Stories of Tie Up Games

Very dramatic and intense!

Thanks for commenting [mention]Caesar73[/mention] ! Since the story is reaching its end I sent you and other users a PM about something I'd like to ask you about it so answer when you can.

Enjoy chapter 41!

Chapter 41: In Her Web

“Oh hi there” Ferine heard an unknown voice say “It was already late for you to keep sleeping”

Ferine adjusted her eyes and gave a quick review to her memories, what she remembered matched what she saw, she was laying on a soft sticky surface that she deduced to be cobwebs, those were attached to different branches of a tree creating a strange type of closed room with few and little openings that revealed the forest outside.

Her memories also matched how she found herself, Ferine was tightly wrapped in soft sticky cobweb that forced her arms and shoulders backwards and went from below her breasts down to her hips, her legs were also wrapped in the same substance from ankles to to knees, she was tied up like she remembered but at least she wasn’t gagged.

As for the source of the unknown voice Ferine had just heard she found out who it was after inspecting her surroundings a bit more. Sitting against a wall she found an unknown woman, an elf to be specific which she was able to notice by her long pointy ears, wrapped up in cobwebs like she was. Her fellow prisoner had long blonde hair green eyes and pale skin covered with freckles, she also seemed strong but that didn’t seemed to be helping her. Under the webbing that held her captive Ferine could see some sort of green uniform but she couldn’t see much detail through the white restraints.

“Are you awake or nah?” The elf asked seeing how Ferine kept her silence.

“Yeah I am” Said Ferine as she crawled to the wall the elf was laying against in order to find a somewhat comfortable position.
“Don’t bother struggling, believe me I have tried everything that’s possible and I’m still here” Said the elf

“Don’t worry, I’m used to inescapable situations” Said Ferine as she rested against the wooden wall “I’m Ferine” The scout introduced herself.

“Well welcome I guess” Said the elf “But I really should be saying that I’m sorry for you, my name is Saida by the way”

“Nice to meet you I guess” Said Ferine “Have you seen any of my friends?” She asked fearing the worst.

“Well I’ve seen her” Saida said as she nodded towards Liel who was sleeping on the soft cobweb floor.

“Liel” Muttered Ferine.

“But I wouldn’t advice waking her up, the more time she can ignore she’s like this the better” Said Saida “As for the others I just know that two more people were brought here with the two of you, as of who are they I have no idea”

“Sound like you know an awful lot about this place” Said Ferine “Care to tell the new girl a thing or two?”

“Whatever” Sighed Saida “We have all the time in the world don’t we?”

And so Saida began her story, turns out it had already been a week since her initial capture by Nicith, wood elves tended to stay far from these lands but she had committed the mistake of disobeying those who had told her to stay far from this lands and now found herself prisoner of the drider.

Everything she told Ferine about her captivity was horrible, the only thing that Ferine could be happy about was that Nicith wasn’t going to allow them to starve to death or die of thirst but after hearing what being her prisoner implied, death could be preferable after enough time. According to Saida Nicith would allow her certain freedom from her restraints from time to time just so she could exercise and stay in shape only so Nicith could enjoy the best of her body. And if she tried to use those opportunities to escape she was faced with the worst of punishments Nicith could think of.

“That’s why I don’t advise you to escape human” Concluded Saida “I’m not trying to demotivate you, its just that I don’t want you to face the same punishments I faced”

“I’m afraid that won’t be the case” Said Ferine as she reached for her hidden dagger “Today we escape, me and my friends continue our journey and you go back with your elf friends in the forest”

“Don’t be stupid!” Said Saida “If she founds out that you’re trying to escape she’ll punish us all!”

“We won’t give her time to found out, don’t worry” Said Ferine as she pulled the dagger out of her boot.

“Don’t do this, its not worth it!” Shouted Saida.

Do you really prefer to remain her slave!?” Ferine demanded to know, despite knowing the answer to be negative.

Saida’s silence said everything, ever since she had been captured she wanted nothing but her freedom, even if the threat of punishment scared her greatly she couldn’t argue against Ferine’s tenacity, even if she knew that it would get her a punishment. In the end, she was exactly like her the first days after her capture.

Ferine’s fine dagger had little trouble getting through the cobwebs but it was still hard to use when she had her hands so tightly wrapped together behind her back, hadn’t it been for that she would have quickly broken free of the webbing.

“Watch out!” Saida screamed, completely breaking Ferine’s concentration.

One of the giant spiders that served Nicith had lunged her from below the webbing of the floor, Saida had interposed herself between Ferine and the spider which had saved Ferine, but at a great cost. The giant arthropod was now piercing its fangs on Saida’s shoulder to the point that it was making her bleed.

“Just free yourself” Saida struggled to say in the middle of her pain.

Ferine’s past self would have obeyed, Ferine the bandit, the careless thief would have freed herself and ran away but her present self couldn’t do that. Still wrapped in cobwebs Ferine Jumped at the spider giving it her back and stabbing it with her dagger right in its head.

“Why did you...” Saida sighed, relived of the pain.

“Girls I need some help here!” Shouted Liel, interrupting whatever Saida and Ferine had to say to each other.

Neither Ferine nor Saida knew when but Liel had woken up and was now trying to kick away a pair of spiders, a task that with her legs wrapped together was beyond difficult.

“Use the dagger yourself, I’ll help her” Said Ferine as she handed the dagger to Saida.

“But...”

“You’re too hurt to fight, free yourself and then we’ll get rid of the spiders!” ferine shouted as she jumped to help Liel.

Everyone got to their task, both equally difficult, being back to back Liel and Ferine managed to keep away the spiders and Saida managed to do the same by staying against a wall. Everything seemed to be going well until it went terribly wrong.

The three girls felt something grab their chest restraint and then rapidly pull them upwards at such speed that Saida dropped the dagger to the floor. The pulling continued until the three hung from her chest a few meters below the ceiling. Ferine and Liel were struggling madly but Saida wasn’t, and it wasn’t because of her wound, it was out of pure fear. Saida was mumbling to herself the outcomes she expected from all of this, how all of them were going to be punished, how it was all her fault, how she could have prevented it.

Ferine, who hung in the middle of the three, with Saida to her right and Liel to her left was ready to try to calm her down but someone stopped her, and that someone was Nicith herself, who was able to stand at their height by standing on strings of her web.

“Well well, what do we have here?” Said Nicith as all of the spiders seemed to bow before her “It seems like these flies aren’t behaving”
One of the spiders grabbed Ferine’s dagger with its fangs and extended it to Nicith, who grabbed it by the tip and looked at it closely.

“Who’s idea was this?” Nicith tone became more serious as she made that question.

Seeing how the only response she was getting from her captives was silence she decided to persuade them a bit more.

“Maybe it was you” Said Nicith ash she ran her hand through Liel’s soft cheek “You look so innocent, but sometimes its the ones that seem more innocent that are more eager to try something stupid”

Without warning Nicith grabbed Ferine by the cheeks, tightly squeezing her face hard enough to prevent her from talking.

“Or maybe the answer is more obvious and it is your fault” Said Nicith “If I had to tell without asking I would of course blame you, but nobody is going to rob me the pleasure of finding out who is at fault here”

Nicith let go of Ferine without warning and moved her attention to Saida. She started to caress her body and sensible elven ears, a much less violent approach but an equally invasive one.

“Or was it you dear?” Asked Nicith “How could it be you though? I’m sure you’ve learn something of all my teachings”
“It was me!” Shouted Ferine, breaking the deafening silence that filled the room.

Nicith turned back at Ferine and looked at her with faked disbelief.

“Is that true?” Asked Nicith “Or you want to save your friend of being punished?”

Ferine didn’t replied.

“Maybe you think so high of yourself that you want to save this unknown elf!” Said Nicith as she pointed to Saida.

“I told you, it was me!” Ferine shouted again “I don’t care what you think about it, I did it”

“Fair enough” Said Nicith “I’ll like you to know that once your punishment starts you wont be able to ask me to stop, it doesn’t matter if you aren’t at fault here”

“Do what you want” Ferine replied carelessly.

With ease Nicith cut the ropes from which Liel and Saida hug from, letting them fall to the floor, the fall was harsh but cushioned enough by the cobwebs for them not to be hurt. Ferine on her side, she was still hanging.

“Are you wondering what I’m going to do with you?” Asked Nicith as she encircled Ferine walking through the strings of her cobwebs “Are you afraid?”

“Not at all” Ferine deadpanned “I’ve been through this enough times not to be afraid of it”

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll make you fear it” Said Nicith as she attached a string of cobweb to Ferine’s leg restraint “Have you ever wondered how many blood can go to your head before it explodes?”

“I don’t think that can happen” Ferine said in the same careless tone as before.

“Well you’re about to find out” Said Nicith.

And then she cut the string that attached Ferine’s chest restraints to the ceiling. Ferine was on free fall, she saw the floor approach at a speed so high that she closed her eyes despite knowing that she wouldn’t hit the floor, she was being held by her feet but she still feared the worse. Then the fall stopped suddenly, very suddenly, so suddenly in fact that the sudden stretch in all of Ferine’s body made all of her bones crack and made her release a moan of pain that she tried to muffle as much as she could to prevent herself from showing weakness.

As Ferine tried to adjust her sight after the sudden influx of pain in the whole of her body she saw something enter her field of vision from above, it took her some time for her vision to focus but eventually she got a clear picture of it, it was her dagger.

“That’s right little fly” Said Nicith as she came down the ceiling using her cobwebs and put herself in front of Ferine “Your punishment will not only be to hang like pig in a butchery just until you can’t stand it anymore, but also to see your only escape tool all of the time you’re like this”

“You truly are evil aren’t you?” Said Ferine with some struggle, speaking in her position required some effort.

“Oh I’m not evil” Nicith replied “But when it comes to naughty flies like you I’m beyond evil”

The spider part of Nicith body made her so tall that she could see Ferine in the eyes, and she was able to see how the scout’s face was already getting red.

“Just one detail before I leave” Said Nicith as she ran her fingers through Ferine’s black hair.

Ferine didn’t knew what to expect but in her situation she wasn’t able to prepare for anything, so she didn’t even bothered. Nicith covered Ferine’s mouth with her cold hand, Ferine gave her a confused look but then felt something else covering her mouth, it didn’t took her long to realize that her mouth was being covered by cobwebs.

“There you go” Nicith removed her hand from Ferine’s mouth and then put both of them on her hips “Naughty flies to don’t get to talk to others”

Nicith then left the room by opening the webbing on one of the walls, exit that was quickly closed by her spider minions to left the adventurers trapped again.





Eyiel woke up to the pain on the knee and back muscles caused by kneeling for too long. As soon as she woke up she tried to stand up, but only tried, despite all of her amazonian strength Eyiel still found herself pinned to the floor and after pointless struggling to stand up she calmed down and analyzed her situation.

Below her Eyiel was able to see her chest wrapped in cobwebs like the ones she remembered Nicith using on her before she put her to sleep, but she wasn’t wrapped in them like before. Eyiel’s strong arms were crossed in front of her and pinned to the floor, completely covered by cobwebs and the restraint that went across her chest also secured itself by going over her shoulders and between her legs, she was in a straightjacket purely made of cobwebs.

Then Eyiel inspected her legs and what was forcing her to kneel, turns out cobwebs ran over her thick muscular thighs to pin her to the floor which was already covered in cobwebs.

Eyiel would have sworn right then and then but that was exactly the reason why she found the cherry on top of her bondage, her mouth was covered by the same soft and sticky substance that held her prisoner, preventing her from making any sound that wasn’t a muffled moan.
Being unable to curse her situation Eyiel turned to the only thing she could do and struggled with all of her strength, she struggled more than she had struggled in a long time with all of the strength she had and more. The rage caused by being restrained like she was seemed to only make her stronger and just when she felt like her muscles were at their limit she saw some of the cobwebs that held her arms starting to tear apart, which gave her the energy that she needed to keep fighting.

But her hope was short lived, because just when Eyiel was about to break free from her restraints the same arm and leg restraints she was about to break became tighter, tight to the point that she was no longer kneeling but bowing, with her back parallel to the floor. Now Eyiel was further restrained, with cramped muscles and her blonde hair made a mess falling in front of her eyes.

“Mphgh!” Eyiel gave a grunt of pain because of the sudden pull of the cobwebs.

Eyiel looked around her and found the authors of what had just been done to her, spiders hiding below the floor were producing webbing to tighten the one that Eyiel already had on her, there were many, at least four working on each restraint.

“Your friends are naughty but you ...” Nicith moved apart some of the webbing of the walls and entered the scene “You are downright rebellious”

Eyiel didn’t bothered to look at Nicith.

“I already made your restraints harder because of your strength, but it seems like I’ll have to be even tougher on you if I want you to behave”

Nicith gave a few steps back with her eight arachnid legs and contemplated the bound amazon, She looked so strong, Nicith had removed her armor so her muscles could be seen through her clothes more easily, but at the same time she looked so weak, so helpless at the mercy of Nicith, a paradox that the drider couldn’t love more.

“But I’ve already been so tough on you that I’m struggling to come up with something that could restrain you even more” Nicith complained to herself in a tone purposefully intoned to anger Eyiel.

“Mpgggg” Eyiel groaned angrily.

“Oh there’s no need to be angry” Said Nicith “Things wouldn’t be so bad for you if you behaved a bit better”

Eyiel groaned again and for the first time raised her head to look at Nicith.

“You’d be so much prettier if you got rid of that angry expression of your face” Nicith said as she tried to stroke Eyiel blonde hair, which the amazon quickly dodged.

Unhappy with Eyiel’s gesture, Nicith turned her expression to one of anger but retained her calmness nonetheless.

“You see Amazon, I can help you with your situation you know?” Said Nicith as she ran her hand through Eyiel’s hard back.

Eyiel would have liked to answer that she wanted nothing from her, but she wasn’t going to humiliate herself by gagtalking.

“If you tell me where your other friends are...” Nicith began to talk, Eyiel knew what she was talking about and she also knew what her answer was going to be “You know, that blonde knight lady and the elf...”

“Mpghhh!” Eyiel gave a muffled scream as she struggled with such strength that the spiders pinning her down struggled to do so for a while until more arrived to aid them.

Nicith stepped back, she knew that Eyiel wasn’t going to break free but her sudden burst of strength still surprised her.
“I think that’s enough of an answer for me” Said Nicith as she left the room “Wrap her in more cobwebs and keep an eye on her, I’ll get to the what’s important now so please don’t bother me”

The spiders made their characteristic subtle bow while their master left, leaving them alone with the imprisoned amazon.



Zelliria had woken up and realized her situation long ago. She’d had enough time to inspect her alien surroundings, Zelliria recognized the room made out of black tree branches and cobwebs as a type of bedroom because of a sort of bed that was in its center, its giant size matching Nicith’s, what surprised her the most was to see her lute beside that bed, it was clear that Nicith had fixation on her.
Zelliria could also notice how inescapable situation was. She was spread eagled and vertically suspended between the branches of the black tree in which the hive was built in. Thankfully for her Nicith’s cobwebs did a much better job at preventing gravity from harming her body than Amelie’s ropes, but that came at a cost, and it was the cost of being so thoroughly wrapped in cobwebs that there wasn’t much gravity could do to pull her down.

Her arms were wrapped from shoulders to wrists and her legs from thighs to ankles, both restraints fully attached to the branches, her chest was also wrapped in cobwebs from below her breasts down to her hips and attached at both sides to the branches at her sides, that restraint also had webbing that ran between Zelliria’s legs, something she’d have complained about hadn’t it been for the fact that in the position she was in, that little part of her bondage actually made the pull from gravity less harsh on her. Surprisingly Zelliria wasn’t gagged, but she wouldn’t find much use in that, all of her spells made to undo knots or open locks wouldn’t work with Nicith naturally restrictive cobwebs.

Zelliria did not feared for her friends, she just felt bad for them, but she knew that Nicith had no intention of killing them, her real plans were with her and but she didn’t had to fear for her life either. Nicith’s sadism wouldn’t allow her to just kill her victims.
Since Nicith did not made any noise while moving on her cobwebs Zelliria didn’t noticed Nicith until she arrived. Nicith emerged from one of the webbed walls of the room and stood proud in front of Zelliria.

“And now I finally come to you dear” Said Nicith “I had to check on your friends first, they are very problematic but I took care of that”
Zelliria didn’t asked what she had done to them, it would be better not to know.

“But I always like to leave the best things for last” She continued as she ran the back of her hand through Zelliria’s cheek.

“What do you want with me?” Zelliria dared to ask “Just to make me your slave? Don’t you have enough of that already?”

“Oh Zelliria it isn’t about quantity” Replied Nicith “Its about quality, and you are the best slave I could ever have”

“Really? Me?” Asked Zelliria “Since last time you saw me was years ago I assume you don’t know but I’ll have you know that I’m not very strong, I get easily distracted and I’m very disobedient”

Nicith laughed uncontrollably at what Zelliria said. The half elf knew perfectly that her words wouldn't disuade Nicith intentions one bit she wasn’t expecting such response from her.

“Like if I wanted you for that” Nicith said as she got a hold of her laugh “And that rebellious part you mentioned...” She continued “That only makes it better”

And she continued laughing.

“If you’re going to keep me anyway I only have one request” Said Zelliria already knowing that her position didn’t allowed her to make any demands.

“You’re not in a position to ask me for anything” Nicith confirmed Zelliria’s thoughts “But I’ll hear you anyway, what do you have to say?”

Zelliria already anticipated a negative response but she wouldn’t feel right with herself if she didn’t at least made an attempt to speak.
“Let my friends go” Said Zelliria “You already have me...” She continued with some struggle “I’m the one you wanted, whatever you’re doing to them, they don’t deserve it”

Nicith contemplated Zelliria’s proposal for a few seconds, but never considering fulfilling it.

“I fear I can’t do that” Replied Nicith “Think of them being here as your punishment for what happened years ago”

“Please” Begged Zelliria “At least let Liel go, she’s the small blonde girl”

Zelliria said the later with shame, she was ashamed of showing such bias that if accepted by Nicith would mean that she was leaving the rest of her friends behind but that didn’t compare to what she would feel if she had to know that she was sharing her captivity with her childhood friend, and possibly something more, Liel.

“So you really like her huh?” Asked Nicith “Don’t worry, you two will have plenty of time together in here”

Zelliria looked down in defeat, she couldn’t save anybody, not even Liel, and she couldn’t deal with that.

“Oh don’t give me that look” Said Nicith as she grabbed Zelliria’s head by the chin and forced her to look at her “You seemed pretty confident about you back when I captured you in the forest”

Zelliria looked away, would Rhys and Ann really come to her aid? Could they?

“But enough talking for now” Said Nicith.

Without warning Nicith undid the cobwebs that held Zelliria suspended letting her fall to the floor. Because of the way she was tied Zelliria was able to stand up and try to escape, but she stopped her attempt as soon as she realized that she had no door to exit the room from. The mere fact that she had been able to make that attempt was due to Nicith toying with her.

“I’m glad to see that you don’t show resistance when you see its futile” Nicith grabbed Zelliria’s shoulders from behind, a gesture that the half elf met with disgust “Some bratty resistance is fun, but It can get boring if you resist too often”

Nicith then started to wrap more cobwebs strings around Zelliria all the while the half elf closed her eyes and made a grimace of disgust at what the drider was doing to her.

The cobweb wrapping became more and more tight, so tight that it forced Zelliria’s arms and shoulders behind her back and pinned them to her body, her legs were also pinned together and by the end of the wrapping process Zelliria was but a cocoon of cobwebs, nothing but her feet and head could be seen.

“That’s much better” Said Nicith as she scooped Zelliria up.

Nicith carried Zelliria like bride to her bed and laid her there, then she laid on the bed herself. Better said, Nicith had to sit like a sphinx on her bed due to the monstrous shape of her body.

“Do you remember the first time we met?” Asked Nicith “You were alone, abandoned in the forest by your own people for the mere fact of being a half elf”

Zelliria did remember, but she had no interest in discussing her tragic past, even less if she had to do it with Nicith.

“You were scared, so helpless” Nicith said softly as she stroked Zelliria’s hair “They even left you tied up, how cruel of them...” She continued “But then I found you”

Even though Zelliria hated to remember what had happened that dreadful night she wondered how Nicith’s mind had twisted what had happened then.

“I could have saved you Zelliria, we could have been so close to each other” Nicith continued.

“You wanted to enslave me” Zelliria replied scornfully.

Having no time for Zelliria’s bitterness towards their memories, Nicith covered Zelliria’s mouth with her hand and then gagged her with the cobwebs she produced from her hand.

“Mphg?” Zelliria mumbled, more annoyed than confused.

“Much better” Said Nicith “Now, where was I?” Nicith made a brief pause before resuming her speech “Right, you could have been all mine, I could have saved you, yet you chose him..”

Nicith face turned to anger, but she moved out of Nicith’s field of vision to reach for something near the bed. Zelliria rolled on the bed and saw her grab her lute.

“I see how that turned out for you” Said Nicith as she showed the lute to Zelliria”

“Mpghh” Zelliria groaned again, this time with a lot of anger in her.





“Mpghghgh!” Ferine angrily complained, her head wasn’t going to explode any time soon but her torture it sure was painful.

“I’m so sorry fo her” Said Saida, who had already explained what had happened to Liel while she was sleeping.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s... happy that... you’re okay” Liel tried to cheer her up like she always tried to do with everyone, but as she spoke she realized that their situation wasn’t the best for making people feel good about anything.

“Huh” Saida sighed, whatever Liel had tried, it hadn’t worked “Guess there’s no escaping this after all”

Liel looked down, she wanted everyone to have hope but she didn’t knew how she could do it and that deeply saddened her.

Ferine’s spinning turned her look away from the dagger hanging in front of her again but for the first time since she had first gave her long grueling spin she saw something that raised her hope of escaping, the others couldn’t tell but the she smiled under the gag.

An owl stood in one of the openings of the room and looked at the adventurers, once it noticed that Ferine had noticed it too the owl flew into the room, drawing the attention from all captives, something Ferine tried to do too, by struggling as painful as it was and mumbling something unintelligible under her gag.

Liel and Saida looked with intrigue at the animal as it flew into the room, they wondered why Ferine was making such a fuss about it, but they quickly learned why. The owl flew still in the middle of the room where the dagger hung, it flew there for a few seconds and then, it cut the string from which the dagger hung.

There is a lot to say about that update. Very intense. To see all the Predicaments our Adventurers are in, their feelings, their struggles. We learn why Nincith did all this, we learn its cruelty and malice. So it its all about Zelliria ..... The Situation looks dire - till the end of this Chapter, when the Owl shows up and the dagger is released. So there is hope after all! I liked the way you showed the reader the different Predicaments of our heroines. In some ways like a movie. One cut from one location to the other! My compliments [mention]banshee[/mention] ! One has to admire Eyiel for her indomitable spirit!

Chapter 42: Plague Control

“Are you okay now Rhys?” Asked Ann after she used her healing powers on the downed Elf.

“Much better, thanks Ann” Rhys replied as she helped herself stand up with her staff.

Keeping her and Ann invisible to hide them from Nicith and her spider minions had worked but it had taken a big toll on her energy, thankfully Ann’s powers were perfect for the occasion.

“I understand that you may want to rest now” Said An as she stood up and looked at the treetops “But...”

“I know what we have to do” Said Rhys “Give me a few minutes and I’ll get a spell going, I’ll find where she has them in no time”

Rhys sat cross legged on the floor of the forest and laid some incense from her bag in front of her, then she produced a spark with a simple spell to get the incense burning and finally she closed her eyes. Ann looked without much attention at what Rhys was doing, she had seen her do it enough times to know what the spell she was casting did.

After a few minutes an owl emerged from the incense smoke, the bird looked at its surroundings for a few seconds and then flew away. Knowing that things had turned out like she expected Ann sat beside Rhys, always with a hand near her sword, ready to protect the elf in her defenseless state.





Ann and Rhys found themselves atop an elevation in the forest, from there they could see what Rhys’ servant had found, a tree, one so massive that it was taller than the elevation they were standing in. Its wood was black and it had few leaves to speak of, that was due to the fact of the equally massive spider hive atop it. That was Nicith’s lair.

“How are we going to get up there?” Ann asked to nobody in particular.

Rhys thought of an answer, she was a mage, she was supposed to be the one to provide solutions to these type of problems but she couldn’t think of anything.

“Any idea Rhys?” Ann asked as she turned to Rhys.

Rhys shook her head, she was disappointed.

“That’s pretty far from the range of my teleportation, even if I tried I would risk teleporting us mid air and” Rhys explained.

Ann found the whole situation frustrating, being stopped by something so simple like height was frustrating, especially so when she and her group had overcame much more complicated threats like dragons and witches.

Then Ann saw something from the distance that gave her an idea that she would be ashamed to admit, but an idea that would get them to the hive nonetheless.

“When will your owl free them?” Asked Ann.

“I left him standing outside the hive, he’s ready to do it anytime” Rhys replied “But we can’t free them and expect them to save themselves!”

“I know Its just that..” Ann bit her lip and prevented herself from talking further.

Rhys looked confused at her friend for a few seconds, then she looked at what Ann was looking at, and then a smile appeared on her face as she made the connection.

“Oh are you thinking the same as I’m thinking?” Asked Rhys as she rubbed shoulders with Ann.

“I have no idea what you’re thinking about” Ann replied as she looked away.

“Oh you totally know” Rhys teased “I saw how you looked at those spiders”

“Okay I’m thinking that” Ann shouted as she moved away from Ann “But its just to save them!”

“Of course its just to save them Ann, why would it be if it wasn’t for that” Said Rhys as she grabbed the knight by the shoulder “Anyway, what’s the plan?”





Ann and Rhys walked up to the base of the tree pretending to be oblivious to what was going on. Ann’s face said it all, she was disgusted by her plan but was trying her best to follow it. Rhys on the other side was loving it, in fact she was loving it so much that she had to remind herself that it was no game and that she needed to be focused.

Soon enough the two adventurers were surrounded by spiders like they expected but rather than drawing swords and hurling spells both adventurers put their hands up. Ann sighed,she was hating this plan more and more by the second. Rhys was shaking out of excitement.

The spiders wrapped the adventurers in web like they had seen them do to their friends, wrapping their chests from below their breasts to her hips but they didn’t wrapped their legs, they forced them to walk.

“This is a plan Rhys, remember” Said Ann as the spiders forced them to walk near the base of the tree.

“Of course I remember, how could I forget!” Rhys said, her red face made it clear that she was lying.

“Rhys I can see your face, please focus!” Ann continued “I understand that you like it but our friends could be at risk”

“I’m very sorry but this was a long standing fantasy of mine and its just..”

“Rhys!” Ann interrupted

“Okay I’ll focus I’ll focus!”

The spiders kept dragging the adventurers by a string of cobweb that they attached to the cobweb on their chests and once they reached a certain spot on the floor they knocked them to floor and wrapped their legs in cobwebs from knees to ankles. Rhys kept shaking but this time it was out of fear, not excitement.

A string of cobweb was attached to the back of the adventurers chest restraint and using that the spiders started to pull them up the tree, and the tree being so high meant that the adventurers could slowly see how they left the ground behind as they gained more and more height.

“Not so fun now huh?” Teased Ann as she turned to look at her scared friend who she knew to be afraid of great heights.

“Shut up” Rhys replied as she looked away, thinking that not looking at the floor would make things better.

After a long time that felt even long for the poor Rhys that went from loving their plan to absolutely hating it the adventurers were taken to the hive, where the spiders put them on their knees on a big hall where Nicith received them. Nicith’s face reveled anger, contained anger but anger nontheless, Ann and Rhys couldn’t understand why, usually when their enemies captured them they showed themselves smug, not angry. What the pair didn’t knew was that Nicith was angry because the unexpected capture of both adventures meant that her fun with Zelliria had been interrupted.

“You can take her to the regulars cell” Decided Nicith after taking a brief look at Ann.

Nicith looked at Rhys for a bit longer, but Rhys didn’t looked back. Once she was no longer seeing the great height at which she was Rhys regained all of her excitement and that excitement only increased when Nicith showed up, driders were a common appearance in Rhys’ fantasies and the fact that the elvish part of Nicith was so incredibly gorgeous didn’t helped. So Rhys just buried her blushed face in her chest, being seen like that either by Ann or Nicith would be beyond embarrassing.

Unexpectedly for Rhys Nicith grabber her head by the chin and forced her too look up at her, she kept looking down but now both her captor and fellow captive could see her blushing. Nicith smiled as she saw Rhys but Ann just gave her the most judgemental look posible.

“Take this one with the amazon” Ordered Nicith “I think that savage will appreciate her company”

And so the adventurers were separated by the pair of spiders that dragged them in different directions. To distract herself from the embarrassment she had just been faced with Rhys decided to end something while the spiders dragged her through the alien walkways of the hive, she closed her eyes and took control of the owl again.

Rhys had already made the owl cut the dagger that would help her friends get free and was just about to cut the string from which Ferine hung from when a her concentration was broken by a harsh fall against surface of cobwebs. The elf opened her eyes to see where she was and apart from the alien room that matched the rest of the hive she saw something that immediately drew all of her attention.

It was Eyiel, she was wrapped in cobwebs like Nicith had left her last time but after that she had added mor to her bondage. In the point where her arms crossed cobwebs pinned her arms to the floor and she was now permanently forced to bow not only by the tightness of the cobwebs that held the ends of her arms but also by a long piece of cobwebs that went over her back and further pinned her to the floor.

Disturbed by the sound of something hitting the floor Eyiel looked forward and was heart broken to see Rhys, wrapped in cobwebs.

“Mpgh!” Eyiel moaned with pure sadness.

Rhys would have proceeded with her escape plan right then and there but the she saw the expression on Eyiel’s face. Despite almost half of the amazon’s face being covered in her cobweb gag Rhys couldn’t help but find her sad, worried expression cute.

“Yes, they captured us too” Rhys lied “It seems like we’ll have to be her prisoners for a while now...”

“Mpghh!” Eyiel screamed, now equally sad as enraged, to her it seemed like she had failed to uphold what she had sworn to do, to protect Rhys.

“Don’t worry dear” Said Rhys as she rubbed her bound body against Eyiel’s “At least we get to be together” Rhys could’t express how much she was enjoying playing along this fantasy.

But Rhys fantasy stopped being so engaging when she saw something she found heartbreaking, Eyiel, her stoic, strong amazon that by this point was surely something more than her friend, was about to cry, and a tear already was falling down her cheek.

“Oh don’t cry I was just playing!” Rhys mumbled, already regretting what she had just done.

Rhys spoke a few words in the language of the mages and the scroll that she had hid within her robes activated, causing all of the webbing that held her prisoner to burn.

“See? Nothing to worry about?” Rhys said as she showed herself to be free in front of Eyiel.

“Mphghg!” Eyiel moaned in rage, so loudly that her gag barely muffled it.

Eyiel’s expression quickly turned from sadness to absolute rage, she felt tricked, tricked to show weakness by Rhys out of all people. That rage manifested in the strongest of struggles, so strong that much of the cobwebs that held her started to break, all the while she gave her enraged look to Eyiel.

“Don’t worry I’ll free you” Said Rhys as she stepped back and covered her face like if she was anticipating a blow from the amazon “Just please don’t get mad at me!” She begged.

Eyiel took a deep breath and relaxed her look, then she nodded at Rhys, she may be extremely angry at her but she was dying to be released and she knew that if she kept her struggle going more spiders would come to secure her and the they’d really be in trouble.

Rhys took a small dagger that she always carried with her and started to cut, purposefully beginning by Eyiel’s legs and leaving her mouth to the end, she was pretty confident that Eyiel wasn’t going to hit her but she wanted to delay hearing what she had to say to her as much as she could.

The cobwebs weren’t hard to cut but were extremely sticky, so Rhys had to leave some cobwebs glued to Eyiel’s arms, legs and chest, but as soon as Eyiel had her hands free of all the cobwebs she ripped her gag off, Rhys was in for some not so pleasing chatter.

“Rhys...” Eyiel said threateningly as she lifted Rhys from the floor by the collar of her clothes “I thought you were a submissive elf that liked to be tied up, not a shameless sadist”

“I’m very sorry Eyiel!” Rhys pleaded as she closed her eyes and faced away from her angry friend “Please don’t do anything to me!”
Eyiel let tension grow for a few second and then put Rhys back on the floor and smiled at her.

“Of course I won’t do anything to you, you’re still my friend” Eyiel said as she winked after saying that last word just to make Rhys blush “Plus, we have other friends to save don’t we?”

“Sure! Lets get going”

Eyiel stopped Rhys by grabbing her by the shoulder.

“But Rhys...” Eyiel said threateningly “That doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get your bad girl punishment for this”

Eyiel’s words made Rhys as exited as scared, surely Eyiel’s proposal was promising but the way she said it was so scary and threatening that it scared even Rhys, and considering that the elf was always down to be subdued that was saying something.





Ann was thrown into the cell from an opening above which meant a harsh fall for her, she knew the cobwebs to be soft enough to cushion her fall she but she still closed her eyes when she was about to hit the floor, but when she opened her eyes she didn’t saw what she was expecting to see.

“So, I assume this is your knight friend you told me about” Said Saida as she saw Ann accommodate on the floor.

“Yup, there she is” Said Ferine.

What Ann was surprised to see was that Ferine, Liel and whoever the unknown elf woman was were already free, she assumed that Rhys had gave them some help while she was being taken by the spider to the cell.

“Good to see that you’re already free” Said Ann before using the magic scroll Rhys had gave her to get free herself “I see Zelliria isn’t with you, what’s with that?”

“Unless she’s with your other friend she must be with Nicth herself” Saida assumed “I’ve been here long enough to be pretty sure about that”

“I assume that means we have to hurry” Said Ferine.

Everyone nodded.

“We need to get back our weapons” Said Ann “Any idea of where they have them?”

“I do.. but we’ll have to get through many spiders before we get there” Saida replied.

“Don’t worry! I’ll tak care of that!” Liel affirmed confidently.

Saida looked at her in disbelief, she had trouble believing that such a small girl would be able to take care of so many giant spiders.

“Get started then!” Said Ferine as she pointed upwards, many spiders were looking at them from the entrance to the dungeon.

Without a word Liel ran to the center of the room, everyone looked at her nervously awaiting for whatever she had to do. Liel pointed two fingers to the floor, she spoke in the celestial language she used to cast spells and when she finished to enunciate those celestial words she pointed the same two fingers upwards, and just when she did so the spell took effect.

Radiant energy destroyed the spiders in a flash of light, everyone was left baffled by Liel’s show of power but the only thing the priestess did afterwards was smile at her friends.

“Shall we get going now?” Asked Liel.

Using the cobwebs that made the walls of the room the adventurers were able to escape the cell and then, guided by Saida, they rushed to where their weapons were being kept. Rhys and Eyiel did the same, in absence of weapons Rhys had her magic too but Eyiel was practically a weapon in and of herself, not knowing where the room was they ran aimlessly for a while until they had the luck of coming across the rest of the group.


“With this getting through those things will be much easier now” Eyiel said as she adjusted her armor.

“It will, but we can’t get too cocky” Ann affirmed “As much as I hate to say it, those spiders bested us before”

“Actually I think I know something that could help us” Saida said after finishing to inspect her quiver, she’ll have few arrows tow work with.

“Speak then” Ordered the amazon.

“This is mostly speculation but I think the behaviour of spiders depends on how much Nicith attention is concentrating on them” She explained “Before she shows up her spiders are usually easy to defeat, we even managed to did so while tied up, but when she shows up they act much more intelligently”

“That could be what happened to us” Said Liel “When we where in the forest, we were defeating the spiders until they coordinated all of a sudden to shot cobwebs at us”

“Then we need to keep the spiders away from her” Ann concluded.





“And that’s what happened to your friends” Nicith finished telling Zelliria that Ann and Rhys had too been captured, all the while she laid in bed with her, running her fingers through her long black hair.

“Mpghg” Zelliria grunted lowly, she couldn’t believe what Nicith was telling her was happening, but she had few reasons to doubt it, why would she left for so long then? She could only hope that there was another reason.

“Don’t say that” Said Nicith “You should be happy that they are with you here, maybe if you behave enough I’ll let you see them from time to time”

Nicith made a pause to caress Zelliria’s body, she was clearly loving her despite having her covered in cobwebs, what she wanted was still there, her shape was still showing thanks to the tight wrapping and she was free to squeeze her thighs as much as she wanted.

“But sadly for you I may not be able to keep them all” Said Nicith as she ran her hand up Zelliria’s leg “You know, keeping people here is expensive, they are so much more picky to eat than spiders, and their bodies go to waste so easily”

Her friends being talked to like that was downright offensive to the bard, but she remained quiet, only expressing her anger in the enraged look she was giving at her captor.

“I may do you the favour of keeping that small blonde girl you talked about but I don’t know about the others” Nicith made a pause as her hand reached Zelliria’s breasts “I fear the amazon will need too much food, and I know that many people will pay fortunes to have someone as strong as her as her as a slave. As for the small elf she seems to be so fond of, I’m afraid they’ll have to separate for a long while. The knights family sure will pay a high enough ransom for her and...”

Zelliria wouldn’t have known why Nicith stopped hadn’t it been for her half elvish hearing, what she heard was far but clear, it was the sound of crackling flames. Nicith long ears moved, she had heard it too and far better than Zelliria.

“I’m sorry Dear but I think I’ll have to leave you again” Nicith said barely containing her anger.





Rhys stood in the middle of the hallway, her arms extended all the way in front of her with smoke coming out of her fingers. She was breathing heavily and quickly fell to her knees, Eyiel was there to get her.

In front of Rhys was a scene of absolute destruction, only the floor of the hive remained and it was charred and dozens if not nearly a hundred of spiders laid dead, burned to a crisp before her.

“Calm down Rhys, I’ll heal you right now” Said Ann as she ran toward the elf.

“Don’t” Rhys said wearily “I can recover my energy, save your magic for the battle ahead”

Ann nodded, she didn’t liked to see her friend like that but she couldn’t argue against her planning.

“I’ll take care of it” Liel jumped in “I can’t recover your energy like Ann does but my magic can heal you”

“Thank you” Rhys smiled solemnly as she felt Liel’s pleasant magic healing her, she didn’t even thought about how much she was supposed to hate her.

“Well well, I called you naughty and rebellious before, but now I don’t what I should even say about you” Nicith stood on the other end of the hallway, her massive spider body covered the whole way “I was already thinking of getting rid of you, but I wasn’t thinking of killing you...”

Rhys hid behind her friend who were already entering a battle stance, she knew that she wouldn’t be of much help during this combat.

“But now I think I don’t have a choice” Nicith grabbed a massive black lance she was carrying on her waist and charged at the adventurers at a massive speed, this was going to be a tough battle.

“Mpghg!” Zelliria screamed enraged, now that she wasn’t humiliating herself in front of anyone for doing so she had no shame in screaming and struggling as much as she wanted.

But all of her struggles were to no avail, Nicith’s cobwebs may be soft as silk but they held her like if they were as strong as steel. Zelliria’s rage did not wore off but her energy to struggle and scream did, but it was that stillness that gave her the time to thought of a plan to escape that should have been clear to her from the beginning.

The dagger she hid on the headstock of her lute was there, it had to be, her lute was there after all. Then the only problem was, and it was a big one, that even if she had the dagger with she was still mummified from ankles to neck in Niche's cobwebs.

Zelliria concluded that she needed to think of one objective at a time, so first it would be to get her hands free so she could get her hidden weapon. This was a difficult task, the room had nothing but a bed and walls entirely made out of cobwebs, nothing that seemed like it would be able to cut the webbing she was in, or that’s what she thought until she remembered the wooden branches she was tied to a few hours ago, surely there must be a branch that with some effort could get her free.

Getting to the branches was an effort in and of itself, getting out of the bed was it, Zelliria crawled like a worm at first and then managed to get up, only to hop her way to the branches with great effort, almost loosing her balance and falling every time she hit the floor.

But she managed to finally rest against one of the branches, after takinga deep breath through her nose she started to look for an especially pointy branch that stood out from the branch, she found one but it left much to be desired. The branch was old and the small branch she was using to get through the webbing of her hands was pointy only when compared when the rest of the branches, which due to its age had been almost completely smoothed.

After minutes that were made longer by Zelliria’s nervousness she managed to get a few of her fingers out of the webbing of her hands, with that she managed to use her strength to break her hands free, but only her hands.

Again Zelliria hoped her way, this time to the bed to reach for her lute, she laid on the bed, giving her instrument her back and with some difficulty voiced through her gag she managed to get her hidden dagger out of the weapon, then with the same amount of difficulty she started to slowly but surely cut her arms free of the cobwebs.

The first thing Zelliria did once her arms were free was getting her gag out, but she had little time to waste and quickly got to free her legs which she did in a few minutes. Once free she escaped the room with her dagger and lute, set to find out what was happening outside, which she suspected her friends to be involved in.





“Surrender already!” Scowled Nicith as she stroke Ann’s shield with her lance “Or I’ll make your friend pay the consequences!”
Like they expected the fight was tough, but outnumbered and blinded by rage Nicith seemed to be at a disadvantage.

“You know you can’t touch Zelliria” Said Ferine “Not while we’re here”

“Oh watch me!” Nicith turned back, ready to run back to her room and use Zelliria to get out of the near defeat she was facing.
“Watch what?” Zelliria said from the opposite end of the hallway.

Nicith looked beyond angry at what she saw, and she made no effort to hold it back. Knowing Nicith’s feelings of rage Zelliria decided to taunt her further, she started to play something on her lute.

“How did you even escaped!?” Nicith demanded to know.

“I’m an escape artist after all” Said Zelliria.

Without any warning Nicith charged at Zelliria, who remained calmed and kept playing the same tune on her lute while the enraged drider charged at her. Her friends were in disbelief, not knowing how to process what they were seeing, why was Zelliria so calm when Nicth seemed so determined to kill her?

Then the ground trembled below the adventurers feet, they were all filled with fear, except Zelliria, she kept playing her lute and smirked, it was all her doing. Nicith, whose rage had blinded her to the point that she hadn’t noticed the trembling until it was too late, raised her lance ready to thrust Zelliria, only for the ground she was standing on to crack, making her fall to the abyss below the giant tree the hive was built in.

The last thing that was heard from Nicith was a long scream that disappeared in the distance as she fell to the forest below. Knowing that the drider could cling to her cobwebs Saida shot at her with her bow, an arrow that with the combined strength of the elf and the momentum from gravity itself could very well kill Nicith before she even hit the floor.

“That was scary” Sighed Ferine as she sat down “Any idea of how we’re gonna get down?”

Chapter 43: Jewel in the Forest

Using a spell that Rhys and Zelliria Knew the adventurers fell at a safe speed from the high tree. The spiders were now on a feral state and didn’t seemed to mind their presence.

Saida insisted that she should pay back the adventurers in some way for saving her, which they declined since it wasn’t like they did it because it was their mission, but she insisted anyway. Saida’s payment did not referred to money, but to take them to a nicer part of the forest where they could rest from the previous travel and the great battle against Nicith, the adventurers weren’t so eager to decline that offer and accepted.

It took them Another week to get there, but they didn’t doubted Saida’s guidance because they could see how the forest became nicer as they followed her. The vegetation became greener and the weather nicer, although the rain didn’t stopped for a while the cold became gradually more bearable and eventually everyone was able to tell by the temperature that it was spring. And despite it being annoying when it was time to sleep the animals were being loud again, which made the massive forest feel more alive and thus the adventurers feel less lonely.

With a week of travel of course the adventurers got to know Saida, they got along well enough, even Rhys, who was member of a race that held a historical grudge against wood elves did, the two were too young to understand why that historical rivalry existed in the first place.

The terrain eventually got steppe, it had been getting like that for a while but by the seventh day some of the adventurers like Rhys, Liel and Zelliria were having trouble keeping their complaints to themselves.

“How much until we get there” Rhys asked between breaths.

“I want it to be a surprise but you’ll see once we reach the top of the hill” Replied Saida.

“The top?” Rhys, Liel and Zelliria asked, some to themselves some out loud.

“Do you want me to carry you?” Eyiel asked as she looked back to Rhys.

“R... Really” Rhys blushed.

“No” Chuckled Eyiel “But you know why so don’t complain”

Rhys still regretted what she had done to Eyiel on Nicith’s hive and although Eyiel didn’t seemed to be especially angry at her she did held a grudge against her that she was eager to get rid of in a very special way as soon as she could.

Eventually the adventurers reached the top of the hill and were able to see the place where Saida was guiding them, it was what all of the changing signs in the forests were leading up to. Two rivers converged in a valley where vegetation was green and the forest seemed alive.
“Is this what you were expecting?” Asked Saida.

“Absolutely” Replied Ann “I don’t know if it’s too early but thank you”

“Wait to see it up close for that” Said Saida as she walked down the hill.

The way down the hill was far more easy than up and before they knew it the adventurers were below the green canopies of the trees in the middle of the valley.

“I assume you want to take a shower” Saida assumed as she walked in front of the group through a dirt road between the trees.

“Yeah and to wash our clothes too, those cobwebs are really hard to get out” Said Ferine.

“Then you’re gonna love this” Saida stopped in front of a small steaming pond of crystal clear waters surrounded by light gray stones “There’s also a cabin nearby for you to set camp in” She added.

The adventurers undressed and left what they didn’t needed on the cabin Saida had told them about , a small wooden structure built in the elvish style that despite being left unkempt since Saida’s capture was still cozy and hospitable. What they didn’t needed did not included their weapons, they had learned that the hard way.

“I really needed this” Said Zelliria as she submerged herself in the warm waters down to her neck.

“Yeah this forest really gets to you” Ferine said as she did the same.

“How do you know about this place?” Asked Ann “Do you live here?”

“Kind of...” She replied as she looked at her reflection in the water “Most of the time I’m with the other elves on long missions through the forest so I can’t always return here, so this was a pretty good excuse to do so”

“Where are they now” Asked Eyiel “The other wood elves”

“I have no idea, my team surely must be on a mission of some type, they must be missing me” Saida said with a little bit of melancholy in her voice “But it doesn’t matter, they’ll soon find out someone’s living here” She smiled.

The adventurers enjoyed the time they had to relax as much as they could, time moved at a fast pace for them while they were in those waters. The sun went from being high up in the sky to being far on the west, giving off the characteristic warm orange light of the sunset.

Rhys was the first one to leave the hot springs pool, she did so as soon as the sun started to set. Once she entered the cabin again Eyiel got by Zelliria and Ferine and whispered something at them. They nodded and naughtily smiled at Eyiel before leaving the pool for the cabin.

“What are you planning Eyiel” Ann asked tiredly, she didn’t knew what Eyiel was exactly planning, she didn’t wanted to, but she did have a rough idea of what it was and she wasn’t liking it.

“Don’t worry, Saida told me this place is safe” Eyiel replied “And apart from that, you know how things are getting between Rhys and me, are you really going to stop me?”

“Guess it would be bad if I did” Said Ann “Go ahead, do what you want, but stay alert”

Ann didn’t liked to cede but she also didn’t wanted to be an authoritative leader, that would bring more problems than it would solve. And like Saida had told them, the place looked safe, the most dangerous thing they had seen since they arrived at the valley was a wild cat which size was no bigger than a house one.



Rhys finished dressing up, which wasn’t much of a task since she had put on her clothes for sleeping which was just a big and old shirt. Rhys didn’t thought the day would go on for much longer for them and wasn’t expecting to mount the first guard.

The door opened, Zelliria and Ferine came through it, covering their bodies with towels. Rhys blushed a bit and looked away from them, even though lately she only had eyes for Eyiel she couldn’t help but be slightly aroused by the presence of her two half naked friends with her.

Rhys was about to leave any of her friends noticed how she was feeling, but as soon as she gave a step towards the door someone grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Oh don’t leave Rhys” Ferine whispered at Rhys sensible ear.

“I... I don’t want to...” Rhys tried to excuse herself.

“Really?” Zelliria grabbed Rhys by one of her her arms and stood in front of her “Something tells us that you want to”

Rhys began to shake, it was out of excitement.

“Don’t be afraid Rhys” Ferine whispered at Rhys even more close to her ear,

“We owe you this since a long time ago” Zelliria whispered at her other ear.

Then Rhys saw Zelliria pull a long coil of ropes from behind her back, she looked over her shoulder, Ferine did the same.

Rhys felt like her body was about to explode of the sheer excitement she was feeling. The ropes tied by Zelliria and Ferine at the same time tethered her body so smoothly but firmly at the same time that she could slowly feel how her movement was stolen from her.

The tying didn’t stooped and Rhys felt already at her limit if not beyond that, but then came the kisses. While Zelliria wrapped some rope around Rhys’ chest she kissed Rhys’ bare clavicle which her loose clothes left exposed. Rhys couldn’t take it anymore and let out a soft moan.

“Time for her gag” Said Zelliria as she looked at Ferine over Rhys’ shoulder.

Ferine nodded and grabbed something from the floor, then she moved it over Rhys head for her to see, it was the ballgag, she opened her mouth and happily welcomed the gag, now she could express her pleasure freely.

Ferine began to tie Rhys’ elbows tightly together, to the point that Rhys started to feel like they couldn’t be tied closer, and she voiced her pain as much as her gag allowed her. But as soon as Rhys began her muffled complaint Ferine kissed her in the neck smoothly, mixing all of the pain caused from having her elbows tied together with a pleasure that far outweighed it.

When Ferine and Zelliria finished tying Rhys up she was almost happy about it, they were giving her time to catch her breath which had gotten very heavy and for her pulse to slow down, her heart was beating faster than she thought posible.

The scout and the bard had tied Rhys’ hands parallel behind her back, pinned to her small waist by a coil of rope her elbows were also tied together and about to touch, her upper arms were pinned to her chest by ropes running above and below her small breasts. Her legs were tied together at the ankles,above and below the knees and around her thighs. The icing on the cake of Rhys’ bondage was the crotchrope that Zelliria and Ferine had decided to give her, they definitively knew what they were doing.

Then Ferine and Zelliria putted Rhys on the bed and laid there with her, Zelliria at her right, Ferine at her left. They were both caressing Rhys’ body and very much enjoying it, Rhys was the smaller of their whole group but her body was still beautiful on her own way.
“She’s still nervous” Ferine said as she ran her finger through the middle of the elf’s abdomen.
“That’s so cute” Zelliria replied “You can tell by how she shakes how much she’s loving this”
Rhys couldn’t agree more with them.

Time passed at a pace that Rhys wasn’t able to recognize, but she didn’t cared, in that moment all she cared was about her and how she was feeling, she was in paradise and she felt like she had been there, and would be forever forever.

Time kept passing, the sun hid completely and now the only light on the cabin was that of the candles, but it wasn’t like Rhys cared, by this point she was ready for whatever paradise she was to go one step above.

“I think its time for us to leave” Said Ferine after taking a look at one of the the cabin’s window.

“Yeah, sorry Rhys”

Both Zelliria and Ferine kissed Rhys, one on each of her red cheeks and then left the cabin. Rhys did not gave credit to what had just happened to her, all those caresses, all those kisses, all for that?

“Mghghg!” She moaned in disbelief through her gag.

A few seconds of nothing went by and then someone else entered the room, Rhys rolled over to look at the door and although the lighting was poor it was enough to reveal an easily extinguishable figure, it was Eyiel.



As sun went down a spectacle began to unfold under the trees, when the sun wasn’t giving off its light anymore it was replaced by massive amounts of fireflies that were hidden in the canopies of the trees at day and showed themselves at night. There were so many of them that one could easily see at night.

“You forgot to tell us about this” Said Ann as she looked up the trees. The adventurers had already left the pool and were only dipping their feet in the warm waters.

“I wanted you to be surprised” Replied Saida “Its common for them to do this during spring, they are trying to find a mate”

“We can only thank you for bringing us here” Said Ann as she looked at the mesmerizing patterns the dragonflies made while flying.

Liel awkwardly approached Ann and sat by her side.

“I wanted to thank you too” She said “For saving us”

“Nobody has to thank anyone for that” Ann replied “Everyone did their part on escaping that place, and like you said Liel, as long as one of us is there for the others we’ll be okay”

Ann quoting her made Liel smile out of happiness.



“They really did a number on you didn’t they?” Said Eyiel as she looked at Rhys “But I’m sure you enjoyed it”

Rhys wondered what Eyiel was doing there, was this planned by her or she came across her in this position out of sheer luck?

“I’m sure they enjoyed it too” Said Eyiel as she sat beside Rhys on the bed and took a closer look ropes that held the elf’s body, taking a particular interest in the crotchrope, she had never seen one before “But sadly for you, I’ll have to get rid of most of this for what I want to do with you”

And so Eyiel began to untie Rhys, the elf didn’t liked it but the intrigue of what Eyiel had in mind for her kept her from being disappointed, and the intrigue and excitement only grew bigger when Eyiel had finished untying her and her hands were still tied behind her back.

Eyiel took Rhys out of the bed and made Rhys stand in the middle of the room. Still gagged, Rhys could only deduce what Eyiel was doing by what she saw her doing, she wished she could have asked, and she loved that need to speak and inability to do so.

Eyiel threw a rope up and made it run above one of the wooden logs that served as beams for the cabin’s gable roof. One end she tied it to a small hook for candles in one of the walls, the other she tied it to Rhys’ hands. Then Eyiel forced Rhys to bow, leaving her standing but with her body parallel to the floor.

“I’d advice you to open your legs” Eyiel said as she moved towards the end of the rope that as tied to the walls.

Rhys knew what Eyiel was doing and she was loving it, so she obeyed her orders without hesitance.

Once Eyiel got her hands on the end of the rope opposite to her prisoner she started to pull it, she pulled until it was tight which got many muffled moans of complain from Rhys that she enjoyed hearing, she knew it was painful for her but she had no intent to harm her, so she stopped once she couldn’t pull more without harming her friend.

“I see you’re liking this” Said Eyiel as she forced Rhys to look up at her by grabbing her by her chin.

Rhys gave a subtle nod to her captor, why would she lie at this point?

“I don’t know how to feel about that” Eyiel sat on the bed so she could look directly at Rhys without crouching “The fact that I forgave you for what you did to me on the drider’s hive does not mean I don’t want to punish you for being such a bad girl with me”

Eyiel calling her a bad girl? That was new to Rhys, but she loved it.

“And I don’t know if I want you to enjoy your punishments” Eyiel sighed.

“Mpghgh...” Rhys moaned, more out of pleasure than out of any particular reason.

“But whatever, I guess it can’t be helped” Eyiel said as she stood up and she got ready to start punishing Rhys “Maybe its me who wants to enjoy punishing you, If I really wanted you to suffer I’d leave you like this and ignore you but I can’t do that”

Eyiel was completely aware of what she was doing, there was no point in pretending like this was something like the first time she had tied up Rhys, this “punishment” was going to be far more enjoyable than that experience and despite Eyiel calling it a punishment it was easy to tell that it was something completely consensual, Eyiel just called it that because she knew that it would excite Rhys.

“Anyway, lets get started” Said Eyiel as she walked behind Rhys “Do you know what happens to girls that do things like what you did?”
“Mphh?” Was the closest Rhys could get to a question.

“Exactly, they get punished, but do you know how?” Asked Eyiel.

Rhys tried to look behind her to see what Eyiel was doing, but it was painful and she couldn’t see much, so she quickly desisted.

“The punishment you’re about to receive is something that I remember from amazon society” Said Eyiel “Young amazons that misbehave during their training will be eventually faced with a punishment that may as well be this one”

Rhys didn’t had much time to think of what Eyiel could be talking about before the amazon smacked her butt which was only barely covered by her underwear. Now Rhys knew very well what Eyiel was doing.

“You have a very nice butt you know...” Eyiel looked at Rhys from behind, not like the elf could see her “I doesn’t show through the clothes you wear most of the times, no wonder why Liel gets all of the attention with that kinky inquisitor uniform she wears”

Complimenting her and the teasing her, Eyiel really knew how to get to Rhys to enjoy what she was doing to her, even if it was in Rhys’ own weird way.

“But I’m getting distracted and this hasn’t even started” Eyiel cleared her thoughts “Let’s fix that”

And so Rhys’ proper punishment begun, it was as painful as expected if not more, even if Eyiel didn’t used even a fraction of her strength like she was doing Rhys’ body wasn’t strong enough to take it. But despite how painful it was Rhys was still liking it, and she was liking it a lot, she couldn’t understand why, how could she enjoy such pain inflicted on her body? But it wasn’t like she could think clearly in her situation.



“What are you planning to do once you return with the other elves?” Asked Zelliria.

“Go back to normal I guess, I’ll just be more careful in the missions they send me” Replied Saida

“What are those missions anyway?” Asked Zelliria “You people are so secretive that I don’t think I know what you even do”

Saida sighed, she was in for a long explanation that she couldn’t afford to just don’t elaborate for the people that not only had to cross the whole forest but also saved her from Nicith.

“As you have seen the forest is in a bad state in some parts, the vegetation grows twisted and animals act weird” Saida began the explanation.

“I suspected that wasn’t normal” Said Ann.

“That’s only normal to a degree, there always have been parts of the forest weirder than others, the problem is that those regions are growing in size and we don’t know why” Saida explained “And in those regions evil creatures like Nicith thrive”

“Have those missions found anything so far?” Asked Ann “That sounds like something that could help us in our way through the forest”
“Sadly no” Replied Saida “I was trying to find something when I entered Nicith territory and well, that’s how it ended up for me”
“Guess we’ll find out on our own then” Said Ann “But we’ll manage, I’m sure of it”

A few moments of silence followed, it wasn’t uncomfortable, it was just drawn out because the peace was something nobody wanted to break. The light from the fireflies and moon under the night-sky was a spectacle that was best enjoyed in silence.

“Sorry to interrupt but I have bad news” Ferine broke the silence.

The scout got all looks on her.

“We should prepare” Ferine showed her sword, glowing.

The situation was quickly explained to Saida and everyone got ready to fight whatever was the incoming danger.

“I’ll go tell Rhys and Eyiel, stay ready!” Said Ann before running towards the cabin, the only question in her mind being why had she allowed Eyiel to do whatever she was doing there with Rhys?



Rhys’ punishment had ended, she didn’t knew for how long it had went on, the pain made if feel like an eternity but she had enjoyed every second of it.

“I think that’ll teach you” Said Eyiel as she went to untie the rope from the wall.

Rhys’ legs were shaking because of the pain and excitement, she could barely stand and all the spanking had left her buttocks as red as her hair. She was having the best time of her life.

“To be honest with you, I wasn't expecting you to take it with so few complaints” Said Eyiel as she grabbed Rhys, now that the rope from she hung from wasn’t tied to anything she would probably fall if she didn’t do so “That’s why I’m going to reward you” Eyiel posed her index finger on Rhys’ lips.

For Rhys, things were only getting better, unbelievably so.

Eyiel laid Rhys on the bed and then sat by her side, she was enjoying what she was doing too, she couldn’t tell if as much as Rhys but she was sure that she didn’t wanted to stop.

“But this doesn’t mean that I have forgotten what you did to me” Said Eyiel “That’s why you’ll have a little addition to your restraints while I award you for being such a good girl during your punishment”

“Mpgh?”

Eyiel grabbed a piece of black cloth, covered Rhys’ eyes with it and then tied it behind her head. Now the elf was plunged in absolute darkness.

“I know you’d like to see what I’m about to do with you” Said the amazon as she started to lift Rhys’ shirt “But you don’t deserve that yet”

“Mpghgh” Rhys complained, Eyiel was smart.

But before Eyiel could get down to what she wanted to she heard the sound of the door opening, a sound that became especially annoying in the situation she was in.

“What is this?” Eyiel asked angrily “I thought I told you to stay outside!”

Whoever had just entered the cabin refused to reply, that only made Eyiel’s anger greater, she was in a situation she wanted to be interrupted in. Rhys was, of course, angry too, but unlike Eyiel she couldn’t do much about it.

“Can’t two girls just...?” Eyiel looked behind her and interrupted herself when she saw what was the problem “I see”

Eyiel grabbed her axe, she was angry but serious, a deadly combination if she was about to fight.

“Mpghg?” Rhys couldn’t understand anything.

“Take this Rhys” Eyiel gave Rhys one of her knives “Something tells me I won’t have time to...”

Before Eyiel could at least pull down the blindfold from Rhys’ eyes she heard something and move towards her left, not knowing what was coming to her but being sure that she had to dodge it.

A bolt of fire passed right above Eyiel’s shoulder, barely missing her, she was glad that she had dodged that for once she saw where it had struck the bolt blew up a whole in the wooden wall.

“You see assassin, mage, demon, whatever you are...” Eyiel turned back and started to walk towards the intruder “I’m really not in the mood to fight... so if you want to keep this going”

The assassin shot another bolt at Eyiel but she drove it away with her axe almost effortlessly.

“I’ll have to kill you!” Eyiel jumped towards the assassin, with the full intent of fulfilling her words.

This chapter shows the Travellers relaxing and recovering from their encounter with Nincith. Nice location I liked the composition of the chapter. The cuts back to what happens in the cabin. So Rhys got her "punishment" (?) - and then at the end of the chapter: a change of pace, a mysterious assassin.

Chapter 44: Battle of the Hot Springs

Everyone was expecting an attack but nobody knew where it would be coming from. Ferine and Zelliria had already drawn swords, Saida was ready to shot her bow as soon as she saw something weird and Liel was ready to shot at whatever moved with her magic.

“Hey”

Saida immediately shot an arrow at the branch from the sound was coming from, she did so even before seeing the branch herself. Once she saw the place where she shot she saw a feminine figure covered by a black cloak, completely unharmed.

“I see you’re very determined” Said the assassin.

“I take it that you’re one of the assassins that tried to kill Rhys back on Vallarez” Ferine pointed out.

“That’s a great assumption” Replied the assassin “However this time there’s nobody around to hide my beautiful face from, would you like me to show it you?”

“Do you really think you can afford to be so cocky right now?” Zelliria asked “Just you against the four of us?”

“Nah of course I don’t think I can defeat the four of you, I’m not stupid” The assassin replied “But I noticed that you haven’t answered my question, would you like to see my face?”

“Go ahead, If we’re gonna defeat you maybe we should be able to see your face” Ferine concurred without much care.

The assassin then revealed her face, she was a dark elf like they had expected, she had the characteristic pointy ears, red eyes, purple skin and white hair which in her case was short.

“I am Nemabra Selvesh, thief, bounty hunter, assassin, whatever you want to call me, but its fine if you just call me Nem” She introduced herself “But sadly for you, I’ll not be the one fighting you”

“You’re just as ugly as every other dark elf” Saida muttered to herself.

“Come on, tell us where your friends are hiding!” Ferine didn’t noticed what was happening until she said that. Ann was on her own, so were Rhys and Eyiel, that meant if Nem’s companions weren’t there they must be with either Ann or Rhys and Eyiel, which meant trouble.

Nemabra smiled, she guessed that Ferine had noticed what her friends were up to.

“But anyway, I should get you entertained and see how my friends are doing” Nemabra said as she looked for something in her pocket.

Saida gave no time to Nemabra to do whatever she wanted to do and shot another arrow at her, but against all expectations Nemabra let herself fall off the tree and Saida’s arrow missed her.

“See ya” Nemabra said as she walked away from them, they were about to run behind her but their attention was drive towards something she threw over her shoulder, they didn’t had much time to see what it was but seemed like a small fur ball. The mysterious object fell on the pond, everything went silent.

But before anyone could even suggest going after Nemabra something emerged from the lake, it took the adventurers nothing to make the connection between the object Nembara had thrown and the beast that was emerging from the pool. The beast was a gigantic hybrid of draconic head, feline body, legs of a deer and serpentine tail.

“What the hell is that?” Asked Zelliria as she moved away from the monster.

“I think what you see tells you everything that you need to know!” Saida shouted, this was no time for explanations.
Ann was running towards the cabin, cursing herself every second for allowing Eyiel to separate from them with Rhys, having to face danger was enough of a problem to have to do it while separated.

Ann was so focused on reaching the cabin and regretting about her decision that she almost crashed into someone who showed up from behind a tree. A tall figure in leather armor whose face was covered by a black hood and that carried two swords on her waists.

“I take it that you’re not here to let me get to the cabin calmly are you?” Ann asked as she caught her breath and readied her sword.

“What do you think?” The assassin asked back “Of course not”

Ann couldn’t afford to engage whoever this intruder was, she tried to get past it but was interrupted by a sharp cut in the air and one of the intruder’s sword interposing between her and her way to the cabin.

“Do you know what this is, Ann?” The assassin asked Ann as she turned her look towards her.

“A demon sword...” Ann said as she looked at the black blade of the sword, she didn’t liked it but it would be reasonable to be more negotiable after seeing that “What do you want?”

“I just want have duel with you, a fair one” Said the Assassin as put sheathed her sword “And I thought that maybe if you knew that if I wanted I could kill you right now you’d become more reasonable”

“Okay, you’ll have it then...” Ann readied herself to fight, she saw something explode in the cabin, she could only hope Rhys and Eyiel were fine.

“Don’t you think it should be fair for me to see your face if I’m about to fight you?” Ann tried to create a distraction.

“I think that’s reasonable”

The assassin removed her hood and the cloth that covered her face, she showed herself to be a dark elf, Ann was almost expecting it. She was a Dark elf of long white hair tied in a ponytail, sharp features, purple skin and red eyes.

“My name is Valuith, Valuith” She noticed Ann tried to escape and was quick to stop her with her demon sword, in the same movement she took it out from scabbard she interposed the sword between Ann and her destination “Just for that I’ll rob the pleasure of knowing my family name”

Ann got the hint, she was not getting out of this.



“Agggh!” Screamed the assassin as she was violently thrown to the floor by Eyiel.

Ariesix, the horned assassin had clearly overestimated herself, but she had underestimated Eyiel’s abilities too. She had been cocky to try to attack inside the cabin from such a short distance and now she was paying the consequences, the combat had been decided as soon as Eyiel got in range to hit her.

Now Eyiel had thrown her out a window and she was struggling to recover from the harsh fall on the forest floor. Before the assassin could stand up again Eyiel grabbed her from behind, she pulled one of her arms backwards and drove her knee into her back.

“I know what I said” Eyiel said between breaths “But I was thinking of sparing your life if you’re willing to tell your friends to stop messing with mine”

“I’ll never...”

“Are you sure?” Eyiel asked as she drove her knee deeper into Ariesix back and pulled her arm further back “I know that for you magical types things can get pretty rough if I break your arm, even if I break one of your fingers”

“You savage...” Being threatened with that by that woman was insulting.

“I may be a savage but hey” And Eyiel got close to her opponent’s ear “I’m not the one pinned to the floor with an arm about to be broken”

Ariesix had enough of that humiliation, without any warning, not even a gesture or words in the language of the mages, she created a sphere of darkness around her which engulfed Eyiel too. The amazon did not knew what was happening but wasn’t eager to find out so she stepped back, thankfully unharmed.

The Darkness dissipated and Ariesix revealed herself again, she still looked miserable, she was barely standing and was grabbing one of her arms, but Eyiel didn’t remembered breaking it. The only difference was that now her face was showing, Eyiel presumed that the cloth over her face complicated her breathing.

Like they had been told, she was indeed a demon, with red skin and a pair of small red horns coming out of her forehead, but that did not meant she was ugly, other than that she looked like a young human with short black hair and brown eyes.

“I was expecting you to be uglier” Said Eyiel “And that attack to be more deadly, but I’m afraid this is over for you”

Ariesix spat on the floor, it wasn’t saliva but blood which seemed weird to Eyiel who didn’t remembered hurting her, was she that weak? However the cursed one knew that it hadn’t been the amazon who harmed her but she herself.
Whatever the hybrid monster that Nemabra had thrown at them was it was slowly succumbing before the adventurers, it was powerful and resilient to even Liel’s magic but it was in the end, feral, and couldn’t do much with all that power with the little intelligence it had.
Near the Cabin

Valuith’s skills were surprising for Ann, she was good and had her on her toes many times, but she felt they were equally matched and more importantly, that for some weird reason her opponent didn’t seemed to be trying to kill her, the only reason she could think off was that she wanted her alive but if that was the case why even fight her in the first place?

Valuith got a sudden upper hand and started to press her weapon against Ann’s, getting it closer and closer until she had her face at mere inches from Ann’s.

“This is a good moment to tell you that I’ll not accept any surrender from you”

“Good” Ann replied “I wasn’t planning on surrendering”

Ann pushed back against Valuith and kicked her legs, making the dark elf lose balance. When Valuith looked up again she saw Ann’s sword pointed directly at her neck.

“You can’t take out the demon sword that rapidly” Ann pointed out before Valuith tried anything.

Valuith, was angry, Ann was right.

“But don’t worry, I noticed that you weren’t trying to kill me so I will return you the favour if you do the same” Ann continued “I see my friends in the cabin have your friend handled pretty well”

Valuith looked over her shoulder and saw Ariesix on her knees before Eyiel and Rhys.

“If you and your other assassin friends just leave us alone I can promise you that you’ll leave this place unharmed” Said Ann.
Atop a Tree

Nemabra was examining the situation carefully, but she did not need much care to know that if it continued like that they were screwed. Apparently her companions had fallen victims of their own egos and had underestimated their enemies, but she wasn’t exempt of that crime, she herself was seeing how the monster she had thrown at the pool for the adventurers to take care of was slowly but surely being taken care of.

The whole mission was about to end in failure, an even greater one than the last one and she couldn’t afford that, it would ruin her reputation and depending on her contractor it could ruin much more. She needed something, even the smallest of things she could show as a success.

Nemabra looked at the adventurers fight the monster, the creature wouldn’t last much longer, it was already slowly turning back to a small ball of fur. She looked at the adventurers, they definitively were good if they could handle such challenge, she focused her look on a certain wood elf she didn’t remembered from the last time she encountered the adventurers or her contractor telling her about her, the she looked at the hillsides of the valley, they weren’t alone there. An idea appeared in her head.
Near the Pool

“End it already Ferine!” Shouted Zelliria.

Ferine jumped atop the monster and drove her sword into its skull, and rapidly the creature began to turn back into a small ball of fur that was too destroyed by Ferine’s sword. All of the adventurers sighed, they had won but it had been a scary fight.

The sound of a crack in the air broke the sudden silence after the monster’s death, everyone turned to the origin of the sound and saw Saida being wrapped by a whip, pinning her arms to her sides.

“Sorry girls but you took something from me, its only fair if I take something from you” Said Nemabra as she appeared behind Saida.

“You...”

“Sorry but I don’t have time to deal with your resistance” Nemabra interrupted Saida and pressed a piece of cloth against her face, the wood elf was quickly knocked out.

With Saida knocked out Nemabra used her whip to grab to a tree and escape, even when she was grabbing the wood elf her movements were still incredibly swift and the adventurers struggled to follow her..
“Will you surrender?” Ann demanded to know “I have no intention of hurting you but if you keep up this attitude I’ll have no other choice”

“Kill me then” Valuith spitted “I have no intention of surrendering before you”

Ann gulped, she didn’t liked to kill. But in the end she didn’t had to take that decision because Valuith was pulled out of her reach by Nemabra’s whip who pulled her towards her and Ariesix. Ann then saw that on Nemabra’s arms hung Saida, unconscious.

The adventurers gathered around the three assassins, they had technically won but they still had Saida with them, and they couldn’t let that go. But Nemabra had her sword against Saida’s neck, none of the adventurers dared to make a move.

“Take us out of here” Nemabra whispered “The elf too”

“What? Can’t you see me!?” Ariesix fumed “If I do that...”

“We can let ourselves be taken by them too” Replied Nemabra, knowing very well that what she said wasn’t an option.

The cursed one’s face became worried.

“What if it kills me?” She asked.

“It won’t” Replied Nemabra “Now lets go before the sleeping beauty wakes up”

And so the assassins banished in a glimmer of light, them along with Saida.

“Dammit!” Cursed Eyiel as she kicked the floor.

Everyone was as angry as the amazon, winning yet loosing someone tasted somehow worse than defeat. And the worst part was, they could do nothing about it, they had no idea where they escaped and took Saida to.

“Ferine...” Liel broke the silence “Why is your sword still glowing?”

Everything had been so rushed that nobody had noticed it, Ferine’s sword was still glowing. Despite everyone being tired everyone turned back and prepared for another battle, but when they turned back they were not met by assassins. Dozens of wood elves were pointing spears and bows at them from the forest, they were completely encircled.

“Should I...” Rhys was about to suggest an escape but one of the elves shot an arrow at the floor.

“I think we only have one choice now” Ann said reluctantly.

They needed no more words, they all dropped their weapons to the floor, they also knew what was coming next. It was rope, of course it was, whether they liked it or not they had become too used to being tied up to be surprised by it. The wood elves jerked their hands behind their backs, crossed them and tightly tied them.

Ann was the first to try to reason with the elves but they soon found out that they were not speaking their language so they could speak all they wanted and they wouldn’t understand what they were saying, it was almost as frustrating as being gagged.

Ann wished she had payed more attention when her parents tried to teach her that language, they had insisted that she learned it since her family was close to the elves of the forest but she always thought it would never be useful for a knight like her, she could never had imagined that she would end up needing it so much.

The elves forced them on their knees and then made way for someone, whoever it was it was clear that it was in charge. It was an elvish woman of long black hair who got to the adventurers were riding an elk which she at least dismounted before talking to them.

“You are considered invaders in our territory, so from now on you’ll be considered prisoners” Was all she said in a language they could understand, after that she just ordered the rest of the elves in their language which they couldn’t understand.

Knowing that their boss knew their language Ann decided to try to reason with them again but her words were cut short by the cleave gag the elves put on her mouth from behind. A thick white cloth put between her teeth and tied behind her head. All of her companions were gagged in the same way.

The elf woman in charge entered Saida’s cabin with other elves and left the adventurers outside where the other elves tightly tied them to trees. Ann was tied back to back with Liel, Rhys with Eyiel and Zelliria with Ferine.
The night kept going as the moon moved on the sky, the adventurers could have tried to escape, Ferine and Zelliria had already figured out the knots of their hands and Eyiel trusted her strength to be enough to break free but they didn’t tried anything. They didn’t needed Ann to tell them to know that trying to escape while surrounded and unarmed was a bad idea.

The restraints were uncomfortable, having their arms pressed between their backs and the rough tree bark was anything but pleasant for the adventurers but at the point they were in they had all been tied in far more uncomfortable positions to care much. The gag was nothing out of the ordinary, considering what captors usually putted on their mouths the cloth gags they had could even be considered generous, which didn’t mean anyone that wasn’t Rhys’ liked it.

Being captured yet again was taken differently by everyone, Zelliria and Ferine were just bored, Eyiel angry of being constantly tied up Ann was thinking of what to say once she was allowed to speak, Rhys was greatly enjoying being tied up not by Eyiel but with her and Liel was so surprisingly calm that she had fallen asleep.

Needless to say none of the adventurers was especially scared, their captors were intimidating at first sight but they were clearly not evil and the fact that once they were all tied up they limited themselves to ignore them was more boring than scary.

Eventually the woman in charge of the elves came out of the cabin and approached the bound adventurers who immediately turned their look towards her, except for Liel who was still sleeping. The woman cleared her throat and spoke in the language the adventurers understood.

“Do you have a leader?” She asked.

The adventurers looked at each other, they clearly had a leader but it was something they weren’t used to admit explicitly.

“Don’t you understand me?” Apparently the woman had little patience “Who is your leader? I need to speak to her”

The adventurers nodded towards Ann, some did so reluctantly, some didn’t, but in the end they all agreed that if they had a leader it was her. Ann would have liked to be surprised but she wasn’t, it was hard not to notice that most of the times she acted as the face of the group.

“Good, untie her from the tree and take her to the cabin” The woman ordered.

The elves obeyed and after untying Ann they grabbed her through the elbows and walked her into the cabin where they made her sit on a chair to which she was quickly tied to, with rope pinning her to the back of the chair running across her waist and below her breast, her lap was tied to the seat of the chair and her ankles were tied together and then to one of the chair legs.

“You can leave now” The woman told the guards.

After the guards left the woman extended her hand to Ann.

“I am Zinfiel Lothrin, uh, sorry I forgot that you’re tied up” She said annoyingly “As you can imagine there are a lot of things I want to know about you, your friends and what you’re doing here”

Ann wasn’t surprised, that was exactly what she imagined would be the woman’s objective.

“So if you’re ready to talk I’ll get that gag off your mouth and we’ll get started” Said Zinfiel “Understood?”

Ann nodded and Zinfiel removed her gag for her to start talking. Ann couldn’t tell much apart from where they were going, but she deiced to make no mention of the inquisitor or any monarch and told her captor that their destiny was the city of Nacrourt. She knew enough of the wood elves to know that entering their territory in the name of someone else was problematic.

“So, that’s all?” Zinfiel inquired.

“Yes...” Ann replied worried by Zinfiel intimidating tone.

“Somehow I’m not very compelled to believe you” Zinfiel said as she grabbed a bag that laid at her side on the floor and then dropped all of its contents in front of her.

The objects that fell to the floor were diverse in nature, a small statuette of Liel’s god, Rhys’ new spellbook and one of Liel’s tabards to name a few, but most importantly, the map that showed the location of the temple of Belegoch.

“Care to tell me what you’re objective here is now?” Asked Zinfiel “I hope you tell me the truth this time”

“What is this supposed to mean?” Ann pretended not to understand what was happening just to gain time to think of an answer.

“Don’t pretend to be stupid lady, this stuff along with the coat of arms in your shield and so much other things that we couldn’t fit on the bag tell us something, you come here on behalf of some human kingdom and that map most likely shows where you’re headed” Zinfiel correctly intuited.

Ann fell silent, since Zinfiel was right there was little she could do to go against the truth, unlike some of her friends she wasn’t a very good liar so she was starting to think that maybe she wasn’t the best pick for a leader in the situation they had been given.

“That silence, that’s the silence of someone who has been caught on her lies” Said Zinfiel.

“What are you going to do with us?” Asked Ann as she looked away, looking at Zinfiel after being caught on her poor lie was shameful.

“If you really were a group of unaware adventurers that just stumbled upon our lands I’d probably just let you go” Said Zinfiel “But since you’re here on behalf on some human kingdom and its dirty interest I have no choice but to leave you in hands of our queen, so you and your friends are in for a long walk”

“But we’re not you’re enemies!” Ann shouted “We literally saved one of yours from a drider!”

“Yes, thanks for bringing that up” Said Zinfiel “Because where is Saida now huh?”

Again Ann had no response she could give to Zinfiel, it didn’t mattered if they had saved her because as frustrating as it was all Zinfiel had seen was Saida being teleported out of there by those assassins.

“Never talk to me of all people about Saida” Zinfiel continued.

“What will happen to us then?” Ann asked.

“Well, after a popper amount of torture that will make you reveal all of your secrets the queen will probably send you back in chains to whatever kingdom sent you here” Zinfiel happily explained “So things don’t look pretty for you and your friends”

Even after hearing that Ann was rather calm and Zinfiel noticed it.

“Don’t even think that she’ll go easy on you just because you’re girls” Said the elf “So don’t be cocky”

“Its not that” Ann replied.

“Huh, whatever” Sighed Zinfiel “Whatever you think will help you it wont help you, so I don’t care”

Zinfiel called the guards back in and ordered them untie Ann from the chair.

“Tell your friends outside what will happen tomorrow, and if they are really your friends you better not give them hopes” Zinfiel told Ann before the guards took her outside the cabin.

Ann was walked in front of her friends who waited for her to tell them that they were about to be released, sadly for them, Ann’s news were a little different. She explained to her friends what Zinfiel had told her, even the more unsavory parts of it like how they would be walked through the forest probably while tied up, which the adventurers were not happy to hear.

By the time Ann finished her explanation the elves had already tied her to the tree again, Liel, who was behind her wished that the guards hadn’t waken her up to hear Ann’s explanation because knowing what she knew now, falling asleep was going to be far more difficult.

Seeing how her friends were worried and to prevent them from trying anything at night Ann decided to tell them about the trick she had up her sleeve and after they heard it she could tell that they were smiling below their gags.



The adventurers were woken up by the elves after a night of rough sleep and were given water and bland food by their captors, they decided to make the best of the time they were ungagged.

“Was it really a good idea to not try anything at night?” Asked Ferine “Last time we tried this it didn’t went very well, right Zelliria?”
“I guarantee you that we have nothing to worry about” Said Ann, but she ended up seeing how the elves prepared the ropes and remembered something “Well, we do have something to worry about”

“I don’t know if I will be able to stand the whole walk” Eyiel muttered angrily she was probably the one who hated being tied up the most.

“Try to think like Rhys then” Joked Zelliria.

“Hey! Do you really think I’m crazy enough to want to be walked through the forest while tied up?”

Her friends didn’t answered, they just looked at her.

“Okay I want it but just a little bit, I’d take any of you doing this to me over them” Rhys muttered as she blushed.

Eventually the adventurers were untied from the tree and their hands were tied in front of them so they could be more easily walked through the forest, this was done to everyone but Eyiel who just saw how her friends restraints were changed while hers remained the same.

“I should have expected them not to tie me like them” Eyiel angrily muttered to herself, since her friends were already gagged and the elves didn’t understood her nobody could answer her.

Eventually it was time for Eyiel to be tied and plenty of elves got to the task, they clearly didn’t wanted her escaping. Her arms remained behind her back and were pinned to her body at her waist and chest by ropes that were thicker than the ones used on her friends and ran above and below her breasts.

When Eyiel was gagged the tying process was finished, she wished that people would underestimate her more often because being tied with more rope than everyone else was becoming tiring.

Dire prospects for our heroines. Let us hope, that whatever Ann is planning, works ... The adventurers deserve a little luck This chapter reminds a bit off the Hobbit out of the frying pan into the fire ....

Chapter 45: Prisoner in the Tower

In a seemingly abandoned tower fortress in the middle of the forest were Ariesix and Nemabra as well as all of the dark elves that had been sent to the forest of the ancients with them. Ariesix and Nemabra were in one of the balconies of the high tower, looking at the endless expanse of dark leaves that surrounded the black abandoned fortress.

“Are you feeling better now?” Asked Nemabra.

“Yes, I was able to heal with some potions, but I’d prefer not to do that again” Ariesix replied.

“Then you should be more careful with the fights you pick” Said Nemabra “Just because you were born a mage doesn’t mean you’re invincible”

Sadly for Ariesix there was nothing she could reply because Nemabra was right. She had trusted the benefits of being born with magic for so long that she never had considered that she would come across an enemy capable of beating her.

“But anyway, it wasn’t like we lost” Nemabra concluded.

“What do you mean we didn’t lost?” Asked Ariesix “We were all defeated and had to retreat!”

“That’s only partially right” Said Nemabra “First of all, only you and Valuith were defeated and we didn’t left them unscarred”

“You really think that elf was enough to please the boss?” Asked Ariesix.

“If it wasn’t we would be sharing the dungeon with Valuith don’t you think?” Nemabra asked back “Just being free tastes like victory to me”

“I guess you’re right then” Sighed Ariesix “Maybe I owe you one after all”

“I wonder what the boss is doing to her right now” Said Nemabra as she leaned back on the balcony’s railing “I bet its not pretty”

“I’d rather not think about it” Replied Ariesix as she did the same “Just to think that it could be us in her dungeon gives me chills”



“Now you understand why am I doing this to you?”

Valuith didn’t replied, it wasn’t like she could in the first place. Her silence costed Valuith another lash on her thighs.

“Do you?”

Valuith looked away and remained silent, she would not humiliate herself by letting a single pathetic moan get through the ballgag in her mouth, no matter how painful the punishment she was subjected to was.

After the failure of her mission the boss of the three assassins was enraged and only slightly appeased by the capture of Saida. Valuith refused to humiliate herself for forgiveness even after telling her boss that she engaged Ann in a fight instead of capturing her when she had the chance, that meant she had to be punished.

Now Valuith found herself tied to an X shaped object, with each of her limbs secured to the object. Her arms extended far above her head and secured by leather straps to the object at the elbows and wrists, her legs were secured to it at the knees and ankles and a big leather strap secured her at her waist. And only to make her situation worse, she had been stripped to her underwear to leave her even more defenseless.

“It seems you still don’t know your place” Valuith’s boss said as she grabbed her face and looked at her eyes still filled with defiance.
As bad as Valuith’s punishment was it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the assassins’ boss, after all, she was Anizaga Despath, a Dark Elf matriarch than in her hundreds of years of life had garnered a reputation for being especially sadistic even with her own people.

But like every dark elf matriarch Anizaga was everything but ugly, she was equally evil as she was gorgeous. She was tall, with shapely legs and bust, a rose filled to the brim with thorns.

“Listen to me, I don’t care what relation do you think you have with that knight lady but if it conducts you to fail again I’ll make sure that whatever punishment you receive makes this look like a pleasant night of peaceful sleep!” Anizaga chastised angrily.

The dark elf matriarch took a deep breath and rested against one of the beds filled with whips and shackles while she kept looking at her prisoner, in other circumstances she would have enjoyed punishing her but at that moment she was too angry at her stupid failure to do so.

“I see punishing you is of no use” Sighed Anizaga as she looked at Valuith’s tired body “I’ll leave you here until I need you again”

Anizaga left the room, closing the heavy door behind her and leaving Valuith submerged in darkness. Something told her she was going to be tied up for a long time.
After being teleported to the fortress in a flash of light Saida was dragged to a dungeon cell where she had been since then. There the dark elves had manacled her hands together in front of her and hung them by a chain over her head and a big iron strap that went over her waist was nailed to the wall to pin her to it. And that had been her fate for what seemed like hours, pinned to the wall, her hands hanging over her head and sitting on the cold dungeon floor.

Saida cursed her luck, it seemed like she had just been saved from Nicith only to be captured again and of course, tied up again. If her new captors were better or worse than Nicith was uncertain, but she had no hopes for a better treatment.

Eventually Saida had no choice but to try to fall asleep, it didn’t seemed like she would receive any attention from her captors from who she had heard nothing and from what she saw through the small little window above her head it was still nighttime.

But sleeping in that dungeon was everything but easy. The stone floor and walls were cold and hard, not the ideal surface to sleep in, not to mention that Saida was sitting and with her hands hanging over her head. But eventually she was won over by tiredness.



Ariesix and Nemabra were cited by Anizaga in her room early in the morning. After the pair struggled to keep straight faces while their boss scolded them for the failure on the mission they had went onto the previous day Anizaga finally got to what she wanted to tell her servants.

“First of all you need to take Valuith out of the dungeon” Said Anizaga.

“Is she still there?” Asked Ariesix in disbelief.

“Any problem with that?” Anizaga asked threateningly.

“No... not at all!” Ariesix replied quickly although nervously, Anizaga was scary and every day it passed she revealed a new facet of her evil.

“That’s what I thought” Anizaga replied “Once you release Valuith come back to me and I’ll tell you what to do next”

The pair got going and went from the matriarch’s chambers to her private cell in the dungeons, a room that they had been into enough times to know how scary it was. Once they had descended from high up on the tower where Anizaga’s room was they reached the dungeons, there they opened the heavy door of Anizaga’s private cell and Ariesix ignited the candles of the room with her magic

The light revealed Valuith’s figure in the middle of the room, strapped to the X cross Anizaga loved to use for her prisoners so much.

“I bet you had a rough night” Said Nemabra as she started to undo the straps that held Valuith prisoner.

“Mpghg” Replied Valuith through her ballgag.

Ariesix didn’t took part in untying Valuith, she had seen the results of her boss’ torture but never before had she seen them on a friend, that was enough of a shock to leave her stunned and unable to act.

“What do you think?” Said Valuith once she was able to remove her gag “Probably the worst night of my life”

“Sound believable” Replied Nemabra “I imagine you want to rest but we have work to do”

“I guessed, otherwise that bitch would have left me here” Said Valuith as she rubbed her sore wrists.

“Better not say that in front of her” Replied Nemabra.

“Don’t worry, after this night I may like her even less than before but be sure that I’ll be more careful with my words” Explained Valuith.

Valuith donned her black leather armor as quickly as she could, getting late was the last thing they wanted to do after seeing so closely what could be the consequences for displeasing Anizaga. Then they went back up the stairs of the tower which Valuith’s tired legs walked up with difficulty to go to Anizaga’s chambers.

“Took you long enough” Said Anizaga after she saw her three servants arrive at her room.

Her comment was annoyingly angering but all three of them knew it was the best option to keep a straight face and not complain about anything, no matter how much they wanted it.

“Now I need to speak the lovely prisoner you caught o your last mission, so I need you to bring her here” Ordered Anizaga “Now” She smiled.

Her cruelness was getting petty, she had no reason to make them walk up and down the stairs again other than that she just wanted to see them suffer, especially to see Valuith suffer, who after a rough night of almost no sleep due to being practically standing had to walk almost all the height of the tall tower again.



Saida was woken up by the awful noise of the heavy dungeon door being dragged over the floor, they were the guards opening the door. She feared the worst but the only thing the guards did was untie her hands from the wall and give her food and drink.

It was nice to feel the blood flowing through her arms again but her hands were still shackled in front of her and needless to say the food she was given was everything but good, it was a soup was that was more water than food, and whatever the food floating in the water was it didn’t looked good. The only thing she couldn’t complain about was the water, at least it was clean.

But before Saida could finish the food she had been given the door opened again and this time the ones behind it were not the regular dungeon guards but the three assassins that she had already fought and that had captured her, needless to say their visit didn’t pleased her one bit.

“Sorry for interrupting, but you’ll have to come with us” Said Nemabra “But I don’t think you mind not finishing that food”

Saida looked up at her captors but didn’t replied. She laid the plate aside and waited for them to take the restraint that pinned her to the wall off her.

“I guess the food is really bad, lets get going” Said Nemabra.

The restraint was undone and Valuith grabbed Saida by her arms to walk her all the way up the stairs again. As tired as Saida was after the horrible night of sleep she had in the dungeon she still had a better time going up the stairs than Valuith.

“What are you going to do with me?” Saida broke the silence that ruled the seemingly eternal stairs.

“Probably not much” replied Nemabra “I don’t know if you noticed but I just caught you to have something to show to my boss, our real objective were the six girls you were with”

“But what that bitch Anizaga does with you we cannot tell” Valuith chuckled with the full intent to scare their prisoner.

“So I’m not even a prize or an objective for you?” Saida asked indignant.

“No, you’re just here to save our asses from our crazy boss” Replied Nemabra “Don’t get us wrong, we’d love to have the other six girls instead of you but sadly for you luck wasn’t on your side yesterday”

“To be fair it wasn’t on ours either” Said Ariesix “We lost too”

“Yeah listen to her, don’t feel bad about you, we’re equally screwed!” Joked Nemabra, a joke that was laughed at by everyone but Saida, who found it more insulting than funny.

“Shut up...” Saida muttered.

“I should have guessed that you weren’t going to find that funny” Sighed Nemabra “But sadly for you, its not us who’re going to shut up but you! Aries, do you still have that thing the boss gave you?”

Saida looked at the demon girl, whoever the boss of those assassins were couldn’t be good, and whatever she had given them to use on her couldn’t be good either.

“Of course I do!” Replied Ariesix as she took out a rectangular piece of black leather with four straps on very corner.

“Good lets silence her shall we?” Asked Nemabra she took out a handkerchief of her pocket.

“Please... There’s no need to” Even though the instrument Ariesix had looked weird Saida could safely assume that they were about to gag her, and she had more experience than she liked with that to know that it wasn’t something she liked.

“Uh uh, if you enter the boss’ chambers ungagged she’ll probably kill us and then you, so be a good girl and open up” Nemabra said as she held the piece of cloth over Saida’s lips.

Even though the prospect of being gagged was awful what Nemabra said was enough of a deterrence to get her to open her mouth and reluctantly welcome the piece of cloth inside her. Over that was added the leather panel gag, which covered her face from below her nose down to her chin and was tightly strapped behind her head by Ariesix to make sure she didn’t spitted the cloth inside her mouth anytime soon.

Eventually they stopped before a great door, even though the stairs kept going up the long way up had finally ended, hopefully for good this time.

“You better behave when in front of her, our life depends on it as much as yours” Nemabra whispered on Saida’s ear.

Then the three assassins opened the door and walked her inside the room, a room that looked far better than any other place in that ruined fortresses. It had clearly been accommodated for a queen, with a great bed, velvet seats and a table on which the matriarch had some dark elvish food Saida couldn’t identify.

“Seat her in the chair” Ordered Anizaga after taking a sip from her hot drink.

After the matriarch gave that order Saida’s look turned towards a big black wood chair with ornamented legs, back and armrests, but it wasn’t the motifs of spiders and bats that adorned the spider that attracted Saida’s attention. It was the countless leather straps that were attached to the chair that did so, it was clear what the purpose of those straps were.

Saida was forced onto the chair and slowly and methodically tied to it by every strap the chair had, Saida could clearly see and feel how her freedom was stripped away from as the straps were tightened over her body. Two were over her forearms, one over her wrist and other below her elbow, over her arms went one strap, right over her biceps. Her legs were thoroughly restrained too, at the ankles and above the knees to pin each leg to the legs of the chair and above the knees and over her thighs to pin her to the seat of the chair. Last but not least Saida had the torso straps applied to her, two over her chest, one above her breasts the other below and the other around her waist. Saida wasn’t tied to the chair, that would be too generous of a term, she was practically attached to it.

“Good, now we can finally get started” Said Anizaga as she put her now empty cup on the table between her and her strictly restrained prisoner.

Anizaga and Saida started into each other eyes for a few seconds, Anizaga looked at her smugly, Saida could almost see the a slight hint of contempt towards her in her eyes. Saida tried to appear defiant, but something about the woman in front of her made that hard, she was one scary woman.

“As my servants may have told you you’re nothing more than an accident for us, you were not meant to be captured yet somehow you managed to end up in that chair” Anizaga explained “But during the night I assume you spent crying or cursing your own luck I figured that you can be useful to us, even in your condition as an accident”

Being referred to as an accident was insulting, it was a reminder that to them, the captors that were so focused on making her powerless and helpless, she was nothing, not even valuable as prisoner, just someone who was captured by chance and that they only found use to by chance. She could only wonder what that use they had found for her was.

“Your people, the other wood elves, have captured the girls we’re after, and considering how they take people crossing into their lands and how much they loathe other races I think even us could reach an agreement with them” Said Anizaga “I think your tree-hugging friends would be glad to give those girls to us if we give you back to them”

“Mpghgh” Saida grunted, she hated the use they had found for her. If she had to chose between being an accidental useless prisoner or an exchange currency to change predicaments with the people that had saved her she’d rather remain an useless prisoner, at at least she liked to think that, but it wasn’t something she could chose.

Anizaga leaned back on her chair, she enjoyed looked at Saida’s worried face half covered by her gag and everyone including Saida herself could tell.

“You may leave now, I want to have some time alone with her” Said Anizaga after staring at Saida in silence for a while.
Everyone obeyed without objections and soon enough the only two people in the room were Anizaga and her thoroughly bound prisoner Saida who wondered in fear why her captor had decided to have some time alone with her.

“I bet that chair is really uncomfortable” Said Anizaga “But you can’t move a muscle, its not like you can get comfortable even if you try”

Saida tugged the leather straps in response, she wanted to show Anizaga that she could at least fight her restraints but she couldn’t, the chair and its straps remained still even after she tugged them with all of her strength.

“It must feel bad” Anizaga continued, completely ignoring Saida’s pathetic attempt at a struggle “Imprisoned, tied to a chair in front of your captor and not even able to struggle”

Anizaga was right, that made Saida’s anger greater. But no matter how angry Saida got her rage would always be contained by her overly strict bondage.

“You can at least make some noise through your gag” Said Anizaga “I know you can so don’t be shy”

“Mpghh” Was the closest Saida moaned softly as she looked away.

Anizaga looked at her Saida, she loved how captives looked in that chair, they always looked so defeated after seeing how they could not even struggle and she loved it. That’s why she kept in her bedroom for herself and reserved for the captives she liked the most.

“Since you’re not our real objective I’ll grant you a great privilege” Said Anizaga “I’ll remove your gag for a while before I leave”

Anizaga leaned forward to undo the straps of the leather panel gag and after a few seconds the gag was undone and Saida was able to spit the handkerchief in her mouth.

“Few of my prisoners are able to talk to me, so I recommend that you spend this chance you have to do it as best as you can” Said Anizaga “And to watch your tongue too, I need you alive to exchange you for the other girls but that should make you feel more afraid of what I will do to you if you miss behave during our talk than safe”

Anizaga’s word were effective at causing fear within Saida, even after being ungagged she didn’t knew if she should speak or not.

“Come on, speak” Said Anizaga “I bet you have a lot questions”

Saida looked around the room and decided to speak.

“Where are we?” She said fearfully.

“This is an abandoned fortress made by the elves that settled on this land long ago, but that’s as much as I’m willing to tell you” Replied Anizaga without taking her look off Saida’s restrained body.

“You... you enjoy this don’t you? Saida asked fearfully again as she noticed how Anizaga was looking at her.

“You are very perceptive” Replied Anizaga with a smile in her face.

As disgusting as Saida considered what Anizaga said she preferred not say anything about it, doing so from her position would likely mean torture.

“Anything else you want to ask me?” Asked Anizaga “I’ll have to write a letter for your queen telling her about the exchange I plan to use you for, and I can’t have you talking when I’m doing that”

Even though what Anizaga said made Saida angry she decided to ask one last question.

“Why are you doing this?” She asked.

“That’s the question I was waiting for” Said Anizaga “Since I don’t want you to relay information about my plans to your friends I wont say much, but I’ll tell you enough to make you and your people afraid”

Saida gulped, she didn’t liked the direction Anizaga was taking.

“I assume you have noticed the slow corruption of the forest” Anizaga made a pause and resumed her explanation once Saida nodded in response “As you can imagine, that’s our doing, we want all of the forest to be like that so we can easily settle here and then conquer all of the forest with ease, and for that we need something those girls have”


Saida couldn’t believe what she was hearing, it was frightening.

“For that we need a power far greater than you can imagine” Anizaga concluded her explanation as she rose up from her chair and looked down upon Saida “But that’s enough as am I willing to tell you”

Anizaga gagged Saida again but the wood elf had been left too stunned by what Anizaga had told her that she didn’t resisted it, she just allowed the cloth to be shoved into her mouth and the muzzle to be reapplied over her face.

“Goodbye, I hope I have time to see you again before we have to turn you back to your people” Said Anizaga before leaving the room.

Saida was left alone in the room, gagged and strapped to the chair with extreme strictness. In the state she was in her mind couldn’t focus on anything else other than what Anizaga had just told her, she couldn’t stop asking herself what her plan was and what would be of the her, the forest, the other wood elves and the girls she was about to be exchanged for if Anizaga got her way.

Okay now e know the identity of the mysterious Boss and what she wants

Chapter 46: Captives in Saithemar

The walk through the forest was tortuous, the irregular floor was hard to maneuver over for the adventurers with their hands tied up, especially for Eyiel who not only had her hands tied up but also tied behind her back.

But thankfully for the adventurers the city was surprisingly close to where they initially where, they had already thought of the worst case scenario possible, being walked through the forest while tied up for days, but thankfully that wasn’t they got. They were glad to hear that when they elves found them they were already returning to the city and that they would probably get there by nighttime.

That didn’t meant that the journey didn’t had drawbacks, walking tied up through the forest while tied up with few stops wasn’t the most pleasurable of experiences. It was especially nightmarish for Eyiel, who not only had to deal with being more strictly tied up than her friends but also with the humiliation of being walked like an animal through the forest, she trusted her strength enough to be able to break out if she tried but Rhys was there to calm her down everytime she was about to lash out, she was literally the only thing keeping her from trying to escape.

As for the rest of the adventurers they were more annoyed than angry during the journey, but just knowing that everything was under control kept them confident which made Zinfiel angry, especially so because since the adventurers behaved she had no excuse to punish them.

By the end of the day the adventurers were blindfolded, Ann and Rhys had to calm Eyiel down before she allowed herself to be blindfolded, she was already beyond her limit and if they hadn’t she’d have likely lashed out once and for all.

Now blinded the adventurers were slowly guided through the forest, Liel’s clumsiness almost made her fall a few times because during most of the way the floor was still uneven but it eventually became flat and hard, that and the sudden change of noise from animals and winds to more artificial sounds, the adventurers could easily tell they had entered some kind of settlement.

The blindfolds were removed and after the initial blinding light the adventurers were able to see what was obvious, they were inside a structure. It was a big closed space between two big gates.

“She’s coming with me, the rest are going to the dungeon” Said Zinfiel as she grabbed Ann by the shoulders.

Ferine winked at Ann and Liel smiled at her through her gag, clearly signaling that they were okay and that they still trusted her plan. Ann needed that.

Ferine, Eyiel, Rhys, Liel and Zelliria were walked out of the room through one of the big gates that was only slightly opened for them to get through it, then they realized that it was one of the gates of the city walls. They were walked up those walls which allowed them to see the city of the wood elves, a view they would have been much more eager to appreciate had they not been prisoners. The the five adventurers lead inside a keep.

“We usually allow prisoners to talk by this point, but since we don’t know who of you are mages we don’t know if we should” Said one of the guards in the language she was told the adventurers spoke, as she and her group stopped before a cell.

Being gagged was getting old so Ferine had no problem telling the elves who should they worry about and that it wasn’t her. She tried to talk through the thick cloth between her teeth and nodded towards her mage friends, which Zelliria did not took kindly. What Ferine started as simple gagtalk had turned into an unintelligible argument of gagtalk between her and Zelliria.

The guards looked at each other confused, whatever was happening they were not prepared for it. Not knowing what to do, one of the guards decided to ungag Eyiel, from all the captives she was the one that looked like a mage the least.

“Can we trust you to tell us who of you are mages?” Asked one of the guards.

“What? Just because I’m the beefy the amazon you assume I’m not a mage and ungag me?” Eyiel asked jokingly, but deeply annoyed “Because you’re right”

Eyiel looked at her friends and fellow prisoners, apart from her and Ferine they were all capable of magic but after the number Ferine had made in front of the guards just to be ungagged Eyiel was in for some fun.

“Actually I am the only non-mage of this group, if I were you I’d leave those four gagged” Said Eyiel.

The looks of her friends were all on Eyiel, Rhys and Liel looked at her mostly surprised, Liel thought of what she had said as just telling the truth and Rhys was not going to complain about being gagged a little bit longer. But Zelliria and Ferine, they were not happy, they had already been gagged during almost all of the journey and now Eyiel wasn’t willing to lie to get them ungagged or even tell the truth in case of Ferine.

With that said the guards lead them all inside the cell, there they were forced on a bench and had their bound hands tied to a hook on the walls over their heads. This treatment wasn’t applied to Eyiel because she was bound differently and more strictly than her friends, she was just left on the floor.

“I know you’re angry at me” Said Eyiel once they had been locked inside “But after hearing you talk through your gag I think that leaving it on your mouth for a bit longer would be better”

“Mpghgh” Zelliria and Ferine grunted at the amazon, almost at unison.
Zinfiel had reported to the queen what had happened in the forest and the queen had listened attentively. Being one of the queen’s best regarded officials had no trouble when it came to speak directly to her, it was something she had earned in her past.

“What I don’t yet know is what happened to Saida” Concluded Zinfiel.

“I do know, but it is not pretty” The queen stated.

“Tell me, no matter what it is I need to know!” Zinfiel replied quickly.

“She’s captive to a group of dark elves, I’d like to be able to say that she’s alright but sadly I cannot”

Hearing that enraged Zinfiel.

“How do you know?” She asked suppressing her rage “Who even are those dark elves? We’ve not seen them in the forest since ages!”
“I’ve been contacted by them in a letter where they informed me of what I just told you” The queen explained “They also told me that they are willing to negotiate over her”

“What do they propose?” Asked Zinfiel.

“They say that if we turn over he prisoners you captured to them they are willing to give Saida back to us”

“I suppose that isn’t a very hard choice” Zinfiel replied, almost relieved.

“It is” The queen replied coldly “I wont take any decision until I get to know the prisoners”

“What!?” Zinfiel did not gave credit to what she had just heard “How can you put some prisoners over one of us!?”

“I’m not putting anyone above anyone” The queen replied, calmly but sternly “I just want a better grasp of the situation before handing those already suspicious invaders what they want”

Zinfiel was about to keep the argument going, Saida not being the top priority of the queen when she was her’s enraged her. Not only she had to deal with the fact that Saida had fallen captive of their enemies now she also had to deal with her queen not caring as much as her about it.

But bot Zinfiel and the Queen were interrupted by the loud noise of the main gate being opened, and through it entered Ann, with her hands tied behind her back, her arms pinned to her chest and a thick cloth between her teeth and tied behind her head. She was escorted by two guards who forced her on her knees once they reached a certain distance from the queen.

Queen Sylmare Sylmare of the wood elves of Saithemar looked carefully at the prisoner she had been presented. She was a human, evidenced by the lack of big ears and she had blonde hair but apart from that the queen wasn’t able to tell much of her, she was looking down so her face was a mystery hidden behind her hair.

It was the prisoner’s clothes what revealed a crucial detail, somewhat hidden below the ropes tied around her chest was an embroidered coat of arms that she recognized.

“I think you made a mistake in bringing her here, at least in this condition” Sylmare said as she rose from her wooden throne and started to walk towards the prisoner.

Everyone in the room was surprised by the queen’s reaction, everyone but Ann and the queen herself.

“Let her stand” Ordered the queen.

Although the order was strange the guards obeyed and helped Ann to get on her feet.

“Long time no see” The queen grabbed Ann by her chin and lifted her face so she could see her “Ann Golbreisk” She said in the Berouxinan, the language of Ann’s home country.

Ann and Sylmare smiled at each other, but Ann’s gagged condition made it hard to tell that she was doing so.

“She’s a friend of ours, she and the others are not be treated as prisoners but as guests”

Sylmare found herself in the need of explaining the situation to everyone, the relation between them and the Golbreisk family was something not as widely known so her explanation was necessary. The Golbreisk were one of the human families that assisted the elves in the last century when they were invaded by the pirates of the forsvollr sea, a favour that will be forever remembered by the wood elves.

“I’ll go see the others, you take care fo her Zinfiel” Ordered Sylmare as she made her way to the door.

The queen left the big hall and Zinfiel walked up to Ann, she didn’t liked to hear that the prisoners she had captured were actually friends, but at least Sylmare didn’t seemed angry at her.

“Don’t think that this changes anything” Said Zinfiel as she got behind Ann but before touching the ropes that tied her “I don’t care what relation your family has with us, to me you and your friends are still trespassers in our territory and still guilty of what happened to Saida”

“Mpghg?” Ann asked, briefly forgetting that she was gagged.

Zinfiel noticed that whatever Ann had said sounded like a question and although she didn’t wanted to hear her she ungagged her anyway.

“Thanks” Said Ann once her gag was taken out of her mouth “What happened to Saida?”

“She was captured by those dark elves that are chasing after you” Said Zinfiel as she untied the rope around Ann’s chest.

“I am sorry I...”

“There’s no need to apologize” Zinfiel interrupted her “Unless you can bring her back here there’s nothing you can do to make me forgive you”

Ann felt the hug of the ropes easen around her chest but then she suddenly felt it tighten again.

“Do you... mmppphh” Ann was about to inquire Zinfiel about what she had felt by the gag being shoved between her teeth again confirmed her suspicions, Zinfiel wasn’t letting her go.


“Change of plans” Said Zinfiel as she tightly tied the gag behind Ann’s head “Start walking human, you’re coming with me”



The imprisoned adventurers heard a discussion taking place outside their cell, whatever was the matter being discussed they didn’t knew it because it was being spoken in the language of the wood elves.

Ferine and Zelliria wondered if this was their opportunity to escape, even though Ann’s plan didn’t required them to escape they could have some fun picking the knots of their bondage. The two looked at each other and nodded, both of them knew what the other wanted to say so they quickly got to work.

“You two trying to escape?” Asked Eyiel “Don’t try stupid things, you’re gonna ruin Ann’s plan”

Eyiel was ignored by both of them, Ferine was too eager to get even with Zelliria after she had defeated her in their last escape race so she wasn’t willing to stop, and neither was Zelliria to let her win.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m dying to get out of these ropes too its just that I am less immature than you two” Eyiel teased her companions taking advantage of her inability to reply.

Being teased by Eyiel only gave Zelliria and Ferine more reasons to want to escape.

But before Zelliria or Ferine could get out of the ropes the door to her cell was opened and a different elf from the ones that had been guarding them since they were locked up entered the room. It was a tall and nicely dressed blonde elf of extremely long hair, wearing a crown made of antlers on her head.

“I guess you’re here because of Ann” Said Eyiel.

“I’m indeed are, I came to your cell myself to apologize because of Zinfiel’s treatment of you” The elf replied “I am queen Sylmare of Saithemar, and you are from now on my guests on this city”

“I hope that means we get to be untied” Said Eyiel as she struggled idly to point out the fact that she was still tied up.
“Yes! I win!” Ferine shouted all of a sudden.

She had just gotten out of the ropes which allowed her to ungag herself, her escape was subtle but it was helped by everyone paying more attention to the queen and Eyiel than her subtle struggles.

“Uh, technically I escaped first” Said Zelliria “I just didn’t wanted to take out the gag because I didn’t wanted your majesty over there to notice”

“What? That’s a pretty good lie but I wont fall for it” Replied Ferine.

“Girls!” Eyiel called their attention “Can you please behave?” Hearing Zelliria and Ferine’s discussion was angering for Eyiel, it made her want to escape like few other things did.

“That’s a pretty nice way of saying that you can’t escape” Teased Ferine.

“I bet that it feels really bad being so strong and being unable to break free” Zelliria played along.

“Oh you’ll see” Eyiel was done hearing them mock her and was ready to break free of the ropes like she thought she should have done long ago.

“Stop stop!” Sylmare interrupted the amazon before anyone could find out if she was really capable of breaking free “You’ll hurt yourself, just wait a bit and we’ll get you free”

Eyiel obliged, she wasn’t happy to do so but she thought it would seem very hypercritical to call her friends immature for trying to escape when there was no need to just to do that exact thing herself.

The guards that had locked them up not so long ago now were untying them, at least the three that hadn’t broken free of the restraints they had been put in, whether it be due to inability like Liel and Rhys or because they were stopped from doing so like Eyiel.

Freedom hadn’t felt better in a long time, the adventurers had spent most of the journey as prisoners tied up, only being untied in few and scarce occasions, this meant that being able to move freely again felt better than ever. This was especially true for Eyiel, she was the one bound more strictly and being able to massage her big cramped muscles felt like heaven after almost a day of almost total bondage.

The queen and her guides guided the adventurers through the city, they could tell by how the locals looked at them that some of them had never seen an outsider.

“I’ll take you to one of the hot springs, It will be good for your muscles” Said the queen as they walked through the city.

“I’d definitively like that” Said Eyiel as she stretched her arms “My arms hurt like hell”

“Again I’m sorry for what my subordinate did to you, maybe she had no way of knowing but you still don’t deserve it” The queen apologized again.

The adventurers had a hot spring all for themselves, they were also provided food and new clothes made by the wood elves, a much welcomed luxury after the hell that the journey to the city was.

“I’ll go look for Ann, you can make yourselves at home here” Said the queen before leaving the building the adventurers were in.



Ann was now tied to a chair in the middle fo Zinfiel’s room, the only thing that had been added to her bondage were more ropes around her waist to pin her to the chair, leaving her arms uncomfortably pressed between her back and the chair’s.

“Mphh!” Groaned Ann, still gagged.

“Don’t worry I’ll ungag you” Said Zinfiel as she brought a chair in front of Ann and then sat on it “But it will only be for you to tell me what I want to hear, understood?”

Being interrogated again, great, thought Ann as she tested once again the ropes around her wrists only to confirm what she already knew, that she could not escape. Seeing how it was her only option Ann nodded, at least she would be ungagged.

“Who are those dark elves?” Asked Zinfiel as she ungagged Ann.

“I don’t know...” Ann replied awkwardly.

“Really?” Zinfiel asked threateningly “Do you think you’re in a position to reply like that?”

“All I know is that they are after us, but we’ve only seen them two times there’s not much I can tell you!” Ann replied more annoyed than scared at her captor.

“Then why don’t you tell me where they took Saida?” Asked Zinfiel.

“What? How am I supposed to know that!?” Ann asked annoyed again.

Without warning Zinfiel slapped Ann across the face, Ann was left unharmed but the sudden sting was surely painful when unanticipated.

“That wasn’t because I think you’re lying, I know how a liar sounds and that wasn’t it” Said Zinfiel as Ann recovered from the slap.

“Then why did you do it?”

“I can’t help but blame you for whatever is happening to Saida right now, but don’t worry, there will be no need for me to keep slapping you until my anger wears out” Zinfiel explained “In fact, I have a better idea of what to do with you”

“What are you going to do with me?” Ann asked.

“Today the queen received a letter that told her that those dark elves are willing to release Saida if we turn you and your friends over to them, sadly I don’t think Sylmare will do that now that you’re a friend of her” Zinfiel explained “I guess that you can assume what is going to happen to you and your friends”

Ann couldn’t believe what she was hearing, Zinfiel was openly admitting that she would go against Sylmare’s orders and that meant putting her and her friends in great danger.

“You can’t do that! She wouldn’t forgive you!” Ann shouted.

“Hush, you’ll have a lot of time to scream once those elves have you” Said Zinfiel as covered Ann’s mouth with her hand.

Ann started to struggle with with everything she had, she couldn’t let Zinfiel get away with what she was planning, there surely was another more sensible solution that the elf wasn’t thinking about.

Then someone knocked the door to Zinfiel’s room, taking both a her and Ann by surprise.

“Zinfiel, Ann are you in there?” Asked Sylmare from the other side of the door.

Zinfiel muttered something in her own language, surely a curse.

“I’ll untie you and then open the door, but if you say one words about this to her you’ll regret it” Zinfiel whispered as she pointed a dagger at Ann’s face.

Although Zinfiel’s threat didn’t had much meaning for Ann she nodded in response to her request. Zinfiel then cut her loose of the ropes.

“Remember, no words” Zinfiel said before opening the door.

“Oh there you are, what where you doing?” Asked Sylmare once they opened the door for her.

“Oh... uh... nothing, we were just...” Zinfiel tried to make up a lie on the spot.

“We were talking about what to do about Saida” Ann stated, much to Zinfiel’s surprise.

“Oh... I understand that what happened to her is worrying, but it is not your responsibility, I’m sure we’ll find a solution by ourselves” Sylmare replied, surprised by what she had just been told “Anyway, follow me, I’ll take you to where your friends are” Sylmare continued, trying to kill the awkwardness of the moment.

Zinfiel let Sylmare get ahead of her and much to her surprise Ann waited at her side.

“I want to rescue her too” Said Ann before she started to walk behind Sylmare.
“It doesn’t seem like it” Replied Zinfiel.

“I have an idea” Said Ann “I’d have told you If you hadn’t kept me gagged all of the time I was with you”

Ann finally reunited with her friends in the elvish hot springs who were happy about seeing her again and having time to relax from her seemingly never ending bad luck that always lead them to be tied up. No mention was made by Ann about what Zinfiel had done with her, she wasn’t happy about being tied up and interrogated by her but she also didn’t wanted to cause trouble.

“Things were going so well” Sighed Eyiel.

“Maybe too well” Added Ferine “From this point onward I will not trust our luck anymore”

“After we get that thing to the inquisitor I hope I never see her again” Said Zelliria “Remember, all of this is her fault”

“Pretty much” Said Ann as tiredly as everyone else “But we have to end this before we can think about that”

Reminding the past lead to the adventurers to talking about their past adventurers, Eyiel proudly spoke about the time she killed an ogre by herself as part of her training, Ferine spoke of how she once stole a jewel in front of a dragon’s eyes, everyone seemed to have something to tell except Liel.

“I’d like to have stories like yours to tell” She said shyly.

“Don’t stress about it, its not your fault you were brought up by the inquisitor” Ann replied.

“But you should know that you’re much more valuable outside that place” Ferine added “We’ve seen you fight, you even saved us from that witch that time we were captured, I wouldn’t like your talent to go to waste stuck in a monastery”

“Really?” Liel asked awkwardly, she still wasn’t used to being complimented like that.

“Absolutely” Replied Ferine “I know this is far from over, but think about staying with us once it is”

Ann looked at Rhys searching for a hint of disapproval in her face, but she was thankful not find any. The elf was just resting her head on Eyiel’s shoulder with a smile on her face, not seeming to care about what was being said.
Even if the hot springs were as good as the ones near Saida’s cabin they got old and after the adventurers had rested enough they got out of the steaming pond of hot water and went to the structure nearby to get dressed.

“What now?” Asked Ferine as she putted on the clothes the elves had gotten for her.

“The queen invited us to have dinner with her” Replied Ann.

“As long as they don’t eat any weird stuff I’m okay with that” Said Ferine.

“I think they eat pretty normal stuff” Said Ann “The only problem will be that most likely Zinfiel will be there.

“Like I care!” Chuckled Ferine “It would be fun to see her face once she sees us having dinner with them”

The night proceeded peacefully, the food the elves served them was good and everyone was friendly towards them, especially towards Ann, many of the elves seemed to know members of her family and were pleased to meet her. The other adventurers received different degrees and kinds of attention, Ferine and Liel received many questions about the human world that the elves were so unaware of, some elves were not very pleased by the presence of Rhys, a high elf and Zelliria, a half elf, but they made no comments. Eyiel was approached once by a drunk elf that had clearly ulterior motives with her, but the elf left her alone awkwardly once he saw that the amazon seemed much more interested in the red haired high elf than on him.

Like everyone expected Zinfiel didn’t seemed happy about the adventurers being there, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

After the they were done having dinner the adventurers were offered a room in the queen’s palace which they gladly accepted. Ann was about to leave the hall with her friends but Sylmare stopped her.

“Zinfiel told me that you have a plan to rescue Saida” She said.

Ann sighed and got ready to get into a long explanation. She as well as Sylmare and Zinfiel sat down around the now empty table.
“I am worried about Saida too, that’s why I thought of a plan that could save her” She began her explanation.

“I appreciate your cooperation but I know that you don’t have to do this, she’s not your responsibility and...”

“It is, or at least it feels like it” Ann interrupted the queen “I’ll tell you what I have in mind, once you make up your mind about it I’ll do as you say”

Zinfiel and Sylmare heard Ann with attention and her plan seemed right, but that didn’t meant it was free of danger.

I did not expect that turn of the events. The adventurers seem out of the woods - for now

I want to take a moment and say this story keeps surprising me. Even if the events happen again and again, and the main characters get constantly captured, free/escape, then captured again, it doesn't get boring at all. The inclusion of many elements such as magic, creatures, elves... makes this a very interesting story to read. Congratulations!

Caesar73 wrote: 4 years ago I did not expect that turn of the events. The adventurers seem out of the woods - for now

Thanks again for the kind comment!

Mineira1986 wrote: 4 years ago I want to take a moment and say this story keeps surprising me. Even if the events happen again and again, and the main characters get constantly captured, free/escape, then captured again, it doesn't get boring at all. The inclusion of many elements such as magic, creatures, elves... makes this a very interesting story to read. Congratulations!

Thanks for the kind comment! I know the formula is repetitive but that's kind of what I'm going for, so I'm glad that not only I'm achieving it but also that you're liking it.

Chapter 47: The Living Forest

“So, where are we supposed to meet with them?” Asked Ferine as she, her friends and a couple of wood elves walked through the forest.

“The place we agreed in is still a few days from here so don’t worry” Replied Zinfiel.

“Are we sure that this plan will work?” Ferine asked “I’d rather not tell why but I have a bad experience with plans like this” She said as she glared at Zelliria.

“It was Ann’s plan so if anything happens feel free to blame her” Zinfiel replied.

Like everyone, with them Ferine knew that the plan they were following was Ann’s, but that didn’t made her trust Zinfiel more. That’s why she felt like the way through the forest, despite having the company of so many wood elves, wasn’t as safe as it seemed.

Ann’s plan was risky, that’s why Sylmare hadn’t sent them alone to fulfill it, but it appeared to be the only way in which both them and Saida could be saved from the dark elves. The plan basically consisted on pretending to be delivered to the dark elves, only to be immediately rescued once Saida was safe.

It was a plan that could help everyone, the wood elves would find out where the dark elves were hiding and the adventurers will travel safely for a for a few days under the wood elves protection and hopefully they could even get rid of the assassins.

Night fell on the forest and the adventurers set camp along the elves, they noticed how much the forest had changed for the worse since they had started to move away from the city, but thankfully they weren’t attacked by anything.

One of the advantages that having the elves protection had was that the adventurers could sleep calmly, trusting the elves to keep them safe. They had a tent for their own and like on every night since they had left the city they were getting ready to sleep.

“You are doubting this plan aren’t you?” Asked Ann, anticipating what her friends would say.

“Kind of” Said Ferine, everyone seemed to agree with her, or at least tht was how Ann interpreted their silence.

“I know it sounds dangerous and it is but I can’t be okay with leaving Saida alone, especially knowing her situation” Ann explained “And we’d have come this way anyway so its better if we do it protected”

“Did we complained?” Asked Ferine.

“I think we’re long past the point of complaining about something because its dangerous” Added Eyiel.

Ann felt silent for a few seconds, whatever she was expecting, it wasn’t this.

“Were you really expecting us to get mad at you?” Asked Ferine “We agreed to this don’t you remember?”

“I guess you’re right” Ann chuckled as her surprised expression turned to a happy one “Anyway, let’s try to sleep now, we have long days ahead of us”





Nobody had a problem falling asleep, with the forest being dominated by silence and being tired after walking all the day falling asleep was easy, but Zelliria was the exception, for hours she had been looking at the tent’s roof, changing positions, switching the side of the pillow, hoping that she would fall asleep but failing every time.

It wasn’t just this night, ever since they left the city a feeling of danger loomed over her and it only grew with time, this night it was apparently too much to let her sleep.

“Is everything fine Zelliria?” Asked Liel, who Zelliria didn't knew was awake.

“Actually no” Replied Zelliria.

Liel leaned closer to her, she wanted to hear more.

“We’re up against dark elves this time, I don’t care about how strong they are but they still bring me back bad memories” Zelliria rolled over to look at Liel, she was closer to her than she expected her to be “You know, from that time”

“I was worried about the same” Liel replied “I don’t know if it is being paranoid but dark elves in these lands again, It sounds suspicious”

Zelliria did not replied, she didn’t knew that Liel had the same worries as her.

“But don’t worry, even if they are the same ones we’ll still get through, just like the last time” Liel added to cheer her friend up.

“I hope so” Zelliria replied with melancholy.

There was a brief silence between the two, a conversation about the topic at hand wasn’t the one that could be followed with mere chatter, which made the silence uncomfortable despite it being between two friends.

“You know, now that I think about it we never talked about what happened after that night” Liel broke the silence “I mean, you know that I was made an acolyte by the inquisition but what about you?”

“Uh.. me? It’s a long story” Replied Zelliria.

“Don’t worry, we have time” Said Liel as she snuggled up by Zelliria’s side.

Liel was right and Zelliria thought it would be liberating to talk about her past with someone, especially if that someone was her childhood friend Liel. She began by telling how she left the city, after the house of Liel’s parents was burned she joined a caravan that traveled the whole north.

“You’re probably wondering why they kept me around” Zelliria made a pause as she realized how unbelievable what happened to her actually was “I mean, a group of mercenaries merchants and ‘medics’ not to say scammers, are not know for keeping young helpless girls around”

Liel nodded, Zelliria’s story was the type of story that made her want to have a more interesting past.

“Well, they quickly discovered my talent with music, and since as a half elf I am almost bound to be an outcast they gave me a place to stay in their caravan as long as I worked as a bard with them” Zelliria proudly explained “There I learned to play most of the instruments I play now, but there I also learned to fight and use magic”

“Sounds fun, definitively more fun than the way I learned to do those things” Liel commented.

“Oh it absolutely was” Zelliria said as she smiled because of the memories her story brought back “The time I spent with them was priceless”

“What happened to them?” Liel asked.

Zelliria made a pause, she knew that she would eventually have to tell that part of her story but it was still something she would rather not do.

“During the invasion of this forest by the pirates of the sea of Forsvoll the caravan I travel with was in the middle of its way to the city of Narcourt” Zelliria began to reluctantly speak “To get there we had to cross the forest but there we found ourselves in the middle of a skirmish between the elves and the pirates, truly horrible stuff”

Zelliria made a pause to make sure that Liel still wanted to listen, and apparently she did.

“Most of the caravan died there, but one of the members saved me and we walked away, trying to leave the forest, he was a half elf too, and he had taught me music so I was always close to him” Zelliria continued “It was then when I met Nicith for the first time, she stalked us for days before attacking us and when she did she nearly captured me but my companion saved me”

“That’s why Nicith took you for herself when she captured us?” Asked Liel.

“It is, I’m only glad that she’s dead now” Zelliria replied “That’s also how I got this scar” She said as she showed her old wound.
“And what happened to him? To your companion?” Asked Liel almost expecting the worse.

“Nicith’s used her deadly venom on him and it nearly killed him, but he survived” Zelliria said much to Liel’s relief “But he was no longer in shape for long travels, especially if it was just the two of us, the last time I saw him was when we separated at Edgefell, hadn’t seen him since then”

“I hope he’s alight” Said Liel.

“I’m sure he is” Replied Zelliria as she smiled, remembering her master was much more pleasing than she expected it to be “Any man that can get through a drider’s venom can get through anything”

Liel fell asleep hearing Zelliria’s tales and the bard found it easier to sleep once she had told her friend what was messing with her, she felt safer despite not anything having really changed.





The forest was in a state so bad that it was by mere intuition that the adventurers recognized that they were near their destination, the wood was dark and the floor was almost completely made out of mud, a dense fog covered the forest, so dense in fact that it made it hard to see in front of them. “Well girls, we’re about to reach the accorded place, so you know what’s next” Zinfiel said as she stopped in front of the group.

“Ugh, make it quick then” Eyiel reluctantly conceded, like everyone she knew what was coming.

One by one Zinfiel tied the adventurer’s hands behind their backs with rope, she did it herself because she needed to be sure about something and it wasn’t that the restraints were inescapable, in fact, quite the opposite.

“Okay,that shouldn’t be a problem for you to break out of” Said Zinfiel “But just to be sure try it”

Zelliria and Ferine were the first ones to break free, the knot was easy to reach and they had no problem undoing it since it was so simple, almost immediately after followed Eyiel, who wasted no time in trying to find the knot and simply tore the ropes apart. Surprisingly for everyone but herself Rhys managed to escape almost at the same time that Eyiel did, nobody asked why but it was because the purposefully poor binding Zinfiel tied was exactly like the ones Rhys used to apply to herself in self bondage which made them quite easy to break free of. Ann and Liel were the last ones to escape, but they still did it within reasonable time so it wasn’t something they should worry about.

Zinfiel tied the adventurers again and they took the time during the walk to get a hold of the knots in order to be ready to escape once the time came.

“One thing before we keep going” Zinfiel said as she stopped walking and pulled a few white cloths from her bag.

“Really?” Asked Ann.

“This may be faked but it still needs to look convincing” Zinfiel argued.

“Fine, but I really hope you’re not enjoying this” Ann conceded and prepared herself to be gagged.

But much to Ann’s surprise she wasn’t gagged, neither were Ferine or Eyiel, only Liel, Zelliria and Rhys had the cloth tied around their heads and over their lips.

“That shouldn’t be to hard to get out, since there’s nothing inside your mouth you shouldn’t have a problem with it” Explained Zinfiel “What? Do you wanted to be gagged yourself?” She asked as she turned to look at Ann.

“What? Of course no!” Ann replied.

“That look you gave me tells me otherwise but whatever, lets keep going”

The adventurers walked now tied up alongside the elves for a while longer until they reached a clear in the forest, although the fog didn’t let much sunlight the mere fact of not having the canopies of the trees looming above them made the place much brighter.

In that place three figures and one more emerged from the fog at a fair distance from the adventurers, they were the already recognizable assassins Ariesix, Valuith and Nemabra and with them was Saida. The wood elf was tied up much more thoroughly than the adventurers, she not only had her hands tied behind her back but also her arms pinned to her chest by rope running below her breasts and her knees tied together to prevent her from running away.

“Here you have them, as you asked” Said Zinfiel as she pushed Ann in front of her “Now we expect you to fulfill your part”

“Of course, of course” Nemabra replied “We’ll let her go as soon as soon as you take them to us”

Zinfiel expected them to be smart, so she wasn’t surprised when they didn’t fell for such a simple trick. She had to agree and she pushed Ann forward, ordering her and the other to keep walking.

Seeing how the adventurers were already on their clutches Nemabra decided to let go of Saida, but before she did she made sure that she knew something.

“If you reach them before they reach us, nobody is leaving this forest, understood?” She whispered at Saida’s ear.

Saida nodded and slowly and awkwardly walked away from her captors, even if she wanted to run away with her legs tied up at the knees there was little she could do other than what she was already doing.

Saida and the adventurers crossed in the midway but she avoided looking at them, she couldn’t bring herself to do it, not knowing what awaited them and blaming herself for it.

Once Saida was safely behind them the adventurers looked at each other and quickly got the hint, they broke free from their fake restraints and Zinfiel and the other elves handed their weapons to them.

They caught their weapons mid air but Rhys had no weapon to catch, she instead prepared to attack, hurling a an explosive fireball at the three assassins in front of them. The sound was deafening and the smoke from the explosion mixed with the fog. Anyone else would have been convinced that nobody could survive that, but Rhys knew very well that last time she had tried the same the assassins had indeed survived it.

“It appears you haven’t learned anything from our last encounter” Said Ariesix from the fog.

“You are still outnumbered, you better surrender now!” Shouted Zinfiel who already had Saida with her.

“Mpghhh! mphggh!” Saida moaned through her gag, trying to get Zinfiel’s attention.

“You should listen to her, because the mistake you’ve just committed will require an explanation” Said Nemabra, who still remained invisible in the fog.

The adventurers stood back to back in a circle, trying to discern what was hiding in the fog and expecting an attack from the assassins at any moment, but it wasn’t them who attack them. They saw themselves surrounded, but not by anyone, it was the whole forest surrounding them, like if the trees had come to life and decided to attack them.

“What’s happening?” Shouted Rhys, scared and confused.

“The forest is really out to kill us!” Eyiel angrily stated.

“I don’t know what’s happening but we need to get out of here!” Ann shouted “Rhys, can you get us out?”

Rhys nodded and started to prepare the teleportation, meanwhile the branches that were actively encircling the adventurers got closer and closer, Ann and Eyiel tried to cut them but they were hard, as hard as the wood in the trees was.

Just when it seemed like they were about to be crushed by the living branches they banished and then reappeared somewhere else in the forest, it was still the same foggy place dominated by dark trees that loomed over them, but the danger of the living trees at least seemed to have disappeared.

“Damn it!” Cursed Nemabra as she kicked the floor “We should have expected them to do this”

Nemabra rested against a tree to think of something to do, she rarely got angry but this job she had taken to capture those adventurers was draining her patience faster than she thought possible, and having it stopped from being over again was downright enraging.

“Anyway, we can’t go back to the boss like this” Nemabra said more calmly.

“What should we do then?” Asked Valuith.

“We should go after them, forget about the elf and those who came to rescue her”

“Do we have any idea of where they are?” Asked Ariesix “I’m pretty sure they teleported, I can easily recognize spells like that, but I have no idea where the spell took them to”

“But we have a special help they don’t have...” Nemabra said as she looked to the mess of twisting branches that were left after the adventurers escaped “Don’t we?”

Somewhere Else in the Forest

Despite not knowing where they exactly where the adventurers moved on and kept walking, not exactly knowing where they were going but assuming that eventually they had to reach a place free of danger.

Needless to say they weren’t pleased with the results of their plan, but they had nobody to blame, what happened to them was something that nobody could have predicted and even if they had gotten out the retreat they had made tasted like defeat.

Eventually they reached the edge a ravine at the side of a river, since they couldn’t keep walking forward they took that time to sit down and rest for a bit before deciding where to go next.

“What even was that?” Asked Zelliria, still pissed about the plan’s relative failure.

“I don’t think anyone knows what it was” Replied Ann “Anyone does?”

“Actually I think I may have a idea” Liel said, quickly catching everyone’s attention “I once read about this forest in a book, it said something about trees that could be possessed by forest spirits and come to life, but until now I thought that was a myth, most of the stuff on that book was”

“Well in this forest every myth you can think about is probably real” Zelliria replied “So, any idea about those possessed trees then?”

Liel dug through her memories, trying to remember a book that was only of many that she had read during her time in the monastery was hard.

“It said that dryads usually possessed trees to attack people that entered the forest” Liel explained “If I remember correctly they do it because their physical form is too weak to fight”

“That makes sense, what doesn’t make sense is why would a dryad side with those dark elves, aren’t they protectors of the forest or something?” Ann questioned.

Liel shrugged, what Ann wanted to know was far beyond what she could remember from a book that she had read years ago.

“I am afraid this is no time for explanations” Said Eyiel as she prepared her axe.

Everyone quickly understood what she was talking about, from the floor beneath them were emerging roots, roots that moved like snakes and tried to wrap themselves around the adventurers.

But unlike the tree branches they were attacked by before the roots were soft, easy to cut through with weapons but much more resilient to fire which meant that Rhys couldn’t do much against them without setting the whole forest ablaze so she decided to resort to other elements, cold seemed especially effective against them, turning the flexible roots into easily shatterable .

“They keep coming!” Zelliria stated the obvious as she fought the living plants.

“Don’t you mages have something for this occasion?” Asked Ferine.

“Do you want me to burn the forest!?” Rhys said with frustration, the forest was what was preventing from burning all of those roots to a crisp, she was convinced that they would only resist fire for so long until they ceded.

“I have an idea, remember what I did to Nicith?” Said Zelliria.

“Just do it!” Eyiel shouted, the roots only grew in number which left them no time for an explanation.

Zelliria ordered her companions to jump once she gave a signal, she took out her lute and started to play something with surprising calmness for the situation, but she gave the signal her companions were waiting for sooner than everyone even expected it.

On the brief second they were in the air the floor below them collapsed, just like Zelliria had done with Nicith’s tree she had done it now with the floor from which the roots were emerging.

“So, was that it?” Asked Eyiel after a brief silence during which no more roots emerged from the floor.

“So it seems” Replied Ann as she sheathed her sword.

Apparently destroying the floor was a good way to get rid of the roots which didn’t attacked them again. But as uneventful as everything felt they still felt something, like someone was just staring at them from the woods, it was only a feeling until what was watching them revealed itself.

“It seems I’ll have to take care of you by myself” Said a feminine voice that followed the sound of steps on the dry leaves of the forest floor.

What they were seeing they was a dryad, but it didn’t looked like they expected it to do, she had skin as dark as the wood of the forest trees and hair red as autumn leaves that matched her eyes. She was dressed with a mantle of dark green leaves but walked on the forest barefoot.

“I’m guessing you’re the one behind all of those attacks” Eyiel said as she pointed her axe towards the dryad.

“Safe assumption” The dryad replied.

Again the adventurers were attacked by the forest itself while the dryad disappeared among the trees, leaving them to pointlessly fight the tree branches attacking them.

Zelliria was the one to fall first, the branches wrapped themselves around her waist and pinned her to the floor, Eyiel slashed through the branch with her axe, soaking the blade with orange sap. But that was far from their only problem, Ann was stuggling to get a hold of her sword against the branches that were trying to take it away from her and Eyiel had to save herself before she could help Ann.

“You said you could burn the forest!?” Asked Ann.

“Its too dangerous! We could burn with it!” Rhys replied nervously.

“Its either that or be defeated!” Ann shouted.

Rhys prepared to set the forest ablaze, she extended her open hands forward with only her thumbs touching, she could already feel the heat at the tip of her fingers when suddenly tree branches wrapped themselves tightly around her hands and then dragged her towards the trees.

“Mpghgh!” Rhys screamed as vines wrapped themselves around her mouth, effectively gagging her.

Rhys was dragged against a tree and then was pinned to it by vines that ran all over her torso and wrapped her tightly, her hands were pulled over her head as far as possible, she could do nothing but struggle.

“Rhys!” Eyiel jumped to Rhys aid but in doing so she left herself exposed to an attack, Ann tried to help her but the vines and branches were quicker and wrapped Eyiel below her breasts, pinning her arms to her sides.

Eyiel struggled fiercely but the vines kept wrapping her ever more tightly, even when she saw the plants ceding to her strength more came to their aid to keep holding Eyiel in place. Eventually more came to warp her feet together and making her fall to the floor, only being able to see Rhys struggling to get free in front of her.

With them out of the way the rest of the adventurers fell like dominoes, Liel had her ankles grabbed by roots emerging from below her and Ferine and Zelliria fell trying to help her. After a few second the three of them were tightly wrapped by vines, roots and branches.

Liel was pinned to the floor by her ankles and knees with her hands tied in front of her by roots that pulled them to the floor. The dryad was careful with her and wrapped vines around her head over her mouth to keep her from using magic.

Ferine and Zelliria were tightly pinned to trees by vines and branches that ran around her bodies so tightly that forced their arms behind their backs, like she had done with Rhys and Liel the dryad used vines to gag Zelliria, vines which she was fiercely biting to get free of but to little effect.

“It’s pointless to keep fighting now” Said the Dryad.

Ann was standing in the middle of her bound friends, Eyiel and Ferine, who unlike the other three could talk, were pleading for her not to surrender, to not let that dryad win but they were quickly silenced in the same way their friends were, by vines that wrapped themselves around their heads and over their mouths.

The plants that held the adventurers captive had fell limp, left in their natural state but still tightly wrapped around the adventurers. Being wrapped by regular plants was no better than being wrapped by animated ones but, it was for Eyiel. The vines and branches no longer fighting against her meant that she had a chance of breaking free, but it still wouldn’t be easy, especially if she had to do it stealthily.

“Mpghghg!” Was all that could be made out of her friends screams by Ann.

“Your friends are so problematic” Said the dryad as she looked at her bound preys “Once I have you I’ll make sure to spend some time with them before I turn you all over to the Dark elves”

“Why are you working with them?” Asked Ann, trying to make time so she could think of something to do “Aren’t you supposed to defend the forest?”

“Well I think getting rid of the elf who said she was going to burn the forest is a pretty good way of defending it” The dryad spoke as she walked up to the tree Rhys was wrapped to.

The dryad turned back to look at Ann, expecting to see her surrendered on her knees, but she was me by the cold steel of Ann’s sword piercing her body, the dryad felt her body become weaker as Ann drove her sword deeper into her chest.

But before anyone could celebrate and against what everyone expected the Dryad grabbed Ann, which made Ann’s sword pierce completely though her but also allowed her to grab Ann and latch to her with vines.

Ann tried to walk back, to escape the dryad’s strong grip but she found it imposible, her hug was far stronger than she thought and with her arms pinned like she had them there was little she could to to escape. Then the dryad started walking back, she was walking towards the cliff at the edge the river.

“What are you doing!?” Ann panicked as she tried to pin her feet to the ground only to see how she was still being dragged towards the cliff. “You’re going to kill us!”

All of Ann’s friends struggled fiercely against the restraints holding them, seeing Ann being taken away from them while they couldn’t do anything about was as enraging as it was frustrating.

“Mpghgh!” They all screamed as they saw Ann fall off the cliff with the dryad.

Just then Eyiel managed to break free. After tearing apart the wood restraints that held her she immediately rushed to the edge of the cliff, but she was only met with the sight of water running through the river, Ann was nowhere to be found.

Eyiel turned back, loosing Ann was certainly something but she had to focus on those who she could save, but she was met by the worst of sights. The three assassins were there, and Nemabra was holding a dagger against Rhys’ neck, the eyes of the bound elf were filled with fear.

“You know how it is Amazon” Nemabra said as she pulled Rhys’ head up by her hair, exposing her neck to the cold steel of her dagger “Do anything funny and she pays the price”

Wow, the fight in the forest was marvelous! I wonder what happened to Ann? The fight reminded me the dwarfs fighting in "The desolation of Smaug"! Good work!

First of all I want to thank [mention]Caesar73[/mention], [mention]Mineira1986[/mention] and [mention]TimChimp[/mention] for the ideas they gave me when writting this chapter, I hope you enjoy it! The ideas used are a mix of everyone's but I'll keep the unused ones for the future.

Chapter 48: Captives of the Dark Elves

“Well well well” Said Anizaga as she was met with the sight of the captured adventurers “What do we have here?”

None of the adventurers replied, it wasn’t like they could, they were all gagged with thick clothes tied behind their heads and clenched between their teeth. And of course, tied up. They had their hands tied behind their backs with rope, her arms pinned to her sides by rope running below their breasts and her knees tied together to keep them from running away.

Although the bindings were not the most strict they had been in, Ferine, Zelliria and Eyiel who were the ones who trusted their ability to escape didn’t tried it. Because in their heads even if they did what would they do next? They would be unarmed against their captors who would still be in possession of Rhys and Liel. Being able to escape but unwilling to do so because they were outmatched was far beyond frustrating.

“I should I introduce myself before we get started” Anizaga said as she crossed her legs “I am Anizaga Despath, I am a dark elf matriarch and I have something very important to do in this forest, something you have been getting in the way of”

Finally being in front of the woman that had given her so much trouble answered some questions but it created far more. An needless to say none of the adventurers had imagined coming face to face with her in their current position. They had been taken to an abandoned fortress and they were standing in the hall of the building, with the dark elf matriarch sitting on a stone throne, the three assassins that captured them at her side and many dark elves in heavy armor behind the colonnades at the sides of the big room.

Anizaga rose from her throne to take a closer look at her newly captured prisoners. She first approached Ferine who was standing in the middle, walking around her and inspecting her bonds.

“So, you must be Ferine” Said Anizaga as she moved in front of the scout “I’ve been told that you’re very good at escaping so I’ll make sure to give you a challenge”

Ferine angrily glared at her captor, she could have already escaped yet she hadn't and now she was being mocked and probably be put in stricter restraints, she didn’t knew whether to regret not escaping or not.

“Same goes for you, Zelliria” Said Anizaga as she walked up to the half elf “You were our first objective for reasons you may know, at first I was angry at you for seeking help but now that I see who is helping you I think I may actually enjoy it”

Zelliria was confused to say the least, what was that dark elf talking about? What did she meant by saying that she was her first objective?

“Oh you really don’t know?” Asked Anizaga in an annoying tone “I thought you were smarter than that, but don’t worry, we’ll have enough time together for me to explain everything to you”

Anizaga rapidly moved towards Liel, grabbed her by her arms and caressed her face in front of Zelliria who looked at the scene with pure rage.

“So you two are still close I see” Anizaga pointed out after seeing Zelliria’s reaction to what she did to Liel “That’ll be interesting”

Next Anizaga walked towards Eyiel, but before that she ordered Nemabra to hold Rhys. Anizaga knew that Rhys was, for the time being, the best way to keep Eyiel in check.

“And you must be the amazon, Eyiel” Said Anizaga as she looked up to Eyiel’s face, even for someone as tall as her she still had to look up to see Eyiel in the eyes “I must say I doubted all of what I was told about you, but, now that I see you in person I no longer do”

Without warning Anizaga started to grope Eyiel, she ran her hands around her thick muscular thighs and over her toned hard abdomen, confirming everything that she had been told about her strength. Eyiel tried to ignore it but Anizaga’s touch was hard to ignore.

“For someone as strong as you being made a prisoner must definitively be frustrating” Anizaga said without stopping what she was doing to Eyiel “And you know, not being able to stop whatever we do to her” Anizaga grabbed Eyiel’s face by the jaw and made her look at Rhys.

Even though Rhys was not being harmed just seeing her like she was, tied up, with a dagger against her neck and with fear in her eyes enraged Eyiel. It enraged her enough to get her to break free of the ropes, tearing her hand restraint apart and then the chest and knee ones even more easily than she thought she could, it was like rage making her stronger. As soon as she untied herself she removed her gag and rushed towards Rhys, but before she could get too close she was stopped.

“Calm down amazon” Anizaga said calmly as she stepped back “I must say that what you did was an impressive feat but before you try anything else I’d like to remind you of the position you’re in”

Eyiel looked around and without knowing it she did exactly what Anizaga asked her to do, she was reminded by her surroundings of the situation she was in. She and her friends had spears pointed at them from all directions and Rhys who was right in front of her had the blade of a dagger against her neck.

Seeing that the amazon realized how pointless what she was doing was, she was angry but she would rather be angry than have her friends harmed because of her. Eyiel spat on the floor and put her hands above her head while she looked angrily at Anizaga.

“That’s a good girl” Anizaga replied to Eyiel’s gesture “Now put your hands behind your back”

Eyiel looked defiantly at the matriarch and remained still, if they wanted to make her humiliate herself she would not allow them to get further than the point they had already taken her too.

“I said, put your hands behind your back” Anizaga repeated “It was an order”

“Make me” Eyiel dared.

For the first time since they had seen her Anizaga changed her calm expression to one of anger, she clearly didn’t liked being defied, especially by one of her prisoners.

“Last chance” Scowled Anizaga.

“Mpghgh” Rhys tried to beg for Eyiel to do it, she didn’t wanted to know what would happen to her if she didn’t obeyed.

Seeing and hearing Rhys Eyiel ended up reluctantly obeying, she crossed her wrists behind her back as she closed her eyes to avoid seeing what was about to happen to her. Against what she and everyone expected she was struck behind her knees by some guards which made her fall on her knees, only then they started to restrain Eyiel.

“That was for disobeying me once” Anizaga looked down on Eyiel as she spoke.

Before Eyiel could reply she was gagged again in the exact same manner she was gagged before, she could only angrily look at Anizaga like she had been doing since she was brought before her.

“Put them to sleep and take them to the dungeons!” Ordered Anizaga.

The dark elves used the bags filled with the so called dream beans which smell was becoming too familiar for some of the adventurers, they put the bags against their noses and mouths to force them to fall asleep. Even though some of them tried to hold their breath it was of no use, they would eventually fall and the dark elves wouldn’t be fooled by them pretending to fall asleep.

“What now lady Anizaga?” Asked Nemabra once she, her three companions and her boss were the only people in the room.

“You may rest for a while now, but you aren’t allowed to leave yet” The matriarch replied.

Valuith was about to step in but Ariesix stopped her in time before Anizaga could get offended and take her anger out on her.

“Any complaints?” Anizaga asked, she had clearly noticed the anger fueled action of Valuith but thankfully was pretending to have not.

“None, lady Anizaga” Nemabra said, angry but knowing that she had no choice.

“Good, I’ll rest too, once the prisoners wake up I’ll need all of my energy” Anizaga said as she left the room.

The fortress hall was left lonely with only the three mercenaries in it, standing in the middle of massive columns their presence almost felt small and the silence that ruled the room was oppressive.

“Why can’t we leave!?” Asked Valuith “Haven’t we done enough!?”

“So it seems” Replied Nemabra as she rested against a column.

The nonchalant tone of the assassin got her two companions to angrily glare at her, they were angry at their situation and they weren’t subtle about it.

“Don’t give me that look, I am as angry as you but let’s be real, she probably just wants to have us around in case some of those girls escape, once she’s done with them she’ll probably pay us and let us go” Replied Nemabra.

“Don’t you think that maybe she still wants us here to punish us for...” Ariesix spoke but Nemabra interrupted her.

“Yes, maybe she’s crazy enough to scold us for not bringing the dead body of that knight lady but lets not think about that!” Nemabra spoke with frustration, now her companions saw that she truly was angry “We really need that money after all”





When Liel woke up she found herself sitting on a chair in the middle of a cell, the room was dark, lacking windows to the outside with only a small, now closed window in the door in front of her. But the lighting provided by the torches was enough for her to see what was already obvious, she was tied to the chair.

With her hands crossed behind her back, her chest, waist and lap pinned to the chair and her ankles tied to the front legs of the chair she was surprised that nothing else had been used to restrain her, as far as she knew the dark elves took great pleasure in restraining her victims.

Her bondage may be simpler than expected but it was practical, Liel could not escape no matter how much she struggled, and using magic wasn’t an option because she was unsurprisingly gagged, with a ballgag behind her teeth and strapped behind her head, the gag made her droll and a lot of saliva had already spilled from her mouth when she woke up.

The door to her cell opened and the light from outside revealed a shapely feminine figure, Liel adjusted to the new light when the door was closed behind the newcomer and then she was able to recognize the figure, it was her captor Anizaga.

“At last you awake” Said Anizaga “I was about to pour cold water over your head to make you wake up”

“Mpghg?” Liel tried to ask something, her question was turned into an unintelligible mess by her gag.

“Don’t try to speak, It’ll only make you drool even more” Anizaga said as she saw the strip of saliva coming down from Liel’s mouth “You’ve already made enough of a mess”

Liel looked up to Anizaga, she must’ve looked very pathetic in her condition, tied up, gagged and drooling. She wondered what Zelliria would have done in her situation, she thought that she would have escaped but sadly, she was not her, and she would have to remain on the chair she was tied to for as long as Anizaga wanted her to be.

“I don’t have much to do with you, if Agatha hadn’t been captured I’d have let her take revenge on you but she wasn’t lucky with that” Anizaga said “According to what I have been told you are very problematic, that’s interesting, you certainly don’t look like you are”
By problematic Anizaga meant how much trouble she had caused to all of her attempts at capturing her and her and her group, from using magic on the first group of assassins she sent after them to rescuing them from Agatha.

“But now that I finally have you with me there’s something I want to tell you” Anizaga got closer to Liel’s ear and then whispered something that made the priestess skin crawl out of fear.

Liel looked in disbelief as Anizaga stood back up in front of her with a smug smile on her face and an evil look in her eyes, she couldn’t believe what she had been told.

“If you want to hear the full story why don’t you come with me?” Asked Anizaga “I’m sure Zelliria would want to hear about it too”
Anizaga then left the room, leaving Liel alone in the dark, still thinking about what Anizaga had just told her and still unable to believe it. Outside of the cell Anizaga talked to her trusted mercenaries, they had something to do with Liel.





Rhys woke up from a horrible nightmare in which Ann died and she and her friends were captured by dark elves, it was horrible but that wasn’t the worst part, the worst part was that she soon found out that it hadn’t been a dream.

Rhys found herself tightly tied to a wall, but she wasn’t tied with ropes or shackles, she was being restrained by living plants. A huge group of vines covered the wall she was tied to. The vines went from below her breasts down to her waist to pin her to the wall, her legs were wrapped from thighs to ankles extended and barely touching the floor and her arms were extended above her head bound together from elbows to wrist by vines that attached them to the walls by vines.

The surprise of waking up tied up, captured against her will made Rhys struggle fiercely, even though she wasn’t strong she fought harder that she ever had against the vines. But the fight was cut short when the vines tightened around her body, getting so tight around her chest that for a brief moment Rhys thought that she would be asphyxiated by them.

“Don’t struggle to much, they don’t like it” Said Anizaga as she emerged from the dark of a corner she was hidden in.

Seeing Anizaga walk towards her made Rhys realize something, she had not been gagged, and that gave her an idea. Rhys spoke in the language of the mages a spell that should would create a sound so loud that the plants would have to to at least easen their grip and that it would probably stun Anizaga. But surprisingly, nothing happened.

“What? Did you try something funny?” Asked Anizaga who had noticed exactly what Rhys tried to do.

“What did you do to me?” Rhys asked nervously after noticing how her magic hadn’t taken effect.

“Me? I didn’t do anything to you, at least not directly” Said Anizaga “Those plants, they did do a lot to you and your magic”

Rhys struggled against the vines that wrapped her but again she archived nothing other than making the plants wrap her tighter.

“Etherium vines I believe they are called” Anizaga said as the vines continued to wrap her “They are pretty good at making mage’s abilities useless”

Rhys ceased her struggles and let herself be wrapped by the vines. She already knew that fighting them was useless but now she was convincing herself that it was also dangerous, she didn’t knew how much the vine were going to squeeze her.

“Are you going to listen to me now?” Anizaga asked after seeing Rhys stop moving.

Rhys nodded in response.

“Well I’d like to begin by saying that as a dark elf it feels great to have a high elf as my prisoner” Anizaga began to speak “I was thinking of how should I send you back to your people tu humiliate them, maybe I should send you in chains and write something in our language over your body, maybe I shouldn’t even send you and I should just cut off your ears and send those”

Rhys was trying her best to hide her fear, to appear tough like Eyiel always did, but she was slowly failing. She was truly afraid of Anizaga and what she could do.

“Don’t worry, I probably won’t do that” Anizaga chuckled “If you’re wondering what I’ll do with you all I can tell you is that you’re going to be like that for a long time” She made a pause and then looked directly at Rhys “But you don’t mind do you?”

Anizaga walked closer to Rhys and started to touch the parts of her body that the vines hadn’t engulfed to restrain her. Rhys hated to be touched by her.

“I have been told about you by my subordinates, I know what you and that amazon were doing when they found you in that cabin” Anizaga whispered.

“Don’t bring her up” Rhys said with courage she thought she didn’t had.

“Don’t change the subject” Anizaga ordered “I know you like this, I know you like being tied up, maybe this was a fantasy of...”
“No!” Rhys shouted with the same courage as before “I would never enjoy this!”

“Are you sure?” Anizaga whispered in Rhys ear “I can get the vines to hold you in a different position if you want, get them wrap around some other parts of your body, then I could stay a little longer with you and...”

“Never!” Rhys shouted.

Anizaga glared at Rhys who feared what she was about to do but against all of her expectation the dark elf lustfully kissed her in the lips while tightly grabbing her face.

Once Anizaga was done kissing Rhys the vines were quick to wrap around her head, going between her teeth and effectively gagging her.

“If that’s all you have to say I have no reason to leave you ungagged” Said Anizaga as she walked away “And if you really are not enjoying this I recommend you start to do so, otherwise the long stay in here that you have ahead will be much worse than it already will be”

Anizaga left the room and the door was slammed behind her, Rhys was left trapped in the darkness, still wrapped by the vines, now even tighter than before, gagged and on top of that feeling how the plants restraining her drained her magic every second she stayed as their prisoner.


“Damm it!” Eyiel said to herself, she understood it but she was the only one, if anyone was hearing her the only thing they would have herd would be a muffled angry grunt.

Eyiel accompanied her angered grunts with strong struggles, tugging her restraints with her amazonian strength and twisting her body to no avail. She didn’t knew how long she had been in that cell, all she knew was that it already felt inescapable.

Many guards were used to restrain her, but what helped them the most was not their numbers, it was the threat of them having Eyiel’s friends at their mercy, especially having Rhys. The dark elves were definitively prepared for her, their equipment showed it.

Eyiel’s arms were engulfed by a leather armbinder from below her shoulders down to her hands which were completely encased in the leather. The device also attached to Eyiel’s chest by leather straps that went around her shoulders and above and below her breasts.. The armbinder itself made use of various straps to keep her strong arms together, one at her wrists and a pair at her elbows, one above and one below. If Eyiel’s back wasn’t so wide because of the muscle they would have probably made her elbows touch but since it wasn’t possible they just left them painfully close.

Of course that wasn’t the only restraint she was in, even she would be surprised it that was the case. Her tick muscular legs were wrapped by chains at her thighs and at her shins by strong leather straps above and below her knees and at her ankles. But the worst restraint her legs were in were the chains that kept her thighs pinned to her calves, effectively putting her in a frogtie. Those restraints were, along with the tip of the armbinder, attached to the floor she was forced to kneel on.

But the worst part of her bondage as a whole was not the armbidner that almost forced her elbows together, neither were the chains around her legs that forced her to remain kneeling. It was that she couldn’t see any of it! As soon as they came into the cell the guards escorting her putted a leather mask over her face that only allowed some of her blonde hair to show outside it, but before they did it they shoved a ballgag behind her teeth. Eyiel wasn’t a mage, most of the times they were captured she was not gagged, but this time she didn’t had that luck and she loathed being gagged.

In the absolute darkness she was in Eyiel was able to think of a lot, her physical condition allowed her to ignore the pain her restraints caused which meant that she could focus on other things. She would’ve liked to focus on escaping, on tearing her restraints apart and getting free but she realized that she couldn’t, whatever leather the restraints were made of was it was tough and the riveted chains were as tough if not tougher to break out of.

But even if Eyiel could distract herself from the pain she was in, she couldn’t distract herself from the situation she was in. Regardless of what she thought of it all came back to the same, she being a prisoner in a dark cell, unable to escape and forced to await a horrible fate. If it was her past she thought of it would come back to what her fellow amazons would think of her if they saw her like that.

“Maybe they were right, maybe I should have never left the island” Eyiel said to herself as she remembered her place of birth, she thought she had never liked it but now she was almost longing it.

And if she tried to think of her more closer past the same sadness overcame her. She was forced to think of how she was not the only prisoner in that dammed dungeon, her friends were there two, in some of the other dark cells they were suffering the same fate as her.

Eyiel was taken out of her thoughts by the sound of the heavy cell door dragging over the floor, Eyiel knew what was coming next so she straightened her back and looked up, even in her condition she still wanted to do the best to appear the least pathetic possible.

After hearing the loud steps of someone in heeled boots Eyiel felt the strap that held her hood in place was undone and then the mask was removed from her face. It took some time for Eyiel to adjust her eyes to the light of the torches but before her she saw who she was expecting, Anizaga.

“You are too pretty for me to cover your face while I talk to you” Anizaga said as she threw the mask aside “Definitely too pretty for a savage amazon”

Eyiel glared at Anizaga, she hated her. All the dark elf did in response was smile.

“You surely are wondering why I came here, I assume someone as dumb as you can’t comprehend my plans so I won’t bother you with that” Anizaga mocked Eyiel “I didn’t came here to explain anything to you, I’m just here to make you suffer”

The amazon raised her gaze towards Anizaga, she was expecting her to want her to suffer so she wasn’t at all surprised, she just wondered what else this evil woman planned to put her through.

“As you surely know I could torture you all I want and you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, tied up like you are all you would be able to do would be moan through that gag”

“Mpgggg” Eyiel angrily grunted, what angered her the most was that Anizaga was right.

“I assume it is very frustrating to be in your position, so strong yet so helpless, all that muscle for nothing” Anizaga said as she put herself behind Eyiel and ran her hands through her bound arms “But that’s all the torture you’ll get, I’ll waste no time trying to break you, no when I have all of your friends to work with”

“Mpghg!” Eyiel grunted as she struggle as fiercely as she could.

“That small elf girl is a good place to start don’t you think?” Anizaga asked just to anger Eyiel even more “I’ve been told that you two are pretty close, so i thought that you’d appreciate if I told you what I have planned for her”

Despite all of Eyiel’s struggles Anizaga managed to hug her from behind and get close enough to her ear to tell her everything that she wanted to do with Rhys. Eyiel hated every second of it.

“But that’s as much as I’ll tell you” Anizaga concluded as she stood up “Next time you see her It’ll be too late to stop me”

Eyiel struggled with all of her strength as she saw the door closing in front of her, but she stopped once it was it was fully closed and she became locked up again. Once she was alone in the cell again Eyiel looked down as she held back her tears, she remembered what she had told Rhys, she had told her that she would be there to save her, then she looked down at her bound body, she had no way of saving her.





Ferine had, like all of her fellow captives, a cell of her own and apparently restraints of her own, she couldn’t imagine her friends being tied like she was, the dark elves appeared to have taken special care of her.

She had inspected her bonds thoroughly and despite the blindfold over her eyes she had a good idea of how she was tied, and she didn’t liked it. Not only because it was uncomfortable and humiliating but because she was slowly convincing herself that she couldn’t escape.

The cell Ferine was in had a kneeling stool and she was tied to it, forced to kneel on it. Her arms were thoroughly bound, her elbows were touching and tied together parallel to each other like her wrists. and her arms were pinned to her chest by ropes running above and below her breasts.

Her legs were bound too of course, tied together, the posture the ropes forced on her made her remain kneeling on the stool, and the strong bindings around her ankles was tightly tied to the one around her wrists, forcing her to remain upright while kneeling, a strange sort of kneeling hogtie.

But the cherry on top of her bondage wasn’t the strict posture nor the copious amount of rope that was used in all of body, it was a simple yet effective restraint that made her as angry as it made her helpless. Her thumbs had been tied together, that simple detail had made her unable to reach any knot, it didn’t mattered if she managed to locate the knot by struggling, she’d never reach her and even if she did, what was she supposed to do with her thumbs tied together?

The sound of the cell door being opened alerted Ferine and made her cease her struggles, at least for a while. She heard loud steps encircling her and after a few seconds when the steps stopped her blindfold was removed.

“I was expecting to see you” Ferine said as she saw Anizaga standing in front of her, surprisingly she was not gagged.

“I was told that you were cocky, what a lovely type of person to tie” Said Anizaga “Enjoying your bondage so far?”

“Not particularly” Said Ferine as she idly struggled.

“I bet that has something to do with being unable to escape” Anizaga said as she grabbed Ferine by her roped arms “It is amazing how helpless an escape artist becomes when you simply tie a rope around her fingers don’t you think?”

“I am not helpless” Ferine replied as she glared at Anizaga.

“Oh really?” Anizaga asked mockingly “You seem quite helpless”

Ferine kept glaring at Anizaga but she didn’t said anything else, she knew that sadly Anizaga was, hopefully just for the time being, wrong, and she was indeed helpless.

“What are you going to do to us?” Asked Ferine “Why are you even doing this?”

“You’d be surprised to hear that I don’t really know, that’s why I am taking the time to visit all of you” Anizaga explained “I have already seen some of your friends, they weren’t much fun, I don’t want to waste time breaking the amazon and the elf girl wasn’t too fun to talk to, regarding the other two, well, lets say I have more important matters I want to talk with them about”

“Then what do you think you’re going to do with me so far?” Ferine asked with her characteristic cockiness “Let me guess, you want something from me?”

“I see you have good intuition” Anizaga complimented, but Ferine wouldn’t take even a compliment from her kindly “The question I have for you is...”

“I don’t know where Ann is, and even I knew I wouldn’t tell you”

“You’re intuition keeps surprising me” Anizaga commented “I wouldn’t want that to go to waste”

Although Ferine could guess what Anizaga meant she didn’t guessed out loud this time, she already knew her answer to anything Anizaga said to her so she would rather let her go own with whatever she had in mind.

“If you help me with this, I may award you” Anizaga tried to convince Ferine “You don’t seem comfortable in this ropes, if you help me I’ll free you and you would have as much privileges as those assassins I sent after you”

“Being freed but betraying my friends and leaving them behind? Thanks but no thanks, you won’t get me to mpghgh” Ferine was interrupted by a big ball being shoved inside her mouth.

“If that is what you have to say I don’t want to hear you” Anizaga said as she forced the cloth inside Ferine’s mouth “If you care so much about them maybe I don’t even have a place for you, that weakness has no place in here”

Anizaga strapped the belts of the black ballgag she had just shoved inside Ferine’s mouth. It was massive, barely fitting inside it so it had additional straps to hold itself to Ferine’s head, one below her chin and one that went up her face and hair and joined the other straps behind her head.

“This was from that witch we sent to get you, Agatha, I always wanted to use it myself and after she failed so miserably on her task it seems like I finally got the chance” Anizaga said as she looked at Ferine’s face, almost completely encircled by leather straps and with a ballgag so big inside her mouth that she was already drooling.

“Mpgghh” Ferine grunted as she glared at Anizaga.

“If you change your mind I may hear you” Anizaga said as she walked away “But after that pathetic excuse for resistance don’t expect much from me”





Wrapped by silk as she was Zelliria could only wonder how a material so soft was able to restrain her so strictly. The pieces of soft cloth employed to restrain her were effective, too effective. They kept her hands tied parallel to each other behind her back as well as her elbows and her arms pinned to her chest. Her legs were also tied together at the ankles, thighs and above and below the knees.

Silk was also the material that made out the gag clenched between her teeth as well as the blindfold that kept whatever was around her a mystery. Zelliria could feel that she was laying on a soft surface, maybe a bed, but she couldn’t see it.

Zelliria was also pinned to what she thought was a bed by even more soft silk restraints that encircled her body and were tied to the edges of the bed, forcing her to lay on her back with no way to even roll over to find a less uncomfortable position.

She would have tried something, she intuited that the knots wouldn’t be to hard to pick since it was silk that she was tied with, had it not been because of her hands which had been wrapped in silk, making her unable to use her fingers.

It happened without warning but when it happened Zelliria was sure about it, someone had crawled in the bed with her.

“Mpghg!” Zelliria grunted as she struggled.

“Hush, there’s no point in struggling” Said Anizaga with her recognizable voice “There, I’ll let you see me” She said as she removed the blindfold from over Zelliria’s eyes.

When Zelliria was finally able to see she was not surprised to see Anizaga, but she was surprised to see her like she saw her. Anizaga was in her underwear and nothing else, black leather pieces that covered all that shouldn’t be seen but showed everything else. Zelliria hated to admit it but her captor was gorgeous, in the skimp clothing she was in Anizaga was showing her soft purple skin, flat abdomen and her bare and shapely legs.

“You sure are wondering why I am presenting to you like this, It is because I want to show you that here I am as defenseless as you, I have no hidden weapons with me and I am alone with you in this room” Anizaga explained “Well, and also because I wanted you to see me like this”

“Mpgh” Zelliria sighed as she looked away.

“Look at me” Ordered Anizaga as she grabbed Zelliria’s face and forced her to look at her in the eyes. Anizaga put herself atop Zelliria, kneeling above her with her legs at her sides “I wanted to have you like this for so long that having you like this feels like a dream”

Anizaga leaned on top of Zelliria and caressed the half elf’s body. Unlike Zelliria who was absolutely hating her situation Anizaga appeared to be loving every second of it.

“You must be wondering what I am talking about, you probably don’t have any idea of who I am” Anizaga spoke without stopping to caress Zelliria’s body “Don’t worry, I understand, you were too young to remember”

“Mpghg!?” Zelliria asked in disbelief, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I know exactly what you’re thinking about and let me tell you are right” Anizaga stated “But to tell you the details I brought you some company that I am sure is as interested in you about it”

Anizaga clapped her hands and looked back at the door which opened immediately after. Anizaga then moved aside to allow Zelliria to see who was coming and she saw what she feared the most, it was Liel, tied up with her hands behind her back, gagged with a cloth between her teeth and being lead into the room by the three assassins.

“Mpghg!” Zelliria gasped as she saw the scene.

“Don’t worry, she’s not hurt, probably she’s just sad to see you like this” Anizaga told Zelliria “Tie her up and bring her here!”

Nemabra got to the task and tied Liel’s legs at the ankles and knees while Ariesix ran rope below her breasts to pin her arms to her chest. When Liel was completely bound with rope she was pushed onto the bed and Anizaga ordered the assassins to leave the room which they obeyed.

Anizaga undid the silk restraints that pinned Zelliria to the bed to make room for her new captive, once Zelliria was freed from that set of restraints Anizaga laid on the bed between Liel and Zelliria and grabbed them by the shoulders.

“Now that we’re finally reunited I can finally tell you the story I’ve wanted to tell you for so long” Anizaga began “Its the story about two girls that are great friends, but are also in possession of something I desperately desire...”

Really nice!

I love Anizaga, it's such a villain. I absolutely love how she tease each of her captives, each one with a particular treatment (I especially enjoyed how she mocked the amazon).

Looking forward to the next chapter!

This was a great chapter! The detailed descriptions, the way the villainess in chief taunted her victims Great. Someone I do sorely miss What fate might have be fallen Ann? This tale is so imaginative.[mention]banshee[/mention] you created a truly fascinating world here!

Awesome chapter! I liked every little pat of it, from seeing the fate of each of the adventurers to getting to know the villans better. I'm glad that you have used some of my ideas too!

Thanks to [mention]Caesar73[/mention] [mention]Mineira1986[/mention] and [mention]TimChimp[/mention] for the kind comments , I'm glad that you enjoyed the previous chapter. If you're interested in what happenst to Ann you can read this chapter.

Chapter 49: The Sword of the Ancients


Anizaga’s story kept going but by the point she was at it was clear that she was not telling a mere story, she was telling something bigger and far more sinister. It was clear that those two girls the story was about were, of course Liel and Zelliria, her current audience.

What those girls were in possession of was the map to the temple of Belegoch, that dammed map that had brought them some much trouble turned out to originally be in possession of Liel’s family, and that was why the dark elves attacked her house, they wanted it. Zelliria didn’t knew if she should regret or be happy about taking the map with her that night, maybe if she hadn’t done that they wouldn’t be in the position they were in.

With grief Zelliria and Liel listened to Anizaga tell her version of the burning of Liel’s house, it was something they didn’t liked to remember but they had never imagined how painful it would be to be reminded of it by someone like Anizaga.

“I regret nothing about that, maybe if you had asked me about it in the past I’d have said that I regret not killing you two, but after this I can proudly say that I’m glad that I left you two alive” Anizaga said as she hugged her prisoners.

“Mpghghg!” Zelliria complained as she struggled to get free of Anizaga’s hug.

Liel was too shocked to struggle, she was too shocked to even make noise through her gag.

Anizaga looked up to the window above the bed and then rose from the bed and looked down at her captives.

“Sadly I have to leave now, but before that I want to do something” Anizaga stood over Zelliria, kneeling above her with her knees at her sides “I hope you don’t mind, but I don’t care if you do”

Anizaga bowed forward and kissed Zelliria on her gagged lips. It was easy to tell that Anizaga was enjoying it a lot but for Zelliria it was the least passionate kiss of her life, even if she didn’t struggled she remained as still and cold as a statue while Anizaga kissed her.

“I see that you don’t really care about it” Said Anizaga “But maybe you’ll care if I do this”

With a swift movement Anizaga laid herself above Liel like she had just done with Zelliria, and that got a reaction out of the half elf just like Anizaga wanted.

“Mpghghg!” Zelliria moaned as she struggled against her restraints, if she wasn’t tied up she would lash out at Anizaga but she could do nothing against the restraint she was in. The soft silky scarfs around her body made her unable to defend her friend.

“Oh don’t worry” Anizaga said as she pinned Liel, who was also struggling, to the bed “It wont hurt”

Anizaga bowed forward, ready to forcefully kiss Liel like she had kissed Zelliria but she stopped once her lips and Liel’s were about to touch.
“That’s it, sorry but you’re not really my type” Anizaga said as she let go of Liel and left the bed “I just did that to mess with you Zelliria, to let you know that if I wanted to I’d have kissed her and you wouldn’t have been able to stop me” She made a pause and smiled at the angry expression on Zelliria’s face “Feels bad doesn’t it?”

Anizaga got dressed in front of her prisoners, she put on her dark dress and her ceremonial leather armor as well as her spiked crown. She then left the room, leaving the two bound friends alone.


Now free of duties the three assassins were relaxing on the main hall of the fortress, talking about what they planned to do with the reward Anizaga was supposed to give them as payment. It was then when Anizaga entered the room, but she didn’t appeared to be carrying any payment with her, and she seemed angry. The assassins knew why that was the case, they though Anizaga had ignored it, didn’t cared or didn’t noticed, but apparently they weren’t so lucky.

“So....” Nemabra broke the silence as she pretended to be oblivious to something obvious “Do you think we’ve earned our payment by now?”

“You think I’m blind or stupid?” Anizaga replied angrily.

Nemabra as well as her companions realized that she had committed a mistake and stepped back, trying to signal Anizaga that they knew that they were wrong.

“What is the problem your majesty?” Asked Nemabra expecting her flattery to help appease Anizaga, but it wasn’t doing it.

“So you think I’m stupid...” Anizaga muttered “I’d love to give you the punishment you deserve for what you did now, but sadly I have no time, bring that dammed knight with me before I regret hiring you!”

“But your majesty she died, we saw it!” Nemabra argued.

“If that’s so bring me her corpse”

“Why do you even need her!?” Asked Nemabra loosing her patience “Pretty sure one of the five we already brought you has the map you want, why do you want us to find a corpse!”

Anizaga lost her patience too, one of her servants raising her voice at her was enraging and she lashed out at him, slapping her face so harshly that the bounty hunter almost fell to the floor.

“I don’t pay you to ask questions” Anizaga stated coldly “Now get to work and bring her here!”


Ann woke up gasping and extremely nervous, although she couldn’t remember why, she was altered enough to reach for her sword as soon as she woke up, but the weapon was nowhere to be found. Ann also tried to get up but she found it difficult, apparently falling on water from so high had been almost as harsh as falling on land.

Just to make things worse Ann saw something emerge from the water in front of her, slowly revealing itself as it came out of the water. Had she not been laying on back she would have stood up and run, but she doubted that even if she did it she would be able to escape in her condition.

“Calm down please! I am not here to hurt you!” A familiar voice said as a head emerged from the water.

Ann knew that she shouldn’t trust anyone in her current situation, but even if she didn’t she couldn’t do much, the dagger that hung at her hips was more of a tool than a weapon that could help her.

“Who are you? What are you?” Asked Ann not any less stressed than before.

“I am Scillia! The dryad that...” The dryad said as she came out of the water.

“That tried to kill me? How’s that supposed to make me feel better?” Asked Ann.

“But I am not the same! You saved me! That’s why I tried to save you!

“Save me!?” Ann asked with indignation “How was that saving me!?, You made me fall off a cliff and now I don’t know where my friends are! They probably think that I’m dead!”

“Please calm down! I can explain everything”

Ann looked away with disgust, as much as she hated it she could do nothing other than hearing whatever this dryad had to say to her.
“I was cursed by the dark elves, that’s why I fought you, It was not me but I am still sorry for that” The dryad fully emerged from the water and showed herself “Look at me, even my aspect has changed!”

Looking at the dryad Ann could tell that at least that was true, her wooden skin now was the color of normal brown wood, her hair was green and so were her eyes, but Ann knew that appearances were deceiving so just that wouldn’t make her trust her.

“And why are you no longer cursed?” Just because you have changed colors.

“The curse was broken when you stabbed me, on that instant I immediately knew about all of the horrible things that I had done and I wanted to amend it, but I had few strength left in me to save all of you so I could only save us” Scillia explained.

“Save us? Save us from what!?” Ann asked angrily and in disbelief.

“The dark elves were already on the move to get you and your friends...” Scillia awkwardly explained, knowing that what she was saying could bring no good reactions from Ann.

“You made me abandon them!” Ann angrily shouted.

“It was the only thing I could do to save you! If I left you alone you’d have ended up like them!” Shouted Scillia, getting angry herself.

“What happened to them!?” Ann asked worriedly, caring much more about that than anything else.

“The dark elves captured them...” Scillia said knowing what to expect from Ann.

“Give me back my sword and get out of my sight” Ann demanded trying her best to contain her anger.

“But...”

“Do it” Ann demanded again “Or I’ll consider that you don’t really want to help me”

Scillia handed Ann her wet sword from below the river shore and Ann took it back without saying anything.

“This is a great mistake you are committing Ann” Scillia said worriedly as Ann walked away from her.

There was no response.

Ann walked through the forest, not knowing where she was exactly going but being sure that eventually she had to reach the place where the dark elves had her friends in. Although she didn’t wanted to admit it, deep within her Ann would’ve liked to ask the dryad at least where her friends where, if she had done that she wouldn’t have been so lost.

Eventually Ann reached the place they had been attacked by the dryad and then captured by the dark elves, investigating the scene Ann found footsteps imprinted on the mud and started to follow them. She counted them and they were eight pairs, so at least she had the comfort of knowing that they friends were alive and the dryad had not lied to her.

Knowing that her friends were alive wasn’t much of a relief though, Ann didn’t knew what being made captive by the dark elves meant, but something told her that it wasn’t good, and that it wasn’t something she wanted her friends to go through. Ann tried not to think about it but it was hard, she didn’t knew why but her mind kept haunting her with thoughts about her friends.

Ann followed the tracks to a clear in the forest, there the footsteps got confusing because of the mud and fallen leaves on the floor and the fact that night was falling didn’t helped. Ann looked for anything that could tell her where her friends were taken to, but she was interrupted by the last thing she wanted to hear.

“Come on, do it” Ann dared after she heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed behind her.

“I can’t do that” Someone replied behind Ann.

“I guess that you want me alive then” Said Ann “Can’t you at least spare me the shame of being captured?”

“Maybe if you do something for me”

Surprised by what she heard Ann turned back with little regard for the sword being pointed at her and found out that it was Valuith behind her, just like she expected after she heard what she said.

“You want to fight me again?” Asked Ann.

Valuith nodded.

“And if I win...”

“I’ll let you go” Valuith said very seriously.

The way Valuith spoke was enough to make Ann get ready to grab her sword, if she was going to fight she’ll have to give everything because everything will be at stake in the battle.

“You found her great!” Spoke Nemabra as she came out of the bushes.

“We thought you got lost, but hey if you found her it doesn’t matter” Added Ariesix who came behind her.

“But I must say that I am very surprised by she being alive, I’d like to hear how she survived that fall” Nemabra said.

Valuith looked disappointed and the grip on her sword became slightly shaky, but she didn’t said anything to Ann or her friends.

“Now put your hands behind your back lady and stay calm, I know how our relationship has been but we really don’t want to hurt you” Nemabra said as she approached Ann and Valuith.

Ann didn’t knew what to do, she was about to be captured and she definitely didn’t wanted that but neither did she wanted to die no matter what she had previously said. In the end Ann sighed and conceded, crossing her hands behind her back and looking down in shame.

Next Nemabra tied Ann’s hands behind her back just like she had laid them for her, the dark elf then helped Ann sit on the floor with surprising generosity.

“There you go, nice and tight” Said Nemabra “Now lets get you to the boss and get over with this already”

“About that” Said Ariesix as she looked up “Its almost nighttime, I too want to be over with this but i would rather do so alive”

“What do you mean?” Asked Valuith.

“I mean that It’ll be easier for me to protect us if we don’t travel at night” Ariesix Replied.

“Just one more day then, who cares” Sighed Nemabra “Lets get started then”

“We should secure her a bit more before” Said Ariesix “I’ll lose it if she escapes right in front of our eyes”

“Well you heard her” Said Nemabra as she grabbed some more rope.

Ann could feel her only chance of escaping fading away as Nemabra tied more ropes around her, securing her ankles together before tying her to a tree with rope encircling her from below her breasts down to her waist.

Meanwhile the camp was prepared by Valuith, who set up a tent while Ariesix sat on the floor with her legs crossed, eyes closed and speaking in some language Ann didn’t understood. What Ariesix had done became known to Ann once she saw the camp being covered by a subtle dome of yellow light.

“This should keep whatever roams the forest at bay” Said Ariesix.

“Will it keep her in?” Asked Valuith as she looked at Ann.

“No, it only works keeping what’s outside the dome outside of it, but it doesn’t seem like we’ll need it to do so”

The three assassins laughed at Ann, it would truly be redundant if on top of her restraints they would also use magic to keep her in check.

After everything else was done the assassins lit a fire and sat around it to eat before falling asleep. Their food did not look appetizing but Nemabra was kind enough to offer some to Ann, the food looked like a cereal bar, but it was of strange purple color and didn’t appeared to be made of cereal if anything.

“Come on, don’t be picky” Said Nemabra as she brought the bar closer to Ann’s mouth “This may be your last good food before we get you to the fortress”

Ann couldn’t tell if Nemabara was trying to persuade her or intimidate her, but she was convinced to at least try the food she was being offered. Reluctantly she took a first bite and was surprised to find out that it was actually good.

“Surprised?” Asked Nemabra.

Ann nodded while she chewed the food.

“You can have it then, I wouldn’t like to deliver you with an empty stomach” Said Nemabra as she grabbed more food for herself “But I better not tell you what it is made of”

It felt weird for Ann to be fed by her captor, especially considering that her captor was none other than Nemabra, one of the women who had been behind her trail for so long that she thought she wanted her dead.

While she was being fed Ann noticed Valuith staring her, she seemed angry but she wasn’t sure if her anger was directed at her or her companions who interrupted what she wanted to be a duel.

“I’ll stay awake to watch out for her first, but before that you mind helping me with something?” Asked Nemabra.
Her companions replied affirmatively.

“Well its more like helping her but I think we should get her out of that armor” Nemabra explained.

“Really? Don’t you think you’re caring too much?” Asked Ariesix.

“Well I think we should at least show her some decency! We’re about to hand her to Anizaga of all people and we all know how bad that is” Nemabra said.

Valuith and Ariesix stared at Nemabra in silence.

“We all know how bad being made prisoner by Anizaga is, don’t you think we should at least allow her to sleep at least somewhat comfortably?”

“You win, I’ll help you with that” Ariesix conceded and Valuith followed.

Ann was completely untied and she removed her armor once he was able to, she wasn’t fool enough to see that as an opportunity to escape, she was against a tree and surrounded by her captors, not a good escape opportunity.

“Great, lets just tie her up again and you two can get some rest” Said Nemabra.

Ann was tied up again, he ankles tied together and her wrists tied crossed behind her back, considering how she had been getting tied lately the restraints she had been put in could be considered generous. Nemabra gave a bedroll to Ann and then Ariesix and Valuith went inside the tent, leaving Ann and Nemabra alone.

Getting comfortable in the bedroll was imposible for Ann, not only because she was tied up, that was actually the least of her concerns, what didn’t allowed her to sleep was the lingering thought of the capture of her friends, what were they being put through? She asked herself although she would rather not know the answer, she wanted desperately to save them but her thoughts always took her back to her current situation, tied up and at the mercy of the assassins.

“Can’t sleep?” Asked Nemabra.

“Of course I can’t!” Ann replied, ofended by Nemabra’s question.

“Sorry, maybe I can change your restraints if you promise to behave”

“Do you think that’s what I care about?” Ann replied as she rose from the bedroll and sat up “I can’t sleep because I know that my friends were captured and I can’t save them!”

“I am sorry to hear that” Sighed Nemabra “Sadly I can’t do anything about that”

The way Nemabra was acting was completely unexpected for Ann, she expected this capture to be her worst one so far, yet Nemabra was being extremely friendly towards her, definitely more friendly than Ann had expected her to be.

“Why are you acting so nice all of a sudden?” Ann asked.

Nemabra turned back to look at Ann, she had been facing away from her until then. She also wondered why she was being so nice to Ann, who was supposed to be her prisoner.

“I think it is because I feel bad for you” Nemabra guessed “At first I didn’t cared much about you and your friends, but after taking them with our boss and knowing what awaits them I can’t help but feel bad for all of you”

“My friends, what have they done to them!?” Ann asked, worried about knowing the answer.

“Don’t worry, they should be alive and unharmed” Nemabra saw disbelief in Ann’s eyes “It’s just that I don’t think that they deserve what’s happening to them”

“Yet you’re going to take me with them” Said Ann.

“I know, I know” Nemabra said knowing how all of her kindness seemed from her position “But sadly we don’t have much of a choice, we’re receiving a lot of money from this job and we really need it.”

Ann fell silent, she really had no way of getting out.

“Try to sleep now, like I said this will probably be the best sleep you’ll get in a long time” Said Nemabra.

Ann kept trying to fall asleep and eventually she succumbed to her tiredness. Nemabra looked ar Ann from the rock she was sitting on, she would have liked to release her but her discipline was stronger than her mercy, and she wouldn’t do that.

Eventually Nemabra left her position and was replaced by Valuith, they both shared a look while the change of positions was made. Valuith knew what Nemabra wanted to say but Nemabra knew that she wouldn’t obey whatever orders she gave her, so she remained silent.

Once Nemabra was inside the tent Valuith looked down at Ann, she was angry, years of her life had been leading up to this moment, she never thought it would come to be in the way that it was currently going but that didn’t matter, all that matter was that the moment had finally arrived.

But the moment still had to be made special, so Valuith decided to take care of that. She grabbed more rope and took advantage of Ann being asleep to change her position to one that she preferred. After untying Ann’s ankles she tied them crossed in front of her, forcing Ann to sit down with her legs crossed.

All of the movement made Ann slowly wake up, in her dreams she and her friends being captured was nothing that she even thought about, but as she slowly woke up she came back to the harsh reality. Being brought back from the perfect world of her dreams made Ann angry and she expressed it by struggling, but she was surprised to see that her position had been changed.

Ann noticed that she was sitting down with her ankles tied crossed in front of her but she noticed the worst part o her new position when she tried to look up and found out that she couldn’t do it. Her neck had been tied to her ankles, she had been put on a balltie so the only way she had to find out who had done this to her was to humiliatingly look up.

“And you finally wake up, good, this will take some time” Said Valuith as she noticed Ann’s struggles
.
Ann looked up to Valuith, it was hard and she could only imagine how powerless and subdued she must have seemed to Valuith who had her at her mercy in that humiliating position.

“Mpghg” Ann tried to speak but she noticed that she had been gagged with a thick cloth between her teeth and tied behind her head.
“I have always wanted to you like this, humiliated and utterly defeated, looking up at me, you can’t even imagine how much joy seeing you like this brings me” Valuith expressed “Until now I was the one in your position, so having you like this now feels like divine justice, but I’m getting way ahead of myself”

While Ann’s head filled itself with questions about all of what Valuith had just said Valuith sat down before Ann, taking out some of the strain of looking up out of her already cramped neck, which didn’t meant that looking in front of her wasn’t hard too for Ann.

“Remember that time I didn’t told you what my last family was? I don’t really care if you do but since I probably wont ever see you again i will tell you now”

Valuith said her family name loud and clear, Ann couldn’t believe what she was hearing for a second, but she had to listen, there was nothing else she could do.

“That’s right Ann, I am your sister, or half sister if you prefer, but the thing is, we’re from the same family and yet look at how different we are” Valuith Golbreisk explained “Your father was not always who he is now, when he was young had a child with a dark elf that he abandoned”

It was not hard for Ann to guess who that child was, she was staring at her.

“Despite being the daughter of a noble I had a life full of hardships, so when I found out that your father had another daughter that lived with the privileges that were always denied to me I immediately hated you” Valuith explained to the unbelieving Ann “Ever since then i wanted to prove to myself and your family that I am better than you, that I deserve everything you have”

Ann was still trying to process all that had just been said to her when her thoughts were interrupted by the rope tying her neck to her ankles being cut by Valuith, and before she could do anything else Valuith also released her feet and her hands from the rope.

“Grab your sword Ann Golbreisk, this night I prove myself worthy of your family” Said Valuith as she readied herself to fight.

“Do you think that by defeating me in a fight you’re going to achieve anything?” Ann asked after pulling out her gag “Think about this!”

“I’ve thought this long enough” Said Valuith “If you win I let you go and leave you alone forever, so you better fight with all you have”

“Don’t you think you’re asking too much from someone who you had tied up for hours!?”

“Life isn’t fair Ann, look at us, both daughter of the same man yet so drastically different” Valuith replied.

Ann was ready to fight when she noticed Valuith looking away from her, which made Ann turn back to look at whatever she was seeing and then she saw it, dozens of branches and roots wrapping themselves around the dome Ariesix had casted over the camp.

“If this is your idea I’m telling you that it wont work!” Said Valuith.

But just like if the plants had heard her they started to wrap themselves tighter around the dome to the point that cracks started to appear on the until then unseeingly unbreakable dome.

Ann was equally scared as Valuith, she also had no idea of what those plants were and what they wanted so the fear she felt when the dome crumbled was genuine, but after closing her eyes expecting the worse she felt nothing.

“Do you still want to do this alone Ann?” Asked Scillia as she emerged from the animated foliage.

Ann was relieved to know that she hadn’t been abandoned by the dryad, even after she had rejected her help.

“No!” Shouted Valuith as she tried to escape the vines wrapping her “This wasn’t supposed to be like this”

“Can I have a minute with her?” Ann asked lowly.

Scillia replied affirmatively.

“I am sorry about this, but I swear that I we will met again and solve all of our problems” Ann said as she knelt in front of Valuith, who was forced to kneel by the vines.

“It all was supposed to be solved now!” Shouted Valuith.

“I’m sorry but I don’t have time for that, I have friends that I have to save” Ann turned to look at the tent that was also being covered by Scillia’s vines and where Ariesix and Nemabra have been trapped “And you have friends too, maybe you should focus more on them than trying to get back at me for something I didn’t do”

Before Valuith could reply Scillia gagged her with vines and used, so the only response the half dark elf could give was a low, angered and muffled grunt.

Ann and Scillia walked away from the ravaged camp, Ann was ashamed of herself after being saved by Scillia even after she had rejected her help earlier, and since everything was at stake for her she decided to swallow her big knight pride and break the silence between them.
“I was wrong to reject you help earlier” Said Ann “I was blinded by my pride and anger...”

“Don’t worry about that” Scillia said Solemnly “You said you have friends to save didn’t you?”

Ann smiled, she was happy to know that Scillia wasn’t angry at her.

“And to help you with that I have brought you something” Scillia said as she grabbed something from her dress of leaves, it was a sheathed sword “I wanted to give you this earlier but... well, it doesn’t matter, you can have it now”

Ann grabbed the weapon with care and unsheathed, it was perfectly crafted with stainless steal and a golden hilt adorned with a big emerald.

“What you have in your hands Ann is one of the seven mythical swords of the ancients” Explained Scillia “A weapon that will be needed to save this forest from the threat that we’re about to face”

Have to reread that chapter again - to do it justice

Pretty intense - and a roller coaster for Ann. And Ann may now be able to safe her friends. Well done [mention]banshee[/mention]

Ohh, goodie, goodie.

I have been wanting to see Ann in that tie for a while. Restrictive and humiliating position. Not a brilliant move from Valuith to let her go.

Also, I loved the Anizaga's scene. I just love that villain!!

Good to see Ann again, especially when tied like that . It was kinda surprising for me to see that Nemabra wasn't that evil but it is a welcomed surpise.

Nothing too special in this chapter, just want to tell you that the next chapter will be the ending of the story so I hope you've enjoyed it so far.

Chapter 50: Battle on the Dark Fortress

Anizaga was grabbing the armrest of her throne with strength and her face showed frustration, she constantly looked in front of her expecting to see her three mercenaries bring Ann to her but that didn’t happened any time she looked.

She had asked everyone to leave the room once the frustration got to her mind, she didn’t wanted to be seen in that by anyone, especially by her servants.

When she didn’t looked to the gate in front her she looked to the window over her, searching for the moon in the clear night sky and watching it get higher and higher which only made her more nervous and more frustrated.

Eventually the time came when Anizaga’s frustration with her mercenaries was just to big to be ignored, if they had been there she would have sent them to the dungeons without thinking it twice but she couldn’t do that, she’d have to admit defeat, and she hated being forced to do so.

“Everyone to the forest, now” Stated Anizaga as she left the throne room “Bring the knight to me”

“But my lady... I thought you...” One of the guards had the audacity to ask.

Being glared at by Anizaga was enough for the guard to shut up and get going with the orders Anizaga had given them.

The noise of the guards hastily marching to their positions was interrupted by another louder noise, the sound of an impact against the outer walls of the fortress made everyone get silent and still for a minute.

“We’re being attacked!” Shouted an altered guard after rushing into the room.

Zelliria struggled against her silky restraints on the big bed she laid on with her childhood friend Liel, but she had made no progress so far, not even her gag had moved. Liel on her part hadn’t done much to escape, she was too sad and scared to do so and she had just laid still on the bad, facing away from her fried who she didn’t dared to look at.

Once Zelliria had tired herself too much from struggling she laid on her back to catch her breath, she realized that she wasn’t trying to escape smartly, she was just struggling expecting to get free without at real plan whatsoever, and it wasn’t working. She looked at her side and saw her friend Liel, still facing away from her, seeing her like that made her feel bad, she wanted to help her so desperately yet she was still restrained and unable to do so. But as much as she hated seeing Liel tied up and defeated like she was it was that what made her realize what she should do to escape.

“Mpgh mpghg!” Zelliria moaned through her gag expecting to catch Liel’s attention.

Liel ignored Zelliria, she didn’t wanted to be seen in her condition, at least not more that what was already being seen.

“”Mpghg!” Zelliria moaned again as she struggled to push Liel with her shoulder, a difficult task to do when she was so thoroughly tied up.

Zelliria realized that what she doing wasn’t working, in other circumstances she would have gotten mad at Liel but she just couldn’t get mad at her in the current situation, she decided to instead try another approach.

The half elf rolled over and laid back to back with Liel, letting her friend touch her hand which were wrapped in silk. At first Liel didn’t knew what she was touching but she quickly realized that the silky stumps that she had her hands on were Zelliria’s bound hands.

Liel thought that she knew what Zelliria was asking of her, but she wasn’t sure if she should do it, she was always too unsure of herself and now that they were both imprisoned together that insecurity was only greater. But Liel was reassured by Zelliria awkwardly grabbing her bound hands through the silk that wrapped hers.

After the encouragement from her friend Liel started to unwrap the silk around Zelliria’s hands, it was hard and it took long, and her nervousness only made it harder and take longer but eventually Zelliria’s hands were freed. The half elf cheered through her gag and Liel rolled over to look at her, with her hands freed Zelliria had should have no problem getting free of everything else and she knew it.

Aided by her great flexibility Zelliria undid most of her leg and chest restraints which allowed her to pass her hands under her feet to put them in front of her and in that way ungag herself.

“That was awesome, thanks for that” Said Zelliria after taking the gag out of her mouth “After we get out of this we will put that bitch in something far worse than what she put us in!”

Zelliria quickly got to work on the bindings around her wrists and she was free of them in no time, and as soon as she had her hands free she used them to release her friend from her restraints.

“Thank you” Said Liel after Zelliria removed her gag.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you” Zelliria replied “But enough of this, lets save the others shall we?”

Liel and Zelliria got out of the bed and searched for their weapons, but like they expected they were not in the room, Anizaga wasn’t stupid so they would have to get through whatever was between them and her friends unarmed.

But just when they had given up on finding their weapons Liel and Zelliria heard the door being opened, they expected some guards to be at the other side, that they could manage with their magic alone but they weren’t so lucky.

“You better give up now” Anizaga said as she slammed the door behind her “Do it and I may have mercy on you”

Liel hid behind Zelliria, she was scared and Zelliria was scared too, but she didn’t wanted Anizaga or Liel to see that.

“I was about to say the same” Zelliria said, afraid but sure of herself “Want to surrender Aniza...”

Before Zelliria could even finish her sentence Anizaga blasted them with a powerful spell of purple energy that they dodged just in time. Anizaga’s spell was so powerful that it destroyed the bed behind the two adventurers and made cracks appear un the stone wall that it hit.

“Perhaps that was too much for you, sorry” Anizaga said as the smoking cloud left by her spell dissipated “Remember, I don’t want to kill you, If I do I wouldn’t have such a lovely pair of prisoners”

Angered by Anizaga’s taunt Liel and Zelliria decided to fight the dark elf matriarch, as hopeless as it seemed they at least had the numerical advantage, as little and maybe meaningless as it was, it was something they’d have to trust in the fight ahead.





“You should have told me that you had their help from the beginning!” Ann said as she watched the assault put on the fortress from the distance.

“Centuries had passed without me talking to humans, excuse me if I don’t know how to do it properly” Scillia replied “And if I remember correctly, you admitted to be at fault for what happened at te river right?”

Ann ceded the point, it wasn’t the moment to rail against Scillia especially after all that she was doing to save her friends.

Scillia had found the elves that took the adventurers to the fortress to fulfill their initial plan that now seemed so distant. After being told of the situation by Scillia Zinfiel contacted the queen and after the exact location of the fortress was revealed entire armies of wood elves were being teleported to siege the fortress by the kingdom’s druids.

“We have breached their gate” Zinfiel said as she looked at the battlefield from the distance “There are very few of them, we estimate that we should have control of the forest in a matter of hours now”

“I need to go in” Ann interjected.

“You mean rush in through that gate?” Zinfiel asked.
“Yes, I have to save my friends”

Zinfiel doubted, even after the tumults relationship she had with Ann she would rather not send her i such a dangerous attack.

“I have a better idea” Said Scillia “The main gate is being attacked right now so it would be safe to assume that the upper floors are empty”

“Aside from maybe archers, yes” Replied Zinfiel.

Scillia arched her back downwards and seamlessly a pair of wings sprouted out of her back like if they were plants rapidly growing out of her back. They were made of leaves instead of feathers and were of enormous size, large enough to lift Scillia off the ground.

“They wont last for long so we better get going Ann” Said Scillia.

“Any objections to this?” Ann asked.

“No, I think we could actually use some help up there” Zinfiel replied “Just make sure to come back alive”

Once there was nothing else to discuss on ground Scillia grabbed Ann and flew towards the tower with her in her arms. Ann wondered how Scillia did that and why was she doing it now so she asked, it would take her a while to get to the fortress anyway.

“I can manipulate plants and since my body is made out of plants I can basically change my form” Scillia explained “But like I said, this wont last for long, flying is extremely tiring so we better get out of that fortress using the stairs”

After flying over the battlefield Scillia and Ann landed at the top of the tower fortress walked down the stairs, like they expected the upper floors were empty so Ann looked around for a place where her friends could be in and eventually she ran into a door that screamed for attention, tall and of dark wood with a golden frame with spider motifs it was easy to tell that whatever was at the other side of the room was important.

Ann and Scillia nodded at each other, knowing perfectly what to do despite not a word being spoken between them.

“Want to surrender now?” Was the first thing Ann and Scillia heard when they stealthily entered the room.

It was Anizaga, although Ann had never seen her it was easy to tell just by looking at her that she was someone of importance. The Dark elf matriarch was pinning a beaten Zelliria against the wall while Liel laid defeated below her feet.

Taking her by surprise Ann attacked Anizaga from behind, even though the dark elf’s hearing alerted her of Ann’s presence she was barely able to dodge her, she tried to block her attack with her staff but Ann but cut through it with ease.

“Take them out of here, I can take care of her!” Ann shouted as she kept fighting Anizaga, who was forced to draw out her sword to fight Ann.

Scillia was unsure about leaving Ann alone to fight Anizaga, she knew very well how powerful the matriarch was, but she also knew how powerful the sword she had given to Ann made her, so she decided to trust Ann to be able to fight Anizaga, at least for a while, and took Zelliria and Liel out of the room.

“I’ll heal you up, don’t worry” Said Scillia once she had the two adventurers far enough from Anizaga’s room. Scillia’s natural healing magic meant that Liel and Zelliria were were quickly completely restored from the fight with Anizaga.

“Where is Ann?” Asked Zelliria altered.

“She’s fighting Anizaga in her room” Scillia replied.

“We need to get her out of there, that room is a trap” Zelliria quickly got up and ran towards the room “That whole room is a trap!”
“A trap, What do you mean?” Asked Scillia as she ran behind Zelliria and Liel.

“No time to explain!”





“Again, where are my friends!?” Ann shouted as she kicked Anizaga against one wall.

“I get that you feel really powerful because of that sword, but you’re still far from the point where you can make demands” Anizaga replied with surprising cockiness for someone who was clearly loosing the fight.

“I pretty sure that I am” Ann said as she putted her sword near Anizaga’s throat “You have already lost, even if you somehow manage to defeat me your fortress will still be overrun by the wood elves”

“Maybe you’re right” Anizaga sighed “I admit defeat you can have this”

Anizaga took the map out of her dress and let it slowly fall to the floor, Ann felt insulted.

“Do you really think that’s what I want!?” Ann shouted as she touched Anizaga’s neck with the cold magic steel of her sword “Tell me where are my friends, now!”

“I am perfectly aware of it” Anizaga said with a smug smile on her face “I just needed time”

After Anizaga spoke the scriptures on the map began to glow with a purple light, Ann didn’t understood what was happening but she was smart enough to know that it wasn’t good for her, so she decided to thrust her sword forward.

But Ann was surprised to find out that Anizaga wasn’t affected at all by her attack, it was like thrusting thin air, then her image dissipated which left Ann extremely confused, she looked away expecting to see her standing elsewhere but she instead found out that everything that she was seeing was also dissipating and being replaced by pitch black.

Soon enough Ann stood alone in a vast void of pitch black coloration, it wasn’t dark, she could clearly see herself but other than that there was nothing else to see, just empty black void.

“What is this!?” Ann shouted to the void “What have you done to me?”

But there was no response from the void other than the most absolute of silence Ann had ever been met with.

Back at the fortress in Anizaga’s room Scillia, Zelliria and Liel finally arrived to the room, rushing inside hoping to see Ann, but they were met with an empty and destroyed room.

“What happened here? How is this room a trap?” Asked Scillia.

“It will take a while to explain” Said Zelliria as she clenched her fists out of anger.

“Don’t worry, we’ll have time to explain” Said Liel as she looked down the room’s window and saw the battle being already won by the wood elves.

“Then I’ll explain, after we rescue the others” Zelliria said as she left the room.


After hours of hearing an absolute racket outside everything has gotten quiet again, Ferine was thankful for that but if then she couldn’t sleep because of the noise now she couldn’t because of the question than lingered in her mind, what was that?

But even if that wasn’t the case Ferine still doubted that she could’ve fallen asleep in the position she was in. The strain on her thighs was already unbearable because of how long she had been kneeling for and she had drooled so much because of the ballgag that her mouth was beyond dry.

The door to her cell was opened, after all of what Ferine had heard she didn’t knew who would be at the other side but she never expected Zelliria to be the one to open that door.

“Well, isn’t this the great thief and escape artist Ferine?” Zellira said as she entered the room.
“Mpghg?” Ferine moaned, more confused than offended.

“Don’t worry silly, I am here to ge you out of this!” Zelliria said as she started to untie the ropes that tied Ferine’s body.
It took her a while, there were many ropes making sure Ferine remained imprisoned and judging by the fact that Ferine was still tied up Zelliria could tell that they had done a good job at it.

“Did you really had to leave this for last?” Asked Ferine as she took the ballgag out of her mouth.

“Not really, I just thought it looked good on you” Said Zelliria.

“Do you really think this is a good time for games? What if I had to tell you something?” Ferine asked calmly but notoriously offended.

“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have needed to tell me anything, the fortress is on our control now so we’re out of danger” Said Zelliria.

“What?”

“I’ll explain to you while we go get the others”
Fortress Dungeons: Eyiel’s Cell

The silence that followed the hours of noise outside her cell was interrupted by someone opening her door, Eyiel was able to see the outline of the figure entering her cell but she didn’t recognized her. It didn’t appeared to be a dark elf, but neither did she resembles someone that Eyiel knew.

“I am here to help you amazon” Said Scillia as she approached the strictly bound amazon.

While Eyiel tried to figure out who the woman who came to help her was Scillia tried to think of a way to get Eyiel out of her restraints, she couldn’t just untie her, she was tied with leather straps and chains which couldn’t simply be undone.

“Any idea of how to get you out of this?” Asked Scillia after ungagging Eyiel.

“Where is Rhys!?” Eyiel asked as soon as she had the ballgag out oe her mouth.

“The elf? She’s being taken care of one of your friends, you have nothing to worry about” Scillia replied.

Eyiel sighed, the thought of what had happened to Rhys hadn’t left her mind since she had been separated from her so hearing that she was alright was a great relief.

“I don’t know where the key to all of this is is” Eyiel said as she looked down at the excessive amount of restraints on her body. Now that she was out of danger she felt, in a strange way, proud about the fact that so many restraint had to be used to contain her.

“You seem a bit tied up” Said Ferine as she appeared on the cell’s door “Need help?”

In other circumstances Eyiel would've gotten angry at Ferine’s tease but now all she could do in reaction was smile, she was happy to see her.

Eyiel accepted the help and Ferine and Zelliria entered the room. For Zelliria it wasn’t hard to burst open most of the locks with magic While Ferine dealt with the straps and chains.

“Now we should see what’s happening with Liel, she hasn’t returned yet” Said Zelliria after they were finished untying Eyiel.

“Is she with Rhys?” Asked Eyiel.

“Yes why do you...”

“Where is she!?” Eyiel asked altered.

Eyiel ran towards the appointed direction and everyone else ran after her, with all that had happened to them Ferine and Zelliria had forgotten how close Rhys and Eyiel had become.





Liel opened the door and was met by darkness, the cell was only slightly illuminated by the light that entered once she opened the door, Liel created a small sphere of light with her magic and the light produced by it allowed her to see the entirety of the room.

An entire wall was covered by thick green vines and wrapped by them was Rhys, with her arms extended above her head completely covered by the plants, the vines also covered her legs completely, only leaving out her feet and held to her torso from below her breasts to her hips.

Rhys’ face was one of her few parts that hadn’t been covered by the plants, although some vines had wrapped above her mouth to gag her, and by looking at it Liel could tell that Rhys was unconscious.

Liel rushed towards the plants and tried to get Rhys out but the plants held to her with more strength than she thought possible
Suddenly Eyiel showed up in the cell, horrified by the scene in front of her she rushed towards Rhys, pushed Liel out of her way and started to rip the vines apart with ease until Rhys was freed.

Eyiel gave a huge sigh of relief when she noticed that Rhys was still breathing. Zelliria, Ferine and Scillia arrived a few moments later and were happy to see that Rhys had already been taken care of.

“Is she okay?” Asked Eyiel.

“These plants probably drained her energy after she was left without magic, but she should be okay after some rest” Scillia explained.

“I don’t think we have time to rest” Said Zelliria “Ann is still missing, remember?”

“And what are we going to do with her then?” Asked Eyiel as she held Rhys in her arms.

“She should have plenty of time to rest while we explain everything” Said Zelliria “Lets meet those wood elves shall we?”

After meeting with Zinfiel and other important wood elves they informed them of what had taken place in Anizaga’s room, how Anizaga had escaped alongside with Ann. Even though the wood elves seemed much more worried about finding Anizaga that still meant that they would help them find Ann, so it was a win for them.

While everyone went to investigate Anizaga’s room Liel decided to take Rhys with her to heal her because according to what Scillia said the plants had drained enough energy from her to put her to sleep for the whole day and more. Eyiel took Rhys with Liel to a separate room with Liel, there the priestess laid some candles and drew a series of patterns in the floor.

“What are you exactly doing?” Asked Eyiel as she watched what Liel was doing with intrigue.

“Restoring someone who’s energy has been drained is not as simple as healing them” Liel explained without stopping what she was doing “I could restore her using my own energy but that would only exhaust myself?”

“I think I’m not following you” Said Eyiel.

“What I am doing is a ritual so she can take energy from somewhere else” Liel said as she finished drawing the circle on the floor “Ann is able to restore people with much more ease but sadly she’s not here”

“I’m sure we’ll find her”

Liel ordered Eyiel to lay Rhys in the middle of the circle and stand aside which she did. Liel chanted a few words in the celestial language and the glyphs she had scripted on the floor started to glow. As soon as Liel stopped her chants in celestial the glyphs stopped glowing and the candles went out.

Rhys woke up, yawned and rubbed her eyes.

“What happened?” Rhys yawned as she rubber her eyes.

Eyiel didn’t replied and just rushed to hug her, she was too happy to see Rhys to put it into words. Liel smiled at the scene, it was heartwarming, but she didn’t expected Rhys to smile back at her when she noticed her and was surprised when she did.

“You did this to me right?” Rhys asked once Eyiel stopped hugging her.

Liel nodded, not sure about Rhys’ intentions with that question.

“Thank you” Said Rhys as she walked up to Liel “And also... I’m am sorry, for everything I did to you”

Rhys’ words took Liel by surprise so she didn’t initially replied.

“I’ve been unfairly cruel with you while you’ve always treated me fairly, I realized that I’ve been wrong and I was afraid of never being able to apologize to you”

Although the red tint of her face showed how embarrassed Rhys was her apologizes was genuine and Liel could tell so she accepted them, it wasn’t like she ever had a problem with Rhys in the first place. Eyiel was happy to see Rhys finally come to terms with Liel and end the pointless rivalry that she had with her.