(*Cringe* Oh my god. Note that I wrote this at @The Slenderman's request, and she gave me full permission to use her character in writing this scene. Warning that the following post is somewhat graphic. Very graphic. Somewhat thematic. Oh my god, what did I do to our characters?!)

When Aery opened her eyes, she was tied up by her hands across from another prisoner... the other prisoner at least was clothed, and she had no such luxury. Then she did a double take when it registered who the other prisoner was.
"Oh my god, oh my god oh my god, Celaena." She gasped at the sight of the bloody hole on Celaena's face, where her eye had been. “Celaena, I’m sorry. Oh my god.”
“Aww, isn’t this touching. The two fearless assassins. I hope you know, Aelin that your little apprentice told us everything already. But I’m sure there’s more that you know about.” The female guard approached while the male guard was talking, and poured the silver flask of liquid down Celaena’s throat. The older woman coughed and spluttered.
“Swallow it, Celaena, it’s a healing potion.” Aery said, softly. The male guard whipped around and pressed a knife to her throat.
“Didn’t have enough fun, now did you, darling? Just had to come back for seconds.”
Aery ignored him, instead focusing on Celaena. The potion was working on her, far faster than it had on Aery. The eye had already grown back in again, and most of the cuts had scarred over.
“Now that we’re all back in one piece, why don’t we begin again. Start with the princess Silverheart, why don’t we. It might make our other royal guest all the more talkative.”
Seeing Celaena’s eyes widen, Aery forced a grimace. “I’ll be okay, Celaena, you’ll see.”
The woman laughed. “Such bravery. To reward such bravery, I say we start with the lady Galathynius.” Aery tried not to flinch, but to no avail. The man, who had circled around behind her, whispered in her ear, “We know how to hurt you. You’ll want to watch this, I’m sure, but after that, my companion will take good care of princess Aelin, and we’re going to go off on our own.” He trailed his fingers up the side of her cheek, lightly kissed her collarbone. Aery froze, resisting the urge to kick him, knowing that that would do nothing for her, nor for Celaena.
The woman beckoned the man. He went to her. They whispered to each other; the woman giggled insanely. The man turned his back to the two prisoners, selected a weapon, then turned back to them, holding the baton he’d chosen in front of him. “I know you’ve withstood whippings, Aelin, but what of full-on, broken-bone beatings?”
She met his gaze steadily. Didn’t flinch until after the first blow struck. Aery could hear the bones of Celaena’s leg crack under the first blow, her arm shatter under the second. Blows on her ribs, her shoulders, her back and legs and arms. After the first five or so, Celaena didn’t even bother holding back her screams, and every scream was like a knife in Aery’s heart. I’ve failed, I’ve failed, I’ve failed, and Celaena is suffering for it.
The beating went on for who knows how long, until the male guard, sweat glistening on the little bit of his skin visible under the mask and leather apron he war, lowered the baton. Aery was barely able to look at the woman who had become like her older sister. Blood trickled from numerous places where the pieces of broken bones had penetrated the skin. Most of Celaena’s body was covered in the horrible, livid bruising, except her face. And she was glaring at the torturers with the most intense hatred Aery had ever seen.
But the man just chuckled, brushed it off. “You’re strong, Miss Galathynius, I’ll give you that much. But you’ve got your hamartia. I daresay I know what it is: You care too much. You can never step away when your friends are in trouble.”
The woman had been circling Aery, poking and prodding her like she was a piece of meat at the market. Finally she nodded slightly and stepped away, smirking. But the man took her place, and that was so much worse.
“I’d prefer to do this in a more private place, mind you, but I feel that Miss Galathynius would benefit from seeing this as well.” He pressed up against her, far too close. And at that moment Aery realized what he had planned, and kicked and flailed her legs at him. But it was in vain. He chuckled even as he pressed up against her, even as he kissed her, rubbing his hands up and down her body, and she flushed crimson as she realized that she enjoyed the attentions…
~~~
Of course that wasn’t the end of it. Of course it wasn’t. But Aery, shamed beyond belief, didn’t dare try to resist anymore. Celaena had started crying at some point during that whole… affair, but they were given a few minutes to try to pull themselves back together before the next round of torments.
“C-celaena, I… I…” Aery couldn’t even get the words out. “I-I’m so ashamed.” She mumbled.
“Don’t be, Aery. But what were you thinking, coming after me like that?!”
“I wanted to help you, the way you helped me. A-and because of my f-foolishness, Silly and Ame… T-they… someone took them.”
“Worry about us now, Aery, and then, so help me God, we’ll tear the earth apart to find them, once we get out of here.”
Aery, much to her own embarrassment, began to cry. “We won’t ever get out of here, will we, Celaena?” She sniffled.
Before Celaena could answer, the guards came back into the room. One was dragging a hose.
“Aerienna has had plenty of experience with this hose. It can be used to simulate drowning. But when one uses a different nozzle it has a grand number of other applications.” He unscrewed the nozzle and put a much longer, thinner one on. He walked up on Aery’s side; she flinched away.
“Oh, none of that manure.” He grabbed her head roughly and tilted it so that he had access to her ear. Then he put the nozzle into it, and the woman turned it on, and Aery’s entire thought process was obliterated by the torrent of water. It drilled its way through her ear, tearing all of the delicate little membranes in there, building up the pressure in there. Aery screamed at the pain, jerking against the bonds. The guard’s grip relaxed and he removed the nozzle from her ear and let the water come rushing out. And then he went around to the other side and did the same to the other ear.
It was at that time that Aery noticed something wad dreadfully, dreadfully, wrong. When the pain inside her head built to that unbearable level, and she felt like she was screaming, but couldn’t hear anything. When the hose was removed from her ear and Celaena said something, her mouth was moving, her eyes were wide and she must have been shouting, but Aery couldn’t hear. But then, she supposed it was better that way, being unable to hear and thus unable to realize the pain that Celaena was in.
The guards came around the two of them, juggling knives that were glowing yellow-white, they were so hot. They opened a few gashes, which cauterized immediately and thus didn’t bleed much. Maybe it was the pain of what had been done to her before, or just the terror, but sometime during those moments, Aery felt a warm trickle, then a warm gush down her legs, and was instantly mortified as she realized what happened. Then she saw her own look of horror mimicked by Celaena, and realized that no, whatever else it might have been, those knives must have been poisoned, to make them lose control of their own bodies.
Maybe it wasn’t better, to not be able to hear, for after the thing with the knives, they blindfolded her, took a lash to her, until her entire body was torn up by the whip welts. She thought she was screaming, but she couldn’t even tell. Couldn’t tell what they were doing to Celaena, either, but probably something just as terrible.
To Celaena, it hurt twice as bad, because she was forced to hear Aery’s sobbing, broken screams and groans, and yet still deal with her own torment. The knife wounds had been just superficial; but now the male guard approached her with a poker, glowing the same shade of brilliant yellow. He cackled even as he thrust it into the muscle of Celaena’s upper arm, wrenched it around in there, enjoying watching Celaena’s agony. She screamed and screamed, but why wasn’t she passing out?!
As if he’d heard her thoughts, the guard said, quite conversationally. “It was in the drugs on the knives. One was a neurostimulator, to make the pain so much more intense than it would be otherwise. One sent a very specific impulse, which I’m sure you figured out, and the third was designed to stop the flood of neurotransmitters that makes a person go unconscious when the pain gets too bad.”
Celaena cursed at the guard, only to gasp in agony as the poker was shifted through her flesh. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the female guard had switched to a baton on Aery, shattering a good number of her bones again as well. And then the poker pressed into the hollow between her shoulder blade and collarbone, and, in spite of the drug, the whole room went black.
For Aery, she hung on only a little longer. The last thing she remembered, after the baton blow that had cracked her pelvis and femur, was the handful of salt that was pressed right into the worst of the whip marks and lacerations. That burning stinging agony spread up her body, and as it did she fainted too.
The guards cut them down from the ropes and laid them in the middle of the open floor, closely pressed against one another. It was almost tender, in a terribly macabre way. And even in their unconsciousness, the two women leaned against each other to try to draw each other’s warmth into their bodies.

Shadow heard the sound of screams. to his broken mind he had no way of knowing that what he was about to do was something that he would one day look back on as the day his whole life was lost to the darkness that he now felt clouding his mind. he turned and started to move towards the sound of the screams. he drew his sword and let his mind focus on finding the reason for the screams and making them stop in one way or another.

@user
Leon grinned in amusement at the mans bold statement. A butcher knife, how entertaining. "Your little pig sticker there might be good for killing children but it won't be anywhere near sufficient for someone like me. Though i am curious, where is it you acquire all your money from, you seem to have quite copious amounts of it." he said enjoying his conversation with the strange man. He did so hope the man would try to force his way past

charles laughed at him he spun the knife in his hands "I have never killed children, who would do that? I was the first on scene when the masked man killed those poor urchins. I couldnt save them though" he had a sad face. "And my money is from saving peoples lives. Ill kill when i have to but I preffer to help my freind" he had the hight advatge given the horse, the man would have to shoot him and the horse if he wante dhim dead. and he always had his endgame weapon

Rowan seen over 23 guards around a building, he didn't bother hiding from them, he then seen blood splatters near a window, and he unsheathed his swords, he started running to them, they noticed him but he wanted them to know The Terrasen Terror was ready to destroy the building to save Celaena and her friend's, before he ran he recognised the blood as Celaena and Aery's blood, "23 Guard vs Me, not your lucky day guards huh?" He taunted as he began to move more swiftly towards them as he seen a 3 man group split from them. Suddenly one tried to attempt an attack, but Rowan seen it coming and dodged it, then brought his fist up to the guards face and struck him hard, he felt the guards jaw give way and then deflected a sword attack from another guard, he took two steps and that guards head was rolling, then Rowan lunged at the third guard and the guard was immediately on the floor due to a Thai Kick to the skull

Allen heard a faint female scream in the distance causing him to lose concentration and trip over one of the roofs ledges. He tumbled on top of the next roof and cane to a halt. Allen decided to go check on the location the scream came from and speed off in that direction. As he got closer he could see possibly one man taking on a large number of man that looked like gaurds. Allen watches the battle for a few and notices the building that he believes the gaurds were protecting. The building looked suspicious but Allen couldn't get much of a description from the outside. So he jumped down onto Rowan's battle field landing in the middle of three gaurds. Allen rotated his body 360° decapitating the three men within seconds. He looks towards Rowan's position running to him dodging the attacks of gaurds he passed. Allen was gonna back up Rowan so he can find out what's in the building that these lame jokes of guards are protecting.

Leon frowned, it was one thing to rob a couple of rich idiots, it was another to slaughter children and lie about it. Idiot. "You're not very believeable you know, not many poeple laugh when they talk about dead children. Besides that you may be some kind of-" Leon casually hurled a knife underhand from under his cloak with only the movment of his wrist as warning and contiuned talking. "Doctor, but not one that helps poeple." he finished curious to see this "doctor's" reaction.

Celaena lay there broken and hurting so much, she managed to crane her eyes open and seen Aery lying next to her, "Aery.. I'm sorry I Let vengeance control me, I am Elentiya 'The Spirit That Cannot Be Broken' Nehemia gave me that name....I will train you.. need you ... keep you.. i will Aery" Celaena managed to say but every letter hurt as she said them, even when she lifted her hand to rest it on Aery's face, that movement hurt her, where was Rowan she thought

(For the record, he was waering a mask and no one heard him speak while he did it. No one should know but you all suddenly assume it was me)
the knife wizzed past his ear and into a stone. he moved forwards on he horse "Do you have any proof? Can you back it up? After i tried to help them and you accuse me?" the stupid man had no proof, he wore a mask, never spoke during it so he was just assuming. "What did you do to help? The assasins that were meant to protect them werent there, you werent there. You couldnt help them like i couldnt save them." he started to cry "And you assume it was me? ME! i tried to help them."

(A Mask doesn't make you safe from recognition. There are many things a mask doesn't hide, besides Leon was only suspcious at first for him your character laughing confirmed it for him, that and the whole kill children for me thing.)

Leon almost laughed. "You really are stupid aren't you. This isn't a court, you can't get help from the law. You're trying to get pity from me? After you torch a building and give gold to kill assasins, and heres the real kicker, you're paying poeple to kill children. And you want pity from me?" he asked anger rising in his voice. "Pathitic." he said coldly and slowly started walking towards the wretched man.

Celaena was talking to her. Talking. Talking. But Aery couldn't hear it. She made eye contact with Celaena, her eyes going wide with panic. She brought her hand up to her ear, slowly, gritting her teeth to keep from screaming as she forced the broken bones to move. She just barely touched her ear and hissed in pain, for just that tiny touch felt like knives drilling into it. Her fingers were sticky with blood.
Aery looked at Celaena, squinting, for suddenly everything was very blurry. Her mouth formed the words "I'm sorry." And then her eyes closed all the way. Breathing felt like it was killing her, red-hot knives in her ribs and sides, so she simply decided to not breathe. And by then she was too far gone to really think at all.

( Celaena knows because as i recall she told you at the ball )

Rowan continued battling guards, he seen a blade coming, he managed to deflect it then spun around behind the guard and raised his sword up and brought it slamming down on the guards head, he sensed another attack a heartbeat before it happened and then swung around to deflect that attack, he brought his fist up again and slammed his fist against the guards face, he felt the guards face crunch and seen the guard drop, then left his helper and ran to the door, he tried to open by hand and could not, so he tapped into his mind and let his wind take the door down. He then walked in using his wind power on any guards that tried to take him down "FireHeart.. get up " He said using Celaena's Fae name

" Ailen " She tried to shout but it was a whisper Celaena didn't even have the strength to look at Rowan, she just wanted to die here and be done with the feeling, she softly closed her eyes to a memory she was happy in, fifteen years ago, she enjoyed that time.. her time with Chaol, working contracts for the crow prince of adarlan, but mostly her time with her lover Sam Cortland. "Rowan.. take Aery.. leave me" She said to Rowan

Rowan felt sorry for both of them, but didn't show it, he followed Celaena's order and walked over to Aery "Come on Lass, the guy outside will help Celaena " He said as he picked her up, in his arms stretched length ways, so she wouldn't feel as much pain and begun walking away from Celaena.

Aery panicked, not realizing who had grabbed her, thinking it was one of her torturers come back for a second pass. That thought was strengthened when she realized that Rowan was not helping Celaena, but rather separating them. "...Celaena..." She couldn't even tell if she was talking or not anymore; her throat hurt too bad for her to feel the vibrations. Not being able to hear definitely sucked. "Celaena, no... no..." She squinted up at the person carrying her, did a double take when she realized it was Rowan. "Help Celaena... Help... her..." But then the darkness overcame her vision again.

Rowan tapped Aery's to get her to look at his lips " Celaena said to help you." He said that softly and slowly to make sure she understood him, he walked through streets to his compound, he entered his compound and walked upstairs then found a bed which he lay her down, he got a chalk piece and a parchment of paper "Write down what happened today or i'll make training seventeen times harder for you. " He gave the items to Aery and sat down at the bottom of the bed to wait for her to write the events down

Aery tried to grab the chalk, started to write, crying softly every time the bone fragments in her arm rubbed against each other. But she couldn't get her mind together enough to write it, all she could think of was the darkness threatening to swallow her up again, the darkness and the flashbacks. With a sob she dropped the parchment.
"I-i-I c-c-can't. D-don't make m-me d-do this." Tears streamed down her face, into the cuts and abrasions on it, but she didn't even notice, so intense was the rest of the pain.

Rowan sighed at Aery "Aery, is it.. nod if it is.." he said and looked at the wall behind Aery " I could walk when my feet were broken.. what makes you think you are that weak.. do you want me to heal your body with Fae powers.. the liquid was a weak substance, my powers take 4 minutes to completely heal " He said then walked out of the room for her to say she needed him on her accord, he stepped four steps left of the room and waited for her, he was going to go all out training her

Celaena never gave it much thought on how she'd die , but blood loss somehow felt fitting. It was agony in her body and the gods wanted to end her life, one way or another she'd die "Take my body back to Terrasen, Ailen" She rasped then added "I will not die " suddenly the darkness swept over as she remembered the moments which made her life worth it..

"Because I told them everything." the words formed on her lips but fell, barely whispered, onto the blanket she was laying on. She hadn't gotten all of what Rowan had said, but she'd vaguely seen the words "I walk...broken...why...weak...heal..." So she had extrapolated the vague meaning. And she'd prove it, both to herself and to him, that she wasn't weak.
She gritted her teeth, picked up the charcoal stick, and looked for the pad of paper. It was on the floor next to the bed. Resisting the urge to whimper Aery pushed herself off the bed, landing on the floor with a thump that sent a white-hot bolt of pain through her lungs. She gasped for several moments before she regained her senses enough to grab the piece of parchment.
"Silly and Ame were being pests today and wouldn't eat breakfast until I sat there and forced them to, so I was late to meet Celaena. I went to meet her at the docks, where she said she'd be, and I waited there, but she wasn't there. So I went to go find her in the market, and I took a shortcut through an alley. Only, it was a dead-end, and then someone came in behind me and tried to stab me. He tackled me to the ground and gave me a sedative, and then... Two people tortured me, over some sort of plot to kill the royal family of Adarlan, which I swear I know nothing about. Celaena rescued me and brought me here. I thought I was going to die.
After you'd left the room after giving me the potion, Celaena jumped out the window after promising me revenge. Silly and Ame and I went to go find her and demand she think it through. But it was too late. A guard cornered me again, a teenaged boy wearing a black mask. He snatched Ame before I could do anything about it, then the guards from this morning poisoned me and Silly. They gave Silly and Ame to the boy as a reward, and he left, and then they dragged me in, to torture me to hurt Celaena. I don't know much of what happened after that, just, little snippets."
Tears streamed down her face as she wrote it, but she wrote it out, ignoring the burning pain in her chest (whether from emotions or from the torture, she had no idea) and then she called for Rowan. "Rowan? Rowan! I'm done." But he didn't seem to hear her, or maybe that was just part of the test. So, gritting her teeth, and yet unable to stifle the low scream that was torn from her throat, she pulled herself to her feet on her broken legs. She very nearly fell; her eyes swam and her head pounded from the blood loss. But she barely managed to retain her footing, and then, agony shooting up her entire body, black spots dancing in front of her eyes, stumbled, using the wall as a support, out of the room. Leaning on the doorframe, she saw Rowan leaning casually against the wall to the left of the door. "There. Did I pass?" She meant to spit the words, but they came out in a pathetic creaking whisper.


Silly looked around from under mostly-closed eyelids. They'd been traveling nonstop for ten hours, by her estimate. The boy cuffed her over the head whenever he caught her looking around, but he didn't seem very smart, in that he'd not blindfolded her even though she'd looked around probably 100 times that day. They'd been on a high-speed ship for about four hours, which had not been fun, and had had Ame puking her guts out from the get-go. Silly had taken to it alright. Now they were in the back of a very stuffy wagon.
Using the family's private sign language, Silly motioned to Ame. YOU O-K?
MUCH-SCARED came the quick reply.
IT O-K...GET-OUT SOON.
Ame didn't even bother to sign back, just shook her head "no" and started crying silently.
Silly was filled with rage from head to toe. The idiot guard hadn't taken their weapons, even, and now she had the confidence to use them. Anything to make Ame stop crying.
A-M-E LOOK-HERE. She slid one of the throwing disks out of her belt and slid it across the floor to Ame. the littler girl froze, then looked up at Silly with such fragile hope that it was almost painful. Very carefully Ame eased the long daggers out of her boots and slid them to Silly.
And Silly jumped to her feet, plunging the daggers through the teenaged boy's back. A throwing disk to sever the horses' reins, and fluidly Silly reached down, grabbed Ame, and leaped with her out of the back of the wagon.
"A'right, now where be we?" She looked around and did a double-take. Right in front of the burned-down assassin's guild in Adarlan.
"Silly!" A seven-year-old boy came trotting around the wreckage, wearing a green thread bracelet, the symbol of the City Park urchin camp, and the thin black bracelet that signified a runner. His name came to her. Axel.
"Ho, Axel! How ye be?"
"I'm doin' swell, an' yerself?" Then he took in the spidersilk clothing that she and Ame were still wearing. Though the boy was wearing clean clothes, courtesy of the backup Assassin's Guild, his were plain cotton. "Ye be travelin' wiv' Aery?" he asked. They'd all found out that she'd bought spidersilk, somehow.
"Tha's sorta me problem, Axel. Bad man nabbed us, me 'n Ame, here, an' took us from Aery. I think she been hurt bad. She were once, an' then she wen' back to rescue her lady, an' they cornered her an' they're prob'ly torturin' her right now."
Axel took a step back, then got a look of determination on his face.
"No, Axel, they be in the Red Desert. I didna have a chance t' scape afore now."
"Well, we ken worry 'bout that in a bit. I've got news for ye; the other runners told me t' find Aery an' her family an' pass it on: One o' the older un's done got the murderer talkin'!"
It took a moment for the news to sink in. Ame got it first, actually, and her arms tightened around Silly's neck.
"We've gots to help him!" Silly hugged Ame back, and then had a moment of disorientation when Ame whimpered and Silly's arms came away covered in blood.
And then it felt like the world was falling out from under her. The monster. Had he really not wanted to wait until they'd gotten to a secure place before he'd hurt Ame?
"It's not bad." Ame whispered. "It's really not." But there was no vigor in her reply, and now that Silly looked at her, her eyes were unfocused and she was shivering and even paler than usual.
"Oh, me god, Ame, yous not okay. You needs help."
"I'll be fine for another hour or two. Go do justice on the murderer. See? I can even walk." To prove her point she let go and slipped down through Silly's arms and onto the ground. "I'll keep up, you wait and see."
And so Axel led the two girls through the back alleys until they came through to the alley in which Charles and Leon were, but on the other side, so that Charles was effectively trapped. Silly dared to glance down at Ame, and saw that the tiny girl's eyes were like fire with rage and pain again. Good, she'd need them, if it meant they could do justice on the murderer.
Silly drew her weapons, the long dagger from Aery in her right hand and one of her throwing stars in her left, and settled to wait. She could have thrown the disk at the man's neck and killed him then, but she didn't, because killing an enemy from behind, especially when he didn't know you were there, was dishonorable.

" Yes, a true warrior keeps on pushing on ." Rowan gave her a look that said well done, then grabbed from his satchel for a Fae Enchanted Healing tablets and liquid ( Fae Enchanted Healing stuff is far far stronger than cheap mage Enchanted stuff and only Rowan supplies it for 700 gold ) and gave them to Aery "Now stay here I'll go and Celaena" He commanded and ran off to get Celaena, he seen her body when he got to the building "I claim you, too , Aelin Galathynius" and a golden Fae energy went into Celaena.
Celaena awoke with little to no pain, she smiled but her bones were still protruding from her skin, she had to stand up for Aery, but before she did that she fixed any bones by forcing them back in, and she SCREAMED, but reminded her self ' Pain is Temporary... Pride is forever ' She slowly but surely made her way back to Compound with Rowan, they messed with Celaena Sardothien.. they were going to die a slow death and they'd hurt Aery.. that made things much worse for the torturers, soon they arrived

Celaena looked around Xandria, and seen The Sandstorm was about 10 minutes away, she struggled to step forward, her cuts weren't healed though, rowan only gave her the energy to get to the Compound, she'd have to hurry, She didn't want any of this to happen to Aery the poor child. Aery. Her mind clicked, and she began a sort of run that look like a penguin.