Vengeance was a cup that never filled. It consumed her. This war had taken the only two people in this world she ever loved, her parents. There was always a reason to kill, a reason to hate. Death had become her constant companion. She dispensed it and she had felt it breathing down her own neck. Her patron goddess had bestowed long life upon her. Athena aged far slower than normal mortals did. It was a boon and a bane. She had forged her body into a lean fighting machine with skill, knowledge and experience of combat only the ages could have provided. People had come and gone; people she had come to know and trust; people who had died by her hand. She had cut a wide path through her homeland. The last thing she remembered was fighting a man on the cliffs of Dolmarr and was startled that as she delivered a killing blow, she lost her footing and slipped over the edge.<br/><br/><br/><div align="center">~~0~~</div><br/><br/>The faint screams of terror mingling with moans of pain and blending in with hideous, cackling, maniacal laughter was enough to draw her up out of whatever place her mind had been residing in. It was a dark, desolate place she found herself in. The skies, if one could call them that, were tinged with enough red to see by. She got to her feet, wincing slightly at her protesting muscles. What was this place and how did she get here? Those questions however, would go unanswered for the time being. Out of seemingly nowhere came a<em>man</em>on a horse, followed by several on foot. As they drew closer, she withdrew her swords and stood ready. They didn’t look like a wholesome lot. Then again, this place, it was starting to dawn on her, didn’t spawn wholesomeness at all. They moved to surround her, those that were on foot. The one on the horse, stood outside the circle. It was to him, her eyes went to. Her awareness of the others around her, had not gone unnoticed.<br/><br/>“Now what have we here? A new red-headed human slave?” One in the circle taunted. She didn’t bite. A slave? Her? Like bloody hell. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she continued to watch the one on the horse.<br/><br/>“And what does that make you?” Her voice was firmly directed at the mounted one. It was some moments before he deigned to answer her. His words were accompanied by smile that held no humor.<br/><br/>“A slave trader in these parts,” He deigned to reply.<br/><br/>His eyes ran assessing over her, taking in her stance, how she held her weapons and knew exactly where this one was going. Now if her talent was worthy, well, he was thinking greedily of what he could get for her. A brief while later, he gave a short curt nod and they attacked. Not all at once, that wasn’t how this was done. The first one bold enough to enter the circle with her, charged with an overhead downward strike. Athena sidestepped as her main hand sword came up the block the strike countering with an over handed one of her own coming from her offhand. Her opponent barely escaped bodily injury. He snarled at her, circling counter clock wise, showing off some wicked fangs. The expression on her face didn’t even twitch as she followed the same path he took, counter clockwise. Athena rotated the wrist of her right hand, then her left, brandishing both swords. His next strike came horizontally as he charged her. Her offhand came up in an arc, meeting force with force that held for seemingly minutes when in fact it was seconds. As she felt the jar of the blow up her arm, she lunged her main hand in with a swift slash to his inner thigh, which sent him howling as he took a knee. Without thought to sparing, her main came up with a powerful, over handed blow to the juncture of neck and shoulder. As her blade sank into flesh, his scream was as inhuman as he was,  his blood spraying outward catching her face and neck. Stepping back, she watched as he fell to the floor of the wastelands. Again, she set herself, her eyes on the horseman.<br/><br/>So it went. She had taken out three of the four. She wasn’t without wounds, but they were nothing life threatening. It was the last one that was her downfall. She slipped in a pool of blood or perhaps she grew weary and her own muscles were starting to let her down. Whatever the cause, she found herself staring up into the eyes of death once more, with the sharp edge of his axe pressed to her neck. Athena loosened her grip on her swords, though she did not let them go. A word from the rider and her opponent lifted the bladed edge from her flesh, ripping her blades from her hands. Yanked by the front of her vest, she was jerked to her feet, each wrist bound to one end of a rope, both ropes handed to the rider. The slaver trader nudged his demon horse so close to her she could feel its fetid heat on her skin. His hand grabbed her braid wrapping it around his hand and yanking her head back, so she had to look up into his eyes.<br/><br/>“You cost me three men, woman but they were worth it to watch you fight. The price I will ask for you will well get me more. I’m almost tempted to keep you for myself, but what I stand to gain outweighs that consideration.”<br/><br/>“Where are you taking me?”<br/><br/>“To the Arena. You should be able to provide some hours of amusement before you die.”<br/><br/>“I won’t be so easy to kill.”<br/><br/>“Don’t be so sure, woman. When was the last time you fought a demon of untold ability?”<br/><br/>Her silence was enough for him. He gave her head a final jerk before releasing her braid and set his horse into a walk, the ropes growing taunt as he got further away from her. She was forced to follow, either on her own two feet or be drug. That choice was hers.<br/><br/><div align="center"> ~~0~~</div><br/>She found herself in a slave cell, collared. It had taken one very large man to twist her arms behind her with his knee in the small of her back as she was pressed against a stone wall so the collar could be secured. Athena was thrown into a cell unceremoniously, sent sprawling into the floor as the sound of a lock was set into place. Slowly she got to her feet, swiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand as she paced restlessly back and forth, like a wild caged animal.<br/>