[color=e3c5ee][h3]Astaelin Cassiel[/h3][/color]

Her lungs felt like they were on fire, and darkness tried to fill her mind, but she fought back, fighting to keep a hold of her knife. The Drakken won, of course, and finally the dagger fell from her hand. He kept her without air for another few moments, then allowed her to take a breath into her aching lungs.

As she was stripped, she felt a slight rush of shame, then anger as her prized daggers were taken from her. “I am NOT a novice, and I’ll show you that!” she said angrily, lunging for the Drakken and trying to get her knives. The move was strong enough that it somewhat surprised one of her restrainers, who had relaxed his grip, and she wrenched her arm from his hold and nearly got to her knives before the massive guard grabbed her again, pulling cruelly on her arm and forcing her down to the floor.

The dagger bit cruelly into her back, sending lightning bolts of pain through her body, but she didn’t scream, not until the Drakken twisted the knife. Then she lost control of herself, yielding her screams for the Drakken’s sadistic pleasure.

Hearing the other girl screaming was worse than experiencing the torture herself. She cringed internally, but kept her face blank. 

After they had finally been lifted into the air and collared, Asta made eye contact, her pale violet eyes seeming to smolder with her hatred.

[color=e3c5ee]“I don’t tell my name to monsters, Drakken. I am not afraid of you, nor what you can do to me. I despise you, but I do not fear you.”[/color] She let a rush of heat into the collar around her neck, even though it somewhat burned her even as she incinerated it. [color=e5c3ee]“I will never submit to you.”[/color]

She lashed out with her power, intending to set the Drakken on fire, though it was probably suicide. She had one thing that the Drakken could never take away from her: Hope.
~~
[i] “Well. Boys, I hate to bring this subject up, but they’re not going to be happy with this attack. They’ll probably drag me, and Miry too, up to Shadow Worth and give us to some horny old man.” Asta said, grinning somewhat at the insult and innuendo. The young men around her grinned too, one of them playfully slapping her rear.

The five young rabble-rousers lounged in their hand-built clubhouse that had served as a base of operations since they had been little. It was conveniently near to the palace, hidden in the woods just off the main road. From the trees they could snipe anyone coming to it or from it, which was exactly their intention. 

The table, which used to be covered in coloring pages and wooden swords, was now covered in maps and real knives and daggers and the remnants of an afternoon spent fletching arrows.

“Asta, we’ll come find you, if you get taken.” Iral said, black eyes snapping. He reached for a dagger, cleaning under his nails with it. “And no one’s going to harm your sister. We’ll gut them if they try.”

“There’s hell to pay for anyone messing with our Stars.” Idasu leaned across the table and gave Asta a one-armed hug. She giggled as she counted the daggers hidden on his person. She could feel thirteen, and that was just in a hug!


Ridel grinned at her. “Just give them hell, Asta. Give them hell, and don’t let them break you. We’ll come get you, and then we’ll storm Drakka together.”

Even stoic Sisur had to crack a smile at that, the five rather small Gems conquering all of Drakka. Confidence bolstered, they gathered their weapons.

“Together forever?” Asta asked, eyes snapping, as she buckled her armguards and adjusted her quiver.

“Until the end of time.”[/i]
[hr]
[color=a251bf][h3]Aymiria Cassiel[/h3][/color]

Miry flinched as the Drakken stepped closer to her, then looked up at him in surprise as he offered the handkerchief. She mumbled something unintelligible, that vaguely sounded like the words “thank you” and took the cloth, wincing as her hands brushed her new husband’s. [color=a251bf]”S-s-sorry, s-sir….”[/color] she mumbled, wiping her eyes and trying to calm herself down.

[color=a251bf]”M-my f-f-friends call m-me Miry, i-if it p-please you, s-sir…”[/color] Miry looked down at the floor, not willing to look up at the man.

She took the glass of water, though she nearly dropped it because her hands were shaking so much, and nervously sipped, still expecting some terrible poison or something. Realistically, she knew the Drakken was being quite kind to her, that he perhaps wasn’t such a monster as she had been led to believe. He seemed fairly decent, in any case.

[b]“what elements would you be? In fact, share a little about yourselves.”[/b]

[color=a251bf]“W-well… m-my element is a-air… I u-um…”[/color] Her voice trailed off; she was terribly uncertain. So long had she spent in her sister’s shadow that she’d somewhat ceased to have a personality of her own. She was always “the younger Cassiel” or “the shyer Cassiel” or “the less aggressive Cassiel” and never anything on her own.

[color=a251bf]“I g-guess… I pl-play f-flute but I’m n-not very… n-not v-v-very g-good at it…”[/color]

She fell silent, blushing and looking down, ashamed at herself for wasting their time with roundabout explanations.
[hr]

[h3][color=a1e4ee]Kaelira Isrilen[/color][/h3]

When the necklace was taken from her she lunged for the drakken, blindly, just anything to get her precious ring back. She dimly saw him putting the ring on Kalani’s finger, through oddly blurry eyes—she was crying?!

[color=a1e4ee]“You bastard! Give me my ring back! Give it back!”[/color] she tried to jump at the man, but of course one of the guards still in the room caught her, twisting her arms up behind her back until she went limp.

[b]”You behave yourself.”[/b] the guard spoke into her ear. Limply Kai nodded, and the guard let go of her in time for her to follow Krone.

[b]I am Krone, you may call me such or master. But nothing else.... Now tell me about yourself, what are your elements. And little one, there is still time to get in my good graces if you give me your name."[/b]

She would say nothing. Realistically it was best for her to say something, but then, her sense of self-preservation had gone out the door the moment she’d seen Ridian knocked out cold on the ground, blood coming from where he’d hit his head.

[color=a1e4ee]“I won’t tell you a damn thing about me, [i]Drakken bastard.[/i]”[/color] she spoke fiercely, even though she was afraid. She wouldn’t back down, wouldn’t submit. To submit was to be unfaithful, and she would sooner die than be unloyal to Ridian. She would see him again one day, whatever the Drakken said.