Chapter 1 #2
I groaned, pain radiating through my head as I slowly tried to lift it.
The pounding that occurred when I did had me cease that motion quickly.
Instead, I tried to pry open my eyes and see where I was.
The sight of cold stone flooring greeted me, and, raising my head a bit, the bars of what appeared to be a dungeon cell appeared. I groaned louder.
Great. Just great.
After years of stealing, I should have known this would happen eventually, but I’d foolishly believed I’d gotten this down pat and didn’t have to worry.
Arrogance before the fall and all.
I slowly pushed myself up from my inelegant sprawl, checking myself over to ensure nothing else had been damaged. My black leather pants were scuffed and dirty, but otherwise had been left undisturbed, thank Erodite.
At least my captors weren’t creeps.
Similarly, my tight black jacket was as expected, and my favorite black leather gloves had been left in place.
I’d heard about this style used overseas by female warriors, and copied it myself by cutting the tips off the fingers of each of my gloves.
They were ideal for stealing into places and maintaining full range of movement.
Wisps of pink invaded my vision, and I huffed, pulling my braid forward.
It was a complete mess now, having gotten rucked up in the scuffle.
Looking around the dungeon, no one seemed to be waiting for me to wake up, so I shrugged and set to the task of rebraiding the mound of voluminous, bright pink hair that tumbled free.
Said hair made it difficult to remain unseen, hence the braid I wore on jobs like this.
I could usually tuck and hide it under my hood, leaving only a few stray pink hairs to hang around my face, which was better than nothing, at least.
My hair, of course, matched my eyes perfectly, as was the case for all Elves.
Sometimes, I found myself wishing I had a black-on-black or a white-on-white combination that would be easier to hide with.
While bright colors were extremely common, no one had the same shade of bright pink as I did.
Lighter pink shades weren’t exactly uncommon, but even the lord and lady of Pearl Court were lacking the vibrant pink I had, by all accounts.
Which made staying under the radar a real bitch at times.
The sound of metal creaking slowly over stone had me falling still just as I finished my braid. I arranged myself cross-legged, a tactic to show my captors I wouldn’t be hiding or cowering. I would sit calmly and accept whatever fate had in store for me.
Some would say I’d already lived past my time, and I would have to agree with them. Normally, I would say I wasn’t sure why I still lived, or what the point was.
But right now, Ula was counting on me. Without the right gems to heal her, I feared she wasn’t long for this plane.
She had been the one to take me on and show me the ropes when I first found myself scavenging on the streets, desperate and starving.
Without her, I would certainly have been long dead by now.
I needed to find a way out of this for her at least. Even if I didn’t much care about my own pointless existence.
An Elven man came into view, boots first. I could tell he was a guard immediately. His militant black and red style was more than enough to go on, so I didn’t even bother looking up until the baton he was holding hit the bars with a loud smash that reverberated through the cell.
I sighed, looking up reluctantly. My eyes widened as I realized he was unlocking the cell door.
“Get up. Lord Carnelian wishes to see you,” the guard spat, his pale red eyes looking me up and down derisively.
Clearly, he thought his lord had no business dealing with me himself. That I was too far below his notice. I had to begrudgingly agree. I thought one of his underlings would likely sentence me, and the unusual demand put me on edge immediately.
I stood smoothly from the floor, my past having given me, if nothing else, the ability to gracefully move and twist. It helped more than anything else since that fateful day I was forced to run.
All those dance lessons gave me the flexibility that usually made my work as a thief much easier, at least.
The guard grabbed me by the arm, jerking me forward to a sudden stop before slamming a set of manacles on me.
I tried twisting my wrist to test them as he turned to lead me out of the dungeon, gripping the chain as he pulled me forward with it, but I could already tell that there was no weakness in these to take advantage of.
They’d been magically enhanced, and the only weakness present was the one rapidly taking me over.
My strength and will were sapped from me with each step I took, until my feet were dragging and the Elf in front of me, yanking on the chain, was doing most of the work to get me moving forward. I inspected the manacles sluggishly, and sure enough…
Fucking onyx.
Onyx was used to manipulate the body in different ways.
Some bad, some good. The Onyx Court itself specialized in all things related to the body, from anatomy to massage.
While onyx could be used in healing, they weren’t actually healers; that was Opal Court’s specialty, since opals were used for healing and preventing disease.
Of course, opal could also be used to cause diseases, because there was never a reaction without an equal and opposite.
Even Pearl Court, which specialized in all things love and sex, whose residents preferred matchmaking and brothels, which used the pink pearls the court was named after for love and affection, could also use them to cause hate and disgust.
Nothing good in Gemaria came without a bad side. That was true about everything and everyone.
But the onyx in use here meant there was no point in trying to pick the locks on the damn cuffs. I was stuck, and being half-dragged toward the fucking Lord of Ruby Court himself.
Well, I couldn’t say it had been a good life, but it was certainly a longer one than I’d been meant to have.
Even walking toward certain death, however, the thief in me couldn’t help looking through drowsy eyes at all that was on offer as I was led through the halls.
The interior walls were a dark stone and ornamented with gold and ruby at every possible juncture.
A golden orb sitting out on display seemed all too easy to grab, and I would have if my hands weren’t fucking stuck together.
There was so much lining the halls, I wondered why I even bothered going for the vault. Well, I knew that answer. The treasure I would find in that vault would put all this wealth to shame. It could have saved Ula. It could have changed my entire life.
I suppose it was still changing my life, just not in the way I expected.