Amari’s throat was hoarse, she had been screaming, loudly, unabashed, and without reprise. She knew that anger, negativity and inflicting pain caused the corruption within her soul to simmer and that was exactly what she was trying to do. She focused on the pain in her back from the wound Lye inflicted, he had left the small dagger in the cell with her, so she had used it to small lesions all over her body, she sat breathing heavily.

The man in the cell to the left of her was now a mangled bloody mess. Gory entrails that were once his eyes clung to the blade and her now blackened hands. It was working. Small, broken laughs bubbled from her as she shifted to tug at the bars again.

“Oh? What’s this?” A guard had approached the bars, burly, about twice the size of Lye. “Well isn’t it Scarlet herself. I heard you were back.” He knelt down by the cage, reaching in to grab her chin and pull it toward him. “Also heard you lost those nasty dangerous abilities of yours, pissed off the Master, led an Ixian Knight...Who you had the audacity to fuck, to our doorstep...my I’m surprised you aren’t dead.”

“The fuck do you want Tauros.”

The man grinned, “Oh, many things, Scarlet, many things. Do you know they’re fighting up there, right now? Master and the Knight?”

Amari felt her heart skip a beat, “W-what?” That couldn’t be right, Taka had promised her… he had sworn on his blade that he would not follow her into the sanctum. So why was he here? After everything...did he really lie to her? “Tauros, you’re full of shit.” She hissed as her eyes narrowed.

He pushed her chin away and opened the cell, “White haired man, wears a mask. Prattles on about honor? Funny. He asked for all the Ixian Knight trinkets we had, yet not once asked for you.” Taurus stepped into the cell, blocking Amari’s immediate exit. “I think he was using you to get here.”

“Liar!” Amari snapped as she pushed herself to her feet, kukri in hand she aimed it at Tauros’ jugular but he caught her arm in his hand and pushed her to the back wall. His other elbow tight against her neck. Amari coughed, and spat a glob of spit and blood onto Tauros’s face.

The hulking man laughed. “No, sweetheart, just a theory. Just a theory. But think about it. He finds out you work for the Crimson Hand, and suddenly he is incredibly kind and considerate? You’re too trusting, you’ve fallen for the enemy and you’ve grown weak, and I’m going to show Master you aren’t worth the time nor the effort he puts into you.”

“What the hell you gonna do?” Amari hissed.

“Not touch you, if that’s what you think. You’re a little too...living for my liking. Sides…” He pried the Kukri from her hand. “You pulled out the eyes of the last men who did that to you.” In one swift motion Tauros tossed her to the floor and straddled her. Pinning her arms to her sides underneath his hulking weight. “Know what I say?” He leaned in close and whispered. “An eye for an eye.”

He ignored her screams as he pried open her lids with one eye, the other, with surprising delicacy was pushed into her socket,he spun the blade around her socket and tilted it to the side, removing the eye, and detaching it from the optic nerve. He did this to the second one. “I wonder if your revival regenerates lost eyes, do you think your little hero would want these?” He asked.

Amari screamed and writhed beneath him, her eyes nothing more than bleeding sockets.

“LET ME GO! MASTER! MASTER! ARGH….T-TA..A.AAHH..” She switched between the two names between agonizing cries.

Tauros pulled her up and out of the cells by her hair. “This is why I like ‘em dead.” He muttered. “No noise. No movement. Even calling out to the enemy, fuck you’ve fallen far.”

He pulled her to the fight, with Amari still screaming, a thin crimson trail of her blood behind her. “Yo, Master.” Tauros called to Lye with a nod. “Did you a favor.” He carelessly tossed Amari’s milky eyes to the centre of the battle. “Courtesy of the men she felled. She’s a traitor.”

Amari was choking on her cries, body writhing in the snow as her shaky hands clutched at her face. Every so often they’d spark with a golden light, but they’d quickly fade, she was in too much pain to concentrate. “M….Mas…..” A sharp kick to her side caused her to roll over and throw up a sickly yellow bile.