<hr/><div align="center"><em>Autolycus loses his temper</em></div><hr/><br/>The medicus' eyes turned wide as he saw the Pictish woman dislocate her fingers and then slip her hand out of the shackle. A shackle that should have held<em>anyone</em>securely in place! He should have acted then, and he'd probably come to regret not doing so later, but he was too-surprised, too-fascinated that she could do this thing that was physically impossible for most, not to mention endure the pain...<br/><br/>One of the guards manhandled a woman into the room then and Autolycus was distracted as he took in the new arrival. His medicus’ eyes noted she was underfed, ill-treated and he’d almost dismiss her, something he could look into after dealing with the Pict, but then the guard began beating Ciarad, whipping her, damaging her clothes and more importantly her skin.<br/><br/>"Stop that!!" He shouted with all the authority he could muster, then when the man hesitated he stepped forward and ripped the whip from his hand. "This is a house slave!" He shouted, assuming the obvious. "You know what you're doing...?" He went on, his voice taking on a threatening note as his eyes bored into the guard's. "You're damaging the masters goods. It's as good as robbing him!" Anyone should know slaves and especially beautiful, female slaves were more valuable when they were undamaged, unscarred. "Out!!" He shouted, throwing the whip at the man's chest. The guard caught it clumsily, then stumbled out the door mumbling something along the lines of 'she asked for it'.<br/><br/>Autolycus was distracted once more then, as the Pictish woman mumbled something from underneath her gag and when he looked around  he was alarmed to find she’d managed to free herself.<br/><br/>"And you!" He called, now addressing the other guard, the one who'd leered at Cariad when she entered. "I asked you to secure that wild woman, get back in there and do it properly."<br/><br/>As the guard tried to make a grab for Sorcha Autolycus turned to Cariad. His eyes were hard, full of lingering rage and also a certain amount of frustration at having to put up with all this. "I apologize," he said stiffly, formally. "The man will be disciplined," he'd make sure to talk to Burrus, their captain, about it.<br/><br/>He turned then, to see how things went with the Pictish woman.