"Excuse me, Mistress." Said Mantle. Not waiting for her answer, he jogged across the open space to this group, along with another male from his group and sundry others.

Once there the two from his group took one arm each from a red headed prisoner and, putting these arms around their necks, half carried and half supported this female towards her. With a shock, Valna'a realised that this prisoner was wearing the clothes she had given to Zahra a few days ago. As the group got closer, she felt warmness in her heart, and realised that the battered creature in the middle was Zahra. Choking back a sob, it took all of Valna'a's will power to act stoic at the sight.

Bypassing the elf, the two soldiers carried their battered leader to an area next to the wall, where a female undid her top, before the men gently lowered her to the ground; face down, her face towards the wall. When she was down the human female ever so gently removed Zahra's top.

Valna'a staggered backwards at the sight. Zahra's back was a mess of weeping wounds and angry red scars. This was not right. The humans were supposed to be healed before being returned.

Seeing the look on her face the female who had undressed Zahra explained.

"Your people peeled her back to keep as a sick form of artwork, Mistress." There was real venom in her voice as she spoke to the princess. "And then they did something to her heart.

"Every since her back has not healed up as quickly after each session. By tomorrow she will be upright and will force herself to go through that again."

"Come to admire your handiwork, Mistress?" Asked another angry voice.

"Enough!" Came a painful croak from the floor. "Wagstaff, leave the princess alone. It's not her fault."

"Yes Ma'am." Came the reply, in a tone that Valna'a could not recognise.

Kneeling on the floor next to the young human Valna'a asked.

"Is it that they don't use enough healing spray on you?"

"I don't know, Mistress. By the time the spray comes I am barely able to sense anything but pain. I couldn't tell you how much they use. They do use some, obviously, but not enough to fully heal me."

Valna'a got out her communicator, used the camera function to take a picture of Zahra's back, tapped away for a bit and then put it back in her pocket. No one questioned her about it, not through lack of curiosity, though.

By the time she had finished another young female had come up with a container of water and a clean cloth. Also kneeling down next to the brutalised Zahra, she wet the cloth and slowly washed her wounds.

"You're going to have to let some of the rest of us go in your place, Ma'am. You can't take much more of this, and we need you." She said.

"I thought you hated me, Saphie, for what my family did at the fort."  Valna'a thought it sounded a bit teasing, though she could not be totally sure. Humans were a weird species after all.

"We hate your father Ma'am. We love you. Whatever your reason for going, every time, you need to take more breaks. We need you."

"I never knew you cared." Definitely teasing this time.

"Silly bovine." Said Valna'a in a terrible version of English, before switching back to elf.  "Of course they love you. Not as much as they hate me, but they do adore you. Even I can see that!"

Suddenly the doors burst open and what was obviously a hastily prepared squad of guards burst in.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU CREATURES DARED TO POLUTE OUR SACRED WORLD WITH YOUR FOUL NATIVE LANGUAGE?" Bellowed the squad leader. "IF YOU DON'T OWN UP ALL OF YOU WILL SUFFER."

With that, he drew his pistol, quickly followed by the rest of the squad either drawing pistols or raising their rifles.

Valna'a stood up, and approached the man, even as the nearby humans backed away from him.

"I did, Squad Leader. I called one of them a." Back to English. "Silly bovine." Then back to her own tongue. "It means silly cow."

"Princess. I didn't realise you were still here." A slight look of worry replacing the anger on his face. "Either way it is forbidden for anyone to utter that filth on Cas' Mak'l."

"Actually, Squad Leader, it's forbidden for them to speak in their own language. I can use whatever language I want.

"And, by the way, your pistol is aimed at me."

Worry giving way to fear on his face the guard adjusted the aiming point of the pistol to Valna'a's right. She noticed that his was not the only one to change direction either.

Ripping the pistol from his hand, she quickly checked it was on a stun setting before shooting the last guard to redirect her aim. Screaming the woman dropped to the floor, involuntarily pulling the trigger on her rifle as her muscles spasmed.

Much to the amusement of Valna'a and the humans the shot hit her squad leader in the head. Said notable jerked to a stiffened pose before face planting onto the floor. Valna'a having to dodge out of his way as he crashed down.

The roar of laughter from the humans caused the guards to divert their attention back to their prisoners, weapons ready.

"Stop posing and get out of here, A.S.L."

"Princess." He protested. "You can't speak to us like that. You'll undermine their respect for us."

"I doubt if their respect for you could get any lower."

"Princess..."

"Why has that prisoner not received the treatment she should?"

"Prince Korsephan ordered it should only get half the healing spray, Princess."

"Your duty to the clan trumps that idiot's personal ambitions, Assistant Squad Leader. Your oath to the Clan Father, to keep them alive as long as possible, outweighs your desire to suck up to my brother.

"When their hero dies it will have a strong, negative, effect on the morale of her people, and morale is very important to these creatures. Which is why we take great pains to mould it to our advantage.

"When these cattle die more raids will be required to replace them. Our people will die on those raids. "

"I understand your concerns, Princess, but your brother has beaten you in the struggle for supremacy. He will be our next Clan Father. and displeasing him now will be remembered. As will be being his ally against you. The slave's suffering will continue as he has ordered. If these cattle die quicker than normal because of it then we will get more. If soldiers die on those raids that's not my concern. I will have done my duty to the Clan Father."

Valna'a was taken aback that a mere prison guard would speak so to her. She was a princess and a decorated Squad Leader herself. She outranked this flunky by every metric.

Then she realised. She wasn't a Squad Leader anymore. She wasn't even a soldier anymore. While she was technically still a princess it was only by way of being the daughter of her father. The rank itself was now hollow. Valueless.

"Should you two be having this conversation where the cattle can overhear you? " Came a voice from behind the guards.

As they turned to see who was speaking Valna'a saw her sister, Yslana, standing there, a large bag by her side. Almost the spitting image of her sister, Yslana was a tall, graceful,  raven haired beauty. The only major difference being the irises of her eyes being a bright, ice, blue.

"As you say, Assistant Squad Leader, my sister has suffered a set back in the game of power. I have not.

"I will examine the condition of these slaves and I will audit your treatment of them. I will then decide if you have fulfilled your duty to my father."

Usually softly spoken and non-confrontational Yslana had grown into her role as a healer to the point where pride in her work could bring out a warrior just as formidable as her sister. Just with different goals.

"Take me to this slave." Definitely an order. and one given with no concerns about it being ignored.

"You two get the creature and bring it here for Princess Yslana to examine." An order that didn't quite disobey Yslana's but twisted it enough for the guard to regain control of the situation.

This was a tactic that would often work in here, his domain, and in the past this would have certainly worked on the quieter of the royal children. However:

"Valna'a please shoot anyone who disobeys, ignores or twists my orders. Moreover, feel free to use whatever setting you feel suitable. And then take me to the patient."

"Yes, Healer." Valna'a had never seen this level of iron in her sister and quite enjoyed the startled look on the guards' faces.

"As I obviously cannot trust you to follow basic instructions." Yslana said to the guards' squad leader. "I will simply ignore you.

"You!" She pointed at the meanest looking guard there. "You are now, temporarily, in charge of this squad. You will return your people to their duties, while this one will wait outside this room, for my convenience."

"Yes, Princess. " Said the startled guard.

"Don't fail me, Squad Leader, and don't let him wander off from outside his post outside the  door."

"No, Princess."

The new squad leader then relieved his predecessor of his weapons before leading the squad out of the room, carrying their fallen, and closing the door.

Letting out a sigh when the door closed Yslana turned to her sister and gave her a hug.

"I've been researching the soul fusing ceremony to see if there is a way to undo it. I haven't had any luck yet."

"Thank you for trying, Lana." And old nickname her sister had acquired while still learning to talk, by introducing herself as "I Yslana", which was often misheard as "I is Lana."

"It's not for your benefit, loser." She teased. "I'd just rather have you as Clan Father than that idiot."

"Then let me escort you to the woman in question, my princess."  She said, picking up Yslana's bag and leading the way.

"Woman? Don't tell me you're starting to see these as sentient life-forms, and not mere cattle."

"Possibly. And possibly a more decent species than ours."

"That wouldn't really be that hard. We are a despicable people, Val."

"We are trapped in a situation not of our doing, Lana."

"How we deal with the situation is our doing. And we don't deal with it well. How much research has been done to find an alternative to this?"

They ended their conversation just then as they arrived at where Zahra was laying. Though she had rotated her head to watch the drama at the door.

"May I?" She asked of Saphie Winters, who was still trying to clean her lieutenant's back as best she could.

Once Saphie had moved, Yslana knelt down by Zahra and studied her back, with a totally impassive look on her face. She then muttered a few words under her breath and ran her hands up and down her patient's back, about an inch above the skin.

After a few passes she looked back up at her sister, a look of sadness tinged with anger in her face. Without a comment she took the bag off of her sister and opened it.

From inside she brought out a blue tub with a red lid. Opening it she dug out a sizable amount of a substance like a yellowish green petroleum jelly and started spreading it across Zahra's back.

Once she had it evenly spread she stood up and turned her attention to private Winters. With another muttered phrase she ran her hands over the human woman, again not quite touching her.

"Mistress. Is that some kind of magic?" Saphie asked, once she'd finished.

"No, science. Though it may look like magic to you."

"It's just that your hands get a blue glow round them, when you do that. And it looks like a magic spell in a film I once watched."

Yslana was visibly taken aback by the question, as to some extent was everyone else there.

None of the other humans had seen the glow, and while though Valna'a knew about it, she had never seen it either.

"You can see the power? Human."

Visibly nervous now, Saphie nodded. Yslana muttered under her breath again and held up her hands.

"What colour now? "

"Your left hand is reddish orange, your right is purple, Mistress."

Eyes wide, Yslana muttered something again.

"Now?"

"Both are white, Mistress."

More muttering. "Now?"

"I can't see a glow now, Mistress."

"Look at your hands."

With a gasp Saphie said. "They have a silvery white glow, Mistress. What does it mean?"

"It means that you are now my apprentice, young woman. What is your name?"

"My..My designation is 06ADH0879, Mistress."

"Two things from that answer, young human.

"First, when I ask you a question I want you to answer it fully and truthfully.

"Secondly, when I say something to you I need you to fully understand what I say and if you don't understand ask for clarification. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Good. What is your name?"

"Saphie Winter, Mistress."

"Well, Sophie Winter,  to put it crudely, you now belong to me. I am going to teach you how to be a Healer. You'll be able to help your people recover from my people's ministrations."

With that she took a cloth out of the bag and wiped Zahra's back. With the salve removed Zahra's back looked much better, that night's wounds were totally healed and the previous nights' looked like ancient scars. Looking at her sister, she continued their previous conversation.

"This is cheap and easy to manufacture yet we leave them scarred and suffering. And we call them the lesser races."

"Don't let anyone hear you say that, Lana. I cannot protect you from father now and you know there are plenty who would use your words to undermine him if he wasn't brutal castigating you for them. Especially Korsan."

"I'm not a threat to him, I have no desire to be Clan Father."

"I know that, you know that. Father probably knows that. Korsephan is so thick and obsessed with power that he can't comprehend anyone not wanting to. He will see you as a threat and destroy you if he can, just as he did me. Just be careful."

"Okay, okay. I hear you. I'll be careful. Come on Saphie Winter. Time to start your training. "

"Yes, Mistress." Saphie's lack of enthusiasm was obvious.

"Do well and you'll be able to help your people, even making your own healing salve."

Before leaving she stopped and looked at Zahra, as though an idea had struck her.

"Stand up, human."

Zahra jumped to her feet with a "Yes, Mistress."

With another muttered phrase, this one causing her hands to appear blood red, to Saphie, she placed one hand over the visible scar on Zahra's chest and the other up Valna'a's top to cover her scar.

Everyone in the room then got to hear an incredibly rare sound, the sound of laughter as Yslana roared with glee. 

"What is so amusing?" Asked Valna'a.

With nothing more than a smirk and a wink at her sister, Yslana led her new apprentice out of the cell, leaving the salve with Zahra.

As the elvan healer, and her new apprentice, left there were a great many eyes on them. Those close enough to hear the conversation with her sister were intrigued by the thought of dissension amongst their enemies' ranks, filing the information away in case they could use it later.

"Your sister doesn't fit the mold of the average Blood Elf, Mistress." Opined Zahra. "Or is it that we have only seen the worst of your society?"

"Both, Zahra. What we use you for means that you see us at our worst, but even at our best she is far too beautiful a soul to do well in our society. I fear my worthless brother will destroy her.”

Changing the subject she asked: "If I offer to take you away from here, as an apprentice, you'll refuse won't you? "

"Yes, Mistress. I can't do much for my people in here, but I can protect them from..." Zahra pointed at the door.

"You are a strange creature, from a strange race, Zahra Wellson."

"I know, Mistress. You keep telling me"