The Hollow Part Three: Horizons (Mature)

[Stare]

Mature content. Written by a bored person whilst at work.

Part 3 of 3. Previous threads:
The Hollow Part One
The Hollow Part Two: Education

Once she had gained the timing and the opportunity to try her escape plan.

One: be bound in little as possible. That was fine. She managed to get Vitruvion to trust her enough over time so that he thought only ropes on her hands would be sufficient.

Two: have one or fewer guards. Brer by himself was a massive weight, and thus it was one day that he was the only one who was thought to be needed to guide her over to Vitruvion's chambers.

Three: be in the corridor. Well that was easy as Vitruvion's chambers passed by the corridor, if coming from her rooms. Which she was.

Four: distract the guard. Really, with her good rapport with Brer, it was easy. It wasn't intentional that Avis had built up the conversation with him deliberately to distract him, but it turned out to be useful. All she had to do was mention a scene from one of his favourite books she had read looking a little bit like the corridor and there. He was gazing down it.

Five: get a weapon and flee. Though Brer favoured the mattock that day he had a dagger at his belt. It took Avis seconds to prise it from him, turn and begin to very quickly flee up the corridor, away from him and towards the place she knew where the surface was.

So close, so attainable.

Of course, she had reasoned for more guards. But very usually they weren't expecting a fast-moving kenku to come charging at them. She had already cut her hands loose by that point, and it took her a few scratches to down one guard, then dart forwards to the next. She was, after all, a skilled knife fighter and a kenku. She had the spirit of the senshi warrior within her that would never die, and enough dishonour from being a member of the kegareta to not care if she killed.

When she got to the door other skills came in handy. The kegareta not only had dishonoured members of society within it, but also villains. Members of the criminal world lived there, and amongst them thieves and pickpockets. It was from them, since birth, that Avis learnt how to unpick locks. Easy therefore was it simple to get through the first door, slip through it and lock it with the latch behind her as she heard the first of Brer's large and heavy footsteps.

Next was a hallway, ordained in stone with a brilliant, ornate, glass lantern illuminating the otherwise dimness. One guard stood duty here, rather surprised also to see Avis there. He paused, then ran at her, but her skill was swift and sure. Also too did she wound this one and went to the next door. A door inset with a window, leading to a sharp rising slope. There, nearing the surface.

Her nimble fingers worked swiftly, smoothly twisting the lock. There was a thud as it twisted, a clunk as it released, and she pressed onto it just as the door behind her burst off its hinges and Brer thundered in, fury on his face. Fury and disappointment.

Heart racing Avis moved into the next corridor, and used her reserves of energy to run, keep running. Her claws clicked on the cobbles, no longer white washed up here but left in their natural colour. Beating the wind she kept going, knife still in hand, the blade bloody, her eyes centered on the door ahead of her. A door that seemed to have no lock, that had a simple latch, and able to be opened from this side. Praise the kami, it was possible, it was -

[Stare]

She opened the door and stepped into a basement. An underground stone and wooden room, that was large, with benches upon benches and large cupboards. Stairs led upwards, but that was at the end, and in this room ...

Scores of men. Armed, having food, drinking and making conversation. All the guards of the ten brothers of the Hollow, now turning their eyes to her.

"Fuck," she said simply and slid down the door.

She collapsed there, panting, chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. With all the eyes staring at her she just gazed at the floor in front of her, finding herself beginning to foolishly smile.

For being such an idiot. For even dreaming that there was a chance.

No one moved in the room. They simply sat there, watching the fool of a kenku try to catch back her breath. A thud-thud, gasp told of Brer's arrival to the room. Huge feet stopped near Avis' form, she could just spy them. A grunt, a pant and he shoved out a hand. Rolling her eyes she shoved the knife into it, and his hand disappeared briefly, leaving her now without weapon. Without anything. Then he bent down and without so much as a word grabbed her shoulder with one huge and firm hand and pulled her to her feet. She half-assed fought but really it was part of the grand game. One rough shake and she was still again, knowing that this had all been for naught. She let him addle her brains, then intentionally lift her off the ground, under his arm, dragging her back down the long tunnel, back to Vitruvion's layer.

He didn't take her back to her room, however. Instead he headed straight for Vitruvion's own chambers, where he passed right through the grand bedroom and into the more deadly place. Along the way several other guards, including Raevin who had all heard the commotion, came with. They grabbed her body, supported her weight and shoved her half-heartedly against a wall. Avis spat and swore a few times, but couldn't get the small smile from her beaked face, a spark of amusement in her eyes. The 'I know I've been an idiot' look.

Hands held her body still as chains and manacles were found. Her hands were roughly cuffed behind her, and secured against the wall whilst her feet were likewise shackled. Breathing slow, Avis caught her breath and invited in all the world's issues. She didn't react as they stepped back, just watching the reflection of the light on the metal.

There was a long pause. And they just stood there.

Avis finally looked up at one of them. Raevin.

"Just hurry the fuck up and get him, elf. Please. It's annoying you standing all there."

Raevin's​ brows rose but he silently looked to his side and nodded at his lackeys. All of them turned and left apart from Brer who looked determined to watch over her no matter what she did.

There was silence, then: "You're an idiot."

"I did not expect that door to end on your mess hall," Avis looked straight back at him. "And that plan was weeks in the making, so thank you."

"You're still an idiot."

She leant back against the wall, trying to even her breathing to prepare for whatever was about to come. Whatever creative punishment Vitruvion came up with. He had previously​ promised to have her lashed to her bed for a week without food, but that was in the first week she had been there. Now it had been almost three months and she had spent a lot of that time attempting to earn his respect and trust.

All to form her plan of running away. Which had been an utter failure.

Raevin frowned slightly, and pushed a hand through his hair. "Though you did manage to get through three well-armed and well-trained guards. That was impressive."

"My father was a warrior. He taught me how to fight."

The brows simply rose. "Interesting."

She shrugged and closed her eyes. The elf took a moment to exhange looks with the half-giant and sighed again. "Keep an eye on her. I will go confer with master Vitruvion."

Moments passed. Avis didn't open her eyes and Brer did not move. He watched her like a hawk watches a baby.

When the door creaked open once more and the faint, recognisable clink clink of the cane sounded on the cobbles Avis knew that her few weeks of hope and joy were finally over.

[Stare]

Her punishment was to live within a small narrow cage for a week. Changes were made daily - sometimes her hands would be bound through the bars upwards or behind her back, other times she would not be given water. Another time she dragged out, beaten in the usual manner, and sent back. The week following Vitruvion had her bound to the bed in the same room. Various positions, various ways, but at least it provided her rest. At least three times a day in that week he came and took her, angry or in a good mood, but leaving her in the same position - either suspended from the top of the bed or spread out. She took it with anger at first, then acceptance and finally guilt. Knowing that she herself had brought it on, she hardly fought as the end of the second week came to a close. Instead she just gave a commentary when she was awake enough, condemning Vitruvion with more and more creative phrases. Some which made him laugh.

After that, however, she was transferred back to her room. And a second guard was installed along with Brer. He was a young man whom she recognised as having hit in the face on her first week. He wasn't as conversational as Brer (the giant was already limited) but seemed to have good sense.

Thankfully in her room she was still allowed freedom of her limbs, however outside she was limited foot and hand. Which was fine for her, as over the next two weeks Vitruvion did not call for her. And Reign never returned. Avis had liked not seeing the stuck up snob. Though she had given the kenku many things to consider she was not the type Avis wanted to even try to make her friend. Instead she welcomed Blaze's visits, and even more so the conversations she had with Brer. As the weeks became months Avis found herself coming to appreciate the half-giant like she had appreciated her one time bakery master - the dwarf genius, Skra. The man who had been like a second father to her.

But now that life had certainly gone.

Lying on her bed, still easing out the cramps and pains of being contorted and controlled for the two weeks, Avis read a book recently gained from Brer. It was a kind love story between a prince and his lady, telling the tale of his power to conquer time. Avis propped her head up with one elbow, her other tucked beneath her. Her legs she let curl out behind her in an awkward way that was suited to their form.

She was lost so much that she didn't hear the door open. With her eyes intensely watching the words form the fantastical plot she did not see him either. It was only when he walked fully around her, paused for a long minute at the side of the bed, then promptly sat down right next to her head, that she noticed the movement. The bounce of the mattress, the flash of silver of his jacket. The flesh hand with a golden ring swimming into her view and cupping underneath her beak.

Turning it upwards to look at him.

With the touch, she froze and her gaze turned to one of horror as she recognised his face. Her hand on the book itself curled inwards, one claw scraping a light scar in the paper and she felt her heart begin to race.

"Hello, my dear," he said quietly, "It has been a while."

[Stare]

Breaking out of her siezed stance she moved, swiftly moving her beak away from his hand and sitting up fast, tense and ready. His usual smirk returned pleasantly to his face in a wave of familiarity and he seemed to hold back a laugh as she faced him, defensive, ready.

There was silence in the room. Vitruvion took the moment to look at her with level eyes and stare as intensely as she could. He let his hand fall, curling it around the top of his cane.

"First thing I shall inform you is that next time you attempt an escape that virrulent our association will be at an end, and you will be cast to the lower levels effective immediately. You will never see the surface again." He arched an eyebrow. "Do you understand that?"

Avis looked away, grinding the edges of her beak together. In all honesty she was not surprised he was saying it. The fact that she had made it seem she had adapted to life in the Hollow and then made such a run was abusive as well as dishonourable. It made her seem the villain, the way she had harmed those men on her way down, and caused a riot within the Hollow walls.

"Stare?" He spoke a little harder, more adamantly. "I require an answer."

She rolled her eyes, and muttered in her mind. I hate this all. All of it.

"Stare?!" His anger was clear now. She saw him move, beginning to lift his cane.

"Yes," she sighed. "Yes, of course I fucking do."

His breath came out with a sigh. He seemed to relax. "Good. And that includes any times I require you for work outside of the Hollow."

She grunted​.

He paused. "Look at me please," he said, his voice still with a fine edge to it.

Her jaw locked.

"Stare."

Irritated, she looked back at him, the spite clear in her dark eyes. His were equally as irrtated. A far cry from the softness he had initially had when he came in. All due to her work, she was happy to claim.

He pursed his lips slightly as he moved to stand. He kept his eyes thus locked with her as he found the chair that was usually by her bed and sank down into it, slowly and majestically. Resting his cane across his legs he took up a proud stance and took a moment of silence. Avis never once broke eye contact with him, and hardly moved, remaining where she was, tense on the bed. The only thing that had changed was her stare, going from an intense dislike to a more distant caution, lined with a hint of fear.

After the pause ended Vitruvion let out a breath and continued. "Despite what you attempted to do, and what disadvantages it has struck," he waved a hand. "With needing to keep you punished for so long, with the promise if this occurs another time, and so on," he laid his hand back down on his lap, "It seems that by default you have shown me other skills that you are capable of. Are you aware your exploits nearly ended a life?"

Avis stared at him a moment, and watched his eyes. He looked at her expectantly, leaving the question hanging on the air, and she breathed roughly as she tried not to even think about anything that had occurred. All she wanted was him to leave her alone. To be out of the room, out of her life.

He raised an eyebrow, a warning.

"No," she said quietly, with a note of irritation in her voice. "I didn't. I didn't mean for my blows to kill."

[Stare]

"And for two of the guards, they did not," Vitruvion nodded. "Nicking minor points, avoiding the artery by precise millimetres. However, one on a normal man you would have not injured massively. Except his heart happens to be almost in the exact centre of his chest, and his arteries thus alligned different."

Avis' heart thumped heavily in her chest. She felt nausea rising in her throat as she was told the news of nearly killing him. Certainly she had never aimed to kill, only maim and down, and it made her uncomfortable to imagine that she had nearly ended a life. Her first life. These men, after all, were not to blame for the full cruelty of their masters, and since she had never yet killed ... Well. It was not honourable to kill when you did not have to. That much her father had taught her despite his masterless Ronin identity, in which he had lost his position, his status and his livelihood in one.

Vitruvion's mouth curled into a small smile at the look of the horror burning in her eyes.

"That was sheer unfortunate​ chance, Stare, that he happened to be on duty that day. Any other guard and we wouldn't be having this part of the conversation." He paused. "Anyway, he is alive, so that is well. And I know you did not mean to kill. So I have no lives to hold over you. Which is a good thing for you. But," he sat forwards a little, his back remaining straight, a focus of strength and authority. "That is not what interests me."

Avis remained quiet as she dared to listen, dared to seek what he had to say. Not listening would be a bad idea anyway, but this time she was actually interested. And felt sick to the pits full of guilt to be distracted elsewhere.

"No, what interests me, Stare, is the fact you knew where to stab at all. Where to precisely hit so they would be downed, but not permanently injured."

He looked at her expectantly.

As per norm she stared back, not making a sound.

"... Well?"

She sighed and swallowed, hating the feeling of turmoil in her stomach. "My father was a warrior. He taught me how to fight with knives."

Vitruvion nodded, looking impressed. Avis' eyes rolled shut and she let her head drop slightly with distaste.

"And what else did he teach you?"

"Some swordplay. That was his speciality, but I was always better at the knife. I usually use two, for my-"

She cut herself off, before she could think of them. The siblings she had hardly known.

"For your ...?"

"My dead older brothers."

[Stare]

Vitruvion paused and smiled. "Ah the ones who died when you were very young? Twins, I believe?"

Avis nodded with a sigh, feeling now very uncomfortable and wanting this conversation to be over with, for him to be gone, gone, gone!

"And you learnt how to get through a locked door how?"

"I grew up with the children of thieves and murderers," Avis spoke fast, her voice becoming tinged with anxiety and irritation. Why he couldn't just go and let her deal with the issue she had almost ed someone she didn't know. "They taught me things, how to pick locks, how to move around a building silently, stuff like that, alright?!"

Her last word hung in the air. It was bitter and hating and harsh. It was the mixture of emotions she felt right now - hate for herself and him, sung into stress.

His next tone was fiercely disapproving. "Stare. I don't wish to be spoken to in that way currently. I am asking you questions and you are answering them, this is not an interrogation."

"Well it bloody hell feels like one," she retorted.

A destinctive chill in the air. The underfeathers on the back of Avis' neck stood on end. She didn't look, but she could feel Vitruvion's glare burning into her features, using the full strength of his authority and glory to strike her down where she stood.

"Stare," he said in the harshest, darkest of tones. "You will not talk to me in that way. I know I take kindly to your fervour and your passion. These are things I delight in seeing you have, and retain. But I do not appreciate your consistent lack of respect for me. You seem to regularly forget the fact that it is I who keep you fed and clean, it is I who provides you with this room, and it is I who own you." His eyes burnt into her skull. His words were livid scolds. "I am not as incessant in that fact as others, Stare, and I have never required you to call me so, but it is I who is your master. Your future is here, under my roof, in my chambers, to do with as I please. Not as you please, not as Raevin please, but as I please. I pay Raevin, I pay the stewards, but I do not pay you. I require and you give. You can fight, that is fine, but if you are constantly biligerant about it, if you constantly disobey my orders, if you constantly try to do things such as escape ... That, I have had enough of. Four months you have been here, and the only times I have managed to get you to fully adhere to my will I have had to threaten you. Repetitively. A language you comprehend, at least, but a language I should not have to go into every single time. You know the consequences of your actions, you know what I need of you, the services I require and what I will provide in return for these. So you should be able to understand your position here!"

He cut off, his face a firm look of dislike and disgust. Her own face was downcast, heart beating wildly, hands curled into light fists. She sat on the bed, still, her mind a mixture of emotions as she still tried to deal with the brought up grief over her brothers, the guilt of having almost killed someone, and now the fear of what words he was using.

His jaw tightened. "Stare, you will look at me right now."

A shiver ran up her spine, as his words echoed around her head. 'I own you.' 'You know the consequences.' 'Services I require.'

[Stare]

Biting back the torrent of disgusting words she raised her eyes to lock them with his. She saw unbridled fury, power and magnificence within him. When she finally gazed at him, her own emotions of nervousness mixed with hatred and fear, she watched him make a small, cert nod, and rested his hand on his knee. She didn't move from where she was, but she could fell the tears beginning to rise from the sense of helplessness. First the guilt, now this. Controlling, terrible bastard.

"Good. Now remind me who owns you," he ordered her in a firm voice.

Spirals of hate burned in her eyes.

"You do," she hissed through a clenched beak.

"Exactly. Now let us return to a civilised conversation."

Avis felt a breath of air rush out of her. She felt subjected, defeated, this man who held her actual life in his hand was sitting opposite her. Demanding her to inform him of their relationship. In all honesty all she wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry. Cry away all the hurt, guilt and loss she felt, let all the sorrow out before the anger reigned once more. That along with the destestation, the malice and the irritation.

Sagging she clenched her jaw but said nothing, letting her eyesight drop away again and leaning forwards ontp her arms as they kept her body from sprawling across the bed. She looked anywhere, the posts of the bed, the tapestries, anywhere but him.

"So you learnt how to pick locks from those you grew up with?"

Her head nodded but no words came out.

"And for how long were you planning that escape attempt? Was it a spur of the moment decision or had you been waiting?"

She sighed low and heavy. Her tone was still bitter but she kept her words short and without curses.

"For about two months. Longer. Two and a hald. I was waiting for the right opportunity."

His lips pursed slightly and he leant to the side. "You mean since the council?" His eyebrows rose. "That was the first night when you finally did what I requested."

"You threatened me first."

"Indeed," his nod was regal. "However after that time there were moments that I did not need to. You did as I commanded, sometimes with guidance, but you were more ..." His words fell away as he let out a long sigh. "I see. You were trying to impress me. Make me relax security around you. Well," he paused, sitting up straight again. "At least I know that now. Security around you will be tighter, and I know to be cautious every time you are more obidient."

Avis would have scowled if her features had allowed her. Instead she muttered a line of avian under her breath, something that translated to, "May the sky fall on your head."

"If I need to keep threatening you, then I will," Vitruvion continued. "And we will continue as normal. Your skills that have come to light may fall into use, we will see. For now you will resume your duties as a member of my household here. Yes?"

[Stare]

He went quiet, the word hanging in the air. Avis didn't really know what to say, currently letting her eyes drift across the bough of an embroidered tree in one of the more elegant tapestries. She only grew alert when he coughed.

"Stare?"

She looked back to him, her solid black eyes blinking once, then twice.

"What?" She added 'dickwad' in her head after the phrase. But only in her head.

"I was asking if you understand."

She took a moment to stare into his unamused golden glorious irises. Then she murmured in a hissing voice. "Yes. I do."

Vitruvion smiled very slightly, but the smile did not reach his eyes. "Good. Now," he began to move, standing. "Time to earn your keep."

Avis' eyes flashed to him and her breath caught in her chest. She tensed, her whole body rigid and she curled inwards, her hands automatically coming to her chest. Vitruvion finally broke his gaze from her, looking over to the door, before he pounded his cane on the ground. He shouted loudly, "Brer! Zulon!"

Zulon she recognised as the name of the new guard stationed outside her door. Her new permanent escort. The door opened and Avis felt her heart sink as she saw the half-giant and the young human first looked in, and paused. They saw their employer and his kenku slave concubine, and together took in a breath. A beat of an unheard drum. A silent nod, a wave of understanding.

Avis knew she didn't want anything to do with Vitruvion right then and there. All the emotions of earlier - the sorrow, the guilt, the fear - raged within her and she began to instinctively recoil. Taking into her mine survival instinct she began to move, rapidly, heading to the edge of the bed.

"Don't you fucking go anywhere girl, not after the discussion we just had."

Avis froze where she was positioned. One leg half off the bed, the other tucked beneath her. One hand was curled around the edge of the mattress and as she heard his yell it's claws began to dig into the fabric, tearing holes with light popping sounds as they cut the individual threads. Savagely her eyes turned to where she heard the voice from. Vitruvion stood near the end of the bed, eyes dark and staring right at her. His cane was poised, half out and pointing at her, and there was venom in his voice.

"Don't you even dare."

Avis glared back at him, her vice and fury and detestation of the man thrown into her eyes. Her tongue clicked against the inside of her beak as she thought through a myriad of retorts, a million curses, but she did not speak them. Her stare - the stare - that she was still so confused about, and oh the Kami, the last three months had given her nothing more to go on - ripped into his eyes, attempting to tear him apart and expose his soul.

But he was immune to it. Just like he was amune to the fantastical power that bound the Hollow and every magic user within it. Every one but him and his sister. Vitruvion held her gaze steady, lowering his cane slowly as Brer and Zulon moved fast, grabbing what they had and what they could to approach her.

Roughly, and not kindly, for they knew that was Vitruvion's wish, they pulled her to. She hissed darkly and shoved more than once with her shoulder, all the time keeping her eye contact with Vitruvion. Brer, however, was incredibly strong and it really only needed him to hold her still in his strong arms as her hands were grabbed and forced, struggling, into a premade pair of rope loops. Tightened, they were fastened behind her back before she was suddenly flipped over and landed, belly flat onto the bed. Only then, did her gaze avert from Vitruvion, forced so. She screeched openly, in a flurry of Avian, as secreted chains appeared from nowhere and shackles started to be fastened to her body. Upper arms, ankles, knees, even one around her neck. They kept her lying on her belly as she was held down with the stretched out chains.

"Fuck you, you bastard," Avis spat to Vitruvion as she felt the final hands of her guards make their checks and then remove themselves. "Fuck you, fuck this place. Fuck it all. Fucking ..."

As the tears began to thickly roll down her feathered face, calmly sliding down the curve of her beak, Avis felt her words disappate. It seemed she couldn't keep her feelings that she had tried to bottle up and keep hidden couldn't be so, for they were too powerful. Heavily, she swallowed, as she watched Brer and Zulon walk back out through her front bedroom door. Pain, emotional pain filled her as she struggled with the faded memories of her brothers, the genuine fear of being sent below to the depths of the Hollow and the horrible guilt of almost ending a life.

"I hate this," she whispered quietly to herself as she felt the pressure on the side of the bed. "I hate this all. Fuck them and fuck me."

And a spiteful voice replied in her ear. "That is precisely what I intend to do."

[Stare]

In the full four months Avis had only stared when necessary. Slightly cautious for what power it actually had, and with no idea what it was doing to the victims involved internally, she had spared it's full potential. Indeed, it had also applied to Vitruvion in her attempts to make him believe in her calming. Despite the fact he seemed entirely non-plussed about it anyway.

Nevertheless Avis had managed to visually stun a full ten people, gaining to five rounded seconds with one corridor-wandering brother as he had come upon her. Vitruvion had called upon her for half of those times, telling her that he required it for his purposes. To what extent he imagined her stare to effect people was beyond Avis' comprehension. For herself she took the whole game merely as a fine example of her being able to demonstrate her ferocity and anger, the flame within her belly.

After her attempt at escape, Avis through the dirtiest, most direct looks she could at Vitruvion. She was not stupid enough to try an escape again - unless absolute freedom was guaranteed. When news came to her that the man she had seriously injured had made a full recovery, Avis was relieved and some of her fear began to drift away. Other fears began to drift also. When she realised she wasn't afraid of Vitruvion, but more afraid of the results of his threats, if they were to be carried out, she relaxed and life became easier. Three days glided by, three days where Vitruvion came in every single one of those and called upon her to give him what he held her prisoner for. Reluctant though she was, Avis grudgingly obliged, and only cursed him when his mood seemed to allow it. Her favourite term was, "bastard." Then he would slap her, grab her feathers or hold her beak closed as he took his fill of her small and lithe body, and reply that she was a "small breasted bitch."

"So, Raevin just told me everything that has occurred."

Avis blinked, rather alarmed. She cautiously looked up from the book she had curled in her hands, careful now not to claw any (more) pages. Brer had become a little concerned over the quality in which his books were when Avis returned them.

Before her, at the edge of the room, striding over from where the door was now closing, Blaze appeared, a flurry of red hair and gorgeous hips. Arms folded over her barely covered chest she came right up to where Avis was perched on her bed and stared fully at her.

"Well? What did I tell you?"

Avis paused and slowly closed the book. "Hello to you too Blaze," she said quietly, with a large hint of sarcasm, "Yes, please come right into my room."

Raising her chin slightly Blaze turned, red hair curling out like a lion's mane. She stomped over to Avis' table, grabbed the chair from it and carried it over. Setting it down with a loud bang she sat down and continued to look at the kenku, entirely aghast.

"I told you to be wise, that was what. And then, what do you go and do? Try to escape - get pretty far I hear but that's not really the point ... You try to escape and then, have an entire charade where Vitruvion discovers you have been lying to him this entire time!"

Avis let out a small quiet sigh as the woman rattled on, thumbing a large feather on her wrist. In all honesty she was not surprised this had happened sooner. Blaze liked to prance in, intending on giving Avis 'advice' and then invite herself for dinner.

"I did not so much lie to him as try to get back to my life, Blaze," Avis said, keeping her voice calm and collected. "And in any case he is committing the higher crime by keeping us here against our will."

Loosening her folded arms just a small tad, Blaze took a moment to consider Avis' words and then just shook her head. "It is not against crimes. It is about survival. There is no escape from here, as far as I know the room you got to is the beginning of a whole complex of upper level rooms, all in which the guards reside. Not even at night can you try to get out."

"Unless we started a riot?" Avis half-heartedly suggested.

[Stare]

Blaze simply gave her a 'are you stupid look' and Avis found herself grinning. Grinning for the first time in a while. Likely since the last time she had found a reason to smile at a plot in a book ... Or more meaningfully when she had realised what an idiot she had been, post escape.

"Do not worry, I severely doubt that is ever going to happen," she set the book aside and gestured to the door. "You've seen Zolan. He's my new extra security for the foreseeable future, as well as Brer. And Vitruvion told me yesterday he's thinking of hiring another."

Blaze did not look surprised. "I've had my two since I came here. There is a third who makes up rotation for when sleeping needs to be done."

"Why do you even need two?" Avis looked at her, now a little confused. "Surely Vitruvion trusts you enough to even just have one?"

Blaze laughed, light into the air. "They are twins. Brothers. And they are nothing compared to your giant out there. Also remember I have not been required to be bound when traversing these corridors for ..." She pulled a hand through her firey hair. "A year, about."

A year. A fair long time. Avis nodded a little, eyes glancing down to her duvet, thinking about her own position. Even in the height of her deception with Vitruvion he had had her wrists bound at least. And now, after her escape attempt, he took no liberties. Rope had been replaced with metal; shackles on her wrists were compulsory whenever she set claw outside of the room.

"He's a repulsive man," Avis sighed.

"Yes, but a good one, when it comes to it," Blaze said, making the kenku stare at her in surprise. The elf-of-a-kind made a small smile before explaining. "By that, I mean he is good as far as the other brothers here are. Wisdom and obedience is rewarded, we are given very good food from the same kitchens as Vitruvion, bedrooms, hot water to bathe in. I've talked to some others and they share rooms, don't have access to their own bathroom. And they eat like prisoners."

Avis blinked a few times and made a grunting noise. "We are still captives. Still held against our will."

There was a silence before Blaze nodded. "That is true, but we cannot do anything about it. You know that now as the rest of us."

Though she made a face, Avis had to admit that Blaze spoke the truth. For what her escape attempt had told her - and Vitruvion's promise of punishment if she tried again - she knew that being here was a long-term issue. She thought about how many girls must be here, and about the fact that all of them, at the very least most, would fall to despair eventually and be handed to the lower levels. In that situation she could not see many of them surviving for long. And when the girls got old, too old for aesthetic pleasure ... Why they would surely be hidden away also.

"How long has this place been in operation?" Avis asked, her eyes looking back to Blaze.

The Ellidin paused, her lips pursing. "That is a good question. I know about the rules of succession and inheritance - mainly, when one brother wishes to leave he may pass his position onto another of his choice. It is usually an underling to himself. Then there has to be a vote ... You saw that with Tethion at the council, right?"

Avis nodded. She did remember.

"Exactly," Blaze went on. "They always have to be voted in, even if they gain the position via the other method. Mainly, if a brother is killed in combat, by someone who is not of the Hollow, then their killer will be offered the place. If it is of someone in the Hollow already then they are immediately called traitor and executed."