Fiaethe couldn't remember how merely existing became so painful. She'd blacked out sometime after being tossed into the air by earth magic. Earth magic. How hadn't she seen that coming? How were the others on their feet?
Fiaethe rolled onto her stomach as she focused on Aeotha's voice giving a stern speech and immediately regretted it. There was something about broken ribs; even in never breaking anything before, she knew exactly why she couldn't breathe without wanting to vomit. Her hands trembled against the dust and jagged stone. She was certain that she'd broken other things too. She'd landed hard on the uneven ground and had managed to twist her left arm in an unnatural way. Her dress was torn. Fiaethe was doing her best not to think about it, to struggle and get herself up too. She failed at first.
Maybe another try.
She wasn't giving herself good odds in the fight to survive. Being realistic seemed more important. Blood dripped her lips onto the stone. Did she cut herself? Was it from inside her mouth?
Were they really still talking?
Fiaethe got a glimpse of their attacker. That Grey Elf. The woman had displayed air magic and some sort of strange holy magic, but Fiaethe hadn't pinned her to have connections with earth.
Your time is running out. she had said.
Fiaethe pushed herself up again and felt the edges of her vision darken from the pain of it. She slapped her hand on the stone floor to snap herself out of it. If Elemmire was going to go ahead and kill her, why not turn her into dust? Why hadn't that come yet? Why wasn't she dust? Oh well. Fiaethe wasn't about to ask. She would play a trick with the earth back -- the stone that Elemmire stood on suddenly turned to mud and then hardened again around her ankles. Rock and ice.
Fiaethe slipped and failed again to get to her feet. She was going to die. Drow, Elves, it didn't matter. She wondered why her oath had to be so hard to keep.
"Punch her in the head," Fiaethe suggested, after one ugly wheeze of a breath. She tried not to think about that either. "It worked well for the Drow."