Dylort, the underground city, the last place anyone wanted to be taken and imprisoned, was now Rawani's home.

It had been some time since she had been captured, and the tortures hadn't ceased. Once known as "The Battle Mistress," "The Maid of War," or simply, "The Warlord," she was now a spoil of war for the Order of the White Flame.

Rawani was taken to the deepest reaches of Kreiss Fortress, an underground prison where not only prisoners from Adwar but prisoners from much of Aeton went when kings, nobles, and rulers wished to remove a dangerous criminal or someone who would do them wrong.

Even when she arrived severely wounded, she was a constant problem for her jailers, who, between torture and pain, tried to extract from her some information requested by the hierarchs of the Order of the White Flame.

She didn't yield, and the wounds all over her body were proof of it.

The orc woman remained kneeling in the same position she had been in, at the bottom of a fragile path in the center of a room. At her side, there was a dark precipice that looked infinite, connected to the deepest caverns surrounding the city; falling there must have been the same as falling into the jaws of darkness. Her arms were held up by thick shackles attached to chains that could be coiled or stretched by jailers' decisions. The place was cold and damp, and at the bottom of that precipice, she could hear the sounds of the creatures that inhabited the darkness, but as that room was lit by torches, they tried not to approach her.

She was dirty, with some pieces of clothing and armor that she hadn't taken off in a long time. Her pride was sullied, and her will seemed ready to falter. However, her integrity remained intact.

The woman had barely eaten or drank anything all that time, which to the people watching her aroused a certain amount of disbelief.

Rawani was tired; her body reacted at times clumsy and at others weak as she couldn't seal her wounds. Her fury grew with every moment she was there, but so did her desperation. She was confident she could get out of there; she just had to break those shackles and fight for his escape. She would do so or die trying.

The heavy metal doors raised at the other end of the narrow path, and one jailer in charge of her imprisonment entered through the door.

The woman raised her eye and saw the man approaching through her messy locks of hair. She recognized his uniform, a black armor adorned with Rivris symbols that indicated that he must be the same Inquisitor as always.

"Good night, warlord," that man greeted Rawani mischievously. "It's dark out there. I wanted to let you know that since it must be hard to carry the day-to-day hours here for so long, mustn't it?"

Rawani, remained silent.

The man came very close in front of her to a line carved into that path's rocky ground. There, the man dropped a tray of food on the floor. Some pieces of raw meat, a moldy loaf of bread, and a jug of water were the dish offered to that woman.

"I'm sure it must be a common dish among yours..." the man indicated smugly.

Rawani remained silent but clenched his fists in hatred.

"It's been a long time since you last fed; orcs are creatures that eat a lot..."

"Fuck you."

The man laughed at her.

"I'm just trying to be nice to you, 'war prisoner,'" the man laughed as Rawani kept his gaze on the ground. "I'll tell you what; I'm not going to try to chat with you today to get you to tell me what you know. I'll let you eat in peace. Put down her chains!"

With that Inquisitor's shout, Rawani's hips began to give way, and her arms dropped. She dropped forward, falling with both hands resting on the ground. The blood supply returned to her numb arms, and she gasped for air.

A short distance away, she saw the tray with the food on it, and when she tried to reach out her hand to it, she was disgusted at what the man began to do.

A stream of urine began to fall on the food and water on that tray. Rawani watched this humiliation on the part of her jailer. Finally, he kicked the tray as far as she could reach it.

"Dinner is served, demon..."

Rawani looked at the tray and felt her instincts want to play against her; she was hungry and thirsty, and that was the only meal she had had in days.

The woman drew in an agitated breath at the decision-making in her head until, with a grunt, she dragged her numb hands across the floor until she threw the tray into the dark void, where it seemed that what she had thrown would never hit bottom.

The Inquisitor laughed at what the woman did.

"You still have some pride left! We can still chat with you some more before you give in."

The man continued to loud laugh until a noise interrupted him. The rumbling could be heard drowned out by the thick walls of the place, but the Inquisitor could see dust being blown off the surrounding walls.

"What's going on?" he asked aloud to his men behind the door. "Get the chains up!"

The man gave an unheeded order, and soon he heard another clatter outside the cell.

"Men! Report, now!" he ordered as he walked toward the door. "Open the door!"

The Inquisitor ordered as he propitiated several knocks on the massive metal cell door. Finally, the door opened before him, but as he stepped through it, he fell to the floor unconscious.

Rawani watched as the man fell to the floor from a descending staff blow from a lithe figure from the ceiling.

The orc woman looked down that long hallway, the end of the doorway now brightly lit by the crystals they used as lights.

Quickly, the figure falling from the ceiling entered Rawani's cell in a hurry.

"Rawa!" cried a youthful voice with concern.

Reaching her, the orc woman saw that it was Peck.

"Peck?" she asked in a weak voice that little reflected her surprise, "What are you doing here?"

The Marked girl took in the orc woman's face, brushing the dirty strands of hair away from her face. Her large green eyes reflected pain at seeing her friend in such a state and great concern.

However, the girl knew she had no time to suffer for that and soon took a waterskin from her belt, which she brought close to the orc woman's lips.

"Drink soon," Peck indicated.

Rawani opened her mouth and began to drink until she nearly choked. The water ran down her throat and revitalized her significantly, more than it should have. The water, or elixir, that girl was giving her was water from the spring of the magicians. Those who drank that water could recover from fatigue at great speed.

Rawani soon recoiled as she nearly drowned in the water and coughed as she slowly got to her feet with the help of the Marked trickster.

"What are you doing here?" asked Rawani as she looked around. She watched the mechanism pulling the heavy, thick chains holding her captive.

"Kyrus and Xindal are outside setting up a distraction and-"

"Kyrus brought you here...to Dylort?" the woman asked with indignation and annoyance. Rawani, first and foremost, cared for that girl too much at times.

"This is no time for you to be angry with him!" the girl exclaimed loudly. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Right," Rawani said, frowning as she tightened the chains. "Head for the door."

Peck backed up to the entrance of the cell. Rawani, revitalized, watched as the cuts and wounds that never seemed to heal on her arms and chest quickly sealed. The woman then advanced toward the door, pulling her chains with her. The orc woman growled bestially as she noticed how her shackles wouldn't budge, so she knew there was only one way out. Using her mighty strength, she charged towards the door. The chains met their limit as a couple of slips burst into pieces, and Rawani then made it to the end of the door with the remains of the chains in dragging behind her.

Already in the hallway, Rawani dug her fingers into the shackles, and along with a loud roar, she ripped both pieces of metal from her wrists.

On the other side were several downed guards lying unconscious on the floor, the product of the trickster girl's nimble, deft blows.

"How did they find me?" asked Rawani, panting as she rubbed her bloodied wrists.

"Kyrus and Xindal got the information from a black armor guy," the girl indicated. "Then we broke into Dylort, and I snuck in here."

"I heard they got me all the way to the bottom of this prison. So how did you know I'd be here?"

Peck grinned and looked at the orc woman, "I just had to think, 'where would they take Rawani if they put her in a cell? Ah! To the deepest and hardest to get out of!"

"Heh, you're right," the orc woman snorted. "Let's get out of here; I must get my bracelet back..."

Peck pulled that pair of thick silver bracelets out of his traveling bag.

"We got here a day ago," Peck indicated with a smile full of pride, "We had time to do research and all that, and we found the High Inquisitor who was here, and I stole them for you."

"You're the best, Peck," Rawani said with a smile displaying her long lower fangs.

"It was all thanks to Kyrus; he planned how to get you out of here." the trickster girl indicated as she helped her friend put on her bracelets. "You should thank him..."

"I'll think about it," Rawani said as she let out a snort and adjusted her bracelets.

Even if her wrist wounds weren't fully healed, she couldn't afford to waste more time.

The bracelets were adjusted to her wrists, and it was then that they linked back to her. Just like that, the vast arsenal of weapons Rawani had attached to that magical object was again at her service so that a heavy ax appeared in her hands in a bright flicker.

"Come, Peck, let's get out of here."