RP:These Dreams

Part of the Mearcstapa Arc

Summary: Emilia is re-visited by the bitter guard. He drugs her and throws her into the Arena to fight, claiming Irenic sold her out. The Gensai progresses through the battles, winning the last one by sheer defense alone. When the match ended, the guard drugged Emilia again. A healer mended her injuries and even put her back in her bed clothes. Emilia wakes up having thought the experience was just a dream.

Guest Room

The next morning, Regi appeared in Irenic’s chambers well before any reasonable person might be awake. But this was the routine of Arena champions. Rise early to suit up and prepare for the day’s festivities. There was a surprising amount of organization that went into the matches, after all. Today, though, the Queen is whisking her Champion off to a day spa, where he can rest and have any annoying issues worked on by their healers and shamans. She doesn’t yet visit with Emilia but she does check with Yozenra and Nadia on how Emilia’s been feeling. Neither of the ‘guards’ divulged Emilia’s outburst the night before. Instead, they informed her quietly that Emilia was still sleeping restfully. “Perhaps a late lunch then.” Regi smiled before dragging Irenic away from the room portals. Yozenra slithers along behind them quietly, leaving Emilia to rest in her chambers. After all, it’s not like the woman could leave and surely no one would bother her after the Queen’s dramatic display at the welcoming party.

What Yozenra doesn’t know is that someone already -had- visited Emilia. The crooked guard who vowed to avenge his friend. Emilia was an easy target. She was clearly weak, human, and oh so tiny. There’s no amount of fight she could put up that he couldn’t handle. As promised, he visits her again, slipping in just as the Queen’s escort was out of sight. The Champion would be out for the day? Perfect. His tail snakes up the side of Emilia’s mattress, coiling tightly around her ankle and lifting her into the air upside down. He moves her so they at at eye level with each other. “Ready?” He grins, not at all asking her genuinely. Her answer didn’t matter. While she’s suspended overhead, the guard pulls out a vial. He pours the liquid into a rag and shoves the rag over Emilia’s nose and mouth. This would make EMilia feel so strange that these events will feel more like dreams than reality.

Emilia was more asleep than awake when the Queen had taken Irenic from his room. It was a rocky night with little to no sleep from the craziness of the last day. It was with a startled yhelping shriek that she awoke to being jostled out of bed by her ankle. The Genasi was in Irenic's shirt from the previous night as a sleep shirt that was much too big on the petite woman. "Put me down!" she demanded while trying to keep her eyes locked on his. Who was this? How did he get into the room? That voice....that was the one from before that was angry about their friend. It wasn't a dream. Did he really expect her to fight? She hoped not. Upside down she held it into place to prevent the guard from a full exposure show, though it was not as easy to hold up after the rag had been shoved into her face. She inhaled the chemical though she tried to squirm away from him midair. There was a last whine of sorts that was muffled by the cloth as the drug settled into her system making her feel strange. Like her mind was only party present in her body. Her words came slowly as she had to focus hard on getting them out, "I.....won't.....fight....put....me....dowwwn..."

The guard huffed at Emilia’s attempts at resistance. He had a plan and she was part of it. One of two parts, really, if he had to parse things out in steps or pieces. He wasn’t smart enough to get into all that. All he knew was that this little mouse would fight and he’d be one step closer to his revenge on Irenic. Bloody Avian. Who did he think he was…? His friend Antonis deserved that title. He pulls the rag away from her face when she falls limp and cackles. There were no guards or queens to hear him. “The Ring awaits.” He sings, tossing the Gensai’s body straight into the air like a doll and then catching her around the waist with his tail. With a twisted grin, he leaves the portal.

Emilia will be half conscious for the first two fights. The guard had her changed, dressed in arena leathers and dust. The woman was thrust out, most likely to fall flat on her face, in a haze of the drugs he’d used to put her to sleep. It may seem to the Gensai like she’s dreaming but the pain will be so intense, it has to be real. Only...the sedative the naga used was strong, too strong for a human to fight against. In the first fight, she’d been pierced by a trident in her left shoulder. It went clean through somehow. The next fight, should she remember any of it, would end with her being grappled by another snake tail and slammed repeatedly into the ground until she lost consciousness again. It is now the eve of the third fight and the guard admires her blooming bruises proudly. “Your friend sold you out.” He tells her, leaning casually against the wall. “That so called champion is no good. He’d do anything to win. Even sacrifice his friend. Can’t imagine why you waste your time with him. You know…” The naga clicks his tongue as if a thought suddenly came to him. “ You’re cute for a human, Little Mouse.” He leans over to tilt up her chin and examine her dirt covered skin. Frost eats at his finger tips but he doesn’t mind. “Maybe what you need is a real man, eh? I heard a rumor that bird ain’t well...gifted.” He snickers, narrowing his eyes at her as the next match is announced and he lifts her to her feet. “Knock ‘em dead.” He laughs, before tossing her over the wall and into the ring.

Emilia stumbled forward into the arena in a daze of confusion with the drugs blocking half of her senses. The stumble turned into a trip over her own foot with a landing on her face. What an entrance into the arena. Can't even stand on two feet! Puny human. If only the guard knew the unnatural pain tolerance the frozen woman had. The first fight the woman barely put up much if any fight. Rather, she focused on trying to escape the crazy dream with running. Didn't matter how hard she tried to escape the other competitor was quicker than she was, especially since she was drugged. Trident through her shoulder and the frozen woman didn't make a sound, but her face showed surprise as she touched the wound and held bloody fingers before her face. This dream was not a dream or was it? Round one, over. She lost, but she hadn't even fought back to make it count. If anything watching the little woman run for her life was just as entertaining. Dazed still in round two this opponent wasted no time in catching her and knocking her lights out.

"He wouldn't...hey! I'm not human ya twit!" she managed to get out as the drugs seemed to be wearing out of her system by this last round. Though she didn't have much time for arguing against this guard thinking she was a cute little human as he'd tossed her over back into the arena. With a thud she landed on her hands and knees, still not focused enough to make a decent landing. Round three was about as exciting as a mixture of the first two rounds. Wobbly running from a charging opponent and semi-better dodging attempts. With her back against the wall as the actual fighter came rushing at her the Genasi was sure this would be the end. Either she would die or wake up from this nightmare. Frantically she tried to yank the bracelet off her wrist, but only Regi would be able to take it off since she put it on her. Just as he was about to slam into her a wall of thick ice and gravel of the arena errupted around her in a protective dome causing the other to be shot back away from her. It drained her energy more than anything having to force a connection to magic blocked from her. Getting through the elemental dome would be a challenge. Behind it the small woman was bleeding out of both nostrils and her ears. Her body was different shades of white, blue, black, and purple where the bruises were already forming. As cold as she was there was little swelling and the wound in her left shoulder had started to knit itself closed with her natural healing kicking in. She was beaten, bruised, bloodied, and half conscious between the physical abuse of fighting mixed with the drugs he had given her. She kept to her word, she didn't fight back persay.

Emilia’s competitor bounced back and into the Arena floor when the doom sprang to life. He rose, screaming loudly at the guard. “Eh! No magic!” He complained. It wasn’t against the rules but it did set the guard’s eyes wide with surprise. She wasn’t a human? Well that proved she was something different than a normal human at least. Her ice and gravel dome just so happened to push her up against loose bricks in the Arena wall. Really, it couldn’t have worked out any better for the guard. While the Gensai’s competition threw a nasty fit and the crowd boo’d him (for unsportsmanlike whining) the guard slipped loose a couple of the bricks to appear behind Emilia in her hideaway. In his hands, a syringe with the plunger pushed down. “What a frightened little mouse.” He grins, driving the needle into her neck and injecting the sedative. Emilia should fall asleep immediately (or in a short time if her healing powers can counteract it). When she does, he’ll pull her out through the bricks and replace them.

The Arena healer is summoned and she tends to Emilia’s wounds in such a way that the woman would have no idea she’d even been injured. The clothes she’d been thrown into for the fight are removed and she’s shucked back into Irenic’s shirt. The guard hauled her back to her room through the portal and put her back in bed. “Time to sleep, little mouse.” He grinned wickedly at her before tucking her under the covers and leaving the room without a trace.

Emilia looked at the guard with a semi-dazed look as the guard appeared out of nowhere inside the dome made of ice ans gravel. How did he get in there? How did she get in there? Consciousness only lasted for a moment or two before she was sound asleep and slumped like a life size doll. She would be easy to move around to be returned to her former state prior to being taken from the room. A restless sleep as the images of being trapped in a fight flooded her dreams. A neverending nightmare of reality into the dreamworld. Tossing and turning in her sleep until by natural instinct to wake from the fight caused the Genasi to wake in a panic bolting upright. Patting herself down she found herself dressed as when she went to bed. Sliding from the bed, feeling stiff in her movements, she made way to the full length mirror. Here she stared intently at herself to see that she did not look like she had been beaten up in the arena. If anything her eyes showed that she was tired from no solid sleep, but fine otherwise. How strange and so real feeling.