Cera is trapped in an abyss with no sensations.  No sound.  No light.  No feeling.  Here she resides for what feels like an eternity.  Waiting.  Then finally, after forever, she can hear something, but still no light.  Still no feeling.

The sound is barely audible at first.  Unintelligible sounds of activity, though what specifically, she can't say.  Then slowly, the sounds take shape.  Murmurs, clinks, footsteps, the ambient sound of a tavern or inn.  Then gradually voices.  Conversations.  Then a voice she recognizes.  Darian's.

Cera's able to open her eyes, but the world is a blur.  She tries to move, but can't.  Slowly awareness returns to Cera, and she finds herself tied to a chair, barely able to lift her head up.  And as her eyes adjust to the light, her mind is finally able to make out the words be spoken.

"... it was then this poor lost little girl begged for my help."

Laughter.

Darian goes on to detail her rescue, exaggerated to ridiculous proportions, and when Cera goes to speak she finds that her arch nemesis has gagged her, and she's forced to sit and bear this humiliating story that these patrons have no choice but to believe.  After all, she was sitting here tied up.

And though Darian had embarrassed her in the past with her failures, and delighted in doing so, this time there seemed to be an additional level of maliciousness.  He seemed to rub it in ten times more than he ever did, kicking her harder than he'd ever kicked her when she was down.  On and on he went, ridiculing, mocking, and degrading her for what felt like it's own eternity.  Right up until the last drunken patron stumbled out of the tavern and into the night.

And it still wasn't over.  He didn't untie her, and instead of letting her go, he had the barkeep and some helpers carry Cera, chair and all, into the inn, to his room, and set her down.  He closed the door after they left, and sat on the bed across from Cera.

"Well, well, well.  I didn't think you'd come crawling back to this profession after your complete failure of your ... 'training.'  Am I correct to assume that since you did come crawling back that you're ready for a second chance at the training?"

If you don't remember, he's referring to what happened to Cera at the end of the Prologue where he took Cera into the desert and broke her spirit over the course of six months.  She knows she can't endure that again.  Will Save DC30 to act normally, otherwise Cera melts under the threat and will do anything not to take her into the desert again
This message was last updated by the GM at 01:03, Tue 26 May 2020.