She’d been carried somewhere, but was so wrapped up she had no idea where, other than it was quite a distance. Although the thick material made it hard to even tell how many people were carrying her, and made it impossible to hit them at all. There was a sickening falling sensation as, still blind, she was dropped, the sack protecting her from scraping off a wall, before she crashed into the ground, landing badly. She lay there for a moment, feeling bruised and pained, before starting to wriggle herself free, ignoring the stings of pain from her wounds. Nobody took the chance to put the boot in, which was a good start. It took a while, but she eventually managed to wriggle free, fumbling the knots open through the coarse material of the sack, glad of the cleaner air.

Not that outside was much better; she was in a large, rock-walled chamber, moans and groans coming from out of sight, not suggesting anything good. Rusted chains and manacles were attached to the wall, and the stains, and smells, weren’t very friendly-looking either. It was larger than most dungeons and gaols she’d seen before, but pretty similar otherwise, and uninhabited. Beneath the scents of blood, shit and fear was a strange odour, bitter and astringent. The only light came from a pale blue sphere, suspended from a chain and, annoyingly, out of reach. Looking up, she could see the hole she’d been dropped through, also out of reach.

Neitha was lowered from above, a rope around her wrists, which was cut when she was about 10 feet away from the floor. She dropped and landed badly, before falling onto her face, rolling over with a loud groan. Semari went over, helping her up. She looked a bit roughed and bruised, but more annoyed than hurt, so the guards probably hadn’t done anything too mean to her.

‘Any idea what the hell is going on? Thought those bastards would just kill us. If you’ve got anything fancy left, that’d be handy as well.’

‘No, I don’t have anything.’ She looked pissed. ‘I managed to trade what I had for not getting killed on the spot. They have something special in mind for you, which now I get to share as well, which seems unfair. This is all your fault though.’

‘Hey, how is this my fault?! You fed me crazy demon-weed stuff. And didn’t, like, point me away from the bit of town with all the guards in! So I think it’s pretty much your fault as well. Anyway, we need to get out of here, otherwise we’re both fucked. You probably worse than me, I’d guess.’ Neitha looked around, doing the same as Semari and looking for any way to escape, anything other than stone. The only wall that wasn’t solid rock was one ‘wall’ of the chamber, formed of a heavy wooden panel, 5 paces wide. Semari knocked on it – far too solid to knock through, and without any lock or anything. It looked as though it could be moved, but was way too heavy to lift. ‘Got any acid or anything?’

Neitha examined it. ‘This thing is solid oak! This is the arena, you know, the place Mistress Kethys specifically said to avoid? I’ve heard they feed people to monsters here, and that there’s some horrible monster thing that eats souls!

Semari gave the gate an experimental shove, in case it was conveniently open, but no such luck. ‘Don’t suppose you managed to sweet-talk them into saying why we we’re here? Otherwise, I’m going to sleep. It’s been a long day.’

‘How can you sleep? This is the arena, we’re going to get killed, or fed to a monster! For fun!’

‘Well, that means they’re not going to kill us for a while. Going to want to get a decent crowd, right? Bit hard in the middle of a riot. And they probably have to get the monsters riled up and hungry or something, be a bit shit if it just sits there and, like, is all sleepy at people, rather than eating them and all that. So may as well rest up. Got any food?’

‘No, I don’t! Semari, we’re going to die, doesn’t this worry you? At all?’

‘I guess, but there’s not much we can do about it now, right? Might be able to climb out or something? Although I guess that doesn’t help you any, and it’s a bit hard to flirt with the crowd when you’re, like, being eaten or something.’ She made monster noises, imitating roars and the sounds a monster probably made when eating someone, crunching through bones and meat. ‘Rarrr! Crunch, gobble, om nom nom.’

Neitha’s face was dead white, her eyes wide with fear. ‘We’re going to die, you fucking dumbass idiot! They have guards around the edge to stop you climbing out, and archers. And you want to sleep? What the fuck is wrong with you?’

‘Well, we can’t break out of here, so what else are we going to do?’ Semari walked over to Neitha. ‘Look, getting pissy about this all isn’t going to help, so we may as well rest.’ She grabbed Neitha’s hand, which was cold and clammy, shaking slightly. ‘We’ll figure something out. Anyway, weren’t you going to, like, marry some rich dude or something?’ Neitha would be even more useless than normal if she was having a meltdown, so she needed distracting. And there was an odd scent and humidity in the air, a large drainage hole in the middle looking wetter than it should. Semari steered Neitha away from the hole, just in case it was some weird monster or a deathtrap or something.

The talk tipped her into her usual talk, her panic subsiding slightly. ‘I’m going to find a rich merchant, seduce him, and then drug him up and take all his business and money. Then I can be wealthy, and do what I want, without having to listen to anyone else.’

Semari shook her head. ‘That seems a lot of extra work. So, you’ve gotta find some merchant, seduce him, all that stuff. Which you can probably manage, no problem, you’re pretty enough for that. But then you dose him up and he goes all stupid. So then you’ve got to do his job, ‘cos he’s, like, a dribbling mess, and you’ve got to keep making drugs and stuff yourself. And if you’re his wife, you can’t just go bang some other hottie without people commenting. No, what you wanna do is be his mistress. Find one with a wife that can run the business, get her in on the plan, you do the drug thing, then you dose him up. You can go play around with others if you want, wifey gets the business and cuts you in, you do the drugs, everyone’s a winner. Well, not the dude, but at least he’ll die happy, I guess. And, I dunno, probably drug the wife later on as well, keep her sweet?’

There was a suggestion of movement in the pale light, something barely visible slowly creeping along the stone walls, a thickness in the shadows.

‘That’s not as dumb as I’d expect from you. I suppose that would grant more freedom, although at the risk of being cast out of rich society.’

‘Gems. Big bag of gems will get you through most things, and they’re easy to carry. And dwarves and elves both love ‘em, so they’re always easy to sell. Plus they’re pretty and shiny.’ There was a patch of darkness close by that seemed thicker than it should be. Semari kicked a pebble towards it, the stone skittering along the ground before slowing and stopping in midair. ‘So, uh, definitely no poisons or acids or anything hidden away? Anything at all? Not even another crappy knife?’

Neitha seemed a bit calmer now, or at least not on the verge of a breakdown. ‘No, the damn guards took everything! Thieving, gropey bastards. If we get out of here, I’m going to poison their food, make them shit their guts out.’

The astringent scent grew stronger. Was she just exhausted, or were the shadows moving? She kicked another pebble, this one stopping and hovering in mid-air, before slowly sinking to the ground. With one arm still around Neitha, glad of the support, she poked at the air. There was a squidgy resistance, like a blob of oil, a cool slickness around her fingers.

A wet, squelchy whisper filled the air, Neitha jumping back, hiding behind Semari. It spoke in harsh, moist tones, using the same language Kethys did when she was really drunk, really angry or both. Neitha shrank behind Semari, grabbing hold of Semari’s shoulders, far too tightly, whimpering in fear as the thing spoke.

‘Kill me. End my pain, let me die.’

Semari poked the goop again, trying to speak the same language, hurting her throat. ‘What are you? Get us out?’

The thing flowed forward, the chilly goop flowing higher up her arm. ‘Fire to burn. I can feel the power of heaven’s fire, seething within you.’ A slight prickling sensation tickled her, like having dozens of needles lightly poked into her arm.

‘It’s a demon!’ Neitha whimpered, still hiding behind Semari.

Semari tried to sound confident. ‘Nah, don’t think it’s eating my soul or anything.’ She shook her arm, the thing clinging on. ‘And demons are normally pointier, I think. This is squishy, not pointy. See?’ She poked it, waggling it closer to Neitha, who shrank back. She switched back to the nasty language. ‘What are you?’

A face formed in the squishy goop, raising out of the stuff. Creepily, it was Semari’s own face, although smaller, and see-through. ‘Captured and kept weak, fed prisoners.’

‘Well, you’re blobby and squishy.’ Poking her own face was weird, the stuff warping and distorting as she did so. ‘Can’t you just ooze out under a door or something?’

‘My main body is trapped nearby. Only fire can kill me. Please, kill me!’

Naitha starting to shake. ‘What are you doing, Semari? Stop hissing and growling at that thing, it’s weird.’

Semari tried to calm her. ‘It’s a soul-eating blob-monster. Don’t worry, it just wants to die though.’ She switched languages again. ‘Not got any fire, sorry. If you can help us get out, that would help. So, are you, like, the big blobby monster thing they feed people to? That sounds a bit crap, shouldn’t it be, like, wild tigers or something? You know, a bit showier, a bit fancier. Getting blobbified doesn’t sound that bad.’

The bigger bit of the blob was changing, other faces and stubs of bodies appearing out of it. ‘I am forced to consume them, that I may recreate their forms.’

‘But you don’t eat, like, souls and stuff? ‘Cos that’d be nasty. Dead’s dead, I guess, but I don’t really want my soul getting all goopified. Must be weird having blobby gladiators fighting I guess. So this is a long strand out from the main body?’ She turned to Neitha, who was back to almost breaking. ‘Calm down, they don’t want to eat us. I think. So what now? We’re going to get pushed into the arena and have to fight, aren’t we?’

The blobby forms took up positions of wailing and crying. ‘End this suffering, kill me!’

‘Yeah, yeah. Just chill, OK? We’ve got no fire and can’t even reach your body here. Once we’re outside we’ll do what we can.’ She lowered her voice, hoping Neitha couldn’t hear. ‘Can you do anything spooky to calm her down? Like, eat just a little bit of her soul or something? She’s goddam useless at the moment.’

A tendril shot out, slapping against Neitha’s shoulder with a wet ‘splurp’ sound. She yelped and tried to swat it off, then suddenly swayed, eyes blinking blearily. Then she seemed to recover herself, managing to brush the thing off, but shielded herself with her arms against further attack.

‘OK, that’s helped, I guess. So, we’re going to bust out of here, do some fighting, and try and free a blob monster. Fine, let’s do this! Neitha, try not to die, I’m probably in enough trouble with Kethys already.’

The gate began rising, sunlight creeping beneath, along with the sounds of a baying crowd and general violence.