25. Up in Arms

Waking up on cold metal with her hands bound above her head and a searing pain in her wings Marlet let out a groan when she noticed she had a gag in her mouth. Trying to free her hands from the chains keeping them up, a voice before her clicked their tongue in a consoling manner "ntch, ntch, ntch, I wouldn't do that if I were you missy." Marlet could only glare at the man sitting before her as he continued speaking after a small pause, "you do understand what I'm saying right? The rumours said that you can speak and understand us surface people." The man tilted his head in a confused manner almost as though he was concerned, he snapped his fingers as if only now realising something. "Ah, my mistake. You can't speak with that in your mouth now can you" he seemed satisfied that he had solved the big mystery causing Marlet to only growl in response. "Don't look at me like that, if you had to restrain anyone else you would make sure they couldn't use their magic either" the condescending tone of this man before Marlet only infuriated her more.

Marlet decided to ignore the man and look around to try and get more information about her situation and hopefully, location. Moving around her head she noted that the action brought extreme pain into her wings, "ah, ah, ah. We wouldn't want you to damage those precious wings any more now do we?" the said while taking out a spear and slightly jabbing it into one of her wings making Marlet let out a muffled scream. "You've become the talk of the continent. 'The last of your race', that was the report released by the guild anyway" the man seemed a little melancholic but suddenly shifted to rage, "BULSHIT! if that was the case some gods would have taken a form like that, no?" He punched Marlet's face disorientating her briefly. "I'll leave you to think about what you new future will be like" the man got up and left the cage, locking it behind him.

Marlet started thrashing around again and only because of the pain in her wings did she try to see what that unbearable pain was. Horrified at what these people had done Marlet wanted to pass out on the spot, going through both her wings was two harpoon-like spears with barbs and a bent tip to ensure that it could never fall out, attached to the other end was a chain leading to a weighted ball too heavy for her to carry. The pain caused by the movement caused her to be unable to focus on her inner constellations and try and get new spells of battle experience, with the gag in her mouth she also was unable to release a shout that could decimate these disgusting people.

"Hey, did you hear they caught that winged freak of the Loki familia?" a voice said from around the corner catching Marlet's attention. Clasping one of the manacles around her wrist in her hand she used the flames spell to try and slowly melt the metal off. "Yea, I heard. Apparently there were quiet a few requests for her" a second voice responded to the first. "Damn those 4 are lucky to have caught her! Can you imagine the fun we could be having at the pleasure district with the money they'll get from the auction!?!" The first voice almost sounded indignant at the 4's fortune at capturing her. "Hey, hey. Keep your voice down. They might look like they're sleeping but they're still sensitive to noise" a third and gruff voice chastised the to, she was guessing, guards.

Feeling the searing heat of the red hot manacle burning away at her flesh the tears in her eyes started flowing as she let out a muffled scream. The metal was red hot and had it not been for her passive healing she doubted her wrist would ever look the same again. "Have you heard that Loki has apparently launched a crusade into Daedalus street and her familia have apparently stopped all exploration for a week" this information almost slipped past Marlet due to the pain. As the metal refused to heat up any more she switched to her frostbite spell and cast it on the same manacle, super cooling it. Feeling the cold on her wrist was bittersweet as the skin couldn't heal properly and left markings where the metal had burnt her.

"Think boss'll notice if we got the girl 'ready' for one of her possible future roles?" The first voice asked again after some silence, this however was followed by a loud smacking sound. "Do you want to die? The girl's value is already so high because of the purity. What do think happens to the guards that allowed something like that to happen?" The third voice chastised again. Feeling the metal remain at a constant frozen temperature Marlet switched back to her flames and proceeded to heat up the manacle again.

She actually started sobbing at the constant pain as the red metal seared away the damaged skin around her wrist and it took on that burnt look again. "Hey! You smell that?" one of the guards spoke suddenly and caused Marlet to stop her attempt at shattering the metal lest they notice her attempts. A man wearing a helmet that covered his features walked into the room and looked around for the source of the smell of burning flesh but found nothing except a sobbing girl. "Must have been my imagination." Marlet could hear the footsteps leave in a different direction in search of the smell.

Marlet had to cease her attempts at escaping because she could hear a guard had decided to stand closer to her door and she didn't want to alert her to any of her movements. Like this a few days passed with Marlet growing weaker as she hadn't received any food or drink whilst remaining a captive. She would occasionally hear the growls or howls from monsters or the wimpers or cry's from people. She never got to see who or what was happening beyond the guarded door, only hear, and she didn't like what she heard.

The man who was before her when she first woke up came into the holding room where she was and finally decided to address her again, "I have great news and horrible news" he finished with a sad tone. "It turned out that you were in quiet high demand that we couldn't find a… new home, for you fast enough! The bad news is that because of this popularity we're going to have to move you somewhere a little more, homely" he spoke his words very carefully, almost as though trying to convince himself that what he did wasn't so bad and Marlet would have believed him had he not had a maniac smile on his face.

Walking into the cage again, Marlet didn't try anything again knowing of the futility and pain moving around caused. Blowing a dust into her face with an amicable smile this time the man watched as Marlet fell asleep.

"Alright boys! Load her up as well. She's heading for the auction with the rest. We need to be quick and discreet" the man's face took on a hardened look as he was walking out the cell's door and delegating duties, "we never expected Loki to team up with Astraea to root out our brothers. With this sale we can get closer to our goals!" A loud set of cheers were heard from the men in the surrounding.

Around 10 people started loading cages filled with different monsters ranging from goblins to orcs and anything in between on different wagons that were outbound of Orario.

"This is going to be the most lively auction yet" the man had a greedy smile on his face.

As the cart carrying Marlet left the confines of Orario, the members of the Loki familia had been hitting all the known spots of the Evilus members and tried collecting any information they could find. Freya had even sent Ottar on a few of the errands in the underbelly a few times and many feared to be on the receiving end of his newest sword forged from the drop of the Udaeus Monster Rex. All the residents could feel the displeasure of both goddesses through their actions taken.

After a week of not finding anything Loki had to resume with her dungeon exploration as that was what her familia specialised in and what they had registered as at the guild. The trickster goddess could only grit her teeth in frustration and develop a searching schedule for her familia members that alternated between hunting for Evilus members and dungeon diving to try and increase their stats. Had Loki been a day faster she would have found the underground storage room where Marlet had been kept prisoner but all they found were wagon tracks and the owner of the establishment insisted that it was only a depot for his shop's materials. Loki was having non of it as Bete had picked up on a faint scent of their target.

This action led them to the backroom Marlet had burnt her wrist in, causing Bete to scrunch up his nose and tell Loki about his findings. To say that the shopkeeper almost fainted being and the opposite end of a spear and swords from all directs, ready to gut, cut and decapitate him in one fell swoop made the overweight man sweat profusely.

The city of Orario found itself in a very strange situation, the streets had never been safer due to the large crackdown the Loki and Freya familias had on law-breakers at the moment but the price for this safety was the constant feeling of dread the normal people felt when seeing the faces of the Loki familia. Every single one of them where either patrolling extra shifts of diving extra long in the dungeon to increase stats as quick as possible and find their missing 'sister'.

Marlet slowly woke up in a metal cage surrounded by monsters of varying type in a location she did not recognise, feeling the pain subsided briefly however made Marlet worry because the harpoons were very clearly still in her wings. This did allow her to quickly focus within herself and unlock the first of the Conjuration constellation, giving her access to the number advantage she so desperately needed. Having done with what she wanted she also quickly focused on her map to try and get an idea of where she may be, only to realise she wasn't in Orario anymore but on her way north.

She quickly checked what available spells she got for unlocking the Conjuration and how it could help her at the moment. She could only thank her lucky stars that she could summon a sword or dagger dependant on what she needed.

Coming out of her own mind she made eye contact with one of her captors again only to receive another face full of sleeping powder.