Brother Shatterstone said:
Loviana smiles at the girl’s use of naroot and adds a proud mischievous grin, “Smart girl, I wish I could say I was that smart.”
With a look of deep admiration Loviana nods at Orshallan’s sentiment as she sits down on the edge of the table, “I agree, Wira no harm will come to you… I know we talked briefly about your reasons for being in the Halls of Pain but I would like to hear your whole story.”
*It takes Wira about an hour and a half to get her story out between emotional storms, but eventually it comes clear.*
"I was a whore here in Albon, working down by the docks. I had been working like that for quite a while, since I was a girl. My mother was sodden with drink, and I lost track of her after a time. I worked my way up and found a protector, F'baran, but he grew very possessive. He didn't want me to stray, and when I began to look around for another protector, F'baran stole my naroot and left something else in its place. I became pregnant, and I knew I would be out of work. I could end up like my mother, and I would have done anything to avoid that. So I looked for someone to take the child from me. I had little money, because F'baran kept it locked up in a goldsmith's shop.
"I found a woman that frequented one of the more exotic houses, the Velvet Arrow, that said she knew someone who could help me. She called herself Lady Nightfang. She treated me kindly for a time. She took me to one of the basement chambers, and had some of her helpers tie me to a table. Somehow they kept me conscious... and she ripped the child from my womb and offered it up in sacrifice to the Maiden of Pain. She forced vile concoctions of naroot and other things down my throat to keep me insensible while I was used by men of the house that enjoyed those scarred like myself. She kept my there for many days or weeks, trying to convert me. She tied me up with barbed wire, and whipped me terribly. I agreed to follow the Pain Maiden, if only to get her to stop torturing me... I was such a fool.
"The next time I cried out in pain unintentionally as she whipped me, she called me an ungrateful wretch. She opened the gates to the Halls of Pain, and cast me through to be punished for failing the goddess' teachings so soon after converting. After that... I was used badly by many men to keep me from fighting to get away. Then I was given to that red-headed demon... Then you came and took me away from all of this. He healed me, and now here I am again..."
