Except....Scarlet had tracked her human father's scent and infilitrated Yoni's palace herself. She was captured but gained the Labyrinth Lord's attention. She learned that Paul was going to be sent to fight against terrible monsters in the arena and insisted that she fight in her father's place for his freedom, and the Labyrinth Lord was....intrigued, to see how strong this dragon was. He agreed and Scarlet joined a group of adventurers and slaves fighting for gold and their own freedom.
Paul learned after the fact what had happened from the Labyrinth Lord himself, who seemed to have taken an uncharacteristically somber tone in his voice. Scarlet had fought for him, and she had died. Paul demanded to see her body. The Labyrinth Lord told the guards to bring her in.
What Paul saw...was a m u m m i f i e d dragon, whose bandages were stained with blood. Even though her body was throughly covered, Polyouketos could tell....what had been done to her.
"Explain this." Paul spoke, staring at the face that w a s n o t.
Apparently, after the Labyrinth Lord and most of the audience had left, one of the gladiators ( h e h a d m i s s e d w h i c h o n e ), the same who fought alongside Scarlet, who Scarlet had helped survive the games, had d e f i l e d her body and crudely c u t away her dragon scales.
The great most high Labyrinth Lord (Y o n i ) spoke of how he had learned of what happened to the young dragon, and had felt like i t had fought ( e n t e r t a i n e d ) h i m too bravely to be treated so dishonorably, and so he had i t embalmed and had agreed to release Polyeuktos so that he could b u r y i t.
The exalted Labyrinth Lord (Y o n i) said some other words, from somewhere worlds away, but Paul wasn't listening. He had failed to protect her. Her whole life, he had been failing her, but she always, always, always had stayed focused on her one true goal in life, trying to make him and others happy. And he had just kept taking.
....it wasn't just him.
The WORLD had kept taking from her. She came to do what she thought was right, to try and answer for crimes she didn't fully understand she committed, and Y o n i had her fight horrible monsters so h e could watch her wings get perferated by arrows to allieviate h i s b o r e d o m. Her fellow gladiator had profitted from her being there, even if she was just a n o t h e r t a r g e t t o b e s h o t a t, and then that person t o o k m o r e. And Paul was just supposed to take care of the rest himself while Y o n i did one nice thing and then he'd be allowed to wash his hands of it and forget it all?
AND PAUL COULD STILL LET HIM DO IT! ANYTHING TO WALK FREE! EVEN NOW! HIS OPPURTUNISTIC! CRIMINAL MIND! WAS THINKING! OF WHO HE COULD SELL WHAT WAS LEFT OF S C A R L E T'S BODY TO! FOR THE MOST CASH!
Paul was laughing hysterically in the cell. He felt like a great and terrible hatred was being directed at....nowhere. Everywhere.
The Labyrinth Lord, a man far more powerful than Polyouktos in authoirty, reputation, and actual strength, stepped back out into the gaol hallway, his face unreadable as ever behind his mask, as the guards closed ranks around him, pointing their polearms at Paul.
"Prisoner! Control yourself!" barked one guard.
"Show proper gratitude to your lord, peasant!" barked the other.
Polyouktos fingered the shiv he had secretly hidden up his sleeve.
"You know.....you're right. Thank you. For bandaging my daughter. And for helping me see the truth. But I just can't."
Without another word, Polyouktos pulled out his shiv and prepared to throw it right at the Labyrinth Lord, except at that moment he was struck down.
The Labyrinth Lord hadn't intented for things to escalate so quickly, but he still felt the need to have his servants prepare both bodies for burial in a state funereal.
.....
However, to the disquiet of all involved, the bodies had b o t h d i s a p p e a r e d, replaced by the bodies of the undertakers who were to perform the funeary preparation....
Polyouktos' soul shall wonder the earth for an entire year unless he either kills Labyrinth Lord, or finds someway to restore Scarlet to life and tell her how very sorry he is. That second one is unlikely, but its the path Polyouktos has chosen to dedicate his unlife to because he has seen the "impenetrable" boundry the gods built between life and death and, quite frankly, he is NOT IMPRESSED....
