Glad you like Sefa, CD. She's one of my faves, too.
She awoke to a throbbing head, chained up naked against a wall. The sneering face that greeted her was unmistakeable in its ugliness. The wizard Bandicut! "So," he gloated, "my little spy is awake. You did not reckon with a wizard's skill in discovering pursuit and hostile intent. Aren't you are the one that I saw in the company of the cursed Galadria? You are one of her minions, do not deny it" he slapped her twice, then hit her with a balled-up fist in the belly, "talk, or that skin that you are so proud of will be nothing but oozing ulcers." He went to a table, picked up some pincers and squeezed her cheek. "While you live, which will not be long."
Sefa glared defiance through her swelling eye. "I have no secrets from you or anyone. I serve the great and good Lady Galadria, if that is what you want to know. I am not afraid of you, either, because I know that if you hurt me, she will take it out on your ugly hide." He pinched her again, hard, and she had to grit her teeth not to scream.
"More respect from you, bitch," he snarled. "What has this Galadria of yours doing that is so special? My researches have revealed to me that she is hoarding some artifact of great power. What is it? Where has she hidden it? Tell me." He switched his pincers to the skin under her arms and then her fingers. She finally began to scream, but she stubbornly refused to talk again, and in the end, she passed out from the pain.
She awoke wet from a bucket of water that he had dashed on her. She felt various aches and paains, but felt reasonably intact. She glared at her captor again. He smirked. "Awake again? Let us continue." He took up a knife this time and grasped her e again. "Tell me what your mistress hides, or you shall be looking at this laying on the floor." He gloated into her determined face, but then was surprised when her expression turned to one of triumph.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" she crowed. "For there she is behind you."
The wizard scowled. "Don't try that old trick on me, wench," he began, but was interrupted by a cold voice from his rear.
"If you let my apprentice go, and stand away from her, I might let you live long enough to answer some questions of my own," said a woman's voice.
The wizard whirled about, and there was, not only Galadria, but a huge man in armor with a sword pointed at his breast. Behind them stood Odo, Cythera, Noemi, and Chorania. He glanced at his door, which he had thought warded and trapped, and it just wasn't there anymore. He turned back to his enemies and saw fury and hatred on their faces. He tried suavity. "Lady Galadria, I presume?" he tried to bow. "If this is your servant, I am sorry to have...damaged her. I thought her a thief out to rob me. The Mages of Halruua will recompense you."
"Too late, Bandicut," Galadria replied. "I heard most of that little speech from outside your door. Noemi! Release Sefa."
The little redhead merely gestured and spoke a word, and Sefa's shackles fell off easily. Instead of collapsing or running to her friends, however, she leapt upon the deformed wizard and raked his face with her short but sharp fingernails. He screamed and jumped back, streaming blood.