"A beautiful day"

Azura slept fitfully, and little surprise for her bed was comprised of dirty straw placed on a stone floor. She stirred and sat upright, combing sraw out of her crimson hair with her fingers and abandoning the hope of sleep. It was a miserable day. Every day was a miserable day lately. She stretched, standing, giving her cramped legs and aching muscles a little room.

And little it was. She was locked in a tiny cell, imprisoned. The room was made of stone bricks help together by crumbling mortar with shackles bolted to the walls near the back. When she stood in the center of the room she could place her palms flat against both side walls with her elbows slightly bent. The cell was longer than it was wide and int he back was a small window that let in extremely weak light, even that was a blessing however, as her previous cells had had no windows at all, and unless a guard passed with a lit torch she had been kept in total darkness and damp. And there were rats. Not here though. Under the window was a tiny wooden table and stool, a wooden bowl and a clay pitcher containing her drinking water.

Approaching the table Azura picked up the clay pitcher and tearing a small strip of rough cloth from her prison garb she wet it and pulled up her sleeves, revealing angry welts and cuts in her once milk white skin. She dabbed the cloth at the wounds for a moment, clenching her teeth against the pain. When she had cleaned the wounds as well as she could she lowered her sleeves and began to pace, trying to walk off the pain. The cell sloped sharply upward towards the door and hoping the physical exertion would not hurt too much she approached the cell door.

As she reached the barred door and looked into the dimly lit hallway a night elf in the cell across from her also approached his door and leered at her, pressing his ugly scarred face into the bars.

"Well," He sneered, "You're a pretty one. What are You in for, harlotry? What was your going rate?"

Azura frowned and ignored his, turning to pace the length of her cage, but there was no escaping the poison tongue of the bastard night elf.

"Have the guards.... inflicted their "Favors" upon you yet? No matter, they soon will unless... Well, I could have you transfered to my cell, I could protect you. For a small... consideration of course."

He sneered lecherously at her and she shuddered in disgust, her temper firing up. She wished desperately that she could hit him with a spell of cloudkill, or a fireball or something, but she was silent. She swallowed the urges and calmed herself.

"Utinu en Lokirim!" Sone of serpents! She spat. "If I had a price you would never be able to afford it, and even if you could I would rather be hung by my ankles over a pit of poisonous snakes than be within ten meters of you, Saurar." Vile one.

The night elf growled furiously and flung his water pitcher at his cell door where it shattered into a thousand pieces and splashed water everywhere. The sound of a metal door scraping against stone calmed him.

"Do you hear that, Filiken?" prostitute "The guards are coming for you, you're going to DIE in here, and I hope that is it slow and excruciating."

Azura contemplated that thought but discarded it. She had endured much during her inprisonment, but it had been a long time and they had not killed her yet. Nontheless, she moved to the back of her cell, absently brushing her fingers across an ornate tattoo that was seared into the back of both hands. There were many meanings behind the various tattoos of her race, the blood elves believed that the runes enhanced their magika, making it ever more powerful. This one though, this was the only one they burned into the flesh. The mark of the outcast. The runes that had been branded into her stifled her power, silencing her magical ability and severly limiting her spells to only the most basic. If battle was now required of her, malnourished, wounded and weaponless, she may indeed perish. She banished the thought.

A clang of iron caused her to jump and whirl around. There were three human guards at her door, the formost beckoning to her. It seemed they had indeed come for her. She moved toward them and only when she was directly in front of him did he speak.

"Prisoner Azura Melwasul, You have been ordered to appear before Magistrate Marcus Andorran to review your case."

"Marcus who? I thought-"

"Please." The guard inturrupted. "Save your questions for the magistrate."

He motioned for her to proceed him, flanked by the two other guards. The dark elf across the hall gripped his bars as she passed.

"Morwen Huan lle!" Daughter of dogs! "I hope your death is painful outcast! Please, be sure to scream loudly so I can hear it."

The guard slammed his shield against the bars, smashing the elf's nose.

"Be quiet pig, or I shall come back and teach you how."

Azura allowed herself a quick smirk that disappeared as soon as it appeared and followed the captain into a vast room completely shrouded in darkness except for a small glow emanating from a single candle perched atop a heavy looking desk in the center of the room. There were faint outlines of massive doors on each of the four walls every door about 4 meters high. A man, the magistrate she assumed, was seated behind the desk, looking at a scroll, but not reading it.

"Prisoner Melwasul. You have been-"

"If you please, sir."

She inturrupted. His eyebrows raised slightly, but his face remained neutral and he nodded for her to continue.

"Sir, I have absolutely no idea how long I have been imprisoned here. Where is Magistrate Thorne?"

Andorran consulted the scroll and after a long moment, in which he seemed somewhat perplexed, answered.

"It has been recorded that you have been imprisoned in this facility for 7 months, 14 days and six hours. Overall imprisonment od 1 year, 11 months, 8 days and 4 hours. Reccomendations for flogging and interrogation weekly, no official charges filed."

He looked back up at her.

"That was his specialty. Thorne loved to punish those he hated for no reason."

He cleared his voice and spoke with finality.

"Ex-magistrate Ulyses Thorne has been investigated and found guilty of crimes against the empire and its people. Last week he was subjected to four days of torture and then summarily executed. His cases are now being reviewed and, if possible, overturned. Miss Melwasul, for a woman with no criminal record with the empire, and no official charges brought forth, your punishment has been severe and for that I, on behalf of the empire and it's legal system, deeply apologize. Of course, nothing can hope to fully repair the damage that has been done to you, but this should help toward compensation."

He placed a small scroll on the desk in front of him and motioned her toward it. She took it, numbly. The scroll was an order for the city to supply her with a staggering amount of gold and a line of credit to three of its best shops. Her head started spinning with the sudden and absolute changes of her situation.

"I am curious though,"

The magistrate leaned forward on his elbows, his fingertips pressed together.

"What did you do to cause Thorne such intense hatred of you?"

Azura's fists clenched in rage, crumpling the scroll in her fingers. Her anger was deeply evident in her deep red eyes.

"The Nadorhuan" Cowardly dog "Thorne," She spat, "Made unwlecome advances, so I slapped him. The next thing I knew I was locked in irons, being moved from one cell to the next, each smaller than the last, being beaton with switches and flogged with whips weekly. Last night I was placed in a rediculously small cell across that most vile Agaryulnaer" Blood sucking " Night elf. I was deprived of light and food and water and clean clothes and bedding. This scrap of paper means nothing, But it is a little solace to know Thorne suffered before he died. How was he executed?"

"Public draw and quarter."

She smiled at that.

"Excelent. Now, are we quite finished?"

"Yes."

The magistrate shuffled his papers and tore the scroll of her record into two.

"The captain here will take you to get your wounds properly dressed and a change of clothing. You are free to go."

"Please do one thing for me."

She reuqested.

"And what is that?"

She smiled quite innocently.

"Please tell that bastard night elf that Le uanui a lin naneth hab le gladhaen" You are ugly and your mother dresses you funny "please."
The magistrate looked puzzled.

"Ok, I think I can remember that. Say it once more?"

"Le uanui a lin naneth hab le gladhaen"

He nodded and stood to go, waving her off.

Azura allowed herself to led away and when her injuries had been dealt with and she had changed from her dingy, torn, and dirty sackcloth into soft silken robes she stood before the great door that led to her freedom. Without a moments hesitation she leaned with all her might against the heavy door and they gradually opened, allowing the bright beautiful sunlight to seep in.

She stood outside for a moment, inhaling the sweet scent of plumeria, listening to the sweet musical melodies of the birds. A butterfly flitted past and she caught it, letting it flutter about in her hands before releasing it once more. A bubble of laughter welled up in her chest and escaped her lips and she burst into a fit of giggles. She was free. FREE.

It truly truly was a beautiful day.

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