The Sword of Truth (Legend of the Seeker) IC

[Ezmeralda]

Ellynara stopped and looked back over her shoulder when the Mord Sith called for her. "Yes?" she turned around fully as the woman continued her request. She raised an eyebrow at her. Was this mercy from a Mord Sith? Or was she just trying to calm him for what no doubt lay ahead? He certainly looked terrified. Elly supposed it could be a bit of both.

She noted the look in the woman's eyes. Perhaps she did love him, but didn't know how to show it properly? "An odd request....but if he is willing to share his knowledge of magic with me, I will watch him. Do I have permission to use magic on him? My mother taught me a few spells I could use to calm him and some healing may do him some good, too. Make him stronger...." She certainly didn't want him dying. She thought of hiding or running away with him to safety, but she wasn't sure of the extent of a Mord Sith's capabilities. Elly didn't really want to find out, either.

After hearing Ulyssia's answer she'd head back to Meeru. She sat down on her knees next to him. First, she supposed she'd have to get him out of this terrified state. She spoke to him gently, Ellynara put a bit of magic in her voice to make it more soothing and relaxing to him, "Meeru, can you hear me? Everything will be alright. Concentrate on my voice and take calm, deep breaths."

[Hagazussa]

"I did not know a sorceress could learn anything from a wizard but if you wish you try so be it."
Ulyssia said, the young Mord-Sith did not much care whatever or not Meeru taught this woman anything, a magic user she could handle no matter what skills they possessed, and besides Meeru was called to his art, perhaps it would do him some good to talk about it with someone who could understand.
"As for healing magic, yes you may practice you skills on my pet if you so desire."
Ulyssia added in a cold tone of voice, then after a little while she softened just a little and gave the other woman a nod.
"Yes, making Meeru stronger might be for the best, he will need all his strength to survive tonight. Thank you for agreeing to my request Sorceress, I shall remember it."
Ulyssia gave Ellynara another curt nod then she headed down another corridor walking with long, proud steps and soon she had rounded a corner.

Meeru at first flinched when a woman spoke to him, the wizard had learned that a female voice near him meant pain, but this voice who spoke calmly to him did not hold malice or the excitement most Mord-Sith had in their voices, instead it was soothing, relaxing and after a while Meeru decided to chance opening his eyes that he had shut tightly. Meeru had dark blue eyes, at a distance one would see the dark shade of them and assume they where brown, but up close it was clear they where a deep, dark shade of blue, like sapphires and there was a trace of the wisdom and passion that had once lived in them still there, but for the most part the wizard's eyes where just filled with pain and fear.
"I an hear you Mistr..."
Meeru looked at the woman next to him a little closer, this was not a Mord-Sith, she wore a dress and not a leather uniform and her hair was not in a tight braid. The sorceress...it had to be the sorceress that his Mistress had been talking with.
"How do you wish me to address you?"
Meeru asked after he had regarded Ellynara for a little while, the wizard was shivering with fear and his demeanor was demure and subservient, tears still flowed down his pale cheeks as he spoke though the soothing magic of the sorceress voice seamed to have brought him out of his near hysterical state.

[Ezmeralda]

The sorceress smiled, "Why, by my name, Ellynara... Or simply Elly if you wish, that's what my friends call me. You and I are equals, Meeru. There are no titles between us. All I wish is to talk to you and help you however I can. I think some healing will do you some good." she said gently, maintaining the soothing magic in her voice and laying her hand on his forearm, she flowed more soothing magic into him to help calm him. She could feel his terror and his pain through her hand. She took some of that and brought it into herself to help ease him.

"Another thing that may help is numbing the nerves in your body with my magic, but I am unsure how long that would last, the effects after the fact, and how your body would act during... And mine since some of the pain would have to be transferred to me. But if it will keep you alive I will bear it. What're your thoughts, Meeru? As a wizard, you must have some ideas. You may not be able to make use of them due to your mistresses commands, but I sure can."

[Hagazussa]

Meeru looked at the sorceress with confusion in his sapphire blue eyes, it had been so long since someone had spoken to him like an equal, to the Mord-Sith he was lower than a slave, and the palace servant usually avoided the pets of Mord-Sith if they could, and those who did talk to him was either hateful or afraid of a magic user, to be spoken to like this sorceress spoke to him was confusing. Slowly Ellynara's words and her calming magic drove the fog of terror from the young wizard's mind, he was still afraid but the numbing terror had slowly dissipated and Meeru sat up, wincing over the broken rib Ulyssia's Agiel had given him earlier.
"Thank you...Ellynara."
Meeru said, struggling to just use someone's name, his demeanor was still subservient and his eyes rarely left the carpeted floor.
"Healing magic would be appreciated kind Sorceress"
Meeru said with a little smile, he always had cuts, bruises and broken bones somewhere on his body, always.
"I can however not accept any lasting magic even if you are kind to offer it. Healing will do it's good and then the magic itself will dissipate, but to deaden nerves, and transfer some of my pain into you, that will be a lasting effect and I do not want to risk that being enough for my Mistress to take control of your magic."
Meeru's voice was soft and melodious, once he must have been a charming man, tall and handsome with kind eyes and a playful voice, now his will was broken and there was only pain in his voice. Slowly and hesitantly as if he expected the sorceress to hurt him if she made the wrong move Meeru placed one of his thin hands on her arm and looked up into her eyes for a moment.
"Also I could never allow you to take some of the pain I receive. I assume you have never been touched by an Agiel Ellynara, the pain of it is indescribable. I...I do not know if sorceresses pass the test of pain the way gifted wizard's do, I never did, I am called not gifted, but there where gifted at the Wizard's Keep when I was a student and from their description being touched by an Agiel is worse, I will not have another suffer like that for me."
Meeru looked down again, afraid now that Ellynara would harm him for speaking that was to her, his hand slid of her arm and his mind sank back into confusion. The Wizard's Keep...his friends the other students...it was all so far away, like trying to remember a dream, everything from before he was broken was a haze. Meeru wrap his arms around his knees and keep his eyes lowered.
"Forgive me...but there are no ideas, no ways out. The Mistresses...the Mord-Sith the magic that made them is well done, they are made to take down magic users their control once they have you is complete, leaving no hope and no escape."
Meeru got tears in his eyes again but he glanced up at Ellynara just so she could see in his eyes the gravity of his words while he at the same time shivered a little, to not be able to comply with something someone told him usually meant pain, and the young wizard was not quite able to process yet that Ellynara would not harm him.

[Ezmeralda]

Ellynara cupped his chin in her hands and lifted his head, "Look into my eyes, Meeru." Once his dark blue eyes met her sky blue eyes, she would continue, "You do not need fear me. I won't hurt you. Not everyone is a Mord Sith."

Ellynara shook her head, "She will not control me. A Mord Sith only captures it when it's used on her. I will be using it on you, not her. I suppose that is just my theory on it, though. I've never tested it, obviously... She has, however, given me permission to use my magic and set no limitations. Mord Sith may be cruel but they will not go back on their word."

She shook her head again, "I've never felt it myself, no, but I've heard of the pain it causes and if I have endure some intense pain to save a life, I will. I would take all of it if I could, but the other Mord Sith that will be there may become suspicious. I do not know if you know this, but your mistress does not wish you to die, she will not protest this. Besides, if she did she wouldn't allow me to heal you."

"I'm going to begin healing you now." Ellynara moved one of her hands from his chin to her chest, and let more of her magic flow into him and search for wounds. He appeared to have many injuries all over. She decided it'd be easier to just heal it all at once. She let more of her magic flow and began the process of healing everything that ailed him. Only physically, of course. The wounds in his soul she could not heal. Maybe in time she could, but they didn't have that much time.

[Hagazussa]

When Ellynara mentioned at his Mistress did not want him to die, faded, fuzzy memories flooded the Wizard's mind, memories of watching Ulyssia laugh, of holding her in his arms and wanting nothing more than to be with her. When Ellynara begun her healing and Meeru's body begun to feel warm another memory came to him, a memory from happier days when he had trusted Ulyssia with his life and had given her control over his magic so that he could heal her, the memories brought fresh tears to the young wizard's eyes even as they faded into the gray mass of nothing that was his life before he was broken.
"My Mistress do not want me to die..."
Meeru whispered then he looked at Ellynara with shock and a fair bit of fear in his dark blue eyes.
"There is no pain anymore, nowhere..."
Meeru shivered, he could not remember when last he had not been in pain, when there had not been some broken bone, or bruise or cut hurting him, in fact it had been so long since his constant torment begun that to be healed and without pain was so unusual that it scared him.

Meeru breathe uneasy for a while trying to get used to the feeling of not being in pain, he gave Ellynara a shy smile of thanks then his eyes grew serious.
"I am humbled by your courage Ellynara, but I can not accept the offer of you bearing any of my pain for me, when My Mistress and...the two other Mistresses go to work on me..."
Meeru begun to shiver again and his eyes darkened with terror small sobs wrecked his slender frame but after a while he collected himself enough to speak again.
"They will do things...things you can not imagine, their Agiels will go everywhere. And Mistress Alma...she likes to put her Agiel in...pet's ears."
Meeru lifted a shaking hand to touch his left ear and he shivered.
"I fear that without the conditioning I have been through the pain would kill you sorceress, you are kind...but I can not let you even feel a fraction of that, and besides if I die...at least then I would be free and all of this would finally be over."
Meeru looked down, for a moment there was a hint of anger in his voice as he continued speaking.
"I am a wizard...and I am forced to live as less than a dog..."
Meeru stopped talking, he had no right to show pride, he would have to confess this lapse to his Mistress and that would mean more pain, never ending pain.
"Sooner or later Mistress will go to far...or someone she lends me out to, or perhaps she will decide to get one of her sisters and put two Agiels in my ears and that is always...fatal and one of the most painful ways to die imaginable. It do not matter sorceress if I die today, or tomorrow or in a year, I will die and I will welcome it, that means this will all finally be over."
Meeru looked up at Ellynara with a look of despair in his dark eyes, he was tortured every day, his will was broken, there was hardly anything left of the proud wizard he had once been.
"And the last thing I want is for someone else to suffer for me just to prolong this hellish existence a little longer."
Meery begun to weep again and now sobs made his slender frame shake, Meeru's sobs told volumes about how hurt he was, how frightened he was and how terrible life as a Mord-Sith's pet was, there was no hope, no escape, only pain and terror.

[Ezmeralda]

Ellynara frowned at him. She wiped his tears away, scooted closer to him, and held him close to her, she spoke softly to him, "Nonsense, Meeru. Hope only dies when you let it do so. Most times there's a way out right in front of your nose, but people become too blind to the truth to see it..."

"You are a person, Meeru. A wizard-" a thought occurred to her, "-You know, if a wizard from the Keep heard about this, I doubt they would stand for this. Wizards are clever people, I'm sure they could think of a way to get you out."

[Hagazussa]

Meeru resisted at first then he allowed himself to be leaned against the sorceress and cry on her shoulder, allowed himself to be comforted, at first Ellynara's words meant little to him but offering that comfort he sorely needed but then she said something, something that made Meeru stop weeping and pull a bit away so he could look at her.
"The Wizard's Keep."
The young man repeated.
"In Aydindril..."
Meeru's voice trailed off, perhaps it was to much to hope for, but what Ellynara's said was true, if the Wizard's Keep was told about his situation chances where they would do something, they could not really react when D'Haran magic users where captured by Mord-Sith, but one of their own...and besides his crimes had been minor, nothing that the Midlands would consider a crime, Meeru did no longer remember what those crimes was but he knew that much.
"Yes...the Wizard's Keep, they would talk with the Mother Confessor and she would put political pressure on D'Hara to release me...it could work, but I could never get word to them."
There was a bit of hope in Meeru's words now, it was a narrow hope but it could work, the Wizard's Keep always protected it's own and the Confessors needed wizards to keep them safe.
"Could you get word to my home Ellynara? If you do I will try to hang on until they reply...but can you please send them a letter and I could never repay the debt I would owe you."

[Ezmeralda]

Ellynara smiled broadly. She was happy to see hope back in his eyes. "I can go myself if you can do without me, but it may be awhile. Aydidnril is a good ways from here.... I was born in Aydindril myself. I make trips here and back constantly. I know a lot of the wizards and some Confessors and I spent a good bit of time at the Keep. A lot of them are sort of my teachers. And my mother was close friends with the Mother Confessor herself actually...I'm sure I could find someone to help. And you would owe me nothing. I do not approve of Mord Sith. Look at what they do to people. They take away their freedom, their very soul....I'm happy to help, Meeru."

"But first I think getting something to eat would do us both some good. I'd also like to get to know you a little better if you don't mind. It will help to know how you wound up here and all that." She stood and held out her hand to help him up.

[Hagazussa]

"I would not want to burden you."
Meeru said meekly but then he nodded.
"But when you are going that way anyway if you could speak with someone on my behalf, I would appreciate it."
Meeru gave a shadow of a smile but it quickly vanished he was just to afraid and his soul and mind to damaged to smile, but at least now he seamed to have a bit of hope. Meeru took Ellynara's hand and let himself be helped to his feet, he was not heavy though he was rather tall when he rose to his full height. Meeru had his eyes on the floor there he stood and he could not let go of his subservient demeanor, obviously that had been beaten to well into him.
"The Mord-Sith...the Mistresses they are not all bad..."
Meeru begun as he looked down at his slender hands.
"They gladly give their lives for D'Hara without a second thought, and whatever...evil is in them is not their fault, they are destroyed as children to make them, what they are."
Meeru looked even sadder, there was a deep compassion in his dark eyes for the women who regularly tortured him, and who unless something was done would kill him one day.

Meeru stood without moving for a while then he glanced up at the sorceress beside him briefly and then down at the floor again.
"What do you want to eat, I could show you the way to the Mord-Sith dining hall, or there should be stalls at the market where food can be bought."
The young wizard looked down at his hands again.
"As for telling you how I...ended up here. I do not remember all of it, forgive me. My Mistress say that it is normal to forget one's past when one have become broken, she have told me a few things, and there are bits and pieces that float in my mind, but I am afraid my account might not be detailed."