Escaping the Propriety [@dreamsrapture]

A month prior, Valencia Hollowstone had been a different person. For years, Valencia saved up every gold coin she made selling various potions and different types of food and drink to wary travelers that traveled through the drought-devastated and war-worn land her settlement sat on. Finally, she had made up enough to attend the College of Aldmeri Propriety in Auridon. With heavy-heart and a few tears, she departed from Valenwood for the Summerset Isle. Leaving her settlement and family behind, dreams of becoming a powerful mage that could help her family leave the destitution of the settlement behind for a better life in Elden Root or Marbruk.

Her hope dimmed almost immediately upon arrival at the College of Aldmeri Propriety. She arrived late at night and was first introduced to the cruelty and punishments doled out by the instructed when dinner was withheld, then she met her fellow Bosmer and the Khajiiti students attending the college... It took all her willpower not to turn around and run back towards the docks--back towards home. However, she knew that wasn't possible. She did not want to disappoint her family, not to mention she had no money for the return trip...

About two weeks into her stay at the College, word arrived that her settlement had been raided and torn apart. The few that survived had disbanded, going wherever the few remaining horses and caravans could carry them. She had yet to receive word from her family--her parents and two younger siblings.

After another two weeks of beatings and withheld food, Valencia laid on the dirt ground of the woods the college and knew that she could no longer remain at this place. This place had hardened her, destroyed her hope, and left her a hollow shell of who she had once been. She didn't have the money to return home, but then she didn't even have a home to return to.

She laid there for a long time before getting to her feet and making her way through the woods towards the stone road. Once there she picked a direction and wandered along the road into the pitch-black night. She felt like she had been wandering for hours when a strong gust of wind blow through the land, causing the torches along the road to go out. Casting a simple lighting spell, Valencia carried on, until her pains and hunger caught up with her. She stopped and sat along the side of the road, waiting for daylight to come.

El had been scouting the wood nearby a local college for attendees that had escaped. Without luck thus far. The two she had found died within the hour of her stumbling upon them from lack of food and their severe injuries. As she had no knowledge of healing magicks she was unable to save either of them. She was giving up hope of finding someone in decent enough condition who could provide her with some kind of information of what was happening within the four walls of this college. Her information already was vague, she had only been told where to go and that she must find out who was causing this disparity at the institution. It was not much to go on. Her bow was aching for some kind of action.

As she turned down a narrow, worn foot path near a road when she caught a flicker of light in her peripheral. She pulled her hood up over her head and her mask high covering her face so only her eyes peeked out with a red glow in the night and headed toward the light on the road. Tentatively, she approached, so not to scare the thin, ill looking Bosmer sitting along side the lane. "Do you need help, Miss?" she asked cautiously, coming around the front of the Bosmer and kneeling beside her.

Valencia looked fearfully up at the hooded figure that appeared before her. She hadn't even heard her approach. Who would be out this time of night? "What do you want?" She croaked out, reaching for her inferno staff before remembering that she her last instructor had broken it. She briefly wondered if the darkness of night would fool the woman before her.

The shame that stemmed from her helplessness overwhelmed her. There was no way she could protect herself against this woman, just like she had been from the instructors at the college. Her magical abilities may have caused her settlement to be in awe of her, but upon leaving she realized she knew next to nothing about using magic as a combat tactic. Abandoning the broken staff, she pulled her knees up to her chest to reveal her ragged pants caked in dirt and blood. Come to think of it, Valencia Stonehollow was covered in dirt and mud herself, hiding the body and face paint that she often used to celebrate her culture.

Tears started to form in her eyes, so Valencia shut her eyes and willed them not to fall. She clutched the necklace in her other hand tighter, not even realizing she'd taken it out of her pocket--nothing more than a piece of twine with a few wooden beads and animal teeth on it--and took a calming breath. "I-I don't know where to go now." She cursed at herself for stuttering.

"What brought you to this piece of road?" El asked reaching into her pack rummaging for something. She pulled out a water skein and offered it to the Bosmer woman who was trying to hide her emotions, though clearly she was upset.

"I-I couldn't take it anymore." Valencia glanced at the water suspiciously but took it. She was so thirsty. She hadn't been able to stop at the river for a drink before her escape, so her own bottle was empty. After she took a drink of the water, she continued to answer the mysterious woman's question. "I couldn't stay at the College any longer." Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at the Bosmer. "You can't make me go back--I'll kill you if you try."

Dropping the necklace onto the ground beside her, she grabbed the broken staff. "Even if that means I die trying." She stumbled back a few feet. However, she was too weak to make it all that far and was rather so slow, at that. The memories of that place fueling her words and actions.

Slightly amused by the Bosmer's insistence to fight her El picks up the dropped necklace from the ground. Not at all threatened by her broken staff, "Put down your weapon. I'm not here to make you go back." She hands her the necklace her palm up, arm outstretched. "Though, I might ask if you can tell me about the College," she looks at her worried. "If you feel up to it," she adds quickly. "Well, I suppose before we get into that, let me start with your name," she added as an afterthought.

"Why do you want to know about the college?" Still skeptical of El's intentions, Valencia hesitated before dropping the broken staff. She wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight anyway. Her eyes widened when she saw the necklace in El's hand--she couldn't believe she'd dropped it. Snatching the necklace from El, she clutches it close to her. After another few minutes of studying El, she finally caved in. "You can call me Valencia," refusing to give her last name to the stranger. She repeated her earlier question. "Why do you want to know about the college?"

El watched Valencia's reactions with interest. She was used to her informants being extremely skittish, as most had suffered extreme traumas it could hardly be helped. She spoke in a low, soothing tone, so not to raise any alarm in the woman, "I'm curious about the happenings at this so called College," she faltered but then continued on, "There have been rumors about some of the methods used on the students. I wonder if you know anything of this."

"It-It's not all of the students..." Valencia commented. "Just the Khajiiti and Bosmer students..." Her voice wavering slightly as she continued, as if by some means the instructors would hear and punish her. "They yell at us constantly for things beyond our control and push us so hard..."

She pauses to take another swig of the water El had given her. "They beat us, and if we are bad enough they send us into these caverns below the school with all these beast." Her voice is distant, as if recalling her own memories. "All the while, withholding food and water from us..."

She was shaking by the time she finished. However, her eyes held a fire that told of her anger and of an inner strength that still existed within her despite the abuse and hardships. This would not be the last of Valencia Hollowstone.

Nodded listening intently. "So these Altmer think it's ok to treat the students this way?" Did you do anything when they did these things to you? Say anything, or retaliate?" El asked thinking a moment, after Valencia recounted the events.

"Obviously I did at first..." Valencia sat the water down and glanced up at El. "But, it is just going to get you killed faster..." She explained. "If you retaliate, they push you harder, hand out harder punishments, and longer time frames for the punishments." She remembered the days she spent down in that cave for retaliating.

(Scene Skip from In-Game Roleplay)

"Really?" Valencia asked upon El informing her about the Mages Guild recruiting young mages into their ranks and halls. "Do you really think someone like me stands a chance of getting into an organization like that?" She looks down at the ground, "My...my father said that I wasn't good enough to bother with 'it' as a hobby..."

She paused for a moment in thought about the words she had just heard. "I couldn't make it at the College." The words were said so quietly that they were almost to herself. "How do I expect to approach the Mages Guild? 'Oh, hey, I just quit the College of Aldmeri Propriety. Do you think I could join you guys?' I don't even have a working staff anymore..."