Yay second chapter!

This one was particularly hard to write since I did include Yelena's description of what happened to her. Nothing past the rating but still rather hard to stomach.

Disclaimer: Same as last time. Characters not mine, etc.

There was a clank of the closing cell door, then silence. For a moment, I stared at the lock, as if I could will it open, before eventually settling against the stone wall that separated my cell from Yelena's. It wasn't very thick. On the other side I could hear faint shuddering gasps, as if she were trying to keep from screaming. Or having a panic attack.

Guilt washed through me. It was my fault that she was here, in such an awful place, about to die. Why had I let her come with me in the first place? Yes, she was smart, and observant, and knew her way around the manor. But that didn't make her a spy. When she offered, I should have told her no, should have said that it was too dangerous for someone without the proper spy training. I shouldn't have been relieved to have her at my back.

I was so focused on my mistake, I didn't even notice when the gasping stopped.

"Valek?"

Her voice was soft, tentative. "What?" I braced myself, waiting for the tirade of righteous anger.

"Why didn't you fight the guards? I would have helped you."

The idea was so ridiculous, I had to choke back a laugh. Yes, I was good. But the fact that she thought me that good was simply ludicrous. "Eight men had drawn swords pointed at my chest. Any movement and I would have been skewered. I'm flattered that you think I could win against those odds. Four armed men, maybe, but eight is definitely too many."

"Then we pick the locks and escape?"

Her voice held the same hopefulness it had when we studied poisons or discussed tactics. As if she'd suddenly come to the right answer and wanted to be proven right. I hated to disappoint. "That would be ideal, provided we had something to pick them with."

I could practically hear her deflate. There was a scrabbling noise from her cell, and I knew she was searching amongst the straw for a tool to get us out. That would be just too good to hope for, finding picks in our own cells. Eventually, I heard a sigh, and there was silence.

I drew my knees up, resting my hands on them and staring off into space. There wasn't much of a hope of escaping, not with things as they were, anyway. I'd spent the whole walk down here running through escape scenarios, all of them requiring more resources than we currently possessed.

To distract myself from that line of thought, I concentrated on the mystery of those people chained to the floor. Obviously, they were the former members of Brazell's famous orphanage, now grown up. But what did he want them for? Those people had had no recognition of their surroundings, no spark of awareness, so they weren't doing anything…

I remembered the girl Yelena had rushed to, Cara. Obviously they'd been friends. I suddenly realized that Yelena had likely been slated for the same fate. I choked back the anger at that thought. "Was that your fate? If you hadn't killed Reyad, were you slated to be chained to the floor, mindless?"

She was quiet a moment. Then, whispered: "I think Brazell and Reyad were determined to reduce me to that mental state. But I endured." Her voice strengthened in that moment. "I think… I think Mogkan is using them as a power supply. To become more powerful and invade the Commander's mind. They've been so abused that they just… give up… let Mogkan have their powers, and… and leave themselves, mentally."

I didn't add that her theory implied that those people were all magicians. That she, herself, must possess some magical talent for them to have been interested in her. At this point, it didn't matter. I'd suspected for a long time that Yelena had magical abilities. Her survival instinct and ability to fend off magical attack hinted as much. I'd ignored the suspicion, because she didn't pose a threat to the Commander, and because I couldn't bear the thought of having to kill her. I could admit that much to myself, now.

But her theory reminded me of the torture chambers I'd seen. How much pain had it taken to make a person crack like that? To let go of their very selves? And how much strength to endure that pain?

My hands curled into fists atop my knees. I wanted to scream. To rip this cell apart and kill those evil monsters. Or clutch Yelena to me and never let her go. I wasn't sure which came first. Instead I said, "Tell me what happened to you."

She was quiet for so long, I thought she would refuse to tell me, or that the memories were too painful to reveal. But then she took a shuddering breath and started speaking:

"At first… at first, they weren't really that bad. They were… kind, even. So when Brazell asked me if I wanted to help with a few experiments… well, I was happy to help. And it… wasn't so bad at first. They threw pillows at me and told me to dodge them, that sort of thing. But then the pillows became knives and the tasks became more and more… deadly. They made me hang from window sills for hours on end or held me under water until I nearly drowned. Once… once they tied me to a post and pushed a fiery torch right up by my face, telling me over and over to put it out. I blew on it until my lips were cracked and my mouth dry, but it didn't work. They brought it so close my eyebrows singed off and my skin blistered, but they wouldn't stop. It wasn't until they threatened to set my hair on fire that I… that I put it out. They had me so terrified, I would have done anything to make it stop.

"Mostly. Sometimes, when they were out or busy or something, I would sneak off to practice acrobatics. I knew I could win the competition at the fire festival that year and… that kept me going, I guess. But a week before the festival, Reyad caught me. And he had this, this look. Like he was mad at me but also so glad he would get to punish me. So he took me up to the lab, stripped me naked, covered me in chains, and forced me to do acrobatics all night, whipping me the whole time. That was a variation on his favorite 'experiment': whipping me and yelling at me to move until I passed out. After that… I guess I didn't give up, really, but I meekly submitted to whatever they asked. I was terrified and just so tired of fighting.

"And then the next year, Reyad was busy courting General Tesso's daughter and I just had to compete in the festival. I stole supplies for the costume and practiced my routine whenever I was alone. And then the competition came and I was so… proud, and happy to be there. And because I was defying Reyad I felt free, for once. Until he found me. I won the competition, but Reyad dragged me back to the castle the moment it was over.

"Brazell decided I was a lost cause. That I wasn't 'fit to join his group'. And he left me to Reyad.

"When we… when we got back to his room, Reyad just started hitting and kicking me. I really thought I was going to die then. I did pass out. But when I woke up I was naked and lying on Reyad's bed. He… he handed me his journal, which listed all his grievances against me and how I would be punished. I thought it might be easier, knowing what was coming but…

"He whipped me on hands and knees, while I called him 'sir' and begged for more. He-" Her voice broke here, and I could hear wrenching sobs coming from the other side of the wall. "He raped me and there was nothing I could do but just lie there and beg for it to be over! And it hurt more than anything else because I felt like I'd lost the last part of myself. That I was a thing rather than a person.

"And when it was over he started talking about how they would have to start training a new girl and I couldn't let them do that to Cara or May, so I grabbed the knife I'd hidden under his bed and stabbed him until he wouldn't be able to hurt them anymore. That's when the guards found me. I suppose you know the rest."

I sat, frozen. I'd pictured awful things, maybe even some of what she'd described, but this, hearing it from her, was so much worse. The fury in my chest, which had been building throughout her story, turned icy and hard. I wanted to crush them for doing that to her. To shred them to pieces until there was nothing recognizable left. Reyad was lucky he was dead, because in that moment I would have ripped him apart for ever thinking he could lay even a finger on her. I would have lived up to the most horrible parts of my reputation and then some. My fists clenched so tightly that my nails drew blood and a muscle jumped in my arm. My jaw clenched but I managed to hiss, "Brazell and Mogkan will be destroyed."

And they would be. If I had to spend the rest of my life hunting those two down I would do it gladly. Imminent death be damned.

Brazell and Mogkan entered the dungeon then and I fixed my eyes on the floor. Knowing that if I looked at them, they would see their impending annihilation. And I didn't want them to see it coming. The moment I had the chance, they would look death in the face. They didn't deserve a preview.

I think I'm gonna end it here since I like the ominous nature of Valek's mood.

Next chapter will focus on Valek's emotions while Yelena deals with the White Fright. It'll be kinda gloomy but also a little fluffy :)