Of course. He had said he'd let them live, hadn't he?<br/><br/>He just hadn't specified how<i> many</i>would live.<br/><br/>A last wind rose to swell her sails, a final gasp of righteous fury brought on by his amused chuckle. The pain wracking her body was momentarily forgotten as she tried to right herself and break his grip on her tines. Cries of pain that transitioned to wheezing gurgles as throats were cut only galvanized her further, but before she could get to her feet and rush to their aid, the man of the hour quickly put a stop to it. Rysalt's iron grip closed around her horn and to throw her back to the ground, and a cruel rebuke came in the form of another knee to the gut. The strike doubled her over again, knocking the breath from her lungs and driving her back down to her knees in the dust before him. Even then, she<i>still </i>tried to stand again, her eyes locked not on her attacker, but on her former followers, with the desperation of a drowning man straining to reach the surface.<br/><br/>When the final kick came, her body finally seemed to succumb. She slumped forward in the dust, a violent gagging fit suddenly wracking her as her battered stomach protested its cruel treatment. A few more drops of her bile and his seed were spat out, edged with crimson. There was no strength left in her limbs to fight as he dragged her off once more. Darkness prickled at the edges of her vision. Trauma of both the physical and mental sort was finally taking its toll, and when unconsciousness finally wrapped her in its embrace, the brief escape was almost welcomed.<br/><br/>Aryel drifted in and out of a grey haze after that, barely aware of her surroundings. She was observing the world as if through a dream, not truly perceiving anything around her. The events of the day played through her mind in a nightmarish loop that she was powerless to break out of. Day eventually turned into dusk, and when she had the misfortune of being at least somewhat lucid once more, she became aware that she was within a shelter of some sort, lying curled on her side, warmth at her back. Something bound her wings closed, though even if they had still been free, Rysalt wouldn't have to worry about his little bird fleeing her cage. Only a few of the long flight-feathers still remained, and blood crusted about the gruesome slashes he had inflicted.<br/><br/>She hadn't stirred as he sat down to eat. Though she hadn't eaten since the morning of that day, before everything went so wrong, food held no appeal to her at the moment. After the beating she had taken, the very idea of putting something in her stomach was enough to make it turn. She merely lay where she was, staring at the canvas wall of the tent, and listened to the flames crackle. After some time, however, she finally spoke.<br/><br/>"What are you going to do with them?"<br/><br/>Her voice was quiet, hoarse, the indomitable fire she had displayed so proudly gone to the ashes for the moment. She meant the Crew's newest prisoners, of course, the soldiers and civilians who hadn't been put to death just yet.