The man turned and handed his charts to a nearby soldier whom after being order to, ran off for a near by door. Turning towards the group of prisoners he began his introduction.

"I am Merek Crewell, the leading warden here at Fort Beauchamp." clasping his gloved hands together the man's face wrinkled up as his cheek bones began to rise. "Here is where we will determine if you have been infected by the plague. Of course the tests can't begin immediately as we must allow the infection to take its course before we may begin." turning towards the sun which was steadily passing an overhead position Crewell sighed and began to brush his fingers through his greyed hair. "We'll be locking you in the holding cells below the fort until night. Get some rest now, there will be no time to dilly-dally by day's end." motioning once again a group of guards grabbed each prisoner by their arms and headed to a set of doors which lead to a large stone room with a set of stairs. Going down the stairs the prisoners were eventually taken to a large, dark, corridor filled with long iron cages. As they entered the room two guards grabbed for a pair of torches on the wall and lit them, revealing the full expansiveness of the room. One at a time each prisoner was untied and placed into the same cage, shutting the iron gate behind them the guards locked the door quelled their torches and left the room. It was deathly dark inside the holding area, only the center of the room was lit and it was by natural light which entered through a small grate in the ceiling which most likely acted as a station from which to watch prisoners.

For a moment Nero sat stretching his wrists, it felt good to be freed from his bindings but in the darkness he was unsure of his surroundings. Initially when he was guided into the cell Nero was able to make out a number of cots along one of the walls, but at the moment was unsure if he should search for one or stay seated where he was. He was in no mood to trip over anyone in the cell, especially the women. Resting quietly for a moment Nero laid his head against the iron cage before he tried once again to spark up a conversation.
"Beauchamp... Fort Beauchamp, does anyone know anything about this place. Where it is, its history, where we might find the nearest civilization?"

Nadya, who had fumbled her way to a cot when she was first pushed into the cell was now lying down and as Nero spoke she began to think back of any news regarding the fort but was unable to sufficiently pull together anything besides a story she had heard from a group of bards who claimed the fort was named for 'The Mad Baron Beauchamp' who supposedly built the fort to spy on a neighboring Count's wife. The fort was constructed eighty some years ago by the Baron, whom at the time, was madly in love with a woman named Katherine Hess who was to be engaged to a Count who lived close by. A week before her marriage ceremony the Baron rode into the neighboring county with a group of hired thugs and snatched up the young Katherine and forced her to live in the Fort, which he designed to be homely but at the same time confining. After a failed attempt to escape, the Baron forced Katherine to live in the dungeon beneath the fort which at the time he had called Château Flora for the young girl's favorite type of rose. She was forced to live in the fort for 27 years before she was rescued by a sympathetic guard and let free. By that time her fiancee had died of illness and his fief was dissolved. The Baron was later locked away in the château by order of the council where he eventually committed suicide. Thinking of the story was depressing enough to keep Nadya quiet as she turned to the back wall of the dungeon.

Erratus was complacent as he and the others were led to a holding cell. The thought of being confined was not a pleasant one, but at least the cell was relatively spacious. The darkness did nothing to inconvenience him, though his cane would be useful for feeling around. He immediately went and procured a cot in the darkest, most remote corner of the room.
He sat there quietly as the others talked, listening vacantly as the elder gypsy regaled the group with a bit of lore. There was nothing much to do now but wait for the warren to realize that they weren't infected and release them. As the others conversed, the nomad began to drift off to sleep. They'd all had a long journey.
As Erratus slumbered, he dreamt as usual that he was traveling. But this time he was not alone. No, hundreds, if not thousands of weary vagabonds were all journeying together, though they knew not where. It was a strange sensation, being lost in an ocean of people, yet somehow being completely at home. It made him feel as if he were part of something larger than himself, even if he had no idea what that was.

Lucia felt a heavy weight lift off of her chest as they were unbound and placed in the cell. It wasn't that much of a step up from the wagon, a bit more spacious with cots, but the feeling of having her hands unbound did wonders for her outlook for her situation. Yes, they were being held here against the will, but once they she showed no sign of contamination she would be free to go. Perhaps venture somewhere far, far, away from any large cities, preferably a small town. She wrapped her cloak around herself sitting with her legs crossed.

"I've heard rumours of Fort Beauchamp..." she spoke softly "I heard a maiden was kept prisoner down here by the original lord of this castle."

Released from her restraints, Talaitha rubbed her wrists and ankles. A story was a story, a fable taught to children to teach them fear and induce nightmares; just something an elder sibling would tell their younger sister. This was not a story, and it also was not a chance for redemption for them. She held out that they would make it out, but once realizing the kind of place they were brought to, there was no way she could hope anymore.

"I didn't want to believe it," she muttered. Finished rubbing her wrists she crossed her arms and legs and breathed a heavy sigh.
"I wanted to believe we'd be able to leave eventually, but this place doesn't look like a holding station to me. It looks like a fort where they send criminals to wait to die."

"I've heard rumours of Fort Beauchamp...I heard a maiden was kept prisoner down here by the original lord of this castle." for a moment after Lucia spoke it became dead silent, Talaitha then began to speak in a state of almost hopelessness. The atmosphere of the prison area was becoming colder and darker, and as things were once again settling down laughter rung through the hall. Nadya turned in her cot upon hearing the noise, the voice wasn't familiar and it seemed far away. "Who's there!" she called out as she rose to her feet in an attempt to get a better view of the area.

"The ladies seem to know quite a bit about this here place." the voice spoke once again, this time it sounded nearer, almost as if it came from an adjacent cell. "People don't come here to serve sentences or be tested, they come to die." the voice obviously belonged to a man from its tone, but its manner of speaking seemed odd. As he continued to speak the quirks of this man's voice became much more apparent. His vowels all sounded elongated, especially his a's. His voiced also carried an uncivilized yet journeyed sound to it, almost as if he were a bandit or pirate.

"Didn'tcha wonder why the security around here is so lax, so lacking? Or, how about this, haven't ya' noticed how apart from myself you appear to be the only ones locked away in these cells? People don't live long here, and the only other 'beings' in this whole area are right beneath yer' feet. Go on, lean down, take a listen."


Following the stranger's instructions Nero dropped to his knees and placed his ear upon the ground. From deep beneath his feet he could faintly hear a low moaning noise and the sounds of crying.

"You're telling me those aren't people? Then what are-" Nero stopped himself from going on. "How could I be so naive, they lock the already changed infected beneath this floor don't they!?" Nero seemed almost furious as he blindly pushed towards the bars of the cell. "Well!? Answer me, what do you know!?" the room remained silent, no answer was spoken.

Erratus's nap didn't last long. He was awoken by the incessant chatter of his fellow inmates. He came to in time to hear the exchange between Nero and their new found neighbor. The man's ramblings did little to faze him, though. What were they going to do, execute everyone who had been present in that massive hall?
"Don't be ridiculous. We're not going to die, you crazy fool." Erratus mumbled from his dark corner.
The more the nomad thought about it, however, the more the stranger's claims made sense. They weren't going to sit by while six more people turned into a mess that could never be truly be cleaned up, only swept under the rug like the thousand wailing creatures below their feet. So they were all marked for the gallows, was that it? They were all going to die.
"Do go on."

The atmosphere had grown incredibly dismal in the cell and she wrapped herself in her cloak for its magically comforting warmth, resting her head on her knees. The short burst of hope that she had was immediately stifled as another prisoner from a nearby cell explained to them their plight. The guards had lied to them, they weren't going to be eventually released! Her eyes widened and she immediately pulled her head away from the ground after she heard the groans and crying coming from directly beneath them.

Nero panicked, asking to be told more, and she stood up wanting to claw her wait out of the prison, looking for a way out by any means necessary. She had originally thought that by being patient she would have been granted release after they realized that she had not been infected, but now she had to make her own way out, perhaps even work with the others to find a means of escape.

"We have to get out" she finally spoke "We need to work together to get out as soon as possible"

Talaitha shook her head as the crazed man spoke out. She already figured that they were done for and sat back to think about her life. It was a pity that her people spent so much time breeding her for this to happen; generations of knowledge lost forever. It was as much her fault as it was luck. She did not choose to be run out of town, but she chose to put herself in a situation where she would be vulnerable, and for what? To meet with a few gypsies just to talk to them? The other girl spoke of escape, but Talaitha was no longer in the mindset to think of a way to leave alive.

"I don't know what you did, but this is the fate of my choice to indulge myself and enter the guild hall." She replied without the slightest hint of fear in her voice. There was sadness in there, but more akin to disappointment than weepy. "You may tell yourself you didn't put yourself into this grave situation, that it was just bad luck, but I'm not going to deceive myself. Unless you have a few lock picks on yourself, we're not going to escape, so we might as well just face our own morality and muse over how we could have changed things."

"Hold it a second." the man seemed almost panicked as he let out a shushing noise to the group.Through the silence the sound of approaching footsteps subtly became more and more audible. "They're going to take two or so of yins at a time, they're going to do an inspection on your bodies to determine if you actually are prone to turn soon. Just listen to what they tell ya', they aren't going to kill or split you from one another unless they find a marking on your body. You might be able to escape if you can just endure for a short while. I have a bit of a plan." The voice attempted to sound assuring but to Nero it just made the situation far more dodgy. For a brief moment the footsteps stopped and the sound of keys clanging against one another took its place, before long though the main door swung open and a set of four guards entered the prison. Carrying but a single torch the guards made their way to the group's cell and examined each of the prisoner's physical state. Hastily, Nero backed away from the bars of the holding cell to avoid being seen as any kind of threat but he still attempted to stay close enough to see the prisoner they had been speaking to earlier. Straining his eyes he attempted to get a decent view but to his dismay he was only able to see a pair of boots lifted up on a cot and a pair of black riding trousers.

"Lucia Seolforwefen, Nero Augustine, and the enchantress Talaitha" the sound of a book being closed shut followed as the front gate of the cell gradually swung open with a horrid creak. "Approach single file, place your hands in front of yourselves and clasp them together." Nero briskly took a deep breath as he fell into the front of the line, with Lucia and Talaitha behind him the group was lead out of the prison and back into the court yard.
_______

"Alright then." The voice spoke up again after a brief intermission of waiting for the guards to completely clear the area. "Listen up, when they come back I need you two to attack the guards and try and get their keys. If you can get me out of this cell and in the court yard I can get us all out of here, alright? They should only bring about four guards and your eyes have adjusted to the darkness. If you can put out the torch ya' should have no problem."

Nadya sat back against her cot as she looked towards Erratus. "So, are you going to help?"

_______


In the court yard Nero, Lucia and Talaitha were lined up in the middle of the fort awaiting their inspection. The evening had just barely come, the sun was beginning to set in the west and the full moon was rising deliberately in the east. It was peaceful, for the first time since he was imprisoned Nero felt at peace with the world. The sounds of night birds humming around the fort, the sight of the pine trees just barely poking over the fort walls, and the smell of roses, it all made for a wonderful atmosphere despite the current circumstance.

"Well, I suppose it's time to start, isn't it?" Approaching from the opposite side of the fort was the warden, two guards and a man dressed in white and gold, most likely a cleric of some sort. The warden and his entourage approached the trio and after a few sparse seconds of conversing the warden stepped away and allowed the cleric to begin his work. The old cleric started by circling around the group, his eyes fixed upon the prisoner's faces and body shape. Pulling a bag from underneath his robe the cleric removed a magnifying glass and one by one he inspected each prisoner's scalp for some unknown sign of infection. The whole affair was beginning to make Nero sick, he hated the idea of some old man digging through his hair, examining the pores of his skin or whatever the hell he happened to be doing. "Now if you would, remove your clothing down to your undergarments."

"What are you trying to pull" Nero turned to face the cleric, he was angry enough that he could have killed the man right there. He would not allow himself to humiliated in this manner. "Is it not good enough that you already violated my privacy and arrested me?"

The cleric appeared shocked that Nero would act this way towards him, raising a finger he stepped away from the clearly violent man. "It's procedure boy, nothing more." Had he been alone, Nero would have surely attempted to kill the man by this point, but in this situation his actions would most likely endanger not only the group as a whole but the two women that were with him. Spitting on the ground Nero quickly removed his tunic and trousers, down to just his braies, and unwillingly awaited further instructions.

Erratus remained silent as three of his newest acquaintances were shuffled out of the cell, leaving him alone with the gypsy woman and their new friend. The man in the other cell was the first to break silence, instructing the others to jump the guards when they returned. He claimed he would be able to help them escape. The entire thing was dubious, but the man wouldn't invent such a scheme unless he actually knew how to escape the compound.
"So, are you going to help?" The gypsy inquired. Erratus responded by standing from his cot and moving closer to her.
"I don't see why you care." He began. "I came extremely close to making contact with that thing back at the guild hall. I am easily the one most likely to have been infected, save for Gaston. And who knows what they did with that poor bastard? In any case, I don't plan on dying, infected or not. So yes, I will be helping."
He knew, of course, that trusting the stranger would be a mistake. Most likely a fatal one. He wouldn't be able to turn his back for a moment, lest he find a knife imbedded in it. By this point, he was less than a foot away from Nadya. He leaned in to whisper.
"But to be honest, I don't trust this guy as far as I could throw him. He'll turn on anyone in a split-second if things start to go south, and I'd do it even faster. I'll be helping, but I'll be doing it with a dagger to his back." That would give the gypsy food for thought. With a manic grin, Erratus backpedaled to his cot and seated himself.
"And you?"

"I see no reason not to help." Nadya answered back, folding her arms with a dubious smile. "But it makes me wonder, how exactly has our dear friend over there survived this long down here? He seems to have a decent amount of knowledge pertaining to the workings of this prison, he even claims no one lives lives long here but.."

"I get what yer' implying." the man answered, his voice sounded tired by now, almost as if he had been straining himself all this time to speak to them. "I'm a bit of a political prisoner, yeah that's a pretty good way to put it. The keep my here because the group I represent operates in this region, and they can't kill me without suffering the wrath of my now impatient and blood thirsty comrades. Get it?"

Nadya looked over towards Erratus and promptly shuffled to his side. "A prisoner of circumstance, it doesn't sound too terribly fishy... does it?" she whispered gently in an attempt to keep her conversation hidden from the man across the way

"For someone who isn't going to help, you seem awfully interested." Erratus replied. "And honestly, I doubt there's a way to tell whether he's lying, if that's what you mean. Even if he is, I'll be going along with his little scheme. It's a life or death matter to me, so I don't really have much choice. If his story holds any inconsistencies, the only way you'll find them is by getting him to talk more. Which reminds me." The nomad turned to the direction of the voice that had been talking to them.
"Why don't you tell me a bit more about your plan?" He inquired.

""It's just as I said lad go for the guards when they come in and put out the torches, ye' just need to trust me." Letting out a hearty laugh the man seemed to be quite enjoying himself in the moment, before long though the prison door swung open and with its opening a single guard entered and approached the cage opposite to Nadya and Erratus.

"Your people were spotted outside again Gonye." the guard spoke with a tone of irritation, almost as if this was a common affair.

"Well? Whatcha' want me to do about it? I can't help them troin' to get a good peak at this wonderful establishment. Ya' also have a few lasses out in the court yard right now being searched and stripped down aye? I'm sure 'my people' would love a good show. It's been years since actual people, let alone women lived out this far. Comon' now you can't tell my you don't want to be up there lookin' at all the beauties!" by the time the man had finished his rant the guard was showing signs of fatigue, he obviously wanted out of the holding area as fast as possible.

"Listen here, they're prisoners and they're being searched nothing more. It's not a show for the Lord's sake! I'm just warning you, if your enticing those bastards to this fort somehow you and them will pay for it!"

"Certainly cap'n!" the prisoner answered back before shifting his boots about. "Now hurry back to your skin show upstairs, you wouldn't want too miss to much." the man's excessive taunting was more than enough to drive away the guard, and with haste! It took the guard only a few seconds to head for the door and slam it after him.

"Children, all of 'em. They think they've seen somethin' big and scary because they work around those monster but not one of those brats has ever fought in a war or killed one of the beast of yore!"

"Will they be harming the others, the ones they took above?" Nadya asked in a worried tone.

"Naw... They just search their bodies for the developing sign of a mark, it looks a little like a bruise actually. They say it appears whenever you're entering the stages before transformation. They probably have em' up there stripped down to just about nothing with an old man groping em up" he began to laugh just thinking about the whole thing.

Grunting in displeasure, Talaitha began to disrobe, removing everything but her jewelry.
"The jewelry stays," she coldly told the overseer.

It wasn't done so much in defiance as it was done for herself. If she was to die here, she would rather die with the trappings she carried on her during her life than to go naked and lose all that she had worked for. Growing up in a community steeped in enchantment, wearing enchanted jewelry was a status symbol that was very specific to their community alone; the more jewelry one wore, the more successful of an enchanter they happened to be. Since Taliatha was the prized protegee of her people she adorned herself with layers upon layers of gold and jewels. She was a master enchantress and did not want people to forget that when they found her body years from now.

Lucia's eyes widened in shock. "You can't expect me to take off my clothing in the company of men?" she cried out in dismay. "I-I can't. I'm sorry, but this is simply improper. I may not be a woman of class or distinction, but I still have my dignity. Please." She stood silently for a moment, but then she sighed, she knew there was no getting through to these guards. Just as she had attempted to do when they were arresting her. She sighed deeply and let her cloak fall to the ground. She closed her eyes, as she unbound the strings that criss-crossed over her bodice, and let her dress fall to the ground around her feet, not wanting to see the expression of any of the men as she stood in their presence. In an attempt to cover her modesty she covered her bosom, which was still covered with a band of cloth, with her arm and her groin with her other hand and looked down to the ground in shame.