I woke up in a cell.

The first thing I noticed was the wristcuff. A heavy, metal thing on my left wrist, the probably-broken wrist. It immediately began to throb horribly. There was nothing inscribed on the metal, no markings, no lock, nothing.

The next thing I noticed was the pain. My arms and legs were scratched raw and spotted with dried blood. Two points on my back felt like they were on fire.

I glanced down at what I was wearing and nearly fell over. My nice elf tunic and leggings were gone, replaced by a weird gray nightgown thing that came down to my knees.

Basically: it was a dress.

I clawed at my back and felt small ridges on my skin snaking out from where the darts hit my back. I wasn't a doctor. I wasn't Hazel. But there was no doubt I would have scars from them.

I looked around. The cell was dark gray stone, a ginormous door in the wall across from me. The door had bars in the middle, at about eye level, and all I could see through it was another cell door. Bars on the walls to my left and right showed me into the other prisoners' cells.

I was lying on a stone slab raised from the ground, and as I sat up, a thin, ragged blanket fell off of me. There was no other furniture in the room, other than what I assumed was a toilet in the corner to my left.

Well you certainly got yourself into quite a situation, the voice in my head muttered quietly.

I growled, considering running into a wall to knock myself out again.

No, don't do that, that's completely pointless, besides, then who would I have for company?

"I'M NOT YOUR COMPANY!" I screamed.

"Jeez, I didn't think I smelled that bad, even after two weeks in here," a real voice said from the cell to my left.

I jumped to my feet, ignoring the pain, and padded over to the bars on the wall.

The person inside was... startling.

"Hey," she said, "Welcome to the Pit of Stink, what may I do for you today?"

The girl had dark chocolate skin and bright, fierce, blue-green eyes that were not dimmed even by the grimy, dark cell. Her right eye had a long scar stretching from above her eye to the middle of her cheek. Her eye itself was untouched. The most startling thing about her was her hair. It was shoulder length and honey blonde, done in a ratty braid. It was beautifully matched with her dark skin. She sat with her legs crossed and her back against the wall. She wore a gray sort of nightgown-tunic thing as well and that was it. She was scarily thin and alarmingly dirty.

How could only two weeks in here make someone that thin?

The only words I could form were, "Where are we?"

The girl laughed. It sounded familiar, somehow. "Where do you think?"

I nodded slowly, in a daze. I sat back on the rock-slab-bed and chewed the inside of my cheek.

"Zorg stronghold?" I guessed, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Bingo," the other girl said and sighed, "We're probably going to be here for a while, so we might as well get to know each other."

"Yeah," I agreed, "Might as well."

"What's your name?" The other girl asked.

"Remi Steir," I grunted, "Unless I've changed into a completely different person while I was out. What's yours?"

She started laughing and kept laughing until I was beginning to worry that I had been placed next to an insane prisoner.

Finally she came to a halt. "Got any family?"

"If you count friends, then yeah, or an aunt and uncle who hate me, then yeah. I don't know about parents or anything," I said, annoyed that she didn't tell me her name. "What about you?"

She sighed again and got up, coming over to rest her chin on the sill of the small window between us.

"Maybe a sister, I think, an aunt and uncle, some cousins," she said, and didn't elaborate. I let her silence go, knowing about painful family histories.

"Got a boyfriend?" She said, her face turning mischievous.

I felt tears well in my eyes against my will. "No. I... maybe have a girlfriend. She... we had a fight."

The other girl nodded, not sympathetic or unsympathetic. "Sorry. My love story is complicated too."

"Your love story?" I asked, brightening a little, "Who are they?"

Her blush was just visible on her dark skin. "Not important," she said.

I laughed, "Sure it is. Tell me."

She was silent for a moment before saying, "His name is Ben and he's the biggest idiotic goofball on Eisildor."

"How did you meet?" I asked.

She groaned, "Why am I telling you this?" It was phrased as more of a complaint, not a question.

"Well?" I prompted.

"Well I was supposed to kill him..." she said.

I nearly went through the roof. "What?! You were supposed to kill him?!"

"Yup," the other girl said, "I was on a mission."

"Whoa whoa," I said, still feeling like my brain was malfunctioning, "Start over, what did you say your name was?"

She shook her head. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"I'm sure your name isn't any crazier than any others that I've heard lately," I reassured her, "There's a Zorg, the one who captured me, his name is Maum."

She shook her head harder, "It's not that it's a weird name, at least, I don't think it is."

"So what is it?" I asked.

She mumbled something that I couldn't make out.

"What?"

She took a deep breath, "Bianca."

I thought about that for a minute. "I don't see why that isn't believable-"

A thought hit me like lightning. "Wait, there's no way you're Princess Bianca, of Panta. You can't be."

I didn't know much about the princess other than her name, but I could see no reason why she would be with the Zorg of all beings.

"Unfortunately, that's me." Bianca said, "Sniveling, cowardly, stuck up, spoiled, bratty, Princess Bianca."

"No way," I said, "How?"

"Believe me," she said, sitting back on her bed, "It's quite the tale."

"Tell it," I demanded.

"No," she said, "You don't want to hear my sob story."

"I do," I promised, "Who's going to hear you but me, anyway?"

"True," she sighed, "Just remember, you asked for this.

"It all began with my parents. No clue what happened to them, just that they couldn't take care of me and left me with my aunt and uncle, the King and Queen of Panta. Yes, I know that you are thinking. You think the King and Queen are my real parents, but they aren't. Thankfully, no one noticed the random extra child popping out of nowhere when Aunt Ilene wasn't even pregnant. I do have a lot of cousins no one can keep track of though, so that helps.

"My uncle wasn't very happy that he had another mouth to feed, on top of the several he already had, so he kept me locked away for seven or eight years of my life. I never really had playmates, unless you count my stupid cousins, and I almost never got to go outside. That's where the people of Panta got the idea that I was stuck up, a coward, and just generally stupid.

"My uncle decided he could use that to his advantage, though. He subtly helped spread the rumors, until everyone in Panta practically hated me. Then, he started training me to be an assassin for his own benefit. Wanted posters went up for my arrest, to spread fear of me, and I was rumored to never take off my hood. Uncle made sure to write on the posters that no one was allowed to take off my hood except him or aunt Ilene.

"For another several years, I was good, I was sneaky so no one would catch the Princess stealing away into the night, I did exactly what uncle Lee wanted me to do and I did it well. Until, uncle let slip to me that he and aunt Ilene aren't my actual parents. I figured out I had some long lost sister, so I-uh, ran away, I guess, hoping that my sister would be better than my other family."

"How would you know if you did find your sister?" I asked, "I mean, you don't know what she looks like, do you?"

"I'll know when I see her. Anyways, I was searching the continent for her, when I discovered a new species called Lemureas."

"Been there," I offered, "Met them, got the T-shirt."

"Oh, interesting, so I don't need to explain anything about that. Anyways, they didn't know anything about her, so I continued. I stumbled into Dorian. First elf I met was a lady named Aspen-"

"Aspen?!" I exclaimed, "I know her! Wait-" Something was dawning on me, something I couldn't believe I hadn't figured out sooner.

"You're the assassin who saved us from-"

"Maum, yes," Bianca said, "Aspen was following you all from Pira and asked me to do her a solid."

"So that's why you're here...." I said, a new fear of Bianca growing on me. I had seen her fight like a demon against three fully armed Zorg on her own and win. "Because Maum's Glyferno took you and brought you..."

"Here," Bianca said, "Yes, to this stinkhole. But that's it, that's my life story. What about you, got anything interesting?"

"Well I'm a dragon," I said halfheartedly.

"I figured," Bianca said, "There's not many other reasons you'd be put in here, unless you're me."

There was a sudden, ear-splitting screech as a latch on Bianca's door was slid back.

"Well, that'll be dinner," Biancas said boredly, "They come by twice a day and throw some scraps at us."

Sure enough, a small piece of the door was slid aside, and food was shoved into Bianca's door.

A small plate of food was shoved into my own door. As the door slid closed, I got an image of a single eye in a diamond shaped face.

I got up and picked up the plate with my good hand. A moldy looking piece of bread, and a stone cup of water was all it was.

I sniffed the bread and immediately felt like throwing up. Appetite gone, I chucked the whole tray across the room. Water splattered everywhere.

Really?! The voice in my head shrieked, Your hungry and you just threw that away?!

"That wasn't food," I said.

"It's better than nothing," Bianca said, completely oblivious that I wasn't talking to her.

I sat back down on my bed, the throbbing of my broken wrist worse than ever. I regretted throwing the water away, no matter how nasty it may have been. My mouth felt like sandpaper.

I sighed and laid down. Awake for only an hour and already exhausted.

I woke to a Zorg fiddling with my wrist cuff. A sharp pain stabbed through my wrist, like a needle.

Why did they have to put the cuff on the broken wrist?

Bigger than humans by quite a bit, the Zorg all towered over me, but instead of feeling smaller, I felt taller, more rebellious.

I tried to put on a brave face even though I was terrified, I was even more tired than I had been before I went to sleep, and my brain was oddly fuzzy. It took me a minute to remember the name of the prisoner next to me: Bianca.

"What do you caterpillar-faced rock cakes want?"

They are not going to like that insult. I get that you are trying to put your new elven curse vocabulary to good use but- the voice said.

"Oh shut up, you," I interrupted.

One of the Zorg strode up to me and grabbed my arm, dragging me off the bed and onto my feet. I ignored the pain and kept my bored, emotionless face on.

"Gulgogoth Roan has made hisss orders," said the one who had my arm in his grip.

"Hmm," I said, "And what would these orders be?"

Master of discreteness, that's what you are. The voice whispered.

"None of you caterpillar-faced business," the Zorg said.

I shrugged and tried to keep my cool.

I was handcuffed and shoved out of the cell and to the right, down a long hallway lined with seemingly endless cells.

"Who are you and what do you want," I whispered to the voice.

Ha ha ha, I'm surprised you haven't figured that out yet.

"How would I figure that out?!" I hissed, "You're just a creepy disembodied voice in my head."

Well, for instance, we both adore peanut butter. I think our biggest difference is that I am incredibly hot, and you have no sense of fashion.

I didn't get a chance to respond to the voice, because we had come to a black stone stairwell.

We climbed until I couldn't feel my legs anymore.

Finally, we stopped, having gone down many more hallways and taking a lot of twists and turns that I couldn't keep track of no matter how hard I tried. Right? Left? Sideways? Right again? No, it was a left, wasn't it?

I felt like I was literally going to explode.

At last, one of the Zorg unlatched a large stone door in front of me and I was shoved into the blistering light and heat...of a volcano.