There was Jaxx, in the place he thought he would work hard to never get back in: the torture floor. Cecil and Yorick started sniffing around, like kittens when they were brough home for the first time. Of course kittens don't whisper "It has been a while..." creepily like Cecil did, but whoever didn't hear that would very possibly make that association. Nyvis seemed to, somehow, be more impatient than Jaxx himself. "What are you going to do, anyway?" Cecil turned around with her usual warm smile, completely unaffected by Nyvis' hasty tone or presence in general. "I have already answered that: a game. It is a surprise!" While Cecil and Nyvis put up with each other, Yorick was tapping the ebony wall with his hands, his ear strongly pressed against it, as if he was cracking a safe. "And what the hell are you do...?" Nyvis was interrupted by a heavy mechanism's noise, coming from inside the wall the boy had been knocking. Thin strings of dust fell from the ceiling as the wall was lifted by heavy ebony gears and chains deafeningly moving beneath their feet and above their heads. Somehow, whatever room was behind that wall already had lit torches, with surprisingly little to no rust. "How did you... know that?" Cecil was surprisingly shocked with Nyvis' statement. "You didn't know?" This question made the former headmistress highly uncomfortable. She thought she knew every corner in her prison, but a secret passage in the torture room, a place in which she had spent a lot of time, could mean there were several other surprises Nyvis could very easily have missed. "Ughm... how was I supposed to know?" Before Nyvis could end her uncontrollable stuttering, Yorick had already turn around to mock her in a rude way no guard or prisoner would usually dare to. "Why work in Drahonnal if you don't know its history?" Of course, someone like Nyvis didn't take criticism very well, or well at all. As her eyes bursted with the angry gold tone, she yelled furiously, her rough voice echoing in the unknown secret of the torture floor. "I AM part of Drahonnal's history!" History, history, history, the echo kept repeating itself in the distance, hinting at the enormous size of the hidden room behind the wall. The boy wasn't intimidated. He actually seemed very curious about Nyvis' eyes shifting like that, and kept staring awkwardly at her. "I see..."
Neither Yorick nor Cecil, the leaders of the expedition, took the lead, and the group was left in the smelly torture floor idle for a while, in complete awakward silece. Jaxx had too many questions about his future at that moment. Too many to remain silent. "So..." "Shut up!" Such hostility from Nyvis wasn't uncommon, even to a new prisoner, but, whether they were used to it or not, most prisoners flinched when Nyvis used her voice's full potential to roar at them, just like Jaxx did. Five minutes passed, ten, fifteen. Jaxx, for a while, believed the kids were automatons that had run out of steam, instead of creepy people. But, at last, Cecil spoke. "Let's go in, then!"
That scenario was very embarrassing. Two kids who were little more than 10 were leading the way to an orc criminal, a breton scavenger, a couple of Thalmor guards, and a... well, a Nyvis, into the unknown, fearlessly, one of them staring at the ground like a loner, the other skipping merrily. The path seemed endless, and tighter the further they walked. Even though the torches were spread across it, there were some moments of such darkness that Jaxx stepped on the brute next to him, resulting in a big push against the ebony wall. It was a painful journey, which made Jaxx endure pain, the smell of the orc's sweat, and Cecil's humming all the time, a symphony which, although it was optimistic and decently tuned, didn't match their situation and made the breton even more frustrated. After all that punishment, they got to a large room, which split in three tunnels. "You wait there!" Cecil pointed at the middle entrance, where the Thalmor and Nyvis would enter. "You come with me!" She grabbed Jaxx's hand, and dragged him to the left tunnel, leaving the right one to her brother and the orc.
As an experienced cave dweller, Jaxx knew that they were going deeper the further they went in that tunnel. However, it did not take long before they got to the end of that passage. Jaxx and Cecil found themselves in what looked like an armory, and she hadn't let his hand go yet. "You will fight for me, against my brother's prisoner." Her tone was the same as usual, friendly, and somewhat cute, even though the message's nature was purely frightening. "If you win, you get a piece of bread, if you lose, the orc gets a piece of bread. Simple!" She finally had dropped his hand, but Jaxx was now too worried to care about that. On the wall, there was a wooden rack in poor condition, holding all sorts of weapons made of raw ebony in perfect state. Cecil continued, either not noticing the fear in Jaxx's eyes, or not caring about such. "Choose a weapon to fight the orc with. Only one weapon, though, so choose wisely!" That actually wasn't a hard task. Jaxx could only handle daggers and swords, and a dagger in a duel with all kinds of weapons available was fairly useless. He grabbed the lightest, thinnest blade he could find hanging on the wall and gave it a couple of swings, with a sigh. "I am going to die..." But the little girl eased him by grabbing his hand, as if he was about to give birth. "I have faith in you." She grinned, and walked towards the exit. "When that ebony door opens, it means it is your turn to come out. Don't attack the orc instantly, because I want to give my champion an introduction." And that was it. She left Jaxx there, alone, in front of a thick ebony door with five locks, that lead to whatever hell Drahonnal had yet failed to unleash.
It was ironic. Jaxx had been named by his father in honor of a man who was a great duelist. He was called the Grandmaster at Arms, due to his ability to turn any everyday object into a lethal weapon. While that had happened to another bearer of that name, Jaxx was there thinking about his inevitable demise, that awaited behind the monstruous door.
Meanwhile, Nyvis' path had been short, and lead to a balcony adorned with many ebony statues, with the view towards an arena shaped zone, its sands shed with blood, its doors seeming to weigh more than a mammoth, and its walls made of wood, with nails sticking out, pointed at the inside. On the stoop, there were several benches, also made of ebony, to spectate the battles from above. It didn't take her long to figure out the orc would be fighting the breton in those sands, and it took her even less to bet on who would win. Cecil and Yorick came back not long after that, and, once again, the girl explained exactly what was going on, while she took a seat next to Yorick. "My brother and I have made a bet. The winner of this fight allows its master to get the headmistress' bedroom." "What?!" "Shh! Miss Nyvis, it is about to start!"
The door on the right opened, the orc coming out of it without fear, wielding a needlessly large ebony axe on his right hand. "My prisoner is Ru'Tak. He promised me he would tear the little breton apart." Nyvis noticed the Thalmor guards smile in response to said statement, but she didn't care. She was not fond of that man anyway (in fact, killing him was what she was stopped from doing), and even if she was, there was nothing Nyvis could do, since she wasn't in charge anymore. Then, the little man's door opened, and after a few seconds, he came out of his cover, wielding a puny sword that was put to shame fairly easily when compared to his foe's axe. Cecil happily introduced Jaxx. "My Champion's name is Jaxx..." But the orc immediately threw a punch at Jaxx, before she could even finish the first sentence, to the joy of all the men spectating. Cecil sat down with a semi-cute frown. "That wasn't fair..." She muttered in a vanished tone. "My orc seems to care more about his reward than your breton." Yorick shrugged, indifferent to his sister.
Meanwhile, Jaxx had been knocked down by the unexpected blow to his chin, but he had to stand back up very quickly to avoid getting cut in half. "C'mon breton! Dinner's on you! Haha!" It seemed the stereotypes about orcs were right after all... Most of them know how to swing an axe, even after spending months in prison without practice. Ru'Tak was reckless. His axe literally cut in half the little air Jaxx had to breathe, and would easily chop his neck if he did the first a little more carelessly. What was expected to be a honored duel, became more of a Sheogorath tale, where a mad behemoth chased a helpless fool with a giant axe in circles. Eventually, the orc grabbed Jaxx by his rags, and pulled him back to the center of the arena, in front of the unimpressed spectators. He didn't have trouble noticing the little girl that had saved and chosen him was now worried. "Should I begin?!" The orc shouted, fearlessly, a malacathian voice thundering around the arena's dark corners. If Jaxx wanted to live, he needed to think about something very quickly. "When all else fails..." The breton slammed the hilt of his ebony sword against the orc's crotch as hard as he could, making him squirm in pain. "What?!" Yorick roared. That short time he gained was enough for Jaxx to get back up, kick the orc in his weak spot again, and rip the axe from his hands. As his left hand threw the weapon behind him, his right one prepared to kill him with the light sword. But the orc, somehow, grabbed the sword by the blade, with his bare left hand, grunting inhumanly. A headbutt against Jaxx's head, and a strong pull were enough to even the odds, making both prisoners weaponless. "Suit yourself, weakling!" That was one stubborn orc. He threw a couple of punches after taunting Jaxx, one with his bad hand, and then lifted him from the ground by his neck. "After I am done with you... I will leave Drahonnal and start over! Nothing can stop me from getting out!" How come he would get a better reward than Jaxx? No, nothing like that. The boy had lied to make the orc more motivated to win, by any means. The breton's air was beginning to go thin, and Jaxx's kicks on the behemoth's abs were growing weaker by the second. Low on both air and hope, the breton stuck his thumb inside the beast's eye, not deep enough to blind him, but enough to distract him for an easy punch below his jaw. Ru'Tak angrily tossed Jaxx like a ragdoll across the arena. "Fine... I will just beat you to death!"
It was sad, watching such a one-sided fight, even if it was the annoying breton the one being beaten up. Yorick and the elves, on the other hand, unlike Nyvis, were enjoying the fight to its fullest. They laughed, they yelled, and they hailed their favorite fighter in the arena, as the breton was continuously mauled by that giant orc. "If you want Cecil, you can just give up, and I will spare your allmighty champion." The girl did not reply, and pouted instead. It was clear that the orc had gained his advantage in an unfair way, but, in Nyvis' opinion, it wouldn't have changed the result much otherwise.
Jaxx had been knocked down again. His face was covered in dirt, and his knees had started bleeding long ago. The orc held him up one more time, and put a nearly unconscious Jaxx on his shoulder. "If there weren't ladies watching, I would have pissed on you before finishing you off, coward." Ru'Tak slowly walked closer to the walls with nails, and prepared to ram Jaxx against them to finally end the battle. Cecil tried to cover her eyes with her hands, but Yorick once again came up with an unpleasant comment. "Come on sister, I want you to see this!" Ru'Tak started to speed up his pace towards the wall, every step faster than the one before. Somehow, Jaxx had the cold blood to crawl out of his foe's shoulder and execute a weak dropkick against his back just before falling on the ground again. This resulted in Ru'Tak getting wounded in his forehead, and chest after the slam against the nails. "Son of a bitch!" The breton would once again find himself trying to crawl away from his enemy, and once again without success. This time, his opponent had grabbed him on his right foot, and started spinning Jaxx around at a frightening speed, throwing the near dead breton across the arena one more time. This time, however, the landing felt different. Jaxx heard and felt a pressure plate being triggered below him, something the orc didn't notice. He sprinted back to the almost corpse and kicked him in the testicles repeatedly. "Die already!" One more kick and Jaxx would have sworn he would puke, but something unseen sprinkled them with a strange steam that their skin absorbed abnormally quickly, interrupting the orc's crushing quest.
The distraction wasn't very effective, and Ru'Tak was about to resume the massacre, but then suddenly all the lights disappeared. All Jaxx could see was darkness. At first, he thought he had died, yet the still existing pain spoke otherwise. "What cheap trick is this?!" Apparently, the orc was experiencing something similar, or another unpleasant experience.
From afar, all Nyvis could see were two men with moderate to heavy wounds, squealing like cockroaches exposed to light. "What happened?" Cecil seemed to be mesmerized for the first time since she had arrived. "It... it seems that they triggered a trap that spits a toxin against their skin, which temporarily makes their eyes uncapable of detecting light..."
"Just finish him off!!!!" Yorick yelled, bending himself on the balcony in the edge of falling inside the arena as well. "He is right in front of you!"
This extra time was well appreciated for Jaxx, who massaged his never-so-sterile parts in agony, as he thought about a way to get out of that one. If he squinted, he could notice the orc wandering around the arena like a draugr faintly in the dark, a skill he got thanks to the long times spent inside caves without any light. If he really focused, he could also see his sword buried in the sand nearby. Jaxx crawled as quickly as he could towards his weapon, blood flowing out of his lips like a waterfall. Come on... COME ON! Never had the hilt of a blade felt so comforting to him. Like a drunken overweight man, he stood back up with a lot of difficulty, and struggled to remain on his feet. Everything hurt him badly: from his hair that had been cruelly pulled (some perhaps even ripped) by the orc, to his feet, with a couple of broken toes. He limped closer to the lost orc without a drop of pity for the being that had just made him suffer that much, sword firmly in his hand.
Wooooosh!
A swift slash and the orc would have a huge cut across his back. Ru'Tak quickly turned around, throwing his fists randomly, trying to find his invisible foe. It was too late. Jaxx had already changed position, now standing behind the orc once again, and his opponent was now between the breton, and the nail wall. Jaxx licked the blood from his lips one last time before sparta kicking the orc on his lower back as hard as he could, possibly breaking his neck, making him almost fly against the wall. Obviously that ended with Ru'Tak's unlikely death, with nails piercing through his limbs and organs grisly, even one that had gone through his skull. Nyvis could see the frustration in Yorick's eyes. "Nooo! That worthless green-skin! I would have him castrated if he was alive! Damn it!" On his right, however, Cecil was very happy. She was actually crying, for whatever reason, and immediately sprinted down to the arena once the battle was over. Yorick and his guards did not wait for her and walked back out of the tunnels, and Nyvis chose to follow them. She was already fed up with both the arena and the breton, and even she was a little disappointed that he had survived, although he had earned some respect from her after such an unlikely comeback in a fight against an orc that seemed to be capable of eating him alive. Strangely, the journey out of the arena back to the torture floor was peculiarly small. It didn't take any more than 2 minutes, while the first one had consumed them easily more than 10. The elven guards were as frustrated as the boy, but their Thalmorish arrogance didn't allow them to show it.
A steaming Yorick stopped in the middle of the mine where all the prisoners were working, minus the breton and the newly deceased orc. "Work faster! All of you! You are working for me now, and I want more ebony out of these mines, or else, there will be broken limbs every day! Are we clear?!?!" And he walked away, cold hearted and with no remorse. Nyvis was actually impressed. Was that really how she sounded when she bossed everyone around? She followed him outside, just like a common guard, just to see him handle a guard the same way he handled prisoners, his sister, and pretty much everyone else. "Excuse me, mister Surm, where do we put the bags labelled with your name?" Heck the guards were already as afraid of him as they were from her, or they were simply mere kissasses. "Isn't it obvious?! I will stay in the guards' room! Just put the bags there!"
Meanwhile Jaxx had recovered his vision and half of his senses. He realized the person keeping his head from falling on the ground (like the rest of his body did), was Cecil. She had been thanking him for very long, although Jaxx had blacked out during half of it. "I knew you were the right Champion! Even if Yorick cheated! I knew it!" The urge to reply was fairly big, but Jaxx could only grunt after being mauled for so long over and over again. "I need to treat you! There is a poison lab in one of these doors! I can make the pain go away while I try to find a more permanent solution, Champion! Don't worry." Seeing someone with the size of Cecil dragging someone as tall as Jaxx through an entire arena, then even opening a massive ebony door with only one hand was, at the very least, impressive. The last sight Jaxx had before dozing off, was Cecil lighting a fireplace with an unknown ebony tool and grabbing an ebony pan from a nearby shelf.