Being arrested, even thrown behind bars, was something Stella and I expected. Only from what Traiana told us during the planning stages of our quest, they were supposed to put us in an improvised prison intended for cases like ours, spies, defectors, and others. There were several of those “facilities” scattered throughout the encampment, mostly near the gates, to make it easier for the knights guarding and patrolling the outer perimeter and not to drag potential threats into the heart of the encampment.

Still, whatever the reason for the placement, it was the root of Stella’s and my initial confusion - when they ushered us so deep into the encampment instead of a tented cell.

“Did we screw up somewhere, Ella?” I asked Stella while my question was directed at Traiana, pacing in the mud outside our cages.

How to talk to her without anyone noticing was one of the issues we had been working on before coming here. It may not have looked like it - and I couldn’t tell, my senses being overwhelmed by the number of beasts staring at me - but chances were we were being watched even now, whether directly or through magic. Be that as it may, we simply couldn’t afford to address Traiana directly, whether by her name or simply: ma’am.

To make a long story short, we came up with nicknames. When I wanted to address Traiana directly, I spoke to Stella, but with the nickname Ella. When she had a question for Traiana, she was supposed to address me as Korrey. The concept was simple, perhaps stupidly simple, and even unnecessary, but that was for the time to tell.

“I don’t think so, little Guardian,” Traiana pondered my question of whether we had screwed up somewhere. “You played your part well, little ones, perhaps too well.”

I gave Stella a questioning look - not meant for her - finding the whole not being able to talk to Traiana quite challenging. Could I ask what Traiana meant when Stella wasn’t the one who answered my question? If anyone was actually watching us, they’d find me talking into empty space damn suspicious, possibly nipping our plans in the bud.

“I don’t know,” Stella replied, returning the same look.

“The Dia Eichenralke were a strong and prideful people. They may not have considered themselves above the rest, but that didn’t stop others from feeling inferior. That is an ugly thing that brings out many bad traits in people. Simply put, many were eager to teach them a lesson whenever the opportunity arose. It only got worse with their demise.”

“Are they bullying us because of who we are?” Damn, it was so damn hard to talk to someone who shouldn’t have been there.

“”They are what?"" Both Traiana and Stella paused at my question, or more precisely, as I quickly realized, at my thoughtless use of the word bullying, for which I couldn’t find a Standard equivalent and used it as it was. They didn’t know it. The word. Not the act itself; there were bullies here, too. They just called them different names, like son of a bitch, bastard, asshole, bitch, cunt, and so on.

“You know, taking us for pushovers, weakling, easy meat,” I blurted from the top of my head, hoping they would both understand.

“Yeah, it looks like it.” Stella nodded, then grinned. “If so, they’ll know how wrong they are.” You could chalk it up to her being too caught up in her role, but I knew better, seeing it the way she did. Sure, we didn’t put up any resistance when they brought us here. But that didn’t mean we were going to let them do whatever they wanted with us.

“They will,” I growled in agreement, not willing to bend to the will of some sick bastard again.

“It was my oversight that brought you here, and fight back if you feel threatened; however, I would not advise you to put up undue resistance, little ones. If you wish to enter the heart of the Echo, the battlefield, you must prove that you will be useful and not a nuisance.”

It was hard to argue with that. If we wanted to get out of these cages, we had to prove our worth, hopefully without having to go to the Beast Pit or get into bed with some knight.

“Maybe we should have tried a different gate, Korrey. Seems like we ran into a bunch of assholes at that one.”

My thoughts exactly. “Yeah, we did. A little late to do anything about it, though.”

“While it’s true that the knights there did not honor their position the best, I think the Knight Commander handled his men well, considering the pressure they’re under here. He didn’t drag things out or make unnecessary fun of you. As I told you, you’d get a much rougher treatment elsewhere. They’d probably strip you down to your underwear, possibly even naked, to make sure you weren’t wearing anything, any tool that could cause damage inside. They would search you thoroughly for any hidden magic or curses, all under the pretext of encampment safety and all within their authority should they deem it necessary”.

‘Necessary?’ It sounded excessive to me the first time she told us, and it still did. Stripping someone naked? That sounded more like an abuse of power than merely carrying out their duties. Nevertheless, now that Traiana reminded us, Knight Commander Sarralot’s actions did not seem so bad. Hell, he might even be a nice guy. Still, the question remained. Why did he order his men to put us here?

“They didn’t ask a whole lot of questions, did they, Korrey?” Stella asked, her thoughts obviously wandering in a similar direction.

“True; besides my mutations, I expected to be asked about my runes, to say the least.”

“The questions will come, make no mistake, little ones,” Traiana said, still pacing thoughtfully in front of our cages, searching for an explanation as to why we ended up here. A few breaths later, she stopped abruptly as realization flashed through her eyes. “How could I have missed that? I’m sorry, little ones. The lax attitude of the knights at the Forest Gate, that I thought would make it easier for you to get in, worked to your disadvantage. The attitude toward Dia Eichenralke certainly played a role, but so did the Commander’s caution. These cages are built for beasts, far sturdier than those for humans.

Wait a minute. Was she trying to tell us that because they hadn’t searched us as thoroughly - which, on the one hand, I was glad about - they put us in here just in case? ‘Caution, my ass!’ That was just laziness, dumping their responsibility on others, presumably those who would come to talk to us later - in a day or two. Come to think of it, should I expect to be stripped naked?

That aside, it explained why we were here, our hands and feet still bound, both the cage and the shackles suppressing our magic. They wanted to make damn sure we didn’t do anything funny while we were under arrest and confined. “I get it. Still, wouldn’t a normal cell do? We’re not that strong . . .”

“What?” Stella asked, giving me a give-your-shit-together look. It took me a moment to realize what her problem was. I was responding to Traiana, to what our ancient guide had said, not to her.

“Sorry, I was thinking out loud. You see . . . it just doesn’t make sense to me why they would keep us locked up here, except that they’re assholes,” I said in an attempt to salvage the situation, for I could hear people’s footsteps approaching. Though small, thanks to the constant downpour and the ever-present roar of the beasts, there was still a chance they could hear us, and not just those approaching.

Not long after I signaled their approach to Stella, a man and a woman appeared around the corner. At first glance, they were not the ones we wanted to see. These two most likely weren’t even members of any knightly order - more like one of the people who kept the whole encampment running, beast caretakers through and through, judging by their work clothes, their reason for coming here not hard to tell.

The stout woman carried a bucket in each hand and an even stouter man two jugs and two loaves of bread.

“Shit! They really lock them up here,” the woman, her voice snarky, gasped when she saw us, betraying that this was not a common practice. “The last guy who ended up here went crazy.”

“He was already insane when they brought him here,” the man argued, tossing his head in our direction. “Do these two look crazy to you?”

As they stopped in front of our cages, the woman took a good look at us. “That guy looked normal to me, too.”

“Seriously?” The man clicked his tongue and shot us a look. “Maybe it’s better if they tell you themselves whether they’re right in the head, huh?”

“Are you?” she actually asked us.

Stella and I looked at each other, not sure if she was serious. “Would you know if you were?” I eventually said back. ‘I mean, to someone crazy, everyone else must have seemed crazy, right?’

“That’s a surprisingly good question,” the man laughed. “Though they say you want to join the fight, I see nothing sane about that.”

“Yet here you are,” Stella pointed out.

“ Didn’t say I was sane. But I’m not crazy enough to go anywhere near the front, either. Just look around . . . and those are just the ones they managed to take alive.”

“Stop flirting with them, Reid,” the woman snarled, setting down one of the buckets and taking the baton-shaped tool from her belt. “Put your mugs against the back wall, both of you, or I’ll send a full dose through your fucking bodies.”

Having only a vague idea of what she was talking about - most likely some function of the cages or our handcuffs, possibly both - I did as she said and moved to the back wall of the cage. She then opened the door of mine, never taking her eyes off me, and threw the bucket in, promptly closing it behind her a breath later. Her behavior made me feel like a wild beast, threatening to pounce on her at any moment. A learned habit, I suppose, that came with the nature of her work, for she did the same at Stella’s.

“A luxury the beasts do not have,” she noted to the buckets, amused at her own remark.

“Funny,” I muttered, hesitant to actually ask the bitch what was eating at my mind. “Why put us here, among the beasts, anyway? To scare us away? If so, it won’t work. I’ve faced far more powerful beasts than these.”

The plain truth. While they might have assumed that I was talking about the Battle of Atazar, the fortress city where Dia Eichenralke met their doom, Esudein was on my mind.

“Maybe because you’re a beast yourself, Eichenralke.”

I was speechless, almost. “You’re not the first to tell me that. Then what about my friend here?”

“Eichenralke like you. And your FRIEND, blame yourself.”

Now I was really at a loss for words. It was impossible to talk sense to this bitch. All she saw were two Eichenralke and a beastwoman. In fact, I began to question Traiana’s claim that we would be worse off as common mercenaries. The people here seemed to have a serious beef with the Eichenralke.

“Don’t mind Amari,” the man, Reid, said as he put his hand on the woman’s shoulder to quiet her. “She’s not good with people; prefers beasts.”

“They don’t talk shit back.”

I grinned at her. “Didn’t you say I was a beast? So what is the problem?”

“You talk shit.”

“All right, that’s enough, you two,” Reid raised his voice and shoved a jug and a loaf of bread into my cell. “I know, not much. But you won’t get better grub until you’re on the roster. Should eat it before the rain turns it to slush.”

“Well . . . thanks.”

“No need, not for that.

“It would be nice to have a tarp over our heads,” Stella said as he handed her the same feast, and I couldn’t help but nod. While it was handy to have rainproof coats, the prospect of being out in the downpour day and night wasn’t exactly comforting, not when you knew it wouldn’t stop raining for another four days.

Reid smirked, and I knew we were going to spend the night without a roof over our heads. “Tell me about it, Eichenralke. Sorry, tarps, raincoats, tents, they’ve all been in short supply for a long time. You’ll just have to put up with the rain.”

“For how long?” Stella pressed her luck with a touch of her charm.

“You’re asking the wrong guy.”

“Then do you at least know if we’ve been reported to the command?”

The woman, Amari, sneered. “Old Virac’s been bitching about it for a good hour.”

“What she’s trying to say is, yes, he made the report. The guys at the gate should have, too.”

“Your best guess? Please, how long?” Stella flashed him her most alluring smile while biting her lower lip.

While I found it a little awkward, the man seemed to like what he saw. “Honestly, you’re gonna spend at least a night here.”

“Shit!” Stella cursed, the alluring bitch look gone.

“Come on, Reid. We have work to do,” Amari reminded him, obviously not happy to be here. “Or should I tell Maren that you’re eyeing other hussies?”

The man shuddered. “Hey, I was just talking to them. You can’t blame a fella for wanting to have a little chat after a day with the beasts.”

“It’s not even noon.”

“All right, all right, I’m going,” he said with a sigh and gave us a last look. “See you later, Eichenralkes.”

“That was surprisingly informative,” Traiana noted even before the two of them disappeared between the corridors of the cages.

I saw it differently, though. “What do you make of it, Ella?”

“They informed the command about you; the food suggests that they don’t want you to die, even if they don’t make your stay here any easier. The fact that their commander was upset about you being here suggests that it is not common practice to bring prisoners here, which is in line with what I knew. As the woman suggested, it could be your appearance, little Guardian, or the origin I have chosen for you.”

Granted, put like that, the small talk didn’t seem so pointless.

From the next cage came Stella’s growl, followed by her sigh. “That we’re stuck here until someone in charge shows up,” she tried to follow my question and shrugged. “It could be like the bitch said, and we’re here because of the way you look, or they have full prisons.”

“As the war progresses, the prison tents are more crowded than they used to be, and there are more of them, but they are far from full. I can tell you that for a fact, little ones.”

I could see that from her perspective; waiting a day or two was a trivial matter, a mere blink of an eye if I were to compare my age to hers. And I did get what she was saying; some things just took time. Hell, I didn’t become the Deviant of Humanity in a day. But while it might seem like we had all the time in the world here, given the recurring cycles of the Echo, one lasted only five days, one of which we spent getting ourselves back together, and now it looks like we might have to sit on our asses through another, maybe more.

At least the cages had a solid floor, and we didn’t have to deal with mud on top of the rain - fucking rain.

When Traiana vanished, literally, I pulled the bread out from under my coat.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to eat that.”

Admittedly, it didn’t look very fresh. I didn’t see any mold on it, though. “Why not? You think it’s poisoned or something?”

“What? No. Why would they poison someone they have to interrogate?”

That was what I thought. “Then why not?”

“I just don’t find it very appetizing.” To demonstrate, she tapped her bread, which, to her credit, sounded almost like wood.

“You don’t know when we’ll get another one,” I argued.

“Doesn’t mean I have to eat it, does it?”

“Don’t regret it later.” I shrugged and took my first bite. Surprisingly, for being old, tough, and requiring washing it down with water from a jug, the bread didn’t taste too bad.

“You’re a glutton; you know that?” Stella said in disbelief, amused, and handed me hers through the bars. “Here, take it.”

“Are you serious?”

“Um-hmm. I’m not eating that.”

I swallowed the remark about the spoiled rich brat and took the bread from her. She wasn’t that far from the truth about the glutton part. It hadn’t been that long since I had a hearty meat breakfast, but it wasn’t without reason that I ate again. “You know, when I had a collar around my neck and was locked in a cage like this, I learned to eat what I was given . . .”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Korra,” Stella blurted out in realization and moved closer to the bars. “I completely forgot . . . how are you holding up?”

“Honestly, I thought it would be worse. Maybe it’s the comfort of knowing I won’t be here for more than four days, maybe it’s the lack of people screaming in agony, or maybe it’s the fact that you’re here with me,” I gave her my best smile and took a bite.

“So you’re all right?”

“I am,” I said, the heavy rain hiding the lie from her. It was true when I said I thought it would be worse, that being behind bars would hit me a lot harder. But it wasn’t the fact of being behind bars that was getting to me. It was the constant roar of the caged beasts around us that reminded me of other slaves suffering from mutations. Worst of all, I could understand some of the beasts.

>> It hurts. <<

>> Let me out. <<

>> I’ll tear you to pieces, humans. <<

>> It’s so cold. <<

Pressing my ears closer to my head, I did my best to ignore them, distracting myself by munching on tough old bread.