When she opened her eyes she found her wrists were on fire, gasping at the sudden loss of peace into a world of pain, she blinked to clear her vision and found her hands were right beside her face, her wrists encased in a thick, dark grey metal.
Trying her best to focus, she found that the more she tried, the more focus seemed to evade her.
Her wrists weren't the only place that hurt. The back of her head was still smarting and the smell of blood led her to believe someone had taken to her with some sort of blunt weapon.
She was leaning up against a rough stone wall, her wrists clamped in shackles that appeared to be nailed into the wall, which suggested a dungeon of some sort.
Turning her head slowly, she surveyed the empty and markedly clean cell, as though it had been cleaned for their arrival.
Sweeping her eyes across the rest of the room, they fell and locked onto Epharis, his head resting against his chest. Blood covered the back of his silvery head too. Well at least she wasn't alone in her suffering.
He hadn't been bound in iron as she had, but rather a thin gold chain ran from one ring to a wrist, across to his neck, then to the other wrist before snaking up to a second ring. She had to marvel at the irony there, seeing him bound using the chain he so regularly loved to use on her.
His position made it impossible to lower his hands below the level of his ears and he could only lean around a foot from the stone.
He hadn't stirred yet, his breathing short and she wondered if he hadn't been close to death and was now recovering. The thought of him being killed scared her and she squirmed, wiggling herself out as far as she could, her arms and leg extended to their fullest length.
She just managed to poke his calf with her toes, nudging him. He didn't respond.
"Epharis, wake up," she hissed, not wanting to alert whoever had them.
He didn't wake up and she let out a low sigh, using her legs to push herself back into a comfortable position.
Sitting with her back against the wall, her legs bent out in front of her with her arms up to her right shoulder, she rested her head against the stone and set in to wait, having no idea what to do except that.
She could only guess at it being around an hour later when he began to stir, his head rolling to the side and she flinched when his head thunked against the stone and he grunted in pain.
Finally he looked up and his eyes found her instantly, first her face and then her arms, down to her belly and then her feet. She could almost see the list being ticked off in his head. Etani alive? Yes. Arms bound in iron? Yes. Baby well? Yes. Was she able to kick someone's testicles into their throat? Yes.
Only after he had assessed her did his eyes unfocus and she knew him to be doing his own internal assessment of his injuries.
"At least I have a cell buddy this time," she quipped when he seemed to be alert again, his eyes sweeping the cell. "The chains make for ironic karma don't they?"
He grunted and focused on her again, studying the iron and the red welts around her wrists.
"A few hours," she said, knowing he was trying to use the damage as an indication of how long they had been locked up.
He nodded and gave his chain a tug, but it had been looped around the ring at least three times on each end.
"Can you reach?" he asked with a motion towards the ring.
"I could barely reach you, but might as well try," she said with a quiet sigh
Pulling herself up with the chains, she stood and stepped forward as far as she was able. With her arms outstretched, she lifted her foot off the ground and extended. Her wrists burned and she gritted her teeth to keep silent as the iron pulled against her skin, tearing it and finding new skin at the base of her hands.
It sizzled but they both ignored it, focused on her movements.
She couldn't reach with her current position and so she sighed, straightening and giving him a warning look. Turning to face him, she stepped forward again, her back arching backwards as she lifted her foot and found she could just touch the ring with her foot.
The sudden burn on her toes nearly had her on the floor in shock, but she ignored it, trying to focus.
Giving up on that, she motioned to the chain and he pulled it forward. Catching it between her toes, she gave it a little tug but it had been knotted.
"Damn it all," he hissed and she dropped her foot. "When did you learn to do that?" he asked. Watching as she twisted on the ball of her foot and straightened. It wasn't all that impressive, having learnt it to be called a backbend and was commonly used in gymnastics.
"It is part of a religious belief somewhere I can't remember the name of, but they perform this as a form of meditation and battle," she said, avoiding the question as she returned to her side of the room.
Planting her foot on the wall, she tried her best to simply rip the iron out of the wall, her legs and back straining but it wouldn't budge.
"What is this place designed for?" she said as she sat down, frustrated.
"If we're in the castle dungeons, creatures like us," he said.
"Well that's inconvenient," she replied, the two exchanging a look before settling into a sullen silence once more.
Her arms had begun to sting from the prolonged contact with the iron and she studied the lines that streaked down her forearms, the iron poisoning was destroying her veins.
"How long is this going to take?" he finally snarled when she estimated eight hours had gone by since their waking.
"The waiting is over," A voice said and a key was jammed into the door. The sound of that voice made her stomach clench in terror.
The man who walked in made her blood go cold. Drizdan stood there with two other drow men.
"What are you doing here?" Etani and Epharis said in unison, both ignoring the other in their death glare at the man.
"Now, now. There's no need to be like that," he seemed cheerful, his gaze flicking to Epharis before settling and remaining on her.
"Hello again beautiful," he purred, stepping into the room. The two drow moved in behind him, pulling a trolley along with them. It rattled loudly in the quiet room. Whatever was on top of it was covered with a white cloth.
He approached her, smiling and she waited. Letting him get closer before she shifted and kicked up, the top of her foot scoring him in the stomach.
All of his breath left him and she only had enough time to pull her leg back before one of the men jumped on her, almost flattening her to the floor.
"I told you to bind her legs," Drizdan wheezed, bent over. The man didn't have a very good grip on her and while Drizdan was still bent over, she kicked out with all her strength. It collided with his face, flipping him back onto the ground. ,
Epharis took over, swinging one leg around Drizdan's neck, the other coming to meet the first and locking at the ankle. His calves flexed and Drizdan began to choke, his air cut off.
The second drow moved even as she drove her knee up between the first one's legs and he rolled off her. Turning to see the second drow trying to release Drizdan, the man already turning black rather than purple. Pulling herself to her feet, she stepped forward and used her foot to shove the drow into the wall headfirst.
Epharis was grinning at her, but then his eyes flicked, and she turned just in time to see a fist coming for her face. She had just enough time to think 'well damn...' Before her head snapped back and she dropped, caught by the drow before she could hit the floor.