He hears a scream from far below

It's never bloody, with Ashera. Just pain, pain, pain.

(Come to think of it, has he ever even seen an Aionios soldier, Kevesi or Agnian, bleed? It's red when you husk your way to the finish line, and gold if they're gilding your cage, but...only black blood, which doesn't register as blood at all, just bile.)

He's not sure he ever had so much pain - stabbing and shooting, more than just a general sense of ill.

But it's a hell of a yoke, when you can't even see it. No such thing as bleeding just to know you're alive.