by Thomas Green
Kayleanne’s face turned sour. “Aren’t you over that already? Geesh, you sure like to whine over old stuff, don’t you?”
“Old stuff? It hasn’t been a week since you murdered him!”
Kayleanne rolled her eyes. “It was a battle, so it doesn’t count as a murder, and also, I was planning to kill all of you anyway, so it’s not like the order in which I did it seemed to matter.”
Luna stared at her in utter disbelief. “Was that… an apology?”
Kayleanne blushed as she turned her gaze toward the ground. “It felt like a great stunt to behead him, so his head falls into your lap, but in retrospect, it was cruel and unfair. I got carried away. Sorry.”
Luna knew not what to say. She believed her. Every word, every move the demon princess before her made screamed how embarrassed and sorry she was. “Why would you care?”
“Because I want to be better than that.” Kayleanne’s eyes filled with sadness. “But it doesn’t always work out, especially when I get excited over something.”
Luna tried not to stutter, without success. “Why would you get excited over me?”
“I’ve met one werewolf before, Alexei, and well, he was a lot of fun.” Nostalgia passed through Kayleanne’s expression before her face twisted by a playful smile. “So, can you shift your crotch?”
Luna’s mouth gaped. “Can I… what?”
“You don’t know? Oh, girl, you are missing on a ton of fun.” Kayleanne giggled. “From how Alexei explained it shifting is turning a part of your body into how would the beast have it in a compatible form. And since the wolf spirits are huge, you can make big teeth, big muscles, big claws but also a big… well.” She turned red, licking her lips at a memory that now played before her eyes while she stared at Luna’s bare crotch.
“How… how would you know that? The statue is of you killing the werewolf, killing Alexei!”
Kayleanne sighed. “Well, yes. But before he decided to be an idiot, we were lovers. And he was good, so good. You know, when men say they will love you for the whole night, what they mean is the first fifteen minutes. But with shifting, you can shift it back to being up when it goes down, so he really lasted the entire night.”
Luna turned red, but couldn’t help herself asking. “How did you end up killing someone you… used to bed?”
“By him being an idiot, that’s how!” Kayleanne’s cheeks flared up. “He always had his mouth full of freedom, of traveling, of adventures. While I did hate him for always leaving straight after we were done shagging, I loved his stories and the feelings they gave me.”
Kayleanne took a pause as if reading from an invisible book before continuing. “And then I found out his group of friends was a bandit troupe and, worse, they raided the village where I was hunting down the wyvern that was eating the farmer’s sheep.” She sighed. “I was a ruler of the lands, a beloved one on top of that. Kayleanne, the Hero of Spalding. I had to fight them. I told him mid-battle to let me capture them, so I could imprison them for a week and then arrange their escape. But he, the idiot, wouldn’t do it, saying he would rather die than be chained, fighting me seriously.”
Kayleanne formed a painful smile. “It was a great fight, but since then, I’m back to romantic novels and my hand.” She ran her fingers through the humongous, thick fur wrapping her. “At least now he keeps me warm at night.”
Luna gulped, wondering if she would end up like Alexei. Dead with her fur skinned to keep a demon princess warm. “Then why would you try to kill me?”
“Because I have to.” Kayleanne’s face turned serious. “The Order isn’t here to conquer the lands, it’s here to kill Ur’Thul’Gar, Ebilezerhar and me. I refuse to die, and if there’s one thing I had learned from Lucas, it’s that the best way to solve these conflicts is to kill everyone who wants to kill you.”
Luna narrowed her eyes. “Lucas said you once were someone dear to him. What happened between you two?”
Kayleanne smiled, but there was no joy behind the gesture, no happiness. “We were close, once, a master and an apprentice. But then he abandoned me, disappeared for over a century and now has reappeared to kill me.”
“You don’t seem to hate him for it.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. In the end, he fulfilled all the promises he had given me, all of what I once considered miracles happened as he swore me it would. Anyway.” Her gaze sharpened. “Tell me what he’s planning, and I will let you go. Don’t tell me and well, you will end up having it forced out of you.”
Luna’s face turned to stone. “I will never betray them.”
Kayleanne sighed. “Then I am sorry for what is about to happen to you.” She reached for a dagger and threw it at Luna, hitting her thigh. This time, the poison worked fast, knocking her out in but a moment.
25
Luna
A sting of pain from her side woke Luna up, her heartbeat quickening. She looked at the source, seeing Nancy standing next to her, holding a hollow needle buried into Luna’s armpit to push into her vein a transparent liquid from a vial through the attached tube.
Luna was tied as before, still naked, but now in a stone room. A chair stood by the wall before her while there were tables scattered around the chamber, holding various tools made of steel, all of them sharp or spiky or both.
Luna reached for her aether, but she couldn’t. She poisoned me with something. Terror flooded her veins as she felt a contraption of steel in her mouth, blocking her from closing it altogether. She gulped, looking at Nancy who still wore her Palai uniform. “What are you doing?”
Nancy’s face twisted into a friendly smile. “Sorry, but I will need to ask you some questions.”
Luna’s heartbeat kept speeding up. “What do you mean?”
“You know a few things I need to know myself, and if you tell me, I won’t hurt you.”
Luna’s blood froze as the realization of her situation dawned upon her. “Who are you and what have you done to Nancy?”
The girl smiled. “I am Nancy.”
Luna stared at her, wishing this was but a bad dream. Everything was the same. The face, the smile, the eyes, the posture, the tone, the mimicry, the uniform, the touch, everything. This was Nancy. “What will you do to me?”
Nancy shrugged and reached for a table containing vials, picked one and attached it to the tube by a hollow needle that was still stuck inside Luna’s armpit. She walked to the side of the room to pick a bucket. “I don’t know yet. I mean, I will kill you, at some point, but whether I do more depends on what you tell me.” She brought the bucket to place it onto the ground around the middle between Luna’s legs.
Luna gulped, trying not to show her fear. “Then why aren’t you asking questions?”
Nancy laughed, merrily, as if she told a good joke and they were sitting by a campfire on a trip. “I need to set things up first. The bucket’s there to catch what comes out of you when you soil yourself from pain.” She leaned onto Luna, placing her ear onto her chest. “Your heart is beating nicely, so it looks like the toxin I injected into you is doing its work. It will keep you fully awake no matter how much you want to pass out.”
Luna braced herself for her voice to sound as firm as it could. “If you plan to torture me, you are wasting your time. I am more than used to pain.”
Nancy giggled. “That’s what everyone says. They also mostly think they wouldn’t break, that they wouldn’t betray their friends or cause or whatever else. They all lie. Everyone breaks and you will too.” She reached for a long, thin knife and stabbed it into Luna’s arm, severing the tendon that held her biceps.
Luna screamed in pain while Nancy withdrew the blade, examining the wound. Nancy smiled, poking at the unhinged muscle. “You know, I’ve always wanted to play with someone who could regenerate.” She reached for the vial by the needle and raised it, forcing its contents into Luna’s vein.
Strength slowly returned to Luna’s body, her aether breaking through the seal like light piercing through
clouds. The moment the wound on her arm healed, Nancy removed the needle. She put the vial and the needle back next to the other vials with a smile. “There. This should be the point where you can regenerate but cannot control the aether enough to shift.”
Luna reached for her aether, tried to mold it, shape it, filled her body with it. She couldn’t.
Nancy stepped before her. “Now, what’s Lucas’ next move?”
Luna’s eyes widened. “How would I know that?”
Nancy grabbed a spiked mace from a nearby table and slammed it into Luna’s stomach. She shrieked and shook as the spikes tore into her flesh, blinding her mind with pain. Nancy put the mace back as if nothing happened. “Look at that, it’s already fully regenerated.” She ran her hand by Luna’s cheek, catching the tears sliding down Luna’s face with her fingers. “We will have so much fun together.” She pecked her a kiss and walked to the back of the room.
Luna’s mind raced, trying to conjure a story that would be both untrue and believable at the same time. An explosion of pain disrupted her thoughts as something sharp and heavy sunk into her back, tearing her skin and flesh straight next to her spine.
Nancy leaned to her, slowly sliding the tool downward, severing through Luna’s body. “Nothing beats unexpected pain, doesn’t it?” She jerked the object from Luna, allowing her to regenerate.
While Luna tried to catch her breath and refocus her thoughts, Nancy piled up coal beneath Luna’s heels and around her feet.
As panic overwhelmed Luna’s senses, she struggled against the shackles with all the strength she could muster. In vain. Nancy splashed whale oil over the coal and Luna’s feet and set it ablaze. The pain from the fire scorching Luna’s skin and flesh only for it to regenerate to be burned again was beyond what she had ever imagined. The smell of burning flesh soon filled the air, mixed with Luna’s screams of pain and despair.
Nancy threw her a playful smile. “Why don’t you hang here for a bit while I go grab a meal?” She swung the spiked mace at Luna’s stomach. When the blinding pain subsided, allowing Luna’s eyes to regain her sight, she saw Nancy leaving through the door. She tried to struggle, to move to avoid the flames. She couldn’t. She tried to bite her own tongue to breathe in her blood. She couldn’t. Unable to do anything but keep burning and screaming with pain, Luna hung in the bindings.
Nancy returned half an hour later with a plate full of smoked meat, fruits, and bread. When she passed by Luna, she slammed the spiked mace into her midsection once more before she sat down on the chair with a satisfied smile. “I was right. You are a lot of fun.”
Sweat covered Luna while her throat was hoarse from screaming as the flame still burned beneath her feet. Despite all the maddening pain, her heart was beating fast, keeping her senses sharp and her mind awake.
Nancy ate her meal before putting the plate away and going to the side to slide open the window to allow fresh air to enter the room. She turned to Luna afterward. “Do you feel ready to answer questions or are you not convinced yet?”
Luna didn’t bother to struggle in her chains but glowered at Nancy anyway. “Go to… hell.”
Nancy laughed. “Where do you think we’ve come from? Kayleanne, Collward, Ur’Thul’Gar, Lucas, I… Hell was once our home.” As Luna stared at her, she walked to the table filled with knives and other tools made for torture. “Now, I wonder what we should start with. Kayleanne said she will want you looking whole during the first day so she could trade you for something if her idea works. I suppose I should do something inconspicuous, at least for now.” She grabbed a long, thin knife and walked to Luna.
The scent of Nancy’s flowery perfume drove Luna into a frenzy, making her struggle once more. As she didn’t move, terror and despair became the dancing partners to the ever-present pain.
Nancy stepped before her, running the blade by Luna’s skin. “You know, one of the most fun parts of torture is cutting the tendons that hold muscles to the bones.” She reached to Luna’s shoulder, sunk the blade into her skin and severed the hold her biceps had on the bone.
If Luna’s heart wasn’t forced to beat by the toxin, the sharp bolt of pain that shot through her body would have knocked her out. But it didn’t, making her entire body shake with pain. Nancy giggled. “That wasn’t a bad scream.” She grabbed the spiked mace and struck Luna’s stomach, tearing through the entire area, forcing Luna to scream even louder.
“This never gets old.” Nancy laughed and put the weapon back. “I retract what I said. I won’t kill you, but I will keep you as a pet to play with whenever I get bored.” Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Luna’s leg and slashed the tendons behind her knee.
Luna lost all sense of time. All she felt was pain, emptiness, and despair, for Nancy kept relentlessly stabbing and cutting her body, severing tendons, splitting muscles from bones, and then again and again as everything regenerated. Luna directed all her thoughts, all her hopes to the moment her aether would run out, the moment her regeneration would stop, the moment death would welcome her in its sweet embrace.
When Nancy slammed the spiked mace into Luna’s stomach to announce she would replace the coal for at least the tenth time, she realized her regeneration had stopped. Beneath her knees, only charred remains of her legs hung on her bones. Finally. She closed her eyes, hoping the end would find her soon.
Luna heard Nancy replaced the coal beneath what was left of Luna’s calves and feet, but did not light it. Instead, she rose, grabbed Luna’s head, jerked it forward and used a thin, sharp knife to cut out her eyelids, forcing her eyes to stay open. With a calm smile, she said, “you would be surprised how fast human eyes dry out and how painful it is.” She slid her hands by Luna’s exhausted body. With a few quick slices of the knife, she severed the tendons in Luna’s armpits and elbows, making her fall even lower in a maddening explosion of pain. “So, feel like answering my questions?”
Luna remained silent.
Nancy shrugged and walked to the table with the vials and started mixing a concoction. She threw Luna and amused smile. “You really are a lot of fun.” Dozen minutes later, she finished mixing the elixir, put it to the tube and approached Luna to stab the hollow needle into her vein. As she poured the liquid into her, Luna’s insides swelled, absorbing the liquefied aether Nancy was dripping into her veins. Filled by utter horror, Luna felt her legs reform, her eyelids recreate themselves, and her tendons and muscles reattach into their location.
Nancy grinned. “Now, I wonder what we should do in the next round.” She collected steel drills, pliers, and thin saws onto another table. “I think we will go for drilling and sawing out bones. That’s always a lot of fun. Though there are so many things I want to try with you, I’ve got so little time…”
That wasn’t it? Luna’s resolve shattered. She exploded into tears, whispering among the sobs. “He plans to destroy the dam… up the Celleon River, using the black orb we stole from the pirates.”
Nancy placed her hand on Luna’s cheek. “See? Not that hard. Now, how about you give me a rundown of what you know of his abilities and the aether manifestations of everyone else around him?”
Feeling like the worst being to have ever existed in the world, Luna did. She answered every question, gave out every detail, said every secret of everyone she knew, hoping it would bring her the end, or at least stop the next round from happening.
Once Nancy ran out of questions to ask, her face split by a sad smile. “Shame I have to go set up the ambush by the dam. I would have so loved to have a few more rounds with you, but ah well, one can’t have everything.” Her visage shifted as if all her clothes and body were made of tiny scales that shimmered and twisted. Luna stared at the frail girl before her, who turned into a strikingly handsome man with auburn hair and green-black robes with the symbol of a snake etched onto its chest. “Back to your question about Nancy, well, I killed her before she boarded the ship, so it’s not like you had ever met her.”
He closed his eyes to focus. T
he scales making his entire being shifted again, turning him into a mirror image of Luna. She kept staring at her, adjusting his transformation to look exactly like her. “Looks good. All right, why don’t you hang in here while I go have fun?” the not-Luna said in the voice perfectly matching her own.
Luna stared at him walking away, feeling worse than she ever thought possible. Through the open door, she heard the not-Luna talk to the guards, telling them she’s done here and that Kayleanne can now have her turn.
As the toxin that kept Luna’s heart beating ran out, the sweet embrace of unconsciousness finally took her.
***
Cold but painless, Luna woke up lying on her side in a room, wrapped in a sheet of cloth. She saw nobody else inside the wooden hall with a stone floor. She tried to turn her head, but couldn’t. Her arms and legs refused her call, leaving her eyeballs the only part of the body she could move.
A foot-long centipede skittered on the floor before her, stopping as a girl in Palai uniform stepped to it. Nancy. Looking like the first day they had met, Nancy ducked above the centipede, petted the insect and motioned to Luna with a broad smile. “There.”
The centipede turned, heading toward Luna. Her eyes widened, staring at the pointy legs and vicious pincers. As the insect was approaching her, others appeared, skittering behind it while Nancy walked out of her sight. Luna tried to jump up, to strike out with her hand. She couldn’t. The centipede crawled up on her face, its pointy legs stabbing her skin as its pincers kept clicking around her ear. Other centipedes came closer, skittering toward her. Luna tried to move, to scream, to fight. She couldn’t. The centipedes swarmed over her, crawling on her body, their legs jabbing at every inch of her skin.
The centipede on her head slid toward Luna’s mouth, poking its pincers at her lips, tearing out a piece in a surge of pain. Luna couldn’t even shriek in pain. The centipede forced herself between her lips, entering her mouth, skittering down her throat. Other came, following the first one, entering Luna’s insides. She felt their legs in her throat, diving toward her stomach.