything in his surroundings: the hookers, the two orcs that were fist fighting to prove who was best to their gang, the big cat, his investor, the psychotic ladies, everyone... Only Thurayah's sobbing in her bedroll called his attention. Jaxx stretched his hand and patted her shoulder, as if saying "You're not alone." which resulted in his friend stroking his hand with hers, dodging the sadness for a moment, and allowing Jaxx to fall asleep.

 

[AirshipCircus]

Ma'Nchitar's eyes met with a light shape in contrast to the gloom of the prison walls. "You look like you could do with a bit of meat in your belly, friend." Ma'Nchitar blinked profusely to get the blood out of his eyes. The face he could make out was blurry, very blurry; but it looked...almost...like...

"Ki'haja..?" His eyes quickly focused a half-second later. "Gah!" Ma'Nchitar jumped, baring his teeth and unsettling the skeever pelts and old rags adorning his bedroll. Nope, that was definitely not his sister with that blonde mane and fair skin. It was the eyes that confused him though. Blue eyes, which WERE like his sister and was rare for a Khajiit. Obviously the girl's eyes were more human, but Ma'Nchitar had long forgotten the specific details of the faces from his old life. He looked down, catching a glimpse of the meat in her hands. Skeever wasn't anyone's first choice, but after another stint in the torture rooms that could have been a three course meal sitting before him. Ignoring every bestial instinct he had to take the meat and possibly the woman with it, Ma'Nchitar considered his position.

"On the one hand, she offers food. On the other hand, nobody offers food here. Not unless they want something. On the other hand, meat. The Nord's scent is familiar as well, at least part of it. She has meat. Something is off. Meat." His powers of calculation were waning with every glance at that skeever and he didn't want to go tonight without a meal. Perhaps someone up in the sky had heard him this night. Perhaps those eyes were a sign to trust this one. Perhaps he should stop over-thinking a free-meal. Ma'Nchitar grabbed her arm and snatched the meat from her hands with his teeth, brushing his nose across her skin to get a better sniff. He released her just as quickly, tearing the meat apart, swallowing, and growling hungrily. It wasn't much, but it would keep him from starving. He eyed the girl warily, twitching his nose. She smelled like death, and fear. It wasn't her fear, though. He could have sworn he smelled something familiar on her, something from his time in Hammerfell. Tanned leather...blood...nightshade, perhaps? He put it out of his mind for later.


"This one sees you are new to the skeever-hole. Few would speak to Khajiit and none would offer him food." He chuckled, quickly realizing that this probably was not the best option as pain shot up through his stomach. It wasn't nearly as bad as before, but enough to make him wince.

 

[shadowkitty]

Shadow could tell the Khajiit was wary and she could not blame him. Not in a place like this. Had she not just treated the Redguard the same? then, she could tell something was not quite right with that young Redguard. He wanted something from her. Probably the same thing she wanted from any man but she didn't like the way he looked at her. It wasn't just desire, it was something..off.

The Khajiit seemed startled for a second before focusing on her more intently, his luminous eyes switching from the meat in her hands to her eyes. Shadow could see the inner struggle he was having. If only he knew her past dealings with the Khajiit, then it would put him at ease. Should she tell him, open up to a complete stranger? She was not one to do so, unless she was about to kill them, then, what did it matter when they were about to die. She glanced over to Carina and saw she was curious as to why she had approached the Khajiit as well. She doesn't understand. How could she?

Shadow didn't quite understand herself, but she knew she couldn't leave the poor thing lying there. Injured and no doubt hungry. If he hadn't reminded her so much of Do'Jhan then she probably wouldn't have even approached him. Do'Jhar, a pang of heartache briefly stabbed at her. My beautiful warrior....

The Khajiit before her grabbed her arm and took the meat from her hands with his teeth, no doubt trying to smell her. Shadow was used to this, after the time she had spent with Do'Jhar. At least he took my offering, she sighed.

"This one sees you are new to the skeever-hole. Few would speak to Khajiit and none would offer him food." His voice was soft and his chuckle came from deep inside him, which made him gasp in pain. Shadow looked around her, noting that all curious eyes were no longer on her and the Khajiit.

"My name is Shadow, and yes I arrived here just today. Once, I had a, very dear friend who's name was Do'Jhar" She said the name, knowing the Khajiit would recognize it as one from his race. She looked into his eyes, trying to convey her honesty. It was one thing Shadow did not do. A cold-hearted killer she was but she never lied.

"Please don't react" she whispered and she did something she thought she would never do to another living being apart from a very select few. Again she looked around checking to see no-one was looking. She reached over slowly and held her hand over the Khajiit's body and concentrated, releasing a little bit of energy so as not to make it too noticeable, but to relieve the pain of the Khajiit from inside him somewhat.

She began to heal him.

 

[AirshipCircus]

She was thinking, Ma'Nchitar could tell. Perhaps he had been too aggressive. Then he remembered where he was, and WHO he was. Something sparked in her eyes. Pity? He was losing too much blood to fully comprehend her emotions, and too tired to fully care anyways. He looked around the room, delicately licking his teeth to get all the skeever off.

"My name is Shadow, and yes I arrived here just today. Once, I had a, very dear friend who's name was Do'Jhar" He glanced back at her blue eyes. Yes, definitely recognition then. She continued however, saying something Ma'Nchitar wasn't expecting. "Please don't react" She looked around and Ma'Nchitar braced himself for the worst. He was injured, weary, and he was never fond of hearing that sort of thing in such a state. His brain went overtime, rapidly trying to process that smell he had gotten off her. Everyone's scent was unique, but she had something on her hands that he KNEW. The cat could see her placing her hands over his wounds, and his eyes widened.

"Magic...?" Ma'Nchitar had a distinct fear of magic. The fist and the sword were nothing versus a bolt of lighting shooting from the tip of a finger. He had developed his fear mostly during his time as a pirate, and the Empire's Battlemages were the only reason the Imperial Forces had been able to sink his ship. He hated it, never even tried to use it. And restoration was no better in his mind. Too weak to fight back, he could only watch as healing energy slowly flowed into his body. It relaxed his mind, relieved his pain, calmed his fear in spite of himself. He could have thought clearer now but his mind was being dulled from slipping into unconsciousness. "Tanned leather, Blood...Nightshade..?...Assassin..." He growled, one last blurred and flawed thought before closing his eyes. "Never forget...Brotherhood..."

 

[shadowkitty]

Shadow understood that growl and thought perhaps she had acted in haste to heal him. He mumbled something but it wasn't coherent enough for her to make out what it was. As he slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep she retracted her hands and watched the sleeping Khajiit. There was something there that she couldn't read though. Something in her actions, or her smell, she could not tell, but it had alarmed him. But she couldn't see him suffer. She sighed and moved silently over to her bedroll where Carina was already asleep and lay down next to her. She looked about the room and almost every inn-mate now was asleep or laying there quiet.

Shadow cursed her former family again, and herself for not being careful enough that they had laid this trap for her. Her final thoughts before she fell asleep were of Do'Jhar and her dreams were spent tracking down the Brotherhood and killing them one by one.

 

[Writes-Many-Posts]

The sun rays slipped through the jade glass in thin strings of light, pressed against the ground as light particles of dust could be seen floating in the brightened area. The smooth clink of silver chalices could be heard from a room adorned with maps, concordats, shields and weapons. Who was drinking? Three high elves, one was a Thalmor soldier, the other one, a Justiciar, and the third one was Elenwen herself. "Here's to the Thalmor!" "Here is to Helfert, the poor bastard who is rotting in Drahonnal!" "Here is to us being filthy a**holes that steal all that we can!" "Long live us!" They were about to drink their thin blood red wine when the stone wall was burst into thousands of tiny peebles that flew across the room. Out of the thick dust that had been lifted by the ruins, was a proud Jaxx von Helfert, surrounded by golden flames, with a sky blue greatsword in his right hand. Despite never having such a weapon within his grasp, Jaxx's instinct told him that its name was Rage of High Rock. Unlike the golden flames around Jaxx's skin, completely hardened, being resistant to any weapon or spell, the blade had a unique aura surrounding it, light blue, flaming with hissing white vapors. "Helfert?! How?!" Jaxx spun his weapon twice skillfully with only one hand, and then stabbed it on the ground, making the world tremble from the impact. "No prison holds me!" The elves had dropped their glasses long ago, and were throwing disdainful looks at the breton. "How did you escape? What happened to all the guards in Drahonnal?" His hair was spikier than usual, being pulled up by the divinal flames themselves, and Jaxx couldn't feel his confidence lowering an inch, as he gained closure to the Thalmor. "All died... Just like you will!" He then stretched his hand, pointing it towards the buried blade, making it levitate out of the ground mentally, and forcing it to fly back to his right hand. In a defying pose, he pointed the Rage of High Rock to Elenwen and yelled through the mighty stone structure's halls. "I give you the first strike!" All three of them used magic and weapons to make the short man perish, but they only found swords being unsharpened through reflected sparks, and spells bouncing back against their casters. Jaxx didn't even move before they were on their knees, wounded by their own attacks. "Payback time!" Jaxx said, a grin blossoming across his lips, raising his Rage above Elenwen's head.


"Wake up, scumbags!" A couple of ebony guards kicked Jaxx and Thurayah awake, and the same was happening to all other prisoners, as the once quiet dorm was now flooding with pained grunts and sadistic giggles. The rude awakening was another sign of how Drahonnal was far more unpleasant than Jaxx's usual thoughts of prison deceived him of. "Why did Writes have to choose me...?" Jaxx shook his head before massaging his stomach, which was still wounded after such a horrible meal, fully waking up afterwards. "Off to the mines, all of you! Line up!" But Nyvis had walked away long before Jaxx could stand up from his bedroll. She would already be before the new girl in her pole when the first prisoners grabbed their pickaxes. The slapped her with her cold steel gloves as an awakening. "That's for spitting on me yesterday! Today, you will mine ebony!" Nyvis turned to the guard that was taking a new shift at the gate. "You! Give her a shiv and send her to the mine!" She couldn't see any new carriages so soon, so that day she wouldn't probably host anybody else new. A pity indeed... Her brown eyes on the horizon were quickly dragged back to another guard, coming out of the prisoner's mine. "Miss Nyvis, a prisoner is missing..."

 

[Khaotic3]

Carina jumped awake as she heard the door to the barracks open. She had been having some faint dream. She was running, then had tripped, the fall waking her up. But was really bothering her was the question of how long had she been asleep. The last thing she could remember, Shadow had given the Khajiit some food. And now, Shadow was on her bedroll next to Carina.

Cursing, Carina stood up as aches shot through her back and shoulders. Her wavy hair was slightly dampened with sweat, and was beginning to stick out unattractively. This meant little to Carina, but naturally she ran her fingers through it a few times, pulling out a few loose hairs. Should've wore a ponytail, she thought, annoyed with the way it was curling in front of her eyes.

"Have a fun night, New Blood?" a guard asked as he passed by, kicking other prisoners awake. Carina said nothing, only giving him a dirty look when he wasn't looking. Carina was definitely not a morning person.

When he was out of earshot, Carina leaned over to Shadow. "Listen, they're gonna figure out that guy's gone sooner or later, so we need a story," she whispered, walking towards where the other prisoners were lining up. "We stabbed him in self defense, then the skeevers jumped on him since we were hunting, and we were lucky we weren't eaten alive as well. Sound alright?"

Carina was too groggy to come up with more detail at the moment, but hopefully they could figure something out before anyone questioned them. Another problem, though, was the other prisoners. They had very plainly seen what had happened, and they could very easily rat them out. Carina could only hope they had scared them enough to keep them quiet.

Nyvis was gone before everyone was finished lining up, probably off to torture another prisoner. Gods knew how many more prisoners were being kept here, hidden away from the rest of them.

Carina sighed as she picked up a pickaxe, then slamming it into the ore vein in front of her, silently hoping today would be less eventful than the last, but knowing good and well that in Drahonnal, that wasn't possible. Her muscles screamed in protest, but she had no other option. Just try to blend in Carina thought, not really paying attention to what she was doing. And hopefully no one questions why we don't look like we just had the worst night of our lives.


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[shadowkitty]

It seemed that no sooner had Shadow closed her eyes she was being woken again. She glanced beside her and saw that Carina was well awake also. A group of guards were going through the sleeping floor, kicking the prisoners awake. Shadow needed no-one to wake her up though. Years of training had conditioned her to sleep when needed, sometimes going for days without, and then being able to wake at the first sound. When you were an assassin, you sometimes had to stake out a place for days before you moved on your target. Carina stood and ran her hands through her hair, causing Shadow to check her own. It was most likely as hideous looking. Wonder if I should just cut it off to make it easier to look after in this hell hole? Shadow was of two minds, her hair was the one thing she was a little vain about, it was long and shiny and was a light blonde, that had a slight curl in it. But she also didn't want it to become dirty and infested with whatever parasites lurked in the prison.

"Have a fun night, New Blood?" One of the guards smirked at Carina as he passed them. Shadow ignored him and got up, checking that the extra shiv and the pouch of lepids was still were she had left them.

"Listen, they're gonna figure out that guy's gone sooner or later, so we need a story," Carina whispered, as they walked towards where the other prisoners were lining up. "We stabbed him in self defense, then the skeevers jumped on him since we were hunting, and we were lucky we weren't eaten alive as well. Sound alright?"

"Seems good enough" Shadow nodded. "Technically we didn't kill him anyway, the rats did." They trudged up stairs and Shadow took up her position at the same ore vein she was at yesterday. She briefly glanced at the Khajiit but decided to leave him be. If he wanted to take her offer of friendship as nothing more than that, she would let him approach her in his own time. She started hacking away at the ore vein, wondering when the questions would start, for inevitably, they would. She only hoped that none of the other prisoners felt like talking.

 

[Irishman]

Easily falling asleep was a gift for Cyrus. Staying asleep was his curse. As Cyrus lay tucked up in his warm bed, enjoying the peace of the early morning, he recounted the events of the previous day and pondered the possibility of another interesting day. A groan beside him snapped Cyrus out of his thoughts, and he got up to check on his injured friend. Ricoh was laying on his side, a patch of blood was surrounding the rags around his head and his eyes were half open. The blood was steadily dripping out of his mouth, for some reason it looked as though it had bled steadily all night. The familiar feeling of hatred coursed through the old redguard. This is no state to leave a human! Ricoh's eyes fluttered open for a second, acknowledging Silvertongue. Before he rolled over, Cyrus noted the pain and sorrow emanating from his eyes.

A chill swept over Cyrus like a morning breeze over the Sea of Ghosts; he knew he had to do something or Ricoh's life would be lost.

The old redguard turned and stoked the fire. Underneath his bed he retrieved two rough metal cups, a small sack of water and a teabag. He heated the water over the fire in the two cups and dunked the teabag periodically. Jeelius got up and, after checking on Ricoh, retrieved his heated tea with a grateful nod of his horned head. It was their morning ritual. Although it was somewhat impossible to determine the time, both of their body clocks had been set years ago. They had just finished the tea when the guards started filing into the cavernous sleeping quarters.

Rudely waking the inmates was a favorite pastime of theirs, Cyrus was sure. He never gave them the satisfaction of doing it to him however. A familiar looking guard came close to Silvertongue's camp and stuck a pointed black boot into the ribs of Orben. A nimble wood elf and loyal friend of Cyrus. The bosmer shot up and glared at the guard before nodding in the direction of Silvertongue and Jeelius. He than turned to walk to the mining floor.

Before the same guard could approach Ricoh, Cyrus got up and intercepted him. Most of the prisoners were up and moving towards the upper floors and Cyrus waited till they were all out of earshot. "Godrik, I have a problem, and you can help me with the solution." Cyrus stated to the guard. Godrik glanced around quickly before giving an encouraging nod. "My friend Ricoh has been tortured by you lot, he is not going to survive unless I get him a health potion." The guard looked at the sick redguard and said with a superior tone, "I can do that. But it will cost you." Cyrus produced three Lepids. "You know how it works Godrik, take these to my outside contacts and they will give the corresponding gold." He handed the Lepids over for the guard to snatch them. "Yes, I know how it works, Silvertongue. You need not remind me every fl*ffing time!"

Jeelius was helping Ricoh to his feet. Hoping that the guard would give them a chance to walk upstairs. Cyrus got on the other side of his injured friend and helped him along.

 

[EpicVakarian]

Raenya got no sleep that entire night; she was barely dozing by the time the sun poked up over the horizon. She heard shouting, but kept her eyes closed until she heard a clanking noise, opening her eyes just in time to see a steel gauntlet flying at her, slapping her in the face brutally as an awakening. Looking up, she saw Nyvis looking down at her.
"That's for spitting on me yesterday! Today, you will mine ebony." She turned to a guard. "You! Give her a shiv and send her to the mine!" The guard nodded, returning a few minutes later with a crude weapon; a piece of steel, rusted and neglected, sharpened to a point and wrapped in cloth at the base as a handle. He used his sword to cut her free, taking her shoulder and pushing her toward the mine along with the other prisoners.

Looking back at the guard, seething, she maintained her composure, taking the shiv from him and resisting the urge to try to stick him. It would only result in her death, though judging by her time here so far, she might just welcome death. Raenya was pushed to the entrance to the mine, then pushed by the laughing guard. She fell into the mine, rolling down the steep stone stairs and landing on her side at the bottom. The guard laughed one last time before retreating to his previous station at the gates.

Raenya groaned in pain, standing up straight before feeling an agonising pain in her side. She bent over, whimpering like a pup as she felt at her ribs, wincing. They seemed to be fine, though upon raising her shirt to reveal the flesh underneath, she noticed an angry bruise already popping up over her ribs. Grimacing and adding the guard's face to her mental kill-list, she raised herself up, hobbling off to take a spot next to a tall, skinny Breton with spiky hair and thin arms, swinging his pickaxe at the rock in front of him slowly. Raenya nodded to him, slightly disgusted by the smell, before taking up a pickax of her own and swinging it at the ore. The first blow jarred her arms, making her elbows hurt. The second jarred them slightly less, and then Raenya discovered a way to avoid the jarring. By swinging it in a way that glanced off the rock, she'd avoid damaging her arms while still doing enough mining to avoid punishment from the guards.

"Tell me it's not like this all the time." She gave the lanky Breton a glance, grimacing while struggling to ignore the pain in her side. He grimaced back at her. "From that look, I'd say it is..." Raenya sighed heavily, looking back to the mine for a short time before holding out her hand to the Breton. "Raenya Yanoski." She knew most people got confused at the strange name she had, so she gave him a nickname her father had given her. "Raenn, if you like." She hoped the Breton wouldn't take her attempt at friendship as anything else; she needed friends if she was to kill Nyvis and the guards.

 

[AirshipCircus]

Ma'NChitar dreamed of the white sands of Elsweyr. He dreamed of the clear waters and the oasis in which he spent his adolescent life. It was peaceful, serene. He could see his sister and brother climbing the palm trees for the coconuts resting in the branches. They looked so happy, cutting their bounty from the trees and swinging down for breakfast near the water. His sister Ki'Haja tossed him a coconut and yelled something indistinct. He walked towards her to hear better, but still nothing. He started to run at her, and could just make out the words in her smooth voice: "Get up Ma'Nchitar! You have a lot-" Ma'Nchitar felt a sharp pain in his side and the dream shattered into darkness. His eyes blearily fluttered open to see an ebony golem standing before him.


Usually he wasn't startled by that sort of thing, but it's a hard transition from the face of your sister to the face of one of those armored bastards.

"Get up, cat! You have a lot of ore to mine today." He felt the pain again and snarled, slowly getting to his feet and leaning on the wall to keep his balance. His head spun as he attempted to recall the events of the previous night. Something about a girl...the one who healed him, yes. He had smelled something on her, told himself to remember... but nothing came to mind. The cat dismissed this thought for now, it wasn't important to his survival at the moment. He lined up with the rest of the scum near the end, slowly making his way to the mines for yet another wonderful day of ebony scrounging. Just before losing sight of the doorway, he looked back into the prisoner confinements and saw that Redguard Cyrus and his buddies talking to a guard. He couldn't make out any conversation but just the fact that they weren't heading to the mines with the rest was unusual.

"Just another day in Drahonnal." He retrieved a pickaxe and started looking for a space in the mine. It wasn't hard, even with his size. Soon, his pickaxe sunk into the hard rock with a satisfying *CLANK!*. He may be injured, but he could still break rock like a gods-damned troll. Yanking his implement out of the stone, Ma'Nchitar readied another swing. However, he was stopped by a faint glimmer in the hole left by his last swing. He hesitated, angling his vision to get a better look and trying not to draw attention to himself. Something was there... something... purple. The left side of Ma'Nchitar the Black's face curled into a smile, showing one of his tattooed molars.

"This one sees something shiny..."

 

[Irishman]

By the time Jeelius, Ricoh and Cyrus made their way up to the mining floor, most of the inmates had spaced out and starting the laborious job of mining black ebony. The redguard led his injured comrade to a dark corner of the floor and sat him down a boulder. As Ricoh was in such pain, he did not complain or request to work. This made Cyrus even more anxious for his well-being.

I am doing all I can for you friend. Just hang on.

"Jeelius? Can I leave you to watch over Ricoh? I'm going to have a little chat with one of the fiesty new bitches... before the dunmer's friends do." Jeelius looked a little surprised. But you can never tell with those damned lizards. "Of course. Not a problem Silvertongue."

Cyrus walked through the mining floor, stopping only to pick up a pickaxe and nodding to some people. After nearly 10minutes of searching, and doubling back twice, he finally noticed the slender hips, the clean hair and the toned arms of one of the New Bloods. Carina. Silvertongue had heard whispers of her name and was fairly certain that it was indeed who he was checking out.

Even though he was quietly watching her, he was sure that she could sense him. Sure enough, to end the charade, the young lady turned and glared at Cyrus. The old redguard let out a chuckle before purposefully striding forward. "You have made quite the entrance into this place, Carina." He spoke her name slowly, noting her reaction, however slight it may be. "You and your little blonde friend. I am Silvertongue, and you... you are in potentially grave danger. That elf you killed; Rythe. He has friends. And I can bet they are not happy with the very public incident that occurred last night."

There was something strange about this woman. Silvertongue was usually a very good judge of character. An important trait if you bet on peoples lives as often as I do... however, now was not the time to question her past. Silvertongue still couldn't shake the feeling that he was staring at far more than just a common bandit or thief though...

 

[Writes-Many-Posts]

Jaxx knew at the first moment once lining up, that the rapist's absence would be noticed, no matter how many prisoners there were. A guard immediatly walked out of their dorms to warn the boss, which had to mean Nyvis. It didn't matter much to him. In fact, he disliked both sides. It would either be the woman that threatened to castrate him, or the woman that threatened to eat him for dinner and her friend. In his mind, he would have already shrugged his shoulders once he had started mining. A girl, who he definitely hadn't seen the day before, approached him, at the ore he had worked on on the day before. It was normal that she didn't get the hang of mining ebony during her possible first trip to a mine. Heck, Jaxx had mined silver, enchanted emerald, steel and iron and even then he had struggled with the damn vein. "Tell me it's not like this all the time." Jaxx replied to her sad looks with one similar of his own. "From that look, I'd say it is..." It was, at the least, impressive that someone actually chose to speak to him, and when Jaxx noticed she was actually beautiful, unlike most women that spoke to him kindly without giving him any effort, he regained his usual mood, allowing his nicer spirit to trample the despair for a while. "Raenya Yanoski." She said, stretching her hand. This time, Jaxx didn't flinch, because, for some reason, he had always thought that women didn't tend to be so murderous as men, despite being rudely proven wrong during the night. Raenya wha...?! He thought, completely missing the first sylab of her strange surname. "Raenn, if you like." Luckily, she came with a nickname already, so he could simply call her Raenn. Jaxx shook her hand without much hesitation. "Jaxx. Jaxx von Helfert. Not Jeux. Not Von, it spells fon Helfert..." He smiled, to mask how serious his name was to him, thinking his words could have been taken as snobby if accompanied by a serious look. "I can tell you haven't grabbed a pickaxe in a long time, if ever. But having much to no experience saves nobody if they come here... Have you met Nyvis, the woman that seems to have more balls than all the men here?" He whispered, hoping no guards would hear him.
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"Who disappeared?!" Nyvis asked, steaming. "Rythe, that... that rapist." While the odds of an escape were very low, it didn't mean it was impossible. "Release the hounds around the perimeter! No one escapes Drahonnal!" The man opened the large cage as quickly as he could, fearing Nyvis' thunderous rage, and the blood thirsty mutts sprinted through the gates in no time, looking for the prisoner's surely existant stench. While the animals patrolled the prison outside, Nyvis and another guard walked to the dorms, not even eyeing the scum that slept below their feet.
At first, it seemed the stench was not far from the usual, but as Nyvis approached the torture room, it seemed to get closer and closer to deathly and morbid. "Blergh! What is this smell?!" Nyvis grabbed a torch and followed the smell, which lured her to the darkest corner of the room. The light's range scared away the skeevers that seemed to be bolder than usual that day, until Nyvis' suns could finally see a half eaten corpse. By its thighs and pointiness in the ears, it had to be an elven corpse. "Was this here yesterday?!" The guard choked on his own words. "I... I... I... I don't know... I don't think so..." Nyvis burst in anger again towards his incompetence. "Of course not! I walked to the torture room yesterday and I didn't catch this horrible smell! This must be Rythe!" Nyvis, in fact, hated rapists, and if she had a victim that spoke up, she would have cut the elf's asset long ago, unfortunately, it seemed someone had beaten her to do it. "Bring prisoners to the torture room, one by one. Once I am finished with one, you bring me another." The guard was set off to the mine as Nyvis unlocked the door to the torture room, which would be surely crowded that day.

---------------------------------------------------------
The door to the dorms' sudden reopening made Jaxx unavoidably look at the guard who rushed to grab an orc woman, possibly not wanting to keep his boss waiting, and drag her to the dorms. What did she do? He thought, as the ebony was continuously weakened by his constant slamming of his iron pickaxe against the ore. Soon she would come out, and the hooker from the previous night would go in, then another person, then another person, then another, then Thurayah, and then it was Jaxx's turn. He was dragged across the mine and the dorms, to enter the torture room for the first time, unbelievably scared. "This one is?!" The woman asked, remembering Jaxx's face and insolence, but not his name. "Jaxx Von Helfert..." Very tinily, he corrected the guard. "It's fon Helfert..." Nyvis angrily stood up and grabbed him by the rags. "I don't give a fl*ff about your name, but if you make such a big deal about it, I will call you Jaxy so that, for the first time, you have an x and a y instead of two x's, you hear?!" Jaxx nodded very quickly. "Yes ma'am!" Nyvis dropped him on a stool and walked around him, her orange eyes hardly blinking. "Did you talk to Rythe?" "Who?" Her surprisingly nordish-instead-of-imperial fist flew right against his face, nearly making the roots of some of his teeth snap. "The elf that is no longer in Drahonnal! The rapist!" How was Jaxx supposed to know everyone's name on the second day?! He had been put in an awkward position. He would either help a person he disliked, or help another person to who the feeling was the same.

Once Jaxx was thrown out of there, and Raenn was skipped thanks to her absence during the murder, he turned to Thurayah, curious about her thoughts on the murder. "Did you tell?" "You can't ask that! This issue belongs to you, and you only! If you ask someone else that, you end up killed!" She answered bitterly, possibly jealous of Raenya, which worked on Jaxx backing away from her slowly, and resuming his mining, now with a few bruises on his cheeks.

 

[Khaotic3]

As Carina achingly picked away at the ore, an old song stuck in her head, she could't help but feel like she was being watched. She ignored it for a bit, assuming it was probably another inmate having filthy thoughts, or perhaps she was being paranoid, but after a few minutes she couldn't help but turn around.

She turned around to see "Silvertongue" creeping on her from afar, but he laughed as she looked at him and began to walk towards her. She turned back to the ore vein until he spoke.

"You have made quite the entrance to this place, Carina," he told her, seemingly dragging out her name. The fact that he knew her name made her slightly uncomfortable, and she narrowed her eyes at him and stopped working. "You and your blonde friend. I am Silvertongue, and you...you are in grave danger. That elf you killed; Rythe. He has friends. And I can bet they are not happy with the very public incident that occurred last night."

Carina studied the old man, and contemplated his words before responding. Clearly he had some amount of "power" if he was his age and still in decent enough shape in a prison such as this. So was this a warning that he and his friends were out to get her? Or was he trying to help her in some odd way? And if so, how would that benefit him? Her main concern at this point was Nyvis, anyway.

After failing to figure out what his intentions were, she simply voiced what she had been thinking. "I didn't come in here expecting to make a lot of friends. So why did you track down to tell me something I already know? Perhaps you are warning me that you were one of his friends? I'll tell you right now, I'm not one for riddles. So what is it you really came over here to tell me?"

Just then a guard rushed in and grabbed the nearest inmate, an Orc woman, and dragged her away. And so it begins... Carina thought. "It looks like we haven't got all day," Carina said to him as she returned to mining, but still listening if he had anything else to say.

 

[shadowkitty]

Shadow mined away at the ore vein she had picked out yesterday. It was a strategic spot, cast in shadow, allowing her to clearly observe and watch unnoticed. She studied the Khajiit for a while, sighing. He clearly did not want to have anything more to do with her and that made her a little sad. She missed Do'Jhar every day and even more so now that she could see another of his kind to remind her. She decided that she would try to approach him one more time.

The fidgety blabbermouth, Jaxx had made a new friend, in fact she was new, by the looks of her. Shadow watched her as she tried to mine the hard ore. She struggled to even lift the pick let alone make any kind of mark on the ebony. Her wrists were red raw from possibly being tied up for a length of time.

The old man named Silvertongue was walking up and down the line of prisoners, looking for someone. Shadow was a little surprised when he stopped and spoke to Carina. They were both just a few inmates down from her so she heard enough of their whispered conversation to know that the old man was warning her about last nights activities. Shadow narrowed her eyes, wondering what the old man wanted from Carina. She would have to watch that one. Clearly he had some sort of standing and influence within the prison.

She looked around at the other inmates and suddenly two of the Ebony guards burst in and dragged and Orc woman away to the room where people either came out bruised and bloodied, or not at all. Soon the Orc was dragged back out again and another prisoner taken inside. That didn't take long...

 

[EpicVakarian]

The man seemed relieved when Raenn gave him her nickname, and shook her hand.
"Jaxx. Jaxx von Helfert. Not Jeux. Not Von, it spells fon Helfert..." He grinned. "I can tell you haven't grabbed a pickaxe in a long time, if ever. But having much to no experience saves nobody if they come here... Have you met Nyvis, the woman that seems to have more balls than all the men here?" He lowered his voice at this point, glancing around to make sure no guards were listening. Raenn chewed her tongue, pausing before responding.
"Yeah, I met her. Arrogant bitch that she is." She looked up at Jaxx. "I've been here barely fifteen hours and I already have a list of people I'm going to kill before I escape." Raenn felt she could trust Jaxx; he didn't seem the type to betray friends easily. But before Jaxx had a chance to respond, a pair of guards had grabbed him from behind, dragging him off suddenly. Raenn watched him go, shuddering in a strange sense of fear as she turned away, continuing to swing at the rock.

He returned a while later, his mouth coated in blood. He turned to the woman next to him, murmuring something to her quickly. Raenn focused, struggling to hear what they were saying.
"Did you tell?"
"You can't ask that! This issue belongs to you, and you only. If you ask someone else that, you end up killed!"
Jaxx turned back to his rock, mining up the ebony in the walls.
"What's going on?" Raenn asked, "What'd they do to you?" As she was speaking, a small chunk of purple-tinted ore collapsed from the wall. She picked it up, examining it closely. "And what's this?"

 

[Irishman]

"You have made quite the entrance into this place, Carina. You, and your little blonde friend. I am Silvertongue, and you... you are in potentially grave danger. That elf you killed; Rythe. He has friends. And I can bet they are not happy with the very public incident that occurred last night."

As Carina stood there assessing Cyrus, he could only smirk under his beard and admire her quiet, or not-so-quiet, confidence. "I didn't come in here expecting to make a lot of friends. So why did you track me down to tell me something I already know? Perhaps you are warning me that you were one of his friends? I'll tell you right now, I'm not one for riddles. So what is it you really came over here to tell me?" Silvertongue cursed himself for not being clearer. This was a delicate conversation and the last thing he wanted was for the young lady to think he was threatening her.

Cyrus stood silent for a moment.

What is it that I came over here to you? That is a good question...

A commotion not too far away involving a guard and an orsimer inmate, caused Carina to quickly turn back to mining ebony. The redguard, noting that this was not the first prisoner to be dragged away for no apparent reason today, heaved his own pickaxe into a vein next to the lady in an attempt to look busy. "It looks like we haven't got all day."

"Everyone in this place needs friends eventually, and believe me when I say, if I was a part of Rythe's group coming over to warn you, you would know without a doubt that it was a threat on your life." Cyrus wedged his pickaxe at an angle into the stone wall and gave it a strike with his palm. A shiny black chunk of mineral fell away from the wall. Catching it before it hit the ground, the redguard than turned and put it in a trolley behind Carina. Silvertongue, panting slightly, rested his shoulder against the wall and looked intensely at Carina, trying his best to exude a relaxed and confident composure.

"I simply came over here to introduce myself. I am a man who knows everyone... well everyone worth knowing. And you my dear, are worth knowing. Your pretty accomplice to." Silvertongue paused dramatically. "That is who I am. What I am however, is a man who can get you things. Things that aren't easy to get in a place like this. You see Carina? We both have our talents."

Cyrus was sure he had piqued her interest. He had made the same sorta speech to countless people over the years; Jeelius, who had eyes of an owl, ears of a wolf and cunning of a fox. Ricoh, whose large stature and overt dominance made him an ideal bodyguard. Orben, the most nimble and agile little bosmer Cyrus had encountered in years...

Some people like to collect rocks in here... me? I prefer to collect talented people...

 

[Khaotic3]

Both Carina and Silvertongue returned to work when a prisoner was dragged away before he replied.

"Everyone in this place needs friends eventually, and believe me when I say, if I was a part of Rythe's group coming over to warn you, you would know without a doubt that it was a threat on your life." Carina realized he was right, that someone looking for a fight would have made their intentions very clear. And this man was smarter than to make a plain and simple threat. Unlike Carina, he was very gifted in the art of speech. As Carina pried a chunk of ebony from the wall, and the Redguard began to speak once again.

"I simply came over here to introduce myself. I am a man who knows everyone... well everyone worth knowing. And you my dear, are worth knowing. Your pretty accomplice to." The man seemed a bit tired, but spoke with enough confidence for Carina to almost overlook it. Carina glanced behind him in the direction of Shadow, to see her a few yards down the wall. And that Khajiit is nowhere to be seen... Carina recalled the events of the night before.
"That is who I am. What I am however, is a man who can get you things. Things that aren't easy to get in a place like this. You see Carina? We both have our talents." You can get me things, huh? Well now you're finally beginning to speak my language...

"And what would you want in exchange for these 'things'? And I can assume decent food is on my list of things to choose from, correct?" Carina returned to mining once again as guards came in and took the prisoner on the other side of Carina.

pl*ps, I'm next...

 

[shadowkitty]

Shadow kept one eye on Carina and Silvertongue as they continued their conversation. She hefted her pick at the ore and another piece broke off. She threw it into the little cart she had behind her. A couple of other inmates were contributing to the cart as well and soon it was full enough to wheel outside. Shadow dropped her pick and put her weight into the wagon. It was heavy but she was at least making it move. Suddenly it seemed to be a lot lighter and Shadow tensed up as a bosmer joined her on the other side of the wagon. He flashed her a grin.

“Two hands make for an easier time” he said lightly to her. Shadow did not trust him, and he was way too close to her, but she pushed the cart all the same. As they wheeled it outside the Bosmer whispered to her.

“I saw your handy work last night” All her senses were on high alert.

“I imagine everyone did” Shadow answered him curtly. What was his point?


“There are a few people in here that are a little put out about what you and your friend did to Rythe” There it is...

“He had it coming to him” she said through gritted teeth as they both struggled to push the cart over a bumpy patch of ground. They were passing the dog pens and the animals barked and growled at the pair, their saliva flying everywhere as they jumped at the fence, trying to get at them. Shadow was certain that the Bosmer beside her was leading up to a threat, but she waited to see what he said next.

“And you’ll get what’s coming to you” he hissed at her. He lunged at her but Shadow was ready and stepped nimbly away, causing the Bosmer to fall against the dog pens. The animals, whipped up in a frenzy, snapped and bit at the Bosmer through the fence and he received a few nasty wounds before he was dragged to his feet by a pair of ebony-clad guards.

“On your feet scum!” they punched him in the ribs repeatedly as Shadow continued to push the cart over to the wall were the pile of ore was being added to by other inmates. She unloaded the ore, watching the guards as they hit the Bosmer. Finally they shoved him back towards the cart and he shakily began to unload it as well. He glared at Shadow and she smiled sweetly at him, causing him to shake with rage. When the last of the ore was unloaded the Bosmer hobbled back into the mine, leaving Shadow to push the cart on her own. It was not that heavy now that it had been unloaded and she stopped at the well and drank deeply from it, before a guard hit her across her back and yelled at her to move on and she returned to the mine.


When she wheeled the cart back over to her shadowed position, she could see a group of inmates all glaring at her, the bosmer who had threatened her, in amongst them. She also noticed that Carina was no-where to be seen, presumably taken for questioning. I hope they go easy on her. Although she didn’t really know Carina, or even fully trust her, she still did not wish for the girl to be treated the way she had just witnessed the guards treating the bosmer outside. It won’t be long before it is my turn and they are getting nothing from me she thought to herself as she picked up her pick and started swinging.