“Why are you doing this to me!?”.
I stop tracing the runes on the floor of the dim, stone chamber we find ourselves in. The warm glow of magically lit crystals a stark contrast to the ice-cold fury radiating from Alissa’s deep blue eyes.
“You won’t get away with this you disgusting freak!” The young mage screams at the top of her lungs. “I have friends, sorcerers much stronger than you, that will fucking kill you as soon as they realize I’m gone”.
I watch in pleasant admiration, as the tears flowing down her face offer me a glimpse of the sweet fear hiding under the violent front she is trying to display.
In her defense, it’s quite hard to be intimidating when both your arms and legs are restrained. Especially when you are naked, and in a position that makes you look more like an angry starfish rather than a fearsome imperial mage.
“You are pathetic! I’ve seen plenty of misogynistic assholes like you: rogue sorcerers who don’t follow the Imperial Code since they allowed women to join. Your friends are all rotting in the Crimson Dungeons now, and you will join them soon enough”. With hair as white as snow, blue eyes and noble features like these, she could have gotten lucky and married into one of the Families, I muse.