The Matron emerges from unknowing to the known, as through a tunnel, her mind groping for sense, breathing in like oxygen the faded colors and spots that begin to appear in her eyes. She would scream, if she could, but she has no mouth... And then suddenly she is aware of her mouth, and the gritty stone beneath her cheek, and finally shapes begin to form, walls, a crack in the stone near the floor.

The scream makes itself known, but it is a noise of no purpose. One of frustration, shock, rage, despair, hope. It is a cry for help. It is a demand. It is reassurance. It is all of these things. As the sound makes itself known, the woman establishes a firm grip in consciousness, then lays panting on the stone floor.

Captured.... Imprisoned...

The woman can scarcely believe the turn of events. She calls out, demanding to be released, and is met with laughter from outside the cell. In anger, she kicks at the door and is met with only knocking from the other side, and demands to remain silent. Rising carefully, the Matron stands, carefully assessing her prison.

She is overwhelmed with the stench of the place. A sickly prisoner lies on a cot near her, coughing and covered with sores. The odor rising from his bedsores nearly cause her to wretch, and she turns her face away. The floors are dirty, littered with waste and grime. The pungeant scent of urine rises strongly from one corner. The grimy floor is muddy in the spot, flies buzzing around.

There is a rat near the corner, chewing on the corpse of another rat. This time she does gag.

She calls outside the cell, still demanding, shouting out the injustice of her capture, kicking angrily at the door, over and over. She is told only to silence, and the guards outside shake the cell door to mock her. Angrily she scans the room, the ceiling, the floor... Looking for any weakness. At last she finds what she is seeking: crumbling morter around one stone, and when she presses on it with her shoulder, it is a bit loose. But the block is high, and she has to jump to reach it with her shoulder. Grunting, she pushes it instead with the top of her head, feeling it only wobble and not give way.

She gathers her strength, pounding her head against the loose block, ignoring the pain. Over and over she knocks her head against the block, and can feel it giving away only slightly. Dizzy with effort, she ends her foolishness, knowing that not even a helmeted dwarf could budge the offending stone.

Angrily she runs toward the door, ramming her shoulder against it, in an attempt to break down the wooden door. Her shoulder hits the hard surface with a sickening snap as her bone shatters, and the Matron once more falls down to the ground, passed out from pain.

The guards on the other side of the cell hear only a tremendous THUNK, and then silence. They are glad that the woman has stopped screaming her demands.