Chapter Text
By the time they burst through the door it was lying motionless on the floor. It’s psychic imprint was just empty noise like rushing water. They walked up to the first set of columns and tried to see if it was breathing. They couldn’t tell.
They wanted to get closer. It was alive but they didn’t know how badly it was hurt. On the other hand, if it woke up, well. It had a body count.
The noise in it’s head peaked and crested, and dropped it back into consciousness. It’s head was silent again, until the pain faded into it’s entire body. Breathing hurt it. It groaned.
I might be able to help but I need to look at you.
It ignored them.
I need to know you won’t hurt me.
It didn’t trust them. It thought, no it knew, viscerally, that they would hurt it and was determined to hit first. Thank you, Maziah.
They tried to feel what it felt, see if they could discern where it was hurt and how badly and they realized something.
They took a chance and stepped past the metal columns. They felt a jolt inside it’s mind, trying to force it’s legs under it but it’s knee screamed in pain. It tried moving it’s arms but…
They kneeled down beside it and looked it over. It’s wrist was skinned through to the tendon, the shoulder was out of the socket, the other wrist had an extra bend where there wasn’t one before, it’s head and knee were swelling and fresh red bruises were blooming everywhere.
Why did you do this?
A thought almost passed it’s mind but it aborted it, staying carefully blank.
They let out a rattling sigh.
What the hell. No. She was not going to drink that. Smelling it turned her stomach; it wasn’t going into her mouth. What the fuck-
How do you not know what this is?
What?
It had called it’s friends and their servants had successfully gotten her onto a stretcher, down the hall, and into a room with long metal tables. They’d all left after that, leaving it alone to gather supplies and offer something to drink that she was pretty sure was poison.
On the surface it’s a popular-. Nevermind. Just choke it down. I’ll pour into the back of your mouth; just swallow.
What the fuck-
I am trying to be nice.
No!!!
It stared at her a long moment before quickly leaning back and throwing the liquid into… what was probably it’s mouth… Before doubling over onto the table next to her and slamming it’s fist down on it a few times. It laid there shaking for a few moments before tentatively standing back up. It kept itself propped up against the table.
See? Poison.
You’re already trying to kill yourself why do you care?
They stared at each other for a long moment.
She wasn’t trying to die. Probably. Now that she thought about it she didn’t particularly care.
So why do you care if it’s poison?
Maybe it was slow painful poison. Their kind liked slow, painful things.
I have never hurt you.
Yet.
FINE. Fine. You are correct. This will hurt. Significantly.
It leaned over and grabbed her arm with both hands and started yanking on it. She screamed. She couldn’t help but scream. And it just kept going and going and doing whatever the fuck it was doing and her other arm didn’t work and she tried kicking with the one leg that did but her hip locked and that hurt too and it did not stop and she just wanted to kill it but she couldn’t even move her other arm
That’s exactly why I did this one first.
It coughed a little and rested for a moment. Her arm hurt like it had broken it all over again.
Again, do you want some of this? It will dull the pain.
Fuck. Fuck it. Fine.
Tip your chin up. Move your tongue. You don’t want to taste it. I’m going to pour a little and you need to swallow right away. Ready?
It burned all the way down to her stomach.
It pulled back and leaned on one arm again.
What now?
We wait for it to absorb into- it turned away suddenly and convulsed. She heard the contents of it’s stomach hit the ground.
Fucking lying-
My stomach and brain are different from yours.
Bullshit.
Wait, just wait.
For what?
Iit turned and puked again, then dropped to it’s knees holding on to the table with it’s hands. It will dull the pain but it needs time. It won’t be too long. You shouldn’t vomit laying back like that anyway. You’ll breathe it back in.
She looked down at her arm. It was wrapped in cloth. There was something hard wrapped in with it, holding her arm out straight. It still hurt. What the hell?
It would heal anyway, I just did my best to make sure it will heal similar to how to was before. Don’t mess with it. It pulled itself up on the table next to her and laid back with one arm over it’s face.
Why was it doing this?
It’s my function. Fortunately I’ve done that many times before. It’s a common injury.
What? What was it’s function? Keeping her alive so they could keep torturing her?
Something like that.
She tentatively tried to pull up a little lightning but the shock ran right up her broken arm and made her cry out a little. Her other arm was still useless.
I told you not to mess with it.
Fuck you.
Or don’t listen to me. I suppose I can’t stop you. It didn’t say anything else for at least a few minutes, but finally it asked are you hungry?
What
You’re always a little hungry aren’t you? You don’t eat well. It pulled itself up and swung it’s legs around. I’ll be right back. It paused, and somehow managing to telepathically impart sarcasm, added, Don’t go anywhere.
It came back about a minute later with a small cloth sack. It pulled out some small chunks of… something… out and offered them to her.
And this was…?
Dried cave fish.
It pushed some towards her mouth and she reluctantly took a bite. It was mostly salty and chewy, but also a little bit savory. It was, technically speaking real food though. It gave her some more.
It’s the protein in the processed food you’ve been offered.
She got through maybe half the small bag before it set the bag aside. That’s the best I’ve ever seen you eat. How does your arm feel?
It still hurt, but was oddly more distant.
Good. We’ll do the other arm then.
She wasn’t really ready, but she wasn’t going to be, and she did want her arm back.
It leaned on her collarbone and started moving her arm in circles. It hurt, but at the same time it hurt far away.
She woke up on the floor of a different box. Her left arm still hurt, but it was usable. She tried to draw up some lightning again but it just jolted through the right one painfully without forming into anything useful.
This box was small. Far too small. The other one had been too small too, the empty weight of rock bearing down a comparatively tiny pocket of air. This one was a fraction of the size. It was big enough to walk in, if you counted two or three steps as walking. It had bars too, but only one set.
It looked out into a long hall of cells on either side. There was a grating, dragging sound approaching around the far right corner. The stitched together mess appeared finally, and slowly dragged it’s way past. It paused as it went by, for just a moment, looked her up and down with an uncharacteristic sharpness.
It must have told it’s master, because a few minutes later, the latter appeared. It looked her over as well.
You should rest the knee longer
It suddenly jumped forward and threw a hand out between the bars to grab at them. Something about it’s magic had been disrupted though, and the pain almost blacked out it’s vision. They grabbed it by the front of it’s shirt before it could topple backwards and slid down with it into a pile on the floor. It’s eyes half opened and it stared back at them hatefully with it’s cheek pressed into one of the bars.
The bizarre thing was that it almost wasn’t even psychically resilient; it was just psychically intangible. Grasping at it’s thoughts was like grasping at air. They could tell what it was thinking easily enough it was just impossible to insert a command or dig for information. The thoughts were fast too. There was almost never any time between a thought and an action.
Just as impulsively, it slapped it’s good hand against their shoulder. The malice was there, but it was just so physically weak. They couldn’t help but laugh. They knew they shouldn’t; this specimen was genuinely dangerous. It was just so full of deep animosity, and yet completely incapable of doing anything about it.
It was laughing. At first she wasn’t sure what that sound was, but it was definitely laughing. She was going to kill it. She didn’t know how yet, but she would figure it out.