“I haven’t tried yet, sir,” Aleth answered. An uneasy feeling settled in his gut. Ash hadn’t personally come to walk Ky and Tadaaki to their rooms last night. It probably wasn’t fantastic that he was here for him. Did he want to be mobile?
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Ky kept staring at the door in dreadful anticipation. Would they burst open? Was Bay on his way for her this very instant? Was Aleth gleefully tying her noose? Figuratively speaking, of course. Aleth wouldn’t give her the mercy of a quick death by hanging literally.
Godsgodsgods—
She forced herself, belatedly, too look over at him as she was address. “Sorry.” She looked back at the door, still not breathing.
He certainly didn’t want to. But a Lord only gave requests when he was veiling a command. So. He pushed himself further upright and peeled his blankets back, twisting so that his feet were on the ground.
It already hurt. Just the passive weight of his foot. It’d be intolerable to walk on.”yessir.”
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"What do you want me to pick out for you?" Emery asked her.
Gaius gestured toward the door. "After you."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Did this man really think she was still interested in reading?
That was stupid.
She couldn’t say that, though. Obviously. “… anything, sir,” she managed, gaze back on the door again rather than even pretending to look at him.
Aleth took a deep breath and clenched his teeth. Fiery pain shot all the way to his knee and he had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out. He tried to take a step. It went even worse. He stumbled forward; directly into a wall.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Do you need the cane?" he asked, offering it again. He'd make do until they got to the hallway.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Aleth took a deep breath and turned towards him reluctantly. Yes. Yes he did. Gods. How embarrassing. He flushed a bit and took the cane. “Thank you, sir.” He hobbled towards the door in excruciating pain.
Ky imagined she could feel Aleth getting near her. Envisioned the lies he was lathering on Ash. The triumphant look he’d have as she drowned. Gods.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Gaius followed, leaning against the wall before taking a few shaky steps after him.
Emery returned with several volumes of folktales from on and off continent. "I wasn't sure what you preferred so I got a few options," he told her, setting them down.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Out of an abundance of caution, gonna spoil this for violence
Spoiler
“Thank you,” she murmured absently. She hesitated a moment then reluctantly looked back at him. She was being rude. She needed to stop. She attempted to settle back into her seat, but her back was still rigid and she flushed profusely with the effort it took not to look back at the door.
Then she thought better of it and took the book at top of the stack without actually checking to see what it was. Then she flipped it open and stared down at the first page obediently since she felt like he wanted her to read, but she didn’t actually manage to read a single word. She… she couldn’t.
Well. She could have forced herself.
There were many, many times where Aleth stood in the room with her and stared her down until she managed to stumble through her reading assignment. He especially did that when she had to struggle through a language she could only sort of read. ‘Motivation’, he claimed, to learn quickly. Sheer terror was an effective strategy to get fast results.
Only. He wasn’t in the room right now to stare her down.
She didn’t know where he was at all. Which made it far, far, far worse. Was he sneaking up behind her with a shank? Was he talking Ash into lending him his torture chamber? She imagined Ash had even more instruments than Aleth did. And Aleth had a lot. Although he admittedly mostly stuck to his knife set and whips. Still.
There was that time he’d used the weights to punish her instead. That had been bad. He’d tied her down with her hands above her head to force her back to arch against a hard wooden bench. Then he’d placed weights on her rib cage, slowly. Letting her sit with each weight for five or so minutes before he added the next. And any time she passed out he’d remove them, splash her with some water, and start again from the start. Which happened many, many times since she, still, was prone to passing out easily — and doubly so when there was weight pressing down on her torso. It took hours before he finally got to a weight to fracture a few ribs, achieving his goal, at last, so that he stopped. He’d left her tied up the rest of the day, though, bare back pressing against the unfinished wooden plank. Until he decided that was too restful and tied her up by her arms instead, barely low enough that her feet could touch the floor. But high enough it was tempting to just hang and let her arms support her weight passively. But that hurt her ribs and would make her stand again. Until she couldn’t anymore and had to slump, which would make her fade again, until he’d come by to check on her and splash her with ice water. It made her want to stay awake. It was already so, so cold upstairs with the cold draft from the window stinging her bare skin. The water just made it so much worse.
Her ribs already hurt now.
Which seemed like it would speed up the process — they’d snap again easily since they weren’t actually healed yet.
She imagined the dungeon up here would be even colder.
And that’s provided they gave her that mercy at all.
It was entirely possible they’d toss her into the snow naked. Plunge her into an outdoor water trough. That’d probably hurt, too, if they had to rely on her body weight to break through the ice. It’d probably cut her.
Her mind was spiraling down this rabbit hole at an alarming weight. Trying to think through the options that were waiting for her. Would they bury her naked in the snow? Let her pass out then yank her back inside to rapidly warm her up? Aleth now knew how badly that hurt. Snow to boiling water didn’t seem outside the realm of possibilities.
Or… or maybe they’d shove icicles in… places.
Force feed her ice cubes just large enough to choke her until they finally melted enough to swallow.
Or-or—
Aleth was sweating with the effort it took to stay upright, body trembling. His foot felt like he was holding it directly in the center of a fire.
Fuck this.
He didn’t want to go with Ash anyhow.
“…I don’t think I can, sir,” Aleth said at last, turning back towards his bed.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Sera says you need practice," Gaius said firmly. "Come on, just to the door. You can turn around at the door." Sera had come out to watch and had her arms crossed. Gaius glanced at her.
(Welp you gave me some ideas but ultimately I know I'm gonna break out my Old Time Punishments book that I read in sixth grade in the library and eventually bought)
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(That’s intense haha I’ve got a medieval torture webpage saved… tho that just came to mind spur of the moment lol)
Aleth glanced between them both suspiciously. And what, pray tell, was waiting behind the door for him? He hesitated. It’d break character to say no. Plus whatever was waiting for him at the door could probably easily make through the door to him. Or, at the very least, he knew Ash had men to drag him through the door. Best to save some face.
…unless he wanted to fall and feint further injury. Hm.
He took a hesitant step towards the door, considering his few options.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
(That page would probably be a bit more useful; my book only has a few of the big'uns, and it's so old that it lists the iron maiden as a legitimate torture device)
Gaius followed, staying close.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
“…may I ask where we’re going, sir?” he asked hesitantly. There was a bad, bad feeling in his gut.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"To the door," he replied. Might be best to have Bay come in now and just carry Aleth to the dungeon. He seemed to be suspicious.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Aleth didn’t like this at all. He hesitated a long, long moment. What could he even do about this?
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
