One Cage to Another

Amara slowly rose out of unconsciousness, her thoughts coming togther in gentle drifts. Her body ached fiercely, and as she stretched to relieve it, she was brought up short. She blinked her eyes open and looked down at her ankles, which were bound together. Thick leather cuffs on each ankle, joined together. The cuffs had metal bands bearing some sort of...runes? Runes. She didn't know any runic magic. Suddenly, all the memories of what had happened crashed back into her memories. Last night. The wizard. The spell! He had said something about a binding spell! Amara jerked her whole body, trying to sit upright and only succeeding in falling over. She twisted her neck to see her hands bound behind her at the wrists, bearing cuffs similar to those on her ankles. "No...no no no," she whispered, yanking in futility at her wrists. The door opened and her eyes flew over, startled and angry.

Kiernan walked in, carrying a plate of food. "You slept late," he commented, sitting at his chair and eyeing her. "It's almost noon." Across the room, Amara struggled into an upright sitting position, avoiding eye contact with the wizard. In addition to the cuffs, she had on new clothes...sort of. A frilly black thong and a pink mesh negligee did not count as clothing by her standards. She also noticed her hair had been washed, brushed, and neatly plaited. He had bathed her...and dressed her? While she was asleep? She almost felt more violated by that than what had happened while she was awake. ...And where had she awakened? The room was unfamiliar to her, and a new wave of fear clenched her stomach as she realized he had taken her somewhere else. Now if she escaped, she wouldn't be familiar with the environment, and that would make getting to safety harder.

The room itself was nice, decorated in soothing, cool tones. Dark greens, soft greys, and rich brown leather filled the space. The wizard was sitting in a dark brown leather chair and regarded her with a thoughtful expression on his face as her eyes flicked around, looking for another door or a window. A mirror would do, even, despite how much she hated using them to travel. "You won't find it easy to leave here," he said suddenly, setting the plate of food on the dark end table next to him. He rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, putting his chin in his hands. "I decided to put you in the most secure room of my house, which happened to be my study. I had to pack up some of the more...dangerous magical items while you were asleep. There's only one entrance, and trying to enter or leave a wizard's study without his permission is pretty risky." He raised an eyebrow at her, dark eyes grinning. "Some of us are actually smart enough to keep our wards up. It would have been much harder to grab you if you hadn't been so careless, you know."

He chuckled as her lips pursed into a frown, golden eyes narrowed in anger at his teasing. One time. She forgot to re-set the wards one single time, and it had ruined everything. "You are a soulless bastard," she spat at him. "Where is this place?"

"See...that sort of attitude is really uncalled for. It certainly doesn't deserve an answer to any questions." He leaned back in the chair, lifting a piece of fruit from the plate and slipping it into his mouth. Amara's eyes track the slice of orange as it moves, and then fixate on the plate while Kiernan chews slowly. How long had she been asleep for? She felt absolutely ravenous, but she couldn't have been out for too long, right? "You haven't done anything to earn answers."

Amara snorted indelicately, and the wizard noticed she was still working her wrists and ankles, albeit slowly and unobtrusively. Her fingers, soft and uncalloused, were bent to her wrists, gently running over the surface of the cuffs, searching for any weakness. "I'm not going to "earn" a damn thing from you. Last night was just...you surprised me." She pulled her eyes away from the plate of food and glared directly into his. "I am not some stupid little faery girl you can play with. I survived on my own for three years in the human realm, with NO knowledge of how things worked here. I'll figure you out, just like I did every other awful thing I've dealt with, and then I'll be gone, off somewhere that no filthy human can find me." Her eyes bored into his, golden irises shining with hate. "You could make things easier on yourself and let me go now. I'll be nice and just leave without hurting you, and you won't have to be laughed at by the other wizards after they find out you got your ass handed to you."

Kiernan listened to her diatribe with a steady frown. "Do you not remember what happened the other night?" he said, voice low. "I spent only an hour or so with you, and had you calling me Master." He raised one eyebrow as her cheeks flamed red but her eyes hold onto her rage.

"You surprised me. I wasn't prepared for anyone to come after me, and certainly not a wizard. I guess the Court's usual retrieval team couldn't cut it out here, so they decided to hire a human to find me." Amara shrugged her shoulder, flipping the nicely braided hair off of it, shaking her bangs out of her eyes. "Now I know what you are. I'll be free in under a day."

"You've spent three days here already." Kiernan said calmly. Amara jumped slightly, the anger leaving her eyes for disbelief. "After you passed out during our little playtime, I placed a sleeping charm on you. It made things simpler. I just took it off about thirty minutes ago, which is why you finally woke up. "

"Made things simpler? What sort of things? Putting me in this ridiculous outfit?" Amara snapped.

"Well, yes. And dealing with that mess your hair was. I finally had to look up a recipe for a detangling potion," he said, sounding annoyed. "Also, transporting you here. No, I'm not telling you where you are, but it's no where near your house. Which I torched, by the way. I took out what valuables I could find; mostly some jewelry and what looks like a few spell components."

"You're lying," she whispered, shoulders slumped slightly. He had set her house on fire? All of her clothes, her books, her music...everything that had been hers, that she had earned... "You're lying to mess with my head."

"Nope," he said, picking up another morsel of fruit and tossing it into his mouth. "Naturally, your landlord was informed of the fire, but no one knew where you were. There are people looking for you, though." Amara blinked, taken aback for a moment before he continued. "Yeah, I broke into your landlord's house and it turns out the old fool hadn't deposited this month's rent from their tenants yet. I tore the office up a bit, took the money orders and shredded the checks, then left. You're a suspect for arson, breaking and entering, and grand larceny." He grinned as Amara's lips parted in shock. "I told you I had things to do that were simpler to accomplish with you fast asleep. Your home is gone, all your possessions destroyed, and the human police believe you're a criminal. Oh, and I had those cuffs custom made for you. You have such slender little wrists and ankles, I was worried you might slide out of off-the-rack items. Can't have that, can we?" He chuckled.

Amara's head spun as she slumped back, looking down at the hardwood floor. This...this would make things a lot harder. She would have to create a new disguise, new fake papers, everything. Starting from scratch was a daunting task, one that overwhelmed her for a moment. Kiernan bit into an apple, watching as her head snapped up at the crunching sound. Her eyes went to the plate and then focused firmly on the ground as he swallowed. She winced, a sharp pain in her stomach letting her know that her earlier hunger was serious. She hadn't missed one or two meals, she had missed three days of meals. She didn't want to believe that she had been asleep for that long, but...there was the ring of truth to the wizard's words. She could barely keep herself from staring at his brunch, her hunger was so intense. And, she thought sourly, glancing at the pale mounds of breast that showed underneath her see-through affair, the bruising on her skin was clearly healing. The marks looked days old, not from last night. She gave a vicious yank to her bound wrists, cursing in one of the pixie tongues as the cuffs stayed flush with her skin, not giving an inch.

"They're charmed, too," she heard his amused voice call out. "See those runes? They have several uses. Like right now, your strength has been chained. You're physically no stronger than a normal human girl your size." He smiled as Amara twisted her neck, looking at the runes carved into the metal plates on her ankle cuffs with a fierce anger lighting her face as she whipped her head around and glared at him. "And I already took care of your magic, so I didn't need to worry about that, which was great because those particular runes ought to be made when the metal is still hot and malleable. Changing the nature of the metal to bind something as strong as magic is diffi-"

"My magic? What do you mean, took care of?" Amara interrupted loudly. Kiernan raised an eyebrow, Lord and Lady she was beginning to hate that fucking eyebrow, and she closed her eyes, reaching forth towards her inner wellspring of Wyld magic to call on, only to cry out, her eyes flying open as she fell over, breathing heavily. She had tried to touch that fount of power, only to be painfully denied. It felt like a punch to her heart, and as she lay there trying to catch her breath, she had an image form in her mind. A core of light, shades of color forever shifting, caged in by dark green flames. She opened her eyes and looked over at the wizard, and saw the same evergreen colored flames dancing in his eyes for a moment before they returned to their regular dark brown. "What did you do!" she shrieked, throwing herself upright and struggling to her feet. Amara wobbled, bound ankles throwing her balance off, and she fell sideways into the wall, panting heavily and glaring at him. "What did you do to me?!"

"Exactly what I said I would." Kiernan responded calmly, his eyes lighting on her heaving breasts, nipples just visible through the sheer fabric. "But of course, you were a bit distracted when I changed plans. Originally I was going to take you to the Court, but after I found out how valuable you could be to me, I decided to keep you for myself. I bound your magic to my control." He smiled at her. "Which means that you can't access it anymore. With those cuffs on, and my binding spell completed, you're utterly helpless."

Amara ground her teeth together. Utterly helpless? This bastard talked like some sort of cheesy villain, mocking his victims and trying to sound smarter than he was. Amara slid to the ground, her legs stretched in front of her as she stared angrily at the ankle cuffs. He'd had these specially made because she was so small, huh? For once in her life, Amara gave thanks for her petite stature and slender limbs as she bucked her hips up, slipping her bound wrists over the curves of her ass and then down her thighs. She rolled onto her back as she tucked her feet in tightly, pulling her wrists over her ankles as Kiernan cursed and jumped up from his chair. Amara rolled onto her side and jumped up, still bound but with her hands now in front of her, which opened up more options. Options like snatching a heavy crystal vase off a nearby table and raising it over her head as Kiernan crossed the room. "I don't need to be stronger than a human to beat your skull flat," she threatened, and brought the vase down hard as he leapt at her.

Kiernan, having sidestepped at the last moment, grabbed the metal bar with the clips binding her cuffs together and swung upwards, slamming her hands against the wall above her head. Her fingers flew open as she cursed, the vase dropping to the ground and shattering. "Good thing I kept my shoes on," the wizard muttered, crunching and grinding the shards under his soles as he stepped in front of Amara, still pinning her wrists to the wall over her head. "Did you honestly think it would be that easy? Have you ever even been in a physical fight before?" he demanded, pressing her back into the wall with the length of his body, his face close to hers. She hissed at him like an angry cat, tears welling up in her eyes as she cursed and tried to bring her knees up sharply. Kiernan sighed and slid a foot forward and stepped on the short metal bar between her ankle cuffs, pinning her delicate feet in place. She glared at him and he frowned at her, then widened his eyes. "You haven't, have you. You've always just used your magic to get away," his voice sounding amused.

"Oh just shut the hell UP," Amara shouted. She would rather have him beat her than keep laughing at her. Then she took advantage of his closeness, and slammed her head forward into his face. She was rewarded with the sounds of crunching cartilage and snapping bone, quickly followed by Kiernan shouting in pain and cursing. He flung her away from him, his hands going to his broken and bleeding nose as Amara hit the ground with a thud, breath flying out of her in an ungraceful whoofing noise. Luckily for her, the wizard hadn't simply dropped her into the pile of crystal shards at his feet . She pushed herself backward with her feet until her back came to a wall, and she slowly rose to her feet, panting short breaths as she cast her eyes around, looking for some sort of weapon. Unfortunately, Kiernan seemed to have removed most things that she could have used for violence. There was a heavy, dark wooden table, his chair, a few smaller end tables scattered about, and books.

Three out of four walls were lined with books. Amara started to shuffle her feet in the direction of a particularly large volume, intending to hit Kiernan over the head with it while he was distracted with his broken nose, when her eyes lit on his chair, and the coat draped over the back of it. Sticking out of a pocket was a battered looking wooden rod, about three to four inches in circumference. She heard Kiernan's voice, sounding muffled because of the blood pouring from his nose, and hopped quickly towards his chair, snatching the rod and holding it up to look at it. Amara smiled and tightened her grip on it as she eyed the runes carved into the wood. Sure, she couldn't use this weapon the way the wizard did, a physical focus to channel his arcane magic through. But a heavy stick would work just fine to swing into his skull over and over.

Amara turned and started to shuffle towards the wizard, who had one hand cupping his nose and glowing yellow while he muttered the words to a healing evocation under his breath. She started to raise the rod, grasped tightly in both hands, when a loud growling sound reverberated through the room. "What the fu-" Amara started then ended with a yelp as a large gray blur slammed into her knees, knocking her off balance and sending her crashing to the floor. The rod flew out of her hands and rolled a couple feet away and she cursed, rolling onto her stomach and stretching out her bound hands towards it. The growling got louder, something hot and heavy landed on her back, and she felt sharp pinpricks dig into the skin of her shoulders and back. She twisted her head around and gasped audibly at the sight of a large, dark furred cat digging its claws into her skin and baring its teeth at her as the growling continued and grew in volume.

"Ah. Thanks, Mullido," Kiernan said, and Amara turned her head to look back at the wizard. He wiped his bloody hand off on a clean part of his shirt and then looked at her steadily, nose healed. "That would be my familiar sitting on you. He doesn't take kindly to people touching my things without my permission."

Amara stared at him, dumbfounded, as he walked over and picked up his weapon, gently thudding it into the palm of his hand as he looked down at her. With every passing second Amara's anger grew. She had been knocked down by a damn cat? Kiernan noted the growing anger in her eyes and laughed. "Mullido weighs about thirty pounds and hunts his own food. You haven't eaten in three days and you're tied up. Just be happy the furry bastard didn't bite you. He has a temper sometimes." The cat ceased its growling and chattered at Kiernan, ending in an indignant meow before hopping off of Amara, his long, fluffy tail swishing as he walked off, vanishing into a shadowed corner of the room.

"...You live alone, with a billion books, have house decorations like crystal vases, and you have a kitty cat." Amara said flatly, pushing herself up on her elbows. "I've been kidnapped and raped by someone's fucking grandmother. Lord and Lady, kill me no-OW!" her mocking was cut short as Kiernan leaned down and snatched her braid, yanking it up sharply. "Stop, ow! That fucking hurts!" she shouted, trying to scramble to her feet to relieve the pain as Kiernan keeps pulling upwards. A hard slap to her right cheek stopped her cursing. She shook her head and looked up into the wizard's eyes, and tried to shrink back from the anger she saw there.

"You know, today was supposed to be a fairly easy day for you." He spoke quietly and calmly while wrapping her braid around his wrist, and then started walking toward the door. "During our first meeting, you became so compliant so easily. All it took was a couple orgasms and some beating." Amara's angry protests fall quiet as he yanks the door open and pulls her out into a hallway, her feet struggling to stay under her as he stepped quickly down the hallway, dragging her along the rug lining the floor. "I expected after all that, and your long nap, that you'd be even more subdued. I was going to make sure you understood your new place, and let you eat from my hand." He opened another door and stepped inside, his free hand flicking on a light switch. "Sadly for you, my familiar isn't the only one with a temper." A dim glow lit the room as he dragged her to the center and reached up, stretching her arms far above her head. Amara let out a small whine as she stood on tip toe, the strain in her wrists, shoulders, and back sharp and aching. There was a clicking noise as he clipped her wrists to a bar, and he stepped away toward a wall decorated with various items. He froze as Amara spat at him. Her aim was good, and she had landed it smack dab in the back of his messy curls.

"Starvation would be preferable to eating anything you gave me," she snapped out as he slowly turned around, his dark eyes warm with anger.

"We can see if that's true," he said lowly as he grabbed a small towel from a drawer and scrubbed at the back of his head. Amara's feet ached and she slipped off of her toes, wincing as her wrists took on most of her weight. Kiernan eyed her while her eyes were closed, and then said "I'll be back in just a moment." He dropped the towel into a wicker bin by the door and Amara heard the sound of a lock clicking shut as he left. She opened her eyes and frantically looked around the room for a couple of minutes. The lighting was dim, but that wasn't a problem for her. Fae could see exceptionally well in the dark. The problem was that the room, while filled with a large variety of items, didn't seem to offer anything helpful. The walls were lined with an assortment of objects she couldn't even begin to think about.

The floor was concrete, cold and rough against her feet as she tried to rise back onto her toes, her wrists screaming at her. The lock clicked again and Amara bit her tongue, holding back a startled yelp as Kiernan stepped back in. His hair was dripping wet, rivulets of water running down his shirtless torso. He'd taken a few moments for a brief scrub and rinse, cleaning the blood from his face and the spittle from his hair. Amara's eyes focused on him as he closed the door and stepped closer to her and she tried to pull away, unable to move from her tenuous position. His skin was pale, though not as light as hers, and marred with some scars. He had a solid build to match those broad shoulders, and a dark dusting of hair on his chest trailed down his torso towards his pants. He looked up, checking to see that her wrists were bound properly to the bar above her head.