[sylvanSpider]

Mendez grasped a set of Atrix's hands, giving them a gentle squeeze, “I'll be there to make sure they don't try anything on you, si, hermana?” He was looking forward to this about as much as Atrix was. He knew the stigmas that she must face here, and as her lover, he knew he must face them as well. Again, he was reminded of the doctor on Hazoo – one used to the terrors of the gang life – who adamantly suggested that he ditch Atrix while he could. Of course, as promised, Mendez denied him and stayed with Atrix regardless. The risks were already well-known. He needed no one else to remind him of that. “Do ya think that maybe you could just take a dip in one of the pools? Would that fix it, or is it different with chitin?”

That laugh was everything Magali wanted to hear. Back on Hazoo, he rarely smiled. His face was always contorted to one of pain or worry, depending on who got the worst of that day's clientele. She could remember after one particularly rough person who paid not only double for her services but also for a trip to Verdaqua. Nokra looked scared then, seeing her broken body as she was being carted away to a ship. Of course they'd asked for her information then, and when the question of slavery came up her master simply retorted by telling them that the enslavement of felis was so common they could call whoever they wanted – no help would come. If they refused to treat her, he'd make her work in this condition. The medical staff at the time had no choice but to mend her and send her right back. But then, even then, Nokra was there waiting when she returned. Nokra was more than likely most familiar with this planet; his life in the pits being no walk in the park either. But now, they were free, and Magali was looking at Nokra's laughing face with only the most joyous of joys, the sun was no longer hiding behind a mass of clouds, it was out and shining now, victorious as the two felis were in this moment. “...You're right, but still, it's something that you can get away from being used to now, right?”

Magali giggled as her feet left the ground and she was being twirled around like a kitten. “Yeah, see it all,” she breathed, her sigh content. “We finally made it. To the place we always spoke of. Who would have thought that our first days of freedom would be spent helping two of the people that allowed our slavery to go on? Still, they also gave us our freedom...”

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Rosalind laughed, shoulders shaking, “Ah'm lettin' the lad rest. It's 'is first time on solid ground as a non-slave. 'Sides, 'e's gettin' his id today. I remember what a big deal that was for Fikri. Ah imagine et'd be the same for them.” The pyra almost couldn't believe that she was with the one she intended to take home as a lover for the first time alone, and despite her tiredness, she was beaming. “'E's learnin' quick, that one is. I let 'im take the wheel for a bit when ah knew we had t'stay under a certain speed an' 'e 'andled her beautifully. Ah've got 'opes that he'll give me the rest I need.”

The pyra stepped back to look Riola in the eyes, those golden pools that she'd already fallen in love with once again taking her in. “If ye think 'e'd join our cause, ah won't stop ye. But, ye do know that if 'e comes along, Hyun an' Ashi will likely join 'im, right? I know ye don't like the princess...”

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At the moment, Ashi was sure of only two things: that she would (at least) make it out of this alive and that she would remain with Hyun and Shaldag regardless of what that entailed. Guilt ate at her, and she wanted to believe that she paid penance with the beating she'd taken, but she knew why they were there. The presence of the Daoweians was enough to confirm it. The king would never go out of his way to send his best after some Edensian terrorist, and the Edensians were there with the Daoweians. She was at least partially responsible for Shaldag's condition and...Toka's death. “I wish...I wish we could have seen it coming. I wish I could have done something. I...I should have offered myself up. Then maybe she'd still be with us, maybe they all would have...”

Ashi winced, the blade of the scalpel touching her skin on the dull side, and soon one of her one pairs of pants were reduced to tattered fabric stuck under her backside. The room was cold, as medical facilities generally were, and through the pain she could feel goosebumps bubbling to the top of her skin. She wanted to bring her knees up to her chest for warmth, but moving brought the utmost pain. The shirt soon followed and she felt bare, exposed, ever conscious of how horrible she likely looked. She shivered and nodded, “I wonder if either of them escaped with any of their possessions...”