Exodus

Vixen sits against a cold moist wall underneath the manacles suspending her hands above her head. The sound of water trickling in the background, her shoulders stiff from being kept in the same position for too long. She has lost track of the time since she's been down here, devoid of any light save a small sliver from a window that sits high above her hands. If she had to go on mealtimes, then she had probably had been down there for a few days already, she drifted in and out of sleep. Never comfortable enough to get what she needed, on top of the guards who seemed to wait for her to doze off to come in and wake her for something. She knew about this interrogation technique, make the subject so tired that they feel drunk, that way if they're lying its much harder to string the lie along the story becomes inconsistent. She wasn't lying, but it made no difference if they didn't believe her either. 

A short while later, two guards came to collect her. Neither guard was the captain, but they treated her with enough respect since she was a knight as well. The brought her through the basement of the castle, traversing through several hallways, then headed farther downstairs. Once she got to the bottom of the stairs she walked out onto this brightly lit circular room. The wall sconces ablaze, the heat from them making the room stifling hot. Located in the back of the room was a podium where the duke's guard captain sat with written documents. On either side of her, the duke's knights were all lined up standing at attention. The two knights escorting her stopped her in the center of the room and left to join the others, both of her hands and feet chained to prevent any thoughts of running away. Apart from her armor, which looked like clothes, she had no other equipment with her anyway. The swords and daggers that were taken from her weren't exactly special to her. She stood there waiting for the captain of the duke's guard to say something , although, she was just happy her shoulders had a chance to rest. While she was taking in her surroundings, the guard captain finally stood up to address her.

"Vixen, oh you don't have a last name I thought you became a knight through nobility but it looks like I have nothing to worry about," he digressed but turning to the topic. "Vixen, you have been detained for the murder of the duke and the death of no less than eight of his personal guards. You're also being charged with trespassing into the castle and assault on the two guards who were guarding the door. How do you plead?"

Vixen responded without rudeness, but with some agitation, "I plead a number of things, for the murder of the duke not guilty. For the death of his personal guards also not guilty. Trespassing, also not guilty as it was my duty to try to protect the duke, and for the assault on the guards I plead guilty. Time was of the essence and they wouldn't let me through." 

"Yes, you've recited the same story several times, with the high likelihood that story was rehearsed. See none of the knights here were able to find any evidence to support your claim. What is more likely is that you concocted this story as a means to get back at the duke who tried to buy you like a common whore."

"He is not worth my ire, let alone waste time on him. Someone else is far more deserving of my revenge. Though I'll admit I didn't like him, I won't take the blame for a murder I didn't commit."

The guard captain looked at her with a discerning eye but alter his opinion, "Be that as it may without any evidence to your defense you are found guilty. Lucien could help your case if he were here but he's not, and furthermore, even if he holds a special position within this city as the personal guard captain to the duke himself I out rank him."

Vixen was seething with anger but held her tongue, she was not going to let her mouth get her into more trouble, she'd have to think of a way out of her predicament when the guard captain continued talking, making her blood boil over. 

"With the power appointed to me I hereby strip you of you knight status, I sentence you to twenty lashes after which you'll be imprisoned for ninety days. The king from the capital will come here by then and if he gives his blessing for it, you'll be executed or sold into slavery. That is all." He walked up to her and removed the knight's emblem pinned on her garbs, tossing it off to the side of the room.

"Wait a minute," Vixen started to say when she noticed that the room was awfully smoky and that the smoke did not smell like fire. "This makes no sense! I have no reason to kill the duke let alone his men!" Vixen started to lose some of her composure, all the training she went through to be a knight, to be granted access to restricted areas in her search for a way to avenge herself would be for nothing. 

The knight captain started to walk away when he glanced over to his right, another guard who had his visor down, was pouring something into one of the wall sconces. The guard captain had been so preoccupied he hadn't noticed it. "Hey you! What are you....," the guard captain struggled to keep his eyes open as he took a step and fell forward. The guard captain was out cold, and one by one everyone else in that room followed the captains example, including Vixen. She watched the knight with the visor take off the armor and the visor, the person was dressed in leathers and had a long beak type mask on, probably some magical protection, because he alone seem unaffected by the strange white smoke in the air. As Vixen lay there with her vision getting blurry, the last thing she saw was the person with the vulture mask looking down at her.  

She woke up naked and bound blindfolded. The soft silk rope digging into her skin in numerous areas made her extremely uncomfortable, yet the rope between her legs was saturated with moisture. She knew she was naked because the cold air teased her sensitive nipples, something hard against her back like a table or a bench, she could hear screaming in the distant background. She squirmed trying to fight the building pleasure but didn't make a sound, she focused her mana and hypersensitivity trying to get an idea of what was going on. She was lying on a bench, in a room littered with stuff too clumped together to make out what exactly the items were. However, she could make out there was someone in the room with her, so she tried to communicate with them.

"Why am I here exactly?"

No answer.

"I know you're there, you wouldn't have gone through the whole bondage charade just to leave my mouth open. You clearly want to be able to speak with me."  This time she got a response as the soft voice of a woman broke the silence. 

"Not bad. This sounds like it'll be productive, welcome to the Sanguine Convenant."