Timestamp: 81st of Summer, 514 AV
Kavala woke up slowly. Her return to the conscious world wasn’t a dramatic surge awake like she was used too, living in the fast paced busy household filled with children, family, and friends. Instead, it was like being being buried alive in mud and clawing her way to the surface through the soft soil to find the air above.
It took an act of will to open her eyes.
Once she did, she thought her eyes weren’t working because a blink or two revealed nothing new, only darkness. Then she shifted, finding it odd that she was somehow upright and not lying prone. No soft furs. No lingering warmth from a bed or small bodies around her. A chill invaded her, as cold and hard as the stone around her. That was when the pain and tingling came to her arms. She was bound, hands behind something she leaned against, long booted feet stretched out in front of her. She was on the floor. The floor was damp beneath her and the cold wetness of the stone world around her had soaked into her clothing and bones.
Stone wasn't unknown to her. It wasn't unwelcome. Stone was an old friend that ignited the djed inside of her and often made her happy or at least content on multiple levels within her soul. But this was strange stone. This was alien old soulless stone. As she moved, twisting her shoulders and writhing her hands, she knew something was wrong. She pulled djed, the first instinct that came to her as a reimancer, and tried to form res to ignite the rope that bound her hands behind her. Nothing happened. It was as if her body forgot it was filled with power. That puzzle her at first, her mind still being to foggy to register the wrongness at being where she was and why she was.
Kavala drew her knees up against her chest and pushed. Her feet came under her and her body rocked forward. Her arms slid upwards and she pushed off from the floor. She tired to turn to see what she was bound too, but her bindings were too tight. The Konti reached her feet, shifted restlessly like a horse bound too tight, and felt things normalize within her as if a sedative were leaving her system.
She stamped one booted foot and let her head fall forward, hair spilling across her face. Kavala twisted again, uncertain, and tried to focus more djed to transform her eye, to give herself infravision. It was one of the first morphings she'd learned.
Nothing.
Only this time she felt it.... a tightness around her throat. A metal band, collar-like, encircled her neck. She choked, feeling it with her head bowed forward like it was. The thing was warm, alien, and she hated it. It seemed to warm even further at her attempt to morph. And when she tried a third time to call up her auristics, it seemed to almost burn.
The Konti stamped her foot again, trying to regain circulation. She was in a small stone room. That much she could tell just from the sound. And in that room was a tall pole that stretched from floor to ceiling. She was trussed up against it, hands bound behind her, so that she could stand or slide down it to rest. But that was the limitation of her movements.
Kavala struggled to remember how she'd gotten there. The last thing she remembered was a child bringing her a frantic note. A drykas child.... something about a herd attacked by a predator, multiple casualties among his animals, and the rest with wounds. She'd saddled one of the young strider mares to go meet the clan which was camping outside of season near the city. The child hadn't looked drykas, but then again the clans had taken on so much new blood it hadn't thrown her off. Caelum had been gone, most likely at Alements, and so too had the other healers. She'd gone alone, following the child who spoke perfect pavi, and that was all she could remember.
The Konti shook her head, true fear growing as her situation seemed to come into clarity.
She was alone, some sort of prisoner, and she had no access to her power.
The chill of the chamber infused her, making the dampness of her leathers even more unwelcoming and causing her to shiver. Kavala extended out her Konti gift and felt only the tiny emotions of mice - perhaps a rat or two - but nothing that would give her any more information. She stamped her other foot, alternating, until the circulation was flowing freely through her body. Limbs gone numb from disuse tingled into awakening as her mind cataloged and categorized what would come next.
No one knew she was missing and in trouble because she rode out on a job. She had no idea of how much time had passed because she had no idea of the time being below ground. She wouldn't be missed until she was gone overnight, and if that were to happen, she would have sent word back to the facility so they knew she was on a particularly bad house call. She had no way to contact anyone. She didn't know where she was. And she didn't know who held her.
Kavala tried to keep calm.
It wasn't working. Sweat broke out on her scaled forehead as thirst coursed through her. Her stomach rumbled as well. Twisting her wrists had brought pain as the rough rope wore at her wrists. She was wet, but unlikely to sicken anytime soon, so that was a bonus. The damp helped her being Konti. It was the chill that was a killer.
Kavala didn't know how long she stood there. It seemed like bells, perhaps even days. Sometimes she rested, sliding down the pole and stretching her feet out. But she disliked that. It damped her clothing because the floor seemed to soak and dry almost like it was under tidal influence though she could not technically smell the sea.
Finally, after a time the healer could not measure, she heard footsteps in the distance and realized there must be some sort of hallway. They halted at what must be some sort of doorway, and a key turned in a lock.
