"I like the look in your eyes," the first woman said, looking at Charlie. "You have spirit."
Charlie didn't make a noise. She wouldn't mind being able to say something, but since she couldn't, she didn't see a need to make a point of it.
The woman poked Charlie by jabbing a finger here and there all over her body, making Charlie jerk away in response. Charlie couldn't be sure if the woman was testing her reflexes, her reaction speed, or what. All she knew was that she didn't like some of the places she was being poked. Like in her side, just below her ribs.
When the woman stopped, Charlie couldn't help but hope that they'd leave her alone. She could hear Cithis starting to stir and wasn't sure if the girl would be scared with waking up to these two women in their pen.
"Well, it's not perfect, but she's at least better than most," the woman mused to herself. "Though, I wish she wasn't so masculine. We'll have to see how she fares in the test."
Charlie wasn't sure she understood what the woman was getting at or why her being considered 'masculine' to them had to do with anything, but she was at least certain that she wasn't going to like whatever it was. The way the woman looked at Charlie like she was a specimen or something, just made her feel like whatever she was talking about wasn't going to be pleasant for her. Especially with the way that she was examining every inch of her body.
What she was looking for Charlie could even begin to fathom. Though it did bring to mind again how she wished she had at least something to wear and wasn't completely naked.
"We'll find out what she can do then," the other woman said, sounding bored, like she had something better to do than whatever it was that they were actually doing. "Just leave her be. I'm sure she'd not going to change much before then."
The woman nodded slightly, but then reached out and grabbed a hold of Charlie's mouth. Charlie was shocked and tried backing away, but the woman had an iron grip, even though she was only holding Charlie's jaw.
After a minute, the woman released Charlie's mouth and stepped away. Looking more than satisfied with what she had been looking at. Which Charlie wished she had at least some warning that the woman was going to do that to her.
"Alright. We'll see her later during the tests," the woman said, turning and walking out of the pen.
Charlie merely watched dumbfounded as the two locked the door behind them and walked away casually. Like that was something that happened every day or something.
Charlie wasn't sure how long she stood there, but when she felt a small hand take hers, she felt surprised and looked down to see Cithis looking back at her with big, wide eyes.
"Mother, are you okay?" the girl asked.
Charlie couldn't help but smile at her, kneeling down so they were at eye level with each other. She nodded before pulling the girl into a hug. She wasn't sure what was going to happen with these 'tests' or what they might mean, but she was starting to try to figure out how to plan her escape so that she'd be able to take these two kids with her.
What happened after that, she couldn't be certain. Although, she did her best not to think about what would happen when she finished what she'd come to this world to do.
It wasn't like she could just take them back to Earth and expect that they'd be able to just live as part of her family. If nothing else, she was confident that her parents would have a ton of questions about them. Such as where Charlie had found them to begin with.
However, at that moment, as she held the eight-year old in a warm embrace, she didn't care. She couldn't say why her feelings about these two were changing, just that they were. That they were somehow becoming as important to her as Cherie was.
Despite the times she didn't get along with her sister.
As Charlie felt herself calm down from those realizations, she realized that she should have tired peeking into the minds of those two women. If she had, she might understand what exactly they were talking about or even what they intended to do. As well as what that 'test' they mentioned was.
_
Charlie had been forcefully separated from Cithis and Haln, but she had a feeling that she'd be getting return to there before too long. For some reason, it hardly felt like she was being permanently moved, like the day before when she was essentially given her own 'private' pen. Not that she had any evidence to back those feelings up.
Where she had been moved to, she couldn't really say. It looked more like a bare hallway with a dirt floor instead of a stone floor. If it meant anything significant, that significance was lost on her. She could only tell that something was different. Not anything more.
While she was skeptical about what lay before her, she stepped forward and away from the door she'd come through that had already been closed and locked, determined to find out what this was about. She suspected that it would be something akin to what she had done to the girls who had tried stealing Cithis' and Haln's bread the day before, but that was all she could think of.
As that fight had seemed to provoke a change in the way those who Charlie couldn't help but think of as her captors treated her. When they moved her away from the other that they considered slaves and put her pretty much by herself.
Part of her was happy to be away from the others, but at the same time, if she hadn't been able to have Cithis and Haln accompany her, she wouldn't be surprised if she started to feel lonely again and wish she was around others, even if she had to remain naked for longer.
Charlie took a breath and started walking down the hallway before her, while ignoring how the dirt on the floor stuck to her bare feet and sometimes a tiny rock would painfully press into her foot. She had no idea what it would lead to, but she steeled her resolve to find out. There could be any number of possibilities, but she doubted she'd learn what they were if she didn't walk down herself.
The hallway didn't last long before it opened up to a room that had weapons on racks around her. Some she had an idea what they were, like swords, axes, whips, spears, and so on. Yet, some looked like they could be weapons, but she hadn't seen them before. Like one that looked more like a bent, misshapen hunk of metal that had a part where a person's hands could hold it safely.
Some of the weapons Charlie felt like she knew how to wield, even though she knew she'd never held any of them before. Like the spear, she could think of how the best way to plant the butt end of the spear on the ground to best hold against a charging horse. She could even picture a scene where she was watching from the perspective of someone charging at her while she held the spear that pierced through the horse that person was riding, as well as that person. Just before she felt a blade make contact with the side of her neck from behind her.
Charlie quickly looked away from the spears, a cold sweat breaking out over her. She couldn't say what that sensation was about, only that it was unnerving.
She couldn't hear anyone else move in the room, and she didn't get the sense that she wasn't alone, but she still felt like eyes were all over her. Yet, this time it wasn't because she didn't have any clothing on. It was because it felt like the weapons themselves were looking at her. Like they were calling out to her for her to pick them up. To wield them.
As she looked at a sword that looked like a gladius she'd once seen a picture of, she felt like she could remember how the weight felt. How she was able to almost slice the air with it as she swung it to defend herself in a battle that was raging on around her. To the point where she was the last person still fighting those who had surrounded her were attacking. Where she felt her last breath as a sword cut not only through her armor, but through her ribs, lungs, and heart.
Charlie opened her eyes as she felt the side of her head aching. She couldn't say what had happened, or even how, but what she saw before her was the bottom of the weapons rack and the ground. She carefully lifted herself up, unsteadily climbing to her feet, not sure what had happened that had caused her to end up like that, but she had a feeling she didn't really want to know. That if she thought too much about it, the same thing might happen again.
She couldn't say why those memories she knew weren't hers felt so realistic. Like she had lived through them herself. Nor could she say when she might have come across those, as she'd never even seen scenes like that when she had been even looking through other people's minds.
For one thing, she'd never met anyone who had gone through the experience of having a sword slice through their chest, including their heart. Even with magic being applied right then as it happened, she couldn't imagine how a person could survive something like that.
Which really made it all the more unnerving for her. Especially with how it felt like she was the one herself who had experienced those things. That she had been killed multiple times, even though she couldn't wrap her mind around how that could be possible.
Forcing herself to look away from the weapons, afraid of what else she might either 'remember' or whatever it was that was happening to her, Charlie looked around to see if there was another exit to this room, other than the one she'd come through to get there.
It didn't take her long before she spotted one, and quickly set off for it at a jog. She did her best to not look at the weapons, afraid of what might happen if she did. She didn't know what was going on, but she wouldn't be surprised if she'd only experienced the tip of whatever it was.
When she reached other exit, she encountered a dirt ramp that led up to another set of metal bars with a door in them. Charlie didn't care what might be on the other side, but instead continued to head towards them, not wanting to be around all those weapons anymore.
She still didn't know what was going on, or even why she'd been put in that room with those weapons in the first place. She couldn't think of why whoever was in charge here would want a slave to have access to weapons like that. Especially since she could at least potentially try to use those to escape.
Although, the moment she thought about that, she suddenly had another 'memory' pop into her mind where she was trying to get out of somewhere and had made it to one of the giant trees she remembered in the forest she and her friends had arrived in, only to be stopped by an arrow in her leg, then in a fight with someone wielding two longswords, having her belly cut open, her organs spilling out at her feet.
While the deaths that she could somehow 'remember' had played in her mind as she had looked at the weapons, none of them had made her even slightly nauseas. This one however, suddenly caused what she'd eaten to come back up violently.
Even after she'd thrown up everything she'd eaten that day so far, she kept herself above her vomit as she body kept trying to eject the contents of her now empty stomach. The dirt bit into her hands and knees as she continued to retch, more concerned with how real that last 'memory' was.
Each one felt like they were more real than the one before. She didn't know what it was about, only that she feared what might pop into her mind next. Scared that the 'next' one would actually turn out to be real and what she knew about herself was the illusion.
Charlie couldn't say how long she'd remained on her hands and knees, all she could say was by the time she felt like she had the strength to stand, the smell of the bile she'd expelled from her stomach as starting to get to her. Not to say anything about the lingering taste of the bile in her mouth.
When she was finally able to stand, Charlie leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down. If she had believed in reincarnation and all of that, she might have suspected that she was experiencing something like that, but for the fact that some of what she could 'remember' felt like she was at least three people in some of the battles that played in her mind.
In some of those instances, she felt like she was several people in that fight at once. Some were on one side of it while some were on the other side. They didn't make any sense to her, but while they were feeling more and more real, she found that she was either getting used to them or that her body wasn't getting so freaked out about them.
Even though she felt like her legs were still pretty shaky from the 'memory' where she'd been disemboweled, she felt like even that 'memory' was fading to the point where she could continue on without having to worry about throwing up again.
She didn't know what was going on, but at the same time, she felt like she should. Almost like a word she knew that she knew, but just couldn't think of. Like it was just beyond her reach, even though she knew that it was there.
Yet, she didn't get much time to think about it as the sound of a metal lock turning brought her back to the present, to where she currently was: In front of a door in the metal bars at the top of the dirt ramp.
She could see the younger of the two women who'd woken her up at the door. The woman looked at Charlie, like she was confused. Like she had been expecting someone else there.
When the woman's eyes flickered to the pile of vomit on the ground, Charlie idly wondered if it was because she was surprised that Charlie had thrown up or something. As it wasn't like Charlie could actually ask anything like that. All she could do was wait to see what the woman said or did from that point.
"Getting nervous about this, huh?" she asked, her mouth forming a smirk.
Charlie wanted to protest that her throwing up had nothing to do with what was going to be done here, since she really had no idea what was going on anyway. However, at that moment she'd forgotten about having sealed her voice, so when she tried to complain about the young woman's statement, all that came out was a series of moans that merely fluctuated in tone.
The woman blinked at Charlie, looking even more surprised.
"Wow, I didn't expect that. Typically someone that looks as masculine and pretty as you, who can't speak, just get sent to be a pleasure slave," the woman remarked, making Charlie feel like this world was just completely crazy.
Charlie wasn't sure how to respond to the woman's statement, since it wasn't like she could say anything herself. All that she could do was wait patiently for the woman to either tell her what she was supposed to be doing or move so Charlie could walk through that door.
She couldn't help but assume that she was going to be going through there anyway, since that was the only place she could have left the room with all the weapons, other than the direction she had come from. However, it wasn't like she really knew that for a fact.
"Wouldn't mind getting a taste of you myself," the woman added quietly to herself after a minute of silence, making Charlie feel a little surprised.
She would definitely fight the woman off if it came to that, even if she had to reveal her ability to use magic. She would do whatever it took to remain true to Alex, no matter what it took. However, she also knew that in doing something like that, she could easily not only lose any possible chances at escaping, but also end up in a position where she couldn't fight back anymore.
She hoped things wouldn't come to that, but at that moment, she couldn't help but wonder if she really should have let those girls steal the bread from Cithis and Haln. As she could point to that moment as what had led up to her getting brought to this place.
After another minute of the young woman just looking at Charlie, she turned away and moved on, leaving the door open. She didn't say anything or indicate if Charlie was supposed to come through or not. It was as if she couldn't be bothered to deal with Charlie at that point.
It made her wonder what the woman exactly thought about her, although she wasn't sure if she should risk peeking into the woman's mind right then. As since she had no idea what exactly was going on, she didn't want to expose her abilities if t wasn't necessary.