Salt water dripped from the cave ceiling right onto the back of their necks as they hunched down, not bothering to look up. Their whole body moved with every strained breath they took, pushing them against the shackles that bound their wrists above them.

Their toes just touched the ground causing them to be in a constant state of discomfort along with their exposed skin to the dampness of the large cave meaning they had a constant chills John Murphy could see every breath materialise in front of him in a cloud as a thin line of blood ran down his chin, staining his teeth even more so no white remained.

Winnie sweated so much that her clawed scraps of fabric serving as a t-shirt clung to her becoming an extra layer of skin that rubbed and itched.

They both had taken to staring at the floor, the bones at the top of their spine protruded out like scales. John spat at this moment, the routine of clearing out blood clots in his mouth no longer disgusted him, it only took what little pride remained in him. Most had gone when they stripped him of everything besides the trousers he wore, now they were even taking his blood.

Winnie never closed her eyes in fear of what true darkness may bring; even when her eyelids threatened to give up she lazily let them go only halfway. Murphy had been the same but soon the state of Winnie opposite him, within a normal touching distance became to much to bare and he chose the pitch darkness with the occasional light show behind his eyelids over seeing her like that and knowing he looked just as bad.

They learned they couldn't talk at all, even when it seemed they were alone. They tried and ended up with a whip to their backs and spit on their faces from their lover. It wasn't worth it and it's not like they had much to say to each other anyway, they only wanted to confess one thing but now did not seem like the best time to admit that you were falling in love with someone, not when it seemed that they were going to die.

Thirty six hours without the sun and without saying a word, they thought that had experience loneliness when they had been banished but this isolation was twenty times worse then they could have ever dreamed.

They broke in different ways. At first Winnie would not cry out or even mutter a small cry, she couldn't bear to add on to the noises that John Murphy made but she broke when he finally fell unconscious after a knife had been dragged all the way from his right hip to his left shoulder.

It was deeper than a paper cut but not deep enough to need stitches, she cried as she watched the small beads of blood swell up to surface and then turn into scabs before he awoke. She tasted the saltiness of her tears in her mouth and was thankful for the change from the tang of metallic blood.

Murphy was silent after that moment. He broke right then hearing the usually silent Winnie whimper and flinch with every new entrance to the cave. The spells hadn't worked, the gods had abandoned her. She didn't stick to the plan.

Yet all of this wasn't the worst element, your body could survive a maiming for a while but when your heart breaks, when you look at the person you love and realise that the burn around their neck isn't the worst blemish on their body, that is when you lose hope.

-----

Viena hadn't seen the sunlight since she and Anya had dragged their lifeless bodies into the cave. But she missed when they were giving her a fight, the hours before they begun to break. The grounder could tell they were determined people, it emanated from them as they stood up to the captive with heads held high. Viena actually found it quite enduring before it became suffocating. But she would not get the information they all needed by keeping their spirits high, no they needed to be grovelling on the floor.

Soon she realised that the couple had felt pain in their flesh too many times before, it would hurt them but it wouldn't break them. So she had to use other means; water.

She chose to do it first on the girl, she ripped up the fabric from the boy's t-shirt in front of her and wiped it up and down his arms, making old wounds fresh in the process.

The girl watched on and despite her best efforts - Viena could tell she was usually a fighter from the way the shackles had made their deep purple bruises on her wrist - she still managed to cover the girls mouth with the cloth and coaxed her whole face up to the correct angle.

She watched Anya pour the steady stream of water over her mouth and watched as Winnie's gag reflex reacted, watched as she began to dry drown. She choked and felt her rib cage seize up as still the water kept flowing and flowing. After twelve seconds she stopped but Winnie had felt as close to death as she did when she was dangling in the air with a noose around her neck. Murphy was only submitted to eight seconds but it was enough for him to almost lose hope.

Yet after it was done Anya stood waiting for the confessions but Viena simply put the cloth, still dripping a mixture of water, sweat and blood into her pocket and walked away. Even Anya grew cold,

"Viena," She started as they moved away, "We must get our information soon, you must start-"

The women stopped the Chief in her words with one hand gesture, she did not need to take orders from Anya. She did not care for the same things Trikru did, none of the other people from the Sky concerned her, only this pair. And she would not give up too soon, she needed her own information.

"Their silence speaks more than anything. We go when I say."

Anya was not pleased to hear that, "This is not Azegda, you would be wise to remember that Viena. I do not take orders from you."

"You will win your war and I will get your revenge. Trust me," With this Viena walked back into the cave and brought out the cloth again watching the horror play over her victims faces as they broke off the only conversation they dared have since being in here. She smiled at their horror and spoke to them in her mother tongue, "Tell me your secrets witch."

And for a split second Viena thought that Winnie recognised the word. No. That would not do.

Viena simply raised a finger to her lips, "Ssshh." She uttered and then walked out again. That was enough torture for this hour.

--------

This time they decided to speak again, John guessed an hour might have passed and he tested the water by shaking his chains above his head. No movement came, he looked to Winnie.

"You look like shit." He told her, his voice came out as a croak from his throat, his throat dry yet wet at the same time. It was a broken joke, this wasn't the time but somehow it made both of them feel a little better. If they couldn't mend their body they could at least put a bandage on their soul.

"Seems like this is the real me," Winnie replied with a groan from the struggle, "Better get used to it."

"I'm starting to think we're not that popular." Murphy tried and he knew this would be his final joke because the constant pain and headache seemed to become worse when he talked.

"We're pretty popular people to torture," Winnie told him. At least it was something. Not the words she had needed to say but something.

They finally managed to look each other in the eye, rise up from their view of the floor. Unspoken words crossed between them; stay alive. Live. Because they could try and fool each other with higher meanings of life but in reality everyone was selfish, everyone just wanted to stay in this world.

"I don't think I want to go to Hell anymore." Winnie confessed.

All the talk she had given, all the devilish laughs and her connection with fires and it was all for nothing. Too bad, she thought, it's not like she is going to have a place lined up in Heaven as a backup plan.

"Maybe staying alive would be the best option then." Murphy suggested without a hint of his usual sarcasm or irony.

Anya had been lying in wait as Viena left the cave for the first time. Now was her chance, she must know more about the Sky People, at any cost. They had not begged for mercy yet, they had not confessed.

Anya decided to try and crack the boy she stormed into the room and grabbed him by a fist full of his hair so he could feel her breath against his skin. With her other hand she placed her fingers either side of the long cut on his chest and began very slowly to pull the two sides of the wound apart. His breath turned ragged and she watched as he bit his lips in a last ditch effort to stop his screams. They still came out and he watched as they put a smile upon his torturers face. It had been too long since she heard their screams. It was only starting to repay what their people did to Lincoln.

Winnie was powerless to stop her and couldn't watch the scene in front of her, but she had to do something. She clattered her chains hard, pulling them slightly away from their groundings in the roof. Her fist was clenched so hard that her whole hand had gone white and it seemed to be travelling down her arm. Her veins sticking out against the porcelain and translucent skin.

Determination filled Winnie as Anya dropped her hold of Murphy's skin. He spat at her as she looked at his bloodshot eyes and mangled teeth, he looked like a monster she thought. But that's how she saw all of the Sky People.

That's when she realised what she needed to do as she wiped his blood off her cheek. That was why they didn't talk. To test her theory she struck John Murphy harder than she had ever had done before, the sound of the back of her hand cracked against his cheek bone. That wasn't the sound she had been waiting for however, it was the cry from the girl that she had been waiting for.

John spat out even more blood, this time with sick clots that had mixed with his saliva. He felt sick but he hadn't eaten in so long that there was nothing for him to vomit.

Winnie's instincts made her lunge at the women but to no avail, her shackles didn't even move, "Burn in hell." She muttered, her first words to any of her captors.

Viena had been watching silently from beyond the bend in the cave. She walked in slowly and rolled her own step against the floor. Heel to toe. Heel to toe. The simple sound acting as a metronome, lulling the trio into a little bit of a calmer state.

It was time. Time for them to know why they were here.

"You need to be nicer to us girl," Viena addressed them in perfect English, a language she loathed with all her heart. The words had a profound effect on Murphy besides the initial shock, they tasted of honey on his tongue offering the little warmth he lusted for.

Winnie stood mute, her nightmares were real. She could tell, of she could tell what was coming, "Or can I call you Winnie?"

Viena laughed and knew that somehow for the witch, that sound was worse than a hundred bones cracking or any amount of water in her throat.

"Who are you?" Winnie asked but Viena paid no attention to her.

She walked over to Winnie's lover and tried her hardest to look past his swollen eye with a black eyelid. She reached down to her side and brought out a water container. Pouring some into the palm of her hand Viena began to wipe clean Murphy of the dried and fresh blood that covered his face. Just like she had seen Winnie do the first time she laid eyes on her.

"Call me Haiplana." Viena replied.

Anya held her breath at the mention of the word. She had no authority to use it, she was lying but the Chief could say nothing. The prisoners were talking, she could not ruin this now.

"And what does that mean?" Winnie grew tired of short replies of mysteries and she hated the way her fingers lingered close to John Murphy.

"Winnie the witch, it means I'm the Queen."