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May. 2nd, 2023 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iniquiticityastrid tortures essek to save him
Astrid gave the Nein four days. In those four days, she heard about three break-ins the prison. No one was ever captured, but no prisoners were freed.
Four days later, she went to the prison. She did not have to break into the prison. The guards took a step back and opened the door for her in silence.
Essek was naked, bloodied and battered on the floor of the cell. Barbarian wounds, vollstrecker called them - the guards kicking him idly because they were upset he was the cause of break-ins. Nothing like what she was about to do to him, she thought, nudging him with her boot. His head lolled for a moment before he came to consciousness, one eye fluttering open, the other swollen shut. The open eye recognized her.
You have four days to rescue him or give me a plan that isn't impossibly incriminating, she had said to them. Or else I have a plan, which is not incriminating, and you are not going to like.
Caleb had stared at her. He knew what she planned. He had not even bothered to convince her otherwise.
Don't you love him? he had asked, on day two. They had been in his house. The green beans were growing out front.
Did she love him? Essek was brilliant and excellent in bed. He had a quick wit that had almost made Astrid laugh, on a couple of occasions.
I am going to save him because you have failed to do so, she said, sometimes you have to be cruel in a rescue.
Essek could be so stupid sometimes. He had been caught in the city by Assembly agents. She had at least wormed Essek out of Ludinus' grasp. That meant her grasp.
Battered, naked Essek spat blood, weakly, on her boots. She wanted to heft him against the wall, his narrow drow legs wrapped around her waist, and kiss him until he couldn't breathe. She kicked him in the face instead and heard the bones crack. He couldn't speak, really, now. Couldn't stare at her, longing. Couldn't look hurt, to give them away.
"Oh, lovely," said a voice behind her, and she turned to see Ludinus, his arms hidden in the folds of his robe.
"Good evening, Martinet," she said, hefting Essek's body onto a table. His blood was warm where it touched her. She sometimes wore gloves, for an interrogation. Not for him. Let his blood sink under her fingernails and brush against her scars and, if she was lucky, spatter into her mouth.
"I hope you don't mind if I observe?" he asked.
"Of course not," she said. She didn't bother to bolt the cuff that held Essek's hands. If she was lucky he would try to reach up to her. She only wrapped the leather belt around his waist.
"I do admire the work of a professional," said Ludinus, behind him. She heard the faint sound of chair legs.
"Thank you, Martinet," she said. They both knew Ludinus came because he knew of their conspiracy. There was nothing Astrid could do to stop his enjoyment of watching her torture Essek. The best she could do was be boring about it.
She opened a case of knives and selected a scalpel. She much preferred his screams in bed.
"You should take out one of his eyes," Ludinus suggested, several hours later. She was at present holding a whip, and Essek's body hung from the ceiling, blood caking down her and his back. He had only been making the smallest of moans, by then.
"I know my work," she replied, snapping the whip again. A cracked sob escaped Essek's parched, dry throat.
She did not look when she heard Ludinus stand. She put the bloody whip back in it's stand and selected a crueler one, with more tails.
"Thank you for the show, Archmage," he said, and she felt the faint buzz of this disappearance of his teleportation magic. Finally bored, she thought, with relief. She turned back to Essek and struck him again, steady, only letting the tails hiss against the ruined mess of his back.
When he was unconscious and barely identifiable she left the body fall to the ground, twisting her fingers, speaking under her breath. She pulled the cuffs off and hefted the unbreathing body out of the dungeon and into one of the shallow graves behind Knives' Edge, the tower previously called Ambition's Call. Filled in the dirt. Essek's blood had dried in her hair and her clothes and she was probably just as unidentifiable, when you added the dirt.
Clearly it was one of the shoddy homeless of the Mudtop Ward who had wandered in, leaving bits of paper around a nice two-story house with green beans growing out front. One would have to brush the mud away to see the map to the spot where the earth had been freshly turned.
Astrid gave the Nein four days. In those four days, she heard about three break-ins the prison. No one was ever captured, but no prisoners were freed.
Four days later, she went to the prison. She did not have to break into the prison. The guards took a step back and opened the door for her in silence.
Essek was naked, bloodied and battered on the floor of the cell. Barbarian wounds, vollstrecker called them - the guards kicking him idly because they were upset he was the cause of break-ins. Nothing like what she was about to do to him, she thought, nudging him with her boot. His head lolled for a moment before he came to consciousness, one eye fluttering open, the other swollen shut. The open eye recognized her.
You have four days to rescue him or give me a plan that isn't impossibly incriminating, she had said to them. Or else I have a plan, which is not incriminating, and you are not going to like.
Caleb had stared at her. He knew what she planned. He had not even bothered to convince her otherwise.
Don't you love him? he had asked, on day two. They had been in his house. The green beans were growing out front.
Did she love him? Essek was brilliant and excellent in bed. He had a quick wit that had almost made Astrid laugh, on a couple of occasions.
I am going to save him because you have failed to do so, she said, sometimes you have to be cruel in a rescue.
Essek could be so stupid sometimes. He had been caught in the city by Assembly agents. She had at least wormed Essek out of Ludinus' grasp. That meant her grasp.
Battered, naked Essek spat blood, weakly, on her boots. She wanted to heft him against the wall, his narrow drow legs wrapped around her waist, and kiss him until he couldn't breathe. She kicked him in the face instead and heard the bones crack. He couldn't speak, really, now. Couldn't stare at her, longing. Couldn't look hurt, to give them away.
"Oh, lovely," said a voice behind her, and she turned to see Ludinus, his arms hidden in the folds of his robe.
"Good evening, Martinet," she said, hefting Essek's body onto a table. His blood was warm where it touched her. She sometimes wore gloves, for an interrogation. Not for him. Let his blood sink under her fingernails and brush against her scars and, if she was lucky, spatter into her mouth.
"I hope you don't mind if I observe?" he asked.
"Of course not," she said. She didn't bother to bolt the cuff that held Essek's hands. If she was lucky he would try to reach up to her. She only wrapped the leather belt around his waist.
"I do admire the work of a professional," said Ludinus, behind him. She heard the faint sound of chair legs.
"Thank you, Martinet," she said. They both knew Ludinus came because he knew of their conspiracy. There was nothing Astrid could do to stop his enjoyment of watching her torture Essek. The best she could do was be boring about it.
She opened a case of knives and selected a scalpel. She much preferred his screams in bed.
"You should take out one of his eyes," Ludinus suggested, several hours later. She was at present holding a whip, and Essek's body hung from the ceiling, blood caking down her and his back. He had only been making the smallest of moans, by then.
"I know my work," she replied, snapping the whip again. A cracked sob escaped Essek's parched, dry throat.
She did not look when she heard Ludinus stand. She put the bloody whip back in it's stand and selected a crueler one, with more tails.
"Thank you for the show, Archmage," he said, and she felt the faint buzz of this disappearance of his teleportation magic. Finally bored, she thought, with relief. She turned back to Essek and struck him again, steady, only letting the tails hiss against the ruined mess of his back.
When he was unconscious and barely identifiable she left the body fall to the ground, twisting her fingers, speaking under her breath. She pulled the cuffs off and hefted the unbreathing body out of the dungeon and into one of the shallow graves behind Knives' Edge, the tower previously called Ambition's Call. Filled in the dirt. Essek's blood had dried in her hair and her clothes and she was probably just as unidentifiable, when you added the dirt.
Clearly it was one of the shoddy homeless of the Mudtop Ward who had wandered in, leaving bits of paper around a nice two-story house with green beans growing out front. One would have to brush the mud away to see the map to the spot where the earth had been freshly turned.