Elena coughed weakly as she came back to her senses. The moment she coughed, she regretted it, of course, as pain shot along her bruised ribs. What had... what had happened?

The girl groaned weakly and opened her eyes to try and get a sense of where she was. Of course, that accomplished nothing -- everything stayed just as dark. Clumsily she brought her hand up to the side of her face, patting at her eyes to make sure there was no blindfold. Of course there wasn't. Lovely. That meant she was either blind or in a pitch-dark room.

She sat up, hands scrabbling on the rough stone floor, wincing as her head spun from not having any sort of visual stimulus. Internally she was panicking about not being able to see but kept her mouth shut while she scrambled to get her thoughts back together. Flashes of the things that had happened the day before flickered through her mind. Sneaking down the stairs with the torch and food during the changing of the guard. Throwing rolls, hard cheese, dried pork into the cells. Then something had come up behind her and... snarled. Causing her to go tumbling down the rest of the steps. Then nothing... she must have hit her head.

She guessed she was now in the dungeons. With... with criminals. With the slaves who'd gone violent, the thieves and the arsonists and traitors and murderers.

Well, that's lovely. She prayed to her gods that she was in a cell with a thief or some petty criminal, then said, "Hello?" The word came out as little more than a rasp, but hopefully enough to get the attention of whomever she was sharing with.

It had been a long time since Eric had heard another human voice. He turned toward the sound, though it made no difference as the cell was black as pitch.
"Yes?"
He made an attempt so speak, but it only came out as a hoarse whisper. He made an attempt to sit up, his muscles feeling raw from inactivity. Years of hopelessness affecting his body.

"Just a second."
After searching his worn tunic for a few seconds, he found what he was looking for, he had kept it hidden for Five years. A magic ring. He had never used it, as he often had no need for light, took it out and slipped it onto his hand. The ring began to glow faintly, just enough for Eric to see the girl, fear in her eyes. He recognized her, as she would come down into the dungeon on occasion and offer him food. Her kindness had gotten her sent to the depths.

Eric smiled in an attempt to reassure Elena, but his appearance didn't help.
"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you," He said, holding out his hand, "My name is Eric, what's yours?"

Elena flinched away from the man's raspy voice, then further away from the glowing. But finally her curiosity got the best of her and she crawled closer to him. He had clearly been down here for a while, judging by his lack of grooming, but he had a kind, if stern face under all of the grime. She hesitated for a moment, but then clasped hands with him.

"My name is Elena." she said simply. The young woman didn't volunteer anything else, nor ask any other questions, instead squinting off into the darkness as though hoping to make the surroundings become more clear. She wanted to ask more about Eric, of course. She wasn't a fool, she'd noticed the elaborate embroideries on his tunic, which would have been beautiful had they been clean. Between that and his somewhat refined features he was clearly a man of noble birth. But she held her tongue -- what business did a slave have of asking things of a lord? Even a disgraced one, even in the darkest dungeon in all the kingdoms.