Arin's back slammed into the concrete wall hard enough to rattle her teeth.
Pain burst through her spine and knocked the breath out of her chest. She slid down a few inches before catching herself, palms scraping stone.
"Ow," she groaned.
Hands closed around her before she could fully recover. Tiago lifted her with ease, laughing under his breath as if her weight meant nothing, then hurled her across the room. She hit the ground awkwardly with her shoulder first.
The impact sent another jolt through her body. Arin felt the room spun briefly.
"Stand up, Toad," Tiago said, already moving toward her again. "Show me what you've got."
Arin tried to push herself up. Her arms shook and failed. She stayed on one knee, breathing hard with vision narrowing at the edges.
"This is not a tour," she said, forcing the words out.
A hand grabbed the back of her neck and dragged her upright. Her feet barely touched the ground before Tiago struck her across the face.
The blow dropped her instantly. Blood burst from her mouth and splattered the floor, her jaw screaming in protest.
Tiago straightened, satisfied.
"The toad looks better like this," he said lightly, glancing over his shoulder. "Doesn't he, brothers?"
"Very much so," Koa replied, smiling as if entertained.
Rhory remained silent. But a small grin sat on his lips as he watched on with an unreadable expression.
Arin forced herself upright again, settling into a seated position because standing felt impossible. Her mouth tasted like iron. She spat blood to the side and lifted her head anyway.
"You were instructed to train me," she said hoarsly. "Not pounce on me."
Tiago bent and picked something up from the ground.
It was a metal rod. He rolled it once in his palm as he approached her, unhurried.
"This is training," he said calmly. "Fastest way to help a newbie realize their affinity or their place. My preferred method."
Arin felt her chest tighten. Her eyes locked onto the rod as he raised it slightly, testing the weight.
It was at that point she realized she had to do something. Least, they kill her.
Something she knows they were very much capable of. They killed Orlo after all.
Arin's heart pondered faster as she tried to think of how to maneuver the situation. She knew she did not understand cultivation. She did not know how to call power the way they did, did not know how to feel for it or guide it.
But she had survived another world without magic. Simply by reading people, and manipulating them.
Tiago lifted the rod higher, then hesitated, his gaze flicking briefly toward his brothers.
The pause was subtle, but Arin caught it. It looked like permission being sought, like doubt creeping in, and she decided to use it before it disappeared.
"Why did you stop?" she asked quietly. "Keep going."
Tiago turned back toward her, just to find her smiling at him with blood stained teeth.
"Don't stop," she said. "Because the more you keep pouncing on me, the more proof I have. Not just for the Maesters, but for everyone. Proof of what you did to me in the short span I was left alone with you."
Her gaze flicked to Koa, then to Rhory, then back to Tiago.
"You are probably thinking of doing something more sinister," she continued with a steady voice, as she held his eyes. "But it will not be long before Roldar comes looking for me and finds me like this."
She lifted her chin slightly.
"So please," she said softly. "Continue."
For a moment, no one moved. Arin kept her smile in place even as fear crawled under her skin and her pulse thundered in her ears. She focused on not letting the tremor in her body reach her face.
Please take the bait.
Please work.
She chanted in her mind hopefully.
Just then, the one with brown hair who had stayed silent all this while began to move.
Rhory pushed himself off the wall and started toward her.
There was no rush in his stride. Something about him made Arin feel the urge to move back, to crawl away from where she sat on the floor.
But she didn't. She stayed where she was and straightened her spine, all while keeping her gaze squarely on him as he came closer.
Rhory lowered himself into a crouch in front of her, bringing himself level with her. He close enough that she could feel his presence without him touching her.
"What proof?" he asked.
Arin knew what he said. She heard it clearly. Still, she couldn't answer right away.
Because her heart suddenly started beating harder, louder than before. Not from fear or panic. It was something else entirely, that she didn't understand yet and it made her uncomfortable.
Rhory tilted his head slightly. There was a faint grin along his lips when he spoke again.
"What proof are you going to show them?"
Arin forced herself to look away from his mouth and focus.
She lifted her hand and pointed at his face. "What you all did to me."
Rhory leaned back a little, studying her. "I don't see anything."
For a second, she wondered if he was pretending, or perhaps if he had bad sight. Then she wiped at her mouth, where blood had spilled earlier, ready to give him a close-up look by shoving it in his face.
But when she pulled her hand back, there was nothing on her fingers.
She frowned and touched her teeth. Then her cheek. The swelling she had felt was gone. The pain was gone too.
She turned and looked at the floor where she had spat blood, only to find the spot now clean.
It was at that moment she realized her body felt fine compared to earlier.
Arin looked up sharply at the others, trying to figure out how they had done this, just to see Koa in the process of lowering his hand.
Did he heal me? she wondered.
She hadn't fully processed the thought before Tiago stepped into her line of sight, smiling.
"Do you know what this means, Toad?"
Arin's stomach tightened as realization dawned on her, but she did not respond.
"It means I can do whatever I want to you," Tiago continued regardless. "And there will be no trace of it."
It was at that moment Arin realized that not only had they not taken the bait, but they had somehow found a loophole around it.
Her eyes widened before she could stop herself. The fear she had been forcing down surfaced as she began to move back, dragging herself across the stone floor while Tiago started toward her. There was no hurry in his steps. He did not need it.
"Don't come any closer," she said with a tight voice. "You saw what I did back in front of the Maesters. You saw the wall… and… and the guards. If you take another step, I won't hesitate… I'll kill you."
Tiago laughed, sounding pleased like she had finally said something he wanted to hear.
"Now you're getting the point," he said. "This isn't about simply putting you in your place. This is going to push you to find your affinity and show us the path you cultivate. So we know where to place you since the Maesters couldn't give their immediate verdict."
He dragged the iron rod once along the ground, then lifted it, turning it loosely between his fingers.
"Under… or" his gaze shifted back on her. A sinister grin now settled on his lips. "Below."
The way he said it, made her recall the last words they said to Orlo before they killed him. Arin felt like the same thing would happen to her now.
Tiago stopped twirling the rod and raised it.
Left with no other choice, Arin turned sharply and raised her buttocks in the air, doing the only thing that had worked before.
She farted.
She turned to face them immediately, expecting the same fog as before to surface… instead, she only saw the faces of the boys… that were scrunched with shock and disgust.
Arin's stomach dropped.
Oh, God.
The rod slipped from Tisgo's hand and hit the stone. Suddenly Fire began to bloom in his palm, bright and sudden making Arin eyes widened even more to a point it felt like it would bulge out.
"Now," Tiago fumed. "There's no stopping me from killing you."